Guild Wars 2

It’s rather fascinating how rude some people are about differing opinions on a game.

Some people like red, some people like blue.
Some people like broccoli, some people don’t.
Some people like pick-up trucks, some people don’t.

Some people like the “Caithe” episode, some (me included) don’t.

A matter of taste and priorities.

ANet will never make a game that appeals to every taste. They do enough stuff right, I’m willing to bypass content I hate and let other people enjoy it. But in no way will or should I pretend to like something merely to make forum warriors happy.

zwierz.9012:

I think the naysayers just like their comfort zones a little too much.

It’s a GAME.

Games are for relaxation. Yes, they are a comfort zone.

I live a moderately stressful life filled with real, concrete, meaningful challenges.

I do not need or want a game to challenge my “comfort zone.”

Debating moral choices in an online video game is pointless.

At the most basic level, it is impossible for an online game to even begin to recognize moral choices across the broad range of possibilities. I can’t even control my character’s conversations!

I’d love to have the level of moral control in GW2 as I do in DA: Inquisition.

Ain’t gonna happen. No money in the effort. Doesn’t enhance PvP.

Gaile Gray.6029:

It’s really interesting to read the various thoughts on the story and the role that we, as players, played in the update. We’ve highlighted this thread (and a few others) so that the developers can see the various opinions about the Living World updates.

I’m an avid, long-time, beta’d both games player.

I hate being forced to play another, NPC character.

Caithe is your character, not mine. She is background, and not part of “my story.”

I do not like being forced to use someone else’s skill set or equipment. I want to play my characters in my story, period.

This latest “episode” really put me off the living story. It’s not my character’s story, it’s Caithe’s story now.

furiousfunk.6897:

Agreed. I am sick of the same thing over and over. I don’t care one drop about the living story updates. I have like 4 of them undone and I have no idea how to even start doing them and I also have no interest in looking up how to do them. There was one recently announced, I looked and saw new achievements, no clue how to do them or start it. Give us new races and new maps. I hate Dry Top and Silverlake is repetitive and not worth our time since they ruined the chest farms. I have world map completion on 16 characters. For the last few weeks I login just to do the daily and daily craft the ascended materials. GW2 is about to lose me and I played the first one for 6 years before I got this bored. New areas and new races and maybe some new professions. Shove the living story crap up the quaggan it dropped out of.

Please don’t talk as if everyone agrees with you. They do not.

The Living Story zone is very busy, plenty of people have said they like the current LS updates, and I (for one) enjoy LS.

I have only limited interest in new races. And the LS updates contain new zones. Given that you don’t play them, I wonder how you can complain about “no new zones” when there are new zones you won’t play.

Perhaps you are in a minority?

dlonie.6547:

Thanks for sharing your views, and being reasonable in your tone about them

salute

Thank you, as well, for a reasonable and pleasant.

It might behoove ANet to deliver a broad plan, as I assume they have one, as most companies do. Just a general idea of where the game is going: “We’re focusing on casual PvE with the Living Story, and will be ramping that up, we’re building raiding to replace the dungeons, and we want to make competitive guild-focused PvP. The 5-man dungeons and fractals are on the back burner until further notice.”

Note that this is educated guesswork on my part, and in no way does it reflect a real ANet response.

Such a response would allow people to decide whether to stay or go. That may not be politically possible due to management constraints.

It won’t quell the avid forum warriors, though.

Gaile,

Don’t let the obsessives and forum warriors get you down. There are millions of people enjoying the game and playing. Happy players are playing, not posting.

Well, I’m posting as a counterpoint (probably lost in the rancor) to the incessantly unhappy. Nothing ANet does will satisfy the hardcore dissatisfied.

I’d love to know what’s coming. I understand why you don’t tell us. People have unrealistic expectations of software companies that they do not apply to car makers, TV shows, authors, construction, or other industries. No one (almost) demands Ford have a public detailed five-year plan, or that an architect make detailed plans available to everyone who might someday walk into the new building.

This is the internet; rationality is in short supply.

