I’m literally asking you just that one question. How do we know what the majority of people think about GW2, CoD, or any other game?
I didn’t said that I know what majority of people think about gw2. I just know that the forums are not the place to seek answer whether a game is good or not. Forum is a place where people don’t agree with each other and whine about things not the opposite.
And for some of you… Trying to discuss AC gear here is a short way to thread closed!
But the GW2 forums were excellent for an official game companies forums. I came from time to time and generally found them friendly, constructive, and helpful. What you describe as generally true of forums was not the case at all with GW2. It changed overnight when the patch contents were digested. What happened to cause the change?
There’s a simple resolution to the question. Could you define gear treadmill for me?
Why?
Because we are dealing with an unresolved question: Is it a gear treadmill? I say it is, you say it isn’t. It’s a simple question to answer. If we come up with a definition of “gear treadmill” we can evaluate the introduction of Ascended gear based upon that definition. Then, we won’t have that unresolved question standing between us.
I really don’t care if it is a gear trademill or not. I just think that AC gear is just a great idea. I don’t want to argue who is right and who is wrong in regard of AC gear! So just stop asking about it.
So, you went from believing it was not a treadmill to not caring whether it’s a treadmill or not. And, I don’t believe anyone engaging the question cares about who is right or who is wrong (well, maybe some do). It seems the more important issue is whether Anet has in fact violated their manifesto by introducing a tired “preparing to have fun” game design element called a gear grind—a thing they said was not a feature of the game. If so, they need to come out with it. They can’t call it bridging a gap (there was no gap), or a new plateau—they have too many adult customers. They need to simply account for their behavior. It would also be nice if they attempted to make things right. What’s right HiddenNick? Right is what they represented the game to be in their own words. It’s not your “right” or my “right”, it’s their “right”. It’s the reason I bought GW2 and gave a huge sigh of relief…for almost three months.
There’s a simple resolution to the question. Could you define gear treadmill for me?
Why?
Because we are dealing with an unresolved question: Is it a gear treadmill? I say it is, you say it isn’t. It’s a simple question to answer. If we come up with a definition of “gear treadmill” we can evaluate the introduction of Ascended gear based upon that definition. Then, we won’t have that unresolved question standing between us.
A gear treadmill is a system where you must perpetually put in effort to maintain the same level of power as the content around you succumbs to power creep.
Ascended is not a treadmill, as it acts as a higher plateau, demonstrable by the fact that legendaries will be elevated to ascended strength. similar to how exotics were before ascended was introduced.
You can only rightfully claim that there is a treadmill if they add another degree of equipment stronger than ascended at some point in the future. With the express intent of drawing out item progression and forcing you to put perpetual effort into the game to maintain the plateau of power.
A new plateau sounds much better than stat inflation or gear grind or treadmill. But, even if a new plateau is really nice and has a great view you generally have to do a bit of walking to get there, eh? So, the before state is that exotics and Legendaries both share the same stats or power level. The after state is a new tier of gear that has higher stats and power level. And, to acquire the better gear you have to perform actions and spend time (read grind) in-game solely to reach the new power level (whether it’s fun for someone or not misses the point). Shakespeare said it best: “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”. Mike addressed the issue better than I could: “Our games aren’t about preparing to have fun, or about grinding for a future fun reward. Our games are designed to be fun from moment to moment.”
But I just showed you that on forums everyone hates CoD and the majority of people buy it and enjoy it!
I’m not saying that people on forums are not saying what they really think! I’m just saying that they are not representative of what majority of people thinks.
How do we know what the majority of people think about the game at any given point in time? Earlier you posted the user reviews of GW2 and I agree that user reviews are one good metric. In our case, time frame introduces a significant factor, i.e., we are dealing with an event that happened this weekend and we would need data post event to even consider this one metric. But, how do we know that they represent the majority of people playing the game at that point in time?
I’m literally asking you just that one question. How do we know what the majority of people think about GW2, CoD, or any other game?
There’s a simple resolution to the question. Could you define gear treadmill for me?
Why?
Because we are dealing with an unresolved question: Is it a gear treadmill? I say it is, you say it isn’t. It’s a simple question to answer. If we come up with a definition of “gear treadmill” we can evaluate the introduction of Ascended gear based upon that definition. Then, we won’t have that unresolved question standing between us.
HiddenNick, you don’t need to remain in the dark on this. Engage with issues, evaluate them, and employ critical thinking. All issues of personal preference ends when customers buy a product based on those preferences and find that the company has changed the product to meet the personal preferences of someone else. That’s the dynamic that is playing out here. We can know it and we can object to it.
