Guild Wars 2

ANet adds a new Gem Store skin, which can be bought by doing any content you like and converting gold to gems.

Players rage: “Everything can be bought with gold! There is no reward for playing the game! Give us skins which reward us for playing content!”

ANet adds a new in-game skin, which requires you to do specific content to get it and cannot be bought.

Players rage: “I do not want to do this content for a skin! What happened to ‘Play how you want’?! Just let me do content X and Y and buy it with gold!”

ANet adds a new Gem Store skin… Rinse, repeat.

Moral of the story: when you make posts complaining about things you do not like, first

1. look around to check if your complaints are really grounded and
2. try to understand that this is an MMO where a lot of people have a lot of different desires, and to make everyone more or less happy, developers have to differentiate content.

If you take Dry Top as an example, you have:

• Gem Store ley line skins – can be bought with real money or gold grind,
• scarf and mask skins – can be acquired as a reward for playing content but also bought with gold grind (or real money as an option),
• Ambrite weapons – can be acquired as a reward for playing specific content only.

You have all the options here. Seriously.

If it somehow happened that the skin of your choice didn’t match the acquisition method of your choice… well, too bad, but it did match for someone else – and made that someone else really happy.

Cheers and may the God of RNG bless you!

I think my only issue with it is the fact that the ambrite weapons are crafted weapons (correct me if I’m wrong) and it would be nice to be able to gain one as a reward for playing the update content instead of having to craft them, which is a bit of a pain for those of us who don’t craft.

From my understanding, peoples gripe with the ambrite weapons are the fossiles
I personally love ascended aquisition in this game;
It requires you to play all aspects for the vision crystal and do some crafting.
Metal/wood/cloth are aquired through salvaging drops or bought with gold you make along the way.

No problem with working for something, the RNG is just a no-go

Jam.4521:

I think my only issue with it is the fact that the ambrite weapons are crafted weapons (correct me if I’m wrong) and it would be nice to be able to gain one as a reward for playing the update content instead of having to craft them, which is a bit of a pain for those of us who don’t craft.

Leveling weaponsmithing to 400 is 20g, huntsman is 20g, artificer is 9.4g, and that’s assuming you never played the game and had no materials. You can get it by grinding dungeons in a couple of days, plus, crafting is a part of the game so it’s natural to require it as a part of the reward mechanism, and you usually level up crafting if you play the game the “supposed” way – along with character leveling.

Crovax.7854:

No problem with working for something, the RNG is just a no-go

The RNG has been toned down here by allowing to identify fossils into any kind you want. Weight restrictions are rather annoying on skins, I agree, but this freedom of choice on weapons is in a good place I believe.

Crovax.7854:

From my understanding, peoples gripe with the ambrite weapons are the fossiles
I personally love ascended aquisition in this game;
It requires you to play all aspects for the vision crystal and do some crafting.
Metal/wood/cloth are aquired through salvaging drops or bought with gold you make along the way.

No problem with working for something, the RNG is just a no-go

The fossils are not that uber rare – I have had 2 and this is only day 2. Others were linking the drop semi frequently as well.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Jam.4521:

I think my only issue with it is the fact that the ambrite weapons are crafted weapons (correct me if I’m wrong) and it would be nice to be able to gain one as a reward for playing the update content instead of having to craft them, which is a bit of a pain for those of us who don’t craft.

Leveling weaponsmithing to 400 is 20g, huntsman is 20g, artificer is 9.4g, and that’s assuming you never played the game and had no materials. You can get it by grinding dungeons in a couple of days, plus, crafting is a part of the game so it’s natural to require it as a part of the reward mechanism, and you usually level up crafting if you play the game the “supposed” way – along with character leveling.

Which defeats the whole basis of GW2’s ‘play the way you want’, and I dislike crafting, Simple as that. I am perfectly aware of how to get to crafting 400, I have weapon smith at 320, but I have very little time to play this game (so ‘grinding’ anything is out of the question) and I would like to be able to spend it actually running around playing while working towards something instead of at a crafting station. I just don’t see it as worth spending time on.

Although cheers for the links they do make things look a lot clearer.

Trying to reason with unreasonable players is futile….(like resisting the Borg).

