Guild Wars 2

Palador.2170:

No, he’s right. The effect has been seen in other games before this one, if there’s not a good stream of lower level characters coming in, then the newbie zones become largely empty.

We’ve also seen complaints about level 80s just rushing through lower level zones, destroying everything in their path before lower level characters can get a good hit in. We don’t really want to add to that problem, either.

I’m not debating that less leveling characters means emptier zones. That’s kind of self-evident. The speculation is that having such an item on the gem store would significantly impact the number of players who use the leveling process.

Wanze.8410:

It doesnt really matter much what players think. If this item was available on the gem store, Anet might make a little more bucks but also unpopulate lower level zones, devaluating their product for newer players.

Objection, your honor. Speculation.

Kuldebar.1897:

By an order of magnitude or so lower, but yes, to a certain degree.

The variables will always have some people seek to skip a perceived “labor” activity for the end result if they perceive that to be more desirable, which they invariably do. But this is a type of poison, not fatal in small doses, but a poison nevertheless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VHiONkot8#t=331

^ it’s like the experiment with the money bowl…it short circuits things.

And yet we have that system in this game (the gem-gold exchange) and it’s perfectly healthy as far as I can tell. GW2 isn’t the first game to use a system like it either, with plenty of success.

The so-called “poison” is only present, imo, when it feels like the “easy path” is an obligation, rather than an option. At that point, people tend to start minding a lot.

But there is nothing wrong with options in principle. It’s all in how they are delivered.

azyume.6321:

Honestly I wouldn’t mind as long as the player already have a level 80 for the same profession they are trying to insta level 80.

Why? Because the leveling can help you get a rope of the profession. Some might question and say can do that as a level 80, however I’ve seen my share of those players that tries to play and understand their classes inside dungeons. I wouldn’t mind if was told before hand but as time pass and you see that player dying non stop inside the dungeon and notice they have no clue of how to play with the profession, nor at least the basic to stay alive.

Personally, I think it’s more important that a player would need to have leveled at least one character of any profession to level 80, to even have the option to buy or use such an item (in whatever hypothetical way it might be implemented). That way, they are forced to go steadily through much of the tips for game systems.

I don’t think the particular profession itself is necessary. I can already go faceroll in EotM and learn virtually nothing about a given profession in the process, if I’ve a mind for it. Or heck, just questing, I can stick to one weapon type and mash buttons without looking.

Systems that encourage class exploration are a boon – in that regard, I would agree. But I don’t think the leveling process itself is any guarantee of understanding how your class works. Even more so right now, with traits being so locked.

Kuldebar.1897:

It’s a deplorable idea and would serve as a death knell for the game.

It’s bad enough we have the level tomes already in the game, but instant 80’s would basically be an admission by ANet that they have screwed up the leveling progression so badly that skipping it entirely is an attractive thing to do even if it costs cash.

It’s crap like this that happens because gamers and developers fail to understand that either you have a common vertical progression MMO or you make a horizontal progression MMO, you do not try to do BOTH…you will fail because they are opposing systems.

So is buying gems to exchange them for gold a death knell then because it’s an admission that paying RL money is more attractive than spending hours farming to get the gold you need for an item?

Sanderinoa.8065:

Challenge: Befriend a being of darkness(be creative)

My and my new friend taking a dirt nap together. I had to include the 3rd one too, just cause it looked so cool – tar helpin me out with a fiery darkness dance.

I would just like to point out, not everyone who is new to dungeon X, path Y, etc., is horrible at video games and/or following instructions.

Some of us are just that – new to dungeon X, path Y.

That said, I avoid “exp” if I don’t know the dungeon/path because I expect people to have no patience with my ignorance of common strats.

But I am just one person. If you go by this thread, it’s apparently a very unreliable way to get an experienced group together.

I’m curious, what’s the reasoning behind MF only applying to monster drops?

It would make no difference to me. I wouldn’t pay that kind of gold or gems to insta-80.

