Guild Wars 2

DonQuack.9025:

wait wait wait im no math genius but

50% of 5 is 2.5 no? 50% of 4 is 2 no? Or am i Missing something?

also didnt effin listen to me.

Round up. So 5 needs 3. 2 needs 1. Lol.

Ok, just finished fractals 50. No skins in our group. Only 5 data points, but definitely not what the drop rate was pre-fractured. Back to not playing.

Edit: We got 4 rings. Mine was uninfused.

oxtred.7658:

2,5.. Like, it requires 2 guys and a sentinel guardian to kick? I’m lost.

It’s a threshold, so it rounds up. At least 50% would require 3/5.

P.S While I haven’t logged on in quite a while, I’m in the middle of a 50 PUG ATM. I’ll let you all know what happens.

oxtred.7658:

What does that kick thresold even mean?

If parties have 5 members you need 3 to kick, if 4 you need 2, if 3 you need 2.

Edit: And I suppose if you have a party of 2, you only need 1? If true this could grief soloers even more.

Increased the party kick threshold from 40% to 50%.

Fixed a bug that caused the drop rate of fractal weapon skins to decrease above fractal level 40.

I love these videos.

I’m most excited about the leaderboards!

IndigoSundown.5419:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

What Indigo wants if for nobody to be able to play a dungeon the way they want.

Want to run a zerk speed run dungeon and that clerics necro joins your group? Too bad. Want to run a fashion role play dungeon and that zerker elitist joins your group? Too bad.

Completely and utterly wrong. I want a solution that’s fair for everyone, not just party-starters. Would I prefer it if people formed parties without depending on random strangers so they know what they’re getting? Of course, but people don’t want to give up convenience.

The instance creator wants to find like-minded individuals to play with. THAT is why HE should have control of the party composition. So that ANYONE can “play how I want.”

Even with immunity, the instance creator would not have “control of the party composition.” He would need at least one other like-minded individual. If it took three to kick (or a majority in the case of a party of 3), he’d need two more — but grief-kickers would need three also.

Now, what azyume is talking about is also important… although I’ve never experienced it and believe it to be rarer than PHIWs joining someone’s party on LFG without reading the description and completely ruining everything.

Can anyone come up with a solution to address BOTH issues?

Seems to me like you could either have easy kicking or greater insurance versus kicking. I don’t believe you can have both.

There’s a reason the LFG has a text box. It’s NOT for grouping with RANDOM strangers. Strangers, yes, but not RANDOM ones.

I suggest the instance owner have full kicking rights and immunity to kick. Abuse as described above is already against the TOS and should result in a ban.

But, if you insist on having insurance against kicking for the rest of the group, why not implement a checkpoint system wherein if a team gets beyond point X in a given instance, say at 50% or 75% of the dungeon, party members cannot be kicked?

That should keep griefing to a minimum while still allowing the instance creator to set the terms of the party.

Edit: Or even better, how about if a group member has been in the instance for a given time, say 5-15 minutes, they can’t be kicked?

What Indigo wants if for nobody to be able to play a dungeon the way they want.

Want to run a zerk speed run dungeon and that clerics necro joins your group? Too bad.
Want to run a fashion role play dungeon and that zerker elitist joins your group? Too bad.

The instance creator wants to find like-minded individuals to play with. THAT is why HE should have control of the party composition. So that ANYONE can “play how I want.”

Now, what azyume is talking about is also important… although I’ve never experienced it and believe it to be rarer than PHIWs joining someone’s party on LFG without reading the description and completely ruining everything.

Can anyone come up with a solution to address BOTH issues?

Wanze.8410:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

I’ve not read this whole thread so forgive me if this is answered elsewhere. I want to ask a few questions.

1. Is the loot system currently set up so people who play less are more likely to get an awesome RNG drop? There have been numerous posts like, “my friend logged on after 5 months and got X, Y, Z drop while I’ve been playing every day and got nothing!” I want to know if the way it works currently is that those who play lots get decreasing loot in proportion to playtime. Why would ANET do this? To keep people chasing the carrot.

