Guild Wars 2

wildcode.5403:

They are answering roughly 1 question every 5 mins so I wouldn’t expect to get “much” out of todays “Ask Me Anything”. So far they have only answered questions reguarding the new content.

Yea but if you actually read their responses you would see that they answered multiple of the E1-E10 questions about ascended gear through their 2 responses.

He says they won’t have such big hikes in requirements “moving forward”… which I guess means they aren’t going to fix the giant hikes they already put in place.

They also did mention that they were gonna dole out the rest of the Ascended gear over the course of the next year.

So if anything, I can play a bit of a waiting game. But yes, I kinda agree. It does seem like a way to try get around the manifesto by making a new one.

Avatar.1923:

well, this AMA is basically a political ploy for Anet to go back on their manifesto, rewritting it.

zero grind, zero grind… to me “grinding” is repeating the same thing over and over, and i dont see how there is zero grinding in this game.

Well then according to your definition this game was released with grind in it.

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Slyder.9215:

They also did mention that they were gonna dole out the rest of the Ascended gear over the course of the next year.

So if anything, I can play a bit of a waiting game. But yes, I kinda agree. It does seem like a way to try get around the manifesto by making a new one.

What part specifically in their manifesto?

at least they realize it was a mistake to introduce ascended items the way they did this patch.

“Hi Joiry,

Really interesting question. Our intention is to deploy ascended components and gear across the whole of the game rather than focus it in one particular location. This was a a mistake and one that we will not be making moving forward. We do hope to find a balance and ensure that the world of Guild Wars 2 is as accessible and populated as possible and moving forward you will be able to see how we intend to execute on this goal."

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

No one will move forward with GW2 if they don’t take a big ol’ step backward and address their player base’s questions honestly. I wonder if they realize that.

jinroh.9217:

Mike O’Brien:

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games – we leave the grind to other MMOs.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/#s:guildwars2-16

Colin Johanson:

The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success

Mike O’Brien:

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

.. ja, just LOW,
but threadmill we never ever would install to the game…

It’s difficult to ignore those statements (well, difficult for the players at least). Personally, I would love to hear what they were thinking when making each of those statements, and why they don’t seem to believe there are contradicting philosophies happening there. But I doubt we’ll ever see anything like that answered.

Sadly, the first two statements are among the ones that I sold the game on to my friends. They don’t pay attention to the forums, and honestly I haven’t had the heart to tell them “Hey.. guess what changed?”. :/

Chris plays Halo 4 and his favorite all time game is Mario 64.
Now I can sleep tonight.

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

1800 fractal tokens is not an easy fix Sir.

see it for what it is; a grindy vertical progression game.
(at endgame only, getting to exotic gear doesnt feel as such at all).

play it until you cant grind no more. it is a fun game.

thats what ill do!

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

Lothair.8942:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

1800 fractal tokens is not an easy fix Sir.

It isn’t that bad you should already have a decent amount by the time you reach the point in FotM that you actually need the resistance.

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

The President used Reddit for an AMA not long ago. Take that as you will.

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

Ditton.3149:

Astralporing.1957:

Ditton.3149:

veritech.1048:

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

yeah…he also said they would add other progression and make it easier to obtain said items outside of spvp..and would focus on adding items of the same tier over all of next year. I just dont see this as an issue. You guys wanted transparency, he’s giving it to you and you are still complaining.

He also said “zero grind”. Current acquisition metod cannot be called zero grind even by someone completely deluded.

focus on zero in the future, this is in context to making the ascended more available. He also says that they should have had it prelaunch and more ways to get it..that it was a mistake. Read ALL of it..cherry picking does nobody any good.

Agreed, though he posted those later, i have modified my original post already

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

So a small minority of the reddit community now represents the whole, stereotyping is a beautiful thing.

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

because if they host it on their servers its going to lag.

“hehe”.

Edge.4180:

jinroh.9217:

Mike O’Brien:

Here’s what we believe: If someone wants to play for a thousand hours to get an item that is so rare that other players can’t realistically acquire it, that rare item should be differentiated by its visual appearance and rarity alone, not by being more powerful than everything else in the game. Otherwise, your MMO becomes all about grinding to get the best gear. We don’t make grindy games – we leave the grind to other MMOs.

http://venturebeat.com/2012/05/21/guild-wars-2-interview-monetization/#s:guildwars2-16

Colin Johanson:

The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.

http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success

Mike O’Brien:

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

.. ja, just LOW,
but threadmill we never ever would install to the game…

It’s difficult to ignore those statements (well, difficult for the players at least). Personally, I would love to hear what they were thinking when making each of those statements, and why they don’t seem to believe there are contradicting philosophies happening there. But I doubt we’ll ever see anything like that answered.

