Guild Wars 2

Town clothes have been exclusive to the Gem Store, but the Quaggan/Charr backpacks have dropped in BL Chests, the SouthSun crates have a chance to drop from mobs, the Flame and Frost story could grant you skins, and the SAB skins could also be earned by playing the game.

And really, gold earned by playing the game can be used to purchase Gems, so…what’s the concern again?

Gasoline.2570:

Stone.6751:

I’m actually pretty alright with the RNG system. It means that anyone with a small amount of gold to spend (or who gets a crate/chest/key in game) has a chance at a very exclusive item.

People love having gear to show off, and the little guy gets a shot at it this way and it isn’t ruined by the guys who have a lot of actual dollars to throw into the gem store (unless those guys are gullible enough to dump a lot of dollars into it trying).

Yeah it’s all fun and games until theres a skin you want and you really don’t care what anyone else thinks.

Then it becomes a real pain.

Unless you’re lucky.

Guess what.

You’re not.

RNG.

Asia.

Fin.

There hasn’t been one single item in this game, or any game, where I had to have it no matter the cost. This game especially, because the new shiny skins out today are replaced tomorrow by something else shiny. Everyone wanted those SAB skins, and now how many people are running around with them? Then everyone wanted the Molten skins, now people want the ugly Southsun skins, and tomorrow something else.

Nike.2631:

Schemes to squeeze gold out of other players is not something that needs a hell of a lot of protection IMO . Buying stuff as an investment is as much gambling as opening the kits in the first place was. The should not be ‘sure bets’, ever. Sound bets, yes, sure bets, uh uh. Agent Smith sides with stability, so it won’t be nearly as magnificent as its should/could be, but there’s simply zero reason to think the basic accessibility of any digital asset is gone forever.

Its not a scheme to squeeze other players. Anyone had the option to purchase these dyes just as I did when they were available in the Gem Store and in the TP for far less gold.

Knowing that they were going out of the Gem Store and would be limited in their availability I knew that market forces would drive the prices up for me and I could make a profit from this investment.

I’m happy with it.

I picked out the one F&F dye I liked on my character and bought it for myself, and then I spent the 100 gold I had been saving up for a Commander hat and spent it on 9 F&F dyes. So far I’ve put one of those dyes on the market and it sold for a return of roughly 60g into my bank. I’ve got two more dyes on the TP now and if they sell I will have doubled my money on just 3 of the 9 dyes.

I’m actually pretty alright with the RNG system. It means that anyone with a small amount of gold to spend (or who gets a crate/chest/key in game) has a chance at a very exclusive item.

People love having gear to show off, and the little guy gets a shot at it this way and it isn’t ruined by the guys who have a lot of actual dollars to throw into the gem store (unless those guys are gullible enough to dump a lot of dollars into it trying).

Has there ever been items introduced into the game that were only available for a limited time, and yet to be reintroduced? If the answer is yes, then why wouldn’t the same be true of the F&F dyes?

If for some reason they decide to reintroduce the dyes they should wait a very long time knowing that players have put a lot of gold into these dyes as an investment based on how they marketed the dyes in the Gem Store.

Well apparently people will pay a lot! As of right now the very limited quantity of Flame and Frost dyes are disappearing from the TP and driving prices way up. People are either snapping up their favorites before they are gone forever, or someone is flexing their bank and making a long-term investment in dyes.

Dyes can be used by anyone, applied to any armor item, and used over and over again. It makes sense that these would be a good investment. I only wish I had the gold to snap them all up. :/

Yea, I put one of my F&F dyes up a few days ago when I saw the availability drop and it sold for just under 60g after fees.

I agree that ‘end game’ content in this game is any and all of the game’s content because there is down-leveling. Having more high-level areas open up in the game, as the game’s player-base matures, would be nice for added challenge. At level 80 there are few areas that offer a challenge other than some dungeon paths and Orr.

Also, does anyone think the WvW system is meant to be ‘end game’ content since its never-ending?

