Guild Wars 2

Orion.7264:

piitb.7635:

dirtyklingon.2918:

piitb.7635:

Too much speculation, not enough facts.

For all we know ascended gear is nothing more than the legendary equivalent for armor.

idk how you can miss in any of these articles that ascended gear is explicitly better in stats and has infusion item slot that increases stats further is explicitly stated.

there is no speculation on these points.

And?

There is nothing saying that this gear is going to be easy to obtain. There is nothing saying that there is going to be anything beyond ascended.

“Ascended” could simply mean the quality of the gear, not a tier of gear in an MMO gear grind.

“Ascended” gear might be Guild Wars 2 equivalent of Guild Wars 1 prestige armor.

Again, so much speculation, so little hard facts.

Go read the articles before you think you can intelligently contribute to a discussion.

Read the articles and all it is is speculation.

So all this knee jerk reaction is is speculation of speculation.

Lol, i’m lauging too hard at this, you’re BICKERING about a freaking German site’s obviously opinionated article as if it was Arena Net’s statement.
Until it comes out i’m counting on Anet’s ability to make good on their own word.
When it comes out if it turns out that Ascended armor is overpowering or the start of a gear treadmill, i’m going to react to the facts in front of me, not to the words of a translated article come out of some german site who doesn’t even state his sources. You’re implying those are words from a Dev, don’t see names or even them implying it as a quote.

Kain Francois.4328:

souldonkey.9534:

From the linked article:

This sounds literally EXACTLY like “Hey guys, so the Mursaat have this thing called Spectral Agony, and yeah, it’ll kitten you up. Oh, also you can’t see them. You need to ascend so you can see them and infuse your armor so they don’t 2 shot you. Here, go talk to this dude. He’ll have you do some junk and things and you’ll be all set.”

Am I the only one that sees this or do people here honestly just get the jollies from complaining about stuff no one knows anything about yet?

Thank you for echoing what my other post said. This could very well be a good thing too due to the return of the Mursaat.

I quote from the recent article "Arenanet begründet diesen Kurswechsel mit dem Feedback der Fans und Spieler. Die Aufwertung der eigenen Ausrüstung sei für viele eine große Motivation. Weiterhin motivierend dürfte auch sein, dass die aufgestiegenen Waffen sogenannte Infusions-Slots bekommen. Dort baut man “Infusionen” genannte Upgrades ein, um die Waffe noch mächtiger zu machen."

Which says item progression is a big motivation for many players. Ascended weapons have infusion slots, which can be upgraded to make weapons even more powerful.

If it’s equivalent to the current highest-tier armor in terms of stats and upgradeability but has a unique look, sure.

This sure reads like “more powerful gear is coming” to me, however. I don’t play GW2 because I want the tired MMO gear grind treadmill. This is a bad idea, as written. Don’t do it, if you’re doing what we think you’re doing.

So the grind starts now? Come on guys. I thought the whole point was to make upgrades cosmetic.
The point was that everyone could have access to the gear without massive grind so that people could compete in WvW etc from the same ‘base’ without having to grind for hours and hours every few months for gear with better stats!

The ‘title’ and looks of the amour as upgrades was the best idea to allow casual players as well as those who live in GW to have something going on. With gear stat increase it becomes another Wow….and any casual player with pvp skill will still end up being one shotted by a bad player due to stats alone…..just because that guy had no issue grinding grinding grinding. No……I’m not a no lifer, and I want a game which is pretty much as it is now.
Where everyone can play…enjoy..and not have to keep up with gear changes every few months.
You guys have made a fantastic game with novel concepts and a lot to do. Those that say there is ‘nothing to do’ just because they want to gear grind all day and bash ppl with stats and not skill….well….I’ll have to stop my sentence lest I break the ‘agree to code of conduct’ tick box agreement.

You forget that there are many sets of gear as well…so it’s not about just upgrading one set. Many of us have taken time to create multiple sets specifically for the looks that we can use in WvW as well. Now I have to remake them?….no.

Dont make this game into that. You don’t need those players. You have a big enough base who love it for what it is.
Make the gear changes visual.
NO stat increases…No gear grind..please!!!!!……You’re not wow!

