Hi all -
Reading the forums, there seems to be lots of misconceptions about some of the game fundamentals and design mechanics.
Some examples taken from the recent forum activity :
- Daily rewards, seen as chores
- Ascended gear, seen as gear treadmill
- Guild missions, seen as gated content that small guilds will never access
- Updated dungeon mechanics, perceived as “insane” difficulty
- and so on
I don’t pretend to know better than everybody else, but there are players that do still enjoy the game, and I am one of them ; my common answers for the examples I mentionned would be, short version :
- Daily rewards > the rewards come for free, just play the game normally and you complete 90% of the objectives at no extra effort
- Ascended gear > the stat difference is so insignificant that “BiS” theory doesn’t apply. The only “gated” content is 20+ FOTM, but fractals players get AR easily while leveling up. Other ascended gear are just long term rewards: play the game normally, and every now and then you’ll get an Ascended item, which is supposed to make you feel great ! These items are breaking the gap between exotic and legendary. You’re not supposed to “rush” and get them in days to be competitive
- Guild missions > this is supposed to give people new content over time. Guilds are not supposed to flush 500k Influence right now and play all the new stuff right now (even though some can and will access the missions slightly earlier than others). Again, long term goals, and the Influence-based unlocks let each guild prioritise the queue of upgrades. In months, you’ll still be unlocking missions. Once you accept that, it gets much easier
- Dungeon mechanics > I played AC yesterday, and the changes do not increase the difficulty, they actually makes things easier if you understand the logic. This creates a gap between “good use” and “bad use” of the game mechanics. Grave zergs and pure DPS brute force just don’t work anymore. This is a GREAT incentive early in the game to encourage players to explore the game mechanics. Arguably, some other dungeons could use the same kind of attention (HoW, aka. straight-line-brute-force-bashing)
This thread is not about daily rewards, ascended gear, guild missions or dungeon balancing though. Please do not comment on these There are many other (endless) topics already debating these at great length.
My point is that I am convinced many players simply misunderstand what the updates are about, and how the game is supposed to be “played”.
Just read some threads on this forum… it’s ridiculous – People second guess and misunderstand the motivations for the changes, and end up blaming the developper for this or that, suggesting alternatives that would be “obviously better” (even though most just don’t work when you look at the big picture), and finally state that ANet employees are all dumb for not doing what they want. Seriously ?