Guild Wars 2

Dao Jones.6720:

Had it obviously appeared to be an exploit, I would not have done it.

Out of curiosity, is there any other recipe in the game you have used 50 times in a row, salvaging and then recycling ingredients like this particular recipe allowed you to?

Heguo.4895:

The damage to the player base is far greater than the damage to the economy ever was.

No. The gain for the player base, by losing all those exploiters and cheaters, is far greater than the help to fix the economy given by those bans.

Dao Jones.6720:

You know why I wasn’t banned? I tried the recipe; I did it about 50 times

In other words, you are admiting you are an exploiter. Is that correct?

Smirgel.9460:

I understand OP’s concern that there is a little bit too much emphasis on dodge and not much on everything else like clever use of skills.

I think that kind of statement is said mostly by people who don’t understand how the game works.

In other topic, I saw someone using the Graveling Scavangers to demonstrated how “broken” the combat system is. The Scavangers have a charged attack in which, if they hit, they knock a character down and basically kill it while it’s on the ground. The poster was using them as a way to illustrate how combat is either DPS – and you kill them before they use this attack – or dodge – the only way to avoid this attack – or you die, no other option available.

That comment showed a profound lack of knowledge about the game.

Against the Graveling Scavangers, a character can:

• Interrupt the charging animation. Any kind of crowd control works for this.

• If the character cannot interrupt the attack, use some kind of defensive skill to prevent the attack from hitting. Aegis for Guardians, Mist Form for Elementalists, and so on.

• If the attack cannot be defended against, use some source of Stability to prevent the knock down and thus avoid the killing attacks.

• If the character cannot prevent the knock down and is actually thrown on the ground, use any kind of stun breaker to leave the knocked down state and just walk away from the killing attacks.

• If a character cannot do any of that… Just ask for help. Party members can do all of the above, plus interrupt the killing attacks themselves.

Dodge is bad. For a melee character, dodge is very bad since it moves you out of range from your enemies. Playing as a Guardian in Ascalon Catacombs, I almost never have to dodge; Kholer, for example, can be easily defeated by using Aegis and Stability, without having to stop attacking in order to dodge.

Narkosys.5173:

I may not agree with him on the Bans but I do agree with him that they want you poor or play their way.

Not really.

Grinders are annoyed that they cannot grind and, simply by doing something mindless and so easy that a bot can do it, get a massive advantage over the players who like to play games to have fun.

Meanwhile, ArenaNet had already said they don’t want players to grind.

Grinders ignored that, as they assumed that GW2, like all other MMOs, would be basically a grinder’s paradise.

It’s not. It should not be, either. And the simplest, easiest way to cull grinders from the game is by making grind unrewarding, so people would (sooner or later) stop doing it.

scabies.3246:

while I’m stuck here working my butt off with farming and dungeons only to get mediocre results

If you are not enjoying the experience of farming (which you appears to not be, based on how you describe it), you should have stopped by now. I don’t really understand why some people are so eager to do things they do not actually enjoy doing, hoping they will get some big reward for it, especially after being told that grinding in GW2 is rather unrewarding.

This game has not been meant for grinders. Unlike other MMOs, it has been meant for everyone else.

Semperverus.3769:

It is morally reprehensible of Anet to ban any players over one of their mistakes.

Not really. It’s morally reprehensible of players to have noticed a mistake and, instead of reporting it so ArenaNet could fix the game, decide to exploit it as much as possible for personal profit.

Those players were doing something wrong, and so they should pay for it. No one forced them to; it was their own choice to abuse this exploit, over and over and over.

TWMagimay.9057:

I would absolutely love to see you banned for doing smth you thought was totally legit

I don’t see anyone being banned for doing something they thought was legit.

I see a bunch of exploiters who crafted dozens of ectos out of a single ecto, obviously knowing they were abusing an exploit, and now pretending they weren’t doing anything wrong in order to avoid the punishment they deserve.

There was a topic about this in the forum. In it, the OP himself described it as an exploit. That’s what it was, and being banned is nothing more than what exploiters deserve, regardless of how many weak excuses they try to use in order to get away.

Mirta.5029:

question: how can a game be addictive, but not fun?

Grind.

Making a game that is fun is hard. Fun is subjective, so something that is fun to someone is not going to be fun for someone else. Fun content also takes a long time to be built, despite how people play quickly through it.

