Guild Wars 2

AmphibianX.7042:

Speaking of Dailies. iirc, there is a cap of 15k Achievement Points that you can get through dailies. is that correct?
I was just curious what happens after you reached the cap. do you still get the dailies options on your top right? I have almost 19k AP. and most of them have come from dailies.

You can still do dailies. You still get the chests, shards and 2 gold — just no AP.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

There are other options besides sitting on a spawn point and hoping to get credit.

Tell that to the many players who are trying to get this task over with ASAP and who as a result do this crap.

I’m not against ANet making changes to the number, type, or variety of dailies we see, even though I think that there are already plenty of ways to get 3/day without much effort.

Agreed, there are plenty of options. However, when the primary reaction of many players seems to be, “Let’s get this crap done ASAP.” then there’s a problem.

The primary reaction of many players to everything in any game is “let’s get this done ASAP.” There’s nothing special about dailies of any sort that makes them different, at least in this regard.

There aren’t really that many options for ANet:

• If all dailies are as easy as vistas, then there’s not enough effort involved to make dailies different from login rewards.
• If all the dailies are as long in duration as Toypaclypse, everyone gets annoyed and hates on ANet, despite the size of (most) rewards these days.

So they mix it up: a few dailies are trivial, a few are easy with tricks, a few are “not bad” with tricks, and very few are that time consuming. Since “very few” isn’t “none,” people will gripe.

I don’t mean to say the criticism is invalid, just that I can’t see that it’s enough to make it worth the time to redo any of the dailies.

Now, if they are going to do another overhaul (major or minor) of the system, then sure, they should consider things like how some players get annoyed by some dailies and figure out ways that they could address that (including, perhaps, lowering the number of events to 3 instead of 4 or offering multiple zones or a 5th PvE daily, etc.)

How much redoing would be needed to change “Brisban Wildlands” events to “Maguuma Jungle Events?” That iteration was already in the game. Shoving everyone into one zone, especially around reset time, is the problem. Now, maybe reinserting that code would break the game. How would I know? Or maybe it would be simple. However, the daily events task as is makes ANet look like an amateur studio that doesn’t think enough of its game to move away from a task that promotes such silly game play.

OriOri.8724:

Do you just want to be handed mastery points for logging in? Because that is what some people in this thread are starting to sound like. He specifically complained about adventures and Jump Quests having mastery points locked behind them. I showed that its possible to complete all of your mastery tracks without ever doing a single adventure or any jumping puzzle that has a mastery point behind it. That makes his complaint unfounded, and therefor somewhat ridiculous.

But here you are saying that its impossible to max your masteries if you don’t want to do

• story
• raids
• adventures
• Anything else that rewards a MP

Well then yes, it would be impossible. But if you hate so many things then why are you even playing the game in the first place? Because that makes up pretty much all of the HoT PvE content.

How did you jump from story achievements, raids and adventures to include “story and anything else that rewards an MP.” If one doesn’t want to do adventures, raids or story _achievements, one can still gather 119 MP’s. 127 are needed to complete. So close, but yet so far.

I don’t want something for nothing. What I want is for the stand-in for basic XPac progression to not require niche content. There should be enough points in story and exploration to more than complete the tracks. I’d be fine with 119 if it completed the Maguuma masteries and unlocked the XP bar, but nooo, the raid track is included.

So, no, I don’t hate “so many things.” There was a time that one could play current content in GW2, not be a completionist and still get a sense of satisfaction. Now, over and over, ANet sends the message, “Be a completionist, or be a third class customer.” I don’t hate that either. Hate is way too strong a word. However, as a gaming development philosophy, I sure as kitten think it stinks.

Oh, and that “Handed for logging in…” crap is so lame. Resorting to crap like that as an argument shows nothing but a lack of comprehension. People who don’t like specific mastery point content X that ANet is trying desperately to shoehorn everyone into are not asking for a handout. They’re asking for a change in development philosophy back to one in which one can choose to ignore a specific thing without feeling like one has to give up on basic progression if one does.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

There are other options besides sitting on a spawn point and hoping to get credit.

Tell that to the many players who are trying to get this task over with ASAP and who as a result do this crap.

I’m not against ANet making changes to the number, type, or variety of dailies we see, even though I think that there are already plenty of ways to get 3/day without much effort.

Agreed, there are plenty of options. However, when the primary reaction of many players seems to be, “Let’s get this crap done ASAP.” then there’s a problem.

OriOri.8724:

Welp you just showed that you aren’t even reading what I’m writing. You don’t need a single one of the MPs that are behind adventures or JQs. Not a single one of them.

Except you do, if you don’t care for raids and the silliness that is story achievements.

