Guild Wars 2

There was the event nerf.
Then the dungeon nerf.
Then the champion train nerf.
And now the crown pavilion only gives you two greens for 40 minutes of work.
And this, this really makes me doubt for what purpose all those nerfs were made
(img of the gold announcement below)
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/phoenix-weapons-new-faces-and-more-in-the-gem-store/?utm_source=client for source.
I wonder whether it has anything to do with China release? Though why to divide the two regions even if you’re planning to nerf the NA and EU version to the ground?
I know what I’m going to be told “you shouldn’t be playing for loot!”. Well what else is there at the moment? After two years every dungeon I’ve done to death. Every zone has been fully explored ten times minimum. Even with the new fractals I’ve done all of them a few hundred times. Burn out someone would say. But burn out is not the problem. The problem is where the nerfs are leading. And adds like this get me worried.
I know that I shouldn’t bother with it. After all there are a sea of other MMOs out there and I can just leave for one until this one adds something new. And I will probably do that. But what I’ve seen yesterday left such a bad taste in my mouth that I can’t keep quiet.

I’m starting to think it’s a sick experiment to see how long we last without loot drops.

New Super Cool Awesome Boss Encounter!
Deposit your gold to activate the encounter.
Enjoy the killing because you won’t get anything but festival tokens and gauntlet tickets.
Finish the Encounter and receive 2 champ bags & 1 green quality weapon!

I don’t get it.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I find it hilarious that care bears are complaining about having to grind for gold now when all they did before was grind. How about just playing the game. After spending gold on consumables and siege I don’t make that much per hour but I’m fine with that because I enjoy what I’m doing. I have no sympathy for all of the cry babies that claim that the game is ruined when that type of player has been ruining this game for me from the start.

well I already put the response to “just play the game” statement into my original post – we are stuck with the same game content for two years now. You can only do something so many times until it becomes not entertaining. Unless of course there’s something else behind it that would drive you to repeat the content. Like for example loot.
So no loot = at least give us new permanent content
and
no new content = at least gives us loot to chase after our goals.

And really everything wouldn’t even be as suspicious for me if not the “did you know that you can buy gold from us?” add on their website.

yeah, that’s the biggest reason I don’t play anymore. They nerfed all the loot in the game so all you can do is grind gold to get anything. Then they nerfed all the gold so now the grind for even gold is kittened so unless you game the TP your best bet is to buy gems, then buy gold with those gems. That’s a kittenty game model and business model that won’t last. Like you mentioned they need to either add permanent content(and not a single dungeon or world boss) or fix the loot tables to make the grind worth while. Personally I think they should do both but they would probably get some people to return with just doing one of those.

As frustrating as the nerfs and lack of rewards in the game are for many players, as long as Anet is getting what it considers enough money through gem sales, it’s all good from their point of view. Will eventually enough players leave the game due to no rewards for playing that Anet realizes they made a mistake? Possibly. Although large businesses aren’t necessarily known for learning from their mistakes.

Celtic Lady.3729:

As frustrating as the nerfs and lack of rewards in the game are for many players, as long as Anet is getting what it considers enough money through gem sales, it’s all good from their point of view. Will eventually enough players leave the game due to no rewards for playing that Anet realizes they made a mistake? Possibly. Although large businesses aren’t necessarily known for learning from their mistakes.

I have bad feeling that they do not care if this game dies as they have made tons of money while it lasted and they can just move on to the next project. I hope I’m wrong though.

Mirta.5029:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I find it hilarious that care bears are complaining about having to grind for gold now when all they did before was grind. How about just playing the game. After spending gold on consumables and siege I don’t make that much per hour but I’m fine with that because I enjoy what I’m doing. I have no sympathy for all of the cry babies that claim that the game is ruined when that type of player has been ruining this game for me from the start.

well I already put the response to “just play the game” statement into my original post – we are stuck with the same game content for two years now. You can only do something so many times until it becomes not entertaining. Unless of course there’s something else behind it that would drive you to repeat the content. Like for example loot.
So no loot = at least give us new permanent content
and
no new content = at least gives us loot to chase after our goals.

And really everything wouldn’t even be as suspicious for me if not the “did you know that you can buy gold from us?” add on their website.

So you have a problem buying gems? Why? If you want new content maybe you should support the company. Too many of the farmers and grinders just turn their gold into gems which I’m pretty sure doesn’t contribute to any sort of development money.