The solution, then, is to create content that is not fun, but that lasts a long time and that people do over and over.

The “how” was solved centuries ago. People learned that they could make donkeys run by strapping a carrot in front of their heads. The donkeys would advance trying to reach the carrot, oblivious to the fact that they would never reach it.

Now, people would, in theory, be smarter than that. In reality – no, many aren’t. And thus grind – playing through content that isn’t fun, over and over, in order to try to achieve some kind of reward. It’s incredibly easy to make grind, it’s content that keeps people busy for a long time, and it rewards time spent more than skill; a perfect combination for pay to play MMOs, since their goal is to reward people for playing more, so those players would also pay more.

The result is that MMOs have been built, in the last years, for grinders and addicts. Anyone smarter than a donkey would look at MMOs with disgust, noticing how the idea of being dealt with as addicts isn’t exactly pleasant, but not that many are that smart.

This was so successful that, now, MMO players believe a MMO is only a MMO if it has a lot of grind. They cannot understand the concept of a MMO in which grind is not the focus of the game. Hence many of the complaints about GW2, claiming that the DR system is too strict, or that it’s a conspiracy to make people buy gems; in reality, it’s simply a way to make grind unrewarding, so grinding doesn’t give people an advantage.

GW2 is, in the end, the victory of humanity over donkeys. Too bad some people want donkeys to win.

Criminals are always going to complain when they get caught. It’s an inherent part of the dishonesty of being a criminal.

Same thing here. Exploiters always complain when they get caught. Most lie through their teeths claiming it was not an exploit or something similar. Most likely don’t understand the kind of negative impact their exploits have in the game, but then again they likely don’t care, so there isn’t much of a point in trying to understand. A few probably don’t understand why what they did was an exploit, but those are actually the worst – people with no sense of what is right and what is wrong.

ArenaNet needs to understand that the vocal minority of banned players (in other words, the very few cheaters who exploited so much to the point that ArenaNet actually took action) should not be allowed to hurt the game for everyone else. Permanently banning all of them is the only good solution.

Bruno Sardine.2907:

Only if you assume the raiding platform to be exactly identical to the traditional systems. A raid was awesome due to the challenging mechanics requiring good execution and coordination of abilities, the lame part was the gear grinding aspect to slow you down…. I don’t see why you can’t have a raid system that offers the good aspects while not having (or having less of) the bad aspects.

Because I don’t believe that would be enough. If ArenaNet made raids that were even slightly different from raids in classic MMOs, I think people would simply say they are not real raids. And if ArenaNet added exactly those raids, I think people would complain since the profession and combat system aren’t exactly like those in other classic MMOs. And if ArenaNet added that, people would still find something to complain, until they left the game after realizing that, no matter what, GW2 will never be a copy of whatever MMO was their first one (or main one). That, after turning GW2 into just one more generic classic MMO clone doomed to fail within a few months.

When people say, “Why no raids?”, it would be better if they listed exactly what they want. Content for large groups of players? More challenging content? Content that require a specific party composition? Content limited to guilds? Content that is the exclusive source of a new kind of item? Content that gives you a random chance of getting some major item?

There is a great article in GamaSutra about how often people join a new online world hoping, whether they realize it or not, that it will be an exact copy of their first online world (read it here).

Whenever I read someone asking for raids (or the holy trinity or anything else that defines other MMOs), I always remember that article, and come to the conclusion that those players are lying to themselves. Even if ArenaNet added raids, I don’t think they would be happy; they would ask for more and more things from their first online world, hoping (secretely, maybe even to themselves) that the game would become an exact copy of the first online world they experienced.

That is never going to happen. And it should not happen, either – the main strength of GW2 is how it’s different from other MMOs. Asking it to become a copy of the classic MMO model is basically asking the game to fail.

Guild Wars 2 does deserve GotY.

There is a huge difference between gaming sites and the forum community, though:

• Gaming sites judge games based on whether they are fun or not. GW2 is one of the most fun games released last year, so it makes sense that it would be GotY.

• The forum community has a vocal minority made of grinders, farmers, addicts and exploiters – exactly the kind of people other MMOs catter to, and who GW2 is trying to avoid.

