Guild Wars 2

SpyderArachnid.5619:

Horizontal Progression is advancing through the game at the same capacity/strength throughout all the content (more or less).

For instance, GW1 is a Horizontal Progression game. You get max weapons and armor easily and early. Then you just play through the content in the game without worrying about getting new gear and having to grind out a new tier every year or so. All content is geared towards the gear you got in the beginning, with nothing stronger to make you feel left behind if you are not grinding the newest dungeon for the newest tier.

You progress through the game with the same strength from since you started, just experience new content. Hopefully that is an understandable explanation.

The reason some find this better, is cause it allows you freedom to play when you want and how you want.

In Vertical Progression, you are constantly chasing that carrot to get the next strongest gear. But you never ever reach the end. New gear is always added and it is a never ending cycle. And if you just hit max level and go PvP, you will always get destroyed by someone more geared than you. And you can’t experience new content unless you grind old content to get gear so you can survive to get the new gear.

With Horizontal Progression, you never have to do that. You will always be equal, no matter what new content comes out. You don’t feel forced to have to grind a new set of gear to be up to par with everyone else. You don’t feel forced to play 24/7 to be competitive cause your gear is outdated. Your gear will always be the best anyone can get, and you will always be able to participate in any new content cause gear will never be stronger. So you will never have that feeling of being left behind or not up to par.

This is pretty much it.

Vertical progression is content that is superior to other content. You can compare different content and determine which is better. If you have a sword with +10 power and then a new sword is released that has +20 power, the new sword is better than the old one.

Horizontal progression is content that can’t be directly compared to other content. Imagine you have a hat. It’s blue. A new hat is added. This one is red. Which one is better? Neither. You just have a new hat.

ArenaNet said they would continue the design philosophy from Guild Wars into Guild Wars 2. That’s what the game was sold as. ArenaNet has gone back on that.

So no, I’m not trying to change GW2 into GW. I want the product that I paid for.

If you don’t like people discussing something, then don’t read it.

DegoLocc.5976:

Hydrophidian.4319:

Okay, I think this has pretty much run its course.

There have been multiple challenges to the initial assertion.

Yea and you have been hard pressed to get anyone to agree with you that Guild Wars1 is an MMO. Most people in this thread point out the flaws in your reasoning, but debating with you is like talking to a brick wall.

You have the attitude of, “anyone who disagrees with me(which in this threads case is pretty much everyone) is wrong”. So the whole world is wrong? The games own developers admit it’s not an MMO, and you still try to argue that it is.

Amusing to say the least.

That’s a load of crap. Plenty of people have agreed with him.

Guild Wars is an MMO. Guild Wars 2 is an MMO.

What’s the problem?

Waar Kijk Je Naar.8713:

delmarqo.5038:

The industry considers GW1 an MMO. That’s really as far as the discussion needs to go. Everything after that is the kind of nuance-y thing no marketing person cares about

Says who? You represent “the industry”?

The industry doesn’t consider GW1 an MMO.

Yes, it does, because it is.

Guild Wars is an MMO. Deal with it.

MilkInBags.5136:

Columba.9730:

More dungeons. I hate dungeons. It would have nice to acknowledge the near universal disgust at the gear grind.

You don’t have to run dungeons for the gear. You can run it for you know, actually see all the content

I’m looking forward for the changes in WvW as it got pretty boring lately.

Edit: What’s the “Ascended gear fiasco”? Anyone care to explain?

The fiasco is that ArenaNet marketed GW2 on continuing their design philosophy from GW into GW2. Three months after GW2’s release, they go back on that.

They added ascended gear above exotics, so now ascended is the best gear in the game. This is power creep and vertical progression. This goes against their design philosophy.

marnick.4305:

This thread is becoming really funny.

- It is red it’s a ferrarri!!!
- erm no it’s actually a spray-painted citroën 2CV
- your definition of ferrarri is wrong, red cars are always ferrarris!!!

An MMO by definition has a persistent world with multiple parties in it, on the scale of hundreds of potential players, as in ‘massive’. No matter how you turn it, GW1 doesn’t have a persistent combat world, and the cap is 16 is the largest pve area. Hardly massive …

It is multiplayer, it is only, it’s an RPG. It did borrow heavily from MMO-type games however GW was NOT massive.

I wonder who he’s trying to convince and why? What does it mean to him?

