Guild Wars 2

Haishao.6851:

Karma prices are static. Back in august 2012 the temple armors were 42,000 Karma a piece just like they are today. They are just as hard to get for a new comer as they were to us when we started.

Heh. No.

See, when I started? There were no Jugs of Karma when I completed my Daily Achievements. Ten months later, I was swimming in Jugs of Karma and buying a full set didn’t even dent the incoming flow for long.

Today, they stepped it back from Jugs to something else, I forget what but it’s not to the same amount as it was. It’s still easier than the time when Daily Achievements awarded nothing other than AP and some neat lil items.

Actually they were even harder to get because karma was bound to our character and couldn’t be traded through our account. If I wanted a karma armor for a specific character, I had to for farm the karma with that character.

Jugs were not bound, and indeed the preferred way to farm up a ton of Karma for just such a reason. Just get thee hence to doing your Dailies for two hours a day and you too could arm your alts with Temple Armor.

All this and more is why there are people swimming in that purple currency and going “what the heck do I do with it”.

Broseph.9283:

A karma reset then! Haha. They could let us know to spend our current karma before they do, and then reset it at some feature patch.

Well, they did do that for Glory once upon a time. Not sure how that turned out, as I was only dimly aware it happened.

I think adding many more DEs which happen around Renown Heart areas, and cover overlapping duties for those activities would be a good start. So people who did the Heart activities could do them again for rewards they could use, and others could do the event and still progress the Heart.

Broseph.9283:

I am somewhat in agreement with one of your earlier posts about having too many currencies…I am very surprised that they have not opted to make karma a more mainstream currency on the reward end and instead have used gold or additional currencies.

It’s because Karma was/is farmed so easily. Especially once the Daily Achievement update back for the first Halloween added 5000 Karma jugs to the rewards. That was 35,000 Karma per week. It was done because people couldn’t get it without massive farming at that point, and there was a way to get the best current armor sets (Temple Armor) for Karma. A lot of Karma.

Now it’s just easy to farm the heck out of Karma, much easier than Gold. That’s probably one of the reasons it wasn’t taking off into useful directions and we got Laurels . . . instead of a “5k Karma = 1 Laurel” step back where you would use Karma to acquire things Laurels were used for. (Also, Laurels were a time gate to make sure people didn’t just grab Ascended accessories right away – remember that Ascended was meant to be a “long term goal” instead of a “meh, I’ll just buy tons of it now” thing.)

That’s always going to be an issue when talking about what Karma could be potentially used for. It’s just way too easy to acquire a ton of it, currently.

And to hit the other points now that I finished my thought on the “hundreds of thousands of Karma” bit:

Broseph.9283:

What if we could purchase transmutation shards with karma?

That gets in the way of the Gem Store being meant to somewhat be a tax for people who really want to be free with their armor changing and not keep the items themselves.

Of course, this is also probably one of the things devs could take to higher-ups: is the Transmutation Charge purchase through the Gem Store valuable enough to continue offering there as opposed to making it available through Karma? My gut tells me it’s probably not as valued as . . . say . . . Keys.

(By the way, I’d love a lockpick item we could get in game which would allow me to crack open a Black Lion Chest for one item at random instead of the Key for three only available certain limited ways. Just a soft aside.)

Im just brainstorming here; Karma was implied to be a useful currency (everything in the game rewards it) and the reason you have so much karma is because it has no relevant purchasing power. I think significant effort should be put into rediscovering its use. If you had to make choices on which awesome items to buy with your karma, you would be more careful in how you spend it and would likely not be stockpiling it.

I would still stockpile it, but that’s because it’s how I live – if I know spending it is going to put me in a position where I might not have enough later when something I really want comes around? I hoard it.

Also, you have a point about the different currencies getting out of hand…perhaps we could borrow from the dungeon currency system? For example, if a person wanted a certain item, they could farm the respective zone or dungeon (or both!).