Zone event dailies foster bad game-play. 30-40 people sitting on mob spawn points spamming attacks hoping to get a tag when the mobs appear is one of the most inane things I’ve seen in an MMO. I have a hard time believing that a developer which takes its game seriously would let this type of play stand.

So, ANet has said no to hard mode in general. They’ve said no to tiered difficulty raids.

However, this topic has come up — again … So, if we’re going to entertain the topic of tiered difficulty, why not hard versions of the easier PvE content?

There is no doubt that the latest iteration of dailies was meant to foster players branching out, not only to different regions of the overall map, but to get PvE-only players to maybe set foot into WvW or sPvP. This is certainly by design.

Well, MMO’s are largely about wasting your time, and the two proposals by the OP are certainly time wasters. I wouldn’t waste my time on either one, though.

DISAMBIGUATION

CORRECT

• On any day when one or more Heart of Maguma tasks appears, one or more core tasks that would have appeared on a core-only account do(es) not appear.
• Certain core tasks, most notably world boss kills, appear seldom or not at all once a HoT key is enabled.

INCORRECT

• Once HoT is enabled, all core tasks are disabled.

The term DPS, damage per second, is used as a noun. It is also used as an adjective (DPS build; DPS gear). So, now people are using it as a verb? Sounds about right.

Internet game populations never meet a term they are unwilling to evolve/mutate to a new purpose.

Vayne.8563:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Why are the chickens in Ebonhawke so … robust?

Not sure if you’re really asking but it’s a tip of the cap to Legend of Zelda.

That may be so on the viewer’s side of the 4th wall…

Why are the chickens in Ebonhawke so … robust?

Ayrilana.1396:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

OriOri.8724:

Some numbers.

1 minute out of a 6 minute fight is 16.67% of the fight where you fight a wall, and that is if the group is coordinated.

In the video you linked though, what is probably one of the fastest clears of this fight, the wall appears at 1:53 and they kill it at 3:17, so even in this coordinated run, it takes them 1:24 to kill the wall. That’s more than 25% of the fight where you are just fighting a wall.

Oh noes, 25%. How exactly is attacking a wall a bad thing anyways as opposed to other bosses which are just damage sponges?

So because the wall is the HP sponge that somehow makes it better?
Pfft.

BOREmag relies too heavily on gimmicks and not enough on player participation. Rocket-launcher 111111 and waiting for golems? Probably seemed like a good idea 4 years ago, but it’s really disengaging, and the scaling is utterly terrible, so Boremag is even more HP spongey. The golem shtick actually puts the players away from the boss, meaning that those fighting as the mechanics intended have to rush a long way to the boss to get within striking range. Meanwhile those who can reach enough range with their 11111 skills end up doing more damage; they’re closer and they do damage while waiting for those ambling golems.

It’s not a good fight at all.

The second phase takes so long because players AFK attack at the one spot rather than help the golems. The first phase takes so long because players AFK attack the wall with rockets from the one spot instead of using bombs or other attacks that deal more damage than the rockets. The reason it’s long and boring is entirely on the players.

I never said that the wall was better. I’m just saying there isn’t a difference. A damage sponge is still a damage sponge.

Yes, a HP Bar is a HP bar, and virtually every boss encounter even created requires those bars to be depleted. So, the issue ought to be redefined as to whether the mechanics that differentiate the various encounters produce an interesting event, and whether they sustain interest over many reps. That’s why Shatt/Teq were remade — because players were by-and-large ignoring the mechanics and following the path of least resistance.

So, are the mechanics of the Jormaag fight interesting? If the path of least resistance is, “Equip a bundle, bunch up, use skill 1, and use another skill to counter CC.” and if fighting with your own bar means accepting that the near-constant CC is going to be more than your stun breaks/stab can handle, there is a problem.

Think about why various teams are needed to guard the batteries at revised Teq. People do that because the event fails if those mechanics are ignored. Players choose to ignore the Jormaag mechanics (defend batteries, defend golems) because it’s easier and there are no consequences to doing so. That’s where the J event fails.

None of the mechanics for the world bosses are all that involved as those for Teq/TT. Mechanics are not bad because players choose to be lazy otherwise you can apply that to practically everything in the game. Having fail mechanics are nice but not a necessity for an encounter to be considered good or not.

I don’t know about you, but I find the Jormaag mechanics to be uninteresting and/or annoying.

Ayrilana.1396:

Rauderi.8706:

Ayrilana.1396:

OriOri.8724:

Some numbers.

1 minute out of a 6 minute fight is 16.67% of the fight where you fight a wall, and that is if the group is coordinated.

In the video you linked though, what is probably one of the fastest clears of this fight, the wall appears at 1:53 and they kill it at 3:17, so even in this coordinated run, it takes them 1:24 to kill the wall. That’s more than 25% of the fight where you are just fighting a wall.