Guild Wars is an MMO. It meets the criteria to be one. Get over it.

Loosifah.4739:

I love how you call anyone with a different opinion than you a “vocal minority locust”.

I never asked for this change, I was enjoying the game quite as bit as it was. I’m sure that’s the case for many of the people you refer to as “locusts”. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to enjoy the hell out of a new tier of equipment.

You need to learn to not take life so seriously. Or games for that matter. This new tier of equipment isn’t going to break the game. A game which I might add has only been out for THREE months. They never made a promise that exotic(easy as hell to get) gear was going to be the final stage. So you have to actually do some work if you want to have ascended gear. Buck up kiddo. Expecting to never have anything to progress towards at only 3 months in the game was just stupid on your(and many others) part.

A new tier of gear won’t break the game.

But power creep might. Gated content might. Gear checks might. Grinding a new dungeon might. Vertical progression doesn’t belong in this game, but it’s not difficult to see why it’s now there.

Nexon bought themselves a seat at NCSoft’s table, whose stock value isn’t doing well, and their shareholders aren’t happy.

That probably will break the game.

Kana.6793:

Hydrophidian.4319:

Anet describe it as similar to MMO’s, but with some key differences. They classify it as a CORPG.

Yes, this was specifically addressed in the first post.

Quoting the entirety of the game description doesn’t change anything I’ve stated.

GW1 is a very good multiplayer game, but it’s not an MMO.

The industry and culture disagree with you.

But please provide your alternative definition of an MMO. Citing sources would also be appreciated.

Anet disagree with you and their classification of their own game is the only one that matters. It’s no more an MMO than D3 is.

And by the way, your MMORPG. com list of MMORPG’s includes a number of other games that aren’t MMO’s. I see DOTA 2 on the list. You can’t seriously try to argue that DOTA is an MMORPG as well.

Do you always listen to marketing departments?

DegoLocc.5976:

No long winded wall of text can change the FACT, that Guild Wars 1 is not considered an MMO by most people who know what they’re talking about. CORPG is not MMORPG. They are two different things. Period.

And it’s hilarious to watch people try so hard to say it’s something it’s clearly, very clearly not.

So continue on, I do need the laugh.

What part of it isn’t an MMO? Did you even play the game?

It’s online, allows a massive number of players to play together, and has a persistent world. That’s what an MMO is.

Obsidian.1328:

Not sure why this makes players so angry, it’s a simple formula. I’ll just rehash my last discussion about this to save time.

It’s massive. It’s multiplayer. But it’s not massively multiplayer. By your own definition it’s not an mmo because it’s not a persistent world. Persistent, in a game context, means the game world persists after you log off. gw1 doesn’t do that because there’s no need to…it’s only you and your party in the zone.

Besides, that little “ly” at the end of massive may make it look like an adverb, but it’s really an adjective describing “multiplayer.” And if something is massively multiplayer, then it has hundreds of people inhabiting the same world at the same time.

Now if you want to point to the towns in gw1 as your evidence, well that is your prerogative. I doubt any gamer worth his weight in Doritoes would count 1% of the game, and a non-combat part at that, as evidence for this.

Not sure why this keeps coming up. I mean, I left gw1 because I wanted to play an mmo.

True story: I typed in “coorpg” in my search engine and the first hit was an article about how gw1 isn’t an mmo. Typing in “guild wars mmo” just gave a ton of stuff on this game. :/

So you left an MMO to play an MMO? Interesting. That still doesn’t change the fact that Guild Wars is an MMO. Just because it isn’t World of Warcraft doesn’t change the fact that it’s an MMO.

Persistent world? Check.

Massive number of players playing simultaneously? Check.

Hosted online? Check.

Guild Wars is an MMO.

Ditton.3149:

what they mean is guild wars is not a persistent world which most mmos are. At least that is how I take it and yes its a big difference.

Guild Wars has a persistent world. I don’t think you’ve played.

I entirely disagree.

Their model works just fine. It did throughout the first game. It was working just fine up until last week.

The people who bought the game and got something other than what they expected (a WoW clone) have only themselves to blame.

Content locusts have been demanding hamster wheels since a week after release. ArenaNet didn’t have to give in. They chose to go against their design philosophy and manifesto. It’s their game and it’s their choice. That’s fine.

It’s also my choice never to play or give them my money.

