Rynhardt

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Well, it was definietly planned and even advertised this way but it is not. Complelty unnessery 50 levels ( seriously all progression after 30 levels feels so artificial), absurd gold sinks, adding gear grind. There was (and maybe still ) potential but for now it wasted. I love how people cry that many zones are empty and are at the same time stating neccesity of gold sinks WP travels. GW2 funnels players into gear and gold farming and punishing those who want to explore the world.

I have been playing a lot since headstart, and won't stop right now. But I definitely feel my motivation declining lately.

The Lost Shores Event was extremely dissapointing, apart from the glaring technical issues the design choices there make me really question if any thought has gone into it. Excluding at least half the playerbase from the get-go by making it one-time, and then giving out top rewards - if some dev had actually wanted to alienate as many players as possible, then he did a good job with this.

Next on the list the levelling mechanism within Fractals of the Mists. I do like dungeons, and I generally like the ones so far included in FotM (apart from the Swamp one), but that level mechanic is as poor as can be. So to have a decent shot at getting ascended rings, I need to get up to level 10. Currently stuck at nine, because my guild is taking things slowly, and without a functional LFG tool I am literally forced to spend my time idle in LA, possibly changing overflow servers at times, and hoping for a stroke of good luck in finding a group for my exact level.

What are people going to do who start playing say a month or two from now? Who is going to take them through the levels of that dungeon, considering the time that takes? When even now with the initial rush being strong I have problems to find a group, how will that turn out in the long term?

Finally the utter lack of communication about the whole issue. The bit of PR blurb we got the other day does not count in my eyes. I would like arenanet to come forward and be open about their design intentions with the ascended items, the gating mechanism in FotM, why they think the Lost Shore Event was good, and in general more openness from their side as to where various parts of the game are heading. Like classes, wvw, pvp, what have you.

Another big thing is the crazy moderation they do on their public forums. Getting infractions without even understanding why, and naturally not getting any reply back when sending an inquiry about it to the given email address, makes me stop even trying to communicate with them. Worst forums I have experienced in an online gaming career which has lasted about 14 years now.

My overall feeling is of great dissapointment, with a sense of letting go sometime soon.

Reminds me of Apple. I got my exotic armor! woot! Oh wait, they have exotic armor 2.0? fml

The thing I don't get about Ascended gear is just, why? There doesn't need to be a tier between legendary and exotic, the gap really shouldn't exist to begin with and adding stats does not count as progression. Progression to me, as a long standing GW1 vet is actually doing stuff like going through campaigns and dungeons. All they needed to do was add the dungeon, put in a large amount of decent skins (armour and weapons) at exotic level and maybe the whole 'infusion business' though purely as something that can be used to upgrade armour you already have.

Gear stepping is only mildly better than a gear treadmill. I honestly hope they never bring out ascended weapons or armour and don't increase legendary stats either. It's not fun, innovative or even asked for. They should be balancing and fixing the game rather than trying to plug it full of new stuff.

Boiling point. The final straw. Pushed over the edge.

3 weeks ago anet didn't completely abandon the game that they set out to make with the manifesto.

We have all seen it.  If you have stood in LA for more than a few minutes your map chat is filled with LFG FoTM (x).  Now before I begin, I like the new dungeon.  I think its a nice addition, fun, different.  "However" what I do not like is the segregation of the community.  Lets pretend you just got home for the weekend & are excited to participate in the event.  You see people looking for members & join one of the groups only to be deemed unable to do so because you haven't completed fractals 1-23 even though you are more than capable.

Here is the issue:  

You now have 20-30 groups looking for players, & only a small % of players are in the particular fractal.  For example:

Group is looking for fractal 15.  Jimmy wants to come, but Jimmy has only completed up to 13.  Sorry Jimmy, better luck next week.