Hahaha, that is awesome.

kolompi.1287:

But that’s how it works. It was like that with dungeon rewards, champion loot, everything. The rewards at any given time seem to be not enough.

There’s no guarantee that that’s how it will work. Is the point.

Do people often want more? Yes, as a species that is inherently imperfect, we tend to keep wanting stuff that is closer to perfection. Does that mean that in every instance (in this case, an increase in rewards for one aspect of a video game) doing so is unwarranted because people will want more?

Not necessarily. We have to look at the rewards as objectively as we can and examine whether they are an issue. I don’t see people saying “champ bags are not worth it,” but there are people saying “map completion isn’t worth it.” That single difference alone should mean something.

The bottom line is, are the rewards in line with Anet’s goals? We can’t answer that question ourselves. We can only tell them whether the rewards are working for us and our goals (which means something concerning their goals, even if it is sometimes little).

Thanks for making this thread, John. Looks to be an interesting discussion.

2.5 is something I’ve seen in other games and it certainly has its share of fans. I like the concrete aspect of it myself; no matter how bad your luck is, you’re eventually going to get what you came for in some capacity.

However, I’ve also noticed drawbacks to a token-based system:

1) Some people wind up looking at the system as inherently token-based and ignore the RNG component entirely. This gives them reason to complain about how many tokens are needed or to feel overwhelmed because they can calculate the time needed concretely to acquire desired items.

2) Acquiring every desired item connected to the tokens requires a finite amount of time (or “kills,” if we are talking about something like a boss that drops tokens). This means that (in theory) players are consistently going to hit the “I have nothing left to do” point and quit doing the activity. When RNG is present in peoples’ minds, it can keep them on the treadmill because “big reward could be waiting around the corner.” (Not unlike gambling.)

In summary: If the token system takes precedence in peoples’ minds, then they are more likely to ignore the RNG part entirely and thus, are more likely to quit a particular activity (independent of individual player luck) after a (somewhat predictable) finite number of times completing the activity.

Of course, that is looking at the token system in a vacuum. Pure RNG has its own set of disadvantages, such as people getting burned out on the lack of any discernible rewards and quitting an activity because they feel it is not worth the effort.

I think the main difference in disadvantage, in that regard, is that with a token system, you can largely predict when people are going to start losing interest and that it’s going to happen consistently at X point. Whereas with RNG, people will more often range from losing interest at any moment to doing an activity an infinite (that is, not measurably finite) number of times.

I’m not sure which system is more advantageous out of the two, or if something else is needed (such as one of the other systems you named). I will be watching the discussion and add more if I have other thoughts.

Weindrasi.3805:

A bare-chested male is not the equivalent of a bare-chested, or even partially bare-chested, female.
The female breasts are sexualized to a degree that the male chest is not. A more likely male equivalent to this would be his junk almost sticking out. Which it is not.

That sounds like something you heard that you’re repeating because it sounds good. Ask half of the hetereosexual females out there (or homosexual males). I bet they’d differ with you very strongly on sexualization of the bare male chest.

kolompi.1287:

You know, all these ideas don’t matter much, simply because if they were implemented, three months from now someone would start a thread about how these rewards are not enough for the drag that is map completion and there should be more.

Slippery slope fallacy is slippery slope.

Devata.6589:

“Is it though? How often have you seen a largely free-to-play game use the traditional box-selling expansion model?” Funny here is that when I about 1,5 year ago said this game was more a F2P game then B2P because they focused on a cash-shop not on expansion sales I got half the forum against me because it was really B2P. Now it has become the standard definition what indeed makes more sense. But it’s also where you make your first wrong assumption. You see, the expansions would be if the game would be truly B2P and not F2P so also not focus on the cash-shop as they have now. In stead a focus on expansions and because of that those expansions would make sense.

Also the fact that some people might not be able to pay the game is not really interesting for a company. More then enough will be able to and it’s no charity. Not if a large number of players would not be able to effort it, it would be different but you can expect that by far most people who where able to buy the original game would be able to also buy the expansion a year later.

