Guild Wars 2

I have seen a number of posts regarding the new wallet system working well for people, except with regards to Gold for some (and a few other things here and there), but I wanted to share that although I can understand some of the utility of this, making Karma account-based bugs me quite a bit. For a game emphasizing the personal story so much as to include a tailored opening cinematic at character creation always ending in “This is my story”, Karma was a welcome addition that helped enhance the personal nature of each character’s experience.

I currently have 5 characters, and have been considering additional ones, all of which I consider to be fairly independent and unique. Although I do trade items and gold across them from time to time, Karma was something I considered more personal to each character, and the mechanic supported this. If one character spent more time assisting in local events in their world, they would have more Karma, and more ability to benefit directly from that. I could almost imagine the use of Karma not being so much a handing over of little purple units of something at a shop, but perhaps a conversation with the shopkeeper regarding events, and that character feeling motivated to present the character with a token of appreciation. Now that the mechanic has been pooled, there isn’t any decent way to maintain that sense of personal accomplishment and reward per character, aside from the impractical method of taking notes (I’m not planning on doing that, btw…).

In my opinion, this change makes little sense with regards to what I felt Karma meant in game, and reduced it to simply another currency game mechanic. I’m not going to rant and rave about this, but I wanted to express that I am someone who is taking their time with their characters, trying to gradually experience the unraveling of their personal stories, and am disappointed that this aspect of the game no longer carries the significance that it once did.