Yup Mad King gets my vote too.
The last few days I have been lurking here in the forum. Reading posts after post regarding the Wintersday Event. The majority of posts I see, people demanding more. There is an over whelming attitude of gimme gimme and self entitlement.
Anet did not have to create this event. Anet didn’t have to spend months, planning, modeling, uvmapping, texturing, rendering, animating or rigging. They did it in the spirit of what is Christmas. They wanted to give the community a fun event. Christmas is the season of giving. Not selfish behaviour as what I and many more reading these forums can see.
No, they did it to earn money. So far these events have been little more than a cash grab.
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed parts of Halloween and Wintersday (Lost Shores was a fail IMO) but it is obvious to me that these events are just a money making scheme.
The very worst part of the last two events has been the gambling boxes. At least with Halloween you got a chance to get some good items from the Black Lion Chests which were actually dropped in-game. But with Lost Shores and Wintersday you have to actually spend gems on boxes that cannot drop in-game to get some nice items. It’s a rip off.
What more can you expect with Nexon running the cash shop though huh?
I’m getting a bit disillusioned with the updates. So far it seems to me that they are little more than another way to try to squeeze as much cash out of players as possible. I don’t hold out too much hope for the Jan/Feb updates but I expect there to be even more gambling boxes that drop very little unless the RNG gods decide you are the lotto winner.
The one thing I just don’t get with this whole random-boxes thing is why it’s so hard to give people at least some sense of value-for-their-cash.
I mean, let’s be realistic, it’d be easy to program something to remove doubles from minis after you get 2 of the same kind. It’d also be easy to up the droprate a bit (and since they’ve already made the model, it doesn’t matter wheter 10 or 1000 people get the mini, there are no additional costs).
They could even have added a bit of code that would ensure that anyone paying say $25 on gifts would get all minis.
But they don’t. They’d rather have upset people than happy people. Yet it wouldn’t cost them a penny to have happy people.
Tell, me, what management concept am I missing here?
It’s very simple. They will keep on selling these boxes until people stop buying them. If people stop buying them they will either increase the drop rates so people start buying them again OR they will start selling things individually.
It’s not about upset or happy people, it’s about money. When the money is flooding in, they can say that the boxes are popular as they are selling well, it must be what people want. When the money dries up they know they have squeezed as much as they can out of the boxes and try to find another way to make money off the players.
Yes it’s a money grab. This is what you get in a MMO with no subscription.
To me, these events are nothing more than a way to grab as much cash from people as possible. So far all I’ve seen is take, take, take from Anet. This is true of the all three events so far. No wonder they are planning more for January and February. The gambling boxes alone must be earning FAR more than any subscription based game with the same number of players as GW2.
I just play the bits I like and have low expectations on rewards. That way there is no disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the event. I’ve grabbed a couple of toys and had some fun with the mini games. But I haven’t spent a load of real life cash on things hoping to get something nice like some people have. No wonder they are disappointed. The RNG in this game is insane.
(edited by Mandrax.7342)
You do realise that all you people spending so much money on boxes isn’t going help change the system right? It’s because of people like you that we have these stupid boxes in the first place. Stop buying them. Then Anet will have to come up with proper ways to sell us good items rather than offering us a huge gamble.
You can’t keep everybody happy. It’s not possible. Some will never be happy unless they are given a legendary straight out of Tixx’s chest.
Besides, it’s a Christmas event, let’s be honest, most of the stuff we receive at Christmas is rubbish (as a 39 year old, this is definitely true of me) so the event fits well.
You can do toypocalypse with a reasonably active group provided that you pay attention to what they are doing and fill in the gaps.
Not entirely true. I can’t fill in all the gaps if people are doing nothing other than shooting toys. I’ve had this countless times. Trying to get people to even build catapults is a big enough job let alone trying to get them to build some walls.
(edited by Mandrax.7342)
It’s not just one event, it’s the snowball mayhem and choir bell events too, there isn’t much else to Wintersday besides the dungeon; a majority of it is made up of solo activities.
Snowball is not a “solo activity” lol. If anything the event is too much forced grouping.
I agree that Toypocalypse should have allowed groups, as long as balance wasn’t effected….but snowball is perfect as is.
You can join Snowball Mayhem in groups, rather than being randomly assigned team members?
