Guild Wars 2

I don’t have a problem with new players getting a great deal, my problem is with the poor perception ANet has generated through its actions.

In the past few months we saw the game for 75% off three times, each time coinciding with a big HoT announcement, so that created this impression that the expansion would be sold in the $30~$40 range (the reasoning would be to ease new players into the game and not make them pay $70~$80 for core and HoT).

We sure as hell didn’t see an avalanche of complaints about new players potentially paying $40~$50 for both core and HoT under that scheme, so why are so many people making an issue of new players paying $50 for both core and HoT under this new scheme?

To be clear I think $50 is too much given the list of features we know will be in the expansion, I don’t believe the list of features is going to change much (as it hasn’t changed at all with all the past announcements, only details have been added to what we know will be included), so I don’t agree with the arguments that we can’t judge the pricing on currently available information. Ultimately that’s just me though, I’m not going to tell someone they’re wrong if they personally feel it’s $50 any more than I would tell someone they’re wrong for supporting GW2 by buying gems with cash.

I do agree that the argument should be around the cost vs. value issue, not the “what do we get” that so many people latch on to (on both sides, both the people complaining and the people throwing “entitlement” around like mud in a political debate).

Disagree with him using WoW’s expansion pricing as an example of what’s standard though, a lot of people have made the claim that $50 is normal pricing for an MMO’s expansion, but as far as I can tell that’s only true for WoW. It’s certainly not true for FF14 or SW:TOR, at the very least.

papry.8096:

cashshop revenue
I don’t recall exactly but seems like the average revenue on the cashshop is 4$ per player.

I’m curious where that number comes from, we do have access to the NCSoft’s reports on sales and profits that each game generates (minus royalties), but without solid numbers on active accounts it’s hard to accept its validity. If it’s true then I can understand (and accept) the price, but until then it’s hard to accept an expansion that offers less than traditional expansions (not a speculation, this is what I distinctly remember Colin saying in a post HoT announcement interview) but charges as much as a full game.

Overall I like his video, it’s fair for the most part and I respect his attempt to stay neutral.

Buy it, the current deal is excellent for new players and players who didn’t/couldn’t support GW2 financially. If they want a good deal on the next expansion they should completely avoid buying gems with cash as well.

Anonymity causes a lot of people to act and speak without restraint, so you’ll encounter this kind of attitude a lot in situations where tempers are already raised (PvP, WvW, arguments, boredom).

Welcome to the internet, it’s a wonderful and terrible place to be.

Jelzouki.4128:

The marketing team lead said that the 50$ with core-game is to make it easier for new players to transition into. Just as I outlined.

PSA: someone messaged me in-game calling me names and stuff and the person didn’t even comment on anything I posted so I want to say I hope I am not offending anyone, even though I don’t really know where I could have. Probably don’t need to apologize.

It’s the internet, you can bake a cake and someone will be offended at you.

Jelzouki.4128:

Pandaman.4758:

The problem with your B2P vs. P2P argument is you’re ignoring the cash shop completely.

The cash shop is what replaces the monthly revenue of the subscription model, while it may be optional the fact (supported by NCSoft’s financial reports, which you can download off their site) is people do spend real money on it regularly. Your argument only applies to people who haven’t spent any money on GW2 beyond the initial purchase or spend less than $10/month on gem purchases.

If you fit that criteria then that’s wonderful, you’re getting a great deal. So are new players who didn’t buy GW2 during the 75% sales that everyone assumed was to make it easier for new players to join in and get the expansion.

That’s not true for everyone.

Can you see why not everyone is happy with the price now?

So Arena Net can’t price their expansion at 50$ because a portion of their players are financially irresponsible?

That’s certainly a… novel way of interpreting it.

GW2 has a revenue stream from these financially irresponsible people (of whom you are a beneficiary of, without them you wouldn’t have a GW2 to play, much less get an expansion for), just like a sub-based MMO has a revenue stream from subscribers paying the monthly ransom for their characters.

If GW2 was struggling to make money then I can see them charging a premium on the expansion, but it’s not, so why is it charging a premium?

The problem with your B2P vs. P2P argument is you’re ignoring the cash shop completely.

