Guild Wars 2

Draknar.5748:

Things that people claimed weren’t casual friendly pre-HoT:

Fractals (3 mini dungeons plus a boss?! I don’t have time for that I play 20min a day, I’m casual!)
Dungeons (I can’t get into a group because I don’t have zerk gear and I don’t speedrun! I’m casual!)
World completion (why do we have to do WvW for world completion, I’m casual, I don’t like PvP!)
Story-mode finale (I need a group to finish the story?! what the heck Anet! I’m too casual for that!)
Living Story S1 (these LS events are timed?! You’re saying I can’t do all of the achievements within the 2 weeks if I only play 10min a day?! I’m casual, wtf ANET!
Living Story S2 (wtf Anet, I didn’t log in when these were released because I’m super casual, and now you want me to grind gold so I can trade for gems? I’m casual! I don’t have the time nor money to do this!)
Dailies (Whoa, Anet, look at how long it’s taking to do these dailies! And I have to do it to get laurels?! I’m only on for 2min a day! I can’t possibly get all of this AP that you are forcing me to get! Make it casual friendly!)

I think a lot of people think that casual friendly means everything needs to be able to be completed quickly or easily. A casual player does not imply a bad player, it implies someone that plays at their own, typically slow, pace. Being able to do things at your own pace: that’s the definition of being casual friendly.

In GW2 you can do literally everything at your own pace (minus holiday events, as those are time limited). That is casual friendly. Raids is the only area that I would say has the biggest obstacle to casual players, and that’s getting a 10man group together.

I’d love to hear what exactly in GW2 you couldn’t do at your own, casual, pace.

If something takes a long time, it doesn’t mean it isn’t casual friendly, it just means it will take longer to complete, but it can still be 100% casual.

People claimed crafting legendaries wasn’t casual, but I can assure you I crafted two from scratch, casually, over the course of 2 years. Some days I felt like working towards a requirement, some days I didn’t. I dictated the pace I completed things. THAT IS CASUAL.

/thread

Seriously I think I am going to copy this and paste it whenever someone brings up this “once upon a time in GW2” or “HoT too hardcorez” threads.

The core game people had tons of complaints about things not being casual enough for them. I have come to the conclusion since the release of HoT that many players of this game just wanted another Fallout or Skyrim where they can set the difficulty extremely low, mod anything challenging out, and just watch Netflix while they chase butterflies/radioactive butterflies and their numbers go up.

progressquest.com <- This is the ultimate game for those players. SO MUCH PROGRESS!

Things that people claimed weren’t casual friendly pre-HoT:

Fractals (3 mini dungeons plus a boss?! I don’t have time for that I play 20min a day, I’m casual!)
Dungeons (I can’t get into a group because I don’t have zerk gear and I don’t speedrun! I’m casual!)
World completion (why do we have to do WvW for world completion, I’m casual, I don’t like PvP!)
Story-mode finale (I need a group to finish the story?! what the heck Anet! I’m too casual for that!)
Living Story S1 (these LS events are timed?! You’re saying I can’t do all of the achievements within the 2 weeks if I only play 10min a day?! I’m casual, wtf ANET!
Living Story S2 (wtf Anet, I didn’t log in when these were released because I’m super casual, and now you want me to grind gold so I can trade for gems? I’m casual! I don’t have the time nor money to do this!)
Dailies (Whoa, Anet, look at how long it’s taking to do these dailies! And I have to do it to get laurels?! I’m only on for 2min a day! I can’t possibly get all of this AP that you are forcing me to get! Make it casual friendly!)

I think a lot of people think that casual friendly means everything needs to be able to be completed quickly or easily. A casual player does not imply a bad player, it implies someone that plays at their own, typically slow, pace. Being able to do things at your own pace: that’s the definition of being casual friendly.

In GW2 you can do literally everything at your own pace (minus holiday events, as those are time limited). That is casual friendly. Raids is the only area that I would say has the biggest obstacle to casual players, and that’s getting a 10man group together.

I’d love to hear what exactly in GW2 you couldn’t do at your own, casual, pace.

If something takes a long time, it doesn’t mean it isn’t casual friendly, it just means it will take longer to complete, but it can still be 100% casual.

