People don’t go from praising the game and saying its the best thing since sliced bread to saying the game is total trash, Anet sucks yada yada yada unless you give them a reason to.
But most of those reasons end up being “Ah mai gawd endgame is different” or “Ah mai gawd there’s no tank/heal/dps” or “Ah mai gawd the skills aren’t exactly like GW1” or “Ah mai gawd dungeons are too hard” or “Ah mai gawd nightcapping” or “Ah mai gawd, I can’t sit in one spot and tap 1 repeatedly for infinite money/mats anymore”.
Not exactly valid reasons imo.
Dusk if players were busy having fun in game they would be too busy to get on the forum and bash the game. But it’s kind of hard to have fun when 2 major problems are slapping you in the face every time you log in.
The solution is so simple and cost effective that its mind blowing that there not using it right now. Instead there blowing all this money on a bot detecting program that’s going to have a work around in 2 days tops.
People who write bot scripts make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year writing bot programs for all games. There not going to say “Good job Anet you got me!” Instead there going to be hard at work making the program undetectable again and where going to be back at square one!
Its going to be a never ending battle between the people who write bot scrips and the people who write Anet’s bot programs. Just think about this for a minute Blizzard makes 1,000 times more money than Anet in a year. And they cant rid WOW of bots there still everywhere. Whats going to make Anet different?
No one wants the game to fail. How ever Anet is doing a great job on making it happen. People are tired of WOW and have been tired of WOW. Trust me on this the first game to get it right will kill WOW’s player base in 6 months tops!
War had a great campaign against botters…. they didnt just track them down and ban them….they made it a blood sport and publicly broadcasted the number of casualties.
It was great for customer confidence.
I totally agree Anet dropped the ball now everyone is up in arms. Had they followed through sales would be increasing and not decreasing!
People don’t go from praising the game and saying its the best thing since sliced bread to saying the game is total trash, Anet sucks yada yada yada unless you give them a reason to.
You guys are bashing the crap out of each other for no reason. If Anet you know did what normal developers do. We all would be on here saying “MY GOD DID YOU SEE HOW MANY BOTS THEY BANNED!” There doing such a great job I never see a better developer.
But there ignoring the problem and tensions are high. Anet is the real problem here not each other!
You’re now not only an authority on what DR systems should and shouldn’t do…but you’re also privy to numbers on how many bots are in the game each day? When did you start working at ArenaNet?
Oh wait, you’re just giving an opinion like everyone else. You have no idea what ArenaNet’s DR system does…let alone what it should do. And you have no clue how many bots are in the game and whether the number is increasing or decreasing.
I answered the question in the original post. How many threads do we need of hand-wringing and hyperbole about the big bad DR system?
Punishing all players with a DR system is the fastest way to be on the outside looking in. Just ask all the lead FFXIV developers that got fired.
It wasn’t that FFXIV was a bad game, sure it had problems. But it had a HUGE fan base that would have looked past them. But it was the fact after a few days the DR system kicked in and you were screwed.
The DR system in GW2 100x worse it kicks in 30 minutes tops! The DR system worked well for FFXIV, so it should do wonders for this game!
P.S lets not forget the bots over running the 70~80 zones that I reported 5 days ago and there still there!
You got it all wrong bots are hard to spot which is why they hired a team of experts to solve the problem. I would say there doing a heck of a job so far wouldn’t you?
Lets be honest there this is not Anet’s first MMO. If they couldn’t for see the bot problem then they shouldn’t be a developer! Obviously they didn’t do enough beta testing with this game.
And when the crap hit the fan they pulled the same stupid move that the biggest IP in all video game history pulled. They introduced DR to the game and not only that but the DR they introduced is 100x more punishing then the DR in FFXIV.
The guy cleaning toilets would have told Anet that FFXIV was the worst flop in MMO history and that every lead developer was fired. If they would have asked.
Do I want this game to succeed? Heck yes! Do i think its fair people are bashing the game on ALL game forums. Heck yes! Anet is getting everything they deserve!
