Guild Wars 2

Have the devs given a reason for the time gating of charged quartz crystals? They are account bound. Everything made with them is account bound. So charged quartz crystals have literally no direct impact on the economy. The only reason for them to be limited to one per day per account that I can think of is to encourage players to play on a daily basis. I think it’s a senseless limitation and I’d love to hear explanations why it was implemented in the first place.

watch this space

You know, if this game had a monthly fee you’d have good reason to complain.

But it’s not enough.

Would it be wrong of the developers to encourage people to play their game every day?

From a developer-viewpoint, of course.

It’s something different and mixes it up. Is it somewhat tedious to have to do every day? Yes, but it’s also interesting to take a moment and go find a place of power. The interesting thing will be what happens to quartz after the sanctum leaves. If the only remaining way to get it is from home instances, the supply will slowly deplete until the next bazaar. Who knows when that’ll be!

Sselnoisiv.6130:

It’s something different and mixes it up. Is it somewhat tedious to have to do every day? Yes, but it’s also interesting to take a moment and go find a place of power. The interesting thing will be what happens to quartz after the sanctum leaves. If the only remaining way to get it is from home instances, the supply will slowly deplete until the next bazaar. Who knows when that’ll be!

Very, very slowly. Slow enough that it won’t be a concern.

People are hoarding quartz and theres a lot in the economy right now. Add the fact that you can only consume 25 a day and well…it’s just not a good enough sink.

Vol.5241:

You know, if this game had a monthly fee you’d have good reason to complain.

But it’s not enough.

I’m sorry, but you don’t determine for me what is and isn’t worth complaining about. I think it’s an foolish design decision. You’re well within your rights to tell me why it isn’t, but you’re wasting your time and mine when you tell me it shouldn’t bother me.

I kind of like having the optional long-term goal. It’s important to always have something to look forward to. However not being able to trade the resulting armor kind of stinks. I’m essentially crafting a really good magic find set that I can only profit from by using it myself, rather than selling it to farmers.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Would it be wrong of the developers to encourage people to play their game every day?

From a developer-viewpoint, of course.

At the margins, because if you don’t log in everyday you get the sense of falling behind. Once someone feels like they’ve fallen far enough behind they don’t log on at all.

Sometimes if the slog is too long people decide not to do it. Especially for an account bound set of armor / weapons that most people will say is sub optimal all around.

I think it’s a balance that needs to be achieved.

Balance is good. Maybe some people feel if they can accomplish everything in one day, they have no reason to log in after that day. I don’t have the insight the developers do, so I can’t really say which is more productive for the health of the game.

For me, personally, I’m all for having more things to do each day I log on. But, that’s just me. =)

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Would it be wrong of the developers to encourage people to play their game every day?

Is compelling game play not enough incentive for people to play on a daily basis? Are Daily Achievements and Achievement Rewards not enough incentive for people to play on a daily basis? Even if you answer “no” to both of those questions, I refuse to believe the talented folks working at ArenaNet couldn’t come up with something better than this.

Simple answer: Time gating is a way to artificially inflate content.

It makes 10 minute content look like a week’s worth!

Again, I don’t have the metrics to determine what method is best for the game. You stated the only reason you could think of for daily time-gated the creation of Charged Quartz crystals was to encourage people to log in each day (for 8 whole days). I am merely asking…from a developer’s viewpoint…if that is wrong. I’m not a developer of a large-scale MMORPG, so I can’t really say if it is, or is not. It would seem to be something desirable, but, perhaps it isn’t.

A full set of armor is 30 cqc.

That 30 cqc is 3 stacks of quartz(25 quartz=1 cqc), which currently sells for a little over a gold per stack and maybe less as the event backlog grows. The gossamer for my exalted set sells for around 60s, plus say 3.5g if I bought the quartz entirely ends up with a full set of exotic armor for a little over 4g and a month of patience.

Considering the cost to level tailoring 0-400 is about 8.5g, making a celestial set is going to be cheaper than buying most any other crafted set available, plus its got every stat.

Time gating sucks but not needing T6 balances it out.

I don’t think it’s wrong to encourage people to login to the game on a regular basis. The benefits are that the world becomes more populated with people completing their daily achievements and getting their charged crystals. It also gives people a goal to work towards. You get a celestial piece every 5 days.

