Guild Wars 2

Charleston Chew.1209:

Adapt or move on. How simple life is, innit?

Looks like there are at least a few who are choosing the latter.

What remains to be seen, is whether the “new player experience” will entice as many new players to join the game as it has current players to “move on”.

Vayne.8563:

Anet’s way forward is to leave behind the people that can’t adapt to where the game is going and to get new people who like the game for what it is.

That doesn’t seem to be working for them. Perhaps they should try sticking to a design philosophy for a while and see if they can build a long term player base, rather than continually changing direction and throwing “the people tat can’t adapt” overboard.

I know, just my opinion. I have no evidence or facts to back this up.

I’m not the only one, however, who feels like the game has been lurching about toward conflicting design goals, alienating people along the way. The end result is that you do need to keep getting on new players because the old ones thought they were headed one way and found themselves headed somewhere they didn’t want to go.

I still imagine a GW2 that looks a lot closer to the picture that the devs painted for us in so many blog posts and articles before launch, and was there in its infancy for the first few months after launch. If only it had continued growing in that direction, deepening and maturing. Then GW2 might be humming along with a steadily growing, loyal player base, rather than trying to refresh with a new generation every six months or so as something new becomes the design priority.

One of the more disturbing things I’ve seen lately is a deflation in the posts of some of the most die-hard supporters on forums like this one and Guru. I’ve read posts criticizing recent ArenaNet choices, then done double-takes when I glanced back up to see who posted. Some of the people who we could rely on to staunchly defend ArenaNet in every thread are starting to make qualified defenses or outright complaint posts.

Reminds me of my journey as GW2 proselytizer pre-launch and shortly after launch, to where I am now.

They already lost my support a while back, unfortunately, so I can’t withdraw it at this point. I would, if I was still supporting them.

To be fair, it is weird to see an NPC yawn while listening to her lover talk about the death of her sister.

Too bad they couldn’t just have a way to stop idle animations during those NPC dialogue moments.

I have 6 level 80s. My seventh is in the 40s, and I level him occasionally when my wife plays. It was a pain to have his trait points drastically reduced.

I have an eighth slot that was supposed to be my final character for the final profession I haven’t used. I was planning on levelling that character with my son. No way I’m going to slog through the new trait system and now new delayed mechanics system, though.

So I play my high levels with my son, and that eighth slot remains a silly Norn character I made to demonstrate that there are animals in the world of appropriate size to act as mounts for Norn characters.

Rich Fuel.7253:

fresh start, eaither a new member or a 2 years members starts a new class and will have easier life lvling

Yeah, easier time leveling with traits shoved back past level 30, ridiculous ways to get them when they finally do unlock, weapon swap pushed back to level 15, utilities delayed to much later levels…

But hey, I’ll get a few more drops that can be used by my profession. Which will probably be outclassed by the cheap greens I normally buy on the TP every five to 10 levels anyway.

all you 12 year old cry babys are ungreatfull

Ungrateful? Because ArenaNet is adding stuff out of the goodness of their hearts and not turning a profit, right?

I’m not saying they shouldn’t. I’m saying they should, and that this is a business relationship between them and the player base. No one has a need to be “grateful”, except maybe ArenaNet when someone sends them cupcakes.

In fact, any good business hopes that people complain before they take their business elsewhere. Complaining customers are much better than customers who choose to no longer be customers.

Psientist.6437:

This game is feeling more and more like a business plan with a game attached than a game with a business plan attached.

That is what a contemporary MMO is. A virtual economy designed to produce real wealth with a RPG skin wrapped around it to get people to engage in said virtual economy.

Buttercup.5871:

Septemptus.7164:

Maybe gem store team.

There is no gem store team. Only Arenanet.

Actually, there is a “monetization lead” on staff. http://www.linkedin.com/pub/crystin-cox/3/957/a77

John Smith.4610:

There are many problems with automation. For example, you’re hanging out in DR with friends and eating 1g/hour worth of high end food and oils because you forgot to take them out of the slot. They aren’t unsolvable, it’s just not straight forward either.

