Guild Wars 2

Lately I’ve been feeling like I have to do the dailies/monthlies when I play the game. The dailies in particular make me feel like I have to play the game every day or risk getting behind in the game.

I’m wondering if anyone else feels this way about achievements? While I like the free stuff dailies give, being forced to play every day to get dailies is kinda lame (Especially with the new laurel currency that can only be achieved through dailies/monthlies).

I know that not getting a reward isn’t really forcing me to play every day, but still it kinda seems like a punishment to me. Similar to how on LoL if I didn’t get a first win for the day that seemed like a first win that I lost. For those of you who played TWEWY, they had a system where you got rewarded for playing after not touching the game for a while. That system felt nicer than being rewarded for playing every day. Because if there was a day that I didn’t want to play I didn’t miss out on anything in-game.

If anyone from Anet has the time to answer, I’d like to know if you feel like a player misses out on anything significant for not playing every day. Or what you think about having rewards on a daily basis does for a game in general (As in not necessarily for just for GW2, but what impact do periodic rewards have on any gaming experience).

tl;dr: Dailies are an incentive to play every day. Is that a good thing for GW2/videogames?

Incentive to do so, or an acknowledgement of those that do?

Rested XP from a few games was intended as a way to reduce the impact of being more casual with your time, and the TWEWY reward method is just a carrot.

First people will be stressed about getting “behind”, then a pathway from zero to “caught up mostly” will be implemented, assuming of course significant verticle progression comes in…

Nope, I don’t feel that we are being forced to do anything. Dailies and monthlies are an option for me, should I want to do them. There is nothing about this game that is being forced on me. I paid my initial $60 and ever since then it’s been my choice do partake or not in all other areas of the game.

TBH it is only about an hour for the daily but I understand what you mean about having to feel that you DO have to atleast log in for that day and do it.

I’m not sure how I feel about it. I guess it wont be so bad in the future when they back reward us with Laurels for our other achievments. Well I think I read that somewhere anyway. As then it will be just a case of the laurels being thought of as extra things to just spend. Until then tho and until we all have what we want/need from that merchant I guess we have to go with it how it is for now.

Indeed, I feel like achievements being the only way to get laurels is a big part of the feeling (Applies to a lesser extent with karma also). And I agree that the daily doesn’t take that long, but still the main fact is that one has to log in every day. I mean, compare a player who plays two hours every day for a week to a player who plays 14 hours over the weekend. They play the same amount of time, but I think it’s fair to say that the weekend player will never get as much “done” as the daily player. Especially considering how many different types of dailies there are (chests, dungeon, achievements, JPs, and others I may have forgotten).

Perhaps my tittle is a bit misleading, I think it’s better to ask: Forced to play on a daily basis? (Will probably change it to such).

Also as a side note, I talked to some of my friends in game development and we came up with the idea that rewards based on periodic activity exist to make a game more addicting. This makes me want to ask a different question relating to my earlier one, is GW2 designed to be addicting? If not then what is the particular reason of rewarding periodic activity in GW2? (Assuming there was a reason for rewarding periodic activity in GW2. While Dev’s think about most things, it wouldn’t be right to assume that they think about everything. So if dailies only exist because Dev’s just wanted to have them in-game for the halibut – I’m perfectly fine with that).

I personally don’t feel forced. I log in 3, maybe 4 days a week. But then, getting ascended isn’t really a goal for me. Dailies are something I do to help my alts level up, the laurels I happen to get, I spend on dyes ^^

It’s all about the goals you set yourself.

Still, those goals exist in-game. And I think if you want to achieve something in-game one of the caveats shouldn’t be to play on a daily basis.

That aside, there’s still periodic rewards outside of laurels, as I mentioned before.

Edit: Also don’t get me wrong, there’s tons of parts in the game that are fun and don’t require periodic activity (I love the story). I’m just focusing on the parts that are affected by periodic activity.

That sense of compulsion to do the daily is, for some people, left over from WoW, and in particular the faceroll-the-5man-in-a-dungeon-finder-group-for-raid-badges daily from Wrath of the Lich King.

Really hard to unlearn that compulsion…and if this game puts in “inspect” or puts in content which is knife edge on gear stats (abruptly making the Ascended stuff required instead of a small bonus) it will be all over for the people who weren’t compulsive about dailies and monthlies. But then if that happens, we weren’t compulsive, we were rational.