The exchange rate is based off the players, so its expensive because people aren’t buying gems and selling them for gold.

This also means, if someone buys their gems from gold ArenaNet is still making money, because those gems you bought with gold were originally sold from a player who bought gems with cash.

NEWSFLASH: If people buy gems and sell them, the exchange rate gets cheaper. At the same time, because of the 30% tax, inflation is reduced.

In regards to loot nerfs, they are more of a balancing. Up until the nerfs, there was no point of running a fractal. It was far better to run dungeons or a champ train. Now that those have been nerfed, the economy is much more equalized.

They have an economic expert working on this game, and it is clear he is doing a good job as now I feel like I’m rewarded pretty much the same in all game modes.

Yes, this is all getting rather annoying. It seems they want to funnel us into dungeons and WvW. Well, I’m having non of that. May 31st is only 10 days away.

Why do people ignore the fact that less gold being created (less extreme farms) the less stuff will cost, and as such the less people actually have to farm.

If anything these nerfs benefits players and the game rather than the other way around.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

Mirta.5029:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I find it hilarious that care bears are complaining about having to grind for gold now when all they did before was grind. How about just playing the game. After spending gold on consumables and siege I don’t make that much per hour but I’m fine with that because I enjoy what I’m doing. I have no sympathy for all of the cry babies that claim that the game is ruined when that type of player has been ruining this game for me from the start.

well I already put the response to “just play the game” statement into my original post – we are stuck with the same game content for two years now. You can only do something so many times until it becomes not entertaining. Unless of course there’s something else behind it that would drive you to repeat the content. Like for example loot.
So no loot = at least give us new permanent content
and
no new content = at least gives us loot to chase after our goals.

And really everything wouldn’t even be as suspicious for me if not the “did you know that you can buy gold from us?” add on their website.

So you have a problem buying gems? Why? If you want new content maybe you should support the company. Too many of the farmers and grinders just turn their gold into gems which I’m pretty sure doesn’t contribute to any sort of development money.

Perhaps people would be more inclined to support Anet if Anet produced something worthy of supporting. We already bought GW2, so we supported them on that front. Now if they want us to buy a bunch of gems with real cash, produce content worthy of it. It’s ridiculous that I can spend ~$50.00 in gems for BL keys and not even get a ticket, or spend ~$40.00 to get 3 infinite gathering kits and a salvage kit.

If you buy a bunch of gems now, you’re only supporting the micro-transaction market. Anet knows this. That’s why the price of armor pieces is so spontaneous. One day you can get a set of armor for 800 gems, another day a crappy scar/face paint will cost you 500 gems, and now Anet is selling individual armor pieces for ~300 gems each which will total a set to 1800 gems instead of 800. I see no reason to support a company that is only looking to milk us at every chance they get.

Chase.8415:

The exchange rate is based off the players, so its expensive because people aren’t buying gems and selling them for gold.

NEWSFLASH: If people buy gems and sell them, the exchange rate gets cheaper. At the same time, because of the 30% tax, inflation is reduced.

In regards to loot nerfs, they are more of a balancing. Up until the nerfs, there was no point of running a fractal. It was far better to run dungeons or a champ train. Now that those have been nerfed, the economy is much more equalized.

They have an economic expert working on this game, and it is clear he is doing a good job as now I feel like I’m rewarded pretty much the same in all game modes.

1. Where do I complain about the gem prices? I’m complaining that they’re advertising buying gold, as if that’s what you’re supposed to do in the game now.
2. The economy equalization is really poor having in mind that each server already has a hand full of their own super rich guys that do not mind keeping the prices up, while the gold gain for a new player is cut down. I have a guildie that trough out all of those years made 5 legendaries, sold them all and has been playing the TP ever since. His money balance is always in the thousands and he wouldn’t let it fall lower than that.

bloodletting wolf.2837:

So you have a problem buying gems? Why? If you want new content maybe you should support the company. Too many of the farmers and grinders just turn their gold into gems which I’m pretty sure doesn’t contribute to any sort of development money.

I have no problem with buying gems for gem store items. I have a problem with the company advertising to you that to achieve your in game goals you should buy their gems to convert to gold.