Draven.7210:

Amon.5042:

GREAT communication. Community managers now exist to hush the populace while waiting for the storm to subside and get back to business as usual. GREAT work.

I’ve never felt so thoroughly alienated by a game company. I’m done with ArenaNet. Enjoy the $500 plus I stupidly spent in GW2, plus whatever I spent in GW1 since 2005. Unfortunately I can’t apply for a refund because I stupidly pre-purchased this “thing” on April 10.

Goodbye.

[Moderated]

Some of us are the 53% and have jobs.

Draven.7210:

You guys…seriously need a creative outlet for all this negativity. Livid? Really? You’ve got a hard life ahead of you if you’re this upset about a game lol

Do you live by those words, too?

Neither one can tank since dedicated class roles do no exist in GW2. Both are good at staying alive.

LoreChief.8391:

Tempest.1254:

Yes, but deliberately adding a gear check to the game isn’t the same as me deciding not to party with something because I’ve decided they’re not experienced.

So instead of players being kitten waving elitists, which was bad for the community as a whole, you’re lampooning them for coming up with a legitimate end-all system?

The beauty of the ascended crafting system (which btw only applies to fractals) is that you can’t judge a player to be unworthy of your group for certain tiers of the dungeon if they’ve already met the requirement for it. It takes the power of being a jerk out of the hands of players that would abuse it, and gives it to the creators where they can be selflessly martyred by their own player base. They are not the hero we deserve, but they are the one we need.

Well, considering the game was marketed as having horizontal progression, then yes, there shouldn’t be vertical progression and gear checks.

Mackdose.6504:

Tempest.1254:

AndrewMcLeod.3857:

This is something that existed prior to ascended gear, and was something that we saw happen all the time in GW1, even without any sort of gear progression. Some players, typically people who play the game a lot, tend to only want to play with other players that play like them. They require some sort of proof to get into their party, whether it be displaying your Lightbringer Title, equipping or linking some type of gear, or using some other method of showing that you have already done and are experienced with the content. While ascended gear might be the new excuse, this behavior happens regardless.

While this is not really something that we want to encourage, players do have the choice to play the game in the way they want. We can’t force those players to be all-inclusive in who they invite to the parties they create, and to be honest, doing so would probably make people even more unhappy than they are now, and lead to a lot of undesirable behavior.

Yes, but deliberately adding a gear check to the game isn’t the same as me deciding not to party with something because I’ve decided they’re not experienced. It has to do with why and how a player is included or excluded from playing with others.

If I do it, it’s one thing. If the developer does it, that’s something else entirely.

And if players want the gear check so that they have a reason to keep going as far as they can in a specific game mode? Screw them right?

Yes. I don’t feel sympathy for people who didn’t play Guild Wars or read ArenaNet’s design manifesto.

Aaron.4807:

The fact that Mcloed has just posted in a thread that is basically asking the same questions and worries as this one is proof enough that Anet will never answer us.

His answer was also super vague and NOT what we have heard from Anet all through development.

I would like to always keep this thread pushed to top though, just so new players can see what they are getting into.

Well, he did implicitly confirm the vertical gear progression, which is important. He also ignores that the developer imposing a gear check is not the same as players imposing a gear check on one another.

kKagari.6804:

Which moderator do you think will come in here and tell us this topic has run its course, and that it will be closed, and that they thank you for understanding?

My money is on Ivonne.

Well, the topic would be posted again almost immediately.

I haven’t played LotRO, and I’m sure others here haven’t, either. Can you elaborate on what happened?

Or is it just that they added new content that people didn’t like, they complained, and they undid it?

I still maintain that adding horizontal progression in the form of period updates will still encourage game and gem sales for a longer, more sustainable length of time than vertical progression.

AndrewMcLeod.3857:

This is something that existed prior to ascended gear, and was something that we saw happen all the time in GW1, even without any sort of gear progression. Some players, typically people who play the game a lot, tend to only want to play with other players that play like them. They require some sort of proof to get into their party, whether it be displaying your Lightbringer Title, equipping or linking some type of gear, or using some other method of showing that you have already done and are experienced with the content. While ascended gear might be the new excuse, this behavior happens regardless.

While this is not really something that we want to encourage, players do have the choice to play the game in the way they want. We can’t force those players to be all-inclusive in who they invite to the parties they create, and to be honest, doing so would probably make people even more unhappy than they are now, and lead to a lot of undesirable behavior.