People claimed crafting legendaries wasn’t casual, but I can assure you I crafted two from scratch, casually, over the course of 2 years. Some days I felt like working towards a requirement, some days I didn’t. I dictated the pace I completed things. THAT IS CASUAL.

Exactly where are you forced by the game to need ascended to do content other than high level fractals? Player created requirements do not count. I could require all players to fight with pink armor but that doesn’t mean it’s actually required for that content.

You can complete all content, other than raids, in whatever build that you want. Everything on the HoT maps can now be done in whatever build you want. Every class can complete any of the HoT content. I’ve done map completion, ran the story, and done metas with all of them. You can do PvP and WvW in any build that you want. Yes, some builds will be more effective than others.

skullmount.1758:

DeWolfe.2174:

Malediktus.9250:

Would be sad to see it nerfed. The game needs more challenging content. Even raids (with Eternal) are too easy.

No, the game doesn’t need more challenging content, it needs more FUN content. Challenge =/= fun

Thats just your own opinion. For some people the challenge is the fun part. I for one enjoyed it the way it was (after the nuhoch fix, before that it was a bit too much). It wasn’t a guaranteed win, but it was close (with a coordinated group). Now if what op and other say is true, it’ll be just as easy as DS

You guys are really missing the point here. I think we can all agree that a good challenge is fun, but the problem was that Gerent wasn’t challenging. It just had a ridiculous amount of health, requiring everyone in the event to be full-on DPS, and counter-intuitively avoid using CC just to maximize burn time.

Is it too easy now? Maybe. But now anybody can participate, even if they don’t run DPS builds, and it will still be possible to win, as long as nobody screws up the lane mechanics, and you don’t have entire groups wiping to the jelly donut.

Ayrilana.1396:

And for those that like challenges that require groups larger than 10 players?

Triple Trouble Wurm is in Bloodtide Coast waiting for them. Or WvW…overcoming the sheer horridness of that mode is a challenge in and of itself, haha.

Slowpokeking.8720:

Ayrilana.1396:

Yeah you can. Instead of having unskilled players (not trying to offend) when you fill the map, you bring skilled ones.

How do u know they are skilled or not? This is open world.

Slowpoke they’re pretty much saying bring in your friends/guild and do it with as few people as possible.

Ayrilana.1396:

Slowpokeking.8720:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I’m a bit conflicted about the update myself.

On the one hand, I enjoyed the thrill of the difficulty. A successful run truly felt like an achievement. It wasn’t impossible by any stretch. you just needed everybody on the same page. The “high DPS, pay attention” page. but once you got that organization together, it was beautiful.

On the other hand, my complaint is in essence that more people get to do the event successfully and more frequently. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. I’ve been on enough pug runs to know that getting a successful kill out of randoms was incredibly tough, and now more people get to do it.

The real question I have is this: It that O.K.? My general experience with randoms is that they are hard because they are undergeared, poorly built, and don’t listen. I’ve been lobbying for a general increase in difficulty because faceroll easy is boring and doesn’t hold interest. King of the Jungle was one of those events. You had to try to beat it.

Go to raid if you want challenge.

And for those that like challenges that require groups larger than 10 players?

Guys, it isn’t about whether I want to be challenged. It is about whether this event should be challenging or not.

I don’t see the problem. Gw1 has achievements like this. And it seems they will be available after wintersday. Just play the game and enjoy it. No need to grind. Yes 10k is a lot but they will come in time.

Aidenwolf.5964:

The number should’ve been the average amount that could be gathered from playing every day for the entire event.

No it shouldn’t.

I might be willing to spend the real cash to buy the gems to buy the presents/drinks, but I’ve NEVER been able to finish one of the timed jump puzzles (Mad King or Wintersday) so I’m pretty much locked out before I even start.

One day ANet might get the idea to have collections that require 10 things for the shiny but have 12 things in the set so we can skip 1-2 of them… They did so well having options for completing the hearts, and then went right back to exact and unavoidable requirements.