All I ask are skins like the Primordus skins. They can be gotten through play and then traded around between players. I will never buy a skin from the gemstore (so when I recommend the game to people I can say I haven’t paid anything more than my initial $60), but also don’t want to be forced to do content I don’t want to do.

I always wanted to get things with gold and never asked for anything different. Having multiple options to get things is always good of course. But just buying something with gold should always be an option.

I never understood why some people want to work in a video game. A video game, at least for me, is for fun and relaxation. If I want to work hard I will take an extra job in real life.

Jam.4521:

Which defeats the whole basis of GW2’s ‘play the way you want’, and I dislike crafting, Simple as that.

I want to play Elin, but I can’t. I want to get 100g for pressing 1-1-1 for 5 minutes, but I can’t. /ragequit

Surprise: you can’t play any game in the world “the way you want”. Games exist because there are rules, like oceans exist because there are shores. No rules mean no effort and no motivation. The only difference with my example is in the extent of interpretation of the thesis.

In GW2, you get rewarded for anything you do, which lets you play how you want. But if you want a specific reward, you need to do specific things – that’s what makes it a game. Simple as that.

Jam.4521:

I just don’t see it as worth spending time on.

You also don’t think that returning all your investments in crafting to 500 in 2 months and a pure 2g profit a day for 1 minute of work after that is worth it, right?

Lishtenbird.2814:

Surprise: you can’t play any game in the world “the way you want”. Games exist because there are rules, like oceans exist because there are shores. No rules mean no effort and no motivation. The only difference with my example is in the extent of interpretation of the thesis.

In GW2, you get rewarded for anything you do, which lets you play how you want. But if you want a specific reward, you need to do specific things – that’s what makes it a game. Simple as that.

Chill out, now tell me which reward I can get which is specific to this release? A whole new season with a brand spanking new (and particularly beautiful, in my opinion) area to explore and all the rewards are just vendor trash, nothing unique so far after playing through.

I have nothing against crafting specific weapons at all, otherwise I would shed a tear every time I see a destroyer axe, but to put two whole new sets of skins into the game and one is locked behind account bound crafting, and the other is locked behind either cash or a large amount more gold than I have or am capable of making in the very small amount of play I have is just a bit annoying.

Lishtenbird.2814:

You also don’t think that returning all your investments in crafting to 500 in 2 months and a pure 2g profit a day for 1 minute of work after that is worth it, right?

I repeat, I do not like crafting, simple as that. You are saying I would recover it easily, but you still want me to go and spend a reasonable amount of time standing at the crafting station clicking buttons, the bit I get extremely bored of. And you assume when I say ‘very little play time’ that means playing every day. Also want to explain how you make 2G for 1 minute of dedicated time?

Anyway my point is I like skins which are themed and specific to the storyline, they are very cool, but this release hasn’t added any, that’s what people are a bit peeved at.

Jam.4521:

Also want to explain how you make 2G for 1 minute of dedicated time?

-Buy mats for mithrilium/damask
-Craft the once/day recipe
-Buy more mats for the ascended ingot/bolt
-Sell said ingot/bolt on the tp

you’ll need the respective crafts at 500 though

Jam.4521:

Anyway my point is I like skins which are themed and specific to the storyline, they are very cool, but this release hasn’t added any, that’s what people are a bit peeved at.

what are they leyline skins to you?

i rather have it how it’s done in EotN then gamble my gems away for a “chance” of a scrap……
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Norn_rank

Jam.4521:

A whole new season with a brand spanking new (and particularly beautiful, in my opinion) area to explore and all the rewards are just vendor trash, nothing unique so far after playing through.

I already got 2 scarfs, a bunch of new recipes from chests and vendors, a lot of lockpicks for new chests, another stack of geodes for new weapon recipes, and quite a few lodestones from dust mites event. Not mentioning the achievement points which advance me to the next achievement reward chests.

So… people who explore and study the game, who create timetables and come up with strategies get rewarded more than people who occasionally kill a passing devourer because that is how they want to play. Ones get new skins, recipes, T6 mats and charged lodestones (3g each), and others get vendor trash. Is it broken? Sorry, no, working as intended.

