Showing Posts Upvoted By Paulytnz.7619:

[Suggestion] Re-thinking Mentors

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sondergaard.8469

Sondergaard.8469

I think mentors are a great idea for this game. There’s a lot to learn, and a lot that can be overwhelming for a new player. Asking in map chat doesn’t always yield beneficial results, and can lead to frustration for a new player.

The problem is, the current implementation of Mentors is just a simplified version of a commander tag. That doesn’t really help new players, or provide them a method in-game for asking questions and getting answers from veteran players who enjoy helping new players.

My suggestion is change it up. Rename the current ‘mentor’ tag in the masteries to jr commander, since that’s all it is.

For the actual mentor role, require a player to have 80%-100% map completion, have a certain amount of hours played on their account, have a certain level of achievement points completed, and have opted in to be a mentor for new players.

Add a new chat channel for new players, and mentors. This channel would be for the purpose of connecting new players with veterans to help assist them in getting familiar with the game and answering questions, as well as having someone to adventure with who can show them around.

Mentors should have access to this channel whether or not they’ve set their status to available as a mentor.

Add a new LFG option for new players to seek out and find mentors who have turned their mentor status to available.

This is just a rough sketch of an idea with room for improvement. I’m sure our community and the team at ANet can come up with some great ideas on how to make something like this even better, but it would certainly go a long way to improving the new player experience to have access to the mentor channel.

(edited by Sondergaard.8469)

Guild-bound Craftable Items

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Swift.1930

Swift.1930

Perfect world scenario:
You sign in. You listen to the birds chirping outside (real life) and hear the menu music. Life is good. You load up your Level 80 warrior, and you find that he had gone to sleep in your guild hall. You peer around and admire the work of your guild scribe, TalosTinyMouse.
Then you are greeted by the thundering voice of MightySmith04. “Ha! I knew you would be back! I was forging these all night. The hall boomed with the cries of my anvil.”
You nearly squeal in delight. “Aha! Are they ready?”
MightySmith04 /nods and /bows. “I present to you your new chestplate and greaves – may they serve you well in battle.”
You accept the trade and don your fresh ascended armor. The farming was worth it. The whole guild had already pitched in for the lord’s set, and for TalosTinyMouse’s set, since he was usually so busy, but now, finally, your turn had come.
“The rest of the set may take a while,” says MightySmith04, “but for now, I need some rest. Go, go and break those in! And fetch me some more dragonite ore while you’re at it; I’m fresh out.”

Imperfect world scenario:
You sign in. Your guild armorer hasn’t signed in for several months now; he seems to have given up since the WvW changes took place. You go to the forge and half-heartedly pick up the hammer. You’ve only 200 more levels of armorsmithing to go – you’ll get there eventually. You put down the hammer and weave the lining for a pair of gloves. You pick the hammer up again and heat up the furnace – only to find out that you’re all out of platinum. Again. You slump to the floor, /cry, and sign out.

Pitch:
This has probably been brought up before, but Guild Wars really ought to be just that – guild wars. And as such, high-level crafting should be something that players can use to contribute to their guild. You didn’t get that far just to piece everything together all by yourself and all for yourself, did you?

I’m not saying ascended materials and equipment should be sellable – nope, not at all. I’m not trying to destroy economy here. I’m saying that it would be awesome if ascended materials could be passed along to guild craftsmen, after which the craftsman could craft ascended items and select an option to make the creation guild-bound. He/she can then send it to anyone in the same guild, or leave it in the guild bank. This adds value to each player in the guild, and emphasis on self-leveling (trying to get every crafting skill to 500) is not encouraged as much as specialization within the player’s community. It also increases guild-based building and development and encourages guild members to act like a guild outside guild missions/GvG/WvW.

Suggestion: ascended equipment to be given a guild-binding option, and materials to become guild-bound.
Exploits to be covered: guild members could take equipment and then leave – this can be covered/prevented by said items mailing themselves back to either the guild leader or the creator (or depositing themselves in the guild bank if slots are free).

I want to go more in-depth with this, so I may add edits at a later stage.

Thoughts?

(Note: all names are fictional. Any correspondence with real player names/tags is unintentional. Also, no player pets were harmed during the writing of this suggestion.)

Been there, punned that.

