Guild Wars 2

wildcode.5403:

My favorate quote of the day is “no grind” … I want to play his version of Guild Wars 2, because in my version, I even have to grind for exotic gear … whether it be for crafting materials, or for coin to buy crafting materials, I still have to grind, and even more so with the drop rate bug.

Go play any f2p game, try to get to lvl100 then come back to guild wars and tell me guild wars has grind.

I used to play a f2p game before, would take like a month to go up one level at the higher level ranges. And only after killing groups of mobs thousands of times.

Penguin.5197:

wildcode.5403:

My favorate quote of the day is “no grind” … I want to play his version of Guild Wars 2, because in my version, I even have to grind for exotic gear … whether it be for crafting materials, or for coin to buy crafting materials, I still have to grind, and even more so with the drop rate bug.

Go play any f2p game, try to get to lvl100 then come back to guild wars and tell me guild wars has grind.

I used to play a f2p game before, would take like a month to go up one level at the higher level ranges. And only after killing groups of mobs thousands of times.

top it off look at the crazzyniss that it take’s to get gear in game’s like that. Good lord O_O (often unless you pay for it))

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Astralporing.1957:

Yep, no new tiers… they’ll just deploy rares with exotic stats, exotics with ascendant ones, and ascendants with even bigger ones.

This is exactly what I’m worried about too. You don’t need to call it a new tier but it’s the same thing. Better stats are better stats – call it ascended 2 tier or ascended tier but with better stats than previously released ascended gear. Core of the idea is to calm the vocal anti-treadmill players by masking the treadmill under the same tier (tier-name).
That being said, the PR-answers Chris gave us actually did calm me down. A lot. He admited that they made several mistakes with this patch. And he actually admited it several times and appologized for it. Which is far more than I expected from this AMA.
I might get back into the game now, but will still hold on to gem purchases and will know what to expect in the future.

man… if i let every little thing that MIGHT happen worry me my life would suck and there would never be any enjoyment in it.

Chris actually said himself that this WILL happen.

Carltonbanks.1754:

Haven’t seen this thread before. You should make another.

And please, with sectioning. It’s torture to try and read wall of text without any sections.

Lots of respect for Chris Whiteside for how he is handling this. I had expected the AMA to be over after an hour or two, with most questions unanswered or only vaguely touched.
What he is doing right there, even going through our mammooth forum list of questions one by one and saying he will continue doing so well into the night and even at home (!!) really exceeds what anyone can rightfully ask for in my opinion.

I think he is demonstrating that they do care about our concerns at Anet, even if this session comes a bit late maybe. But this is the impression I had of the devs before this whole Lost Shores/Ascended Gear disaster and the silence that followed. I’m glad to see some of that side again, because it really gives me hope that they will act on our feedback and take it to heart in future updates. I think we were heard alright, now give them a chance to take consequences..

I mean what can he realistically do right now? He is already admitting to a lot of mistakes they made and that seems very human to me. I hope they give the poor guy a few days off after this, really don’t want to be in his shoes doing his job right now.

Thanks for this AMA and all the dedication and commitment, I really appreciate it.

Ballistic.4531:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Astralporing.1957:

Yep, no new tiers… they’ll just deploy rares with exotic stats, exotics with ascendant ones, and ascendants with even bigger ones.

This is exactly what I’m worried about too. You don’t need to call it a new tier but it’s the same thing. Better stats are better stats – call it ascended 2 tier or ascended tier but with better stats than previously released ascended gear. Core of the idea is to calm the vocal anti-treadmill players by masking the treadmill under the same tier (tier-name).
That being said, the PR-answers Chris gave us actually did calm me down. A lot. He admited that they made several mistakes with this patch. And he actually admited it several times and appologized for it. Which is far more than I expected from this AMA.
I might get back into the game now, but will still hold on to gem purchases and will know what to expect in the future.

man… if i let every little thing that MIGHT happen worry me my life would suck and there would never be any enjoyment in it.

Chris actually said himself that this WILL happen.

No..he said they werent against it and he wasnt going to promise that it would not. Anything else is inference.