No. I do them regardless of the laurels. If you dont want to do them nothing can make you. i dont WvWvW & fractals, so if the monthly requires me to do it, i just wont do them regardless of the rewards.

This is a game, not a job. I play when I want to play. And when I play I play how I want to play. No one is forcing me to log in every day for dailies, and no one is forcing me to grind for Best in Slot gear.

My approach to video games is and will always be: play to enjoy yourself, not to accumulate virtual stuff. The moment you stop worrying about keeping up with the virtual Joneses is the moment you’ll be free to truly enjoy the game.

Its a bad thing and yes i feel like iam beeing forced doing things i dont like if i want any progress….
You might say you dont need ascedent. Ok let me break this for you you play game because its fun, for me fun is getting all the best items in game if i cant get them theres no point for me to play. I like grinding gear i have no problem with it, but it seems like anet does so they are literally slowing down players who have time to play and thats just wrong. We should have options to buy lauers for gold, or give us option buy ascedent gear for gold….

Its a double edged sword for me.
I don’t play much anymore as the game doesn’t excite me, and there are other games calling my name, but I do log in to check what my Dailies are, and if they are easy or wont take to long I will do them. I want the Laurels so I don’t fall too far behind in WvW.
If they look complicated I log straight back out and go play something else. I’ve also being playing from launch and never managed to complete a Monthly

BadHabitZz.1856:

Its a bad thing and yes i feel like iam beeing forced doing things i dont like if i want any progress….
You might say you dont need ascedent. Ok let me break this for you you play game because its fun, for me fun is getting all the best items in game if i cant get them theres no point for me to play. I like grinding gear i have no problem with it, but it seems like anet does so they are literally slowing down players who have time to play and thats just wrong. We should have options to buy lauers for gold, or give us option buy ascedent gear for gold….

Wow, so somebody finally admits that this is how some people think. I’m kind of sorry for you, really. The best items in the game are supposed to take time, not heavy grind. And yes, I think it shouldn’t be possible to just buy a legendary. Everybody should have to do world completion and the other prerequisites. And I also think they shouldn’t have added the fractals RNG grind, but I guess that’s what people like you asked for.

Iruwen.3164:

BadHabitZz.1856:

Its a bad thing and yes i feel like iam beeing forced doing things i dont like if i want any progress….
You might say you dont need ascedent. Ok let me break this for you you play game because its fun, for me fun is getting all the best items in game if i cant get them theres no point for me to play. I like grinding gear i have no problem with it, but it seems like anet does so they are literally slowing down players who have time to play and thats just wrong. We should have options to buy lauers for gold, or give us option buy ascedent gear for gold….

Wow, so somebody finally admits that this is how some people think. I’m kind of sorry for you, really. The best items in the game are supposed to take time, not heavy grind. And yes, I think it shouldn’t be possible to just buy a legendary. Everybody should have to do world completion and the other prerequisites. And I also think they shouldn’t have added the fractals RNG grind, but I guess that’s what people like you asked for.

You dont get it….yes, best items should take time if it takes 100 hours iam fine with it but i want to have option to split this 100h in time i want for example 10h/day if i chose to, now its not possible with this new laurel system i can farm only as fast as daily allows me. Also you dont have to feel sorry for me i had a blast farming my gear and i would still have if i could farm my gear, but unfortunatly i cant…
Also on that legendary, yes you shouldnt be able to just buy it (only precursor, because with rng some ppl might accualy never get it….) i completly agree, but thats not point of this thread….

I always see this as a bonus and it’s quite ok for me to look forward to getting ascended gear at some point. But I dont’ feel like I’m grinding for it, just like I don’t feel like I’m grinding for exotic gear. I find I do this ting in MMOs, I always set up goals – and most likely I’m not the only one doing it – so dailies and monthlies feel more like a natural progression for me, it’s a means for me to achieve those goals. But to say I’m feeling forced to do it would be like saying I’m forced to play the game.

I guess it would be more of a problem if GW2 had 10 tiers of items, each more powerful than the other, but as it is now I find it acceptable. When ascended gear was first introduced I was quite displeased beacuse you could only get it by doing dungeons. With dailies/monthlies ANet has provided another oportunity and I think it’s a step in the right direction.

As for the ability to buy ascended gear with gold, I think ANet won’t do it and probably shouldn’t. People would buy the items right away and then come to the forums complaining they have nothing else to do in the game. They’ll need something more and we’ll start all over again with the gear grind debate.

