Guild Wars 2

Paradox.1380:

Also, at hte person above my post, you CAN get Ascended gear form anywhere. The Ascended Chest drops come from all over the world. I even had a friend get a Zojja’s weapon box from a champ in AC.

Isn’t that kind of a copout though? If the main source is RNG, they could do that with literally any itemization in the game and claim that it’s “play how you want to get the best rewards,” when the reality is that it’s more like, “You get to roll a die within any kind of content to get the best rewards!”

Your vertical progression graph starts to look more like someone failing a lie detector test.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

The ‘solo personal story’ shipped with the game ends with organized group content, a five player story dungeon run. Acting like this is unprecedented is a bit silly.

Even in Season One of the Living Story, there was dungeon content, with the Molten Facility, Aetherblade Retreat, and Fractured parts. In those cases, the only way to see the story play out was to do the dungeon. Here, at least, you get all the story available to you solo, and just an optional item that requires some group content to get (along with exploration and jumping puzzles and crafting).

Having done the same silly thing in the past doesn’t make it less silly in the future.

biggs.4702:

Yes and at the same time, not everything will appeal to everyone. If you feel compelled to do something you dislike in order to get a reward you do like, that’s borderline. Like WvW for world completion for people who dislike WvW.

If you are presented with activities you don’t like and a reward you don’t like then “do something else” absolutely a valid response. If enough of these happen, it’s valid to say “play a different game altogether.” There is feedback and then there is you’re doing the wrong thing or even playing the wrong game. It’s not an either/or situation.

Except that the back item clearly has some appeal to him or he would not be talking about it. So it absolutely fits under “compelled to do something you dislike to get a reward you do like.” (Or at the very least, “do want”).

And considering that this is a guy who said he has invested over 6k hours into the game, I don’t know in what galaxy “playing the wrong game” would apply. He’d have to be one masochistic mofo.

digiowl.9620:

And i would be fine with the FPSish pace, if the controls matched!

Give me Tera or Neverwinter style controls and i would be perfectly fine. Hell, dodging glowing sections of ground is what Neverwinter PVE consists off.

Bit having a mouse that operates independently of the camera for targeting reasons ends up for me at least to be very close to a test of patting my head and rubbing my stomach in the middle of a dodgeball match.

And that is why i had a spit take when Jon Peters outright stated that they didn’t go for a Neverwinter scheme because they felt it made the game too action focused. kitten it, it is already action focused! the moment dodge was made the primary survival method, it became Devil May Cry with a awkward control scheme!

It is very strange, isn’t _ it? (Had to put that underscore in to avoid the filter on normal words. Apparently “isnt” and “it” are too close together…)

In some ways, I feel like the dodge system in this game is like the pillar of its FPS-ness. In other MMOs I have played, there is no reactive “dodge” ability, so you are forced to rely on either moving your toon quickly (e.g. running) or just using your intellect to handle the right mechanics at the right time.

Which is really the draw of an MMO for me… the strategic planning and knowledge that helps you overcome the challenges set before you. FPS games are appealing to me in their own way, but I ultimately prefer MMOs because they have always been more about winning through strategy than winning through “athletic ability,” so to speak.

I just hope that MMOs using FPS-like mechanics is not going to become a trend that overwhelms the traditional version of the genre. I can get by without too many scars on watered-down MMO-style-FPS (I just have to put in some effort to pay attention), but I am mediocre at actual FPS games.

Andred.1087:

Seriously? Five fractal runs? One a day for five days… that’s completely reasonable and well within any level 80’s range of accomplishment. I’m not sure what your qualm with FotM is, but this is such a trivial cost. It’s your own fault if you don’t do it.

Some of us are simply not very interested in doing organized group content. Motivations will vary. For some, it might be personal obligations, time constraints, etc. For others, it might be personality or playstyle. Are they to be forced to do organized group content to upgrade an item that begin in the solo personal story?

It’s not the fact that the piece requires group content that is silly. It’s the fact that you get the start of the piece through something that is designed specifically for solo play and then it requires group content later. It is just inconsistent design – unappealing and misleading.

Malkavian.4516:

While your love for the game is admirable, it’s not like you HAVE to get it. Don’t want it? do something else.

