Guild Wars 2

I read another post that said in another week, the uproar will die down and few will complain about Ascended gear. It was never about Ascended gear, but I think the prediction is accurate.

The gear, and the developer blog explaining its motivation and some details, is what many players on both sides see as a road sign for the game’s future. Will GW2 be item/level progression based or not? Most who care to debate it in the forums already know this, but I wanted say it clearly one more time.

If there is one thing I am confident about, it’s the self restraint of GW2 players not to troll the game even if they play less. By then, valid reasons to post on the subject will have disappeared anyway. Now is the time to be heard, whether it’s ultimately useful or not; not everyone will get his way. Now is the most important time because games, like all things in life, have momentum. I’ve seen concerned posters asking about whether there will be other gear/level progression increases in the future. I didn’t see an official answer but I believe in the age old truism that back peddling is publicity suicide. A fork like this won’t repeat again in the road.

Will this cause a mass exodus from the game? Of course not. The core GW2 player base, at the moment at least, is nothing if not casual. It’s not like anyone needs to unsubscribe. Any departures will be gradual and personal, and GW veterans don’t have any inhibitions about picking up the game again even if they leave for a time.

That makes the current debate even more invigorating. GW1 lacked an official game forum. Without a convenient channel to express their views, many just adopted a laissez-faire attitude. It had its benefits but also missed something that is the soul of any game, any activity, with a multitude of participants. At this moment at least, we are standing up for what we believe in. We don’t have to agree. We don’t all have to get satisfaction. It doesn’t diminish in the least the spirit of the effort.

How do I feel about item/level progression? I don’t know. I’ve never had the time to get into an item/level progression based game. I spent my time thoroughly enjoying the different class stories of my last MMO, despite like 6 tiers of end game gear less than a year after release. Maybe GW2 can learn something from that.

This is an excellent post. Very well written and thought out. Hats off to you.

While their handling of this won’t cause some kind of exodus, or at least anything really noticeable outside of a.net’s gameplay figures, it will probably put a lot of people off returning or paying out real money for gems.

The one thing that could make any difference to how a.net proceeds from here on in is a perceived loss in revenue.

Look at the way they handled the Halloween chests, it seemed a very money orientated decision to rush in a second chance since the way they handled those chests had a profound effect of pushing the people who were buying gems to convert into keys away from buying more.

This time round there really is no money link between the main issue for the community and the developer needing to rush a solution so they’re probably just hoping it’ll all blow over.

It’ll be interesting to see where they go from here and what long term effects all of this is going to have on the community’s relationship with a.net.

Also on a side note it seems like all of this ascended stuff seems to stem from a.net not being able to infuse exotics at this point, it’s as if they hit a development snag and rushed the easiest solution through. They keep using the phrase “over time” which makes it seem to me that they’re unable to do double slot gear right now. Could be that they rushed things to “combat” TOR going F2P and shot themselves in the foot in the process.

Well, what is there to wait and see, if you already know what you will see?
The dev statement is clear, they will not add more gear grinding every 3 months, that potentially means they will add more gear grinding in the future and this will surely not be the final one, i dont see what is hard to understand that most ppl who were interested in gw2 and those that came from gw1 feel betrayed by this silent move of them, they kept things silent and developed, and 1 or 2 days before the patch is released, they came to tell us about it, something like:
OH hai! how are you? we are ready to implement the patch, here are the changes, everything is ok as it should i hope? no? :\ but we already wasted team effort to code it, oh well np ull enjoy it anyways

Mr Crazy Moose.5760:

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Also on a side note it seems like all of this ascended stuff seems to stem from a.net not being able to infuse exotics at this point, it’s as if they hit a development snag and rushed the easiest solution through. They keep using the phrase “over time” which makes it seem to me that they’re unable to do double slot gear right now. Could be that they rushed things to “combat” TOR going F2P and shot themselves in the foot in the process.

I don’t think this was not planned and rushed per se. Maybe the timing of the announcement of the changes was and they way these news were first found on other mmo news media prior to the patch, didn’t help much – i think this should have been exposed to the players earlier.

Perhaps the reason this new Ascended gear will be introduced slowly is to act as “damage control” and let players “soak in” the changes at a slower pace.

Many, such as myself, will not quit over this since there’s no monthly sub and no reason to uninstall. However, I will definitely be less invested in the PvE side of the game and will likely NEVER make another gem purchase. In addition, I will be far more cautious about any future purchases related to this game, such as expansions.

Anet had a rabidly loyal fanbase that would have stuck by them through just about anything. But with the incredibly short sighted decision to start abandoning their principals this early in the game’s life, Anet has lost a massive amount of “street cred”. Everything the company says from this point on will be met with higher scrutiny and skepticism. Plus, all it will take is one more terrible change, such as adding sPvP gear with stats or recreating the trinity, and their credibility will be destroyed.

“Watershed moment” is the perfect term to describe this.

GW2 was supposed to set a new precedent in gaming, a “revolution” if you will. There was even a manifesto! Players bought into the cause, supported the cause, and now three months later, the leaders of the cause have suddenly taken a stand that is alarmingly similar to what the original manifesto was once against.

It’s very heartening to see that players were really for the original principles of the game. As Valhallen said, the fanbase would have “stuck by them through just about anything”, because GW2 was more than a game, it represented a set of principles in gaming.

Now I don’t know. The messages we have gotten so far are very muddled.

Out of power they promise you change. In power they just ine their pockets like the rest of them and use spin to try and make you accept the volte face.

People in suits.

Bet the Devs don’t wear suits. Bet the Devs are aware of what’s happening and are cringing.

A very well written posts. More posts should be this well thought out.

I agree with many of your observations. Most players are not going to leave because of the gear progression. After all, we already paid for the game and there is no monthly subs. I do agree most people will eventually drift off due to lack of contents.

Adding gear progression can only fill a very short term gap. I mean how long will it take for players to grin enough tokens for 2 accessories and a backpack? 3 days for the hardcore and 1 1/2 week for the causal? Then we are back to square 1.

Personally I am surprise how cheaply the producers sell out their core-players loyalties. Most companies would pay millions of dollars in PR to get a fraction of that love.

To post several videos on youtube and numerous advertisements before the game launch saying there will be no gear progression and how GW2 is different from other MMO. But only to do the opposite 3 months later is an unbelievable. WTF are the producer of GW2 thinking?!