Guild Wars 2

I’m never the one to whine when changes are introduced but this…
I played GW1 because I liked the philosophy behind it’s design and I play GW2 because most of this philosophy got carried over.
No gear/lvl grinding, just max your character and once you do this the character is finished forever, you will never HAVE to do something, you just play whatever is fun. This is why I never played any other MMO, because those games feel to much like work with the endless grind.

And now they are starting to introduce gear tiers? If they really do this I wouldn’t be surprised if each expansion introduced another tier and more levels, just like WoW. This goes against what I loved about GW.

IF this new ‘Ascended’ tier is just a one-time thing, and there will never ever be more gear tiers/level cap increases after that… then I guess I’m okay with that, but I really doubt this is the case.

Uborghin.5892:

This is not GW!!
What are you doing A.net?!?!

This!

If this comes, GW2 turns completly into a random MMO. And I won’t continue playing and paying for future expansions. Baah I can’t even get my thoughts into this post, I’m shocked. -.-

Holding judgement until more information is available.

Stat increase is a big slap in the face.

If its some type of gate system for the dungeon, at this time I think I am ok with that.

I dont want more stats and I dont want the ability to change the power of my character because I have a certain gear set on. This FORCES me to grind out this gear.

Tread very carefully.

I cannot express how disappointed I am to read this and if this goes live. I’ve defended the game from day 1 to the naysayers, and out of appreciation to Arenanet, a few days ago I purchased some gems. Not because I needed them, but to throw some money at Arenanet for making a great game and supporting it the way they have. They earned it.

If ascended gear makes it in, I wish I could take that money back.

Arena Net … please … give us some clarification here. People are freaking out.

Don’t bother posting here, if its anything except flowers and sweet words for what they are doing then it will be deleted and censored. This is why community forums exist. I think we should all move there.. except maybe the admins there are white knights.

So basically your feedback will only be skimmed over for an excuse to ban and NEVER be mentioned to the devs of the actual game. Either that or post on a community website where the devs won’t go (not safe enough) or the admins will white knight you and ban you for using logic to explain why some things just shouldn’t happen and why certain actions constitute a.. lie.

Everyone just needs to kittening chill out, you havent even seen how they re going to implement, or even how much better the armor is. Besides its not like they are adding tiered armor, they are adding another Class of armor, please learn to read.

Edit: Anet changed it to kittening and i am ok with that

It is sounding more and more like temp upgrade for that one particular instance to help you get further in said instance…it’d be like grinding an instance to get a temp buff that only applies to an instance so you can get further in that instance…Hell it’ll make competitive PvE a thing…there’d be leaderboards who cleared x in y time etc…thats brilliant…the downside is people will still kitten all of the people derserve to see the content qqqqqqqqq. Ah well…whatever lets face it companies and mature gamers alike should be used to these kinds of reactions by now

I’m definitely disappointed in this as well, making a new tier of gear that’s better then what we have is something you typically do in an expansion, not the 2nd update of a game. And if this is an indication of how quickly they’re going to make our items obsolete then I really don’t think people will stick around…part of working to get the best gear you can is the satisfaction you get at the end when you’ve got what you want and can work on your next toon. I’m just now finishing all my exotics on my first one I made at launch and now I’m gonna have to work all over again on new items…This is disheartening tbh and I can see LOT’s of people are already not very happy with this decision…Plus I sorta fear that the explorable dungeons will be hard to find groups for now that everyone will be moving onto this new dungeon instead for the ascended gear..

I bought this game over the promise of “no gear grind”, “exotic armor will be fairly easy and not overly grindy”. But now there is items “slightly more powerful than exotics” in just 2 months from release…

What is your stance in your very own “no gear grind” philosophy ANet? are these Ascended armor is not in your “gear grind” category? If so, tell us why.

If this “slightly more powerful than exotics” armors are still “fairly easy and not overly grindy” then well done ANet, but if no….

Durzlla.6295:

Has anyone here stopped to think, “Maybe the ascended armors stats only kick in while in the fractals of the mists instance so you can actually make it through some of the later levels….”?

That implies that this is a good thing.

I was very happy that it was relatively easy to get the best gear in form of exotics.
I did like that guild wars 2 was mainly about skins and cosmetics
I did like that the best gear could be obtained through pve, pvp and crafting.