I did float the idea of each region getting its own item, because it would institute a limit on how many items would really be floating around. I’d like it to be in the “Wallet” but then an overhaul which would have the Wallet subdivided for easy reference. One section for basic currencies (Gold, Karma, Laurels, Gems, Guild Commendations), one for Dungeon Tokens and Badges, one for Fractal Relics (Pristine and otherwise) along with these ‘regional currencies’.

And then you can say “hey, here’s some new events which end with a vendor coming available who will have special Rare-quality items on sale for these regional tokens and some Karma . . . or you can use Laurels and Karma for Exotic level items”.

Or some NPCs near the dungeons who would take these regional currencies in exchange for Dungeon Tokens or the other way around at an exchange loss. Like a norn standing near the Honor of the Waves: “Oh, I have heard tales of your deeds! I’d be honored to offer you a special deal…”

(Or an asura standing near the Infinity Coil: “Hey I heard you really stuck it to the Inquest. About time someone put them in their place. Say, you wouldn’t happen to have any of their experimental data laying around would you?”)

I mean, I could go on for hours discussing permutations of how to do this but it hinges on Karma not being the sole method of acquisition . . . and there being something desirable to acquire.

Ashen.2907:

It is possible to get around this but yeah it would be a problem. I am down to about 3m karma at this point (having spent quite a bit on Orrian Jewelry Boxes). I know others have significantly more.

I wasn’t joking. At one point I had seven figures of Karma until I went “this is incredibly stupid to hoard” and visited Meddler’s Summit. “Come on, no Risen Priests, no Risen Priests….”

I’m moving the discussion here, as it’s less pertinent over there.

Broseph.9283:

I responded to you actually in that thread, but in summary, I really don’t think there is a problem with having certain armors or weapons cost several hundred thousand karma.

I, personally, don’t object. But recall I have been around for a long time and probably wouldn’t be as affected as it by other, newer players who might see “Primordius’ Left Toe” for 500,000 Karma and notice its stats are either Exotic or Ascended in quality. Why have to grind so much Karma for it? Does ANet want us to farm it up, and if so why are they against farming? And if it did use Ascended stats, woe be unto those who crafted their weapons and now can sink all that Karma they didn’t use into a weapon instead. Oh the flame-broiled scent of developers would be so strong I’d have to bottle it as Liquid Smoke.

I do think Karma should be more useful, and I would cheerfully discuss methods of making it work better to acquire new and wonderful things. But I think acting on “there’s tons of Karma potentially out there” runs a very high risk down the line for new players or players who don’t have such a deep well to draw from as those who opened on Early Release.

nexxe.7081:

What i really hate about Dry Top is the timer system. Everything is always a race in GW2 as it is. I like how EotM is a 3 hour match, and wish some events would last that long.

I don’t think it’s much of a race in GW2 to rush through things. But you have to realize some timers are there because otherwise . . .

Look, just to put it into perspective: before the World Bosses had timers? It wasn’t a matter of if you could beat it but when. Claw of Jormag once took five players an hour to do, at 4am CST – I was there. The timer is there so there is actually a chance of the event failing rather than keeping the “loot pinata” which was there for things like Shatterer.

That’s why there’s timers on things, and some of them are a little tight sometimes so there can be a sense “we need help, someone get friends over here to help out” rather than “just autoattack for another twenty minutes and get your guaranteed rares”.

I don’t feel time-pressured within Guild Wars 2. I feel like if I miss something, I can just wait for it to come around again on the cycle. Or “no big deal, it’ll be there tomorrow”.

(One thing I disliked about the Marionette fights, and some of the other LS1 content – it was temporary and each loss meant one less time I could have gotten one of the time limited achievements I couldn’t get before. I’m somewhat glad we have changed that.)

Sorry, I’ll link my post here rather than repeat it all.

But, to put it bluntly, this is an idea which is going to crash headlong into the mountains of Karma older players amassed back when it was the easiest way to gear yourself with good Exotic armor. (And, notably, it still is . . . )

Broseph.9283:

Karma rewards should be more dominant:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Karma-should-be-more-dominant-as-a-currency/first#post4339681

No. They should not be.

