Showing Posts For EkszynMen.4275:
To be honest, right now my answer is: “no, I am not”.
This AMA thing is not enough to restore my faith in Anet. I do not plan to go back to GW2, at least for the time being. Especially since there are plethora bugs and balance issues and, instead of working on fixing those existing problems, Anet delivered “new exciting content” that, even in their own opinion, was not very well done. And it seems that the gear grind is here to stay, so sorry Anet, no more moniez from me.
Only thing I’m gonna miss is my character. It was by far the most fun game avatar I had in MMO’s EVER. Even if I played underpowered class ridden with bugs, I still loved to play and have fun in whatever way I felt like. Sadly, it’s not an option anymore.
I bought the game on release day. I have only one character on 80 lvl. I tried to play every day, to do at least the daily achievements. And I gotta admit, I still liked the game. For me, it was just as fun today as it was on release day.
It was fun, because downscaling and lack of gear trademill at the “endgame” literally freed me to do whatever I wanted. Play with my lower lvl friends? Why not. Farm crafting materials? Sure! Dungeon run or two? Of course. Et cetera. If I got bored with one type of activity, I just switched to another. I did not need to do one repetitive task over and over again to stay competitive and to enjoy all of the game content.
That “raid dungeon X to get gear of Tier Y to be able to go to dungeon Y” style of gameplay killed my fun in many games (I’m looking at you, WoW!), so being free to do what I wanted and still be able not to be locked out of any activity I feel like doing right now, because I didn’t farm that one “endgame” instance over and over again for hours and hours every day till I puke, was a brilliant design masterpiece.
And dare I say (write?) I was not the only one that loved this about GW2.
But today I don’t even fell like logging in the game. This drastic change of gameplay introduced in last patch with new “slightly better (more to come!)” was… well, I felt like I was hit right between my eyes.
With a brick.
“Two handed, middle-ages hard as hell piece of rock, designed for castle walls” type of brick.
Two reasons:
First, now not only my old exotic gear is obsolete (and I had just one set of it, luckily as it turned out), it made all of the old game content obsolete, at least for the time being. I mean, what motivation will players have to run old dungeons, or do old dynamic events like battling dragons ‘n stuff, if the only place to get new “slightly better” gear is in that one new dungeon? I don’t even feel like exploring new map, and boy, do I like to explore (actually I find exploration in GW2 to be the best part of the game) – what’s the reason to do that? If I do not grind for new items, if I play as I did till last patch, I will eventually fall behind other players, and if what Anet stated is true, like, I quote:
“The new additions in November are just the start of our item progression initiative”
I will be eventually locked out of parts of the game, because I did not partake in mandatory gear grind like in every other MMORPG game. Sure, I may be the most skilled player on the face of the planet, I may be able to dodge like there is no tomorrow, do combos on every move ‘n stuff like that, but, for example (I quote again):
“Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must. The only way to mitigate Agony damage is by building up resistance through Infusions, a new type of upgrade component that can be acquired in the Mystic Forge”.
Meaning: “u no grind gear, u no play the new content, homie!”. Oh, and for the record, I am NOT the most skilled player on the face of the planet. So don’t shoot.
And that is not what Anet said about the game before this path. They said that one will be able to enjoy all aspects of the game, all of the content, without farming new item sets every couple of months.
And that brings me to the second reason, and that one gets me the most:
It seems that we, the customers, were deceived from the very beginning. Why? Well, this patch is not something you can do overnight, or in a week or two. It was probably made (or at least in development) even before GW2 launch. Anet said that there will be none of that gear trademill crap that is so off-putting, that they will “leave the grind in other MMO’s” ‘n stuff like that, yet they planned on introducing vertical item progression from the start.
In other words, they betrayed my (and, judging by the posts in this thread not only mine) trust in a worst kind of way, by lying about their product content. Had they stated that they are planning on this before game launched, like they should, I would seriously consider investing my time and money in their game. They did just the opposite, they hid this “new exciting” feature, and that is a big no-no in my book. At least that is how I feel ‘bout this whole ascended mess, but Anet’s silence on the whole matter does nothing to ensure me that “boy, was I wrong on this one” or something.