The downside is that usually (for me only) the daily content isn’t very much fun. At best its unobtrusive, for example, finding a power node is no big deal. I can do it in 5 minutes. If the daily stuff starts to take up a substantial portion of my play time, then I’ll start to associate the game with a chore, and not with fun. (even though there is fun to have with the game). That goes on long enough and I will leave the game (which may be good or bad depending on how much benefit GW2 receives from having me as a player given thakittens B2P).

However, another reason to time gate the crystals is to make a barrier to creating the armor/weapons. For some reason the gear and charged crystals are account bound (to make crafting profitable perhaps?) it may be that ANet wants it to be a bit of a slog so that some people sell the crystals (uncharged) on the market.

There are many moving pieces here.

I’d like to know why they chose this as well. I’m not going to be logging in just to charge one crystal, that’s for sure.

I’ve always felt that artificially long time gated content is bad, sure things should take time to achieve, but a month of charging one crystal at a time is silly. Why not charge one at each communing (place of power) node a day? Once the Sanctum is gone, we will all be limited in how many crystals we can get in a day anyway.

Idk.. it takes literally 30 seconds to WP over and do it each day, and the reward isn’t a necessity by any means. Maybe they just wanted to limit it while they decide where to take the first new material since release?

ProxyDamage.9826:

Simple answer: Time gating is a way to artificially inflate content.

It makes 10 minute content look like a week’s worth!

I try to point this out to WoW players (raiding weekly lockouts) and they just don’t see the connection between that and monthly fees. They are brainwashed into thinking “It’s to make us go out and do other things besides WoW! Blizz is lookin out for our health!” Makes me cringe.

I hate that this game is getting more and more time gated. They’re trying to stretch things over longer periods so the numbers of logins and play time look better for them. I believe they had the same reason to implement anti-farm/DR system. To streatch things out.

It’s like going to a store and wanting to buy 3 pieces of bread and the merchant says: “Noup, you can only buy 1 per day….”

Seriously? O_o

Time gating in a monthly sub based MMORPG makes way more business sense than in a free to play game.

i don’t like it either i f they didn’t want us to have a full set of celestial armor in the first day, they shouldn’t even allow celestial stats as a whole, what’s the point in taking 1 month to have it?
also if this is not enough you have to learn all the recipes, you cannot discover them by yourself.

Vol.5241:

You know, if this game had a monthly fee you’d have good reason to complain.

But it’s not enough.

Really sick of people using that as an excuse for everything Anet does. Everyone here paid for the game and a lot of the people here have spent even much or more since the game released on the store. Anet has even been quoted saying they make enough in this model that they won’t need true boxed expansions. Stop trying to use that as an excuse to make whatever they want and acting like the people playing and paying have no say just because we don’t “have a monthly fee”.

Ashanor.5319:

Vol.5241:

You know, if this game had a monthly fee you’d have good reason to complain.

But it’s not enough.

Really sick of people using that as an excuse for everything Anet does. Everyone here paid for the game and a lot of the people here have spent even much or more since the game released on the store. Anet has even been quoted saying they make enough in this model that they won’t need true boxed expansions. Stop trying to use that as an excuse to make whatever they want and acting like the people playing and paying have no say just because we don’t “have a monthly fee”.

I feel like I’m justified to complain whenever someone wastes my time whether or not I’m paying them.

Limit supply = protect economy

It also has the side effect of making people miserable, but alas…

I don’t have much of an issue with it, but I think one a day is too little, two a day sounds more like it, and you have to go to two different places of power.

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

ArchonWing.9480:

Limit supply = protect economy

It also has the side effect of making people miserable, but alas…

Protect what economy, only the raw quartz is tradeable !
the charged quartz and the gear you can make is all account bound !

protect the economy my kitten !

this is a blatant bad attempt at making you take longer to acquire armor and weapons !

even than, this 1 per day is not so bad if you only play 1 character, but, it totally sucks big time if you dare play more than 1 character that needs/ wants this armor or weapons, that’s my real issue with this kitten 1 per day BS, it punishes you harshly for having multiple characters that you actually play

For the same reason that we have dailies and WoW has dailies and dungeon lockouts. Lazy design that keeps people logging in.

I think the economy post is more spot on. I don’t think it is anything about being lazy.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

One has little to do with the other. I can toss thousands of rare or exotics in the forge and get as many precursors as possible…

This not to mention everything after the crystal is account bound, so it wouldn’t even impact the market.

