Guild Wars 2

We should all remember this:

Fun impacts loot collection. 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

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Due to a lot of things going on at once we did not realize that this could be seen as a cheap way to monetize our players and had we have thought of this (thanks to the original poster for bringing this to our attention) we would have/will look at the system and see if we can fix the issue with breaking any of the design pillars surrounding FotM.

I hope this sheds some light on the concern.

Chris

there are a lot of instances like this though. Adding “rentable” servers before ladder/ranking system in spvp? Come on bro, who you kidding.

yes lets add rentable servers while pugs are getting stomped by average premades, and average premades are getting stomped by elite premades, good idea!

arcaneclarity.5283:

Notice the original post. Why did they push it through? It’s interesting that you are trying to deflect this specific conversation.

Because they wanted to. Because they had some stuff ready and wanted it out. Because somebody got overly ambitious and jumped the gun.

Really the why doesn’t matter. It happened, they regret it and will try to do better in the future. Any other badgering on the topic is superfluous.

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

Notice the original post. Why did they push it through? It’s interesting that you are trying to deflect this specific conversation.

Because they wanted to. Because they had some stuff ready and wanted it out. Because somebody got overly ambitious and jumped the gun.

Really the why doesn’t matter. It happened, they regret it and will try to do better in the future. Any other badgering on the topic is superfluous.

Better? They said they had no intention of stopping the gear treadmill. That isn’t ‘better’.

Very little info on Balance fixes and Bugged game fixes, new contents fine after the original game works properly, they need to spend more time and manpower into fixing existing content sheesh…

Dante.1508:

Very little info on Balance fixes and Bugged game fixes, new contents fine after the original game works properly, they need to spend more time and manpower into fixing existing content sheesh…

He’ll get to those questions, they’re in the list.

Chris is planning to continue doing this for around 4 more hours or so, so give him time to write.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I live in a strange world. It’s called “cautious optimism”.

I see,
you know, that´s a real problem with me, discerning between “cautious” and “unbased”

Chris Whiteside.6102:

Gab Superstar.4059:

“E9:There are no ways to repair inside of fractals aside from cash shop items, providing an inherent advantage to people who pay for advantages. Can this be fixed?

Well it certainly wasn’t designed to be a monetization resource, however i do see your point. We wanted to get rid of rez rushing and focus more on parties working together to not die and die less (-: We will continue to monitor the need for repair in the fractals and go from there.

Sorry if i am not giving more details here but this is something i would like to get metrics on.

Chris"

Who are you trying to fool here? THE MOMENT I saw the article about having a hub between 3 fractals where you could repair and sell items, the first thing that crossed my mind was that repair canisters were going to play a major role here.

You developed this content for 3 months, and you are telling me that the though NEVER CROSSED YOUR MIND?

What you are doing here is basically lying in the face of your players, and unfortunately for you it’s extraordinarily telling this time around.

Just wow…

Hi Gab Superstar,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I just wanted to take the time to correct some of your assumptions. Let me be very clear here:

‘At no point did we discuss or design lack of repair points in fractals to be a monetization gain for us.’

It may not be obvious to you (which is totally understandable) that this team is spinning many plates at a time and sometimes we miss things. So let me explain how we came to design there being no repair point in fractals:

- We wanted groups to win encounters through skill rather than blind force, therefore…
- We removed rez rushing. We removed way points and replaced them with checkpoints that could only be used when the whole group was down, this meant….
- That group members would spend more time keeping players alive resulting in less deaths. Should a group come across an encounter that is to hard…
- They would stop playing or spend the time to work out the encounter or both.
- We absolutely did not want players continually running into their deaths.
- The decision was therefore made that there was no need for repair points.

Due to a lot of things going on at once we did not realize that this could be seen as a cheap way to monetize our players and had we have thought of this (thanks to the original poster for bringing this to our attention) we would have/will look at the system and see if we can fix the issue with breaking any of the design pillars surrounding FotM.

I hope this sheds some light on the concern.