I don’t understand why people throw out this defense. It makes no sense. If you put it in perspective, everything in the game is optional. Playing video games is optional. “So if you don’t like something in a game, don’t play it.” Well, duh.

The point is that within the context of the game, the back piece feels like an excessive grind/cost compared to other items that this guy has acquired. And he is voicing that opinion.

Feedback exists because things can be improved.

Stooperdale.3560:

“this fight (and every other boss fight so far this season) remains, IMO, unnecessarily tedious and repetitive. More a test of patience and endurance, in the end, than skill.”

It seems like you have reached a certain amount of wisdom without realizing that all computer games offer the same thing. Once you know when to press the buttons all you do is repetitively press them at the right times. Congratulations. If you want faster reflex skills you can try first person shooters. If you want more thought then play a strategy game. If you want unpredictability then play PvP.

Something clicked for me when you mentioned FPS. That’s what this GW2 combat is most like (that is, these boss fights – I’m not confident in saying that all GW2 combat is FPS-like). MMOs have traditionally been about strategic, turn-based combat (albeit at a faster pace than tabletop games) but the pace of these fights and the breadth of their mechanics makes the challenge less about intellect and more about reflexes.

Which is fine, depending on your preferences, but I can easily see how the traditional MMO crowd (particularly the ones who just “play for fun”) would get incredibly frustrated.

Was just looking into this last night, reviewing the numbers. Here is wiki data I found on the subject:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Glob_of_Ectoplasm/salvage_research

With all the data they have there, the average number of dusts from mystic kits is 1.84. Which means that even if you can sell the dust for a higher end of its sell price (22s per) you’re still going to be operating at a small loss, on average.

But if you want the luck points, it’s not a bad deal overall. Another way to go about it is to buy (or loot) rares and break them down for ectos, and then break down the ectos you get for dust and luck.

I ran some numbers last night (albeit with a lot of lazy rounding and estimating) and from what I could tell, despite the tendency for bad luck streaks to trick you into thinking that your chances of getting consistent ectos from rares is terrible, you’re actually better off (on average) salvaging from rares, rather than direct from ectos. Because (assuming you’re salvaging dropped rares and not crafted ones) you have a good chance of getting the sigil/rune off of it, which will sell for somewhere around 3-6s, and the crafting mats (which will vary, but can sell for a few silver themselves).

I find that that extra padding can help alleviate some of your losses – not by much, but it’s something. It also helps that the typical worth of a dropped rare is slightly lower than that of an ecto.

Randulf.7614:

It is interesting how MMO’s have moved on in general. In GW1, it was expected players would need to attempt story missions a few times to get through. They weren’t necs outright super hard, but some were pretty tough and required changing builds etc.

Nowadays, we expect to get through first go, and I include myself in this as well. I wonder what or when it changed. I’ve noticed the same trend in other MMO’s too.

It is kind of interesting because in single-player games, I’m totally cool with long and difficult boss fights (in fact, I kind of expect it because that’s all there is, is the single-player experience). But when it comes to story-mode single-player fights in an MMO, I just want to slack off and enjoy myself.

I think for me, it’s a difference in focus; in an MMO, there are numerous ways to get a challenge and many of them involve doing content alongside other players, so I expect the solo stuff to be stupid easy. But in a single-player game, boss fights are often the challenge, so I obviously want them to be difficult or else I’d quickly run out of game to play.

Kalavier.1097:

I’m loving the fact everybody is being so high and mighty and not considering the very fact of the two results that could be made from this.

A: Taimi keeps her device. Phlunt doesn’t attend the summit, the support of the Asura doesn’t get given and we lose that much help and aid.
B: Taimi loses her device, but Phlunt attends the summit and we have the chance to get the full Asura aid.

I’m sorry, but threatening Phlunt makes us lose Asura aid. siding with Taimi does the same thing. Yes, we might want her to keep it but the PC in universe should be smart enough to see it’s a sacrifice that MUST BE MADE.

