Showing Highly Rated Posts By darkace.8925:

The little pastry shop down the street

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

As time went on, the pastry shop proprietor started cutting corners to increase profits. He served pastries that were not fully cooked. He put more effort into selling mugs and plush dolls and tee shirts than he did his pastries. Some of his customers, those who expected more from the proprietor – those who know he was capable of making kitten good pastries – started to question these moves. They implored him to get back to the business of making good pastries.

But a different group of customers, those blinded by loyalty to the pastry shop, didn’t take kindly to this kind of constructive criticism. Where the critics acted reasonably and respectfully, this group dealt in dismissive condescension. They simply would not believe that the pastry shop owner had lost his way, and they wouldn’t tolerate those who did.

So they too gathered in groups, protesting the protestors. If they’d engaged those with whom they disagreed with respect, things might have remained civil. But they were combative and insulting. Those they insulted often replied in kind. And if not for the vigilant peacekeepers policing the streets outside the pastry shop, things might have turned ugly indeed.

On a park bench at the end of the street sat a man looking at his undercooked pastry. He remembered how delicious the pastries were when the shop first opened, and this saddened him. He just couldn’t understand why those who felt the quality of the pastries had worsened since the shop’s grand opening were vilified by those wearing tee shirts and hats with the pastry shop’s logo.

(edited by darkace.8925)

Why do people play anything other than a war?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

For fun.

/15 characters

Why the double Standard on Silk?

in Crafting

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

If you’re asking for a logical reason why the required amount of a material that cannot be harvested is twice that of an equivalent material that can be harvested , I’m afraid there isn’t one.

2nd Birthdays coming up!!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

I’ll be sorely disappointed if all of us get the same mini while an entire 20+ mini collection is added to the cash shop, as was the case last year.

remember, this is a theme park MMO

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

Theme parks live and die by the excitement their attractions provide prospective customers. You haven’t installed a new attraction in quite some time. We’ve rode all the rides in your park. We’ve seen all the attractions in your park. We’re getting bored with the same-old, same-old.

There’s only so many times you, the park owners, can paint the horses on the carousel or change the name of the Cyclone to the Hurricane or the Tornado or the Typhoon before the we, the patrons, grow bored and start looking for entertainment elsewhere. Sure, the band you’ve hired to provide entertainment every Saturday night changes a couple of times a month, and you’re constantly rolling out new merchandise in the kiosks.

But we want…we’re begging for new attractions. As someone who loves your park but finds myself growing increasingly bored with the attractions I’ve already rode a hundred times, I’m pleading with you to give me something new and exciting. Your competitors will soon cut ribbons on their own parks. And while I personally have no interest at all in those parks, there might be a more than a few of your customers who will leave when tempted by something new.

Signed, an increasingly restless fan.

Why do our characters fail so much?

in Battle for Lion’s Arch - Aftermath

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

Because Scarlet’s wearing plot armor.

Please stop nerfing PvE for the sake of PvP

in Profession Balance

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

I’m strictly a PvE player, and twice I’ve had skills rendered virtually useless by changes made for the sake of PvP. The first instance was Hunter’s Shot on Ranger, the second was Unsteady Ground on Elementalist.

With Hunter’s Shot, 10 stacks of Vulnerability was a great opener for some very nice burst against tough enemies. As a Ranger with a longbow, a pet, a Knock Back, and an aoe Cripple, Stealth essentially a wasted slot on my static skillbar. I understand why a PvP Ranger would want it, but for PvE it’s virtually useless.

With Unsteady Ground, Cripple (especially with +Condition Duration gear/food) was great against Veterans and Champions that took longer to kill. That’s been replaced with a wall that blocks targets. That wall is useless against trash mobs since they die so quickly, and it’s useless against Champions since they can simply walk right through it. I understand why a PvP Elementalist would want a wall blocking movement, but for PvE it’s virtually useless.

Remember, we can’t chance our weapon skills; we’re locked into whatever five skills you see fit to give us. This means that when you change a skill to make it useless for PvP, you might be doing so at the expense of those of us who don’t PvP. Short of giving us the flexibility to customize our weapon skills (something I’d very much be in favor of), you’ve got to strive to give us skill changes that will be useful in all areas of the game. As the two above examples illustrate, that’s not something I feel you’ve done well to this point.

