“the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.”
Actually, the money is in both of these things. New players certainly bring money in, but players who are emotionally invested in the game and are willing to buy gems are also a major source of income for the game. In the long run, the willingness of established players to keep forking over more money matters more than new players. Presumably as the game ages, the influx of new players will decrease to the point that GW3 will become necessary. But, long after this point, if players who are thoroughly invested in the game keep pouring money into the gem market, the game will stay afloat long after it is considered obsolete.
To this end, it is important to design the game in such a way that it encourages players to consider themselves invested in the game, such that if they quit, they “lose” their imaginary investment. One way for players to become invested is for them to create multiple characters and raise them to high level. If the game is designed in such a way as to discourage this, players end up only having one main character, and there is less for them to walk away from when they fall in love with some other game.
That being said, the impact of these changes is fairly trivial, although it is rather annoying to make experienced players put on training wheels and a diaper. At least put in an option in the options menu for experienced players to restore full functionality to their new characters.
^This.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
the money isnt in alts.
the money is in the new players.
Way to kitten on their own playerbase.
Why focus on the people who actually play the game and invest in the game while you can focus on people who haven’t even played the game yet amirite?
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
A million times this. I have 16 fully geared lvl 80 characters (what? I like making alts) and have been playing since the 3-day headstart. I have proven that I know what I am doing and do not need this handholding and stupid level gating to keep me down.
This shouldn’t be forced on us. For veteran players this is outright insulting.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
All you get here is changes to what you already have and stuff that nobody asked for. Want a game that actually releases new content? Play WoW. Yes I said it. You can say a lot about WoW but at least it releases a great amount of content. Pumping out entire continents filled to the brim with tons of content like it’s going out of style.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
I’m going to paraphrase Colin on this topic. The decision to implement the New Player Experiment system came from tens of thousands of usability testers and interviews with players who tried Gw2 and left leading up to China launch both in NA/EU and in China. It came as a surprise to us but it was an important for us to acknowledge that a number of systems, downed included, were difficult to understand for many players.
For the downed, system we tried a downed tutorial, building downed into the level 1 tutorial and other ideas. After usability testing with numerous different groups, we found that the best rate of people learning and understanding it came from having it be layered complexity and the solution we went with above. Intuitively that wouldn’t have been my guess either initially, but we found people understood it better this way than all other options we tried.
This same level of testing led to the other changes as well. At the end of the day the biggest take away is that all of us (including a lot of people on the forums) probably know games (and Guild Wars 2) really really well. We have millions of users, and a tiny percentage of them frequent game forums. Just because all of us learned those systems well and thought it was all really easy doesn’t mean we are the norm.
I hope this helps everyone here understand that this was a decision to improve the game for many people. Thanks for your understanding
But can’t you at least make this optional? For the more experienced players this makes levelling alts a lot more tedious… Does our opinion not count anymore?
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Taking food to feed cows were too complex, so now you only have to F-click the cows.
Taking water buckets were too complex, now you only F-click the plants.
and so on..
so yeah no more fun thinks like running with water and other like that. Now we just F-click everything because this game want to be PEGI 3
I would really laugh my kitten off if they actually did this.
Actually, based on WP’s preview… they are doing exactly this. No more feeding cows, no more watering plants. Just hit F. No more low level gathering. No more low level dodge roll or conditions from foes.
It makes me want to smack anet, but if leveling through 15 is distinctly faster, then perhaps the tutorial might not be quite so bad. I’m going to reserve judgement until I can try it myself tonight. I’m going to make a new ele (which was my first class) and take her out to QD and ‘relive’ my first days of play, so to speak, and see how I feel about the new process.
They removed dodging on low levels too!?
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Taking food to feed cows were too complex, so now you only have to F-click the cows.
Taking water buckets were too complex, now you only F-click the plants.
and so on..
so yeah no more fun thinks like running with water and other like that. Now we just F-click everything because this game want to be PEGI 3
I would really laugh my kitten off if they actually did this.
Newsflash: “That’s actually what they did – for real.”
…
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Taking food to feed cows were too complex, so now you only have to F-click the cows.
Taking water buckets were too complex, now you only F-click the plants.
and so on..
so yeah no more fun thinks like running with water and other like that. Now we just F-click everything because this game want to be PEGI 3
I would really laugh my kitten off if they actually did this.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
This new system of bringing skills and the downed system to players more slowly might work for some new players who have trouble dealing with the current system. But for us experienced players this is really unecessary, insulting and simply breaks the fun of levelling an alt.
