Guild Wars 2

Now, im going to open this with an im special speech because I am…

As a gamer with Tendonitis, I want to enjoy content at a casual and relaxing pace that does not bring agony and suffering to my physically, but content like Aetherblade’s dungeon is a classic agony trip for someone struggling with symptons of this affliction.

I would ask A-net to in seriousness consider appealing to “both” casual and hardcore audiences and stop with the exclusivity of end game content to people with 5 hands, 20 eyeballs and the flexes of jackie chan.

Yes, people like hard stuff, yes, people like to be challanged, but some people, quite alot infact, have many more than one reason they cant enjoy the content.

I would ask… if not plea, that in future, A-net designs a casual mode for people who have time commitements, physical disabilities or simply issues with playing the “hardcore” experience.

Sure, grant the hardcores ascended gear, sure, grant the hardcores the end game reward, thats fine.

But dont leave out the casuals, as someone desperate to continue enjoying the story, it actually breaks my heart that some of it forces me to do content that causes me physical pain to do.

And thats ONLY the story, im not BOTHERED if I have epics or not, id just like to enjoy, the content.

And I am 110% certain that I am NOT alone.

well.. its not exactly THAT hard after you understand it. and it is actually on the ease side.
you dont need jackie chan reflexes either.
the laser room is just a big merry go round.
mai is not even that dangerous outside of her range.. she just runs around chasing the agro meter, do 4 ways lightning bolts or mele range attacks and her shadow step attacks can be reflected.
the cannons is almost like cof’s effigy attack, with smaller dots. can’t do it with lags though.

Once again your missing the point…

Some of us physically “cant” play the game the way most hardcores or even casual-hardcores can.

The reasons being for physical impedement and conditions we have no control over and thus you pause in the middle of an encounter with Mai Trin because your fingers ache so much from having to evade cannonfire.

Yes…

Some of us literally “cannot” enjoy the content because it “is” too hard for us, because we “cant” play it.

Learning curve is one thing, but a dungeon that forces you to adapt to the impossible is another.

This is EXACTLY why guild wars 2 needs to be simplified.

Should it be exclusive? No Exclusivity is BS and thus a bad marketing design universally.

It should BE open, the rewards for doing a hardcore mode? Should be for those willing to do it.

But does that mean the casuals should be left out to enjoy the dungeon at a casual pace, enjoy the story?

No, infact they SHOULD be allowed to do that.

It is a cause I will fight for because I suffer enough not doing it. People do nothing and nothing ever gets said or done, so someone has to say something and make it clear that this attitude of making everything “fly or die” is not cool.

Temporary content should not be temporary, on account that adding and removing content forces people to have to adapt in a very, very short time to what they may not physically be able to.

I cannot beat the dungeon, because I physically, cannot endure it.

This is why a mode has to be enabled for people that “can” not to give them epic loot, leave that for the ones happily doing explorable mode, but for those that just “want” to enjoy the content itself?

Give them something easier to enjoy it.

I hate it when people say that this crap is easy. If you want to spend 20 gold on armor repairs be my guest, but storyline content should not require this.

For most people AR is pretty hard, when I finally managed to complete it there must have been 10+ people to come and go in the group, giving up due to its difficulty.

Anet could remedy this problem by releasing story dungeons with average difficulty, like Molten Facility, then make it so a Hard Mode difficulty unlocks after you beat it once. This would please the casuals, hardcores and everyone in between.

Barabbas.8715:

For most people AR is pretty hard, when I finally managed to complete it there must have been 10+ people to come and go in the group, giving up due to its difficulty.

Anet could remedy this problem by releasing story dungeons with average difficulty, like Molten Facility, then make it so a Hard Mode difficulty unlocks after you beat it once. This would please the casuals, hardcores and everyone in between.

