Guild Wars 2

You will be able to craft the new items or buy them off the TP by those who can.

I’m not sure what happened Anet. This isn’t you. You’re not the company that made the game I spent 7 years playing – not with decisions like this.

Please refund all my exotic gear and transmutation stones so I can put my cultural (which ALSO isn’t max) onto the new Ascended gear. I wasted 30+ gold getting all my exotics and their respective runes. That’s not the Guild Wars way. Guild Wars 1 would never have me pay that much to compete – nor would it ever force me to upgrade once I had max gear.

You had a game that lived 7 years without a gear treadmill. Why start now?

I really, really, really enjoy this game and would like to keep playing it. If there’s going to be a gear grind, then I really don’t want to play. There’s a difference between grinding towards a Legendary (which I was fine with as I expected I’d be playing for a few years!) and trying to keep up with the treadmill. I’m not a fast runner…

Please don’t do this!

Anet broke my heart.
I have no more words to add.

Omega Mayhem.7163:

You will be able to craft the new items or buy them off the TP by those who can.

Doesnt excuse the 7.936% increase in stats from exotics nor the artificial gating mechanism of the infusions. Plus having to regrind this when I have already grinded out exotics, Im not going to play ball if this hits live.

I don’t know, that bit was speculation.

It might be ONLY the PvE “attunement” type stuff like the Agony Resistance, but in that case I have no idea what Offensive, Defensive, and Omni Infusions are for.

Offensive could be +damage in specific dungeons.

Out of curiosity, how much grind are you all expecting to do to find two rings and a back item that is intended to protect you from a new condition?

I wouldn’t expect these things to be especially hard to come by. Now the exact combination of stats you want, without being able to craft…that would be tricky.

Omega.1473:

This is because P.O.S no-lifers spent 1000 hours in the game since launch and are now complaining because they’ve done everything in the game faster than any development team can hope to keep up with. Now those whiny MMO addicts have twisted the one game that didn’t pander to them.

Quoted For Truth.

E Tan.7385:

Raigou.7329:

wow did everyone suddenly turn into elites overnight? i don’t see what the problem is if there is slightly more powerful gear, hell for me it means more adventuring and stuff to pursue. since i’m a crafter i look forward to this, ’specially the weapons, my pearl blade aint exactly pretty ya know?

Its +5 today, then in 3months +10, then +15… it will never end, to end up with a MMO who only offer a gear grind as only occupation.

If you like that, i guess you have enough similar mmo, and korean f2p for that.

Its not the initial GW2 philosophy. THAT’s the problem.

AcidicVision.5498:

Out of curiosity, how much grind are you all expecting to do to find two rings and a back item that is intended to protect you from a new condition?

I wouldn’t expect these things to be especially hard to come by. Now the exact combination of stats you want, without being able to craft…that would be tricky.

Judging by the description, it’s total RNG. For some, it will take one run. For others, it will take dozens and maybe hundreds.

Also, I’m not sure I trust ArenaNet to add all stat combinations, like rabid and shaman. Even the stat combination shown is one of the currently available exotic types.

AcidicVision.5498:

Out of curiosity, how much grind are you all expecting to do to find two rings and a back item that is intended to protect you from a new condition?

I wouldn’t expect these things to be especially hard to come by. Now the exact combination of stats you want, without being able to craft…that would be tricky.

It’s going to be a full set of armor eventually. It even says so on the blog post.

Then there’s the next set of armor because the dungeon after this one needs you to stack more agony.

God this is a depressing thing to think about.

AcidicVision.5498:

Out of curiosity, how much grind are you all expecting to do to find two rings and a back item that is intended to protect you from a new condition?

I wouldn’t expect these things to be especially hard to come by. Now the exact combination of stats you want, without being able to craft…that would be tricky.

I would suggest reading the blog post again, all of it this time, and thinking a little more carefully about the implications of it.

Wyrmrider.1692:

Compared to its Exotic counterpart, new Ascended-rarity “Explorer” ring has:
+5 Power
+5 Precision
+3% Magic Find

+???? (Unused Defensive Infusion Slot)

Magic Find is valuable. Some gear slots are more efficient for MF than others, but on an exotic ring 3% MF is worth ***67*** of another stat. (Compare: Opal Orichalcum Ring vs. Emerald Orichalcum Ring.)

