Guild Wars 2

IndigoSundown.5419:

Can anyone link a statement where ANet promised that Exotic would be the max gear level? Without that…

They said that in plain English:

Lindsay Murdock:

As we watch Guild Wars 2 mature in its Live environment, we have found that our most dedicated players were achieving their set of Exotic gear and hitting “the Legendary wall.” We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected and were becoming frustrated with a lack of personal progression.

Since I have a feeling your reading skills lack significantly, otherwise you wouldn’t ask for proof that exotics were supposed to be the most powerful items, I’m going to paraphrase what you just read:

“Exotics were designet to be the best items in the game stat-wise. Legendaries only offered a better skin. But we designed the endgame poorly, and a lot of players had their exotics in no time. So we decided to introduce ascended gear.”

or

There wouldn’t be any ascended gear if ANet’s designers didn’t misjudge the average player’s ability to obtain best-in-slot items.

or

“Gosh, the content locusts are unhappy! Let’s trash all the money and time everybody else has invested in exotics and give hardcore players their new toys. Who cares if we said in the manifesto this wouldn’t happen?”

Mungrul.9358:

I still don’t understand the “Filling the gap” statement. Firstly, there was no stat gap between exotics and legendaries.
Secondly, if it was cosmetic gear, we had the unique Mystic Forge recipes to work towards as a stop-gap, like Mjolnir.
THERE WAS NO GAP TO FILL.

This is PR speak and logically it doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s somehow like you are saving money to buy a painting by an famous artist and until you have it you hang a cheesy king-size poster at your wall because its big.

To all those reading;

Just because you have no interest in something, doesn’t mean it won’t affect you.

The more that sit idly by and watch, the worse problems get.

Sign in, post a reply, let your voice be heard and inform Anet that they’ve made a mistake.

Dear Anet PR

May I suggest breaking silence with the below:

“We are listening to each of you and thank everyone for your valuable feedback. The team are committed towards an iterative approach and therefore are reviewing your concerns and evaluating the various options.

We sincerely apologize for any upset that the latest patch may have introduced and I promise that we are treating these concerns with the highest levels of resources available to us."

The hunkering down is just fueling the hate. Customers giving feedback deserve to be acknowledged.

Mungrul.9358:

I still don’t understand the “Filling the gap” statement. Firstly, there was no stat gap between exotics and legendaries.
Secondly, if it was cosmetic gear, we had the unique Mystic Forge recipes to work towards as a stop-gap, like Mjolnir.
THERE WAS NO GAP TO FILL.

It is called rewriting history. If you are going to lie, that is the best way to do it, because uninformed (politically correct term for stupid and unwilling to learn) people will concur with your rewritten history as they think it is the truth.

Just delete the client and never log in again. Super simple, easy fix.

And if you need a themepark gear-grind there’s always WoW. If you want better DEs, check out RIFT – they just got an Expac. For more tuned and action-based combat there’s a billion Korean MMORPGs or DCUO.

All better options. Congratulations ANet, you’ve made yourself a jack of all trades, master of none. Enjoy watching your game tank faster than the ToRTanic.

Urxx.6840:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Can anyone link a statement where ANet promised that Exotic would be the max gear level? Without that…

They said that in plain English:

Lindsay Murdock:

As we watch Guild Wars 2 mature in its Live environment, we have found that our most dedicated players were achieving their set of Exotic gear and hitting “the Legendary wall.” We designed the process of getting Legendary gear to be a long term goal, but players were ready to start on that path much sooner than we expected and were becoming frustrated with a lack of personal progression.

Since I have a feeling your reading skills lack significantly, otherwise you wouldn’t ask for proof that exotics were supposed to be the most powerful items, I’m going to paraphrase what you just read:

“Exotics were designet to be the best items in the game stat-wise. Legendaries only offered a better skin. But we designed the endgame poorly, and a lot of players had their exotics in no time. So we decided to introduce ascended gear.”

or

There wouldn’t be eny ascended gear if ANet’s designers didn’t misjudge the average player’s ability to obtain best-in-slot items.

or

“Gosh, the content locusts are unhappy! Let’s trash all the money and time everybody else has invested in exotics and give harcore players their new toys. Who cares if we said in the manifesto this wouldn’t happen?”

seems obvious to mee too (and i’m not English navite speaking)

Wildclaw.6073:

Mungrul.9358:

I still don’t understand the “Filling the gap” statement. Firstly, there was no stat gap between exotics and legendaries.
Secondly, if it was cosmetic gear, we had the unique Mystic Forge recipes to work towards as a stop-gap, like Mjolnir.
THERE WAS NO GAP TO FILL.