Jam.4521:

I repeat, I do not like crafting, simple as that. You are saying I would recover it easily, but you still want me to go and spend a reasonable amount of time standing at the crafting station clicking buttons, the bit I get extremely bored of. And you assume when I say ‘very little play time’ that means playing every day. Also want to explain how you make 2G for 1 minute of dedicated time?

With a guide and a crafting booster, leveling 2 professions to 400 takes about 1 hour and a bit more. It also gives you about 17 levels IIRC, which is really good for leveling alts.

Jam.4521:

Also want to explain how you make 2G for 1 minute of dedicated time?

By selling what you can craft at 500. I leave the exploration of the market (a fairly simple one though compared to professional flipping) to you as the less people try to study the game they’re playing, the more money people like me can get out of them.

Jam.4521:

Anyway my point is I like skins which are themed and specific to the storyline, they are very cool, but this release hasn’t added any, that’s what people are a bit peeved at.

You not liking a skin is not equal to a skin not existing.

You don’t have to spend gems for BL key…..it just take some time to earn them.

I happen to craft, so this doesn’t pose much of a problem for me, but I have sympathy for people that don’t craft or maybe don’t even PvE much. To expect people who maybe WvW to come do that content is a bit of a bummer.

I wouldn’t mind seeing them figure out ways to make them available to earn for people who PvP/WvW/Dungeon or Fractal as their primary play style. I wouldn’t want to ‘mix and match’, so to speak, in that you shouldn’t be able to do 25% PvP, 25% WvW and 50% dungeon to get it. Just as in PvE, we basically have to do one thing to work towards it, so should those areas, no? Honestly, that’s maybe not even a big deal either. Maybe drop geodes (or the flavor of the month currency) as drops to those regions, or for completing events in WvW (or whatever), such that the ‘rate per time’ is at least roughly equivalent to what we can collect in the new area events?

Then in lieu of crafting, you go to a crafter NPC (mystic forge?) that will make it for you with all the ingredients a crafter would need to make it?

Alternatively, you could let crafters make an item that we can sell on the TP that is effectively the item ‘sans’ all the geodes (currency of the month) that could be combined with said geodes in the forge to produce the item? Then you could collect geodes in the region (or PvP, WvW, Dungeons, etc) over time and have a way to ‘craft’ it with the assistance of a crafter, without allowing crafters to sell the finished product on the TP (bypassing the requirement of the player to collect enough of the FotM currency themselves)?

Just throwing some ideas around as to how to open it up to everyone, and still make everyone earn it, so to speak.

And ‘conversely’, I’d like some non-Dungeon ways to earn about the same amount of ‘money per time’ a day that a dungeon person can out in the real world. Maybe first ‘n’ events you do a day earns you 3-5 gold like a dungeon does? That would provide a way to do it without world events? Or throws some gold in the daily WE chests? Just thinking out loud.

Yes, I’m an evil Socialist (at least with respect to gaming economies). I’d like to burn down some more paradigms and spread everything around to all play styles a bit more. Even when it doesn’t favor me. I could just as easily have posted an evil “L2craft” post and dissed my fellow WvW/PvP/Dungeon players, but at the end of the day, I’d like to see everyone have some fun, even if it’s not my kind of fun.

Brother Grimm.5176:

You don’t have to spend gems for BL key…..it just take some time to earn them.

And for people who do not want to do map completion for BL keys, buying skins during the introduction 1 ticket period from key farmers is even easier. And if you don’t have enough gold, gem → gold is there for you and excludes the gamble.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Brother Grimm.5176:

You don’t have to spend gems for BL key…..it just take some time to earn them.

And for people who do not want to do map completion for BL keys, buying skins during the introduction 1 ticket period from key farmers is even easier. And if you don’t have enough gold, gem -> gold is there for you and excludes the gamble.

but are you going to spend about $/€120,- for a few skins?
the gem→gold exchange rate isn’t exactly fair…..

I guess the problem is more in “where” and “what”

Weapon skins
We got some in mixed variety. Some through new content, some through gemstore, some through RNG and some through crafting.