Oh, definitely. I meant to present the two options is my post as 1. Simple Fix and 2. Even better, but more complicated fix.

In addition to using food for difficult situations like non-zerg WvW, I’ve been trying to use some of the random food I produced while leveling cooking on my final character, just for the kill XP buff, but there are long stretches of time where I don’t notice it has expired.

Clearer communication from the UI that a buff is about to expire or has expired would go a long way. A hot-key for each type of consumable would also be welcome.

Svarty.8019:

This:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/02/flameseeker-chronicles-whats-next-for-guild-wars-2/

Hmmm, maybe the “new player experience” wasn’t just for the China release. Maybe there is something big around the corner that they expect will bring in a fresh Western audience.

Substance E.4852:

Sounds like you’re Anet’s model customer considering their focus on lottery boxes and mindless zerg grind “content”.

And adding new achievements to get people to do content that’s already been there.

Curious, how many people made sure to level up in a level appropriate zone?

My wife and I play pretty casually, following whatever whim we have at the given time into zones. We don’t make sure we’re always leveling in zones equal to our character level. That means, while we do get some level appropriate drops, most of our drops are significantly underleveled.

Even when I used to play solo and a little bit more goal driven, I didn’t push into new zones as I leveled up, preferring to do most or all of a zone before I moved on.

Which is all to say, in addition to my above comments about not getting much green gear and getting stat spreads I’m not using, I’m usually not getting enough drops of an appropriate level to keep geared even with a significant increase in profession-appropriateness.

Seems to me that this population of new players who would be benefited by more appropriate gear drops are also not likely to make sure they are consistently in a level appropriate zone.

I’m looking forward to seeing how this actually plays out.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@Gibson:
Agreed, if being presented with content that disappoints can be considered “to be bitten”.

Yes, although I’d go a little further than “disappoints”. The releases I specifically named had more of a “What the…?” or “Who asked for that?” reaction from their respective communities (but not, in any way, the entire player base, especially not Lishtenbird).

Disappointing content or tweaks come and go, but there are those that hit a portion of the playerbase like a kick to a dog who is expecting a treat. The kind of thing that leaves people going, “Where did that come from?” (but only those people, not the entire playerbase).

Jornophelanthas.1475:

What many of these angry, disappointed or scared people are claiming is also that [NEW HYPE GAME X] will “kill” Guild Wars 2.

Yeah, that’s just silly rhetoric. It’s like the inevitable reference to a certain German Genocidal National Socialist party that is censored here comment in any internet conversation.

Although it is interesting to see ArenaNet’s timing on these feature packs and new WvW tournaments line up with competitor releases. But that’s just good business practice.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

Personally, I believe a lot of the groaning and moaning going on in these forums at the moment is a case of fear of the unknown.

Players become worried because feature patches promise change, and they’re not sure if they’re going to like it, so they prepare by assuming the worst. Then they read the pessimistic ramblings of others, and these posts amplify each other.

You’ve left out the other half, which is past experience. Fear of the unknown, plus a history of seeing some things in patches which seemed really backwards (to the person who feels that way and not necessarily to anyone else in the entire player base, Lishtenbird).

Players who are still bewildered by things like ascended gear, fractal level reset, WvW bloodlust, or the new trait system are not only randomly afraid of the unknown, they are operating from “once bitten, twice shy” state (but just the ones who feel that way, and in no way the entire playerbase, Lishtenbird).

Lishtenbird.2814:

Gibson.4036:

Have you considered that people do understand, but they’re trying to convey that the “something different” ArenaNet wanted to try isn’t working for them?

FTFY. Because it’s working for me and many other people.

Thanks. I forget that whenever people express an opinion, everyone assumes they are trying to speak for the entire player base.

I wasn’t. I wasn’t saying the people who are complaining are. I don’t see any reason to think that DustyMoon thought Stark was attempting to speak for anyone but themself.