Karma is something many long-time players have in tremendous bulk, specifically because there is nothing to spend it on. I think at some point I had upwards of seven figures until I decided to start buying Lost Orrian Jewelry Boxes.

If you moved to Karma-based rewards? There would have to be either a reset of Karma or an astronomical amount set as the goals to prevent older players from just going “huh, 5000 Karma for this new shiny thing? Sure, I’ll get fifty . . .”.

Unfortunately, the choice of once-more an item-based currency not unlike GW1’s collectors? REALLY has the risk of junking up inventory. Unless, of course, there was a “regional currency” like Geodes for Dry Top, Seed Pods for Maguuma, Dwarven Artifacts for Shiverpeaks, Old Shining Blade Insignia for Kryta, and Tarnished Rin Relics for Ascalon. You get the picture.

Second thing? Try to structure it so a full stack is more the yardstick for “high tier rewards” so you don’t need to hoard like 6 full stacks to get the high-level rewards. Just, say, two at most. So events might give you 1-2 each, but you can turn those in for . . . say, regional-based skins like the Shiverpeak Hatchet, or Verdant Dagger . . . Glyphic Longblade . . .

Final point. It is also a good place to introduce something interesting and new for players to go after. Might I suggest the lorebook idea which was scrapped early on? Trading these objects to get some information from locals . . . or to unlock things to go investigate for lore? I could come up with a framework in 24 hours which could possibly be engaging for players interested in getting their hands into the world of Tyria rather than just running through it looking for the next champion bag.

Manifest.8415:

If precursor crafting doesn’t come this feature patch I will stop playing GW2 for good.

I am very sorry, but . . . you knew it wasn’t coming this feature patch. Good luck to you.

Guhracie.3419:

My least favorite map is Lornar’s Pass, followed closely by Plains of Ashford. Lornar’s Pass is just really tedious, to me.

Reminds me of vanquishing Lornar’s Pass in the past.

My favorite probably is Brisban.

CrimeDog.5614:

KarateKid.5648:

hmmm, i wonder…

AH nerd attack. I miss my fringe!

At the risk of off-topic – it’s on Netflix.

On-topic?

They can only show up so often before being casualties.

KarateKid.5648:

hmmm, i wonder…

. . . so does that make us Peter? (Supposedly unimportant, but once gone everything goes awry?)

Also, if there was an asura who was like Walter I would totally call off the genocide.

Behellagh.1468:

Anyone else remember the days that game devs, not this game but decade plus ago, had a .plan file you could look at to see what they were working on?

. . . no, but I do remember “The Vision™” . . .

Domino.1359:

I hate to do this but GW1 (which I can see is not the same game) and their expansions seemed to further advance the game entirely every time, offering many days/weeks of content that GW2 just hasn’t quite touched upon. The LS is great, but it offers very little in the long run.

Well, see, those expansions also weren’t a problem in one particular way: with one exception, any of those could be purchased and played as a full game. I got my brother into GW1 because I got a free code from a contest somewhere, and he could play alongside me without needing to shell out for every one of the three games at the time.

However, from traditional expansions . . . it is a barrier to new people and it is the biggest reason I keep skipping trying WoW. There’s just a high cost monetarily to getting in and playing with friends who have been playing it for a while.

I don’t have a great objection to expansions . . . I just think they wouldn’t work to fix what’s wrong. I think it’d just magnify the problems when people pay for an expansion and don’t get what they want, as opposed to it just dropping into their laps one part at a time over two weeks.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

By the logic being set forth Wintersday is not content. Halloween is not content. Dragon Bash is not content. DE’s that are not active are not content. Empty maps are not content. That’s just laughable.

But that’s how the argument wants to be structured, so why not just bow out and let it be wrong? There’s no stopping it at this point. Let them figure it out on their own.

I’ve got other stuff to be doing anyway. Like deconstructing “Clash of Clans” to figure out just where it goes so terribly wrong.