I suspect that the actual artistic people involved do want a non grind game that isnt ‘wowlite’
I also suspect he’s sitting there with a boat load of linguistic word managers with an open phone line to those with the purse strings – and having spent most of my working life having to deal with PR types who would rather chew their own foot off than call a spade a spade the cynic in me says that the current named tiers may not be added to but we will have new ‘mini tiers’ in terms of the upgrade slots infusions etc
Jusy is still possibly out for me but hell i have 80,000 gold sitting on 12 characters in Wow if i want that type of ‘progression’ ( read tier grind)

Yeah but other questions are getting missed because of the huge list. There is a bunch of us on the forums who would love to know whats happening with the loot drop bug that the nov 15 update created. Unfortunately he’s either not seeing the question because of the amount of questions there, or its being ignored.

Rococo.8347:

I suspect that the actual artistic people involved do want a non grind game that isnt ‘wowlite’
I also suspect he’s sitting there with a boat load of linguistic word managers with an open phone line to those with the purse strings – and having spent most of my working life having to deal with PR types who would rather chew their own foot off than call a spade a spade the cynic in me says that the current named tiers may not be added to but we will have new ‘mini tiers’ in terms of the upgrade slots infusions etc
Jusy is still possibly out for me but hell i have 80,000 gold sitting on 12 characters in Wow if i want that type of ‘progression’ ( read tier grind)

I suspect that the actual artistic people still need money so they do what their bosses tell them to do or they open their own studio and live on pennies.

Penguin.5197:

wildcode.5403:

My favorate quote of the day is “no grind” … I want to play his version of Guild Wars 2, because in my version, I even have to grind for exotic gear … whether it be for crafting materials, or for coin to buy crafting materials, I still have to grind, and even more so with the drop rate bug.

Go play any f2p game, try to get to lvl100 then come back to guild wars and tell me guild wars has grind.

I used to play a f2p game before, would take like a month to go up one level at the higher level ranges. And only after killing groups of mobs thousands of times.

GuildWars 2 has grind.

I don’t even need to go to another game to tell you that. It has grind, however infinitesimal, and the intent was not to try to make it never be there but to make it within a certain curve where they figured it would work out. It’s pretty clear to me they knew some people were going to perceive various things as grind, or gear treadmills, and bit the bullet to try to keep it in bounds.

Which winds up leaving absolutely everyone open to crucify them for a compromise. Any grind is not no grind and you ‘promised’ no grind. Don’t say you never promised, we have you right here on tape saying that’s your belief. Can’t change your words now, and if you try to clarify what you said or explain it we’ll just take that and tear you apart with it too.

I said it in the other threads – there really was no good way for this to end. No matter what they said today, no matter what they agreed upon or apologized for, it was going to do nothing but be heard any way the listeners wanted to hear. Like in my case, I wanted to hear “we screwed up, and we’re sorry” and that seems to be what I read.

Mandrax.7342:

NaughtyProwler.8653:

I’m a bit confused how they think they can cater to advocates of horizontal and vertical progression at the same time. As another person said, these two viewpoints are in opposition to each other. Either way, the horse has been thoroughly beaten. Good luck with your game.

Because they seem to think that drip-feeding the gear upgrades is somehow going to make it more palatable to both parties. It’s a compromise.

I’m not confident however that either party will be satisfied enough with this strategy.

This isn’t really a problem I would want to solve, let alone introduce to a game just 3 months after launch. Because a compromise usually means neither party is truly happy with the resolution. So I have to agree.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Penguin.5197:

wildcode.5403:

My favorate quote of the day is “no grind” … I want to play his version of Guild Wars 2, because in my version, I even have to grind for exotic gear … whether it be for crafting materials, or for coin to buy crafting materials, I still have to grind, and even more so with the drop rate bug.

Go play any f2p game, try to get to lvl100 then come back to guild wars and tell me guild wars has grind.

I used to play a f2p game before, would take like a month to go up one level at the higher level ranges. And only after killing groups of mobs thousands of times.

GuildWars 2 has grind.

I don’t even need to go to another game to tell you that. It has grind, however infinitesimal, and the intent was not to try to make it never be there but to make it within a certain curve where they figured it would work out. It’s pretty clear to me they knew some people were going to perceive various things as grind, or gear treadmills, and bit the bullet to try to keep it in bounds.

Which winds up leaving absolutely everyone open to crucify them for a compromise. Any grind is not no grind and you ‘promised’ no grind. Don’t say you never promised, we have you right here on tape saying that’s your belief. Can’t change your words now, and if you try to clarify what you said or explain it we’ll just take that and tear you apart with it too.