Chris

Great post Chris…I just wanted to give my perspective, and that is that:

I really hope these tin-foil-hat conspiracy theory players don’t influence the design of GW2. I, and I’m sure many other players, enjoy the lack of repair points because it means that you really have to be on point in the dungeon. And honestly…if you are consistently dying so much that you need a repair point in every fractal…then you just need to get better.

Also, I’m a little baffled by how so many people here seem to get “insulted” when you guys put monetizing assets into the game. I mean…do they think you are a charity?

I would think that most people here would have no problem with occasionally patronizing the cash shop, considering they like the game enough to stalk the forums, so they are obviously getting a lot of enjoyment out of it…but what do I know?

Just wanted to let you know that for every player on the forum that screams “Betrayers!” and dramatizes about every little thing you guys do, then are probably 10 that really enjoy the game, appreciate the fact that you can admit mistakes, and are grateful for all the content you guys are adding.

arcaneclarity.5283:

That didn’t really answer it. Nexon would have pushed on NCsoft, and NCsoft would have pushed ArenaNet. There would never have been any contact between Nexon and ArenaNet.

So what you are saying is this. Nexon who within the last few months bought a small part of NCsoft. Nexon knows nothing about GW2 or Anet, and has never had any contact with them in anyway. Nexon somehow goes to NCsoft, and makes vague pressures about a game they have no idea about, thus forcing NCsoft to go to Anet and pressure them into some drastic change in said game that Nexon knows none of the workings of. That is quite the logic train there.

Everyone always brings Ascended gear as vertical progression which some say goes against the game manifesto. What about the fact that that they said that they didn’t want gear to be random drops in dungeons?

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

In either case, their answer of saying that Ascended gear will be available other ways in the future is pretty meaningless when “future” has no time period attached to it. When the next set of Ascended items are released for FotM? When hell freezes over? Who knows?

Frankly, the most telling thing that has come out of this AMA is that Anet “knew” before releasing the ascended gear that it wasn’t the right thing to do and that it was going to cause problems but did it anyway. What kind of company knows that something will alienate, divide, anger, and whatever other term you want, it’s customers and knows it’s not what they really want to do, and yet does it anyway? That’s just callous disregard for your consumer no matter how you look at it. A company that does such has no credibility whatsoever in my book as actions speak much louder that words. They did this on purpose full well knowing what was going to happen. They can try to PR this into an “innocent mistake” all they want, but it seems the only mistake that was made was by me in trusting the words of a company and in believing that there are still companies that have integrity and do business honorably.

Gab Superstar.4059:

“E9:There are no ways to repair inside of fractals aside from cash shop items, providing an inherent advantage to people who pay for advantages. Can this be fixed?

Well it certainly wasn’t designed to be a monetization resource, however i do see your point. We wanted to get rid of rez rushing and focus more on parties working together to not die and die less (-: We will continue to monitor the need for repair in the fractals and go from there.

Sorry if i am not giving more details here but this is something i would like to get metrics on.

Chris"

Who are you trying to fool here? THE MOMENT I saw the article about having a hub between 3 fractals where you could repair and sell items, the first thing that crossed my mind was that repair canisters were going to play a major role here.

You developed this content for 3 months, and you are telling me that the though NEVER CROSSED YOUR MIND?

What you are doing here is basically lying in the face of your players, and unfortunately for you it’s extraordinarily telling this time around.

Just wow…

Sorry, if you’re dying frequently enough so that you need to repair within 3 fractals, you’re doing something SERIOUSLY wrong.

Strang.8170:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I live in a strange world. It’s called “cautious optimism”.

I see,
you know, that´s a real problem with me, discerning between “cautious” and “unbased”

It’s all about intent. If it was “unbased optimism” then I’d be expecting them to do no wrong even as they were stealing my puppy and dragging me behind the car. (“Well they’ll have to stop sometime!”

Cautious optimism is where I believe what someone has to say so long as I can’t see a difference. (“Yes, okay, the car ride is going to be to Florida. Is that why we’re headed west?”)