Hakuryuu.8634:

You’re complain about grinding for COMESTICS. They’re entirely optional, and no one force you to do so. No one is going to crap on you for not having one. You won’t die without it. You choose to commit to the grind yourself, and even though ANet has been a kitten lately, don’t stab yourself and blame it on them.

Nobody forces you to raid in WoW, the gear treadmill is also OPTIONAL, as is EVERYTHING IN A GAME.

It never ceases to surprise me that people think this a remotely smart argument to make.

Firelysm.4967:

ZachAttack.3957:

Guys. Nightfury was hundreds of times worse than this. The ONLY costly part is the drinks. Just about every component of nightfury was costing in the hundreds of gold. And think about it- what kind of “special” item would it be if just about every player in the game could get it? You don’t HAVE to get it- heck, I don’t even really care about it because I don’t feel like having no shoulder skin.

You forget that this game is not getting enjoyable, and it’s getting contradictive of what anet have said! They promised us that we won’t need to grind like we grind in other games… But the reality is even worst, we have go HORD AND GRIND. There is not a single event or thing … that would let us enjoy content…

Why cant they give 50x win every event in wintersday, then you get your achievements done… why do we need 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 drinks?

I’m hardcore player, and i find this absurd due to one reason, there is a lot of enjoyable content in this wintersday holidays, and we should do events to accomplish achievements, not toasting 10.000 times where is the fun here?

This ONE achievement brought ABSURD BAD GAMING EXPERIENCE to literally every player that came to the point where he needed to get 10.000 junk drinks.

I’m sorry, this is just bad design team that decides what and how many things we need to acquire to get the desired item.. If you ask me they could remove 9900 drinks… keep 100 drinks in, and rise the event expectations to win.. from 3x > 50×.. and this would be a lot more enjoyable!

It kittenes me off that i was growing up with ArenaNet and now they became backstabbers.

EDIT:
There are things that are fun and awesome, mostly 95% of the content, and there is this 3% that we are ok with, and there is 2% that destroys every kind of gaming experience that was pleasant warm and fuzzy.. gone in a blink of an eye!…

Ehm… ANet said that all of the grind should be OPTIONAL, not that there would be no grind at all. Heck, look at legendaries- those are a hell of a grind! You do not NEED the shoulder skin- while I agree that they could lower the amount there is literally NO point in having a cool skin if everyone else in the game can get it. When you feel something is an acceptable place in regards to grind:reward, the odds are a lot of other people will too- which then makes you no longer a special snowflake (literally, because everyone else will have the snowflakes too and yours won’t be special xP).

You can change which map layer you are currently viewing by clicking the squares in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. This function isn’t always available (such as inside Tixx’s workshop for instance) But I’m always surprised at how many people don’t know about it or know how to use it.

Tigaseye.2047:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Tigaseye.2047:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Tigaseye.2047:

Oh, OK.

Well, I think that would have been OK, if they had also added some new, basic armour, ingame.

As, I would imagine, people probably expected they would do, when they asked for that…

They probably thought that would be a given and so, felt free to just talk about where things should be placed.

Little did they know, that by asking for the armour skins to appear solely ingame, they were only going to be given that very ugly and/or over-the-top stuff and no new basics.

People can’t be blamed for what they ask for, when they’re not in possession of all the facts and possible implications of their requests.

So, ultimately, Anet are the ones responsible, as they made the final decision and then chose to implement it in the specific way they did.

Not to mention that, as the makers of the game, they are ultimately responsible for anything they choose to do, anyway.

However many people may have asked, specifically, for it, or not.

I dunno about other people, but I never expected new whites, blues, or greens. I figured new armor skins would likely be rares (like Lumi). I just sort of figured we’d get more than 3 of them. =/ Then again…we only got 3 legendaries with HoT launch too, so maybe not..

Well, I think it would be fair to expect them, as they were originally included in the base game and the word “expansion”, in this context, implies the addition of more of the same kind of things…

I think, pretty much anyone, who originally came from a game, like WoW, would expect something like basic armour to be provided as part of a new xpac, too.

I know WoW has a sub, but there is nothing stopping someone from playing for a month, or less and still collecting all of the greens/blues, in that time, for only the additional cost of one month’s sub.