Little to no surprise to read the negativity here from the same people over and over.

Congrats to ArenaNet for making such a great game. Remember to keep it great by listening to your real target audience, instead of trying to catter to the grinders and farmers and addicts and exploiters.

I wish our forum accounts were linked to the in-game accounts and showed us more about each poster’s account. Knowing who has an active account and who has been banned for shamelessly exploiting the game would be worth a lot of laughs.

Narkosys.5173:

Had you done this from the beginning OK but now you decide to take a firm stance?

What, were you really expecting exploiters to be allowed to exploit freely during the game’s entire lifetime just because exploiters were not permanently banned during GW2’s first few months?

LOL!

Kain Francois.4328:

ANET obviously isn’t doing permabans for kittens and giggles because they are bad for their reputation.

It would be rather bad for their reputation if they allowed exploiters to run around in the game without punishing them. I strongly applaud ArenaNet for permanently banning exploiters who cheated this time.

Kain Francois.4328:

You know, looking on the bright side, I don’t think we’ll see something like this repeat again considering the blowback.

If it prevents people from further exploiting the game over being afraid of more justified permanent bans, this will have been a huge success, I agree with you on that.

Keitaru.9306:

Anet losing the trust of its community every single day with more and more ridiculous ban hammering

ArenaNet would lose the trust of its community if they allowed exploiters to cheat freely and never gave them any kind of real punishment (and no, the slap in the wrist of returning their accounts to how they were a few days earlier, with no real punishment other than taking away what they cheated themselves to, is far from being a decent punishment).

It’s great that ArenaNet is taking action against cheaters. The cheaters themselves are going to complain, of course, and haters are going to hate, but this was a great first step.

Jabberwock.9014:

Get real. This “exploit” was completely harmless.

I’m having a great time laughing at the face of the exploiters who have been caught and are now making up excuses to go with it. Currently the top excuses seems to be:

• “It wasn’t anything wrong!” Because of course making an almost infinite ecto-producing loop was intended!

• “I didn’t become filthy rich doing it, only a bit richer!” Oh, poor thing, only made a few gold instead of small fortunes, too bad you were not among the first wave of exploiters.

• “I was exploiting but so was everyone else!” At least those are a bit more sincere, since they admit it was an exploit.

Again, thank you ArenaNet for those bans! It’s about time they took measures to keep the economy safer for normal, decent players.

Hickeroar.9734:

So….someone does nothing wrong

It was, rather obviously and rather clearly, something wrong. And yes, I am laughing on the players (or rather, now former players) who abused this exploit thinking they would get rich, and not only didn’t get a lot of gold, but were also permanently banned.

Jabberwock.9014:

You are truly clueless. It was defined as an exploit because people were supposedly getting rich off of it.

No, it was an exploit because it was incredibly obvious that using an almost infinite loop to craft a huge amount of ectos was exploiting the game. That some of the later exploites failed to make a huge fortune (and instead made 2-3g) only makes it ironic, not any less wrong.

IMO, “clueless” is cheating and then trying to claim it wasn’t anything wrong. The bans were deserved and perfectly justified; I hope ArenaNet won’t go back on them this time.

Laosduude.1690:

Lol poor management and derives other players. A rollback would make more sense. World of warcraft by Blizzard does that when they mess up something. They just take the items away.

Huh, I didn’t know that WoW cattered to exploiters (I thought their niche was only grinders, farmers and addicts). No wonder, then, that people thought they could exploit and get away with at most a slap in the wrist.

Thankfully, ArenaNet has the moral decency to actually do something and punish the exploiters as they deserve to be punished.

Hickeroar.9734:

What You fail to realize is that he probably spent 60 ectos getting those 90, and 30 ectos is less than 10g profit. That’s NOTHING.

That’s someone abusing an exploit for nothing. Which is ironic, and makes the ban even sweeter.

Hickeroar.9734:

And even if they did made a couple hundred, so what? Did you know that Volcanus sells for 597g at the CHEAPEST right now? And they -do- sell. Did you know that you can craft one for 200g and some fractal runs to buy skill points? So should people crafting volcanus be banned for exploiting?

I’m amazed at how people can pretend there is no difference between playing the game normally and abusing an obvious exploit. I wonder if someone honestly thinks that excuse would work in real life? “Hey, broke into this store and stole everything in it, but it’s almost the same thing as if I had bought it, isn’t it?”.