I said it in the other threads – there really was no good way for this to end. No matter what they said today, no matter what they agreed upon or apologized for, it was going to do nothing but be heard any way the listeners wanted to hear. Like in my case, I wanted to hear “we screwed up, and we’re sorry” and that seems to be what I read.

This is true. My views aren’t exactly the same as yours, but I don’t understand why people are so narrow minded. There is just no pleasing some people is there?

I appreciate that Mike O’Brien participated in the AMA. It is good to have him back vocal and visual again.

He responded to concerns about a change in design direction with the following answer:

“Hi! I’ll respond to the top part since it’s a quote from me.

Obviously the key phrase I’m going to point you to in that quote is, “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 really is the litmus test we’ve used. That’s why, at ship, we gave better stats to exotic gear and didn’t give better stats to legendary gear."

However, the issue for many of us was not in that part of his pre-launch quote. The issue was with what came just after “realistically acquire it.” Please see below for the quote in its entirety. His answer still does not address why he chose to introduce new gear with better stats than Exotics post-launch. Why not introduce Ascended gear with amazing looks but the same stats as Exotics? And less grind than Legendary so that people who were frustrated with a “effort gap” now had something new to work towards.

“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. "

I really don’t much care about Ascended stuff, I have mine (yah boo) for now, and whilst its nice and all, I haven’t grown a third testes or anything………

However there is a somewhat strange message coming out from ANET quarters. "We will make “Other” ways of getting ascended items" -

This is fine and good, I don’t begrudge the time/money I spent to get mine, I enjoyed “playing” the game. Surely however the easiest way to get Ascended items (perception here not actual) will become the ONLY way to get Ascended items. If players can get them AFK’ing in WvW or PVP then they will (Welfare…… the shudder associated with that word).

If they become a Karma Item, people will Plinx there way to it. Whatever becomes the easiest way, will become the ONLY way, sorry its human nature (Ask Henry Ford, well you can’t but read his book)

Speculating that people do not want the “New Uber Gear” (even if it isnt that uber) because they don’t “need” it to do the content they are regularly doing is naive and does not take into account human nature.

As someone quite rightly pointed out to me in another thread, all current world dungeons can be done in Green items, yet strangely, groups ask for exotics……. Thats the way MMO works, ignore this at your peril I am afraid ANET

Chris was sent out for damage control. It isn’t working.

wildcode.5403:

Yeah but other questions are getting missed because of the huge list. There is a bunch of us on the forums who would love to know whats happening with the loot drop bug that the nov 15 update created. Unfortunately he’s either not seeing the question because of the amount of questions there, or its being ignored.

He’s alternating between answering the list and answering another person’s specific question. The list was created by and is representative of dozens of people’s questions on this forum, thus why they are paying as much attention to it as they are.

Razarei.2809:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Penguin.5197:

wildcode.5403:

My favorate quote of the day is “no grind” … I want to play his version of Guild Wars 2, because in my version, I even have to grind for exotic gear … whether it be for crafting materials, or for coin to buy crafting materials, I still have to grind, and even more so with the drop rate bug.

Go play any f2p game, try to get to lvl100 then come back to guild wars and tell me guild wars has grind.

I used to play a f2p game before, would take like a month to go up one level at the higher level ranges. And only after killing groups of mobs thousands of times.

GuildWars 2 has grind.

I don’t even need to go to another game to tell you that. It has grind, however infinitesimal, and the intent was not to try to make it never be there but to make it within a certain curve where they figured it would work out. It’s pretty clear to me they knew some people were going to perceive various things as grind, or gear treadmills, and bit the bullet to try to keep it in bounds.

Which winds up leaving absolutely everyone open to crucify them for a compromise. Any grind is not no grind and you ‘promised’ no grind. Don’t say you never promised, we have you right here on tape saying that’s your belief. Can’t change your words now, and if you try to clarify what you said or explain it we’ll just take that and tear you apart with it too.

I said it in the other threads – there really was no good way for this to end. No matter what they said today, no matter what they agreed upon or apologized for, it was going to do nothing but be heard any way the listeners wanted to hear. Like in my case, I wanted to hear “we screwed up, and we’re sorry” and that seems to be what I read.

This is true. My views aren’t exactly the same as yours, but I don’t understand why people are so narrow minded. There is just no pleasing some people is there?