John answered that question in a different thread, there arent any account modifiers.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/bltc/I-have-a-question-about-the-economy/page/15#post4487484

Thank you.

I’ve not read this whole thread so forgive me if this is answered elsewhere. I want to ask a few questions.

1. Is the loot system currently set up so people who play less are more likely to get an awesome RNG drop? There have been numerous posts like, “my friend logged on after 5 months and got X, Y, Z drop while I’ve been playing every day and got nothing!” I want to know if the way it works currently is that those who play lots get decreasing loot in proportion to playtime. Why would ANET do this? To keep people chasing the carrot.

kitten son, GG, WP.

sorudo.9054:

i can confirm it’s not from GW1, the style doesn’t even match.
so yeah, curious indeed.

CANTHA CONFIRMED!!! TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS!

Actual progressive features. Not regression.

SundayTrash.9562:

If this is how community act toward challenge, why bother with fractal at all, go back to doin ur regular no brainer paths. Fractal is the only place where rng should belong, the element of surprise, where every single fractal is a new challenge. If you cant handle the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

Bad analogy. More like, if you can’t handle the heat, get out of hell. This is more in line with what other people have been saying.

This will probably go over your head, so let me simplify. There’s a huge distinction between what people CAN handle and what people WANT to handle. Anyone on these forums can handle difficult, tedious, challenging e.t.c. But the real question is, why would they WANT to if “FUN” isn’t paired with these attributes?

Maybe in the next feature patch. You know, the one for vets.

Malediktus.9250:

Noone will miss you. This thread should be closed for attention seeking

The irony of your signature must have flown right over your head.

I’ll miss Vee Wee.

Bye frand!

Essence Snow.3194:

I’m not too sure about JS’s ties to progressiveness. I’ve be promoting progressive taxes on the tp, well since about launch, and that has not fared to well.

That’s interesting, I hadn’t thought about that. TP is definitely a flat tax. But think about the real world. Most sales tax is flat (although it varies from state to state,) while the income tax is progressive. That’s pretty much what we have in GW2.

Edit: I am, of course, explicitly talking about the USA. I don’t know much about how sales taxes work in other countries.

Essence Snow.3194:

Chrispy.5641:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

RNG loot is literally a form of gambling. The currency? Your time.

Once I realized this I vowed to never play for loot again. If I don’t feel pure, unadulterated enjoyment from the content itself, I won’t play it.

For the record, I haven’t logged on in a long time.

Edit: It might be even worse than gambling. At least with gambling the odds are constant. There’s evidence to suggest that the MORE TIME you put in, the LOWER your odds become.

You can always move to Singapore, the first/only country in the world to (sort of) recognize RNG in MMO’s for what it is.

I had to look this up. Best I could find is the bill relates to lockboxes, gachapons, etc…That would include Black Lion Chests, but not really rng rewards in general.

I for one would love if Anet took a long hard look at their reward structure, but I doubt they will. That is one of the major reasons I have gone to other games for rewards.

It’s a progressive reward structure. They’ve hired an economist who admires Paul Krugman.

What does this mean? Loot that increases decreasingly the more you play.

Chrispy.5641:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

RNG loot is literally a form of gambling. The currency? Your time.

Once I realized this I vowed to never play for loot again. If I don’t feel pure, unadulterated enjoyment from the content itself, I won’t play it.

For the record, I haven’t logged on in a long time.

Edit: It might be even worse than gambling. At least with gambling the odds are constant. There’s evidence to suggest that the MORE TIME you put in, the LOWER your odds become.

You can always move to Singapore, the first/only country in the world to (sort of) recognize RNG in MMO’s for what it is.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m in full support of legalized gambling. It’s just not for me personally.

RNG loot is literally a form of gambling. The currency? Your time.

Once I realized this I vowed to never play for loot again. If I don’t feel pure, unadulterated enjoyment from the content itself, I won’t play it.

For the record, I haven’t logged on in a long time.

Edit: It might be even worse than gambling. At least with gambling the odds are constant. There’s evidence to suggest that the MORE TIME you put in, the LOWER your odds become.