Then there’s the Defensive Infusion Slot. It’s possible that this slot will strictly be for PVE attunement mechanics like Agony Resistance. But I don’t think so, because the blog post says: “In November, we’ll introduce Offensive, Defensive, and Omni Infusions of Fine rarity…” So they’ll have different itemizations, and probably different tiers of their own, which seems to suggest more stat boosts.

I’m not that interested in debating how many stat points is too many. (The real problem is that in the designer’s own words, “This is just the beginning.”) But for those who are, the currently proposed number isn’t 2 or 3 or 5 stat points per item, it’s closer to 100.

This should keep being quoted over and over.

I am a person who spent a fair amount on gems to help level alts and the like. I have a trio of 80s and a fourth mid level character that I’m bringing up. I had intended to purchase some gems from the gem store just to get some gold to do a bit of crafting to finish up the last 30 or so levels.

With this change I have no intention of investing further capital into the game. Sure I won’t quit, and sure I’ll occasionally play with one alt or another and heck I might even do the new dungeon goofiness because I play mainly for wvw and feel it’s important to have what edge you can.

But I’m no longer spending money on the game, it’s not worth the investment. They’ve converted a fair amount of their population at this point from people actively supporting the game to just turning to it when nothing else better is around to play. This change won’t appease the WoW folks that they lost, it’s too little and they’ll beg for more.

Their core audience is not so quick to forget.

I talked my friends into this game telling them that “its not like WoW, skill matters in this game, not gear!”
Im happy they didnt listen to me and saved them the dissapointment and betrayal I have experienced this day, its embarrasing that the manifesto is still online.

I think the Unique label needs more attention. This could mean people have to purposely equip stat downgrades to get the right infusion slot. WTF?

I have to ask you guys, do you (or did since everyone is quitting with this “horrific” update) plan on doing the new dungeon? If the answer is yes, you would be getting this new gear at some point. Also, there are only going to be rings and a back slot item that are Ascended quality with this update, more to come later, although they didn’t specify when or how many other pieces would be applied. If we assume the +5 stats you gain on one item to be across the board for THIS update, it’s a mere 15 stats. That is hardly anything to cry over. The Omni and Offensive infusions do make me wonder how much extra, but that is another storm for you all to cry about.

This is not the end of the world like everyone is making this out to be. If the community is not as fickle as they are making themselves out to be now, there will only be as many “LF2M Fractals Full Exotic only” as there are now. Which I suppose can be great or small depending on where you are located and the community you have. I personally see it a lot, but I play with my friends only so I don’t care much about those people.

The gear grind was already there, only a lot easier to attain than games like Warcraft so you really didn’t notice. The thing most of you are actually fearing is the gear “gating” where you need a certain item level average to enter a dungeon and do well. If Anet holds with what they have now, Players with Blues can still do well in dungeons, then this whole storm of QQing will be absolutely ridiculous. If at any point you can’t complete one of the 9 wings of the Fractals without having a single piece of Ascended gear, go ahead and cry your heart out for a change to it. Until then, give this whole “I have to grind my Exotic gear QQ” (Yes, I said Exotic instead of Ascended for a reason) a rest.

I’m also expressing my concern via #DontTreadmillOnMe, I hope people can defend the game instead of just quitting.

Omega.1473:

bcbully.7289:

maybe if you people complaining would have bought some gems, this wouldn’t have happened.

People have obviously been buying gems and a lot of them if you read the financial reports that they gave for NCSoft investors.

No, this isn’t because of the core audience not paying up. This is because P.O.S no-lifers spent 1000 hours in the game since launch and are now complaining because they’ve done everything in the game faster than any development team can hope to keep up with. Now those whiny MMO addicts have twisted the one game that didn’t pander to them.

I read the report. It did not separate out cash shop revenue. It showed GW2 making around 3 mill won (or w/e) more than B&S, 13 mill more than Aion, 20mill more than Lineage 1&2.

The thing is all these games offer some form of sub and will surpass GW2 launch sales quickly. Maybe by the end of this yeah in B&S and Aion’s case. On top of that Anet is still in the red.