I stopped playing WoW and MMO’s that followed the gear treadmill a long time ago. I played GW1 for years happy to only progress cosmetically and just sit back and enjoy exploring the world and the story. I have enjoyed GW2 for the same reasons and was as happy as a puppy when I heard that they were not going to introduce a grind.
But now I see this….. If this is the direction Anet is going I can do nothing to stop it but I will speak with my wallet. I have supported this game through Gem shop purchases and items from their store, that will end if they go the route of a treadmill. Will they miss my money? Probably not, but I will not be drawn into supporting this type of game model ever again.

Don’t do this Anet. I’m here because there is no gear treadmill. If you start this then you are just another MMO.

I am strongly against adding gear that has “better stats” than exotics as well. For crying out loud even legendaries are no better than exotics. If you do go ahead with this I am sure many of us would feel very betrayed.

Please for the love of god do not jump onto the bandwagon of gear-grinding-for-better-stats. As a PvE-focused player I would hate to have to worry about getting new (better) gear in future patches if this is going to be the new trend. The worst part is we have to hear this from outside sources? There should be transparency for such major changes, even if the stat-advantages are minor.

I’ve read alot of what has been written and from my point of view…if there is going to be a gear grind in this game, FTP or not, I’ll just move on and find something else to do/play.

Now, I really like the game right now and hope this isn’t the case. More than willing to wait for an official response before casting down any sort of final judgment on the matter.

If the last 10-15+ years I’ve spent playing MMO’s in some capacity has taught me anything, its that gear grinds bring the absolute worst out of people. If your trying to form a helpful community, creating or adding a gear grind is absolutely the wrong way to go and flies in the face of that.

Looking forward to a response on the matter…

so a certain a net dev on his personal twitter is saying we’re all freaking out over non factual information.

so basically it’s aconspiracy across gaming news sites against anet?

or you guys told all 3 the wrong information?

or what is it?

oh and he says there’ sa blog coming later today.

heh. maybe next time lead with the blog, tell 3 gaming news sites wrong stuff 2nd

If this whole thing really introduces a item threadmill then I will lose every trust I had in Anet.
I was always on theire side and thought they would take the right way, but this…it just sounds totaly awful. Especially when you can only get the new armour stuff in this dungeon.
What about the people who aren’t that good to progress enough in the dungeon to get this new stuff?
Would be really sad about something like that

http://www.arena.net/blog/is-it-fun-colin-johanson-on-how-arenanet-measures-success

interessting article of Mr. Johanson

Ascended armor sounds like:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Infusion

If so, lol at all the people flying off the hinge about how this isnt like GW1.

None of you complainers know squat on what exactly they indend to release.

Before you open your mouths that the world is ending, you should have the patch-notes presented before you. As it stands now, there are no notes telling you the exact nature of the change.

https://twitter.com/mkerstein/status/268043782774218755

And before you all get a heart attack or an aneurysm – there will be a blog post later today about the whole thing.
—-
Here’s hoping it’s good news and not an actual gear grind.

Item Treadmill → I’m out here.

A slight increase of stats, if it’s the last we get, is fine, but if it happens again, I’ll stop playing. I also though about buying Gems, but with this news I won’t do it until I’m sure that GW2 is not going WoW.

Cynic.3496:

Kimyrielle.3826:

Cynic.3496:

I’m happy about this patch! I even hope they do add full progression raiding someday! You can’t keep people interested on cosmetic gains only and I think they finally realized that. It’s going to be nice to have a reason to login again.

I will be the mean one to point out that hardcore raiders are an group that barely would leave a dent on any game’s balance sheet if they’d all quit – we’re talking about a 5%-15% part of the population here.

In terms of size of playerbase, GW1 was the second-most successful western MMO after WoW – and it kept a very loyal fanbase around for many years without any silly gear progression game and just cosmetics.That proves your statement wrong right there.

Conversely, almost all newer MMOs having a traditional gear treadmill failed miserably on market after a few months and the raiding-focus chasing away all non-raiders (cough SWTOR).

