Guild Wars 2

beren.6048:

Ditton.3149:

….

He said in a post that class changes, balances, bugs, PvP and WvW were all handled by a different department and he didnt want to give answers he was not sure of, but would try to get separate AMA’s for all of those parts of the game as well.

Hopefully then they ll still answer the most important question E7, I would really dislike it if the new story also contains Trahearne.

If Trahearne isn’t dead, it’s likely he will be contained within it simply by still existing. However, his task is done with the events in Orr; if it turns to Jormag you’ll probably have a norn step into the role . . . if it turns to Kralkatorrik, someone different. Et cetera.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

beren.6048:

Ditton.3149:

….

He said in a post that class changes, balances, bugs, PvP and WvW were all handled by a different department and he didnt want to give answers he was not sure of, but would try to get separate AMA’s for all of those parts of the game as well.

Hopefully then they ll still answer the most important question E7, I would really dislike it if the new story also contains Trahearne.

If Trahearne isn’t dead, it’s likely he will be contained within it simply by still existing. However, his task is done with the events in Orr; if it turns to Jormag you’ll probably have a norn step into the role . . . if it turns to Kralkatorrik, someone different. Et cetera.

I happen to like Trehearne’s voice. It’s very eloquent. However, seeing him move makes me want to peel off each of his leaves until he ceases to exist.

I didn’t like how they denied that the manifesto wasn’t totally betrayed. It just made me angrier at the company.
Thumbs down also to saying that just because the inserted tier is 5-11% (it’s over 11%) stronger and gradual that it’s not a gear treadmill. Just call a spade a spade.

The questions I wanted to hear about that weren’t answered were: Why have the loot drops decreased in high level zones, and from vets/champs, and was this intentional? and When will the elementalist bugs be fixed. I want existing problems to be fixed before we create new content (with its accompanying fixes). The way I see it, so much of what is still bugged should have been ready before launching the game, and now they’re biting more and more off that they can’t chew.

The questions that were answered were mostly about ascended, and we all knew what the responses would be anyway.

Clark Skinner.4902:

I didn’t like how they denied that the manifesto wasn’t totally betrayed. It just made me angrier at the company.
Thumbs down also to saying that just because the inserted tier is 5-11% (it’s over 11%) stronger and gradual that it’s not a gear treadmill. Just call a spade a spade.

The questions I wanted to hear about that weren’t answered were: Why have the loot drops decreased in high level zones, and from vets/champs, and was this intentional? and When will the elementalist bugs be fixed. I want existing problems to be fixed before we create new content (with its accompanying fixes). The way I see it, so much of what is still bugged should have been ready before launching the game, and now they’re biting more and more off that they can’t chew.

The questions that were answered were mostly about ascended, and we all knew what the responses would be anyway.

He mentioned that they were looking at the loot drop tables with vets and champs.

He mentioned that he was unable to answer question about classes, PvP, WvWvW etc

And I honestly can’t see how you can portray ‘no other tiers in future’ as the start of a treadmill of one step. This blows my mind and I congratulate you on that.

Razarei.2809:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

beren.6048:

Ditton.3149:

….

He said in a post that class changes, balances, bugs, PvP and WvW were all handled by a different department and he didnt want to give answers he was not sure of, but would try to get separate AMA’s for all of those parts of the game as well.

Hopefully then they ll still answer the most important question E7, I would really dislike it if the new story also contains Trahearne.

If Trahearne isn’t dead, it’s likely he will be contained within it simply by still existing. However, his task is done with the events in Orr; if it turns to Jormag you’ll probably have a norn step into the role . . . if it turns to Kralkatorrik, someone different. Et cetera.

I happen to like Trehearne’s voice. It’s very eloquent. However, seeing him move makes me want to peel off each of his leaves until he ceases to exist.

That’s a sylvari thing, I think.

Gehenna.3625:

Razarei.2809:

OH my god LEAVE the ascended horse alone. It’s dead, stop beating it. This was a great AMA and you doomsayers can either leave or stay. Either way most of us who have a brain won’t care about your selfish ways.

I feel sorry for Chris having to apologize on behalf of himself and the company for issues and exploits and segregation brought on by the players themselves. Even before the patch there was constant segregation.

The lack of intelligence in this whole thread is just outstanding.

Please don’t mistake your opinion for intelligence.

Anet have now in the AMA admitted that they knew this reaction would come. That means they already knew that their communication before doesn’t match the current reality of the game.

Also they said that in retrospect elements have not been released in the way it should have been. You cannot claim that something went wrong in retrospect when you expect a kittenstorm. That means you intentionally or at least knowingly released things before they were ready.

I do wonder why they didn’t release ascended gear in the beginning but did bring out legendary gear. Logically that’s the wrong way around and would have avoided a part of this discussion.

Lastly they say that they thought they were clear that this game would have stat progression and this is the biggest lie of them all. Again if you know you will get so much negativity over something before you do it, then you know you haven’t clearly communicated it.

I read a lot of interviews before release and this was in fact news to me. It’s dishonest to say this now.

They are not even really apologising if you read properly. They are dodging bullets.

Aside from boredom and not being happy that GW2 does in fact NOT bring “everything I love from GW1” because part of that was the lack of stat increases or power creep…..and trust me there’s more but I’ll leave that to another discussion.

So, the AMA clarifies to me that Anet is not able to be clear and honest still and that there is no reason for me to trust them. It’s just as well I think.

For those who love GW2 as it is and where it’s going….I am happy for you.

Me, I’ll be happy in another game where the company’s dishonesty limits itself to embellished marketing and delayed release dates. The stuff you expect basically.

Excellent, wish you well. Happy for you too, can I has your stuff?

Thx to AMA I still have hope, but not enough to spend further money on GW2. Also Chris said they made a mistake with how the implemented ascended gear he never said how exactly they are planing to get it right. For me, the basic ascended gear is currently just far too expensive/timeconsuming to get, about 10 times as much as it would be acceptable. If they change that and make the current and all future basic ascended gear obtainable in just a couple of hours I will spend money on this game again.
They can still use infused ascended gear as a time sink, they can make it as expensive as they want since it doesn’t have better stats than basic ascended gear, just more agony resi. That way, casual players would be able to obtain a full ascended set for each of ther toon while the lovers of hardcore grind would still have something to to if they want to proceed further in dungeons that use the agony mechanic.

Flynch.6034:

hydeaut.1758

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

I suspect they balls’d up the metrics and now are back-pedalling. Which is awesome imo as this means they appreciate their mistake and they appreciate the community.

The issue surrounding ‘grind’ is that it is completely subjective.

