Guild Wars 2

perilisk.1874:

Ayrilana.1396:

I would have liked the XP one on Doric Lake.

The XP helps players gain spirit shards or to train their masteries. It’s far from useless or wasted.

Unless you don’t raid.

This.

There are also going to be people who haven’t gone hunting the mastery points, and thus have full XP bars on all their currently available masteries but don’t have the mastery points to unlock them. I was in that situation myself until a few months ago, when I finally got around to hunting down enough mastery points to unlock everything.

In that situation, XP boosts are literally worthless because you can’t gain XP in the first place.

Also this.

In my case I’m just not terribly interested in raiding. I did try it a number of times – mostly to try and unlock the raid masteries – but I just didn’t like the whole raid experience, or even just how much time would go into it (including the preparation). All the more power to you if you’re into raiding, I just don’t care for it all that much.

(Add to that the fact that timezones combined with tons of work in real life can make it hard to set things up, but that’s an issue on my end, not a universal one.)

The Karmix Retribution is one of the reasons I spend so much time in Ember Bay compared to other LWS3 areas. I might spend more time in Bloodstone Fen if the experience boosters (also map rewards) weren’t so bloody useless. At least I get bonus karma in Ember Bay. Also those funky unbound tools for Karma.

A fix for this issue would be simple though: Treat the spirit shard thing as a “repeatable” mastery which you can toggle on or off. That way, if you haven’t unlocked raid masteries and/or you haven’t got enough mastery points to proceed to the next mastery, you can still make use of your XP.

And sure, there are some people that say that “spirit shards are a reward for completing the masteries” and that people should just buckle down and get those masteries/do at least one raid (AKA “git gud”). However, I would argue that other people getting spirit shards doesn’t effect you negatively in any way. I only see positives to it. I certainly wouldn’t go “NO I HAD TO WORK FOR MY TYRIA SPIRIT SHARDS, YOU SHOULD TOO!” Other people being rewarded for doing stuff ingame and getting spirit shards (and thus having a more enjoyable experience) wouldn’t influence me negatively in any way.

And before somebody comes up with the “but spirit shards aren’t worth that much/you get tons already” – Sure. True. But it’s all about the feeling of being rewarded for stuff you get. Seeing tons of XP numbers and knowing they just get wasted can be a bit demoralizing. It makes very little sense to me. Besides, if one of the rewards for an activity is effectively a non-reward which instantly evaporates without adding anything (like XP under certain circumstances right now) for a sizeable people, then why even have it as a reward?

Unless it’s their way of punishing people for not raiding/hunting enough achievements, but that somehow seems counterproductive to the whole “making sure people have fun.”

PS: Before anybody interprets the above wrongly, I’m not opposed to having to get mastery points (through achievements) to unlock masteries, I’m totally cool with that.

Kumion.7580:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Two words for the OP:
Second account.

I concur. There are several benefits to having a second account and even to “starting fresh” again.

He also plays this game for “Fashion Wars” however, as he has stated in an earlier post. A new account would also mean he has no access to his old wardrobe, so I’m not sure that’s a solution to his issue.

But yes, there are definitely some benefits to having a second account, such as the daily login rewards. There are also some drawbacks though (such as having to buy infinite tools again (account-bound), no access to the wardrobe of your other account etc.), so whether it is a solution or not depends on the player.

Moonlit.6421:

Envy.1679:

…
There is NO good argument against fixing this issue. I dont even want to hear it. this IS an issue that A LOT of people have. Pretending this problem doesnt exist is just willful ignorance.

…

I dont even want to hear any argument that pretends as if this isnt an issue. it is an issue. It has been an issue, and should have been fixed a long time ago.

Lol comments like this always give me a quick laugh on my way through forums.

I know right? I mean, why did he even post on a discussion forum if he didn’t want a discussion? (O_o)

Anyhow, whether it’s an issue or not isn’t objective, it’s subjective. You think it’s a problem, and that’s your valid opinion. But that doesn’t make it the one and only objective truth, mate.

