Guild Wars 2

Confession Bear: I really like it if they released a new tier every year. But hopefully, attainable by other means than crafting.

..I’m gonna get flamed in 3..2..1..

knives.6345:

Confession Bear: I really like it if they released a new tier every year. But hopefully, attainable by other means than crafting.

..I’m gonna get flamed in 3..2..1..

what about releasing brand new content you experience by playing such as a dungeon and not a new tier of weapons that you acquire and go stand in LA because there’s no content to use your brand new weapon in? How does that sound? You know which one i’d go for.

Vayne.8563:

Kaizer.7135:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Colin Johnson timeline:

• The now infamous quote about expecting people to have best-in-slot gear upon reaching level 80.

• The now infamous quote about how he didn’t expect people to get to exotics so fast, so Ascended gear must be added.

• Don’t expect another tier for a long while.

Do you really trust him at this point?

Sure I trust him. Just like anyone else who said something years ago, and then the situation changed. In your life, you’ve never said something and two years later had to change it?

People are disingenuous. Oh, he’s a dev. He needs to be proficient in crystal ball to know what will happen.

That’s not the way the world works.

Yeah lets just get all game developers to make false statements about their game before release so people will buy the game anyway despite them not wanting it, then make up some BS so they can cover it up. Is that what you’re trying to say? God, you’re so ignorant.

Okay that’s another story. I believe when those statements were made, that was the intention. People are complaining about what Anet is saying NOW, about what Anet was saying then. These are two completely different issues.

Do you have any evidence that when Anet said that stuff they didn’t mean it?

Well, so they did not lie on purpose but changed their opinion a few days or weeks after release. What makes you sure they wont change it again this time?

This discussion is useless. Either someone trusts or he/she doesn’t. No side can convince the other one. I for my part don’t but on the other Hand: if they want to add another tier we can’t hinder them anyways so why should I care?

Pirlipat.2479:

Vayne.8563:

Kaizer.7135:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Colin Johnson timeline:

• The now infamous quote about expecting people to have best-in-slot gear upon reaching level 80.

• The now infamous quote about how he didn’t expect people to get to exotics so fast, so Ascended gear must be added.

• Don’t expect another tier for a long while.

Do you really trust him at this point?

Sure I trust him. Just like anyone else who said something years ago, and then the situation changed. In your life, you’ve never said something and two years later had to change it?

People are disingenuous. Oh, he’s a dev. He needs to be proficient in crystal ball to know what will happen.

That’s not the way the world works.

Yeah lets just get all game developers to make false statements about their game before release so people will buy the game anyway despite them not wanting it, then make up some BS so they can cover it up. Is that what you’re trying to say? God, you’re so ignorant.

Okay that’s another story. I believe when those statements were made, that was the intention. People are complaining about what Anet is saying NOW, about what Anet was saying then. These are two completely different issues.

Do you have any evidence that when Anet said that stuff they didn’t mean it?

Well, so they did not lie on purpose but changed their opinion a few days or weeks after release. What makes you sure they wont change it again this time?

This discussion is useless. Either someone trusts or he/she doesn’t. No side can convince the other one. I for my part don’t but on the other Hand: if they want to add another tier we can’t hinder them anyways so why should I care?

Oh, I’m not sure that they won’t change their mind based on circumstance. In fact, I’m pretty sure any company can potentially change their mind because of circumstance. It happens all the time. It’s called business.

I’m not the one who’s upset that they changed their minds…even though the change isn’t particularly suited to my style of play.

Nuka Cola.8520:

knives.6345:

Confession Bear: I really like it if they released a new tier every year. But hopefully, attainable by other means than crafting.

..I’m gonna get flamed in 3..2..1..

what about releasing brand new content you experience by playing such as a dungeon and not a new tier of weapons that you acquire and go stand in LA because there’s no content to use your brand new weapon in? How does that sound? You know which one i’d go for.

I think I never said anything about not liking new content…

knives.6345:

Nuka Cola.8520:

knives.6345:

Confession Bear: I really like it if they released a new tier every year. But hopefully, attainable by other means than crafting.