Oh noes, 25%. How exactly is attacking a wall a bad thing anyways as opposed to other bosses which are just damage sponges?

So because the wall is the HP sponge that somehow makes it better?
Pfft.

BOREmag relies too heavily on gimmicks and not enough on player participation. Rocket-launcher 111111 and waiting for golems? Probably seemed like a good idea 4 years ago, but it’s really disengaging, and the scaling is utterly terrible, so Boremag is even more HP spongey. The golem shtick actually puts the players away from the boss, meaning that those fighting as the mechanics intended have to rush a long way to the boss to get within striking range. Meanwhile those who can reach enough range with their 11111 skills end up doing more damage; they’re closer and they do damage while waiting for those ambling golems.

It’s not a good fight at all.

The second phase takes so long because players AFK attack at the one spot rather than help the golems. The first phase takes so long because players AFK attack the wall with rockets from the one spot instead of using bombs or other attacks that deal more damage than the rockets. The reason it’s long and boring is entirely on the players.

I never said that the wall was better. I’m just saying there isn’t a difference. A damage sponge is still a damage sponge.

Yes, a HP Bar is a HP bar, and virtually every boss encounter even created requires those bars to be depleted. So, the issue ought to be redefined as to whether the mechanics that differentiate the various encounters produce an interesting event, and whether they sustain interest over many reps. That’s why Shatt/Teq were remade — because players were by-and-large ignoring the mechanics and following the path of least resistance.

So, are the mechanics of the Jormaag fight interesting? If the path of least resistance is, “Equip a bundle, bunch up, use skill 1, and use another skill to counter CC.” and if fighting with your own bar means accepting that the near-constant CC is going to be more than your stun breaks/stab can handle, there is a problem.

Think about why various teams are needed to guard the batteries at revised Teq. People do that because the event fails if those mechanics are ignored. Players choose to ignore the Jormaag mechanics (defend batteries, defend golems) because it’s easier and there are no consequences to doing so. That’s where the J event fails.

Devata.6589:

… snip …

1 If you were addressing your confirmation bias you would not only look at alternatives, you’d be trying to show why your guess as to causes is superior to the alternatives.

3 You failed to understand what I stated if you think it supports your position.
4 “It does not matter if they agree.” Oh, the hubris! Devata the all-father knows what people want better than they do.
5 Do you know what the increases in revenue in Q4 15 and Q1 16 represent? I don’t think you do. Hint: NCSoft stated in the Q4 15 report that other sales (i.e., not HoT boxes, remained stable.
6 “It’s still is no B2P game.” GW2 is a B2P MMO. There are no B2P MMO’s that follow the box/DLC or Box/Sequel w/out stores selling cosmetics model that is used by SPRPG’s.
7 You are stating your belief that the business model you’d prefer would be more profitable for ANet than the current model. “Simply saying” that model could work when there is zero evidence that it could is in fact ignoring the ramifications of the changing market conditions.

‘In the current MMO market, that would be as close as you’ll get to a safe bet.’

“In the current market where they almost all use the cash-shop approach.. hmm, makes your wonder right?”

Again, you ignore the facts. Several MMO’s failed as box/sub games. Stores plus “optional” subs made keeping the servers open worth doing. That’s the reality, not your insinuation that they’d have done better with a box/sequel model. If you look at the business models of SP games vs MMO’s, you’ll see that both make money by appealing to large numbers. SP and similar games that use a box/sequel model are appealing to much greater numbers of players. MMO’s tend to resort to multiple revenue sources (i.e., box plus sub or store) because they don’t appeal to that wider audience of gamers.

Devata.6589:

What logic am I abandoning? … snip …

1. Failure to address the possibility of confirmation bias on your part.
2. Failure to address other possible causes for the decline in performance while claiming pseudo-objectivity for your opinion by citing numbers, and claiming your predictions came true. While revenue has indeed gotten lower, you have not established that the cause you predicted is the cause.
3. Attributing a reduction in revenue over time to a condition that has actually gotten better (percentage of items to be sought available in the store v. in-game) because you do not care for the rewards that can be earned in game.
4. Assuming that posts against grind mean that the poster agrees with you about “cash shop focus.”
5. Failure to look for recent changes in conditions that would account for a recent sharp drop in performance. You instead chose to posit a “last straw” scenario wherein an assumed demographic that hated the “cash shop focus” gave up hope when HoT did not address their concerns. That’s not just a logic failure, it’s sloppy analysis.
6. Failure to address the glaring discrepancy between HoT’s performance and your claims that an XPac-dominant B2P model would be more profitable for ANet.
7. Assuming that changed market conditions are irrelevant when trying to predict the profitability of an old business model when applied to a current product.