But yeah, you’re right. I need to be more careful with my words to make sure that people don’t try to derail from what I’m saying by distracting with the old “You don’t speak for the entire player base” straw man.

John Smith.4610:

A surprising amount of players never use food despite how powerful it is. While it is not the items primary purpose, I would like it if it taught people how great food is and more people became eaters.

It’s also a nagging hassle.

I wouldn’t mind using food more often for its benefits, but I only consistently do in circumstances where I seriously need the edge, for example non-zerg WvW.

A simple UI change could help a lot. When I play, I don’t usually have a good idea of how much time is passing. I shouldn’t, because I should be engaged in something interesting. While I do watch buff/condition icons for game play, over the course of thirty minutes I’m guaranteed to lose track of the fact that the little food buff disappeared at some point. It can be quite a while before I think, “Oh, I need to eat again!”

Giving me some sort of eye-catching “You’re getting hungry” (food buff about to expire) element in the UI would go a long way to make sure I am consistently eating and thereby contributing to food (or ingredient) demand on the market.

Even better would be some way to automate the whole thing. Give me a slot somewhere in the UI where I can drop a stack of each kind of “nourishment” and have the game automatically consume it when each one expires. I’m sure I’ll get some hate for “dumbing down” the game with this suggestion, but I can’t see that having to open the inventory and click a food and an maintenance oil every half hour is really contributing much to raising the skill ceiling of the game.

Why do you think there is a staff Economist?

Do you think his primary purpose is to make sure that the economy runs smoothly because that makes for a great heroic fantasy MMO? As yourself how intrinsic a smoothly running free market economy is to heroic fantasy. Do you see supply/demand economic simulations in heroic fantasy fiction? Heroic fantasy film? Heroic fantasy rpgs? In order to simulate the experience of dragon-fighting, witch-king slaying, one true hero storytelling how crucial is an open market?

I’m sure a lot of ArenaNet’s creative personnel have a personal goal of creating an engaging, awe-inspiring heroic fantasy game. But that is not the primary purpose of this game. A contemporary MMO is a virtual economy designed to generate real wealth. It is wrapped in a heroic fantasy skin in order to entice players to engage in that economy.

The cash shop has not contaminated GW2. It’s a functional part of the machine needed for it’s primary purpose.

I’m still not sure what to make of their decision to blow up the best received update of the first year of the games life.

Blog post, “People loved Zephyr Sanctum!”

LS2 “Let’s create a new zone littered with the smoking ruins of Zephyr Sanctum!”

I get it. If people loved it, what better emotional impact when it’s destroyed? But looked at from another angle it can have the flavor of thumbing their nose at the player base.

Not saying that was at all the intent. But it can easily feel that way.

Dusty Moon.4382:

You do understand they said, they wanted to try something different? That is what they are doing. The problem with expansions is the original faults and bugs in the game, never really get fixed as the company moves onto the expansion.

A.net said 6 months into the game, no expansions. I don’t get what people don’t understand.

Have you considered that people do understand, but they’re trying to convey that the “something different” ArenaNet wanted to try isn’t working?

Trying something different is great. But don’t expect applause just because it’s different.

IMO, the number one problem is a lack of clear direction for the game. It seems to lurch about between design goals, with the management putting out creative fires.

The prelaunch generation thought this was a game with a hard, easily reached gear cap and “play how you want” philosophy because that’s how the game was initially developed. A lot of us became disappointed with the introduction of (albeit slow) vertical progression and things like dailies and ascended mats that try to get us to play parts of the game we aren’t interested in.

The next generation was excited about Fractals and Ascended gear, but became disappointed with Fractals weird reward structure and Ascended’s strange positioning between grindy acquisition and relative worthlessness. Probably the same group that is also disappointed because the Precursor RNG mess has never been reworked so that they can reasonably chase legendaries.

