Critial Diff between Challenging & Punishing

Critial Diff between Challenging & Punishing

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

So I’ve tracked GW2 back since the earliest days of its announced development (which was some time in March 2007, I think), and one thing that always stuck out to me was the idea that it would be built around the concept of “Fun”. Fun was the drive behind the game – if something wasn’t deemed Fun, then it would be revised or eliminated. Now, I know that something can be Challenging and Fun at the same time, and sometimes, there even needs to be Frustration for the Fun to happen.

An example of this, in my opinion, was found in the learning curve behind the Southsun Survival minigame. I came into the update late, so when I’d first play, I’d get one-shotted right off the bat. And this happened again and again and again, and it was very Frustrating. But I stuck with it, and several hours later, I was able to consistently place top in my games, even if I wasn’t winning first place. In this case, it was immensely Frustrating, but because I kept with it and pushed past the Frustrating, it became Fun. If it had been easy right at the get-go, I wouldn’t have had as much Fun when I finally got it.

With the Queen’s Gauntlet, I have beaten Liadri (proper gear and condition application are key) and gotten the Meatless Murder achievement – Liadri took over 300 attempts, so I have spent a great deal of time playing the Gauntlet and I would say that I know what I’m talking about (given that I’ve spent over 20-30 hours alone on Liadri). And with Liadri, it really highly emphasized, in my mind, that Queen’s Gauntlet isn’t Challenging, almost at all. Instead, it’s mostly Punishing. So I’d like to quickly outline what I mean by that – by defining what Challenging Is and Is Not.

What Challenging Is:
Challenging Is having something difficult that can be overcome by persistence and a learning attitude.
Challenging Is having a bar set high and having people need to reach that bar.
Challenging Is introducing new concepts and difficulties that people need to adapt to in order to survive and prosper.
Challenging, in the case of Queen’s Gauntlet, Is having 3 tiers of increasingly difficult bosses that each require different strategies to beat. And for that depth of Challenge, I applaud you, ArenaNet.

(edited by yearsonehundred.6139)

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

What Challenging Is Not:
Challenging Is Not forcing players to respawn at a waypoint that costs money in order to play a minigame.
For that matter, Challenging Is Not forcing players to respawn after a failed match at all. It would be super easy to have the time limit just boot players out, and have death do the same (take Southsun Survival, Belcher’s Bluff, Aspect Arena, and other such minigames as examples). Player death is not a necessity for a Challenge, and in this case, it seriously dampens the fun of the content at hand.
Challenging Is Not doing the previous, and then having a dynamic event that blocks the pathways to the Queen’s Gauntlet with very difficult enemies that can easily take you out.
Challenging Is Not giving armor damage for a failed Gauntlet match. Can you imagine if armor damage applied to Belcher’s Bluff, the Keg minigame, Southsun Survival, the Aspect Arena, and other minigames?
Challenging Is Not requiring tickets to play, and then making them cost a boat-load of money (for players of average and moderate means) to purchase in small quantities, or making them requiring farming and grinding. These are for a minigame – they’re not specific grindy titles or pets here. And while Liadri is indeed a pet, that’s only because she’s so dang tough, and thus beating her warrants a reward of some sort for the continued persistence required to do so.
Challenging Is Not allowing awful camera angles to interfere with gameplay.
Challenging Is Not having a queue for a minigame. This wastes time that could be spent playing the minigame at hand. Furthermore, there have been times when I’ve shown a team player spirit by resurrecting people who have fallen, and by necessity (when it was just me and that one person) not queueing myself for a new match while I resurrected said player, and then in the middle of the resurrection, someone runs up, queues, and takes the turn that should have been mine. Or, I finish resurrecting someone, and before I can react, they pop up and immediately queue for a match, again taking the spot that should have been mine.
And as a side note, for the people who enjoy watching, an observation mode would have provided the same benefits without wasting the time of the people who want to take on the Gauntlet but don’t have much available free time (like myself).
Challenging Is Not putting a time and movement critical minigame in the same instance as another gameplay aspect that results in incredibly lag-causing zergs. Queen’s Gauntlet should have ALWAYS, both in conceptual creation and actual development, been tried, tested, and released in its own instance. With something so sensitive, a separate instance is an absolute necessity.
Challenging Is Not allowing dozens of bugs work their way into the “finished” product, and then not fixing them as soon as you could – or at least responding that the bugs will be addressed (I’ve scanned the Dev Tracker for this, only to be very disappointed). This is actually more of a quality-issue deal than a Challenge vs Punishment deal, but it still holds true. Given the quality that usually comes from ArenaNet, I would have rather had the whole Queen’s party event delayed and the Pirate event continued until the bugs were ironed out, than had the awfully buggy mess that the Gauntlet currently is.

