Guild Wars 2

http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Meleagar/112012/24237_NCSoft-Sold-Arenanet-and-GW2-Out-For-Nexon-Investment

Is it true? If yes i see very dark future for GW2, unfortunately and my faith and trust in ArenaNet will be lost forever.

That is based on speculation.
It depends on how you see things. Did they throw out the manifesto?
Tier gear and gated content.
Yes Nexon owns 15% voting shares of NC Soft in part publishes Anet who produces GW2.
Beyond that we just dont know the influence one has over the other.
It is safe to say they are without doubt making significant altering choices in the vision and direction of the game. The rest is up to you to decide and your critical thinking.

I will say this I played the game every day for 6+hours and on the 15th I stopped.

I’m as willing to believe in corporate greed as the next long-time gamer, but there’s about half a fact in that piece and a boatload of inference and wild guesses.

For me everything collapsed like a house of cards.

While i enjoyed the Karaka one time event, the “You know what addition” turned me off. I am the person that doesn’t have much time to play games, so i’ve fallen into ArenaNet philosophy of not having gear trademil. Now, after some time ,when i’m going to look for group i will definetly meet the wall, which will be “If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”. I thought there will not be discrimination based on gear, cuz i believed there will be no gear trademil. With this update everything has changed.

I want to say sth to ArenaNet. Do not forsaken Your philosophy, do not fall under the whiners pressure. Whiners are minority, majority enjoyed the game as it was, without all this ascended crap.

I believe Your designers can make harder dungeon mechanics so players will feel their progress by making harder and harder content, but not determined by gear, but by their brain, skill and coordination. I feel You dont fully use the non-trinity potential, so i hope You will find the golden solution for it too.

Man, this is like a slap in the face.

I think it sounds very probable, yes. :-|

I’d believe it. As I said in my previous thread- go back and read the manifesto, then watch the interviews before the game’s release. Those developers loved this game and its fans, and they knew what we wanted. They were excited to give it us, HAPPY to create something unique. They specifically spoke out against this type of content on a regular basis.

Then what… 2 months in they have a change of heart and decide to throw their fan base under the bus? I highly doubt it.

You people think you are sad about this change? I’d bet VERY good money that your disappointment over this change doesn’t compare to how some of them feel…

Only time will tell.

Until then, everything is only speculation. If you want to go on a rampage, by all means go ahead.

I for one am not letting it go to my head and I’m going to keep enjoying the game.

once you have ascended gear theres nothing to worry about, its not as if they adding new gear after that, whats the big bother?

It read like an opinion piece to me.

I don’t particularly like gated content or gear that’s overly hard to get. I had no intention of getting legendaries, and it would ‘appear’ as though I’d never get ascended either.

At the end of the day, it will all come down to whether any of this impacts my ability to enjoy myself in the game, and have my own things to look forward to doing every day.

nehezbegar.1065:

For me everything collapsed like a house of cards.

While i enjoyed the Karaka one time event, the “You know what addition” turned me off. I am the person that doesn’t have much time to play games, so i’ve fallen into ArenaNet philosophy of not having gear trademil. Now, after some time ,when i’m going to look for group i will definetly meet the wall, which will be “If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”. I thought there will not be discrimination based on gear, cuz i believed there will be no gear trademil. With this update everything has changed.

I want to say sth to ArenaNet. Do not forsaken Your philosophy, do not fall under the whiners pressure. Whiners are minority, majority enjoyed the game as it was, without all this ascended crap.

I believe Your designers can make harder dungeon mechanics so players will feel their progress by making harder and harder content, but not determined by gear, but by their brain, skill and coordination. I feel You dont fully use the non-trinity potential, so i hope You will find the golden solution for it too.

Man, this is like a slap in the face.

“Which will be “If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”. "

You know, there was a time that was a statement of fact in GW1 and no amount of wringing your hands would change the fact you literally could not go with them.