A generation that included large, coordinated guilds got excited about the initial release of guild missions and then the revamp of some world bosses to take real coordination, but have been disappointed by how frustrating the megaserver has been for guild coordination, as well as the fact that new guild missions and “raid” level activities don’t seem to be in the works.

WvW players were geeked about it in the beginning, but became disappointed when new development didn’t line up with most of what they’d been asking for, and often seemed more focused on bringing new people into WvW rather than continuing to mature and keep it interesting for the players already playing.

So you’re not going to get a agreement on a list of the core problems that people are upset about. It depends on what they want out of the game. The big problem is that ArenaNet seems to find a new priority for the game every six months or so, leaving people who thought they were part of the target audience wondering what happened.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Leveling-a-Mesmer-Does-it-get-better
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/60599-mesmer-what-how/

These kinds of threads have appeared since launch. A new Mesmer player can’t seem to make Mesmer function, posts, and the Mesmer community encourages them to continue until level 30 or 40 (old system) because 10 to 20 trait points (old system) make Mesmer suddenly feel like it works.

I’ve seen similar conversations about Engineer, and getting a solid foundation of traits can make a huge difference for Ele and Thief as well.

The change has pushed all of this back twenty levels. While trying to make things more understandable, you’ve also increased the amount of time before players really experience how a profession will function, giving them more time to abandon a profession, and possibly the entire game.

tl;dr Some professions are frustratingly incomplete feeling until they get at least a foundation of traits to make their core mechanics function well. If you want a short term way to make things better while working on the more complex overhaul, please return trait unlocks to level 10 introduction.

The “It’s not a good time to complain cycle”

ArenaNet announces a change
We don’t know the details yet, wait and see.
ArenaNet releases a patch
It just got implemented, let’s wait and see how it plays out.
A few months after patch
It’s in the game, so it’s clearly here to stay. Learn to live with it.
ArenaNet has been silent for a while
Perhaps ArenaNet is working on something behind the scenes, but they can’t tell us or people will take it as a promise. Let’s wait and see.
ArenaNet announces a change….

Lynne.8416:

Yes, I am happy playing the game and have been playing since the betas. Is it THE perfect game? Of course not.

If only it was more like the game we played in beta.

RollingBob.8502:

2) The same category of players this is intended for will be just as lost and frustrated at level 5.

It does look like there are “guides” that pop up in the Chinese version. No idea how extensive they are, but perhaps there will be more thorough explanation of mechanics when we get what the Chinese already have.

Though I agree, I can’t see how all of these mechanics delays are going to help the kind of player who gets confused with GW2 in its current state.

Ran across Mawdrey II on the forums, and got a little excited about something in GW2 for the first time in a long time. Then found this thread, and lost that excitement.

Ascended is here to stay, and, as time goes by, it will be increasingly difficult for people to say “Ascended is completely unnecessary” with a straight face. It will, slowly, become more and more integrated into the content until it is no longer luxury, but too difficult to pass up.

nexxe.7081:

I just don’t understand why they would delay it until lvl 5.

Whether it’s at lvl 5 or lvl 20, they are still going to have to learn.

We still don’t know how it’s going to work, but they could easily implement a pop-up message that shows how to use it when they first go down, such as the pop-ups for unlocking the Utility Skills.

IMO, the best way to introduced downed would be to give the players a quest that artificially puts them in downed state for a prolonged time under very mild threat. The difficulty with downed state is that typically when you get there, you have something continuing to wail on you that obviously was enough of a threat to have put you there in the first place.

There’s no time or space to hover over downed skills, read tips, and figure out how they are supposed to be used.

I’m sure the clever writers at ArenaNet could write a level 3 quest into each starting zone that justifies putting you into a prolonged down state with explanation and time to figure out what to do there.

It’s funny, because new players being overwhelmed by mechanics keeps being offered by ArenaNet as a reason for delaying access to a mechanics, when what we really need is simply more thorough, in-game explanation of these mechanics.

They said it about traits, but how delaying trait acquisition 20 levels is supposed to better introduce the trait system is beyond me. Now weapon swapping, skill-slots, and downed state are all being delayed. These things need better introductions, not delayed introduction.

