Guild Wars 2

Just read a few post and a new thought comes into my mind. Basically 2 questions:
1. Can ascended gear/weapon satisfy those who want vertical progression on equipments?
2. Do casual players rage about the incoming ascended weapon?
If no to 1 and yes to 2, profit?

No, and no. Ascended gear will not satisfy vertical progression crowd, because that group can never be satisfied (after all, introducing new tier of gear doesn’t solve any problem – it just delays them until people regear themselves). On the other side, most of casual players do not rage about ascended gear, because they simply don’t care either way. Lot of them are likely still running in greens and yellows. As long as they can run the content in those greens and yellows, they’ll be unlikely to get invested in the problem long enough to even understand what it’s all about.
Now, if something were to change – for example open world got adjusted to the new stats – a casual reaction might follow. Of course, in most cases it won’t take the form of raging (for that you’d have to be invested in he game and care about it to certain degree), but will mean just leaving the game.

Those changes, technically are happening now, albeit slowly and mostly limited to the living story – the new mobs ar generally stronger than those that we had up to this point.

1. Yes, for a while.
2. Some, more precisely those who use “casual” as a leverage term. If someone is truly a casual player, he would simply not care about farming for +x percent and be happy if he reached that goal at some point by just playing along.
An outrage from the crowd that wants everything heavily invested and good players get by working hard and focusedly for, preferably for free – the “forum casuals”? You bet!

1. For a short time yes. Until they get the ascended gear and go back to claiming they have no reason to play.

2. It depends on how you define casual. Some won’t because they don’t play enough to even be thinking about ascended gear and haven’t looked into how to get it and what effect it has, as someone else said they won’t know enough about it to know if it’s a problem for them.

Others might feel that it will give ‘hardcore’ players an unfair advantage and they’ll never be able to catch up, which will make them angry.

And some will understand but won’t be bothered by it. This is one reason I call myself predominantly a casual player. I’ve had a level 80 since April, and I still have no ascended gear. I know the stat difference, I know how to get it. I have enough guild tokens and I had the laurels before I bought the mini cat, but I haven’t done it yet because I’d rather spend my gold/other currencies on minis. I mainly play open-world PvE so I don’t feel like I need ascended gear. I’ll get it as and when it’s convenient to me and the same goes for ascended weapons.

1. Don’t think so. Either people will be able to get it very quickly and moan that they need the next level or it will have time gating again which will kitten em off again.

2. Some mind, some don’t. It depends on the person. Some people don’t care about endgame at all and they might be ok with it. Some will want to get the max tier just to feel complete (not because they need the stats so much) It will depend on how easy it is for casuals to get.

I also think that if the skins were to finally look awesome then that would tick a lot of people off who don’t think they can get etc etc.

Really there are a number of factors involved. People who want progression won’t last unless Anet is willing to take the next step and then you quickly get into the zone where gear differences become even bigger.

I am already expecting there to be messages in LA: LFM for X dungeon, only ascended gear!

So I guess it will be relatively easy to get or time gated or both. It’s not going to have a big satisfaction factor in any case.

Galaxia.1304:

Just read a few post and a new thought comes into my mind. Basically 2 questions:
1. Can ascended gear/weapon satisfy those who want vertical progression on equipments?
2. Do casual players rage about the incoming ascended weapon?
If no to 1 and yes to 2, profit?

1. No. For all the reasons above.

2. Players who rage about ascended gear are the ones were looking for a social game that did not include a gear grind. Casual MMO players will not care.

I really dislike the vertical progression lover. They are like donkey, needed a carrot in front of them to give them incentive. They are the true sheep.

This game could never add the content necessary to fulfill the desires of those looking for vertical progression without alienating those who have been loyal to the series.