Aeolus.3615:

nexxe.7081:

Go figure. Even their freaking Atlas was temporary. lol.

:O, maybe they are improving it? like they want to give a full round planet via LS map releases? wouldn’t that be cool?

I think it will go back up either as the break is about to end for the Living Story or after LS2 wraps. Since it was intended to help people coming in fresh grasp what went on before they got into the LS this season.

Bumping threads is kind of against the forum rules. Also, I still agree with Edna Mode.

. . . mostly because I think asura would trip on the hems and facepla-

Nevermind. Capes for everyone, especially asura.

defy.7021:

nevermind i just wont trust their free game policy anymore

. . . please, I really need you to stop and dig deep.

And explain to me exactly why you think the entire game, sans the Living Story you missed due to not being here, requires gems. (Something, I might add, you would have completely missed a year ago and had zero chance at getting to enjoy.)

You may use small words if you think it would help get across why I can do the entire content outside LS2 without paying for any Gems. Not even for Black Lion Keys.

Purple Miku.7032:

I hate zerg trains. Open world bosses that are champions/legendary are always zerged. Therefore open world dungeon bosses would be zerged.

Because of this… pls no.

I’m not thinking “zerged down” so much as what I saw during a capture of Joe Vargas’ time in ESO – where people would just sit in a boss chamber and farm them endlessly as they respawned.

Naetell.3815:

I’d like to believe in people too, but I can’t ignore the fact there already are people like that out there.

Reluctantly agreed, even before you took the time to type all of it out. Because despite how awesome the community is and can be . . . we still get dozens if not hundreds who get a kick out of just messing around with the players trying to have a good time.

Thobek.1730:

Steve Fowler.1498:

It was used to build up suspense, speculation and excitement as to what the final ending would be to the Scarlet story-line

really? suspense, speculation and excitement? Not sure about anyone else but I can tell you right now it did none of those things. More like a strange tool that in theory sounded good but was executed poorly.

I think I used it once and thought “this is messy, what’s its purpose? waste of time… back into the game”

that may of sounded harsh, and I like that Anet are looking into different ideas/options to deliver the content. But the Atlas could of easily been replaced with a good trailer that would of given people excitement, suspense and speculation.

Which is probably what made them decide not to pour effort and time into keeping it.

EcoRI.9273:

They did that for Tower of Nightmare, it was not that fun.

I found it fun, but it still devolved into a train running from the bottom to the top regularly. It was technically possible to sneak past points to reach the third floor, if you could squeeze in past the first veteran/elite event.

I just think it lasted too long, taking up the story focus during that time. If it wasn’t attached to the Living Story and was a permanent fixture? I could get behind that. Especially if it required more than one large group rushing through it to get to the “good stuff”.

Becka Williams.4978:

I would buy all the lore books about the enemies in the world in a heartbeat. bring those back, anet!

I would love them to return. Why did those go away? Seriously. What was the biggest factor in the decision, time to really proof over them or just trying to pare down content so it could be ready for release time?

Please realize this sort of item? Could be extraordinary for people to work on who like to find stuff out about the world, even for all the people who would sneer and go “oh look, more grindy to fill a collection box”.

Naetell.3815:

Let’s be honest, given that much player agency would result in a world where every npc is killed off by players, towns are no more than ransacked burnt remains , and every map gets filled with kitten-shaped structures.

You’d think so, but there’s quite a lot of Minecraft servers which . . . despite the potential for perverse structures, it’s actually pretty nice. I think, honestly, it’s more likely players would reach an understanding over the “simple ground rules of decency” in a game and keep things clean.

But then, I’m an optimist when it comes to people. Mostly because I watch about six truly twisted and peverse people semi-regularly do freeform stuff on games and they seem to adhere pretty well to things. (I think it helps some of them have kids and know, at some point, they’ll find out.)

Andred.1087:

Dang I miss that login screen, why did they even change that?

They did something when they changed how the game loads, for I think security purposes? It’s been a while. I’m sure a red name may come in and clarify it in an hour or two.