Ehmry Bay Guardian

(edited by Swift.1930)

Fix Black Lion Chests / BL Tickets

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Draknar.5748

Draknar.5748

The low scrap/ticket drop rate from chests is exactly why I don’t buy keys anymore.

We can all agree that’s what most are after with the chests. When you put in 25 keys and barely squeeze out one full ticket, when you need 3 or even 5 tickets per weapon skin, it really makes you never want to spend money on it again.

I honestly think that you should get a guaranteed scrap per key. That would drive sales.

I won’t stop because I can’t stop.

It’s a medical condition, they say its terminal….

Patch Today: Key Farming Impacted

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Kalendraf.9521

Kalendraf.9521

I’d prefer if they would remove Black Lion Keys and Black Lion Chests from the game entirely, and just sell all the obtainable items from the gemstore directly.

Get rid of the gambling and the horrid RNG in one fell swoop.

HoD – [CV] Charter Vanguard

Privacy Discussion [merged]

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Fhaeris.9237

Fhaeris.9237

Bumping the topic. There’s no privacy at all in this game, it’s pathetic.
Game is 3 years old already, Anet, it’s time you start fixing it.

((614599)) and ((612409)) and ((619168))

in Bugs: Game, Forum, Website

Posted by: Zypher.7609

Zypher.7609

recommended best solution: remove time-gating from these

I see what you are trying to do there.

I would pay for a Necromancer Pet 'skin pack'

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Majic.4801

Majic.4801

I’m okay with this.

Attachments:

“Not the same, real and true. True you feel inside.
Always follow what is true.” — Sentry-skritt Bordekka

I would pay for a Necromancer Pet 'skin pack'

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sturmhard.9475

Sturmhard.9475

Hi there!
I don’t know where to post this else.

Just a message addressed to the Developer/Publisher:

I would absolutely pay money for kind of a ‘skin pack’ to turn the Necromancer pets into skeletons.

Thanks for reading!

Privacy Discussion [merged]

in Account & Technical Support

Posted by: Miss Lana.5276

Miss Lana.5276

I’m literally pleading at this point. I would resurrect the other thread I’ve made about it but I can’t find a trace of it.

You want to know why I NEED this function, devs? I was pmed by a gold seller 9 times in less than 1 minute. A girl can’t go afk to do anything without being harassed it seems!

I should not have to change my chat log because some kittenhat decides to spam me with messages. The lack of privacy settings is phenomenal. If I appear offline I can’t see what is happening in guild chat. If I make a tab without whispers then I miss out on talking to people. So it’s either miss out on everything that is being said in both guild chat and messages, or get harassed by people like this. It’s absolutely ludicrous.

This picture only shows some of the messages that were spammed to me. The chat box couldn’t expand far enough to fit it all in, and yes, these are all from the same character.

This function should have been in-game at release. I’m begging that it be put into HoT.

(Before people say “block and report”, yes I know, I know. I blocked and reported AFTER it had happened -as I was afk when it happened-, but instead of being *re*active, I want to have the ability to be *pro*active.)

Attachments:

48 Characters|Necro|Raider|Fractaller|PvPer|Singer
So long Treeface.
“…Kormir? I know not of whom you speak.”

(edited by Miss Lana.5276)

Anet the condi meta in WvW.

in WvW

Posted by: CheezeStix.1076

CheezeStix.1076

I will never understand why people hate conditions so much…

  • Conditions ignore toughness
  • You don’t need ferocity or precision, so why not go full dire
  • At this moment condition burst comes pretty close to power burst
  • 40% condition duration foods (increase and decrease)
  • The PvE changes that bleed into WvW and SPvP (also vice versa, but I don’t play PvE so not sure how much of an impact it makes)
  • Perplexity runes, 5 confusion stacks every 15 seconds
  • Passive gameplay of applying conditions then turtling

At the moment the way conditions work is very similar to power builds, you use your big damage skills to burst someone down while only having to worry about how much vitality they have, what conditions should have been was a form of attrition warfare. A condition build should eventually wear down and overpower a power build due to the conditions stacking. Instead we have everyone bursting as if they are running a power build without having to sacrifice vitality or toughness for ferocity or precision. Yes there are some traits that proc on precision but you only need enough precision to make sure they theoretically proc once every CD period. So now you’ve got someone decked out in mostly dire armor with some rabid for that little bit of precision, yet they can still maintain the same DPS output as a power build.