It is called rewriting history. If you are going to lie, that is the best way to do it, because uninformed (politically correct term for stupid and unwilling to learn) people will concur with your rewritten history as they think it is the truth.

Exactly. There was no gap. The people defending this about face on the basic promise and principles of this game that have drastically altered after barely two months have passed, need to get a clue.

I saw something on Kotaku where Isaiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

Mandrax.7342:

I saw something on Kotaku where Isaiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

I read that too, and at that point I realised there was a “buffer” between Izzy and the public, and by “buffer” I mean “PR spin drone”.

Turkman.1089:

Why do the raiders, who obviously hadn’t informed themselves properly beforehand, feel to be in the right here and demand them to change one of the most important parts of this game’s philosophy, when there was just another WoW addon released where you could definitely gear-progress your kitten off?

They want to feel special. It is hard to show off your skill (and most of those heavy grinders don’t have that much skill, they just have more free time). New armor though – especially one that most casuals will never be able to get – is ideal for showing off. The harder to get, the better, because it helps them stand out more.

People that want eq treadmills are always a minority – because they want to be a minority. It’s hard to try to pass themselves as “Elite” if that “elite” is majority, after all.

And if that attitude is going to hurt the game they play, and is a turnoff to a lot of people? Who cares? (they certainly don’t).

Mandrax.7342:

I saw something on Kotaku where Isiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

That in itself is a confirmation ANet now considers vertical progression acceptable: “All progression is important to us”.
The manifesto and 7 years of GW1 said only horizontal progression was acceptable to them. So that’s a confirmation of a u-turn if we ever needed one.

I wish Mike O’Brien never said in the Forbes interview that they wanted to surpass WoW. Now they are starting to suffer the same fate of any other game that tried to beat WoW: to start to “WoWize” itself, fight on Blizzard’s ground, lose the battle and in the process also lose all those players who were looking for a no-threadmill game because they were sick of WoW and / or its clones.

I don’t usually post, but I’d just like to add my disappointment to the growing collection in this thread.

Worst decision ever implemented by Arenanet in my opinion. This patch turned my favorite MMO I’ve ever played into an MMO I can see myself leaving, most likely in disappointment. Lost a lot of respect for whoever is responsible for such a decision to be implemented into this game.

Very disappointing indeed.

Now that we’ve discovered that the ascended items not only start with higher base and augment stats baked in, but the infusions also bring additional stats (which will grow over time with better infusions), there is just no question left… they have added the framework and first tier of an endless gear grind. The power creep will cause players who don’t wish to jump on the treadmill to fall farther and farther behind, and it’s only a matter of time before we’ll be missing out on significant amounts of new content.

The fact that the new items require such huge amounts of grind means that any additional methods of acquisition will be out of reach for players who don’t grind or farm for a significant amount of their play time.

This game just got a whole lot less fun. I won’t be spending any more money on gems, and I’ll be thinking very seriously about whether I’m done with MMORPGs. This game, and it’s original design philosophy, was the only thing keeping me invested in this hobby. It’s possible that the genre has simply passed me by, and it’s time to pack it in.

I’m so sad to see this. Really, genuinely sad, disappointed, deflated. I know that’s probably silly…it’s just a game. But I really enjoyed it the way it was, and I wish they would have simply continued on their original path. I was planning to make this my entertainment expense of choice for a long time to come. I feel like they are very clearly telling me that I’m not important, that they don’t care how I feel or what I want…that they are chasing a different kind of player. I should probably take the hint.

Urxx.6840:

I wish Mike O’Brien never said in the Forbes interview that they wanted to surpass WoW. Now they are starting to suffer the same fate of any other game that tried to beat WoW: to start to “WoWize” itself, fight on Blizzard’s ground, lose the battle and in the process also lose all those players who were looking for a no-threadmill game because they were sick of WoW and / or its clones.

It’s quite sad, really. No MMO thus far had managed to overcome the superpower that is WoW. Now that GW2 has chosen to attack on WoW’s homeland (that is, to introduce gear treadmill), where WoW has significant home advantage, GW2 has finally sealed its fate.