I will just repost what I wrote in an another thread:

next patch notes:

BALANCE, BUG-FIXING, POLISH
General
- Fixed a bug where dungeons reward gold
- Fixed a bug where event completion reward gold

BLACK LION TRADING COMPANY GEM STORE
New Items and Promotions
- You can now purchase, for 2000 gems, a monthly subscription for loot. Now killing mobs will be rewarding as never before. Junk items as guaranteed loot from every mobs!

the saddest part is that Anet is able to do that…

Jamin.6528:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

Mirta.5029:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I find it hilarious that care bears are complaining about having to grind for gold now when all they did before was grind. How about just playing the game. After spending gold on consumables and siege I don’t make that much per hour but I’m fine with that because I enjoy what I’m doing. I have no sympathy for all of the cry babies that claim that the game is ruined when that type of player has been ruining this game for me from the start.

well I already put the response to “just play the game” statement into my original post – we are stuck with the same game content for two years now. You can only do something so many times until it becomes not entertaining. Unless of course there’s something else behind it that would drive you to repeat the content. Like for example loot.
So no loot = at least give us new permanent content
and
no new content = at least gives us loot to chase after our goals.

And really everything wouldn’t even be as suspicious for me if not the “did you know that you can buy gold from us?” add on their website.

So you have a problem buying gems? Why? If you want new content maybe you should support the company. Too many of the farmers and grinders just turn their gold into gems which I’m pretty sure doesn’t contribute to any sort of development money.

Perhaps people would be more inclined to support Anet if Anet produced something worthy of supporting. We already bought GW2, so we supported them on that front. Now if they want us to buy a bunch of gems with real cash, produce content worthy of it. It’s ridiculous that I can spend ~$50.00 in gems for BL keys and not even get a ticket, or spend ~$40.00 to get 3 infinite gathering kits and a salvage kit.

If you buy a bunch of gems now, you’re only supporting the micro-transaction market. Anet knows this. That’s why the price of armor pieces is so spontaneous. One day you can get a set of armor for 800 gems, another day a crappy scar/face paint will cost you 500 gems, and now Anet is selling individual armor pieces for ~300 gems each which will total a set to 1800 gems instead of 800. I see no reason to support a company that is only looking to milk us at every chance they get.

They sell the entire set as well as individual pieces. People were complaining how they only wanted one piece out of the set and feel ripped off for paying full price.

Care to give us more conspiracy theories that are also incorrect as well?

Jamin.6528:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

Mirta.5029:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

I find it hilarious that care bears are complaining about having to grind for gold now when all they did before was grind. How about just playing the game. After spending gold on consumables and siege I don’t make that much per hour but I’m fine with that because I enjoy what I’m doing. I have no sympathy for all of the cry babies that claim that the game is ruined when that type of player has been ruining this game for me from the start.

well I already put the response to “just play the game” statement into my original post – we are stuck with the same game content for two years now. You can only do something so many times until it becomes not entertaining. Unless of course there’s something else behind it that would drive you to repeat the content. Like for example loot.
So no loot = at least give us new permanent content
and
no new content = at least gives us loot to chase after our goals.

And really everything wouldn’t even be as suspicious for me if not the “did you know that you can buy gold from us?” add on their website.

So you have a problem buying gems? Why? If you want new content maybe you should support the company. Too many of the farmers and grinders just turn their gold into gems which I’m pretty sure doesn’t contribute to any sort of development money.

Perhaps people would be more inclined to support Anet if Anet produced something worthy of supporting. We already bought GW2, so we supported them on that front. Now if they want us to buy a bunch of gems with real cash, produce content worthy of it. It’s ridiculous that I can spend ~$50.00 in gems for BL keys and not even get a ticket, or spend ~$40.00 to get 3 infinite gathering kits and a salvage kit.

If you buy a bunch of gems now, you’re only supporting the micro-transaction market. Anet knows this. That’s why the price of armor pieces is so spontaneous. One day you can get a set of armor for 800 gems, another day a crappy scar/face paint will cost you 500 gems, and now Anet is selling individual armor pieces for ~300 gems each which will total a set to 1800 gems instead of 800. I see no reason to support a company that is only looking to milk us at every chance they get.

Maybe you shouldn’t be looking at it as a company milking you at every chance and instead look at it as they are giving a lot of players exactly what they want. That’s why there are always new minis and armor pieces in the gem store. They wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t a demand for them.