Had they handled the problem the proper way. You know hire a human bot banning team. The forums would be full of praise on how well Anet is handling the bots and gold sellers, Instead they used a sludge hammer to crack a egg!
(A) Release day all forums are raving about the game
(B) 1 week after release the game is sold out everywhere
( C ) 2 weeks after release bots are popping up everywhere, so Anet introduces DR and punishes all players to combat bots.
(D) 4 weeks after release bots are running wild people are reporting them left and right
(E) Week 5 the same bots are still there and now they have multiplied Anet has done nothing to ban them. People are sick and tired of the DR system and its not helping the bots. But rather its making the bot problem worse because now they need more bots to make the same amount of money.
Lets not kid our selves here try as they might there NEVER going to rid the bot program. No game has done it in the last 13 years. But what they CAN do is drop the stupid DR system that punishes regular players and make a human bot banning team that looks into bot reports and bans the botters.
Writing a bot ban program is a stupid Idea, people make a living off these bot programs. They will circumvent the bot program in 2 days tops and were going to be back to square one!
Ronin i am dead set against DR. It’s poorly implimented for one. Two i don’t believe it does anything to the gold spammers at all. They have 10-20 bots all over per person and just collect all the coins each one makes. Pretty efficient.
So they lose 2-5 in a week. They get plenty more to replace them. I’ve said it before DR is hurting the game not helping it.
Soulwatcher the only thing I am worried about is the cost to keep the people combating bots. Since there is no sub, I wonder if there is enough money over the long term to keep it up. Either they will eventually shut it down (cost too much money) or they will have to start charging a sub. I imagine if sales don’t continue to happen or MT in the store dosen’t make enough money… they will either have to shut down or charge.
It’s worriesone
I personally have spent $90 on gems so far and I have no problem buying more. But if they want me to keep buying more gems. Then they better do something quick with the bots. There are certain events in orr that I can not even do (well its a waste of time) because there are so many bot rangers that the mobs are dead a second after they pop.
That is effecting my game play, I reported them 4 days ago. Guess what there still there and they multiplied. Also I want to help my friend buy exotic gear but I cant because of DR. I would have to play a insane amount of hours to be of any help.
Bottom line if people are not having fun there not going play or buy gems and your right they will be forced to ask for subs or shut the game down!
For the people questioning how I am hitting diminishing returns and even flat out calling me a lier:
Get ~200% magic find.
Go do any event in Orr, tag (do enough damage for them to drop loot) 100% of NPCs that spawn. Why do I tag 100% of them do you ask? Well, I thought the point is to kill them so they don’t take whatever objective is for the DE…. Should I hug them instead? Or should I single target them and be completely worthless to the rest of the people doing the DE?
Watch your loot start to dry up around 15 minutes and completely diminish in around 30 (even moving around never doing the same event twice)
Most of the people saying DR doesn’t effect them are being honest. Because they have no idea what DR is. If you weren’t 80 in the first 2 weeks then you have been playing with DR in effect the whole time.
Always with the “game is dying” doom and gloom, because they woun’t add what you want.
Seriously… really? So many temper tantrums on the forums now a days. So the game has a few small issues, what game dosen’t. They have actually fixed quit a bit of stuff. Things you would never know in a beta test.
And this dam mentality of “give it to me now”… I am so sick and tired of the entitlist attitude. Enjoy the game for what it is not for what you demand it to be.
(when I say you… I am refering to gammers in general, especially the QQer and rage monsters on the forums)
I haven’t seen a single “MAKE IT LIKE WOW NOW OR I AM GOING TO RAGE QUIT!” I am only seeing complaints about DR and Bots, bot of which are a simple fix. But its falling on deaf ears the least thing Anet could do is make a community post saying “Look this is how were going to fix the problem”.
But they are ignoring us hoping that people are going to go away. And when they have had enough that’s exactly what they are going to do and they are going to take their wallets with them. And if enough of them leave future development of this game is going to go to the crapper. Maybe then the fanboys will be happy!
They have made a few posts on the bot issue. They just put together a group to combat the bots.