Guess I’m not too observant… lame. Thought I’d finally have a reason to play again ;(

Asuaka.1528:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

What is this? Is this real?

It’s someones wishlist… and no, it’s not real

But those images… ugh epic Photoshop?

What is this? Is this real?

Lobo Dela Noche.5127:

Casmurro.9046:

I dont think the example that the OP is bringing up is very relevant. He basically had to drag his girlfriend into playing gw2, he even had to buy the game for her. I bet that after 20 hours of playing the game she will get bored and stop playing, and no matter what changes you recommend that wont make her hold more attention to the game.

The game should catter to people that are interested in playing it, if you buy a game you should do a little research about what you are buying before spending money on it, and not expect to be hand-holded all the way through the game.

So, basically she doesnt know how mmos work, didnt even bother in buying a copy herself and after only a few hours she felt overwhelmed by everything the game has to offer so lets dumb down the game even more so more and more people that dont give a kitten about the game can complain less until they reach lvl 80 and get bored anyway.

QFT

Catering to those that aren’t going to hang around anyways makes me think they don’t want the kind of players that will end up staying for the long haul. I could understand making the starter zones in to proper tutorials to explain some of the things like dodging and combo fields that are completely different than other MMOs. The changes they did do though show a total disconnect from the playerbase.

Agree with all of the above. MMORPGs have a target audience. When you bring randoms off the street and watch them play the game, of course they’re going to be confused.

ANET’s problem is they don’t know what this game is on a fundamental level. If it was meant to be a farmville game, catered to as broad a swathe of the public as possible, the marketing and advertising departments failed heavily years ago at launch. I bought this game because I like the MMORPG genre, I have a fundamental understanding of what comes along with that genre, and I am the type of player who would have stuck around for a long time.

It’s like ANET made “Game of Thrones” and realized that it doesn’t cater to the “Teletubbies” crowd. Well, duh?

Siofra Crumble.2098:

I really, really hope they have been working on an expansion and made the mistake of not announcing it yet.

Most of the other posters have outlined my problems with the game.
I’d just like to add that the ‘living world’ feels very constricted. For season 2 I was expecting a short story guiding us into an expansive new map.
What I got was not even 1/4 of a average sized map that was frankly too story intensive. I want to explore and learn about the world in a meaningful manner, not have immortal NPC’s hold my hand in personal instances. (Where’s the social aspect in that, by the way?)

+1 About the expansion.

That account name HAHAHA

Just snorted in the middle of class

frifox.5283:

When did norn elite dashes got nerfed? Tried it today, more like rp walking compared to the original dash…

With FGS on sep 9th I think

lordkrall.7241:

Kronos.3695:

And…
A patch has been delivered, without any real fix.
And not even a single information about the crashes, lags, and so on.

So they should delay all fixes/patches until everything is solved?
Maybe they don’t know (right now) why it doesn’t unlock and therefore they can’t fix it?

No, but a bit of communication about this would be nice. If there has already been some, please point me in that direction. I’m specifically interested in the fractal weapon collection.

Ohoni.6057:

Then why do they keep doing FotM50 runs if the rewards are not worth it?

Some people do it for the challenge. However, that was taken away when fractals were reset.

So, to answer your question for me personally…

I don’t. I quit.

Challenging content and content that the entire player base can complete are not mutually exclusive. Why are we talking about percentages able to complete here? Do you have a mouse, a keyboard, a working brain and some hands or feet? If so, you can complete any content this game has to offer. Maybe it’ll take longer for some, but nevertheless, hard content doesn’t equal exclusive content.

engi op. Inb4 invis wall

Gaile Gray.6029:

anzenketh.3759:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

There are those people looking for an interesting mechanic, challenging mechanics, new mechanics. From basic event-mechanics to complicated worldboss-mechanics. They wont find any interesting mechanics for the very most time in GW2.
There are the people playing for the reward. They too wont be very satisfied. The most eficient way to get gold, the dominating reward, is by far to flip the traiding post. There is almost no special or meaningful loot dedicated to specific game types.

