Or words to that effect.
Take the dye pack for example, the average cost on getting a rare dye is so expensive. I dont’ understand why people are selling them so cheaply in the trading post.
Well for some items, they are only worth what people are willing to pay for them. And that’s affected by how many are available (supply) and how many want one (demand).
I don’t really know the complex economics, but I’m pretty sure that with the dyes, it’s largely going to be a matter of: Average cost may be higher than typical sell price, but because it’s random, some people are going to pay almost no cost to see one and others are going to pay a high cost to see one.
So you could have, for example, 100 people out of 1,000 get a rare dye easily, at minimal cost, 100 pay a high cost, and 800 pay a mid-range sliding cost. The important part is that if none of those people consume the dye, then you now have a potential 1k rare dyes being sold.
If, in our hypothetical, only 500 people are interested in the rare dyes being sold, then selling the 1k is going to become a competition of pricing to appeal to a demand that will not cover every dye. And then for the sellers, it becomes a question of, “How low can I go while still profiting off of this?” With answers varying greatly depending on how much was invested in getting the rare dye.
I’ve seen crafted exotics that are much more straightforward; you get the components, you craft one, you know what you’re getting. But because exotics can be obtained through other means, you will find that many of the component sell prices add up to a higher price than the going sell price of the crafted item itself.
Or words to that effect.
I think if he’s going to die, it has to involve some surprising character twist. It also has to be completely believable – not some forced twist, such as him just happening to “get corrupted.” Getting “corrupted” (in some magical-ish way) seems to be Anet’s one way to have a character change sides.
I would love to see characters turning against each other because of conflicting goals and motivations, and because of questionable morals.
Already, I’ve seen too much of this, “We hate each other for some reason.”
“Yeah, I don’t like you! You’re stupid!”
“We have to work together now, because dragons.”
“Yeah, let’s work together now! I kinda like you, after all!”
Or words to that effect.
I like things being acknowledged, even if it is just to say, “We have no plans for this right now,” or “we will not be doing anything like this.”
Simply because… tossing things into a void feels pointless and there are so many threads made that it’s hard to know whether something was heard silently or missed completely.
So for me, it really does stop at “wanting to know that I was heard.” I mean, I’m a grownup – I can handle a “no” or “maybe.” But I don’t like putting a lot of thought into something and feeling like not even a single kitten was given in return.
That said, I understand that in some professions, it’s just not logistically plausible to acknowledge everything and still do your job.
But then at the same time, PR people are hired for a reason and too often with MMOs, I feel like the PR people don’t actually do much of anything on the forums, despite forums being one of the best ways for players to articulate complex bits of feedback. In fact, I have to assume that most PR people for these games do a lot of behind-the-scenes work (which would seem contrary to public relations, but whatever) because I don’t see them in the spotlight a lot – even when compared to the activity of some of the game developers.
So maybe I have a different understanding of what public relations means. I mean, I realize they typically use some fancy term like “community” this or “community” that, but it still seems like it would be more publicly used.
Or words to that effect.
Well my post you quoted was about people having difficulties with the mechanics but you knocked down that post as if I was referring to a difficulty level. I just reciprocated.
Because this thread was never about the fight difficulty… more about the frustrating nature of its design.
People have tried to turn it into a thread about the fight difficulty, I guess because of some desire to boost their egos by putting down other players.
Or words to that effect.
How obnoxious are they?
One can dodge through the sphere, the knockdown is short, Chill can be stripped or negated, Fear Wards don’t seem to target a person just the middle of the room. Menders are made of paper and the other ghosts aren’t even Veterans (I think, unless they just have really shallow health pools).
Fear is an obnoxious mechanic in general. As is knockdown. That is just my opinion. It doesn’t mean I can’t beat an enemy that uses them, mind you – it just means they’re obnoxious.
I mean, I beat this fight on my first try and I think I got downed (but not dead) once before I cottoned on fully to the fact that I needed to play a little less lazy than I sometimes do.
It’s a l2p issue. You can’t expect to stand in one place and spam 1 to win this fight. The mechanics are incredibly simple and most of what could hinder you is avoidable. The only exception is the chill which can be removed with condition removal.
My 1% was a guesstimate based on how incredibly easy the fight is. People have fought it using the very same classes and builds without any issues as those claiming it there were.
Grats, you knocked down an argument that I never made. Didn’t I just say it’s not about the difficulty of the fight?