ANet is one of the most responsive game developers I know, and I’ve been an avid/active player/dev since the days of Wolfenstein 3D (yes, I’m in my 50s). Guild Wars 2 is a game, free-to-play after initial purchase, and it’s great for most of your players (at least the ones I know personally).

Thank you for being communicative.

Let’s put it another way: Were I young, whole, and on the West Coast, I’d be thrilled to work on GW2. No, not a job hunt, I’m happily employed in another industry. But I do appreciate what you do.

Make the wallet a bank tab.

1) Inclusiveness. Raids should not be limited to guilds or people with best-in-slot gear.

2) No gear creep. Raids should drop “better” gear, but not stat-wise.

3) Dynamic bosses. Bosses with static tactics become boring loot pinatas.

I’d prefer legendary armor to be an upgrade to existing armors.

Say, ten tokens upgrade a piece of of exotic armor, two tokens upgrade ascended. Those are just spitball numbers, but the idea is anyone can upgrade, but people who invested in ascended are already “closer” to legendary.

A lot of people are invested in their character’s existing gear.

Legendary armors should have advantages very similar to legendary weapons, and no more. Glows and other special effects, the ability to set stats (especially combos not available in ascended).

Idea: Give people X stat points dynamically assignable to any stat. Customization is good.

Arewn.2368:

Sytherek.7689:

Chris, raiding is a social activity.

Social dynamics will determine whether your mechanics “work.” If you choose mechanics that do not support a broad social dynamic, raiding in GW2 will fail for the population at large.

You’ve stated that GW2 raiding should “fit” with the overall philosophy of the game. I agree. But you’ve put the cart before the horse IMO.

We need to decide what the social aspects of raiding are before designing mechanics.

Quite the opposite I would say.
I don’t know how you’re supposed to properly design the social aspects of ANYTHING if you haven’t given form to the thing in question first.
Modifying it based on social needs, sure. But you need a base to work with first.
“Let’s have a convention!”
“What kind of convention”
“It doesn’t matter, let’s just invite a bunch of people and figure it out later!”

That, my good sir, is what I would consider “putting the cart before the horse”.

Wrong.

If you design something that is not “fun”, people won’t play it.

You need to understand “fun” first.

Most of the time I spent raiding was organizing the raid, not on actual encounters.

Even in a hardcore raiding guild (of which I was part), we spent an enormous amount of time waiting for people to show up, making sure everyone was buffed, assigning roles, replacing players who left (for whatever reason), reorganizing after a wipe, and discussing strategy.

I suggest encounters be relatively short — no longer than Tequatl.

We need tools for planning and designating roles, marking things on the map, generally anything that facilitates organization. Simple colored “tacos” won’t cut it for any mechanic that’s complicated enough to be interesting.

Another problem is progressive difficulty. For the first couple of weeks, the Tequatl fight failed more than it succeeded; groups were eventually organized to the nth degree, and we started beating Tequatl more often than not. Fast forward to today, where any PuG any time of day wins with ease.

Raids grow stale as designed in WoW. People eventually run them just for the loot, without having much fun with the encounters.

Static boss tactics, even two or three “difficulty levels” won’t keep the raids fresh. We can see this with 5-man dungeons, which were long-ago considered hard, and are now run solo with relative ease.

I’d suggest an adaptive AI that evolves boss tactics dynamically during a fight, just like players evolve. If a boss is taking lots of damage from one source, change his tactics.

Chris Whiteside.6102:

The Casual vs. Hardcore argument is not in the spirit of the CDI as you know, and I mean this in regard to those on both side of the fence who can’t see that we aren’t even at the stage where this is even worth discussing.

Chris, raiding is a social activity.

Social dynamics will determine whether your mechanics “work.” If you choose mechanics that do not support a broad social dynamic, raiding in GW2 will fail for the population at large.

You’ve stated that GW2 raiding should “fit” with the overall philosophy of the game. I agree. But you’ve put the cart before the horse IMO.

We need to decide what the social aspects of raiding are before designing mechanics.

Zok.4956:

Sytherek.7689:

Why don’t I join a big raiding guild? Been there, done that, hate seeing stupid egos clash in guild chat and watching people fight over the guild bank. I’m not interested in petty politics in a game; I’m here to relax and have fun.