These (and more that I can’t think of at the moment) are not Challenging, they’re Punishing. Punishing is not Fun, it is not Challenging, it is not enjoyable – it is complete Frustration (and in the case of less patient players, it is rage/rage-quit inducing). And right now, Queen’s Gauntlet is mainly not Fun, nor is it mainly Challenging – it is mostly Frustrating, painful Punishment.

ArenaNet, I know what you’re capable of and I know that you have great plans for the future.

So please take the time to fix this – as for me, I’m going to go do some other things for a week (maybe some PVE, maybe some SWTOR, maybe some more Star Citizen forum surfing) and then come back and see if Queen’s Gauntlet is less Punishing and more Challenging/Fun.

(edited by yearsonehundred.6139)

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

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Posted by: Sarie.1630

Sarie.1630

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

I’m not having fun with it, and I’ve quit trying Liadri. You know what irritates me about it though? Those Achievements I know I will likely never get. If they weren’t there, I might hate it less.

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

If you thoroughly read my post, you’d see that I have no problem with something that “hard”, “difficult”, or “challenging”. I merely dislike punishing aspects, and I’ve listed out all of the ones I could think of in the OP. These are things like glitches, punishments, and bad designs that should/need to be remedied.

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

If you thoroughly read my post, you’d see that I have no problem with something that “hard”, “difficult”, or “challenging”. I merely dislike punishing aspects, and I’ve listed out all of the ones I could think of in the OP. These are things like glitches, punishments, and bad designs that should/need to be remedied.

let it go. You are describing what you personally felt.

I find jumping puzzle punishing too. I just don’t do it.

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Posted by: SonicTHI.3217

SonicTHI.3217

The best written summary on this whole thing.
+1s well deserved.

“Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games.”
-Mike O’Brien, President of Arenanet

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

let it go. You are describing what you personally felt.
I find jumping puzzle punishing too. I just don’t do it.

And player feedback is absolutely vital in fixing current problems in content and in creating new, fun content for the future.

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Posted by: Shadowsong.1560

Shadowsong.1560

I agree with the OP. The content is challenging and is fun, but I really wish it would lose its punishing aspect.

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

I think the problem is in the reward. The whole ticket, gambit, economy, farming, Risk vs reward thing.

If the event isn’t so closely tied up to the economy and reward, they’ll probably remove the punishing(investing) factor.

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Posted by: Dryalkiel.1385

Dryalkiel.1385

I agree 100% with OP.

This isn’t GW1 where you could change your build at will.
Other than my pride, my wallet is hurt from all the death and the retraining.

For those who say “then don’t do it”, what’s the point of releasing content that only a few types of people will enjoy? Some jumping puzzle are really hard but some are easy. Those that can’t beat the difficult ones can at least proudly say they succeeded at some of them. Also, the easy ones prepare you and train you for the difficult ones.

I’ve yet to fight a boss in the gauntlet I’d consider “easy” and I’m still at tier 1 :S. And since this is an event, we don’t have all the time in the world to train and practice to try to beat them. Not everyone can become a master of every combat mechanic really fast.

(edited by Dryalkiel.1385)

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Posted by: Cheezeman.3296

Cheezeman.3296

THIS THIS THIS 100x this. Instead of trying over and over again to improve my skills, I’m attempting a few times, giving up out of frustration and out of seeing my bank account constantly deplete. This is NOT fun, it’s infuriating. If the cost to entry wasn’t so high, I would enjoy the multiple attempts and could probably see myself improve each time. But no, instead, I have the constant fear of my lost investments in stupid entry tickets. Good job ANet… I’ve stuck with you through a lot of stuff, but with this you’re losing me, and losing me fast.

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

I think the problem is in the reward. The whole ticket, gambit, economy, farming, Risk vs reward thing.

If the event isn’t so closely tied up to the economy and reward, they’ll probably remove the punishing(investing) factor.