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Although I’ve thoroughly enjoyed mounts in other games, I’m not sure I see the need for them in this game. Despite many of the maps being rather large, there are so many waypoints that it doesn’t really matter. I was stunned the first time I saw how many waypoints on average are in a map (on top of the fact that you can click-waypoint from anywhere).
I think the worst inconvenience I’ve faced so far is having to run a little extra because a waypoint I wanted to port to was contested. Aside from that, it seems to me that mounts would just trivialize what is already largely trivial.
Or words to that effect.
Example: Sell Magitech set as both a package and as individual pieces (package costing 800 Gems). Each package has 6 pieces, so 8/6 = ~1.33, or ~133 Gems each (the individual worth of each piece at 800 Gems a package) – just boost that price to 150 Gems for purchase of individual pieces.
Benefits:
- More enticing for players who don’t want to spend a large amount of currency at a time, but will also come out to more profit* if they eventually buy every piece. (I’m sure you have data on how this works with existing armor sets that are obtained through purely in-game currency, such as the ascended armor sets.)
- Smaller barrier of access to buying skins from the Gem Store, which means more players are likely to get accustomed to doing so (even if it is through Gold > Gem converted purchasing).
*Profit can mean both more purchasing of Gems overall, or more Gold siphoned out of the economy through the exchange.
Or words to that effect.
The average player can easily beat this. It’s the lower 1% that are having difficulties.
Hey look, yet another person missing the point. The imaginary 1% that you’re referring to isn’t even present in this thread, outside of a number that you could probably count on one hand. The main complaint is how obnoxious the mechanics are. Not the difficulty level.
Or words to that effect.
I’m sure the dev who originally designed mesmer loved the concept – just like many of us who chose the class. And the class does have some really cool concepts.
But a class that relies on gimmicks and strange game mechanics is guaranteed to be either overpowered or riddled with major problems simply because most classes aren’t very complicated.
You have the trademarks, like thiefs having initiative, warriors having adrenaline, mesmers having clones, etc. But with mesmer, it doesn’t stop with one clear mechanic; instead, they have clones and phantasms and portals and mantras and… the list goes on. It’s like a smorgasbord of cool ideas that are never going to work quite right because if they did, mesmers would overshadow every other class in the game.
That said, the bugs themselves are an issue because bugs are just hard to fix sometimes. If you’ve ever done programming you would understand how wonky things can get. More so considering that a lot of mesmer skills involve teleporting in some way, which is always a breeding ground for problems. I don’t know if axes (Y, X, Z) are still a major issue, but I’ve seen problems with them in numerous MMOs.
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My opinion doesn’t matter because I don’t think this is an issue? Awesome. That makes sense ><.
No, that’s just being silly. Your opinion ultimately doesn’t matter (and neither does mine) when it’s up against the cold-hard facts of what impact the design choice is having. And none of us are privy to those facts.
So the best we can do is cling to the few facts we do have. That could include anything from a single player making an article about quitting the game over the situation to one’s circle of friends in-game, or the host of threads on the subject complaining about the system. None of which (of course) are anything close to the full picture.
I mean, we can argue until we’re blue in the face about how loyal a player is over this or that issue, but we have no average level of loyalty to base our conclusions on. So much of it is a shot in the dark and pedantic posturing (and I’m not excluding myself from that).
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Sure, but it’s not Anet’s issue. People expect the most expensive gear in the game to be easily gotten. When it’s not, they quit or QQ forever. Those aren’t compelling reasons to change anything or even leave the game if you like it.
Exactly … Legendarys are just Ascended gear but more fancy. Visual Content. If someone can’t make a Legendary, it’s of no matter. They can get Ascended. The only reason to get all bumhurt due to not having a Legedary is because there is no brag factor. Rightly so … it’s a bragging item. People need to get over how ‘hardcore’ they are when they see how much effort it takes to get a Legendary.
Ok? So your opinion is that it’s not an issue. And we’re back at square one, which is: It doesn’t matter what your opinion is. It ultimately matters whether the design choice is having an overall negative effect on the community, compared to other choices.
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I’m leveling a thief and a warrior… and perhaps an elementalist too. So that I don’t have to rely on my mesmer.
I solo’d champ wolf in fireheart rise and felt like a god. Then I went back to fighting world bosses and was sincerely glad that people can’t track my DPS.
When I first learned about the greatsword skills, I was ecstatic, after having run around with staff and scepter/oh. “An auto-attack that hits 3 targets and Phantasm with AoE and a 2-target clone-spawning hit.. this is AoE heaven!”