No thanks, I can have fun without the aggravation.

I was raiding a lot in an other game (not WoW but Rift) too, and have seen this negative behaviour of people there, too. Because of that experience I was so happy in GW2 when I came to GW2, that here was no need to join a “large guild” to play the game and all the content of the game and I could “just have fun” with some friends.

My small proposal for this: Please make the raiding-system so (maybe improve the LFG tool, not only for guilds, etc..) that raiding can be a fun experience for people that do not want to stress themselfes with a “big guild” and all the negative social interactions, that often can happen there.

Greetings.

All I can say is “Yup!”

phys.7689:

maha.7902:

Sytherek.7689:

NoTrigger.8396:

Sytherek.7689:

NoTrigger.8396:

Sytherek.7689:

EDIT: We need some way to prevent “speed runs”, which ruined 5-man dungeons for alot of people. Moving quickly an efficiently is great; racing through content driven by rewards is no fun for many.

preventing something that you personally dont like, but others may enjoy is never a good thing.

Speed runs are the only PUGs available 90% of the time. I have no problems with speed runs; I have a problem with content being locked behind one way of playing.

you can always make your own group and use your personal way of playing and advertise the party like that?

In a game with a lousy LFG tool? They build a solid LFG tool for raids, I’ll make groups. I was a successful raider leader for years in WoW.

Why don’t I join a big raiding guild? Been there, done that, hate seeing stupid egos clash in guild chat and watching people fight over the guild bank. I’m not interested in petty politics in a game; I’m here to relax and have fun.

No thanks, I can have fun without the aggravation.

Lousy LFG tool? Type in group name, make group, people join, is some sort of rocket science required for this?

The tool is not an excuse, you just aren’t interested in making groups.

And PUG “speed runs” are not speed runs, so lets stop pretending that sitting at each boss for 15 minutes waiting for your party that can’t perform skips and dying over and over again is “speed running”.

there is no reason to mock pugs, try to keep your distaste for them out of the discussion. Its going to bait derails. Try to focus on game design ideas and reasonings

I prefer PuGs over guild runs. Never said anything different.

The problem isn’t with PuGs. It’s with how ANet supports PuGs.

NoTrigger.8396:

Sytherek.7689:

NoTrigger.8396:

Sytherek.7689:

EDIT: We need some way to prevent “speed runs”, which ruined 5-man dungeons for alot of people. Moving quickly an efficiently is great; racing through content driven by rewards is no fun for many.

preventing something that you personally dont like, but others may enjoy is never a good thing.

Speed runs are the only PUGs available 90% of the time. I have no problems with speed runs; I have a problem with content being locked behind one way of playing.

you can always make your own group and use your personal way of playing and advertise the party like that?

In a game with a lousy LFG tool? They build a solid LFG tool for raids, I’ll make groups. I was a successful raider leader for years in WoW.

Why don’t I join a big raiding guild? Been there, done that, hate seeing stupid egos clash in guild chat and watching people fight over the guild bank. I’m not interested in petty politics in a game; I’m here to relax and have fun.

No thanks, I can have fun without the aggravation.

Arewn.2368:

Sytherek.7689:

EDIT: We need some way to prevent “speed runs”, which ruined 5-man dungeons for alot of people. Moving quickly an efficiently is great; racing through content driven by rewards is no fun for many.

Speed runs are not only fine, they’re actually quite a good thing to have. They add re-playability to the content, and can foster healthy inter-community competition. Ontop of that, they push people to improve themselves and dig deep into how GW2 works. Speedruns give rise to some of our most dedicated GW2 players.

If anything (and I’m not one to tell people what they’re allowed to enjoy in a game), what needs looking at is the so-called “zerker meta” that is anchored in speed-runs. In other words, we need to look at the cause, not the symptom, and improve gameplay in such a way that other roles are valuable at high levels of play.

I have no problem with people finding “optimal” gear or playstyles.

I have a problem with a game that caters to group-think. What’s the point in a game with diverse stats and gear, where everyone runs the same build? Why not make all characters identical — same stats, same gear, same skills --- except for looks?