Yes, grind is subjective but Whiteside also wrote, they expected that people would be upset. The only conclusion which would make sense to me: they are trying out how far they can go with the grind, trying to keep players as occupied as possible.

If I would be even more suspicious: they knew people would be upset, so they set the grind higher than they really intended, only to come here one week later saying: we listen to our community and make in “only” half that grind.

Either way, I don´t like that direction.

Nevertheless I appreciate the AMA and the effort taken for that and I feel less like better leaving the game soon.

All i read about ascended gear from anet is how they poorly handled to us, that WE (PLAYERS) ARE WRONG, because they just did poorly comunication and stuff tho the gear that they are bringing is something everyone would love, “you are just misinformed/ignorant/stopid”.

Seriously??!! stop acting like we are all babies that cannot think for themselves. That is very humiliating from anet team. For me and some ppl, adding ascended gear/gear with higher stats is BBBBBBBBAAAAAADDDDDDDDDD! And no, no matter how many time you say that we just dont know/are badly informed about topic, adding higher stat gear is bad. PERIOD!

Flynch.6034:

Clark Skinner.4902:

I didn’t like how they denied that the manifesto wasn’t totally betrayed. It just made me angrier at the company.
Thumbs down also to saying that just because the inserted tier is 5-11% (it’s over 11%) stronger and gradual that it’s not a gear treadmill. Just call a spade a spade.

The questions I wanted to hear about that weren’t answered were: Why have the loot drops decreased in high level zones, and from vets/champs, and was this intentional? and When will the elementalist bugs be fixed. I want existing problems to be fixed before we create new content (with its accompanying fixes). The way I see it, so much of what is still bugged should have been ready before launching the game, and now they’re biting more and more off that they can’t chew.

The questions that were answered were mostly about ascended, and we all knew what the responses would be anyway.

He mentioned that they were looking at the loot drop tables with vets and champs.

He mentioned that he was unable to answer question about classes, PvP, WvWvW etc

And I honestly can’t see how you can portray ‘no other tiers in future’ as the start of a treadmill of one step. This blows my mind and I congratulate you on that.

Are you reading the same AMA that the rest of us did or did just you made up your own? Chris clearly said that big updates are planned for WvW.

As for the “one-step”, right now there’s only blue infusions, when the idea of ascended and infusion first came out they already said that there’s gona be higher tier of infusions. So no, your “one” step isnt singular.

Gehenna.3625:

Razarei.2809:

OH my god LEAVE the ascended horse alone. It’s dead, stop beating it. This was a great AMA and you doomsayers can either leave or stay. Either way most of us who have a brain won’t care about your selfish ways.

I feel sorry for Chris having to apologize on behalf of himself and the company for issues and exploits and segregation brought on by the players themselves. Even before the patch there was constant segregation.

The lack of intelligence in this whole thread is just outstanding.

Please don’t mistake your opinion for intelligence.

Anet have now in the AMA admitted that they knew this reaction would come. That means they already knew that their communication before doesn’t match the current reality of the game.

Also they said that in retrospect elements have not been released in the way it should have been. You cannot claim that something went wrong in retrospect when you expect a kittenstorm. That means you intentionally or at least knowingly released things before they were ready.

I do wonder why they didn’t release ascended gear in the beginning but did bring out legendary gear. Logically that’s the wrong way around and would have avoided a part of this discussion.

Lastly they say that they thought they were clear that this game would have stat progression and this is the biggest lie of them all. Again if you know you will get so much negativity over something before you do it, then you know you haven’t clearly communicated it.

I read a lot of interviews before release and this was in fact news to me. It’s dishonest to say this now.

They are not even really apologising if you read properly. They are dodging bullets.

Aside from boredom and not being happy that GW2 does in fact NOT bring “everything I love from GW1” because part of that was the lack of stat increases or power creep…..and trust me there’s more but I’ll leave that to another discussion.

So, the AMA clarifies to me that Anet is not able to be clear and honest still and that there is no reason for me to trust them. It’s just as well I think.

For those who love GW2 as it is and where it’s going….I am happy for you.

Me, I’ll be happy in another game where the company’s dishonesty limits itself to embellished marketing and delayed release dates. The stuff you expect basically.

A few things i’d like to comment on if I may.

Pick a number between 1 and 10.

Ok got one?

Right, that number is actually lower than the one I was expecting. This can be applied to their expectations of the backlash. They figured a 5, and the forums went with a 10. They are naive in that respect, because after years of witnessing forums online, they shoukd have expected an 11. But their metrics may actually say a 4. They are simply going with damage reduction and that pretty much only applies to the official forum.

Secondly, they said no grind. No treadmill. They never said no stat progression. What we have now is a grind (which they wish to rectify) and no treadmill.

We have stat progression as given. From 1-80 you have stat progression. From Blue, to green, to rare, to exotic, we have stat progression. Your complaint is with a currently non-existent treadmill. And something he just stated they will not implement

There is no power-creep. They have stated what is, and what will be. If you are not satisfied with the transparency then that is 100% your issue, as many, many, others are satisfied with the AMA.

Flynch.6034:

Chuo.4238:

Well, I read the AMA text.

TL:DR – ArenaNet is going to do what it wants with Ascended gear, no matter what anyone says, and they won’t grow a spine and actually stick to any principles. They’re wishy-washy, difficult to pin down, and don’t appear to have a clue.

I’m done here. Goodbye ArenaNet and GW2. I waited patiently for this AMA in the (vain) hope you’d realize that the game you sold me and the game you have now are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I’m sick at heart that I was actually stupid enough to spend money in your gem store thinking that this was going to be a long-term game for me.

Boy, was I a sucker.

Enjoy your $40. It’s the last you’ll ever get from me, and hopefully many other people. You don’t deserve it.

Not that you will read this, or care. You’ll just ignore this thread until you think you can get away with locking and deleting it.

Yes, I’m angry and disappointed and frustrated. I’ve wasted money and time on yet another RIFT/Aion/SWTOR type crap game.

The spirit of Guild Wars died on 15 November 2012. RIP

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

Flynch,

They’re not removing Ascended gear from the game, nor are they promising not to add higher tiers of gear in the future. The only thing they’ve actually committed to is this new tier of Ascended gear.

My full exotic set is now a waste of time, and crushingly disappointing because I really believed, before November 15th, that adding tier gear would never happen in a Guild Wars game.

Therefore they are not trying to rectify the situation. They are trying to misdirect my attention and get me to think they’re trying to rectify the situation.

Zplus.4217:

Flynch.6034:

Clark Skinner.4902:

I didn’t like how they denied that the manifesto wasn’t totally betrayed. It just made me angrier at the company.
Thumbs down also to saying that just because the inserted tier is 5-11% (it’s over 11%) stronger and gradual that it’s not a gear treadmill. Just call a spade a spade.

