Guild Wars 2

Lheimroo.2947:

And he’s also claimed to have kitted out several characters in full ascended. Which was not introduced entirely 2 years ago, you remember, so he hasn’t had 2 years to do that.

I’m not drawing this conclusion from one datum. Vayne plays a lot.

I reserve the right to filter anything he says about the lack of grind in this game and the accessibility of ascended through that conclusion.

Your conclusion would be correct… Vayne recently posted their in game time at approx. 9500 hours logged in which at the time worked out to about 9.5hours/day, everyday since launch…

I think you’ll find many others who argue along similar lines and who are vocally active on these forums also play a lot, which can lead to an inherent bias in their arguments.

The problem with this is, as the game attempts to cater to this vocal minority and their demands, it tends to shift the bar for everyone else to where the true “casual” is unable to access certain aspects of the game. And while they may just be vanity items or minor gear improvements, attaining these things is a large portion of what the game is based upon and so it can end up isolating a portion of the player base.

In the end it’s the same old argument of time investment vs. reward, and when it’s rewarding it’s not a considered a grind. A large part of the problem here lies in the depth of play, choice (i.e. lack of skills etc.) and replay value which only feeds the grind perception issue. They’ve obviously recognized this as they’re now using it to sell HoT.

Time-gating could also be perceived as grind in slow motion because all it’s doing is slowing down the process over months or even years of grinding something out. Again this only punishes and isolates the casual player who may not log in daily and thus becomes self-defeating to the game itself.

In the end, whether it’s grind or not is a matter of perception, so arguing/debating whether it is or isn’t is somewhat pointless because your essentially saying that another’s perception is wrong. What people should be talking about is something tangible like – Time Investment vs. Reward i.e. what is a reasonable and healthy amount of time required to attain this or that item?

Ask yourself – Why did you WANT to accumulate so much gold in the first place? There is your answer…