Of course, since you can’t see into my head and you have no reason to believe what I say anyway about what I think, why should you care? It’s still optimism and that’s a forbidden no-no.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It’s still optimism and that’s a forbidden no-no.

Sadly it does seem like optimism just gets you yelled at here. I love this game, and am optimistic that it will be good for years to come.

Ursan.7846:

Gab Superstar.4059:

“E9:There are no ways to repair inside of fractals aside from cash shop items, providing an inherent advantage to people who pay for advantages. Can this be fixed?

Well it certainly wasn’t designed to be a monetization resource, however i do see your point. We wanted to get rid of rez rushing and focus more on parties working together to not die and die less (-: We will continue to monitor the need for repair in the fractals and go from there.

Sorry if i am not giving more details here but this is something i would like to get metrics on.

Chris"

Who are you trying to fool here? THE MOMENT I saw the article about having a hub between 3 fractals where you could repair and sell items, the first thing that crossed my mind was that repair canisters were going to play a major role here.

You developed this content for 3 months, and you are telling me that the though NEVER CROSSED YOUR MIND?

What you are doing here is basically lying in the face of your players, and unfortunately for you it’s extraordinarily telling this time around.

Just wow…

Sorry, if you’re dying frequently enough so that you need to repair within 3 fractals, you’re doing something SERIOUSLY wrong.

I’ve had some great fractal experiences so far, but I haven’t had one sit down where I haven’t died at least once (usually 2-3 times). That’s not a whole lot, but I like to repair my armor immediately. In dungeons, I go straight for the repair (even if only my gloves are damaged) so I can come back with maximum efficiency. After even 2 deaths, your armor can wear. But, it hasn’t been game-breaking for me yet.

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

That didn’t really answer it. Nexon would have pushed on NCsoft, and NCsoft would have pushed ArenaNet. There would never have been any contact between Nexon and ArenaNet.

So what you are saying is this. Nexon who within the last few months bought a small part of NCsoft. Nexon knows nothing about GW2 or Anet, and has never had any contact with them in anyway. Nexon somehow goes to NCsoft, and makes vague pressures about a game they have no idea about, thus forcing NCsoft to go to Anet and pressure them into some drastic change in said game that Nexon knows none of the workings of. That is quite the logic train there.

You really have no idea how corporations work do you? Nexon’s $688 million purchase of NCsoft isn’t a ‘hope’ that NCosft is going to be successful and they turn a little bit of profit. When a corporation purchases a part of another corporation, they expect profit in the realm of ten or twenty times what paid for it. They aren’t going to just invest that kind of money and sit on their hands. They had to have plans far larger than playing the role of a gigantic day trader.

Ualtar.5047:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

It’s still optimism and that’s a forbidden no-no.

Sadly it does seem like optimism just gets you yelled at here. I love this game, and am optimistic that it will be good for years to come.

I think it will be good for years to come, also. How many years is up for debate . . .

And in case it’s not, someone help me measure out some stuff in meters. I have Minecraft and a desire to memorialize Divinity’s Reach.

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

That didn’t really answer it. Nexon would have pushed on NCsoft, and NCsoft would have pushed ArenaNet. There would never have been any contact between Nexon and ArenaNet.

So what you are saying is this. Nexon who within the last few months bought a small part of NCsoft. Nexon knows nothing about GW2 or Anet, and has never had any contact with them in anyway. Nexon somehow goes to NCsoft, and makes vague pressures about a game they have no idea about, thus forcing NCsoft to go to Anet and pressure them into some drastic change in said game that Nexon knows none of the workings of. That is quite the logic train there.

But it doesn’t rival yours. Here we have a big leagues investment in the largest block of shares owned by a single outside investor. And, they have made that investment with absolutely no knowledge of what they were buying or why they were buying it. Yeah, seems logical to me.

arcaneclarity.5283:

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

That didn’t really answer it. Nexon would have pushed on NCsoft, and NCsoft would have pushed ArenaNet. There would never have been any contact between Nexon and ArenaNet.