Sadly, the first two statements are among the ones that I sold the game on to my friends. They don’t pay attention to the forums, and honestly I haven’t had the heart to tell them “Hey.. guess what changed?”. :/

This is becoming more humors then the game …can we have one of these every week?

ANet really needs to answer the important questions. The players don’t care what video games you play, they care about the one you’re responsible for.

If I read correctly, the intention (eventually) is to have ascended gear available all over the world, and looking back they should of done that in the 1st place.

Shocking amount of time being taken between answers only for most of them to be generic PR replies.

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Lothair.8942:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

1800 fractal tokens is not an easy fix Sir.

It isn’t that bad you should already have a decent amount by the time you reach the point in FotM that you actually need the resistance.

still a huge fractal grind for people who dont like to repeat the same dungeon 60 times.

wildcode.5403:

If I read correctly, the intention (eventually) is to have ascended gear available all over the world, and looking back they should of done that in the 1st place.

I just wonder how long it will take to happen now. If they think they should have had it like this from the day they put it in, then surely it shouldn’t be to long.

If they make ascended gear readily available through multiple methods and “zero grind moving forward”… then how is it going to “bridge the time gap” between exotic and legendary? People will just skip exotic and go right to ascended.

I’m guessing the grind is going to remain.

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Lothair.8942:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

1800 fractal tokens is not an easy fix Sir.

It isn’t that bad you should already have a decent amount by the time you reach the point in FotM that you actually need the resistance.

I’m sorry, no. For example, let’s say you start really needing agony resistance around 15 (I know it kicks in at 10) – by completing 15, you would have approx. 415 relics (assuming you didn’t repeat content). You’d have to repeat 10-15 another (approx.) 6 times just to buy the exotic version of the back piece and then farm another 500 relics to ascend it.

This game is just becoming a “prettier” hybrid of other already established games. It really is a shame because ANet had a vision that actually was different from most other games out there, but that vision is gone. It simply wasn’t a sustainable business model, otherwise it wouldn’t have been changed.

The AMA answered the only question I had right off the bat. This game’s direction has shifted. You cannot appease both groups of people (vertical and horizontal). They are ideas in direct opposition of one another. Good luck moving forward ANet. Hopefully you are more steadfast in your decisions moving forward, or you will risk losing even more players.

Avatar.1923:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Lothair.8942:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

1800 fractal tokens is not an easy fix Sir.

It isn’t that bad you should already have a decent amount by the time you reach the point in FotM that you actually need the resistance.

still a huge fractal grind for people who dont like to repeat the same dungeon 60 times.

Yes, and they said they were sorry and that it was a bad decision to release only FotM as a method of obtaining ascended.

Perseus Ithikus.5483:

Shocking amount of time being taken between answers only for most of them to be generic PR replies.

they answered your questions already.

it is a grind and they are reducing the grind at each time they release a new piece of gear so that you swallow it better.

legendary, then ascended bk pack and ring, and the next powercreep should be easier to get than bk pack and ring.

when you have all ascended after a year they will redo an AMA to implement the new treadmill.

what else you want to know son ?

Perseus Ithikus.5483:

Shocking amount of time being taken between answers only for most of them to be generic PR replies.

Agreed. As someone with lots of experience in making PR-appropriate statements, this is just silly.

Frankly, this is what I expected, but didn’t want, to happen. It’s basically a PR trick to quell the masses while saying nothing that you haven’t already said before. Cherry pick questions you already have token answers to and give answers with lots of ambiguous phrases like “in the future” or “down the line” that have no specifics and no real meaning. They could mean weeks, months, years, or never in your life-time.

More telling will be the questions that get avoided and what isn’t said, than what is.

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

I just don’t understand why something like this isn’t done on the official Guild Wars 2 forums. It’s bad enough having to jump between twitter, facebook, and the forums for information. I don’t see the point in potentially attracting new users to Reddit instead of attracting them here.

veritech.1048:

Lothair.8942:

Hi Landeyda,

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions. Mike O will respond to the top question and I will respond to the bottom section.

Ascended Gear is designed to fill the ‘Time’ gap in regard to the distance between exotic and Legendary in terms of progression and in retrospect would have been better to have been rolled out pre launch.

I would also like add that we have never said there would be no vertical progression. We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.

Please understand that we see the community as a ‘whole’ and therefore are not intending to design again for one specific type of player over another. This is a misconception and one that is not promoted by the team. We will continue to develop the game for the community as a whole offering game play that caters to lots of different types of players in a unified approach that will evolve over time based on feedback and the direction the team as a whole wants to take.

chris

Well, there it is. Vertical progression is here to stay.