You can try to hide behind, “It’s my opinion.” but if that’s all this thread is you should stop touting the accuracy of your prediction and stop calling your opinion a thesis. Anyone who bothered to think at all could have predicted that MMO quarterly revenue would drop over a four year period. In the current MMO market, that would be as close as you’ll get to a safe bet.

Nikal.4921:

The only thing it seems to generate w/GW2 is aggravation, frustration, and resentment.

You don’t have the information to make that statement. What you could say is, “I see forum posts that limited time items cause aggravation, frustration and resentment.” For all any of us know, that might be all it generates, or it might be generating increased sales.

Devata.6589:

This is simply yet another way of saying “The numbers we have are not 100% accurate”. Yes we know that by now. There is only limited information so that is what I work with. I could also just throw my theory out there without any numbers and logic. You know, like 99% of the comments on the forum.

Instead, you throw your WAG (not a theory, not really even a hypothesis) out with numbers, then abandon logic by claiming that the numbers validate your “prediction.” All the numbers prove is that ANet made less money via the store. They don’t validate any position. The preponderance of forum posts suggest that some of the alternative explanations offered for the reduction are more likely, and the relative lack of support for your position suggests that the reason for your unhappiness is not shared by as widespread a population as you seem to think.

I have to wonder, what’s the point of this thread? It fails as a validation of your predictive reasoning. It’s not going to convince ANet to change to a different business model at this late date. So, what’s the point? You’d do better by preparing a comprehensive list of things you think should be in the store and a similarly comprehensive list of things you think should not be. At that point, people could agree or disagree with your personal preferences. Since that’s all that’s happening anyway, it would at least be more honest than the misrepresentation of your personal preferences as an “analysis.”

Impulse purchases are definitely a real factor in business. Also, from a psychological perspective, artificial scarcity tends to have a similar effect with regard to non-essentials as real scarcity does with essentials.

Lucius.2140:

Theres a line about what should be on the gemstore (doesnt matter if is buyable with gold), what not and one about how much the game should have in relation to the gemstore, also one about how much an expa, realease could have compared to a gemstore realease. Most problems with the gemstores come from that point, that its subjective, but has some interesting common opinions, like the aetherblades armor and weapons.

The more people see that line been crossed, once a thereshold its met, the less satisfied they feel, the less satisfied, more chances to go away, not recomend, get bad reputation, etc. In the long, maybe not so long?, run, this can make a big game a niche one…

Sure, there’s a line, but it’s in different places for different people. Some people don’t care if ANet puts as many cosmetics as they want in the store, they just don’t want them selling power. The OP wants no store at all, thus all cosmetics would be rewards for play. So while there’s a line for each individual, across all players, there is instead a continuum. There’s no point in even trying to cater to that extreme a position.

There’s also a line below which the developer isn’t making enough money. The developer is in some ways walking a tightrope, trying to maintain profitability while alienating as few players as possible. No matter what they do, as long as there’s a store they’re going to lose people who are near where the OP is on the continuum. That’s inevitable.

Also inevitable is that some posters are going to paint the the financial ramifications of their recommendations in glowing colors, even if the reality is more likely to be much, much worse for the company. It’s true that ANet revenue has declined recently. There is, however, little to no evidence that the OP’s interpretation of why that happened is more than just one of many factors. There is also little to no evidence that an MMO can be made to work on a box-sale only model. It’s contrary to the MMO business model, which consists of regular periodic revenue fueled by retention.

The MMO player base is not that big. The market for non-MMO games that live off box sales and gain ongoing revenue via sequels is much larger. Those developers have the advantage of economies of scale on box sales. MMO developers — with maybe the exception of the MMO 500# gorilla — only enjoy economy of scale with subs or sales of virtual fluff in a store.

Devata.6589:

Yeah they also invested so much money on that game because of how well the franchise does. Obviously you make an expectation on what you expect to sell and based the investment on that. WoW Vanilla was build for 65 million (Hard to translate that to todays money, but likely under 100 million).

I happened to have taken one of the biggest games / franchises out there, simply because there is also so much information about it. And the 50 million a year for running cost is also from the biggest MMO out there. That would also be lower if you have a game with a smaller player-base.

It is just to show how it can work. I don not say a MMO should invest 256 million in their game. Only The Elder Scrolls Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic came close to that with an investment of 200 million because their investors (wrongly) figured that the IP would be strong enough to attract so many players.

Anyway, in the end you are now cherry-picking because you do indeed mention that the $800M is like huge and not comparable with most MMO’s. But you don’t mention that that also means those MMO’s will then also invest less money.

The exact GTA example would only work if you had some MMO that would sell just as well. The the formula also works with lower numbers, as long as they are all in balance.