So what you are saying is this. Nexon who within the last few months bought a small part of NCsoft. Nexon knows nothing about GW2 or Anet, and has never had any contact with them in anyway. Nexon somehow goes to NCsoft, and makes vague pressures about a game they have no idea about, thus forcing NCsoft to go to Anet and pressure them into some drastic change in said game that Nexon knows none of the workings of. That is quite the logic train there.

You really have no idea how corporations work do you? Nexon’s $688 million purchase of NCsoft isn’t a ‘hope’ that NCosft is going to be successful and they turn a little bit of profit. When a corporation purchases a part of another corporation, they expect profit in the realm of ten or twenty times what paid for it. They aren’t going to just invest that kind of money and sit on their hands. They had to have plans far larger than playing the role of a gigantic day trader.

Umm…yea….so that huge 14.7% (lol) that Nexon owns of NCsoft allows them to just walk in the door and start throwing around their weight. If you get this worked up about a video game and bust out that tinfoil hat then I shudder to see how you feel about actual things that matter.

Creslin.1758:

Just wanted to let you know that for every player on the forum that screams “Betrayers!” and dramatizes about every little thing you guys do, then are probably 10 that really enjoy the game, appreciate the fact that you can admit mistakes, and are grateful for all the content you guys are adding.

Hear, hear!
Well said.

grumbles.5412:

I’m curious if the implementation was such a mistake and so many aspects around ascended gear was done wrongly and they knew it wasn’t how they wanted to go about doing things Why did they push it through?

Never used Reddit so perhaps someone could ask this for me.

They know NOW that they made a mistake THEN..hindsight is 20/20.

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.”

yeah that’s not new to this game though……

Eirik.9145:

Everyone always brings Ascended gear as vertical progression which some say goes against the game manifesto. What about the fact that that they said that they didn’t want gear to be random drops in dungeons?

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

In either case, their answer of saying that Ascended gear will be available other ways in the future is pretty meaningless when “future” has no time period attached to it. When the next set of Ascended items are released for FotM? When hell freezes over? Who knows?

Frankly, the most telling thing that has come out of this AMA is that Anet “knew” before releasing the ascended gear that it wasn’t the right thing to do and that it was going to cause problems but did it anyway. What kind of company knows that something will alienate, divide, anger, and whatever other term you want, it’s customers and knows it’s not what they really want to do, and yet does it anyway? That’s just callous disregard for your consumer no matter how you look at it. A company that does such has no credibility whatsoever in my book as actions speak much louder that words. They did this on purpose full well knowing what was going to happen. They can try to PR this into an “innocent mistake” all they want, but it seems the only mistake that was made was by me in trusting the words of a company and in believing that there are still companies that have integrity and do business honorably.

I dont read any of that in his statements..like at all. I read they realize now it was a mistake then..to not make the items accessible. He doesnt say they made a mistake putting it out..he said they made a mistake not putting it out on release and then not making it accessible. Where are you reading that he said the entire thing was a mistake?

Raine.1394:

But it doesn’t rival yours. Here we have a big leagues investment in the largest block of shares owned by a single outside investor. And, they have made that investment with absolutely no knowledge of what they were buying or why they were buying it. Yeah, seems logical to me.

If you invest in a company, especially just a small amount (14.7%) you want to get your money back and then some. You have to remember Nexon bought these share only a few months ago. It would be the height of stupidity to buy in and then start making changes in a system that you do not understand. Maybe you try to lend expertise or make changes after you have had enough time to understand the workings of the company you bought a part of.

He keeps pointing out that the stat increases are on a shallow curve as if to imply they don’t matter. If they plan to keep making incremental stat increases (like he claims they do) then the size of the increments is irrelevant. Eventually the gap between a hardcore player and a new/casual player will be large enough that they won’t ever be able to catch up. That’s completely ignoring the fact that new content is inevitably going to be balanced around the higher end of the spectrum meaning that these ‘shallow’ increases will gate content regardless.