..I’m gonna get flamed in 3..2..1..

what about releasing brand new content you experience by playing such as a dungeon and not a new tier of weapons that you acquire and go stand in LA because there’s no content to use your brand new weapon in? How does that sound? You know which one i’d go for.

I think I never said anything about not liking new content…

but you know there could only be one thing while the other is put on the “not on our priority list”. So its better if people asked for end game content instead of dealing 1% more damage..

Lord Kuru.3685:

If it was some small thing that would be understandable This is definitely not small. This was one of the major selling points of GW2.

If Tesla motors promised an electric car with leather seats, but delivered an electric car with synthetic leather seats that would be bad, but perhaps understandable if their costs turned out to be higher than expected. If they delivered a car with a gas engine then you would be really kitten ed no matter what their excuses were. That’s what happened here with Anet.

I think a more accurate analogy would be Tesla motors promised you an electric car, but then later discovered it was insufficient for many drivers, and so they replaced your car, free of charge I might add, to one that has a gas engine IN ADDITION to the electric one you originally purchased.

And now you’re complaining because the gas engine gives you a higher top speed.

Well only for those who drove over 100000km this year and where crying because they bought an electric car, expecting it to be a gas one.

Sadly several of those buying this electric car bought it because they didn’t want to have a gas engine any longer..

DusK.3849:

Colin Johanson explains in a PAX 2013 interview about how Ascended came about, because they miscalculated the effort that would be required to get exotics, and states that he intends to ascended to be the only additional equipment tier they add to the game.

Makes no promises, as he states “7 years from now we might turn around and put another tier in, maybe someone else will be in charge of the game”, but really drives home the point that “this should be it” as far as equipment tiers are concerned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Jy7CcwnfUdU#t=107

My opinion: Big load off my mind. I’m glad that they’re not planning to implement a gear treadmill, and it’s nice to see an official explanation for why ascended happened in the first place, and it’s definitely a reasonable explanation.

Discuss.

I had the opposite reaction from that interview. Any time someone responds to a straightforward question with corporate-speak and bet-hedging, I get nervous. I’m sure Mr. Johanson was just trying to answer the question in a way that wouldn’t constrain the company later but that’s exactly what the question was trying to do: get some solid answers as to the future of the game.

Making statements on camera that might later make it difficult to change your plans should be avoided, but not when those changes go against your game’s design philosophy. You should be trying to do things that force you to stay honest and this interview was an opportunity to do just that.

Gear treadmills may be fine for some games, but GW2 was heavily advertised as being not one of those kinds of games. I’ve already stopped playing entirely because Ascended gear has made this game feel like a job, but if I had hard, unambiguous proof that they wouldn’t add another tier I might’ve been ok with sucking it up. Instead, this interview is a great big “We’re probably gonna add another tier at some point, I just don’t want to say exactly that” sign to me, because his response was designed to make that avenue possible.

I’ve basically resigned myself to picking one profession for acquiring all ascended gear, I simply don’t have the time(or money since I hate farming) to do that for my two other 80’s.

In GW1 I had 6 bows for my ranger, all top-tier stats, my favorite being a random drop(and very common) purple Dead Bow. This game is driving me crazy with the absurd amount of time gating. If I didn’t enjoy my guild so much(and the W3 we play), I don’t even know what I would do in-game anymore…

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

Exotics in a day legendary in a month.

So they inserted an inbetween gear that takes about 2 weeks to get. Nothing wrong with that.

Also dont forget that Anet answers to a higher power. NCSoft who is notorious for Asian grinders. So before you go jumping up Anet dev butttholes you might want to stop and actually thing before putting people down NONSTOP on the forums.

Vayne.8563:

Kaizer.7135:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Colin Johnson timeline:

• The now infamous quote about expecting people to have best-in-slot gear upon reaching level 80.

• The now infamous quote about how he didn’t expect people to get to exotics so fast, so Ascended gear must be added.

• Don’t expect another tier for a long while.

Do you really trust him at this point?

Sure I trust him. Just like anyone else who said something years ago, and then the situation changed. In your life, you’ve never said something and two years later had to change it?

People are disingenuous. Oh, he’s a dev. He needs to be proficient in crystal ball to know what will happen.

That’s not the way the world works.