I suggest to make this new levelling system optional for players who have trouble levelling the normal way. When you make a character there should be a checkbox with “I am an experienced player and do not require extra guidance” or something along those lines.
This way players who are having problems with the current system still get the help they require, and experienced players can enjoy the game without all the, for us, unecessary handholding.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
I think they aren’t taking it far enough! But I’m not just going to complain about it. Here’s my solution.
All those armor choices – even just the visual/style aspects – just think how overwhelming that must be to new players. So I say they should do away with the three armor types. One type is all we need. Not heavy, medium, and light – just armor. And everyone should have the same armor (of the same appearance and color) until at least level 80. This will stave off the inevitable confusion about why certain characters can’t wear certain armors.
Meanwhile, they should do away with dyes altogether. Just another mind-boggling mess evidently designed to cause consternation among new players. /e smh
And then when you get into all those different stat combos on armor and weapons – who came up with that? Holy quinquepedalian trail mix, Batman! How dreadfully confusing must that be to new players? I dare say it’s edging dangerously close to being actually frightening. They certainly don’t want to scare away new players!
And all those professions? Why so many? New players will look at that and say, “What? Elementalist? What’s that do? Engineer? Mesmer? What are those things? How am I supposed to know what I want to play!” So there should only be one profession, ideally capable of using only one weapon, with one set of stats, at least until level 80, and maybe even after that. As an added benefit, that should (theoretically) take care of any further balance issues.
So, anyway, there are some ideas to help give new players of GW2 the best new player experience ever! Hope it helps.
So much text in this post, I don’t think I can keep up.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Yeah we thought so too. After tens of thousands of usability testers and interviews with players who tried Gw2 and left leading up to China launch both in NA/EU and in China – we learned we were wrong.
Honestly, we were kind of shocked how many systems, downed included a surprising number of players just didn’t understand. For downed, we tried a downed tutorial, building downed into the level 1 tutorial, etc. We found after usability testing with numerous different groups, the best rate of people learning and understanding it came from having it be layered complexity and the solution we went with above. Intuitively that wouldn’t have been my guess either initially, but we found people understood it better this way than all other options we tried.
This same level of testing led to the other changes as well. At the end of the day the biggest take away I’d say is: all of us, especially people who go to a reddit to discuss a game, probably know games (and Gw2) really really well. We have millions of users, and a tiny % of them frequent game forums or reddit. Just because all of us, me included, learned those systems well and thought it was all really easy doesn’t mean we are the norm
If that is the case the GW2 comunity is entitled to handicaped passes and must be
allowed to use the blue parking zones at Wallmart
So rude. I’ll never understand thinking like this. Why do you attach your experiences on others and assume just because they don’t think, act, or operate the way you do that you are entitled to say such things as to imply people aren’t at your average level of thinking? So what if they aren’t anyway?
just for reference, there is nothing wrong with those of us who have diminished capacities in the mental health department.
I have nothing against people who might have mental or physical problems. And I believe they could use extra help. But this just makes no sense.
First this ‘extra help’ should only be for those who actually have a problem with the current system, because for everyone else it has the exact opposite effect, it just makes things more tedious. Anet should have made this tutorial system optional, there should be a check box at character creation saying “I am an experienced player and do not need extra guidance”, I believe some games actually do this already.
Second, this straight up makes no sense. With less utility/weapon skills and traits you are a lot less powerfull, which in turn makes the game harder.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Yeah we thought so too. After tens of thousands of usability testers and interviews with players who tried Gw2 and left leading up to China launch both in NA/EU and in China – we learned we were wrong.
Honestly, we were kind of shocked how many systems, downed included a surprising number of players just didn’t understand. For downed, we tried a downed tutorial, building downed into the level 1 tutorial, etc. We found after usability testing with numerous different groups, the best rate of people learning and understanding it came from having it be layered complexity and the solution we went with above. Intuitively that wouldn’t have been my guess either initially, but we found people understood it better this way than all other options we tried.
This same level of testing led to the other changes as well. At the end of the day the biggest take away I’d say is: all of us, especially people who go to a reddit to discuss a game, probably know games (and Gw2) really really well. We have millions of users, and a tiny % of them frequent game forums or reddit. Just because all of us, me included, learned those systems well and thought it was all really easy doesn’t mean we are the norm
I honestly think you guys need to calm down. Its not that big of deal, almost every MMO I’ve every played Level/Skill Point gates off their skills to help with NEW players learning the game giving them time to adapt, etc. They have tested this in China, they KNOW how their game plays to new people. As a player you only have one side of the experience, they have both ends. Why don’t you just let the people do their jobs? Its not even that big of a deal really.