Then I realized that GS1 only hits targets who are arranged in a line (which happens 1 out of every 100 battles in reality). And I realized that GS2 and 4 have both travel time and require a target for them to properly activate, so if you use them on a mob that’s dying fast, get ready for a wasted CD.
And then I realized that GS3 only serves to act as a cool dance move against a single PvE mob, by making you feel like you have rhythm for a second before you go back to spamming auto. And GS5 tends to spread mobs out in its knockback, so it’s actually the opposite of what you want to do for your already difficult-to-utilize AoEs to hit more than one target.
Or words to that effect.
Going to say it again … loyal players don’t quit over visual content, unless they find it offensive.
So a system like this leaving a bad taste in someone’s mouth is not “finding it offensive”?
Also, it’s kind of a distortion of the topic to simply call it “visual content.” AFAIK, you can make ascended weapons that are as powerful as legendaries, so yes, they’re not “the best.” But they’re obviously intended to be a highly-sought-after item and are a mark of someone who has invested a lot of time into the game (they are also very recognizable, giving them extra show-offy prestige).
To call it “visual content” with no qualifiers insinuates that they are just some random skin that looks little different from all the other skins. But the reality is that they’re more or less the end-game of gear right now, when it comes to showing off and feeling accomplished.
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To improve build diversity, we are removing Empowering Mantras, Prismatic Understanding, and moving Warden’s Feedback to be a Grandmaster (swapping with Disruptor’s Sustainment).
<snip>
This post had me in a fit of laughter. Omg, too much. My hat is off to you, sir.
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Then your point has nothing to do with legendaries … a fickle player in GWE2 over something as trivial as an aestetic item is just as fickle in other games. YOu speak of loyalty? Anyone who quits a game over this triviality isn’t ever loyal, so they aren’t contributing to the healthy longevity of any game.
Well considering that it’s completely plausible for someone to be extremely loyal to this game, burn hundreds of gold trying to get a precursor, and never get one.. I don’t see how that’s being senselessly fickle. It’s just that with limited options, they would be more likely to stick around and keep trying, or give up on getting one but keep playing – as opposed to saying “kitten it” and leaving the game entirely.
And considering that all video games are trivial by their very nature, I’m not sure how it’s anything more than your opinion that leaving over a questionably designed system for getting a largely aesthetic item is a sign of an overall fickle player.
My saying that it’s a buyer’s market was in part because being somewhat fickle (not saying you should jump from game to game senselessly) is just the smart thing to do right now as a consumer, when it comes to video games. Being loyal gets you some neat appreciation rewards, but the fact is, companies have to appeal to a revolving-door demographic, caused by fierce competition.
Probably more so the case with games like these where the only barrier to play is purchasing the game itself.
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It’s more complex than that in GW2 because it’s not sub based. I already covered this argument. It’s not about number of players, it’s about number of players willing to buy gems. It’s more likely the type of players that quit over hate are less likely to buy gems than players that stay because of love.
Loyal players are healthy for the longevity of any MMO, regardless of how much money they directly funnel into the hands of the company. An MMO with a population of 100 people, all of whom are spending hundreds of dollars on gems, is not a popluation that’s going to last – there’s no community for them to play the game with.
That said, the point of my response wasn’t to talk about the value of a player that quits. My point was more that it’s a buyer’s market right now for video games in general, so players can get away with having higher standards and quicker dealbreakers than they would have in the days when you could count your game options on one hand.
Or words to that effect.
“100% of your condition damage is added to power against objects” would probably help.
Good thought. I would be ok with a solution like this. Same thing with crit damage / chance.
I really feel lore should have the final say in a lot of these cases. We are playing a RPG after all. Fire elementals should not be able to burn (that they can take fire-based direct damage is a bit of a stretch, already). Robots should not be able to bleed. Etc.
Although you’re making an argument in the other direction, I think you make a good argument for allowing inanimate objects to be crit and have conditions on them.
After all, it would take a complex system with (probably) a lot of weird inconsistencies to truly be “realistic.” If robots can bleed (and I recall that they can), then inanimate objects should be able to as well.
Side note: I think mobs who act like inanimate objects in this way are a separate issue; I’ve seen some of these mobs who can have conditions on them (such as the elemental boss at the end of the tutorial) but yet you’ll have some of those same kinds of mobs being immune to critting. So I think the main issue with them is just inconsistency – does someone have info on whether there are weird exceptions floating around with these types of mobs? Could be another topic in itself.