In my book this diversity is fine, till you think about how many whole sets are hidden behind a RNG+Gem+Time Wall.
If we could aquire these highly rated items directly through money, they would be fine
If the RNG+Time would be the same all the time, it would be fine.

Right now it is “forcing” (and i am using the term loosely, since there is still the argument “you do not need these skins”) to invest Time+Money with no guaranteed outcome.
If you are unlucky, you open 10 chests, because you allready spend 20 bucks on keys and end up with not even one whole BLC-Ticket. (Right now i opened around 30 chests, one lucky ticket drop and 8 scraps, for around 40€, not a good track record)

Armor Skins
These are the big offenders in my book.
Up to this day, nearly two years in, we got only one Armor Set which is available ingame, without resulting to gems: The Ascended Armor

All other armor sets that have been introduced were gemshop only.

Things we got ingame otherwise were singular items. Some fitting, some weird and a lot of them were themed backpacks.

This is not a bad thing, however the game really needs some some new content you can aquire ingame. It has been two years and everything gemshop related is either spending real life money, or grinding for gold.

notebene.3190:

I wouldn’t mind seeing them figure out ways to make them available to earn for people who PvP/WvW/Dungeon or Fractal as their primary play style.

I’d be okay with that. Sucks to be a WvW player or pvper if you don’t have access to the new shiny stuff. Maybe there are ways to mix it up a bit? On the other hand I love the WvW tourny weapons because they are exclusive to that content. So maybe each game mode just needs more unique rewards for that game mode so that other players don’t feel left out? Like if WvW and PvP both got an influx of skins that can be obtained through something like the PvP tracks? “Anet only loves PVE!” “Anet ignores WvW!” – maybe we’ll see less of that if all the players feel some love.

notebene.3190:

And ‘conversely’, I’d like some non-Dungeon ways to earn about the same amount of ‘money per time’ a day that a dungeon person can out in the real world. Maybe first ‘n’ events you do a day earns you 3-5 gold like a dungeon does? That would provide a way to do it without world events? Or throws some gold in the daily WE chests? Just thinking out loud.

I love dungeons, but after finishing “Hobby Dungeon Explorer” over 70x they feel pretty stale. And to clarify: I LOVE dungeons. Actually in most games I tend to love dungeons. It’s “my thing”. But some days I get sick of them and would like other means to earn gold (that is not TP flipping). If I got a nice gold reward for doing Liadri-esque fights that would rock.

Also, I don’t really like that most unbound armor bits drop from, well, almost anything. If the speedy Moa in drytop had a chance to drop an exclusive chestpiece or mini, that would be neat. Or maybe something more soloable? I like scavenger hunting, so if I find a boss or mob that drops some magical flame headpiece I will beat the tar out of it until I get that headpiece. I’m not saying change any of the current drops ingame, but it would be nice to have more stuff to hunt for – so back to adding more skins. Another thought is for each huntable object in pve, make sure it’s available for PvPers and WvWers.

Jaken.6801:

Armor Skins
These are the big offenders in my book.
Up to this day, nearly two years in, we got only one Armor Set which is available ingame, without resulting to gems: The Ascended Armor

All other armor sets that have been introduced were gemshop only.

Things we got ingame otherwise were singular items. Some fitting, some weird and a lot of them were themed backpacks.

This is not a bad thing, however the game really needs some some new content you can aquire ingame. It has been two years and everything gemshop related is either spending real life money, or grinding for gold.

All of the THIS. I am down with outfits being in the gemstore (though I still dream at night that someday I’ll be able to craft the Dwayna’s Regalia) but armor skins? I’m less okay with that because ‘look’ is the endgame. If this was a gear treadmill I’d have less of an issue because the emphasis is on stats – look would be secondary. I’d have even less of an issue if we’d gotten an ingame set for every set added to the gemstore.

In sum: I like that they added a set of weapon skins you can get ingame at the same time as the BLC skins. Personally, I’d like to see a craftable set AND some sort of dropable/pveother set added each time there is a BLC update. That gives everyone options. But this is a step in the right direction and I’m MUCH happier with this update than with many of the other ones.

Everyone on this forum is entitled and selfish. Just stop with these threads. It’s no wonder Anet doesn’t respond when all you want is free stuff. What a headache.