Yeah lets just get all game developers to make false statements about their game before release so people will buy the game anyway despite them not wanting it, then make up some BS so they can cover it up. Is that what you’re trying to say? God, you’re so ignorant.

Okay that’s another story. I believe when those statements were made, that was the intention. People are complaining about what Anet is saying NOW, about what Anet was saying then. These are two completely different issues.

Do you have any evidence that when Anet said that stuff they didn’t mean it?

Whether they meant it at the time or not is irrelevant — but let’s assume they did. I would prefer to believe that than that they were deliberately deceptive. Once you allow the assumption they meant it, what is relevant is that they changed their minds for whatever reasons. What is also relevant is that they want us to believe they intended to make exotics harder to get before launch. However, they’re telling us that a year after launch. That makes them look deliberately deceptive — whether they really were or not.

You seem intent on making excuses for ANet management. You’re saying that gear probably was not a major issue in their minds. You want us to believe that it was an aside they threw in while talking about more substantive issues. You want us to accept your assertion that they were very casual in planning what to say to sell their product to the public.

I can believe they changed their minds. I can believe they are trying to save face over the whole Ascended gear mess. I can believe they are accepting the collateral damage to their reputation that the recent statements have made in the eyes of some fans for what they believe would be worse damage to their reputation if they admitted that Ascended was a reaction to keep the game’s revenue from falling to unacceptable levels. I cannot believe that ANet was as heedless and thoughtless, as casual about how they were marketing their game as you want us to believe.

You want us to believe that ANet is a big business, and that big businesses engage in spin/damage control. You’re right, they do. Big businesses also carefully plan how to market their product. You might want to consider that the next time you are composing one of your “apologetics” posts.

Blaine Tog.8304:

I had the opposite reaction from that interview. Any time someone responds to a straightforward question with corporate-speak and bet-hedging, I get nervous. I’m sure Mr. Johanson was just trying to answer the question in a way that wouldn’t constrain the company later but that’s exactly what the question was trying to do: get some solid answers as to the future of the game.

Making statements on camera that might later make it difficult to change your plans should be avoided, but not when those changes go against your game’s design philosophy. You should be trying to do things that force you to stay honest and this interview was an opportunity to do just that.

Gear treadmills may be fine for some games, but GW2 was heavily advertised as being not one of those kinds of games. I’ve already stopped playing entirely because Ascended gear has made this game feel like a job, but if I had hard, unambiguous proof that they wouldn’t add another tier I might’ve been ok with sucking it up. Instead, this interview is a great big “We’re probably gonna add another tier at some point, I just don’t want to say exactly that” sign to me, because his response was designed to make that avenue possible.

They have stated that their intent is not to create a gear treadmill in the sense that they release a set of gear then 6 months another then 6 months another.

They however can not say they will never release another tier or increase the level cap or any of that. Why? Just look at this post. People quota dev’s all the time to try to prove that they lied, deceived or are just greedy.

If people did not do that…. We might get more straightforward human as opposed to corporate speak answers.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

Kaizer.7135:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Colin Johnson timeline:

• The now infamous quote about expecting people to have best-in-slot gear upon reaching level 80.

• The now infamous quote about how he didn’t expect people to get to exotics so fast, so Ascended gear must be added.

• Don’t expect another tier for a long while.

Do you really trust him at this point?

Sure I trust him. Just like anyone else who said something years ago, and then the situation changed. In your life, you’ve never said something and two years later had to change it?

People are disingenuous. Oh, he’s a dev. He needs to be proficient in crystal ball to know what will happen.

That’s not the way the world works.

Yeah lets just get all game developers to make false statements about their game before release so people will buy the game anyway despite them not wanting it, then make up some BS so they can cover it up. Is that what you’re trying to say? God, you’re so ignorant.

Okay that’s another story. I believe when those statements were made, that was the intention. People are complaining about what Anet is saying NOW, about what Anet was saying then. These are two completely different issues.

Do you have any evidence that when Anet said that stuff they didn’t mean it?

Whether they meant it at the time or not is irrelevant — but let’s assume they did. I would prefer to believe that than that they were deliberately deceptive. Once you allow the assumption they meant it, what is relevant is that they changed their minds for whatever reasons. What is also relevant is that they want us to believe they intended to make exotics harder to get before launch. However, they’re telling us that a year after launch. That makes them look deliberately deceptive — whether they really were or not.