Tankzilla.7052:

A friend of mine got hit for this. He says got aprox 90 ectos from this.

Nice, one less exploiter in the game! Thank you ArenaNet!

Hickeroar.9734:

This is not exploiting. That’s just what the talking heads have “decided” to call it.

Yeah, I’m sure thieves say what they do isn’t stealing either. That makes it perfectly harmless, doesn’t it?

I only hope ArenaNet will keep those sickening exploiters permanently banned from the game, instead of listenting to their rants about how the “poor things” made 500 gold “without realizing” there was something wrong with it.

TWMagimay.9057:

Unfair advantage against who exactly? We all had access to the recipe and mats…

Yeah, let’s pui people with the decency to not exploit an obvious cheat at an disadvantage over exploiters!

Oh wait… Not!

I’m very happy with the bans. I hope ArenaNet carries on with the permanent bans, instead of listening to the dishonest pleas of innocence from cheaters who knew very well they were exploiting the game.

Thank you ArenaNet for banning cheaters! I hope this means they will deal with exploiters more efficiently from now on.

Fox Mulder.6907:

Maybe a perma ban on the 2nd offense? Maybe A-net should hire better programmers?

Maybe exploiters deserve to be banned?

thetreebranch.4831:

In the case of oversights by Anet with loot, why not roll back characters instead of perma banning them on issues that many players feel is a huge gray area?

Because cheaters deserve to be banned for abusing an obvious exploit.

TheDaiBish.9735:

With this in mind, how would one set for each profession be any less of a waste?

Cultural armors already were a waste. Profession-specific armor not only would be another waste, but it would also be a bigger waste (one eighth of possible characters, as opposed to 20%). Besides, I agree with the poster above you – if someone wants his/her elementalist to look more gothic, what is wrong with that?

Genesis.5169:

I’m far to experienced in mmo’s and gaming in general to suddenly pull aggro and kill myself and others.

Experience in other MMOs is more detrimental than a benefit in GW2. Many MMO players jump from MMO to MMO seeking a copy of their first virtual world, whether they realize it or not (there’s a great read about it here). Considering how the main qualities of GW2 are in how it’s different from other MMOs, this can lead people to play the game as if it were something it’s not. Trying to play GW2 as if it were a classic MMO is a recipe for failure, as there would be little to no satisfaction to be earned from that.

Genesis.5169:

Orr?
Southsun?

Do you really die in those, against common enemies roaming in the world? The only content close to challenging in those areas are within dynamic events. If someone aggros half the map, runs in your direction and you can’t deal with those enemies, just walk in the opposite direction for a bit and you will lose aggro. Regardless, I have never, ever died in Orr because of other people pulling mobs to me – and don’t make me laugh, as if there were anyone in Southsun to actually pull enemies over other players.

Genesis.5169:

Have you been with people who pull every add in an instance for no reason who dies. Or that guy who fails to make it on a easy run and everyone dies or wipes to save him?

Your telling me you have never died because some idiot failed to succeed?

Outside a dungeon? No. And dungeons cannot be soloed, so the point is moot. There is nothing else in this game that people call a “run”, so your argument doesn’t make much sense. Are you really talking about GW2?

TheDaiBish.9735:

Implementing skills is a tad different from implementing new armour, since there’s numbers involved.

Same with professions.

In the first chapter of the original GW, ArenaNet made a lot of armor sets for 6 professions.

In the second chapter of GW1, ArenaNet made armor sets for 8 different professions; each profession had less new armor sets than in the first chapter, but there was still a lot of variety.

In the third chapter of GW2, ArenaNet made armor sets for 10 different professions. The professions introduced in the third chapter had very few armor sets, considering how ArenaNet had to make a lot of armors by then.

If the game had reached a fourth chapter, ArenaNet would need to make sets for 12 professions. Following the pattern seen on previous chapters, we would have only one or two new armor sets per profession.

Which is why…

TheDaiBish.9735:

And while race/profession might be a bit over the top, having profession-specific armour wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Yes, it would be a bad thing. Making an armor set available only to 12,5% of the characters in the game is still worse than making an armor set available to 37,5% of the characters in the game. The difference betweens classes has its advantages – ArenaNet doesn’t need to worry about a single new armor piece clipping with all other armor styles – but doing more than 3 styles is way too much.

