Guild Wars 2

(scroll down for my suggestion if you don’t want to read, I have some colorful things to say to the community first.)

First off, I want to say that I love the boxes, and the random chances that go with it. It makes the game slightly more interesting than seeing ten thousand people running around, all with the same weapon skin on the same weapon. I am one of those ‘people’ that spends real world money in this game. I spend roughly 50 dollars evey six months, because I’m not spending it on a WoW subscription where I may get an update every two years, as opposed to, (what is it now? every Three-Four weeks?) I like the small chances with things like these. Hey, it took me about eight months to get my legendary precusror, and I wasn’t ever ticked off that other people found one before me (even in the first week the game was released)!

Second, I want to say that these things already exists in the game in atleast two places and no one complains about them. There are the Black Lion chests, and the Lost Orrian Jewel Boxes. Neither of which require real money. The jewel boxes, you spent karma on, and it gives you a chance at rare lodestones, and some other items like an exotic mini(that’s account bound). Yes it gives you back less Karma for spending karma most of the time, but there are thousands of people running around with 1,000,000+ Karma, and they need somewhere to spend it. You also don’t need to spend a dime on Black Lion chests because you get a black lion key pretty easily, either by completing certain story missions, or 100% areas (where you will either get a black lion key or 3 transmutation stones, thats a 50/50 chance!). Sure there’s no weapon skins, but there’s lots of other cool stuff!

Third, I really don’t understand what everyone is complaining about. Is it because you, a ‘casual’ player, feels entitled to getting the same cool stuff that the truly dedicated spend hours and hours more trying to get? This is totally a legit question, especially when I read on the map chat and the forums about how the ‘poor’ ‘casual’ players are getting stomped on by the ‘rich’. While I dont agree with that at all (and never did even before I basically won the lottery when I found the precursor), if that’s the case, I suggest to Anet that everyone just get handed their legendary weapon right now. Make everyone equal like Karl Marx intended.

Or is it because you spent real world money, when in a game like this it is the most unecessary thing you can possibly do. For example, those Dragon wings everyone is complaining about cost roughly 33g right now. this morning it was 70g. You don’t need to farm for 100,000 candies (or the equivlant of 400 gold currently) to get it, and the only reason why that exists is to probably prevent Zhaitaffys from flooding the market, and turning into another Candy Corn, and as a way for people to be able to get the item after the event is over, just like the ‘absurd’ 1000 karka shells you need to get the Ancient Karka shell (which was given for free to everone who took part in an event back in November). You can also buy the Dragon coffers for roughly 6s right now, and there is a chance to get all of these things in it. Not too bad.

Fourth, Guild Wars 2 is Buy to play. Its not free to Play, and it doesn’t require a subscription, but Anet still has to find a way to make money to keep supporting the game (and their crazy evey month content updates)(and NCsoft their ‘evil’ overlords! who aren’t that evil.), thus, these items that find their way in the Gem store every month are a very necessay thing. Some people say they are evil, but if that’s the case, its a necessary evil. and quite avoidable at that!

THE SUGGESTION
My tiny, tiny suggestion for when things like this happen, is to use diminishing returns for very awesome items like Weapon skins.

For example : you can make it so that the chances of getting a weapon skin in a chest is 1 in 10 per account, but after you get that frst weapon claim ticket, make it drop to whatever it normally is (Some people say its a 0.4 percent chance, or about 1 in 250). This will make the chances of finding a weapon skin much higher, but the game wont be flooded with everyone running around with that awesome greatsword skin, or that cool looking longbow skin, won’t shut out other content completely, and it will give us dedicated players the ability to be proud of ourselves that we have TWO whole weapon skins from that month instead of just one! (people are so going to complain that I wrote that)

I agreed with everything u just said. If u like the game, u want to look awesome, and u really want that new item then spend some money on it and dont complain about.

I question your belief that, if everybody had access to the same weapon skins, everybody would be using the same weapons. People like to feel unique; if everybody had a Legendary, you can bet all the gold on the TP that people would start using other weapons so that they can stand out from the crowd. With that in mind, it’s GOOD to have more cosmetic options that are easily available. That broadens the choices players have, and thus we’ll see people with a variety of looks instead of people just gravitating to whatever weapon people feel is the best indicator of their “status”.

I strongly suspect that many people with Legendaries only have them to show off how rich/awesome they are, not because they actually like the aesthetics of the weapon. If they did, then they wouldn’t be upset that many other people are also starting to get Legendaries, because the increasing number of Legendary owners means that they are no longer “exclusive”. In contrast, someone who got the Dreamer purely because they like shooting rainbow unicorns at everything is going to have a blast every time he pulls it out, regardless of whether or not ten other people nearby are doing the same thing.