From what I see, we’re getting these changes to bring us in line with the China version of GW2. Colin spend a little longer on the downed state, but breezed over the other delays.

The Chinese version introduced traits at level 30, and we got the same thing later. It looks like the downed state unlocks for them at level 5, which is what Colin says in the blog post is in store for us. So it seems safe to assume that the rest of the unlocks are going to map directly to the Chinese version as well.

That means you won’t have weapon skill 2 until level 2, weapon skill 3 until level 4, weapon skill 4 unlocks at level 7, and no 5th weapon skill until level 10!

The first utility skill is delayed until level 13, and the elite is delayed until 40. I can find a some disagreement on when the second and third utility are unlocked, but it looks like they are significantly later. I couldn’t find much concrete information on profession skills, but found at least one hint that attunements for Eles are also significantly delayed.

No weapon swap until level 15! :P

I’m not sure why ArenaNet thinks their systems are so complicated. Ten levels (yes, pretty fast levels, but still) before you have a full weapon bar? Fifteen before you can handle having two weapons? Yikes.

It occurs to me that changing the drops to be more profession specific is going to do nothing if drops aren’t also tweaked to include higher quality gear.

I’ve always geared up while leveling by simply buying new greens every five to ten levels on the auction house. They’re cheap, and there’s no reason I can see to level in white or blue gear. But green drops, especially for new players without any MF, are still rare enough that I wouldn’t be fully outfitted in greens even if every green I got was profession specific.

And will the new profession-specific drop mechanic also give me more of the commonly used stat spreads? It’s no use if my weapons and armor are profession appropriate if I’m getting handed Stout, Mending, and Enduring gear with Sigils of Mad Scientists or Ogre Slaying.

The only people I can see this profession-specific loot mechanic helping are the ones who completely ignore their gear and just equip whatever they come across that seems like an upgrade. I suppose they will find the game slightly less frustrating, but I expect they will still be under-geared for their level, wearing a mismatch of stat spreads, runes ans sigils.

This all looks like a symptom of a deeper problem. The game has been designed so that it is more about collecting gold and buying the thing you want than being rewarded with something directly from gameplay.

It looks like this is an attempt to rectify that, but a small step is just going to negatively impact people still playing the game as we’ve been conditioned to (sell or salvage everything, buy or craft what you want) without significantly changing the game to a model where you are given the rewards you want directly.

I would be in favor of a radical change that took the game away from the dominance of the Auction House or repeating content over and over for tokens of some sort, but it would have to be a big change or it will just make everyone frustrated in some sort of uncomfortable middle.

kuittaa.7360:

Feature patches were confusing to the new players, so they won’t be publishing week 3 posts.

Or they will delay publishing them until after the patch so we don’t get overwhelmed by having them too early, and it will require zone completion of Dredgehaunt Cliffs and Fractal Level 10 to unlock the ability to read them.

The zone completion and fractal level can be waived by purchasing the Baby Quaggan Patch Primer from the Black Lion Trading Post.

cesmode.4257:

Id probably agree with you. MMOs are should be designed to be played with other people.

Fixed for accuracy.

How difficult new things are to implement is largely irrelevant. That’s entirely up to ArenaNet to kitten, and armchair developers sitting around on forums trying to guess at the workflow needed for this or that feature or content is just fodder for endlessly circling arguments.

“I’m not happy with GW2” is somewhat useful, “I’m happy with GW2” is marginally so, since both of these are already clearly communicated by your login patterns.

“This specific part of the game decreases my enjoyment,” is useful, as is “This specific part of the game is one of the most enjoyable things.” “I think I’d enjoy the game more with a specific thing added to it or changed about it” is also useful, as is “Your proposed addition or change would decrease my enjoyment.”

Speculating about how difficult a change would be to implement, though, is all on ArenNet’s side, and since they’ve clamped down on communication with the player base shortly after launch, we’re not going to be privy to what they think in that regard other than seeing it implemented or not.