You know, I really wouldn’t mind it if they removed all the fiscal rewards from these bosses. I mean, keep the pet for beating Liadri, and for goodness sake, put in a title for those amazing, poor souls spend the mindblowing amount of time necessary to get the 8 orb achievement with her, but other than that, make it a free game. Make the incentives the satisfaction of beating the various tiers, and remove the risk of farming lesser bosses. This would negate the need, as you said, for tickets, and would make everything a lot more fun. Or, even better, give a one-time fiscal reward for each boss, and then let that be that.

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Posted by: Dryalkiel.1385

Dryalkiel.1385

You know how you could make this really great (other than what yearsonehundred suggested) ?

Add positive gambits (health generation, speed, etc) to act as “training wheels”. It’s pretty hard to get better each time you try when the fight last less than 10 seconds because you don’t know the boss’ mechanics yet.

Once you’ve beaten them, you could remove the training wheels and try to go for the achievements. Belcher’s bluff rewarded you with skills each time you beat a boss. Why not do the same for the gauntlet?

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Posted by: Esplen.3940

Esplen.3940

This is why I ask for a dedicated res’er via buddy list or map chat. Either that or I party with someone (or two) and then we rotate. If you have 3 people on a rotation, you can queue and res no matter what. If you have only 2 people on rotation, you have to res then queue (after the other person is alive).

It’s not that hard to do.

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Posted by: fellyn.5083

fellyn.5083

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

Following that same line of logic we don’t even need to play the game at all. Saying you don’t need to do something in a game because it’s optional is stupid because playing the game to begin with is optional.

I don’t play games to be frustrated. I play games for fun and to escape from stress. Not to be more stressed.

The original post is excellent and 100% right.

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Posted by: minbariguy.7504

minbariguy.7504

I don’t play games to be frustrated. I play games for fun and to escape from stress. Not to be more stressed.

Thank you! +1

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Posted by: Thaia.5146

Thaia.5146

I don’t play games to be frustrated. I play games for fun and to escape from stress. Not to be more stressed.

I’ve quit trying “luck based achivements” because of this.

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Posted by: Katz.5143

Katz.5143

Excellent post. You did a great job separating the fun parts from the frustrating/annoying parts.

It’s a kitten conspiracy. Kittens gonna be kittens. All is vain!

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

Following that same line of logic we don’t even need to play the game at all. Saying you don’t need to do something in a game because it’s optional is stupid because playing the game to begin with is optional.

I don’t play games to be frustrated. I play games for fun and to escape from stress. Not to be more stressed.

The original post is excellent and 100% right.

I don’t mean it that way. You dont’ have to enjoy “every single” content in GW2. As long as there are other content you enjoy.

Not every content is designed for everyone. There are other people who may enjoy the content beside of you.

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Posted by: laokoko.7403

laokoko.7403

and for goodness sake, put in a title for those amazing, poor souls spend the mindblowing amount of time necessary to get the 8 orb achievement with her, but other than that, make it a free game.

and i’m pretty sure people will complain they can’t get a title.

You really have to remove all the reward or make a easy mode so everyone can get it.

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

and for goodness sake, put in a title for those amazing, poor souls spend the mindblowing amount of time necessary to get the 8 orb achievement with her, but other than that, make it a free game.

and i’m pretty sure people will complain they can’t get a title.

You really have to remove all the reward or make a easy mode so everyone can get it.

See, I’m totally fine with difficulty, and I’m totally fine with not everyone being able to do everything. Just don’t fill it with needless and infuriating punishment. Other than that, make things as difficult as you want – challenging content is always a good thing.

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Posted by: Aniltiger.9186

Aniltiger.9186

Great post!
I do like most stuff Anet bring to us players, but this time they had a great concept with horrible excecution!

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Posted by: Mortifer.2946

Mortifer.2946

The fact that this minigame costs tickets is sad. I personally have lesser gold than before the patch came out, only because I try to complete 5 gambit achiev which takes you 6 tickets.

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Posted by: Esplen.3940

Esplen.3940

The fact that this minigame costs tickets is sad. I personally have lesser gold than before the patch came out, only because I try to complete 5 gambit achiev which takes you 6 tickets.

Kill the bosses when they spawn everytime, then go back to killing. Even if you waypoint after every death, you break even.

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Posted by: Kronus.6048

Kronus.6048

The fact that this minigame costs tickets is sad. I personally have lesser gold than before the patch came out, only because I try to complete 5 gambit achiev which takes you 6 tickets.

Kill the bosses when they spawn everytime, then go back to killing. Even if you waypoint after every death, you break even.

