Guild Wars 2

Romeo.4378:

Are the answers in the AMA enough for you? Can you bring yourself to believe what they say again?

I believe what they say. They say that power creep is here to stay. They say we should have read their statements more carefully and not given them a charitable interpretation.

Second chance? Sure, why not?
I already paid for the game, so what have I got to lose? If it’s “fixed”, great! I will have a game I can play for a few more years. If there are some things I do not like, I just stop playing and go on to something else. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

To be honest, right now my answer is: “no, I am not”.

This AMA thing is not enough to restore my faith in Anet. I do not plan to go back to GW2, at least for the time being. Especially since there are plethora bugs and balance issues and, instead of working on fixing those existing problems, Anet delivered “new exciting content” that, even in their own opinion, was not very well done. And it seems that the gear grind is here to stay, so sorry Anet, no more moniez from me.

Only thing I’m gonna miss is my character. It was by far the most fun game avatar I had in MMO’s EVER. Even if I played underpowered class ridden with bugs, I still loved to play and have fun in whatever way I felt like. Sadly, it’s not an option anymore.

I feel like the AMA did a lot to alleviate my concerns for the time being, I currently feel cautiously optimistic and do continue to keep playing.

Nope. Am still playing WvW with my guild but won’t be spending a penny more.
I especially liked that we should have known there was going to be a treadmill because the level cap was raised to 80. Isn’t that one of the things that should have been clarified early on when all people have to go on is your previous game, which didn’t include a treadmill. But, apparently that game was stagnant according to Mike O’B.

Most of the vocal community strikes me as ridiculously melodramatic.

My answer is simple… I don’t think any “second chance” needs to be given at all… it seems like a rather entitled and presumptuous thing to say anyway. I will play until I no longer have fun… it’s just that simple.

Will I give them a second chance?

Yes. Then again, I was never apart of the hate train either. I thought a lot of the community uproar was filled with blind and ignorant rage. It was painful to read the forums. Even if I didn’t agree with some of the changes, some of the crying was just too much and overly dramatic for my tastes.

Lots of interesting questions very few interesting answers, we had its turkey day as an excuse to stall for a week, there should have been solutions not were looking into that.
What did they manage of the desperate week of damage control…new hair styles and more things in the cash sink.

Ill continue to play but the credit card stays in the wallet till there are inprovements in communication and fixes to the mistakes already made.

Anet hasn’t blown thier first chance. im still loving the new fractals, and working toward getting my ascended and enjoying the game on all levels.

it seems mmo’s have entered the spoilt casual group, those that want everything for nothing, and its the single most devestating thing you can do to kill an MMO. anet did right by giving us very nice content, and something to play for.

No. No. No. No point in playing anymore. It’s why I left WoW and Rift. I can’t ever catch up to the elitest jerks you have decided are more important than the rest of us. The equality of stats was why I got GW2. So much for the manifesto. What next? Of that’s right why should I care. It won’t be anything for me.

Yes I’ll give them one and even two even though my concerns aren’t alleviated and I doubt they will be for a while.

The game is still good even though it’s far from perfect don’t get me wrong but it gives me hot and cold vibes at the same time if that makes any sense.

As things are at the moment though it doesn’t compel me to advertise it as a groundbreaking mmo to other people because it isn’t and most importantly because it still needs to get polished ALLOT ( not to mention dynamic events that set it somewhat appart are barely happening lately ).

Either way for now I am content here as the game looks gorgeous, I love my characters, would miss my GW 1 mates and guildies and combat is somewhat fun and has potential but I can’t promise another game might snatch me away at some point as I am not completely satisfied with my experience yet.

To be honest, right now my answer is: “no, I am not”.

This AMA thing is not enough to restore my faith in Anet. I do not plan to go back to GW2, at least for the time being.

translation: “im still in game, if i moved on i wouldn’t be posting on forums”

Especially since there are plethora bugs and balance issues and, instead of working on fixing those existing problems, Anet delivered “new exciting content” that, even in their own opinion, was not very well done. And it seems that the gear grind is here to stay, so sorry Anet, no more moniez from me.

translation “i bought the game but never any gems, but ill pretend i did to give my point of view more weight”

“ps. i got owned in wvw”

Been too busy enjoying the game that I haven’t even bothered to read the AMA yet.