You are not forced to do a thing. There is a reward for doing the dailies, that does not mean you are forced, That simply means that you do not want to put in the work for the rewards. boohoo. If you don’t want to do the daily. Don’t. But accept that you aren’t going to be given something for nothing.

YES. you could argue that you don’t NEED to get them, but then you could also argue that you don’t NEED exotics and don;t NEED to level at all.

if you want to remain relevant then you need ascended items. period.

I am currently going out of my way to do dailies/monthlies in order to get Ascended gear to get enough AR to run higher level FotM. The difference between exotic and ascended tiers for accessories, amulets, rings and backpieces is kind of negligible, but I need that slot for +5 AR.

It would be nice to see other ways of getting laurels seeing as the game is getting progressively less casual-friendly, and yes, weekend-only players should be rewarded as much as people who can spare a couple hours a day to play GW2, but this current laurel earning system doesn’t allow for that.

Having said that, I have enough free time to devote to doing dailies almost every day so I can’t complain personally.

I took the decision to just flat out ignore Ascended gear, and blew all my Laurels on gathering tools & random tat. I intend to continue doing that going forward. The feeling of pressure to log in everyday, is substantially reduced, if you just look at Laurels as free gathering tools or a shot at some exotic gear.

Imo, it’s nice to know that there are minor goals that one can do that help make it flavorful while you attain your bigger goals (alt, legendary, etc).

honestly ascended gear is not that huge of a stat boost and the only reason you really have to get it is for the added AR for higher level fractals. So in essence you are not “forced” to do dailies at all. You can do them at your own pace or not and still get stuff that is usefull to you.

Also since the recent changes on the dailies they really are not that bad now. You can practicly get most of them without even trying since there are so many options. You typically don’t have to go out of your way and do one particular thing like you used to. Heck I got daily condition applier on accident the other day on my ranger. I got it on the first pull of a fractal.

BadHabitZz.1856:

You dont get it….yes, best items should take time if it takes 100 hours iam fine with it but i want to have option to split this 100h in time i want for example 10h/day if i chose to, now its not possible with this new laurel system i can farm only as fast as daily allows me. Also you dont have to feel sorry for me i had a blast farming my gear and i would still have if i could farm my gear, but unfortunatly i cant…
Also on that legendary, yes you shouldnt be able to just buy it (only precursor, because with rng some ppl might accualy never get it….) i completly agree, but thats not point of this thread….

No. The best looking items need to take time yes. The best stat items on the other hand should be easy to get.

It’s a mistake MMOs are making that I though GW2 would fix and then the 15 November happened :/

Here’s the problem. The game was advertised as being different from the average WoW-clone, yes? Play your way, easy to stay relevant, and while they originally said “you can have the carrot”, let just stick with their recent claims of only having a shallow vertical curve.

Ok. Now as a point of reference. Before i played this, I played a ton of other MMOs, the most recent being (ugh…) SWTOR.

At the time i played, you could get blackhole gear from dailies/monthlies (dungeon finder) that you could spread over several days/months (they didnt reset) AND/or wrapping together a group of 8 people and opening chests in a raid, even if you didn’t finish it.

Then you had campaign gear that had the exact same stat budget but shuffled around. My guild (of 8 people!) had server first on getting full campaign sets, and we didn’t use most of it because blackhole often had better stat distribution.

That was SWTOR. That game was almost universally proclaimed to totally suck because of its crazy grind, stupid ways of acquiring gears, boring dailies and screwing over people who weren’t in progression guild.

Comes GW2, that is supposed to fix all that. Yet, as a mostly solitary player with a very small guild, who didn’t want to do dailies all day, I was able to not only get full blackhole gear (which would have been on the same level as campaign), but also full campaign (which was just an alternate set), in just a few weeks. In GW2, it would take me something like 6 months, if i never skip a daily, since my guild cannot do all the content. The “quick easy to get” (exotic) set is also quite a few percentage point weaker than the best (ascended). Only a few pieces of ascended (rings) are quick to get.

So to max out a character in GW2, I need to grind more, i need a bigger guild, I need a greater commitment, to get gear that has a greater impact. There’s also more significant gear gating (Maw will eventually just 1 shot you a few seconds into the fight if you don’t have ascended, no matter what, as opposed to enrage timers). If SWTOR sucked (it did…terrible game), then that means GW2….?