The questions I wanted to hear about that weren’t answered were: Why have the loot drops decreased in high level zones, and from vets/champs, and was this intentional? and When will the elementalist bugs be fixed. I want existing problems to be fixed before we create new content (with its accompanying fixes). The way I see it, so much of what is still bugged should have been ready before launching the game, and now they’re biting more and more off that they can’t chew.

The questions that were answered were mostly about ascended, and we all knew what the responses would be anyway.

He mentioned that they were looking at the loot drop tables with vets and champs.

He mentioned that he was unable to answer question about classes, PvP, WvWvW etc

And I honestly can’t see how you can portray ‘no other tiers in future’ as the start of a treadmill of one step. This blows my mind and I congratulate you on that.

Are you reading the same AMA that the rest of us did or did just you made up your own? Chris clearly said that big updates are planned for WvW.

As for the “one-step”, right now there’s only blue infusions, when the idea of ascended and infusion first came out they already said that there’s gona be higher tier of infusions. So no, your “one” step isnt singular.

He could not specifically answer questions about the WvWvW, but there wasn’t someone behind him with a gun saying he couldn’t mention it at all.

And your perception of a treadmill from what was said is not the same as my perception. The infusion increase over time could easily be limited purely to FotM. It is simply one tier. He has already said they overkilled the grind on the Ascended gear so what the heck do you people want? Seriously.

edt: typo

Chuo.4238:

Flynch.6034:

Chuo.4238:

Well, I read the AMA text.

TL:DR – ArenaNet is going to do what it wants with Ascended gear, no matter what anyone says, and they won’t grow a spine and actually stick to any principles. They’re wishy-washy, difficult to pin down, and don’t appear to have a clue.

I’m done here. Goodbye ArenaNet and GW2. I waited patiently for this AMA in the (vain) hope you’d realize that the game you sold me and the game you have now are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I’m sick at heart that I was actually stupid enough to spend money in your gem store thinking that this was going to be a long-term game for me.

Boy, was I a sucker.

Enjoy your $40. It’s the last you’ll ever get from me, and hopefully many other people. You don’t deserve it.

Not that you will read this, or care. You’ll just ignore this thread until you think you can get away with locking and deleting it.

Yes, I’m angry and disappointed and frustrated. I’ve wasted money and time on yet another RIFT/Aion/SWTOR type crap game.

The spirit of Guild Wars died on 15 November 2012. RIP

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

Flynch,

They’re not removing Ascended gear from the game, nor are they promising not to add higher tiers of gear in the future. The only thing they’ve actually committed to is this new tier of Ascended gear.

My full exotic set is now a waste of time, and crushingly disappointing because I really believed, before November 15th, that adding tier gear would never happen in a Guild Wars game.

Therefore they are not trying to rectify the situation. They are trying to misdirect my attention and get me to think they’re trying to rectify the situation.

Look I do appreciate your perspective and thanks for thoughtfully replying.

But the tiered increase is sort of reliant on how the gamer perceives it. Do you feel that it is such a large hike in stats that it is worth grinding 24/7 for?

Do you also believe that the exotics you have which currently have no superior (which is most of them except the ring and back piece) are made completely redundant? I would like to believe that your own prowess would alleviate any issues, and if not, then your ability to adjust would compensate wholly!

It has been stated that this is the only tiered upgrade for the game now (although from what you said I may have to double check, please correct me if i’m mistaken though). Infusion upgrades will most likely be limited to dungeon mechanics (unless Anet are insane) and players can progress easily without Ascended gear as it is.

The only issue that I have seen is that it is creating a player-based gating scenario when looking to get a group to go into FotM but i’m genuinely hopeful that this is simply because it is still shiny and new.

edit: clarity

Chuo.4238:

Well, I read the AMA text.

TL:DR – ArenaNet is going to do what it wants with Ascended gear, no matter what anyone says, and they won’t grow a spine and actually stick to any principles. They’re wishy-washy, difficult to pin down, and don’t appear to have a clue.

I’m done here. Goodbye ArenaNet and GW2. I waited patiently for this AMA in the (vain) hope you’d realize that the game you sold me and the game you have now are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. I’m sick at heart that I was actually stupid enough to spend money in your gem store thinking that this was going to be a long-term game for me.

Boy, was I a sucker.

Enjoy your $40. It’s the last you’ll ever get from me, and hopefully many other people. You don’t deserve it.

Not that you will read this, or care. You’ll just ignore this thread until you think you can get away with locking and deleting it. You’ll give virtual “infractions” to anyone who speaks up against the about-face in principles that you just performed.

Point is, you don’t care any more about your game. And your target audience is clearly not your original Guild Wars fan base.

Yes, I’m angry and disappointed and frustrated. I’ve wasted money and time on yet another RIFT/Aion/SWTOR type crap game.

The Spirit of Guild Wars died on 15 November 2012. RIP

Edit: Added an afterthought.

This.
This AMA was only PR bullkitten and lies, and I’m not buying a single gem from their shop anymore.

Ditton.3149:

Gehenna.3625:

Razarei.2809:

OH my god LEAVE the ascended horse alone. It’s dead, stop beating it. This was a great AMA and you doomsayers can either leave or stay. Either way most of us who have a brain won’t care about your selfish ways.

I feel sorry for Chris having to apologize on behalf of himself and the company for issues and exploits and segregation brought on by the players themselves. Even before the patch there was constant segregation.

The lack of intelligence in this whole thread is just outstanding.

Please don’t mistake your opinion for intelligence.

Anet have now in the AMA admitted that they knew this reaction would come. That means they already knew that their communication before doesn’t match the current reality of the game.

Also they said that in retrospect elements have not been released in the way it should have been. You cannot claim that something went wrong in retrospect when you expect a kittenstorm. That means you intentionally or at least knowingly released things before they were ready.

I do wonder why they didn’t release ascended gear in the beginning but did bring out legendary gear. Logically that’s the wrong way around and would have avoided a part of this discussion.

Lastly they say that they thought they were clear that this game would have stat progression and this is the biggest lie of them all. Again if you know you will get so much negativity over something before you do it, then you know you haven’t clearly communicated it.

I read a lot of interviews before release and this was in fact news to me. It’s dishonest to say this now.

They are not even really apologising if you read properly. They are dodging bullets.

Aside from boredom and not being happy that GW2 does in fact NOT bring “everything I love from GW1” because part of that was the lack of stat increases or power creep…..and trust me there’s more but I’ll leave that to another discussion.

So, the AMA clarifies to me that Anet is not able to be clear and honest still and that there is no reason for me to trust them. It’s just as well I think.