Linear relationships in the finances of disparate business enterprises are similar only if the myriad of factors that make up the businesses are extremely similar — and often, not even then. That kind of synchronicity only happens in the pie-in-the-sky world of bad fiction.

Devata.6589:

We can look at other non-MMO games to also get an idea. For example GTA cost €256 million to build. It earned about €800 million in the first 24 hours…

Self-serving cherry-picking at work.

At $60 per that $800M revenue represents 13,333,333 sales. To put that in perspective, WoW’s high-water mark for subs was ~12,000,000. All that proves is that a lot more people buy and play non-MMO’s than buy/play MMO’s.

I don’t despise the fight, but I don’t really care for it either. My preference is to play with the weapons/skills the character developed while leveling, so I’m not fond of bundles. Since the bundle includes the main counter for the annoying yo-yo mechanics, I tend to avoid this boss. If others like that sort of thing, that’s their preference.

When I’ve done the fight, I tend to defend the cannons in Phase I and the golems in Phase II. While that gets me credit, it does not feel like I’m fighting a dragon.

As someone who has always resented the business model where I rent games, I’d say that GW2 has at least scratched that itch. As with most MMO’s there’s a lot of lists of things to do. I hope you find doing the stuff to complete those lists enjoyable.

Devata.6589:

No, that is an assertion you are making. In any thread about grind I always did see people coming in talking about how people wanted things for free. Of course that never was what most of the people complaining about grind asked for.

HoT did have much of the same problems. It did try to do better. Raid rewards are good and the new legendary system is partly better (while it still contains the grind part what also destroys it again)

But other then that? What rewards? I can’t say I was able to go on a hunt for interesting rewards in HoT.

Ah, I am sure there will be an MMO that will have this at some point.

It’s more like spreading the revenue out over a bigger period. Less in the beginning more overtime. Less in the beginning still does not mean ‘not enough’. It could still be enough to develop the next expansion and so that is when rewards get put in. You know, as part of the content. You seem to already separate the two.

The fact that some do worse does not makes this good. Anyway this is again just based on the perspective you are looking from. For anybody who likes the hunt for these type of items, the GW2 cash-shop is extremely intrusive because it effectively destroys that part of the game.

Again, you have nothing except your pie-in-the-sky hope that ANet would continue to add cosmetics/rewards to pursue in game at any rate higher than they are already doing. The standard in the industry does not support that hope. Rewards come in with new content, and except very infrequently, that’s that until the next new content. A new outfit or new weapon skins biweekly/monthly is purely an artifact of the store.

You say that if they went full B2P as you prefer they would have no competition. That’s correct. The other two B2P MMO’s have stores modeled to some degree after ANet’s because they though it was a successful model. Just why is that? Maybe the GW model was not as successful as you want to believe. No one seems to be emulating it, after all.

You can say that most of the stuff in WoW is earned in game and that you don’t want the stuff in their store enough to complain about it. From my time there, I’d say their XPac rewards consisted of an armor tier or two (three weights), some mounts and maybe a few other things. Of course, a lot of that was hidden behind RNG grind (drops in raids/dungeons) or rep grinds (OIHWD "Oh I hated WoW dailies). The kittens had their hands on my credit card every month in addition to the XPac fee and they didn’t really add a lot more stuff to pursue in game than ANet has.

Devata.6589:

“It’s against MMO developers’ interests to give players the shiny as fast as they want.”

I did not ask for that.

You cited the complaints about grind as evidence that there’s support for your position. Your assertion ignores the fact that most of the complaints about grind in GW2 come from people who want rewards with less time spent.

“I’d much rather farm gold by doing whatever the kitten I want in GW2 to that.”

If you enjoy grind that is fine. I guess I would rather do the dungeon 40 times for item x and another dungeon 40 times for item y and another dungeon 40 times for item z then grinding even more hours in total, doing whatever earns the best gold to buy the 3 items. And of-course it’s not so that it would all have to require you to do a dungeon 40 times. Maybe the more rare stuff does. Other items could require you to complete it once or do a quest-line and so on.

The majority of earn-able rewards in HoT were not that hard to get, and the XPac did not hold peoples’ attention long enough for Anet to ramp up LS3.

Looking at the results of GW2 and the population during WotLK. The first has mainly been losing people (or income?), the second had mainly been gaining people. That might say something about approach is best.

WoW is an aberration in the industry. It was a game that got into the market at the perfect time with a developed IP, and developed a following. Despite that, its population crested during Wrath and by late 2015 was around half of its peak. It gains players after XPacs, and loses them in the valleys between. All WoW numbers prove is that it’s the right business model for that game.

“The OP seems to believe that all of the cosmetics that are in the store would be in the game under his model.”