The cash shop is what replaces the monthly revenue of the subscription model, while it may be optional the fact (supported by NCSoft’s financial reports, which you can download off their site) is people do spend real money on it regularly. Your argument only applies to people who haven’t spent any money on GW2 beyond the initial purchase or spend less than $10/month on gem purchases.

If you fit that criteria then that’s wonderful, you’re getting a great deal. So are new players who didn’t buy GW2 during the 75% sales that everyone assumed was to make it easier for new players to join in and get the expansion.

That’s not true for everyone.

Can you see why not everyone is happy with the price now?

Supreme.7352:

Pandaman.4758:

Supreme.7352:

Reading the Note at the bottom helps.

I think the problem is that people don’t see the bottom when the top already has them scrambling to their browsers/email program. While it might be more obstructive, the warning should really sit directly below the subject rather than the bottom of the message body.

Don’t all ArenaNet emails have an icon on the side as well though?

And I believe the name’s color is different as well, I believe, but it generally doesn’t hurt the more explicit you are with warnings.

Dean Calaway.9718:

Pepsi.8907:

And are you ready to say that, from what we have heard AS OF NOW, it’s worth the current price and pre-purchase with no release date whatsoever? PLZ TELL ME MOAR

On another note, GG WP OP, sarcasm was obvious, but I laughed

I’m not speculating over assumptions, how’s that?

Another thing most people seem to be missing:
You don’t HAVE to pre-order.

What will you miss? I title no one cares about and a mini no one looks at?
If you’re having any doubts, wait and STOP worrying.

I’m not speculating over assumptions either, I’m speculating over what has been revealed. If you’ve been following the development of HoT, you should know that Colin already stated in interviews (it may have been the Angry Joe or MattVisual interviews, there’s a third that was done over the phone but having problems finding it now) that HoT will not be as big as traditional expansions, but what it will be bringing are the frameworks (Masteries, Specializations, etc.) that future expansions will be using to grow GW2 with.

To be clear: it’s already been stated HoT will not be as big as other MMO expansions.

Yet we’re not just being charged a standard expansion price ($30~$40), we’re being charged a premium and have to buy a character slot separately. Unless ANet’s actually been hiding an entire continent under the wraps, I don’t expect to be surprised when HoT’s released.

Leo G.4501:

People pre purchase video games now a days with far less info for far more cost.

People get scammed by Kickstarters and Season Passes fairly regularly too, just people a lot of people are mindless lemmings doesn’t mean it should be an accepted behavior.

Supreme.7352:

Reading the Note at the bottom helps.

I think the problem is that people don’t see the bottom when the top already has them scrambling to their browsers/email program. While it might be more obstructive, the warning should really sit directly below the subject rather than the bottom of the message body.

Gundam Zephyr.6713:

Pandaman.4758:

Coarr.3286:

other mmorpg’s:

buy game 50 Euro/USD
pay monthly fee 12 Euro/USD
buy expansion 25 Euro/USD
total after 2 years: 363 Euro(USD

gw2:

buy game 50 Euro/USD
buy expansion 50 Euro/USD

Not applicable to anyone who purchased gems with cash 24 times or more in the past two years, mind you.

Oh right, that completely optional currency which can be acquired with in-game gold.

Which people have been buying with cash, because if they didn’t GW2 wouldn’t be as profitable as it is (refer to NCSoft earning reports). If a significant portion of the player base didn’t opt to support ANet with cash purchases of gems, GW2 wouldn’t be here, it would have gone the way of City of Heroes.

Coarr’s example only covers people who haven’t supported GW2 at all, which I’m not knocking, I’m just pointing out it’s not true for everyone.

Coarr.3286:

other mmorpg’s:

buy game 50 Euro/USD
pay monthly fee 12 Euro/USD
buy expansion 25 Euro/USD
total after 2 years: 363 Euro(USD

gw2:

buy game 50 Euro/USD
buy expansion 50 Euro/USD

Not applicable to anyone who purchased gems with cash 24 times or more in the past two years, mind you.

KorbenDallas.6729:

lol these forums aren’t strong on satire detection.

Satire doesn’t come with the basic package, you’ll have to pay $25 more for that feature. Until then it’s all srsbzns.