I am against ascended gear.
I do not like that this gear got better stats than exotic gear.
This is a major drawback for me and I will slowly lose interest in the game.
Ascended gear is just the first step.
In two month people will qq again to get more epixx because they are not able
to find any more motivation.

I vote against ascended gear.
This is a bad start.
Everything’s fine right NOW (November, 12th, 2012)
(besides some balancing )

Gehenna.3625:

Knote.2904:

And 2% more stats that isn’t required for ANYTHING, is mandatory how exactly?

—

Yes, the irony is DELICIOUS!

How does it feel to be told “this game isn’t for you”?

2% stats can still make a difference in WvW, but it’s the infuse slots that will make the gear required for certain upcoming content.

And yes the tables have been turned. It may mean the game isn’t for me anymore but I can handle that, disappointing as it may be. The thing is. Anet are throwing out their own principles to make these changes and I think that by itself will damage them more than the actual introduction of a new tier of gear.

It was clear to point out this game wasn’t for the gear treadmill because it was advertised as such. Anet are actually changing something that was a a foundation, a pillar of their philosophy. They were a company you could still believe in would have some principle and backbone with it. The real sad part is that it looks like they are giving that up and it will be interesting to find out where this goes.

If it means that this is no longer the game for me, so be it. I already got my money’s worth so far. The difference is that once I decide this is no longer the game for me, you won’t see me here ranting for another two months or longer about it. I will simply leave and find another game to play.

This. If they make this game something I no longer like, I will just leave. There’s no point to ranting about it on the forums weeks from now.

Zanthrax.6538:

It is sounding more and more like temp upgrade for that one particular instance to help you get further in said instance…it’d be like grinding an instance to get a temp buff that only applies to an instance so you can get further in that instance…Hell it’ll make competitive PvE a thing…there’d be leaderboards who cleared x in y time etc…thats brilliant…the downside is people will still kitten all of the people derserve to see the content qqqqqqqqq. Ah well…whatever lets face it companies and mature gamers alike should be used to these kinds of reactions by now

go back to the first page.

find my post on that page.

read the quotes from an interview with anet rep on a german game site.

it is in fact, stat gear progression.

straight up. no ifs ands or buts.

Korrigan.4837:

Knote.2904:

Rare gear is nearly just as good as Exotics, you can do anything in this game in Rare gear with no problems.

This sentence makes me wonder if our friend “knote” is even playing this game. Blue gear nearly as good as exotics? If that isn’t misinformation and nonsense…

Blue isn’t rare fyi. I know a lot of people who decided for the 78 exotic gear over crafted 80 just for the convenience of using basic transmute stones.

raphaeldisanto.5478:

Brannoncyll.1978:

I expect the infusions will only be able to be used in the dungeon, and will allow players to get slightly further in than they would do otherwise for their level of skill. Personally this does not bother me, and it gives people who want a treadmill something to keep them going.

People who want a treadmill shouldn’t be playing this game to start with. They should have stuck with their treadmill game and not come here whining that GW2 didn’t have one.

And to answer someone else’s question: How does it feel to be told the game’s not for me? Well, if the game’s truly not for me, you don’t have to tell me, because I won’t be playing it.

Na, I like the game. I support any measure to improve its longevity.

I’m NOT happy with this change at all – as it is there are too many “LFM4 dungeon X lvl 80, full exotics required” calls going out, that will just be “full ascended required” next month.

There are several combinations of stats that are not available – THOSE would have been great to see in game. slightly better though just means mudflation….very unimpressed.

Maybe they are just releasing these ?

I guess legendary armor to go with the weapons wouldn’t bother me, as long as another 3 months won’t bring the introduction of divine armor to be followed by abysall etc, gear treadmills in mmo’s suck.

^ I have NEVER seen “full exotics” required.

Wait. So I have worked my tail off to get 4 exotic armor sets for my level 80 character for different styles of play and now they are going to be basically useless because of a new tier of armor… Oh my…

inc gear treadmill… bad bad bad idea.

And where’s the WvW love?! Patch after patch it’s SPvP stuff, with little to no content for WvW (except removing stuff to work around exploits instead of fixing the root cause, ie. dolyak missions, orb removal, …)

Korrigan.4837:

Knote.2904:

Rare gear is nearly just as good as Exotics, you can do anything in this game in Rare gear with no problems.