I am not sure what type of revisions you are talking about. Again, it would make a lot of sense of standalone expansion but not so much for a real expansion that just adds something to the original game. The very few people without the expansion only do not have access to those new things. And when they manage to get the money they will have access to it.

By revisions, what comes to mind is a game that started out sub model and then it went F2P, and when it went F2P, it made all of the map-related expansion content available to everybody. It then had all of the other cool stuff (such as new professions) behind a paywall.

That’s the kind of thing I’m imagining; you make it so all of the existing players can still play with each other, even in new content, but the rest of it costs money.

If you’re wondering how that would ever work, just think about how F2P works in the first place (or even B2P): Most of the long-term revenue comes from a relatively small percentage of players that has a lot of money.

As for the definition, I understand cause I got jumped on once for referring to this game as essentially F2P without adding any caveats. It’s kind of silly cause the only distinguishable difference between this and a F2P game is that you have to buy the box before you have permanent, full access.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Do you seriously think a drug dealer would ever consider a “life time supply” plan for a known junkie? Grow up.

You lost me at implying that Anet is akin to a drug dealer.

Vayne.8563:

Giving more XP for map completion, when you consider every vista, POI and heart gives you XP already would make map completion over-rewarding.

There are people who really don’t like map completing who would feel pressured to if you made the rewards so vast.

If you don’t like it, don’t do it. If you do like it do it. That’s pretty much the way the whole game is set up.

That’s why the rewards are set the way they’re set.

True in theory, but debatable in this instance. On an ideal run, I get levels way faster doing EotM than I do with stuff like mapping. Yet some people swear by other methods, like chain-killing with XP boosts, or mapping (I guess?). Running events? I dunno.

Point is, if we’re exclusively talking about XP, it’s not a big deal. If, on the other hand, “better rewards for map completion” means giving some amount of valuable end-game items, then people might feel pressured to do it over and over.

Extreme example: If every map completion gave 5 ectos, then yeah, people would feel some pressure to do it.

Interestingly, there is already some end-game pressure – it’s just disguised somewhat by the fact that it’s attached to the final reward, as opposed to each separate map (the Gifts for legendaries).

I think the important distinction, if they increase map completion rewards, is to make it something non-tradeable that only affects the player. More XP would actually be right about in line with that.

There are other potential options that are in line with this concept as well (off the top of my head): Boosters, account-bound gear, chance at a consumable skin related to the zone (could just go off of existing skins pertaining to the zone so they don’t have to make new ones – for example, map DR, chance at a consumable t1 cultural skin.. unlocks if you don’t have it and free 1-use application), timed buff that increases movement speed (for the power-mapper!).

I think anything additional that is tradeable or currency-related would risk becoming what you’re talking about (pressuring people into mapping).

Anyone have other ideas for stuff that is along the lines of the examples I gave?

Fernling.1729:

SWTOR is largely F2P and has expansion packs that they charge for. DCUO also have DLC they charge for. Everquest 1 is F2P and has expansions. Not too sure what their F2P is like though.
I’m sure there are more. I only pay attention to a small amount of mmos these days.

Fair enough. Though I’m not sure I’d count TOR myself, considering how aggressive their F2P model is already and the loyalty that they get from being the only SW MMO running right now. They also started as a sub game, iirc.

Devata.6589:

Not to be a meany but you know this is a really bad reason that is kinda nonsense. When you expand a world you might not allow people in that part of the game if they don’t have the expansion but in the rest of the world everybody still plays together. Also in reality most players who are actively playing will buy the expansion.

This reasoning is really something that has born on these forums here and are based on an interview Anet once gave where they said they didn’t want the expansions as in GW1 because that would divide up the player-base. That where however standalone expansion. Anet then even said they would have normal expansions for sure.