Bots are not a simple fix. You ban 1 and 2-3 pop back up. The problem is they are stealing peoples accounts or buying them at cheap rates from less than reputable countries.
Bots and gold sellers have always been a problem. Unless gammers stop buying their gold they will never be gone.
And as far as rage quitting… yes there has been a few in these forums. Either they are outright quitting or threatening to quit cause it’s not like WoW or TOR or Rift or some other such MMO. But I was more pointing out the usless mentality of these people in many forums. Not just here. Seems game forums are ripe with them.
Then they need to hire as many people as it takes to combat the bots and gold sellers;. A happy player base means lots of gem sales and happy share holders and then the price of your stock goes up. Its a win win for Anet if they put together the resources!
@Fozzik FFXIV tried to dictate how people play, Look where that got them, every lead developer got fired and the game tanked faster then the Titanic!
FFXIV was also a terrible game. I’m sure that had something to do with it.
Different games, different times, different devs, different DR system (you have no idea how it works in the open world, and only a very basic understanding of it for dungeons). So no, you can’t realistically compare the two situations at all and predict what will happen.
My guess is that this is all much ado about nothing. People need something to get all worked up about. Right now, DR is the fashionable thing. Once they work the bugs out, I doubt it’s going to ever have an effect on people playing the game normally. It will probably always be the boogieman in the closet on which some panicky people blame all of life’s injustice, but I don’t think it’s going to affect GW2’s success at all. Most players will never know it exists, and will never care.
Your right I don’t know how it works I only know that I am making 60% less money then i made before DR.
Saying it has no effect on the player base is turning a blind eye. If its having no effect why are all the zones not packed? If people are happy with the system why are the not making alts and where are the new players?
If it’s a game I enjoy playing, and the issues don’t keep me from enjoying it…I’ll give them as long as it takes.
Considering the fact that developers in this genre haven’t managed to produce a game I really enjoyed in many years, and every single one of them is full of bugs at launch…I’m totally willing to give ArenaNet all the time they need. My only hope is that they don’t second-guess their design, and stick to their guns as they fix things and flesh out all the details.
The DR system (whatever it actually is) was not a quick-fix knee-jerk reaction. GW1 has had a DR system for years, maybe since its launch. I’m guessing it was always their intention to do something similar in GW2. There are some bugs with it right now (as is typical), and they are ironing them out.
You fail to see the point my friend. If Anet wants to have a DR system against bots so be it and I support it. But a DR system should NEVER effect the player base. But the fact is the current DR system is a butched job effecting everyone but the bots. The number of bots are increasing in the game by the day!
Always with the “game is dying” doom and gloom, because they woun’t add what you want.
Seriously… really? So many temper tantrums on the forums now a days. So the game has a few small issues, what game dosen’t. They have actually fixed quit a bit of stuff. Things you would never know in a beta test.
And this dam mentality of “give it to me now”… I am so sick and tired of the entitlist attitude. Enjoy the game for what it is not for what you demand it to be.
(when I say you… I am refering to gammers in general, especially the QQer and rage monsters on the forums)
I haven’t seen a single “MAKE IT LIKE WOW NOW OR I AM GOING TO RAGE QUIT!” I am only seeing complaints about DR and Bots, bot of which are a simple fix. But its falling on deaf ears the least thing Anet could do is make a community post saying “Look this is how were going to fix the problem”.
But they are ignoring us hoping that people are going to go away. And when they have had enough that’s exactly what they are going to do and they are going to take their wallets with them. And if enough of them leave future development of this game is going to go to the crapper. Maybe then the fanboys will be happy!
I’ve got 2 lvl 80’s – 300+ hours in, 1400ish achievements, and nearly every path complete on explorables… and I have not noticed any DR on loot at ALL.
In fact, if I hadn’t browsed this forum just now, I wouldn’t even know it existed at all.
This just seems to me that people who aren’t getting “lucky” on their farming drops have found a scapegoat.
And just how much gold are you making? Before DR I could make 7 gold in 4 hours running events. Now running the same events for twice the time gets me 3 gold. So year DR is effecting me.