I do not plan on getting a refund, because, for what is worth, I still had fun with the game, at least until now. But I was planning to play it for at least as long as I did GW1, support Anet by buying gems and expansions, and right now I don’t even feel like playing the game that kept me entertained for last two and a half months.
Seriously, I haven’t touched another title since GW2 launch. And boy, do I like video games.
My two cents on this whole matter:
I am not amused. Really. I mean, there was supposed to be none of that boring gear grind stuff. And, barely 3 months after release – bam, geat trademill in my face. Woho.
I know, developers still claim that this won’t be gear tredemill, just a “gap closer” between exotics and legendary items.
But, correct me if I’m wrong, legendaries and exotics have the same stats, just different looks. So, if someone didn’t want to grind for a legendary weapon, he/she lost nothing (just the looks, and perhaps awe of his friends, and yes, I know that the legendary items will be buffed to match new ascended gear).
And now? Ascended gear is supposed to be “slightly better” then exotics. Well, better is still better. And – since we are talking ’bout 12 item slots (5 armor, 1 weapon and 6 trinket pieces if I remember correctly) on each character – this “slightly better” will become “much better”, if we compare player in ascended and exotic gears. So, in the long run, new item tier will make older tiers absolete. Is it not the very definition of a gear trademill?
Another issue is that there is a high chance that it will make older content absolete. I mean, what will be the reason to run older dungeons or events, if this “ascended gap closer”, or whatever, will be only avaible in new exciting place. And all the concept of scaling player levels to content goes down the drain. Everyone will zip through lower level maps, go straight towards that last dungeon with new exciting items, and stay there. Until new exciting content arrives.
Stronger items will require stronger enemies, so in the end we will be forced to go for the new items. Especially with this new agony condition, that is supposed to be migrated by infusion, whatever it may turn out to be. No infusion = you die, because agony will get ya. Go grab some infusion, homie. And so it begins, endless spiral of gear progression that we all know and “love” from such succesfull titles like WoW. U no ascnd? KICK! You won’t last in there anyway. LFP ascended gear only! This is sadly another reason to render exotics absolete, since if I recall correctly, they will not have infusion capability.
But hey, wasn’t GW2 supposed to be, I don’t know – different? Weren’t we supposed to be able to enjoy whole game contetnt WITHOUT grinding for new items every now and then? Weren’t we supposed to be running dungeons to get better looking items, not better items altogether? What happened to that concept? Why do I get this creepy feeling that GW2 is going to turn into another WoW wannabe?
When I finally crafted full exotic set – and it costed me pretty penny ingame, since my character is constantly broke, heh heh – I was overjoyed. Here I was, able to create my own uber set of items, finally free to go and play as I wanted. If only I knew how wrong I were… it seems that all the effort and time that I invested in gearing my character, with a false hope that this is as far as gear stats go so I will not feel the presure to grind for better items anymore (except the looks), was for nothing. Here I go again… had I known it will come to this, I wouldn’t waste my effort in getting materials and gold required to craft exotic gear, I would have waited for new uber itamz to arrive to the scene.
Of course, had I known that there will be gear trademill in GW2, despite Anet claiming otherwise, I wouldn’t have bought this game at all.
Developers claim, that, I quote:
" We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on."
Ooookayy… but hey – is it not exactly what they did in this update? After 3 months – new tier of gear that everyone will chase after? That you absolutely have to get in order to progress in game? And, as time will go on, it will only get worse (" Players who wish to delve deep into the Fractals will find that Agony makes progress increasingly difficult, until they reach the point where some defense against this condition is a must.").
Or is my english so bad, that I do not understend what they have in mind at all (and there is a high chance at that, since english is not my primary language, so I apologise for any grammar errors, typos and whatnot).
And now, as I wait for GW2 to update, and write this long and boring thing called forum post, I still hope against hope that all my fears that I stated above are unjustified. That I just rant, wasting my time, and time of people brave enough to read through it all. However, after reading all about this new item tier, I have a feeling that this is something called in my county “a severed head’s wish”.
Seriously, if I wanted to play gear trademill, i’d go play a game with gear trademill. Which was supposed to be absent from GW2.
But hey, I may be wrong. I want to be wrong on this one.
In the end, only time will tell if I was.