As for the rest of this, well, there’s another issue. ArenaNet isn’t a person, it is made up of people. People make mistakes, they have ideas they think might be awesome but turn out to be only a subjective taste. (Vanilla vs chocolate vs strawberry icing, mustard vs ketchup as a condiment . . .) People sometimes compromise between choices of what they want to do, sometimes without adequately understanding what the results of that choice are going to be. People are invariably . . . flawed.

I’ll leave a quote here for you fine ladies and gentlemen.

“The problem with oaths saying “death before dishonor”, is that it divides the world into two groups. The dead and the forsworn."

Sef.6918:

once you have ascended gear theres nothing to worry about, its not as if they adding new gear after that, whats the big bother?

This is the problem with sarcasm on the internet… it’s so hard to detect =D

Tolmos.8395:

Sef.6918:

once you have ascended gear theres nothing to worry about, its not as if they adding new gear after that, whats the big bother?

This is the problem with sarcasm on the internet… it’s so hard to detect =D

It’s not just sarcasm which is hard to detect, my friend, it’s sincerity which is hard to detect.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

“Which will be “If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”. "

You know, there was a time that was a statement of fact in GW1 and no amount of wringing your hands would change the fact you literally could not go with them.

As for the rest of this, well, there’s another issue. ArenaNet isn’t a person, it is made up of people. People make mistakes, they have ideas they think might be awesome but turn out to be only a subjective taste. (Vanilla vs chocolate vs strawberry icing, mustard vs ketchup as a condiment . . .) People sometimes compromise between choices of what they want to do, sometimes without adequately understanding what the results of that choice are going to be. People are invariably . . . flawed.

I’ll leave a quote here for you fine ladies and gentlemen.

“The problem with oaths saying “death before dishonor”, is that it divides the world into two groups. The dead and the forsworn."

This is why i hate that ArenaNet has no Public Test Realms, to check those ideas on the community. They just threw what they had in their mind and put it on live servers. Also i believed that players wouldn’t be divided by gear as it appears to be now.

You can say “obtain ascended and you are ok”. Yes, but if they was able to introduce another tier of gear, there is nothing that can stop them from introducing “super extra legendary ascended gear” with greater stats and bonuses, which makes GW2 not different than other games on the market, and ArenaNet claimed that they are different. Maybe im stupid and i don’t understand sth, i don’t know. This is how i feel.

that article says this game has become pay to win, how is that possible?

spvp is another world
wvwvw no matter if you have the top gear, if you dont match numbers you are nothing

your so called treadmill is only vs NPCs, thats not competition those arent players hence cant bring pay to win statement

this is what you all seem to not understand, i consider myself a hardcore player and i dont see this gear a problem, because wont give me benefits in pvp or in wvw at the end, just vs npcs…

JemL.3501:

that article says this game has become pay to win, how is that possible?

spvp is another world
wvwvw no matter if you have the top gear, if you dont match numbers you are nothing

your so called treadmill is only vs NPCs, thats not competition those arent players hence cant bring pay to win statement

this is what you all seem to not understand, i consider myself a hardcore player and i dont see this gear a problem, because wont give me benefits in pvp or in wvw at the end, just vs npcs…

There are not only PvP players in the world my friend.

Mm i know what they did to atlantica ( one of the very Very few f2p’s i have actually enjoyed ). 15% is alot..but not so much that they are in control,they have a word but not the last word.I dont think it will change alot,if it does..then…well…i rather not say.

This is also why they killed City of Heroes, the world’s most profitable and longest-running (longer than WoW) superhero MMO. Gotta kill those cash cows, man, just so you can bet your entire nut on one pot.

nehezbegar.1065:

There are not only PvP players in the world my friend.

why would someone care about NPC treadmill…do that npc tell you noob when you die or dance in your body for raise his e-stuff.

this is where you pve people lose credibility, you are fighting npcs for continue to fight npcs, thats not pay to win, you cant compare NPC fights to such statement

is hilarious to be honest, is practically another dungeon another npcs which will just give you another item, if it has more stats than exotic wont matter, you still can be in orr doing whatever you do, or in ac or arah doing whatever you do, in karka map doing whatever you do, having or not that gear wont have a great impact in any place, just in this dungeon which you can do or not.