Relax dude. Just buy more gems and make it into gold. Don’t worry about them nerfing every viable way of making income that isn’t horribly controlled.

Don’t you want to support GW2? Buy more gems! Buy buy buy!

/sarcasm

GW2 has turned into Gem Store Wars 1.

I have to admit that mini collectors do seem to be some of the most hardcore players in this game that I have ever encountered.

Basically to me this game keeps getting worse and worse every few months and to many of you people are riding on Anet’s back waving a flag like they are doing good things, this game is slowly dieing and Anet is letting it go this way. I love this game don’t get me wrong but when i can’t do things i liked to do in a game anymore then i start to lose interest. I would usually run the QD train for a hour each night before i logged off just for the fun of it and tagging along in a zerg, now i would be lucky if i made 1 gold from doing this if anything at all since i mostly just broke the items down into mats. I would do the WvWvW crap but there is just no reward in it for me other than using badges to buy armor skins which i got already from doing it 1 day. I will ride this Anet train into the ground because i like to play the game but I am not in support of alot of the stupid moves they are making. Ruin my fun in the game, ya like i am gonna support ya now by buying gems….nice try Anet.

I have bad feeling that they do not care if this game dies as they have made tons of money while it lasted and they can just move on to the next project. I hope I’m wrong though.

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Calae.1738:

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Ah yes. I am sure they would be willing to put 300+ people (and friends) out of a job for some swift dollars….

As long as the China market doesn’t go belly up, I don’t think they’re too concerned with everyone else. They could lose all their other players and still be making more money than they did at launch.

lordkrall.7241:

Calae.1738:

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Ah yes. I am sure they would be willing to put 300+ people (and friends) out of a job for some swift dollars….

We don’t know what their future projects are. I wouldn’t let go of 300+ people if my product produced a temporary profit at the expense of project A.

I won’t never buy single gem. I can buy expansions, but not gems.

Junkpile.7439:

I won’t never buy single gem. ……….

How many will you buy then?

We need a trading nerf to compensate.

If all easy and quick money making schemes get fixed, then everyone has more or less the same coin.

Still, market speculators have insane amounts of gold, which they use – or so they brag about – to buy entire stocks of items and resell them at obscenely high prices, when they know people will demand them, like a certain rune that can’t be crafted or a certain miniature with limited availability.

As a result, you get lots of people making reasonable amounts of coin, coin which they end up using to pay for the insane prices set by the market manipulators, and lots of coin gets redirected to them, making them even richer over time, and the rest even poorer, as their reasonable amounts of coin is worth less and less in contrast with prices set by those able to buyout entire stocks.

This is solved with a very simple cooldown on reselling what you bought, with would prevent entire stock purchases to resell right away, without affecting normal trade and sell.

Once that is in place, reselling would only work over longer periods of time which requires more strategy and planning, and those cases of excessive prices will slowly go down. That way speculation is still possible, but it’s not something that can be done in excess almost exclusively by those that exploited quick money making schemes when they were available and have amassed too much capital.

——

Also, the game depends too much in the trading post. Getting things by yourself can take ages.

There has to be alternate sources for some materials that have too few soruces. For example, while one can gather wood and metal, and many animals drop salvageable items that produce decent amounts of leather, cloth is much harder to come by. For cloth and some other materials a fourth kind of node should be added: Locked chests.

They would be scattered in maps and give always at least cloth and some leather and sometimes fine and even rare materials with some luck, and require a lockpick gathering tool to open. While chest at the end of jumping puzzles and guild puzzles would remain open, some of the existing chests in the world would be turned into Big closed chests (e.g. a chest in a cave guarded by veterans), that like “rich” nodes have more basic materials and a bit higher chances for fine and rare, but can only be used once a day. Each map should get at least 1 ‘rich’ locked chest in a fixed location. And 2 in random ones.

Some group events should also make available once-a-day nodes on success. A tree-heart or nightmare court champion would drop a 3-use thick sapling node or a little herb farm of 3 1-use nodes, an event against elementals or steam creatures may reveal a rich metal node at the end, while a “racial faction” group event with a node reward would probably have a chest.

That would compensate with poor luck with drops. If you only got junk from all enemies in the event, at least you have the node.

I hate people saying that we should support them. I bought the digital deluxe version and I have spent about $200 on storage space and collectible space and character slots. And I got digital deluxe version for one of my kids and the normal version for the other. That is way more than enough support. Now how about they stop kittening with the game and let us play rather than nickel and dime us.