A lot of pointless argument could be avoided if we could stick to discussing whether we think a certain thing would be more enjoyable or not, rather than making up information we don’t really have about how things would impact ArenaNet finances or manpower.

There’s really no need to appeal to objective authority here. Every player has an equal voice to express what they find entertaining or not about the game, and whether or not it will make them more or less inclined to play and, more importantly, spend money.

tl;dr As to the OP, I’m largely indifferent to the September patch. Over the course of my relationship with GW2, I’ve gone from proselytizing fan starting in 2010 to mildly disappointed but hopeful advocate by early 2013, to disappointed mostly ex-player who occasionally logs on to play with a family member and make sure to unlock the current living story chapter. In parallel with that journey, I’ve gone from small, but regular financial supporter to no longer supporting the game.

If I still had hope that GW2 was going to become reinvigorated, I’d probably be very disappointed by what I’ve seen of the September patch so far, but at this point it’s about what I’ve come to expect. Still keeping an eye on things, because you never know what might happen, but no longer holding my breath.

Domino.1359:

Developers of this game don’t seem to envision an end goal and do not listen to the community in whole.

For a while now I’ve felt like if GW2 is a ship, it’s crewed by competent, but weary sailors lead by a captain who has no idea where he’s going.

In another couple of months, perhaps we’ll get a CDI on “Traits” in which we can all repeat what we’ve said in this thread while devs occasionally pop in to say, “Interesting. I can’t reveal anything we’re working on, but thanks for the feedback” and the few white knights we have left can applaud how well ArenaNet listens and interacts with the players.

Didn’t ANet admit long ago that charging gold for commander tags was a mistake in the first place? The community pointed out that a commander tag should be earned in some way that shows the commander has at least some familiarity with WvW, rather than just deep pockets. I seem to remember an ANet dev coming out and agreeing.

And yet, here they are, for sale again, with bright, shiny new colors.

Or is this memory just a fantasy of mine?

The current standard in F2P, cash shop model (I know, it’s technically B2P) focuses on getting small amounts of players to spend large amounts of money. The players who do this are known as the “whales”.

Those of us who aren’t whales, the majority that is either willing to spend small amounts of real money occasionally or who want to play completely free, like to think that the game would make just as much money if they offered things at lower cost because more people would buy.

Unfortunately, real life doesn’t seem to work out that way. It’s the whales that keep the game turning a profit. The occasional spenders contribute a much smaller percentage even though there are more of us. The players who don’t spend anything only contribute to making the population feel full and drop gold into the exchange for the spenders to buy.

I agree completely that gem store prices are ridiculous for the value you get from the items in game. But that’s because I’m not, and will never be a whale. So it doesn’t really matter what I think.

After two years, ArenaNet’s gem-store price policy has remained consistent, which means that they are getting the return they want.

Or to clarify, the game already has a system for guilds to start off events, so Fafnir would like to suggest that ArenaNet implement a way for those guilds to start them off at varying difficulty levels. Guilds who are ready for the extra challenge could kick of world events on Hard Mode.

Did I get that right, Fafnir?

It’s an attempt to balance the fact that Sylvari always get to be superheroes (Trahearne, Scarlet, Aerin) and Asura are a close second do to Asura-tech being at the center of pretty much everything.

Useful home instances is a way of throwing a bone to the lesser races.

ArenaNet talked about how a percentage of the players didn’t even know there was a trait system or didn’t use it. It was implied that somehow the changes were supposed to help with that.

In a curious twist, I think that they should be thankful that there is a significant portion of the player base that blissfully plays, ignorant of this major area of character customization. Otherwise there’d be even more uproar than this long thread about these changes.

I have four level 80 characters, and two that are within spitting distance.

I’m currently leveling a warrior who was grandfathered into the trait unlocks. I’m still constantly frustrated that I’m over halfway to level cap on him and have only three trait points to use. With only three trait points, I don’t even notice a difference in my play style. After 46 levels! It still feels like I’m running around with a character in his teens.

