Also, the dreaded content guide. Took me a while to actually find out that you could turn it off. It was unnerving. “Play how you want! But it’s better if you go over there just because I like ordering you around”.
But this post is actually sort of a positive feedback on the content guide.
Because I’m not forced to take it. I can turn it off. Now be good sports and make an option to fully turn it off. So I can play properly and pretend these dumb changes fell down some stairs or died (slowly) in a fire.
Eat, sleep, play video games
Everything I could say has probably already been said and said better, but I may as well give my feedback since I’ve given it to plenty of others I play with: The NPE was a waste of time and frankly, I would be ashamed to say I worked on it if I was at Anet. It feels like those that worked on it weren’t familiar with the game, the players or the systems already in place. Or, more likely, they didn’t care. It’s poorly implemented and it broke a lot of things that didn’t need changed or fixed. This seems to be ArenaNet policy these days though (see new new Daily system).
It broke the story, putting things out of order and cutting out sections. It made leveling choppy, slower and unpleasant. It treats you like an idiot. The new trait system is awful, with some traits placed out of your level range or in buggy events with poor guidance on what you need to do to unlock them. It makes you backtrack for exploration elements and does lots of unnecessary level gating that didn’t need to be in the game.
Worst of all, it does a poor job of teaching you what to DO in the game. Most of the new or returning I’ve talked to say that it DOES NOT help them. So far, it seems like the NPE is only good for turning people off of the game.
Unided Dyes are worth 50 silver now and it would be out of range of the rewards for such low level characters.
Silly me, of course. That would ruin the prices. How about a random dye from a large pool, instead?
Much better idea in my opinion.
Unided Dyes are worth 50 silver now and it would be out of range of the rewards for such low level characters.
Silly me, of course. That would ruin the prices. How about a random dye from a large pool, instead?
Eat, sleep, play video games
Other than that I really enjoy the level up rewards. Skill points could maybe come more gradually instead of in chunks? I really like the other rewards. As an alt-aholic it’s really nice to have progressively better gear given to me for free as I level. Means I have to buy less gear myself as my characters level up.
1 skill point per level was ideal, yes. And the rewards are mostly eye-candy, I think, for you get a lot of stuff just from killing mobs. And it will just clutter your inventory since you can’t even salvage the stuff. It is a bit pointless, pressing further on the matter, since you can buy cheap, efficient gear from Renowned Hearts after you’ve completed them.
Oh, another thing, at a certain level (I forget which) you get to chose 1 dye out of 3. After 3 characters it’s trash, since the TP is flooded with those particular colors. Might I suggest an unidentified dye instead of 3 predefined choices?
Unided Dyes are worth 50 silver now and it would be out of range of the rewards for such low level characters.
Other than that I really enjoy the level up rewards. Skill points could maybe come more gradually instead of in chunks? I really like the other rewards. As an alt-aholic it’s really nice to have progressively better gear given to me for free as I level. Means I have to buy less gear myself as my characters level up.
1 skill point per level was ideal, yes. And the rewards are mostly eye-candy, I think, for you get a lot of stuff just from killing mobs. And it will just clutter your inventory since you can’t even salvage the stuff. It is a bit pointless, pressing further on the matter, since you can buy cheap, efficient gear from Renowned Hearts after you’ve completed them.
Oh, another thing, at a certain level (I forget which) you get to chose 1 dye out of 3. After 3 characters it’s trash, since the TP is flooded with those particular colors. Might I suggest an unidentified dye instead of 3 predefined choices?
Eat, sleep, play video games
Traits is really the only big issue I see and they’ve been vocal about working on a better solution.
Another thing that IS weird is when someone has completed everything in an area and the game recommends you go find random POIs like it’s a quest that’s going to help you advance your character through the game.
My friend who is brand new to MMOs had this happening to her and it was very confusing for her. You unlock the POI and it instantly tells you to go to some other random POI or Vista. Or you get out of range of the Vista while you’re trying to reach it and it points you to another Vista all the sudden. You start asking, what’s the point of this? They should look into better ways to recommend exploration when main objectives are complete.
Other than that I really enjoy the level up rewards. Skill points could maybe come more gradually instead of in chunks? I really like the other rewards. As an alt-aholic it’s really nice to have progressively better gear given to me for free as I level. Means I have to buy less gear myself as my characters level up.