If you have some miracle system PM it to me and I will give you 20% profit of what I make for a week!
I think people misinterpret the primary purpose of the DR system. In whatever form it actually exists, I don’t think it’s about the bots (at least not primarily). Just something to think about.
How long will I play with the system as is? Forever. The game is awesome, and the DR system, whatever it actually is (since nobody actually knows) doesn’t bother me at all. I think it’s a good idea, for several reasons. I hope ArenaNet sticks to their guns.
If there going to keep the DR system in place so be it. Lower the cost of everything in the game so the small amount of gold that I have is worth something.
Yeah, I do enjoy the virtual demonstration of the epitome of self-centered.
I am who this game was made for. My opinion..nay fact is the only that matters. All opposing views or observations will be met with condescension and obligatory "(insert game Fanboy) remarks.
Did I say make the game the way I want to play or QQ I am going to quit? No I did not! I am only asking for the game to be played the way Anet originally designed it. (A) With out bots (B) With out the stupid DR system that is supposed to hurt the bots but in fact the bots are laughing and its hurting everyone else. If that’s too much to ask for then I don’t deserve to play this game!
I’m still laughing about the “I am who this game was made for!” line.
So funny.
Is the sun shining up there denyitbattle, on that 3 million foot high horse you’ve become stuck on.
(Still giggling.)
Obviously I am not the only person the game is made for. But trust me on this they want to keep people like me. With out gem sales they will shut this game down faster then you can blink a eye.
Man, I would hate to be a developer with, some of, the modern gaming community as hostile as it is now.
MMO games are inherently glitched, whether it be quests, classes, etc. Any game so massive in size has problems. It’s ridiculous to expect them to iron out all, or most, glitches within a certain time frame. If you honestly believe this, than you have zero experience in programming. You don’t just fix one variable or line and everything is done, and if you do you risk bugging something else.
I’d like to know how big your sample size is on the “large” player base that is upset with the DR implementation. Sure, some people are but these forums, unless suddenly we have thousands of people signing threads, is no base for the players has a whole.
I don’t understand the “fix this soon or I’ll leave” and “this game is doomed” talk. If you enjoy the game, then look past the issues and give the developers the support they deserve for working so hard to give you such a quality product. (and yes this is a great, quality launch by MMO standards) It isn’t an mmo, but Morrowind is considered one of the best rpgs of all time. You know what else it’s considered? One of the most bug filled ones. But the community looks past the bugs, and enjoys the game they were given.
Lastly, Anet has been awesome about communication, you should pay more attention.
I am not asking for miracles use some of that $90 I spent and gems and the billion or so they made from box sales and spend $7.25 a hr to to hire a few people and make a bot banning team. And remove the stupid DR and I will over look any other flaw in the game. Matter of fact check all my posts I haven’t made a single post about a broken game mechanic other then getting crap loot out of finishing the personal story.
I just started the game in the last week or so and I find it to be pretty well populated. Not packed, but events usually have 3-4 people. I rarely have solo’d one. Sometimes a larger group of 10-15 shows up. For me it’s just about right. Not a post launch zergfest and not “this game is 3 years old and it’s a ghost town”.
3 to 4 people at events is a joke! When I played FFXI from 2004~2007 all of the zones were so packed that often groups were on top of each other fighting for mobs. Were a month in and 3 to 4 players at a event is very sad! All zones should be packed to the max and full of people everywhere!
I have two characters at level 25 and really having starting sPvPing a majority of my play time. I am a working professional who plays casualcore and have had a blast.
I am who this game is made for.
If you are a compulsive gamer who must grind out the top rewards for 40 hours a week in order to get that sense of accomplishment, this game was not made for you. Please exit to another MMO to satisfy your needs and enjoy coming back when there is more content to satisfy you.
Please do not continue to try and ruin this game for well-rounded individuals. Anet has your $60 dollars and you have had your 200+ hours of gameplay which should be a good enough arrangement for both sides.