A modern MMO can easily exist without the raiders as customers, but I am sorry to say that these days you can’t fund a MMO without the 85+% that do NOT raid. And in 2012, the non-raiders seem to be just as trigger happy with the “uninstall” button if their needs aren’t met by a game. Which is a good thing. shrug

Interesting post. You do know WoW has gear progression AND the most players right now, right?

Yes, but GW2 wont beat wow by trying to to do the same, there already is a wow out there, why would anyone play anything but the king of that? GW2 cant compete in progression with something thats been out for so long , most of the people who want gear grind have already left, all this patch will do is make the people who love GW2 for what it is leave aswell.

dirtyklingon.2918:

so a certain a net dev on his personal twitter is saying we’re all freaking out over non factual information.

so basically it’s aconspiracy across gaming news sites against anet?

or you guys told all 3 the wrong information?

or what is it?

oh and he says there’ sa blog coming later today.

heh. maybe next time lead with the blog, tell 3 gaming news sites wrong stuff 2nd

Journalists kittened up the information they were given. It’s not the first time that’s happened, nor the last.

The only surprising thing about this is that people (mainly you) couldn’t hold your kitten long enough to get the real information.

CC Eva.6742:

Hello everybody.

We have merged two parallel threads that were discussing the ascended gear. Please, feel free to keep on posting your constructive feedback and impressions here.

Thanks.

I will say this, people who want the armor treadmill to be better because of the numbers on a spreadsheet, already have many MMO’s to choose from. So those type of players spoke up on the forums and wanted the gear grind, left the game because of lack of better stats to feel better about themselves.

Arena Net, let those people go, do not try and get them back.
Why?
You are going to corner the market on the people who enjoy the lack of said power creep. Guild Wars 1 is a skill based game and Guild Wars 2 is a skill based game.
Sure people need a carrot keep playing. However that carrot should not be forced down the users throat.

If those people who can’t figure things out for themselves. If they can’t set the carrot on a stick and string by themselves to reach the many goals or end game already set forth. It is not the games fault.

I have played Guild Wars for 6 years now, on a every other day basis, from week to week, with no extended absences from the community. One of the many reasons mostly the GW community and my guild. But, another was never having to keep running up the hill or chase some stat bonus. I played the game because I wanted to.

I have quit every other MMO, I have ever played because the mountain to chase that gear becomes to high, to steep and I am no longer playing the content I want to, just a one dungeon raid over and over again to stay on top the peak.
Never playing all the old content ever again or enjoying other areas of the game.

This why I am against stats being better on regular basis. I would like to be able to continue to play the skill based game because I “want” to, not because I “need” to.

That is my feedback.

So how come buffed.de got a “german” comment from the dev’s apparently and there is nothing to be found here on this very forum?

Can we get a verification for this? Who was talking to them? There is no name mentioned.

dirtyklingon – the translation was mostly fine, perhaps the last sentence is a bit hard to understand, it basically says that for most acquiring a higher tier of gear is a strong motivator.

I’ll wait how it plays out, but it’s already saddening indeed, especially given the fact that the crowd that is so high about getting stronger stats are going to be done with that a week after and moan some more about how there is nothing to do.

No subscription or not – this goes against any article I’ve read from ArenaNet so far about their vision etc.

Cynic.3496:

Interesting post. You do know WoW has gear progression AND the most players right now, right?

Yes that is right. And those of us that do like that as our primary style of game will still continue to play that game. I play GW2 because I liked WvW before it got all messed up. But if I’m going to have to regear all my characters in this game like I do in WoW. I’m just going to continue to play WoW because honestly it’s better at what it does then all the others.

Making this game in to just another WoW clone will lead to same fate that all the other WoW clones are. Caugh SWTOR Cough Aeon, Sniffle Sniffle Rift etc you get the point. If you want people to play your game instead of WoW make it different then WoW.

MajorMelchett.6042:

https://twitter.com/mkerstein/status/268043782774218755

And before you all get a heart attack or an aneurysm – there will be a blog post later today about the whole thing.
—-
Here’s hoping it’s good news and not an actual gear grind.

imho next time lead with the blog post, saves you sayign we’re freaking out over “non factual” information from 3 different independant sources based on what you guys told them to report to us, and also saves you the whine shame and blame posts on your personal twitter later.

the article does state that the Karka have impenetrable carapaces and the players need to find a way to kill them right? Ascended armour + Infusion probably is how you kill them, making them better than exotics in the ability to fight the new type of enemy.