I guess everyone plays (and does the dailies) for their own reasons.

When I played FFXI, back in the day, I played a job that was never particularly hip or must-have, and so I spent a lot of time looking for a party or trying to put one together. Aside from not getting any levels, logging off feeling like I had not accomplished anything really bothered me. I enjoy feeling like I got something done, even if I had little time to actually play. “Little time” never got you very far in the old, pre-Abyssea FFXI.

What I like best about the dailies, even post-patch, is that I can get them done very quickly, and even if I have time for nothing else, I can log off feeling like I accomplished something, got something done.

It doesn’t really give me an incentive to play, really, just helps me not ever feel like I logged in, logged out, and nothing happened in-between, even on slower days.

I like the daily’s as it motivates people to do certain content and get a rewarded for them.
Certain area’s wouldn’t be that full if people had nothing to do there.
And if i don’t have enough time to do the daily and enjoy playing with my friends.
I just don’t do the daily that day??
I don’t see the problem in getting my amulet 10 days later than other people

I used to feel that way, after 43 laurels I finally missed a daily, after that I lost that feeling and just do whatever I want which in my case is dungeons. Now I don’t complete the daily unless it’s very easy, of course I’m falling behind but whatever, that’s how this system works with this ascended bullkitten I never thought they’d add.

A lot of MMO players feel the need to “keep up with the Joneses”, but of course characters are always going to be at different points of progression. Even if you only run with a certain group and always run exactly the same content, GW2 has decided that you don’t share in XP – I’m not sure why.

That said, I don’t feel the need to “keep up” but I am affected by the changing dailies. Earlier this week I logged in and looked at the daily list. There weren’t 5 things that I wanted to do so I logged off. Of course I can play without being constrained to doing the dailies, but I have other games that I play as well. So if I’m on the fence I used to feel a certain pressure to do dailies if I could. Now if there is a list of dailies that I don’t want to do, I might just go play something else instead.

Self imposed for me. I still have not spent a laurel yet but I know I will want to one day and I hate to think I missing out on obtaining them. So I want to get them done everyday. Whenever I finally settle on a main I will start spending them, probably will buy a lot of dye as well.

Let me state this.

I am a casual gamer with about 10 hours of weekly total game play time. I don’t have time no desire to login like a clock and spent 1-2 hours each night doing chores.
Ever since the laurel system and to some degree FOTM (ascended gear) came out I feel “forced” to login and do the daily routine to keep up with the general population.

I am feeling burnt out of the “keeping up with the Joneses” pressure. GW2 is not the same game that I bought at the release.
P.S. I have spent close to $200 at gems store since the release. I feel really cheated by bate and switch that ANET pulled on us casuals. I will not spend any more money at the gem store until the game gets back on track to its original roots.

Plastered.2315:

Let me state this.

I am a casual gamer with about 10 hours of weekly total game play time. I don’t have time no desire to login like a clock and spent 1-2 hours each night doing chores.
Ever since the laurel system and to some degree FOTM (ascended gear) came out I feel “forced” to login and do the daily routine to keep up with the general population.

I am feeling burnt out of the “keeping up with the Joneses” pressure. GW2 is not the same game that I bought at the release.
P.S. I have spent close to $200 at gems store since the release. I feel really cheated by bate and switch that ANET pulled on us casuals. I will not spend any more money at the gem store until the game gets back on track to its original roots.

I’m a bit intrgiued by this… can you elaborate a little more about what you consider to be the state of the “general population”?

I could care less about the dailies and monthlies. If I get a daily just by playing, hey thats cool. But I never hunt for em.

I really don’t understand the seemingly “innate need” some people have to complete them.

I wouldn’t sweat the laurels too much if you miss days of playing.

They’ll keep adding more ways to get this ascended stuff. The laurel method is just a baseline way to obtain them for now.

Given a vertically progressing game (in terms of the power curve), there is no question as to whether you will do the grind if you want to play the game long-term. A simple thought experiment will reveal that for you. The gear grind is non-optional.

And no, it was not necessary and is not good for games. Horizontal progression is preferable as it carries a lot less baggage. If you are in doubt or unfamiliar with the concepts, check out the videos below:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/power-creep

http://taugrim.com/2012/04/19/why-games-should-scale-horizontally-instead-of-vertically/