It doesn’t matter if the requirements are too steep or if the items fall on my lap for free,
To some of the old timers it matters very much, but it’s nice to see that people finally make the distinction between gear grind and gear treadmill. Some are okay with both, some are okay with only one of the two, and some are okay with neither. Now, ANet, which of the four groups will you try to keep pleased? :P
They had to know it would kitten off many GW1 fans, so why plan its inclusion absent the evidence that it would be wanted?
GW1 fans were their biggest source of positive word to mouth propaganda. Had they announced a tiptoe treadmill like ascended gear before launch, they would have lost most of those old time players trying to convince potential buyers into (pre-)purchasing the game.
I’m not saying that’s how it was, but it’s a possible explanation. Another likely theory is that they were contractually bound by NCSoft to develop and end game gear progression after launch if active player numbers or gem shop sales(or any other criteria) didn’t match predictions.
Endgame Gear progression is here, it’s going to stay, and it’ll probably expand to lower gear tiers(as announced in the November 2012 blog post), although I don’t think it would make sense to apply infusion upgrades to anything below exotics. Wait, scrap that. Level 100 rares will probably be as powerful as fully upgraded level 80 ascendeds, so I guess it does make sense in the long run, depending on how far they will go with the level cap increase.
There’s still some resistance to open world pvping and dueling in the population, so if ANet would want to do anything of the sort, it would be after they acclimatized the majority of players to the idea of PvP within the PvE world. It probably won’t happen for some time, if at all, but it’s certainly doable. They can already have players of different teams spawn and attack each other in a PvE map, as BWE2 demonstrated.
IIRC, there are already (closed)portals leading to the Crystal desert and Maguuma Wastes in game, so it’s either one of those or the Dominion of Winds. Out of those three, I’d favor the bird cage.
Somebody has to explain to me what this “end game content” actually is. The only thing i can think of is raids.
When you start to play an MMO, the rate at which you progress is pretty steep. You gain levels, replace your gear with better one, get more skills, advance in the story line. When the rate of progression falls off fast because you are max level, finished the last story mission, or acquired the best non-raid gear, endgame takes over. It begins when most venues of progression come to a halt.
Endgame content is designed to allow players to keep feeling they are progressing/improving(at a severely reduced rate, but nonetheless) at the cost of a huge time commitment without causing huge imbalances in gameplay, or deprive players of the rewarding feeling that they are spending their playtime well. It’s usually also the most difficult content an MMO has to offer.
Raids are popular endgame content, but there’s also other types that fit the description, most notably Hard Mode in GW1.
Question for the oldies: Back in GW1, how long was the Sup Vigor Rune above 50k at the trader? I started playing shortly after EotN was released, at I think it was 20k at that time.
I guess we now have to ask what is meant by vertical progression in the first place.
Anything that increases your stats without lowering others for balance. Levels, gear, skill affecting title tracks, like Kurzick/Luxon allegiance titles and pve only skills in GW1.
You’d have to wait for the Extended Experience update, which will focus on everything GW2 outside of the game. Next to WvW map updates, gear armory, plans are to include an API to pull data from their servers specifically for fansites to use. Mobile device support will also be available.
I’m happy to see that GW2 is doing well, even though I have stopped playing the game long ago. It has my spiritual support for being the best MMORPG currently on the market, if that accounts for anything at all.
Personally I don’t like the game anymore, but I still love the world and lore, so I’m excited to see where they take the game next. As an expert in living vicariously through others, watching an LP is almost as enjoyable to me as playing it myself. :P
So, is it REALLY worth quitting over dueling if you like the rest of the game?
Some players have quit over the addition of optional end game gear, so I don’t think it’s unlikely. People assign different sets values to what they like and dislike, so anything can be a game breaking addition(or removal), really. Will dueling make more people happy than angry? ANet seems to think so, and they have the most data on their playerbase.
My guess it that they always wanted for GW2 to be a real MMO with gear progression, dueling, mounts, raids, gear inspect and the like, but knew they couldn’t radically change that many aspects from their previous game at once without causing having their existing GW1 fanbase turn against them, which was a valuable marketing asset at the time. A transitional period was needed to keep the negative publicity at an acceptable level so the old timers could leave in peace and get replaced with new customers without sacrificing their plans for GW2.
You want to know the reason behind having costume brawls and no duels? Apart from some technical problems, which can be solved mind you, it is another one of ANets compromises to please people in two camps, those who like dueling and those who hate it.