With the pointlessly delayed trait system, it feels like ANet has said “traits are for endgame. Don’t even bother customizing your character until level 60, at the very earliest.”

It has taken away a major part of the feeling of growth of the character on the way to 80.

I’m just very, very glad that I already had my mesmer and engineer to 80 before the changes, since both professions are much more reliant on traits to make them work than my faceroll warrior. I would have abandoned both of them if I had been required to wait this long to access traits.

I have one empty character slot left for the final profession I haven’t leveled. If I ever find a reason to play a ranger, I don’t know if I will. I’ve got a ridiculous stack of experience scrolls in the bank that I could use to buy the traits, and earning the gold wouldn’t be horrible, so I’m not too concerned about the trait unlocks. The big thing is that I don’t think I can face leveling another character through that progression wasteland up to 60.

phys.7689:

See the key here is a game is about entertainment, the game is best played by ignoring the rewards, or just learning to balance grind versus fun for many people, thats not really that optimal.

You’re not going to get anywhere with this.

While I agree with the sentiment, look through the BLTC forums. The consistent answer to “The economy isn’t making the game fun” is “The economy is functioning well”. I’ve made the same kind of posts that you have. I’ve asked if a free market economy really serves a heroic fantasy game. The answer is always “The economy is functioning well”.

I just started reading Neil Stephenson’s novel Reamde. It revolves around an MMORPG that was first conceived as a virtual economy designed to make real money, that later had a story and game grafted around it.

The economy here is not designed to support the player experience of roleplaying a world-saving hero. The experience of roleplaying a world-saving hero is designed to give you a reason to engage in the virtual economy.

This is what gaming is becoming. From Farmville to the new MMORPG where goldselling is integrated into the game, these are economic engines with entertainment shells.

tolunart.2095:

Actually it’s a pretty elegant situation. The hardcore farmers are not going to pay real money unless you make them, I suspect most are disable, unemployed, or in school so they have more free time than money to spend in the first place. So if you make it too hard to get things through farming they will move on to a game that’s more to their liking.

Oh, I totally get it.

It’s just interesting that it’s one of the few businesses with “the more you consume, the less you have to pay” model.

I have a limited amount of time to play, and before I got tired of some of ANets development choices, had a few dollars to occasionally throw at them for in-game gold, so I’m happy that the exchange rate keeps giving more gold for cash.

Having said that, I do think it’s funny that this model means that the people who consume the service most have the least incentive to pay. If you look at it purely as “hours of service provided” by ArenaNet, the hardcore farmer who gets so much gold she’s never tempted to buy gold with gems pays nothing in spite of being in game forty or more hours a week, while the casual player who plays an hour or two on weekends has much more incentive to plunk down real cash to shortcut toward in-game rewards.

Harper.4173:

Again, I hope you realize that saying that F&N in this game is holding back players from engaging in content immediately and making the game worse is rather …skewed.

I think I made it clear earlier that I think it’s a minor annoyance, not a huge one, but perhaps I didn’t. My description you responded to was an attempt to paraphrase what ArenaNet said about their design goal of being able to jump into fun, not preparing to have fun, not describe what’s going on in GW2. Obviously no one is spending a half hour getting cons together before dungeon runs or WvW.

Still, there is the small tedium of making sure to stock up, as well as making sure to periodically consume. And on the balance, I don’t think there’s positives from cons that outweigh that tedium.

I think you could also make a good case for cons adding another element that skews builds toward min/max one trick ponies. People add up runes and cons to get silly amounts of condition duration reduction or push glass cannon spike damage even further.

As I stated earlier, though, I don’t think it’s practical to remove them at this point, so my contribution to the discussion is purely from a theoretical point of view. It’d only really matter when they sit down to start planning out GW3.

Corian.4068:

I have trouble imagining the OP’s system being more profitable in terms of gold than simply buying the gems once a month and converting them to gold.

