Guild Wars 2

First of all, I just want to say thank you for building this awesome game, and also having this specific topic of discussion with us. I’ve played many many mmo’s over the years, my first one Asheron’s Call ranging all the way back to 1999; this issue you described of a purely rng approach to items is something that has only affected me in a couple of the mmo’s I’ve played. However, that said, it was a singular issue of dislike that stood out to me, and usually pushed me away from said games. I, as a player, really get into my characters rp lore/story, their item look, and what items from all aspects of the game that I want to acquire.

In my years of online gaming I eventually tried and played WoW on and off, mainly because I had relatives that played and it was a good way to stay in touch. While I played I found my own ways to enjoy and get into that game, doing the usual process of leveling, reading all of the games side quests/npc text, and finding out what items I wanted. In WoW, which is about 10 years old now, they have a purely RNG based system and because of this you see people creating threads in their forums saying that they have been running X dungeon every day over X amount of characters for X amounts of YEARS, sometimes like 7 years. That to me seems like a horrible, dated method of antiquity, that really could easily be improved upon. This very topic, is the primary reason I quit that game. I had finished playing with my family, they had quit, and my only reasons to stay were a bunch of cool items from various locations that all had about a .002% drop chance. This was frustrating, inspired no hope in me, and led to me walking away from their game.

I do understand, and am very grateful that GW2 has nowhere near the abysmal RNG of other games like the one I just talked about. Nevertheless, the same system being in place, can and does create those many outliers. People will run events/dungeons or whatever in game time and time again, and get frustrated that their 500th fractal run dropped not a single skin, and worse, that their buddy who just joined the game ran a couple and immediately got two of them. Your option two leaves players a fallback in their mind, if all else fails, at LEAST eventually I can start to accrue tokens to just get what I want. This would also help to serve the people that want a singular skin, and when luck supposedly comes their way, it drops the wrong item in the same skin set.

A system in place like your second option would keep your players playing the old content waiting on luck and/or those tokens to eventually get what they want while playing your new content as it comes out and enjoying that story/set of items too. A LOT of people eventually just give, permanently, running things that are purely random. Other people, like myself, hear of players running things so many thousands of times and just want nothing to do with turning my fun game time into a negative grind everyday.

For me, this question has to do a lot with who my character/the PC, was. Who and what he did, his life, define his end. One of the things he did was only done once, in all of mortal human history. He fell a GOD. When Grenth displaced Dhuum he was already half-god, essentially a demi-god in his own right, not exactly a normal mortal being. Grenth didn’t fight alone though, he took 7 of his closest friends/best fighters with him, and because of their work that day they are honored for all of time to be his Seven Reapers. With Kormir behind me, my PC fought armies of evil soldiers, and slew men and demon alike, of every color and sort all in the name of Istan, the Sunspears, and saving the world. I crossed countries and delved into the depths of the realm of a God gone mad, inside his twisted realms I slew once again a powerful Lich and an ancient assassin known as Shiro before, by my own hand, slew a God himself.

We know in the lore that about 60 years after Nightfall Palawa Joka began his take over of all of Elona. By then my PC would have been getting pretty old, and however he died, I choose to believe that like Grenth, Kormir would acknowledge who she fought with, and that she could not have done it alone. I think it logical that however and whenever my PC died, he was not taken by Grenth, but instead Kormir, who turned him into one of her personal champions, akin to Grenth’s Reapers. RP wise, before he did finally ascend to Kormir though, he left behind a small family, hidden from Palawa Joko. With that family he left the ways of his Sunspear order and the stories and wisdom from his travels.

250 years later, Nicholas Darlon, hailing now from Tyria with his Elonian sister, found a suit of armor, weapon, and shield in a run down place called the Hall of Monuments deep in the far northern mountains. Strangely, the only thing to explain these powerful mysteries items was a name. Marcus Darlon, some long lost warrior who held the same name, perhaps an ancestor.

My GW2 warrior, Nicholas Darlon, wears the same black Primeval armor my GW1 warrior, Marcus Darlon, wore. In GW2 I now use Lord Taere’s Shadow to replicate my GW1 Fellblade being one handed, and I use the Ghastly Grinning Shield to replicate my GW1 Aegis/Bastion/Shield of the Condemned.

Because RP wise my GW1 warrior is with Kormir, that means he’s somewhere in the mists, perhaps watching the rise of his descendant, using his old gear.

/signed/supported

At the very least make the log in screen an option

First MMO was Asheron’s Call, and boy do I miss that game, I hop on every now and then, when I feel like I can afford a monthly subscription for a game for a bit

My main in beta, remade once live
Vylnahtus
Hidden – Helm Slot
Evergreen Shouldergaurds/Sylvari Tier 1 – Shoulder Slot
Everygreen Coat/Sulvari Tier 1 – Chest Slot
Nightmare Gauntlets/Twilight Arbor – Glove Slot
Nightshade Leggings/Sylvari Tier 2 – Leg Slot
Nightshade Boots/Sylvari Tier 2 – Boot Slot
Warden Longbow/Sylvari Weapon – Primary Weapon Skin