Funny, I just went through the first part of the asura story (the up to level 10 part) and saw how the PC basically kicked the kitten out of another asuran who tried to screw him over… right in front of the council. Yet getting a council member to attend the summit is soooo hard and the PC’s attitude has apparently changed to wanting to comply with kittenbaggery rather than facing it head-on. I’m sorry, but this post-explanation stuff is just an excuse for poor design.

I have written things myself. I know how it works… ultimately, you decide how the story goes and if you really want it to go a certain way, you can make it so. The only thing standing in your way is the stuff you’ve already written as part of the same story, but honestly, that can be stretched a lot if you really need to do so.

Consider the fact, for example, that the PC basically went around and did tasks for the leaders to get them to come to the summit. Were all of those tasks really convincing? Not necessarily. But guess what? It is part of the game’s fact now, because the writers wrote it and Anet released it.

Or how bout the fact that Taimi somehow managed to pick up her device (which I guess was conveniently available to pick up and carry) and waltz out the door before anyone could react to the fact that she was running away. And then the PC just happened to catch up to her at just the right time to save her from the inquest. I mean, really, if story logic is an issue, I’m sure many of us could poke an enormous amount of holes in what’s been written.

It’s a video game, after all. The medium can’t have the same strictness to it that other mediums do – games are giant hubs of “suspend your disbelief x 1,000” from the get-go.

I’m gonna be the odd man out here. Maybe it’s because I’ve yet to play a Sylvari, but all I could think is, “Why is this tree half dead because of one dragon attack?” And, “If it’s that easy to take her down, why didn’t Mordy do it a long time ago? Or a thousand other baddies? Does she have some kind of cloaking shield that hides the Grove?”

Essence Snow.3194:

The demand for these is something I don’t really get either. I would have though as players got the 48 needed for the back item demand would taper off.

Perhaps the next step requires more?

Plus, I think a lot of people went, “Oh hey, living story… right. I want to get on that now that I can see the back item eventually leads to an ascended piece.”

But that interest level will probably taper off in less than a week, I’m guessing.

Tim.6450:

Honestly Phlunt had every right to claim the device for testing and documentation.

It’s not so much the fact that he did it that bugged me. It’s the fact that you had no option to show even the remotest speck of an attitude toward him if you didn’t appreciate his attitude, which was vile and curmudgeonly from the first time you have to deal with him in the previous part of DR.

It is unfortunately the way of non-sub MMOs nowadays. They are either pay-to-win or pay-for-cosmetics. You can avoid one, but you won’t avoid them both.

I wish I could make a good argument for them doing things differently, but they gotta bring home the bacon somehow.

Rym.1469:

To be honest, there was a map of whole Tyria (as a planet) datamined a year or so ago. According to that, our exploration in Dry Top cannot be even 0.0001% of whole planet.

So I think that between 2045/2046 we’ll run out of Dragons&Leylines and eventually take care of some other threat.

New threat: Asurans have to inform the world about global climate change on Tyria. We must band together to go green! :P

Nah, you’re not stopped at all. I thought I was at one point (once I found out where the entrance was to the next part, I was like “oh…”).

If you’re stuck in prospect valley, go over to the little village area with all the dilapidated-looking houses. If you’re boost-speeding across the quicksand on the leftmost end, there will be a house on your left, about 2-3 houses down from where you enter that area.

It should be somewhat apparent (as long as there is no event in that area, one of the houses on the side there will be open). You then take a passage in the back of it that leads underground and up into the Restoration waypoint area. From there, it’s pretty straightforward getting to Vine Bridge waypoint (I think there’s more or less one main path).

Kaisukii.7809:

I love Final Fantasy, so I tried to make Tifa Lockhart <3

Nicely done!

Azgarn.2145:

At least rename the chest you open to “Box of kitten we found in the Dirt” instead of “Summit Hero’s Reward” or whatever it was. If a few piles of goo are all that the Leaders of Tyria can gather up for saving them yet again, how could they possibly expect to have the resources to fight another Elder Dragon?

I would honestly prefer if Anet stopped giving us such crap as rewards (cuz lets be honest, its insulting at this point) and just give us straight up gold (1g-3g?) for these living story quests. We can farm dungeons for 1g-3g per path every day but when it comes to a one time completion of the Living Story that drives the ENTIRE pve system of gw2… we get goop for rewards. Please explain how that makes sense Anet.