So are you saying we should grind the bosses? But I thought Arenanet made it pretty clear that they DESPISE grind!

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Posted by: Dryalkiel.1385

Dryalkiel.1385

I agreed with ^this

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Posted by: HumaCarrionEater.8254

HumaCarrionEater.8254

To be fair unlike some other posts I don’t think OP is QQing because he can’t beat Liadri. I think a fair amount of people, including myself, want her to be as difficult as she is. The problem comes when design outside of the fight itself is hindering a player’s ability to showcase their skill. Why should a camera angle kill you? Or lag, even on a good machine? Is it needed to drop a player out of the arena when the time limit is up? Make it challenging but there’s no need to punish people for losing in a way that forces a long walk back to the encounter and is gated through tickets. Fix the camera, take away the tickets, and spawn/rez right outside the dome and I would be perfectly happy.

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

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Posted by: fellyn.5083

fellyn.5083

Do people realize you don’t even need to do it?

There “are” people who enjoy it. Let them have their fun.

If you are not having fun, don’t do it. I don’t enjoy wvw and jumping puzzle too, I didn’t ask Anet to remove that from the game.

If Anet want a real suggestion, make an easy mode. To appease to the more casual player. Keep the hard mode since there are obviously people who enjoy it by the feedback.

Following that same line of logic we don’t even need to play the game at all. Saying you don’t need to do something in a game because it’s optional is stupid because playing the game to begin with is optional.

I don’t play games to be frustrated. I play games for fun and to escape from stress. Not to be more stressed.

The original post is excellent and 100% right.

I don’t mean it that way. You dont’ have to enjoy “every single” content in GW2. As long as there are other content you enjoy.

Not every content is designed for everyone. There are other people who may enjoy the content beside of you.

Granted. But it’s a dangerous path anet walks if they keep making stuff that they intend for a very small portion of the player base to play. Or rather, to complete.

I’m all for challenging and hard if it’s permanent content that I can work at at my leisure. I can get frustrated at it and come back in a day, a week, or a month.

But not with this. If I don’t push my self to get it done within the next week then it’s not coming back. Ever. That’s punishing the majority of the player base to appease a very few people and all that’s going to do is push people away from the game

And they can’t afford to do that with 2 big name mmo’s coming out within the next 6-8 months.


To clarify, I don’t have a problem with how hard Liadri is. What I have a problem with is how punishing losing is and the fact that it’s time limited.

If there were more convenient way points next to the arenas then that would cut down most of the problems I have with it the gauntlet.

There are of course other issues, such as the camera issue and my character is a maxed size charr so that doesn’t help any either. But this is minor compared to having to run my kitten back up to the arena after a failed attempt because people are in to much of a hurry to revive because gotta get in line first!!1!1

(edited by fellyn.5083)

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Posted by: HumaCarrionEater.8254

HumaCarrionEater.8254

I overall love this game and I am RARELY kitten ed off over design decisions, but this is definitely one that kitten es me right the kitten off. Especially considering, if I am reading right, that the tickets are CHARACTER bound. That is just ridiculous.

The fact that this minigame costs tickets is sad. I personally have lesser gold than before the patch came out, only because I try to complete 5 gambit achiev which takes you 6 tickets.

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Posted by: Tenoh.2305

Tenoh.2305

Yup, with OP on 100% on this!… when you cant even roll out of bosses aoe attacks and it kills you on the spot,thats just anet getting off on punishing ppl.

kitten you anet! I hate you!

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

Yup, with OP on 100% on this!… when you cant even roll out of bosses aoe attacks and it kills you on the spot,thats just anet getting off on punishing ppl.

Honestly, an aoe-insta-kill isn’t a punishment, it’s a challenge. Where the punishment comes about is that you already spent a ticket to get into the match, you waited in queue, and then one aoe comes along and you can’t dodge, which makes you take armor damage, wait for a res or go to a waypoint, and have to pay another ticket and wait in queue to try again. And if you don’t have much time on your hands or don’t have a machine that can run the game 100% lag free, this will severely limit what you physically can and cannot do in the game.

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Posted by: RyuDragnier.9476

RyuDragnier.9476

Somebody sticky this thread and make Anet read the first 2 posts over and over again. They need to memorize this for the future, because the last 3 living stories have had at least 1 thing too punishing in each of them.