Much more needs to be spent in the case shop, and people need to be happy doing it. The forst step is to get them staying in game longer. Thus the new progression system. Remember we still haven’t heard how the cash shop will play into this.

I’m alittle disappointed that ArenaNet decided to take this route when it comes to end-game item progession. Because with Ascended items, not only they’re making exotics obsolete, they’re making things such as crafting obsolete too. Why? As of now, the only way to obtain Ascended items is through the Fractals of the Mists dungeon. Forcing players who want to reach the pinnacle in item progression through dungeons.

Another thing I’m concerned about is existing dungeons. With only one (and future) dungeons offering you a chance to obtain Ascended gear, what’s the point in doing the older dungeons? It’s only going to draw players away from existing content because it doesn’t give you high-end gear.

GW2, I believe, Core audience are more mature, with less time.

Older people, do not forgive so easily. Longer life = Longer memory.

This is just dissapointing.

1.- Introduction of an inbetween was unnecesary, first of all, legendaries are the same as exotics, so actually these ascended are more powerfull than legendaries.

2.- Legendaries are no hard to get, they are not a “long term goal” they are just booring to get, cause you have to grind the hell out to get one, and be favored by RNG gods to be “legendary” so again, a flawled desing in this category, the legendaries, has become a game-level event. Legendaries do have nothing legendary on them, they should be called gridingdaries or RNGdaries, but you do NOTHING legendary to get them.

3.- This is the first step on power creep, and this isn`t even be doing by lack of content, is being doing just for the flawled desing of lengendary items adquisitions and the “wall” that actually, no one cares. And after this the Snowball effect begins, now the ball is going downhill and will not stop.

4.- So you are now aiming to “hardcore” too? well, adding farming isn`t something hardcore, you are aiming now to a deadbrain playerbase of zombies that think grind is fun and rewarding while is not. Harder and deeper combat mechanics would be hardcore, a whole hardcore level dificulty will be hardcore, new and harder bosses that requiere actual tactics and not just zerg autoattack spam would be hardcore, you miss the whole point here, by lightyears.

5.- The color of the ascended category is terrible, please change that.

You have betrayed most your playerbase and your true fans, you have betrayed yourselves and your manifesto. For what, grindkittens of other games? This is terrible ArenaNet, and you should feel shame.

I will give a glance at this new equipment and see how hard to get it is, if it takes me more than a day to get a piece of it, i leave the game, there is a whole fkn world of grinding games out there which are really more cool than this. You have killed the only one thing that make GW2 stand out from the rest.

bcbully.7289:

Omega.1473:

bcbully.7289:

maybe if you people complaining would have bought some gems, this wouldn’t have happened.

People have obviously been buying gems and a lot of them if you read the financial reports that they gave for NCSoft investors.

No, this isn’t because of the core audience not paying up. This is because P.O.S no-lifers spent 1000 hours in the game since launch and are now complaining because they’ve done everything in the game faster than any development team can hope to keep up with. Now those whiny MMO addicts have twisted the one game that didn’t pander to them.

I read the report. It did not separate out cash shop revenue. It showed GW2 making around 3 mill won (or w/e) more than B&S, 13 mill more than Aion, 20mill more than Lineage 1&2.

The thing is all these games offer some form of sub and will surpass GW2 launch sales quickly. Maybe by the end of this yeah in B&S and Aion’s case. On top of that Anet is still in the red.

Much more needs to be spent in the case shop, and people need to be happy doing it. The forst step is to get them staying in game longer. Thus the new progression system. Remember we still haven’t heard how the cash shop will play into this.

I can gauredamntee I’m never taking another look at any Areanet product again if the cash shop has anything to do with character progression.

Man, I was REALLY holding out hope that they didn’t do it.

But they did it. They lied to us all. You lied to us Anet.

You will not see another dime from me, feel free to check my account history…I’ve purchased a lot of gems. I did so to support the company that finally broke the mold and didn’t force me to grind for gear so I could enjoy the game the way I want, on even footing.

You promised no treadmill, here is the treadmill.

You could have done this and made the stats EQUAL to exotic but include the extra slot for defensive w/e pve stuff, and you wouldn’t have enraged all of us who don’t want to be forced to treadmill.