I noticed people are “Thankful” that t6 mats won’t be lowered in price because it “upsets” the market. I find making something needing 200 ancient bones costing 100g is silly. Not to mention why do these people want a monopoly? I find that’s it’s usually the most “PC” people worried about prices going down while in RL they prolly support occupy wallstreet, free health care and distribution of wealth.. but oh NO you will no touch their hold on the GW 2 economy with getting t6 mats from bags.

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

I hate people saying that we should support them. I bought the digital deluxe version and I have spent about $200 on storage space and collectible space and character slots. And I got digital deluxe version for one of my kids and the normal version for the other. That is way more than enough support. Now how about they stop kittening with the game and let us play rather than nickel and dime us.

Because they want every nickle and dime they can get.

MithranArkanere.8957:

We need a trading nerf to compensate.

If all easy and quick money making schemes get fixed, then everyone has more or less the same coin.

Still, market speculators have insane amounts of gold, which they use – or so they brag about – to buy entire stocks of items and resell them at obscenely high prices, when they know people will demand them, like a certain rune that can’t be crafted or a certain miniature with limited availability.

As a result, you get lots of people making reasonable amounts of coin, coin which they end up using to pay for the insane prices set by the market manipulators, and lots of coin gets redirected to them, making them even richer over time, and the rest even poorer, as their reasonable amounts of coin is worth less and less in contrast with prices set by those able to buyout entire stocks.

This is solved with a very simple cooldown on reselling what you bought, with would prevent entire stock purchases to resell right away, without affecting normal trade and sell.

Once that is in place, reselling would only work over longer periods of time which requires more strategy and planning, and those cases of excessive prices will slowly go down. That way speculation is still possible, but it’s not something that can be done in excess almost exclusively by those that exploited quick money making schemes when they were available and have amassed too much capital.

——

Also, the game depends too much in the trading post. Getting things by yourself can take ages.

There has to be alternate sources for some materials that have too few soruces. For example, while one can gather wood and metal, and many animals drop salvageable items that produce decent amounts of leather, cloth is much harder to come by. For cloth and some other materials a fourth kind of node should be added: Locked chests.

They would be scattered in maps and give always at least cloth and some leather and sometimes fine and even rare materials with some luck, and require a lockpick gathering tool to open. While chest at the end of jumping puzzles and guild puzzles would remain open, some of the existing chests in the world would be turned into Big closed chests (e.g. a chest in a cave guarded by veterans), that like “rich” nodes have more basic materials and a bit higher chances for fine and rare, but can only be used once a day. Each map should get at least 1 ‘rich’ locked chest in a fixed location. And 2 in random ones.

Some group events should also make available once-a-day nodes on success. A tree-heart or nightmare court champion would drop a 3-use thick sapling node or a little herb farm of 3 1-use nodes, an event against elementals or steam creatures may reveal a rich metal node at the end, while a “racial faction” group event with a node reward would probably have a chest.

That would compensate with poor luck with drops. If you only got junk from all enemies in the event, at least you have the node.

They should remove the TP entirely and use brokers like they did in GW1 for dyes. It would make rare items valuable but there is not any way to manipulate the system. They won’t do my idea or your idea though. They like it that a small percentage of the population have all the gold and have gotten the prices so high. It makes it so their is more incentive for the majority of players to buy gems to change in to gold.

The loot and exp nerfs are directly related to the release in china, in my opinion. They said the game will be the same across all territories, and Im thinking they don’t want the market in china flooded with high level mats. Nor do they want people leveling their alts to 80 so quickly like the last queens pavilion.

I can see why they don’t want this so soon early after the Chinese, but letting a version of Gw2 that just released affect the dynamics of a game that for everyone else has been out for almost 2 years seems silly.