This is what I meant by solo activity, you cannot play it with your friends/guildmates.
A group of random team members is still a group. Just becuase you can’t be with established friends does not mean you’re playing it solo.
Might as well be solo when nobody talks, not even to discuss what we need to do.
Basically, I want clarity, like others I have been talking to mapchat, whether or not we’ll be able to find 50 cogs somewhere before the end of the event so that instead of two toys, we as a general population, can make three. That’s it.
I already stated more than once now that yes, I understand who they were originally designated to those who didn’t receive them in DR/wherever, but I don’t want to destroy the things only to have it come out that hey here’s 50 cogs go make a new toy! Yeah? Yeah.
Just save them until after the holiday, you will know you are safe to get rid of them then.
Total nightmare. Nobody listens, nobody builds, it’s like banging your head against a brick wall…. It’s too random to get people that aren’t clueless. Really bad idea not allowing join as party.
Anyone know if the gift that Tixx gives to each of us is account bound or can we get one per character?
I’ve enjoyed the event too. The problem is many people want EVERYTHING from the event and are not happy if that happens to cost them too much time or too much money. For me, I’ve been happy doing each airship event and grabbing a couple of toys and getting the Apprentice Toymaker title. But I don’t look at an event as a chance to grab as many of the things on offer as possible. I look at what is available within the constraints that I set myself, and then ensure I get them. I do not buy boxes, I do not buy gems to spend on items in the cash shop. My gems are spent on character upgrades such as bank space and character slots.
People need to set themselves budgets, be that in time spent or cash spent, and then go about getting what they can within these budgets. If someone wants it all, be prepared to pay.
I ended up ignoring them. Just not worth the hassle for such rubbish rewards.
In the end, Anet will see the effects of this in future events.
RNG Boxes in Gem Stores for Events, sales will be down. FACT: Many people spent $50 or more on gems for the RNG boxes alone and got absolutely robbed. Those players will not touch them anymore after being burned that hard.
Many players were burnt on many levels with this event.
Many players were burned on boxes during Halloween, yet they continue to spend real money on these boxes. The only way this will stop is if people like you and your friend stop throwing money at them. You have been part of the problem. Nothing will change unless people’s attitude towards these boxes change.
If the vast majority of people stop buying these boxes, ArenaNet will have to come up with some other way to tempt players to part with real life cash. Hopefully one of these ways will be to sell the items individually rather than forcing people to gamble to get them.
These boxes are purely in the cash shop to fleece as many people of their money as possible. It is the ONLY reason they exist. Most games with cash shops have these boxes because they are probably the largest revenue generator in the entire shop.
The chances of people refraining from buying boxes is extremely slim, so you’ll just have to get used to seeing these boxes in the future. But guess what? You don’t have to buy them. If there is something you want and the only way to get it is to buy the boxes, then just decide that the item is not worth it.
I have and never will purchase a single ‘gambling’ box. The only winner from those boxes is ArenaNet’s wallet.
More frames would mean more pets to craft which means less spent in the gem store on pets.
No because you would still need cogs…
Very true…thanks for the reminder :P In that case GIEF MOAR FRAMES!
More frames would mean more pets to craft which means less spent in the gem store on pets.
From the 20th, the Airship will be above Lions Arch. Any you missed can be replayed then.
RNG stuff is a lot of that profit which is why you see it tied to every event they have.
I think its short-term profit at the expense of long term player loyalty. We won’t put up with RNG rewards forever.
You might not, and I certainly will never buy those types of things, but there are tons of others out there across a multitude of different games that will. In fact the reason why all games with cash shops have these things is because people just keep on buying them. They prey on the fact that people are desperate to get a ‘winning’ box, and so unless everybody stops buying them, we will see these things around for ever.
Maybe a gauntlet style jump puzzle.
You could handle that any better than timed jump puzzles, Munson?
Yes I can. Because I can get lined up, I can get prepared for it. This jump puzzle is- load in later than others, have two seconds to get on and off first couple snowflakes, oh didn’t make it? wait a minute before you can start again. There is a major difference between gauntlet style jumping and timed jumping
Sounds like a PC issue. Every time I load in to the JP I have plenty of time to get ready before the first snowflake spawns.
Casuals please go. Is dumbed down jumping puzzle not enough? Now you want to get rid of all group stuff?