It is not a big deal for you. And what people do here is called feedback, which is necessary for a game’s development. I complain about the game because I care, if I didn’t care I would simply play something else.
I’m all for feedback, and I understand that. Complaining without offering anything of a solution, however is NOT feedback it is whining. There are ways (a stickied thread even) about how to give constructive, proper feedback. That’s why I stated people needed to calm down. The world isn’t going down in flames because they are trying to make their game a little easier to play.
The solution is: Don’t change something that isn’t broken. I may be overreacting a bit, but levelling alts has been my favorite pass time in guild wars 2 since the very beginning, so these changes hit me hard.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
I’m pretty happy about the changes coming, and yeah, i’m excited to see the impact they’ll have on the game without the speculative “it’ll destroy early leveling” etc etc.
Except there is nothing speculative about it.
It’s speculative until it actually had destroyed something.
By that logic we have nothing to worry about when a comet the size of texas approaches our planet. The comet hasn’t actually hit us yet so everything the impact could cause is purely speculative.
Look we know what the changes are so it’s very easy to deduce what that is going to mean for our levelling process.
Also 2%? Who’s being speculative now.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
I honestly think you guys need to calm down. Its not that big of deal, almost every MMO I’ve every played Level/Skill Point gates off their skills to help with NEW players learning the game giving them time to adapt, etc. They have tested this in China, they KNOW how their game plays to new people. As a player you only have one side of the experience, they have both ends. Why don’t you just let the people do their jobs? Its not even that big of a deal really.
It is not a big deal for you. And what people do here is called feedback, which is necessary for a game’s development. I complain about the game because I care, if I didn’t care I would simply play something else.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
So much this. I feel like I’m being treated like a 5 year old now.
But the most laughable part of it all is that these “improvements” are supposed to make the game easier while they infact to the exact opposite.
Not having your last utility slot until lvl 35? Omg I’m going to own the kitten now!
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
I’m pretty happy about the changes coming, and yeah, i’m excited to see the impact they’ll have on the game without the speculative “it’ll destroy early leveling” etc etc.
Except there is nothing speculative about it.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
3) Utility skills. My last slot comes at level 35 now? I thought you were trying to make the game EASIER for new players, not harder. The fewer slots we have, the harder the game content is. Same thing with Elites being pushed to 40.
It is absolutely laughable this is supposed to make the game easier.
“This boss fight is way too hard for players. Lets tie their hands on their back, put on a blindfold and hamstring them. That should make it a lot easier for new players to complete our content” -Some guy at their office apparantly
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
They said keyfarming was alright. Why change it now? This is horsekitten.
Way to be inconsistent as always.
It was all right.
Now it is still all right but more time consuming.
Nothing is inconsistent here, just unpleasant for those who farm.
Semantics. This is clearly a move to destroy the keyfarming.
Yes, and megaserver was to hide the dwindling population, precursor crafting/hunt was delayed to cause people to buy gems, the wardrobe implementation was to hide that there were no major WvW overhauls in the last update, and the cherry on top of it all? Living story is nothing more then a cheap money grubbing ploy to steal our souls.
/tightens tinfoil hat
Things are about to get heavy…..
Way to blow something completely out of proportion.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Weapon Skills won’t get unlocked anymore through using your Weapon, but now instead through Character Level Ups.
Means you must be now Level X to become able to use Skill Y
Skills unlock at Level 4, 7 and 10
Utility’s will get unlocked from now on on Level 13, 24 and 35!!
Elite will get unlocked now first at Level 40!
The Video Maker says after that, that it will become much more likely now, that Newbies won’t find anymore Groups for Dungeon Parties, like Ascalon due to having the massive disadvantage now of having 1 Utitility lesser and no Elite Skill anymore
Next point that gets explained is the new Compass Needle, that guides you to spots that you still have to explore or in general to do, like Renowm Hearts, Personal Story Spots, Living Story Spots and so on…
That needle functionizes also with Events
He shows then in the Options Menu, that you can customize that Compass Needle, what kind of information it should show you, or not.