I actually use minor/major runes/sigils when leveling new characters. In addition, I tend to toss them (mostly major ones) into the mystic forge, which occasionally can give you quite a good payout if you get lucky with the results. So I’m not sure I’d like removing them entirely from a certain level of equipment.

And there are options to get rid of them semi-quickly and earning a bit from them. If your guild has the Gilded Hollow, you can go there for free and spawn next to a Merchant, for instance. Or you can get a pocket Mystic Forge to potentially turn them into better runes. Or if you really hate them, use the crappiest salvage kits you can find. Any loss/decrease in materials resulting from that is just the price you’d pay for the convenience of not having a bunch of sigils/runes clutter up your inventory.

That said, I certainly wouldn’t mind an easier solution to get rid of minor sigils/runes, either through some sort of auto-deleter, a gobbler of some kind or even just the option to toggle certain items (like minor sigils/runes) as junk items to make it easier to quickly sell them.

I used to be really annoyed by them back in the old days, when I had less inventory space and you had to manually salvage everything, but these days, I’m honestly not too bothered. There’s the occasional spot of annoyance, but nothing too major. I wouldn’t oppose anything which would make sigil/rune disposal easier/faster though.

I haven’t been in Bitterfrost for a while, but we’re talking about gathering the berries there, right? In which case you kind of need to walk around and collect them, which means you can’t be AFK (away from keyboard). Unless you use a bot or something, but that’s obviously against the game rules.

Did you perhaps mean “park your characters in bitterfrost just for the berry farm?” Because that’s slightly different from being AFK.

That said, what you said is true – having these unlimited tools – or even the tools you can buy with karma – does mean you don’t have to spend more time in certain areas (mostly Bitterfrost) just to get UM, potentially opening up more time to go and play in other areas, which could be quite a good thing for the population of those maps.

Of course, to be the devil’s advocate for a moment, one could also wonder if that might not cause some of the new maps to lose a portion of the population as they move to new areas. But only time will tell. And besides, it’s not like everybody will get those tools, so I think that the actual influence they have on the game and the maps will be fairly limited.

I’m still hoping that one day I can get them separately though! (~_^)

Most likely because they get more income by selling them as a bundle, as people who only want the axe and the sickle (because they already have the watchwork pick) wouldn’t buy the pickaxe otherwise, thus spending less money. It would be interesting to see how much they’ve been earning from these new tools.

Still going to hope they eventually sell them separately though.

On another note, this actually motivated me to buy a ton of unbound axes and sickles for karma. Because I could, and it’s the cheaper option. Plus I had a mostly empty bank tab available for it. (^_^)

Menadena.7482:

Mercure.5689:

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

Actually, I bought unbreakable tools earlier in the season and no, I did not get my money’s worth from them. I bought them early enough that I could not get a refund (yes, I asked) but right after buying them I realized limited-charge UM tools were better. So basically I have a set of 3 tools that have nearly not been used that I can not do anything with. Not even send to an alt!

Errr… No?

I mean, whether you got your money’s worth from them or not is mostly subjective, so if you feel that that’s the case, then well, you’re right.

But you can still use these tools. They won’t give you UM, but you can certainly still use them to gather resources, so to say you can’t do anything with them is just objectively wrong. You might prefer to only use the UM tools (which is fair enough), but again, you can still use these tools if you want to.

Secondly, you can use them on other characters – when people refer to an “alt” in this game, they’re generally talking about their other characters. If you however meant an “alternative account” or as it is more commonly known, a second (or third/fourth/etc.) account, then yes, you can’t send it to other accounts because it’s an account-bound item. You could totally give these tools to a second character on the same account though.