So, I really don’t think adding some new basic armour into a game, that some people paid $100 for (not to mention any extra gemstore purchases they made), would have been too much to ask.

I don’t come from WoW. I come from GW1. shrug GW2 doen’t work quite the same way as either of them, so it’s hard to really compare and contrast in any meaningful way. (Granted, we still do it)

And yeah, I’m one of those that spent $100+

Yeah, I was just trying to give an idea of, what I feel is, the typical person’s expectations.

Quite a few people have come from WoW and I think even the reasonable ones would, almost certainly, be fairly disappointed with the (lack of) gear drops in HoT.

Even taking into account the lack of sub, here.

They just need to add a few more sets to the game. And maybe take a couple of the weapon sets from the BLTC and stick them in game as earnable rewards. Be it from achievements, collections, drops, et all.

Maybe a couple of earnable glider skins too.

Tigaseye.2047:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Tigaseye.2047:

Oh, OK.

Well, I think that would have been OK, if they had also added some new, basic armour, ingame.

As, I would imagine, people probably expected they would do, when they asked for that…

They probably thought that would be a given and so, felt free to just talk about where things should be placed.

Little did they know, that by asking for the armour skins to appear solely ingame, they were only going to be given that very ugly and/or over-the-top stuff and no new basics.

People can’t be blamed for what they ask for, when they’re not in possession of all the facts and possible implications of their requests.

So, ultimately, Anet are the ones responsible, as they made the final decision and then chose to implement it in the specific way they did.

Not to mention that, as the makers of the game, they are ultimately responsible for anything they choose to do, anyway.

However many people may have asked, specifically, for it, or not.

I dunno about other people, but I never expected new whites, blues, or greens. I figured new armor skins would likely be rares (like Lumi). I just sort of figured we’d get more than 3 of them. =/ Then again…we only got 3 legendaries with HoT launch too, so maybe not..

Well, I think it would be fair to expect them, as they were originally included in the base game and the word “expansion”, in this context, implies the addition of more of the same kind of things…

I think, pretty much anyone, who originally came from a game, like WoW, would expect something like basic armour to be provided as part of a new xpac, too.

I know WoW has a sub, but there is nothing stopping someone from playing for a month, or less and still collecting all of the greens/blues, in that time, for only the additional cost of one month’s sub.

So, I really don’t think adding some new basic armour into a game, that some people paid $100 for (not to mention any extra gemstore purchases they made), would have been too much to ask.

I don’t come from WoW. I come from GW1. shrug GW2 doen’t work quite the same way as either of them, so it’s hard to really compare and contrast in any meaningful way. (Granted, we still do it)

And yeah, I’m one of those that spent $100+

They should have it go back to giving you spirit shards if you’re maxed in a particular area (HoT, Central Tyria). It would be simpler than inventing a whole new system for XP after masteries are maxed, which is probably what they would want to do if they read this thread.

They said they’ll be adding more, though I doubt it will be as soon as you would like.

While you’ve maxed out masteries, all you have to do is look around, especially in the cities, and you’ll see most people are nowhere near maxed out. They probably won’t add more until most people have finished. After all, if they do add more then the people who max masteries fast will get them done fast (again) and again won’t have any use for XP. There’s no way they can add enough content to satisfy the people who max out ahead of the crowd.

i think they plan on expanding to more masteries and probably more levels within them as they go , so while I can sorta understand your pain just need to be patient i think

although they could go back to having a mastery to get a spirit shard with every bar fill

Tigaseye.2047:

Harper, I took the time, on here, to say what my specific definition of “elitist”, in this context, was.

It may not be your definition, but it is mine.

So, when I use that word, I expect you to understand what I mean by it.

It is not someone who just wants harder content for him (or her) self.

BTW, I’m not really a casual – so, they haven’t really chased me off (yet).

But, I can totally imagine what it would feel like to be one, ATM.

That wasn’t an “exaggeration”, it was an analogy.

You’ve heard of analogies, right?

An appreciation of basic morality and how getting that wrong can affect your business negatively, is very important, for any business.

Especially one that deals directly with the public and hosts a situation which allows their customers to interact directly with each other.

Except I’ve seen posts about how this change or that change “will be the end of GW2” for years now – and the game has been and still is fine.