To be more accurate:

You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

Ditton.3149:

Ballistic.4531:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Astralporing.1957:

Yep, no new tiers… they’ll just deploy rares with exotic stats, exotics with ascendant ones, and ascendants with even bigger ones.

This is exactly what I’m worried about too. You don’t need to call it a new tier but it’s the same thing. Better stats are better stats – call it ascended 2 tier or ascended tier but with better stats than previously released ascended gear. Core of the idea is to calm the vocal anti-treadmill players by masking the treadmill under the same tier (tier-name).
That being said, the PR-answers Chris gave us actually did calm me down. A lot. He admited that they made several mistakes with this patch. And he actually admited it several times and appologized for it. Which is far more than I expected from this AMA.
I might get back into the game now, but will still hold on to gem purchases and will know what to expect in the future.

man… if i let every little thing that MIGHT happen worry me my life would suck and there would never be any enjoyment in it.

Chris actually said himself that this WILL happen.

No..he said they werent against it and he wasnt going to promise that it would not. Anything else is inference.

Actually nope. You are plain wrong. In his answer to E2 question he sais:
“That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.”

I love this logic From O’Brien:

“Presumably players aren’t shocked that GW2 rewards through progression, since it has a level 80 cap.”

REALLY? GW1 had a level cap of 20, and no progression. Is this the new metric for how grindy an MMO is, the level cap on release?

Yeah we aren’t shocked that it rewards through progression, we are shocked that you have no decided that said progression is NEVER GOING TO END. Why keep chasing the carrot if you never ever get to eat it?

arcaneclarity.5283:

Chris was sent out for damage control. It isn’t working.

Either as damage control or the lightning rod, and it’s an even wager between the two at this point.

Not joining any specific discussion here because I have not yet read it because, well… there is nothing to read. Just a wall of many comments in a hard-to-read font with some ArenaNet posts mixed in.

Then people throw around links that show posts by ArenaNet, even totally unrelated, but not posts made from other GW2 employee accounts. I am not reading this by going through several pages, listings, threads or whatever trying to match questions and answers. Not to forget that the page does not give me any impression that the stuff shown is everything, which some of the links provided here apparently according to later posts are decisively not.

(Kudos to the “press context” suggestion – it opens the thing in as a separate page and does not show it inside the original listing, and you have to do it every single time. Reddit is the very opposite of usable)

Suggestion to ArenaNet for the future: have one person just fill a large forum posts in a
Q: blah
A: blah
style on the fly, then post the thing immediately as the session is over. Because I have other things to do in my free time than messing around with a site that is so muchc effort trying to get to the actual information that it becomes painful.

I have a feeling that this thread here would be considerably more active in that case. Many people probably just decide not to bother until an official and readable post is done.

DevonPaul.7495:

I really don’t much care about Ascended stuff, I have mine (yah boo) for now, and whilst its nice and all, I haven’t grown a third testes or anything………

However there is a somewhat strange message coming out from ANET quarters. "We will make “Other” ways of getting ascended items" -

This is fine and good, I don’t begrudge the time/money I spent to get mine, I enjoyed “playing” the game. Surely however the easiest way to get Ascended items (perception here not actual) will become the ONLY way to get Ascended items. If players can get them AFK’ing in WvW or PVP then they will (Welfare…… the shudder associated with that word).

If they become a Karma Item, people will Plinx there way to it. Whatever becomes the easiest way, will become the ONLY way, sorry its human nature (Ask Henry Ford, well you can’t but read his book)

Speculating that people do not want the “New Uber Gear” (even if it isnt that uber) because they don’t “need” it to do the content they are regularly doing is naive and does not take into account human nature.

As someone quite rightly pointed out to me in another thread, all current world dungeons can be done in Green items, yet strangely, groups ask for exotics……. Thats the way MMO works, ignore this at your peril I am afraid ANET

This is the biggest problem I have- Not at what you’re explaining (change wise) but WHY. This community used to be so nice, now it’s just full of people hating anyone/anything that doesn’t support their views. We only have each other to blame and people are using the game as a reason/catalyst for their argument.

Which, inevitably ends up going around in circles.

FYI to anyone having trouble finding AN responses on the reddit thread, I am just refreshing the ArenaNetTeam user page, which updates whenever Chris posts a response.
http://www.reddit.com/user/ArenaNetTeam

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Which winds up leaving absolutely everyone open to crucify them for a compromise. Any grind is not no grind and you ‘promised’ no grind. Don’t say you never promised, we have you right here on tape saying that’s your belief. Can’t change your words now, and if you try to clarify what you said or explain it we’ll just take that and tear you apart with it too.