My only complaint about the masteries is that I have to kill at least one raid boss to unlock the raid masteries which I need to unlock the spirit shard “leveling” thing for HoT areas, which means that a lot of XP for me is just wasted now. I did make a decent number of attempts, but raiding just doesn’t really do it for me, and with my current ping and the somewhat lackluster performance of my laptop, that’s not going to happen any time soon. That’s just a bugbear for me personally though.

PS: Before anybody mentions it, yes, I know that one of the raid bosses is easier, but it still needs a few people with certain raid masteries.

Otherwise, I think the masteries are fine. Not perfect and I could see room for improvement, but they’re not too demanding or too grindy either.

To Kdaddy: HoT launched with 4 maps (and two guild halls, plus the raid areas for those who are into that) as well as a bunch of changes including a bunch which aren’t immediately noticeable in many cases, but which was needed for future content.

By now however, HoT also offers 5 new maps (though the first one is still the coolest by far, in my humble opinion), more personal story to go with those maps, several raid wings (again, for those interested in that), a number of additional legendaries and then there have been a bunch of changes and improvements which are also available to non-HoT players, such as a few new Fractal maps and changes to some of the old ones.

One can argue that HoT was a bit lacking when it first came out, but I’d say that it has certainly made up for that since then. But feel free to disagree with me; this is after all just my opinion.

I have no real issue with the new unlimited tools. I can get why somebody might be annoyed (to put it lightly) if they bought a set of unlimited tools just a week ago or so, but if you bought them months or even years ago, you probably got your money’s worth. And there’s still plenty of people who buy tools without bonuses – looks are also important, you know!

I also disagree with the people who compare it to the watchwork pick – Unbound Magic can easily be gathered even without the new tools. Sure, having them will increase your UM gathering rate, especially if you mine/harvest a lot of nodes, but it’ll still take ages to earn it back. And if you really want to get UM every time you use a tool, you can buy the limited ones for karma. Sure, it’ll waste a number of inventory slots (more so since they have half the durability of normal tools), but it’s totally possible. These new unlimited tools mostly add convenience, with a small but non-game breaking bonus.

I won’t deny that functionally they are objectively better than most unlimited tools (with the potential exception of the Watchwork Pick), but not to the extent that I’ll mind it too much myself.

Getting back on topic, my only real complaint would be that you have to buy the entire bundle. As it is, I mostly want the axe, am unsure about the gathering sickle (that looks like a looooooooooooong animation) and don’t care for the pick axe (got my trusty Watchwork pickaxe (a few months before it went on sale and watchwork sprockets tanked, but you didn’t hear me complain about that! )). I’d much rather spend 1K gem per tool than buy the entire set for a small discount and have a pick axe I’d never really use.

To be honest, I’m mostly hoping they’ll offer the tools separately a week down the line. If they don’t, then I’ll vote with my wallet and probably not get them. It’s as simple as that, really.

I liked the enrichments for unlimited tools idea somebody mentioned earlier though. That could take away quite a few of the complaints too. Though they’d probably also get a ton of complaints of the people who already bought the tools… Still, I’d dig it.

Rauderi.8706:

But I’m finding that my experience bar is a bit bugged. I’ll loop a level, but the bar doesn’t clear, so I’m not sure if I’m actually getting shards. (Have well over a thousand, so I’m not hurting for them, but still..)

Don’t worry, I have the same issue in Tyria. You still get spirit shards for every 250K or so experience as usual – the only thing which is bugged is the experience bar graphic. If you hover your mouse cursor over the bar, it will tell you how much XP you currently have.

So even if the bar doesn’t actually move/is stuck on full, you will continue to progress towards your next spirit shard(s) as you gain XP.

Obtena.7952:

Astralporing.1957:

Obtena.7952:

Is there value in complaining that a reward is not given to people that don’t do the activity that gives it?

That’s not what we’re discussing here. Raids are not the activity that gives the reward (that would be earning xp). Raids are the gate that keeps the rewards away from some people, even if they are doing the activity.