Dude… not all of us have time to spend every waking hour in the game after we finish our homework. Some of us have real lives.
The dungeons take 20 minutes. Hardly ‘spending every waking hour in the game’ is it? I don’t get a great deal of time to play, sometimes only an hour in an evening, but I’ve managed to do all the Tixx events so far. It takes about 1 minute to find a group and as I said, around 20 minutes (maximum) to do the event.
I couldn’t even loot the chest when I did it. The whole event thing was bugged, even after re-running the same event that was at The Grove, and then killing Toxx, it started saying that Toxx has gone haywire and we need to kill him. Of course we had, but it meant despite being able to see the chest, I couldn’t loot it. Clicking on it did nothing at all.
Has no one mentioned this?
Every event we see hundreds of people complaining that they spent $texas in the gem store on boxes, and then get upset about not getting anything stellar.
They then ask why Arenanet keeps doing this.
Why? Because every time they do it, you go into the gem store and spend $texas.
No more $texas = no more random gambling boxes.
Exactly. Unfortunately however, people are so desperate for whatever it is inside the box, they will just keep paying, and then moaning.
The real solution is for everybody to stop buying gambling boxes. That way Anet will be forced to look for an alternative way to market these things. All the time people continue to buy these things, Anet will continue to sell them.
Just want to voice some of my opinions, you don’t have to agree with me. I just want to say that ANet is great and they have done a great job on Guild Wars 2. Some points I’d like to make:
—ANet is not necessarily greedy. Some say that we are being “herded to the gem store,” for example, because we are unable to forge all five Wintersday toys. But why is this so bad? Yeah, it’s obvious that ANet wants money. Of course they do! Who doesn’t? If we weren’t motivated (I like the word “encouraged” better) as much as we are to buy gems, ANet would have smaller income, meaning a lower-quality game. If you think things are too expensive, then don’t buy it. Missing out on mini slots (or whatever else) is not the end of the world, it’s just a game. Again, wanting money is not necessarily greed.
I like what The Secret World have done with their ‘Voluntary Subscription’. I would pay a monthly fee to get increased access to certain things in-game. This might include removal of DR and the ability to farm for Gem Store items in-game rather than paying.
Also things like extra character slots, extra bank space should come as standard too. There are probably more things you could add too but can’t think off the top of my head.
My girlfriend and I were ready to buy the Quaggan minipet, until we found out it was random-luck.
I think Arenanet can make enough money without RNG because I know A LOT of people that would have bought it and don’t have because of this.
It’s likely I would actually spend something on grabbing the minipets, but I will not pay for a random chance of getting one.
I ran The Grove twice and so far Divinity’s Reach once. I might go DR again later if I can be bothered, but I’m only doing them for the achievements and mats for the toys.
All these boxes are pretty much the same in EVERY game that has a cash shop and similar items. The only way to force a developer to stop using these types of things is to stop buying them. All the time people are spending money on them, we’ll continue to see them.
I personally consider them a rip off so would never spend money on them. Even the standard Black Lion Chests stack up in my bank until I get a few keys from drops or zone completion. I would never spend money on keys from the gem store, the chances of getting anything decent is so small, it’s just not worth it.
I have never seen a game fail twice (in a row) at the holiday events. They are suppose to be fun, easy, enjoyable, relaxing and cause spontaneous fun. Here they are just dungeon grinds, junky rewards, next to impossible (if not impossible) jumping puzzles. I have never felt so miserable during holiday events until I came here.
If I wanted content this bad, I would have signed up for World of Warcraft.
I wish I could be positive…. just disgusted.
Fun is subjective. A game is never going to get it right for absolutely everybody, there will always be someone who isn’t happy. From what I can see in-game is that plenty of people are participating and enjoying the holiday events.
If you don’t like it, don’t take part and just hope there is something you like in the next update in January.
It’s fun for me. I like challenges. I like hard content. I don’t want faceroll dungeons a la WoW. I want to wipe when errors are made. I want to feel that if I’m not at my best, things can go wrong. In other games you can more or less afk whilst running dungeons, or at the very least slack off and do the minimum possible to get through it. I’m glad this game takes a different approach to dungeons.