This sentence makes me wonder if our friend “knote” is even playing this game. Blue gear nearly as good as exotics? If that isn’t misinformation and nonsense…

I’ve been doing CoE, Arah, SE, TA, AC just fine in blues; just fine as in doing dps, keeping players up when I can, and not downing/dying often. The gradual shift from blue to orange is noticeable, but not game changing. I don’t see these Ascended gears being game changing, especially if the stats are confined to the PvE parts (not WvW) and future content isn’t scaled towards players having Ascended-gear… This creates a pseudo-vertical progression (that actually already kind of exists) while still maintaining a mostly horizontal one; so long as the challenges provided in these new dungeons are that much more challenging (mechanically, not inflated numbers-wise).

This game is already grindy enough to make me consider quitting it. As a busy adult with diverse interests and a small pocketbook I just don’t have the option of investing copious amounts of time and/or additional money into a video game. I have already stopped discussing this game with friends, and I will not be participating in the invite a friend feature this weekend. I will monitor the results of this new content and how it affects the game, and I’ll react as I feel appropriate once all the details are known.

If the game becomes a gear treadmill, I will agree with many posters here and will stop playing. I will be grateful that I have as yet not wasted any additional money beyond the initial purchase price of the game, and I will make sure to discourage anyone I know from giving their money to ArenaNet as I currently do for Blizzard.

I hope it doesn’t come to that.

Dear ANet,

I love GW2 (and I loved GW1)! I dedicated a big portion of my life to these games… Sometimes neglecting urgent matters on my “real life”. I have been a faithful “client”, got every possible game made by you (well, all GW1 games and expansions, GW2) and spent quite a lot of money on your Gems… Because I think you guys are special and are really interested in making something different.

I will keep playing GW2 for a while longer, but I have to admit that your increasing changes and deviations from what was first promised, start to be a bit “tiring” and disappointing. GW was and should always be, about skill! Not about grind and living for the game… I want to have fun with the game, not to live in it! This was what I paid for and what I support. I want to login one hour every other day and be able to play against everyone!

Unfortunately, we have watched to an increasing amount of people complaining about no endgame and how they wanted stronger stuff, to feel stronger and more special and be able to be the best in the world and beat everyone! Well… this is wrong! It is completely against all your ideology! At least the ideology I was led to believe you guys defended! I defend GW (and very often criticized WoW and the “sheep” playing it), but please do not make us all be sheep… I want a special game, a different game! I don’t care if some spoiled kids that love to be stronger than anyone else leave the game!

Please, be faithful to what you were… so that you can keep people that believed in you, faithful to OUR cause! Please!?

Skar Hand.5037:

It makes me LOL the amount of maturity there are within this “Forum Community”. For every 1 post that is mature and thought out, there are 5 that are about the maturity equivalent of my 6 year old yelling “YOU’RE NOT MY BEST FRIEND ANYMORE” at A-net.

If you people are really quitting and un-installing based on one line from a magazine article, then good riddance. You were just looking for a excuse to go anyway. If it truly is a gear grindy treadmill, I will be just as pissed as any of you, but come on. Wait and see what it is first.

My thoughts exactly!
I’ll reserve my judgment when i see the stat difference.
But, as this is basicly dungeon gear, ArenaNet should make these soulbound acquire and/or implement the token system for them.

I feel that this is a realy bad idea, why couldn’t they just make the new items look cool?

coleman.2095:

Wait. So I have worked my tail off to get 4 exotic armor sets for my level 80 character for different styles of play and now they are going to be basically useless because of a new tier of armor… Oh my…

Two months in and all our gear is obsolete…

inc gear treadmill… bad bad bad idea.

/sign

Do I have to raid (and raid and raid…) gear for balanced WvW in the future? Really?

This sucks in every other game and will suck in gw2!

Many Pesky Monk.3140:

Why would Anet want people to just leave and only come back when theres new kitten? No they want players playing all the time, just like any other gaming company. A gear treadmill is a way, albeit cheap, to keep players playing the game. And like I mentioned, can actually be fun if done right. That’s all.

What your (and seemingly ANet’s) line of reasoning neglects is that many, many people bought this game among things -because- it didn’t have a traditional gear treadmill. Heck, even in games having a conventional endgame only around 10% of the playerbase actually seems to do those raids. It’s not like hardcore types are a majority or so.