This is only a WvW problem but the 40% condition food is so broken and it feels like I’m the only one that thinks that, FORTY PERCENT. How did anyone think that was a good idea. Another WvW only problem are the perplexity runes, almost every condition build I come across in WvW while roaming is running this. This is a huge damage increase before the recent big patch and even bigger after the patch. Before confusion could have been avoided completely, not the case anymore. There was also a damage bump across conditions in general so they could keep up in PvE. Poison stacks intensity instead of duration, burn turned into a bigger and better version of bleed and confusion does damage without having to attack.

You’ve also got condition builds that will stack conditions on you and go full defensive. The main example being condition mesmers and thieves, mostly due to access to stealth. Although this isn’t a problem in SPvP because constantly stealthing lets the enemy capture the points meanwhile you’re too slow to kill the guy and get +1ed.

My opinions on this is that conditions need a rework, at the moment they are way to similar to power builds without the same risks. I would have no problem with conditions ignoring toughness, that would be a great way to counter bunkers, if they were an attrition build. I’m also not saying that they should revert the changes to conditions back to what they were before. Poison can keep stacking intensity and confusion can do damage without having to attack but at least their coefficients need to be looked at for WvW and SPvP.

I don’t agree with the way how conditions work right now but I also don’t know how I would fix it.

edit: Dire armor is also a WvW only problem.

(edited by CheezeStix.1076)

Cost of Bag Slots is too High

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Posted by: rapthorne.7345

rapthorne.7345

Why should they make it more convenient for people that buy gems with gold, especially for a luxury upgrade? The gem store is designed primarily to cater to people that purchase gems with cash. Consider yourself lucky ANet allow any sort of currency conversion at all.

Extra bag slots are not a necessity, they are a convenience luxury. Most people I know play perfectly fine without any bag slot upgrades, simply using 18 slot bags

Resident smug Englishman on the NA servers, just because.

(edited by rapthorne.7345)

Add Writing To Game

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Posted by: JDubsH.5740

JDubsH.5740

I know its kinda late to hop on the “add this feature” train, but I’m new here and I really think this would be a nice addition to the game.

Concept: Guilds can upgrade their guild halls and build libraries to house member made books. To make it easier for Anet, there would be a limit to the number of books and they would only be available in the guild halls on book stands. Finished books wouldn’t be items and could only be viewed by the writer or by being placed in a guild library by consent of the Guild Leader. So for other players to read it they would need to be in the same guild.

Why: This opens a new door to creativity in the community and more functions for those who enjoy fan fiction and writing. Players could write stories of their guilds to share, or in game guides to help other players.

Revision Credit: BrooksP.4318

(edited by JDubsH.5740)

Add Writing To Game

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Danikat.8537

Danikat.8537

I would love this.

It was one of the things I really enjoyed in Ultima Online. I used several books to keep notes for myself, which was useful but can be done with a word document (or even a real life note book). But what I really loved was the ability to trade books or leave them in places for people to find.

One of my favourite memories of that game was making my way out to a remote peninsula on the edge of nowhere (north west of the main continent if I remember correctly) that had absolutely nothing on it to give players a reason to visit, and then finding a ‘Visitors Book’ in a clearing with notes from all the people who had been there.

Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).

“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”

New to GW2, not having fun

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Teevell.1684

Teevell.1684

Yeah, this game isn’t for you. Everything you listed is a hallmark of this game: no gear treadmill, no holy trinity, being able to get gear however you want (dungeons, pvp, crafting, buying it off TP), and when it comes to leveling the journey is as important as the destination. Basically this game isn’t a rush to level 80 so you can grind a bunch of dungeons so you’re able to grind even more dungeons.

It sounds like you love everything about the standard MMO, and all the things that GW2 tried to modify/do without. So yeah, unless you can break out of that frame of mind, this game isn’t for you. But at least you gave it a try.

Tarnished Coast

Arenanet are people too.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Raire.7983

Raire.7983

The posters being called “whiners”, “crybabies” and now “jerks” are people, too.

Trait line saves

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Posted by: SwordOfValor.7259

SwordOfValor.7259

Now that trait resetting is free bringing back trait line saving from guild wars 1 would be a great idea. Would love Anet to bring back some of that GW1 customization that made it so good.