Again, what is the point of an RPG if the designers make one way of playing “optimal”?

The GW2 meta is boring and stale. Raids should not require cookie-cutter builds.

Naetell.3815:

RE: Lower level players and raids

Given that raids are a future thing, and likely will have some ties to the Living World, they are almost certain to be level 80 and above things.
Even the current Living World Season requires a level 80 character.

And what about new players? A steady influx of new players makes for a healthy game.

NoTrigger.8396:

Sytherek.7689:

EDIT: We need some way to prevent “speed runs”, which ruined 5-man dungeons for alot of people. Moving quickly an efficiently is great; racing through content driven by rewards is no fun for many.

preventing something that you personally dont like, but others may enjoy is never a good thing.

Speed runs are the only PUGs available 90% of the time. I have no problems with speed runs; I have a problem with content being locked behind one way of playing.

Donari.5237:

As I have no legendaries, and just 3 pieces of ascended collected for looks, not stats, somehow I think bag space will be a problem for me for a long time to come in that regard.

Nor am I the only interested raider who isn’t in full BiS. Please let’s not go anywhere near required gear checks to get into a raid.

Gear checks and nitpickers drove me away from WoW. And as my earlier message said, I was a very dedicated (and I think good) raider.

I loved raiding — when it was about friends defeating challenges. When it became about “perfect” numbers, swapping people per boss, greed, and elitism, I left.

Human foibles, indeed. Some of those can be eliminated by design, tho.

EDIT: We need some way to prevent “speed runs”, which ruined 5-man dungeons for alot of people. Moving quickly an efficiently is great; racing through content driven by rewards is no fun for many.

Crystal Reid.2481:

Sytherek.7689:

Background: Long-time player in another MMO (the game-whose-name-cannot-be-said), with three fully-decked-out characters from top-level raids, raided 4-5 nights a week, was a raider from their original base game thru the expansion prior to “pandas.” I quit that game when “pandas” came out, a large part because of raiding.

Essentially, that game’s raids served to keep players playing with a gear treadmill. That is incompatible with a core GW2 philosophy.

If GW2 raids are a “must”, as in gear treadmill, I will leave the game and so will many people in my guild. Simple fact, not a threat, we just don’t want the “required” treadmill.

Now, if raids are parallel content to fractals, 5-man dungeons, and WvW, that’s great.

Just don’t make them mandatory for an even playing field with other parts of the game. Some unique raid-focused progression track is fine, like agony resistance for fractals.

Dungeons could give very unique visual rewards, too.

All classes must be usable in raids. No more developer-created elitism like in 5-man dungeons or “that other game’s” raids. Do not make certain classes “must have”. If anything, that’s where ANet fails on GW2 — poor balancing. I want to play the class I enjoy without gimping the party.

Raiding can be great fun; some of my fondest social gaming memories are from raids.

Don’t design a social activity around anti-social concepts.

I’m not the one who makes decisions on gear tiers, but it’s very unlikely raids will have a new gear tier with new stats. We would attempt to find other avenues to reward players, and create a sense of progression within the raids instead.

You mention a “raid-focused progression track”. What do you think that might look like?

A couple ideas…

1) The usual cosmetic rewards could have a “raid twist”, such as special optical effects only available from raids. Current 5-man dungeon rewards are… well, boring as compared to gemstore and “regular” gear.

2) GEMS as a reward for beating raid segments.

3) Unique dungeon-only skills.

4) Ranks as a “raider.” Perhaps akin to agony resist in fractals. This would have a benefit in making raider difficulty progressive, so the raids don’t become boring and forgotten.

5) Guild “leader boards” to show whose beaten which raid how fast.

6) Competitive raids that reset, letting guilds or groups face off against each other. Maybe even monthly raid “tournaments”?

On another note: Not all raids need to be holes in the ground or one-entrance buildings. Think about GW1’s Urgoz’s Warren or The Deep. Loved playing those.

Palador.2170:

I would also like to say that I really like the idea of non-equipment keys of some sort needed to progress through a series of raids. This creates some of the benefits of a gear treadmill without most of the downsides of it.