I’m still going for my legendary because I want that shiny disco ball in wvw. That and I’ll pvp a fair bit.

But arenanet has to earn my money again. People who say “It’s only $60 and you played for 3 months” don’t know kittens, and I figure I’m paid up around 8-9 more months of problem and grind free gaming before my CC sees another gem purchase.

They execute that well for that long and we can see about getting back on terms.

In order for me to continue playing for the “long term” (beyond 3 months from now), I will need to see the following:

1) A reworking or outright end to the leveling system in FoM. The current system is a horrible idea that only polarizes players and encourages elitism from BOTH ends of the player spectrum: the casuals versus hardcore. I actually enjoy the FoM dungeon instances. They are beautifully rendered and challenging, so I applaud ArenaNet’s efforts for the content itself.

2) It is clear that ascended items are here to stay. Although I would rather not see any vertical gear progression, I am willing to accept ascended gear IF AND ONLY IF these items are obtainable via the same paths as exotics: crafting, karma vendors, drops, TP, etc. The AMA indicates that this is the intended plan, so I’m willing to wait until this is implemented, but not for very long.

One of my goals for this game was to have one character for each profession, fully geared in Exotics. The The current state of the game has made this harder, due to Ascended gear requiring many of the same mats, and those mats accordingly increasing in price. Also, exotics are no longer the top of the line, so I am contemplating whether to upgrade my goal.

So, I am still playing, but am in wait-and-see mode. If Ascended becomes more accessible, I may change my goal, but right now, even getting the 3 Ascended pieces on 8 characters does not look like fun to me. So, I log in to farm, do DE’s, etc. or to play with a friend.

As to a “second chance?” My reactions will be very-much based on whether and how soon they follow through with their statements about making the best tier of gear accessible in multiple game environments. I’m not asking for welfare gear, and am willing to play for it (if the game becomes work, I’m gone), I just don’t want to be forced into one type of play, nor do I want to be forced into play that involves “speed runs,” which is the predictable but unfortunate reaction to any repetitive, goal-oriented play.

Short answer: “No!”

Long answer: “No!”

ANet had their chance, they wellknowingly held their players in the dark of this big an impact on the game, while at the same time clearly not taking the concers of the community seriously, or even anticipated it and yet kept silent.

So, no, I’ll keep the game, just play much much less while not fund any further of their goods as to expansions, game store or what else they’ll try to squeeze money from.

As soon as I have found something else, I’m out of this game….was fun till they squitted it up and started to lie to their long time fans and customers…

I think what we should do is have a rally. Everyone head to Anet headquarters. When we get there, it’s gonna go down like this…. First we Ursan Force up.. just charge right at the building and activate Ursan Rage, make it crumble down, down to da ground. When the employees start funneling out of the building in distress we start Ursan striking the crap out of them until we see the hardmode area cleared sign flash in the sky.

If someone survives that Ursan change… okay, maybe I will give them another chance. They still owe me for nerfing my griffons in the Crystal Desert………..

Romeo.4378:

<snip>

Are you going to give Anet a second chance?
<snip>

Once I don’t need to PvE to get equal-powerlevel gear …. I might.

Words are cheap and saying they’ll add (ie. ascended) gear to all avenues and it was a mistake to make it only FoTM does not do much if it still takes months for it to be placed on a vendor for WvW badges and/or karma.

I have no interest in playing the PvE grind in a game I was to play for the WvW, and I have little interest in supporting them until they do what they say they will.

So I’ll hang around the forum, waiting for the ‘good news’ or another game. Thank god for PS2 right now.

Fuz.5621:

Wolfend.5287:

… looks that the gear grind is here to say, and GW2 is just taking up space on HD.

I’ll check back in a few years, to see if ArenaNet has sorted out their waffling. In the mean time, Elder Scrolls Online is only months away, and Skyrim, with tons of reality mods is looking amazing, looks far better and runs far cooler than gw2,

Good Luck with all the monkey grinds.

Elder Scrolls Online has the gear treadmill too, fyi.
But they will be blown away by ESO.
The only way for them to not be would have been staying loyal to their manifesto and be UNIQUE; A game without vertical progression, grind and treadmills.
Changing that, they are just one of the many mmo around, and there is no reason to keep playing GW2 instead of ESO.