Okay, answers are needed.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Straylight.7529

Straylight.7529

Arenanet is basically saying : “We need everybody to play this game. We need your grandma, we want your babies, we even want your dog to play our game.”

There’s more truth to this than falsehood, though not for the implication the original poster uses.

AAA developers NEED large player bases to meet the expectations their publishers set. So yeah, they need to constantly attract more and more players. If their metrics were telling them too many people were quitting in those early levels, their publisher is going to say, “Fix it.”

And let’s face it… the biggest pool to draw from is from the “social games” crowd, and yeah, I’ll bet they WERE very confused and frustrated by those early levels. They probably DIDN’T know what to do with themselves when their skills changed upon picking up a bundle. They probably WERE confused by dodge mechanics, and those red triangles and blue chevrons all over their mini map. They probably DID feel overwhelmed by it all.

Now the question is… did they make the right fix? Are they wise to appeal to the “social games” crowd? That’s something that only time will tell.

The problem is that you can’t attract everyone, no matter how hard you try. That plants&zombies playing grandma is not going to play GW2 no matter how much you dumb it down. She’s just happy playing Plants&Zombies or Angrybirds. But everyone already playing the game has to suffer just for the very low possibility that they might attract that odd grandma or two. (nothing against grandma’s, just an example)

I think the smartest course of action is when a game company says "stop!, we attracted enough different types of players, let’s improve the game for those types of players we already have.

In your search to attract more and more types of players you will inevitably alienate your own playerbase. Finding the exact spot when this happens and avoid crossing it, is crucial. I think Arenanet went one step too far with this Feature Pack.

Refund for Character Slots Please

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: FireCrescent.6512

FireCrescent.6512

I wasted my money getting new character slots with the desire to make new characters to play at my own pace, in a way that was fun and rewarding for me. You know, BEFORE the April “Feature” Pack (more like the April “Flop” Pack if you ask me).

Now making new characters is literally pointless for me because pre-80 characters are no longer fun to play. Why play something that is not fun? I have no reason to. I play GW2 to unwind and relax, to have fun and escape from my stressful life. Now you have made GW2 boring, miserable, stressful, and lame. I am dissatisfied that you have changed the purpose of my purchase without my consent.

Not only am I never going to use these slots, now, but I’m tempted to delete my non-80’s because you have made the new system absolutely insufferable. There is nothing FUN about being forced to grind up to a high level just to have access to basic necessities and functions I used to have at 20.

I once enjoyed a leisurely pace, meandering my way to 80 with no pressure to get there. I actually enjoyed the ride there. Now it’s just a slog of ‘UGH why can’t I just be 80 already so I can do the things I used to be able to on lowbies’.

So, yeah. No. This is not why I gave you my money, and I want it back unless you fix what you broke, please. I have given you an unfathomable amount of my money in good faith and hopes that it would be used to improve the game— not butcher it.

Judging by the mass-outcry of your players— not your randomly selected testers that are not even a part of our playerbase and therefore are not affected by long-term mechanics and the systems now in play— you should consider undoing these changes all-together and reconsider whose opinion you REALLY value.

At least remove it until you can work out how to NOT throw your valued and loyal playerbase under a BUS, perhaps.

I have personally been your loyal customer and a supporter of your company for EIGHT years. If nothing improves, we are NOT making it to nine.

‘10 easy steps to slowly choking your MMO to death’ by the Anet Devs

New character experience is terrible.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Clark Skinner.4902

Clark Skinner.4902

So I started a new elementalist yesterday post patch…

Wow.

I’m not sure how much thought went into the level gating system. It feels like someone who really didn’t understand how GW2 plays made some arbitrary decisions based on existing abilities and level structures. It doesn’t teach the game and its systems, if anything it keeps the game from feeling cohesive.

And it isn’t fun.

Running around the starter area pressing one button over and over again for a level is… not fun. You’re asking people to do this for 5-10 minutes until they unlock… another button.

People don’t want to wait 5-10 seconds for a web page to load, why would they want to press one button for 5-10 minutes? The previous experience had unlocks too, but they were much more incremental. The indicators were clear. A new user might not understand everything right away, but at least they weren’t bored.