I got semi-lucky and got a yellow out of the box (or maybe it was a top tier crafting mat?). I think the Summit Hero box just rolls like an aggrandized champ bag.

I think it’s a cool idea. As long as it isn’t a matter of 0.00001% chance of acquiring one through an unidentified crafted dye thing. T_T

It might be too much work though, unfortunately. Even if it’s just particle effects, making sure that they don’t look wonky for each armor set may be kind of a chore. I’m not sure what tools they have available for that sort of thing.

To be fair, hyperbole makes for good storytelling as long as you don’t overdo it. I mean, in Harry Potter, it never made a whole lot of sense that the entire frickin wizarding world needed to rely on one special boy to save the world and Voldemort was the only major villain at that point in their history, despite tons of people having the possibility of getting into the dark arts, but it made for a good story.

I don’t think they would have any reason to nerf the drop rate of these, much less do it without telling us. They are already going back up in sale price, with the spike in demand from the new Episode release.

Incremental drop rate changes are the kind of thing you might see in testing, not post-release for no apparent reason.

Allaraina.8614:

I feel panel 5 is often what we experience.

Haha, nice.

Shadowmoon.7986:

Welcome to a metric that comes from a Add on to a single voice chat software. Seeing how there are multiple of these type of software available, and some game already have it built is, it not a very good sample size imo.

^This.

I aint sayin GW2 is dying or dead, but this list doesn’t mean much of anything.

That’s actually a really cool idea.

I hate marketing sometimes. >.< They know very well what kind of expectations they’re building up with staggering the information and they also know full well that there’s no way in hell they’re going to address all of the major wants that people have right now in a single feature pack.

Vexander.9850:

Maybe I wouldn’t mind having a dialogue option to talk more aggressively if the situations were reversed. However, Phlunt has something I don’t have; a seat on the Arcane Council. What do I have that he wants? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. By Asuran law Taimi’s invention is technically his to take custody of. I can’t really fight that, and doing so just works further -against- my goal.

The reality of the situations is, it sucked, but that quality of sucking, helps make Tyria feel alive and real. An aggressive option or one leading to Taimi keeping her work but us getting the same end, would just make me feel like Tyria is very fake, and my character is infallible. I know that, technically, we’re infallible as is. However, no-win situations like this help mitigate that. It shows the PC isn’t a god amongst men who always gets his or her way.

Except that depending on how you view the situation (some people are perfectly ok with the single route afforded to the PC) you are getting your way and so is the PC.

The thing is, in most MMOs, I expect nothing from quests like these in terms of choice, but in GW2, they give you choice throughout most of the story, even if it is minimal. So to change that and leave out choice (even if it is a choice in expressing your PC’s personality) just feels lazy.

They are writers. They can make a few dialogue options work in ways that we can’t because we’re looking back on what they already set in stone by releasing it. I have come to expect a player experience that can be mildly personalized – I’m really not asking for much here; it’s not like I’m asking for an entirely separate branch of quests just to give us choice.

I mean, think of it this way: If the PC is defined by his/her single logical options in the story, then it is no longer your character – it is just another NPC and you happen to be moving it around and fighting stuff during various parts. And it’s certainly not “your story.”

How do you guys turn a venting thread into telling someone how wrong he is? Seriously?

TehPwnerer.7215:

Funny how all the elitist tryhards come out in droves when someone expresses their opinion. I love all the “L2P” and “You suck” comments.

Real classy community we got here.

It drives me nuts. Gives a bad name to skilled players and it’s funny because even players who are skilled sometimes take a few attempts to “warm up” to quick-reaction-mechanics – sort of like being an athlete. But these people come in and are like, “Man, I’m 100% awesome 100% of the time, yo. L2P!” It’s pretty sad.

I mean, I used to complain about unskilled players in private in another game because we were trying to do difficult raids and get a large number of people to coordinate on tough mechanics. But publicly putting down people for struggling with quests that are designed for the solo player is just senseless ego-stroking nonsense.