Welcome to power creep, folks.

My favorite quote from Chris: " we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve." I congratulate Chris and the entire team for getting the first pieces into the game with zero grind involved. Bravo!

Ditton.3149:

He is answering the questions and not dodging even the more difficult ones though.

actually they are still dodging questions on the “gap” ignoring the points made about the named exotics available in the forge

Perseus Ithikus.5483:

Shocking amount of time being taken between answers only for most of them to be generic PR replies.

Yeah, convenient;y choosing all the questions, to which the answers are either very obscure or just reiterations of what they’ve already told us.
Why not choose the question with answers that will be informative and new to us.

We had a lot of community members dedicate their free time to put a list of questions from many of us it would be prudent to have those addressed.

Azjenco.9425:

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

They have always used reddit for their AMA’s. Since before the game launched.

Mistake me if i’m wrong, but doesn’t legendary weapon’s have the same stat/damage value as exotic’s? And if so how is bringing out another tier of gear gonna help? Won’t the same people that say there is nothing to do say the same thing after getting all the new gear?

I want to know what ‘moving forward’ means to ANet. Chris has used it in every single reply he’s made, and it’s far too vague a term to have any weight.

Logun.2349:

We had a lot of community members dedicate their free time to put a list of questions from many of us it would be prudent to have those addressed.

They should just take an hour after the AMA is done and respond to all of those great questions that were not addressed.

I don’t have a reddit account (don’t want one). You should take questions from your forums.

Your house is buring around you and you stop to smell the roses. Why are you ignoring the list of questions ‘Samuraikitten86’ compiled from the community and instead spending the short AMA time answering: “What games do you like to play besides Guild Wars 2?”

Karizee.8076:

Azjenco.9425:

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

They have always used reddit for their AMA’s. Since before the game launched.

I know that, and it was crappy back then just as it’s crappy now.
I say again, there must be a better way to accomplish all this.

zippo burntfur.9307:

Mistake me if i’m wrong, but doesn’t legendary weapon’s have the same stat/damage value as exotic’s? And if so how is bringing out another tier of gear gonna help? Won’t the same people that say there is nothing to do say the same thing after getting all the new gear?

As far as I know Legendary weapons will be increased in strength so that ascended fits in between them and exotic.

Karizee.8076:

Azjenco.9425:

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

They have always used reddit for their AMA’s. Since before the game launched.

That was understandable back when they didn’t have the official forums open to the public. Not so much now, though. I’m not big on tradition for the sake of tradition.

Edge.4180:

Karizee.8076:

Azjenco.9425:

arabeth.2361:

Serious question: why do mainstream companies like Anet use Reddit to answer questions like this, when Reddit is most famous for being a site that people use to post creepy pictures of underage girls? Also: it’s a horrible site for organizing any kind of information. It seems like the sketchy nature and poor structure of the site would be a terrible match.

My thoughts exactly. Using reddit is a seriously stupid move on ANet’s part.

They have always used reddit for their AMA’s. Since before the game launched.

That was understandable back when they didn’t have the official forums open to the public. Not so much now, though.

Maybe Reddit gets more traffic than the forums?

Lothair.8942:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Lothair.8942:

GrapeGatsby.6937:

Relentliss.2170:

I don’t think they have helped themselves at all here. The blokes who are most pissed want an honest roadmap for the next year not a bunch of pr speak.

50 ectos (with the current drop rate) and 250 t6 ingredients…. how is that minimal grind? The deception and lying is galling.

Get fractals and buy the fractal version of the ascended back piece.

1800 fractal tokens is not an easy fix Sir.

It isn’t that bad you should already have a decent amount by the time you reach the point in FotM that you actually need the resistance.

I’m sorry, no. For example, let’s say you start really needing agony resistance around 15 (I know it kicks in at 10) – by completing 15, you would have approx. 415 relics (assuming you didn’t repeat content). You’d have to repeat 10-15 another (approx.) 6 times just to buy the exotic version of the back piece and then farm another 500 relics to ascend it.

You forgot about the ascended rings, however what I take from your post is “I have barely progressed in FotM, but am making a lot of assumptions just to prove my point.”. Almost all agony mechanics other than from Jade Maw phase changes are avoidable by dodges, which is based on player skills if you’re even somewhat skilled and are aware of your surroundings you should be able to dodge most if not all agony procs from general fractal bosses.

Reddit reaches a wider audience than the official forums even though all those with a game account also have a forum account as one and the same.

I think “moving forward” in every answer is an attempt at subliminal manipulation. They want us all to forgive and forget and just keep playing.

It sounds so positive and up-beat, doesn’t it? Almost… hypnotic…. (zombie voice)… moving… forward…