althought the nexon part in the article is true

JemL.3501:

why would someone care about NPC treadmill…do that npc tell you noob when you die or dance in your body for raise his e-stuff.

this is where you pve people lose credibility, you are fighting npcs for continue to fight npcs, thats not pay to win, you cant compare NPC fights to such statement

is hilarious to be honest, is practically another dungeon another npcs which will just give you another item, if it has more stats than exotic wont matter, you still can be in orr doing whatever you do, or in ac or arah doing whatever you do, in karka map doing whatever you do, having or not that gear wont have a great impact in any place, just in this dungeon which you can do or not.

althought the nexon part in the article is true

If they introduced trademil in PvE, what stops them from introducing the same into PvP? Those decisions impacts all aspects of the game (ascendand gear will be avaiable in WvWvW too), because this gives the open gate for same changes not only in PvE, but in PvP too.

And Yes, it impacts me badly, cuz i can’t experience new dungeong, because i have to grind the gear before that will let me go and actually do sth there. It also divide ppl for those who have and those who have not and at the end it will end up with “gearscore scenario” like in other, well known, MMO.

Lol now it all makes sense. This is probably why we haven’t heard a peep about any of this. And Nexon is a bad greedy company. They don’t want anyone talking. You think EA is bad wait and see.

nehezbegar.1065:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

“Which will be “If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”. "

You know, there was a time that was a statement of fact in GW1 and no amount of wringing your hands would change the fact you literally could not go with them.

As for the rest of this, well, there’s another issue. ArenaNet isn’t a person, it is made up of people. People make mistakes, they have ideas they think might be awesome but turn out to be only a subjective taste. (Vanilla vs chocolate vs strawberry icing, mustard vs ketchup as a condiment . . .) People sometimes compromise between choices of what they want to do, sometimes without adequately understanding what the results of that choice are going to be. People are invariably . . . flawed.

I’ll leave a quote here for you fine ladies and gentlemen.

“The problem with oaths saying “death before dishonor”, is that it divides the world into two groups. The dead and the forsworn."

This is why i hate that ArenaNet has no Public Test Realms, to check those ideas on the community. They just threw what they had in their mind and put it on live servers. Also i believed that players wouldn’t be divided by gear as it appears to be now.

You can say “obtain ascended and you are ok”. Yes, but if they was able to introduce another tier of gear, there is nothing that can stop them from introducing “super extra legendary ascended gear” with greater stats and bonuses, which makes GW2 not different than other games on the market, and ArenaNet claimed that they are different. Maybe im stupid and i don’t understand sth, i don’t know. This is how i feel.

Public test servers are probably a good idea for a BUNCH of other reasons than this. Ultima Online did a lot of . . . interesting . . . things on their test servers, and despite for a while having a constant data wipe going on people still would flock there and play on it as opposed to regular servers.

A public test server would allow ANet to test fixes on bugs to see if they work before they apply it. And presumably catch a “fix” which winds up not being a total solution.

A public test server would allow them to watch how a small group of players act and use what they drop in with a note going: “Hey folks, why don’t you take this and go use it, let us know what you think?” (Note, it has to be that way, it’s SERIOUSLY impractical for a public test server to have everyone on it all the time . . . or it’s not the test server it’s the main one.)

Tobias, it’s true what You say, but i just wanted to pin out, that they can test those ideas on players before they put them on the live servers

The article has a lot of exaggeration and sounds pretty biased.

I’m just going to point out that vertical progression was talked about (as in they would do it) just over a year ago in the form of level advancement in expansions.

Just to point out, it’s not an article but a player blog.

nehezbegar.1065:

If they introduced trademil in PvE, what stops them from introducing the same into PvP? Those decisions impacts all aspects of the game (ascendand gear will be avaiable in WvWvW too), because this gives the open gate for same changes not only in PvE, but in PvP too.