That does not have to be the case. But more cosmetics would be in the world and the most interesting would be in the game.

… Good game-play also means good rewards. If you want to keep people happy and playing you will put them in there. Of course GW2 CAN NOT put most and best cosmetics in the game because then people had no reason to buy them and they would not earn any money.

You propose a business model in which ANet would cut its revenue stream. So where are they going to get the funds to create those rewards? All MMO’s make the minimal number of rewards they think they can get away with when its one price buys all — even WoW. The only reason ANet cranks out more than that minimum is precisely because they produce a revenue stream.

Basically what you are saying is this.. An expansion-based model does not grantee a good game. And you are right in that. But a cash-shop based game does grantee some mechanic that interferes with the game trying to get you to buy items from the cash-shop. If there is no good reason for you to buy anything from the cash-shop, you don’t buy anything and so the cash-shop model does not work. So it has an impact on the game.

I assume you mean guarantee. If you genuinely believe that the ANet cash shop is intrusive, then I invite you to go try games by GPotato, Aeria, Nexon, or Perfect World. The Anet store is nearly invisible by comparison.

Is it so strange to want to buy and play a game that does not have any strings attach? Where you don’t have something you like replaced by ‘optional grind’. Where you can do your build-based stuff (what you like) without any strings attached and somebody else can do his cosmetic based stuff without any strings attached? Just, a game without any compromises.

In the end, all you have been saying here is that (in your perspective) this compromise is not that bad. Well, I just do not want a compromise. I am willing to buy the game and expansion, but I do not want any compromise.

You’re dreaming. It’s fine to want what you want, but you’re not going to see it from any MMO.

Asura never pause when speaking, and only stop speaking if they sleep. So, hands.

I’ve only ever seen this in SW. There, I see it semi-regularly.

Rather than posting a complaint in general discussion, make a post in

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor

saying you’re looking for a regular raid group. Include your main’s profession, region (NA or EU) and times you’re generally available. You might not find a group that way, but you’ll have a better chance than you will with this thread.

Speaking only for myself, I always hid my cape in GW, and resented that I had to display it in PvP. Omm (obviously) v.

BrettM.9062:

Give him a time out from what? From Dragon’s Watch? He’s not a member at this point, since he did not agree to join.

Then why am I saddled with him at all?

BrettM.9062:

Send him home? That’s where he went to crack the fang. How do you propose to keep him there and by what right? The best you can do is to withdraw the offer and find someone else to fill the spot in DW. And how do you know that this is not exactly what will happen, given that the story is not fully told yet?

I’d be shocked if we aren’t force to reconcile. If he is gone for good, great. And I’d love to have enough control to be able to select my team.

BrettM.9062:

Braham voluntarily worked with the Commander and accepted his authority as team leader during efforts against Scarlet and Mordremoth. Now he has decided to go his own way. It may be a bad way that will make it more difficult for Dragon’s Watch to carry out its own plan, but that doesn’t give the Commander any continued authority over him. If he will not listen to persuasion, then the Commander’s hands are tied.

There may be a hundred others out there doing things that will ultimately detract from the business of Dragon’s Watch, including the new marshal of the Pact (whoever he/she/it/ze turns out to be), for motives that are worthy or unworthy, intelligent or brainless. So what? The Commander is not the Supreme Ruler of Tyria and can’t do a thing about it except to try to arrange some sort of voluntary coordination.

So, if this is a volunteer effort to save the world (think about that for a minute), why can’t I select people who are committed to the effort?

Ultimately, I believe we have a different view of what the PC’s support group should be. It’s (for me) highly unfortunate that ANet seems to think that I must be forced to work with kitten-heels and drama kings. All of which underscores my original point which is that that is not how I’d do it, were I given a choice.

Goldfox.5729:

If you want the best, the most prestigious and the ultimate reward in this game? You’re going to have to go through the most difficult, the most frustrating and the absolute challenge that this game can offer you!

So the best rewards are exclusively available in ranked PvP?

ANets’ biggest problem, imo, is that it cannot produce sufficient high-tier rewards fast enough to keep the myriad demographics in the player base happy. The MMO business model requires that the developer keep players playing. Players keep playing to pursue rewards. However, players also have preferences as to what types of content they prefer to play.

ANet uses specific-content-tied rewards to add incentive for players who prefer not to to play that specific content. They do this because they cannot produce new stuff to do and new rewards to fuel the repetition necessary to the business model fast enough. The idea that players will attempt content they dislike (or despise) if they want the reward works in some cases. However, it fails in others. If a given player encounters enough such circumstances to break the camel’s back, as it were, they drop the game. I’d wager that every specific-content tied reward PO’s someone enough that they drop the game. How many, though? No clue.