They promised that you wouldn’t have to grind to have fun, you wouldn’t spend the whole game “preparing to have fun.”

They achieved that goal of the manifesto, the part all of the kitten-stormers are up in arms about, in SPADES.

They never said anything about there being no grind to max stats, end game skins. NOT EVEN ONCE.

Players twisted the manifesto, not Anet.

Chris Whiteside

That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.

So your Ascended gear will eventually be outdated as they replace it with Ascended gear with higher stats. Also, if anyone thinks the +13% increase in power from Exotic to Ascended is shallow, I have a bridge I would like to sell them.

Ballistic.4531:

Ditton.3149:

Ballistic.4531:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Astralporing.1957:

Yep, no new tiers… they’ll just deploy rares with exotic stats, exotics with ascendant ones, and ascendants with even bigger ones.

This is exactly what I’m worried about too. You don’t need to call it a new tier but it’s the same thing. Better stats are better stats – call it ascended 2 tier or ascended tier but with better stats than previously released ascended gear. Core of the idea is to calm the vocal anti-treadmill players by masking the treadmill under the same tier (tier-name).
That being said, the PR-answers Chris gave us actually did calm me down. A lot. He admited that they made several mistakes with this patch. And he actually admited it several times and appologized for it. Which is far more than I expected from this AMA.
I might get back into the game now, but will still hold on to gem purchases and will know what to expect in the future.

man… if i let every little thing that MIGHT happen worry me my life would suck and there would never be any enjoyment in it.

Chris actually said himself that this WILL happen.

No..he said they werent against it and he wasnt going to promise that it would not. Anything else is inference.

Actually nope. You are plain wrong. In his answer to E2 question he sais:
“That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.”

Since..said items would be a power curve anyway if introduced as a full set, he still isnt saying they will have another tier or more powerful items. If he said there was “no” power curve for the sets in the future, people would crucify him when a chest plate had better stats. Its awfully PC, but he isnt really saying anything other than new stuff is coming out within the tiers already present.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Penguin.5197:

wildcode.5403:

My favorate quote of the day is “no grind” … I want to play his version of Guild Wars 2, because in my version, I even have to grind for exotic gear … whether it be for crafting materials, or for coin to buy crafting materials, I still have to grind, and even more so with the drop rate bug.

Go play any f2p game, try to get to lvl100 then come back to guild wars and tell me guild wars has grind.

I used to play a f2p game before, would take like a month to go up one level at the higher level ranges. And only after killing groups of mobs thousands of times.

GuildWars 2 has grind.

I don’t even need to go to another game to tell you that. It has grind, however infinitesimal, and the intent was not to try to make it never be there but to make it within a certain curve where they figured it would work out. It’s pretty clear to me they knew some people were going to perceive various things as grind, or gear treadmills, and bit the bullet to try to keep it in bounds.

Which winds up leaving absolutely everyone open to crucify them for a compromise. Any grind is not no grind and you ‘promised’ no grind. Don’t say you never promised, we have you right here on tape saying that’s your belief. Can’t change your words now, and if you try to clarify what you said or explain it we’ll just take that and tear you apart with it too.

I said it in the other threads – there really was no good way for this to end. No matter what they said today, no matter what they agreed upon or apologized for, it was going to do nothing but be heard any way the listeners wanted to hear. Like in my case, I wanted to hear “we screwed up, and we’re sorry” and that seems to be what I read.

My definition of grind is probably slightly different by yours, but it seems that by your definition every game has grind. From just leveling up in pokemon, racing to get that next car and so on. So to have a “no grind” game how would you have done it (what were your expectations from the manifesto)? The closest I can think of is just to give out everything free to everyone, since working for something seems to be a grind as minimal as it may be.

Mackdose.6504:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Which winds up leaving absolutely everyone open to crucify them for a compromise. Any grind is not no grind and you ‘promised’ no grind. Don’t say you never promised, we have you right here on tape saying that’s your belief. Can’t change your words now, and if you try to clarify what you said or explain it we’ll just take that and tear you apart with it too.

They promised that you wouldn’t have to grind to have fun, you wouldn’t spend the whole game “preparing to have fun.”