>I refuse to craft to get X!
Too bad.

>WvW/PvP’ers shouldn’t have to do PvE stuff to get X!
Too bad.

>I want X to drop for me!
Too bad.

>I want to play how I want to get X!
Too bad.

>I don’t want to be FORCED to do content for X!
Too bad.

Anet will not respond to this thread, nor will they respond to any of your other petty “I want a precursor NOW!” or “Give me free unlimited tools!” or “I crafted 13 legendaries and want 25 AP!” or “Give us bikinis (insert awkwardly fake reason why here)!”

You guys are misconstruing the “play the way you want to play” thing. If I’m not mistaken, I believe they were saying you could level up by exploring, questing, running dungeons, world vs world, crafting, etc. I don’t think they ever said, explicitly or otherwise, that you’d be able to earn exactly the same rewards no matter what you do in-game. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for crafters to be able to make some skins while dungeon runners can earn others with people doing world vs world earning others still.

Do you remember when even if a specific skin was locked behind a content you did’t enjoy it required a short amount of time to obtain it?
Because this is the whole problem.
Now we have to deal with bad RNG and increasing grind, for the sake of the gemstore.
Moving from microtansations to expansions model could resolve the issue, but ain’t gonna happens.

Lishtenbird.2814:

blah blah blah blah

Cheers and may the God of RNG bless you!

Dat last line…I think we’re all pretty sick of being left to the whims of the RNG gods.

Thankfully, it seems that this time around drop rates are significantly better than in the past. Or at least I assume so based on the TP prices of the goggles/scarves.

Lishtenbird.2814:

Brother Grimm.5176:

You don’t have to spend gems for BL key…..it just take some time to earn them.

And for people who do not want to do map completion for BL keys, buying skins during the introduction 1 ticket period from key farmers is even easier. And if you don’t have enough gold, gem -> gold is there for you and excludes the gamble.

I’m not talking about map completion……Key farming takes 20-30 min for a GUARANTEED BL key. That’s how I’m gonna obtain 5 or more of the Ley Line Skins over the next 2 weeks (I had 3 BL tickets saved up).

This is not a bad thing, however the game really needs some some new content you can aquire ingame. It has been two years and everything gemshop related is either spending real life money, or grinding for gold.

While I’m not going to disagree that more in-game aquired skins would not be welcome by me, keep in mind the overall economic model this game runs on. Whether you (or I) like it or not, RL gem sales are Anet’s only income (sans new game sales). Again, you can dislike the model, but keep it in mind when complaining about the current situation of gem related content (that is NOT in any way required to play the game, BTW).

takes a drink

Lishtenbird.2814:

Jam.4521:

A whole new season with a brand spanking new (and particularly beautiful, in my opinion) area to explore and all the rewards are just vendor trash, nothing unique so far after playing through.

I already got 2 scarfs, a bunch of new recipes from chests and vendors, a lot of lockpicks for new chests, another stack of geodes for new weapon recipes, and quite a few lodestones from dust mites event. Not mentioning the achievement points which advance me to the next achievement reward chests.

So… people who explore and study the game, who create timetables and come up with strategies get rewarded more than people who occasionally kill a passing devourer because that is how they want to play. Ones get new skins, recipes, T6 mats and charged lodestones (3g each), and others get vendor trash. Is it broken? Sorry, no, working as intended.

Ha. Thats funny. I do just as much work to get all the geodes I can (hit up as many events as possible) and still get jack kitten out of it because of the stupid RNG due to the lockpicks (which have now had their prices increased which is even worse). Sure I may be ‘rewarded’ more (ooh, more ascended mats I don’t need cause I already of stacks of the kitten ><), but the rewards are hardly justifying the work needed to get even just the lockpicks (let alone running around trying to find the chests <- which is mainly only boring, not hard).

I’m a bit frustrated as I have 3 unidentified bugs that I really don’t care to use, none of the skins fit my characters. So here I am wondering if I should get recipes to maybe use later and just stash the bugs somewhere, or if I should delete them? ugh. It’s simply not worth the gold for me to make the weapons that won’t be used, if I could make them as zerker options then maybe, but I really have no interest in nomad stats… TVH.. ugh.