What the old user experience lacked was an inline tutorial system, the unlocks were balanced. Knowing things like holding down ALT to split a stack would have been good tool tips. A dumb arrow over my healing skill isn’t useful.

This is really bad. I love the game, but these changes are really a step back in design. I can’t honestly tell my friends to buy this game now. That’s heartbreaking. I have things I want to spend gems on, but now I don’t feel right supporting the game. That’s terrible.

Anet, reverse these changes. This is not something that will shake itself out. This is a burden to every new player. Maintaining version parity might make sense from a development stand point, but this is too far. You’re killing the cash cow. You’re making a quality experience feel like much less. Don’t do this. Stop this.

As a Vet Leveling an Alt...

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Keysha.2815

Keysha.2815

Can I simply say, as many have, that the new system stinks? I have one question for Anet: Where, exactly, did you get information showing that we wanted/needed the changes you have made? I get that you want to make the experience better for new players. I get that you want to make the game more intuitive. I get it all. BUT, you just don’t get us. The player. You know, the one that ultimately pays your paycheck?

First you FUBAR the trait system. The trait complaint thread was, last I looked, almost 50 pages long. And to come in about page 42 and ask us to specify fixes until it gets reworked makes a complete lie out of you (as a group) saying you read the forums but don’t have time to comment.

Now you do the same to leveling. Tell me, do, what on EARTH made you think we wanted to, during mapping at early levels, have to go back to areas we already were in, just to pick up things like skill points? When skill points are ALREADY an issue (re: traits)? Not to mention the way unlocks work.

If you wanted to dumb-down the game for newbies, why not just do what so many successful games have, and put in a tutorial zone? Then, those of us with more intelligence than a brain-damaged flea can skip it, carry on with our play, and enjoy a game in an area that had no problems to speak of, in the first place?

Frankly, even though I am a die-hard beta baby, this is getting to the point where I am about ready to leave, myself. With 10 characters, 6 of which are 80, having supported this game with gem purchases frequently, and having talked up this game to so many – I’ve reached the saturation point. We are not China. We are not anyone but ourselves, and you are ruining this game.

And yes, I know I just wasted time typing this, as you, Anet, won’t read it. Anymore than you read the trait thread, or any other thread telling you how you are screwing this game beyond recognition.

(edited by Keysha.2815)

"Leveling as a Reward" Experience Crippling!

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Sarah.1825

Sarah.1825

Although I honestly don’t expect anyone at Anet to actually read, let alone listen to what I have to say, I am going to say it anyway.

I am one of the veteran players, I have over 4 thousand hours into the game. I am also one of the people who have a lot of alts. I have 16 of them to level 80, with another 20 at measured increments from 20 to 75. (Why yes, I know I am crazy, and I only buy the character slots when they are on sale)

While the leveling has been dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, I don’t have much of the leveling to drag myself through. But… this game was already dumbed down when I first started playing it almost 2 years ago.

As it stands now. I let my 5 year old next door neighbor make a character and start leveling her. He had no issues at all in figuring out how to play. Congratulations, you have reached your target audience. Unfortunately, your target audience doesn’t have disposable income.

In April you changed the trait system. Despite not being able to trait until level 30, and the final trait points being given at level 74, but not able to be used until level 80, if you have unlocked the trait you want, or spent the skill points AND gold to get them, I was able to deal with the changes and tweaks.

Now, however, you have made it so that you don’t have a ‘capable’ character until level 40 to 60 (depending on your class and gameplay style). By ‘capable’ I mean capable of playing PvE solo, which is about 80% of the PvE content. Capable of not dying half a dozen times before you do enough hearts to get enough levels, to unlock the skills THAT WERE NOT CONFUSING OR SCARY TO BEGIN WITH.

I recently spent 50 dollars on gems, and converted all of my gold to gems, and purchased enough character slots to make a new race and/or a new class. There are many new games that are out or soon will be out, even if I don’t request a refund, I doubt I will be playing this game, purchasing accounts for my own children for xmas, or spending one red cent more to play a game that has been idiot-proofed to the extent this one has been.

I will give it until the 19th for communication from the devs that indicates someone, anyone at Anet is paying attention, but I doubt it will happen.

TL:DR This game has been dumbed down past the tolerance of old and new players alike, I am taking my wallet elsewhere.