I wish what you said made some sense, but in this case it really is pretty far off.

If the goal was to make this stat more rare, sure, but it’s open to everyone without much expense beyond a time commitment.

munkiman.3068:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

One has little to do with the other. I can toss thousands of rare or exotics in the forge and get as many precursors as possible…

This not to mention everything after the crystal is account bound, so it wouldn’t even impact the market.

I wish what you said made some sense, but in this case it really is pretty far off.

If the goal was to make this stat more rare, sure, but it’s open to everyone without much expense beyond a time commitment.

But the crystal itself is not. Thus driving up it’s price

I think of this as a test on rarity.

anzenketh.3759:

I think the economy post is more spot on. I don’t think it is anything about being lazy.

I’m not extolling anything about lazy design, but how is it economic? I can gather tons of crystals to sell in a day (till the area is gone). The rest however (from what i understand) is account bound. Since you can’t sell account bound stuff, how exactly would that effect the economy?

anzenketh.3759:

munkiman.3068:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

One has little to do with the other. I can toss thousands of rare or exotics in the forge and get as many precursors as possible…

This not to mention everything after the crystal is account bound, so it wouldn’t even impact the market.

I wish what you said made some sense, but in this case it really is pretty far off.

If the goal was to make this stat more rare, sure, but it’s open to everyone without much expense beyond a time commitment.

But the crystal itself is not. Thus driving up it’s price

I think of this as a test on rarity.

I think i have about 4 stacks of crystals… How is that rare? Do you mean after the area is gone?

munkiman.3068:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

One has little to do with the other. I can toss thousands of rare or exotics in the forge and get as many precursors as possible…

This not to mention everything after the crystal is account bound, so it wouldn’t even impact the market.

I wish what you said made some sense, but in this case it really is pretty far off.

If the goal was to make this stat more rare, sure, but it’s open to everyone without much expense beyond a time commitment.

Ok ok, I’ll amend my post with the following:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Daily achievements being limited to once a day.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

munkiman.3068:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

One has little to do with the other. I can toss thousands of rare or exotics in the forge and get as many precursors as possible…

This not to mention everything after the crystal is account bound, so it wouldn’t even impact the market.

I wish what you said made some sense, but in this case it really is pretty far off.

If the goal was to make this stat more rare, sure, but it’s open to everyone without much expense beyond a time commitment.

Ok ok, I’ll amend my post with the following:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Daily achievements being limited to once a day.

I actually think the limit on achievement chests to once a day might have been a technical limitation, possibly combined with “what are we going to put in the 5k chest” questions. While i personally am not complaining to either, i’m still curious about the logic behind it.

munkiman.3068:

anzenketh.3759:

munkiman.3068:

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

One has little to do with the other. I can toss thousands of rare or exotics in the forge and get as many precursors as possible…

This not to mention everything after the crystal is account bound, so it wouldn’t even impact the market.

I wish what you said made some sense, but in this case it really is pretty far off.

If the goal was to make this stat more rare, sure, but it’s open to everyone without much expense beyond a time commitment.

But the crystal itself is not. Thus driving up it’s price

I think of this as a test on rarity.

I think i have about 4 stacks of crystals… How is that rare? Do you mean after the area is gone?

Yep. And after they make some more crafting items that require it. The area is just to seed the economy.

ArchonWing.9480:

Limit supply = protect economy

It also has the side effect of making people miserable, but alas…

There is none – as in zero – direct impact these account-bound items can have on the economy.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

Complaining about quartz conversions being limited to once a day is like complaining about Precursors being rare.

“Entitled” people are entitled to their opinions, I know I know.

Care to elaborate?

Latinkuro.9420:

ArchonWing.9480:

Limit supply = protect economy

It also has the side effect of making people miserable, but alas…

Protect what economy, only the raw quartz is tradeable !
the charged quartz and the gear you can make is all account bound !

protect the economy my kitten !

this is a blatant bad attempt at making you take longer to acquire armor and weapons !

even than, this 1 per day is not so bad if you only play 1 character, but, it totally sucks big time if you dare play more than 1 character that needs/ wants this armor or weapons, that’s my real issue with this kitten 1 per day BS, it punishes you harshly for having multiple characters that you actually play

Wait, it’s all account bound?

So I can’t just be lazy and buy the product of the TP.