That’s just not being honest and arguing semantics … obviously unlocking whatever Raid mastery is part of the requirement for the spirit shroud reward just like capping XP bars. If you can’t get past that, we have little to say to each other.

First of all, stop calling people disingenuous/dishonest just because they disagree with you. Secondly, as a number of people (including me) have said multiple times before, the issue is that people disagree with raid masteries being a requirement for spirit shards. We know that it’s your opinion that the way things are now is just fine. But that’s your opinion. And some people just happen to disagree with you.

And again, your opinion is not objective fact, so stop presenting it as such.

Yes, it’s a fact that unlocking and finishing those masteries is a requirement now. But the whole point of this discussion is that a number of people want to see it changed (for various reasons) and they’re giving their opinions as to why. If you can’t get past the idea of people disagreeing with you, then you indeed have very little of value to say to others who do not share your opinion.

Or to give the short version:

No, they just disagree with those requirements. You might not agree with them, but it doesn’t make them wrong.

It really isn’t that hard to understand.

Obtena.7952:

You’re not gated in character progression by this, at all. You still gain experience and gaining it is in no way gated by arid masteries, therefore not preventing your progression as a character. Progression is NOT the same thing as material rewards. Seems to me you’re confusing the two, though I can’t see how any gamer would do such a thing unless it is intentional.

Except you’re apparently conveniently forgetting that getting better equipment – also a form of material rewards – is also a part of character progression, if I might be bold enough to nitpick at your argument there.

More importantly though: if you can’t use the XP you get – because you haven’t unlocked raid masteries yet – then you don’t so much “gain” it as waste it. It’s just gone. And if XP boosts are given as a map bonus in an area for every few events which you complete – as is the case in Bloodstone Fen – then that’s a LOT of wasted XP. Hell, it renders a whole map bonus completely useless and valueless. That, in my humble opinion, is bad game design. At this point, it feels less like a reward for people who have completed all mastery tracks (including raids), and more like a punishment to those who’ve never completed a raid. At least, that how it feels to me.

That all said: I wish people would stop misconstruing the discussion as being about acquiring spirit shards. I’d think that enough people by now on both sides of the discussion have mentioned that getting spirit shards isn’t exactly a big challenge.

The issue for many of us is however that we end up wasting a lot of experience unless we complete at least one raid, and with raid content originally being marketed as elite content for a minority, we feel that this is unfair towards to those of us who might be considered to be more casual players.

I’ve already stated my opinions before at great length earlier in this thread, so if you’re interested, check that post. The most important snippet however would be this:

Mercure.5689:

This may sound silly to some of you, but seeing a lot of XP simply go to waste when I know that there’s a possibility actually make it do something is incredibly demotivating. And yes, this may not affect your enjoyment of this game, but it does affect mine. You may not understand why I feel like this. You may think it’s stupid, and you’re entitled to your opinion. But regardless, it’s still a factor for me which negatively impacts my enjoyment of the game.

Again, you can agree or disagree with me. But to me, the fact that I’m forced into a game mode which supposedly was meant for a small minority of elite players just so I don’t waste millions upon millions of XP really is a motivation killer, and it’s gotten to the point where I log off after doing my dailies, if I even bother to do so.

And yes, you may think this is stupid. That’s your opinion, and you’re entitled to it. If getting absolutely nothing for the XP you “gain” while knowing you could get something for it doesn’t affect you in the slightest, good on you. I’m happy that you’re okay with the status quo or that you don’t care about wasting XP. I simply am not.

PS: In case anybody is wondering, I’ve actually spent some time trying to raid since last post. Since you know, I really want to unlock those spirit shards. Turns out that after last few tries, there was barely any interest in it, which only makes it harder to actually get a group to kill a boss with. And we know how welcoming the average public group is to relatively inexperienced raiders. >_>

Obtena.7952:

There is no point to the thread then … it goes without saying that if you don’t do an activity, you don’t get the reward …

If you think that there’s no point to this thread, then one has to wonder why you don’t ‘excuse’ yourself from the conversation and stop posting.