Remember ascended gear?
“Surely this will be the end of GW2, they forgot the manifesto” the forums cried – but it’s been over 3 years now and the game is fine.

Remember megaservers?
“This is destroying communities and people will no longer have that feeling” – and still the game went on.

Remember the living world season 1 approach of “play it now or miss it forever”?
Yeah – it didn’t destroy the game.

Remember the China release and the “new player experience”? Remember fractured and the fractal level reset?
Yeah – all that happened – game is still here.

In fact – I would dare speculate that moves such as these ( listed above, including HoT) are calculated and people who actually know what they are doing predict the outcome and if it’s worth it financially both in the long and in the short term.
Nothing that has the potential to “kill the game” is taken lightly because in the end Anet is a business and while we might not always like their decisions or agree with them I’m pretty sure they’re only doing what’s going to be best for them as a business in the long run.

Mistakes happen – and if HoT is a mistake and this new approach isn’t financially effective for them I’m sure they’ll backpedal and try something else. They did it with the Living World, they did it with “no expansions” so only time will tell if this is or isn’t the right call.

But please, let’s leave the alarmist attitude out of all this.

Astralporing.1957:

Harper.4173:

Tigaseye.2047:

so, unless you provide something for everyone, it’s basically insanity.

This is exactly what HoT did with the addition of hardcore content. GW2’s content remains in its majority casual – but now there are truly hardcore areas and encounters for those who are truly hardcore.

GW2 core content, yes. HoT? No, not even close. And that’s the problem – HoT was paid mostly by people it is not meant for. It was expected to be paid by people it was not meant to (because the population it caters to is too small to pay for its creation on their own).

People may say anything they want now about how “all those complaining players weren’t paying attention to Anet’s warnings” but it still doesn’t change the fact that Anet obviously intented for a vast majority of players to pay for something that was never meant for them. And while it may be a good business move short term (business has nothing to do with morality, after all), it is a terminally stupid thing to do if you are thinking more longterm. People you have cheated once are far less likely to trust you with their money next time, afer all.

Even in HoT some things are incredibly easy. I just did a Tarir tonight – just showing up and mashing 1 ensures success.

. And that’s the problem – HoT was paid mostly by people it is not meant for

Then these people didn’t do their homework very well – because HoT was heavily advertised as a hardcore-oriented expansion.
If they paid for something they didn’t want they should have did better research.
I’m also pretty sure refunds were handed out pretty liberally for a few weeks after launch. And even so – why did people preorder?

I honestly do not believe that Anet didn’t intend that “the vast majority of players” never play or enjoy HoT.
What I do believe Anet intended was to make the player base “get good” – in the sense of improving their skill and understanding of the game.

They’ve been pushing in this direction ever since Living World season 2 came out.
I believe they want people to get better and experience the content.

Also – I’m pretty sure that the long-term effects won’t be that bad. If what you’re saying is true and being cheated once makes people far less likely to trust you and pay for the game well – Anet should have been out of business right now.

There is not one part of the GW2 community that hasn’t been cheated, promised something and then tricked/ignored or in some way or form mislead.

The hardcore took hits with every fractal update basically.
Open World lovers had megaservers and overflows. The RP community basically died then.
WvW has been in a sorry state ever since release.
PvP – let’s not even go there – the state it was in up until very recently.

Let’s face it – their track record is far from good with all parts of the community – and still people are playing.

Aomine.5012:

If we stick to your logic, that every new cosmetic need to be gold-sink , and every event skins are gated behind 1000 gold, we’d never get anything. Period.

Stop using cosmetic as an excuse. This Wintersday day adds absolutely nothing other than this one new skin, and yet they don’t want to reward people with the new skin they make, but rather want sinking thousand of golds because it’d benefit their Gem sale. Can’t you still not see the trend of Anet’s current direction, and keep on blindly defending this?

You need to stop putting words in people’s mouths. I never said every item. There will be other skins that are not so grindy to get, but there needs to be SOME cosmetic items that are prestigious and difficult to get. You cannot expect to get everything easily.

DaShi.1368:

Anet drops the ball again. Who’s surprised?

But which is the bigger surprise?