I recall noticing some exceptions myself, but I can’t recall the specifics, so I could just be confused in that regard.
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That’s really still a rather stupid reason to quit a game IMO. There are three options to get something, someone doesn’t like one of those options, so they quit …. on an aesthetic item? That article doesn’t have any insight to anything wrong with GW2. It’s more a self-loathing commentary on how someone didn’t live up to their own expectations as a ‘hardcore’ gamer.
Well, it doesn’t really matter how objectively smart or stupid your reasons for quitting an MMO are. Bottom line is numbers (players and profit) because it’s a business. The market is saturated with a billion alternatives right now, so it doesn’t take much to motivate someone to go spend their time on another video game, MMO or otherwise.
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As I see it, you should be able to crit objects too. Any time, money, or effort spent raising a stat should yield it’s benefits in all things.
Agreed. Same principle applies to crit here as it does to condition damage.
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Many (if not all) inanimate objects in the game cannot have conditions on them (bleeds, burns, etc.).
Although this choice makes perfect sense concerning lore, it makes zero sense concerning gameplay. For example, if we ignore for a moment the obviously nonsensical part of a flag that is bleeding, it would make sense that a condition-based build can do the same level of damage to flags that it can do to NPCs or players.
Not being able to put conditions on inanimate objects effectively puts you in a situation where you are screwed and have to change up your whole build/gearset if you want to be able to do effective damage against inanimate objects.
AFAIK, power does affect how hard you hit inanimate objects, so there’s an obvious imbalance of effectiveness between power builds and condition builds, concerning these objects.
In short:
- Lore and common sense would indicate that inanimate objects should not be able to bleed.
- Gameplay would indicate that they need to be able to bleed to have a balanced set of options for the player.
Or words to that effect.
If precurser crafting system is similar to ascended crafting it will effect many markets, such as increasing crafting supplies. Another problem is that yellow and exotics will tank as soon as you can get a precurser by other means. The forge is a great item sink for yellows/exotics which gives them value. Also ectos/crystalline are associated with yellows/exotics and they will also be affected.
I don’t think there is a perfect answer that will satisfy everyone.
I’m not thinking in terms of perfect or flawed – just in terms of what the likely result of certain changes would be.
Crafting system would influence the market in its own way – no doubt – but I’m sure there are ways to tweak it so that it integrates smoothly. Our vaguely named John Smith no doubt has a feel for how something like it could be done, considering that he’s overseen plenty of other economic changes.
For example, if yellows and exotics got a chance at an additional salvage item (either account-bound or sellable) – an item used in the crafting of precursor components – then you’d still have a strong market for those items and a reason to remove them from the economy through breaking them down.
I mean, you’re right in that it’s not as simple as it sounds. But I don’t think the crafting idea would result in anything predictably terrible; it would just require careful implementation and some economic logistics that go way beyond my understanding of the subject..
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Yeah, I somehow think going “Pick who you save!” and hen turning around and going “HAHAHA, Nope. Both anyway!” isn’t going to do anything but enrage the playerbase.
closest example I’d have is ME3 ending, where basically no matter which path you took, The immediate end cutscene was basically exactly the same, with the color being different.
Oh, it probably would. But if people want real tragedy, it requires a slice of reality. The medium isn’t like a book or movie where you can just immerse the person readily into the intricacies of the story.
Games are all about choices. But what I’m talking about is not a story direction that involves a meaningless choice (meaningless choice is something I really dislike in games) – rather, a direction that makes the choice itself so interwoven with the story that your choice not mattering in this circumstance makes sense because it’s a part of your character development.
As opposed to many examples of choice not mattering, where it’s simply a weak attempting at trying to make you (the player) feel like you have some semblance of control. It’s just an example of the kind of direction they could play with, of course.
In short, the idea is to turn the “meaningless choice” element into an immersive, storytelling tool and yank at players’ heartstrings in the process. It would be a risky move, but praise isn’t won with safe choices.
Or words to that effect.
Although I like where the idea is going, something tells me people would just complain about the number of tokens you need. When people don’t know how much currency they need to spend (e.g. it’s a random system) it seems they are willing to go to great lengths into the void to get what they want; one of the more apparent examples of this is the people getting lots of keys for the chance at the permanent stylist kit. If the average number of keys they needed was translated into a concrete number, most would probably never try.
But that slim chance – the chance of “this next time” being the time you get lucky – is infinitely appealing.