Also – their economic model is actually set up in the way that does -not require them to keep all players playing the game every single day the way a subscription game does. No, they don’t want to lose them completely, of course. Funnily enough I can see a lot of players indeed quitting over them introducing them gear progression gameplay now.
I will wait and see – but in all honestly, I am done with being regarded and treated like a second-class player because I don’t raid (or super-dungeon, or whatever ANet will call the frustratingly hard instances you get the 1337 gear from). I quit regular MMOs because of “endgame”, you know? GW2 looked like the safe haven for people like me, where every path of playing could lead to the same goal, and not only ‘raiding’. Seems that principle is out of the window now. And this is makes me not a happy panda right now.

I dont see how we can have much constructive feedback since we dont have much constructive information. “Slightly more powerful” you’re just opening a can of worms. why invoke drama? you know this would happen. just either remove or reword it to reflect what Infusion really is, its just a form of attunement as we had in GW1, it didnt make our gear more powerful, just able to not be 1 shotted by Mursaat who were made to 1 shot non-infused people. thats all it was. please stick to that. but this time, dont make it we have to do some silly 3 day questline to infuse every piece of my dungeon gear from every dungeon in game. thats just silly, and not fun. but like most people i’d prefer you kep the stat ceiling and just give us better skins.

In WoW getting a full new tier takes ages. I mean it can take months of daily grind. Then its the agonising RNG for those best in slot pieces. In GW2 can buy full exotics the very day you turn 80. You can have them waiting for you in the bank. Before you guys worry too much just consider how long it might take to get this new gear. I seriously doubt it will be anything more than a fraction of what it takes in WoW. That’s not gear treadmill guys. Raising levels of tier by itself does not create a treadmill it’s just the same as when you level up. It’s the grind that goes with it that creates the sense of a treadmill.

Great idea, another good progression for players, thanks Anet! =)

You can do all current content without exotic. So if you don’t want the new Armour, don’t get it. Let us who want it have fun obtaining it. =)

People need to read the statement before jumping off the cliff in rage.

There will only be a couple of Ascended quality items available initially, but some of the rarer Ascended items will also feature a new Infusion slot that will make players even more powerful so that they can tackle new challenges that ArenaNet plans to throw at them as they continue to expand on the dungeon over the coming months and years.”

The use of THE is critical. It means singular, not every. Not also it means they intend to expand the content of this dungeon in the future.

Because of the ‘THE’ it strongly indicates these new items will work ONLY in THE new dungeon and any advantage will be negated elsewhere.

We’ll just wait and see, as I personally do not believe Areanet would allow this gear to work everywhere and thus introduce a gear grind. Especially when the statement above says otherwise.

Yeah, I agree and guess its time to pack up. If this ends up being another tier, I will just go play another game that is coming out and will be better and get all my friends to play it instead. I loved asuras though! Too bad such a great writing staff had to get involved with these folks.

So thats the consensus? We defended them a while but they kept changing their stances on what the game would be after launch?

Its pretty sad but hey, other games to play I guess.

You are right though, even if we try to provide feedback it will be removed or buried under other posts so it doesn’t matter. We have no way to teach Anet what we want and no way to remind them of their promises. They are too busy with this stuff to even add guesting. Why? WVW? It seems meaningless, to me, a Jade Quarry person to fight blackgate people. Why should I? Why didn’t they have proper factions like luxons and kurzick type thing? Why no reason to fight? Why no reason to not have guesting?

The game is ripping itself apart and I’d rather remember the asura fondly. Buh bye! I liked helping players but gear treadmills aren’t my thing.

We havn’t heard the dev’s comment on it yet, there might be some circumstances that this ascended gear might only provide better than exotic stats in certain area’s or in new area’s.

Knote.2904:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Knote.2904:

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

Knote.2904:

kiranslee.4829:

I just did google for “say NO to mmo grind”.
This is first page i found:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/08/28/guild-wars-2-review-part-one-still-grinding-after-all-these-years/

Really for 100th time , please dont make it grind fest, please.

The whole game is a grind fest.

??

No it isn’t. The only grind this game has at the moment is optional cosmetic grind.

Most, if not all people agree with that. A gear-threadmill however, is not OK.

And 2% more stats that isn’t required for ANYTHING, is mandatory how exactly?

Exotic items aren’t mandatory either, right? You’ll do just fine in common-rarity (white) stuff you bought from an armorsmith npc.

What a joke.