Nothing in that article explicitly states that you will get better stats or bonuses against players. It’s likely a buff used to further progress in the dungeon as it does get harder as you get further in, or gives a buff against the Karka. It’s pretty much the same concept as in GW1, you needed Ascended armour to fight he Mursaat. It’s probably going to be the same deal with the Karka.

People need to stop reading too much into Press Releases from PR agencies. They are never 100% accurate and usually written to keep some of the content a surprise.

I think we are all worrying about nothing. No way they would kitten exotics and legendaries only 2 months into launch. Imagine having a legendaries or exotics and suddenly its not even top tier gear. I cant see it happening.

I’m all up for this ascended gear. The game needs to have goals like this for dedicated players to have reasons to log in and feel like doing X/Y/Z today. I hold my comments for awhile until I see how it really works. If it’s some sort of progression, I’m sure many players will accept this as well. The real mmorpg’ers will feel happy about this. The game shouldn’t pacify those very casual who “wants to be equal with those who made efforts” because it’ll make dedicated players feel punished.

The ones who’re against this shouldn’t worry too much. Seriously, you can still stick with exotic and it’s an option to go ascended. The game promises that you’ll be able to hit and survive the strongest bosses with exotic. Gear threadmill is a system which “you must have gear X to survive content X”. Having ascended gears will not promote that gear threadmill system. You will still able to explore all the content the game has to offer with your exotic gears. The game still live up to it’s promises.

This is a multi-player game. There must be reward that put a line between people who’re dedicated and people who’re very casual. If everything is catered to the very casual, the dedicated ones will leave. So casual players really shouldn’t complain on something like this. They can already explore all raids, dungeons, pvp and reach end-game. They already have 100% content being available to them. They should be fair towards dedicated players and give them reasons to play this game too. This is why I welcome this update.

If it is in fact better gear armor than exotic, this will be a deal breaker for me and most if not all of my guild. I love this game, but as has been mentioned- a gear grind is the polar opposite of what I’m wanting. All of the gear grind people have already been weeded out. If you go to it now, you’ll just alienate the people who got the game they wanted.

This statement has been retracted, sorry for the heard mentality stampede.
Glad to get some real info and that the gear will be available for all players not just dungeons.

Please don’t do this arenanet.

Add all the cool looks you want, but don’t add stuff with better stats that can only be obtained by some methods and not others.

Right now if you want the best stuff you can buy it, craft it, run dungeons, run WvWvW, buy with karma etc…basically any of the stuff you can do in the game is a path to the best gear statistically.

Don’t ruin that. Keep all the new stuff to looks.

Kimyrielle.3826:

Cynic.3496:

I’m happy about this patch! I even hope they do add full progression raiding someday! You can’t keep people interested on cosmetic gains only and I think they finally realized that. It’s going to be nice to have a reason to login again.

I will be the mean one to point out that hardcore raiders are an group that barely would leave a dent on any game’s balance sheet if they’d all quit – we’re talking about a 5%-15% part of the population here.

In terms of size of playerbase, GW1 was the second-most successful western MMO after WoW – and it kept a very loyal fanbase around for many years without any silly gear progression game and just cosmetics.That proves your statement wrong right there.

Conversely, almost all newer MMOs having a traditional gear treadmill failed miserably on market after a few months and the raiding-focus chasing away all non-raiders (cough SWTOR).

A modern MMO can easily exist without the raiders as customers, but I am sorry to say that these days you can’t fund a MMO without the 85+% that do NOT raid. And in 2012, the non-raiders seem to be just as trigger happy with the “uninstall” button if their needs aren’t met by a game. Which is a good thing. shrug

Until we get details it is difficult to say how bad this is but I can’t believe a company would be so daft as to switch their focus to the time rich / cash poor crowd. This is a company that wants gems sales doesn’t it?
They managed to capture the market for people with little time but some disposable income by aggressively promoting the no gear grind model why would they switch? It makes no sense from a business point of view.