There is a difference between playing specific content, even repeatedly, and farming. If you are playing the content you are doing so for the enjoyment of the content and to have fun, and as a bonus you get some rewards.

Farming is playing content solely for the sake of the rewards and the content is seen as an annoying barrier to your goal. People who do this see the game as a grind as they try and plow past the annoying content so they can get their reward...only to later find out that the only thing to do with any rewards in the game is to play and enjoy the content but after grinding and farming they are usually left with only bitterness and complaints.

Just one man’s perspective.

I read someplace where the developers have said they want to add a new way to earn a precursor that players can clearly work toward and follow their progress. If I remember right it said it would require game play in a lot of different areas of the game.

They have also said that the quality of items you put into the forge has an effect on your chances of a precursor dropping, so Exotic > Rare and perhaps Named Exotic > Exotic?

Finally, when I search for ‘where do precursors drop’ there are LOTS of people who have listed Orr as the place where their precursor dropped. Again this makes sense given the difficulty of this area in comparison to the rest of the game. Champions and Temples are probably good places to hang around to max your drop chances. If you are roaming around in lower levels areas for most of your 2000+ hours, its not surprise that one hasn’t dropped.

I can’t imagine that many people are buying these skins. If these skins were just part of the normally available skins, for normal skin prices, I still wouldn’t consider buying it just because its so different looking than the style of my character. I’m guessing that I’m not the only person who feels that way.

So my guess is that they move off the TP very slowly, and as they do people who are wondering when to sell will slowly list and things will stay stagnant for a long, long time. Probably until people are willing to part with the skin for whatever they can get for it and start driving down prices.

These are pretty cute, and look hilarious on the Charr. Now give us more reasons to be in a town and in our town clothes and I’ll consider buying something like this.

The only thing I have ever felt was somewhat necessary was extra bag slots and bank slots, and these are within reach by using gold. But even these aren’t totally necessary if you manage your inventory well and don’t horde stuff ‘for a rainy day’ that never comes.

If this turns out to be true it will certainly make things interesting, and with any change some people will cheer and others will complain.

Necromancer trait lines could really use an overhaul. In order to make a build that’s cohesive, where traits are complementing one another without wasting trait points, you aren’t left with a lot of good options.

Why is this the most tasteless? There are plenty of missions where I put men/women/skritt/dredge/charr/etc. to their death in great numbers; so what’s wrong with a little whipping in comparison?

Stop trying to be offended and go and enjoy the game for what it is.

Rare items weren’t rare the day I found the Black Lion Trade Post.

The problem with a lot of the dungeons as I see them now is that they aren’t straightforward combat. You have to know how this trick or that trick works, and if even one person doesn’t get it or do it right then you have a good chance to fail. With the rewards being not that great other than the tokens, its just not worth the time.

For being the lowest level dungeon, AC is way out of whack. Yes there are little tricks you can do to make it easier, but that’s not how the very first dungeon should be for players. It should be challenging but not stupid, which is what AC has turned into.

I’m not sure what people exactly want in terms of gold farmed per hour/day or what they want to do with all the gold. Regardless, if the amount of gold in the economy was to increase because of people’s ability to farm it wouldn’t cost of everything would just rise along with the increase in gold supply?

Further, wouldn’t having a few specific methods for earning gold (which are superior to other areas of the game/ways to play the game) drive people to those areas and ways of playing even if it wasn’t an enjoyable way of playing just so they can keep up? I mean, ANet buffs areas like SouthSun exactly in order to encourage people to play there. Other areas reward based more on risk, like Cursed Shore, but otherwise I’m quite happy with how much gold I’m able to make each day without having to work hard for it, and I’m able to pretty much have everything I want in the game and have gold left over.

I salvaged something like 5-6 rares last night from meta-events with a Master kit and had one drop 3 ectos and another drop 2. In total I think I ended up with 8 ectos, so if other people aren’t able to get more than 1 per salvage ever its definitely not affecting everyone.