How does the introduction of gated content improve a MMO that was supposed to be about freedom, playing how we want to play, playing with friends etc?

raspberry jam, on 20 November 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

I agree with your point, but invoking machine learning as a way to increase AI difficulty isn't a very good argument.

As a game programmer that's worked in the AI field, I can tell you firsthand that ML is rarely ever used in commercial/AAA games for a bunch of different reasons.

1) It's generally computationally expensive or requires an offline step - that's a huge deterrent already.

2) They generally require a lot of fiddling with to get desired behaviors, and only programmers can really do it to any reasonable degree (i.e., designers won't be able to easily script behavior they need).

3) They take a long time to develop, and due to being fiddly, take a long time to apply to your game.

All that said, as I mentioned I fully agree, Ascended items shouldn't have better stats. The Ascended tier is as bad a fiasco as the SWG NGE.

Alienating the >1m players you sold the game to by completely abandoning the principles you sold it to them with is a shit idea.

Especially when it's all to please a tiny segment of players that actually wish they were playing WoW and complained solely to get ANet to change the game in order to be more similar to WoW. Those players are likely already back playing WoW right now after they got their wish and destroyed GW2 for the people that actually bought it because they liked the design principles of the game.

People defending this don't understand the ramifications it'll have, long-term, on the economy.
Not that I would expect them to - the community's proven to be a pretty clueless Reddit-tier crowd.

Reposted from the R and D thread on Black Lion Chests since it wasn't 100% on topic so I brought it here.

This thread is to discuss the way that ANet has handled this installment of Halloween, most notably what they have done with Black Lion Chests. These are my thoughts.

So I had a bit of a flame battle in /map last night in LA over Halloween skins costing ridiculous amounts. Essentially the argument that: "If you don't want it, don't grind for it." is being used rampantly.

This is fundamentally wrong. Legendaries are a legitimate grind. This is HALLOWEEN. It is supposed to be a fun community oriented event. No one, save those people who do nothing but PvE and farm 8 hours a day can reliably afford these skins.

In case you missed it, what ANet did was inflate the economy so that gems trade for more gold. This combats gold sellers with a more competitive price from Dollars --> Gold but it makes the exchange for Gold --> Gems completely absurd. The problem with this is that it blew the economy up overnight. Any player who is not spending money on the game post-purchase is negatively impacted by this event because you can no longer buy gems with gold for any semblance of a reasonable amount.

If they really wanted these skins to be difficult to obtain, in a community event, mind you, they should have made it so you had to complete a certain amount of events or get "Halloween Tokens" which are awarded based on your participation in the actual event.

The real problem with them being in Black Lion Chests is that in 330 hours on my character, I have gotten 3 keys, ever. This is including the personal story. I've gotten one from a drop maybe one time. The amount of keys that you get in this game is probably a ratio of 1 key to 100 chests. The idea that not only are keys almost impossible to get in a drop, but because they are in the trading post, gem prices exploded because they make an insanely rare item put in a chest that is insanely hard to open. It's exponential, if you didn't realize.

These skins aren't account bound like EVERYTHING else you get from a chest. So people who are lucky enough to make it out of the flawed system, turn around and make the economy explode even more charging 40g for a skin driving 99% of the population who can't afford the skins to try and buy just enough gems to open a couple chests and pray that the astronomical odds work in their favor.

If anyone is going to argue that you can "Just roll a new character and get the key from the story quest." There is a serious problem. There should not be people having to grind outside of the Halloween event to get anything involved within the Halloween event. The ANet marketing team and their e-conomists seriously dropped the ball on this.

We, as a community, cannot let them think that this is ok. If the only argument that can be brought up is that if you want it, grind for it just like a legendary, or to take advantage of story quests by re-rolling characters in order to get keys that -never- drop otherwise, this is fundamentally wrong.

This is a community every reward/item should be available within the parameters of the event just like the legacy left by GW1's holiday events has established. I am incredibly disappointed by the way this marketing ploy was designed.

