Guild Wars 2

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

IndigoSundown.5419:

These complaints should be a wake-up call for ANet. No matter what, if one group is complaining about something, they fix it for that group, a different group is going to get angry.

That said, either complaint, in my mind, is a poster child for the meme: First World Problems.

They’ve had this wake-up call several times in just the past year that I’ve been playing. It doesn’t seem to be waking them. They still release global changes to please one group at the expense of another without seemingly giving any thought to making it optional. But maybe repetition will eventually get the call through.

I suspect the thinking on this one was, “If we change this to suit these people, why would anyone else complain?” The answer is, “Someone will always complain.”

These complaints should be a wake-up call for ANet. No matter what, if one group is complaining about something, they fix it for that group, a different group is going to get angry.

That said, either complaint, in my mind, is a poster child for the meme: First World Problems.

Artorius.6178:

DoctorDing.5890:

If there is one category of complaint that consistently puzzles me it is the inventory stuff. I just don’t get why so many folks care so passionately about their bag layout. Surely it is a minor irritation at worst. I just have one “fixed” bag with the keys and consumables in and then treat the rest like a big bucket. I salvage, sell and deposit stuff then hit “compact” to make it neat. It just does not seem that important. <scratches head>

For me it’s purely an irritation of where I expect a specific tool to be, like my Salvage-o-Matic, as a result of this I’m now constantly porting to the HoM because it’s portal stone is now where I normally had my salvager.

Surely those two items are in your shared slots and so have not moved? Anyhow, I fully support everyone’s’ right to be upset. I’m just a bit surprised at the intensity of it.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Lol.

It was put in because of the opposite complaints from people that didn’t like how it rearranged their inventory ordering.

Which is why it should have been an option. But I show bags so I see no difference. But there are people who are thanking ANet for the change with the minor gripe about needing to rearrange their inventory again.

How about just coloring the icons using the same basic scheme we recognize from loot rarity?

Novice – Grey
Initiate – White
Apprentice – Blue
Journeyman – Green
Adept – Yellow
Master – Gold
Grandmaster – Pink

Tentonhammr.7849:

Makai.3429:

TexZero.7910:

Forestnator.6298:

Splitting skills for PvP and PvE seems to be fine for most of you. It may not be an issue if you only play PvE. It also may not be an issue if you only play PvP.

It is indeed an issue if you play PvE and PvP and both with multiple classes. The required skill knowledge increases drastically and ends up frustrating.

Also remember how confusing and unclear this will be for new players.

Don’t think in that limited mind please: just form your point of only playing one mode.

Please speak for yourself. You might end up frustrated and confused, but lets be real here. To think all new players are mentally deficient is a bad way to go about setting precedence for “balance”.

Balance should be done around the high end of every mode of play. Yes, this increases the “burden of knowledge” but that ultimately creates a healthier state as people have more information as a whole.

Thank you. I find this coddling mentality demeaning to all players.

You mean the players who don’t know how CC works? Who can’t execute a breakbar against the Shatterer or any of the Wyverns? The overwhelming majority who spam buttons at any open world event? The fair number who do the same in pug fractals and dungeons and raids every single day? You really don’t think Anet has justification for dumbing down the game when people can’t even handle dodging?

The playerbase can blame itself for this as much as a lack of dev resources.

These people existed in GW1 and their split worked just fine. Dumb people are no new circumstance in gaming.

That’s the whole point of playing a game; you get better over time. It’s awful that some designers are seeing this as an obstacle rather than a feature and opting for removing any complexity out of a game to turn their cash cow into some Facebook game.

Makai.3429:

TexZero.7910:

Forestnator.6298:

Splitting skills for PvP and PvE seems to be fine for most of you. It may not be an issue if you only play PvE. It also may not be an issue if you only play PvP.

It is indeed an issue if you play PvE and PvP and both with multiple classes. The required skill knowledge increases drastically and ends up frustrating.

Also remember how confusing and unclear this will be for new players.

Don’t think in that limited mind please: just form your point of only playing one mode.

Please speak for yourself. You might end up frustrated and confused, but lets be real here. To think all new players are mentally deficient is a bad way to go about setting precedence for “balance”.

