A month ago, when I learned that ANet was planning to allow disconnected players back into fractals as well as allowing people of different fractal levels to play together, I was excited. And I’ve been waiting for this patch for all these time, while slowly progressing through fractals (slowly, because groups are very hard to find past level 40).
But there are some big disappointment waiting for me, things that I haven’t even expected.
The way that you’ve advertised Fractals to us was that it was intended to be a challenge. The fact that fractals past level 40 ends up being a 1-shot fest is what I LIKE about it. Having to use all my defensive CD and dodge carefully or otherwise be one shotted in these dungeons is something that I enjoy, it’s a indeed a worthy challenge and I thought this is what it was intended for. But you see, this is assuming that there IS a way to counter whatever situation that our group finds ourselves in, just that this “method” is either difficult to achieve, or has a high penalty if we cannot achieve it. That’s a challenge. And that’s fine, I’m having fun in 50+ fractals, and I was able to find a group of people who enjoy the same things so we progress together.
Hence, reviving orb no longer works on Jade Maw agony is something that I cannot understand. I can only find two explanations for your doing this: 1. you intend to fix the encounter, the first step being fixing Jade Maw agony with the side effect of stopping people from progressing, but you’re going to find a way to return this freedom to the players soon. Or 2. you’ve never intended for players to progress past a certain fractal level, yet you’ve advertised the game to hold these possibilities, hence now you’re using agony as a hard cap for fractals. I sincerely hope that explanation 1 is the truth, and if it is, please please please let us know so we can have hope.
The way that I’ve described 2, I can’t help but feel that it sounds too much like a fraud. Yet I fear that it is true. It’s the same vibe that the “evil casinos” in movies send out. They lure people in, tell people that there are possibilities, and people then invest their time and money into the games. But actually what the casino does is not only NOT supporting the pursuit of these people, but ACTIVELY eliminating these possibilities silently. My question is, if you’ve never intended for us to climb higher than level 40 or level 50 fractals, why didn’t you mention anything? Why didn’t you put a hard cap there and tell us about it? Why did you make it sound like it’s all a free playground for players to challenge themselves? Falsified implication is just as guilty as falsified statement, and my heart sinks upon realizing this rather cold strategy of yours. You’re game makers, and I’ve always thought game makers are a little different than say, a pure business man out for revenue only. Movie makers, however rotten they might be, have artistic values and things that they want to express WHILE making money. I’d like to think that game makers also have something “extra”, that is, a genuine care and sense of responsibility to their players, and a strong desire to make “good games”. You’d enjoy it if a group of people really liked your game, I hope. Yes you need to make a living and you’d like to buy fancy cars too and I don’t think letting some people proceed into higher level fractals will prevent that —- Believe me, there are not that many people in those levels. Not many people actively observe their own game play in order to dodge everything perfectly, yet that’s what you’d have to do to proceed into those levels without agony resistance. Your planned tiers of ascended items WILL still apply to the majority of your players, and frankly, people who can proceed into high levels without corresponding AR are “hardcore” enough players that they will actively seek out those AR items just for the slight increase of stats alone. From a “game maker” point of view, I do not see why you wouldn’t have players who’d like to challenge themselves playing your game —- after all, you ARE rooting for e-sports. Isn’t this the mind set that you’d like to attract to your game (or at least, not repel away)?