It astonishes me how people can come to a forum and demand that they be allowed to mindlessly grind away their lives… I guess typically games make you pay monthly to eat your time, i can understand the confusion that Anet doesn’t want to eat your time and wont charge you for it.
May I ask how may gems you have bought? I wouldn’t even consider myself hardcore and I already spent $90 in the gem store. I am the kind of person they built the game for. They want me to keep spending my money on gems!
Having said that the current DR system is slapping me in the face every time I log in. I cant play how I want to play because now I have to run events twice as long for 60% less loot.
My friend is almost 80 and I want to help her with exotic gear. But I can’t help her unless I run events 20+ hours a day. And that’s simply not worth my time.
To all of you fan boys puffing out your chest screaming LEAVE! Your going to get your wish in 3 weeks if nothing changes. And when I leave so does my wallet!
Thanks for the snapshot from 8 years ago. As of today I have nothing to do in Gw2. And hell, id even faction grind at this point.
You do make Blizz sound very devious and present a few things that if true would be.
Here is a conspiracy the other way around.
Anet says it needs to combat botting and speed runs by implementing DR. DR spills into every aspect of the game (WvW, Des, Farming,Dungeons) and this kills most of the ways players choose to make gold. All of this for the bots and “exploiters”.
Yet the same bots who have been reported hundreds of times are still there. Same names, same bots. Now are those bots still there for an excuse to keep the DR and force limited playtime people into the cash shop or? DR in WvW…do we have botting going on there?
I’m just curious as to who’s making the most money off these bots…the bot owners(whoever they may be) or Anet.
To be honest, I suspect the reasoning of why they are keeping the bots active at the moment is for that specialized team they formed to make the application they are designing. Rather than ban them out right, they are using the bots against the farmers themselves as test-beds for their program. I suspect once the program is done, we’re going to see a firestorm of banning.
Ironically, the gold farmers are helping them design the tools Anet will be using to find them.
Citations:
Our monitoring of ‘bot’ activity has already resulted in over 1600 account terminations world-wide in the last week alone, and we are actively tracking the most common ‘bots’ in use, so that we can continue to eliminate them from the game. As we continue to gather information on these ‘bots’, we will be increasing the rate of account termination to remove them. Please continue to report players that you suspect of ‘botting’ – your support is much appreciated.
We are actively improving our means of detecting ‘bot’ activity in the game automatically. This includes tools for our customer support team to help them verify ‘botting’ reports and efficiently issue account terminations. Recently we have also hired a team of data specialists who will be helping us create more effective tools for analyzing reports of ‘botting.’
I would call Anet devious indeed in this regard.
Maybe your right but the bots in ORR went from 5 to 10 to 15 to 20+ all of them in one event cremating the mobs faster then you can blink your eyes! If the DR was such a great system bots wouldn’t be multiplying. But the fact is the player base is dwindling and bots are multiplying. I have been playing MMO’s since June of 99 and in all my years I have never seen so many bots in one game. You can’t go anywhere worth while in this game with out running into bots. Something needs to be done NOW not latter!
P.S. if your right and there working on a mass ban I am going to go out on a limb and say 60k+ accounts get banned for botting across all servers!
The core of the matter is that you don’t need all this grind. This is an illusion that you guys have accepted yourself.
You complain that you cannot make 7 gold in 4 hours and now it takes you, what, 8 hours to get 3 gold?
I am no farmer or grinder and I can make 3 gold in 8 hours and I don’t even have to be in Orr for that.
And unique skins matter but you don’t have to have all of them collected within two weeks either.
Currently some of the best skins come from dungeons. You can do a dungeon in 3 different ways getting 60 tokens each time. If you think it’s a problem that it could take you 2-3 days to get a specific exotic item with a cool skin then you are simply impatient.
Oh and if it’s bugged that’s another matter. That’s not the DR system…that’s a bug in the system and that needs to be fixed. From what I’ve read that should be fixed on Monday….
Gehenna thank you for proving my point. Never did I say I stood in 1 spot farming the same mobs over and over! I was running events and now the same events give 60% less loot for almost twice the time. And that has been verified by you personally!