I’m not saying you can’t! But I also pre-ordered gw2 and I also have my own opinions. I really like the idea after AC gear and I just don’t consider it to be a gear treadmill just like you do.
There are many things I don’t like about gw2. For example the hearts mechanic and their reword system. It’s just bad and unsatisfying. And many other things. But this thread is not about that!
Cheers!
There’s a simple resolution to the question. Could you define gear treadmill for me?
this is one of the oldest excuses ever used….
It starts to become really old….
My signature explains all i’d say..
The real vocal minority are those saying “hey everything is okay!! i have not any single fact but my word to prove 10.000 people are wrong and i am right but hey i am cool they just are angry childs…..because i say so obviously u.u”
You are almost insulting the right of speech and intelligence of thousands players inthis way…..say their opinion isn t representative and they are angry for nothing….
So by simply listening to forums you might think that any Call of Duty games is just terrible and people will never buy it again. But CoD games sales are growing! So why should I listen to gamers from forums about what people really thinks?
Cheers!
HiddenNick, I’m sure you have employed sophisticated research techniques to come to your profile of gamers on forums, but let me give you the simple persons answer: you should listen to non-troll gamers on forums because they are telling you what they think. No, it’s not the whole population of people playing the game, it’s the whole population of people telling you what they think on the forums. It’s simply grist for the mill. Read, evaluate, employ critical thinking skills, engage if you wish. But, saying you don’t listen to people on forums begs the question. Why are you here?
The amount of bitterness is proportional to the amount of wrongdoing (perceived).
What your calling “wrongdoing” other people may call it “doing the right thing”! Don’t you understand that?
HiddenNick, you don’t need to remain in the dark on this. Engage with issues, evaluate them, and employ critical thinking. All issues of personal preference ends when customers buy a product based on those preferences and find that the company has changed the product to meet the personal preferences of someone else. That’s the dynamic that is playing out here. We can know it and we can object to it.
You summed up the problems with the ARPG you played perfectly. You smashed monsters endlessly without reward. That is why the forums there were toxic. Everyone knew that reward was a key element in ARPG’s and it was absent in the game. It was a change in the game from the franchise’s vision. It’s a simple matter of cause and effect and the forums didn’t cause the effect, they simply reflected the disappointment of the community. So, I agree with you about that other game, but disagree that the forums caused you to not like the game. In fact, if that game had changed to follow the ARPG formula, the forums there would have healed overnight. The forum issue is as simple as cause and effect. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Most of my questions have already been noted above. My only preference would be to have any discussion of Ascended gear and the manifesto first be prefaced by an actual reading of the manifesto. I noticed in discussions on the forums the well-defined beliefs and values of the manifesto seem to get swept under the rug all too quickly. I would like the discussion of implications around the manifesto to take place within the context of the manifesto as much as possible.
The one question I would like to ask is how he defines the word “manifesto” and how should a manifesto function in the life of a company.
You have to grind the content to get the new tier items, whether fate smiles on you or not, it is the very definition of a grind. And, the per piece time required makes it a much steeper grind than the grindy MMO I came from to escape the grind. Glad RNG smiled upon you. cheers.
I agree that a response is needed and it’s good practice from a crisis management standpoint as well. The franchise will suffer for the silence. On the other hand I understand the predicament. I think their first tactic has been to wait and see if it all settles down on its own. I think that idea is probably out the window by now so what do they say? It will have to be something logically coherent. Addressing a gap with Ascended gear won’t work because everyone knows there was no gap before because exotics and Ledgendaries had the same stats. Ascended gear, addressing the gapless gap, created a real gap between exotics and Ascended. Similarly their reference to Ascended gear addressing the players sense of “progression” won’t work because of the incoherence with all previous statements about the nature of the game and specifically with the manifesto. The only strategy that will work will be to say that they were wrong with the manifesto and decided to abandon it in favor of the gear-grind treadmill model. But, saying that will surely infuriate everyone who trusted their word. This is the mother of all rock and hard places. Regardless, they need to address it head-on…and soon.
Yes, the product shapes the culture. If you make quests and resource nodes competitive, for instance, your own faction becomes your worst enemy, it’s just the way MMO’s (especially) work. GW had some good ideas and some are still in-game. Sadly, with the introduction of a gear-grind and gated content we are seeing the worst of those “other” MMO’s show up on our doorstep. The decline is inevitable.