Mandrax.7342:

I saw something on Kotaku where Isaiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

How is that avoiding the question? Unless you must be very paranoid. (which may or may not be logical) It’s obvious that they will have vertical progression in the future by the looks of that answer, as well as all other progression.
So how important is vertical progression? Just as important as all other progression.

Try to throw more controversy out of nowhere. Geez

Edit: That is not to say that I agree with that btw. :p Vertical progression feels very pointless to me.

Urrid.4593:

It looks like my attached post might have been offensive somehow. I am just not sure. I have blurred out the only word in the post that could be considered offensive.

This is imo one of the main reasons they feel they can do this.
There are countless players that have put more real money in GW2 in past two months than they would in a whole year of sub game. It’s the ultimate “carrot”.
ANet got this “added” money and they’ve gotten a lot of it. They probably have enough of it to last them few months if not years of development. And they obviously think that few lost customers will not be so bad of a thing since they will still have a lot of other payers (not players) to give them their real money all the time. They actually make more money on sunglasses and stuff than they would with subscription. Go wonder.
They will also get additional gear oriented players and many of them will also buy, buy, buy. It’s F2P model with cash shop, we should all get used to it as it’s a future for MMOs.
And you still pay them!

Euthil.5209:

It’s quite sad, really. No MMO thus far had managed to overcome the superpower that is WoW. Now that GW2 has chosen to attack on WoW’s homeland (that is, to introduce gear treadmill), where WoW has significant home advantage, GW2 has finally sealed its fate.

And what’s even more sad is: they are watching this happen. We are here posting and they don’t say anything meaningful.

With this decision they just triggered a downward spiral and they probably don’t even realize that.

The problem with downward spirals is that the most dramatic moment is when you trigger them. Then they start spinning very slowly and doing a very small amount of damage. But their speed and ill effects increase esponentially with time and, usually, when you see the effects they have amassed too much inertia and you can’t stop them anymore.

The trigger of the downward spiral is the introduction of merely two ascended items in-game: a ring and a back piece. Their initial effect on the gameplay will be negligible and easily overlooked. But when we will have full ascended sets, it will be too late to go back.

I’m perfectly aware of how overly dramatic it sounds, but it’s the very nature of downward spirals: when you eventually understand the dramatic tone was justified, it’s too late.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Mandrax.7342:

I saw something on Kotaku where Isaiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

How is that avoiding the question? Unless you must be very paranoid. (which may or may not be logical) It’s obvious that they will have vertical progression in the future by the looks of that answer, as well as all other progression.
So how important is vertical progression? Just as important as all other progression.

Try to throw more controversy out of nowhere. Geez

He managed to answer that question without actually saying anything. Yes, that is an information in itself (namely, he didn’t deny that there will be a further vertical progression ).
It really seem that they decided on introducing EQ treadmill after all, but they don’t want to admit it. Perhaps because they know it would mean he end of this game.

Sorry, what the kitten? Infusion give you better stats the more you grind also OUTSIDE the dungeon?

That means in half a year a grinder will oneshot everything in the starter arena? He will oneshot every enemies he sees?

No one will from a group with someone with low infusion, since the infusioned grinders will be so much better.

And new contened will just have more HPs, because else it will be too easy for the grinder – and the non-grinder will be left outside.

Congratulations for becoming one of the millions others Grinder-MMO. That so many of us dislike and will leave

Astralporing.1957:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Mandrax.7342:

I saw something on Kotaku where Isaiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

How is that avoiding the question? Unless you must be very paranoid. (which may or may not be logical) It’s obvious that they will have vertical progression in the future by the looks of that answer, as well as all other progression.
So how important is vertical progression? Just as important as all other progression.

Try to throw more controversy out of nowhere. Geez

He managed to answer that question without actually saying anything. Yes, that is an information in itself (namely, he didn’t deny that there will be a further vertical progression ).
It really seem that they decided on introducing EQ treadmill after all, but they don’t want to admit it. Perhaps because they know it would mean he end of this game.

if it is so they’re just postponing the inevitable /cry

I spent so much time and gold getting my full exotic set and superior runes for it. Finally get everything i wanted and felt proud of it. Then one week later they pull this new gear crap. Not very happy about this at all.