I was actually wondering why I found myself disagreeing with your posts as much as I did. After all, you are welcome to your own opinion, even if it differs with mine. However, there’s a very simple problem with your posts: You appear to be presenting your opinions as facts. However, a discussion like this is inherently subjective, not objective. To give a simple example of what I mean:

- You currently need to complete all masteries in a region (including raid masteries) to get spirit shards through XP – Fact (objective).
- This system is good/bad – An opinion (subjective).

Now, opinions generally aren’t right or wrong. Rather, you agree or disagree with them. For example, I may strongly disagree with your opinion, but that doesn’t make it any less valid. But it’s still an opinion, not an immutable law.

So tl;dr: No, it doesn’t ‘go without saying.’ Try ‘I strongly believe that people should only be rewarded if they achieve certain things/fulfil certain requirements’ or something similar instead. That’s far more persuasive and nuanced, and something I could actually agree with (to a certain extent).

Now, as far as I can see it, there are three main strands of thinking/opinions:

A: The current system is fine, people should do all masteries (including raid masteries) to unlock spirit shards through XP.
B: People should not have to do raid masteries (because they’re ‘elite’ content), but do need to finish all other (non-raid) mastery tracks to unlock spirit shards through XP.
C: People should be able to freely switch to spirit shards for XP regardless of mastery track completion (possibly implemented as a permanently looping mastery/reward track).

Personally, I’m most in favour of option B. I like the idea of having to put in some work to unlock spirit shards for XP as a reward – I just don’t think (like a number of others) that raids should be a requirement, as it excludes a very large portion of the player base and was marketed as ‘elite’ content, meant for a minority.

As for option C, I could see the merits of doing things this way, even if it doesn’t hold my own preference. Most importantly however, it wouldn’t affect me whether other people had easier access to spirit shards or not. As such, why would I oppose such a change, exactly? All it would do is provide a quality of life improvement to other people while not in any way affecting my own. I wouldn’t begrudge them this.

Now, to play the Devil’s advocate for a moment, each of the options mentioned above has its advantages and disadvantages. For instance, option A might get people who would otherwise never even considered raiding to at the very least give it a try. At the same time, it might also cause a number of players to resent raids or even the game as a whole for making them feel that they’re forced into content they’re not interested in, which could harm player retention in the long run. Option B would still see people complain about being unable to get spirit shards because they’re lacking in mastery points (and thus unable to finish the mastery track), while option C could see people complain about ‘spoiling’ players and rewarding them for not doing anything. The latter is not an opinion which I hold or agree with, but as this thread shows, some do.

At the end of the day though, whatever Anet does, they can’t please everybody. The best thing they can try to please as many people as possible without compromising their own views for the game, whatever those might be.

PS to Obtena: You may want to refrain from repeating the word ‘disingenuous’ over and over again. I know it’s a wonderful word to use (so far you’ve used it 5 times in this thread), but it has begun to weaken your arguments rather than strengthen them.

It’s not easy to reproduce, but there’s a minor bug related to the special glider skills in Bloodstone Fen.

If you are downed while gliding and slowly hover down (downed with glider out), land on the ground and are revived (without ever dying), there is a slight chance you’ll still have glider skills equipped instead of your standard skills. You can recover your normal skills by flying with your glider and then landing again.

It’s not a big issue – it’s hard to abuse, easily fixed and mostly it’s just really amusing to see. But I doubt it was intended. The skills work mostly as you’d expect from a bug like this: skill 1-3 work as they do in the air, skill 4 is a dodge roll in place and skill 5 makes you run really fast (with the leyline graphic).