Edited by moderator: quoted removed as it does not exist in the thread any more
But is there an OFFICIAL CLARIFICATION on this issue thus far? I afraid not. But no worry, the complaints will die down sooner than later (which I believe its the delay tactics Anet is using to tide them over this ‘crisis’) because those who complains but still cannot find closure to the issue would have left the game. I believe many of these players are having a fun time playing PlanetSide 2 now. Its a sad day for GW2.
The problem with an official clarification in my opinion is this issue has been so overblown and every single thing said has been jumped on analysed in detail and twisted to mean something negativite never intended that you’re not going to get an official reply before it has been vetted by a ton of people! No one is going to risk posting something that might be misinterpretted!
The issue hasn’t been overblown. The only thing I can suggest to help you understand the issue is to read the manifesto and the introduction of the Ascended gear piece side-by-side. If the non-sequitur doesn’t smack you in the face it’s probably best to just accept that some people get it rather than continuing to misrepresent the community’s reaction to the violation of the manifesto.
OP, beautiful post and the only thing I would disagree with is calling it wow-lite. In WoW the grind is easy for everything but the top-tier raider gear. The grind introduced with the Ascended gear is the mother of all gear grinds. It’s clear Anet is not familiar with treadmills as they have created one that will last far beyond the strongest rats endurance. It will literally kill the rats before it satisfies them. What we have here really doesn’t deserve the appellation “lite”. Great post otherwise.
I think the patch that introduced the event will become a case study for game companies—a case study that will allow companies to avoid costly errors in judgment.
On the subject of the events themselves, I think they are like icing on the cake. First you bake the cake, then you apply the icing. It doesn’t work the other way around. There are too many fundamental issues with the game at this point to think that large one-time events are a good idea or even possible. Development resources are always scarce and there shouldn’t be events like this competing with class balance, bug fixes, mob fixes, etc., etc. Additionally, this event has proven that Anet is not ready to conduct events of this scale as they are just a frustrating mess. I would scale them back drastically. First you bake the cake, then you apply the icing.
Both. Ideally you should be able to play it the way you want to play. So, both solo players and those who want to group need to be taken into account. To that end, features that allow for easier grouping could be considered.
It was good while it lasted guys. I’m just happy I got to play it when it was the best MMO in the world for those 3 short months.
Yeah, there’s always the historical aspect to all this. I guess I’ve experienced everything that’s right and wrong with MMO’s firsthand. It’s too bad this experiment didn’t last a bit longer than 3 months though. I was finally relaxed and enjoying myself in an MMO.
My experience with grindy MMO’s is that eventually there is no question about hopping on the treadmill to keep up. That’s just the nature of allowing power creep’s foot to get in the door. So, yeah, for those who bought the game because of the manifesto the question will eventually be whether to hop on the treadmill or find another game. Right now I’m still playing and studiously avoiding the grind. But, I realize that will only be viable for a short time. It’s sad as I love playing the game and love everything GW was.
Constant CC from Risen\Inquest in Orr is frustrating.
I do wish they would give mobs cooldowns. I’m sure it would be fun to be able to spam abilities (for a very short time), but there is always a visceral there-is-something-wrong-here response when you encounter an inquest that is able to keep you in permanent CC. It’s the kind of “difficulty” that betrays a lack of creative thought.
I have noticed that the rate is unusually high compared to any other MMO I’ve played. My guess is Anet is responding to player requests. They seem to have moved from a vision-driven company to one that responds to player requests without a whole lot of evaluation and reality-testing. That’s my best guess and the requests were probably coming from botters.
While some apparently don’t distract themselves by engaging with the issues, a lot has changed in the last week. All you need to do is read the manifesto, then read the introduction, and limited defense, of the Ascended gear. They said they introduced the Ascended gear to give players a sense of progression. This is called power creep. It does give the simple a sense of progression but more and more players realize when everyone hops on the treadmill and the mobs get stronger, no one has made any real progress. So, Anet knew this and marketed GW2 hard as a non-grindy game. How they could introduce a gear grind treadmill and call it “progression” is beyond me. So, yes, the game has changed in a fundamental way in the last week. One of the consequences is you can’t read the manifesto with a straight face and the manifesto describes how the game is unique in the world of MMO’s.