Yep, ESO will probably have grind and a gear treadmill, with what looks to be a superior form of RvR. If someone wants to gear treadmill, there are options out now that are better at it than Guild Wars 2.

Fuz.5621:

Corvindi.5734:

Fuz.5621:

Bruno Sardine.2907:

Fuz.5621:

Bruno Sardine.2907:

I mean it’s a free game

It’s not free.

Sorry… it’s free to continue playing.

For how long? At some point you’ll have to buy gems or die in this kittened-up economy.

No, you have a third option at that point. Find something else to play. No offense intended, just pointing out you don’t have to break out your wallet if the game gets unfun due to restrictions on in game wealth. Just walk away.

That was exactly the point.

That’s my plan as well. I’m hoping it won’t come to that, but I’m not doing this gems to gold thing, I’m just not. If I’m so poor in this game I can’t stand it, well, I’ll find something else to do!

No, no second chance. I promise ANet they will never again see a dime from me.

Who knows, some of these guys may have a good second career as a word contortionist.

Carefully worded Manifesto so they can never be held accountable to strict horizontal progression is deceptive as far as I’m concerned.

I bailed from WOW to avoid this garbage, there is no way that I’m paying anything to do it here.

azmodeus.3409:

translation: “im still in game, if i moved on i wouldn’t be posting on forums”

I haven’t log into the game since the end of Lost Shores event. I awaited the AMA to see if community concerns were adressed, and in my opinion – nope, there were not. But feel free to have your own.

azmodeus.3409:

translation “i bought the game but never any gems, but ill pretend i did to give my point of view more weight”

“ps. i got owned in wvw”

Actually I did, to buy bank upgrades & additional slots for bags on my character. But that is beside the point, even if i did not, Anet still got their money from me. No offence, pal, stop your personal trips, since you know nothing about others. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and that is mine. Oh, and learn to use “quote”.

I thought Guild Wars 2 was different. I expect the basic game to stay the same and to have expansions that had new content, new professions, new races but not new stats. I dread seeing the “need” to buy a new expansion because the new gear makes the old gear obsolete.

I still log into Guild Wars 2, but I can’t play it very long. I just wonder what new thing(not even in an expansion) will make it’s way to the game to change a good portion of the game? Guild Wars 2 is still a great game, probably the best game but my heart is no longer into this game like it was before the news of new higher level stat gear.

They couldn’t even wait for an expansion to bring this game changer to the table.

While I had not deleted the game from my computer, I had pretty much quit the game by the time of this AMA. I am one of those people who jumped on the GW2 bandwagon because I detest vertical progression, the endgame mentality, and gating. In WoW I was in a serious raiding guild and, after a bit of this, I realized exactly how much I hate this mentality. Ever since then I play a game until level cap, get a bit of gear, and quit because, contrary to what the players say, it is always the same.

Most of Mr. Whiteside’s posts were PR… stuff… but there was enough information given for me to move to a “wait and see” position.

What he said they are going to do is, while not ideal for me, something I can live with. It will interfere with my horizontal progression but not enough for me to quit the game.

Now the big wait and see: is he telling the truth? If he is, how badly will vertical progression and endgame mentality affect me?

Before the AMA I was at “wait and see,” however, it was “wait and see” with zero desire to play the game, even to do JPs which I love. I was, flat out, too disgusted with Anet to want to come in. Now I am at “wait and see” while playing old content like I have all along.

Masaki.2153:

veritech.1048:

If I’m going to be forced into a gear grind to compete, I’d rather do it in a game that does gear grinds/dungeons/pvp better.

This game had one solid pro to outweigh what needed to be worked on, and they decided to toss that pro and ignore the broken content.

Feels too much like Nexon now.

Spot on. In 1 short week the game has emptied because of that feel.

LFG for fractals has even diminished.

Grind monkeys who burn through content have burned through it and, well, everyone else against the new gear tier are gone.

32 people on friends (that was always at least 75% present) and about the same who were “following” me at the same levels are at less than 5 in each over the past week.