I think a strong system for acquiring a precursor without RNG has to utilize a lot of hidden costs that are difficult to add up (not unlike the crafting of ascended gear). Otherwise, you have them being either 1) Too easy to obtain or 2) Too overwhelming for most people to bother.
Good thought though. The notion of having no progress is definitely disheartening.
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Perhaps the issue is that it’s not personal enough. As in, it’s an interactive medium and yet you almost never have any influence on one dies and who doesn’t, who gets saved, that sort of thing.
If they really want to turn up the heat, they could give us a situation with two characters that we’re likely to care about and force us to make a choice on which one we’re going to save (both being in a dire situation).
Then the one that we thought we were going to save dies anyway and so does the other one. And we’re left standing on a hill, feeling helpless, as the world burns around us. So we have to go back to our roots, talking to people from our past and trying to remember how we got where we did.
And in our desperation, amidst hanging out with the youth of GW2 land, we learn that we can’t stop our friends from dying, but we can sure as kitten fight in honor of their memory. Not for some regional area of GW2 land, but for the sake of our friends. After all, “Some must fight, so that all may be free.”
Or words to that effect.
I’m guessing you mean the game’s sound volume controls. Inside the game.
So, change every application’s sound, if they have any controls.
I guess it might be worth a try.
It would be better if they would just fix this, but I guess that’s not forthcoming any time soon. Sigh.
Yeah, pretty much. I would love a fix too, but I’m not getting my hopes up. :/
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I think I saw an earlier post, maybe in another thread, where someone mentioned the tone of the thread post sets the tone of subsequent posts.
I actually find that the first couple of replies in a thread tend to set the tone more than anything.
Just looked, in fact, and unsurprisingly the first two posts were: 1) Someone indicating that the fight is aggravating/hard 2) Someone being shocked at the idea of anyone not beating the fight.
Thank you, I appreciate your comment, you are among the few in this thread that get what I was trying to say.
Sure thing.
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I’m not sure what you mean by that. Considering the sound plays even if the game is muted and/or minimized, the in-game sounds controls do not seem to affect the sound.
Turning down Windows Main Sound control lowers every applications sound, so (at least in my case) if I were to lower Windows Main Sound, I would not be able to hear anything in-game.
Maybe I just don’t understand what you mean…
I couldn’t word it quite how I wanted to. Basically… yes, “main sound control” lowers every application’s sound, but the game sound has separate volume control. So if I have my windows sound at 50%, then I usually have my game sound at something like 20-25% or else it’s too loud for me. But if I have my windows sound at 15%, then I can turn my game sound up to something more like 60% and it’s roughly the same volume in terms of what I hear from the game, while windows-specific sounds are distinctly lower in volume.
Does that make sense?
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Too instantaneous. You need to think like GW2 devs… implement new materials involved in crafting a precursor with a low drop rate, a number of 500 level recipes that each cost at least 5-10 gold with all of the components being time-gated, and a scavenger hunt that involves killing high level mobs in popular zones.
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Oh hey by the way, for those who are trying not to lose their hearing and/or have a heart attack: Changing the level of your windows sound (or relevant speakers/headset volume control) will lower the volume of the popping sound when it happens.
My advice (which I am now starting to do) is keep your main sound down and turn up the sound of the stuff that you want to hear. So for example, if you’re listening to music while playing, then turn the music’s volume control up and your main sound down – same with in-game sounds if you’re using the GW2 sound.
In short, the sound appears to play from whatever process is relegated to your main sound control, so that’s where it will be affected by volume control.
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Again, it’s not about difficulty… it’s about whether the fight is enjoyable. For some people, difficult is enjoyable. For some, a fight is enjoyable if it feels difficult (even though it isn’t that hard). For some, a fight is enjoyable if it’s a relaxing breeze.
But none of these have to do with the enjoyability of a fight’s mechanics. A dev can write in code that spawns a bubble and you have to get into that bubble within 5 seconds or you die. Or a dev can code the same bubble and give you 2 minutes to get inside it or you die. Huge difference in difficulty, but the mechanic is the same – and it’s a potentially annoying mechanic, or an enjoyable one that requires some skill, depending on how you look at it.
This ego-stroking “this isn’t hard” prattle doesn’t serve any purpose other than satisfying the person who says it. Nor do proclamations of a fight being “hard” with little explanation as to why – and I’ve seen both in this thread.