For those who love GW2 as it is and where it’s going….I am happy for you.

Me, I’ll be happy in another game where the company’s dishonesty limits itself to embellished marketing and delayed release dates. The stuff you expect basically.

Excellent, wish you well. Happy for you too, can I has your stuff?

As much as I don’t like it, my wife isn’t bothere and still plays. So she gets all my stuff. Mind you, she hasn’t gotten to max level yet but isn’t too far now. But then she’s playing D3 again at the moment so who knows. But yeh as much as I don’t like what Anet did, I really do wish well to those who are still happy with the game. To each their own. I just want to make clear where I stand. No one has to agree with me.

Flynch.6034:

He could not specifically answer questions about the WvWvW, but there wasn’t someone behind him with a gun saying he couldn’t mention it at all.

And your perception of a treadmill from what was said is not the same as my perception. The infusion increase over time could easily be limited purely to FotM. It is simply one tier. He has already said they overkilled the grind on the Ascended gear so what the heck do you people want? Seriously.

edt: typo

Sorry but when we read the patch notes and the AMA no perception was involved, its about comprehending and understanding the business PR language. It is perception and pure fantasy when you try to predict the future use of infusion is FotM only, even when the current fact shows the infusion carries basic stats points and therefore NOT only useful in FotM.

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

Flynch.6034:

Secondly, they said no grind. No treadmill. They never said no stat progression.

No treadmill = no stat progression. It’s really as simple as that. The only reason to implemente stat progression without a necessary treadmill ist to make the progression only effective in very specific part of the game, just like they did with it with sPvP.

What we have now is a grind (which they wish to rectify) and no treadmill.

That’s sadly not the whole truth. We currently have a grind and the start of a treadmill. They explicitly said multiple times by now that they want to continue to go down that road. They won’t introduce new rarity tiers but over time better infusions which will be needed to proceed through new content. The important question now is whether the new contant will work like FotM or if it will use the agony mechanic right from the start so that we will be forced to run FotM till we have enough agnoy resi to enter the next dungeon. If that will be the case, we will have a full scale gear treadmill.

We have stat progression as given. From 1-80 you have stat progression. From Blue, to green, to rare, to exotic, we have stat progression. Your complaint is with a currently non-existent treadmill. And something he just stated they will not implement

Nobody is complaining about progression vom 1 to 80 or from green/rare to exotic on 80, that’s not the issue.

There is no power-creep. They have stated what is, and what will be. If you are not satisfied with the transparency then that is 100% your issue, as many, many, others are satisfied with the AMA.

Chris has actually stated that their will be a slow power curve.

Conner.4702:

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

+1

I don’t believe that they accidently used such a low chance on a daily chest to get ascended rings, set the price for exotic back pieces to 1350 relics or made the MF recipe require 50/250 ectos and a full stack of t6 crafting mats. This was on purpose.

Flynch.6034:

what the heck do you people want? Seriously.

The wonderful game described in the manifesto, perhaps? Unfortunately, it seems that game never existed.

Zplus.4217:

Flynch.6034:

He could not specifically answer questions about the WvWvW, but there wasn’t someone behind him with a gun saying he couldn’t mention it at all.

And your perception of a treadmill from what was said is not the same as my perception. The infusion increase over time could easily be limited purely to FotM. It is simply one tier. He has already said they overkilled the grind on the Ascended gear so what the heck do you people want? Seriously.

edt: typo

Sorry but when we read the patch notes and the AMA no perception was involved, its about comprehending and understanding the business PR language. It is perception and pure fantasy when you try to predict the future use of infusion is FotM only, even when the current fact shows the infusion carries basic stats points and therefore NOT only useful in FotM.

You contradict yourself here. Stating that we cannot predict the future of infusion stats and then saying that we can predict it based on the current stats, is wonky. We can hypothesise and i’ve stated that it would be madness to have the infusions become any stronger outside of the dungeon. Sure we have more gear to come, but by that time we’ll all have these so-called current required items.

Who is the ‘we’ you are referring to? So my perception of the AMA is somehow faulty because you see it as PR only? The man spent 8 hours answering questions. I honestly don’t know what he could have said to appease you.

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.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but doesn’t this 14.7% make them the biggest single major shareholder?

Conner.4702:

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

Well to be fair, he did state that they balls’d it up and that they are looking at it again. People do make mistakes and this is their first foray into the true MMO market.

Flynch.6034:

The infusion increase over time could easily be limited purely to FotM.

As even the blue infusions have already additional stats besides agony I wouldn´t believe that.

Yes, it´s no treadmill so far but it´s also not “easy max stats” either anymore.

And we will see progression, maybe not with higher tiers but with legendary armor, higher level cap then 80, . . . and if I would have to get legendaries someday for the best stats I´ll ritually set my copy of the game on fire.

Tachenon.5270:

Flynch.6034:

what the heck do you people want? Seriously.

The wonderful game described in the manifesto, perhaps? Unfortunately, it seems that game never existed.

One factor in the manifesto has apparently changed and they are reassessing it. He even stated that they realised their mistake and are making attempts to stay true to it. Now, I don’t know to what degree they will do that, and nor does anyone, but he addressed it none-the-less.

He can’t say more than that basically.

Personally I think it will be fine.

Flynch.6034:

There is no power-creep. They have stated what is, and what will be. If you are not satisfied with the transparency then that is 100% your issue, as many, many, others are satisfied with the AMA.

How is there no power creep? They are adding gear with higher stats in it. They have also said better infusions wold be coming. If you look at it the game was quite obviously made with exotics to be the highest level and even then the downscaling can barely keep up with level 80s in exotics and will do nothing to level 80s in ascended coming back to Orr or frostgorge.

Also look at Ranger’s Pets, they were given stats based around the role they were supposed to fill in an exotic gear level but they don’t scale and so will get no benefit from ascended gear, meaning they will do less damage in comparison to other classes, and take more. So not only do we have power creep but we have a power creep that is leaving at least one class behind.

Levetty.1279:

Flynch.6034:

There is no power-creep. They have stated what is, and what will be. If you are not satisfied with the transparency then that is 100% your issue, as many, many, others are satisfied with the AMA.

How is there no power creep? They are adding gear with higher stats in it. They have also said better infusions wold be coming. If you look at it the game was quite obviously made with exotics to be the highest level and even then the downscaling can barely keep up with level 80s in exotics and will do nothing to level 80s in ascended coming back to Orr or frostgorge.

Also look at Ranger’s Pets, they were given stats based around the role they were supposed to fill in an exotic gear level but they don’t scale and so will get no benefit from ascended gear, meaning they will do less damage in comparison to other classes, and take more. So not only do we have power creep but we have a power creep that is leaving at least one class behind.