While I’m of the opinion that $50 is not fair price for the given content, I have to strongly disagree with you about making it free. Our gem store purchases went to funding the continued operation of GW2, development of LS, and feature updates, it shouldn’t cover the cost of the expansion itself.

No, according to people who have already purchased HoT there is only one activation code. It can either be used to create a new account with HoT activated or activate HoT on an existing account; you cannot activate HoT on an existing account and create a new account at the same time.

A new customer buying HoT will receive GW2 for free, thus GW2 has no value and is worth $0 to them.

An existing customer buying HoT will not receive another GW2 account, since it does not exist it is worthless and thus also worth $0.

You say to-mah-to, I say SHAZBOT.

Hitman.5829:

I bought the game 2 years ago. If I but the expansion game for $49.99 do I get a completely new account with a new serial code?

Sorta.

Will I have 2 accounts to play with?

Yes, that is possible.

Is the expansion compatible with the 2 accounts or only with one?

Only one.

You will get one serial code when you buy HoT and it is a single-use code. You can do one of two things with it:

1. Make a new account with HoT enabled.
2. Enable HoT on your current account.

These are mutually exclusive. If you make a new account with the code you cannot activate HoT for your current account, but if you activate HoT on your current account you cannot make a new account with the code.

Choose wisely.

ArrogantHero.4965:

Dott.5672:

OP is very aptly named.

Oh god, no, now you’re expressing all over the carpet. We just had that washed!

Catseye.3164:

The price isn’t bad for the entertainment value. You should log in game. Type /age. Take what you paid for the game and divide it by that number. I paid $59.99 for the game and have gotten over 2000 hours of play. $.03 an hour. Seems cheap to me.

Except HoT isn’t going to give us the same value that GW2 core did.

I’m not knocking HoT before it’s out, I’m just saying that there’s a difference in the hurdles that a game (or expansion in this case) has to overcome when trying to hook a player in for 2k hours: a new player is going to be too distracted by all the new shinies and struggling with learning the game to really notice the flaws, but vet players are going to get jaded faster, burn through content earlier, and be back to griping about the lack of updates and bugs in a matter of weeks (if not days).

And keep in mind for $60 you got a lot more content than HoT (judging from what we’ve seen so far) will give with $50.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Pandaman.4758:

So say it’s only $20 worth of content in the expansion, we’ll pay $50 and have $30 worth of gems included, then as more HoT-exclusive material is released we can choose to unlock it with those gems. Or squander it buying pet rocks.

ANet gets their $50 up front, we pay fair value for the expansion, and the remaining amount we paid goes to what we choose (if we waste it all on pet rocks, we can pay ANet another $30 for the gems when the additional HoT content rolls out). Win-win-win.

Sounds good — for maybe a more trustworthy gaming company — I don’t think I’d trust Anet’s promises to follow through on future content.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say ANet is untrustworthy, but even if that were the case 2400 gems could still be spent on other gem store products even if something shiny distracts the devs and they forget to update HoT until after they make underwater combat viable.

ArrogantHero.4965:

Pandaman.4758:

ArrogantHero.4965:

Celtic Lady.3729:

ArrogantHero.4965:

And food and water I need for my survival so there is a lot of value in that.

Yeah, but you don’t need it to come from a restaurant, which was the point.

Yeah, and I was being a smart@$$, which my point was I’m not complaining but all you others are. That’s the difference.

But you are complaining about people complaining. Also not participating in the Marvel movie discussion (also where did the train topic go?).

No I’m complaining about hypocrites. Didn’t you read my first post?

complain

verb (used without object)

1. to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault:
   He complained constantly about the noise in the corridor.

1. to tell of one’s pains, ailments, etc.:
   to complain of a backache.

1. to make a formal accusation:
   If you think you’ve been swindled, complain to the police.

Clearly you’re not complaining about an ailment or calling the cops on us, but you are finding fault (assuming you believe hypocrisy to be a fault) in our behavior and thus are expressing dissatisfaction about our personalities. I do believe that is complaining, good sir.

Of course I’m also expressing dissatisfaction about you expressing dissatisfaction about us expressing dissatisfaction over pricing, but I’m sure we can go deeper.

That would only serve to cause the gem-gold rate to explode like a baby seal in a microwave.