I salvaged 5 or 6 level 80 rares last night with a Master salvage kit and ended up with 7 ectos. They are still dropping at the same rate as always for me, I’m not sure why everyone seems to think its changed.

I just pray that once they are all available they don’t release a 3-pack at a slight discount to the cost of buying them all individually.

Also, by having things in RNG boxes its possible for people without a lot of gold or money to buy gems to still get these highly coveted items.

For people who pay $120, 600gold, or anything in between for these ugly skins, I can only say that it seems like you guys have lost perspective. Next week/month there will be something else shiny and new (and likely better than these skins).

It sounds like you lost your sense of reality and your perception of whats important is out of whack. Taking time away from the game might be a smart idea. No item in the game is worth $60, and no three is worth $120. If these items were guaranteed at that price, or less, they still wouldn’t be worth the price. Pay the money and next month more shineys will come out. None of it is going to make you happy or satisfied with the game.

I thought that the “available for x days only” really meant they wouldn’t ever be available again. Now I’m concerned that the same may be true for Flame & Frost dyes, which many people invested in due to their limited availability. If they bring these back on the Gem Store the prices are going to plummet and people will take a loss based on false information.

Bummer this happened. :/

They are still available on the trade post, and even though that shows a limited availability I can promise you there are more stockpiled away in banks. They will trickle into the market slowly unless ANet pulls one over on us and the “limited time sale” turns out to not be true like it was for the minis.

gennyt.3428:

If Anet is going to take it on themselves to balance WvWvW populations then many people would probably end up giving up something called “server pride”, which is funny and sad at the same time because this is exactly what server vs server fosters especially since the servers don’t get bo diddly for their efforts anyway. There are some shockingly short sighted design choices at the core of WvWvW. I would have preferred to see guild or alliance battles with say…20 or 50 man teams in a three way fight from a pool of all servers, instead they went ape kitten with this whole “persistent world” bit.

Edit: When I say 20 or 50 man teams, I was talking about instanced battles not placing a cap on a "persistent"map at 50 people per team. That way, if you lose it’s because you were outplayed and or unprepared and not because you’re constantly outnumbered. They had a good thing going in GW1, I don’t know why they strayed so far away.

I’ve had this same thought for a long time now, but its such a huge change that I doubt they would be able to pull it off.

I think having WvW part of map completion was/is a mistake. This wouldn’t have been such a big deal if the server rotation hadn’t ground to a halt months ago, essentially making it impossible to get map completion for some players. The odds of Borlis Pass/Anvil Rock taking Ehmry Bay’s Keep in Eternal Battleground while I am online and playing WvW is extremely slim, and our servers are locked in a 3 way that’s not about to change anytime soon.

Thankfully the new system will make this possible again, but really it should have never been in the first place.

Instanced, customizable, upgradable, guild halls would be awesome. I’d love for them to somehow display certain achievements in the form of items added to the hall (guild members claim towers in wvw x number of times adds x item for display in guild hall). That’s probably asking too much, but it would give guilds something to work towards together as a group.

Consider this petition signed.

I went to SouthSun with a few friends right after we rolled some alts, so we were all level 2, and we were able to survive there but not very well. You would greatly benefit from having a higher level teaming up with you if you go. But you can certainly do it!

I haven’t played every class, but Guardian is pretty good. You can get decent DPS and high-survivability plus if you build right you can add a lot to a team in terms of buffs and healing. As a bonus, and not a small one for me in PvE, you get excellent movement speed with Aegis which prevents you from annoying hits that slow you down.

They have stated that they plan to implement a way for players to clearly work toward earning a precursor..eventually. So players won’t have to throw countless items into the forge, save up gold, or cross their fingers and hope.

Also, I think they plan on adding new Legendary weapons at some point, which may help alleviate the prices on some of the current ones.

If playing one specific part of the game, say Lyssa farming, nets a player significantly more gold than anywhere else in the game that can have the effect of driving other players who aren’t interested in farming to it simply as a way to keep up.