Well, no celestial stuffs for me. >.>

ArchonWing.9480:

Limit supply = protect economy

This might have sense if the final crafted pieces were tradable. They aren’t.
And there’s no sensible reason for that.

Yea I’m confused myself, since that would have been the only reason.

My guess it is to annoy people then.

anzenketh.3759:

watch this space

Best post ever. You can’t argue with that.

Tagus Eleuthera.7305:

Idk.. it takes literally 30 seconds to WP over and do it each day, and the reward isn’t a necessity by any means. Maybe they just wanted to limit it while they decide where to take the first new material since release?

I think you might be forgetting the Azurite that we could mine during the Flame & Frost story. Crystals aren’t the first new material since release, just for clarification. Take it back even further than that, for temporary content sakes, you could even say that Candy Corn was the first new ‘material’ since release, as you could mine that as well.

I don’t care for the 1 a day limit myself (aside for the event achievement). I don’t really see it as something to encourage people to log in and actually play. Log in and take 1 minute to go to Shaemoor Garrison and make your charge if that is all you really want. It doesn’t exactly encourage game play. I would like it a bit better if they dialed up the drop rates from the home node.

I think if they allowed 2 or so a day from different places of power that would be a bit better. I agree that there shouldn’t be unlimited per day but 1 is a little low in my opinion once the event is over.

The one that bugs me is that my crafting alts have to be L80 to learn the recipes even though they are all L400 crafters.

1 – crafting recipes should NEVER require a lv 80 character it should only require lv400 on the specific profession
2 – quartz charging should be at least 1 per lv80 character per day
3 – after the sanctum is gone the home quartz node should drop more quartz
4 – every level 80 character should be able to mine the dam home node once per day

It’s all kitten account bound so there’s no damage to the kitten economy STOP punishing people with multiple characters already !!!

Latinkuro.9420:

1 – crafting recipes should NEVER require a lv 80 character it should only require lv400 on the specific profession
2 – quartz charging should be at least 1 per lv80 character per day
3 – after the sanctum is gone the home quartz node should drop more quartz
4 – every level 80 character should be able to mine the dam home node once per day

It’s all kitten account bound so there’s no damage to the kitten economy STOP punishing people with multiple characters already !!!

I don’t really know how that punishes people with more characters. Doing the oposite would punish people with less characters. Also why do you suggest all the other stuff aside from the recipe should only be only doable by L80?

JustTrogdor.7892:

I don’t know really how that punishes people with more characters. Doing the oposite would punish people with less characters.

One could argue a player with multiple characters he’d like to gear up in Celestial is being disproportionately hurt by the time gating. I don’t necessarily agree with that line of thinking, but I can understand why someone would feel that way.

Latinkuro.9420:

ArchonWing.9480:

Limit supply = protect economy

It also has the side effect of making people miserable, but alas…

Protect what economy, only the raw quartz is tradeable !
the charged quartz and the gear you can make is all account bound !

protect the economy my kitten !

this is a blatant bad attempt at making you take longer to acquire armor and weapons !

even than, this 1 per day is not so bad if you only play 1 character, but, it totally sucks big time if you dare play more than 1 character that needs/ wants this armor or weapons, that’s my real issue with this kitten 1 per day BS, it punishes you harshly for having multiple characters that you actually play

Because if there wasn’t a limit, then the price of raw quartz would soar. It doesn’t matter that only the raw is tradable. If there wasn’t a limit on making charged quartz, then it’d effectively be the same thing as charged quartz being tradable in addition to no longer being limited.

ArchonWing.9480:

Yea I’m confused myself, since that would have been the only reason.

My guess it is to annoy people then.

Its a way to keep people logging in just like the 1 a day laurels.

Its lazy design because it doesn’t require much work to design and implement. Its also grindy and anti player.

darkace.8925:

Have the devs given a reason for the time gating of charged quartz crystals?

It’s likely a test.

We know crafting has a big issue, right now – it cannot craft all maxed stats items because it cannot craft Ascended gear.

We also know ArenaNet made Ascended gear so it would be something time consuming to make; we also know that no Ascended item currently in GW2 can be traded.

With the new Celestial recipes, ArenaNet has just introduced a new kind of crafting item that is time consuming to make and which cannot be traded.

Ergo, I believe the current system for Celestial crafting is a test for a future system that would allow crafters to make Ascended gear.