This is the discussion that we should be having. Not the discussion on if anything has/has not been added to the game. I can understand how some people based upon the issues you raised come to the conclusion that there is no “endgame”. Except that is not true. There is endgame depending on how you define it. I define endgame as things you can do when you complete the personal story and reach level 80. There is plenty of that.

So instead of claiming that there is no endgame. Perhaps we should be discussing on how to improve the endgame that we have. I honestly think that is the point that a lot of people are trying to make.

My recommendation find the boss mechanics that you like in game and ask for more similar to that. There is a wide variety of event and boss mechanics in the game.

If it is rewards that you are looking for. Post a suggestion on how you would like to be rewarded.

I agree with you. Suggestions would be wonderful: Practical, reasonably expressed, and clear. Here’s the challenge, and we’ll see if it’s possible and reasonable: Share your opinion about how to improve the end game in (roughly) 100 words or less.

I’d like to see this because I believe the effort could increase the value and focus of this thread. Doing so would give the devs a concise resource that they could kitten, and that’s always helpful to them.

Add new, instanced, group content.

This may include: New PvP types. New dungeons. New “elite” dungeons. Guild Halls. GvG.

IOW: Lots of the good “meat” of GW1 that this game is missing.

Edit: All of the above content is interpersonal. Zergs are not. Open world is not necessarily. Small social content encourages players to log on and interact with their friends.

I think that’s under 100.

MikaHR.1978:

Tomas.5029:

The thing that players truly want is a challenge, simple as that. They want something that cannot be cleared by an average player in 3 hours.

Yea, like 0,5% of the players want that, so technically youre right, practically – no.

Actually, according to my calculations, like 99.5% of players want that, so technically and practically he’s right.

Vayne.8563:

phys.7689:

Vayne.8563:

@scipio

Believe that if you like but it’s probably not true. So many people in GW 1 soloed, even before heroes were introduced. I guarantee you none of those people did UW. Many people just PvPed and ignored PvE. Those guys didn’t do it.

In almost every game I’ve known over years, we find from dev quotes that most people never completed the hardest content.

I wonder why anyone would think Guild Wars 1 was some kind of exception.

we would be talking about pve people obviously, and you could defeat paths of underworld with henchmen, and some solo. Yes, many people who solo are not afraid of difficult content. It became easier and more feasible when heroes were added, but you do realize heroes were added less than 2 years after release?

so yeah many people soloed, and soloing didnt mean you couldnt attempt elite instances.
think about it, every single ecto in gw1 was obtained by someone playing an elite instance.
do you still think that was a rare occurence?

also note, end game, that is not solo exclusive

Okay this is a bit misleading.

Heroes were added two years after release, but you could only take 3 of htem at that time. Henchmen were never allowed into the mists.

So no one could solo the Underworld in the first two years, and I’m extremely skeptical that anyone beat it with three heroes. I believe the game was well over five years old before you could take seven heroes, which they probably implemented because of the lower population.

I definitely solod the first few bits with my trap ranger pretty early on. Def not the whole thing though.

Vayne.8563:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Vayne.8563:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

phys.7689:

Beldin.5498:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

Beldin.5498:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

If you’re complaining about this content, which is widely considered the end-game content for pretty much every other MMO out there, then what content do you expect to get when you’re asking for an endgame here?

Running Underworld 2920 times in 8 years .. that is fun endgame for the GW1 players i always have the feeling.

Repeating stuff is always boring .. as long as it is not Underworld.

This means nothing to me, because I don’t know what Underworld is, and I’m sure a lot of other users also don’t know. Be descriptive, man. :-|

No problem .. i also don’t know what Underworld is .. but reading the forums and
especially comments from all those GW1 fans then there were maybe 3 zones
called Underworld, The Deep and Ulgoz (or something like that) that were soooo
amazing that they played them endloss for 8 years .. and while everything else
gets boring after doing it 5 times, those zones were sooo amazing that they will
not be boring even if you continue playing them until 2250 at least

Underworld was one of the main dungeons in the game, but it was a dungeon designed like a small zone, with like 8 quests in it. It was relatively fairly difficult (compared to the standard content in the game)
you can think of it like dungeons are in this game, except larger, with more paths all at once.
People didnt always go in with the intent to play the whole zone, they would sometimes just do a couple areas.