Balance should be done around the high end of every mode of play. Yes, this increases the “burden of knowledge” but that ultimately creates a healthier state as people have more information as a whole.

Thank you. I find this coddling mentality demeaning to all players.

Remember when they released the NPE? The entire excuse anet gave us was that they thought the game was too hard for new players, it was an extremely insulting statement to make but they made it none the less. It is clear that they still think their player base is too stupid to understand simple concepts.

TexZero.7910:

Forestnator.6298:

Splitting skills for PvP and PvE seems to be fine for most of you. It may not be an issue if you only play PvE. It also may not be an issue if you only play PvP.

It is indeed an issue if you play PvE and PvP and both with multiple classes. The required skill knowledge increases drastically and ends up frustrating.

Also remember how confusing and unclear this will be for new players.

Don’t think in that limited mind please: just form your point of only playing one mode.

Please speak for yourself. You might end up frustrated and confused, but lets be real here. To think all new players are mentally deficient is a bad way to go about setting precedence for “balance”.

Balance should be done around the high end of every mode of play. Yes, this increases the “burden of knowledge” but that ultimately creates a healthier state as people have more information as a whole.

Thank you. I find this coddling mentality demeaning to all players.

Sylent.3165:

Obtena.7952:

Sylent.3165:

DeanBB.4268:

Belinda’s GS was available recently, like last month.

It was at the end of February while I was on vacation and missed it.

So now apparently I may need to wait another year for this skin which is annoying

So wait … Anet doesn’t want your money because you went on a vacation when they planned to sell limited time items? I guess you forgot to send them your schedule!

No, anet does not want my money because right now I am trying to give it to them and they refuse to sell goods that are wanted

Those goods aren’t available. Maybe if you give them your schedule, they will work around it for you.

skigorn.7910:

I’ve monitored the exchange rate for the last 8 months or so, and typically it spikes as new items hit the store, but gradually comes down in a couple days. It simply isn’t coming down.

A few months ago I exchanged at a rate of 65 gold to 400 gems. Recently it hasn’t gotten below 92 gold for 400 gems and tends to stay near 100g for 400 gems.

I suspected that Anet tinkered with the base exchange rate as part of “inflation”. I guess there could be other reasons but I don’t see those reasons as affecting the exchange that much. I’d expect to see a gradual increase but not a spike in a short period that stays near that peak level for several weeks (and counting).

Not necessarily.

As mentioned before WvW activity has picked back up and that could mean that players are moving from one server to another and if guilds are doing it, they are likely footing the bill for the moving and that could be by giving players gold so that they can convert to gems to transfer to the lower populated linked server. Which would keep prices steady if the store doesn’t have anything new leading non-WvW players to convert.

Major Domo.9250:

Kasima.8143:

Major Domo.9250:

The price is what it is because everyone has the same slow but reliable access, some players must have it all RIGHT THIS BLOODY INSTANT

As opposed to waiting 2 years to get enough through dailies for an HoT legendary. Yeah, that’s some delayed gratification issue right there.

A+ argument.

Not.

Scenario: If the HoT legendaries required 250 laurels to craft, that would be a serious problem. But with the coins being tradable, the majority (estimate?) of players that don’t want a legendary are free to sell them to those that do.

Considering the total cost of crafting materials for these things, the mystic coins are only a tiny fraction – Like dropping $200k for a Ferrari then complaining most loudly about the cost of gasoline.

Most players when they think long term goals for a game, don’t think 2+ years unless they’re super super casual and know they won’t play the game long enough at each session for enough days to make anything less than 2 years reasonable.

But for the average player who doesn’t want to buy anything and do it all by themselves, 2+ years to get enough mystic coins is a bit ridiculous.

That doesn’t mean they need to become as common as they were before the change. They could put it as one of the monthly options to get more coins. Or up the frequency of daily forger or increase the quantities received from daily forger or from the mystic coin daily rewards. Or add it as a rare drop from map completion like BLTC keys (add it to it, not reduce the chances of getting a key) – like if you have a 5% chance of getting a key, you now have 5% of getting a key and 95% to get a transmutation charge, 5% of getting a mystic coin, 90% to get a transmutation charge.