They are adding a new tier to introduce the grind that wowheads were asking for. There was no gap before as exotic and legendaries had the same stats. So, to “fix” the gap that didn’t exist, they created a gap between exotics and ascended gear. Makes perfect sense in some alternate reality—not to mention it violates everything they represented GW2 to be in contradistinction to other MMO’s. GG Anet!!!
I, of course, won’t be participating in the grind to Ascended. It is, after all, the mother of all gear grinds. Simply not interested. And, I won’t be visiting the gemstore at all. I’ve probably spent hundreds of dollars so far. I will only resume purchases if they remove the stat inflation from the gear. I really have no interest in grindy MMO’s.
GW2 already peaked in sales with the first selling. The rest will simply be holiday gifts. Those will probably be lower now because of all the bad press from the change. People are tired of WoW for a reason, and its not just because of welfare epics and the world. ANET,Nexon, and NCSoft will learn the hard way.
Speaking of which, I think I’m going to give NCSoft a vist
This. The ‘gear grind’ model is an outdated, dying fad; no game will ever do as well as WoW did with that model. The best thing they could have done was double down on their manifesto and provide new horizontal content their loyal player base could be excited about.
Double this. Power creep in game design circles is a negative term. At this point in our evolution, the gear grind chasing stats is viewed more as lazy developers chasing simple-minded players. They don’t call it a treadmill for nothing. After you and everyone else has acquired the new tier of gear you are in the same place relative to other players and the mobs have gotten stronger so you are in the same place relative to the mobs. Exactly what has changed in this scenario? Nothing you climbed on the treadmill and you climbed off the treadmill. Before and after you are the same, not stronger. More and more people have become sophisticated about game design and game systems. Fewer and fewer are willing to accept out-dated concepts. That’s why Anet pushed the new kind of MMO in their marketing. It worked—I bought it based on the manifesto.
I am saying giving lots of gold to players that didn’t have that much before will spike gem sales as they buy stuff the want from the gem store with the new wealth they now have. It’s not a giant conspiracy, and they are not taking advantage of anything. They are being logical and buying things they want. I am suggesting this move made it harder for people to convert gold to gems. So yes people are directly hurt from the Lost Shore loot. The numbers I used were made up, but I think its fair to say a lot of players got a lot of wealth randomly over the weekend. It’s common sense some of that is going into the gem store.
Your initial problem is demonstrating a problem. I mentioned I looked at the market data. I see no indication of a currency spike associated, even remotely, with the very rare drop of precursor items on Sunday. And, you admit you have no basis for your numbers and therefore no basis for your drama. There were many significant issues growing out the the weekend patch. This is not one of them.
The reason I am suggeting 50% is that if you look at Halloween after the event items and hype died off, the gem prices fell back to pre-event levels. In this case it is rising to 25% over the event levels. Right now it is trading at 50% over the pre-event levels (which is should have returned to)
It’s true the overall money in the system is the same. What changed is the wealth distribution.
I think this is a good example of what happened. Say there are the ultra-wealthy (the botters, mass traders, and early forge glitches) They each have 1,000 gold. They have little demand for anything because they already own everything they want. They make up .1% of the community.
Now Lost Shore comes along and gives items worth 100 gold to 3% users. Those 3% sell their items and receive 100 gold mostly from those who have massive wealth already, enough to buy precursors.
Now instead of the .1% that had gained wealth but wasn’t having much impact on the market, you now have 3% all with significant trading power. That is much worse for the 97% who got nothing. Now they are in competition with many more wealthy traders. Sure there may still be the same wealth out there, but you are in a much worse position in terms of trading.
Ah, so now it’s not a spike (which didn’t actually happen) it’s a change in wealth distribution. And since we have no possible way to know the actual numbers you are suggesting that the wealthy (those with trading power) have moved from 1% to 3%. Actually, you have no way of possibly knowing any of this, right? What I see in terms of actual evidence is a tendency to evaluate events in terms of class warfare. There are the rich and the only thing rich people do is exploit poor people, right? But, the rich didn’t even get richer here, probably the poor got richer. And that disadvantages you and you want justice, all because a miniscule number of players had good fortune in a game on Sunday. Sometimes you just need to shake your head and shake it off (luckily I have a warrior so I can do this.)
Just checked the market data and there has been no spike in currencies in game since Friday, nor would I expect any to grow out of the weekend event. Damage to the economy as a result of rare drops is pretty much a non-starter as an issue growing out of the patch.