I feel and some I play with feel also that the nerfs are going to continue, and will continue on the NA/EU game, as we have the game for free, in China they have to pay to play this, there is NO WAY in hell China can be getting the no loot nerfs that we are getting, why would anyone pay to play a game where you got little to no reward it makes no sense,

We kinda feel now that they are just pushing the final nails into the NA/EU coffin before either pulling the plug on us, or moving the game to a Pay to Play game same as China, because in its current state its pointless to play it, like it has been stated,

Event nerfs
Dungeon nerfs
Loot Nerfs

If I wanted to play the game in a way that I didn’t want loot to drop, I would become a TP Flipper and never play PvE/WvW/sPvP etc etc,

Furthermore, we will never get a reply from Anet on these nerfs as to why they are doing them, they “apparently” read the topics but we know that’s BS, they are quick to close a topic but will never comment on why they are killing there NA/EU playerbase ( in a few months only the causal play for 30 mins a day player will remain ) the proof they pay no attention is in the topics for the last update, not a single reply on all that feedback, yet still many broken events from it, and no loot/enemies at some events.

Sad fact is the game for EU/NA is free to play, therefore we are not the target audience anymore, China is paying for this, that’s there goal, to keep them happy.

I’ve had more friends leave this game in the last 3 months than in the 18 months before it, says it all really.

lordkrall.7241:

Calae.1738:

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Ah yes. I am sure they would be willing to put 300+ people (and friends) out of a job for some swift dollars….

You are a fool if you believe that investors wouldn’t do exactly this.

lordkrall.7241:

Why do people ignore the fact that less gold being created (less extreme farms) the less stuff will cost, and as such the less people actually have to farm.

If anything these nerfs benefits players and the game rather than the other way around.

Sorry, not the way it works.

Throttling the supply of money as a remedy for inflation only works in a situation where any way that money can enter the economy can be tightly regulated. MMO’s, including GW2, have too many ways in which coin can be introduced for one control to have any significant effect on coin supply.

You’re s also assuming that the recent loot nerfs didn’t actually make prices go up. Champ bags took more money out of the game than they introduced, especially after the coin nerf. This happened via crafting material sales and the attendant TP fees, as well as some small amount of cost for salvage kits. Meanwhile, fewer champ bags dropped (if that is even what is going to happen) would mean fewer crafting mats being sold, with no corresponding decrease in demand.

Yeah, I don’t know who is charge over there at Anet, but they haven’t learn anything from player rewarding from the past or even from other MMOs as much as we would like to believe otherwise. There are F2P games out there right now with better models and that is painful to see.

Rewards from Crown Pavilion being stripped is disgusting. No matter the reasoning behind it, it won’t be good enough to justify the means. Even the argument of deflation is out the window. The only people that get deflated are the people who aren’t tight with their money, guess who that is? Not the rich people. And the middle-class/poor players on this game are already being squeezed to death. Very sad to see, even as someone with a few k in gold.

Mirta.5029:

There was the event nerf.
Then the dungeon nerf.
Then the champion train nerf.
And now the crown pavilion only gives you two greens for 40 minutes of work.
And this, this really makes me doubt for what purpose all those nerfs were made
(img of the gold announcement below)
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/phoenix-weapons-new-faces-and-more-in-the-gem-store/?utm_source=client for source.
I wonder whether it has anything to do with China release? Though why to divide the two regions even if you’re planning to nerf the NA and EU version to the ground?
I know what I’m going to be told “you shouldn’t be playing for loot!”. Well what else is there at the moment? After two years every dungeon I’ve done to death. Every zone has been fully explored ten times minimum. Even with the new fractals I’ve done all of them a few hundred times. Burn out someone would say. But burn out is not the problem. The problem is where the nerfs are leading. And adds like this get me worried.
I know that I shouldn’t bother with it. After all there are a sea of other MMOs out there and I can just leave for one until this one adds something new. And I will probably do that. But what I’ve seen yesterday left such a bad taste in my mouth that I can’t keep quiet.

Everything. is designed to push as many people as possible to the gemstore.
They nerf stuff because they want you to buy boosters to make up the difference, I’ve seen it in numerous MMOs.
It’s the taint of Nexon.

I expect eventually it’ll be nigh impossible to level to 80 without boosters, trait captures will have only a chance to succeed (which you can boost with a one use booster!), we’ll see the introduction of a consumable “skin recorder” required to learn a skin for the wardrobe, special single-use boss chest keys to boost your chances of rare loot (an extra 2% chance at a precurser!)
I could go on, with more and more ridiculous stuff that most people would scoff at and say that could never happen, but I can see any of what I’ve listed as being entirely possible, maybe more. It’s a matter of change by degrees, change things by small enough/slow enough increments and most people are too blind to ever notice, at least not until its far too late.