LOL what a good example, way to over-exaggerate another point for your own silly argument.

Rare gear is nearly just as good as Exotics, you can do anything in this game in Rare gear with no problems.

And you actually bring up another point, why is there White/Blue/Green gear in this game? It’s a gear treadmill, why aren’t you crying about that???

That isn’t a Treadmill, that is gearing up your character. White/Blue/Green can all easily be got and then Exotics is what you work towards at the end.

A treadmill is when they constantly add better gear that you have to grind to get. We already have to grind up to get Exotics one way or another, why do we have to do it again for Ascended?

Indeed clarification is needed. The only way Id be semi-OK with this is if this gear’s more “powerful stats than exotics” are activated as you progress through the new dungeon. If you are wearing this gear in any other dungeon or in the world, it has the same stat level as exotics.

One slippery slope this might create is that you’ll see people spamming LFG “LFG <new dungeon>, must have full ascended set…”

Are we back to gear scores now, as it was with WoW? Gear requirements to run the dungeon?

Kimyrielle.3826:

but in all honestly, I am done with being regarded and treated like a second-class player because I don’t raid (or super-dungeon, or whatever ANet will call the frustratingly hard instances you get the 1337 gear from).

I think this summarizes the feelings many people have with how MMOs treat them.

Add me to a list of not wanting a stats treadmill. This will only divide the casuals from the not quite so casuals.

I know a lot of people that will play on and off over the months. This was a great thing in GW1, they could play again a year later and still have their armor be relevant. If there is an introduction to a treadmill then when my very casual friends log in they will have to get the better armor or, depending on how long they haven’t played, maybe even the armor before the best before going for the best.

There will be no more casual play and logging in to play new content. When new dungeons and areas were introduced in GW1 me and my girlfriend could play without having to do anything else but the quests and things leading up to the new content.

Exotics are not expensive to get but when you only play a couple hours a week, it is fairly expensive.

End game should not be more gear. End game should be more story!

First, before I think on the subject of the Ascended gear, I just want to say what a HORRIBLE job the interviewees did in those articles. The use of their wording is horrendous and practically instills the notion of rage into people who are vehemently against a vertical gear grind. Also, shame on ArenaNet for not taking the time to make sure they clarified their article or even post a response or official post on how exactly this Ascended system will work.

If this system of gear is ONLY available within the dungeon and the stat increase is ONLY effective within the Ascended dungeon system, then fine. By all means introduce a raid like mechanic to help retain that certain demographic of players who enjoy the gear treadmill. I would welcome it so that those other players can enjoy the game as well. I’ll state it again; only if this gear is effective within the Ascended system and NO WHERE ELSE.

If this system affects sPvP, WvW or the ability to just casually enjoy the game, then I am completely against this system and ArenaNet needs to seriously reconsider the demographic of players they are trying to attract to their game.

I also have concerns about exclusivity with this Ascended content. We already see organized groups not allowing certain classes (cough Rangers cough) into the fold because of the lack of viable and worthy builds those classes have. I’m also concerned about the “future” of the Ascended system adding harder levels of progression without giving incentive for players who already went through the “first tier” reason to help people go through earlier tiers to get caught up on the treadmill.

I sincerely hope the system is designed to only be effective within the Ascended system itself. I also hope they will balance certain classes so that they are not socially excluded from being able to do the content. I will wait and see how the system plays out and hope my primary concern of exclusivity is unfounded. I was sad to see that there is still no word on Ranger balancing and class fixes.

I hope we all can find enjoyment in the game; and if ArenaNet implements this system correctly, we can. Thanks for reading.

Vaash.8956:

I dont see how we can have much constructive feedback since we dont have much constructive information. “Slightly more powerful” you’re just opening a can of worms. why invoke drama? you know this would happen. just either remove or reword it to reflect what Infusion really is, its just a form of attunement as we had in GW1, it didnt make our gear more powerful, just able to not be 1 shotted by Mursaat who were made to 1 shot non-infused people. thats all it was. please stick to that. but this time, dont make it we have to do some silly 3 day questline to infuse every piece of my dungeon gear from every dungeon in game. thats just silly, and not fun. but like most people i’d prefer you kep the stat ceiling and just give us better skins.

Why even have the disparity between infused and non-infused though? Why include armor that is supposedly “slightly” more powerful than exotics. What people are complaining about is implementing an end-game gear grind to a game which was highly advertised as not having one. Which is completely justified given what we know now.