I definitely know what you mean by the “feel” of it. Playing ranger in RA in GW1, interrupting the WoH of a monk in full obby and proceeding to wreck the other team just felt good. You knew what role you played and the combat wasn’t homogenized. In my opinion, GW1 had a better chance at being an esport than GW2 will ever have because they’ve dumbed it down too much. I really dont understand what they meant by saying the skill system in GW1 was too complex and hard to learn to be an esport. It’s better than having its’ predecessor be so braindead, casual, and boring that no one even wants to play it.
Wow their reason for GW1 not being an e-sport was it was too complicated? That is terrible reasoning,
1: GW1 was not actually that complicated after you have learned some keys roles (frontline/midline/backline/runner)
2: I am pretty sure starcraft and DoTA have far more build options and tactics than GW1 ever did – ya know those games designed specficially for e-sport?If anything I would have said GW1 was too SIMPLE to be an e-sport. GW2 is even more simple, and if the game revolves around short engagements determined by who rolls the best (no matter the class) then I don’t see gw2 becoming an e-sport at all lol. I have no dabble in the pvp much, because the game is young and that means there is probably loads of imbalance, but I have never heard “simple” being the way to make an e-sport lol.
Back on about support… yea a guardian can use stability for that boss in AC, one boss in the whole dungeon you have to time a support skill to avoid damage? It is more efficient to hide behind the pillers and roll away when he gets too close, no teamwork needed. Like most things in this game, it is more efficient if you play like a solo player passively gaining group buffs.
GW1 has too much diversity to be an e-sport game. Due to the sheer number of skills available it’s extremely difficult to balance. I think this is the reason why Arenanet watered down the skills in GW2, because they wanted something that would work for e-sport.
Although there are no dedicated healers like many other MMOs you can carve out a niche for yourself as a healer in this game, particularly if you like dungeon running. I have a guardian with lots of healing and have found myself invited to groups over and over simply because I have some good buffs and a decent amount of healing in my spec. Most players tend to spec damage and a bit of mitigation, so finding someone that has decent healing capability is a rarity it seems.
If you can change a character’s entire appearance and their name, you might as well make a new character. It only costs 800 gems, or a spare slot. As a bonus you can change the profession too, and you can either keep the original character or free up the slot.
If your character is already level 80, why would you want to level from scratch just because you aren’t happy with it’s appearance?
I thought the same. It’s an odd thing. I’m not sure how many characters were created with names that would work for both sexes, not too many I would guess. That said, rather have the option to change gender than not, of course I doubt the uptake will be that high due to the naming issue, but at least it’s available to those that might want it.
Basically i just purchased the game and am about 54% done with the install. I come onto the forums and the second topic I see is “Should I ask for a refund now?”. That worries me a little bit. Also this is a bit of topic but does anyone have any recommended servers I join or is there anyone else out there new that would like to begin playing with me? Im looking to make a few friends in this new community.
Ignore the forums. My advice is to play the game for a few weeks, and decide for yourself whether you will enjoy it or not. It’s likely that some of the posts here will influence your decision if you let them.
a) Allow players to change the order of weapon abilites in action bar. (simple)
UI work is not simple. Never has been, never will be.
d) Add mounts into the game !! Make ppl pay for them … I dont care … just get them in.
Fast travel system > Mounts.
e)Improve the dungeon experience. I know of alot of ppl that like to play trinity way and would be playing GW2 if it had good dungeons that offered more tratidional gameplay.
This is not WoW.
f) Add 10 man raids into the game.
Again, this is not WoW.
So if 1 or 2 of this would be yes then I might think about it – but right now I think refund and never looking back seems to be the only way for me.
It sounds like you want a different game entirely.
1. UI work IS actually quite simple providing the functionality is built in when the UI is originally created. Surely Anet must have expected that people will want to at least move around their skills on their hotbar. I accept that changes to UI once it has been created becomes more difficult, but this should have been a consideration from the start.
2. That’s personal preference. Personally I would like to see mounts added and those that want to use them can, and those that prefer the waypoint system can use that. I’m a fan of choice.
3. I’m not sure why you would mention WoW specifically when the trinity system was neither invented nor monopolised by Blizzard for their game.
4. As above. Personally however I couldn’t care less about raids, I actually like the way anybody can take on world bosses right now. That said, I wouldn’t be against raiding providing they were not implemented in such a way that only raiders get the best loot. If it’s a further way of gaining Ascended for example, then as I said earlier, I’m a fan of choice.