Zaxares.5419:

I strongly suspect that many people with Legendaries only have them to show off how rich/awesome they are, not because they actually like the aesthetics of the weapon. If they did, then they wouldn’t be upset that many other people are also starting to get Legendaries, because the increasing number of Legendary owners means that they are no longer “exclusive”. In contrast, someone who got the Dreamer purely because they like shooting rainbow unicorns at everything is going to have a blast every time he pulls it out, regardless of whether or not ten other people nearby are doing the same thing.

I’m working towards the Quip because I love it. Sure, offhand Quip on a Mesmer puts me at a disadvantage in WvW, but I’m still working towards it. I’m just not sure if I want to have a secondary pistol for WvW specifically.

The only thing I dislike is that I only have 1 attack with the Quip and it’s on a 16 second cooldown.

Zaxares.5419:

I question your belief that, if everybody had access to the same weapon skins, everybody would be using the same weapons. People like to feel unique; if everybody had a Legendary, you can bet all the gold on the TP that people would start using other weapons so that they can stand out from the crowd .

Yeah,…Okay, tell that to the many thousands of people that were running around with Zodiac weapons weapons in Guild Wars Factions and all the Green weapons after that because they were the coolest looking weapons at the time.

I think you need to play a few more online games, or games in general, and then maybe you will realize why the most awesome looking weapons are the hardest to find, because almost anyone who finds it will sell it to the person who wants it most, or is going to equip it regardless of how many other people have it.

Edit : Look at the dragon wings on the trading post right now. You see almost no one running around with it because they look kind of stupid on most characters.

Chrispy.5641:

Yeah,…Okay, tell that to the many thousands of people that were running around with Zodiac weapons weapons in Guild Wars Factions and all the Green weapons after that because they were the coolest looking weapons at the time.

And fast forward to Nightfall, and hardly anybody were using Zodiac weapons anymore. Why? Because the novelty of the Zodiac weapons had worn off, more people had them now, and thus the players who originally went with them because they were the most expensive weapon sets had to find a new expensive set to show off with. (Which happened to be Tormented Weapons. Even now, after GW1 has all but shut down, you still see lots of players, who coincidentally tend to be wearing Obsidian armor and Chaos Gloves, using them. Does the price factor of Tormented Weapons have a role in that? I’m sure it does…)

Chrispy.5641:

I think you need to play a few more online games, or games in general, and then maybe you will realize why the most awesome looking weapons are the hardest to find, because almost anyone who finds it will sell it to the person who wants it most, or is going to equip it regardless of how many other people have it.

“Awesome looking” is subjective. For instance, I have zero interest in any of the current Legendaries, because none of them fit the aesthetics I have in mind for my characters. (A grim, gothic, Grenth-worshipping Necromancer using Bifrost? Seriously??) In my opinion, the Legendaries are TOO extravagant, almost flippant. I much prefer weapon sets that are beautiful while looking functional, such as the Ceremonial weapons or Lionguard weapons.

I kinda wish they would do what valve does in TF2 and have relatively common versions that people can obtain but then have a rarer version with a particle effect thats really rare.

Wow, dude, Zaxares, read what I wrote very carefully again, and then redo your reply. You spectacularly missed my point. Actually, you missed it on your first reply as well. The point in my previous post, was that EVERYONE suddenly had a Zodiac weapon, within a month of the game’s release, completely cheapening that content, and making it pointless to go into a super hard dungeon, and grind your way until you got one. Then when Nightfall came out, EVERYONE had the next big thing within like, seriously, two months, and it just made it pointless to even bother playing the game for that content. Are you seriously trying to tell me that it would be better to make the game cheaper and just send everyone the same weapon set through the mail so everyone can decide for themselves if they want it or not? Before they even play a second of the new content?

I will give you an example and a question. Lets say that on, name a racing game, Gran Turismo 5 (Need for speed, Forza, whatever). Lets say that instead of all the crappy cars at the begining of the game, the devellopers decided to let you drive the feastest car in the game, right from the start (lets not include DLC for this). Why even bother buying that game? There is no improvement to be made, to your skills as a gamer, or to the car you drive, because, you know, its already the best. There is absolutely nothing to strive towards. It isn’t a game anymore. The point in the game being a game is lost.

Now sure someone can try to argue, “Well, uh, I would play with a slower car because no one else is!” Whoever said that statement would be so full of Malarkey that I would never take anything they said seriously, like, ever again.

This is why I like the current setup of how to get Legendary weapons, and the whole trading post setup as well. If you want something, PLAY THE GAME. don’t demand that you get something because you want it. Nine months later, and I have seen exactly 8 people with Infinite Light. One person had TWO! Its not even a legendary, but its one cool looking weapon. I want it! I will spend the month gathering materials and such to get the dang thing! Now, if I saw everyone running around with it, like every five minutes, then what would be the point?