Cash shop, lol.

You get what you pay for. Enjoy the F2P cash shop model!

With the debut in China, their NA/EU market is secondary. They will make three times the money there (or more), that could ever make elsewhere.

I can almost guarantee that they shifted all their veteran staff to the development and maintenance of the China game. In my opinion, you can see signs of that already. Look at the Lawless armor on the gem shop. It’s absolute garbage. It looks like it was designed as a project in a computer design class.

The Queen’s Pavilion is just more proof of that. If you’ve been there since tuesday, you’ll know what I mean.

They’re probably running the NA/EU segment on a skeleton crew. I wouldn’t expect much for the rest of the year. I know I’m not expecting anything, except more of the same. Thankfully, summer is close and I can enjoy it fully. (well, mowing the lawn, and yard work isn’t fun, but there’s more than just that :P )

ScribeTheMad.7614:

Mirta.5029:

There was the event nerf.
Then the dungeon nerf.
Then the champion train nerf.
And now the crown pavilion only gives you two greens for 40 minutes of work.
And this, this really makes me doubt for what purpose all those nerfs were made
(img of the gold announcement below)
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/phoenix-weapons-new-faces-and-more-in-the-gem-store/?utm_source=client for source.
I wonder whether it has anything to do with China release? Though why to divide the two regions even if you’re planning to nerf the NA and EU version to the ground?
I know what I’m going to be told “you shouldn’t be playing for loot!”. Well what else is there at the moment? After two years every dungeon I’ve done to death. Every zone has been fully explored ten times minimum. Even with the new fractals I’ve done all of them a few hundred times. Burn out someone would say. But burn out is not the problem. The problem is where the nerfs are leading. And adds like this get me worried.
I know that I shouldn’t bother with it. After all there are a sea of other MMOs out there and I can just leave for one until this one adds something new. And I will probably do that. But what I’ve seen yesterday left such a bad taste in my mouth that I can’t keep quiet.

Everything. is designed to push as many people as possible to the gemstore.
They nerf stuff because they want you to buy boosters to make up the difference, I’ve seen it in numerous MMOs.
It’s the taint of Nexon.

I expect eventually it’ll be nigh impossible to level to 80 without boosters, trait captures will have only a chance to succeed (which you can boost with a one use booster!), we’ll see the introduction of a consumable “skin recorder” required to learn a skin for the wardrobe, special single-use boss chest keys to boost your chances of rare loot (an extra 2% chance at a precurser!)
I could go on, with more and more ridiculous stuff that most people would scoff at and say that could never happen, but I can see any of what I’ve listed as being entirely possible, maybe more. It’s a matter of change by degrees, change things by small enough/slow enough increments and most people are too blind to ever notice, at least not until its far too late.

Sadly, I think you’re extremely correct. I really hate to say it because I have loved a lot about this game, but maybe it’s time to stop the bleeding. Time to go buy some excercise equipment

lordkrall.7241:

Calae.1738:

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Ah yes. I am sure they would be willing to put 300+ people (and friends) out of a job for some swift dollars….

Well, I would assume that most of their best talent has left for a good reason….

And I agree with many of the posters in this thread. This game is quickly starting to look like another cash-grab P2W scenario. I suspect NCSoft wants to shelve GW2 to make way for their upcoming MMOs such as Wild Star (you know, the kind that requires everyone to pay for kitten monthly subscription fees no matter what.)

I give Anet 3-4 months tops for improvements, now that they’re really going to have to work for it if they want to wow their new Chinese players. If we continue to see more cash shop in exchange for more stealth drop nerfs and RNG, then I think it’s time to say goodbye to this game and hello to something else. And that new “something else” won’t be Wild Star if NCSoft’s business model is anything to go by.

It wasn’t until recently that the Gem to Gold rate reached an acceptable level to bother advertising it in the Tuesday Evon post that’s all.

Champ trains still run outside of the starter zones.

I think they realized they opened up the gold spigot a little two much last year during the Jubilee and now they’ve finally closed it up. Unfortunately we’ve now been conditioned to that level of reward, resulting in degenerated play styles like the champ train.

So “Austerity” has come to Tyria.

La Goanna.8142:

Well, I would assume that most of their best talent has left for a good reason….