This isn’t a sub game – the purple pixel chasers give them nothing.

I am just hoping this is a PR fiasco rather than an actual change in philosophy.

Trying to keep an open mind here but I must admit this does scare me. ANet has stated multiple times that they don’t like the gear treadmill and it’s not fun. If it does turn out that this is the start of the gear treadmill I’m positive it will reach a point where if you don’t have the latest you’re obviously bad. As someone who has RL obligations I don’t necessarily have the time to get the latest.

Mindex…so your whole guild already had every piece of armor they wanted, every legendary collected for and manufactured? Glad to see you’re so HC!

I for one am not happy that there is a possible new power structure emerging. For two reasons, this game is about equality of time and power. You make a choice, time or money, but in the end whichever you decide on no one can beat the game, or another player, just by looking at them.

Second, this is has been an explicit covenant between AN and its playerbase, optional grind only and no geartreadmill. In one description (from a German translation of an AN interview) this contract has been broken. I am taking a wait and see approach, but I like many others am basing my further cash expenditures on the outcome of this update.

What progression is it that people are looking for? Gear? Because if it is character then there is plenty of progression in this game. Tier 3 culture armor comes to mind. Do you all have that? Legendaries are a second progression layer. You all have those? This is directed to the person who said their entire guild left and now playing on a private WoW server.

Have you completed each of the current dungeons? What modes? Map completion? I’m pretty sure the answer is no to most of what I asked. Just saying.

With that being said there are two things that I really enjoyed so far in GW2.

1. No montly fee
2. No gear progression

The way the game is today I “could” have stopped playing on after the second week of release, log back in today, and pick right back up where I was with no issues at all. It would work in WvWvW, structured PvP, and PvE. The same holds true had I done this a month after release.

If Arena Net is taking a poll or a pulse on this subject then I’d cast my vote as a No, don’t do this.

piitb.7635:

Ascended armor sounds like:

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Infusion

If so, lol at all the people flying off the hinge about how this isnt like GW1.

Infusion in GW1 only offered protection against one OP skill used by Mursaat mobs. If Infusion in GW2 works similarly against this new race, then I don’t mind it.

On the other hand, I may have an issue if Infusion provides some sort of a benefit across the whole game.

Edit: One of the biggest draws to GW1 for me was the fact that I didn’t have to grind for armor to remain competitive. I could stop playing for 6 months, come back and still be able to do virtually anything.

If GW2 is going to adopt a gear treadmill model like WoW and I’ll have to grind for gear after every break I decide to take, I probably won’t be sticking with the game for too long.

ReaverKane.7598:

Lol, i’m lauging too hard at this, you’re BICKERING about a freaking German site’s obviously opinionated article as if it was Arena Net’s statement.
Until it comes out i’m counting on Anet’s ability to make good on their own word.
When it comes out if it turns out that Ascended armor is overpowering or the start of a gear treadmill, i’m going to react to the facts in front of me, not to the words of a translated article come out of some german site who doesn’t even state his sources. You’re implying those are words from a Dev, don’t see names or even them implying it as a quote.

Totally agree.

But if they do introduce more powerful armor, I hope that it would only be more powerful in the new dungeon. Then there’s something new for people to work towards if they choose to, but if they don’t they’re not any the worse for it.

McSlappy.1372:

Cynic.3496:

Interesting post. You do know WoW has gear progression AND the most players right now, right?

Yes that is right. And those of us that do like that as our primary style of game will still continue to play that game. I play GW2 because I liked WvW before it got all messed up. But if I’m going to have to regear all my characters in this game like I do in WoW. I’m just going to continue to play WoW because honestly it’s better at what it does then all the others.

Making this game in to just another WoW clone will lead to same fate that all the other WoW clones are. Caugh SWTOR Cough Aeon, Sniffle Sniffle Rift etc you get the point. If you want people to play your game instead of WoW make it different then WoW.

I don’t want another WoW clone. Just a game where I can see improvement for time spent. I don’t think there should be pvp gear or anything like that. Just PvE progression.