They achieved that goal of the manifesto, the part all of the kitten-stormers are up in arms about, in SPADES.

They never said anything about there being no grind to max stats, end game skins. NOT EVEN ONCE.

Players twisted the manifesto, not Anet.

See my sig. That was the biggest deal to me out of the entire thing. And still is until they put in other ways to get Ascended.

Well, that and the ability to shorten the grind by buying gems and converting them to gold to buy mats. But my hatred for the gems to gold revenue stream goes back to March, when the detestable monstrosity was announced.

I really want to thank ANET for conducting an AMA because this answered questions in regards to the Ascended tier and other worries.

Thank you, ANET!

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

GuildWars 2 has grind.

I don’t even need to go to another game to tell you that. It has grind, however infinitesimal,

Its not infinitesimal though. If one didn’t choose an armor crafting profession there is something of a grind to get an exotic set whether it be from dungeons or karma (not mentioning the WvW set which is an insane grind). It took me 4 weeks to get a full Orr set.

Even with crafting unless you have the gold on hand it is a grind because its impossible with the armor crafting professions or jewelry to get to 400 based just on gathering ingredients in the normal course of playing the game to 80, unlike say SWTOR which was a full on vertical progression game yet crafting was eminently possible to get to max level as you levelled up.

arcaneclarity.5283:

Chris Whiteside

That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.

So your Ascended gear will eventually be outdated as they replace it with Ascended gear with higher stats. Also, if anyone thinks the +13% increase in power from Exotic to Ascended is shallow, I have a bridge I would like to sell them.

I just asked Chris for clarification: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c777suh

Raine.1394:

Debsylvania.7396:

Corvindi.5734:

Shadow Blade.1324:

In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. Note that this statement is somewhat contradictory to the philosophy laid out above if the required items do not drop elsewhere or the ultimate rewards don’t either. This is something we are going to fix.

Sigh. Does this guy have a law degree? He sure talks like it.

Okay, so I quoted the above bit since it’s the most important part as far as I’m concerned.

It seems to be saying that they realized they goofed up bigtime when they locked the best gear in the game behind a dungeon grind and they’re not going to leave it that way.

No ETA on when we can expect a fix, sadly.

You’ve got to admit, the way their statements are analyzed and picked apart, it’s not surprising their responses become cautiously guarded.

I haven’t really seen any issue with over-analysis or picking apart of their past statements in the current discussion. The statements are usually quoted verbatim. They are extremely clear and really don’t require analysis. Nor do they require being picked apart. This stands in contra-distinction to their current language. Take the quote for example: “we will have vertical progression moving forward with the focus on zero grind and a very low power curve.” How you would even approach its analysis boggles the mind, but it certainly needs to be picked apart to have any idea what it means. Do you understand the difference?

Of course I understand the difference. No need for condescension here.

I was referring to ANet’s interactions/dialog with the community as a whole, cumulatively from day one, not just today’s interactions. As happens fairly routinely, people tend to try to read between the lines (analyse and pick apart) and sometimes, because they’ve been given far too little to work with, make cognitive leaps and assumptions.

It’s not just this community and ANet, either. We’ve seen this kind of dysfunctional communication in most gaming forums. Without regular and clear communication, there may as well be no communication at all. Players inevitably lose trust and developers inevitably seem to become very cautious about what they will put out there.

That said, I must add that I’m impressed with tonight’s efforts at getting back on course. I was afraid that there would be just a few questions addressed and then back to business as usual, but Chris Whiteside has definitely put in some time that will pay dividends as far as building some trust. Keeping it going in the future will be the real trick.

That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.

That’s the statement I was looking for. I don’t like it but at least it made it clear for me that I won’t spend any more money on this game and just play it occasionally. I’m not angry on Arena Net, just a little disappointed and sad cause there will be no end to the gear grind. Even if the power curve is very little, my full exotic – or even ascended – character now will be left behind in a few month if I don’t constantly work on his gear. That’s just not what I’m looking for.

I am not sure what needs clarified. Just look at the Infusions that have + stats to them and this quote:

As we release more new end game content in the future, you’ll see more Infusions and Ascended item types being added to the game. Eventually, you’ll be able to kit yourself out with a full set of Ascended gear and high end Infusions to help give you the edge in end game content.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

Ditton.3149:

Ballistic.4531:

Ditton.3149:

Ballistic.4531:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

Ballistic.4531:

Astralporing.1957:

Yep, no new tiers… they’ll just deploy rares with exotic stats, exotics with ascendant ones, and ascendants with even bigger ones.