What is the advantage of temporary content?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

To instill in you the pressing need to log in so you won’t miss out.

my thoughts on the new dye pack

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

Please note that this isn’t a complaint thread; this is actual, honest feedback that you’re free to consider or disregard as you see fit.

I didn’t buy the Flame and Frost Dye Pack for the same reason I won’t buy this one: rng combined with character-bound dye unlocks. If either of those were not the case – if we had either guaranteed dyes in the packs or if dyes were account bound – I’d have gladly purchased each. But as a man with five “mains” (no alts here) and a completionist, I’m not going to sink money into something that might leave my characters’ dye pallets lopsided or incomplete.

I don’t begrudge the shift from account to character-bound dyes; I understand the reasoning behind it, even if it’s not as player-friendly as the original system was supposed to be. But for me personally, character-bound dyes plus rng dye packs available for a limited time only (as I presume this new pack will be) equals a no buy for me.

That said, the colors (particularly the darker ones) look nice and I do like the idea of themed dye packs, even if I’m not going to buy them.

Who's Idea was it to make it so hard?

in Tequatl Rising

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

Who’s Idea was it to make it so hard?

Ours. We, as a community, have been clamoring for harder PvE content and decrying the ease with which the world bosses were toppled for about a year now.

"you don't need ascended to play the game"

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

This comes up a lot in response to the opposition towards ascended gear, and I think it’s time we discuss it in earnest.

It’s true there is nothing in the game today that function as a gear check requiring full ascended gear (outside high-level Fractals, but I don’t think that counts). But the game is not frozen in time. New content will be added to the game; and this content will either be on or below the same difficulty level as what’s already in the game or it will be more difficult.

There are many players who already feel the difficulty of most (if not all) of the content in this game is too low. Ascended gear will further trivialize much of this content, particularly content in lower-level zones. This is the best case scenario with regards to ascended gear, and it’s not really that great of an option. But it’s better than the alternative.

If new content is made more difficult to account for ascended gear then players are suddenly being…“forced” is too strong of a word, so we’ll go with “pressured” to upgrade. This obviously doesn’t fall in line with the original premise of progression being horizontal or players not being forced to run gear treadmills. This scenario is bad.

The worst case scenario is a slippery-slope argument, combining harder and harder difficulty with more and more new tiers of gear. The promise that this wouldn’t happen is exactly the reason many players got involved with this game in the first place. But as this argument is speculative, we’ll set it aside (for now).

There are other points that might be raised against the “you don’t need ascended gar to play the game” argument; such as WvW one-on-ones or small skirmishes (not full-scale zerg vs zerg battles) or elitists refusing to allow players in dungeon parties unless they’re donning full ascended gear, but I’ll let you guys decide whether or not these are worth including in the discussion.

Now all of these concerns would evaporate instantly if ascended gear was easy to obtain. But making ascended gear easy to obtain defeats the purpose of including it in the first place. It was implemented to give a specific portion of the player base something to work towards. As such, it has intentionally been made a time-consuming endeavor. So giving ascended gear out freely would essentially make it meaningless.

So what do you guys think? Does the prospect of getting better gear without appropriately challenging content sit well with you? Or would you rather the content scale in challenge as gear gets better and better? The former means the “you don’t need ascended gear to play the game” argument remains a valid, but it comes with the risk that the game might stagnant for anyone looking to be challenged; and the latter utterly destroys the “you don’t need it…” argument.

Either way, I feel that particular response to those who are against ascended gear is a shaky one. So I ask those of you who have used the “you don’t need ascended gear to play the game” argument where I’m wrong in my assessment. After reading my post, are you going to stand pat with the “you don’t need ascended gear to play the game” attitude? Or do you now recognize why the addition of ascended gear might be cause for concern?

almost a year in, what are we missing?

in Suggestions

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

The game’s almost a year old now, and we’re still missing some basic quality of life features. A LFG tool is supposedly in the works and the recent Wallet feature was a great addition, but there are still some basic features I’m sure most of us can agree should be in the game.

Buy/Open X
Anyone who has ever had to buy or open a stack of something one item at a time can attest to the tedium and wrist strain that comes in so doing. The option to set our buy quantities or open an entire stack I’m sure would be most welcome by everyone.