Cynic.3496:

Gathslan.1870:

Cynic.3496:

Frotee.2634:

Gathslan.1870:

Cynic.3496:

I’m happy about this patch! I even hope they do add full progression raiding someday! You can’t keep people interested on cosmetic gains only and I think they finally realized that. It’s going to be nice to have a reason to login again.

yes you can, just read 99% of this threads comments

Seconded – you know there are still people playing GW2? The game where you quasi-automatically got max stat gear once you reached max lvl (which was 20)?
Do you realize there are probably quite a lot of people who bougt this game for the very reason that there was no carrot on a stick? Once they add full progression raiding, I’m done for good – like, from MMOs forever.

Thank you, uninformed people buying the game expecting the same old garbage we get in every MMO, for ruining my one not-standard MMO.

I think you should be playing console games…

Or you should play one of the thousand MMOs out there that cater to you instead of trying to change a game into your vision with kitteny feedback, oh and skill>gear less casual than aquiring better gear to win You should play console.

Generic response. Gear progression doesn’t mean less ‘skill’, it means they worked toward a goal. I still think you should play on console if you this everyone should always be equal and that everything should be handed to you like an infant.

So enlighten me – why is it necessary to change the ONE MMO (aside from GW1, which wasn’t really a MMO) which caters to OUR interests, when there are thousands of MMOs with a gear treadmill for YOU to choose from?
Why should those of us who bought GW2 precisly for the things it does (or did) differently leave? Why should we be punished when it is you who is unable to feel a sense of fun and accomplishment without a carrot on a stick?

I really DO hope we are worried over nothing, but the two German fansites are pretty much agreeing over this itty bitty detail. And being a native German, believe me when I say that I did not misread that statement. Again – it is not the 2% or something that makes this new armor more powerful. It is introducing stronger max gear only 2 months into the game ans the expectations raised by this…because those of you moaning about how you have no goal? You’ll be complaining again in 2 weeks max.

Haven’t ready the whole thread, just putting in my .o5.

This has the potential to be an unmitigated disaster, and I sincerely hope the devs are paying attention to player feedback here and elsewhere.

GW2 was supposed to be a non-geargrind game. This is making it feel like anything but.

Stick by your original claims and intentions, or lose fans.

Mindx.9610:

My whole guild quit because of lack of progression or sense of accomplishment within the game. They have even decided to group up with more people and are now playing on a vanilla WoW private server just to play a decent game that could get them working together again and to have this sense of accomplishment and progression.

This is a good move. This game already changes many aspects of the mmorpg genre, but it was wrong in removing noticable character progression from the rpg part of the game.

Lack of progression and lack of accomplishment?……so your idea of accomplishment is grinding better and better gear? ‘Noticable character progression’ does not only equate to ‘better stats on my gear’.
Also..many guilds are feeling very accomplished and satisfied and playing very well together. So this is definitely a case of ‘Speak for yourself’. Pvp and pve also use the same gear in WvW. So you need to feel accomplished by beating ppl in WvW with better stats?… That is just laughable. Fine GW. Make ‘Gear progression’ for the grind hungry Wow heads, but then you’ll need to split pve and pvp gear etc etc etc. Pvp that becomes a stat frenzy instead of skill is totally lame. e.g Wow. Useless stuff.

I have two major concerns here:

1) “PvE to PvP.” Obviously sPvP is a separate system and immune to this, but WvW players should never feel kittened because they haven’t gotten the best-in-slot goodies from PvE. This could potentially be solved by having whatever new gear is added be available (and equally easy/difficult to obtain) in both PvE and WvW.

2) “Falling behind the curve.” GW2 is supposedly a game that you can drop and pick up at any time. Gear escalation breaks that, because while you’re absent your character becomes weaker relative to everyone else. This has no solution except to not have gear escalation.

I’m hoping that “ascended” armour is simply an upgrade on what we have already and fits with the continuation of the story.

If it’s just flat out new gear I can say it seems like a turn off. Especially if it requires the exotic gear most of us already have, to attain it. And I don’t see how adding numbers rather than cosmetics is something more to work toward. You’ll be just as unsatisfied when you get the new gear as you are now if the game isn’t to your liking. And if new gear is available, it will undermine the game we have played too, to this point.