So far, there isnt enough feedback all should ask to everyone they know in game to come here to say how bad this idea is, to make Anet remove this horror before it come out.

The Ascended is now recruiting we are an up and starting guild dedicated to circle jerking! Minimum requirement is to have at LEAST two pieces of Ascended Armor! Guild Activities will include/is mostly composed of standing/dancing in Lion’s Arch in various coordinated formations. We will be utilizing mumble, vent, and team speak in order to make these daily events as smooth as possible. As new elitists we will encounter fierce competition amongst old elitists(The Legendaries), however with superior numbers and communication I have no doubt in my mind we will reign supreme.

-The Grape Gatsby

This Ascended/Infusion crap IS the gear treadmill, however much you pretend it isn’t.

I have no idea why you want to turn this game into WoW. I don’t really care, because I won’t be playing it.

I’ll keep my post simple. ArenaNet please stop the introduction of the gear grind treadmill here. Please keep to your philosophy of making a game that is about having a fun time playing it and not about having to play to have the best gear so then, maybe, you can finally have fun. If you have noticed that the current customization and layout of gear is not working than please fix that but don’t introduce more powerful gear.

I know people have been complaining about a lack of power progression and not feeling super-uber 1337 in the low levels. Remember though that this isn’t what you designed your game around. This game was made so when it all comes down to it it will be about skill and having fun, growing more powerful with experience and learning. Your company use to champion that friends of all levels can have fun together and still get rewarded for playing together. This isn’t the case anymore. For high level characters it is boring to go to low level areas when playing with friends or to work on map completion and the rewards are awful. Please don’t make the same mistake with gear progression and sacrifice fun game play and accessibility for the illusion of power.

As ArenaNet said themselves, this game will not be for everyone. Please don’t try and make it appeal to everyone now because you’ll end up not appealing to anyone in particular and end up making GW2 vanilla.

As players we have yet to see this new gear and can only base our thoughts on what has been presented to us on how it might affect a game that we love. I know that you love this game too and put hard work into it and wouldn’t just throw something in here all willy-nilly. Even so please listen to our initial thoughts on this matter.

Panda Shepard.1248:

lordkrall.7241:

I love how people always over-react to things before we have ANY kind of information.

For all we know the “slightly better stats” means an increase of 5 points. Guess what?
Those 5 points won’t make the player immortal.

And for all we know this set is specific for the dungeon, meaning we can ONLY use it in the dungeons.

Stop whining until we actually know what is going on.

You can’t stop them. They just like to complain about things before they even know what they’re complaining about. They’re not gonna get the devs to change this update. Best to wait and stop them from doing it again when we know more info.

Older and wiser than you, kiddo. We know exactly what we’re talking about. This isn’t a new idea. It’s an old idea that bored millions of players out of WoW and that angered thousands out of LOTRO. Pretending that history and industry context don’t matter is just naive. On the SWTOR boards, we got the same sort of fanboys tossing out the same “wait and see if classically bad ideas will somehow magically work this time,” the same pop psychology put-downs of critics to insulate their brains from unpleasant realities, until they realized they were standing in an empty game talking to themselves.

Jabronee.9465:

Lmao!!
OMFG all the QQs!!
Well if you guys dont like the upcoming changes then go play other games.
No one stopping you. Right fanboys/gals? lol!

This is, I believe, what most of the core audience of this game and fans of Anet intend to do. Have fun playing an mmo by yourself.

The reason I bought this game after quitting WoW was because I didn’t have to grind dungeons to not be handicapped in WvW/sPVP. Guess the first part is out the window. Thanks anet for reverting your policy in gear grinding and being able to do what you enjoy without affecting your gear after just a couple months.

I work 50 hours a week and don’t have time nor do I want to play unfun content just to stay on a level field with people in WvW.

Omega.1473:

No, this isn’t because of the core audience not paying up. This is because P.O.S no-lifers spent 1000 hours in the game since launch and are now complaining because they’ve done everything in the game faster than any development team can hope to keep up with. Now those whiny MMO addicts have twisted the one game that didn’t pander to them.