Keys lock-out really qualified and talented players who didn’t want to do last-year’s raid. Often, the keys were unavailable to new players, because they couldn’t find enough people to do “old” raids.

The raid keys become another form of elitism in my experience.

Palador.2170:

I think that it doesn’t matter if the game has been live for two years or not. If it did, then why the smurf have you guys been making changes for NEW PLAYERS? The fact is that not everyone playing this game has been playing it for two years. And not all characters are two years old, even on a two year old account. I jumped in shortly after release, and I’ve added several character slots to my account. I have some level 80s, but I have even more that are not level 80 and can’t do level 80 content. It stinks to have to choose between doing the content that I want and playing the character that I want.

I am in complete agreement with the above.

I know people who’ve played casually since launch, and have one (or zero!) level 80s, but many characters at lower levels.

The less artificial elitism — be it about level or gear — the greater an audience that can enjoy your hard work.

Crystal Reid.2481:

I bolded a section of this that I wanted to inquire about. Do you think the fact the game has been live for over 2 years now change your thoughts on this? This is definitely a common occurrence with new MMO’s that launch with raiding, but what about a game that didn’t launch with raiding? Is there still an issue of players “rushing to 80” when a large percentage of the player base already has at least one 80? Thoughts?

Background: Long-time player in another MMO (the game-whose-name-cannot-be-said), with three fully-decked-out characters from top-level raids, raided 4-5 nights a week, was a raider from their original base game thru the expansion prior to “pandas.” I quit that game when “pandas” came out, a large part because of raiding.

Essentially, that game’s raids served to keep players playing with a gear treadmill. That is incompatible with a core GW2 philosophy.

If GW2 raids are a “must”, as in gear treadmill, I will leave the game and so will many people in my guild. Simple fact, not a threat, we just don’t want the “required” treadmill.

Now, if raids are parallel content to fractals, 5-man dungeons, and WvW, that’s great.

Just don’t make them mandatory for an even playing field with other parts of the game. Some unique raid-focused progression track is fine, like agony resistance for fractals.

Dungeons could give very unique visual rewards, too.

All classes must be usable in raids. No more developer-created elitism like in 5-man dungeons or “that other game’s” raids. Do not make certain classes “must have”. If anything, that’s where ANet fails on GW2 — poor balancing. I want to play the class I enjoy without gimping the party.

Raiding can be great fun; some of my fondest social gaming memories are from raids.

Don’t design a social activity around anti-social concepts.

Penarddun.6827:

That’s a really good suggestion Zaxares.

I’m really surprised this kind of a logical solution cannot be “thought up” by the team working on this update.

Perhaps they thought of this solution, and rejected it for some very good reason.

You could assume that they know what they’re doing.

Just a thought.

I like the change.
Doesn’t bother me one bit.

I asked three other players in this household.
Two said the change was a lot easier to understand.

Simple solution to those who don’t like the change: Provide an “expert” button that displays the old exchange interface. Problem solved.

BTW, love the new outfit.

Chad Taylor.3487:

DougTheSlug.3920:

These world boss crashes are getting real tiring. How many times do I need to submit these similar callstacks?
I crash almost daily at Karka Queen, or Shatterer. Today, I crashed at both.

I don’t crash anywhere else. I think in the years I’ve been playing, I’ve had one (1) crash that wasn’t at a world boss.

I have been sending in callstacks for over a year now for crashes at world bosses, and while I’ve not been looking that closely at them, they almost always look the same. These crashes showed up around the time the culling feature was removed (when was that, a year and a half ago?)

And no, I’m not interested in playing at “low quality” settings. That is a BS solution, and by doing that stupid workaround, Anet won’t get the volume of callstacks they should be getting over this ridiculous issue.

Further, I play 99% of my gameplay with everything maxed, and there is no preset for that. High only sets about half the settings to max. I still have to go in and manually set half the settings higher after I choose the high preset. I’m not interested in fiddling with a dozen settings multiple times a day just to workaround some crashes that should have been fixed a long time ago.