I don’t think he wants a different game entirely, more that he would like some features of other games to be adopted. This seems perfectly normal to me.
I’m a bit confused how they think they can cater to advocates of horizontal and vertical progression at the same time. As another person said, these two viewpoints are in opposition to each other. Either way, the horse has been thoroughly beaten. Good luck with your game.
Because they seem to think that drip-feeding the gear upgrades is somehow going to make it more palatable to both parties. It’s a compromise.
I’m not confident however that either party will be satisfied enough with this strategy.
Well I feel a bit better about the whole Ascended thing….
All I can say is this: the forums cry out that the game is “dying,” yet I still see a ton of people everywhere I go. The noobie zones are just as populated as when the game launched, although they no longer have overflows either.
This game is far from dying.
The ‘noobie zones’ are nowhere as busy as launch, at least not on desolation. I’ve been levelling an alt and due to lack of people and therefore events starting, I’ve been finding it increasingly difficult to get enough XP to stay on track. I’ve been having to switch areas to gain a couple of levels then come back later once I’m a couple of levels ahead.
There are people around, but not huge amounts as before. To be expected of course. Switching zones isn’t the end of the world, but I didn’t have to do that at all with my first character due to lots of events popping all the time.
The bots are still around. I saw a train in Gendarran Fields just circling and hitting the skelks just outside the big camp that the centaur attack. Admittedly there aren’t as many as there were. Just keep on reporting, that’s all we can do.
“The gap” is not necessarily in reference to a statistical gap. For all the crying about the game not having to be about statistics, you certainly don’t look past the statistics.
Because ArenaNet have made it about the statistics now. Before Ascended was implemented, how much talk did you see about stats?
The purpose of 100% completion including wvwvw is to get you to participate.
Participate!
Unfortunately it often has the opposite effect. People forced to enter the WvWvW maps generally just run around getting map completion as quickly as possible and actually don’t contribute at all. This just leads to annoyance for the folks that are there to contribute as those doing map completion are preventing others getting in that might help the cause.
With how the games been sold to the masses they need to tread careful cos if they try to go pay 2 win they will have servers devoid of players and a ton less money than what they whould have if managed smart.
i dont know enough about this Nexon thing cos I play games I dont research em, but they dont sound like the type that will try to let the game carry on along the road Anet originally planned.
Due to the fact you can buy anything in-game with gold and that you can buy gold with gems, this game is already treading on the toes of Pay to Win whilst not actually going there directly. Anybody with a fat wallet can get all the loot they desire in this game just by coughing up their credit card number.
I’m not saying it’s a 100% Pay to Win scenario, but I am saying those with little time and fat wallets can get gear that others took weeks or months to obtain, thus removing any prestige said gear has.
If new armor sets keep getting released then anyone with the real life cash can be ahead in WvWvW immediately rather than having to grind the gear out over a period of time. It’s almost Pay to Win, but not quite, but you can buy yourself a distinct advantage for a period of time.
I’m pleased to see this question on the list:
G4: A question about policy. Can we get a direct, on-the-record answer on where vertical progression will be headed? Specifically as it applies to gear-checks and gated content? Will there be an amended manifesto, or are there plans to alter current content to align with the manifesto?
My only fear is that as is often the case with these things, the dev in question will choose which questions to answer and which to ignore. I will be very surprised if we get a proper answer to this question. I’ll be watching with interest however.
I don’t have any other questions, this one about covers it for me.
1. Still come to the forums in the hope we see a non-ambiguous statement from ANet.
2. Started playing less after the announcement of Ascended
3. Lack of motivation due to the introduction of the gear treadmill
Ignore my last, it seems I have some forum bug. I can’t see anything in this topic now unless I log out of my account…
This topic looks empty now, have they deleted everything in it or is it me?
If they do that, they would be outright accused of Pay to Win methods, something all self respecting developers would want to avoid.
Not all developers have the luxury of calling the shots, though . . .
True. And with Cox in charge of the cash shop features, it’s likely this entire idea has come from her. Particularly as Nexon games aren’t strangers to Pay to Win. As I said previously, this almost feels like a cleverly disguised P2W feature.