By transforming you into some wacky model nobody takes serious and giving you your own set of skills, they disconnect the players mind from their alter ego and remove the ability to identify with their character like many players normally do with the characters they have built in game. An important goal was to get rid of certain asocial motivations for seeking out duels, like ego boosting or harassing players with requests, while still allowing some basic 1v1PvP to happen in the PvE world. Not using your own weapons, traits and gear also saves them from being pressured to balancing every profession against any other, as players would keep complaining about always loosing duels with their profession against a certain other.
If you want real open world PvP, organize with other supporters and keep raising awareness on the forums. It worked with ascended gear and guild missions, it’s definitely going to work for dueling.
People crave the feeling of improving themselves, even if it’s just an illusion. Leveling and gear are prime sources to create this feeling in players. That’s what we call “meaningful progression”. Not a progress that actually means something from an objective PoV, but what provides you the player with the feeling that you just became superior to your earlier self and/or other players on lower level/worse gear. It’s an essential selling point of PvE MMO games. Why take that away from people?
Well, the idea that you need new items to overcome new challenges is something that is largely in your head.
That’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s not a real progression, but an illusory one. Whether encounters truly become more difficult or are just a are of numbers however is largely irrelevant. What most people crave is not a specific kind of progression, but the feeling of having progressed. Even if it’s just an illusory number, better gear is far superior at creating the feeling of “getting somewhere” with your playtime for many many people than, compared to say, the mastery of a new mob mechanic. Production costs for vertical progression is also a hell of a lot lower than trying to implement new mechanics. Most people don’t care how they improve, for them all that matters is the good feeling they get once in a while in the back of their head when the game tells them they improved themselves. +5 power triggers that feeling a lot more reliably than anything else.
They introduced bonus xp, which is sort of the same mechanic for mobs. It depends where you want player masses to congregate, or if at all. I’m not sure ANet wants people to spread too much, otherwise I’m sure they would have already added something like this.
Also, if it was meant to be a prestige gear, they would have started with the pieces that are visible.
Dungeon gear – aesthetically prestige – is in the game since launch.
How one defines who is dedicated changes depending on who you are talking to. I’m just paraphrasing what ANet said about who ascended gear is designed for.
ascended are a cheap crutch to keep some people playing, as opposed to developing interesting new content that isnt just + resist vs +boss dmg. there’s a reason companies like blizzard stopped using resistance gear 5 years ago, it splits the player base.
Yes it is prestige, in addition to what you just said. The gear is not necessary(yet) to experience any piece of unique content. That and the fact that you have to spend a considerable amount of time farming for each piece makes the stat advantage prestigious. In other words, a-gear isn’t designed to be acquired by everybody but the portion of the player base that is described as “dedicated”.
You are correct, if Ascended had been implemented at the opening of the game it would have been fine as it would have been completely through the game from crafting to dungeons and everyone could get it at their leisure like Exotics etc, but it wasn’t.
One of the main points of Ascended gear is that it should not be easily accessible, which is the reason why it’s not sellable or craftable(in a traditional sense). If the gear would have been there at launch, you’d still have to run fractals, do many dailes or complete guild missions to get them. It’s prestige armor that isn’t supposed to be worn by everyone, at least not until the next tier or level 80+ version comes out.
I do agree with you. Not to say that im pleased with the anwser but its as you said probably the only thing we might get.
You could also look for seemingly coincidental pieces of content that may be interpreted in ways that would lead you to theorize that someone wants us to know about what’s going on behind the scenes of management. We experienced that with the LS patch, if you’re on the side of the believers, and it may happen again in the future.
Hmm, maybe it’s possible they will be going the DLC route where they’ll go as far as sell individual maps on the shop. If I was working on a dozen tiny dlc packs I wouldn’t call them expansion either, even if their combined content would add up to one. You can like EA or not, but they are very successful with their business strategy.
I bet it will be part of the extended experience. During GW2s development, they mentioned what kind of ideas they had about tying in GW2 with off kinds of web tools you can use to interact with the game even when you’ve not started it. I imagine a lfg tool accessible with a browser and smartphone would be one of the things they’d like to do, another being out of game gear inspect(they call it armory).
I wouldn’t expect an official lfg tool until they announce their EE project.
When I repeat a discreet piece of content often enough that I don’t have to think about what I’m doing anymore. No surprises, no randomness. It when playing a game makes me start feeling like my character is dragging me through tar.
Didn’t they say the next bigger update is going to focus on WvW and trying to make it less about moving around and flipping? Maybe they took it out to replace it with something that’s about to be implemented.
That’s kind of what I was thinking. Didn’t they say that they have a live team and a team that solely works on expansion content?