Ranger pets didn’t scale well anyway, which was one of the . . . many . . . issues with the class many have talked with me at length about. Usually starting with: “why are you playing a ranger? They stink”

I admit I had my doubts, but I understand what they have tried to accomplish with the ascended gear.

I wvw, it is what I like to do. I can barely stomach pve, in any game. This does not mean I don’t recognize that there are players who feel the exact same way about wvw as I do about pve. Those players need a reason to log into the game every day as much as anyone else.

It would not suprise me if they implement a trade up type of system for ascended gear. Like an npc that will take a piece of exotic gear + a few mats in exchange for a piece of ascended of the same type and stat configuration. For instance in WvW you could trade a piece of exotic + 350 Boh + 42,000 karma to upgrade to ascended.

This type of trade up system would give wvw players a goal that is not so far away that they lose interest. The same could be done for pve dungeons 350 tokens + 42,000 karma to upgrade a piece of exotic dungeon gear. For those who love open world and De’s they could simply add a type of badge that drops from de events and then require a fair amount + karma to upgrade to ascended. For those who like to mix and match thier experiences, they could make it so combinations of badges can be used to upgrade.

This type of system allows everyone to do what they enjoy in GW2, and still be able to reach the goal of full ascended over the course of next year, without it seeming like a grind.

In summary, do what you like, get ascended gear

nachtnebel.9168:

Flynch.6034:

Secondly, they said no grind. No treadmill. They never said no stat progression.

No treadmill = no stat progression. It’s really as simple as that. The only reason to implemente stat progression without a necessary treadmill ist to make the progression only effective in very specific part of the game, just like they did with it with sPvP.

What we have now is a grind (which they wish to rectify) and no treadmill.

That’s sadly not the whole truth. We currently have a grind and the start of a treadmill. They explicitly said multiple times by now that they want to continue to go down that road. They won’t introduce new rarity tiers but over time better infusions which will be needed to proceed through new content. The important question now is whether the new contant will work like FotM or if it will use the agony mechanic right from the start so that we will be forced to run FotM till we have enough agnoy resi to enter the next dungeon. If that will be the case, we will have a full scale gear treadmill.

We have stat progression as given. From 1-80 you have stat progression. From Blue, to green, to rare, to exotic, we have stat progression. Your complaint is with a currently non-existent treadmill. And something he just stated they will not implement

Nobody is complaining about progression vom 1 to 80 or from green/rare to exotic on 80, that’s not the issue.

There is no power-creep. They have stated what is, and what will be. If you are not satisfied with the transparency then that is 100% your issue, as many, many, others are satisfied with the AMA.

Chris has actually stated that their will be a slow power curve.

Conner.4702:

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

+1

I don’t believe that they accidently used such a low chance on a daily chest to get ascended rings, set the price for exotic back pieces to 1350 relics or made the MF recipe require 50/250 ectos and a full stack of t6 crafting mats. This was on purpose.

I get where you are coming from and of course I have also thought the same thing. But then it comes down to perception. The reason I mentioned the blue, green, rare and exotic progression was because the chap I was replying to too umbrage to there suddenly being a stat progression implemented.

This update has only been out a short while. There are plenty of ifs and buts but I think that’s down to the fact they ‘dun goof’d’ with the implementation and will rectify it.

The slow power curve and introduction of new pieces down the line is not necessarily indicative of a power-creep or a treadmill. If it takes an entire year for the set to be released, then I don’t (personally) see it as that big of a deal.

However, the caveat is, that if they go apespit and start introducing gear for each new dungeon that gates content or makes players significantly more powerful than other players and with only a singular method of obtaining the gear, then we have an issue.

Of course, atm the different methods are not available, but the complaints for that stem frm players wanting it right here, right now. I could say the same, but my approach is a bit more laid back. And new methods will be introduced, they probably just want to get it right™

Honestly, no matter what people said, the people who were going to leave were going to leave. Even if they had said they were going to remove ascended gear, get rid of all grind and personally kiss their feet wherever they walked, this AMA would not convince a single person who wanted to leave to stay.

Why? Because the people who are reading it and were planning on leaving don’t want to be convinced otherwise. They just want some validation before they go out in their puff of smoke.

Now, I’m not talking about the people who have concerns, complaints or general grievances. You guys are ESSENTIAL to our ongoing community and I love you all for it, even if I don’t agree with you.

I’m just talking about the people who already had both feet out of the door and were just waiting for one last time to complain and saw the AMA as a chance to do it.

Levetty.1279:

Flynch.6034:

There is no power-creep. They have stated what is, and what will be. If you are not satisfied with the transparency then that is 100% your issue, as many, many, others are satisfied with the AMA.

How is there no power creep? They are adding gear with higher stats in it. They have also said better infusions wold be coming. If you look at it the game was quite obviously made with exotics to be the highest level and even then the downscaling can barely keep up with level 80s in exotics and will do nothing to level 80s in ascended coming back to Orr or frostgorge.

Also look at Ranger’s Pets, they were given stats based around the role they were supposed to fill in an exotic gear level but they don’t scale and so will get no benefit from ascended gear, meaning they will do less damage in comparison to other classes, and take more. So not only do we have power creep but we have a power creep that is leaving at least one class behind.

Ok I suppose I should clarify what I mean by no power-creep and my opinion of it. Currently we already have large disparities in stats. The percentage of players with the same stats, same traits, same reactions and same knowledge of their class who are pitted against each other is probably fairly small.

The fact is that in my opinion, power-creep is only a bad thing when you gate content to the detriment of the players, make it an absolute requirement for content just released and make it unavailable to the majority of players.

At the moment we have players only able to gain it through a few methods, so that is a massive issue.

At the moment the players are gating the content themselves with their grouping ideals. That will fade considerably once the ‘shiny’ has worn off.

At the moment we have a small, dare I even say negligible, stat increase that when actually compared to a L80 exotic (worn by the player) has no impact.

Out of these 3, the first one is the most pressing and i’m quite hopeful that will be alleviated.

kineticdamage.6279:

So … while I salute Chris ultra dedication for this AMA (9 hours straight, wow) …
He didn’t give answers on the most important topic about current boredom :

“PD1: GW1 had hundreds of skills for each of it’s classes. Can we expect skill additions for GW2 as well? If so, will they only be added in expansions? Are there plans to add them with major non-expansion content updates?”

(and moreover, PD1 to PD4)

I was waiting for this precise answer to know if I’d log on again …

People were so maniac with the gear questions that he duplicated the same answer about it around 10 times. I don’t play for gear, I play for playing the game. It’s crazy how majority of players are still obsessive with the shiny armor syndrome.