Black Lion Key "Farmers"..

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Romo.3709

Romo.3709

So yeah, this is not a complaint or anything but this community has reached a new low by making low level characters and speed running the first personal story to completion to get black lion keys. Delete character and rinse repeat.

Either these players are extremely bored or they are so poor that they can’t spend a few bucks to buy the gems from the cash shop.

How is this effecting you enough to make a forum post about it?

You play the way you want – let others play the way they want.

I think it’s something along lines of:
“You get something I want by doing something I don’t feel like doing and yet you get rewarded for it. I don’t want you to get rewarded by doing something I don’t feel like doing myself.”

Feature Pack and Black lion Weapon Skins

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Ragion.2831

Ragion.2831

I can understand that, but there are so many skins and there are most certainly going to be more. I may decide to swap to different skins in future, so does that mean the $200 plus i spend on this one would be a waste? If they wanted exclusivity, they can set it as a reward on a hard achievement, so people see them as symbols of effort, instead of going “Oh that player has money to burn”

(edited by Ragion.2831)

Unlimited Trial?

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Weylin.6478

Weylin.6478

I’ve been trying to talk some friends into getting this game, but there’s no way for them to try it out to see if it’s worth the $50+ for them.

I didn’t get this game for months because I had no way of trying it for myself and seeing if it would really be my cup of tea (Was playing Rift at the time, which is entirely F2P, with a boosts and novelty/costume item shop, and they don’t even require you to register an account until level 10)

Perhaps if we could have a limitless trial with the following restrictions?
- Level cap at 20
- Gold cap at 1g
- Trade/Shop Access disabled, view only.
- Map chat disabled
- Limitations on anything else that could be exploited.

Dev Blog: Changes to Traits

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Gabe.3976

Gabe.3976

New traits are good. Having UI-based trait reset is great. Simplifying the trait points seems unnecessary to me, but I understand the idea of streamlining the game, so whatever. The rest of it, though, presents some problems, at least in my opinion. They are:

  • The justification for simplifying the trait lines is a bit condescending. Yes, someone could spend 11/14 and end up with a less effective build, but someone could also spec a power weapon in a condition build and end up with a less effective play style. I’m all for simplifying redundancies, but, you know, trait lines aren’t rocket science.
  • Waiting until 30 to even begin unlocking trait lines is awful. Waiting even longer to unlock master/grandmaster traits is even more awful. Some classes are just painful to level early on. Making that period last longer discourages leveling, and especially discourages alts.
  • Trait unlock needs to be handled very, very carefully, as it has the potential to force people to play in ways that they don’t want in order to unlock class mechanics. This seems to go against the GW2 ethos of, “play how you want!” Forcing a PvPer into PvE, or a PvEer into PvP in order to get the build that they want kind of stinks.
  • This leads into the second point: gold unlocks make things even trickier. I honestly can’t figure out what an appropriate price point would be. Set it too low, and you trivialize the challenge of obtaining the skills in the first place. Set it too high, and you end up essentially making horizontal progression pay-to-win, as you either need to be good at the trading post or spend real-life money in order to unlock the traits with gold. I honestly don’t believe that there’s a good middle point—I think it’ll be impossible to find a point where achievement-types don’t feel as though their effort is undervalued and casual players won’t feel compelled to buy gems -> convert to gold in order to unlock the traits.

These changes introduce inconvenience, then allow you to circumvent the inconvenience through gold (leveling through crafting, buying trait books). In a system where gold is directly and officially obtainable through cash purchases, this puts casual players who can’t afford to spend cash at a distinct mechanical disadvantage. There’s a level at which paying for convenience becomes pay-to-win. When paying real money allows you to completely circumvent a particular bit of content for a mechanical advantage, I feel that line is crossed.

Account Slot

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: laharl.8435

laharl.8435

Is there anyway we get get some sort of account slot that all characters can share? Items like Captain’s Pass would go in it, then all characters would have access to that item. The current function severely limits the utility of items like Captain’s Pass. This would be a huge quality of life upgrade that I would pay gems for!