Shiera.3152:

I feel I should point out here that there are uses for Mystic coins other than legendaries and ‘Skins’. One which is actually useful.

Agony Infusions.

As somebody who is trying to up their daily fractal level I am trying to give one of my characters a full set of Agony Infusions, since I want to perfect my stats I’m going for the Mystic Forge Infusions (Resilient and Malign Infusions) rather than the ones bought with Laurels or fractal relics or WvW tokens.
[snip]
If I play my way I’m being limited in my ability to play end-game content (fractals).. or I’m being FORCED to buy them off the tp? This is why they need to be changed, because neither of those are good options.

First off, you’re limiting yourself, because you will need 7 versatile simple infusions in all your gear, not +5AR/5stat. If you have Resilient/Malign in all your gear, you will be down by 28 AR (6 armor slots, 2 slots per weapon set, 6 for back/rings/accessories) and the only way to get to 150AR would be to take from the agony slots in your backpiece and rings. And +16s are WAY more expensive than +11s.

Second, not having +90 of a stat is hardly limiting your ability to play end-game content. Food buff + fractal potions + a combat booster or two if you feel like you need it for the higher levels.

All that said, I’d be happy to see the ability to spend relics/pristine relics on turning 7 simple infusions into +7AR/7stat…

Malediktus.9250:

insanemaniac.2456:

Malediktus.9250:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Players can get obsidian shards from there at a rate of 1 commendation for 5 shards. Sometimes the large bag is available letting you get 10 shards per commendation. I don’t see anyone making a fuss about them being available from a guild vendor.

Not every system added will be available to all players. If it were map rewards then players who don’t have the time to farm events would be left out. It also doesn’t help that the coins would likely not be that plentiful to begin with or as frequently available.

Anyone can be a member of a guild that does guild missions. It’s just one other source that can affect a larger percentage of the playerbase while giving them another reason to do guild missions.

It also allows players to get more mystic coins than from map rewards or increased daily frequency. There are several timegated in place to prevent a sudden flooding of the market and we can be sure that there will be future recipes that require them putting a strain on supply. If the price drops too much, Anet just has to release a new recipe for a skin that requires 50-100 mystic coins.

Oby shards are available everywhere. It’s a waste of commendations to buy them. I horfed up 200k karma on a whim to buy them. Oby shards are not equivalent.

Just because guilds are available, it doesn’t mean that’s a good place to put that extra content. A person who can’t do map rewards isn’t going to have time for guild missions either.
“Okay everyone here? Bob’s not here. Let’s wait for Bob.”
“brbbio”
“Ready check?”
“Okay, at trek location, anyone else showing up? I’ll wait.”
“Is everyone done with race? No, okay every help with race.”

Missions are not as fast as you think them to be.

Mystic Coins would be better served in a more generalized location. Laurel, Pact, Karma vendors, whatever. Even as map rewards, it would serve the population better as a windfall to everyone participating than locking it behind guild membership. Not a terribly difficult lock, honestly, but there are a lot of guilds that just aren’t.. good. I’m lucky I found a few that are pleasant and drama free.

As I stated before, guild missions take about an 1-1.5 hours to do and you get 12-15 commendations. How long does it take to complete one full cycle of map rewards? You’d probably only have like 3 or so coins available per cycle.

The problem with what you’re suggesting is that you will flood the supply with them.

Don’t quibble just to quibble. I already said a once/day purchase, so please actually read.

Where the details differ is in the currency. I’d actually be leery of having Mystic Coins as map rewards, there are several other currencies available to all players, and that’s what should be used to promote extra purchases.

Noted above, Chris has a strong point and some internal data to back it up. Which means it’s likely ANet is going to do some further data collection and decide what to do from there.

Malediktus.9250:

I enjoy the high price of mystic coins

I’ll admit to being selfish here. I sell more coins than I use, so I’m not exactly eager to lower their value. [/disclaimer]

Still, we could stand to have a secondary, limited acquisition system in place. As it is right now, we get 20/month. That alone has me re-thinking any sort of vendor purchase, even with daily purchase controls.