What you’re asking for may not be feasible in a dynamic world where balance is key. You simply cannot balance hundreds of skills and please everyone. Honestly, Gw1 and Gw2 are such different games, many of the mechanics are simply not translatable.

You won’t be seeing hundreds of skills like before, atleast not profession based skills. New skills will likely be tied to new weapon types. Simplicity in this case works, especially if this game is intended for casuals. Increasing the skill count makes it that much harder for people to learn the game and get into it.

EndlessDreamer.6780:

Honestly, no matter what people said, the people who were going to leave were going to leave. Even if they had said they were going to remove ascended gear, get rid of all grind and personally kiss their feet wherever they walked, this AMA would not convince a single person who wanted to leave to stay.

Why? Because the people who are reading it and were planning on leaving don’t want to be convinced otherwise. They just want some validation before they go out in their puff of smoke.

Now, I’m not talking about the people who have concerns, complaints or general grievances. You guys are ESSENTIAL to our ongoing community and I love you all for it, even if I don’t agree with you.

I’m just talking about the people who already had both feet out of the door and were just waiting for one last time to complain and saw the AMA as a chance to do it.

I agree with what you’re saying here. If these people are unhappy, they just need to leave the game and move on. Let those of us who are fine with the game and who were happy with the answers given enjoy both the game and the forums in peace.

If GW2 isn’t living up to your expectations, then do something else.

Flynch.6034:

This update has only been out a short while. There are plenty of ifs and buts but I think that’s down to the fact they ‘dun goof’d’ with the implementation and will rectify it.

My issue with the update is that it contradicts the manifesto in almost every aspect. It’s not just about the question whether is stat progression at lvl 80 or not, it’s about the whole thing. Now, we can’t play the game the way we want, the only way to get the new gear is to run FotM and to grind a ton of t6 mats and ectos. We have to do the same thing day by day till we get lucky and a find a ring in the daily chest. We can’t bring our alts to the new dungeon due to the stupid level restriction and equiping new alts suddenly is far more expensive than it was before due to the need of t6 mats in order to proceed through FotM.
The last update should never have been release in the first place. And I don’t believe that all these mistakes just happend accidently. It just takes one look at the system to see that the only way it could end was to break the manifesto, establish a huge grind and to force people into the new dungeon.

The slow power curve and introduction of new pieces down the line is not necessarily indicative of a power-creep or a treadmill. If it takes an entire year for the set to be released, then I don’t (personally) see it as that big of a deal.

For me it is. It’s fine if you just play one toon, but if you have a few alts it really sucks if you have to keept them all up to date.

However, the caveat is, that if they go apespit and start introducing gear for each new dungeon that gates content or makes players significantly more powerful than other players and with only a singular method of obtaining the gear, then we have an issue.

I agree we that, but I have to add that we have an issue too if the gear from a former dungeon is required to do the new dungeon. This is absolutely inacceptable. Each new dungeon can use a different kind of “agony” and therefore require different infusions so the progression can start from the beginning each time. But in that case the way we apply infusions has to change, they can’t be one use items anymore it has to be possible to switch between all the infusion we own depending on which dungeon we want to do.

Okay I’ve shifted through all the QQ and arguments I intend to but I would like to see a list of questions that were asked with their answers. Is there such a beast without the opinions and long winded responses / arguments from players ? I see it was sort of started at the beginning there and thank you for that Majormelchett. I’d just like to be able to see the Q @ A itself without the wall of text and pages here and I’ll have to admit I won’t use reddit either. That’s simply a maze and I can’t spend all day searching down answers in that jumbled mess of whatever that site is suppose to represent. I was actually hoping we would see just the Q @ A itself posted in here somewhere by Arena.net without the conversations they were going to spark from the players. I want to see the questions and answers not have to go researching for them.

nachtnebel.9168:

Flynch.6034:

This update has only been out a short while. There are plenty of ifs and buts but I think that’s down to the fact they ‘dun goof’d’ with the implementation and will rectify it.

My issue with the update is that it contradicts the manifesto in almost every aspect. It’s not just about the question whether is stat progression at lvl 80 or not, it’s about the whole thing. Now, we can’t play the game the way we want, the only way to get the new gear is to run FotM and to grind a ton of t6 mats and ectos. We have to do the same thing day by day till we get lucky and a find a ring in the daily chest. We can’t bring our alts to the new dungeon due to the stupid level restriction and equiping new alts suddenly is far more expensive than it was before due to the need of t6 mats in order to proceed through FotM.
The last update should never have been release in the first place. And I don’t believe that all these mistakes just happend accidently. It just takes one look at the system to see that the only way it could end was to break the manifesto, establish a huge grind and to force people into the new dungeon.

The slow power curve and introduction of new pieces down the line is not necessarily indicative of a power-creep or a treadmill. If it takes an entire year for the set to be released, then I don’t (personally) see it as that big of a deal.

For me it is. It’s fine if you just play one toon, but if you have a few alts it really sucks if you have to keept them all up to date.

[qutoe]However, the caveat is, that if they go apespit and start introducing gear for each new dungeon that gates content or makes players significantly more powerful than other players and with only a singular method of obtaining the gear, then we have an issue.

I agree we that, but I have to add that we have an issue too if the gear from a former dungeon is required to do the new dungeon. This is absolutely inacceptable. Each new dungeon can use a different kind of “agony” and therefore require different infusions so the progression can start from the beginning each time. But in that case the way we apply infusions has to change, they can’t be one use items anymore it has to be possible to switch between all the infusion we own depending on which dungeon we want to do.[/quote]

Honestly I do agree with your perspective but I simply see it from another angle. That makes neither of us right or wrong thankfully!

The implementation was a mess and they underestimated the impact that it would have. They now have the chance, especially after the AMA, to rectify the content with quite simple changes.

WTB test server, basically!

Astralporing.1957:

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.

Correct me if i’m wrong, but doesn’t this 14.7% make them the biggest single major shareholder?

Still not a controlling share of a company. They cannot make the decisions with less than 15%. They just stand to profit with sales of the game.

GreyFeathers.8175:

Okay I’ve shifted through all the QQ and arguments I intend to but I would like to see a list of questions that were asked with their answers. Is there such a beast without the opinions and long winded responses / arguments from players ? I see it was sort of started at the beginning there and thank you for that Majormelchett. I’d just like to be able to see the Q @ A itself without the wall of text and pages here and I’ll have to admit I won’t use reddit either. That’s simply a maze and I can’t spend all day searching down answers in that jumbled mess of whatever that site is suppose to represent. I was actually hoping we would see just the Q @ A itself posted in here somewhere by Arena.net without the conversations they were going to spark from the players. I want to see the questions and answers not have to go researching for them.

http://pastehtml.com/view/cjqpwkikn.html

This was posted on another thread and hopefully a mod will sticky it With great thanks to Timebomb.