And I agree with many of the posters in this thread. This game is quickly starting to look like another cash-grab P2W scenario. I suspect NCSoft wants to shelve GW2 to make way for their upcoming MMOs such as Wild Star (you know, the kind that requires everyone to pay for kitten monthly subscription fees no matter what.)

I give Anet 3-4 months tops for improvements, now that they’re really going to have to work for it if they want to wow their new Chinese players. If we continue to see more cash shop in exchange for more stealth drop nerfs and RNG, then I think it’s time to say goodbye to this game and hello to something else. And that new “something else” won’t be Wild Star if NCSoft’s business model is anything to go by.

I don’t exactly think that it’s Ncsoft that’s even pushing them. For one thing they have a completely different publisher for China and their version is even worse and more pay to win. Now they want to bring this into EU/NA as well.

La Goanna.8142:

lordkrall.7241:

Calae.1738:

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Ah yes. I am sure they would be willing to put 300+ people (and friends) out of a job for some swift dollars….

Well, I would assume that most of their best talent has left for a good reason….

And I agree with many of the posters in this thread. This game is quickly starting to look like another cash-grab P2W scenario. I suspect NCSoft wants to shelve GW2 to make way for their upcoming MMOs such as Wild Star (you know, the kind that requires everyone to pay for kitten monthly subscription fees no matter what.)

I give Anet 3-4 months tops for improvements, now that they’re really going to have to work for it if they want to wow their new Chinese players. If we continue to see more cash shop in exchange for more stealth drop nerfs and RNG, then I think it’s time to say goodbye to this game and hello to something else. And that new “something else” won’t be Wild Star if NCSoft’s business model is anything to go by.

I like how people complain about trivial subscriptions fees and then cry when they’re beloved F2P game becomes a cash grab.

Not that ALL F2P is bad. Rift has a very fair cash shop, but that’s the only example I can think of at the moment.

La Goanna.8142:

lordkrall.7241:

Calae.1738:

I don’t think you are wrong.

I have a feeling that what we are seeing is a combination of milking the current playerbase and targeting a different market on another continent that has literally hundreds of millions of people.

The China market is HUGE. Even if this is just a cashgrab strategy, they can make bank and not care if the game itself died a quick death.

Ah yes. I am sure they would be willing to put 300+ people (and friends) out of a job for some swift dollars….

Well, I would assume that most of their best talent has left for a good reason….

And I agree with many of the posters in this thread. This game is quickly starting to look like another cash-grab P2W scenario. I suspect NCSoft wants to shelve GW2 to make way for their upcoming MMOs such as Wild Star (you know, the kind that requires everyone to pay for kitten monthly subscription fees no matter what.)

I give Anet 3-4 months tops for improvements, now that they’re really going to have to work for it if they want to wow their new Chinese players. If we continue to see more cash shop in exchange for more stealth drop nerfs and RNG, then I think it’s time to say goodbye to this game and hello to something else. And that new “something else” won’t be Wild Star if NCSoft’s business model is anything to go by.

Just one point. Wildstar does not require a subscription fee. You can grind gold in game and buy CREDD for 30 days game time, if you’re that kind of player.

Sad to think I spent 20-30$ a month the past year on the game, i.e. char. slots (10 of ‘em), keys, no minis thank you very much, and other assorted add-ons. I really loved this game at one time, and am saddened by what’s changed within it. Oh well. Lots of hours, decent loot at one time long ago. Not surprising tho…

It’s really sad that they have to nerf all these things to push players to buy gems instead of actually making more armor sets / weapon skins that players would want to buy.

GW1 had so many nice sets that could have made a huge profit for them.

Not a single red cent will be spent by me or many people that I know on gems until there is “expansion worthy” content.
I like to support developers but it is getting pretty bad and blatant that they only want your visa number.
I was shocked at the buy gold from us advertisement and it seems that Nexxion(sp?) has devoured the soul and ethics of a once great developer

[quote=4044178;Mirta.5029:]

bloodletting wolf.2837:

And really everything wouldn’t even be as suspicious for me if not the “did you know that you can buy gold from us?” add on their website.

I believe that’s where Anet is headed. Nerf in game gold acquisition to the point that the ONLY way you can get decient amounts is to buy it with gems. Look at the new trait system. Most players cant do most of the content needed to unlock those traits, and with this newest patch Anet made some of them even harder, but you can BUY them! That’s assuming that a new player has the gold and skill points and most don’t.