BuddhaKeks.4857:

I thought the fight wasn’t hard, but suuuuuper annoying. In the end you can’t loose, but it takes so long. Why do the continue to design bosses that make you wait until you can hit them? Do they think waiting is a fun game mechanic? To me it isn’t. The worst part is, right before I could deliver the killing blow the severs went down. Now I have to do the whole stupid mission again. Thanks for nothing Anet.

Agreed. It was like that with the earlier fight too. Multiple phase repeats where main boss is immune – not fun or interesting. Just time-consuming.

Luckily, my glass-cannon zerker Thief setup came in handy here for shortening the final fight a little bit, but it was also the death of me a couple times, due to having little healing and running into near unavoidable combinations of mob attacks and ground AoE.

P. S. Kitten Mordrem mobs. Kitten them all. They are such annoying kittens. Can we distract them with cat food or something?

Vexander.9850:

So my options are to try and convince Taimi, a genius with a bright and promising future, to give up a recently built device that will no doubt look like child’s play when she is an adult and making truly amazing things, so that I can get a Councillor of the Asuran leadership to attend a summit with the purpose of saving the world…

Or I can tell Taimi to keep her invention, tell Plunt to go grease his own wheels, risk the summit, and probably kitten the world to destruction, ensuring Taimi will never become an adult and never surpass what she’s done to this point?

I’m sorry. My character, being a rational adult, would try to convince Taimi to give it up. There is a big picture here. Taimi’s got a long life ahead of her to do better than the measly work Phlunt is going to steal now.

That’s just the thing though… you have no options at all. The character is written 100% for you in this and if you don’t like its personality, then tough stuff.

I mean, it wouldn’t be hard to add another dialogue option that leads to the same quest conclusion – just with you having the ability to talk a little more aggressively if you so desire.

Besides, I don’t play video games to roleplay being an adult. I can do that for real in my life.

Build diversity is, unfortunately, a problem in most MMOs because of balancing issues. Some games have moments where they gets things in a good place for this class or that class.

I think that in competitive play, it’s particularly a difficult issue to address because people want the best build, not “slightly subpar build.”

That said, in PvE-heavy scenarios, build diversity shouldn’t be something difficult to achieve because GW2 doesn’t go in the direction of DPS meters and whatnot at all (meaning that they don’t need to optimize on a fine line – they just need to boost certain builds here and there).

One of the problems I’ve noticed is that the classes tend to get shoehorned into their “gimmick.” Mesmers getting shoehorned into builds that rely heavily on phantasms and/or clones, or Thieves relying heavily on stealth and glass-cannon melee damage.

I’m not the best person to talk about the specifics as you can probably see from how vague I’m being with the above, but the point is that ideally each unique aspect of a class has at least one viable build related to it and I’m not sure that’s the case.

It’s not like most of the world bosses… requires a lot organization, so if you don’t get there at least 30 mins early (and that might be too late) then you can assume that your chances of getting a strong group to kill the boss are not good.

I’ve come in with little time before it starts and seen us win, but it’s a rare thing. Most people pile into organized maps 45-60 mins before it starts.

It doesn’t help that the overflow gets filled with people who are getting there shortly before it starts most likely because they were following the world boss train… so they are expecting another faceroll boss and have no idea what to do or that they should take the fight seriously, even when given specific instructions.

Mission Types / Combat:
- Queen Jennah rumor quest was a refreshing break from the typical “kill mobs” setup. The construction of rich people gossip had some entertaining moments and it was a neat little mini-game.

I feel that the “suspicion” system could have been designed better; there seemed to be no way to get information without increasing your suspicion level (at least, at certain parts) and when I got mine to full once, I just got temporarily kicked out. Which was good in one way (it was very forgiving, so no frustration!) but the fact that I could just come back and continue where I left off cheapened the experience of feeling like a spy of sorts.

- Ley Line battle and Summit Dragon battle: Some interesting mechanics, but I didn’t enjoy the tediousness of going through phases of a fight 4-5 times just to kill the boss. I’ve faced “phase” bosses in raids in other games and it works well for that kind of content, but because you have to make the “forgiving” level high for the solo player (such as being able to hit continue if you die and get right back in where you left off) it winds up just feeling like a tedious game of pride, “Let’s hope I don’t die so many times that it’s embarrassing.”

