Guild Wars 2

There are many reasons for rarity in games. One of the reasons would be that it gives an item some prestige. Another reason that is related to the previous is that it gives players a purpose or goal to work towards. If you want that prestigious or luxury item, you need to work hard to earn it. You can tell when something is rare when there are a lot of complaints that it’s hard to get. This is working as intended.

Now take the rare item, and plug in artificial gates, and you’ve make the rare item even more rare. This is OK. The increase in rarity correlates to the increased desire of the players to have it. We’ve seen this with Legendary Armor, special Fractal weapon skins, and even Nightfury. It’s human nature to want something that makes you happy. So when you see complaints popping up all over the place that players want something they desire, and want it easier to get, don’t get mad. Smile, because the feeling of getting the item after putting in a lot of hard work will make it all worth it. The stronger the desire to have said item, the stronger the emotional response is to call for a cheaper/easier way to obtain it. Because it’s also human nature to want something right away.

There are some who feel Entitled to having all the luxury items without putting in equal efforts to get them. When I discuss Entitlement, that’s not a negative thing, but rather a description of the mindset of humans. When an Entitled individual wants something, they want it here and now, and don’t care about how they get it. But sometimes, having what you want, when you want it, is unhealthy for a game such as GW2. Giving away too much tends to lead to a lot of negative things, such as a decrease in desire or “cheapening” of luxury items. Things like Anet’s nerf to Elite specializations is similar to this. It’s something that I didn’t agree with, but I understood the fact that mistakes were made, and this was a compromise between Anet’s intended goals, and players’ desires.

People who know me understand that I’m a defender of Capitalism. I firmly agree with business strategies implemented by Anet, because I recognize the role of a company is to make money. Rare items relate to this, because when you have a desire, that turns into a goal. When you have a goal, players strive to achieve it. The more players playing to reach their goals, the healthier the game becomes. This leads to more sales by way of additional players coming into the game for the same goals, or increased microtransactions of existing players. By not having luxury items in the game, you lose one of the driving factors in long term player retention.

Rare items will be rare. The more rare the item, the more loudly players will shout from the rooftops to have it. And the more they shout, the more justified that level of rarity becomes. In other words, the more complaints a rare item receives in relation to its rarity, the more confirmation that the Dev who implemented it did a good job.

Luckily for us, long winded post, not so rare.

He forgot the tl:dr.

tl:dr
Rare. Good.

Except, to feel like you won the game once, you didn’t have to play 200,000 games of Hungry Hungry Hippos.

I can’t count the number of ToT stacks I’ve left clicked so far, and still no Endless Batwing Tonic. Is it working towards something rare when there is a very real likelihood that it will NEVER happen, or is it simply an exercise in futility?

And should games (yes, even MMOs) have this type of artificially imposed rarity? I suppose there are valid arguments on both sides, from economics to simple opinion. But the bottom line is, if you put something so far out of reach (i.e. getting Nightfury as a “win” condition) as to make it nigh impossible, then instead of galvanizing the players, you push them away to other games where the loot tables aren’t placed on the peak of Mount Olympus.

Well the main selling point of events shouldn’t be so impossibly rare.

I suspect we would be more ok with Night Fury if ANet had added a few mid-tier scavenger hunt items as well as the super-ultra-hihh-end item. Players want things to work towards, but they also want to teach for things that aren’t unfathomably far out of reach.

Blaine Tog.8304:

I suspect we would be more ok with Night Fury if ANet had added a few mid-tier scavenger hunt items as well as the super-ultra-hihh-end item. Players want things to work towards, but they also want to teach for things that aren’t unfathomably far out of reach.

Yeah. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find something between “so common everyone has a full stack of the skins by the end of the event” and “so rare that the item’s opportunity cost is akin to a precursor.” They used to be able to do this. The living world had a lot of mid-level rewards, at one time. The jade weapon set? Those tickets used to drop in the open world. The various backpieces. Other rewards that were purchased with festival currencies. Even last year, with the ghost dog issue, there was the mini cat that was obtainable.

Devs have to be aware of patience thresholds when making such decisions. Not that I believe this to be a problem in GW2, but I’ve seen games where decisions to make something (be it an item or access to something like raids) require so much time to get to that you alienate your customers. Carbine Studios could tell you something about that.