Loving the Game...TY ArenaNet.

in Guild Wars 2 Discussion

Posted by: Arclight.9437

Arclight.9437

I’m late to the party because I have a Mac, but I’m having the most fun in a game that I’ve had in years. Tyria is beautiful, I’m enjoying my personal story, and I love the ranger class, and learning how to play it the “old fashioned” way. Thank you for not allowing add ons or character inspection. Neutralizing the min maxers and the cookie cutter specs, and only putting competition in the PVP portion of the game put the RP back in RPG. Thank you for not charging a subscription, although I would gladly pay one to play. My only gripe is the gem store not working on the mac client, (There’s an armor set that I want BAD) but it will get fixed when it gets fixed. Plenty to do in the meanwhile.

Again, great game, and thank you.

Incorrect Thinking

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Posted by: Blood Red Arachnid.2493

Blood Red Arachnid.2493

I’m not a fan of elitism, to put it lightly. It is a strange matter that rears its head up in nearly any game out there, and it is a bit of a difficult matter to tackle. However, after years of gaming, I figured it out. The thing with regular players is that they operate under a certain ideology when playing a game: if you accommodate me and my playstyle, I’ll accommodate your playstyle, and that way when we all accept everyone, we’re all happy. From here, particular build choices or classes are done out of entertainment, and this accommodation is done as a form of mutual respect.

The elitist has a different ideology: I’ll play the way I want, and if other people don’t play how I want, then they’re bad people and should feel bad. Then, they go around harassing other players who don’t do what the elitist wants, who don’t think what the elitist thinks. “They’re so selfish because they don’t do what I want to do, play the game how I want to play, build the way I want them to build, and how dare they question me when I assume that my way is the unspoken norm?”, the elitist believe. Sincerely. They view other players as insubordinate tools that need to be morphed for their own gain.

Elitism starts as a means to ulterior goals, and in the case of guild wars 2, the primary goal is money. By using specific tactics with specific gear and specific classes, they aim to complete content faster, which gets them digital money quicker. That’s really the only advantage to doing something quicker in this game, since faster doesn’t equate to more enjoyable or even “better” really. Now, there’s always the urge to push oneself further, or to try for an unofficial record run, or to form a group based on performance. But this doesn’t cause the exclusion and the harassment that you see from elitism. No, the driving force must be something that benefits from exclusion and provides some reward for doing so.

Whether it is just people who view others as tools who come here, or if it is regular people who adapt that way of thinking after awhile, elitism has a destructive effect on the community. It fosters superiority complexes. It punishes compromise. It seeks to eliminate diversity. Elitism is essentially the end of negotiation: Do what I want, or go away. From these negative traits, we see a sea of others emerge.

You may have noticed how trollish elitists are. This is no coincidence: To one with a superiority complex, there is nothing to gain from “reasoning”, or “empathy”. To them, it is like being compassionate to an ant on the sidewalk. Because of this, they don’t care to listen, to reason, or to respect. They get peace of mind by you feeling bad, and by you going away, because they see you as something less than worthwhile that also obtrusively takes money from their wallet. This gives them peace of mind to be contradictory, nonsensical, and hypocritical. Their goal was never to be “right” in the first place, for all of the “right” people are the ones that agree with them.

This hostility breeds more hostility from their victims, which in-turn makes the whole game more and more unpleasant for the bystanders. It has gotten to the point that I am hesitant to offer advice, because if I do I’ll be despised for being intolerant and an elitist. Makes you wonder who gave them that notion in the first place, doesn’kitten The idea of segregation in the game is horrible, since it results in different minded people who refuse to cooperate competing for the attention of content developers, which can only end in disappointment for the playerbase.

This drives away new players, who come to the game to find the community less than unwelcoming. But, as always, elitism has no problem with this. The elitist actually prefers to drive diversity away, drive players away, because this makes it easier for them to get money, and those didn’t count as “people” in the first place. Then, when there are no more dissenting opinions, they’re free to get content in the game with hard DPS checks and damage meters while not having to worry about balancing non-zerker build layouts in PVE.

The worst part is, there’s very little the community can do about it. The moderation has been lax on the issue, so the only thing the rest of the community can do is be as stubborn as the elitists, hope their group grows quicker, and when the elitists feel truly unwelcome, then just maybe they’ll go away. This is a far shot, because they sincerely believe that anyone who doesn’t approve of their antics is jealous of them.

I don’t have opinions. I only have facts I can’t adequately prove.

(edited by Blood Red Arachnid.2493)