(edited by Mo Mo.1947)
Constructive feedback:
- Leveling up feels like a drag for the most part. I’m not sure if it’s because of easier first levels, or the lack of traits until level 30. (And lack of real choice of traits until level 80)
- Not sure if it’s been fixed, but the arrow that’s supposed to be guiding players often sends them to impossible places where they die. It’s not very useful.
- New players might (and probably will) ignore the dailies until they are high enough level to complete them. I don’t think that there are many newbies who throw themselves into neither PvP nor WvW.
- The first few levels have been set in such a way, that it can confuse players more, than it normally would. Additionally, backtracking all over maps just to get some vistas is probably a bother for most people.
- Unlocking traits might be fun the first time you do these quests, but for 7 other classes, it will probably be a drag for most players. And using skillpoints and gold probably won’t happen, as it’s just not worth it. So players are either forced to do the same content over and over again, or to spend the gold/skillpoints that they really need for something else. (Since most of the game is about getting a lot of gold to play how you like)
At least I hope it’s constructive.
Update: I got a friend playing since the 75% discount weekend. He’s been busy, so has not really been playing much. He played GW1, so he was very excited to continue a game on the same world. To see the changes over 250 years.
And then he started… Profession mechanics locked out to the point that I had to throw him into arenas so he can get the feel of professions (walk him there, actually, because as a new player, he is obviously treated as too dumb to press a button and teleport to the sPvP lobby). So that he can understand differences on those professions that existed in GW1.
The point to keep in mind is: we’re talking about a new player that has played similar games (MMORPGs) before this game; we are also talking about a person that does not have any special needs. In sum, a normal, “mmo veteran”, human being.
He was looking to find vendor and TP NPCs. He was shocked that he had been locked out because he was too low level (he was level 2). He asked me if it’s always like this and if there is any other option. I told him, yes, showed him how to get on the Mist train and, at my advice, he’s mindlessly grinding until level 30. Because I suggested 30, or otherwise he’d max it to 80 over there (I haven’t got around explaining trait acquisition; I’m thinking of buying him a bottle of scotch so he won’t be too upset).
I dread each question that he may ask next, because all answers I’ll be giving are “you’re level isn’t high enough”.
End game since level 1, eh?
Eat, sleep, play video games
The new player experience is so annoying! It is so dumbed down and underwhelming that it is so hard to make an alt and not use tomes of knowledge.
The pre-NPE was way better. Unlocking trait lines by buying books instead of spending over 100gold or going places you don’t want to go to unlock them was way better.
This NPE hinders veteran players and new players alike. There is no sense of growth when it comes down to just blatant gating,
Anet tried to dumb down for new players , but in reality the old way didn’t even overwhelm anyone except for a few special people. face it some people have lower IQs than others. world fact
There needs to be a revert to how traits and weapon skills are obtained. If not then let people who already have a level 80 be given the option to make an instant lvl 80 free of charge with all traits and skills unlocked.
I would love to see an option, be it through the mastery system, or a checkbox in the menu, to enable veteran players the ability to avoid the NPE or the limitations imposed to low levels.
I’m talking more especificaly about the unlocking of weapon skills.
I understand the mechanic of unlocking each one as a new player progress through the game, but after we reach 80, there’s no point for such thing.
We have a game that thrives on the idea of people playing multiple characters, and it makes no sense that my second, thrid, tenth characters are being told how to dodge, how to heal, or even unable to use attacks I’m already familiar with.
The problem is that the NPE is misnamed. Its the “New Character Experience.”
Extremely unforgiving to alts, and annoying for people who’ve been playing since Beta and know the ins and outs of every system and skill. Its only slightly less annoying to everybody else, since the game is not that complex, and once you know how boons, conditions, skill combos and such work on your first character, you know how they work in 99% of the game, barring any profession specific stuff.
My suggestion, if the NPE isn’t fully redacted is to make it a thing for new players only, and then only on the FIRST character they create. All subsequent characters would then be governed by the original system, with possibly keeping level up rewards.