Yep and Yep. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything so poorly implemented as the FoTM dungeon system. I can’t believe that got past the “I have a really bad idea” stage. And the small power creep is STILL power creep.

I really liked the PvE 1-80 and they got rid of a lot of what I hated about other games, but to me this game just isn’t all that fun (just a personal opinion). It’s just not that great of a game.

I particularly hate the dungeons. Yes, if you do them a dozen times and learn where to stand, how to avoid half the content, and collect a bunch of you tube videos then they are doable, but that doesn’t make them fun.

Also I hate the risen. Worst mob ever invented. The spawn rate is also just stupid.

But I’ll check back in 6 months, and I’ll check out the Wintersday stuff, but they get no more monetary support unless the gameplay gets much better.

wildcode.5403:

Ok correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the addition of “better than exotic” lvl80 gear, below legendary, just add a between step with horizontal progression?

Yes, yes it does. The problem is, people WANT to believe it’s the worst case scenario, so they bombard the forums with their conspiracies.

I will be buying up to 7 gem cards with my Christmas money and converting them all to gold after the first one I have now ( it was used for much needed fine transmutes). I am not aiming for ascended or Legendaries, I just need my exotics.

I’m loyal to GW and anet but just as critical for their faults such as not devising ways to force team play and togetherness.

I am just dealing with the new facts of the game and just trying to cope with my wallet.

I am not a fanboys but i will give Anet every chance of this world because despite of some issue or design flaw this is the best MMO i ever played and believe me I have played many.

it need a lot of fix and there is an huge room for improvement but guys we cant deny we have a piece of art installed on our PC

I’m one of the ones just sort of holding out to see what’s going to happen. If this was a pay to play MMO I would cancel my membership temporarily until it becomes clear if Anet is really going to iron out this Fractals mess and not descend into mediocrity that caters to those who want a gear treadmill. No point in investing any more time right now since the future of this game is unclear.

I’ll show up for the Winters Day thing, but that’s about all I have planned for the foreseeable future.

When the evidence supports their talking is when I will change my stance. We had talk with the manifesto and a bunch of interviews and blog articles. Most of us have read the threads comparing the reality with what was said (I’m talking about more than just the manifesto) and it consistently doesn’t match up.

It’s very clear that the ArenaNet manifesto and their stances on grind, progression, pay to win, player equality and much more are in no way clear. Many people from the core fanbase purchased the game thinking their stance was one thing, we know have Chris and Mike saying they misunderstood. I would have liked them to clear that up prior to buying the game (it seems amazing to me they knew players thought this was never going to happen – Chris said the reaction was expected so they understood they had players thinking the game was one thing when they knew it was another – and they never clarified this). Many of Chris’ answers are non-commital, intentionally vague or hollow promises of things to come, so very little substance came from the AMA. A lot of words, but we’ve had those before.

Much of the AMA was admitting that large parts of the game and recent updates don’t measure up to where they should be. The question about switching from 5 ectos and 5 tier 6 mats for an exotic gear to 50 ecto and 250 tier 6 mats, the admission that there was a bizarre inconsistency there is what both baffles me and gives me hope. Why do it in the first place when it’s clearly a stupid leap in grind? The admission something is off there gives me hope what we ended up with isn’t the design direction they want to go in.

Looking at the direction the patch took the game in (massive grind for ascended item materials, massive grind and gambling on RNG for ascended rings) the evidence doesn’t match up with the talk they are giving us. The thing that bothered me most was that the transmutation stones I had purchased, the armour skins that I had earned twice (once for the stats, once for the skins, for some of us that was a huge amount of work, especially if it meant two different dungeon sets) and doing the same thing for alternate sets on a toon, or just on alts, only to have all of that stolen away from me so early, that bothers me a lot.

I look at the work they are doing on the game and I share the concerns of the person Chris called disrespectful when he was upset because we see new content updates (which aside from FotM, which has significant issues of its own) and not enough updates on fixing game breaking bugs for some people. I can understand there are teams working on fixing bugs, but I also see resources being spent on what to me seem like lower priorities than having the stuff we already have working rather than bringing in more stuff that’s of a lower quality experience than we deserve.