Major Domo.9250:

A psychologist would be giddy over this instant- versus delayed-gratification scenario..

- A tradable item that every player basically has equal access to, regardless of skill level
- Said item gives no real mechanical advantage, only used in luxury/vanity crafting
- Only two acquisition methods – the slow faucet (free) or the trading post (market value)

The price is what it is because everyone has the same slow but reliable access, some players must have it all RIGHT THIS BLOODY INSTANT, and some others see this as an opportunity to profit off of group A’s indifference and group B’s impatience. A unloads an otherwise worthless item for gold, B gets the latest greatest shiny, and C reminds us of something about fools and their money.

Somewhere out there, John Smith is giggling and adding another chapter to his book.

/2copperstakeitorleaveit

That’s the basics of it, is it not? :P

The sudden siphoning of coins isn’t entirely cosmetic, as Legendary weapons and the elite spec Ascended require them, and those are best-in-slot gear. Not to say you can’t get BiS by other means, but it does have a mild power component.

If people need more coins they should buy more accounts. I got 30 accounts so I produce way more coins than I can use for myself

and how long does it take you to log in to 30 accounts?

20min per day if i dont get too distracted by other stuff

So I take it that you make over 2K gold per month from all of your accounts by simply logging in every day?

mtpelion.4562:

TexZero.7910:

mtpelion.4562:

TexZero.7910:

mtpelion.4562:

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

Flipping is an important part of the TP.

It’s also an innate problem with the current state of the TP, that is being abused by the minority.

So, why not fix said issue ?

How is it a problem?

How is flipping to manipulate market cost not a problem ?

Why is it that the most profitable way to play the game, is in playing the market and not the game itself. Had this discussion before, the trading post needs to be treated less like commodities exchange more like a centralized trade hub especially considering there is no point to point trade.

Every single player is now getting more gold for their Mystic Coins which they are given for free. That doesn’t sound like a problem to me.

Implying every single player is selling them which is part of the problem.

If everyone was selling the market would bottom out at the 2 silver mark they used to be. Though that issue was due to the surplus being generated which was fixed by removing them from the daily and monthly rewards and by adding more sinks for them in new legendaries / recipes.

Implying nothing. Every single player can now sell them for more gold per coin. Some players choose not to sell. Some players choose not to wait and pay a premium for saving time. Instant Gratification is the driving force behind all virtual economies. The price isn’t high because of any problem, it is high because many players want their item right now.

Yeah, gee heaven forbid people want something now in a game.
The driving problem with virtual economies is they try to mimic real life ones, which has never proven to be healthy for any game. Sometimes i do wonder if the “economist” do realize this simple principal.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

khani.4786:

I’d be using a whole lot more mystic coins if they weren’t so expensive….

That might be part of the reason ANet is comfortable with the current prices. These are used in the mystic forge to produce luxury items, so they represent an interesting way to allow small portions of wealth to switch from the 10% to the 90%.

Trust me…I know. I’ve made both shoulders (Wintersday & Halloween) plus 12 legendaries and have plans to make others. I’ve also done all of the specialization weapon collections which means I made all the mystic weapons I was missing. I’m out of mystic coins and need more before I can make the other things I want. I don’t want to pay current TP prices and as such I’m stalled or forced to pay more than I think I should for them. I can’t force people to lower the price so I either pay the price or don’t buy them…so right now I don’t buy them.

Malediktus.9250:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

Players can get obsidian shards from there at a rate of 1 commendation for 5 shards. Sometimes the large bag is available letting you get 10 shards per commendation. I don’t see anyone making a fuss about them being available from a guild vendor.

Not every system added will be available to all players. If it were map rewards then players who don’t have the time to farm events would be left out. It also doesn’t help that the coins would likely not be that plentiful to begin with or as frequently available.

Anyone can be a member of a guild that does guild missions. It’s just one other source that can affect a larger percentage of the playerbase while giving them another reason to do guild missions.