Yes, this would allow a brand new player to simply create two characters, abandoning the first one entirely to skip the NPE altogether. But lets face it, GW2 is not that difficult of a game, the NPE is pretty horrible all around, and the ONE place where learning curves might be difficult and need gradual introduction is PvP, and that’s still an instant “all-on” out of the box game mode.
Meh I dunno… I would very much prefer that all players got the choice of the “off button,” regardless of how new they are. It’s much easier for us to help new players if we’re all on the same page (as evidenced my the many posts where people have complained about trying to teach new players about SPs and vistas without knowing that the new player couldn’t see them, for example.)
Of course, the best solution would bee to trash the new progression (except the level-up rewards I guess) and restore the starting zones to how they were before (with the dodge tutorial) Then focus on actually making proper tutorials akin to said dodge tutorial (since even many of the harshest NPE critics agree that the dodge tutorial was the one good thing added).
Yes, of course, option for everybody. If the new player has played previous MMORPGs or simply if he likes to discover things, makes sense that everyone gets “the button”.
Sorry for not being clear.
Edit: typo
Eat, sleep, play video games
(edited by Ashendale.2165)
I hate the new NPE. I never had a problem getting into the game’s various systems back at launch, but playing a new character nowadays is just frustrating. I like the new level up rewards, but that’s about all I like.
The way to solve the problems that caused this change (iirc, that new players were overwhelmed) would be better tutorials or more helpful NPCs and early-character goals that lead to tutorials. While such things have been implemented, sort of (the dodgeroll trainers, the hint popups), the addition of locking things off to certain levels (often absurdly high) is ridiculous.
Instead of, say, only revealing vistas at a certain level, perhaps have a hint popup when a new player mouses over a vista on the map. Or include a new vista that’s very easy to get to in a new player area, and make a hint pop up once the player views it. Et cetera. Don’t lock it off, because new players will catch on that things are being restricted, and they will feel insulted.
The change I hate the most is weapon skills. Really? You don’t think players can handle five skills they get through gradual use of a weapon? That counts as overwhelming, too?
I really, REALLY liked how weapon skills worked before. Having to unlock each progressive skill through use made me get used to the weapon and its skills’ effects as I unlocked each and every one. Then I would switch to a new weapon, unlock those skills, and in the end figure out which one I liked best, because I had adequate time to use every weapon.
With this new system, skills are unlocked instantly. There’s no telling if a new player actually bothered to get all their other weapons by the time a new skill unlocks (and they probably haven’t). Say a player only changes weapons out once they’ve unlocked all five skills. Suddenly—they have all five skills on this new weapon! And no time to get used to them gradually. Isn’t that the “overwhelming” you guys were trying to avoid in the first place…? It makes no sense to me.
teachers live in schools, garbage men live in garbage, and firemen live in fire.
You should give it a rest. You don’t know how many people have “quit in disgust”. It’s like this in every game, including Guild Wars 1.
And I never claimed to know the exact number of people who quit in disgust. Hence my use of “many” and not “all” or “most.”
In Guild Wars 1, every time I started a new character I had to go through the basics of leveling a new character. It wasn’t a big deal there and for more people, it’s not a big deal here.
And GW1’s NPE <> GW2’s NPE. So your point is what exactly?
Do you have any percentages of how many people have left, or care at all? In my opinion, since the first changes were made, most people made peace with this. If you have another opinion, that’s all well and good, but it’s not relevant. Pretty sure Anet knows how many people have left, and how many people are making characters.
And that’s all it is: your opinion. The issue is trying to present your opinion as a fact.
Why on Tyria would I want to do any of that except the last bit? I have zero interest in counting, or trying to make a vote tally. That’s your problem. Mine is how there are the following issues:
Nope, doesn’t work like that. You were the one who claimed that “the nays are all misinformed and just starting trouble for the heck of it!”, not me. Therefore burden of proof is on you.
- A fair amount of people were presenting things which were demonstrably false about the NPE and the limitations. Either knowingly being misinformative, or in ignorance of the actual effects and parroting what they heard. This was done in map chat, and posts, and on Reddit. That’s a problem since it meant more people making decisions based on bad information.
A “fair amount of people,” eh. Vague terms are meaningless without actual numbers.
And I’m sure you can give examples of people “knowingly being misinformative,” or “in ignorance of the actual effects and parroting what they heard?”