Mini-Pet Slot
I’ve seen many players call for a slot to equip specific mini-pets. I don’t personally use them, but I don’t see what harm could come in having a slot for them.

Consumables Slots
Like mini-pets, I’ve seem many players (myself included) request a slot or four so we can hotkey consumables (food, stones/oils/crystals, stuff like Ash Legion Spy Kits, fireworks, etc).

Build Templates
I’ve designed each of my characters to play a specific way, and they’re set in stone. But I’ve seen many players ask for the ability to save different builds so they can change up their playstyle with a minimum of hassle.

Wardrobe
I’m not entirely sure I’m interpreting this request correctly, but I think many players would like a PvE Locker similar to PvP Lockers wherein skins we’ve equipped are added for unlimited use. I don’t know what implications this would have on the economy, but I do see it come up often.

That’s what jumps to mind when I think of quality of life changes we’d all like to see. Have I missed anything?

PS – As race changes, mounts, and account bound dyes aren’t going to happen, so I don’t see any point in including them in this discussion. Similarly, there seems to be as many people against the idea of open world dueling as there are behind it, so I omitted it as well.

entitled players vs skilled players

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

This is going to be a touchy subject, so I’m going to say as little as possible so as to avoid insulting anyone (even though no insult is intended). The number of complaints I’m seeing about Liadri brings to light the conditioned state of (seemingly) most gamers. They want easy, accessible content and they want to be able to complete everything (so as to maximize achievements or loot or just to feel good about themselves).

On the other end of the spectrum are the players who genuinely want to be challenged. The fact that some players have defeated Liadri says she can be defeated. The fact that many players are complaining that she’s an unfair fight says that defeating her requires skill.

That leaves us with two groups of players directly opposed to one another, and the developers cannot – no matter how much they’d like to – please both at once. They’re either going to release content that is easy enough for virtually anyone to complete or they’re going to release challenging content that leaves less-skilled players crying foul. Either way, someone’s going to feel alienated.

I’m of the belief that the game (all games, for that matter) need tougher content that require a greater display of skill to complete. I don’t necessarily like the idea of content being locked behind difficult achievements (this is coming from a guy who had access to Sea in FFXI when that actually meant something), but I have no problems at all with achievements/achievement points or cosmetic items being reserved for the very best players.

The problem arises in the conditioning of players these days. Now I recognize there are many players who fail something like Liadri and say to themselves, “well, I’m just not good enough. Bravo to those who beat her,” and move on with their gaming lives. But these also seems to be a vocal group (who knows how large they actually are?) who believe effort or desire, and not skill, should determine whether or not one is able to accomplish every achievement or obtain every reward. It’s strikes me as a sense of entitlement, and I can see where it would put the developers between a rock and a hard place.

Thoughts? If you respond, please do so in a civil and constructive manner. Thanks.

PS – This thread shouldn’t offense anyone, but these days you never can tell. So I’m sorry if I ruffled any feathers with my post; that was not my intention.

My concerns about farming

in Queen's Jubilee

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

It’s a great move. If you don’t think some speed bumps needed to be added to cof p1 farming, then I’m sorry. But it did need to be done.

how is this even a contest?

in Cutthroat Politics

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

When doing the trial for each candidate Gnashblade says he wants the loot for himself and Kiel says she wants to return the loot to its owner. Why on earth would anyone want to elect Evon Gnashblade to “serve the people”?

And before anyone answers “Abaddon”, would you really rather have a visual representation of lore you’ve known for eight years over a chance to learn something entirely new about the world of Tyria in the Reactor Meltdown?

as a longbow ranger I die a little inside...

in Ranger

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

every time I swap to my greatsword. That I kill things in pve much faster with my masterwork knight’s greatsword than I do with my exotic berserker’s longbow just…well, it doesn’t seem right. It seems like somewhere along the line during development something conceptual didn’t survive the translation to practice and everyone in the room either missed it or was too stubborn to admit it.

What does "casual" mean to you in GW2

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

Casual = It’s all about the journey.
Hardcore = It’s all about the destination.

(edited by darkace.8925)

What did Kormir do as a god?

in Lore

Posted by: darkace.8925

darkace.8925

The same thing she did as a mortal…nothing.