I’ve been lobbying for easier/harder versions of dungeons for some time, and think this would be a good idea. I found AR to be a pain in the kitten. I have arthritis, and running away from one revolving wall while climbing on boxes to a void another one while looking back to see that a golem is about to pull while trying to lay some damage on said golem is a little above what my hands are capable of managing. Imo the Frizz (?) fight had too many manual dexterity game-play requirements for a story mode dungeon. I can’t speak about the last boss since my guild group never got past the Asura

I would support for dungeons with selectable difficulty modes

Especially for temporary content.

As one of the old guard (as in relative “geezer”), I have to support the concept of dungeon difficulty levels. My issue is one of decrepitude: I simply don’t have the reflexes of those teens and 20-somethings, anymore. In the short term, yeah, I can manage, but when a fight can go on for 20+mins with the same repetitive requirement of jump, dodge, run, turn, twist, flip, etc. I just end of dragging down whatever team I might be with (who will mosly be younger folks). Thus, I just stay away from any hard dungeon content as I know I’ll just fail the team.

Easier modes with lesser rewards is a good idea for us and others like the OP and won’t take away much of anything from anyone else, and shouldn’t be a major time sink for devs. Annnnd it would make a lot of people happy.

How about using the “mini dungeon” model. By that I mean OPEN dungeons.

I agree with the OP 100% regarding story. Story and lore is one of the main things that serves to unite an MMO community. We all share the setting of Tyria – casuals and hardcores alike know why humans and charr hate each other or why you don’t get a quaggen angry. You don’t have to be an RP-er to see how the lore of a game (or TV show or book) unites the fans of it.

Content like the AetherBlade Retreat, however, drives a solid wedge in one of the few things that every GW2 player shares. Gated storylines have been done repeatedly in MMOs of the past where conclusions of plotlines were hidden behind raids or dungeons only accessible to hardcore players. It is dumbfounding that ArenaNet would cling to this wretched mechanic when they have made such strides in so many other systems.

It is particularly poor design when the start of a storyline is introduced with soloable, casual content but the conclusion to the story is far more difficult grouped content.

MMO developers who think this constitutes good storytelling should have the last chapter of a book ripped out or be escorted out of the theater 10 minutes before the ending of a movie and then read about the ending on a wiki page to see exactly how this method “enhances” the story experience.

To be clear, I have no problem with challenging content. Legendary gear or noteworthy titles/achievement should be the result of effort if people want to put in the work. Story, on the other hand, should be something freely shared with the whole community.

Kruhljak.2705:

Easier modes with lesser rewards is a good idea for us and others like the OP and won’t take away much of anything from anyone else, and shouldn’t be a major time sink for devs. Annnnd it would make a lot of people happy.

The bizarre thing is that single player games have been doing this for DECADES. I can’t recall the last time I bought a single player game that didn’t have difficulty levels with unlocks offered on more difficult settings. This allows a broad base of customers to play the game while offering challenges (and rewards) for those who want it.

Yet MMO developers continue to ignore this idea that has proven so effective in single player games. Perhaps because MMOs don’t have scaling systems built directly into their engines. Oh wait, perhaps we know of a game that does?

TLDR – Challenging content is fine for achievements and rewards, but storylines should be made available to the entire community, both casual and hardcore. Difficulty scaling (with reward adjustments) is one straightforward solution.

Just wondering, OP, how did you play other dungeons?

The 3 achievements associated with this dungeon are hard, however the dungeon overall really isn’t IMO. Frizz basically just requires you to have spatial awareness of some sort, the only ‘random’ thing are the golem pulls. Mai and Horrik become a lot easier if you know to stack on Mai for 90% of the fight and during the barrage spread to the corners of the room.

The only truly hard thing and borderline ‘unfair’ for the time limit given is Unfriendly Skies. For that one you really have to find a group that knows the dungeon very well, and that group must have at least one competent Guardian. This wouldn’t be bad if the thing was permanent, but over two weeks it is a little much. Of course, Anet probably justifies it with achievement hunters are hardcore by default and thus will play enough over the two weeks to get it.