There is nothing productive to be gained from taking a potentially complex topic on the design of a fight and simplifying it into a kittening match about its apparent difficulty level.
Kittens, man… kittens everywhere.
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The one I hear does NOT sound anything like the video in the linked thread, but instead it sounds a bit like the “dramatic” sound from Law & Order. It is slightly shorter/sharper and more echo-y, and it is quite a bit louder than other sounds in GW2, so I assume this is what the OP is talking about.
Interesting. Mine is like the one linked here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkavVdhdPeo&feature=plcp
Except much louder than how it sounds in the recording.
Yeah, it definitely can be dangerous.
I hear that too since the game released. Wondering why they don’t care about serious issues as well.
Yeah, it’s pretty bad. Unfortunately, it’s probably one of those bugs that’s obnoxiously difficult to reproduce with any sort of consistency.
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The budget was indeed massive, also considering that everything in the personal stories of that game was cutscened instead of the PC and NPCs talking against a background. I’m not saying that GW2’s way of doing the story is inferior, simply that its different.
Right, exactly.
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Why do you assume it’d be account bound? What recipes have ever been account bound?
Well considering that Bank and Collectibles are both account-accessed, it’s understandable that someone might get confused. You can craft with account-access materials, so why not recipes too?
I’m not saying it should or shouldn’t be a feature, but I’ve almost been tripped up by it before.
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The topic of SWTOR and its voice system came up earlier. First off, no dev team is the same, what one dev team considers more important may take backseat to another team. Anet is not Bioware, and Bioware is not Anet. While TOR does have more fleshed out voiced content, that content is always released in long intervals. Imagine getting LS episodes 3-4 months apart instead of 2 weeks. Additionally, many of the voice actor NPCs in TOR are voiced by a small pool of people. One VA voices over 30 different NPCs in the present game.
Right, TOR’s budget for V/O was insane (supposedly, they spent millions on it, though I don’t know if that’s accurate or not).
And TOR also suffered a lot because there was so much focus on the story content and so much pushing to get the game released. All over the beta forums, people were talking about how the game wasn’t ready to be released, but they had a release date to meet and so they met it.
The result was a game that felt like amazing potential without enough time for strong execution. That’s just my take anyway.
Point is, development is a game of tradeoffs. Every choice costs time and money at the expense of other options.
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I get this even with the game sound muted. Very annoying. I wear headphones and I keep thinking I’m going to go deaf from it one of these days.
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I was hoping /threaten would work coming from a spike-armored Charr warrior with a very large Asura-smooshing hammer, but… Phlunt didn’t seem impressed. :\
Haha, if only.
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I don’t care a whole lot about an NPC praising me (in fact, 9 times out of 10, it feels cheap and forced because I know it’s just a computer program). But what can bother me in video games is when I don’t feel like I have agency; for me, this is why I’m really into games that have interesting choices affecting the direction of your story.
Although I understand the limitations of that design choice in an MMO and I think you guys have implemented some cool choices nonetheless, there are occasional moments when I feel like a silly little errand boy. One that comes to mind in the recent story quests was when I had to go gather stuff up for Taimi. I felt like my character should have had a talk with stubborn-asura-guy and just told him to chill the kitten out and/or bugger off until Taimi has finished (which sort of happened, but it felt weak and lacking in personality – like my character is a doormat).
Then Taimi could go with me and gather the stuff that’s for her pet project. Instead, I’m relegated to errand boy because of some silly made-up race politics that I don’t fully understand.
I feel like at this point, the MC should have more clout than that. Or at least be stubborn enough after facing down a dragon to put his/her foot down on some things. So yeah, my only real complaint is don’t go so far into streamlining the everyman/woman aspect that you make a cardboard MC. This is where dialogue options would be really cool.
Speaking of, what happened with the personality system?
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no, its technically gambling,
“Gambling thus requires three elements be present: consideration, chance and prize”just because there is a standard payout of lower value doesnt mean its not a gamble, it just means you have better chances.
Essentially as long as some one is making the purchase/wager, with a hope of a certain outcome that they feel is profitable, its gambling.And yes, many things are actually gambling, and gambling is about intent. If you are purchasing a box of crackerjacks because you are hoping you will get the popeye tatoo, you are gambling, if you are purchasing crackerjacks because you love the caramel popcorn, you are not gambling.
Maybe so. I’m just thinking that in terms of legalese, it’s probably not considered gambling, concerning gambling laws and other such things, unless it involves real money and a chance to win back / gain more of that real money.