Please, for the love of {deity} put some priority on fixing these crashes. I have sent you countless callstacks now. The issue is easily reproducible:
1) Go to a world boss where a zerg collects
2) Auto attack boss and wait
3) Crash

Thanks for submitting your log files. I’ve found your corresponding crash reports and we will look into the issue immediately.

The skinny is that it looks like we’ve allowed you to shoot yourselves in the foot with maxed out graphics settings combined with crazy boss zergs. The GW2 client is a 32bit process which has access to just 4gb of RAM, even less in practice due to fragmentation in high churn environments like a zerg fest. I can see from your log files that you are hitting an upper limit of about 3.5 gb of allocated memory before crashing on a failed allocation(i.e. running out of memory).

In the meantime here are some things you can turn down that will free up some memory in zergs without compromising graphics too much:

-Disable “High-Res character textures”
-Ease back on “Character Model Limit” and “Character Model Quality”
-Ease back on “Lod Distance”

The memory use for characters can roughly be described as = character count * character quality * 4 (if high-res is enabled).

Report back if those changes don’t help and I will do the same when we have a fix in-bound.

I’m rarely critical of ANet, but…

Given that 64-bit has been the norm since well-before GW2’s release, given that 64-bit is not even vaguely hard (I’m a 35 year veteran coder who develops scientific software, lotsa fancy graphics), given that C++ is very capable of producing bit-width agnostic code…

…why in heck is GW2 32-bit? 3rd party library dependencies? Old code ported from 32-bit GW1?

John Smith.4610:

This is a spinoff of the economy thread to talk about RNG tactics in games in a general form.

[snip]

2. Implement measures that counteract low-end outlier behavior inside of game design. This would be a system that is something like: If player hasn’t received a rare drop in X time send them Y tickets for random drops.

This. Option 2.

People who love your game enough to play it often should not be penalized for unluckiness.

I’ve had pretty good luck, BTW. Other members of my family, not so much.

Guild Wars is a game, not real life. It’s digital.

At a physical sport, I can win by increasing my skill. In an MMO based on random cosmetic rewards, my skill at mashing buttons doesn’t help me get rewards. It’s all luck, no matter how well I play. That sucks.

Give people a choice when they create a new character — hand holding, OR everything enabled. Old system, new system, make how I level my choice.

Makes both camps happy.

nikdik.1934:

This game should go the Diablo 3 route of having random loot but every drop is usable by your class.

Agreed. Very ‘agreed’.

Fiontar.4695:

Sytherek.7689:

I’m pretty neutral on the 200 gem cost.

I am confused by people accusing ANet of requiring real world money for missed episodes. 200 gems is < 20 in-game gold. No real money required. No debit/credit card required. Just a bit of in-game gold.

What’s the problem?

That’s a flawed argument and the minute you accept it, that’s the minute when “anything goes” with the gem store. Why not sell level 80s for 2,000 gems, anyone can convert their gold to gems to unlock an instant level 80. Why not sell a new higher tier of uber-stat armor and weapons, exclusive to the gem store for 8,000 gems a set, anyone can farm the gold and convert it to gems, never being forced to spend real money. Etc…

What happened to only ever selling items of cosmetic or convenience value for gems? Game content is clearly neither.

There are two separate issues here and they both weigh completely against. The ethics of charging extra for content that was supposed to be free; and the fact that putting high visibility, new content, with the potential to tempt new and returning players into giving the game another look, behind a pay wall, is just a marketing and business disaster.

That they insulate themselves against the ire of active players, who didn’t happen to be away from the game at an inopportune time, by giving them the content for free doesn’t negate the glaring negatives. It just gives people an excuse to keep their heads in the sand as the game continues to lose steam in the West.

If I was still an active player, I’d be even more ticked off, knowing that the company is throwing away more potential business during the once yearly window of opportunity that a new season refresh offers.

I’m not bothered by what bothers you. I’d buy an instant boost to level 80, for example. I’ve already leveled 3 80’s, and don’t want to do it again, but would like to have another 80 of a different class/race.

I’m pretty neutral on the 200 gem cost.

I am confused by people accusing ANet of requiring real world money for missed episodes. 200 gems is < 20 in-game gold. No real money required. No debit/credit card required. Just a bit of in-game gold.