I think your comment about “fairness, and rewards” is probably more to the point as to why you have a problem with rare drops in the event. Personally, I don’t want everyone to get rare drops “fairly” and I speak as one who has never seen anything like a precursor drop. What I would like to see is a loot system that functions in such a way as to make players feel generally rewarded for playing the game. Rare drops should be rare and there is nothing fair about how you drop rare items. And, personally, I celebrate the good fortune of those who got a precursor—gratz to them all.
This is great! Out of all issues coming out of this patch, I’ve finally found one I don’t have a problem with. People actually getting very rare drops is fantastic. I’ve never had an OMG moment with hundreds of hours in, but I’m encouraged they are actually happening and celebrate the good fortune of those so gifted.
Guys, the OP isn’t exactly complaining about the game or recent changes, but expressing regret over the dramatic change in attitude in the General Forums over the last weekend.
He has a credible point. Whatever you might think about Ascended armor, the forums have been objectively nastier and more hostile lately, much more argumentative and far less constructive.
The OP is talking about how the forum community went from relatively civil to almost exclusively flooded with a front page of angry, baffled or hostile threads. Frankly I agree. It’s depressing.
Yes. One of the factors that drew me to GW2 was the community. It was refreshing after my experience on another companies site. The other was the manifesto. In one weekend both appear to be flushed down the toilet. I suppose the forum response was predictable, but I’d love to know more about the reversal on the manifesto. I’m not a conspiracy theorist and usually defer speculation until I have enough info. I would really like a non-PR recounting of the thought process that led to this.
Yes. As mentioned in the marketing literature, GW2 takes all that is good from GW1. In GW1 it was easy to get the best gear in the game because GW1 was not a grindy game and Anet doesn’t make grindy games. (Haha.) So, the same should be true of GW2.
First few difficulties of FotM are Kitten Easy. it is not gated content at all.
They already said they will be adding new ways to get this gear including WvWvW.
That is Not speculation, it came from the horse’s mouth.
As to whether or not it’s gated content, may I ask whether I can enter at level 10? Would that gate be open to me having never played the content? A rhetorical question, of course. And, of course, it’s gated content. Gated content has to do with whether there are prerequisites for entering any given gate.
There are really two questions here. The question just under the surface is does Ascended gear represent the addition of a gear-based, vertical progression and it must be asked first. Of course, the answer is yes. In terms of necessity, rather than argue the necessity, why not just benchmark it as we already have the experience with gear-based, vertical progression from other MMO’s. In my experience in those MMO’s there really was never a question about whether you acquired the new tier of gear, that’s what you do in grindy MMO’s. So, if you understand the nature of power creep and a vertical gear-grind you really don’t need to ask whether or not it’s necessary as we already have the experience to answer that question. It’s simply what you do in grindy MMO’s.
The update was just the shot in the arm it needed to make PVE fun for high levels. To be honest I didn’t really find myself drawn to the old dungeons.
But getting more bag space and new type of dungeon has given my level 80 character a new life.
ANet is one of the best devs on the planet… unfortunately transplanting some other MMO communities has added a lot of people here with no experience with them. I’m disappointed in those that are so excitable and constantly freaking out, but I guess they’ll have to take their time to realize that ANet is a different kind of company. They are listening and you don’t have to be all melodramatic every day.
And now for something completely different…
Thanks, I have a daily need for something Pythonesque and this filled it perfectly.
There are two issues here. 1) is the introduction of the grind itself, violating the manifesto, and 2) is the nature of the grind. In a truly grindy MMO I can get the new tier in a couple weeks max at my rate of play at zero cost in terms of gold. So, 1) they’ve introduced a gear grind, and 2) it is the mother of all gear grinds.
@Rpgtabbycat: Yes you do if you want to be able to stay at the most competative level in PvP. Which makes it a must for every WvW player, even if they hate PvE.
Why did they not introduce the ascendant parts in WvW so WvWers could get them? That would be fair and give everyone 2 options to obtain them. Then have WvW specific infusions and fractal infusions, obtained from their respective field of use.
Tada, simple solution and fix.
The only simple solution would be to admit the error and reverse the power creep. It’s a violation of the manifesto, the thing I bought GW2 on. Adding more routes to the treadmill solves nothing related to the problem.
At this point, it’s very hard to believe they can change anything about the game without upsetting a large portion of the playerbase.
This is the truly sad part. Anet has gotten a lot of good feedback from you and, now, many others. But, I’ve never seen implemented game systems reversed fundamentally in a time frame necessary to avert disaster. It’s too costly. And it’s like a new governmental program—it may be a really bad idea, and totally unsustainable, but you can’t take it away without alienating some block of voters—so it stays until one day it simply blows up.