If ANet wants to charge $50 for an expansion with so little content, but with the caveat that additional associated content will be rolled out following it, then what they should do is make the basic edition include x amount of gems.

So say it’s only $20 worth of content in the expansion, we’ll pay $50 and have $30 worth of gems included, then as more HoT-exclusive material is released we can choose to unlock it with those gems. Or squander it buying pet rocks.

ANet gets their $50 up front, we pay fair value for the expansion, and the remaining amount we paid goes to what we choose (if we waste it all on pet rocks, we can pay ANet another $30 for the gems when the additional HoT content rolls out). Win-win-win.

ArrogantHero.4965:

Celtic Lady.3729:

ArrogantHero.4965:

And food and water I need for my survival so there is a lot of value in that.

Yeah, but you don’t need it to come from a restaurant, which was the point.

Yeah, and I was being a smart@$$, which my point was I’m not complaining but all you others are. That’s the difference.

But you are complaining about people complaining. Also not participating in the Marvel movie discussion (also where did the train topic go?).

Behellagh.1468:

I think I see the tracks waaaaay over there —-—->

Oh, are we talking about trains now? On a tangential note, what do you think about the hyperloop thing?

On a more serious note, $10~$20 for a movie is what we’ve accepted as “fair” price for a 1.5~2 hour movie, much like how it’s generally considered fair to pay less for an expansion than the full game on the understanding that said expansion will provide less than said game (paying less for less = fair).

It would only be hypocritical if we were okay with paying $30 for a thirty minute movie with 1~1.5 hours of a movie we had already paid for and seen tacked on as filler, much like how we have to pay more for an expansion than the base game, but still offers far less than said game.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Ashen.2907:

GW2 Doesnt have the Avengers in it.

Now, if there was a mini Captain America in a speedo included in HoT…instant purchase, amirite?

What? You don’t mean a Robert Downey Junior backpiece that sasses you every time you do something?

Sober Oni.8290:

Let’s look at WoW for a moment shall we? Keeping things as cheap as possible the core game costs $19.99, and the lowest price for a subscription is $11.50, so if you play for a year that’s $157.99. This is ignoring expansions, the higher priced subscription plans, and so on.

GW2 is a one time purchase of $40, $20, or $10 depending on when you got it. $157.99 for a year versus a flat $40. The $50 price tag is fine.

Don’t forget the first month’s free, so it’s actually 146.49 for a year.

That being said, subscription costs and one-time purchases aren’t equivalent comparisons, what you should be comparing are subscription fees to cash-gem purchases.

Your argument only applies to people have been frugal in how much they’ve been paying to support GW2 over the years, it doesn’t apply to those who have been spending more than a certain amount per month on cash-gem purchases:

• $8.87/mo if you bought GW2 at $40
• $10.54/mo if you bought GW2 at $20
• $11.37/mo if you bought GW2 at $10

Then let’s not forget for $40 a WoW expansion comes with a free character slot. For $50 HoT will not come with a slot, so you will either have to spend another $10 to buy one or 800 gems if you want the free option, so the threshold is actually slightly lower if you figure in the premium being charged:

HoT Basic + $10 character slot ($20 premium)

• $7.21/mo if you bought GW2 at $40
• $8.87/mo if you bought GW2 at $20
• $9.71/mo if you bought GW2 at $10

If you spend 800 gems on the character slot instead ($10 premium):

• $8.04/mo if you bought GW2 at $40
• $9.71/mo if you bought GW2 at $20
• $10.54/mo if you bought GW2 at $10

The difference isn’t as great as you make it out to be and it’s not that hard to reach parity with just a dozen purchases a year.

Friggarn.9451:

Pandaman.4758:

Sykper.6583:

Or, it could be that the expansion itself is $50, but in an attempt to attract new players the core game comes ‘free’ to them if they bought the expansion at the same price as the rest of us.

It’s a common marketing and economic tactic that works wonders, not a single quality MMO hasn’t done something like this before.

Do you believe the expansion is worth $50 though? Not to dismiss the work ANet put into it, but from everything we’ve seen it’s a mini expansion, it doesn’t offer nearly as much that every other quality MMO’s expansion does at this price point. The only thing that could justify this price is if the core game was bundled in with it at a 50%~75% discount or if ANet has been really coy and is actually including an entire continent in HoT to surprise us with.