Nerve.9581:

Maybe Anet should get their crack R&D team working on that right away.

Is this the same one which made quaggans? Because if so, I’d rather they pass it off to someone else. Like the guy who wrote for Trahearne.

DarksunG.9537:

More like “it’s as ambiguous as I need for my argument”. Just like how " supposed to be there at launch" conveniently meant “always meant to be in the game”.

Isn’t that what “at launch” means? Is there some other reality in which “at launch” doesn’t mean “in the game”?

Nerve.9581:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

World bosses and Triple Trouble

World bosses, by nature of being located in larger world instances where people are actively engaging in other activities, are not well-suited to organized play. Like you said, they’re simple and can be relaxing when mechanics are not demanding, but as soon as any semblance of coordination is required, the presence of people having casually arrived on-scene who are uncoordinated with each other dooms these encounters from the start. A mix of new players, uncoordinated players, and organized groups combine to scale the difficulty of the encounter such that the organized players could never finish it, nor will they ever be able to force anyone to leave the instance because, let’s face it, the zone is public and that would be terribly unaccomodating design. This is why raid instances exist in other games. Difficult encounters are not a fun public endeavor.

I was more talking about how zergfests don’t have to be asocial. It’s very rare it has been . . . mmm, unsatisfactory, or to the point where I felt like hitting someone through the monitor.

And yes, non-linear dungeons would be very cool; each route would simply need to be roughly equal in clearing length while also being well-paced from boss-to-boss. This would minimize the possibility of a boring path-of-least-resistance farming scenario, while allowing groups flexibility in what route to take with each clear. Or, make routes such as jumping puzzles much more difficult than the vanilla trash routes they run alongside, making players weigh risk to reward. Not that any of the jumping puzzles in the game are actually difficult, but I’d love to see something like it.

I find there are two really difficult JPs, which are timed and seasonal

I think if there’s ever a discussion more on topic about dungeons and ideas for how to handle it? I’d post more about ideas there.

DarksunG.9537:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Your point is noted, but it still doesn’t matter since it’s content they decided not to pursue before it hit Beta. Which, for our purposes discussing the game, means they weren’t planning on it being in the game anymore when they were getting it (moderately) ready for release.

It just means that it’s a significant enough feature to be considered for launch. “Nicety” works for the Feature Pack, not for an entire race, you’re making the word more ambiguous than it is. Like finding another sentient race on earth is more than a nicety. I don’t care for PvP, but I can tell that having more game modes is more than a “nicety” for PvP players.

It is ambiguous. For me, a nicety is giving someone a lift if I know them and am going their direction. I can tell you that’s usually more than ‘nothing special’ some of the time. A nicety for a friend of mine was giving his bag of McDonalds to some homeless person under a bridge. And someone once put a rare penny worth $1500 into circulation just to do so in case it found its way into another coin-collector’s hands.

Point is, there’s a broad range of “nicety” vs “significant contribution” and it’s entirely subjective. Pretty much as subjective as “is Job-o-Tron annoyingly distracting to the story or is he the best character evar”.

And we’re not ‘finding another sentient race’. We already know the tengu are there. (Some people during the Battle of Lion’s Arch discovered they are very much there and have some really awesome bow damage ratings.)

Nerve.9581:

Just to clarify on my original post seeing as Tobias touched on the idea, “new gameplay” does not always mean gimmicks and radically altered gameplay as with the Super Adventure Box; “new gameplay” can refer to various pieces of new content that amount to more game, such as zones and events, new ways of encouraging group cooperation that aren’t the asocial zerg-fests of said events we have now, new boss encounters with interesting mechanics beyond stack and attack, new items that influence world events, new armor skins that are difficult to obtain and become sufficient motivation in themselves (Guild Wars 1, anyone?); simply, new stuff do to.

Ah, let’s take this a little bit at a time? First, your “new gameplay” is better served being worded as “new content”. “New gameplay” seems to imply the gameplay is going to be fresh, new, and different than “old gameplay”. (About the only place this might make sense is underwater combat. Still. Again.)