They also have to be aware of fun issues. If the content is off-putting, then forcing people to repeat it ad nauseam is going to turn some people off to the game. This is an area where ANet could learn a few things, imo.

tl:dr: While the OP is right in a general sense, devs — being human — can make mistakes and overdo it.

Guhracie.3419:

Blaine Tog.8304:

I suspect we would be more ok with Night Fury if ANet had added a few mid-tier scavenger hunt items as well as the super-ultra-hihh-end item. Players want things to work towards, but they also want to teach for things that aren’t unfathomably far out of reach.

Yeah. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find something between “so common everyone has a full stack of the skins by the end of the event” and “so rare that the item’s opportunity cost is akin to a precursor.” They used to be able to do this. The living world had a lot of mid-level rewards, at one time. The jade weapon set? Those tickets used to drop in the open world. The various backpieces. Other rewards that were purchased with festival currencies. Even last year, with the ghost dog issue, there was the mini cat that was obtainable.

You, and the person below you, thank you so much.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

One of the reasons would be that it gives an item some prestige.

Yeah except most “rare” items in GW2 are just gold gated. It doesn’t really have prestige. You look at someone with a legendary and think “oh hey they farmed dungeons for 3000g and wasted it on a skin”. Not to mention the fact that you can just buy it with real money. The “goal” you talk about is just getting enough gold to buy whatever stupid expensive crafted item anet adds to the game with no actual effort.

Kaleban.9834:

I can’t count the number of ToT stacks I’ve left clicked so far, and still no Endless Batwing Tonic. Is it working towards something rare when there is a very real likelihood that it will NEVER happen, or is it simply an exercise in futility?

You can get it without ever opening a ToT bag. Just go to the TP.

Kaleban.9834:

And should games (yes, even MMOs) have this type of artificially imposed rarity? I suppose there are valid arguments on both sides, from economics to simple opinion.

Economic facts trump simple opinions. So only one side has a valid argument.

Mallis.4295:

Yeah except most “rare” items in GW2 are just gold gated. It doesn’t really have prestige. You look at someone with a legendary and think “oh hey they farmed dungeons for 3000g and wasted it on a skin”. Not to mention the fact that you can just buy it with real money. The “goal” you talk about is just getting enough gold to buy whatever stupid expensive crafted item anet adds to the game with no actual effort.

Anet learned from their mistake, and now all future Legendaries are gated. You can buy certain things on the TP to speed things up, but the Mastery and Precursor crafting is so gated, that it prevents people from short-cutting the process. So now, if you see a new Legendary weapon, that person earned it.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

People who know me understand that I’m a defender of Capitalism.

I stopped the reading here.

In some way he is in the right point. I am a proud owner of several beauties and they cost me many hours of play. So when I join in a map like spvp or LA or forums and I see all those people complaining about how hard is to get something that makes you unique and you really desire I only hope Anet continue making the things hard. And yes, I spent too many hours into Lab and finally got my endless bat-wing brew.

Kind regards

Smooth Penguin.5294:

You can get it without ever opening a ToT bag. Just go to the TP.

And just be forced to drop 500 gold on a single item with the sole use as an ingredient. I like how you make something so momentous for the majority of players seem so easy and insignificant. Defender of Capitalism indeed.

Economic facts trump simple opinions. So only one side has a valid argument.

True only when the economy is a fully functioning one in the real world, and not an artificially maintained one in a game. ANet could hand out Nightfuries as a gift to every single player and it would not change the game one bit. That’s a far cry from real world economics.

Anet learned from their mistake, and now all future Legendaries are gated. You can buy certain things on the TP to speed things up, but the Mastery and Precursor crafting is so gated, that it prevents people from short-cutting the process. So now, if you see a new Legendary weapon, that person earned it.

Except of course there’s the Wardrobe system, so people running around with two Incinerators may not have earned it. And as a Defender of Capitalism, you shouldn’t care if someone slogged through hours and hours of gameplay or decided instead to play the market and buy it. AND it shouldn’t matter to anyone how anyone else in a game earned something since it has no effect on their gameplay, unless of course their enjoyment is wrapped up in an kitten measuring contest. But then, you’re just being petty if that’s the case.

RNG does not equal earning something. That is just luck.

Rare and hard to get are good, but don’t delude yourself into thinking your earned something by getting lucky with a drop opening a bag.