Clearly what you consider jackie chan reflexes, most would consider basic motor skills. Auto attack, run run, jump on crates. Auto attack, run, run, jump on crates. Auto attack, run, run, jump on crates, stability. Auto attack run, ru- well you get the idea. Maybe throw some dodges in there too. If you are using double tap for dodge then you are making it too hard. Use “v” and disable double tap dodging, it really just gets in the way in almost every situation.

If they made an easy/normal mode to choose from on these dungeons, then there should be no rewards from the easy mode other than to see the story. Any form of scaled rewards would only lead players to grind away at easy modes because they would run it 5 times in the same timeframe as a single regular mode. You simply get to run the dungeon with mobs that are easier to kill and boss damage halved.

kokocabana.8153:

If they made an easy/normal mode to choose from on these dungeons, then there should be no rewards from the easy mode other than to see the story. Any form of scaled rewards would only lead players to grind away at easy modes because they would run it 5 times in the same timeframe as a single regular mode.

No slight intended, but that sounds just a tad bit elitist. How about we also say, “no drops from any mobs prior to Orr” (or whatever zone/region you feel is the most difficult)? Why should anyone doing the “easy” zones get anything for their relatively smaller effort?

All activities have—or are supposed to have—appropriately scaled rewards. If devs made it so the sum value of rewards in an easy mode dungeon version were so attractive that it was a siren song for hordes of slavering farmers, then it’s their mistake (cough CoF1 cough). On the assumption they’re smart enough not to repeat certain dubious decisions and/or are quick enough to correct them, there’s no reason to make easier mode versions rewardless, just appropriate like all other aspects of the reward system are expected to be.

Kruhljak.2705:

kokocabana.8153:

If they made an easy/normal mode to choose from on these dungeons, then there should be no rewards from the easy mode other than to see the story. Any form of scaled rewards would only lead players to grind away at easy modes because they would run it 5 times in the same timeframe as a single regular mode.

No slight intended, but that sounds just a tad bit elitist. How about we also say, “no drops from any mobs prior to Orr” (or whatever zone/region you feel is the most difficult)? Why should anyone doing the “easy” zones get anything for their relatively smaller effort?

All activities have—or are supposed to have—appropriately scaled rewards. If devs made it so the sum value of rewards in an easy mode dungeon version were so attractive that it was a siren song for hordes of slavering farmers, then it’s their mistake (cough CoF1 cough). On the assumption they’re smart enough not to repeat certain dubious decisions and/or are quick enough to correct them, there’s no reason to make easier mode versions rewardless, just appropriate like all other aspects of the reward system are expected to be.

Providing easy mode would allow for players to be able to see the story and at the same time give them practice for the same encounters in normal mode. It should be like SAB’s infantile mode. It lets you run through everything in the normal mode, but you can’t get credit for the achievements.

kokocabana.8153:

Kruhljak.2705:

kokocabana.8153:

If they made an easy/normal mode to choose from on these dungeons, then there should be no rewards from the easy mode other than to see the story. Any form of scaled rewards would only lead players to grind away at easy modes because they would run it 5 times in the same timeframe as a single regular mode.

No slight intended, but that sounds just a tad bit elitist. How about we also say, “no drops from any mobs prior to Orr” (or whatever zone/region you feel is the most difficult)? Why should anyone doing the “easy” zones get anything for their relatively smaller effort?

All activities have—or are supposed to have—appropriately scaled rewards. If devs made it so the sum value of rewards in an easy mode dungeon version were so attractive that it was a siren song for hordes of slavering farmers, then it’s their mistake (cough CoF1 cough). On the assumption they’re smart enough not to repeat certain dubious decisions and/or are quick enough to correct them, there’s no reason to make easier mode versions rewardless, just appropriate like all other aspects of the reward system are expected to be.

Providing easy mode would allow for players to be able to see the story and at the same time give them practice for the same encounters in normal mode. It should be like SAB’s infantile mode. It lets you run through everything in the normal mode, but you can’t get credit for the achievements.

though all of you have valid points the simplest answer i see is the one they gave to GW1, Normal Mode / Hard Mode. provided content to both the hardcore and the casual.