Also, I don’t know about you but I’ve had more social interactions with the “World Boss Grand Tour” train than in doing other content. It’s fun. The somewhat simple nature of it means people can relax and be funny or entertaining, or discuss topics. Such as several I won’t bring up because they spell instant derailment for a thread. (It starts with an “P”).

While we might say we want new mechanics other than “stack and attack” . . . I don’t think the majority of players really do. Otherwise there’d be more praise for . . . I dunno, “Triple Trouble”, the evolved wurm. Rather than resounding silence on whether it was good or not.

The last bit? New skins/models/meshes (pick whichever technical term is right) would be interesting. But if you think GW1 had them locked behind “challenging content” . . . oh boy. No, the only thing it was locked behind was either atrocious RNG or incredible amounts of gold grind the like even the Cursed Shore has never seen. GW1 had platinum as the great equalizer – if you had enough of it, you too could sport awesome Obsidian Armor on your warrior and look incredibly dull dying it all black.

Let’s just aim for new stuff not in the gem store, and we can move the target back once they hit it in the sweet spot, right? Right. Moving on.

As MMOs have effectively demonstrated, gimmicks are rarely as polished and fun as developers want them to be, and are largely side-shows on the first run through a new area. I would find ways to integrate these gimmicks into group content, such as against bosses or in dungeon encounters.

Yeah, except the last few times someone tried to integrate things like that . . . I didn’t find the game all that interesting. (Not speaking MMO.) I really found Quick Time Events a blight on gaming, and really would like they disappear entirely. But that’s a gimmick used to “add tension” . . . when what really happens is “add frustration since you missed the timer and now start over again”.

You want to know what I’d rather see against bosses in the open world? Things like what goes on in Dry Top with that Gods-Be-Blasted moa, or the hylek dueling rock, where they rely a lot on people paying attention and cooperating.

As for Dungeons, what I’d like to see are more . . . like a single goal in the dungeon but multiple pathways. You can brute force through encounters, or you can get to levers which bypass some of the mass group encounters in favor of fighting one or two Elites, or you can use jumping to get around to some other route with different challenges. But I know it won’t be something which will likely be designed – because there would be so many who opt for the shortest route or the easiest one (“let’s get a mesmer to portal us through the JP path”) . . . it wouldn’t be rewarding to put into the game for the designer, and the players would find it tedious and pointless after a time.

DarksunG.9537:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

. . . there’s stuff in there about them being major candidates before the game was finalized? And that means they were always meant to be in the game?

No, It means that it was at a time intended to be part of the release as opposed to something planned later that would be “nice”. I should not have said “they were well into making the Tengu, they were supposed to be there at launch” because that sounds like we know exactly what they did (other than what we see in the game). My point was that making an entire race with a starting zone & Personal Story is not a “nicety”, it’s a massive amount of content & a huge feature.

Your point is noted, but it still doesn’t matter since it’s content they decided not to pursue before it hit Beta. Which, for our purposes discussing the game, means they weren’t planning on it being in the game anymore when they were getting it (moderately) ready for release.

Also, “nicety” is such a subjective term. What one person’s “nicety” might be, could also be someone else’s “useless clutter”.

. . . like charr horns.

DarksunG.9537:

Vayne.8563:

I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a statement from Anet saying Tengu were supposed to be at launch. I’ve seen fans say it but I’ve not ever seen anyone be able to back it up with a quote.

Well there is no big announcement. There is Stuff in my making of GW2 about how they were major candidates for the playable race & the other thing I heard I believe was an interview. Can’t remember if WP talked about it. But yeah, they definitely were thinking about having Tengu from the start, not like some “made for add-on” type thing.

. . . there’s stuff in there about them being major candidates before the game was finalized? And that means they were always meant to be in the game?

And because WoodenPotatoes mentioned it, it has to be legit?

. . . I’m going to pay him $100 to talk about how the asura were always meant to be catapult ammunition.