It also allows players to get more mystic coins than from map rewards or increased daily frequency. There are several timegated in place to prevent a sudden flooding of the market and we can be sure that there will be future recipes that require them putting a strain on supply. If the price drops too much, Anet just has to release a new recipe for a skin that requires 50-100 mystic coins.

Oby shards are available everywhere. It’s a waste of commendations to buy them. I horfed up 200k karma on a whim to buy them. Oby shards are not equivalent.

Just because guilds are available, it doesn’t mean that’s a good place to put that extra content. A person who can’t do map rewards isn’t going to have time for guild missions either.
“Okay everyone here? Bob’s not here. Let’s wait for Bob.”
“brbbio”
“Ready check?”
“Okay, at trek location, anyone else showing up? I’ll wait.”
“Is everyone done with race? No, okay every help with race.”

Missions are not as fast as you think them to be.

Mystic Coins would be better served in a more generalized location. Laurel, Pact, Karma vendors, whatever. Even as map rewards, it would serve the population better as a windfall to everyone participating than locking it behind guild membership. Not a terribly difficult lock, honestly, but there are a lot of guilds that just aren’t.. good. I’m lucky I found a few that are pleasant and drama free.

As I stated before, guild missions take about an 1-1.5 hours to do and you get 12-15 commendations. How long does it take to complete one full cycle of map rewards? You’d probably only have like 3 or so coins available per cycle.

The problem with what you’re suggesting is that you will flood the supply with them.

Don’t quibble just to quibble. I already said a once/day purchase, so please actually read.

Where the details differ is in the currency. I’d actually be leery of having Mystic Coins as map rewards, there are several other currencies available to all players, and that’s what should be used to promote extra purchases.

Noted above, Chris has a strong point and some internal data to back it up. Which means it’s likely ANet is going to do some further data collection and decide what to do from there.

Malediktus.9250:

I enjoy the high price of mystic coins

I’ll admit to being selfish here. I sell more coins than I use, so I’m not exactly eager to lower their value. [/disclaimer]

Still, we could stand to have a secondary, limited acquisition system in place. As it is right now, we get 20/month. That alone has me re-thinking any sort of vendor purchase, even with daily purchase controls.

Major Domo.9250:

A psychologist would be giddy over this instant- versus delayed-gratification scenario..

- A tradable item that every player basically has equal access to, regardless of skill level
- Said item gives no real mechanical advantage, only used in luxury/vanity crafting
- Only two acquisition methods – the slow faucet (free) or the trading post (market value)

The price is what it is because everyone has the same slow but reliable access, some players must have it all RIGHT THIS BLOODY INSTANT, and some others see this as an opportunity to profit off of group A’s indifference and group B’s impatience. A unloads an otherwise worthless item for gold, B gets the latest greatest shiny, and C reminds us of something about fools and their money.

Somewhere out there, John Smith is giggling and adding another chapter to his book.

/2copperstakeitorleaveit

That’s the basics of it, is it not? :P

The sudden siphoning of coins isn’t entirely cosmetic, as Legendary weapons and the elite spec Ascended require them, and those are best-in-slot gear. Not to say you can’t get BiS by other means, but it does have a mild power component.

If people need more coins they should buy more accounts. I got 30 accounts so I produce way more coins than I can use for myself

and how long does it take you to log in to 30 accounts?

Chris Cleary.8017:

Most of this price increase revolves around players that are pushing the value up due to the players willingness to pay more. If players are willing to pay more for an item, it’s going to keep increasing until eventually it hits a ceiling for the commodity. We’ve seen the same thing occur with numerous commodities over time.

Right now there is a consistent supply of mystic coins entering the game (way more than are being consumed) and churning through the trading post at a very slow rate. Most of the coins on the market are ones that have been flipped.

In retrospect, this is actually causing the daily login reward to be worth significantly more to players who wish to convert mystic coins to gold.

Chris, the economy is getting out of hand. Casual players like myself are being left behind, unable to fully enjoy game content. You NEED to consider all players, not just full timers playing 4-8 hours a day. Casual players want to craft stuff too. Casual players want to get into fractals and Raids too. I cant earn enough gold to enjoy this game anymore.