They should make content rewarding, and fairly balanced with some randomness of course, in order to make all the areas and all the events viable long-term.

As the OP said, he would play in the early zones if they made them viable. In a way this is what ANet is doing by realigning areas that are being farmed. The only other option is to bring EVERYTHING else up, and either way you are balancing the equation. Or am I missing something?

This is an amazing game and there is plenty for people do to in it (fractals, dungeons, map completion, jumping puzzles, wvw, pvp, achievements, personal story, living story, meta-events, daily achievements). If someone bought the game soon after launch and did a lot of grinding or farming, of if they just play A LOT, I could see where they would be looking for a new game. If you are more casual with your time invested and slow down to enjoy the many aspects of the game, then there is more than enough to do to last for a while assuming you are interesting in all aspects of the game. Some of it can start to feel the same after a while though, and this is where having some friends to play with in-game can make things more enjoyable.

Julie Yann.5379:

The problem is not everyone can put more an hour or 2 into the game. One can easily sink 2 g in WvW in a couple hours. Players who want to play WvW have no choice but to farm PvE to make up for their losses and they don’t want to spend days playing the game “as intended” in order to afford a night out on the battlegrounds. They want to make as much money as fast as they can so they can get back into the fight. The only way you make money in WvW is by just following the zerg, not building any siege, and not upgrading anything and anyone who says different is a kittening liar.

Making money, or not making money, in WvW is a completely separate topic. But I would agree with you that there is no money to be made there. Playing WvW is simply for prestige and fun.

NCsoft is a publicly traded company so if you want to know how its doing you can simply look to their quarterly report to investors. They are not allowed to fudge anything there unless they want a lawsuit. NCsoft clearly states that GuildWars2 has has been falling and they are considering an expansion to help revive it. A quick search resulted this article summarizing their last quarterly report. I’ve included a quote from it below.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-05-13-ncsoft-profits-up-yoy-but-down-on-last-quarter

“Korea remained NCsoft’s biggest market with 64 per cent of sales, up from 43 per cent last quarter. North America’s share fell from 25 per cent to 13 per cent, while Europe fell from 18 per cent to 8 per cent. The company’s biggest seller for Q1 2013 was Lineage 1, but Guild Wars 2 still maintained a 21 per cent share.

NCsoft’s managing director, Nah Seong Chan, also hinted during the earnings call that the company was planning to address falling Guild Wars 2 sales with a new expansion pack.

“In terms of box sales and microtransactions are still very strong, and of course we are preparing an expansion pack but in terms of when we will actually launch it, it’s something we are still monitoring… We are looking to the performance of the game and then we will decide what will be the best time to do the launch.”

Unfortunately developer ArenaNet doesn’t appear to have got the memo, with director Colin Johanson saying as recently as March that none were currently planned.

“Expansions are definitely something that we’ll potentially look at in the future, but we don’t have a timetable on it. We’re open to it, but I think our major focus as a studio is making the living world concept as strong as possibly can for the players that we’ve got.”

laokoko.7403:

^ well, i probably offended you by saying what you can do with 2 gold a day. I mean if you want legendary, 2 gold a day probably won’t cut it.

No offense was taken at all! I talk to plenty of people in game that hardly have 2g in their bank, and they play fairly regularly!

In my opinion not everyone should have a Legendary; they should be almost unattainable for everyone but the most dedicated players. If there were anything less then they would start to become common, especially as the life of the GW2 grows, and that would take away from the entire purpose of having one.

If people want to grind for a status-symbol that’s their choice, but most people I see that spend their in-game time bypassing the game in order to grind toward a reward (in this case a Legendary) tend to burnout and complain that there isn’t enough content.

laokoko.7403:

Stone.6751:

Daily takes 45 minutes tops, and most nights I can hit 5-6 meta events within 2 hours. Just with those two things alone ill earn about 2g each day. It sounds like some people have really bad luck with drops on exotics and such, they are very.uncommon but they do happen.