At current prices, that’s 100 gold.

I’m kinda surprised anyone is left who still thinks this is going to happen. When was the most recent mention of it by ArenaNet?

Harper.4173:

Food does not prevent you from having fun.

No, it doesn’t. But I didn’t say that it did.

The idea that ArenaNet presented when they talked about having fun, instead of preparing to have fun, was that they were trying to avoid these kind of checklist items that MMORPGs often have that put emphasis on preparation. They didn’t want the usual MMORPG scenario where a group gathers together to do a dungeon or other activity and they have to go through checking to make sure the healers are stocked up on mana potions, the tank needs his elixirs of immovable object, only to get to the dungeon entrance and have the DPS say, “Wait a minute guys, give me a half hour to go collect some crystals of blasting so I can craft up more Matrices of Nuclear Armageddon!”

Then again, I think that was a design principle from pretty early on… a good couple of years before launch, so I suppose we can just dismiss it as one of those “they changed their mind” kinda things.

At any rate, I don’t see consumables adding enough depth to this game to warrant the minor tedium they require. The one positive thing about them is that they give something for crafters to keep doing in a market where a lot of the player base has the gear they need. Even that’s a little iffy, as many consumables aren’t worth the cost of the materials to make them. Sometimes its just better to sell the mats and buy the con.

This is something I’ve been thinking about recently as well. At one point, before launch, Arena Net said they didn’t like the idea of people having to spend time preparing to have fun, when they could be having fun.

Stopping by the crafting station or TP to make sure you are stocked up, adds nothing to the game but a little bit of constant tedium. It doesn’t add any depth or difficulty. Neither does having to remember to open up your inventory periodically and click on a consumable to stay optimal.

I don’t expect t Arena Net will remove them, however, as cons are tied into the crafting system, and Arena Net keeps making stabs at trying to make crafting worthwhile.

Belzebu.3912:

The thing with GW2 is that it is different.

Players that didn’t like the differences from their previous MMOs, usually hated GW2 and then they go to the Internet vent their hate towards the game, while the vast majority of the players that like GW2 just play and doesn’t show their affection on the Internet, at least that is how I see the current scenarios.

That is why you see bad comments only in forums and some community opinions, but bigger sites you hardly see any bad article about GW2.

Looks like the exact opposite from my point of view.

GW2 looked like it was going to be very different. Players that didn’t like their previous MMOs had a lot of hope for GW2, but shortly after launch ArenaNet decided to please the small group of people who wanted another status quo MMO, and abandoned many of their core design principles in favor of trying to keep as broad an audience as possible.

The reason the hate is strong is that many people who don’t like the game in its current state really loved what it was at launch, with all that it promised to become. Instead of just moving on to another game, they keep holding out a think hope that ArenaNet will return to their original vision. That hope, stretched out over an increasingly long time, and fed with small crumbs of occasional positive game changes, leads to a smoldering bitterness.

This is only magnified by ArenaNet moving from clear, bold communication about their hopes for the game to a policy of secrecy, and vague statements with room for a lot of interpretation. Any community dealing with the uncertainty caused by that kind of communication from its leadership is going to grow resentful.

I want more options with the amount of skimpy we have now. People say there are plenty of skimpy armor options for women, especially among light armor designs, but have you ever tried to feature your Sylvari’s bioluminescence?

The Sylvari glow, which is a wonderful element of their design, is found on their arms, legs, and back. Now go try on some of the “skimpy armor”. You’ll find that ArenaNet’s designers seem to have a thing for exposing the midriff, where there is no bioluminescence, while covering the arms with long gloves and sleeves, the legs with skirts and long boots. Even on the midriff-exposing designs, there is often material across the back, leaving only the stomach exposed.

As for my male Sylvari, there are two heavy, gladiator-style designs that expose the back, and only a couple of heavy designs that show any leg, and it’s a very small amount. Male light armor has one torso-revealing design, but just like the female designs, it exposes the front, while completely covering the back.