This pretty much sums up the change right here.

just read about “agony” and i just slammed my head against the desk, i don’t mind the gear progression but the idea of needed a special stat in order to progress in content SUCKS.

this is the reason i left EQ2 they added “crit Mitigation”, where as if you didn’t have enough of it you died instantly to mobs … sound familiar? they finally smartened up and removed the stat. why GW2 thought this was a good idea i will never know.

This was the one game that got rid of the bottomless pit of casual player inferiority and it was great for 3 whole months. As a casual player, I could actually participate in dungeons, gear up to max, make an impact in WvWvW and feel like I actually was having fun and completing things.

But what now? All this says to me is that ANet doesn’t care about those people as much as they care about the people they NEVER marketed to in the beginning. They found a niche that so many casual players had called out for for so long and they did it well. Why ruin it?

Like QisforQadim said above : The core audience will not forget this. We obviously don’t matter to Anet and we should treat them as such.

well ok this is only my second mmo, but isn’t more endgame content a good thing generally?

and as far as im aware even though ascended gear is more powerful its mainly for use in the fractal dungeon right now, it doesn’t really disrupt the balance of pvp or even wvw, i guess you’ll just have to worry about those elitists who only focus on stats when dungeoning but that comes with any game, just make your own group.

Xsorus.2507:

phooka.4295:

WHen I came to this thread yesterday saying that I’d just deleted my credit card information, I’ve been told that I’d be immature and that I should wait it out.

Well, no regrets. Just woke up, read the blogpost. Not re-entering it. Forget that.

I’ve been scammed out of quite some money already. I’m not giving a company another dime that lies and betrays their user base. Manifesto is still online but now it feels like they keep it up to add insult to injury.

So you removed your CC information from a game you don’t have to actually spend a dime on?

Yea, that will show them

I actually just removed mine simply because now I don’t know if at some point I’ll randomly walk away from the game entirely. Best to remove it now instead of maybe forgetting and then risk having my account stolen months or even years later.

Really really disappointed. After 7+ years I never expected THIS from Anet.
Instantly lost all incentive to even play this weekend.

2%, 4%? I don’t care! Lies are lies.

Was fun while it lasted but time will tell if Anet painted themselves into a corner by turning their game into yet another gearbased treadmill.

Raigou.7329:

well ok this is only my second mmo, but isn’t more endgame content a good thing generally?

and as far as im aware even though ascended gear is more powerful its mainly for use in the fractal dungeon right now, it doesn’t really disrupt the balance of pvp or even wvw, i guess you’ll just have to worry about those elitists who only focus on stats when dungeoning but that comes with any game, just make your own group.

Having tiers of gear isn’t an endgame. It’s just a carrot on a stick.

whoa guys you are forgetting sure the armour is stronger then exotic but it loses the rune slot in exchange for infusions which we have no clue what they do other then it deals with Agony from GW1. Which means the armour in general is weaker then exotics as the exotics have runes slot and Ascended doesn’t. SO there is still no gear grind cause exotics is still the top tier armour for normal WvW and PvE.

stpetemermaid.5947:

I played in the betas. I wanted this game so badly, I couldn’t even imagine how it must have felt to be a GW1 player and waited years for it. And now this.

I used to watch the manifesto video every week during beta. I would just sit there and say ‘thank you’ to Arenanet, even though they couldn’t hear me. It would bring me to tears to think of being given a game that finally…finally!…broke the mold.

At cap level everyone would be equal. Equal. WvW equal. PvE equal. Dungeons equal. Everyone. Gear was for looks, not stats.

I am stunned. For those folks that want gear progression…that say it’s only for the dungeon, so it’s ok (even though it’s also gated now)…
Will you take off that gear outside the dungeon?
Will you not wear it in WvW?
Oh, and all the folks with legendary that will get bumped up now…will you not bring that to WvW?

Gear progression affects the whole game. I am not in a guild (except my own) so far, but in other games, there was always pressure from the guild to “go on the raid” so you can “get better gear”. I am over it. I am sick of it. I am so sad this is happening. I’m sure watching the manifesto right now would bring me to tears again…but not for the same reason.