What I get from this AMA, and from Chris’ posts on the forums is: “Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”.

The way he’s like “Whoops, sorry! We should have seen this coming, we’ll fix it, promise!!” is just silly. You design a dungeon around community fracturing and two way gating (both with gear and with run count), and then…it fracture the community. Who would have thought! And then go “Oh sorry guys!”, like if it wasn’t expected.

It was -by design-. They push this in fully expecting to have to apologize for it. They just didn’t expect how the PR stunt to get the community to eat it wouldn’t work.

ProphetSword.5427:

I agree with what you’re saying here. If these people are unhappy, they just need to leave the game and move on. Let those of us who are fine with the game and who were happy with the answers given enjoy both the game and the forums in peace.

If GW2 isn’t living up to your expectations, then do something else.

Normally that’s exactly what I’d do if this was a game I’d only had a relationship with for a couple of months.

But realize that I (and thousands of others) have had an ongoing love affair with Guild Wars since 2005. That just got trainwrecked on the 15th of November. We’re shocked, confused, and grieving. We’re in the process of breaking up and need to go through the stages of grief.

There’s a lot of history here. A lot of time spent, and a lot of love poured into the community and one’s individual characters. It’s not easy for a longtime GW fan to just up and walk away without telling ArenaNet how disappointed we are in what they just did.

Have no doubt that we’ll move on (I think this AMA iced it for many), but let us have our painful breakup first.

Flynch.6034:

Conner.4702:

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

Well to be fair, he did state that they balls’d it up and that they are looking at it again. People do make mistakes and this is their first foray into the true MMO market.

That’s the point this wasn’t a mistake this was intentional. They were told 1 cookie from the cookie jar. They tried to get more and someone slammed the lid on their fingers, hence the backlash you have seen the last 2 weeks.
Saying this is their first true MMO is apologetic behaviour at best.

tkalamba.2541:

kineticdamage.6279:

So … while I salute Chris ultra dedication for this AMA (9 hours straight, wow) …
He didn’t give answers on the most important topic about current boredom :

“PD1: GW1 had hundreds of skills for each of it’s classes. Can we expect skill additions for GW2 as well? If so, will they only be added in expansions? Are there plans to add them with major non-expansion content updates?”

(and moreover, PD1 to PD4)

I was waiting for this precise answer to know if I’d log on again …

People were so maniac with the gear questions that he duplicated the same answer about it around 10 times. I don’t play for gear, I play for playing the game. It’s crazy how majority of players are still obsessive with the shiny armor syndrome.

What you’re asking for may not be feasible in a dynamic world where balance is key. You simply cannot balance hundreds of skills and please everyone. Honestly, Gw1 and Gw2 are such different games, many of the mechanics are simply not translatable.

You won’t be seeing hundreds of skills like before, atleast not profession based skills. New skills will likely be tied to new weapon types. Simplicity in this case works, especially if this game is intended for casuals. Increasing the skill count makes it that much harder for people to learn the game and get into it.

Balancing skills is actually a job, where people are paid to work on it
It would be like saying “expecting a mmo world to be visually gorgeous is irrealistic, as it would require too much occlusion culling”.
(= intelligently using player’s available point of views to reduce the amount of distant visible objects)

Now if studios refuse to spend such an amount of time on balancing, it’s not because they don’t have the ability, it’s because they’re routing their budget towards other game elements, like visuals, lore, etc.
Which are also essential, of course, but in the last few years they really tend to reduce the fight mechanics part too much.

You spend 90% of your time fighting, in a mmo. Underestimating the importance of its mechanics is a mistake, imo.

Flynch.6034:

The man spent 8 hours answering questions. I honestly don’t know what he could have said to appease you.

Well, he could have said “Everything we say is a lie.”

I imagine the reaction here would be something like this:

Actually, that’s probably pretty accurate…

I have perhaps grown cynical in my old age, but I tend to take anything and everything a game developer says (even the ones I like) with a cargo freighter (or two) of salt, so there’s not much he could have said beyond something like “Yeah, we intentionally mislead the horizontal GW1 type guys with our manifesto video and stuff so they’d buy the game, and now that we have their money we’re switching gears in an attempt to grab some quick cash from the folks out there who prefer the grindy vertical stuff and when that’s played out we’ll switch gears again and go for yet another crowd. Maybe even… your crowd! So stick around. Lots and lots of fun stuff yet to come!” that would have impressed me. Heck, if he’d said that I’d be tempted to spend moar $$$ on the game!

Shados.1306:

What I get from this AMA, and from Chris’ posts on the forums is: “Its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”.

The way he’s like “Whoops, sorry! We should have seen this coming, we’ll fix it, promise!!” is just silly. You design a dungeon around community fracturing and two way gating (both with gear and with run count), and then…it fracture the community. Who would have thought! And then go “Oh sorry guys!”, like if it wasn’t expected.

It was -by design-. They push this in fully expecting to have to apologize for it. They just didn’t expect how the PR stunt to get the community to eat it wouldn’t work.

They may have simply been optimistic in their approach and hoped the forum wouldn’t be so vapid and cynical with their ‘no more chances’ posts.

Look, they balls’d up. You don’t try to bait and switch, then send someone on for 8 hours to represent and answer questions to then bait and switch again. That’s idiotic.

Personally I think, for their first MMO foray (no, i’m not counting GW1 in the same field/genre) they have done a good job. They are trying to push the envelope and they overshot somewhat. But if you genuinely believe they actively tried to sabotage their own community and game with prior knowledge of the absolute trainwreck_ that we have atm, then fair enough I guess.

Conner.4702:

Flynch.6034:

Conner.4702:

hydeaut.1758:

Flynch.6034:

That’s strange, because out of the many replies that I read on reddit, the major repeating statement made by Chris was that they felt the implementation was a mistake and that they are trying to rectify the situation.

That´s one of the points I don´t understand: he knows it´s an awfull grind and he must have known it before – but why did they make it such a grind then?

He also stated they MIGHT make it less of a grind, not that they certainly will if they find other ways around it. In my eyes there´s still a chance we´ll get only alternative ways of grinding.

This is the biggest problem I have with his answers. They say one thing yet do the opposite. Ascended gear was clearly a grind when implemented. You don’t need a lot of intelligence to see it is a grind. So how can he say they don’t want a grind in game when that is exactly what they put in.

Well to be fair, he did state that they balls’d it up and that they are looking at it again. People do make mistakes and this is their first foray into the true MMO market.