That’s why I made my previous post. Some people can get as high as 16-20 gold in 2 hours. And that’s why people are upset because when things is nerfed and they no longer can.

And what are you doing with 2 gold a day. Maybe 3 years of playing will get you a legendary? That is why those people are complaining.

The reality if more than anything GW2 is designed to be casual. It is designed so people don’t need to grind. But people’ll say what about legendary?

The truth to me is “most people” don’t even care about legendary. That is just my guess.

And when you can blew through all the content and there is very little grind, there become very little to do. Unless you mean ….. achievement like killing a trillion doyalk in wvw.

What am I doing with 2g a day? I never said I’m only making 2g a day, I said I can make that in my first couple of hours playing each day. If I’ve got more time to play, which is only occasionally for me, then I can earn a bit more than that even. The gold I do bank I have used to buy extra bag slots in the Gem Store, I bought a stash of Flame/Frost dyes that I’m banking to sell later on, and I outfit my alts with exotics weapons. The rest of the gold I’ve just got saved for when I find something I really want.

If people can consistently make 15-20g in 2 hours you would quickly see the price of things like legendary weapons inflate with the increase in gold supply.

And you are right, there are plenty of us that could care less about a Legendary weapon. There are about a million other things I’d rather have because I just don’t find 95% of them to be all that cool. :/

I set goals for myself. Like completing a map or zone, earning x amount of gold, earning a WvW rank, hitting achievement points, completing dungeons, etc. I try and change it up, enjoy different parts of the game, and do so with friends. I’ve got no interest in ignoring the game for the sake pof the reward, because the point of the reward is to use for enjoying the.game. This is where many people seem to go wrong in these games.

Daily takes 45 minutes tops, and most nights I can hit 5-6 meta events within 2 hours. Just with those two things alone ill earn about 2g each day. It sounds like some people have really bad luck with drops on exotics and such, they are very.uncommon but they do happen.

Of course its going to be a loss more often than a profit. It everyone was profiting what would happen? People would sell their items for profit, buy more crates, rinse and repeat.

You are simply buying a high chance of disappointment in purchasing these RNG boxes.

The whole idea of random chests/crates reminds me a whole lot of blind box toys. Here’s a quote about those as a form of gambling; and gambling it is not although it has a similar feel to it. Some of you don’t seem to be able to grasp the difference – or are just so mad that you don’t care to try.

“There is something about the blind assortment that ‘pulls you in’ to try and win the figure you want,” he observes.

Though a similar desire undoubtedly drives conventional gambling, the world of professional gambling is built upon a closed system wherein what’s lost or won is merely undifferentiated capital. The dream of the casual gambler is to win more money than he or she started with (thus enabling him or her to fulfill some other desire), for the addict to earn enough money to continue gambling. Gambling for these reasons makes a certain amount of sense, however much moralists may disapprove. But in the world of blind box toys, what the consumer demonstrates is the desire to pay a premium for the possibility of being dissatisfied, of buying an item he or she does not actually want. The result is not an increased capability to fulfill one’s desire, but the near assurance that one’s desire will not be met. Can we explain this through recourse to a “risk premium”? Is the packaging too new for consumers to have developed appropriate buying practices? Or is consumer behavior in this case simply irrational? Whatever the answer, for now blind boxes are a goldmine for the toy industry."

http://culturalproductionblog.com/?p=112

I think you are being far too liberal in painting this as “gambling”. When you gamble for cash you are trying to turn money into more money, with the chance at losing you money with nothing in return.

Having items that are guaranteed to give you something for your money, even if your item is taken at random from the set group, is always giving you exactly what you paid for.

As others have stated its just like baseball cards, blind box collectables, and even those quarter vending machines where you get a little prize but everyone hopes for the really cool one they feature front and center. Heck, by your logic every enemy I kill could be considered a gamble with my time investment since drops are random.