I hope it’s the latter, because if it’s the former I have to really wonder if we’re going to be saddled with an extra account every time an expansion comes out.

That’s worth exploring – if you don’t think they’ve added enough to justify $50 then please do not purchase it. Perhaps closer to release we’ll know if $50 is the correct price – but doomsayers complaining about the ‘core game’ included as driving the price up are just deluded.

It’s no more deluded to assume the core game is being included at a discount (and thus driving up the price) than it is to assume it’s being included for free; the only difference between our opinions is whether or not we believe the expansion is introducing $50 worth of content.

Now I’m not saying I believe you’re deluded, that would be rude (also self-destructive, because then I’d be saying I’m deluded too). What I am saying, however, is that you’re a much more optimistic person than I am and that I hope you’re proven right even though I don’t share your opinion.

Sykper.6583:

Or, it could be that the expansion itself is $50, but in an attempt to attract new players the core game comes ‘free’ to them if they bought the expansion at the same price as the rest of us.

It’s a common marketing and economic tactic that works wonders, not a single quality MMO hasn’t done something like this before.

Do you believe the expansion is worth $50 though? Not to dismiss the work ANet put into it, but from everything we’ve seen it’s a mini expansion, it doesn’t offer nearly as much that every other quality MMO’s expansion does at this price point. The only thing that could justify this price is if the core game was bundled in with it at a 50%~75% discount or if ANet has been really coy and is actually including an entire continent in HoT to surprise us with.

I hope it’s the latter, because if it’s the former I have to really wonder if we’re going to be saddled with an extra account every time an expansion comes out.

Warcry.1596:

I think it just allows for beta access. I think later on the Expansion will be purchaseable stand alone for cheaper, without a core copy along with it.

That’s the ridiculous thing, why would anyone but a current GW2 player preorder the expansion?

Yes, the price of gem store items in real money terms is ridiculously overpriced if you compare it to any other game ($20 in gems can get you all of two armor sets, but in other games that would be a modestly-sized DLC or small expansion), but you also have to keep in mind most other games don’t let you buy store currency with in-game currency either (if you want a set of cash shop skins, you have to spend money on it). Theoretically you only have to spend as much money on GW2’s cash shop as you want and supplement the rest with gold-gem conversions, but in practice this is only practical for players who can make gold fairly easily, which is rarely the case for new players.

It may seem bad now (it certainly seemed bad to me when I first started playing and that was when gem-gold conversion was only at 45g for 400 gems), but it won’t seem as bad down the road. Best advice I can give is be very patient, limit how many gems you buy a month (average $10~$15 and treat it like a pseudo subscription), only buy store items when they’re on sale (or limited-time and likely not to return for a year), and just focus on having fun instead.

It’s been a while since I ran CoE, but I vaguely remember the frequency of Subject Alpha’s AoE attacks were high enough that if I didn’t time my dodges well I’d be out of endurance and dead fairly quickly, so wouldn’t this change make that fight (and other AoE spammy bosses like the spider queen in AC and Malrona in TA) unreasonably hard?

azizul.8469:

although we’re not sure what’s the purpose of getting Jewellery to 500 when you can get the ascended amulet, ring and accessory by using laurels/commendation. legendary backpiece ?

There are still a number of stat combinations unavailable as ascended trinkets, such as Giver’s, Zealot, Dire, Valkyrie, Sentinel, Carrion, and Magi (Dire and Valkyrie are only available as subcomponents of 4-stat rings), so it wouldn’t be completely pointless.

dietzero.3514:

Zhaitan was also killed with specialised anti-Elder dragon cannons. The ones we used.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zhaitan

Sometimes I wonder if people actually pay any attention in this game…

What makes those cannons “anti-Elder Dragon”? As I said before nothing in the game states there is a distinction made between damage inflicted by magic or science, so there’s nothing to support the claim that Elder Dragons can only be harmed by magically enhanced munitions; visually they’re just Pact cannons that fire projectiles, their only defining feature being they’re larger than the standard models you see on Pact airships and in Forstgorge Sound.