The simple act of forming a party is difficult. Right clicking on someone’s name to invite them almost never works. Sometimes people never receive the invitation. Something like that permeates most of the end game. Now we have infinite loading screens with recent updates all while old bugs continue to go unfixed.

I have hope that going forward ArenaNet is headed in a direction that will make a better gameplay experience for me. I see no added value to my gameplay from the existence of higher stats, so that certainly won’t satisfy me. I also expect to see evidence rather than an AMA full of “we are working on it”. Most of this stuff should have been working at launch, to see gear being devalued three months in before guesting is in, before party invite bugs are worked out, before servers are even able to access dungeons because of bugs, that seems insane to me and no amount of promises of work being done will equal it being done in game. I hope they are on the right track but I want to see evidence, not promises.

Folks there is a reason to give them a second chance, and it is not based in your trust on ANet.

The reason is us, their market.

We are a very specific segment in this market, Anet tried to test the waters to see how much they could cater outside their own segment…. and well, fortunately the answer from the community couldn’t be louder.

They are backpedaling now, acknowledging the error. Ascended gear is going to continue in game, yes, but available for all types of gameplay, and far more accessible. And they know they are under public scrutiny right now, they cannot say everything that was stated in the AMA to get our trust for how…… a few more weeks?

They know they need to deliver, but was really important is the fact that they acknowledged that this was the wrong way to do things.

Because us, their community wont take it. And as far as I know is it unique in the MMO market.

All other MMO comunities take grindy content as something that goes with the genre, unquestioned, and they jump full of joy when new sets of +stats are added…. While here, well you saw.

If they want to keep the game going they cannot go that route — yes some vertical progression (and little of it, we are not that kind of market), but available everywhere in the game, and with low grind. Otherwise people will be gone.

The community has a lot (in fact everything) to say about the future of the game. If you don’t want a generic MMO, you are in the right community.

The second chance depends on their “compensation” for the poorly executed event they had during weekend on the people who participated.

Ultima Thule.3950:

Folks there is a reason to give them a second chance, and it is not based in your trust on ANet.

The reason is us, their market.

We are a very specific segment in this market, Anet tried to test the waters to see how much they could cater outside their own segment…. and well, fortunately the answer from the community couldn’t be louder.

They are backpedaling now, acknowledging the error. Ascended gear is going to continue in game, yes, but available for all types of gameplay, and far more accessible. And they know they are under public scrutiny right now, they cannot say everything that was stated in the AMA to get our trust for how…… a few more weeks?
<snip>

They are talking about ‘backpedaling’ (if one can say that) – they’ve done nothing of substance yet to alleviate the situation.
Especially when considering this ascended gear issue and FotM grind only could have been planned along side them telling us ‘cosmetic gear’ and all that……

So right now – the favour is not in believing what they say, but needing to see what they actually do.

Of course they get their second chance, but I doubt that they will do what is necessary. The grind has to go, and for me this means the following:
- MF recipes for ascended back pieces change to 10 ectos and 25 t6 mats max, the infused versions can be more expensive
- basic ascended rings can now be bought for 300 tokens max, infused ascended rings can stay drops
- the FotM scaling system has to change. Each player should be able to do whatever levle he wants no matter if he has done the levels before or not. Or at least the system has to be per account and not per character
- whenever they implement new ascended gear they have to do it for all the ways we currently get exotic from and not just for some of them.

If they continue marching down the current road, then the game will pretty much be ruined come expansion time. And, they aren’t going to sell me an expansion based on more grindy grind on top of Ascended… so I’ll just enjoy it for however long it lasts, play some other games that catch my eye, and once I feel left behind then that’s that.

Second chance for Anet,
if they push towards more DE in the open world and stop making more dungeons.
Improve AI on the npc, mobs and boss.
Most of this gameplay is dull as hell.
eg. on one of the lvl 65 world boss – Dragon fly up, dragon fly down, Dragon shriek, dragon fly up, dragon fly down, dragon spawn wall and giant mobs strolling by.
Rinse and repeat.
Seriously, this is 2012 not 2004.
You cannot beat WOW with this type of gameplay.
It is really sad for a 2012 MMO that want to out do WOW.