Like i said

pvp is another world (spvp) is not affected.

in wvwvw, a player with full lvl 80 blue can do as well as a lvl 80 full exotic by the simple fact with all this equality beliefs and the way it is wvwvw is about numbers, no matter if you have the top people with the top gear, they wont do anything if dont match numbers.

this is why pay to win doesnt fit in this game especially when boosters are like meaningless,leveling up is so fast and easy that you dont require that stuff, thats just an example.

what you all should be complaining is about bugs, balance, and so on.

Healix.5819:

The article has a lot of exaggeration and sounds pretty biased.

I’m just going to point out that vertical progression was talked about (as in they would do it) just over a year ago in the form of level advancement in expansions.

In expansions its not a problem. If they raised lvl cap, it would be logical to introduce gear for the next lvl cap. Otherwise, if the lvl cap stays as it is now and they still introduces the next tier of gear, game wont be anything different than another WoW.

People have posted about this same topic. All threads get deleted, go to an unofficial forum if you want to discuss this. I’m not trying to white knight but you should treat people with decency instead of implying things that you know barely anything about.

JemL.3501:

pvp is another world (spvp) is not affected.

For now, but nothing stops them from introducing gear progression in PvP.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

People have posted about this same topic. All threads get deleted, go to an unofficial forum if you want to discuss this. I’m not trying to white knight but you should treat people with decency instead of implying things that you know barely anything about.

I’m not implying anything, i did put this blog post to ask if its true or not and why should i go to unnoficial forum? Can’t i discuss difficult topics like this here? Is it so wrong? What are they afraid of?

nehezbegar.1065:

Healix.5819:

The article has a lot of exaggeration and sounds pretty biased.

I’m just going to point out that vertical progression was talked about (as in they would do it) just over a year ago in the form of level advancement in expansions.

In expansions its not a problem. If they raised lvl cap, it would be logical to introduce gear for the next lvl cap. Otherwise, if the lvl cap stays as it is now and they still introduces the next tier of gear, game wont be anything different than another WoW.

So you are saying if level went up… its not a treadmill? Wont players who haven’t played for a bit now be really left behind?

raising a level cap is the same as adding a gear treadmill, you now have to work again to be at max level, and attain new gear at the appropriate level just to compete. Infact, you wont be able to do higher level content now because you are still level 80, and you will NEED to get to the higher level to see and experience content. How would this be ok if people are freaking out over Ascended gear that barely changes anything, and you can still view all the content in the game without it?

nehezbegar.1065:

Tobias, it’s true what You say, but i just wanted to pin out, that they can test those ideas on players before they put them on the live servers

And on the other hand, please don’t hate me for saying this . . .

Even if the test server players thought the change was absolutely fricking awesome, it could be a bad idea for the main servers. Ultima Online again, Test had a faction war going on but it was really something Live didn’t have. Which is why it developed its own community, come to think of it . . . my brother was very heavy into playing on it but couldn’t stand fifteen minutes of the actual game.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I’m not trying to white knight but you should treat people with decency instead of implying things that you know barely anything about.

So advertising for product A, but selling product B in product A’s packaging, would you call that treating people with decency?

tkalamba.2541:

nehezbegar.1065:

Healix.5819:

The article has a lot of exaggeration and sounds pretty biased.

I’m just going to point out that vertical progression was talked about (as in they would do it) just over a year ago in the form of level advancement in expansions.

In expansions its not a problem. If they raised lvl cap, it would be logical to introduce gear for the next lvl cap. Otherwise, if the lvl cap stays as it is now and they still introduces the next tier of gear, game wont be anything different than another WoW.

So you are saying if level went up… its not a treadmill? Wont players who haven’t played for a bit now be really left behind?

raising a level cap is the same as adding a gear treadmill, you now have to work again to be at max level, and attain new gear at the appropriate level just to compete. Infact, you wont be able to do higher level content now because you are still level 80, and you will NEED to get to the higher level to see and experience content. How would this be ok if people are freaking out over Ascended gear that barely changes anything, and you can still view all the content in the game without it?