Full party death kicked you out of the instance.
you could get tired of it, but it was fairly challenging to complete, and it would take many runs before you saw/did everything for most people. Different order events made the run a bit different depending who you played with.
it had good random drops from enemies, so people were happy to even play the parts of it they liked, as opposed to the whole thing.

game design wise, it was a pretty good game mode.

they also added new dungeons, so people who played it for 6-8 years actually wanted to play it for that time.

I was thinking about this.

Do you think the UW design was so good because of the quests/map textures and overall open-ended nature of the content?

Looking back and thinking about it, I think the reason why UW was so fun was that:

a. It was a challenge that you could LOSE.
b. There were penalties for dying.
c. Both a. and b. meant that team cooperation was paramount.
d. The rewards were rewarding if your party played well, you lost money if your party played poorly (due to the entrance fee and being kicked out for a full wipe.)

There is not a single dungeon in game that meets ANY of those criteria, EXCEPT maybe a few particular fractals or a few Arah paths.

Any composition can complete nearly any path. You can’t LOSE. Your team may rage quit if it’s terribad, but you can’t actually lose if you keep trying.

There are no penalties for dying. None.

Teams don’t NEED to plan. Sure the speedrunners will might stack, some pugs may decide which warrior is taking which banner, but overall it’s enter dungeon and YOLO mode everything. Bearbow rangers, flamethrower engis, staff guardians, full necro party? Who cares, the content is so easy that you hardly have to plan. Maybe put some walls down here and there for reflects… but really… there’s just no complexity.

Finally, the last point. Rewards. There seems to be two categories of rewards in this game. The guaranteed reward and the so-RNG-gated-that-you’ll-never-see-it-drop reward. Why not something in between? Why not content that is more rewarding the better your team performs?

It was good for a percentage of the playerbase. I’m relatively sure most people that played Guild Wars 1 never even attempted the Underworld and that’s the problem.

The people who liked it and swear by it, in my opinion are nowhere close to any kind of majority. Which might be why Anet didn’t make something else like that.

I’m relatively sure most people who played Guild Wars 1 attempted Underworld many times and enjoyed it.

The people who liked it and swear by it, in my opinion, are the clear majority. ANET should make something else like it.

If they were a clear majority, what’s the reason that Anet hasn’t made that or anything like it?

I could put forth a variety of hypotheses. Would you like that? At the end of the day only ANET knows.

That was my point when I literally reversed your sentiment.

Let’s be clear: just because something IS a certain way, doesn’t mean that’s the way it OUGHT to be.

Vayne.8563:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

phys.7689:

Beldin.5498:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

Beldin.5498:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

If you’re complaining about this content, which is widely considered the end-game content for pretty much every other MMO out there, then what content do you expect to get when you’re asking for an endgame here?

Running Underworld 2920 times in 8 years .. that is fun endgame for the GW1 players i always have the feeling.

Repeating stuff is always boring .. as long as it is not Underworld.

This means nothing to me, because I don’t know what Underworld is, and I’m sure a lot of other users also don’t know. Be descriptive, man. :-|

No problem .. i also don’t know what Underworld is .. but reading the forums and
especially comments from all those GW1 fans then there were maybe 3 zones
called Underworld, The Deep and Ulgoz (or something like that) that were soooo
amazing that they played them endloss for 8 years .. and while everything else
gets boring after doing it 5 times, those zones were sooo amazing that they will
not be boring even if you continue playing them until 2250 at least

Underworld was one of the main dungeons in the game, but it was a dungeon designed like a small zone, with like 8 quests in it. It was relatively fairly difficult (compared to the standard content in the game)
you can think of it like dungeons are in this game, except larger, with more paths all at once.
People didnt always go in with the intent to play the whole zone, they would sometimes just do a couple areas.