Genesis.5169:

Everything is obtainable without help.

Yes. So, again, you are not forced to play with other people; you can play with people when you want to. If you never play with people because you never want to play with people, well…

Genesis.5169:

And no one ever wants to why would i want to risk repair bill on players who may not be good on content i can complete on my own?

…Why would you risk repair bills because you were playing with other people? You are assuming that playing with others would make you die more, is that it? Where did you get that idea from?

Nozdrum.2894:

Who are you to decide what this is game about and what shall be or shall not be? Did you spent years developing this game?

He didn’t.

But ArenaNet did.

And they have stated, very clearly: “We don’t want players to grind”. They didn’t say, “We don’t want required grind”. No, they simply said, “We don’t want players to grind”.

Charged Lodestones require a lot of grind.

Ergo, either ArenaNet changed their minds, or, based on the statement from the people who spent years developing this game, Charged Lodestoned need to be changed.

Rewarding grind is a weak system. Pay to play MMOs reward grind since they are not seeking players, they are actually seeking addicts willing to play through mindless content over and over for a very long time, happily paying their monthly fees. Rewarding people for repeating over and over actions so simple that bots can do them is not good game design. Grind isn’t something that deserves a reward.

Genesis.5169:

“Too much stuff here is optional”

Yes.

The game gives you the option of talking to people, not when you are forced to, but rather when you want to.

If you are playing the game by yourself, without never trying to interact with people simply because the game is not forcing you to… Why are you playing a MMO, again?

morrolan.9608:

So why provide any rewards at all then? Why have exotic armor which is better than what you get in the course of doing the game etc etc

To give people a feeling of progression and of change as they play through the game. Not to pretend players are donkeys chasing carrots dangling in front of their faces.

It truly amazes me how many people actually seek grind. When a game designer makes content for grinders, it’s telling his players that they are little better than blind animals being mindlessly foolished by the promise of a reward that will never come (aka, the famous carrot). People should demand better, instead of seeking the mediocrity of grind.

Genesis.5169:

When has alot of content been a bad thing again?

Often.

Players like to make suggestions without thinking about the impact they will have. It’s easy to see, “Let’s add a dozen more skills to each profession, because more is better, right?”. No. Adding a lot more skills would only lead to the game having, now or soon, way more skills than ArenaNet would be able to balance, leading to a majority of useless skills among a few overpowered ones (aka, GW1).

The OP wants ArenaNet to make 40 new armor sets, each available to only 2,5% of the characters in the game. It would (rather obviously) be a big waste, considering how they could make 40 new armor sets, each available to 37,5% of the characters in the game, instead.

TheDaiBish.9735:

Who’s saying that they have to all be done at once, and straight away? Who’s even saying ANet have to design them? There were quite a few weapon skins designed by the community in GW1. Make it a competition.

The “design a weapon” context were still a lot of work for ArenaNet, since they had to adapt the concept designs into in-game models. Same would apply here; assuming the community had people good enough to make decent designs, even if it were something implemented slowly, it would be a massive waste of resources. Between making an armor set available to only what, 1/40 of the characters in game (assuming there’s an equal spread between professions and between races, so 1 out of 8 characters would be of a given profession and 1 out of 5 would be of a given race), and making an armor set available to 3/8 of the characters in game, there is little doubt as to what concept is smarter.

This is the exact reason ArenaNet went away from profession-exclusive armors like they had in GW1. It was one thing that was giving them too much work, considering how each chapter needed an ever increasing number of armor designs for all available professions. Avoiding it by making armors to be spread in 3 main classes was a great idea.

Gorwe.9672:

Light Armor-where the kitten are scary Necro attires(Light Plates, Gothic dresses and stuff Like that)? Most of L.A looks Like it’s designed for Ele anyhow…

Hello?

What do you think this is?

And this?

And this one?

Albinoturd.4679:

TLDR-You arent rewarded enough in Guild Wars 2.

The main reward is the experience of having fun while playing the game. If you want to grind – play not to have fun experimenting the game, but rather play through mediocre content just to get a reward in the end – there are lots of other MMOs out there exactly like that.