Yes. This is coming from someone who has legit OCPD, and is entirely fixated on obtaining the best gear possible. I’ve been working hard to get a legendary, I’m almost there, I’ve been doing Fractals as often as I can. This “Gear treadmill” doesn’t even bother me a bit, even though I’m one of the people that is affected by it the most. The compulsion to have the best. It’s hard to “Let it go” and “Settle for something less.”

GW2 is still one of the best MMO’s I’ve ever played. I have total faith that they know what they’re doing. I’m not denying their faults.

But everyone makes mistakes. It’s how they go about fixing them, learning from them, and making good on their claims that makes me have faith. That being said, I’m off to sleep after a long day thoroughly enjoying the hell out of this game, and looking forward to playing it tomorrow, too.

Still would rather run on a treadmill out of my own accord for free instead of paying and being forced to run on one. The game is a lightning rod for my friends who want to play MMOs but don’t want to pay outlandish fees. Maybe I’m not critical enough. Maybe, despite my obsession to have the best gear, I realize that it’s just a game. They’re not trying to lose customers, they have nothing to gain by wasting your time. What does that leave? Them trying to gain more customers/keep their customers happy.

Things are going to always look bad before they get better, so while I’m fine giving them a second chance, they have work to do to earn your trust back, everyone, but I’m confident they’re working on it.

Well I don’t have anything to lose by playing still.

I certainly wouldn’t buy an expansion at this point in time.

Since I am on the mac beta client, and only pretty much do PvP, i actually just dont care. Its better than the other alternative mac mmorpg…WoW, and man do i hate wow.

While I can’t deny the game has its faults, and possibly the way it’s been handled so far does as well (Lost Shores fiasco etc) I can’t say I’ll be going anywhere else anytime soon. Guild Wars 2 is the first MMO that has my attention since Ragnarok Online before it got a cash shop of its own. I couldn’t get into GW1 because of the level 20 cap (I need to always feel like I’m progressing somewhere with my character or I’ll get bored and quit) and I got GW2 because they raised the level cap (I wouldn’t have if they hadn’t). I’m not level 80 yet and I’m largely PvE focused, so the changes to gear don’t bother me. I’ll continue to play as long as I’m having fun, and when I stop having fun I’ll stop playing (and paying).

This game’s still very young, so even if I stopped playing now I’d probably come back in a year or two to see how it’s doing. I mean, I just recently went back to GW after not logging in for 5 years to learn more about lore…

I do not like or utilize the new content but i certainly dont mind it being added for those that do like it..
Anet simply screwed up by delivering the ascended gear intentionally only by FOTM dungeon instead of multiple means from the get go and have owned up to it and they have stated it will not happen again, and thats good enough for me..

I do not personally like the new dungeon content as it does not cater to my open world solo/small group playstyle and i do not like restrictive instanced dungeons at all but many players do and i believe in what anet is trying to do by creating content for many different playstyles so i am good with it..

Even a horizontal progress based game like gw2 needs some vertical progress on occasion to keep it fresh or in this case to fill in a missing medium tier between exotic and legendary..

The implementation of this content was poor and due to the ascended gear only being available through FOTM has left other areas like orr a little short handed and always contested so now they need to address these issues and consider these issues before going forward with new content releases in the future….

This game is only 3 months old and anet is going to make a few mistakes along the way and as long as they learn from it and try to avoid the pitfalls we cant ask for more than that.

Strang.8170:

wildcode.5403:

Ok correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the addition of “better than exotic” lvl80 gear, below legendary, just add a between step with horizontal progression?

No.
Legendaries were originaly purely cosmetic and didn´t have any better stats than exotics, and never were supposed to have either if one believes the prelaunch advertisement.

Ascended added better stats, which put peoples panties (including mine) in a twist. And also since legendaries wouldn´t really be legendaries anymore they had to raise their stats too…well will have to as soon as ascended weapons release.

And you will see down the line that all those pantie twisting and embarrassing undignified uproar over the ascended armor would have been all for nothing. And if the ascended gear is like any of the pictures I saw comparing their stats to and exotic it isn’t that much of a change. Not enough for the embarrassing display players showed. Anet explained why the ascended gear was needed and also stated there will not be another tier added. Yet it did not stop players hateful outburst. Instead, patience should have been a key virtue here.. Later on in the future if they released yet another tier then players angry outburst would not have been misplaced and then you can legitimately call it a gear grind. Yes, that’s right, players undignified, embarrassing display of hatred jumped the gun on the ascended gear.