You seem intent on making excuses for ANet management. You’re saying that gear probably was not a major issue in their minds. You want us to believe that it was an aside they threw in while talking about more substantive issues. You want us to accept your assertion that they were very casual in planning what to say to sell their product to the public.

I can believe they changed their minds. I can believe they are trying to save face over the whole Ascended gear mess. I can believe they are accepting the collateral damage to their reputation that the recent statements have made in the eyes of some fans for what they believe would be worse damage to their reputation if they admitted that Ascended was a reaction to keep the game’s revenue from falling to unacceptable levels. I cannot believe that ANet was as heedless and thoughtless, as casual about how they were marketing their game as you want us to believe.

You want us to believe that ANet is a big business, and that big businesses engage in spin/damage control. You’re right, they do. Big businesses also carefully plan how to market their product. You might want to consider that the next time you are composing one of your “apologetics” posts.

Anet said some stuff.

NCSoft said you better do this.

Anet did it.

Not hard to understand is it? Seems to be.

Don’t believe a word this company says because all they have done from the very beginning is LIE.

Nuka Cola.8520:

knives.6345:

Nuka Cola.8520:

knives.6345:

Confession Bear: I really like it if they released a new tier every year. But hopefully, attainable by other means than crafting.

..I’m gonna get flamed in 3..2..1..

what about releasing brand new content you experience by playing such as a dungeon and not a new tier of weapons that you acquire and go stand in LA because there’s no content to use your brand new weapon in? How does that sound? You know which one i’d go for.

I think I never said anything about not liking new content…

but you know there could only be one thing while the other is put on the “not on our priority list”. So its better if people asked for end game content instead of dealing 1% more damage..

I also would not be sure of that. The 2 updates involved in our discussion (our = you, me) can be installed weeks/months apart.

Nuka Cola.8520:

knives.6345:

Nuka Cola.8520:

knives.6345:

Confession Bear: I really like it if they released a new tier every year. But hopefully, attainable by other means than crafting.

..I’m gonna get flamed in 3..2..1..

what about releasing brand new content you experience by playing such as a dungeon and not a new tier of weapons that you acquire and go stand in LA because there’s no content to use your brand new weapon in? How does that sound? You know which one i’d go for.

I think I never said anything about not liking new content…

but you know there could only be one thing while the other is put on the “not on our priority list”. So its better if people asked for end game content instead of dealing 1% more damage..

I also would not be sure of that. The 2 updates involved in our discussion (our = you, me) can be installed weeks/months apart.

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

less than 1% of players did that. In fact i believe there are more people that played from the beginning and still don’t have full exotic set than there were people posessing legendaries in November.

Besides, it doesn’t matter. The fact remains, that they went back on something they said once barely 3 months into the game (earlier, actually – it had to take them at least a month to prepare November patch) – and they did it easily, at the first opportunity.
Which basically means, that we cannot expect them to keep any solid promises they might have made to us now (even if they had made them, which they didn’t)

Astralporing.1957:

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

less than 1% of players did that. In fact i believe there are more people that played from the beginning and still don’t have full exotic set than there were people posessing legendaries in November.

I find that hard to believe, it took next to nothing to have full exo. I remember. And many people had already gotten sets from COF.

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

less than 1% of players did that. In fact i believe there are more people that played from the beginning and still don’t have full exotic set than there were people posessing legendaries in November.

I find that hard to believe, it took next to nothing to have full exo. I remember. And many people had already gotten sets from COF.

I know. I also know that there are still many people playing (actively playing) that have never put their foot in a dungeon.
Come to think, i don’t have enough tokens to buy a dungeon armor set, even though i play extensively and i wouldn’t call myself casual.

Namu.5712:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Vayne.8563:

Kaizer.7135:

Vayne.8563:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Colin Johnson timeline:

• The now infamous quote about expecting people to have best-in-slot gear upon reaching level 80.

• The now infamous quote about how he didn’t expect people to get to exotics so fast, so Ascended gear must be added.

• Don’t expect another tier for a long while.

Do you really trust him at this point?