This is much, much different than actually “gambling” as you are referencing.

You get exactly what you pay for, a chance at a select group of items. We get it though, its random which means some people are gonna get mad because they can’t just get what they want without risk. However, random rewards the casual guy who doesn’t have the money for gems.

How cool is it to get a Black Lion Key from a drop and open it to gain a rare skin? But those guys that just gotta have it and spend $40 on gems with expectations to buy keys sometimes walk away disappointed and upset.

I paid about 20g for Abyss and another 7g for one of the F&F Teal dyes for one of my characters. It was money well spent to have my character look exactly how I want her to look. Heck, I spent tons of gold on armor and weapon skins and that’s cosmetic as well so I may as well spend my gold on dye too. And why not? What else am I spending my gold on? My characters are equipped with exotic armor and weapons, with the runes and skins I want, I’ve upped my bag and bank slots, so what more do I really need with the gold I’ve gathered?

My feeling is that people who want a complete set of dyes, and people like myself who accumulate gold and already have their ‘needs’ fulfilled for their characters will spend their gold on what they ‘want’. Heck, people spend $40 US dollars on Southsun RNG crates just for the chance at so-so weapon/armor skin (according to posts in this forum anyway), so why wouldn’t someone spend in-game gold on an awesome dye.

I put my money were my mouth is and I spent a little over 100g on F&F dyes and am sitting on 9 of them in my bank right now. Since I don’t need the gold right now, they will likely remain there and collect dust until they become even more exclusive or until I decide to roll a new character and want to use one.

Noice.8730:

Coordination level: Ehmry Bay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0ot0wR76uMo

Hey BP, we took all 3 of your fully upgraded keeps last night in 8 minutes during peak time

Yea we know. I think it was quite boring from our side and I know more than one or two of us was like, “meh, this isn’t an enjoyable way to spend my night playing GW2” and went back to PvE. But kudos to you guys for pulling together that many people and rushing that quickly.

Jinks.2057:

Stone.6751:

Reinforcments.5713:

The alliance is a false sense of equalization.

Those 3 servers are not going to remain in the same place forever.
And if AR and BP have to team up to fight EB, they do not belong in their tier, period.

Unless you’re trying to keep those servers forever in a twilight zone.

I agree, we do not belong in the same tier. If you ignore the Ebay trolls and read the posts from the more respectable, mature players on their server even they admit to being able to field as many, or more, players than AR and BP combined at any given time. On top of that they tend to make really big, strong pushes on a few select days very late at night which gives them huge point boosts. This keeps the causal WvW players away because the inequality is really quite boring.We have clearly hit a ceiling with a reject T4 server, and considering we scrapped our way up from T6 we are greatly outmatched here.

All this has made WvW pretty dull, and to top that off Ebay has proven classless in their role as the dominant server. I’m glad to see that players from other servers have also noticed and I hope the reputation of “most loser group of winners” sticks with Ebay. No matter how great their margin of victory, I’ll never have any respect for them.

Sorry but BP is getting a taste of its own medicine in Spades.

1st week the match up was close with everyone being friendly and exclaiming GREAT FIGHTS!

Then BP pulled their nightcap and proceeded to talk all kinds of kitten about how Ebay sux.Bragging about PvDn a victory.

What you are experiencing is repayment for your behavior then….if you don’t like it maybe your “classy” server should change it’s ways….

The first week we went up a tier we took 1st place and you didn’t expect us to brag about it or enjoy our moment of glory? You see, there is a big difference about being excited about doing a little victory dance about winning in the forums and being disrespectful to the losing servers week after week after week.

BP has its share of forum warriors that act disrespectful towards Ebay, but they are a minority and a very, very, small part of the server. I regularly read disrespectful things from Ebay towards BP in the forums. Hey, Ebay is winning and you all have the right to brag about it, but constantly putting down the other servers, saying they are all unskilled, that they are dumpstered, etc. is classless and makes you the most loser of winners that I’ve come up against.