[hS]
PvE Main – Zar Poisonclaw – Daredevil
WvW Main – Ghost Mistcaller – Herald

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Posted by: Sevoha.6724

Sevoha.6724

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP. I loved the challenge of the Gauntlet minus some camera issues. I don’t mind 1hkos. What I did object to was the death penalties. Why do the gauntlet battles damage your armor when it’s supposedly a mere test of skill. Why is every loss accompanied by a long walk back from the waypoint? Better question would be why are we even paying for waypoints when the Jubilee takes place within a city and waypoints in a city are supposed to be free.

To be honest, I think I’ll let the gauntlet go. While I have confidence in my ability to eventually find a way to beat it, I don’t think I’ll have fun on the way.

Also, I believe that the gauntlet would have benefitted from a spectator mode similar to PVP as compared to what is in place now.

(edited by Sevoha.6724)

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Posted by: RoRo.8270

RoRo.8270

I agree 100% with OP.

This isn’t GW1 where you could change your build at will.
Other than my pride, my wallet is hurt from all the death and the retraining.

For those who say “then don’t do it”, what’s the point of releasing content that only a few types of people will enjoy? Some jumping puzzle are really hard but some are easy. Those that can’t beat the difficult ones can at least proudly say they succeeded at some of them. Also, the easy ones prepare you and train you for the difficult ones.

I’ve yet to fight a boss in the gauntlet I’d consider “easy” and I’m still at tier 1 :S. And since this is an event, we don’t have all the time in the world to train and practice to try to beat them. Not everyone can become a master of every combat mechanic really fast.

This is probably the only content that was released that “not everybody” can do

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Posted by: Gambit.8425

Gambit.8425

The things you don’t like add to the mental frustration thus making QG “more challenging” for a helluva lot of people by looking at this forum. WP cost 1s? if you dont get a rez. And I at least have plenty of those repair canisters from the AP chests.

And what was the learning curve in Southsun Survival other then run away early and gather passion fruits, scavenge a remote location and then prey on the hungry? Which of most seemed to be there only to finish the games played achievement. Also without our chosen professions, traits, armor and weapons like all the other previous mini-games.

I personally skipped the score achievement. Not because I was bad, but I just found it too boring to waste that much time doing it. There’s AP I will never get, but I didn’t come here crying about it. I thought the wait between rounds and the intro in SC survival worse than queue’s in QG. Clearly ANET can’t cater everything for everyone, and what some find fun others don’t.

I agree that some mechanics in QG like the constant cripple if you don’t time the dodge right and the jerky camera isn’t much fun, but seriously, the thing is easy to complete. Literally everything has already been done and documented, all you have to do is invest a few minutes in a guide so you can follow it the exact same way. If you are good at SC survival this should be cakewalk. Players>Mechanics, every time.

The more posts I read here, the more I believe ANET put the bar just right with the gauntlet. It’s not meant to be done by the “casuals” that doesn’t put any effort in finding a suitable build or armor other than with MF. Now that I think of it, all the moaners here are probably the same people everyone dread to have in their dungeon pug. Hopefully some of them will improve after this experience.

(edited by Gambit.8425)

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Posted by: AlietteFaye.7316

AlietteFaye.7316

These are perfectly valid criticisms and I agree 100%. Great job.

twitch.tv/aliettefaye

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

The things you don’t like add to the mental frustration thus making QG “more challenging” for a helluva lot of people by looking at this forum. WP cost 1s? if you dont get a rez. And I at least have plenty of those repair canisters from the AP chests.

I’m glad you’re rich and established in this game. Some of us are new and don’t have the financial reserves and special items you own.

And what was the learning curve in Southsun Survival other then run away early and gather passion fruits, scavenge a remote location and then prey on the hungry? Which of most seemed to be there only to finish the games played achievement. Also without our chosen professions, traits, armor and weapons like all the other previous mini-games.

I’m not entirely getting your point here, especially in the latter half of your post. If you’re saying that you found Southsun Survival to be easy, kudos to you. I, for one, did not, and it took me hours to get used to it and slowly overcome the difficulty curve. Such as what works better in different circumstances, how to refine dodging, utilizing precise timing for various skills, etc. Maybe you had these abilities down pat from the get-go, but I had to learn them through hard work and practice.

I personally skipped the score achievement. Not because I was bad, but I just found it too boring to waste that much time doing it. There’s AP I will never get, but I didn’t come here crying about it. I thought the wait between rounds and the intro in SC survival worse than queue’s in QG. Clearly ANET can’t cater everything for everyone, and what some find fun others don’t.