“Anti-Elder Dragon” is just a label, it tells us nothing of the mechanisms behind the classification. If you want to claim that label is proof that Pact technology is unique in its ability to harm Elder Dragons, then I similarly will claim Elder Dragons cannot win against a modern military simply because they don’t have “anti tank guns”.

From what we’re shown in the game, magic is simply a means to an end, what can be created with magic can also be created with science; an elementalist breathing fire is no different from an engineer pulling the trigger on a flamethrower, absolutely nothing in the game goes “oh, this fire was conjured by science, not magic, so I’m going to ignore it.”

So pulling the “nuh uh, he’s invulnerable to everything because of MAGIC” card is complete and utter bunk, best left to Superman vs. Goku arguments.

That being said, if you want to argue magic vs. science, we’ll have compare military technology and not chase some red herring fallacy of comparing weapons to portals (seriously, that’s as dumb as arguing that Mordremoth would stand no chance because Tyria doesn’t have the internet, ergo science must be superior).

Pact equipment is assumed to be the best in Tyria and – as hastily assembled and poorly trained in it as the soldiers were – it was enough to give Zhaitan’s army enough trouble to allow The Glory of Tyria to sail in and shoot down Zhaitan. Since Pact gear (with a single exception, to be discussed later) and training was inferior in every conceivable way to modern equivalents, it stands to reason that a modern military would have absolutely no trouble in the same scenario; additionally, given that Zhaitan had a hundred years head start over Modremoth, it’s safe to assume he was better fed on magic and had a larger army, therefore a modern army would have an even easier time against Mordremoth’s forces.

The modern military also doesn’t have the disadvantage of being full of Sylvari saboteurs.

Now, regarding the exception: Zojja’s MEGA-LIT cannon. It’s a directed energy weapon, we don’t have one of those yet. It’s also slow to fire, has terrible range/aim (despite having a targeting system calibrated to aim at draconic energy), and the only thing it actually accomplishes is stop Zhaitan from flying about. It’s the five regular cannons on the side of the ship that actually killed him. So the one thing that Asuran military technology has over real military technology only served to remove a dragon’s mobility advantage – an advantage that evaporates when compared to modern jet fighters and missiles designed to shoot down targets smaller and faster than an oversized flying lizard.

Paul.4081:

I think Anet rolled a lazy. Charr run on all fours, have you ever tried to outrun a dog or cat. Trust me, I have, they don’t run in slow motion, they have individuality just like we have our ru/walk speeds.

Ah well Anet is happy with big = slow, DUH!

Good luck finding any MMOs that don’t do this.

It’s a design decision to not make any race have an inherent advantage over another, which is the same reason why racial skills are underpowered. If characters got bonuses based on race, then every warrior/guardian you see will either be a Norn or Charr and every spellcaster an Asura.

You enjoy being kicked from dungeon parties for not having the right gear? Well, imagine that and people kicking you for not having the right race/class combination.

serenke.4806:

Hundreds of miles away does not work with a dragon that has the ability to send minions across the whole continent.

…

What?

How is that an advantage unique to Mordremoth? You do realize a modern military also has the ability to rapidly deploy and coordinate units across a continent in addition to the massively superior range, right? This isn’t “mobile with limited range vs. stationary with superior range”, it’s “mobile with limited range vs. vastly superior mobility with vastly superior range”.

Mhm, and if the vines would stop the bunker buster before it would go deep enough then it would not detonate because it would just count floors while stuck in the shrubbery? Remember, it’s the jungle you are trying to shoot.

The 5000 pound GBU-37 is designed to punch through 20 feet of military grade reinforced concrete, the newer 30,000 pound GBU-57 doesn’t have its specifications released yet, but was developed out of concern that Iranian and North Korean nuclear weapon labs we buried under mountains/hundreds of feet of earth.

Unless you want to argue that Mordremoth’s vines are harder than military grade concrete, a jungle isn’t going to do anything against a bunker buster.

Also, not sure why nobody reads posts they are replying to, but

Could our own, real-life military wage war on Mordermoth and its minions and win? Based on our highest available technology (aka USA army much), with helicopters, fighter jets, artillery, infantry and tanks, but not nuclear weapons.

Thoughts?

“Not nuclear weapons.”

Honestly, nukes aren’t even a game changer in this scenario.