Anyway: this game needs an expansion. It needed an expansion when the game was a year old and we needed a second expansion about now and a third next year. And then no focus on the cash-shop. That would have been great.

Is it though? How often have you seen a largely free-to-play game use the traditional box-selling expansion model? (e.g. where you buy the expansion and that gives you access to all of the new content, including any new maps and so on) I mean, yeah, this game is technically box-to-play, not free-to-play, but once you have the box, you have access to everything. It’s a one-time purchase.

A box expansion, even with a game like this, definitely could (plausibly) fracture the playerbase. It’s totally plausible that there are players who: Could afford the original box but can’t afford more, put a lot of money into the game but their financial circumstances have changed, etc.

Don’t get me wrong. That’s not necessarily a reason to not release an expansion. It’s just a reason why the traditional sub-game-box-expansion model will probably have some revisions to it, if Anet releases an expansion for this game.

NewTrain.7549:

Magister Sieran: The dragon’s servants will never let our ships sail. If they surround the docks, they’ll slaughter us— and Zhaitan’s forces will grow.
<Character name>: Our soldiers are too injured to fight. They can barely walk. We can’t form a defense and still get them all aboard.
Magister Sieran: Someone needs to hold them off and give everyone else time to escape. No, not someone. Me.
<Character name>: You can’t win against those monsters, Sieran! There are too many of them!
Magister Sieran: If I can keep them busy, it’s enough of a win for me. Gixx always said I was an exceptional troublemaker.
Magister Sieran: When you and I met, I didn’t think about anything but myself. I wanted fun, excitement, risks… I didn’t really care about others.
Magister Sieran: In my short life, you’ve taught me the most important lesson. Friends will go through anything for each other. That’s why I have to do this.
Magister Sieran: I’ve always wondered what it would be like to go to the mists. It’ll be an adventure…

I mean seriously, you think this dialogue is mature? It reads like a poorly written after-school special with the first two lines delivered expertly by Captain Exposition and his friend Mr. Obvious.

I felt like Tybalt’s was because I knew exactly what he was implying. Sieran I never really connected with, so I can’t say.

I’m kind of jumping into the discussion here, but I feel like the example you’re giving is less a matter of “mature vs. juvenile” and more a matter of “robotic vs. realistic.”

It pains me to criticize a writer bluntly because I know it’s not an easy craft and it’s not exactly one full of objectivity either. But I think the flaw with dialogue like Sieran’s there is that 1) she’s basically confessing to being an adult child and 2) her change of heart seems like it came out of nowhere. (In other words, it doesn’t fit her character at all.)

I had moments with both Tybalt and Forgal where I felt companionship long before Claw Island, so when they “opened up to me,” it felt more real. When Sieran did it, I felt like her sacrificial speech was coming out of nowhere – like it didn’t even fit her personality.

And therein (being fair) lies part of the struggle of writing dialogue for a video game. You have to shoehorn bs in sometimes because that’s just how the story goes. Maybe Sieran doesn’t even fit as a self-sacrificing character – at least not in that context – but the overarching design said “this is what she has to do for it to fit the gameplay.”

If you find yourself getting annoyed by the change, just go read some of the most recent pages in this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Game-Updates-Traits/page/56

You’ll realize your rage cannot ever match the sheer magnitude of what is contained in that thread. :P

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If that was the reason, then there must have been an influx of terminations, as well. ; )

Hehe.

If it has to do with number of accounts, maybe an influx of botting accounts?

dragonkain.3984:

Clipping can be solved by PLAYERS THEMSELVES.

And yes, i would prefer to use those super easy to get transmutation charges of course just to avoid looking like a clown in their preset outfits.

Yes and no. There are situations where players could go “oh item B clips badly with item Z – I will use it with item X instead.” But then there are players who would say “this clips badly – this is so unprofessional, I’m not buying a crappy set like this again.”

Unfortunately, this is probably never going to change, as long as it continues to be way easier to make a one-piece outfit and not have to worry about clipping.