I find it a strange concept to give a games development company a ‘second chance’ when I’ve already given them my money, received more hours of entertainment for the trade than I would have guessed and only plan on giving them any more money should they release content that I particularly want and need to pay for. I’m not paying in mind of content to come, I’m paying in mind of content I receive now and for a price I’m comfortable in paying. Maybe that’s a little mercenary?

If I was paying a subscription or if I’d gotten more emotionally involved in the development of the game, I’d likely be thinking about this situation differently. But as it stands, I’m perfectly fine with my enjoyment of the game and the extent that ANet has created a game that I’m currently enjoying. They don’t need to make any apologies to me.

If Anet is, indeed, backpedaling from the gear grind decision – they can prove it in the coming months and begin to earn my money again (my trust will be the more difficult part, at this point). I waited for this game for years, absolutely loved it for months – you can bet your kitten I’ll be keeping an eye on it still, even though I’m not playing.

Fuz.5621:

Wolfend.5287:

… looks that the gear grind is here to say, and GW2 is just taking up space on HD.

I’ll check back in a few years, to see if ArenaNet has sorted out their waffling. In the mean time, Elder Scrolls Online is only months away, and Skyrim, with tons of reality mods is looking amazing, looks far better and runs far cooler than gw2,

Good Luck with all the monkey grind.

Elder Scrolls Online has the gear treadmill too, fyi.
But they will be blown away by ESO.
The only way for them to not be would have been staying loyal to their manifesto and be UNIQUE; A game without vertical progression, grind and treadmills.
Changing that, they are just one of the many mmo around, and there is no reason to keep playing GW2 instead of ESO.

If ESO is even partly the spawn of Skyrim, it will be a tremendous achievement. GW2 feels like an amusement park, comparatively speaking, with number grind as the main theme.

Just started Skyrim a weeks ago, and discovered so many features GW2 touts as original, oops, not so original, Bethesda beat them to it. What is really amazing is the first rpg that does away with heroics by number. You can adventure throughout the entire world ‘progressing’ without killing a single thing, or festering over ‘stats’.

The mod community is amazing. In a way I’m glad ArenaNet added grind, I would have never discover Skyrim. Even though it is not MMO, it is a product far exceeding the genre norm, lets hope ESO sticks to what works.

Conner.4702:

Sadly the AMA was far from relieving concerns for me. Saying they never intended ascended items to be such a grind yet implemented such a steep cost increase over exotics say otherwise. You do not increase the cost by a magnitude of at least 10 if you don’t want it to be a grind. No one can convince me they didn’t realize this when they put it in, because if true they will need to look for people with more forsight to start calling some of the shots.
Also it seems they think progression only comes from gears, levels and other stat related things.
To me they are just trying to rewrite history. Sure they never said it wouldn’t have vertical progression, but on the flip side they never said it would. If they truly had planned this they would have been upfront about it and all of this could have been avoided. He was severely downplaying the effect ascended gear had on the community in my opinion.

Actually they did say it would,

""Q: What of the level cap? Have you guys decided whether you’re going to be increasing the level cap in future expansions?

Colin: Yeah. The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game, and we absolutely would increase it further into the game, probably through expansions is the most likely place we would do that."

Episode 68 Time = 58:35"

this was said some time ago, i see it sited in other sites, from oct 2011.

So yeah, i understand a lot of people believed and assumed that they would have no progression as the game went on, but honestly Anet said they would long ago, they in fact designed the game to work with increasing levels. While ascended gear may have been a new, and maybe not well planned solution to percieved issues, the game was always meant to have progression and an increasing cap.

Did you know early on, they played with the idea of having no level caps at all? just diminishing returns on high level stats or something.

Anet always saw GW2 as being a game where the main reward was experience, and they created a fairly scalable game in regards to experience, sidekicking, etc.