It isn’t the same. With the expansion You get new zones and stuff that is appropriate for 81,82,83 and so on lvl untill You get to so called endgame. It is rather lvling experience than endgame experience. And now we talk endgame experience and not lvling experience.

nehezbegar.1065:

In expansions its not a problem. If they raised lvl cap, it would be logical to introduce gear for the next lvl cap. Otherwise, if the lvl cap stays as it is now and they still introduces the next tier of gear, game wont be anything different than another WoW.

Currently, “tier 1” is ascended rings and back. “tier 2” will be maybe earrings and necklace. “tier 3” will be maybe gloves, boots and helm. “tier 4” will be maybe shoulders chest and pants. Finally, “tier 5” would be weapons.

Exotics were to easy to obtain, so they are gating the aquisition of ascended gear. When “tier 2” comes out, “tier 1” will probably be given away all over the place. They could easily stretch out the single tier of ascended gear over the year, where then, a new expansion comes out and it starts all over again.

They called ascended gear a fix which is usually withheld until an expansion, meaning a true “tier 2” as seen in WoW will most likely not be happening. Assuming they truly believe exotics were too easy to get, what if, next expansion (pretending ascended items were never introduced) they made exotics gated like ascended items are now. Would the majority of those against ascended gear even realize that this scenario would be the same thing as ascended gear?

Loumy.7841:

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I’m not trying to white knight but you should treat people with decency instead of implying things that you know barely anything about.

So advertising for product A, but selling product B in product A’s packaging, would you say that is called decency?

Just so you know, the manifesto on their blog site isn’t advertising…. Infact, it was just a statement of intentions, intentions that could change at anytime depending on market forces posted on a blog.

Advertisments are PAID announcements in the media, not something written on a company blog, which should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Those banner ads? Advertisements. The TV commercial? Advertisements. If these in anyways said the game would never add anything or whatnot… that would be considered false advertising. A blog post is not.

You can lie Yourself, but manifesto was the clearly marketing talk.

nehezbegar.1065:

tkalamba.2541:

nehezbegar.1065:

Healix.5819:

The article has a lot of exaggeration and sounds pretty biased.

I’m just going to point out that vertical progression was talked about (as in they would do it) just over a year ago in the form of level advancement in expansions.

In expansions its not a problem. If they raised lvl cap, it would be logical to introduce gear for the next lvl cap. Otherwise, if the lvl cap stays as it is now and they still introduces the next tier of gear, game wont be anything different than another WoW.

So you are saying if level went up… its not a treadmill? Wont players who haven’t played for a bit now be really left behind?

raising a level cap is the same as adding a gear treadmill, you now have to work again to be at max level, and attain new gear at the appropriate level just to compete. Infact, you wont be able to do higher level content now because you are still level 80, and you will NEED to get to the higher level to see and experience content. How would this be ok if people are freaking out over Ascended gear that barely changes anything, and you can still view all the content in the game without it?

It isn’t the same. With the expansion You get new zones and stuff that is appropriate for 81,82,83 and so on lvl untill You get to so called endgame. It is rather lvling experience than endgame experience. And now we talk endgame experience and not lvling experience.

But adding more levels completely goes against any argument of Horizontal progression. You are now increasing both a stat cap and level cap. It is no different than adding new gear with higher stats in anyway whatsoever.

Ascended gear still keeps level 80 the same, and provides new content anyone can do without having to progress past level 80.

Say they add another 10 levels…. you cannot do level 90 content until you reach that level, and would create the exact problem of gating content on levels and the gear required at the new content. Regardless of if it adds new leveling zones. This is true vertical progression. Everyone who reached level 80 can now no longer compete against a level 90 as they will have a much more significant advantage than what Ascended gear even offers.

nehezbegar.1065:

“If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”.

People keep saying this, and I just can’t see it ever happening. Ever. Perhaps a tiny minority of groups will act like this, but it will never be a common thing, I’ll bet you anything.

People are far too willing to assume the worst.