*This is a marketing issue, not a content issue, to be clear. I have thoroughly enjoyed the other content in this event. I have not tried to open chests and I do not plan on it. I also have not bought gems or bought a skin with in-game gold. This is outrage based on principle and what has happened to others. I have not been cheated in any way, but ANet needs to know that this is wrong.

EDIT: I have received a lot of hateful comments on account of my opinion. I have even received private messages from individuals (who obviously made fake accounts just to cuss me out [wow]) insulting me in any number of ways. I made this post to take a public stand against something ANet has done. I played the original Guild Wars and the debacle with the chests is just horrendous compared to the legacy GW1 has left.

Let everyone remember that this is a forum for shared ideas, not insults. If you are toxic to the conversation, you will be reported. Do not think that you are so pretentious that you are allowed to insult other posters. If you feel that you need to insult others, go play Xbox Live or League. I have a lot of respect for members of this community, but if individuals continue to insult, berate, and degrade, I will begin to feel sorry that I ever stood up for this community to begin with.

EDIT #2: ANet has provided a solution to the issue.

#275 is my response to the semantics behind the word chance and SEVERAL possible solutions that ANet could use in the future or could have used now. (substitute "Wintersday" where appropriate)

It is unregulated gambling.

Why is arena net going down this route of skins inside black lions chests? Why not make them part of rewards for event chains? Or scavenging? Or Jumping puzzle rewards? Or a zillion other ways instead of this creepy sales tactic way of ripping off your custormers?

In before anyone says “cosmetic choice newb” “nobody forcing you”

Its still cheap sales tactics and a lame way to do halloween items using casino lottery type grab bags with RNG luck dependent on whether you get what your looking for. Iv seen other MMO companies take there cash store down these roads before. It did not end well for players or for the company’s.

https://forum-en.gui...irst#post474736

I posted this in GW2 forums but as usual its locked in about 10 seconds, or they move it or they delete it. Seems impossible nowadays to have any sort of discussion on GW2 official forums that doesn't agree with the almighty Anet...

Rukioish, on 23 August 2012 - 12:33 AM, said:

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm I kinda hope that WAS their intention. I would rather not play a game where the devs goal has been do develop a 'merely serviceable' gaming experience.

btw YOU are the reason this thread feels whiney, there is clear constructive criticism here, so please don't lower the tone with your patronising sarcasm.  Every mechanic can be improved, looting included, and there have been good suggestions here. If you want to cut back on whiners, go visit some threads over on the profession specific "My class isn't OP QQ" threads, then you can count on my full support.

Back on topic:
I'm not as worried about the feel good factor of looting (although it is a good point) but the FEEDBACK of having successfully looted.  The items hanging about to the right of the screen are in my opinion not a clear enough representation of loot success when multiple corpses are around, as the sparks remain for a while after. I sometimes feel compelled to loot with my inventory open just to check things are going in. This is NOT A NEGLIGIBLE ISSUE.  I am getting distracted from playing the game, and hence getting distracted from having fun.  A significant proportion of game time is spent looting (in PvE especially), and this could get quite wearing.  A simple, quiet bag noise like in GW1 would be sufficient to tell you how many corpses were looted successfully, and you would know when to move on better.

PS. It would be quite cool if when you got an exotic, your character remarked about it ("Majestic Blade!" etc.), like they do eg. when they get an effect, although you normally see what grade of stuff you have looted from the icons on the right, so this would just add to the atmosphere. If exotics are really common this could get annoying, like "I feel FURIOUS" is already annoying...

Having a bear? Oh gawds!

Oh you mean Beer... right right...

Currently, my Necro and Assassin are plotting a scheme to take down a bandit leader with a bounty on his head as quickly and quietly as possible...

Jexx, on 23 August 2012 - 02:51 AM, said:

I bet you win

HeroYouFear, on 22 August 2012 - 11:16 PM, said:

Guild Wars 1.

Your move.