These answers are full of so much PR spin it’s quite honestly insulting.

If this has been asked and answered I apologize, I haven’t seen it, but was there was any mention of Ascended Gear and/or vertical progression before the game was released? I mean something specific that would have let people know without a doubt that another tier of gear and/or vertical progression was coming, and that it was part of the overall plan all along? Are there any quotes out there from before launch stating this?

UnderdogSMO.9428:

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.”

yeah that’s not new to this game though……

Of course they plan to add items within the tiers. Otherwise we would have the same gear for years. Do people really want to play a static game that never evolves in any way? That is a single player game, not an MMO.

Ditton.3149:

Eirik.9145:

Everyone always brings Ascended gear as vertical progression which some say goes against the game manifesto. What about the fact that that they said that they didn’t want gear to be random drops in dungeons?

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

In either case, their answer of saying that Ascended gear will be available other ways in the future is pretty meaningless when “future” has no time period attached to it. When the next set of Ascended items are released for FotM? When hell freezes over? Who knows?

Frankly, the most telling thing that has come out of this AMA is that Anet “knew” before releasing the ascended gear that it wasn’t the right thing to do and that it was going to cause problems but did it anyway. What kind of company knows that something will alienate, divide, anger, and whatever other term you want, it’s customers and knows it’s not what they really want to do, and yet does it anyway? That’s just callous disregard for your consumer no matter how you look at it. A company that does such has no credibility whatsoever in my book as actions speak much louder that words. They did this on purpose full well knowing what was going to happen. They can try to PR this into an “innocent mistake” all they want, but it seems the only mistake that was made was by me in trusting the words of a company and in believing that there are still companies that have integrity and do business honorably.

I dont read any of that in his statements..like at all. I read they realize now it was a mistake then..to not make the items accessible. He doesnt say they made a mistake putting it out..he said they made a mistake not putting it out on release and then not making it accessible. Where are you reading that he said the entire thing was a mistake?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c776lvv

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

That didn’t really answer it. Nexon would have pushed on NCsoft, and NCsoft would have pushed ArenaNet. There would never have been any contact between Nexon and ArenaNet.

So what you are saying is this. Nexon who within the last few months bought a small part of NCsoft. Nexon knows nothing about GW2 or Anet, and has never had any contact with them in anyway. Nexon somehow goes to NCsoft, and makes vague pressures about a game they have no idea about, thus forcing NCsoft to go to Anet and pressure them into some drastic change in said game that Nexon knows none of the workings of. That is quite the logic train there.

You really have no idea how corporations work do you? Nexon’s $688 million purchase of NCsoft isn’t a ‘hope’ that NCosft is going to be successful and they turn a little bit of profit. When a corporation purchases a part of another corporation, they expect profit in the realm of ten or twenty times what paid for it. They aren’t going to just invest that kind of money and sit on their hands. They had to have plans far larger than playing the role of a gigantic day trader.

Umm…yea….so that huge 14.7% (lol) that Nexon owns of NCsoft allows them to just walk in the door and start throwing around their weight. If you get this worked up about a video game and bust out that tinfoil hat then I shudder to see how you feel about actual things that matter.

The company would have to file a SEC “13D Notification of a holding of more than 5% of any class of a company’s shares by a single investor or group working together”

Notice that 5% figure? It is realized that holdings by a single entity of anything over 5% can indicate influence and therefore must be publicly reported. BTW, I’m not wearing tinfoil in saying this, just letting you know how the world works out there so save the shudders.

Tachenon.5270:

If this has been asked and answered I apologize, I haven’t seen it, but was there was any mention of Ascended Gear and/or vertical progression before the game was released? I mean something specific that would have let people know without a doubt that another tier of gear and/or vertical progression was coming, and that it was part of the overall plan all along? Are there any quotes out there from before launch stating this?