Yes, but deliberately adding a gear check to the game isn’t the same as me deciding not to party with something because I’ve decided they’re not experienced. It has to do with why and how a player is included or excluded from playing with others.

If I do it, it’s one thing. If the developer does it, that’s something else entirely.

Something really bad must’ve happened internally. To go back on their manifesto that’s almost a decade old at this point makes no sense. These events that limit access to all players makes no sense. Nothing makes any sense.

They will be. The direction they took the game in requires it.

Ferguson.2157:

Well I spent about $700 since launch until I got wind of these changes. Anet, NCSoft, and this Nexon will never get another cent from me!

I wonder if their new playerbase will be as generous with their cash as I was. I went out of my way to buy gems as I supported the lies they sold me in their manifesto and wanted a game along those lines to play for seven years or more like I did the original Guild Wars game.

Time to ask for a refund of all that money – for the game and the gems!

I don’t like being lied to, their marketers are running a bait-and-switch scam. I’ve already made formal complaints to the govt agencies who police business practices at state and federal level and I hope they get some nice big fines for their efforts to defraud me.

Wait, what happened with Nexon?

Here’s my posting on the new content.

Enjoy.

Lexicaholic.4718:

This is a worthwhile discussion. Alternatives to power creep:

1. Aesthetic gear and mini-pets.

2. Non-essential consumables (instant res/+ Skill Point consumables that can you can grind for, if you must).

3. Wealth (have gems (as in the real money valued currency) drop in small amounts in high level dungeons).

4. Titles (worked for GW1).

5. Companions (NPCs like heroes in GW1 – they take up a party slot and you can only have one per character – but first you have to complete a ridiculous list of challenges to unlock them or pay ArenaNet).

6. Post 80 bonus rewards for doing lower level content – have lower level content provide level 80 characters with level 80 appropriate drops – this would really make the whole game the endgame. Probably the best option, really.

7. A Karka Mount. Travel Tyria in style, can’t be attacked or attack while on the mount (good for getting from point A to point B in a zone without skirmishing along the way). Costs 10000 Gems or you can grind out an excessive number of rare drops to combine at the Mystic Forge. Doesn’t affect actual combat effectiveness and gives players something to care about working towards. Best way to maximize profit on whales without introducing power creep.

1. If I were them, I would’ve added every max armor set from GW to the gem store as a set of skins.

2. Why the hell didn’t they bring consets back?

3. I actually really like this idea. Even if it’s just a gem per chest per EM path, that’ll still add up.

4. Yup.

5. Hm, honestly I’m not sure. The game isn’t built around a party anymore.

6. Well, drops do scale to your level, but you still get some stuff from the zone’s level.

7. Eh…personally, I don’t like it. Waypoints kinda defeat any desire for mounts.

Ditton.3149:

dimgl.4786:

Ditton.3149:

lothefallen.7081:

There’s so much content that a lot of it is marginalized….

Here’s what i mean. In GW1, unique bosses had elite skills, special drops, areas had quest chains that people knew about, that were easily accessed. People knew where to go for what rewards. There were reasons to re-visit other areas because the game wasn’t just about gear grind. It was about capping skills, vanquishing, titles, etc…

GW2 seems to be ONLY about grinding for gear because the combat is shallow and nobody really cares about areas they’ve already been to. It’s a skinner box. The game is not inherently fun or designed for longevity, it’s designed for people to grind for cosmetics and buy from the cash shop.

There are no unique rewards or skills to cap in GW2…or other things to spread populations. The live updates just trivialize the game because they put everyone on the same hamster wheel rather than immerse you or deepen the gameplay experience. This event just seems like gimmicky filler. There’s no reason to go fight the champion of Balthazar in Orr to get 71 copper and a blue when i can kill a Veteran Karka and get the same loot. This is what i’m talking about.

GW1 was designed very tightly. Now, if Champion of Balthazar dropped a special skin or had an elite skill to capture for warriors or humans because he is the human God of war…people would find longevity in this old content. Fact is…the game systems are trivialized. How many “Commune with generic object” skillpoints before ArenaNet realizes it’s quality over quantity? We dont want more, we want better. We want tighter systems design. We want deep, synergistic, team-oriented combat, we want unique rewards, different engaging things to do with interesting mechanics like skill capping…think on these concepts. Think back on GW1 and why you even had the money to build this game. The players want more GW in their GW2 and less trashy filler patches indicative of a failing MMO like TERA or SWTOR.