What’s the problem?

I don’t see what’s “cool” about legendaries. Any event has dozens of players running around with the same weapons. Boring. How does being a copy-cat impress anyone?

And most of them are ugly, too, in my opinion. I don’t think my practical, serious Norn girl has much interest in shooting bad guys with flowers and unicorns…

To each their own.

I use debit cards, both Visa and Mastercard. Never had a problem with it.

I’d suggest you ping ANet support.

KarateKid.5648:

Shadowmoon.7986:

At launch we did not have this issue. Everything was BoE or was SB through tokens you got for doing a particular dungeon or karma. Then the Betrayal patch happened….

Ironic, no?

I think the phrase is “bait-and-switch”. Pretty common in the game industry.

HiddenNick.7206:

Farming Flats.5370:

i opened between 150 and 200 chests and no Unidentified fossil.

Nothing.

i gave up.

I’ve opened maybe 20? And got 2 already… Maybe it’s because you care to much?

Someone could get a bug on try 1, or try 100, or never. It has nothing to do with skill, or personality, or wanting, or how much real money you spend in the TP, or how much you love your pets.

Pure luck is, in an odd way, perfectly balanced and fair. As is an asteroid that obliterates your house.

Nope, life ain’t fair. That catch-phrase is used by people to excuse their laziness and ignore the fact that people can be fair by choice. What we do is not random.

Fossilized bugs have a lousy drop rate.
Eventually, persistence will most likely be fruitful.
“Most likely”, as in no guarantee.
Yes, I have a bug and my bow after 80+ tries.
I still won’t spend real money in the TP until ANet stops the luck-based skins.

nGumball.1283:

People who saw the mainfesto and believed Anet would introduce a game outta this universe with a technology never seen before, are either ignorant or don’t know the limits of current gaming engines.

Game engines could be smarter, more dynamic, and creative — but the expense of producing such a game would severely limit the number of people who would play it.

Look at the majority of tablet games: simple, repetitive, derivative in the extreme. But they make money, because that’s what the average consumer wants.

Omar Aschi Popp.7496:

Hey guys, hey, guys.

Guys, hey!

It’s optional

You don’t have to do it.

: )))))))))))))))))))))))))

Yes, and playing GW2 is optional. Really, the whole game is optional.

Spending money in the trading post is optional.

I think ANet wants us to spend real money, or they’re out of jobs.

Panites.6798:

It seems this thread has gotten to the length where whatever i say and whatever has been said, the OP ignores it.
Stop being a whiny kitten because you didn’t drop a precusor.
ALOT of us don’t drop precusors and get over it.
Legendaries aren’t what makes the game good, if you think it does and thats all you care about quit now.

Umm… I don’t want a precursor or legendary. Zero interest.

Also, no QQ here, so your rudeness is meaningless. Asking for feature changes is not QQ.

Also, I have the desired item now, and still think pure RNG is bad.

Serophous.9085:

I’m surprised with the ops background he doesn’t just propose a new mmo on kick starter, propose his ideas, and let the money roll in.

Everyone hates RNG so it should be easy.

I don’t want to run a game company, and I left the game dev world a decade ago.

KickStarter is not the solution to everything, nor is it any guarantee of success. I much prefer applying game theory to commodity markets. And yes, I am part owner of my company.

All of that is, however, non sequitur to the main topic: I have not seen a single good reason for some parts of the game to be locked behind random chance, while other very similar parts are behind a paywall or can be earned deterministically thru gameplay.

Inconsistency is disatifying.

tigirius.9014:

RNG wasn’t a good system in 1999 it’s not a good system now and it never will be. In fact there are threads in Wildstar and Swordsman and Defiance all complaining about the same problems with RNG.

When I ran table top games, I thought those loot tables were for a lazy GM. They were good for ad lib situations, but when I had time,

Account- and soul-bound loot is an artificial limit that makes no sense logically. Perhaps a very unusual item might attach itself to a specific character, but only for story purposes.

If I buy something in the real world, I can give it away, sell it, or use it myself. Choice is good.

The “binding” system is artificial, an easy way out for capricious gods called “game designers.”