This is the only game I’ve ever played that made me feel bad when I play I ‘feel’ poor which is a horrible feeling. Too much pressure to earn gold. I feel a pressure to grind gold 6 out 7 days a week. I cant “earn” anything. I can only grind gold and buy materials at inflated prices. Guild Wars 2 feels like work now. Actually, its worse than real work cause I get nothing tangible like money. Arena Net’s screwing around with drop rates and recipes has been a disaster for casual and new player. I don’t have hope either. I dont think I’ll be logging in anymore. Womp Womp.

mtpelion.4562:

TexZero.7910:

mtpelion.4562:

TexZero.7910:

Ayrilana.1396:

Flipping is an important part of the TP.

It’s also an innate problem with the current state of the TP, that is being abused by the minority.

So, why not fix said issue ?

How is it a problem?

How is flipping to manipulate market cost not a problem ?

Why is it that the most profitable way to play the game, is in playing the market and not the game itself. Had this discussion before, the trading post needs to be treated less like commodities exchange more like a centralized trade hub especially considering there is no point to point trade.

Every single player is now getting more gold for their Mystic Coins which they are given for free. That doesn’t sound like a problem to me.

Implying every single player is selling them which is part of the problem.

If everyone was selling the market would bottom out at the 2 silver mark they used to be. Though that issue was due to the surplus being generated which was fixed by removing them from the daily and monthly rewards and by adding more sinks for them in new legendaries / recipes.

Dinks.2478:

Blude.6812:

Ranael.6423:

As always, the dose makes the poison. I’m sure if you AFK farm for 20 mins-1 hour from time to time because you are bringing kids to school, cooking, have stomach disorders… it is OK. But if you spend nights and days camping one spot while AFK farming you engage an alarm in the system which can detect how much you move Vs how much you loot.
.

I have to disagree, if you are AFK to deal with other issues, then go somewhere else (home , lions etc, a camp in the same map ). No problems with that. But, if you are AFK farming, regardless of the excuses (not reasons) farmers make, then let the warnings fall, followed by the escalating bans if the behavior continues.

lol no… if I need to run afk I am not going to just leave the map I am in. And if my minions decide to kill kitten while I am off doing whatever I had to do that isn’t my fault.

Read carefully, I also said a camp in the same map. So it appears to be another excuse from you IF you are farming.
Plenty of places to move to without leaving the map and controlling your minions and pets.

Dinks.2478:

lol no… if I need to run afk I am not going to just leave the map I am in. And if my minions decide to kill kitten while I am off doing whatever I had to do that isn’t my fault.

It’s a standard mmo practice that if you’re going AFK, you go to a safe-spot… especially if you know you’ll be afk longer than a bio. It doesn’t matter how you choose to do it: going to a waypoint where mobs don’t spawn, porting to your home instance, or even logging out to character select.

Yeah, there’s going to be exceptions, but they are just that: exceptions… it’s not the norm nor the expected norm.

If your minions are killing stuff while you’re afk then it IS your fault. You chose to stay where mobs spawn and you chose to have minions out (you can always toggle Flesh of the Master to kill all your minions) FULLY KNOWING how your minions behave.

~EW

All these responses along the lines of “But the game mechanics allow me to do this” make me facepalm.

When I play the game, I play it “as intended”. I chat, I complete events, complete achievements, etc. I think there’s a very big grey area somewhere between that, and botting which players seem to think is acceptable and for whatever reason will swear blind that it’s an acceptable and legitimate way to play the game just because it’s not specifically prohibited within the rules.

I have one thing to say to these people.

“Why do you feel like you have to play the game within the rules, but pressed right up against the rules to such a point of obscurity that noone is even sure what is acceptable any more?”

If the answer back is anything other than “I want to Bot but I’m too much of a wimp to actually Bot so I’m going to get as close to it as I can, so long as it’s ‘within’ the rules” then it’s … well, it’s basically a lie, isn’kitten

No sympathy for afk farmers whether (ab)using the mechanics of your class (necro/ranger).

Anet previously said wrt. multi boxing etc that you must actively play on your computer and I think you are in violation of that if you deem it ok to afk while letting something occur in game that passively plays for you.