I don’t know about you but I loved my reward for finishing the personal story 2 pieces of level 40 gear 2 pieces of level 20 gear and 1 piece of junk 80 gear not for my class. Good think it only took me 80 FREAKING levels for such a great reward!
Ronin I think the main problem is people have no idea what DR is. I went from making 7 gold in around 4 hrs to barley making 3 gold in almost twice the amount of time. Anet said the game is not about the grind then why is it taking me twice as long to make 60% less money!
Ah, I was refering to the in game mails. Did not realize they sold goods in the normal manner, thought they just sold gold.
They do both that’s how they get the gold to sell to players. And like it or not people are going to buy from them when gold is 1/10 of the price of the TP.
lol, people just need to understand that no one here has facts. I don’t either.
Everybody who talks about lots of players or everyone knows is just hiding behind bigger numbers that they invent because actually they just mean themselves.
It’s all opinion here, nothing more. Arenanet hold the numbers. They know how many people play, how many games are sold and how many people aren’t logging in anymore.
Are there servers with population issues? Maybe. I don’t know and the people who complain about it refuse to give details so why believe them?
Is DR so restrictive? Perhaps to some but only if you play a certain way that doesn’t even fit in what this game was advertised.
Can we agree that Anet said this game wasn’t for grinding?
If so, then why complain about not being able to grind like in a korean game?
For the love of whatever, somebody of you complainers should be able to see the irony in this and the point that you are grinding only because you have been so well trained by other games to do this and not because there is any real reason in this game to do so.
There simply is no need to do this. You do it because you have been taught to in other games and if you really like grinding away….yeh, you guessed it, this is not the game for you as Anet have been telling us for a long time…this game isn’t about grind.
Oh and just because you still see bots, doesn’t mean it isn’t working….just a thought. That may just be a rash or even a false conclusion. Consider it.
That’s the spirit dictate how players should play, tell them you know best. It worked so well for D3, FFXIV and Star Wars. This game should be seeing record sales in no time!
@Sam that’s what I have been preaching all day! Punishing your entire player base because of botters is not the way to build a player base!
Like it or not this game needs as many players that it can get even the “FARMER’s”. Guild Wars 1 was a very successful B2P game because of the fact that 95% of the game ran off peer to peer much just like COD. The only time you were using Anet servers was in towns.
Guild Wars 2 is a full blown mmorpg and will not survive on B2P alone. They need Gem sales and lots of them. I probably would fall on the floor if I seen the GW2 bandwidth bill little alone the data center bill. On top of that you need to pay people to maintain the servers, fix code in the game, work on new content, customer service, pr department , human resources, rent/mortgage on the building their working out of utilities, worker pay, heck I can go on and on. The cost to run this game is probably 100 times more then GW1.
I will give it a few more weeks at best if they don’t get a handle on the bots and stop punishing me for having fun then I am gone. The DR system in this game is 100 times worse then FFXIV and it tanked harder then the Titanic.
Tsaritsin whats this leveling curve you speak of the game rushes you to 80. The higher level you get the faster leveling gets you can go 1 to 80 in a long weekend. (4 days)
Forcing players to play the way you want them to play is a sure fire way to be on the outside looking in. Just ask SE how good FFXIV is doing and the same can be said about D3 and Star Wars. Why developers like to kill off their player base I will never know!
There is no such things as true freedom. Anything that is programmed means there are borders. They just changed them and they are easy to circumvent at that.
FF was just a dragon of a game from the start. D3 sold millions of copies just the same and all the hate doesn’t change that. My view on D3 is that it’s not the bugs but the content that failed the game. It’s just boring and SWTOR is a game I played from launch till last month. There were still bugs from the start after 8 months, their fixing rate is slower and the content was way too one sided. I was leaving as it was, even if GW2 hadn’t been there. I did all I wanted there. Characters are being deleted randomly, their TP doesn’t work after the last patch as we speak. That game has been out since December.
So no, I don’t think GW2 falls in that catergory.