TLDR: if you didn’t enjoy reaching completition, you shouldn’t have done it.

Conwolv.4329:

You’d think that making the game more inclusive would be something that everyone wants. More players = more success for ArenaNet.

Saying “We want everyone to play our game! But not you people. You can keep playing WoW instead” seem counterintuative.

It may sound counter-intuitive, but it’s the truth. ArenaNet is not going to please everyone. No game, from any designer, is ever going to please everyone. Trying to do so ends, at best, with something that is “meh” to everyone and “great” to no one.

There are MMOs with great raids out there. There are few MMOs with good content other than raids out there. GW2 is the latter. Considering how many games there are like the former, I would rather have ArenaNet resources invested in what GW2 does well than in trying to copy features from other games that, well, are available in other games.

Gorwe.9672:

So was that a good idea or what?

It’s in the wrong forum (it’s a Suggestion, so should be in the suggestion forum) and it’s a bad idea. Making a new armor set is too time consuming; it would be a waste to make an armor set and limit it to a single profession, not to mention a specific profession-race combination (and that would be waaaay too many armor sets anyway).

Zantetsuken.9051:

Fanboy threads are just as useless to a forum as rage threads are.

Haters don’t see the difference between a fanboy thread and a topic praising some aspects of the game. If the OP were saying “OMG, the game is perfect, there is nothing to be improved!”, it would be a fanboy topic. Saying “I like this aspect of the game” is just telling ArenaNet how one specific part of the game was well done enough to be pleasant for someone.

The only reason why I bother with this forum is because ArenaNet has proved in the past how they are willing to listen to fan feedback, no matter how bad said feedback is.

In GW1, the original game had 6 professions. The second chapter had 2 new professions and 25 new skills for the old 6 professions. When the third chapter was going to be released, ArenaNet originally said they were going to release two new professions and skills only for the six original core professions. Some players complained, and so ArenaNet decided to release new skills for all professions.

This was a massively bad idea.

• With 75 skills per profession, the original game had more or less 450 skills.

• In chapter 2, with two new professions, each with 75 skills, and 25 skills for each of the old professions, the game went to more or less 750 skills.

• In chapter 3, with two new professions, each with 75 skills, and 25 skills for each of the 8 older professions, the game went to more or less 1.100 skills.

ArenaNet can hardly balance all skills available in GW2. There is no way they could possibly have balanced more than one thousand skills.

And guess what? They got themselves stuck, since if a new chapter had less professions and less skills for old professions as previous chapters, players would complain that they were not receiving a full chapter.

Ergo…

• Chapter 4 would need two new professions, with 75 skills each, plus 25 new skills for each of the 10 older professions.

• Chapter 5 would need two new professions, plus 25 new skills for each of the 12 older professions. Is anyone still making the math to see how many skills the game would have by this time?

Having too many skills killed GW1. There was no way ArenaNet could possibly keep the game balanced with so many skills, and they shot themselves on the foot when they decided that new chapters would adopt a system in which more content would demand even more content on the next chapter.

Incidentally, it’s ironic that some GW1 players complain about the lack of skills in GW2. It’s far better to have 100 somewhat balanced skills than 1.000 thousand skills, of which only 50 are somewhat balanced and the other 950 are kept underpowered so the game balancers don’t have to worry about them.

ArenaNet needs to add as few skills as viable per expansion. They should add more “cosmetic” things – a new race with lore and a few new racial skills. One, at most two new weapons for old professions; if only a single weapon, a couple new utility skills. And nothing more. Or GW2 would suffer the same fate GW1 had.

digiowl.9620:

Again, better time that use correctly.

Yes, the game would be incredibly shallow if players were just using skills on recharge, instead of using them correctly. Your point is…?

Horrorscope.7632:

Aren’t a lot of us those who have played several other mmo’s, assuming those being called classic mmo’s?

Yes.

And you are not the target audience of Guild Wars 2. Probably exactly because many people who have played several MMOs are happy with the “same old, same old” format seen on classic MMOs, and refuse anything new (such as the lack of trinity). Not to mention how many MMO players jump from MMO to MMO looking for a copy of their first online world, whether they realize it or not (this is a great read).

Meanwhile, ArenaNet said:

“If you like MMOs, you are going to like GW2.”

“If you don’t like MMOs, you are REALLY going to like GW2.”