Andred.1087:

I was given some hope by the recent official responses to player agitation, but still, it does not appear they have sufficient resources allocated to gameplay to do anything other than nerf stuff they don’t want people doing.

All this does is remind me of several nerfs way back with my time in EQ and this comment coming up time and time again in various permutations. And it was somewhat right – there was very little “new gameplay” introduced, only the same stuff served up on different plates with maybe a tweak to the seasonings.

Generally, with an MMO . . . that’s what you’re going to get. You’re not going to get drastic changes in gameplay in the main game, but in side-attractions. Like “Southsun Survival” which was run in BWE as “Hunger Royale” and tweaked a bit. Interesting shift in gameplay . . . but would be terrible for the main game.

They will not define exploits, nor should people offer up examples. Most times they ask people to “exercise common sense”.

(I find that’s really not good enough, since most people who would use exploits would rationalize it away as “just using part of the game”. But that’s me.)

If you can do things without specifically breaking the rules of the game (the map/walk-area glitching) then it’s . . . possibly not an exploit. Anything else is a matter of being reviewed.

On the plus side, I have been assured by my legal team of Skritt, Dredge, and Krait that tossing asura with catapults is not an exploit and is, in fact, perfectly fine.

Did someone already summon Edna Mode? Yes?

Okay then, I think she explains it best.

Palador.2170:

If they make it so you can search the trading post by armor weight, I will GLADLY state it’s worth an entire announcement all on its own.

Aim higher!

Search by slot type and armor weight.

Most of it is with the “Shadow of the Mad King” dungeon (which was good fun for being a glorified boss battle), but some of the stuff with his realm is fun too. I think it’s the voice which seals the deal, reading the really bad puns with total conviction.

ZilentNight.5089:

This is one of the best games ever made and will continue to be for a very long time, so stop being ungrateful and appreciate the changes they are making.

I like this game, I really do, but it’s not “one of the best games ever made”. It’s probably hard to call it one of the best games released in the last three years.

It’s probably one of the best MMOs in the most recent crop (within the last three years), mostly by virtue of having a broad user pool to keep things moving.

Nerve.9581:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I don’t think an expansion is the answer for what you see as ailing the game. I think if there was an expansion, it would change things for exactly four weeks before it became “business as usual, let’s farm stuff”. (Barring the inclusion of time-gating, or entry ‘quests’ needed to reach certain areas of the expansion.) Either that or the expansion is then where all the action is, because it’s new and fresh and probably “better” than the older stuff, which leaves people out of luck all over again.

I say this largely because that’s how I recall expansions mostly going when I still played games which used them as a means of delivering content in great amounts. There was one exception, which was Ultima Online . . . and that’s due to that game having a peculiar focus on a lot of sandbox play before sandbox play really was “a thing”.

Much of this is due to what some see as an inherent obligation to raise the level cap. Here’s a dangerous idea: Don’t. ArenaNet hasn’t added much in the way of better gear aside from Ascended items, and they’re vehemently against the gear treadmill, so there’s little motive for a raised level cap. This is much like how Guild Wars 1 added its enormous amount of expansion content with the vast majority designed for level 20s; gear was still sitting at a homogenized baseline over the game’s lifetime, and no content became obsolete.

Why not make expansion content stick to level 80 for every release? New content could be zones made for both 80 characters and middle levels, and new dungeons and world events would complement what’s already in the game to expand choices for level 80s. None of the content they’re making now is raising the cap and obsoleting old content; why do it in an expansion? This strategy seemed to work out fine for Guild Wars 1.

I am not talking about the level cap, not really. From what I recall EverQuest didn’t raise the level cap between Kunark and Velious but Velious still drew most of the players due to the drops/items/areas there just being overall . . . better. Similarly, Shards of Luclin didn’t raise the level cap (though it did introduce “Alternative Advancement” or AA points to add traits to your characters).

And it wasn’t the level cap which was an issue with those two expansions – it was how the high-end game was RNG dominated, increasingly time-gated, and the incredibly crazy in the worst ways concept of the Sleeper’s Tomb one time event.