The NPE is probably here to stay. It might get tweaked here and there, but as a whole, it’s not probably going anywhere. It is possible it might get jettisoned . . . much like it’s possible to get a Precursor drop from something in Queensdale.
Meh, and people will just keep quitting in disgust and making posts like in this thread. If that’s what Anet wants, then so be it.
As such, if you want to discuss it, fine. You want to talk about what absolute nightsoil it is? Sure, go ahead. I couldn’t care less.
And yet you keep responding. Looks like you care about it more than you think.
Try to use the bad information and terrible "polling data’ along the lines of exit pollsters? Yeah, I’m going to call you on that.
Examples of this “bad information and terrible ‘polling data’?” And I mean, not in the vein of “I disagree with it, so it’s invalid.”
There are many times in school when the class had to review stuff I already knew. It happened in most classes in fact. And then we got on to new stuff. I’m not even sure what you’re trying to say here.
Oh I see. It’s a couple of days at the beginning of the term. Sorry not seeing the issue, sorry you are.
No… what shadow was saying is more like having to review how to eat, walk, speak, and use the bathroom at the beginning of every year, in middle school, high school, and college.
No, I don’t want a review. Well I played Guild Wars 1 and there was a review every single time I made a new character. I didn’t have a lot of skills and the skills I wanted to use I generally didn’t have. There was always that starter zone. Start a new character in Prophecies, you start in pre.
Well too bad then… because with the NPE, you’re getting a review every time whether you like it or not.
I believe that’s been our point from day 1.
There wasn’t enough tutorial in the beginning, and they added it. Deal with it or don’t, but most people will.
And many people have “dealt with it” by quitting in disgust. Pretty contrary to Anet’s plans for trying to attract more players to the game.
Now, on the interest to get matters back at hand, let me see if I got this straight from most of the thread, but particularly from page 25: they “yays” go in favor of getting new players, even if that effects negatively the old players because the company gets more money. Great, that’s how companies work, they want money. Nothing new or strange there.
They did not properly analyze the target market, for most people have at least played one MMORPG and/or do not suffer from severe kittenation. The hand holding and speed in which you reach level 20 goes against the company’s policy of “play how you want”. If the game was designed to be “end game” since level 1 (where the player can do almost anything, except some dungeons and some other minimal things), level gating everything is saying that they (the company) either don’t know what they’re doing or lying through their teeth. For a game based on exploring I am honestly not sure how rushing and throwing you to max level as fast as possible, any kind of incentive to exploration.
Limiting your option (by the grade of level gating implemented) and forcing you to use scrolls and (for example) mindless Mist trains to level, in my opinion, is not the action that enforces “free choice”. But alas, people like it and it can be dealt with. Given, of course, that you have more options.
Then we have the “nays”. My kin. The “kill it before it lays eggs” faction.
We are far more tolerating than you might think, actually. We don’t tolerate this system, hell naw. It’s awful. This, of course, is a matter of opinion. Our opinion. Same way as the “yays” have the right to theirs.
But, unlike the “yays”, I think (prove me right or wrong) that we would tolerate the “yays” to keep their hand holding. We. Don’t. Give. A. Hoot. We really don’t. Want to be carried like a baby and gated throughout the whole thing? Sure thing. Click here for “yes”, and get out of my face. Go. Be free little simpleton. Be free.
In exchange for our (“nays”) tolerance and your (“yays”) freedom (note: NPE freedom may have conditions applied) we have just one tiny request. An option. A way out. A godkitten If and End If on the kitten game code.
The lack of this option is why I think that the management don’t know what they are doing. In giving an option, you would get new players and keep the old.
Edit: this train wreck has been on for over five (5) months. No news. No “we’re working on it”. It’s not unexpected. They always push forward without looking back. The game still has bugs and exploits from when it came out. They do not learn from their mistakes, and proof is that they are able to fix and change issues such as this and choose to do nothing. Such a disappointment…
Can we have anything at all? There is still a small part of me that hopes for an “off” button so I can level new characters. Whichever the decision may be, I just want closure…
Meh I dunno… I would very much prefer that all players got the choice of the “off button,” regardless of how new they are. It’s much easier for us to help new players if we’re all on the same page (as evidenced my the many posts where people have complained about trying to teach new players about SPs and vistas without knowing that the new player couldn’t see them, for example.)