No there wasn’t. They made it pretty clear pre-launch that the game’s entire progression model was built around aesthetics instead of stats. Everything that’s being said in the AMA is PR spin, that’s why Chris has to keep disappearing between each answer- so the PR team can edit his responses.

The biggest problem this community has is the GW1 players expecting GW1 in a new wrapper. They want something more than GW1. That game was for casuals and MMO players on training wheels. They aren’t going to just focus on making a game for you. They want to make this a game that draws a wider audience then GW1 fanbois.

judeobscure.2537:

Ditton.3149:

Eirik.9145:

Everyone always brings Ascended gear as vertical progression which some say goes against the game manifesto. What about the fact that that they said that they didn’t want gear to be random drops in dungeons?

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

In either case, their answer of saying that Ascended gear will be available other ways in the future is pretty meaningless when “future” has no time period attached to it. When the next set of Ascended items are released for FotM? When hell freezes over? Who knows?

Frankly, the most telling thing that has come out of this AMA is that Anet “knew” before releasing the ascended gear that it wasn’t the right thing to do and that it was going to cause problems but did it anyway. What kind of company knows that something will alienate, divide, anger, and whatever other term you want, it’s customers and knows it’s not what they really want to do, and yet does it anyway? That’s just callous disregard for your consumer no matter how you look at it. A company that does such has no credibility whatsoever in my book as actions speak much louder that words. They did this on purpose full well knowing what was going to happen. They can try to PR this into an “innocent mistake” all they want, but it seems the only mistake that was made was by me in trusting the words of a company and in believing that there are still companies that have integrity and do business honorably.

I dont read any of that in his statements..like at all. I read they realize now it was a mistake then..to not make the items accessible. He doesnt say they made a mistake putting it out..he said they made a mistake not putting it out on release and then not making it accessible. Where are you reading that he said the entire thing was a mistake?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c776lvv

That quote..states exactly what I said..that it should have been in launch and accessible..not that it was a mistake. Thanks for proving my point

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.

lol any gamers from any games will know that is not a minimal grind at all.
What are we? Morons??

lol dude i only see pve contents , wheres the colliseum the pvp more wvw maps , also remember gw1 faccions pvp, here nothing i only see more pve.

“In retrospect Ascended should have been deployed pre launch and earn able throughout most activities in the game (which is how we are moving forward).”

Thank you, Chris. You’ve won back at least one player by admitting that it should have been done differently.

Alberel Leonhart.9640:

Tachenon.5270:

If this has been asked and answered I apologize, I haven’t seen it, but was there was any mention of Ascended Gear and/or vertical progression before the game was released? I mean something specific that would have let people know without a doubt that another tier of gear and/or vertical progression was coming, and that it was part of the overall plan all along? Are there any quotes out there from before launch stating this?

No there wasn’t. They made it pretty clear pre-launch that the game’s entire progression model was built around aesthetics instead of stats. Everything that’s being said in the AMA is PR spin, that’s why Chris has to keep disappearing between each answer- so the PR team can edit his responses.

There was something . . . let me hunt it up.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c776dmy

And

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c774er8

Not entirely what you asked for, but the closest you’re probably going to get.

“First of all in retrospect it would have been better to have included Ascended Gear at launch. It is designed to give users a progression path that is between Exotic and Legendary (Legendary Items will be at the same power level as Ascended) and the gap between them in terms of time is very large.”

“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.”

There you go. Discuss at leisure

Tumbero.3945:

lol dude i only see pve contents , wheres the colliseum the pvp more wvw maps , also remember gw1 faccions pvp, here nothing i only see more pve.

this I agree with..i wish the ascended fury would go somewhere else for at least a few questions. Its muddying the waters of a beautiful opportunity to ask some more pertinent questions.

Ualtar.5047:

arcaneclarity.5283:

That didn’t really answer it. Nexon would have pushed on NCsoft, and NCsoft would have pushed ArenaNet. There would never have been any contact between Nexon and ArenaNet.