Weindrasi.3805:

This set is ridiculous and I will not be buying it.
For one, it completely removes charr tails. WHY? Even the horrendous clipping issues these outfits are notorious for were better then completely removing the tail.
Furthermore, I am sick and tired of “sex” gear being exclusively tied to female characters. No, I do not want my female character to look like a prostitute. No, I do not appreciate the inherent degradation and disrespect towards women that it shows, to only offer objectifying gear for female characters, and not for male characters.
Definitely not impressed.

Did you even look at the male version or did you just glance at the female one and start typing?

Haha, I was gonna say Modniir Quarterstaff and then I saw you had mentioned it. I love the fire in that thing.

I will say the Peacemaker’s Longbow! The electric purple look is awesome.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Peacemaker%27s_Longbow

Siesta.3867:

are you kidding me?

infinite????

anet needs this to make money

Slow down there… whether Anet even makes a solid profit off of trans charges is just speculation and hearsay. That is, unless you personally are spending hundreds of dollars every month on charges.

Serophous.9085:

Also, the more I think about it, the more I am getting a DeathNote vibe here…

That the player character is going to die mysteriously? :P

I think there will be eventually. Some of the more obvious benefits of an expansion beyond just generating revenue that are too good to pass up indefinitely:

- Excuse to generate lots of marketing buzz and get people to come play, or return to the game
- Feeling of a “fresh start” for players, which can help reset peoples’ burnout meters and make new players feel like they are part of something big/original
- Extra budget to work on bigger, more marketable features/content

Psh, asking for a way to bypass the legendary system and get one with other currency? What nonsense!

Oh wait… the TP…

Chad.9038:

We’ve been taking this performance issue very seriously and have spent the last few weeks trying to isolate the various causes you guys are experiencing.

Performance is very tricky because there are so many variables as to why the game could be running poorly, especially if it used to run fine. It hasn’t been affecting everybody and some of the folks experiencing issues have found them to be due to outside forces such as poor hardware cooling. We know this is a real issue from the things you guys have posted here and have been trying to find the root of the problem. Simply put, it’s been taking time to identify what the issues could be and trying to reproduce them in-house has proven quite elusive.

We’ve identified a number of serious issues some of which were introduced into the 9/9 build and have code changes on the way to address them. We don’t expect it to fix everyone’s performance problems but we certainly hope it will help the majority of you on this thread. I will follow up when the code changes go live and hope that you guys will report back as to whether they are making a difference or not.

I want to give props to you guys for helping each other out and providing helpful insight into this problem. I know it can be really frustrating, it is for us too so please bear with us. We sincerely want to make your playing experience the best we can.

Thanks for the heads up, Chad. I will be keeping an eye out for the changes.

P. S. No Red tag! :P You need to get one…

Zaxares.5419:

If you don’t mind doing PvP, it’s much better to do the Maguuma Wastes reward track for the Ambrite weapons. You get a guaranteed Fossil at the end of the track, and you also should get just enough Geodes and Ambrite during the track to craft a weapon (or close enough that you can buy the shortfall/farm a little to make up the difference).

Interesting. Thanks for the tip.

mtpelion.4562:

An infinite use transmutation item would need to cost a LOT to offset the lost sales from the glamour “whales” that currently buy charges.

By “a LOT”, I’m hinting at $100+.

There is absolutely no way they could offer it for less than that without losing significant revenue.

I have to wonder how many of these “glamour whales” actually exist and whether they are a significant impact on profit.

’Specially considering the ways to get ahold of charges outside of paying a dime.

Draknar.5748:

As opposed to…….Anet not being paid for anything except box sales?

Sometimes I feel like you guys are simply opposed to companies making a profit. That they should provide goods and services to us for years without any means of recouping their losses for development.

People buy keys in hopes they get ticket scraps. They get enough scraps they get a ticket. They use said ticket on a cosmetic skin they want that gives no advantage. What’s the problem, now? Only people who pay real money can get anything? Gee, the last 2 BL skins I got were purchased directly from TP, didn’t even have to spend real money.