Dropping revenue numbers are almost certainly due to a lot of factors. I believe, though, that rewards tied to despised content is one of them, especially when it’s the game’s ultimate carrot.

Those who do not speak are:

1. believe that if they admit they are new, they will be kicked — whether that might actually be true or not.
2. Are not paying attention.
3. Don’t speak the language well enough or at all.
4. All of the above.

BrettM.9062:

My interest is more in science fiction than fantasy, but such examples of “heroic fantasy” as I can think of (e.g. Glory Road or Piers Anthony’s A Spell for Chameleon or even Harry Potter) usually seem to feature heroes starting out in humble circumstances, often marginalized by their societies, before discovering their true destiny. They were often used as doormats by those around them initially. That’s always seemed like a trope of the genre to me.

Granted, the protagonists of these stories themselves are not generally oafs (though Harry Potter did act out a bit when he got into his teens), but Braham is hardly the protagonist of the GW2 story. Feed him at the back door if you must.

Can I send him home and replace him with someone whose behavior is not going to detract from the important business of saving Tyria? No, I can’t. If he is going to act like a five year old throwing a tantrum, I should be able to give him a time out.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Think of it not as a buttcape but as your towel.

A towel is just about the most massively useful thing any Dragon Watcher can carry. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold snow of Frostgorge Sound; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Southsun inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert landscape of Ember Bay; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy Elon River ; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Dragon Champion, Tequatl (a mind-bogglingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you — daft as a brush, but very very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course you can dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non Dragon Watcher) discovers that a Dragon Watcher has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, WvW gear, latest gem store outfit, etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the Dragon Watcher any of these or a dozen other items that the Dragon Watcher might accidentally have “lost.” What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of Tyria, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

So wear your Buttcape Towel with pride. Everywhere you go people will see it and say, “Now that’s a frood who really knows where his towel is.”

And that the truth. ^^

Game, set and match. Well played.

Some people like outfits. Some like armor. ANet used to make new armor sets to sell in the store. There was a lot of push-back by fans demanding that armor should be a reward for play, not a store item. So, Anet made it so.

Armor is for in game rewards. Rewards accompany new content. Very rarely, rewards get added to old content. New content comes along once in a while. Thus, armor comes along once in a while. This is a direct result of the ANet decision to acquiesce to player demands.

Outfits are for store sales. Store sales are independent of content. With that, and with outfits, being much easier to produce, outfits come along more frequently.

What I’m curious about with demands like the OP’s is this. Is s/he asking for ANet to renege on the promise that armor would be a reward for play and put new armor sets in the store? Is s/he instead asking that ANet stop making outfits in favor of armor sets and still wanting this armor as play rewards? If the former, then there were a lot of people who asked for it to be the way it is now. If the latter, well, Anet has to sell something.

Nuzt.7894:

95% of all stats are made up.

Obviously a classic case of low-balling.

flog.3485:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Astralporing.1957:

TexZero.7910:

Also sounds like your blaming the mode for the fault of the people. Instead you should be putting the fault directly where it lies, the people you associated with.

The people were, for the most part, completely fine as long as no raids were involved.
(also, i generally do not tend to blame people for things that aren’t their fault)

If raids brought out bad behavior, then the potential for the bad behavior was already there. I’m more inclined to ask people to accept responsibility than I am to assign blame. However, if someone gets nasty over failure, over who got the desired virtual reward or whatever other myriad bones of contention you might care to name, then they got nasty. If you want to deny them the responsibility for their behavior by excusing it because of the game mode, that’s a curious choice.

For content to offer meaningful challenge to skilled players, it has to be to some degree hard. That means there has to be the possibility of failure. Failure tends to bring out the worst in some people and the best in others. Also, avarice, impatience, jealousy, egotism and other demons can dog cooperative efforts.

Easier content may mean those behaviors don’t come out. Does that mean there should only be easy content? No. In a game genre that survives by attracting multiple distinct player types, it means that players should recognize that if they don’t want to risk exposure to conflict in a game, they should avoid harder content except with people they know don’t carry that kind of baggage.

So why don’t they? Two reasons. They want the virtual gewgaw and they want convenience. That’s all these debates ever come down to.

So much true but personally feels it is one bit incomplete. I would add a third reason: impatience

Ah, apologies. I assumed that convenience included not having to go out of one’s way, wait or other undesirable things that would trigger impatience.

Astralporing.1957:

TexZero.7910:

Also sounds like your blaming the mode for the fault of the people. Instead you should be putting the fault directly where it lies, the people you associated with.