Sure I trust him. Just like anyone else who said something years ago, and then the situation changed. In your life, you’ve never said something and two years later had to change it?

People are disingenuous. Oh, he’s a dev. He needs to be proficient in crystal ball to know what will happen.

That’s not the way the world works.

Yeah lets just get all game developers to make false statements about their game before release so people will buy the game anyway despite them not wanting it, then make up some BS so they can cover it up. Is that what you’re trying to say? God, you’re so ignorant.

Okay that’s another story. I believe when those statements were made, that was the intention. People are complaining about what Anet is saying NOW, about what Anet was saying then. These are two completely different issues.

Do you have any evidence that when Anet said that stuff they didn’t mean it?

Whether they meant it at the time or not is irrelevant — but let’s assume they did. I would prefer to believe that than that they were deliberately deceptive. Once you allow the assumption they meant it, what is relevant is that they changed their minds for whatever reasons. What is also relevant is that they want us to believe they intended to make exotics harder to get before launch. However, they’re telling us that a year after launch. That makes them look deliberately deceptive — whether they really were or not.

You seem intent on making excuses for ANet management. You’re saying that gear probably was not a major issue in their minds. You want us to believe that it was an aside they threw in while talking about more substantive issues. You want us to accept your assertion that they were very casual in planning what to say to sell their product to the public.

I can believe they changed their minds. I can believe they are trying to save face over the whole Ascended gear mess. I can believe they are accepting the collateral damage to their reputation that the recent statements have made in the eyes of some fans for what they believe would be worse damage to their reputation if they admitted that Ascended was a reaction to keep the game’s revenue from falling to unacceptable levels. I cannot believe that ANet was as heedless and thoughtless, as casual about how they were marketing their game as you want us to believe.

You want us to believe that ANet is a big business, and that big businesses engage in spin/damage control. You’re right, they do. Big businesses also carefully plan how to market their product. You might want to consider that the next time you are composing one of your “apologetics” posts.

Anet said some stuff.

NCSoft said you better do this.

Anet did it.

Not hard to understand is it? Seems to be.

Noone really cares about their intercoorporate relations, nor anyone should care, for all intents and purposes they are one and the same.

Colly.4073:

Don’t believe a word this company says because all they have done from the very beginning is LIE.

Capitalizing a word doesn’t make it true.

Astralporing.1957:

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

less than 1% of players did that. In fact i believe there are more people that played from the beginning and still don’t have full exotic set than there were people posessing legendaries in November.

Besides, it doesn’t matter. The fact remains, that they went back on something they said once barely 3 months into the game (earlier, actually – it had to take them at least a month to prepare November patch) – and they did it easily, at the first opportunity.
Which basically means, that we cannot expect them to keep any solid promises they might have made to us now (even if they had made them, which they didn’t)

Where do you get your percentages from? I’m interested.

Vayne.8563:

Astralporing.1957:

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

less than 1% of players did that. In fact i believe there are more people that played from the beginning and still don’t have full exotic set than there were people posessing legendaries in November.

Besides, it doesn’t matter. The fact remains, that they went back on something they said once barely 3 months into the game (earlier, actually – it had to take them at least a month to prepare November patch) – and they did it easily, at the first opportunity.
Which basically means, that we cannot expect them to keep any solid promises they might have made to us now (even if they had made them, which they didn’t)

Where do you get your percentages from? I’m interested.

Sorry, should have quoted a bit more of Namu’s post – especially the part:

Exotics in a day legendary in a month.

I’m pretty sure that even now, over nine months later, number of people with legendaries is still below 1%.

Astralporing.1957:

Vayne.8563:

Astralporing.1957:

Namu.5712:

Astralporing.1957:

It’s the same person that once claimed that he wants everyone to get their best stat gear by the time they get to level 80. Now he says they never intended that.
If a year from now they decide to add a new tier, he’ll likely be saying that “it was planned all along”.

What happened was players chewed through content way too fast. Faster than they wanted.

less than 1% of players did that. In fact i believe there are more people that played from the beginning and still don’t have full exotic set than there were people posessing legendaries in November.