Yes, let’s merge all the feedback so the developers will just have to ignore one thread instead of dozens.

Good call.

Shaula.6940:

Astralporing.1957:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Mandrax.7342:

I saw something on Kotaku where Isaiah Cartwright was doing a live Q&A. Someone asked a direct question about vertical progression which he neatly avoided answering properly.

Q: how important for you is vertical progression in GW2?

A: All progression is important to us, we want to make sure our rewards and progression systems hit a spectrum of players and makes everyone feel excited to play the game.

Was hoping to see more on the session but actually it was a pretty lame affair.

Link here: http://kotaku.com/5960951/the-lead-designer-of-guild-wars-2-is-answering-your-questions-right-now?tag=kotaku-q%26a

How is that avoiding the question? Unless you must be very paranoid. (which may or may not be logical) It’s obvious that they will have vertical progression in the future by the looks of that answer, as well as all other progression.
So how important is vertical progression? Just as important as all other progression.

Try to throw more controversy out of nowhere. Geez

He managed to answer that question without actually saying anything. Yes, that is an information in itself (namely, he didn’t deny that there will be a further vertical progression ).
It really seem that they decided on introducing EQ treadmill after all, but they don’t want to admit it. Perhaps because they know it would mean he end of this game.

if it is so they’re just postponing the inevitable /cry

Anyone who still thinks this isn’t the beginning of a gear grind is fooling themselves at this point. We were fooled by Anet the first time around, but the situation ought to be clear to everyone by now.

aliquis.9180:

Anyone who still thinks this isn’t the beginning of a gear grind is fooling themselves at this point. We were fooled by Anet the first time around, but the situation ought to be clear to everyone by now.

Fool me once, shame on me…

frogshake.2419:

aliquis.9180:

Anyone who still thinks this isn’t the beginning of a gear grind is fooling themselves at this point. We were fooled by Anet the first time around, but the situation ought to be clear to everyone by now.

Fool me once, shame on me…

Fool me twice… can’t get fooled again.

ThiBash.5634:

Yes, let’s merge all the feedback so the developers will just have to ignore one thread instead of dozens.

Good call.

You know thibash that was exactly what i was thinking, we are talking to the air and nobody but the mods visit this thread.

I’m still prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I wish that Colin J and Mike O were not so deathly silent on the issue. A statement from them telling us that Ascended is gonna be the final tier, scouts honor, would go a long way to stopping everyone rage-quitting.

Hi Anet, if your business model for GW2 isn’t working out as planned I can fully see why you need to try other things, it’s in no ones interest to see you fold.

But frankly, gear progression is Blizzards domain and they simply do it better than anyone, you can’t hope to compete in that arena.

You have a distinction from everyone else with your end level stat ceiling, don’t throw away one of the main reason’s a large proportion of your playerbase are here for.

When GW2 started exotic items were set as perfect with max stats. Legendary weapons were set as same stats just better skin, so THERE IS NO ANY GAP between exotic and legendary, apart of you are about to create one……For my main character I got 2 sets of armors. 1 mgic find, 1 for max damage. Rings, earrings , all. 2 full sets. You have to work hard to get that because there is no easy way to get ingame gold, no 55, no 600 ,no perma, no runs. So you rellay have to farm Orr a lot to save a little cash. Also you have market where legendary precursors can go up to 400 gold. Not to mention saving money for my other character slots. And after less then 3 months of gameplay you want to put this ascended armor ingame. 90% of comments on the forum was against this, and you still IGNORING your community. I dont care if you add new items gradually or all in once, all the items we worked hard become OBSOLETE. Planned obsolescence is planned obsolescence. You can justify it any way you like, you can name it any name you like, grind is grind. In all these years of GW, I never cared about any nerf, any change, but there are some basics you should stick to , and one of them was that on the beginning you determine the max stats of items, and you stick to it.
Best regards

Thoughts on ascended gear: Lame and lazy.
Thoughts on the balancing patch (since the other topic got suddendly closed): Lame and Lazy.
General thoughts: Where the kitten were wish?

Endy.
P.S. rofo wherever you are: You are way too obvious, try taking it down a notch or two.