We’re TRYING to play the game for fun. ArenaNet is requiring a stat grind of ever-growing proportions in order to reach that fun.
it’s not required. if you don’t find it fun, don’t do it. i guarantee you will enjoy the game more.
Exactly my issue as well.
And it will spill into WvW as well making PvE needed for WvW.
If that’s the case, there was no reason for the stat increase.
the increase is to give those players a reward. they new gear isn’t easy to get. it requires dedication and skill. but it is also not necessary to complete other content.
Its not necessary YET. ANET said it will be in the future. Content gating has been introduced to GW2
still waiting for the required quote.
Don’t wait for the required quote. Everything has been quoted, probably hundreds of times. Do your own legwork. All you need to do is skim the Ascended gear merged thread. This is like a gear grind, you now need to catch up with everyone that has already grinded out the issues.
It’s a personal effort after all , if you are a casual gamer who maxed his exotic set and have probably second BiS inslot why would you want ascendant gear for +5+10+20 stat ? Where will you be using that “hardcore” gear , once a week in wvw or the daily dungeon ? It’s the same previous mmo argument and here it comes: play harder ( work harder ) then the rest get an extra edge it’s just like in the real life or is it not ? No one is forcing you to do it you will still be competitive either way. So why cry about an extra +5 stat you don’t need and won’t use ?
Read the manifesto and marketing literature around GW2; that will answer your question. It’s always good to read the box before purchasing a product.
I believe Anet at one point recognized that “grindy” games were not fun. Anet was right and the issue of “fun” is actually the main thing driving the forums right now. The forums will settle down when Anet reads their marketing and says hey, these really are good ideas; man, the game would be pure fun without a gear grind!
They said max stat gear was in game(exotics). They NEVER said that exotics were going to always be top slot gear.
They actually did say this. There is a video Q&A with Colin Johanson and Eric Flannum where they state that legendary weapons will never be more powerful than the exotic weapons. They explicitly mention exotic weapons as being no less powerful, and even point out that Legendary weapons are based off of certain exotics.
Edit: In case anyone hasn’t read their plans for Legendary weapons, they will be bumped up in stats to match Ascended gear, making them better than exotics. This actually happened unintentially in the Lost Shores patch, but was quickly reversed later the same day.
Loosifah, on any given point you’ve displayed that you don’t know what you are talking about. Why are you still talking?
I still fail to see how adding a single tier of equipment into a game that’s only 3 months old to add more abilities and mechanics to the game is adding a kitten treadmill.
Now I could see your point if they release another content update, with yet another tier above ascended. But I highly doubt they’re going to do that. Especially with the amount of crying that went on with this recent update.
Also you have to realize that not even half the amount of people you think were “crying for a treadmill” actually did so, right? I know that I didn’t; and neither did any of the dozens of people I personally know.
They’ve been making this update since they released the game; they may not have intended to release the new tier of equipment so soon; but it was going to happen eventually.
Then you don’t understand the game design principles we are working with. Why do you insist on joining the discussion?
There is no difference in progress pre-80 versus post-80.
One is stat increases from experience, and the other is stat increases from drops.
Both drops and experience comes from killing mobs, doing hearts DE’s etc.
Maybe you can prance around at 80 and pick flowers, but like I’ve already said in this thread, when I invest my time and money into an MMO, it is to see my ‘guy’ stronger when I log off than when I logged in. I doubt I am alone here.
Do you understand what inflation is in the real world. IE The only means to secure an increase in wealth is an increase in productivity (skill) not pay rises. If you don’t understand that then you’ll never understand MMO design tactics.
On a gear progression system your “guy” is never stronger he’s only less weak than the devs made him yesterday.
Comparing gear to real world economies is a lackluster analogy. Sure stats inflate in MMO. So long as someone can jump on board and catch up to the progress wave later in the game, there is no problem.
Your last point is simply semantics. The end result is the player still feels a sense of progression.
No, a thoughtful player will realize he’s not stronger as the result of inflated stats. He or she will realize there is no progression whatsoever. The truth is he or she has gone nowhere (that’s why it’s called a treadmill). After the new tier is introduced, all the rats in the cage get on the treadmill and acquire the new gear. The mobs get stronger. No one has gone anywhere.
Study game design, there are many resources available on the internet. Power creep is a problem in game design, not a solution. It’s implemented by lazy developers and it satisfies simple players.