This is exactly what I’m worried about too. You don’t need to call it a new tier but it’s the same thing. Better stats are better stats – call it ascended 2 tier or ascended tier but with better stats than previously released ascended gear. Core of the idea is to calm the vocal anti-treadmill players by masking the treadmill under the same tier (tier-name).
That being said, the PR-answers Chris gave us actually did calm me down. A lot. He admited that they made several mistakes with this patch. And he actually admited it several times and appologized for it. Which is far more than I expected from this AMA.
I might get back into the game now, but will still hold on to gem purchases and will know what to expect in the future.

man… if i let every little thing that MIGHT happen worry me my life would suck and there would never be any enjoyment in it.

Chris actually said himself that this WILL happen.

No..he said they werent against it and he wasnt going to promise that it would not. Anything else is inference.

Actually nope. You are plain wrong. In his answer to E2 question he sais:
“That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.”

Since..said items would be a power curve anyway if introduced as a full set, he still isnt saying they will have another tier or more powerful items. If he said there was “no” power curve for the sets in the future, people would crucify him when a chest plate had better stats. Its awfully PC, but he isnt really saying anything other than new stuff is coming out within the tiers already present.

But isn’t he saying that new, better stuff is coming out within the same tier. Because he said there will be no new tiers for forseable future, so the only way I see it is that you will get new, better gear within the same tier (speculation: through better infusions?). Because I don’t see how you equate power curve to an already existing tier (granted not entire set is in yet, but he was talking about new gears in the future).

TimeBomb.3427:

FYI to anyone having trouble finding AN responses on the reddit thread, I am just refreshing the ArenaNetTeam user page, which updates whenever Chris posts a response.
http://www.reddit.com/user/ArenaNetTeam

Are you saying the AMA is still going on? Even that basic and crucial information is not visible at a glance on reddit.

arcaneclarity.5283:

I am not sure what needs clarified. Just look at the Infusions that have + stats to them and this quote:

As we release more new end game content in the future, you’ll see more Infusions and Ascended item types being added to the game. Eventually, you’ll be able to kit yourself out with a full set of Ascended gear and high end Infusions to help give you the edge in end game content.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/linsey-murdock-unveils-new-high-end-ascended-gear/

They appear to be talking about more than just infusion gems or ascended items, but it’s somewhat unclear, thus why I asked for clarification.

The constant treadmill and severe grind these items (will and do) have and the fact you can get all the mats to create them with gold makes this game pay to win. There is zero feasible way for a lot of us to ever see these items without a large purchase of gems (of which I will never do).

Mephane.8496:

TimeBomb.3427:

FYI to anyone having trouble finding AN responses on the reddit thread, I am just refreshing the ArenaNetTeam user page, which updates whenever Chris posts a response.
http://www.reddit.com/user/ArenaNetTeam

Are you saying the AMA is still going on? Even that basic and crucial information is not visible at a glance on reddit.

Chris will be answering questions into the night; even after he gets off of work.

can someone please simplify this whole talk to me? i don’t understand a single word anyone is saying about gears and what not as am very new here (2nd day), all i want to know is has anything good came out of the AMA yet? what about security and account hackings? cheers!

Vain.7643:

can someone please simplify this whole talk to me? i don’t understand a single word anyone is saying about gears and what not as am very new here (2nd day), all i want to know is has anything good came out of the AMA yet? what about security and account hackings? cheers!

Once Chris is done later tonight, there will be at least one or two persons that simplifies it, I’m sure.

From my perspective I’m pleased with the responses so far. Admitting that they didn’t think things through as carefully as they should have, and plan to make changes based on feedback sits well with me. My biggest concern was being forced into dungeons to get the best gear, and they have now gone on record stating that introducing ascended gear this way was a mistake. I don’t mind going after better gear, but let me do it the way I want to do it. I’m also looking forward to hearing more about new WvW content soon™.

I suppose I’m most worried about the term ‘low power curve’ and how that curve will look 3-4 years down the line. In particular how it might affect WvW but also if the curve starts to gate content for players (either by mechanics or by the majority of players insisting on certain level of gear for activities). Perhaps ArenaNet can make a curve that keeps players interest without falling into the usual trap of power creep seen in other MMOs.

