Guild Wars 2

We made this game, we love it, and now we must do everything in our power to protect it from the players.

fixed*

We made this game, we love it, and now we must do everything in our power to ensure we get as many gem purchases as possible before players realize how completely trivial end game is, how poorly implemented DEs are and how incredibly unrewarding dungeons are.

Well, it’s a bit like those crappy old NES games that only had 3 or 4 levels. Those levels had to be made impossibly hard to make them last longer.

But yes, the gem greed is very obvious. The bank is ridiculously small, your inventory is always cluttered with random crap, there are hefty gold sinks everywhere… all of which can be alleviated by buying an absurd amount of gems. Encouraging players to invest more money in your game by annoying the hell out of them is not a smart design choice, either.

More like they had a vision and that did not include players reaching their dungeon armors or legendaries in 2 weeks. They want players to play the game the way it was intended to be played.

If there are ways to play the game in ways that they did not intend it to be played then they have all right to do something about it, now the things they may have done may be hasty and drastic… perhaps even untested (this we can not be sure of without confirmation, one way or the other), the point is, they really did not have the time to go through a deep planning process for this, a crack in the dam needed to be plugged, so they did.

Now we wait, if they are happy with their repairs nothing will change if not it will, couldn’t be more simple than that.

This is essentially same thing as someone who said something like this: “We [ANet] made a game, and now we have to make sure you play our game the way we want you to” which I would correct into “… you play our game the way it was intended to be played”.

This is all comparable to the complaints about renown hearts not giving enough XP that some have voiced, if you do the math, renown hearts are less than 20% of the leveling content (in terms of EXP), which is blatant indication that the game was not designed to be centered around those hearts. The way dungeons are right now is blatant indication that the core idea is not that you grind non-stop for a month for your set, or earn money through dungeons. You go out there, do other things, collect money to cover the costs of your dungeon runs and over long periods of time you work towards the long term goal of getting the visual dungeon gear you want.

Also, I don’t know what people do with the loot that drops in dungeons, from mobs and chests, do they not count it as a reward from dungeon runs when you sell, to a vendor, or salvage it. ANet doesn’t stop you from running dungeons non-stop if you want to, they are just making it so that you have to diversify… and they are making a point that dungeons are not for money making, they are for the visual gear which is not intended to be farmed in a month. They want to encourage the player not to step in the same dungeon for a while, so it doesn’t get quite as old quite as fast…. they are not locking you out but they are doing their best to get that point across, if you don’t want to follow then don’t but also do not complain.

ANet designed the game, short of NCSoft and stock holders coming and saying they have to do something about this, they are entitled to doing what they want to make players play the game the way it was intended to be played in their mind. Alternatively they can listen to the community but that is their prerogative. They are financially responsible only to their stock holders and NCSoft, and if they say something then their hand is forced but short of that it is their game to do as they wish.

Wall of text? While it is their game:
1) they said we will be able to play how we want and that the game didnt center around the typical hardcore gamer, a casual player should be able to play any element is what I get from this.
2) When you consider that if people don’t play their game because the are changing elements in a massive way, and not for the betterment of te game. It is their game, but if they want to continue making Money from gems and other titles, they need to be less heavy handed.

The game doesn’t center around a hardcore player, however, this particular type of content (explorable dungeons) does… which was said over and over again pre-release. The game doesn’t even center around dungeons per se, some may say it does because of how Orr is… and I have no comment on that because I am deliberately avoiding Orr (because I can).

I derive enjoyment in different things than many of the people making their points here for sure, but if you enjoy non-stop dungeon running, aren’t there plenty of games that actually force you into that already? If you don’t there are plenty of things for you to do still.. and get statistically the same rewards elsewhere.

If you really want that dungeon set, yet don’t want to repeat the dungeon, then consider whether putting up with the way the dungeons are is justified by how much you want that look.