So what you are saying is this. Nexon who within the last few months bought a small part of NCsoft. Nexon knows nothing about GW2 or Anet, and has never had any contact with them in anyway. Nexon somehow goes to NCsoft, and makes vague pressures about a game they have no idea about, thus forcing NCsoft to go to Anet and pressure them into some drastic change in said game that Nexon knows none of the workings of. That is quite the logic train there.

You don’t just blindly buy nearly 15% of a company’s stock.

I can say with almost certainty that Nexon knew at lot about GW2, and that it was likely one of the main reasons for their stock purchase. NCSoft was set to release a huge game, and make a lot of profit on it. That’s a perfect time to buy up stock.

Their 15% may not mean they can walk into Anet’s studio and start barking orders, but it does buy them influence with the company that owns Anet. Think of it like a huge corporation making a “generous contribution” to a politician’s campaign. Nexon has shown that they have money, and are willing to risk it on NC’s (and therefor Anet’s) success. They could be a potential source of investments (more money) in future projects, as well. The amount of stock they own could easily grant them some added influence. Perhaps enough influence to get a like-minded Nexon manager/director a new job within one of NC’s subsidiaries.

Additional money matters aside, their 15% share is most certainly giving them some rights/say within NC. I don’t know what rights specific rights they have, as there would be other laws and company policies I have no knowledge of, but they likely include voting on board member positions. Meaning they have the power to choose the people running NCSoft, and can use that to place board members that will ensure their plans/wishes become reality.

I wish they’d kept the thread with the content of the AMA separate from the rest of this — even should have kept it as a locked thread or sticky.

Ualtar.5047:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

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.”

yeah that’s not new to this game though……

Of course they plan to add items within the tiers. Otherwise we would have the same gear for years. Do people really want to play a static game that never evolves in any way? That is a single player game, not an MMO.

Is the choice really around 1) keeping our gear at it’s current power level, and therefore having a static game that doesn’t evolve. Or 2) having increasing levels of power and therefore a dynamic game that evolves.

The way you presented it is known as a false dilemma or false dichotomy fallacy. No one is asking for a static game and everyone desires a game to evolve over time. So, we also have a straw man argument here.

The issue at hand is the manner in which a non-static game is to evolve. When an organism evolves, it does so in alignment with its DNA with small changes that give it, over time, a cumulative advantage in terms of its environment. If I were extending the metaphor I would liken the Manifesto to Anets DNA. Ideally, the game won’t radically depart from its DNA, and if we were talking about an organism we would probably be talking about a cancer if we were seeing a radical departure.

The key to understanding the Manifesto is to understand horizontal progression versus vertical progression. I believe everyone desires a dynamic game that evolves, so your question really can’t be answered. Many here would have liked to see the game evolve in alignment with its DNA.

Trying to get him to see questions than need answering as opposed to ones that just want answers is like thowing darts as a flee.

Chris said he’s planning to do this AMA for a few more hours or so, and he’s working on setting up a PvP AMA.
I’m sure we’ll have writeups about this AMA once he finishes. Not really worth doing one until he is. This would include both full Q/A transcripts and a synopsis of important notes. I know I’ll be trying to write up a synopsis if I have time.

Natural.7013:

The biggest problem this community has is the GW1 players expecting GW1 in a new wrapper. They want something more than GW1. That game was for casuals and MMO players on training wheels. They aren’t going to just focus on making a game for you. They want to make this a game that draws a wider audience then GW1 fanbois.

Um no they want the game that arenanet promised in all its pre launch PR. GW2 aint it.

Raine.1394:

Ualtar.5047:

UnderdogSMO.9428:

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.”

yeah that’s not new to this game though……

Of course they plan to add items within the tiers. Otherwise we would have the same gear for years. Do people really want to play a static game that never evolves in any way? That is a single player game, not an MMO.

Is the choice really around 1) keeping our gear at it’s current power level, and therefore having a static game that doesn’t evolve. Or 2) having increasing levels of power and therefore a dynamic game that evolves.