Even without nukes it still doesn’t change the fact this fantasy fight scenario is pitting what is essentially an animal against the modern military. Mordremoth doesn’t have squadrons of flying dragon minions that can travel at mach speed, rain thousand pound bombs on cities from above the clouds, and engage with aerial targets from 100 miles away; he doesn’t have battalions of ground minions that are completely impervious to arrows and conditions, can accurately place a variety of explosive shells from a mile and a half away, or tear across the field at 45 miles per hour; he certainly doesn’t have space minions relaying information to him from beyond the reach of his front lines, which would allow him to more effectively deploy units and react better to changes in enemy deployment.

A nuke is just a payload, replace it with a FAE, a chemical or biological warhead, or just a few thousand pounds of explosives and all that means is Mordremoth dies a slightly less glorious death.

Mordremoth is balanced to fight people with bows and swords, flying in glorified hot-air balloons with 12-pound cannons that only offer a fraction of the range, fire rate, and destructive power of modern equivalents. The only caveat that would give Mordremoth a fighting chance is if it wasn’t a modern military at all.

Maybe WW1 or WW2 era army vs. Modremoth.

Which “modern” military are you asking about? The ones depicted in movies or real life?

If it’s the former they’ll flounder horribly for whatever contrived reason until a strong and independent recruit who answers to nobody and embodies the virtues of recklessness and inexperience leads them to nonsensical victory. Modremoth’s plot spear and shield will transfer to the protagonist and the ending credits will be performed by whichever flavor-of-the-month pop idol/rock band is popular at the time.

If it’s the latter the staff will take one look at their Rules of Engagement and the Geneva Convention, realize it doesn’t apply to dealing with hostile shrubbery, and have a jolly old time pounding Mordremoth into an ash pile from hundreds of miles away with the ridiculous stockpiles of artillery we constantly accumulate in the name of peace. About the only thing that will give the military pause is evacuating civilians, but since Mordremoth doesn’t seem to be keen on taking hostages as human shields it’s more of a speed bump than an obstacle that needs getting around.

serenke.4806:

Except all those bombs and missiles would be shooting some vines. Mordremoth IS the jungle, it can just grow other vines and more vines. Unless you can hit the big guy (who is hiding somewhere presumably underground) you would just waste your bombs shooting plants.

Because fictional plant dragons are the only ones who burrow underground, right?

Look up modern bunker busters. Designed to not only punch through fortified underground facilities, their sensors have the ability to count how many floors it has gone through before detonating, allowing payloads to be delivered exactly where the sender wants it, no signature required. They come in nuclear flavor too, if you’re unconvinced one would have sufficient oomph to obliterate a dragon.

serenke.4806:

Is there some automated response team somewhere, that, when it sees a new outfit in the gemstore, immediately comes and writes a “Stop making outfits” thread?

Because even the title starts to be the same lately.

That’s because it literally is the same title. Original post was three months ago, someone just necro’d it.

There’s that Wile E Coyote moment in the announcement video where the guardian is looking all serious, stalking his prey… and the thing just waddles past him, completely deflating the moment; he stands there for a minute, looking away as if to pretend that didn’t just happen and he was actually stalking something else, before trying to make a flashy, but horribly ill-timed, entrance in a desperate attempt to salvage his pride.

That strange, slightly-incredulous, slightly-amused-at-the-embarrassment-of-others, mostly-unimpressed feeling I got from watching that sequence? Pretty much the same feeling I got when I read “Dragonhunter” was the specialization name.

I can only hope they haven’t released/fully released those stat sets for Ascended because they’re saving it for Jewelry 500.

Where exactly do you want to see it? Above your head when you run around?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Your friend, and only your friend will need to discuss the issue with the CS Team. You might consider reading the forum rules.

You can, however, post the ticket number in the Sticky for review.

Good luck.

Yeah, I drifted into appeals territory there. Fixed, but question still stands. I’m not privy to the details of my friend’s discussion with CS, but at this point they’re just too fed up with the entire process and are about to quit, so I’m hoping to get some sort of good news to keep them going.

