Guild Wars 2

No developer can do away with cookie cutter builds. Cookie cutters are a product of player mentality, not game design or coding (at least in a game that offers you choices). There will always be a build that maximizes DPS or survivability and once someone discovers it and posts it, many players will flock to it and make it the “cookie cutter”.

That’s not to say that every combination of traits is ideal or that there are no traits or skills that could use tweaking. That said, how you build is ultimately up to you. If you want to maximize your damage then you have to understand and accept the trade off that you won’t be able to take a hit, or vice-versa. That’s good design.

Most often cookie cutter is the choice of the players, not a shortcoming of the game.

Given a recent experience of mine with getting an RMT mail, I think it absolutely has to be account specific. I deleted a character to try out another class. I gave this character a name I hadn’t yet used on any other and went into the game with him. He had a gold seller mail waiting for him the instant he first appeared in the game world. The only way I can see this is if the mail was sent to the account rather than the character because the character didn’t exist in the game world until that instant.

I’ll admit, as a bit of a disclaimer, that my highest level character is only 41, so I’m prepared to be summarily dismissed by some but here’s what I think on this.

I love the concept of what ArenaNet is trying to do with “endgame”. In fact, it’s their approach here that convinced me to plunk down my $60 when every MMO I’ve ever tried has ultimately proven to me that MMO isn’t really my genre of game, What I see here is an attempt to make a game in which the reason to do something is because you actually want to do it. You do it because it’s fun for you. This is a novel concept in the realm of MMO gaming. In other games the reason to do something is the carrot on a stick that the developer dangles in front of you by way of new shiny gear to help rofl-stomp the people who failed the inevitable “gear check” that getting said shiny presented. This game’s “end game” is about having fun, not racing to the largest ego, in my opinion. This also offers the secondary effect of never making any part of the game functionally irrelevant because the treadmill keeps you locked into only the newest zone added to the game.

I respect the OP’s point of view, I just don’t share it. As a far more casual player, and one who enjoys tackling personal in game goals without having to spend 3 weeks trying to find a group of people whom I can tolerate and who will put up with me, I find GW2’s approach to be brilliant.

-EDIT-

Ahh… So that’s what this whole “kitten” thing is about.

Is there a way in game I’ve not yet found to easily report the mail spam I keep getting from gold sellers?