Same as lvl 50 can’t compete with lvl 80 now. As i said, it is lvling experience not endgame experience. With new expansion we should talk about lvls 90 equality. Endgame experience is sth different from lvling experience.

nehezbegar.1065:

Same as lvl 50 can’t compete with lvl 80 now. As i said, it is lvling experience not endgame experience. With new expansion we should talk about lvls 90 equality. Endgame experience is sth different from lvling experience.

But this goes against what Horizontal progression is, adding levels is the exact same thing as adding stats as it inflates base stats, and the need to grind for level 90 gear. It isn’t any different than any of the arguments people have thrown towards ascended gear.

One of my big draws to this game was the lack of the never ending gear grind. I despise that feature of these games. I especially hate that this gear is normally only available via running dungeons over and over, because I don’t like dungeons. I prefer to WvW and, as it is now, that new and better gear is not available via my preferred style of play in this game.

Personally, if that trend doesn’t change it will be the end of the game for me. If they change to a never ending gear grind for new gear without raising the level cap, that will also be the end of the game for me. Which is sad because GW2 ‘promised’ many wonderful things and it seems now they are going back on that promise.

The main problem is that NCSoft is a Korean company and their model includes nothing but constant unending grinding for everything including new gear on a regular basis.

While i understand Your point of view in some degree, You must understand that we talk now about endgame equality. With new expansion and rised lvl cap, endgame will be for instance on lvl 90. Yes, You will have to do the new zones, quests and hearts to ding max lvl , but at lvl 90 i expect the same equality with other lvl 90s, like now i expect equality with other lvl 80s.

Neilos Tyrhanos.5427:

nehezbegar.1065:

“If You have not ascended, You can’t go with us”.

People keep saying this, and I just can’t see it ever happening. Ever. Perhaps a tiny minority of groups will act like this, but it will never be a common thing, I’ll bet you anything.

People are far too willing to assume the worst.

Hi, welcome to the Internet!

I dont think u can sell ascended gear can you ?

Tolmos.8395:

I’d believe it. As I said in my previous thread- go back and read the manifesto, then watch the interviews before the game’s release. Those developers loved this game and its fans, and they knew what we wanted. They were excited to give it us, HAPPY to create something unique. They specifically spoke out against this type of content on a regular basis.

Then what… 2 months in they have a change of heart and decide to throw their fan base under the bus? I highly doubt it.

You people think you are sad about this change? I’d bet VERY good money that your disappointment over this change doesn’t compare to how some of them feel…

Yeah, I can only imagine how they’re feeling about this right now. :\

Ren.7539:

I dont think u can sell ascended gear can you ?

No, it’s account bound. If it was able to be sold, this might not be such a problem. Might. Because you’d be able to get someone to do the effort for you, and trade them something for your own Ascended gear . . . totally bypassing that grind you don’t want to do.

Edit: Actually, that’d probably be one of the safer ways to handle this if they want to keep Ascended gear in the game . . .

nehezbegar.1065:

While i understand Your point of view in some degree, You must understand that we talk now about endgame equality. With new expansion and rised lvl cap, endgame will be for instance on lvl 90. Yes, You will have to do the new zones, quests and hearts to ding max lvl , but at lvl 90 i expect the same equality with other lvl 90s, like now i expect equality with other lvl 80s.

Oh I understand, honestly I’m just playing devils advocate here. I don’t even have an issue if they decide to add another 10 levels for new full expansion some day. I’m just attempting to show people that any change can be opposed.

The thing is, someone will argue absolutely everything Anet will do in the end. It will be impossible to please everyone in this game. There will be just as many complaints in the event they increase the level cap as there are now. Ascended gear doesn’t really pose a serious problem to me, it is however my point of view, but i still don’t feel it does what people claim it does.

tkalamba.2541:

nehezbegar.1065:

Same as lvl 50 can’t compete with lvl 80 now. As i said, it is lvling experience not endgame experience. With new expansion we should talk about lvls 90 equality. Endgame experience is sth different from lvling experience.

