Our Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside just posted this:
“I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.
Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.
Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.
Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores."
Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director
Since this doesn’t address the concerns of most players, in fact the phrase “We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features” scares some of us even more, I have a few questions I’d like to get a honest answer to:
1. What are you going to indemnify those of us that already own multiple sets of exotic armor and/or used transmutation stones to get the designs they wanted? Will we get our karma, gold, tokens and stones back or will there be a free way to upgrade our current equip to ascended gear?
2. Are you planing to ever modify stats, the level cap or anything else that increases our characters power again? It doesn’t matter if it’s done via a content patch or an expansion pack. Will this ascended gear be that last gear I’ll ever have to get?
3. Can you tell us exactly what you are going to do so that exotics don’t get obsoleted by ascended gear?
4. Why exactly are you using new stats on ascended gear? Why do they have to be better than exotics?
5. Do you consider changing the ascended gear system to make it just a prefix that can be added to any exotic gear rather easy (aka a 5 minute quest or something like that)?
To me, these questions are very important cause if I don’t like the answers I won’t spend any more money on GW2. If there will ever be higher stats or a higher level cap again and if exotics really are obsolete now, I see no reason to do so since than this game is not different from most other MMOs. It’s fine if you want to go that way, but then please tell us so that we don’t waste our time on a game that is about to change into something we really don’t like.
(edited by nachtnebel.9168)
Good questions sir. Hope they get repplied asap.
I don’t think I’m going to like the answers to those questions.
An honest answer would be most appreciated… but I don’t think they dare to….
I got 1 more question, but this one is for you.
Do you really wish for new content to be added (in this case dungeons and new area) and the rewards for completing and mastering it just be exotics with the same stats\diferent skins?
If you do, well that’s you but i really like to get rewarded decently and getting more exotics woudlnt give me a sense of accomplishment( and yes i’ve got tons of karma,crafting materials, gold and time wasted on exotics)
I got 1 more question, but this one is for you.
Do you really wish for new content to be added (in this case dungeons and new area) and the rewards for completing and mastering it just be exotics with the same stats\diferent skins?
Yes, I do. That’s exactly why I, and a lot of other players here too, love GuildWars 1.
If you do, well that’s you but i really like to get rewarded decently and getting more exotics woudlnt give me a sense of accomplishment( and yes i’ve got tons of karma,crafting materials, gold and time wasted on exotics)
Not everybody is equal and I’m most certainly not saying that my way of playing the game is better than yours, but GW2 was advertised as a game where, just like GW1, you will never ever have to get new gear once you got your lvl 80 exotics. If this is about to change now I’d like to know so that I don’t waste anymore time and money on a game that is going to become something I can’t enjoy. I’m fine if they are going down this road, but if they do this is where we part company.
From a pre-release interview:
Q: What of the level cap? You guys decided whether you’re going to be increasing the level cap in future expansions or … ?
A: Yeah. The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game and we absolutely will increase it further into the game. Probably through expansions is the most likely place we would do that.
So yeah, where people get this ‘YOU NEVER SAID YOU’D RAISE THE CAP’ stuff blows my mind. and raising the level cap means you’d be getting new armor every expansion. Well that or be outdated.
From a pre-release interview:
Q: What of the level cap? You guys decided whether you’re going to be increasing the level cap in future expansions or … ?
A: Yeah. The level cap will be 80 on the initial release of the game and we absolutely will increase it further into the game. Probably through expansions is the most likely place we would do that.
So yeah, where people get this ‘YOU NEVER SAID YOU’D RAISE THE CAP’ stuff blows my mind. and raising the level cap means you’d be getting new armor every expansion. Well that or be outdated.
When they do add levels I fully expect new gear to match the level cap, that said what I don’t expect is gear I’m required to have before I get to see the content. I really don’t expect that Arena Net will ever put that into the game.
After Guild Wars launched we didn’t have greens(rares) in the game they were added later. Then with the addition of new campaigns we got golds which are better than greens because they could be enhanced with modifications. I’m optimistic that this is what Arena Net has in mind for GW2.
Yes, I do. That’s exactly why I, and a lot of other players here too, love GuildWars 1.
That’s the thing, i played GW1 alot too and loved it, but this isnt GW1, it changed and they said it would be diferent.
Not everybody is equal and I’m most certainly not saying that my way of playing the game is better than yours, but GW2 was advertised as a game where, just like GW1, you will never ever have to get new gear once you got your lvl 80 exotics. If this is about to change now I’d like to know so that I don’t waste anymore time and money on a game that is going to become something I can’t enjoy. I’m fine if they are going down this road, but if they do this is where we part company.
Neither am i, to each his own, but i dont remember them saying that, like Noxicon said since GW2 is a game more related to general mmorpgs gear and level progession these days, it’s only normal when they give new content it brings new gear\levels with it, making players who cant keep the pace obsolete.
I’m happy with this, but players who arent, since there isnt much they can do, maybe try to make guilds\communities that cap at certain level\gear\content or whatever.
When they do add levels I fully expect new gear to match the level cap, that said what I don’t expect is gear I’m required to have before I get to see the content. I really don’t expect that Arena Net will ever put that into the game.
After Guild Wars launched we didn’t have greens(rares) in the game they were added later. Then with the addition of new campaigns we got golds which are better than greens because they could be enhanced with modifications. I’m optimistic that this is what Arena Net has in mind for GW2.
But if they add items similar to greens with their new gear system, they HAVE to be better than the previous tier. It all comes back to gear progression and how it was always planned, but people didn’t want to see it. Too stuck in the ‘This is Guild Wars 1’ mentality, when even Anet have come out and said it’s an entirely different game.
Gating mechanics are another matter, but as I see it now it’s not much of a gate. It would be the equivalent of going into a backyard to look for a key to open the house. You’re going to find the key within that yard that allows you to proceed further. Once in the house, you’ll look for another key to go upstairs. On and On. The problem, in my opinion, would be if they made infusions available just for entry into the new dungeon, not for the mastery of it, and if they made said infusions available for say 500 dungeon tokens. That puts you into a situation where you have to run ‘older’ content to be able to see ‘new’ content, the real goal of a gating mechanism.
That’s the thing, i played GW1 alot too and loved it, but this isnt GW1, it changed and they said it would be diferent.
The promised us on multiple occasions that there won’t be any gear treadmill, that’s the reason why I, and many others, bought the game in the first place.
We all know that this is not GW1, but they also said they would take the things we – at this time the GW1 community – would love most about GW1 and take it to GW2. And the two thinkg the GW1 community loves most about GW1 is that there is no item progession besides for visual effects and the the level cap stayed the same over 7 years. And Arena Net was fully aware of that fact.
I’m happy with this, but players who arent, since there isnt much they can do, maybe try to make guilds\communities that cap at certain level\gear\content or whatever.
Which would deny them content and therefore the game would be not worth spending any additional money.
I don’t know how the player base is exatcly divided, but I seriously doubt that a lot of the old GW1 community will purchase an expansion pack if they really increase the level cap an implement a further grind for gear. Maybe those players are the minority and therefore it won’t hurt Arena Net, but I don’t know. If it turns out that the GW1 community forms the majority of the current community then Arena Net is probably heading in the wrong direction and both, their money earned from the gem store and sales on a future expansion pack will go down.
I’m curious. What extra money are you spending on this game and why? I like the ascended stuff but I won’t spend real money on the game, I never have.
In every F2P game I tend to use the Item Shop to support it. I spend a lots of money on games like LoL, Atlantica Online or EvE and at the end of the month I often spend more than 15€.
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