In the interest of not sounding too foaming-at-the-mouth annoyed, let me just toss up a timeline/summary of events before going into my question:

• January 10th, 2015: my friend falls for a phishing scam (the ones you get through in-game mail) and submits all of their information to the scammers. I tell them to change their passwords, contact CS, tell them exactly what happened, and request their login email be changed. At this point CS should know my friend’s serial number has been compromised.

• About a week later CS contacts my friend to inform them they haven’t seen anyone else try to access their account and to contact them again if something does happen. They don’t change the login email, much less offer to change the serial number.

• Two week after that someone logs into my friend’s account and changes the password, but they do not empty out the guild banks. CS restores access, finally changes the email as requested almost a month ago, and performs a rollback. I post here regarding this issue and find out you can request to have the serial number changed as well, so I suggest to my friend they ask for that to be changed as well. Assuming my friend followed this suggestion (no reason not to, since they’re already more than a little freaked out by the intrusion), there should be a ticket with a serial number change request at this point.

• Around late Feb to early March the hijackers regain access to my friend’s account using the serial code and all the compromised information to convince CS they’re actually my friend. They empty out every guild bank they’re in, sell everything, salvage anything that can’t be sold, destroy the rest.

• CS doesn’t get back to my friend until the end of April, only after I post the ticket number on their behalf in the old tickets thread. They issue a new serial number (which they admit was used to gain access, it wasn’t a trojan), restore access, but inform my friend they cannot perform a second rollback.

So here’s my question: would this be grounds for an exception to get a second rollback, given it could have been avoided if CS issued a new serial code earlier (either upon learning the number was compromised or when it was requested)?

Edit: edited to remove what turned out to sound like an appeal. This is purely intended to be a question on whether or not my friend actually has grounds to make an appeal for a second rollback.

If your ticket is older than 7 days, post the ticket number up in this thread with a brief explanation. It definitely works, my friend had her account stolen for over a month and CS didn’t get back to her until I posted there.

Of course, getting back to her and doing a satisfactory job of fixing their mistake is completely two different things.

What were you doing in SW? I believe the best source of money there is chest farming, which guarantees one exotic bag every time you open a chest, you just need enough crests to buy the keys for them (shovels can only be acquired as random reward from doing events though).

That being said, Cursed Shore still has a champ farm going.

Actually, bullet velocity is not a problem. You’re thinking of modern bullets (with modern formulations) compared to modern arrows (launched by sports/hunting bows).

To put things in perspective, a modern rifle round goes at a blazing 5,600 ft/s, while a modern compound bow goes at 329 ft/s. A black powder musket/flintlock (which is what we’d be using in a fantasy setting), on the other hand, goes at a modest 370 ft/s, whereas a medieval English longbow launches around 150~180 ft/s.

Bullets fired by our characters only go twice as fast as equivalent era arrows, but still crawl through the air only slightly faster than modern arrows.

Edit: not saying the animations we see in game accurately reflect these speeds, but the point is if there’s going to be a change in bullet speed it’ll just be double that of arrows, not instant hits.

Farming Flats.5370:

Neverwinter is on Steam .. and the currency in this game are Zen ( same function as GW2 Gems ) i’m almost sure Steam don’t get a cut on every Zen sale …

Actually, they do. Valve gets a cut of every sale through the Steam store, that’s their whole business model (well, and supposedly making games, but they’re too busy rolling around in money to actually make Half Life 3). If you buy Zen with money in your Steam wallet, Valve gets a cut, if you don’t want Valve to get a cut then you buy Zen through ARC instead.

Seriously, Valve isn’t putting F2P MMOs on Steam out of good will, they’re doing it to make money and work out deals to stick their fingers into whatever revenue stream said MMO has. For Neverwinter that’s Zen sales.

I don’t see what could prevent GW2 to be on Steam … You can buy Gw1 on Steam right now if you want.

You can buy GW1 on Steam now because it’s a 10 year old sunsetted MMO that NCSoft doesn’t expect to see much money from anymore.

You can’t buy GW2 on Steam because it’s a 2 year old active MMO that still expected to generate lots of money that they don’t want to share with other publishers.

It really is all about the Benjamins.

Ticket #1371706

Friend’s account was hijacked and cleaned out over a month ago, no action has been taken yet. I suspect social engineering was used to gain access despite a previous ticket alerting CS that all of their personal information had been compromised.

Oh, right, I’m blind.