You think Lost Shores was bad? Well, it was. This was way worse in different ways.

TheCheater.5190:

…there’s a huge request for lvl 80 weapons but due to the lack of T6 mats (T5 are more common but we need more of them) there’s a very few people crafting weapons so we have a small supply that generates high prices at every single tier of materials because the promotion mechanic makes lower tier materials go up aswell

HEH, if I knew people were interested in my Level 80 exotics? I’d stop chucking them into the Forge or salvaging for Dark Matter. Because when I go to sell them, I still am not getting as much for them as you imply . . . could be because it’s Huntsman I’m working.

anzenketh.3759:

It should remember the last state that you left them in if I remember right.

I only had it remember if I switched to/from the creation tab. If I left, and came back, for instance to go pick up some logs off the TP? I’d have to sort through and close crafting categories all over again.

I’d much rather have the ability to mark “favorite recipes” such as the Refinements I do the most.

CETheLucid.3964:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Skins which are from the Hall of Monuments rewards don’t . . . or rather, didn’t . . . require charges. I think ones from achievement rewards didn’t either.

o_o

Has that changed? Do those need charges now?

I don’t know, haven’t popped on to check lately. Been too busy RL side away from my computer.

I don’t think an expansion is the answer for what you see as ailing the game. I think if there was an expansion, it would change things for exactly four weeks before it became “business as usual, let’s farm stuff”. (Barring the inclusion of time-gating, or entry ‘quests’ needed to reach certain areas of the expansion.) Either that or the expansion is then where all the action is, because it’s new and fresh and probably “better” than the older stuff, which leaves people out of luck all over again.

I say this largely because that’s how I recall expansions mostly going when I still played games which used them as a means of delivering content in great amounts. There was one exception, which was Ultima Online . . . and that’s due to that game having a peculiar focus on a lot of sandbox play before sandbox play really was “a thing”.

Skins which are from the Hall of Monuments rewards don’t . . . or rather, didn’t . . . require charges. I think ones from achievement rewards didn’t either.

pdavis.8031:

The cake is a lie!

It is not, it is delicious and moist.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

We’ve seen this in other games – dead areas, zones and dungeons no one gives a kitten about. It’s called stagnation.

We even saw it in the previous game to this one

Don’t need to tell me about the stagnation of empty zones though. You’re talking to a proud East Karana silk farmer

Kohlteth.3715:

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

I think polls wouldn’t have valuable results because of this:

Q: How important is SAB for you?
A: Very important —> tons of people
B: Neutral
C: I can’t stand it

Anet: Ok, you voted for SAB, our map-designers will now stop working on new maps and focus on SAB only. You’ll get world 3 in 3 months, no new maps in the near future.
Us: O______o noooooo

As long as we have no idea how ressources are managed and what needs to be sacrificed in order to make something else happen, polls would make little sense imho.

I LOL’d so hard at this, it SOO reminds Me of another place where the same question was asked and the answer was " Well…… you could have that, OR another Raid tier ! "

“Or you can go for what’s in the box that Hiro-san is bringing down the aisle!”

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

But for arguments sake, we’ll just go with your thought line – that it’s only content while it is in the game and accessible. This still refutes the claims that Anet has not released or worked on “any content.” People ignore “temporary content” simply because it is not their cup of tea. Doesn’t magically make it “not content” though.

Well, Super Adventure Box was sort of my cup of tea. Unfortunately I can’t actually get more of it until the manufacturer decides to release it again sometime before Hell freezes over. I mean, I know it will happen . . . eventually. But I really would like it to be more than “whenever it’s there”.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I agree with the sentiment of “temporary content is still content”. But I can see the point people are laboriously and unsteadily trying to make. How can we call it content if it cannot be experienced either anymore or at this current time? It’s not the same as a permanent addition to the menu, it’s something which comes and goes away.

It’s hand in hand with my gripe over Pokemon – sooooo many things in the games which are either special promotion or only released regionally and are tracked for completion. At least we don’t have that issue with GW2. (Yet.)