Full party death kicked you out of the instance.
you could get tired of it, but it was fairly challenging to complete, and it would take many runs before you saw/did everything for most people. Different order events made the run a bit different depending who you played with.
it had good random drops from enemies, so people were happy to even play the parts of it they liked, as opposed to the whole thing.

game design wise, it was a pretty good game mode.

they also added new dungeons, so people who played it for 6-8 years actually wanted to play it for that time.

I was thinking about this.

Do you think the UW design was so good because of the quests/map textures and overall open-ended nature of the content?

Looking back and thinking about it, I think the reason why UW was so fun was that:

a. It was a challenge that you could LOSE.
b. There were penalties for dying.
c. Both a. and b. meant that team cooperation was paramount.
d. The rewards were rewarding if your party played well, you lost money if your party played poorly (due to the entrance fee and being kicked out for a full wipe.)

There is not a single dungeon in game that meets ANY of those criteria, EXCEPT maybe a few particular fractals or a few Arah paths.

Any composition can complete nearly any path. You can’t LOSE. Your team may rage quit if it’s terribad, but you can’t actually lose if you keep trying.

There are no penalties for dying. None.

Teams don’t NEED to plan. Sure the speedrunners will might stack, some pugs may decide which warrior is taking which banner, but overall it’s enter dungeon and YOLO mode everything. Bearbow rangers, flamethrower engis, staff guardians, full necro party? Who cares, the content is so easy that you hardly have to plan. Maybe put some walls down here and there for reflects… but really… there’s just no complexity.

Finally, the last point. Rewards. There seems to be two categories of rewards in this game. The guaranteed reward and the so-RNG-gated-that-you’ll-never-see-it-drop reward. Why not something in between? Why not content that is more rewarding the better your team performs?

It was good for a percentage of the playerbase. I’m relatively sure most people that played Guild Wars 1 never even attempted the Underworld and that’s the problem.

The people who liked it and swear by it, in my opinion are nowhere close to any kind of majority. Which might be why Anet didn’t make something else like that.

I’m relatively sure most people who played Guild Wars 1 attempted Underworld many times and enjoyed it.

The people who liked it and swear by it, in my opinion, are the clear majority. ANET should make something else like it.

phys.7689:

Beldin.5498:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

Beldin.5498:

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

If you’re complaining about this content, which is widely considered the end-game content for pretty much every other MMO out there, then what content do you expect to get when you’re asking for an endgame here?

Running Underworld 2920 times in 8 years .. that is fun endgame for the GW1 players i always have the feeling.

Repeating stuff is always boring .. as long as it is not Underworld.

This means nothing to me, because I don’t know what Underworld is, and I’m sure a lot of other users also don’t know. Be descriptive, man. :-|

No problem .. i also don’t know what Underworld is .. but reading the forums and
especially comments from all those GW1 fans then there were maybe 3 zones
called Underworld, The Deep and Ulgoz (or something like that) that were soooo
amazing that they played them endloss for 8 years .. and while everything else
gets boring after doing it 5 times, those zones were sooo amazing that they will
not be boring even if you continue playing them until 2250 at least

Underworld was one of the main dungeons in the game, but it was a dungeon designed like a small zone, with like 8 quests in it. It was relatively fairly difficult (compared to the standard content in the game)
you can think of it like dungeons are in this game, except larger, with more paths all at once.
People didnt always go in with the intent to play the whole zone, they would sometimes just do a couple areas.

Full party death kicked you out of the instance.
you could get tired of it, but it was fairly challenging to complete, and it would take many runs before you saw/did everything for most people. Different order events made the run a bit different depending who you played with.
it had good random drops from enemies, so people were happy to even play the parts of it they liked, as opposed to the whole thing.

game design wise, it was a pretty good game mode.

they also added new dungeons, so people who played it for 6-8 years actually wanted to play it for that time.

I was thinking about this.

Do you think the UW design was so good because of the quests/map textures and overall open-ended nature of the content?