• The achievement/action is bugged.
• The event goal puts you at odds with the achievement.

If you’re not right on top of a Skritt, you’re going to hit someone else in the head. Because zerg. (At least I got my “snowball 3 players” achievement easily!)

There isn’t enough post-kick delay to stop someone from just kicking and re-engaging to kick again, giving no one else a chance to do anything.

Trying to land a snowball on a skritt before someone from the huge zerg kicks him – is an excercise in frustration. Clearly badly designed daily.

Yeah, I aimed for the head as well, and it hit. Granted, it’s late at night and not as many people kicking them. But it’s still a bad idea to have this with the kicking together. A very bad idea.

Berserk Steve.1530:

fun open world content taxi 5 mins before boss and rush it pressing 1? ok. I guess you guys are the one who stomp spores when no beetles are nearby

Doesn’t matter, more ppl will enjoy it.

Tigaseye.2047:

so, unless you provide something for everyone, it’s basically insanity.

This is exactly what HoT did with the addition of hardcore content. GW2’s content remains in its majority casual – but now there are truly hardcore areas and encounters for those who are truly hardcore.

Tigaseye.2047:

what should be considered the enemies of gaming

This is just absurd – nobody is the enemy of gaming – people play games differently and take them more or less seriously. Nobody is an “enemy of gaming” just because they don’t enjoy the game the same way you do.

Tigaseye.2047:

BTW, Harper, I didn’t say you, specifically, were an elitist, who looks down on other people (i.e. casual players) and wants those people to have nothing.

I don’t think the average “elitist” cares enough about a casual to specifically want that casual to have nothing. I think elitists mostly want that the rewards in the game be earned – and not handed out easily.
I think an elitist cares more about the encounter being difficult and people needing to step up their game in order to obtain said encounter’s rewards.

Tigaseye.2047:

You have once again, however, confirmed that you are that definition of one, by choosing to answer those accusations on a personal level.

I don’t deny you would probably categorize me in that group. I however don’t consider myself elitist because I’m not the elite here – there are far better players – but to you I can be considered that I suppose.
I’m an efficiency driven player.

Tigaseye.2047:

No one is saying there shouldn’t, also, be some challenging content in games – I like some challenging content, from time to time, myself.
But, there is a huge difference between adding some challenging content and some less challenging content (or less challenging versions of the challenging content), within the same xpac and just going full-on hardcore, for everything.

And HoT has a mix of both really challenging, moderately challenging and easy content.

Yes – Raids are tough – but they’re a small part of HoT.
Most maps in HoT have more difficult enemies but I won’t call them challenging. If Open World Core Gw2 was so easy you could sleep through half of it HoT’s open world at least requires you to be awake. That’s pretty much it.

Yes meta events are difficult but not all of them – TD meta was recently nerfed because of a “bug” apparently.
Auric Basin meta is so easy it’s basically on farm now – I haven’t seen a Tarir fail in the last month or so.
VB meta is also not difficult – and mostly perceived as hard because of the number of players that gates success, coordination and investment in the new mastery lines.

So how exactly did HoT provide you with only hardcore challenging content?
Where’s the challenge in most HoT? Almost everything in HoT’s open world can be zerged down – the only challenge being getting enough people to zerg the content with.

Tigaseye.2047:

There are ways to cater to both types of player – as long as you don’t ever cater to the demands of outrageously selfish people, who want everything their own way.

There are selfish people in both camps – I remember people asking for Teq and any harder content to be nerfed as soon as it got in the game.

Tigaseye.2047:

You wouldn’t give everything to one child and nothing to the others, just because the first child said he couldn’t be happy if the other children got anything at all.
Even if he was doing the best at school…
…and you certainly wouldn’t chase your other kids off, just because he said he didn’t even wish to tolerate their presence.

I do like your exaggerations – you do have a certain talent for it but how exactly has Anet chased you off?

Tigaseye.2047:

It is (or should be) just a case of common sense, fairness and morality and yet, the gaming industry are acting like it’s an unsolvable conundrum, only somewhat solvable by selling a big chunk of their playerbase down the river, at every turn.

Because it might just be that this way of doing things is the most effective one.