OP, if you are upset about the ticket scrap drop rate, then why not just save up gold and buy whatever skin it is you want. If you are strictly farming keys to sell skins for profit, then I dunno what to tell you. Only you can decide if your gold/hr is good doing that. If it isn’t, then find something else to do to make money.

Naw, it’s just that a lot of “new content” is gem-related skins and skins are like a mini-game in GW2, with the wardrobe system and all. So instead of being a readily accessible mini-game, it ends up feeling like… well… PayWars2.

Obviously this doesn’t apply if you don’t give two hoots about collecting skins.

And yeah, I get it. Everybody loves to pull the “you can just buy off the TP” argument for anything and everything, but as someone who is something of a skin collector, it’s the spirit of the thing for me. Interesting goals for getting new skins with some variety would be so so welcomed. I’m actually looking forward to going for the Dry Top skins eventually – the RNG is kind of daunting though.

Seeing every new skin be pay money or pay gold is just disheartening. I’m not saying I’m surprised. It’s not like it’s some new thing that was just introduced. But hopefully you’ll understand better where some of us are coming from on this.

I doubt something as inconsequential as an idle animation was intentionally removed, or is being intentionally ignored and labelled a bug as part of some kind of deceit.

It’s an embarrassing truth of programming that bugs can crop up in the oddest of places and for reasons that seem to have no connection to anything.

Well technically, you are making an impact when you complete renown hearts, in the same way that you make an impact by fighting Zhaitan’s forces in the PS; the effects are not permanent to the game world, but you are nonetheless supposed to feel like you made a difference.

But perhaps the distinction is that the PS is largely instanced, so when you complete a task, you feel like you completed it within your little bubble and made an impact – like it’s a universe that is separate from the non-instanced MMO world?

I mean, I can see your point because renown hearts – despite being a step up from traditional MMO questing – still boil down to “repetitively complete XYZ task, or set of tasks.” Events are, imo, the closest to feeling like you make an impact outside of PS, but some of them don’t happen that often. Or they happen too often.

There’s another game out there that got one thing right about dynamic events that I think GW2 could take a leaf out of and that’s zonewide events (or in GW2 terms, mapwide). GW2 has world bosses, but they are all basically a linear series of pre-events that lead to the exact same location.

The predictability is great for farming and consistency, but such events also tend to include something like 10% of the areas in a given map. In other words, it’s “epic” but it’s not mapwide.

I would be interested just as a matter of curiosity to see what a Harathi-Hinterlands-style-map would look like on crack. If it was just a constant warzone everywhere, with you desperately trying to help the NPCs hold some sway. Like the spirit of some of the Orr zones, except with renown hearts, at a much lower level, and with more focus on mapwide effects of gaining control of certain areas.

Belidos.3704:

Whatever happened to the simple satisfaction of completion, back in the day it was like yay I finished it but now days it’s like ok I finished it what do I get …

It’s cause these games rewire our brains to expect an extrinsic (externally-based) reward for everything. So when the rewards feel disproportionate to the effort we put in, we’re like, “Whaaaaaa?”

Luckily for us, it’s not really our fault. Unluckily, it seems 90% of games give those extrinsic rewards now, even for simple tasks, so there’s little chance of escaping it.

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

Labjax.2465:

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

So a friend just tested his account on my computer (which is supposed to be the problem according to ANet). He uses his high settings (since I am forced to have the lowest ones to be able to play a tiny bit), and guess what?

Not the slightest delay with skills, not a single FPS drop, not a hiccup. NOTHING!

So ANet/Tech Support/anyone reading, is the problem still on my end?
Seems like I am not responsible for the problem, but rather your copy/paste of a conflicting client from Asia (since lag/FPS drop happened right when we first got things offered by the Chinese version…).

I suggest trying the reverse as well – your account on his computer.