Looking back and thinking about it, I think the reason why UW was so fun was that:

a. It was a challenge that you could LOSE.
b. There were penalties for dying.
c. Both a. and b. meant that team cooperation was paramount.
d. The rewards were rewarding if your party played well, you lost money if your party played poorly (due to the entrance fee and being kicked out for a full wipe.)

There is not a single dungeon in game that meets ANY of those criteria, EXCEPT maybe a few particular fractals or a few Arah paths.

Any composition can complete nearly any path. You can’t LOSE. Your team may rage quit if it’s terribad, but you can’t actually lose if you keep trying.

There are no penalties for dying. None.

Teams don’t NEED to plan. Sure the speedrunners will might stack, some pugs may decide which warrior is taking which banner, but overall it’s enter dungeon and YOLO mode everything. Bearbow rangers, flamethrower engis, staff guardians, full necro party? Who cares, the content is so easy that you hardly have to plan. Maybe put some walls down here and there for reflects… but really… there’s just no complexity.

Finally, the last point. Rewards. There seems to be two categories of rewards in this game. The guaranteed reward and the so-RNG-gated-that-you’ll-never-see-it-drop reward. Why not something in between? Why not content that is more rewarding the better your team performs?

Ropechef.6192:

its not Nevets,

Frifox does amazing stuff with Mesmer but he lives in CoE.

I didn’t know you didn’t do Fractals Fri. Legendary imbued Shaman makes Alpha look like a patsy.

Dude Frifox, imbued shaman is my favorite fight in the whole game. It’s the only one I find challenging. So awesome. Check it out.

frifox.5283:

Sometimes I wish I did fotm and actually had a clue what’s the fuss is all about in this solo. What makes this solo special?

Is this sarcasm?

Malediktus.9250:

Are you sure its ingame? The screenshot I saw looked faked. I got 7/19 fractal weapon skins and they dont seem to do anything.

Pretty sure. He posted a video too and I think Dulfy noted that it’s there but it’s bugged.

Fractal set already in game. Probably bugged though.

My God that was incredible. Made me want to actually log in again and play fractals.

Anet open 50+ again plz!!!

Michael Henninger.7451:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

I am so confused. Is Michael now saying the complete opposite of what Chris said before? And wasn’t what Chris said a complete 180 from what they originally announced? Am I reading things wrong? What is going on?

Chris Cleary.8017:

Dungeon selling is not something that will be officially supported. Listing a group on the LFG tool is opening it up to a public realm and you do so at your own risk.

Customer Service will not be able to support any interactions that involves group formation politics.

Yeah, Chris and I talked about this with others in the studio and we realized the wording just wasn’t sufficient to communicate our actual stance. Chris was referring to the agreements part – where we can’t replace losses. It wasn’t his intention to cloud the issue.

Basically, you steal, cheat, or be a general baddie and I’m coming with my Account-Focused Stun-Lock Cannon.

(Can someone please make me the aforementioned rifle for my engi GM toon? That’d be swell. I’d like purple lightning or fire, please.)

I like you and you’ve earned my respect.

I just want you to note this – I was planning on making an epic quit video this weekend wherein I would delete all my characters, my legendary, and give away all my things. But because of this post I am going to hold off.

Another way to put it – you may have just retained a future paying customer.

Thank you for your communication and your willingness to do what, in my view, is the right thing.

Cheers!

This is what should be done.

Take the odds for getting a fractal weapon of your choice. I don’t know what they are at this point, but let’s say 1% on a level 50.

Do a statistical calculation such that after X runs at 1% chance your average player would have a 95% chance of getting the weapon.

After THAT MANY runs, if you haven’t gotten the weapon, you should be able to buy it.

So, I haven’t done the math, but say that an average player will need to complete 200 runs to have a 95% chance of getting the fractal sword.

The sword should be sold for 200 pristine relics.

That way RNG is still in place, but the outcome is deterministic and FAIR.

Note: This should appease lordbyron too, because your average person should have gotten the weapon by that point. Rarity wouldn’t decrease.

Edit: Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game gave you LESS of a chance the MORE runs you completed. John Smith likes Paul Krugman and all the progressive ideals Paul represents. Besides, if the game can tell how willing you are to go after that carrot, why not milk you as long as possible?