Of course, the best solution would bee to trash the new progression (except the level-up rewards I guess) and restore the starting zones to how they were before (with the dodge tutorial) Then focus on actually making proper tutorials akin to said dodge tutorial (since even many of the harshest NPE critics agree that the dodge tutorial was the one good thing added).
Shadow, I think you’re far overestimating how many people are affected by this, or feel affected. You talk about speed of leveling. The first 15 levels are, and have always been, meant to be a tutorial. After those levels you can level as slow as you want with barely any interference at all from the NPE.
Yes and no. They were always meant to be a tutorial, yes. But right now, since the leveling for the first 20 levels was hastened, the tutorial goes onto further levels. Which, I just began to wonder, if the level cap is not to be raised, what is the point to make things go faster toward the level cap?
I think most people do see that there was an initial overreaction, and that’s not unusual for this particular fan base.
But unlike the trait changes, most people accept it and have moved on. There are a handful of people that think it’s godawful.
There is no overreaction on being paying costumers at a restaurant and having our half eaten (delicious) meal thrown against the wall, and be forced to eat moldy bread.
The trait change? Are we talking about that OTHER abomination? Nobody moved on with the trait change. Not even bloody close to that. Everyone in their right mind was upset about that. They already made a new thread because the previous one derailed, but here is proof that there will be change: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/4733414
Time will tell if it’s for the better. I won’t bother linking info regarding personal story screw up, because that one is to be fixed, as well. Official statement. Go ahead, look it up.
So traits and PS botch, both to be fixed. 2 down, 1 to go.
People are making this sound like it affects their entire game forever. It affects a few levels in the beginning, for a short period of time.
Well, maybe because it does affect the game forever. It is a massive game changer and not only were we not asked about it (great idea on all that no disclosing…), but we can’t turn it off, either.
Edit: misquote
Eat, sleep, play video games
Patch Tuesday has come and gone again without a fix to this ELEVEN MONTH old bug.
…and in other news, buy more gems…
Recently returned to…
…Aurora Glade some random MegaServer™, always being asked to volunteer for that buff…
Ranger | Necromancer | Warrior | Engineer | Thief
…
Ranger | Necromancer | Warrior | Engineer | Thief
Ok, ok, we’re derailing this thread over personal discussion which amount to nothing.
And I say personal discussion referring to when you go back and forth with what each one said.
Now, on the interest to get matters back at hand, let me see if I got this straight from most of the thread, but particularly from page 25: they “yays” go in favor of getting new players, even if that effects negatively the old players because the company gets more money. Great, that’s how companies work, they want money. Nothing new or strange there.
They did not properly analyze the target market, for most people have at least played one MMORPG and/or do not suffer from severe kittenation. The hand holding and speed in which you reach level 20 goes against the company’s policy of “play how you want”. If the game was designed to be “end game” since level 1 (where the player can do almost anything, except some dungeons and some other minimal things), level gating everything is saying that they (the company) either don’t know what they’re doing or lying through their teeth. For a game based on exploring I am honestly not sure how rushing and throwing you to max level as fast as possible, any kind of incentive to exploration.
Limiting your option (by the grade of level gating implemented) and forcing you to use scrolls and (for example) mindless Mist trains to level, in my opinion, is not the action that enforces “free choice”. But alas, people like it and it can be dealt with. Given, of course, that you have more options.
Then we have the “nays”. My kin. The “kill it before it lays eggs” faction.
We are far more tolerating than you might think, actually. We don’t tolerate this system, hell naw. It’s awful. This, of course, is a matter of opinion. Our opinion. Same way as the “yays” have the right to theirs.
But, unlike the “yays”, I think (prove me right or wrong) that we would tolerate the “yays” to keep their hand holding. We. Don’t. Give. A. Hoot. We really don’t. Want to be carried like a baby and gated throughout the whole thing? Sure thing. Click here for “yes”, and get out of my face. Go. Be free little simpleton. Be free.
In exchange for our (“nays”) tolerance and your (“yays”) freedom (note: NPE freedom may have conditions applied) we have just one tiny request. An option. A way out. A godkitten If and End If on the kitten game code.