Side note: While I appreciated the nod toward making the Summit Dragon battle feel more epic by making it the player’s battle to fight, it felt rather odd that there was a good handful of experienced fighters just sitting below and none of them could come help, other than shouting out raid warnings.

- Mob types / general complaint: There seems to be an obsession with sticking retaliation on Mordrem mobs 90% of the time. In fact, I saw it on one of the Golems at the “protect Taimi” part as well.

Although this is something manageable, it is difficult to deal with if you don’t have readily available boon-stripping abilities/traits. I was running the missions as Thief and I’m assuming (hoping) Thieves have some way to strip boons, but I didn’t have any on hand, so I just had to make do. I’ve also noticed in past missions (DR Part 1) that even with boon-stripping on my Mesmer, it was still frustrating dealing with near constant retaliation uptime.

Either I am missing something obvious or this is a frustrating design choice for Mordy mobs.

Story/Dialogue:
- I enjoyed the banter with Canach and Anise, and Taimi is as entertaining as ever.

- Phlunt was very hate-able and I’m disappointed that my character didn’t have any options for punting him off of the jump puzzle in Dry Top (I would just explain to the council that I was trying to help him get an achievement and he slipped – the bootprint on his garb was from a random inquest who found his body).

- Mordrem/dragon interrupting the summit was kind of underwhelming. Although the fight was somewhat enjoyable, from a story standpoint it just felt cheap. I guess I am oldschool because I keep wanting to see humanoid enemies, but I would love to see something more intriguing than more of the same sort of monsters just happening to show up to nearly every story mission.

- The vision was intriguing, but honestly, I felt like my character was more interested in it than I was. It seemed to be showing me a place (I guess where Mordy is located or something?) – artistically, it was well-made, but I didn’t see enough for it to mean anything to me. I guess it is good speculation-fodder, if that’s what you’re going for.

That’s all I got for now. Share your impressions here people!

Zefrost.3425:

It does not take effort to bring some voice actors back to say a couple lines. Trahearn didn’t even say anything! I have 2500 hours on my sylvari, I was actually excited to reunite with Trahearn again… so much for that.

Unfortunately, it does. Considering the number of different races and gender combos there are for the PC, that’s a lot of voice actors to bring back and some of them may not even be in contact with Anet anymore, or are busy with other projects. Not to mention the cost for paying them, which puts unnecessary strain on their budget.

So while it would be nice to have the same experience as in the start of the game, it’s just a lot to ask.

It doesn’t matter what the excuse is. The point is, it forces the player to do nothing about the fact that his/her friend is getting screwed over. That’s not how friends act in real life. In fact, if you were a commander in real life, you would probably still be biased toward your friend, instead of deferring to some schmuck just to keep the peace.

As someone who didn’t play until after the new trait system was introduced, I can tell you that I accepted it as it was, but I do feel like the “fun” factor didn’t really pick up until later levels when I had a lot of traits to work with.

The first time I leveled, it wasn’t bad, considering that I got some levels through crafting too. Second time I leveled a character, I was itching in my seat, waiting to get some help from those traits at level 30+.

I can’t say whether the other system was better or worse because I didn’t play it, but that’s my take on it.

Edit: Also, I feel it’s worth noting that because of the cost and the number of different events/etc. needed to unlock all of the traits, I’ve yet to unlock all of my traits on a single character. It just doesn’t feel worth it, unless I want the specific trait.

I’ve had some pretty poor streaks with them, but if you look at the data on the wiki, they do say that the drop rate is 0-3, so (on average) you are going to get 0 ectos on 1 out of every 4 rares you salvage.

Edit: Just read the wiki again. I’m remembering incorrectly.

They are saying the chance with mystic/master kit is:
0 36.75%
1 47.00%
2 8.25%
3 8.00%

I’m trying to understand how random people “see you mapping” and then comment on it. The Tequatl area is relatively small compared to the map itself and most of the people waiting for the event to start cluster in a small area to be the main zerg.