I am so confused. Is Michael now saying the complete opposite of what Chris said before? And wasn’t what Chris said a complete 180 from what they originally announced? Am I reading things wrong? What is going on?

Can Lilith come back now?

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

1) Grenades are better total DPS including bleed.
2) Bombs are better direct DPS not including bleed.
3) You are unlikely to cap vuln with just bombs.

Just putting that out there.

With 5x engi minefield and bombs and vuln on crit I think you’ve got more than enough vuln, right?

What would be your comp for 5 engis?

Roybe.5896:

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

duckideva.6358:

Something has been tickling the back of my mind since the April update, which became clear focus after the 9/9 update.

It is my contention that Anet has brought economic behaviorists on board, and has attempted to overlay the reward/punishment monetization/skinner-box system of F2P games on top of the existing infrastructure, and these current changes are a precursor to skills and traits being available on the gem store.

Before I get elbows deep, it’s only fair to mention that I studied this type of industrial psychology while pursuing my PhD in bioethics, ergo I may be seeing shadows in the cave, and assigning malice to actions that may just be incompetence. Also fair to point out that I’m on the board of a software publisher, (one that shares no market space with Anet), and we constantly get pitched by monetization “gurus” who talk about their methodologies, so I have more than a passing acquaintance with this type of game theory.

Monetization and Skinner-Boxing of games can range from things like Zynga’s CEO’s theory of “fun-pain”, which we don’t see much of in GW2, to premium currencies, which all MMOs have always had, to pay-to-win like Korean grinders, but the most powerful of all the skinner-box techniques is Reward Removal. (See Puzzle and Dragon as an example of a masterfully designed money extraction skinner box. )

Research has shown that humans like getting rewards, but they hate losing what they already have much more than they value getting the reward. The effect is more powerful the longer the person has had the reward.

Traits are an example of this playing out; Players who have had the game for long enough that they have leveled a character in the original system valued the trait system. Traits were a reward for playing the character. Therefore, when traits were “removed”, i.e., placed behind artificial barriers, players felt “robbed”, “cheated”, and as though “Anet hates it’s players”. (To borrow phrases I’ve seen lobbed about the forums.) Hiding the story quest until lvl 10 is another example, as is removing all the fun stuff to do in the starter zones.

To effectively monetize your playerbase with this technique, you have to tell the player they have earned something, and then later tell them that they did not. The longer you allow the player to have the reward before you take it away, the more powerful the effect becomes.

If, for example, traits went on sale in the gem store today, we all know that people would buy them. Sure, people would complain, and some people would quit the game, but the vast majority of people who are not going to do 65 different things to unlock their traits would just buy them, or ignore traits all the way around except for accidental unlocks.

Therefore, my premise is that the reason 400 response threads about traits have been completely ignored, while pushback on level gating skills resulted in changes, is that traits are going to be a monetized part of the game.

Anything that is a huge gold sink is already monetized.

Confusing faucets and sinks for the economy do not equate to monetization, unless you are making the point of purchasing gems to convert to gold, which IS monetization. The 300 gold cost of Commander tags MIGHT be monetization IF the ultimate outcome is that people forego the opportunity cost of time in lieu of gems. I’ll predict that this won’t be the case, since Commander Tags are not useful to most people and that 300 gold should only take about 40 hours of game time to accrue, if you maximize your mat farming/champ runs properly.

I was making that point. Anytime there’s something really expensive in game, there will inevitably be a number of people who, maybe due to work or IRL obligations, would rather just pull out the credit card. There is a reason the new TP now says “GET MOAR GOLD” in big letters. It’s convenient for some.

Edit: Let me just add I like profit. Profit is good. I want(ed) ANET to profit. It’s especially nice when ANET can profit on things that I don’t feel obligated to spend money on.

There is a guild designed to help new players. That said, echoing some of the sentiment above, ANET sure has been trying to create disincentives for helping new players by making them weaker and weaker with each new feature patch. First trait locking, then skill locking.