The main problem I see with Ascended Gear isn’t really that it’s a new tier, it’s because the only way to get Ascended Gear is to go through Fractal. Playing through GW2, one of the mechanics that stood out to me the most was that no matter how people played whether it’s PvE, crafting, or WvW everyone can progress doing what they like to do and still be on even footing with the everyone else. With Ascended Gear it seems like Anet is funneling everyone into Fractal whether they want to or not. WvW players specifically who may only enjoy WvW have no choice but to jump into Fractal to get these items.

Whether or not Ascended Gear should exist is still up for debate, but the most important thing I see Anet needs to change right now is how someone attains Ascended Gear. It needs to be available in WvW, crafting, and PvE outside of Fractal. Otherwise it’s really going to be a grind for players who’d rather not run Fractal a dozen+ times just to stay competitive.

I’m going to stay out of the whole new tier of items debate as I don’t have full exotic, I play pretty casually and I’m really still on the fence. That said, I don’t feel like Anet is taking this whole update lightly. I can tell they’re trying to get a compromise here between gear progression, giving players more to work towards and keeping their promise from becoming a WoW style gear grind. It helps a little I think that Ascended Gear is only the ring and back slot so far, as long as they don’t venture further I won’t worry just yet. Though I can understand the frustration.

RIP Horizontal Progression, was fun for the brief time you were there.

Zynthetic.2954:

To all those reading;

Just because you have no interest in something, doesn’t mean it won’t affect you.

The more that sit idly by and watch, the worse problems get.

Sign in, post a reply, let your voice be heard and inform Anet that they’ve made a mistake.

Thank you for this post. I’m normally just a lurker on game forums but these recent changes are very disappointing and I would like to voice my dismay.

Will I leave GW2 alltogether? Unlikely but I’ll be sure to not spend a single cent on this game, no gems and most importantly no expansion packs.

I really wish this had a sub fee, I’d cancel in a heartbeat as I don’t take lightly being lied to.

I honestly can’t believe you’ve done this. I was against this from the beginning, but actually seeing how ridiculous the ascended gear is makes me want to weep. You’ve turned your back on everything you claimed to stand for as a company.

Maybe NCSoft gave you no choice – in fact it might be comforting to some people to believe that – but the results are the same. You are not the Arenanet I knew, and GW2 is not the game for me anymore.

I played the original Guild Wars happily for seven years, and obsessively followed GW2’s development from the very beginning. I was a loyal and satisfied customer.

It’s all in ashes now, so I guess it’s time to say goodbye. It’s really, truly a painful thing to face. People may smirk and talk about “first world problems” or whatever, but the Guild Wars series was something good in my life for a long time, and it’s sad that that time is over. I can only say thanks for the years of memories.

I am against the introduction of a vertical progression, but I can see why ANet took this u-turn: they know WoW is years old, they know many players are looking for something new and fresh so they decided to make a bet and compete against the giant.

Whether GW2 will turn into a modern David or a stain under Goliath-WoW’s sole is yet to be seen.

With this change of direction they will lose many customers, but may earn many more.

Also they are not stating if this Ascended gear will be the last tier so they just could halt vertical progression and say “hey we just wanted to fill the gap, nothing more”.

I have no concrete proof, this is just my opinion and you will never see me pretending this is the truth.

So much merging that the forum itself is puking its inside outs..

Endy.

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

Dear Anet PR

May I suggest breaking silence with the below:

“We are listening to each of you and thank everyone for your valuable feedback. The team are committed towards an iterative approach and therefore are reviewing your concerns and evaluating the various options.

We sincerely apologize for any upset that the latest patch may have introduced and I promise that we are treating these concerns with the highest levels of resources available to us."

The hunkering down is just fueling the hate. Customers giving feedback deserve to be acknowledged.

1000 times this.

The trust of its core customer base it’s the biggest capital a company possesses.
Once it’s gone, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to rebuild.

ANet, your silence is doing potentially irreparable damage to your reputation. I can almost hear it ticking down.

You guys have to say something MEANINGFUL, not Chris Whiteside’s post, no PR crap, and you have to say it FAST.

I’m telling you, you are hurting your game and therefore yourself in the long run in a way you appearently aren’t fathoming at all.

Recognize that your solution to the “Legendary Wall” issue is much much worse than the problem it tries to solve, and announce your intention to review your decisions NOW.

The community has reacted strongly to your introduction of ascended gear, and it has voiced its concerns for the future of the game and its feelings of betrayal of the pact you had agreed with us in the form of your MMO manifesto.