Besides, it doesn’t matter. The fact remains, that they went back on something they said once barely 3 months into the game (earlier, actually – it had to take them at least a month to prepare November patch) – and they did it easily, at the first opportunity.
Which basically means, that we cannot expect them to keep any solid promises they might have made to us now (even if they had made them, which they didn’t)

Where do you get your percentages from? I’m interested.

Sorry, should have quoted a bit more of Namu’s post – especially the part:

Exotics in a day legendary in a month.

I’m pretty sure that even now, over nine months later, number of people with legendaries is still below 1%.

I’d think that’s probably accurate.

took me 6 months to exotics decked out on my first char then a couple of months later my second. only have three so far decked out ones from temple armor and karma i needed to unload two crafted. dont have a legendary yet not even close i got rng out of the way just need materials and dungeon tokens which im way short on(6 months more maybe). got my precursor through rng chest otherwise i wouldnt have it. dont have an ascended weapon yet im probably 5 months from it. ive got ascended amulet one ring and one assessory so far. ive only did two dungeon runs in my first year and those were both story mode. ive did fractals but as part of a guild thing we were doing something for one of the living stories and they needed help

I got a full exotic set within the first month (maybe a bit longer but not much). The Ascended Weapons really aren’t super hard to get , I got mine as soon as I could without using the TP to go around the time gate and the only parts I would say were ‘hard’ to get were getting up to 500 and the Empyreal Fragments(those were pretty grindy). Personally, I don’t see what is so horrible about releasing new tiers of gear as a concept. I see it like this: The game needs progression. There are 3 types of progression: 1. Vertical(Stats) 2.Horizontal(Skills and such) 3. Aesthetic(Looks) Aesthetic (while nice) isn’t enough, this has been proved by the pervious living stories. That leaves vertical and horizontal. If you have too much horizontal progression however you have something that is a nightmare to balance(GW1). We are going to get horizontal progression soon, and the vertical progression is coming to an end.

Anet have never lied on purpose, they have only told the truth to the best of their abilities. They are real people who are really passionate about the game and they would like nothing more than for the game to succeed. And by the way, in order to stick by your opinion no matter what, that means you have to ignore EVERYTHING that even implies you might be wrong. (Extreme example: A: If I jump off this cliff I’m going to live! B: No you’re not you are going to fall and die. A: Nope, I’m gonna live. B: Science proves you’re wrong! A: Don’t care, I’m right. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! splat). Stop being so paranoid, people! Everything’s going to be fine….(probably)

Vol.5241:

TooBz.3065:

Vol.5241:

DusK.3849:

Vol.5241:

Not sure why you thought otherwise

I honestly didn’t hold any definite speculative viewpoint on the subject until an official response could come about; I didn’t want to fall into the same speculation trap that a lot of people here did and start making wild claims that could end up being false.

I know what I hoped would come about, and I’m glad it did, but I didn’t want to be all like “yeah, they’re definitely not gonna add a gear treadmill” when everyone else is shouting “zomg they’re adding a gear treadmill” here on the forums, because what if I ended up being the one that’s wrong?

Well we knew since November that they would not add another tier:

http://www.guildwars2hub.com/news/chris-whiteside-ama-ascended-gear-crazy-town

You’re pretty much victim to the negative hivemind here on the forums that likes to spew false information just to make themselves heard.

Yes, but as I said, there is going to continue to be VP. Also from November.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13tuac/im_the_studio_design_director_on_guild_wars_2_ama/

Hi All,
Here is the reply to the second question:
E2:Ascended gears are making a lot of people worry about an ever-increasing gear treadmill. Many players did not want the exotic/legendary system to change, and they don’t like ascended gears. Was this expected? Can this be something fixed in a painless way? Can it happen?
Yes the response was definitively expected. We did not intent for the information to come out this way. Going back to my previous answer the issue is that we believe in the vertical progression system we had pre launch and that the introduction of an element into the system post launch was going to cause concern but something we believe in. *That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve. * This said we certainly don’t want to create a system where itemization blocks progression in the game globally and we also need to be careful of this in areas such as FotM if the primary reward isn’t available elsewhere in the game. So in short its an exciting problem but one that has been poorly communicated and handled.
And for this i take responsibility and apologies. However the future of this philosophy and the design challenges it throws up are going to lead to a pioneering world and one that we are very excited about.
So anyway i kind of went of topic here so in short. We don’t intend to have an item rarity gear treadmill, we intend for the progression for gaining these rewards to have lots of different avenues for different types of player and where possible lower no fun grind within the whole of the game.
I hope this answers that question. I will be right back.
Chris

All I’m saying with this, is that if you think this will be the end of vertical progression you are going to be disappointed. The same way I made the mistake of reading too much into early statements about the game, it would be a mistake to read too much into what they say now.