Sartharina.3542:

They are fixing it, by suspending violators of the ToS. NONE of the situations you mentioned actually happen, because the game has an automatic inactivity kick (Which they really should fix to kick any lack of keyboard input, instead of counting pet/autoattack inputs)

Currently it doesn’t actually care about keyboard input. -_-

I had the message come up from standing around chatting with my guild but didn’t do anything else.

As always, the dose makes the poison. I’m sure if you AFK farm for 20 mins-1 hour from time to time because you are bringing kids to school, cooking, have stomach disorders… it is OK. But if you spend nights and days camping one spot while AFK farming you engage an alarm in the system which can detect how much you move Vs how much you loot.
Once you got spotted, the autoban must have kicked in and while you are not using third party program you are also not actively playing so a suspension seems right.
As always, it is better to not think of ourselves higher than what we are and extract some GM sentences and transform them so that we can cheat the system. The system will always win.

Batelle.1680:

Errr…that’s not what it says at all? It says that the AFK farming that they were doing isn’t bannable (which…they weren’t banned) but it is something that gets reported, either through their own internals or by players, and that they should avoid it in the future because if it gets reported again, they can be suspended again.

While it isn’t a bannable offense, it is apparently a breach of the Rules of Conduct, or else OP wouldn’t have gotten a 24h suspension.

In GW2 getting reported by internal mechanisms or players is never enough to warrant a ban, suspension or any action against that account by itself.

BunjiKugashira.9754:

I think what actually confused a lot of people was Michael’s reply to the opening post:

DragOneve.2359:

I’ve been seeing some rangers camped on a mob spawn letting their pet kill enemies for them, is this considered a form of botting? I know the players are AFK cause they have been there for a couple of hours.

Michael Henninger.7451:

This is allowed behavior; as it was designed to function that way.

This can easily be misunderstood as “AFK farming is allowed behavior; as it was designed to function that way.”. Well, now we got the new answer and all older ones are overwritten…

People are just reading the post wrong. The dev was referring to the part about whether the player could use pets to kill for them.

Customer: “Your new titanium bat is very durable and does not break upon impact with the hardest of objects. My angry ex has been hitting me nonstop with it.”

Company: “It was designed to function this way.”

Obviously the company rep is referring to the first part. People are just assuming that an omission means permission.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

Wow, OP, that message looks like it came from GM Hillary Clinton.

It essentially says “we know you didn’t technically do something wrong, but we still don’t like what you did and therefore we are now lying to intimidate you into not doing it again because we can’t make our game work properly”.

Good times…

Errr…that’s not what it says at all? It says that the AFK farming that they were doing isn’t bannable (which…they weren’t banned) but it is something that gets reported, either through their own internals or by players, and that they should avoid it in the future because if it gets reported again, they can be suspended again.

Basically, OP did do something wrong. They knowingly AFK farmed. They protested their suspension on the grounds that they didn’t use 3rd party software, but they were still doing something that violates Anet policy. The GM response merely points out the fact that, regardless of what the OP thought they were or were not doing, at the very least it mimicked an actionable offense to the point that they took action, as is their right.

Making an item limited in availability somehow makes it more desirable. It’s part of our psychology. Which is part of the reason retail stores have limited time sales. They have the item in stock for forever, and it’s not moving much. Put it on sale, and they dramatically reduce their stock. Not only is it a cheaper price (although the company still makes out great on sales), but it’s suddenly in focus. Although the stocking and lower price isn’t an issue in a digital format, the effect is the same.
People do want Belinda’s Greatsword skin. But if it was always available I believe it wouldn’t sell as well. Put it on a limited time for availability, it not only calls attention to it, but it creates a sense of urgency, thus prompting those who might have been on the fence to decide to but it, because they won’t get another chance for a while.
So financially, if said item was always available you’d might have a couple dozen a month buying it. Whereas in a limited sale, you get far more people at once than you’d get over a 3 month period.
As for new players who have money to spend, they see the item in game and want it. Thus increasing anticipation for when said item comes out, resulting in even more sales.
It’s all carefully calculated to provide the best opportunity for sales.