And back about the why….The reason they do things like this is because the alternative is worse. That’s actually what you don’t get. Of course, with any decision, any change, you will lose some players because someone, somewhere will not be happy with it. Sometimes, sad as it may be, things need to change to improve the game, knowing that some people will leave because of it. Arenanet cannot win. That’s just a reality for anyone, not just for them.
DR would not be my weapon of choice here but if you can’t deal with a system that restricts rewards from grinding your kitten off, then this really isn’t the game for you. People like the OP are so well trained in endgame gear progression that they haven’t woken up and realised it’s not needed here. Exotic gear is easy enough to get and good enough to play any dungeon, event or what not. The rest is something that can take time, because even if you do think you need it, I really don’t see any argument that says you must be able to do it within two weeks grinding the same spot over and over again…no matter how much you like doing that.
Just look at all the complaints about botting and you will see that a lot of people are worried about that.
I guess your not familiar with FFXIV that game had a less punishing DR system then GW2. And guess what it tanked harder then the Titanic. Just because people are not coming on the forums and making I quit threads doesn’t mean there not leaving.
Just look at how empty the 1 to 70 zones are that should give you a good indication of how well the game is doing. They are barren and being a month old game they should be packed like sardines.
My god I love reading posts about complainers are the vocal minority. Here is a news flash for you! FORUMS ARE DEAD! Look at the PS3 and 360 forums you have maybe 40 or 50 people posting a day on each forum yet there are over 14 million PS3 and Over 14 million 360 players.
The vast majority of the people are simply going to quit with out saying a word on the forums. But you can rest assured there going to tell all their friends how much the game sucks.
My 4 year old nice will tell you that there’s less people playing now then release. Its not that hard to figure out when most of the 1 to 70 zones are empty. It means two things (A) High level people are unhappy so there not making alts (B) Game sales have slowed way down.
If you would like a example of a non WOW successful mmorpg look no further then FFXI. I played that game from 2004 until 2010 and from 2004 until 2007 all zones were packed like sardines. It wasn’t until late 2007 that the game started loosing players. And that’s was because SE was too hard headed and stopped listening to players.
DR is a system. Understand the system and work with it or around it. People are just generally impatient and entitled these days.
I am not against having expectations but there is a little word called reasonable.
You don’t need to buy a sword for 150g and if you do feel you need it, you can work the system or take a little longer to get it. People don’t seem to get that you don’t need stuff like that to play this game. Sure, you may want it, but that’s not the same. And you don’t have to be able to get it within a week either.
The DR system was not the most elegant solution. I agree with that. But on the other hand, you can do a lot with rotating events to counter the effects of DR and I don’t think that Anet has to cater to people who spend 5 hours a day doing the same thing over and over again. Bots do that. You wanna be a bot, that’s your choice but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work around the system. It simply takes not being a bot.
A little intelligence and some patience can go a long way. Soon enough you’ll have your legendary sword…barey a month or two after release…then what?
Forcing players to play the way you want them to play is a sure fire way to be on the outside looking in. Just ask SE how good FFXIV is doing and the same can be said about D3 and Star Wars. Why developers like to kill off their player base I will never know!
@Cribbage that’s partly true, what it the cops stayed around the bank and arrested anyone under the assumption that they are there to rob the bank. How many future customers do yo think the bank will have?
Anet stands to loose lots of future customers if word gets out that Anet punishes everyone any time a gold seller does something wrong.
I see what your saying, and it’s clear from these forums that some people are VERY dis-satisfied with DR and that probably means players will leave over it.
However, I don’t think it is so simple. I am not the only one who is glad to see strong action against gold sellers, even if it means some aspects of the game are impacted too. The DR is more likely to keep me in the game than send me out of it.
Yes, we call them the vocal minority. They often shout the loudest but typically comprise a very small population of impossible to satisfy players.
It’s the silent type that leave and don’t say a word. Those are the people I fear the most because most people simply cant be bothered by posting on a forum.
Anet I don’t understand whats taking so long to ban bots. I reported a slew of them 4 days ago yet they are still there. All it would take is to send 1 GM there with the ban hammer and wipe them out and I would be a very happy camper!