The issue is that ArenaNet didn’t market the game properly, as something for those who do not like the way classic MMOs work. As a result, the game has a very vocal minority of classic MMO players who want GW2 to become just one more copy of those old MMOs.

Alipius.4783:

In Gw2, what do we have?

• Jump
• Dodge
• DPS
• DPS
• DPS
• DPS

Do we?

Let’s take an example. A Guardian using a hammer. Available skills:

1) The “Hammer Swing” chain: does damage, but its main effect is the Symbol of Protection on the third strike, giving Protection to allies in the area.

2) Mighty Blow: the strongest attack in the weapon, also a combo finisher.

3) Zealot’s Embrace: immobilization in a line. Negligible damage.

4) Banish: throws an enemy away. Negligible damage.

5) Ring of Warding: no damage. Creates a ward enemies cannot cross.

Now, a bad player who can only understand the concepts of “tank/DPS/healer” would spam skills 1 and 2 on recharge, nothing more.

A good player would use all those skills and the utility in each of them in order to benefit himself and his party.

There is no need for a one-word role. The role of this character is defined by the skills available to him. It’s not just “tank”, not just “DPS”, not just “healer” – it’s actually a more complex system than that.

Therefore, it’s easy to understand why so much criticism against the removal of the trinity: some players cannot understand the game unless they are given a very clear cut and simple role such as “tank”, “DPS” or “healer”. The moment you add more words to the role description, the sky begins to fall for some people.

Horrorscope.7632:

Aren’t we all players of classic mmo’s?

No.

Magic Monkey.8930:

And what you’re ignoring is that all inconveniences can be eradicated by buying in-game gold. Especially things like nerfed drop rates.

Not really.

Using the “nerfed drop rates” as an example: the DR system is actually great for the game. Nerfing grinding so it’s not rewarding is one of the best things ArenaNet has done for GW2.

Now, there is a silly conspiracy theory that the point of the low drop rates isn’t to actually help the game (despite how much it helps the game), but rather to force people to buy gold with real money. And the failure in this argument is – low drop rates prevent people from buying gems as well. Right now, to buy Mjolnir using gems, someone would need more or less US$1.500,00. Needless to say, considerably less people are going to be willing to pay that much for a skin than if the same skin cost US$30,00. Ergo, the idea that the so-called “nerfed drop rate” is there so people would buy gold with gems is ridiculous, and will continue to be ridiculous unless there were a significant advantage to buying those items with gems (for example, if the Mjolnir skin were available in the gem store for US$30,00).

Ultimately, the idea that NCSoft is trying to artificially create inconveniences to sell convenience – be it through the waypoint costs, repair costs or the DR system – is a failure. I guess it’s easier to assume things like that than to understand the impact waypoint costs, repair costs and the DR system have in the game, though.

Magic Monkey.8930:

Seems to me the person you’re quoting is talking about NCSoft standard business practice, not a conspiracy.

You are seeing wrong, then. The person I’m quoting was talking about how NCSoft would be trying to force players to buy gems with real money by artificially creating inconveniences to be fixed through bought-only conveniences. The same person states how this is a failed approach, as it would only drive people away from the game.

My following posts proved that poster wrong: not only ArenaNet has not added artificial inconveniences that would require money to be solved, but they have also been adding more conveniences in the game for free. And the reason is clear: just as the poster I was quoting claimed that artificially adding inconvenience to sell convenience would drive people away from the game, adding free convenience is a good way to create good will for players so they would be more willing to spend money in the game.

It’s simple. It’s not as simple as the extremely naive “NCSoft is a bunch of evil greedy businessmen!!!!!” line of thought, though.

Gab Superstar.4059:

Are you denying that the only way Arena Net developers can create fights that require high skill is through forcing players to dodge?

Yes.

Alpha fight in Crucible of Eternity path 2.

You don’t have to dodge even once to survive. It’s simply a matter of understanding how that fight works.

CoE is probably the best dungeon in the game.

malicepains.1260:

So once in awhile when I view at a vista I see this little brown, spinning, floating, and glowing green thingy, spitting out fog from under it… What’s with that?

It’s an Wintersday thing – when you see a patch of snow in the world (the ones we use to build the magical snowmen), if you look up you will see those green things making the snow.