I played Guild Wars 1 for almost seven years now. My story was much like yours, but I’ve been addicted to this game for much longer. I have been saying thank you to ArenaNet in a much louder way, by bragging about this game to anyone I can get to listen (and some who don’t want to listen). I’m currently going for a degree in business management and have chosen ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 for several assignments just so I can expose more people to Guild Wars 2.

When information first came out about the colors no longer being account unlocks and the dye packs being account bound and random I was very worried and asked them to please change the colors back to account unlock. They didn’t go that far, but they came back more than half-way by allowing you to sell dyes you already have or don’t want. I guess I’ll wait and see what happens here. I’m going to hope this is still the ArenaNet that I look up to, brag about, and dream of working for. If gear grind is added just to satisfy the players from some “other” mmos who came in here, flew to max level, and then whined about there being nothing to do and left, then ArenaNet will be going after the “WoW” crowd over their core fans. I hope the numbers are large enough to justify that kind of move.

Raigou.7329:

well ok this is only my second mmo, but isn’t more endgame content a good thing generally?

and as far as im aware even though ascended gear is more powerful its mainly for use in the fractal dungeon right now, it doesn’t really disrupt the balance of pvp or even wvw, i guess you’ll just have to worry about those elitists who only focus on stats when dungeoning but that comes with any game, just make your own group.

Endgame content is good, gear treadmilling kills mmos.

I have mixed feelings about ascended gear. On the one hand, I am not going to be a “doomsayer”, as I don’t think in the slightest that adding a little gear progression is going to sink this game. Also, I don’t really need the best stuff IMMEDIATELY, and I am fine with working towards this stuff at a leisurely pace (unless they add it too fast for me to keep up, hehe). In a way, I like the idea of somewhat better stuff; the big issue here is the fact that Anet explicitly stated that they would refrain from doing this.

Though I stated above that I don’t mind a little progression, there is obviously a point where a little becomes a lot, and a lot becomes a gear treadmill. I would really hate to see that.

In short, I think there are positives and negatives to the new gear, but unlike some of you, my continued enjoyment and playing of this game does not really depend in the least on whether they go through with the ascended stuff.

Angrec.6970:

Omega Mayhem.7163:

You will be able to craft the new items or buy them off the TP by those who can.

Doesnt excuse the 7.936% increase in stats from exotics nor the artificial gating mechanism of the infusions. Plus having to regrind this when I have already grinded out exotics, Im not going to play ball if this hits live.

Its not 8% stat increase, its much closer to a ~100 stat increase per item slot given that the 3% magic find equates to an equivalent of 67+ stats on equivalent gear in the slow as has been so far presented. This will come out to be roughly 1400+ stats increase overall, which is more than 8%.

Havana.8625:

One thing that would have greatly extended content would have been making all zones decent at level 80 in terms of rewards, or at least upping the amount of awards in lower level zones. They built a huge and beautiful world and people spend all their time gathering Ori and repeating Plinx and a few dungeons. The content was there, it just didn’t make any sense to do it. Instead they added this.

This was something that would help greatly i think and really make use of the down level mechanic and re-usage of low lvl content. Content would have to be tweaked both in challenge and rewards (according to player’s real lvl).

For example, something i’ve noticed a few times, was the Plinx end chain champion – someone kitting it while a zerg beats on it for a minute and then complains about the poor loot for a relative easy kill with such number of players.
I’d increase the number of skills and effects that champion could use, making it more deadly and challenging when facing many players – consequently increasing the rewards / chances of getting better loot.

Same could be said for dragon events and many others.
This is all ingame already and i’d think it would be a matter of tweaking it.

Its more than 8%?!? Didnt think magic find was so high on the item budget…

My night just gets better and better with this news…

First time posting on the forums, and forums in general. I usually avoid them. But I just wanted to voice my opinion on how discouraging I find this. Part of the appeal of Guild Wars 2, for me, was the simple fact that if I was tired of it I could put it down and, whenever I felt like playing it again, just jump right back in without losing much if anything.

Gear treadmills change that. Not only do I end up having to play catch up on gear in order to enjoy a full PvE experience, I must similarly grind out that very same PvE in order to be on an even level in WvWvW, where I spend a good bulk of my time when playing GW2. There’s no real way to spin this other than a power creep, however slight, and one that currently requires you to do PvE content in order to fully access. I like PvE; but I also liked feeling as if I only had to do PvE if I liked the way a particular piece of armor or weapon looked, or if I just liked the dungeon content.