That’s the point this wasn’t a mistake this was intentional. They were told 1 cookie from the cookie jar. They tried to get more and someone slammed the lid on their fingers, hence the backlash you have seen the last 2 weeks.
Saying this is their first true MMO is apologetic behaviour at best.

I’m far from an apologist. I’m old enough to recognise my own cynicism and pop a lid on that too. Perhaps it’s time for people to take a step back and stop viewing them as some Evil corporation. That’s far too emo for my liking and i’d much rather have a discussion on the future, than on a 2-sided futile political argument.

And honestly, I don’t see how me saying that this is their first true MMO is somehow false. Do people really think that Anet are infallible because they have heritage?

kineticdamage.6279:

tkalamba.2541:

kineticdamage.6279:

So … while I salute Chris ultra dedication for this AMA (9 hours straight, wow) …
He didn’t give answers on the most important topic about current boredom :

“PD1: GW1 had hundreds of skills for each of it’s classes. Can we expect skill additions for GW2 as well? If so, will they only be added in expansions? Are there plans to add them with major non-expansion content updates?”

(and moreover, PD1 to PD4)

I was waiting for this precise answer to know if I’d log on again …

People were so maniac with the gear questions that he duplicated the same answer about it around 10 times. I don’t play for gear, I play for playing the game. It’s crazy how majority of players are still obsessive with the shiny armor syndrome.

What you’re asking for may not be feasible in a dynamic world where balance is key. You simply cannot balance hundreds of skills and please everyone. Honestly, Gw1 and Gw2 are such different games, many of the mechanics are simply not translatable.

You won’t be seeing hundreds of skills like before, atleast not profession based skills. New skills will likely be tied to new weapon types. Simplicity in this case works, especially if this game is intended for casuals. Increasing the skill count makes it that much harder for people to learn the game and get into it.

Balancing skills is actually a job, where people are paid to work on it
It would be like saying “expecting a mmo world to be visually gorgeous is irrealistic, as it would require too much occlusion culling”.
(= intelligently using player’s available point of views to reduce the amount of distant visible objects)

I understand it’s a job, but so many games already get it wrong. Hundreds of skills doesn’t make the game fun all of a sudden. To some people it just simply complicates things.

However, I too would like some new skills, but I don’t want this to be a game where there are too many to choose from. There are already balance issues, let them fix those first, and then let them worry about skills.

Tachenon.5270:

Flynch.6034:

The man spent 8 hours answering questions. I honestly don’t know what he could have said to appease you.

Well, he could have said “Everything we say is a lie.”

I imagine the reaction here would be something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuYbDP2kDfg

Actually, that’s probably pretty accurate…

I have perhaps grown cynical in my old age, but I tend to take anything and everything a game developer says (even the ones I like) with a cargo freighter (or two) of salt, so there’s not much he could have said beyond something like “Yeah, we intentionally mislead the horizontal GW1 type guys with our manifesto video and stuff so they’d buy the game, and now that we have their money we’re switching gears in an attempt to grab some quick cash from the folks out there who prefer the grindy vertical stuff and when that’s played out we’ll switch gears again and go for yet another crowd. Maybe even… your crowd! So stick around. Lots and lots of fun stuff yet to come!” that would have impressed me. Heck, if he’d said that I’d be tempted to spend moar $$$ on the game!

I think if the devs felt that people would be more level-headed then a greater degree of transparency could have been afforded. The AMA provided plenty of pause for thought however and I do believe it helped to settle many disputes.

I’m also cynical at the best of times, but in this case, i’d rather just appreciate what the AMA gave us and maybe, perhaps just maybe, give the team some room to adjust and re-adjust.

Oh and btw, i’m not even sure I have a crowd

First of all: They DID say what their intentions for the game were, and you should really read Mike O’s answers. They came out and took the time to tell us where the game is going. That was due and very appreciated. Stop demanding kitten, specially perfect answers “now”. It’s really annoying and only makes you all sound like kittens.

I suggest you guys read EVERY answer by them before you claim they say something they didn’t or reducing this to a PR spin and the other words people are vomiting so often that they’re losing their meaning.

Chris:
http://www.reddit.com/user/ArenaNetTeam
Mike O:
http://www.reddit.com/user/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet

To people still trying hard to believe there’s no treadmill: They already said the level cap will increase at some point, probably in expansions. Guess what? gear stats will increase too. Chris was also VERY careful and made a disclaimer every time so people don’t call him liar later. Stats WILL increase, rarity tiers will not increase FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. Wake up!

That said, I’m personally not convinced the game is going anywhere good. Not because i think they’re liars or the such. I’m just not sure they know what they’re doing. They are definitely not being that innovative about things, as they jump in the statflation road. It really bugs the crap out of me, because it make is it really impossible to have fun and gear up alts and have multiple sets for different builds.

So, I’m out until they come up with something wonderful to make the grinders and the actual gamers synergize in a beautiful and awesome way in a truly grindless environment, like they said during the AMA.

Harbard.5738:

First of all: They DID say what their intentions for the game were, and you should really read Mike O’s answers. They came out and took the time to tell us where the game is going. That was due and very appreciated.

I suggest you guys read EVERY answer by them before you claim they say something they didn’t or reducing this to a PR spin and the other words people are spurting so often that they’re losing their meaning.

Chris:
http://www.reddit.com/user/ArenaNetTeam
Mike O:
http://www.reddit.com/user/Mike-OBrien-ArenaNet

To people believing there’s no treadmill: They already said the level cap will increase at some point, probably in expansions. Guess what? gear stats will increase too. Chris was also VERY careful and made a disclaimer every time so people don’t call him liar later. Stats WILL increase, rarity tiers will not increase FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. Wake up!

Honestly, people just need to see this game never actually had true horizontal progression.

The best example I like to use of Horizontal progression is Planetside 2, and its an MMO FPS. Battlerank (pretty much levels) only unlock emblems. You get certification points as you play, pretty much in lieu of actual experience, to unlock new gear, which only serve as what they called sidegrades (serve different purposes, but don’t necessarily mean they are better).

No stats, no tiers of weapons, and you could play the game, and play it really well, with never unlocking a single gun.

Harbard.5738:

To people believing there’s no treadmill: They already said the level cap will increase at some point, probably in expansions. Guess what? gear stats will increase too. Chris was also VERY careful and made a disclaimer every time so people don’t call him liar later. Stats WILL increase, rarity tiers will not increase FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. Wake up!

They already told us that they probably will increase the level cap with expansions before the release, so no suprise there. But to be honest, I still hope that they will change their minds on this one cause for me it would be a reason to not buy the expansion pack.