Which is why I called the permanent stylist example “borderline.”
I’m just guessing based on what I’ve heard about certain “gambling” operations getting taxed or shut down. Like what happened with online poker. I’m sure games like this one have lawyers on payroll and are well aware of what the legal boundaries are.
It’s still ethically questionable though – I don’t disagree on that point. But I have sympathy for these games to an extent because pay models just don’t work as well anymore and you have to get income somehow with free-to-play.
Or words to that effect.
(edited by Labjax.2465)
Since the BLTC is listed as containing three random items of similar value to the cost of a key, it’s not gambling, it’s a grab bag. Just because you wouldn’t have ever bought most of the stuff you get from a chest doesn’t negate it’s implied value. The fact that by adding much rarer, highly valued items to the list of possible items doesn’t make it gambling either.
Not technically maybe, but let’s be real here, we all know that it feels almost identical to gambling.
And in the case of things like the permanent style kit, there is a hint of actual gambling, considering that you can spend gems with real money, potentially get a kit, sell it for gold, and then exchange that gold for more gems (which could technically yield you a monetary profit). You are never getting your RL currency back in its original form, but it’s borderline.
Or words to that effect.
The permanent kits aren’t a prestige item. People either want them because they like to frequently customize their characters or because they hope to make a lot of gold selling them.
Waffles, I think they’ve topped out. The only reason to keep them is if you’re worried about inflation. That is, they will increase in price, but no more than the rate of inflation. Then you only have to worry about Anet coming up with more ways to obtain them.
Aren’t they, though? I was under the impression they give access to hairstyles that are not otherwise available, making them “prestigious” in the sense that you can give your character a look that is only attainable through either the permanent style kit or a throwaway one.
Or words to that effect.
There’s another game I once played where we had way more customization options and most of it was free… but then, I paid a monthly sub for that game for the first couple of years, so what can I say.
At least it isn’t pay to win.
I am a sucker for solid customization options though. I can burn a lot of hours on finding the right look for a toon, only to decide that it’s not quite right a few days later.
But I guess most people just want the options for the prestige of it. So prestigious it will be. They know what buttons to push; heck, we play these games to be “heroes” – so what better way to appeal to our psychology than give us a chance at an item that’ll make us feel more special.
If it’s easy to obtain, then no feeling special = less interest in obtaining the item.
Or words to that effect.
However, once you unlock the skin you can use it with your current back piece that has the stats you want.
Still, the point I was making was all the effort you put in and if you don’t already have a good backpiece (like an exotic or rare quality one), then you’re getting one out of it that you may not even want for its stats (e.g. an aggrandized skin).
If you already have an amazing backpiece with the stats you want, then obviously getting another one is just going to be for the skin regardless.
Or words to that effect.
Plot twist: Trahearne is Mordremoth. Dun dun dun..
That would put his motivation for cleansing Orr in a whole new light.
You know I’m torn between smiling because it was a joke, and saying “No seriously man, think about it. It could work! There’s a reason the pact didn’t go to Lion’s Arch other than ‘Our mission is fighting the dragons’. He was planning this the whole time the cunning necomancer! No Lion’s Arch, no Zhaitan and, worst of all, he made sure that there would be no Tibault to save us from Mordremoth’s encroaching vines!”
Hehe, I feel the same way. I wrote it as a joke, but then I was like, “Wait, this could actually work…”
Or words to that effect.
This “being able to see the story” logic is exactly what resulted in the White Tanooki suit in Mario, which goes entirely what video games are about: Playing a game.
I didn’t have trouble with this fight (I’m also an experienced gamer) but sometimes I go into story quests as a way to relax and not give a kitten – it’s one of the few areas of the game where I know that my playing ability has no effect on other players, so I can kitten around and the only person who loses out is me.
Go figure, being the kind of player I am, I usually end up trying hard anyway. But the point is, MMOs have varied types of content and “wanting to see the story” without an epic challenge involved every step of the way is not automatically an indication of someone who isn’t skilled at video games.
Those who are referencing dungeons or saying that most players just suck are missing the point. Dungeons are designed for groups; story quests are not. And the fact is, you might be amazing at video games, but if you truly are (and it’s not just a perception mishap) then congratulations, you’re part of a small percentage of the MMO demographic.
MMOs are massive games by definition and they thrive on having a large playerbase. That means you’re inevitably going to get a lot of players whose skill level is not high. You should not only expect that, but you should also expect developers to prioritize the needs of the majority over the needs of the minority. It’s just business.
