Well this is the problem when everything about an item is pretty much meaningless except for the skin. There is no other redeeming value.
That is an issue, but I don’t think it’s really THE issue. If we consider it an issue, then it’s one that’s fundamental to a game model based on horizontal progression. The nature of eliminating vertical progression in a character development based game just cuts out so many potential rewards, because the rewards are then limited to things that doesn’t result in power creep.
Even with that, I don’t think cosmetic approach is flawed, because making your character look kitten and designing an unique, individualistic style has a lot of value to people. A perfect example was the day white and black wings appeared on the gem store and everyone went bonkers.
They aren’t capitalizing on this as an in-game reward though, because they are leveraging it as a revenue stream which puts the two in competition against either. As a result, we have very little in the ways of short term obtainable goals that produce unique skins and the few that we have are tied to a process that’s such a massive drain on the player you either burnt out on it or question whether it’s worth to do it in the first place.
I think there is a number of things they can do and a number of things that can’t be fixed.
One, equalize all the T6 exotic crafting materials by adding them all to the same loot tables that already exist for blood, claws, bones, etc. Black Diamonds can drop with the same degree of rarity in all zones and the time gate on Charged Quartz Crystals is removed completely and is now a dropped by mobs like blood is. The market will be crazy for awhile, but the acquisition of different stat prefixes will eventually balance out.
Two, if you zone-specific gathering materials to encourage people to play in a certain zone, then they should be gathering materials that target a group of zones. This model exists as a remnant in Tyria where certain ore, wood, leather only drop in groups of zones. The difference between that and the existing model is that the groups of zones provide multiple types of content I can participate in and gather the materials while just doing that content. It adds some degree of choice.
Three, if you are going to use stat prefixes rewards in new content, then it has to be approached with a higher degree of equality than it is now, so penalizing players for different builds is no longer an issue. At the very least, remove the most grievous violations of this like tying Assassin ascended earrings to an achievement to use a crutch when you can’t come up with rewards. There is just no reason for this.
Four, focus more on cosmetic rewards again. More skins that are added to the loot tables in the form of rare named exotics and used as rewards in achievements and collections that are more obtainable than legendary items. I’m fine with having really long term goals for items that add cosmetic effects you can’t acquire any other way; I just think having that and only that is not enough for people. You can balance this issue out with your gem store by selling only items in the gem store that aren’t consistent with the lore and theme of the world; like bunny ears, angel wings, glasses, beanies, stuff like that. I think their introduction of the ghostly infusions in raids opened up a whole chapter in potential cosmetic customization.
Like the interesting thing about cosmetic skins as a reward model is that issue of exclusivity isn’t necessarily an issue, because if you saturate the pool with enough variance, players can mix and match various skins together to create uniqueness to their own character. The issue is more just a lack of them.
Five, the model they used for the acquisition of the legendary backpack isn’t perfect, but it’s world better than the one they used for weapons. Like that model involves slow progression thru the fractals, completing challenges and beating harder and harder levels. There is a degree of gold sink to it, but it’s more balanced out with the progression model than anything else. It also attaches a real sense of accomplishment and meaning to the item. Like, legendary weapons don’t really have that; I built The Legend in three days after the release of HoT, because I had a ton of gold lying around to throw at it.
Six, just figure out what you are and what this game is about instead of just trying to be everything all at once and promise the world and then neglect everything do to a lack of manpower.
And with that, there is other issues that can’t cleanly be fixed.
Like, in game zone based currency is an example. (Not talking about currency tied to a particular game mode which should exist). A potential solution to that which brings the game back to a “chose the way you want to play” is to nuke all the different currency, return to the karma system and convert player’s existing currency to karma. The downside of that is we have had a steady constant stream of karma coming in over the years with nothing to spend it on, so that shift would result in long term players just being able to buy everything. Another issue is people stockpiling karma and then buying everything all at once in the next content patch.
But whether or not those things are “unfair” or “bad” is debateable. I earned all of that karma. The only reason it’s an issue is, because you want to stretch out your new content as long as possible and the best way to do that is to invalidate all the currency I earned in old content. However, there is other ways to handle that issue.
Rehabilitated Elementalist. Now, trolling the Thief forums with my math.