Why do you even play man? Im having a blast with my guild and even pugs in this dungeon. This is not GW and they are not going to cater to GW fans, they’ve proven that. So if you dont like it, Im not sure what to tell you.

Seriously? Guild Wars is what gave ArenaNet the funds to make this game in the first place. Really ignorant comment. As far as what the quoted said, I agree 100%. With the game design from Guild Wars everyone wins.

What does that have to do with not liking GW2? This game was made because they took on partners and become subsidized, you dont want Gw2, you want Gw1-2. Its not going to be Gw1-2..ever..so why ask for it to be?

We were told it would be.

Horizontal progression basically refers to different game elements that can’t be directly compared with each other. Vertical progression refers to game elements that can be directly compared with each other.

So, let’s say that the first tier of gear in a game has +10 power. Then, tier two is introduced, and this has +20 power. Tier two is objectively superior to tier one, as 20 is more than 10. This is vertical progression.

But what if tier one is apples and tier two is oranges? Then it’s, well, apples and oranges. Later content introduced to a game doesn’t have to be numerically superior; Instead it can simply expand on the game design elements already in place.

The vast majority of games do this so I don’t understand why people try to act like vertical progression has to be included in a game in this genre.

Between NCSoft’s stock, their decisions to close down one of their games abruptly, and the sudden change in ArenaNet’s design philosophy, I think something very, very bad is happening internally.

Do we have another Funcom on our hands?

Downstairs Eddie.8125:

Mil.3562:

Urrid.4593:

Thoughts on Ascended Gear? [Merged threads] – 10,053 replies 114,938 views.

And no response of real value to date. (Nov 17th.)

Now Arenanet ONLY reply to threads and posts relating to Fractual Dungeon and Ascended Gear.

They are not interested in our feedbacks and concerns. It’s either you continue to play and support them or you quit. That simple.

That’s being unfair. I’m sure they are listening very intently right now. Maybe their silence means they’ve been surprised by the fierce backlash and are currently discussing what to do about it. I hope they make the right decision.

Honestly, I’d love to give them the benefit of the doubt, but compare how they used to communicate with the customers and the community with how it’s been recently.

They used to be very transparent. We know exactly what they intended to do with the game. They used to do AMAs on Reddit and Q&As elsewhere.

Now their posts are full of rhetoric and doublespeak. I don’t think they can say anything.

stpetemermaid.5947:

Ostra.3927:

I cannot I can get a refund for the 3 deluxe copies I bought as I bought them all on the first day of pre order.

But this change in direction has made it so I will not spend another dime and will be taking a break soon from this game.

Went from 3-4 hours a night of casual play, doing sPvP wvw, some dungeon, many alts (between me and the wife we have bought 8 new character slots). to since the announcement 3 hours in 4 days.

Tonight was the first time I have ever logged off a Anet game in a rage because I heard

“LFG FoTM 80+only, no noobs!”

Seriously… my god, these are your dedicated gamers???

My husband and I each play five characters. Spent plenty of RL money on gems. No more.

This weekend we played PvE and personal story. We would like to finish the story on all our characters, but don’t know if we will continue playing that long. It’s hard to be in LA and see the chat messages about LFG.

I spent time today just looking at my lovely ladies and playing with their dyes, because I don’t know how much longer I will be playing them. I spent some time in WvW, because I probably won’t be able to play that much longer once the gear starts hitting there.

I pray to the gods, but they rarely answer…

These are the types of things that break my heart. Lots of people play with their friends, family, and significant others because they want to have fun, not to run on a hamster wheel.

I’m currently logging into my characters for the last time, ankittenep finding excuses to log back in. I’m going to miss what this game was supposed to be about.

Punk.4072:

My thoughts in Ascended gear?
it doesn’t matter you can’t use them at PVP
what are you worry about? the mobs thinking that is unfair you wearing better items?

What are you talking about?

Ascended gear is item progression. You can use it in PvP. You can’t use it in sPvP.

Too bad they changed what the game was supposed to be about.

Glad you’re enjoying the new direction.

It worked for seven years in Guild Wars. It was working in Guild Wars 2.

They went back on their manifesto. They lied.