@Cribbage that’s partly true, what it the cops stayed around the bank and arrested anyone under the assumption that they are there to rob the bank. How many future customers do yo think the bank will have?
Anet stands to loose lots of future customers if word gets out that Anet punishes everyone any time a gold seller does something wrong.
Your 100% right most people leave with out saying a word. The people complaining about the game on the forums are the players who want it to succeed! Yet the fan boys puff up their chest and attack anyone who has anything to say other then Anet are gods!
A lot of people just play and enjoy the game without ever posting on the forums, as well. The haters are just as much at fault… as I said, the polarization on the forums leads both sides to become hysterical and take ever-more-unreasonable positions.
The people complaining about the game on the forums aren’t the only ones who want it to succeed (and I would argue that some have already written the game off as failed or doomed, and posted as much). The “fanboys” as we are affectionately called, also very much want the game to succeed. We just like it the way it is, for the most part…and feel that the worst thing ArenaNet could do is second-guess themselves and start making big changes to their underlying design philosophy.
Again, ArenaNet is pretty experienced, and I’m sure has a good handle on where the right middle ground exists. They are the ONLY ones who know how the overall player base is reacting to their game…and how the finances are working out. They have been quite successful in the past, and I don’t doubt they will continue to be.
FYI you don’t keep a player base by punishing everyone for a few others mistakes. When a gunmen goes in a bank and robs the place, do the police arrest everyone in the bank under the assumption that they may become future bank robbers? In a since that’s what Anet did with the whole DR system, now everyone pays the price!
@Cribbage like it or not in this game you NEED people to play. Chasing players away from the game is going to make a sad Cribbage the day you log in and there is no one to play with!
I don’t really see how players logging on to grind helps me. It doesn’t give me anyone to team with in PvP and it doesn’t give allies to kill event bosses with.
Yes, I definitely DO need a decent level of population to play, but they need to be something other than grinding zombies to have a beneficial effect on my game.
Who do you think buys and sells materials? Who do you think trades gold for gems? Who do you think grinds honor badges for hours on end making PVP enjoyable? I could go on and on DR effects PVP and PVE.
I think you are kinda missing the point.
If grinding mats is a necessary part of the game economy, my preference is to change the economy so it is no longer necessary. Not to invite a load of farmers to play.
If grinding honour badges is the only way to get someone to PvP, then my preference is to make PvP be enough fun that people don’t NEED and artificial currency to motivate them.
In other words, make the game fun enough that people will actually want to play it for its own sake.
To this I say amen but truth behold the current system requires a massive grind. Have you ever leveled a craft to 400? The amount of mats you need is mind boggling. Want to travel to 10 zones @80? Get ready to bend over minimum your going to pay 2s30c if they way point is 10ft away and up to 5s if its far away.
Anet does a great job at keeping you broke, the game is very unrewarding. The only way to get ahead is to sit there and grind until your rear end is numb. DR took that away leaving anyone who didn’t get their gear before DR screwed. That’s why there is such a uproar on the forum.
Yes, see my reply to Rev, above. I have to say I essentially agree with your view of the problem, although I am not sure we agree on solution.
Well I think we can agree that (A) they need to increase rewards in the game or (B) Like you said reduce the amount of materials needed and reduce the travel cost or do away with it entirely. Making what little gold we get worth something.
I should say of course they want and appreciate continuted patronage. More income is always appreciated in any business. And you touched upon the good qualities of the buy to play system- you are not forced to buy the gems with real life money, you can simply play the game and exchange gold for gems.
Are you proposing that you want some sort of fan thank you letter or in game reward?
News flash! In order to trade gold for gems some one has to buy the gems first.
Im not sure what game you are playing. I can do a currency exchange where I give up some of my gold that I have earned in game, and get gems in exchange. Then I can use those gems to make store purchases. I have not had to purchase any gems at all, though I likely will just to add my support further to the game.
They don’t give gems away for free. When you trade gold for gems a player on some server bought the gems for real life cash and then traded them to you through the exchange system.