I tried, and it’s laggy and I have FPS problems…

Interesting. I was wondering about this and unless I’m forgetting some obvious variable, the implications would be that the problem is account-specific.

That narrows things down to an extent, if they haven’t already done so. Problem is all the variables that could be involved in a specific account. Argh, if only I had the data to look for commonalities. I think that’s what they should be focusing on to find this problem.

jackaljag.8637:

Avoidance is a valid coping mechanism and there is literally nothing wrong with it. Removing a stressful stimulus to allow for people to not have to deal with stuff that distresses them is helpful.

@OP sorry about the insensitive people. Personally I think it’d be a good idea, especially if it could be extended to various types of mobs to cover as many phobias as possible. Accessibility is always a good thing in my books.

No, I get that. I actually understand what you’re saying perfectly. But I’m not sure you’re following what I’m getting at.

What I mean goes something like this: I have some mild social anxieties. Avoiding social interaction is “helpful” to me, at least in the perceptible short-term. I never have to confront the anxiety or feel unpleasant because of it.

The problem is, in the long-term I’m teaching myself that I’m avoiding something dangerous to my person. With some phobias, I can see where legitimate concern might come from. If someone lives in an area with lots of poisonous spiders, I can see why they would have every reason to be afraid of spiders.

But most of the time, a phobia is considered something where the person’s fear is disproportionate to the harm that could occur and it’s largely irrational.

Maybe in the extreme, it’s going to require a lot of therapy to get over a phobia and so some video game avoidance isn’t going to make a difference. But for those for whom it’s more mild, I think the exposure may actually help them.

Does that make sense?

Pandaman.4758:

Labjax.2465:

Every time a thread like this pops up and somebody says “less skimpy armor for females,” I’m forced to wonder if they’re playing the same game as me.

Every now and then I get the urge to gripe about skimpy heavy armor for female characters, but realize it’s a skewed perception created by the fact the heavy armors I would like to use the most on my female guardian (Phalanx and Grasping Dead) happen to be the few that look nothing like the male version.

So while it’s only 18% of heavy norn female that are skimpy, 100% of the sets I find the most appealing are skimpy. My only options are to just give up on those sets or shell out gems for a name change and makeover kit.

That’s understandable. Thanks for being honest about it.

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

So a friend just tested his account on my computer (which is supposed to be the problem according to ANet). He uses his high settings (since I am forced to have the lowest ones to be able to play a tiny bit), and guess what?

Not the slightest delay with skills, not a single FPS drop, not a hiccup. NOTHING!

So ANet/Tech Support/anyone reading, is the problem still on my end?
Seems like I am not responsible for the problem, but rather your copy/paste of a conflicting client from Asia (since lag/FPS drop happened right when we first got things offered by the Chinese version…).

I suggest trying the reverse as well – your account on his computer.

I think the bottom line is: Legally, it’s not gambling.

Psychologically, it most definitely is – no denying it.

That it is basically 100% like gambling to your brain makes it ethically questionable. But as long as the designers can tell themselves you aren’t gambling away all of your earnings and going broke, they can probably sleep at night.

You have to wonder about the kind of people who run casinos and just how morally bankrupt they are – if they spend all of their time justifying the damage they’re enabling and encouraging people to inflict on themselves.

Just think of it this way, nerevar: By paying the tax, you help the community/economy as a whole. Or if you want to look at it a bit more selfishly, you help the community/economy, so that it will help you by continuing to run smoothly. In essence, your short-term losses are long-term gains (albeit gains that are difficult to quantify).

Not unlike paying taxes in RL.

Mine is a pretty uneventful story. Brother of mine recommended I try the game a year or so ago. I tried it once while still being invested in another MMO at the time and couldn’t get into it. Then I tried it later when I found myself wanting a game to play with some other players, but without any obligation to play with other people.

I gave it a more thorough try the second time around and got hooked pretty quickly. I had basically zero expectations going in. I actually had seen videos of it a few times and I hadn’t thought much of it.