I think in the case of this particular fight, it’s silly to argue over how difficult it is; the fact is, most people who I’ve seen post in this thread have indicated no major difficulty with it and those who are struggling have the option to ask for help from friends or the community.
What we should be talking about is whether the fight is enjoyable. That strange word “fun” is what games are supposed to be about, after all. And for my own part, the experience was sort of fun but it was also tedious and I hate losing control of my character (fear) in any game.
Or words to that effect.
Ok, this is how I see this playing out. been summoned to the summit by the pale tree. Now hes going to enter the chamber and take a seat, right after he sits down… Mordremoths head going to come right out of the floor and eat Trahearne whole. SO we can stop hearing about him from both good and bad perspectives.
Plot twist: Trahearne is Mordremoth. Dun dun dun..
Or words to that effect.
Really… so do you need to cross your fingers on logging in? Because not being able to access a vendor due to a badly designed system is on par with that. Or being able to use a skill, or having your stats do what they are supposed to do.
I’m not saying I approve of it. I’m just saying that luck is something Anet appears to have no qualms about thrusting heavily into the design of the game.
Or words to that effect.
What is this, a lottery?
Well, um, uh… yeah. The whole game pretty much is.
Or words to that effect.
Yeah, gets though is gets to the end of the room. Which usually happens when one of those darn spheres spawns on top of my poor head. Generally when I’m using the barrier with staff, I can keep him there for a couple seconds while I hit him with Wave and Sphere, and when it goes down, i drop my aoe on him. usually can get him down by mid room, then back to statue, then back to mender, until something breaks the rhythm then it’s back to the drawing board.
And I must have missed a memo, but Guardian can use pistols? Maybe it’s been a while since I looked at weapon skills, but I remember higher level adding staff focus and septre. I’ll admit I’ve been gone for a while and maybe I missed it. Sigh, I need something (besides Google) that lets me know everything. I’ll have to play with the new combo a bit before I go into a boss fight with it. Stupid not to know what they actually do.
I do have greatsword, but it’s just harder to keep the mender in one place. Being able to yank him back is nice, but considering you can’t aggro him, it’s a very short window. Which is why i was depending on ranged.
For me, my armor is green weapons yellow, I’ll have to log to check stats.
I thought you were mesmer for some reason. My bad. I’m not familiar with how to operate best on a guardian.
I would say try to get your gear up to yellow in most slots if possible. It’s not strictly necessary, but it’ll ease your kill time a little bit. If you keep an eye on this website: http://gw2.limitlessfx.com/ (you can copy/paste the code below the boss name to see what waypoint it spawns near) – you can do world boss events each day, which is a strong source of rares (you’re guaranteed at least one rare from each world boss). You can then turn around and sell them, and use the money to buy rares that you do need (you can buy most rares on the Trading Post for around 40-90 silver and sell your average rare drop instantly for around 33-36 silver).
Or words to that effect.
I get the impression that the reasons for disliking Trahearne are kind of varied. Personally, I don’t hate him, but I did get kind of annoyed with his tendency to spout exposition in the middle of a mission. That’s something that would bug me with any character though, unless it was done in a really engaging way.
I feel the main problem with Trahearne is that he’s too much of a walking stereotype. He is the wispy tree-based race and (surprise, surprise) his personality and confidence levels are akin to a twig. This sort of stereotype-fulfilling works ok for some races (such as Rytlock being a tough-as-nails character and being the big-brute-with-giant-tails race) because it’s easy to enjoy characters who are brutal and strong (their power is appealing).
Trahearne’s stereotype is unfulfilling precisely because he’s in a position of power and is notably written as weak and unsure of himself. For a human character this would work ok (being humans in RL, we understand that some humans are like that – thrust into positions of power but unsure of themselves). But because the main basis of Trahearne is being part of a twig race, it just looks cheap and one-dimensional.
I suspect that with the way his character is written, he would have worked way better as a human. I would have liked to see a character like him show that twig race has more to it than looking like it’s going to snap under pressure. It’s kind of late to 180 his character, but for future reference, I think it’s way more engaging to write characters that surprise people, rather than writing characters in the most stereotypical way that you could imagine them.
Don’t get me wrong; some of the characters I’ve encountered were well-written and I thoroughly enjoyed them. But even amidst the good ones, there does seem to be a bit of an obsession with writing stereotypes.
Or words to that effect.