But yes, although no one has an excuse to be rude, you can – as others have said – do the kind thing, which is to log out briefly, so that you’ll get placed onto another instance of the map. It’s a win-win situation for both sides if you do so – you get to continue mapping undisturbed and they get the player slot for their buddy.

Congrats on reaching your goal.

If you try to make sense of luck (outside of carefully controlled testing environments) you will invent patterns where there are none and see trends that are gone before they’ve started.

In other words, you can safely assume they’re using the strongest algorithm for it that they can come up with. Beyond that, luck is luck – sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and if you could do a perfectly controlled test, your luck would hit around whatever the average is, over time.

But because you really can’t do a perfectly controlled test (specially considering that the devs are privy to all the separate mob item pools and we are not), you will forever find patterns in luck because the human brain wants to see patterns in everything and you may never hit the average at all.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Like I said, I did it for something to do.

I am now at a point where I have done most things, acquired all the skins I want, picked up most of the achievements on the way… it gave me something to do.

For me it really isn’t a status symbol. For starters, the way things are going, nobody’s ever going to see my underwater weapon. Secondly, it is not a status symbol the same way as a gaining frequent flyer gold status with all economy flights: it is less “look how kitten I am!” and more “what am I doing with my life??”

So you really shouldn’t assume that everybody has the same priorities or reasons.

With the old system, I will not craft another legendary. It was, all in all, too costly (the T6 mats were the WORST). If ANet ever release their treasure hunt-paper chase- story/mission based legendary crafting, I might go for it, because why not…I wouldn’t want to miss out and as long as it is even remotely fun, it’ll give me something to do.

I do a lot of guessing. The bright side is, sometimes people correct me. Thanks for sharing your perspective. Widens my view on it.

Wait, so posting a lot on an internet forum for a game and arguing in favor of that game makes you a suspect for being an undercover employee? What exactly are “fans” then?

Not that Vayne even sounds like some kind of “fanboy” to me. I see what he’s doing and I understand it because I’ve done it before; he’s fighting for an ideal (in this case, treating people like people and being realistic). He probably doesn’t have any investment beyond that. One doesn’t need any investment beyond that.

What you guys are doing by saying that he is an undercover Anet employee is called “Circumstantial Ad Hominem.” Rather than addressing his arguments independent of his motivations, you’re trying to destroy his credibility, so that his arguments will be destroyed in the process. It is asinine and childish.

If his arguments are incorrect, you need only demonstrate how.

Morsus.5106:

Labjax.2465:

Esplen.3940:

Labjax.2465:

Dang, I didn’t even realize you could change their stats on the fly. No wonder people want them so bad over ascended.

B-th-b-…b-…n-…wh-b-…

Sigh

?

Legendaries were popular back before they could stat swap, were soulbound, and had the same exact stats of exotics.

Well I did also say that they’re a status item..

Esplen.3940:

Labjax.2465:

Dang, I didn’t even realize you could change their stats on the fly. No wonder people want them so bad over ascended.

B-th-b-…b-…n-…wh-b-…

Sigh

?

I chose Mesmer because I enjoy the playstyle of shoving illusions in the faces of enemies to distract them while I damage them. And for that purpose alone, Mesmer is still enjoyable to me (soloing tough mobs).

But the moment I get into group play or situations where AoE would be really nice (both of which are situations that are 90% of GW2) I feel like the reject in the corner who is working overtime just to contribute and whose saving grace is a couple of utility abilities that no one else has.

I mean, just giving us some viable AoE alone would make me happy as hell playing my Mesmer. And some traits that give us steady/strong damage without relying completely on Phantasms and Clones would be killer.

And if Phant/Clone + damage is a concern, just give us stuff like: Trait that increases our damage output but lowers Phant/Clone (and/or Shatter).

LumAnth.5124:

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to “poop rainbows”

It’s a video game, let the player do what they want. They bought it, they got the legendary, and they apparently have fun shooting rainbows.

You can’t shoot rainbows in real life. You can in this game though. And maybe that is the reason they are playing, who knows.

Also, being able to switch stats on the fly is really convenient. Never will I have to craft newly released ascended stats like Nomad for some of my weapons.

Besides, on my Mesmer, I already have 4 sets of different armor stats, and I would need to use more space had I went for Ascended weapons.