But it turned out to be more than I thought it was.

That said, I’m still kind of disappointed that the first time I tried playing, the town clothes system was still in place and I thought it was pretty neat. Second time I tried, it was completely gone and I had started over, so I didn’t have any town clothes to turn in, even for tonics.

So that’s one bad taste that I ended up with, despite seeing a lot of cool stuff in the game. That they would essentially remove a piece of content was kind of eyebrow-raising. And still is after seeing starter zone hearts gutted with the NPE. It’s an unpleasant reminder of how much power they have over the direction of this game and how truly little any of us have; that, any moment, they could just shut the game down and no one would be able to say otherwise.

‘Course, that’s no different than any other business. It’s just not something you want to think about as a consumer.

Anyway, I will probably continue to play until I burn out or life says my time is needed elsewhere. Right now, the alternatives just aren’t very appealing.

Although I understand the sentiment, especially if your phobia is severe, I would think that for most people, having a way to enable “avoidance” of the fear is just that… another way of avoiding the fear.

I realize you’re asking for an option, not a removal of the fear-inducing stuff. I’m just not convinced that it’s actually helpful to the people with those phobias, even if they might think it is.

Kartel.2561:

A lot of customers are pretty fickle anyway and there’s not much to be done about that, but when you even have long-time loyal customers losing faith and looking elsewhere, I think it’s worth re-evaluating what you’re doing.

I give a lot of credit to Anet in some aspects, but yes… in this market, it’s astoundingly easy to disappoint your players and even easier to lose them if a competing MMO does a lot of the same stuff better.

You’d think that would put the market in favor of consumers, but it really doesn’t because we’re so dependent on games getting certain features right that are so huge to us. I think a lot of us MMO regulars “settle” for what is best for our desires out of the pack.

And I’m sure a lot of loyal players who stick with this game, or other games, stay only because their friends play the game, or because of some sense of loyalty toward the company itself and its reputation. This, of course, can be abused – in many cases unwittingly – by companies that either aren’t sure where exactly they’re heading or whose design goals largely don’t align with X demographic of stubbornly-sticking-it-out people.

I think there are a lot of people whose MMO wants are pretty simple. But then you get the more niche crowd that wants things to always be getting closer to their ideal vision of an MMO and things get iffy.

Basaltface.2786:

Well technically skritt DO got a hometown.. its in fact rather big, even got a king. Called skrittsburgh…might wanna check it out sometime. As for the sillyness…yea.. a single skritt is as bright as a broken lightbulb, no question bout that. As for role.. that technically could be written in.. but i got no hopes about a new race anyways.. not even the tengu. If they would add the tengu they would most likely suffer the same fate like the charr do (cause they are pretty close bodyshape, stance and model wise, not talking bout design, just technical aspects)…horrible armor quality and a “zero kittens given” attitude if it comes to gem store armor related items, so not many people would play them. Whats the point in having a pretty looking bird dude that gets covered by an armor with bad textures, stretching and zero consideration about their physics?… I dont really see a point, rather leave em fully away..it dissapoints less people at the long run.

Right, it’s certainly not an impossibility that they could make the lore fit for the race.

I’m not sure it’d be quite the same origin story anyway for any potential new races with an expansion. Shoehorning a hypothetical new race into the old Zhaitan story chain would feel awkward and outdated, imo.

Every time a thread like this pops up and somebody says “less skimpy armor for females,” I’m forced to wonder if they’re playing the same game as me.

I mean, I guess if you play nothing but light armor classes, you might get kind of a distorted picture? Most of the “skimpy” stuff is light armor shirts. Even most light armor pants (cough… I mean, victorian skirts) cover just about everything. Medium armor is 90% long coats and long pants. And heavy is 90% steel leggings and mail shirts.

It’d make the most sense, IMO, if it just stopped dropping once you hit cap. Maybe that’s hard to code though? I wonder why they haven’t done that with other items that are account bound and have limited use, such as the special Spoon drops.