Again, as I’ve said before, player feedback is vital for the health of a game – and especially so and even more so in an MMO. While I find it interesting that you found the 30 second downtime between rounds in Southsun Survival to be less wasteful than the 2-8 minute (in my personal experiences) wait times between rounds in Queen’s Gauntlet (and that was with me dodging all arenas that had more than 2 people lined up at a time), I feel that this is highly indicative of your own personal preferences and feelings, and not a reflection on the opinions of most of the playerbase (especially if posts in this topic and in the rest of this forum are any indication).

I agree that some mechanics in QG like the constant cripple if you don’t time the dodge right and the jerky camera isn’t much fun, but seriously, the thing is easy to complete. Literally everything has already been done and documented, all you have to do is invest a few minutes in a guide so you can follow it the exact same way. If you are good at SC survival this should be cakewalk. Players>Mechanics, every time.

Again, I’m glad you’re so 1337 that you found it so easy. Personally, I’ve invested upwards of 12 hours trying to beat Liadri alone, and putting in serious effort into half a dozen guides and engineer builds, while trying out another half dozen. I’ve used up 23 gold so far, and that’s because half the times I buy the tickets, and the other half I spend farming and grinding mindlessly for them. And, if you read my post thoroughly, you’d see that I don’t mind the constant cripple – that’s a Challenge thing. The bad camera angles is a Punishment thing, as well as all the other unnecessary bad designs and glitches that drain the fun from this minigame.

The more posts I read here, the more I believe ANET put the bar just right with the gauntlet. It’s not meant to be done by the “casuals” that doesn’t put any effort in finding a suitable build or armor other than with MF. Now that I think of it, all the moaners here are probably the same people everyone dread to have in their dungeon pug. Hopefully some of them will improve after this experience.

Again, the Challenge isn’t the problem. It’s the Punishment that needs to be fixed. If not everyone can complete a Challenge, that’s fine – good, even, as it adds some levels of prestige to aspects of the game. But if game design is overtly and unnecessarily sadistic, then it should be fixed so that players can enjoy (even frustratingly so) the gameplay.

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

Here’s a great example of something being Challenging without being Punishing. I just recently picked up Darksiders 2, and right off the bat, there is a boss that you can tackle at level 2 if you want to, even though he’s meant to be beaten at level 5-7. He’s fast, he has a lot of health (especially if you’re level 2, as you have no dmg to your name whatsoever), and he one-shots you if mess up even slightly. For over two hours, I persisted in trying to beat him simply because I enjoyed the Challenge. I yelled, I grabbed at my hair, I even punched the table occasionally ‘cause it was so difficult or I’d die right at the last moment. I even considered quitting and beating him at the right level, but I persisted BECAUSE it wasn’t Punishing. When I lost, I didn’t lose items, I didn’t lose money, and I respawned right in front of him with full health. So I’d throw myself at him again and again and again and die again and again and again, pushing through the Frustration, until I finally did it. And when I did beat him, I felt great, as I knew that I’d done it through learning and through skill. And I felt great ‘cause there hadn’t been a single ounce of Punishment in that encounter. It was all pure Challenge.

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Posted by: Deneb.2697

Deneb.2697

anet can learn a lot from this and other topic.
but we all know that anet is like a dog chasing its tail… will never admit his mistake

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Posted by: keenlam.4753

keenlam.4753

Great post OP I agree with you on everything except the camera and queue time.

I think the camera is intended by design to give you a feel that you’re in a confined space and thus need to be more aware of the surroundings.

As for the queue time, i enjoy watching others fight and helping them (or getting helped) while waiting for my turn. I’ve made some good friends through those little chit-chat while waiting.

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

I think the camera is intended by design to give you a feel that you’re in a confined space and thus need to be more aware of the surroundings.

Perhaps, but you could be easily and just as aware of your surroundings by having an open camera. Given that Liadri hits first a quarter of the map, and then, later, half the map every few seconds, combined with her condition-inducing attacks and the walking shadow bombs means that you must be VERY aware of your surroundings just to survive. So, personally, I don’t think the tight camera of the dome is necessary at all.

As for the queue time, i enjoy watching others fight and helping them (or getting helped) while waiting for my turn. I’ve made some good friends through those little chit-chat while waiting.