Now you need to show us that the Manifesto wasn’t just a PR spin, or you will dig a trench between you and your players.

Chamone.6890:

I’m still prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I wish that Colin J and Mike O were not so deathly silent on the issue. A statement from them telling us that Ascended is gonna be the final tier, scouts honor, would go a long way to stopping everyone rage-quitting.

What should they say?

Yes, we lied to you and you fell for it. Deal with it. Now here’s some more stuff we say, you must descide if you trust us again or not.

Or not.

They can just as well remain mumm. Who cares what they have to say? I’ll take the game for the bug-ridden, unbalanced beast it is and play while it’s fun, but not invest a dime in it anymore. And I doubt there’s anything the two could say that would reverse my descision as they seem so dedicated to making this a treadmill-game that they sure won’t back off from that.

Euthil.5209:

Urxx.6840:

I wish Mike O’Brien never said in the Forbes interview that they wanted to surpass WoW. Now they are starting to suffer the same fate of any other game that tried to beat WoW: to start to “WoWize” itself, fight on Blizzard’s ground, lose the battle and in the process also lose all those players who were looking for a no-threadmill game because they were sick of WoW and / or its clones.

It’s quite sad, really. No MMO thus far had managed to overcome the superpower that is WoW. Now that GW2 has chosen to attack on WoW’s homeland (that is, to introduce gear treadmill), where WoW has significant home advantage, GW2 has finally sealed its fate.

Lets start with one very basic thing:
If you want to fight WoW on it’s ground, you better amp your customer satisfaction.

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

cherrie.8907:

Lets start with one very basic thing:
If you want to fight WoW on it’s ground, you better amp your customer satisfaction.

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

Add to that:
- No raids; while we’re at it we might as well add them.
- No working dungeons; I’ve hit the “can’t finish due to bug” wall once too often.
- No class-balance; my warrior does at least 1.5x the damage of a ranger.

Urxx.6840:

Shunsui Jiraiya.9103:

Dear Anet PR

May I suggest breaking silence with the below:

“We are listening to each of you and thank everyone for your valuable feedback. The team are committed towards an iterative approach and therefore are reviewing your concerns and evaluating the various options.

We sincerely apologize for any upset that the latest patch may have introduced and I promise that we are treating these concerns with the highest levels of resources available to us."

The hunkering down is just fueling the hate. Customers giving feedback deserve to be acknowledged.

1000 times this.

The trust of its core customer base it’s the biggest capital a company possesses.
Once it’s gone, it’s EXTREMELY difficult to rebuild.

ANet, your silence is doing potentially irreparable damage to your reputation. I can almost hear it ticking down.

You guys have to say something MEANINGFUL, not Chris Whiteside’s post, no PR crap, and you have to say it FAST.

I’m telling you, you are hurting your game and therefore yourself in the long run in a way you appearently aren’t fathoming at all.

Recognize that your solution to the “Legendary Wall” issue is much much worse than the problem it tries to solve, and announce your intention to review your decisions NOW.

The community has reacted strongly to your introduction of ascended gear, and it has voiced its concerns for the future of the game and its feelings of betrayal of the pact you had agreed with us in the form of your MMO manifesto.

Now you need to show us that the Manifesto wasn’t just a PR spin, or you will dig a trench between you and your players.

agree all you’ve said
i feel betrayed

“hey guys, we’re building a game for you, no grind, no gear treadmill”
“hey, we’re everywhere saying this”

Someone from the “upper floors”: “Ok Colin, you’ve done well… they will trust us, they’ll buy our game and then we’ll ++++ them after 3 months”

cherrie.8907:

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

You forgot to mention there’s no loyal and happy fanbase.

Zynthetic.2954:

cherrie.8907:

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

You forgot to mention there’s no loyal and happy fanbase.

Noes, what are you saying!
ANets most dedicated players just got their wishes fulfilles, after all, according to Chris’ post. Get your facts straight, man!

-_-

cherrie.8907:

Zynthetic.2954:

cherrie.8907:

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

You forgot to mention there’s no loyal and happy fanbase.

Noes, what are you saying!
ANets most dedicated players just got their wishes fulfilles, after all, according to Chris’ post. Get your facts straight, man!

-_-

So does that mean if I play the game 24/7 and spend $1000 on gems, they’ll listen to me because I’d then be a “dedicated player”?