Dang, I didn’t even realize you could change their stats on the fly. No wonder people want them so bad over ascended.

Lheimroo.2947:

The communication around the whole subject was clumsy and came out feeling false on multiple levels even if arguably within the definitions of previous statements. And it’s not like we haven’t seen companies skewer themselves like this before: making obviously false statements to sell goods, getting caught in it, then being utterly and humanly AWFUL at fixing it, chiefly by failing to admit publicly to error.

I have no idea whether what’s being discussed here was actually a miscommunication, but I would like to point out that when companies talk to the public, it’s basically their job to look like they know what they’re doing. I mean, it’s one thing to apologize for an obvious error that the company can quickly fix, but to admit that their plans went in a different direction than originally intended is kind of like saying, “Whoops, we’re bad at being true to our word. Please don’t trust us in the future.”

I love honesty as much as the next guy, but I don’t think my confidence in a company would go up if they admitted to mucking up their vision, or changing it in a big way. Especially if they were in a position where “fixing” that vision would require a massive amount of work – cause then I’d know I’m basically stuck with their failure.

So yeah… if it was a miscommunication, then I think a little word twisting hurts less than the truth in this sort of scenario.

They’re largely a status symbol. Like the guy who buys an expensive car to show off.

It’s sort of like people desiring to be rich and famous.

They’re also the end-endgame of gear for some players. Sure, ascended weapons have the same stats, but legendary weapons are, well… legendary. They’re viewed more as the pinnacle of gear acquisition.

Brother Grimm.5176:

While I feel part of it is personal “abuse”/attacks during their attempts to converse, it’s more about every little word they type gets used at some point in the future to further someone’s torch and pitchfork agenda (like a quote from a 2011 interview being used to call Devs liars 3 years later….).

Also, we have no idea WHAT the Devs are being told by their bosses that can be said or not said here. (and from the above examples, I’m guessing not much). If they can’t say anything 100% for sure, what do they gain by saying anything at all (even if they CAN say anything at all)?

Good point. It’s a big part of gaming forum culture for people to “lobby” for certain ideas because they want the game to be X way.

And although some great arguments come from it, there’s also a lot of bullkitten rationalizations on all sides and liberal use of dev quotes to support arguments one way or another.

I feel like if Anet was giving more “yes/no/maybe” feedback, then the forum community would be less likely to attempt to lobby. With little to no feedback, there’s that feeling like, “If I just push my argument loud enough and long enough, a dev is bound to see it and make the game into Y instead of X.”

But yes, you’re right that your average dev probably can’t say much. I imagine the game director has the most know-how for what can and can’t be said. If he isn’t super busy directing the game, he would be the ideal person to give these yes/no/maybe answers. I’ve seen it done in other MMOs (from the game director) and it was very much appreciated; he also had claws, which helped for those moments when people were being a bit too snarky.

Actually, I guess I shouldn’t speak in the past tense, cause that game is still going strong AFAIK.

Dahkeus.8243:

Pretty sure the devs are just sick of getting trash talked:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Bank-of-the-mists/first#post4278199

This is the dark underbelly of the coin. Not that your linked example is anything truly atrocious, but devs getting verbally harassed/abused by players is a real problem in the game industry.

It’s a two-sided problem; companies treating players like numbers and players treating devs like punching bags. Which is sad because a lot of devs and players just want to treat people like human beings, but the rude players and the uncaring companies make it worse for everybody.

Yargesh.4965:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I think the players felt engaged during development of Guild Wars 2. There seems to be lots of posts mentioned how ‘the Devs used to be more communicative’.

I have seen that type of post in almost every game I have played. I am not sure if it is because of good old days thinking or if every game there comes a point where it is more trouble to engage than to focus efforts elsewhere.

I suspect it’s that during betas and such (e.g. pre-release) devs have to be more communicative with the playerbase because they are wanting to iron out as many major problems as possible.

But once they have an established, working game, they don’t feel any need to engage, outside of the occasional post.

You also get different/smaller teams that you’re engaging with. A lot of companies will hire tons of temp devs for big development pushes and then they’ll keep on payroll a team that is relatively small by comparison.