Yeah, I feel you here, but an easy fix would be to have separate instances, yet allow for a spectator mode for those in your party. This would allow, for example, guilds to cheer on a member going for Light Up The Darkness while still allowing for a lag-free experience.

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Posted by: Khal Drogo.9631

Khal Drogo.9631

The punishment is actually the time wasted in getting a revive/wping out and running back + the wait times.

Apologies to those who may find my posts on GW2 forums offensive and hateful.

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Posted by: DallasisaLeo.1584

DallasisaLeo.1584

I have to say that I agree wholeheartedly about the majority of the OP. It’s not the difficulty of this that gets to me. In fact, I kind of love that it’s so difficult to beat these guys and I love thinking up new strategies for each one. I don’t mind paying for a respec, and I don’t mind that I have to be level 80. I enjoy a good challenge. But as the OP stated, this isn’t challenging in all aspects; it’s punishing.

tl;dr: Challenging (not punishing) content should be hard to beat but easy to access.

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Posted by: Lue.6538

Lue.6538

If I had to wager a made up statistic (yeah, I know how lame those are, but bear with me), I’d say that it’s 25% or less Challenging, and 75% or more Punishing.

This really summed up your post in a fabulous manner.

Also, fun is subjective, you didn’t enjoy it, I did. I didn’t enjoy the zergfest downstairs tho, but maybe you did?

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

If I had to wager a made up statistic (yeah, I know how lame those are, but bear with me), I’d say that it’s 25% or less Challenging, and 75% or more Punishing.

This really summed up your post in a fabulous manner.

Also, fun is subjective, you didn’t enjoy it, I did. I didn’t enjoy the zergfest downstairs tho, but maybe you did?

I know you’re not supposed to feed the trolls, but I’m going to indulge anyways.

If I had said that there was more Punishment than Challenges and left it at that, then yes, that quoted line would have been a good summary. But instead, I listed out each and every Punishment, so my points were clear and emphasized.

As for fun, I doubt anyone would say spending vast amounts of money on a minigame when it could easily have been made free-to-play is fun. If you do think it’s fun, you are either A) Seriously messed up, Lying, or C) Way too rich for your own good. If you asked anyone who plays a subscription-based MMO which is more fun; Paying for the game or Playing the game, they would probably give you a weird look and then state that they obviously enjoy playing the game rather than paying for it. Similarly, all the leeching aspects of Queen’s Gauntlet are unnecessary for enjoyment of the game, and indeed hinder the fun instead.

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Posted by: Calae.1738

Calae.1738

Spoken like true casual gamers.

No punishment and no risk means your achievements are empty. Just like the daily gathering achievement. Just another one of those laundry list of boring things to do.

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Posted by: yearsonehundred.6139

yearsonehundred.6139

Spoken like true casual gamers.

No punishment and no risk means your achievements are empty. Just like the daily gathering achievement. Just another one of those laundry list of boring things to do.

Not at all, because Liadri is still CHALLENGING. The Punishment is just unnecessary, and what’s more is that it’s directly against the design philosophy that ArenaNet preached endlessly during GW2’s development.

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Posted by: Calae.1738

Calae.1738

Spoken like true casual gamers.

No punishment and no risk means your achievements are empty. Just like the daily gathering achievement. Just another one of those laundry list of boring things to do.

Not at all, because Liadri is still CHALLENGING. The Punishment is just unnecessary, and what’s more is that it’s directly against the design philosophy that ArenaNet preached endlessly during GW2’s development.

Failure has little meaning when you don’t lose something valuable.

In video games this always translates to time. In most cases you only lose time relative to potential gain. In other more extreme cases; invested and banked time is literally taken away from you.

This gauntlet does a little bit of both.

You have to run back when you die and spend some coin for repairs and tickets. This shouldn’t be a new concept to anyone. World of Warcraft mastered this quite well with raids. Only difference here is that you don’t need 9 other players to do the content.

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Posted by: Korval.3751

Korval.3751

I agree with everything yearsonehundred wrote! Every. single. word.

I just experienced my first bug. A big one too. I queued up. The person in the arena fell to their death. As the floor was closing in I go while they’re not fully closed. The result? I’m stuck half-way in the floor. I cannot move. I cannot target anything. I cannot WP out. Basically I just stood there until I was dropped to my death. This happening after I had previously died and was forced to WP, repair and run back.

For the love of goodness please remove all this nonsense.