The people were, for the most part, completely fine as long as no raids were involved.
(also, i generally do not tend to blame people for things that aren’t their fault)

If raids brought out bad behavior, then the potential for the bad behavior was already there. I’m more inclined to ask people to accept responsibility than I am to assign blame. However, if someone gets nasty over failure, over who got the desired virtual reward or whatever other myriad bones of contention you might care to name, then they got nasty. If you want to deny them the responsibility for their behavior by excusing it because of the game mode, that’s a curious choice.

For content to offer meaningful challenge to skilled players, it has to be to some degree hard. That means there has to be the possibility of failure. Failure tends to bring out the worst in some people and the best in others. Also, avarice, impatience, jealousy, egotism and other demons can dog cooperative efforts.

Easier content may mean those behaviors don’t come out. Does that mean there should only be easy content? No. In a game genre that survives by attracting multiple distinct player types, it means that players should recognize that if they don’t want to risk exposure to conflict in a game, they should avoid harder content except with people they know don’t carry that kind of baggage.

So why don’t they? Two reasons. They want the virtual gewgaw and they want convenience. That’s all these debates ever come down to.

I doubt there will be a discount before Christmas, maybe after (maybe not).

It’s too bad that the hardest part of this content is finding a map with enough players who know what they’re doing.

For me, at least, the cosmetic-change system in GW2 — while better than it was pre “wardrobe” — is a failure. I have a good number of charges, mostly because I don’t use them. The systems flaws, in my mind, are:

1. It’s clunky to change one’s look. Any time I want to change, I need to open the wardrobe and manually change each piece. In other games that do it better, I can get wardrobe slots (bought in the store beyond the free initial number) and manually change the look in that slot once, then switch to that slot’s appearance if I want to “change apparel/gear.”
2. As a result of #1, the system is designed to discourage people from switching looks rather than encouraging them to do so. The enjoyment of finding a new look is one thing, but switching regularly gets tedious. Also, using a charge to change coats, then another to change back later feels wasteful. This can also lead to apathy with regard to pursuing new looks. If we could have multiple wardrobe slots, and switch between them at will, there would be more incentive to acquire multiple unique pieces to put in those multiple slots.

So, if I were ANet, I’d provide wardrobe slots. I’d sell the slots in the store. I’d keep charges, and players would need to use a charge to change a gear piece’s look in a given slot, but could switch slots with no charge and with one click. Then, I’d look at the effect on revenue. If it went up, great. If it went down, I’d reduce the number of charges available for free by a bit to promote purchase.

And yes, I know I don’t know the programming issues involved, so let’s not open that envelope. If it’s not feasible because of the engine, or prohibitive due to time needed to implement, ANet will disregard the suggestion.

I see people all the time in the core maps. Most of them have Mastery Numbers on their name plates, so they own HoT, but are in core for whatever reason.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Monthly

FYI, the most AP the monthlies ever offered per month was 100, not 300. For most of the time they were in the game, it was 70 per month, or less.

So, if I’m reading the complaint correctly, it’s, “Add monthlies back in so I can get to the cap faster!”?

Even if the store were to go (and it won’t), I doubt we’d see the volume of skins we see in the store as in game rewards. With store skins, it’s individual items or sets designed to drive sales this week/month. There’s a business reason to pump that stuff out.

The business reason to produce skins tied to content is throttled by the speed at which content can be produced. When the content is produced, the rewards are produced and that’s that. Maybe once or twice in the life of the game, maybe not, rewards get added after the fact. I remember in GW, ANet added all-quest completion chests to UW/FoW). In fact, the new FoW/UW rewards were put in when GW was on maintenance mode, iirc. As long as new content is being produced, new rewards are going to go there, not into old content.

Someone should tell Devata that long-term goals are a staple of the MMO genre. It’s against MMO developers’ interests to give players the shiny as fast as they want. At least with cosmetics, the grind is a choice. I’ll settle for that over RNG-based grind, even in sub games. I remember trying for a tanking sword in a WotLK dungeon in order to be an off-tank as a secondary build. Despite ~40 runs, the thing dropped once and the drop was ninja’d. I’d much rather farm gold by doing whatever the kitten I want in GW2 to that.

Then there’s the thing where developers determine how much effort is cost-effective. The OP seems to believe that all of the cosmetics that are in the store would be in the game under his model. I’m considerably more realistic. I doubt (very much) an XPac-only business model would offer any more items via play than we currently see, and that’s even if XPac-only would generate comparable revenue, which I doubt.

It isn’t (for me) that Braham is unrealistic. He’s an angst-ridden emo teen. I get it. What’s unrealistic is that in all of Tyria I don’t have better options for membership in a squad that is spearheading the fight against the creatures that threaten the existence of the five races. That’s not how I’d run a war.

Don’t like the gamble box? Don’t buy keys, whether you get the gems via cash or gold. I would dearly love to see this business practice come to an end. Pity that it would take consumer restraint to make this happen.