GW2 left behind many of the elements of GW1 – dual-professions, henchman/heroes(THANK GOD), skill deck building. I suppose the horizontal/ceiling curve was yet another element ArenaNet felt they did not need.

As I said, I am mostly worried about the slope of that power curve. I’m enjoying the game enough to keep playing but I’m doing it at a slow pace so I’m going to be one of those people at the left side of the curve. So naturally I’m worried about how high the right side of the curve will end up.

For now, if they’re fix the design mistakes and technical issues that made the Lost Shore final event such a fiasco, I’ll be happy with that.

Vain.7643:

can someone please simplify this whole talk to me? i don’t understand a single word anyone is saying about gears and what not as am very new here (2nd day), all i want to know is has anything good came out of the AMA yet? what about security and account hackings? cheers!

Security and account hacking is sadly not the main issue of this game right now. Chris might answer a question related to that, but the motto of today seems to be ascended gear and damage control.

TimeBomb.3427:

Vain.7643:

can someone please simplify this whole talk to me? i don’t understand a single word anyone is saying about gears and what not as am very new here (2nd day), all i want to know is has anything good came out of the AMA yet? what about security and account hackings? cheers!

Once Chris is done later tonight, there will be at least one or two persons that simplifies it, I’m sure.

I don’t want it simplified. I just want all the questions each followed by all the officials answer(s) to it in one comprehensive and readable format, like a FAQ or interview.

It’s still just nothing but PR bs with absolutely zero details and every answer being ‘we are looking into it’ or ‘wait and see what’s coming’. Also, from one of his replies, it sounds like he isn’t even going to answer any pvp questions. So ya, basically just a worthless AMA with nothing new and no actual facts to look at. I really don’t know how Anet thought this would help anything.

Oh thanks very much
whaat seriously? i thought the hacking were top priority at the moment :/
that doesn’t sound too promising

That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve.

What I’m really curoius about with this statement is the “plans to enhance” items in the existing tiers. When we move on to the point of ascended armors being released, what happens to the current exotics, specifically the dungeon sets?

Will the vendors, at that point, offer ascended gear instead of exotic? Or have ascended at an even higher cost?

Will there be an option to upgrade existing armors to ascended? I don’t expect this to be free, but I do think it should be accessible to everyone to the degree that exotics are now.

The same questions apply even more the stated intent on raising the level cap. If the level cap goes to 100, I assume that there will be level 100 exotic gear with higher stats than level 80 exotic gear. Again, what happens to the dungeon gear we have now? Is it obsolete or do we get a simple option to upgrade it to level 100 at a reduced cost to flat out buying level 100 gear? (example: 1200 tokens for a current level 80 set; 2000 tokens or 1000 tokens + your existing level 80 set for a future level 100 set)

We’ve been given an outline of what they intend to do, and all we can do for now is ask for more info and give suggestions on how to implement their plans. I’m still not a fan of ascended gear meaning that my gear will slowly become outdated, and need constant piece-by-piece replacing over the next year. Their answers today have given me more hope(if only a little because they admit some mistakes) for the future, though. This has the potential to be fixed if the gear is made accessible to everyone without a ton of grind or relying on RNG.

I am actually fine with some grind in regards to the ascended pieces with built-in infusions. Those are intended for those that wish to get high into the difficulty levels of FotM, and offer rewards only relevant to that playstyle. These particular pieces can be kept somewhat grindy, while allowing non-agony-resistant ascended gear to become only slightly more costly than exotics.

DoctorOverlord.8620:

I suppose I’m most worried about the term ‘low power curve’ and how that curve will look 3-4 years down the line.

In the ever changing world of Tyria, I think it’s a tad unrealistic to expect to know what it will look like in 3 to 4 years.

Would you really want a game so static, so carved in stone, that it would have no room for new ideas or technology that far into the future?

Vain.7643:

Oh thanks very much
whaat seriously? i thought the hacking were top priority at the moment :/
that doesn’t sound too promising

They have done a lot already towards improving account security, lowering the amount of hack victims, and stopping botters. While it’ll be an ongoing battle, they’ve really done a lot more in a much quicker time than most other MMOs I’ve seen. There are already write-ups and staff posts about it. Chris is a design guy (though apparently not for PvP), thus he probably won’t be able to answer (m)any questions about security.