It’s great that you’re happy with the game now, but Guild Wars was not about this type of gimmicky content, their manifesto made it clear Guild Wars 2 would follow suit, and so this new content goes back on years worth of design philosophy.

Furthermore, there’s a lot to do in this game. If you chose not to do any of it, that doesn’t mean there was nothing to do.

Ssenkra Bloodroot.1028:

This isn’t World of Warcraft.

It basically is now.

Daizengar.9836:

My god, the things people say over a few new items. I’ve never seen crying this pathetic ever, over such kittening little things.

I think you’ve entirely missed the point.

Regizer.1763:

Ravnodaus.5130:

Regizer.1763:

A new tier of gear (1 item) was released that adds a whopping 3 more stats to current best gear. Apparently this a low blow to the community.

This……… is the misinformation to which I was refering….

I dunno, I think that sums up the forums well since the new patch.

Except that information is entirely incorrect. Ascended gear is objectively superior to all other gear in the game. It’s not a difference of three points. It’s a difference of upwards of 12%.

Any swear words are automatically changed to “kitten.”

No, you need it. FotM is the only content worth doing now.

MetalDays.9285:

I enjoyed GW2 very much recreationally, but I stopped playing a while ago awhile at lvl 25 for some reasons:

1. All my friends said the end-game is non-existant. Thats not neccessarily bad – but it didnt meet their expectations.

2. I didnt rly enjoy the pvp…was too confusing and I got overwhelmed with a lot of concepts in the game (like crafting for example)

Now I decided to give it a try again and I see a lot of people are complaining about the new patch. I’m curious, why is that, what has changed so substantionally ?

The endgame is nonexistant because there isn’t supposed to be any.

People are complaining about the new patch because ArenaNet implemented a number of large changes to the game that was explicitly stated they’d never do. They went back on their design philosophy.

Well played, sir.

Of course they will. Do you really think they’d only add one gear? It was made clear this is the beginning of “item progression.”

First, they have to admit their mistake. They have to outline why it was a mistake.

Second, they have to apologize for it.

Third, they have to roll back all of the content that went against their manifesto.

Then I’d consider coming back.

Many of you wanted the elitist, grindy, gear check system. You got it. My thoughts? You got what you asked for. Don’t complain about it.

Osculim.2983:

All doom and gloom. GW2 is going strong and will go on for a long time to come.

Both NCSoft and ArenaNet are in trouble. No, it won’t.

You can’t please everyone. It’s not possible. It’s unfortunate you’ll miss it, but remember that every other event that occurs in the game will be missed by a player somewhere for some reason.

Selon.7056:

Here are two complaints I see all the freaking time:

1) There is nothing to do once you’re level 80.
2) I wanted to get away from gear grinds and just play.

Here is the problem – this is a MMO. The world does not, and will not stay stagnant. You guys can’t have it both ways. You can’t have a game where you get the best gear and then there is nothing to go to from there AND a game that continues to expand on itself by creating new content and, inevitably, gear.

Everyone here is complaining about the POSSIBILITY of a gear grind – why are you complaining? Isn’t this what you guys are so adamant about? “There is nothing to do when I get to 80”. Well you know what? Now there will be. What is it you guys are really looking for from ANet? I’m personally very happy with the game. I feel it has nailed everything that I’m looking for in a MMO. Bring on the content, and bring on more gear and dungeons. Keep on keeping in fresh ANet.

The people complaining about the first point are not the same people complaining about the second point.

The people complaining about the first point didn’t play Guild Wars and didn’t read about ArenaNet’s design philosophy. The people complaining about the second point did play Guild Wars and did read about ArenaNet’s design philosophy.

There is plenty to do at the level cap. There’s also plenty of other things to do before you reach the level cap.

ArenaNet has sold out and gone back on their design philosophy. The complaints are justified and warranted. Loyal fans of the franchise feel lied to and betrayed.

If you don’t like reading about complaints and objections to the new direction ArenaNet is taking this once-wonderful game in, then please don’t read them.

Relentliss.2170:

I bought into the GW2 manifesto. It basically summed up how I was feeling about MMO’s.

Sadly, I see that Anet has lost their integrity and caved into WOW lovers.

This Ascended gear is The gear treadmill they said would never exist in their game. And very few players are happy about it.

This pretty neatly sums up how most people feel about this situation.