Not only that, but they said they split their staff 50/50, which is a substantial number. Did the expansion team get laid off, consolidated into the live team, or are they enjoying a year paid vacation?
GW2 gad to spend much more time on the exposition of the 5 races, which is why the later part kind of falls flat when it comes to interesting twists and turns. There’s still things hidden here and there for you to theorize on just like in GW1, although there hasn’t been any big reveal ala “Abaddon was behind it all” yet.
I hope they will come up with some crazy explanation for why ecto containing items drop in the mortal realm. Inb4 Tyria is part of the underworld and we all are spirits.
You can’t increase the value of something while also increasing its availability.
Higher availability make more people happy than higher value. Turn up the availability too far and your economy brakes down, create too much scarcity and you cripple people’s progression.
Do you feel that you can trust every word the developers say? Or do you approach their announcements as I do with quite a bit of caution and skepticism these days?
I thought I knew what to expect from their statements. Then Nov.12 2012 came. I had to adjust my views on their statements and philosophies. The game isn’t for me anymore and I can’t in good conscience keep supporting it with my money or playtime, but I still love the franchise, the love and details the designers put into the game world. Despite the disappointment of not being able to enjoy the game myself, I believe GW2 is the best MMORPG out there right now, and I want the franchise to continue, so that maybe one day there will be a game set in the GW universe I can enjoy playing again.
That’s why I am arguing in favor of long term vertical progression despite it being the reason I don’t play anymore. The game needs a direction to head in, and every time they are backpedaling on their vision(however misrepresented that was by their marketing), it will cost them active player numbers rather then give them more.
Of course you don’t have to get them, but isn’t that like putting out a plate of expensive gourmet cookies and saying to someone “you don’t have to eat these, they’re optional”?
Almost. It’s like putting a plate of expensive gourmet cookies at the top of a 5 story stair case and saying to someone “you don’t have to eat these, but they’re yours if you get up there within 10 minutes”.
Well, it’s only logical that if you don’t contribute to a guild’s ability to start events, you don’t get to leech the special rewards it comes with.
This is medium and large guild exclusive content, which means it is designed for members of guilds that have a certain size(or influence income rather). You could apply for the guild if you want to be part of them, help without expecting a reward, or stay the heck out of their way.
This kind of price for gear with the best stats is ridiculous. What happened to grinding for cosmetic items, but no grind for stats? I thought ArenaNet didn’t make grindy games?
BiS gear is optional, making it just as much an end game progression as skins and titles. If you want the privilege of equipping the best possible gear, you have to put your mind to it, not expect it to be handed to you after saving up for half a week.
There needs to be a way for the really dedicated players can differentiate themselves from those without the time or conviction grind out this slightly better gear set. People have said in the past that MMO players need to be weened off of wanting a gear treadmill a.k.a. becoming more and more powerful, but the same can be said for the permanent gear cap faction with demanding easy to reach power plateaus.
Gah, 50 ectos as well as 40 laurels?
Sure, no grind here.
The whole ascended set has to last people until at least Jan 2014, thanks to the overreaction of some fraction of the player base. That the ascended items are a lot grindier is basically their fault. Had they not complained so much, we could have had much quicker releases of gear at lower costs, and a completely new tier by summer. ANet did the best they could while staying true to their “no new gear tier in 2013” statement. :/
Hmm, if they raise the cap that liberally, I can see them being able to provide a decent amount of progression with it. With side kicking taking care of the problem with being hopelessly OP(yea, still needs adjustment), they may have the opportunity to raise the cap up to a number no other AAA MMO had before. Level 500 anyone? :P
I don’t like the term “hardcore players”. A player can play less and still be hardcore. If they play smart.
That’s why ANet called the target audience for the long term gear progression “dedicated” players, which IMO describes everything from very casual upwards quite well.
This will pass once players realize that anyone can get endless achievement points by simply standing in LA and salvaging T1 mats.
Those who use AP to discriminate knew that, but even without a surefire way to lockout inexperienced or bad players, demanding a certain amount of AP weeds out those who aren’t dedicated enough to try and cheat their way into higher ranks via the way you described. It was the same in GW1 with certain tokens.
The more demand there is for a certain kind of player(i.e. high level fractals party member), the more exclusive your demands can be to minimize the risk of ending up with a baddie/noob.
Be glad the “cliche” doesn’t look as bad as it’s GW1 counterpart. Warrior with black Obisidian “Trashcan” armor, tormented weapons, GWAMM and an ego reaching from the Citadel to Orr and back. :P