The lack of this option is why I think that the management don’t know what they are doing. In giving an option, you would get new players and keep the old.
Edit: this train wreck has been on for over five (5) months. No news. No “we’re working on it”. It’s not unexpected. They always push forward without looking back. The game still has bugs and exploits from when it came out. They do not learn from their mistakes, and proof is that they are able to fix and change issues such as this and choose to do nothing. Such a disappointment…
Can we have anything at all? There is still a small part of me that hopes for an “off” button so I can level new characters. Whichever the decision may be, I just want closure…
Eat, sleep, play video games
(edited by Ashendale.2165)
Shadow,
You are mistaken on one point. It was taken into account how the NPE would affect veterans. Anet decided that the benefits for potential new players outweighed the negative impact on existing paying customers. Companies make this sort of decision all of the time.
Well, until the potential new players decide to make a new character and realize that they have to go through that NPE crap all over again, and for every subsequent character after that.
Assuming of course, that they’ll even want to stick around and not quit in disgust early on over the NPE, which some people in this thread have said they or friends have done.
Should we actually count the posts where people said things which were demonstrated to be falsified (either through ignorance or perhaps ulterior motive) about what the NPE was preventing them from doing?
There was a fair amount of that going on too. I know, I ran into it and created a character solely to check it out.
Fine then, count them. Let us know the updated count (using what you consider misinformation, of course). Don’t be surprised if it doesn’t change very much.
Now, we can continue to grasp at straws and split hairs over whether or not posts that claim to just dislike the NPE rather than outright hate it really count as disliking it, or we can actually discuss changes that will help the NPE.
(edited by HandOfKane.5409)
If you’re saying that legwork means counting stuff that was a complaint before changes were made and not seeing if the changes make the difference, you can keep it.
It’s really really simple. People complained. Anet made changes. That’s a FACT. It’s not a theory. Changes were made. If you’re going to look at the complaints before the changes were made, you’re not fair-minded. And I don’t think any reasonable person would think you are.
People in this forum get something in their head. There was enough misinformation going on in the early days that some people based their entire opinion on the NPC based on it. If that’s okay with you that’s fine.
That doesn’t make it okay.
Again, if you have numbers to show that 178 of the nays were “counting stuff that was a complaint before changes were made and not seeing if the changes make the difference” then by all means present it. Until then, you’re still just grasping at straws.
So your posts boil down to just saying that “posts that disagree with me don’t count, because just well, nyahh!” Which, funny, is just how I predicted you’d react.
Before or after is irrelevant.
If they complained about it before it took effect, that means they didn’t want it. If they thought it was good before it took effect, that means they wanted it.
So what?
If those that didn’t want it out numbered those that did and if those that don’t like it out number those that do then no matter how you spin it, it received more negative attention over all than positive and that is all that matters wrt if it was something ANet should’ve done or not.
~snip~
Any opinion which was stated as overall negative got a ranking of “nay.” Any opinion overall positive got a “yay.” Any opinion which was modified to be better after their own OP also got a “yay.” Any opinion which was ambiguous, but seemed positive got a “yay.” Every poster got only one rank no matter how many posts they made. Any posts made regarding only the trait changes was ignored. Likewise, some posters which had no stated opinion were ignored. I purposely gave the “yay” crowd more leeway, and was more stringent on all of the “nay” votes.
~snip~
Granted, that is only this thread.But page 1 was before changes were made to the NPC that solved some people’s complaints. This thread started BEFORE the change. A lot of people were complaining about the elite skill unlocking at 40 where as almost no one is complaining about it unlocking at level 31 by comparison. Likewise there were bug fixes where on your second character, you didn’t get locked out of stuff like skill points.
Taking it from the beginning means you’re ignoring changes that people thought were okay. There were even people who said (not sure if in this thread or not) that they were okay with it after those changes.
You have to count from when the changes were made, because it pacified quite a few people, except for the most vocal. You’d also have to exclude people who are complaining mainly about the trait system and saying that’s the NPE which is a bunch of other people.
First, if you read the bolded text above, you will see that I took all of what you are saying into account when I did my tally. I actually changed some nays to yays in that process. I certainly cannot help if some did not return to update their OPs.