I think some of it is cultural. Game designers are generally from the game industry, walking in the footsteps of their antecedents, feeling innovative by deviating only slightly from tried-and-true formulas.

This same behavior is what slows human evolution in most fields of endeavor; it’s a herd mentality that says “This worked for them, it should work for me.” Designers feel bold for making a few small changes, investors demand “innovation” that fits in narrow boundaries, players tend to like the familiar.

ANet has brilliant designers. Economics and reality limit the scope of their creativity. This is nothing unique to gaming.

I write books. Back in the day before digital books, I had publishers send me an inevitable pair of oxymoronic questions:

“Name successful books that are just like yours.”

“Tell us how your book is unique.”

How can an author/developer create something unique that is the same as extant material?

Odd, I don’t remember crying. Methinks some people just like being rude. Probably some deep-seated psychosis.

As it is, onward to the next inconsistent thinking on the part of ANet. They get it right more often than they get it wrong.

I’m a sir.

I had 3 more keys, and decided to use them up.

Chest 85 dropped another fossilized insect. Really.

I have no idea what to do with it, having made my bow. All my characters are themed-out. I’m glad I have it, I’ll save it.

RNG still sucks. Now my other daughter is jealous, because she doesn’t have an insect yet. I’d give her my spare if ANet weren’t being silly with the account-binding.

After opening 82 chests…

…I finally got my frelling fossilized insect.

That doesn’t change my opinion s expressed in this thread.

I am, however, much happier.

I am a very happy ranger. I like the proposed changes.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Sytherek.7689:

On topic. If I give a toy car to a starving kid, it’s not a reward. He wants a meal.

This is a horrific analogy as what YOU WANT in a video game is nowhere near the same as what a starving child NEEDS to continue to live. The fact that you don’t see THAT difference further reinforces my original claim. Also, the starving child has no expectation of any return and invested no effort, so that would qualify the toy car as a gift.

You are now trying to redefine the word “reward” to make your outlandish statement more “acceptable”….good try.

Now if you want to backpedal a bit and state, “it’s not much of a reward if I don’t want it.”, then that’s a reasonable statement.

How about:

Giving someone something they don’t want isn’t much of a gift?

And yes, my analogy was extreme, but I still say all gifts are not desirable. Just because ANet gives me something doesn’t mean is rewarding.

From the dictionary:

rewarding [ri-wawr-ding]
adjective
1. affording satisfaction, valuable experience, or the like; worthwhile.

The current “rewards” are not satisfying, they are not valuable (I can’t use’em or give them away), and they’re not worthwhile.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Sytherek.7689:

It’s not a reward if I don’t want it.
……

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a more self-centered and twisted bit of logic on display here…..BRAVO!

(This is definitely a “Quote of the Month” candidate….)

Hell, I’M so old that I remember a time where you had to program your OWN games from a book because floppy discs and cassettes weren’t reliable enough to store data on yet.

Gotcha beat. Programmed my first computer course with Punchcards….luckily only for one semester. On a side note, it definitely encouraged tight code.

Univac 1110. Punch cards. First paid job, 1975 at age 13. (twirls and holsters his manual card punch tool, used to “fix” bad punches, still have as a conversation piece)

On topic. If I give a toy car to a starving kid, it’s not a reward. He wants a meal.

I don’t need more freakin’ dragonite. It’s not a reward. Sure, “technically” the dragonite is a reward, but I don’t want it. Believe me, I don’t need it.

So, I should be able to buy/sell it to someone who has a fossilized bug they don’t want. Oh my word! That’s being social in a social game!

How the heket is “gosh” a kitten word?

Dusty Moon.4382:

Cosmetics are the are a huge part of PvE end-game. By design. That’s Guild Wars.

The insect is cosmetics and a promoted feature of the living story.

Why should I care about the living story if the rewards are locked behind arbitrary luck?

I’ll end up playing a few hours a month and not spending money at the trading post. I don’t think that’s what ANet wants.

See, making the skins attainable is an incentive to playing and paying. Lock me out of content, and I’ll find other passtimes to spend money on.

Drooburt, best gold-sink ever.