The way you presented it is known as a false dilemma or false dichotomy fallacy. No one is asking for a static game and everyone desires a game to evolve over time. So, we also have a straw man argument here.

The issue at hand is the manner in which a non-static game is to evolve. When an organism evolves, it does so in alignment with its DNA with small changes that give it, over time, a cumulative advantage in terms of its environment. If I were extending the metaphor I would liken the Manifesto to Anets DNA. Ideally, the game won’t radically depart from its DNA, and if we were talking about an organism we would probably be talking about a cancer if we were seeing a radical departure.

The key to understanding the Manifesto is to understand horizontal progression versus vertical progression. I believe everyone desires a dynamic game that evolves, so your question really can’t be answered. Many here would have liked to see the game evolve in alignment with its DNA.

With what they think its DNA is. DNA is composed mostly of host material IE parental. So what you are saying is you want it to evolve from GW1..alot of people believe it or not didnt play or like Gw1 and they want GW2 to be its own creature entirely. You are presenting the manifesto which was a blog or journal created two years ago during development as the building blocks for the entire game, I find them at best a guide line.

Ditton.3149:

With what they think its DNA is. DNA is composed mostly of host material IE parental. So what you are saying is you want it to evolve from GW1..alot of people believe it or not didnt play or like Gw1 and they want GW2 to be its own creature entirely. You are presenting the manifesto which was a blog or journal created two years ago during development as the building blocks for the entire game, I find them at best a guide line.

Go into a restaraunt, look at the menu, and order a meal. When the meal that arrives is something different from what you ordered, just remember that the menu is just a guideline, it was created before that meal was prepared. Don’t forget to tip.

chris just got home and has resumed the ama..

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/c77bi6e

Shieldbreaker.4012:

Ditton.3149:

With what they think its DNA is. DNA is composed mostly of host material IE parental. So what you are saying is you want it to evolve from GW1..alot of people believe it or not didnt play or like Gw1 and they want GW2 to be its own creature entirely. You are presenting the manifesto which was a blog or journal created two years ago during development as the building blocks for the entire game, I find them at best a guide line.

Go into a restaraunt, look at the menu, and order a meal. When the meal that arrives is something different from what you ordered, just remember that the menu is just a guideline, it was created before that meal was prepared. Don’t forget to tip.

Well if the meal doesn’t match the picture exactly, you are perfectly justified to demand to see the manager for a discount and a new plate. At least, that’s what the guests I had to wait on were certain of . . .

Shieldbreaker.4012:

Ditton.3149:

With what they think its DNA is. DNA is composed mostly of host material IE parental. So what you are saying is you want it to evolve from GW1..alot of people believe it or not didnt play or like Gw1 and they want GW2 to be its own creature entirely. You are presenting the manifesto which was a blog or journal created two years ago during development as the building blocks for the entire game, I find them at best a guide line.

Go into a restaraunt, look at the menu, and order a meal. When the meal that arrives is something different from what you ordered, just remember that the menu is just a guideline, it was created before that meal was prepared. Don’t forget to tip.

Thats the worst analogy to try and prove a point Ive ever seen. Show me a restaurant that puts out its menu 2 years before its launch, while its menu is effectively being developed. I know what you are doing a horrible job of stating, that it was a case of false advertising. I just dont agree with you, get over it.

Nothing about lag/latency. I’ve been keeping an eye on this for a while now, as it is severely impacting my ability/want to play. I am holding out for an official answer soon though.

Aoshi.4785:

Nothing about lag/latency. I’ve been keeping an eye on this for a while now, as it is severely impacting my ability/want to play. I am holding out for an official answer soon though.

Lag and Latency sounds more like a localized issue vs. a widespread issue. I’m not sure that many people are being effected by it, but I could be wrong.

I’m a little disappointed that questions regarding grinding, ascended gear, and ANet’s philosophy on those two points seem to be dominating most of the Q&A. It’s like.. how many ways can the same questions be asked and answered? Let’s move on to something else, already.