Can’t wait for these. Hopefully they will be usable in WvW since it will encourage people to explore all aspects of the game.

To people saying knee jerk and such reactions. I rather stop the train before we go over the broken bridge rather than get it back up the rails while it is hanging over the chasm.

It’s clear a very large portion of the people posting here is against gear treadmills and that Anet will lose customers and probably even have to refund them as well if one is put in. They need to get a statement out asap telling exactly what this entails.

Korrigan.4837:

Knote.2904:

Korrigan.4837:

Knote.2904:

Rare gear is nearly just as good as Exotics, you can do anything in this game in Rare gear with no problems.

This sentence makes me wonder if our friend “knote” is even playing this game. Blue gear nearly as good as exotics? If that isn’t misinformation and nonsense…

Rare = yellow.

Are you playing the same game?

Still not even remotely close. While you can do most content in rare gear, in PvP, the difference between rare and exotic remains significant, for armor, and even more for weapons. Denying that is nonsense.

To show the difference:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Knight#Amount_of_Each_Stat_Per_Armor_Piece_for_Level_80_Items

Also quotes from ArenaNet:

“Fun impacts loot collection. The rarest items in the game are not more powerful than other items, so you don’t need them to be the best. The rarest items have unique looks to help your character feel that sense of accomplishment, but it’s not required to play the game. We don’t need to make mandatory gear treadmills, we make all of it optional, so those who find it fun to chase this prestigious gear can do so, but those who don’t are just as powerful and get to have fun too.”

“It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.”

If ANET introduces more powerful gear then I’m gone. No questions asked. I played GW1 for 7 years across around 11 characters. I did everything in that game and kept returning because I knew I could play the game again without having to worry about upgrading my gear on all my characters. I could go do PvE or PvP content without having to worry about being weaker than the next guy because he had grinded out a better set of gear/weapons.

I’ve logged >5000 hours into GW1, if things are going the way they look like they are I won’t even reach half that number on GW2.

I’m definitely disappointed in this as well.
I am against ascended gear.

So, is that the result of all the whining people complaining about no endgame?
Nice done! For the first time, I’m worried that GW2 will become another WoW-clone.
I really hope this is a huge joke and Guild Wars philosophy stays as it.

Please Arenanet, listen to the community. We are asking to NOT introduce any sort of gear treadmill. Please, don’t disappoint us.

Jesus Christ, only 2 hours and already a 7 page long thread freaking out about this type of item!? I mean, I knew people would freak, but didn’t expect them to be so fast.

I am not entirely sure about this new armor tier. It seems more like the equivalent of legendaries for armor. I guess Anet is trying to cater to those people complaining about lack of longevity and incentives after reaching lv80.

Exotic gear wasn’t really hard to get to me withut grinding. With the new achievements giving out karma, I could get a full exotic in a month just by playing the game normally. It wasn’t grindy at all – and I know you can get that gear even faster by doing dungeons combined with dailies and monthlies. So I am not that bothered with this change.

Wooooot! Thanks Anet! Im so glad your adding something more rewarding then just cosmetics for once. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

I really wish the forums had a downvote button.

All we have right now, guys, is intentionally vague information from two different third-party sources. Nothing from ANet at all.

Don’t get me wrong; I do not want a gear treadmill, but I’m also not going to go ballistic before I see what ANet is actually doing with this.

“Slightly more powerful” does not necessarily mean higher stats. It very well could be that the “infusion” slot is the only tangible difference between exotic and ascended. We simply do not know, so there is absolutely no reason to fly off the handle yet.

I find it stunning that ArenaNet doesn’t realize…the whiners will NEVER be satisfied. They will never be happy. You add a bit higher stats, and a week from now they will be decked out in new gear and back to complaining that there’s nothing to do and nothing to strive for. If they are missing the point now, they will continue to miss the point no matter how much you try to cater to them.

They will never be happy. Those players that were happy, are now going to feel betrayed due to your obvious desire to cater to others at the expense of what we enjoy.

Maybe they’ll add a new tier of stats every month. It still won’t stop the whining, their player base will shrink significantly, and they’ll sit back and act dumbfounded as to how it could have happened. “We listened to our players!” No you didn’t. You listened to people who never liked your game, and never will, and allowed them to dictate the subversion of your design philosophy. It’s a shame.