It’s too late to change the implementation of this now, probably, but I for one am not looking forward to it, to future Ascendant gear, or to the way this seems to contradict the original intentions of the game’s mechanics. Please don’t continue down this path. Stick towards making cosmetic gear.

bcbully.7289:

Omega.1473:

bcbully.7289:

maybe if you people complaining would have bought some gems, this wouldn’t have happened.

People have obviously been buying gems and a lot of them if you read the financial reports that they gave for NCSoft investors.

No, this isn’t because of the core audience not paying up. This is because P.O.S no-lifers spent 1000 hours in the game since launch and are now complaining because they’ve done everything in the game faster than any development team can hope to keep up with. Now those whiny MMO addicts have twisted the one game that didn’t pander to them.

I read the report. It did not separate out cash shop revenue. It showed GW2 making around 3 mill won (or w/e) more than B&S, 13 mill more than Aion, 20mill more than Lineage 1&2.

The thing is all these games offer some form of sub and will surpass GW2 launch sales quickly. Maybe by the end of this yeah in B&S and Aion’s case. On top of that Anet is still in the red.

Much more needs to be spent in the case shop, and people need to be happy doing it. The forst step is to get them staying in game longer. Thus the new progression system. Remember we still haven’t heard how the cash shop will play into this.

I think this is at least partially a fair assessment of the situation. Through the whole evening I’ve had a kind of impending dread to the effect of: “It looks like this experiment didn’t work out after all.” There’s probably a revenue angle, and I’m not so naive as to think there wasn’t plenty of marketing research and probably some focus testing that led to a conclusion that “We need these kind of players to play and spend money, because they’re the ones who’ll spend most, and this is about money.” —Honestly, not a bad thing in and of itself; after all, this is business. From a purely economics perspective, the sensible thing is to toss players like me to the curb now that I’ve already paid my entry fee, and try to trade me in for players who are suckers for the cash shop scams. Good luck competing for those players, though.

Owatatsumi.2169:

As ArenaNet said themselves, this game will not be for everyone. Please don’t try and make it appeal to everyone now because you’ll end up not appealing to anyone in particular and end up making GW2 vanilla.

I have a feeling 25-50% of people who purhcased GW2 didn’t read about what they were getting into. Then when they didn’t find a carrot on a stick they got bored, and complained.

Considering individuals that do not keep their own words, even if you can persuade yourself to accept Anet’s strategy for the time being it won’t be long before the game is changed inside-out until you (players) can bear no longer. It will always be easier to break your promise or commit a crime the second time once you’ve been through the first, not hard to understand. If Anet does not provide an adequate explanation to this matter, though it might be hard to envision before this incident, it may not be long before you’re forced into endless grind to explore the out-of-reach contents or simply pay-to-win.

As for the people stating that the stat increases aren’t significant, I doubt it. There is a reason why people opt to go for exotic instead of rare, this is a similar idea. Just by looking at the ring it gives approximately 5power+5precision+3% MF over the exotic version.

Ignore that some equipments provide greater stat differentiation through tiers and assume all equipments provide the same stat increments through tiers. This means that 5 trinkets-1 back-6 armors and 1-2 weapon for a total 14 pieces of upgrades will yield approximately 70 power, 70 precision and 42%MF. Anyone like to farm with 42% less MF?

For a berserker build on WvW you may be able get 70 power 70 precision and 42% more crit damage if the stat combination allows it, is it not significant? Consider facing steal backstab thieves with these stats. This is almost a free rune set of superior divinity if not better. Adding on top the fact infusion may not just be for dungeon.

I personally do not feel these are factors that can be simply ignored or cast aside by stating that you don’t have to get it if you don’t like to. How do you feel if you are running in WvW with exotics knowing that you would most likely lose unless you are the few minorities that are far superior skill-wise, some stats do change how the game plays. In the end you are pretty much forced into getting these tier sets in order to remain competitive whether PvE or WvW, I sincerely hope Anet reconsider their choice.