Wait no, they still wouldn’t. I play the game for fun, not to grind mindlessly like a zombie.

cherrie.8907:

Zynthetic.2954:

cherrie.8907:

GW2 has no
- in-game support
- account restoration nor plans for acceptable system (rollback only, no ETA)
- no reimbursement system even for colossal player losses caused by game bugs
- no dungeonfinder
- good dungeon mechanic

You forgot to mention there’s no loyal and happy fanbase.

Noes, what are you saying!
ANets most dedicated players just got their wishes fulfilles, after all, according to Chris’ post. Get your facts straight, man!

-_-

it’s going to be a bumpy bus ride for a while until they finish running over everyone they threw under it.

For what it’s worth, I’m against introduction of Ascended Gear and a gear treadmill – this is fundamentally opposed to the game design as the developers described it, before we shelled out our hard-earned to buy the box. Why does every single developer insist on following this route, when it has worked well for only WOW?

The more about this system is revealed.. the worse it looks.

I doubt that they, after managing to sell the game to the core fans of the franchise, decided that they want to go full on greed mode, screw their current customers up, and sell the game to fans of more traditional MMOs by adding in gear (or if you wish, infusion) treadmill. It just sounds a bit too radical.

But what are the alternatives? If they were not chasing after profit, then why did they decide to scratch one of their main philosophies ? They say that they base this on community feedback – well, we are at page 190 here, and there are at least 60 more pages on Guru, I really dont think that the community is too supportive of this patch.

Maybe it is true – maybe indeed they base this change on community feedback, maybe all the people who express their dissatisfaction on this thread are just a tiny, insignificant part of the community, and most A-net costumers will be more than glad to accept these changes.

I thought that the addition of those items wont affect me too much, since I am primarily a PvP player, but it does. The impatience to log in from a week ago is now replaced by a lack of desire to even play a couple of quick matches. I just feel unwilling to spend my time on a game, which has developers who so easily forget their promises. Not because I feel endangered – but because of my principles.

I will tell you what I feel – I feel shame that I convinced some of my friends to buy the game, telling them that it will be different than other MMOs. They do not blame me- they know that this was a risk they personally took, but I still feel shame.

They do this to satisfy fans of the treadmill model, who are willing to be nice hamsters and stay on their wheel, chasing a reward they will never reach. The problem is, however, that those people will not stay as a part of the core community, they will go back to WoW or move on to the next big MMO release as soon as it is out. Fans of GW1 and people who loved the core philosophy behind GW2, a.k.a. – the people who WOULD HAVE stayed part of the core community will now feel alienated from this franchise.

After this disappointment I think I am done with MMOs, I was a GW1 player for 7 years and I never stuck to another MMO for more than a couple of months. I thought that GW2 would be a worthy successor, but it is turning out to be another disappointment – shame, really, I was waiting for this game for years. I suppose that at least I learned my lesson.

/Just my 2 cents.

Looking at the number of posts and the lack of anyone from Anets side saying if they stick by what they done or will change it I’d say they pretty much doing what they want despite protest. I shall continue playing the game and enjoying it with friends but unlike before I won’t be supporting them even half as much with the gem store.

Shall look onwards at future content updates with a bit more knowledge that Anet will go back on what they originally promised, I’m used to companies doing this now.

Recently we all discovered that a new type of items are introduced in Guild wars 2, the “Ascended” items. They will be slightly more powerful than “Exotics” and they are gonna make many players spend much time again to farm them in order to stay in the “top legion” model.
But how can those items not attract those players, but push them away instead? Here is an example….let’s say a dedicated player so far aimed not to farm the “easy” exotics (Cof dungeon, etc..) but wanted to farm some different exotics in order to stand out from the crowd and to show off his results of his labor on his equipment. That player eventually farmed all the exotics from CoE dungeon (each path takes about 40-60 minutes with much more difficulty than the “easy” dungeons) and was really happy.
But a day came when he released that his labor on achieving those armors went to waste. And that day was when a new type of armor more powerful than his “exotics” appeared, the “Ascended” items. He now have to farm all those new items again in order to stand out from the crowd! He is really frustrated that his special effort went to waste and sadly has lost interest for the game. Are you one of those players?

PS: I know that in the patch they will only add Ascended rings and backpacks. But Anet said they plan to put all armors in the near future.