Yes, vertical progression through some other means, but not through a new tier, which is what I’m talking about. People make a whole deal about the ascended tier and how Anet will release a new one when all signs since November pointed otherwise.

the most that will come from this imo is a weapon experience training the more you use a weapon the more adept you become with it allowing you to hit harder and in the right places due to the conditioning of constantly swinging a greatsword ie would develop more muscle over time granted slower as time went on unless you changed the sword to a heavier matter each with their own perc imo axe being crippling due to “eviscerate” and lightness of weapon which i think would be an increase more so to precision and critical damage as sword precision and condition shield toughness and power greatsword mainly power and maybe endurance? this is from a warrior stand point might be class based for what increases they give who knows this is all just my opinion they may only give 2 bonuses to each weapon maybe more I think 3 would be best since there are 3 base stats for every weapon at the end game tiers exotic and ascended might be one exclusive bonus like warrior greatsword over like 10 adeptness levels grants a 1% attack speed increase to a max of 5% making 50 grandmaster with that weapon.

also limit it to at most 3 weapons that can be grand mastered maybe only 2 (i say 3 because some do use a 2h weapon and then maybe sword shield or axe mace but that might be too much specially if at 50 it ends up adding around 200 to the more demanding purpose of the weapon like sword being able to tag those little muscles and tendons to cripple or bleed the enemy making precision its primary etc.

Edit: example for grandmaster when the game was just talked about and we had beta I had at first thought we ONLY get 2 crafting disciplines and it would require trading with other players to get the other aspects that our characters needed. I would like to see this with weapons so that it is limited you must actually choose your preferred weapon that you wish to be the best with where using the others you fall a bit short. this would encourage making alts of different race but same class or maybe exactly the same to be able to obtain peak performance with certain weapons

TheJokester.4672:

also limit it to at most 3 weapons that can be grand mastered maybe only 2 (i say 3 because some do use a 2h weapon and then maybe sword shield or axe mace but that might be too much specially if at 50 it ends up adding around 200 to the more demanding purpose of the weapon like sword being able to tag those little muscles and tendons to cripple or bleed the enemy making precision its primary etc.

Please, no!

The way weapons are designed they fill specific niches in play. Unless you focus on one specific area of the game, you should be able to equip your support/aoe weapons for zerging, switch to single target spike for solo, damage mitigation/cc for WvW, and the like. Don’t make me choose which part of the game I want to have peak efficiency in, and force me to run below peak if I want a change of pace.

Not to mention, forcing specialization in a few weapons will hurt some professions more than others. Engineers only have three weapons (putting aside the fact that kits screw with things) so with a three weapon limit they could be specialized in everything. Elementalists, with limited weapon choice and variety in attunements could also specialize in most of their arsenal.

Warriors, on the other hand, are supposed to have a benefit in having access to a wide variety of weapons, but forcing them to specialize in just a few will undercut this.

Because of the way this game is designed with distinctly different areas requiring distinctly different playstyles, we need more ways to easily flow between builds, not more restrictions.

Oh, and back on topic, the interview with Colin had way to many qualifiers to make his statement even remotely reassuring.

I see you still have faith in them, but I am not.

Since patches that gradually introduced Grind Wars 2 back in first quarter, this game has totally gone to the opposite direction which devs had promised. You can also see how they think exotic is not grindy enough and decide to make another even-more-grindy tier from C.J.‘s speaking. It’s like WoW, “it’s cooooooooooool so we decide to add this feature.”

GJ Grind Wars 2. Glad I finished grinding gears for guardian, warrior, mesmer, and thief before it become this bad, and I have already moved my focus to another mmo. Never gonna trust any Anet/NCSoft title again.

And yet, here you are.