Additional info:

-Server: Ferguson’s Crossing
-Map/location: Bloodstone Fen
-Character info (level, race, profession): Level 80 Sylvari Elementalist
-How to reproduce issue: Be downed while gliding, land softly (hover down with glider out) and then be revived – you may have to be close to the ground before being downed).

No video/screenshot, unfortunately.

While I can see the appeal, technically, we already have a house. Or more accurately, we have a home instance (5 of them in fact). Granted, you can’t customize it much beyond putting in chests/nodes in set locations, but it is there. I don’t really see a reason to add additional housing options, but that’s just my opinion.

The main reason I don’t expect it to happen however is because it would take Anet quite a a lot of resources to implement it. First they’d have to design and code it in, and then they’d have to store all the additional data (item placement etc.) on new servers. Keeping tabs on the nodes active in a player’s home instance(s) is fairly easy and doesn’t take up much space on their servers. Most likely it’s just a list of yes/no switches. Saving all the data for every single item placed in every single specific home instance (which item, the coordinates of the item, etc.) would take up a lot of space, and I’m not sure Anet would be willing to invest in that.

Mind you, being able to customize your home instance (much like a guild hall) would be pretty cool. But I just don’t see it happening.

Obtena.7952:

The people complaining in this thread have completely ignored the fact you get them randomly from just killing stuff now and make it sound like they will never get another shard as long as they don’t unlock through raids. That’s just ignorant.

Except that isn’t true, is it now? Perhaps you should be a bit less selective in what you read.

What people are complaining about is that they (non-raiders) are apparently barred from getting spirit shards through experience (in the HoT area) unless they complete at least one raid. This means that people who have never completed a raid end up wasting an infinite amount of experience even when all the other HoT masteries have already been completed unless they participate in a game mode which they might not enjoy and which was marketed as being for a small minority of “elite” players.

Yes, there are a lot of other sources of spirit shards. Almost nobody is denying that. But I don’t see why that somehow makes it okay to hide this behind raids, which – as mentioned before – were intended as elite content. And as far as I’m aware, spirit shards have nothing to do with raids. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

As for the value of the currency, that’s to some extent subjective. You might find spirit shards absolutely useless, while somebody else who’s aiming to get every single skin/legendary in the game might find them invaluable and spend them at an alarming rate. Don’t assume that your play style and spending habits in this game are the norm; everybody is different.

Now, some people will say ‘just do a raid if you want to unlock that spirit shard source so badly.’ However, those people appear to forget that not all people are interested in raids or for that matter, skilled enough to complete them. Remember, Raids were meant to be “elite” content. And certainly, I suppose it is possible to pay an exorbitant amount of money to a group to get them to carry you through a raid, but it seems silly that this would be a requirement just to get those spirit shards. And before anybody goes ‘but 50-100 gold (or however much it costs these days) isn’t that much,’ please remember that that this too is a subjective thing, and a very casual player will often not have that much gold.

As for me, I don’t need more spirit shards. I’ve got plenty of them. But there’s a very simple reason I want to be able to get spirit shards from “levelling” in HoT: It doesn’t waste the XP which I gain.

This may sound silly to some of you, but seeing a lot of XP simply go to waste when I know that there’s a possibility actually make it do something is incredibly demotivating. And yes, this may not affect your enjoyment of this game, but it does affect mine. You may not understand why I feel like this. You may think it’s stupid, and you’re entitled to your opinion. But regardless, it’s still a factor for me which negatively impacts my enjoyment of the game.

A big part of the issue for me is actually Bloodstone Fen. I absolutely adore this map and spent a lot of time on it doing the achievements, getting XP for masteries (when I still needed it, went on a quick mastery levelling spree for Nevermore) and just farming events. But lately, I don’t spend much time on it outside of doing the dailies. Why? The map bonuses. Whether you can use XP or not, it constantly bombards you with XP boosts. And again, if you’re like me (pray that you are not), that very quickly starts to nag at you.