If you read my post I say this: The way dungeons are right now is blatant indication that the core idea is not that you grind non-stop for a month for your set, or earn money through dungeons. You go out there, do other things, collect money to cover the costs of your dungeon runs and over long periods of time you work towards the long term goal of getting the visual dungeon gear you want.

That, for me works more than fine, not paying monthly just to keep my account allows me to play that way… for me getting there fast or being among the first is of no value, I enjoy the content for the contents sake… which is why I may do reruns periodically such as I may rewatch a tv series or read a book again. If I find a set I like I may also invest time into it, but thus far I am perfectly happy with just being on a level playing field with gear obtained by other venues.

There are short and long term goals in the game, prestige gear is obviously not inteded to be a short term goal… which to me means it is expected to occupy people for more than a month.

Edit: tl;dr… of sorts, the game is not designed to be played with a tunnel vision, there are plenty of things in there, the content is there, diversify and work towards your goals while you are at it.

Crise

the very, very first part of that wall of text, basically agrees with what the op said, it is protecting the game from the players

vision of the game =/= the game

protecting it from the players is what they did, and to the detriment of the enjoyment of the game given that they were overtuned instances anyways

Hellkaiser.6025:

Crise

the very, very first part of that wall of text, basically agrees with what the op said, it is protecting the game from the players

vision of the game =/= the game

protecting it from the players is what they did, and to the detriment of the enjoyment of the game given that they were overtuned instances anyways

Yeah I do agree with what the OP said (I would have worded it differently), just not what he implied… I think it is fine for a developer to protect their vision. I am a software developer myself and unless someone pays me to realise their vision I will protect my own vision and principles. Last I checked the community is not paying ANet to realise their vision, they are paying ANet for a game to play, which is a vision of ANet developers, in other words they are paying for that vision, not for the right to mold ANet’s vision and realization of said vision into what they like.

which is where the whole issue of “subject to change” comes in.
If we’re promised a specific type of mmo with no grind, and we can then clearly prove it’s got a lot of grind in it, don’t we have grounds to question if what we bought into is what we were promised, and a right to demand that it not degenerate into something inferior after purchase due to their own ineptitude as designers or inability to maintain and deliver on that “manifesto” again, something they seemed so proud of it became a trailer for the actual game?

ANet, in their manifesto, said that there would not be grind to get to the fun stuff… so for all the people complaining here their fun is only derived from that one instant when you get your prestige gear and then there is no more fun for them appearently.

You do realise there is literally nothing, beyond sPvP and WvW, after you get your legendary and/or dungeon sets. The fun stuff, as they put it, should be the process of getting the reward not the reward itself. So I see no problem with them slowing down the rush to these rewards… they are trying to not make people have to grind but people grind anyways, and when they say slow down people complain.

It could also be said that, the grind to legendaries and dungeon armors does not get you anywhere, because there is no statistical gain from the grind, you don’t have to grind for the stats, if you choose to that is your prerogative. You can get everywhere in the game without a grind, you can access/experience all types of content without a grind (the fact that explorable modes are hard as nails was advertised prior to release so that is in the clear).

Also grind is repeating same thing monotonously over and over again, an individual dungeon has 3 paths, if you don’t want to alternate between different paths to eliminate the grind then that is again your prerogative and ANet is doing the correct thing in trying to incentivise you to not grind (now whether these paths are different enough is always up for debate). The dungeons are also dynamic, like the troll in AC for example.

Their statements do not imply that grinding should be impossible or nonexistent, just that it is not a requirement for you to experience the entirety of the game.

Obvious fanboy is obvious. So basically what your saying is dungeons are meant to be pointless wastes of time? No loot. repair costs nvr made up. No achieve i can show ppl. No point. And i hate to break the news to you OP but repeating 3 paths 13 times each is a major grind in these dungeons. the point PPl complaining are trying to make is that they ARE NOT FUN. /thread

I am not the OP.

Edit: removed pointless and repetitive comment