That said, I dont think the game was designed with a gear progression in mind, while their level system is fairly scalable, and they make every facet of the game give experience, Their itemization is not really. The biggest differences in effectiveness with their current iterations come from having more stats at a specific level. (IE the best way to gain power is basically to have more stats, not to level up, and for some proffessions certain levels unlock new functionality, but not all)

going forward they should probably stay away from statistical item increases, and use mostly level cap buffs, ability and trait expansions. I also think they should work on more cosmetic upgrades, not in the terms of gear itself, but in the terms of skill visualization changes, new animations for skills, (this is not limited to effects but also how the charachter moves, yes its more expensive to develop, but its also the type of thing worth spending a lot of time on for a player.

for example, if a mesmer could get a rapier which changes the sword type animations/effects/visualisations from slashing to peircing skills, i think people would have little problem having to spend a lot of energy, or do a bunch of fairly difficult quests to achieve, actually many would, but they cant say its unfair.

I just kinda stopped playing….its been like almost a month since I last logged on, too many other things to do since Steam had those awesome sales, Anet will have to use some pretty tasty bait to reel back this fish ._.

I just started playing on Sunday (so I went into this with all the forums in an uproar).

ArenaNet only has one chance with me. There is no second chance.

It’s simple.

As long as the game is fun to play for me, I’ll play.

If an aspect of the game is unfun but the rest is, I’ll just skip the aspect that I don’t like.

When the game ceases to be fun, I’ll stop playing.

Wolfend.5287:

Fuz.5621:

Wolfend.5287:

… looks that the gear grind is here to say, and GW2 is just taking up space on HD.

I’ll check back in a few years, to see if ArenaNet has sorted out their waffling. In the mean time, Elder Scrolls Online is only months away, and Skyrim, with tons of reality mods is looking amazing, looks far better and runs far cooler than gw2,

Good Luck with all the monkey grind.

Elder Scrolls Online has the gear treadmill too, fyi.
But they will be blown away by ESO.
The only way for them to not be would have been staying loyal to their manifesto and be UNIQUE; A game without vertical progression, grind and treadmills.
Changing that, they are just one of the many mmo around, and there is no reason to keep playing GW2 instead of ESO.

If ESO is even partly the spawn of Skyrim, it will be a tremendous achievement. GW2 feels like an amusement park, comparatively speaking, with number grind as the main theme.

Just started Skyrim a weeks ago, and discovered so many features GW2 touts as original, oops, not so original, Bethesda beat them to it. What is really amazing is the first rpg that does away with heroics by number. You can adventure throughout the entire world ‘progressing’ without killing a single thing, or festering over ‘stats’.

The mod community is amazing. In a way I’m glad ArenaNet added grind, I would have never discover Skyrim. Even though it is not MMO, it is a product far exceeding the genre norm, lets hope ESO sticks to what works.

You ARE aware Skyrim is a single player game, right? Have you ever played other single player RPGs in general? In games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout, you basically level up the more you use skills. Barter, Speech, Sneak, etc. In return, you start to level up. And the world as a whole levels up with you- you’ll find as you level up, harder mobs WILL start spawning, and you’re gonna need to invest a bit more in your character once Chaurus, Elder and Ancient dragons, and more start kicking your kitten with no effort.

I don’t think you’re really acknowledging the Elder Scroll’s single-player status. Likewise, you don’t seem to acknowledge the fact it’s the fifth installment of a series. It’s not really the spawn of Skyrim, it’s the spawn of the Elder Scrolls- in fact, canonically, it’s been stated that ESO takes place first. What you’re talking about is fine for what it is- a single player role-playing game where the world is your playground.

An MMO, though, is different. Do you think it’d be fair if level one characters could just stroll into Orr in town clothes by paying a ferry? What ANet did was very different for MMOs. Say what you will about Ascended or anything else like that, a massive game like GW2 can’t just let you do whatever the hell you want and progress as far as you possibly want without some effort. GW1 didn’t- you had to make real progress in the story in order to go to higher leveled areas.

But, yeah, to sum it all up. No, Skyrim didn’t invent it. Fallout=like ES but with nuclear war and guns. Skyrim. GW2 is an MMO, the Elder Scrolls (until Online) and Fallout are single player and as such can do as you say much, MUCH easier than ANY MMO can ever dream of.

If you’re expecting ESO is gonna be exactly the same as Skyrim, ho boy, you’re gonna be dissapointed.

Also no mods.