It would have been nicer to get more info from Anet in this topic beyond merged, because I’m not a big fan of speculation. And since they have released (vague) information to a German reviewer, I’m guessing they wanted people who were interested in their game to know something…

Not enough info yet for me, but this could seriously be a big mistake if they don’t do it right. No need to freak out yet though!

Please, no.

12345678

To all people writing like this.

Lol at all the people raging without nothing, you don’t even have any information yet.

Yes, we do not have enough information, but we can see where ArenaNet is taking this, and we are voicing ourselves LOUDLY to this.

Even though it might not be what we think it is, that they are implenting a new treadmill we have to go for, we are giving ArenaNet a sign of what we don’t want, that they should not implent treadmill, and we do that by exaggerating a lot, but it is to make ArenaNet open their eyes and think ‘’Right, this is what we wrote and promised in current blog posts, and this is what we actually should go after.’’

So even though we don’t have enough information yet, we shout out so ArenaNet just know where they shouldn’t cross the line, because it has happend before that devs have promised something but crossed the line anyway, and we, as a community, can make them open their eyes.

https://twitter.com/mkerstein/status/268039519671033856

So yea, dunno what to make of it but I guess ascended gear isn’t what everyone think it is?

It’s true that people are overreacting over a lack of information but who’s fault is that? Why is anet using third party sites instead of their own forums to facilitate communications? They could avoid so much grief for everyone if they just posted stuff on here and responded to people’s concerns.

“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.”

- Colin Johanson, 19th of June 2012
Source

Now… guys? Do you keep your ideals and Reputation and are you going to explain a wee bit more what this blagenflag of a balderdashing flubdub regarding the stat increase of Ascended Items is about? I really believe in you. I really do. Its just a bit hard right now, you know? I want to be proven wrong. I really hope that I am wrong about my fears that you will contradict yourself, lose the credibility you built up for so many years, and that you will not start a gear treadmill less than 3 months into the game. It is already tiring to see the “lfm only full exotic” messages in map chats for dungeon runs… ( I am so glad to have a decent guild but it still is alarming).

Please, do not disappoint.

Nabbis.5784:

To the dude “dirtyklingon” thats posting on twitter. Stop doing that, your making the whole GW2 community look like a pile of kitten. Go play with some legos while they post the blog.

on the contrary, i am trying to keep anet honest and respectful, some thing THEY chose to make a core part of this game.

if he wants to whine on a public place, he can expect public questioning of that whine.

As a guy who’s done every dungeon in this game, and will most probably have the new dungeon armor sooner or later, this is what I think (if it does turn into a gear treadmill, which might not happen)

You might gain back some of those who want a gear treadmill. but at what price? These are the same guys who will move on to the next gear treadmill MMO after they get their max stat items again.

What you will risk to lose is the playerbase who don’t want a gear treadmill. How many MMOs can say that they have a great game without relying on treadmill. Not many I’m guessing. Why risk this base and try to compete with WoW? You can’t win against WoW by copying them. Too many MMOs have tried and failed. At this point, you have to do what AMD did to Intel in the early 2000’s (before they kittened up). They approached CPUs differently, making them more efficient rather than just bigger clock speeds.

Its basically a one step forward two steps back.

Then again, I’ll probably wait for the blogpost before complaining again.

All i can say is it better not be a big gap and extremely hard to obtain. I like this game because everyone is on equal footing gear wise. It comes down to skill when playing. If they remove the skill part and just make it about gear i quit. Wont play another MMO where i have to dump a lot of time/money into it just to compete. Not gonna happen.

I’m sure it’s great fun to ‘tease’ people with snippets like the tweet. But over such a big basic thing as this it would have been better to give a proper official forum blog, along with a don’t worry FAQ.

Never leave announcements of potentially explosive or easily mis-understood news to a third party.

I don’t think what most gregs and neckbeards here on the forums don’t understand is that you represent 4% of the user base. Arenanet is already seeing large player base not being as active anymore due to the lack of end game stuff. People need something to work towards that is doable and sets them apart.