If you’ve moved on… why are you still here?

chemiclord.3978:

And yet, here you are.

If you’ve moved on… why are you still here?

Most consumers who have been saddled with a defective product (perhaps through a bait and switch) see it as their duty to warn others of dubious practices on the part of business owners.

I commend this upstanding citizen for his zeal in protecting his fellow customers.

chemiclord.3978:

And yet, here you are.

If you’ve moved on… why are you still here?

Because maybe he still loves GW2 except for this one game-breaking thing that prevents him from actually enjoying it. Because maybe there might come a day when power creep and currency inflation have made getting full sets of BiS gear just as cheap and fast as getting exotic or even rare gear was at release. It happened in GW1 with Runes of Superior Vigor, it can happen here as well.
Maybe he’s just anxiously waiting for that day to arrive.

However, the fact that you don’t need more powerful gear to put everyone on a treadmill might have escaped him, as well as ANet having confirmed to continue raising the power bar in other ways(title grind skills for instance).

As someone once said: Hope dies last. But yeah, there’s no denying that GW2 will have constant stat progression in some form for the foreseeable future. Don’t want to repeat the same mistake they did in GW2s “stagnant” predecessor.

Ascended gear was added for fractals, it was said that they were going to add ascended weapons very early in the game, 2012, and it doesn’t really increase it by that much, 20 more power, 3% more crit damage and 2% more crit chance (estimating) doesn’t really help a lot, don’t think it’s worth the effort unless you’re doing fractals, but then again, you should get crafting to 500 because you might want to make a precursor.

Kaizer.7135:

Yeah lets just get all game developers to make false statements about their game before release so people will buy the game anyway despite them not wanting it, then make up some BS so they can cover it up. Is that what you’re trying to say? God, you’re so ignorant.

that can be arranged.

in the meantime if you all think this is going to turn into WoW then sign the petition to give GW2 a subscription fee. it all starts there.

Bismuth.3165:

20 more power, 3% more crit damage and 2% more crit chance (estimating) doesn’t really help a lot

on top of a straight 5% damage increase. And that’s only one item. It is a significant change.

yeah right, because C. Johanson hasnt already lied to the whole game population once, huh?

with ascended gear he has already showed he has no problems watsoever fitting a foot in his mouth, sooooooo…. lets take everything he says with a grain of salt, shall we?

Vayne.8563:

Okay that’s another story. I believe when those statements were made, that was the intention. People are complaining about what Anet is saying NOW, about what Anet was saying then. These are two completely different issues.

Do you have any evidence that when Anet said that stuff they didn’t mean it?

Anet is saying now that they didn’t mean it when they made those statements back then. I think that a straight up admission on the part of the accused qualifies as evidence.

No, they are saying that something changed between the time they made the initial statements and the ones they are making now. At some point, they determined their initial manifesto wasn’t getting the player base they needed to do the things they wanted to do financially. The motivations for that decision outside of a general increase the player base remain unclear.

I do believe they fully meant their initial manifesto. And, for whatever reason, realized they were going to have to back down off that manifesto to some extent (the degree of which is clearly up for debate). Personally, if their original goals weren’t enough… I’d rather them do a 180 than stick to their guns and fail.

They evidently decided (why, I’m not sure), that their hardcore GW1 playerbase alone wasn’t enough to support the game they wanted it supported. They clearly felt they had to do more and cater to a larger audience.

chemiclord.3978:

No, they are saying that something changed between the time they made the initial statements and the ones they are making now.

What they said then (paraphrased):

“We intend X”

What they are saying now (paraphrased):

“We did not intend X”

This is not equivalent to:

“We originally intended X but, due to changing circumstances, must now revise our intention to Y.”

That’s odd… because I read Colin’s statement, and that last line is EXACTLY how I interpreted it. Exotics proved to be “too easy” to obtain, and so they felt they needed to add in a “bridge” tier that doesn’t take as long as a legendary, but at least more than drop 6 gold in the TP and have BiS.

I guess I really don’t get the hangup and insistence that Arena.net somehow “lied”; even if it somehow WAS provable. Does it really matter if they meant their initial manifesto or not at this point? The 180 happened regardless of intent. The “damage” is done regardless.