And let me make one thing clear: It’s not that I’m unwilling to put time into this game levelling masteries and acquiring mastery points to unlock it. I’m more than willing to level those masteries if I must. Hell, the fact that I’ve been slavering away on Nevermore suggests that I’m quite willing to go the distance for stuff I care about. But I don’t see why I have to do Raids (or more accurately, at least complete one of them) just to unlock the possibility of getting spirit shards through XP in the HoT areas.

And in case people are wondering: Yes, I’ve tried doing Raids. Partially because I was curious about it and intended to give it a try at least once, but mostly because I needed it to unlock the Forsaken Thicket mastery track. And while I can see why some people enjoy Raids, I personally do not really care too much for them. It’s just a game mode which does not appeal to me all that much, and which I find too hard to be enjoyable (yes, I’m a casual scrub). And again, before anybody goes ‘but raid wing 3 is easy:’ No, that is your opinion. It is not an objective fact.

Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that people should try game modes (whether that’s Dungeons, Fractals, PvP, WvW or Raids) before saying that they don’t like something. And I would definitely encourage people to try out Raids at least once or twice. Who knows, you might enjoy Raids far more than you thought you would. Hell, I know I got hooked on Fractals for a while after somebody just gave me that little extra push to try it out. But if you make content for “elite” players, then you should not then make that content a barrier for other things in PvE for the so-called “casual” players.

Again, I’m fine with people having to complete all the other HoT mastery tracks before getting access. Hell, I’m fine with completing the Forsaken Thicket mastery track if I have to, even if I might never use it in the future. I’m not completely opposed to having to put in some effort to get to the stage where I can get spirit shards from XP (in HoT areas). I just genuinely don’t see the point of locking the Forsaken Thicket mastery track – and thus the spirit shard “levelling” mechanic – behind the successful completion of a Raid (or behind a Raid boss kill, for the nitpickers amongst you). I just don’t.

Lastly, for those who are for some reason opposed to changing the current system to allow non-raiders to also get spirit shards: why are you opposed to it? Would this proposed quality of life change in any way harm you? As far as I can see, it would not influence you in any way whatsoever, and only (positively) affect those who currently feel like this neat little feature/spirit shard source/method not to completely waste XP is locked away from them.

I really see no reason to oppose a change which would positively affect a sizeable chunk of the community and harm none. The only real reason I can think of is elitism, and I do not find that particularly compelling. But hey, that’s my subjective view on the matter.

PS: For those who are wondering how much I care about this: enough to write this massive wall of text. Enjoy! =P

I wish I could say the same. =(

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the idea behind the new Ley Line event is a bad one. Granted, there was a desyncing problem which made it hard to CC the glowy running man (as he was far ahead of where he appeared to be on our screens), but I’m assuming that’ll be fixed. I’m also hoping they slow him down a tiny bit, because while I get the idea of making it challenging to catch him, he was a bit too fast for my liking.

My main issue however is not with any of the above. It’s the brightness which gets to me. The constant bombardment of bright lights is blinding and almost disorientating. Add to that the Ley Line distortions (or whatever you want to call them), and the event becomes a serious strain on the eyes – and I assume a living nightmare for anyone suffering from epilepsy. =/

I did the event for the first time today, finishing a bit over half an hour ago. My eyes still hurt from exposure to the dramatic lightshow. I wish I was making this up or just being overly dramatic, but I’m afraid I’m not. =/

Now, I’m entirely sure that there’ll be plenty people who have no issues whatsoever, but I’m not the only one who was complaining about it being a strain to the eyes during the event itself. I understand that the artists might feel the urge to make things shiny, but too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.

Personally, I’d appreciate it if they toned down the brightness a bit, or even if they just gave an option to decrease it. Perhaps lowering the graphic settings might help, though I haven’t tried that yet. As it is though, I’m not sure I want to do the event again. Which is a shame, because it really does look like an interesting one. It’s just too harsh on the eyes for me. =(