But this goes against what Horizontal progression is, adding levels is the exact same thing as adding stats as it inflates base stats, and the need to grind for level 90 gear. It isn’t any different than any of the arguments people have thrown towards ascended gear.

Cause those people don’t really understand why they are upset. They can tolerate leveling and the journey from common to exotic because there is almost no work involved. They could also tolerate/ignore the leveling and gear system in game because they saw where it would end. There was a definite endpoint to how effective you could be: Exotics(+sigils). Now we have ascended gear. And no, not the complete set, so you could clearly see how much work you have to do until you’re finally done again. They spaced it out to make the journey longer. And when the complete set is released, they can just add new infusion tiers, because there are only fine’s now.
Those people just want to be done. They wouldn’t cry if there was only one tier of gear with one set of base stats. They wouldn’t cry if leveling didn’t give you more base stats, and just expanded your capabilities, like traits and utility slots do. They either want nothing to do with the journey of getting more powerful, or they want to ignore it, redefine it as a mandatory tutorial, after which they are fully equipped and 100% ready. They’re two different player philosophies, and you can only fully satisfy one of them at a time.

I’m not saying everyone opposing ascended gear is like that, but there’s a portion of players that looked forward that the game would almost completely lack this kind of progression, and what there was of it could be completed without too much of a time investment.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Ren.7539:

I dont think u can sell ascended gear can you ?

No, it’s account bound. If it was able to be sold, this might not be such a problem. Might. Because you’d be able to get someone to do the effort for you, and trade them something for your own Ascended gear . . . totally bypassing that grind you don’t want to do.

Edit: Actually, that’d probably be one of the safer ways to handle this if they want to keep Ascended gear in the game . . .

Considering you can technically Mystic Forge this with purchased materials, it isn’t currently too different. Odds are they will make the items much more accessible in the future, as they technically announced they would.

The problem with being able to simply purchase the gear is people will just start saying the game is pay to win.

tkalamba.2541:

Loumy.7841:

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I’m not trying to white knight but you should treat people with decency instead of implying things that you know barely anything about.

So advertising for product A, but selling product B in product A’s packaging, would you say that is called decency?

Just so you know, the manifesto on their blog site isn’t advertising…. Infact, it was just a statement of intentions, intentions that could change at anytime depending on market forces posted on a blog.

Advertisments are PAID announcements in the media, not something written on a company blog, which should always be taken with a grain of salt.

Those banner ads? Advertisements. The TV commercial? Advertisements. If these in anyways said the game would never add anything or whatnot… that would be considered false advertising. A blog post is not.

Please stop being an apologist for Anet.

The lack of a gear grind/treadmill game design goal was the very essence of the GW2 game philosophy, not something that was conveyed via one document. It was a philosophy projected throughout the game’s design for many years.

You and others speak as if we are imagining or confused about what Anet’s intent or game philosophy was for GW2. Stop insulting our intelligence.

JemL.3501:

in wvwvw, a player with full lvl 80 blue can do as well as a lvl 80 full exotic by the simple fact with all this equality beliefs and the way it is wvwvw is about numbers, no matter if you have the top people with the top gear, they wont do anything if dont match numbers.

You obviously aren’t that great at WvW if this is your thinking.

A skilled group of 80’s in max stat gear can hold their own against superior numbers. And when the opposing forces are closer to the same size, then it will be a slaughterhouse if it is exotics vs blues.

WvW isn’t all about turtling to take advantage of the 5 target cap and big dumb zergs.

Also, competitive players want/need to have max stats… and grinding in a “grinding is entirely optional” game is a big deal.

And what is with all this use of the word “equity” thrown around when talking about balanced stats? If anything everyone having max stats destroys your little concept of “equity” because it is all about player skill then, which does much more to show the difference between player skill, and laugh the ill conceived concept of “equity” out the window.

You grinders and P2W-ers just want what are essentially soft-hacks because you are bad and you need every bullkitten advantage you can get to compete against skilled players who don’t have as much free time to devote to the game.