Second, taking the count only from the dates after changes were made would leave out any opinions which did not change. That is certainly no more accurate.
Third, I freely stipulate that the data I gathered serves to prove nothing about actual percentages of people with one opinion or another. However, you asserted that the numbers here were “closer than you think,” and having read this and earlier threads on the NPE, I did not believe that was the case. My count proved only that fact.
Last, it was no fun at all to do these tallies, and I kind of wish I hadn’t wasted my time with work that really proves no more than that there are a fair number of people who are still quite unhappy with the NPE. I blame the very mild OCD from which I suffer for motivating me to do it at all. I knew all the while I did it that I would change the mind of no one who actually likes the changes. I can likewise say that the multitude of posts you have made here will pretty much change the mind of no one who is against them. So, though I made this post about a different issue, I will leave this here again, because I feel it bears repeating:
All of us who dislike the change have lost something that we had before. Something that can’t be quantified by how much time or effort an achievement takes to complete. I’m 100% certain that all of the arguments by those who prefer the current system won’t give that back.
Anet giveth, and Anet taketh away.
It’s already set up so your second passage through the new system is different from the first. So the worst of if it you only have to endure on a single character.
Indeed! Like so:
First new character on my alt account got a choice of one of three dyes.
Second new character on my alt account got a choice of one of the same three dyes.
Third new character on my alt account got a choice of one of the same three dyes.
Fourth new character on my alt account got a choice of one of the same three now already known dyes.
Fifth… etc. etc. etc.
Some good stuff there. Tested for over a year, or so I hear.
“There! Are! Four! Lights!” ~ Jean-Luc Picard
The table is a fable.
Of course they were meant to ruin the early game for some players. The only alternative would be to assume complete idiocy on the part of the developers. I may not agree with everything they do but I have more faith in their intelligence than that.
There is no way that designers and decision makers at Anet could have not known that the changes would negatively impact, even severely so, some portion of their playerbase’s enjoyment of the early levels. Essentially ruining it for them. Knowing the inevitable consequences of an action and knowingly choosing to go forward with that action means intending the consequence.
Thats not something to be faulted for, it is inevitably part of changing and growing the game. Its natural. It shouldnt be ignored however. It should be openly acknowledged rather than hand waved away.
And everyone was a target. If something is purposefully aimed to affect someone the. They were a target of that effect.
(edited by Ashen.2907)
These changes weren’t meant for you.
Except that they were. They were specifically implemented in such a way as to affect all players with a new character, not just those who struggle with certain concpets due to inexperience or limited capacity. Everyone creating and playing a new character has the new experience rather than the old. That was Anet’s decision. The ability to skip past or speed through a zone/level range rather than play through the experience as it previously existed doesn’t change the FACT that Anet opted to include veteran players as well as novices in the target for the changes.
I dont personally care for the NPE. Hate is too strong of a word but dislike works just fine here. I think that certain aspects go a bit too far (dancing for cows ?) but others seem like a great idea (dodge tutorial).
When I say the NPE wasn’t meant for you, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect you. Changes to the game in the NPE were meant to increase the rate at which new players remained with the game. That doesn’t have that much to do with you.
If 1000 old people really don’t like it but 2000 new people stay and play longer, Anet did what they intended to do with it.
If they make it so that you like it, it’s entirely possible it will lose its original meaning.
I’m not saying I wouldn’t be happier having more skills faster. I’m simply saying that to me it doesn’t much matter. It doesn’t change the game for me.
However, if it keeps people in the game longer that is good for me, so I don’t see it as a big deal.
I particularly don’t see it as a big deal because the first fifteen levels pretty much fly (and I still have 20th level scrolls anyway if I find it really bad which I don’t).
It was meant to affect veterans. It was not meant to benefit them. It took aspects of the game away from them.
I get that Anet had a reason for the changes. I think that this is another example of good concept, less good implementation. I think that Anet has some of the best idea guys/gals around. I dont think that their implementation is always on the same level as their vision though. This is an example ofthat IMO.
The changes were meant to help new players, they were meant to ruin the early game for others, they were meant to encourage some to just skip creating/playing alts, and they were meant to be ignored as relatively inconsequential by yet others.