Tigaseye.2047:

Unfortunately, I think that says quite a lot about the people making games; that they, apparently, can’t cope with these, very simple, moral questions, at all.

You do realize they’re just a business making a living right? I don’t think your questions of morality have any relevance. I certainly know most businesses aren’t run on “what’s morally right about how we do things?”

Tigaseye.2047:

Either that, or they simply don’t care…

Possible – as long as they make money why would they care? Do you think you have some personal worth to a company just because you’re a client? You have worth because they can sell you a product or service – but other than that what worth do you have?

Tigaseye.2047:

However, I do find it fascinating how much of this part of the games industry has seemingly gone into full-blown, self destruct mode, ATM.

Except the game is probably doing better financially than it did before. Your perception might not be what’s happening.

Tigaseye.2047:

WoW messed with the middle of the road (i.e. the semi-casual to semi-hardcore) type players in WoD and lost half their player base.
That’s WoW, for goodness sake…

A game with an entirely different player base, with very different motivations and factors that keep them playing or make them leave. Remember WoW has a sub fee- people will be far more likely to drop it.

Tigaseye.2047:

Wildstar was a flop, from what I keep being told and I’m not in the least surprised…

It was a flop for many reasons – one of them being its theme – another the terrible visuals. I didn’t get it because of those two reasons – and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Harper.4173:

Yes I think this is one of the most problematic parts of HoT maps – that you can’t do your own thing.
In Old Tyria you didn’t need huge numbers to do metas and your progress was not gated behind other people.
You could complete events on your own, you could map on your own – you can’t do that now.

I also believe this aspect of HoT to be a flaw that will become more evident the later one gets into it.

This is why I prioritized open world HoT at the beginning even though I disliked it and didn’t want to have much to do with it. I realized it would be much harder later, once the first wave of dedicated players finished and moved on.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

They’ve done this sort of thing for a long time now, dating back to Guild Wars 1. For whatever reason they want some holiday rewards to be out of the reach of most people and since its baked into their reward philosophy then asking for a change is wasting time.

Wintersday 2007: Mini Polar Bear. Drop rate chance from Wintersday Chest is 0.02%. Wintersday Grab Bag, maybe 0.2% (if I remember correctly you could get 2 Grab Bags per account per year)

By Mini Polar Bear standards of access, they are handing out these shoulders to everyone who wants one.

You are forgetting that Mini Polar Bear was considered to have outrageously low drop rate by GW1 standarts. Though i agree that it was the first sign of the bad times to come.

There are prons and cons to these changes.

Pros -
You’ll have more people playing TD, more people doing the events and perhaps giving the map a chance. (I believe this is what Anet wants, for everyone to get a chance to enjoy the content. For in all honesty, the vast majority of players I saw during Chak Gerent before were averaging 90 mastery or so.)

Easier to drop in for a down and be done with it, as in you don’t have to tie yourself down for the event chain for hours on end to find a decent map.

Cons -

Less of a challenge for those seeking it, which in turn equals another zergfest. (Honestly I can’t think of anymore drawbacks than this to it.)

—

I figured they would nerf the content sooner or later as but a fraction of the playerbase cared to head into TD, and one could argue day and night about it being justified or not. More so since you have three casual maps to play, leaving TD quite a challenge in comparison to the others.

Personally, I found the pre-nerf TD pretty awesome. It was a challenge, but it wasn’t too hard in my opinion. Ran through it with Steve in the previous posts, some runs were successful, others not. But with Anet giving fails rewards as well, it remained fun even while failing.

However, I do understand why this nerf was handed down. TD was for most part empty, unless you ran it with a pug commander. Teamspeak wasn’t needed, but some kind of organisation was required I’d say. Commanders communicating with the new people, hoping they listened or knew their business. And most importantly of all, you couldn’t slack with the dishing of damage.

With that being said though, I’m sure there are more pros and cons to this (obviously.) but I personally don’t mind this change, intended or not. I’ll still be going through it, shame about it being easier now, but I understand them changing Gerent.

It’s been a while since I’ve played the Dragon Stand or Auric Basin meta, but I’m sure you have to do a lot more than press 1 to win.