After that he talks about the new Level Up Rewards. These rewards should give you the feeling, that getting a Level Up should be more rewarding and feel more like a progress with your Character
Next he shows the changes on the Hero panel, where the new sections have been added, nothign special, except the mention, that this “feature” will get unlocked first from Lvl 6 lol (the wardrobe)
He mentions then that you unlock first with Lvl 5 the Downed State.
The Ranger Pet Skill Bar also get unlocked first later from now on, but you start naturally directly with your Pet. He believes, this unlocks with Level 7.
But he’s unsure, because he has these infos from the Chinese Client, if he remembers on them right.
World Map UI gets reduced by not showing you instantly anymore how much % you already explored of the game from begin on. POI’s won’t be shown to you directly as like also the Vistas won’t be shown to you directly, stuff that will get unlocked later so that players shouldn’t get “overwhelmed” cough too early with too many information that they maybe may not understand directly.
howver, you can still directly interact with them, you just don’t see them directly as a Newbie on the World Map (whatever a sense this should make at all)
Material Nodes also won’t be shown anymore directly on the Map. All Low Level Areas have no Material Nodes anymore directly!! He believes, from Level 9 on that your character “learns” then to gather materials first…
Traps get now telegraphed better in the Low Level Areas for Newbies to let then learn how to dodge to get onto the Treasure Chest
Then he talks about the Personal Story and how it also unlocks now step by step through Level Ups in the Menu, however, the Personal Story starts now first with Lvl 10!
So everythign what we would have doen so far with earlier levels under the old system, got now merged together as 1 story part.
Black Lion Key Farm Lvl 10 over, now you have to Level your Character to 20 to get a Key!!!
Traits stay at Lvl 30 getting unlocked
PvP/ WvW Buttons unlock now just also after you reach a certain Level, but still enterable from Lions Arch normally
——-
All in all, brief said:
ANet turns all the Low level Areas now into basically “Tutorial Zones” that are dumbed down versions now of being “idiot sure maps”, which slowly let you use now all of the things now first, once you reach a certain Level with your Character first, because, you know, otherwise it could be too much for us players to understand … lol
Oh come on ArenaNet! We are not idiots okay?
With these changes they treat us like our intellect can be put to shame by a kitten glass of water…
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
You op are not the focus of the change you have done it already, the focus is people coming into the game and they will not know the difference since it will be their normal.
Yes that is it right there. ‘Who cares about the veteran players? Screw them. All hail to the new players.’ -anet
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
At the risk of getting ate alive by saying this…I kinda like this change. : |
I’ve always felt that gw2 front loads you with everything a class has to offer and there’s no anticipation for that next great skill/trait. And no real chance for you to really learn all the pros and cons of the ones you currently have.
You call the small amount of skills characters have in this game “loads”?
And there is plenty of chance to learn everything, I really can’t comprehend how people could have been overwhelmed by the current system or have so much difficulty understanding the downed system..
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Haha, oh boy, yes this is stupid, unlocking the weapon skills only by level 10. (edit: to clarify, skill 5 is unlocked at 10)
On the bright side I’m now more happy than ever for the lvl 20 scrolls. Just wow.
This. Though I still believe that for the second birthday present we should have gotten lvl 40 scrolls.
I have 20 characters, 16 of which are 80 and fully geared, I think I proved I know what I’m doing..
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Not since I found out the absolutely kittened changes they made to skill unlocks.
I think Anet is trying to find that sweet spot of intelligence for their playerbase between “post lobotomy” and “just smart enough to pound out the numbers of a credit card on the keyboard.”
The fact that there are people who actually couldn’t cope with the amount of skills/traits you get early on is really beyond me. Guild Wars 2 must be one of the easiest mmo’s ever concieved, and there are still those who can’t wrap their head around it? Just wow..
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Yeah we thought so too. After tens of thousands of usability testers and interviews with players who tried Gw2 and left leading up to China launch both in NA/EU and in China – we learned we were wrong.
Honestly, we were kind of shocked how many systems, downed included a surprising number of players just didn’t understand. For downed, we tried a downed tutorial, building downed into the level 1 tutorial, etc. We found after usability testing with numerous different groups, the best rate of people learning and understanding it came from having it be layered complexity and the solution we went with above. Intuitively that wouldn’t have been my guess either initially, but we found people understood it better this way than all other options we tried.
This same level of testing led to the other changes as well. At the end of the day the biggest take away I’d say is: all of us, especially people who go to a reddit to discuss a game, probably know games (and Gw2) really really well. We have millions of users, and a tiny % of them frequent game forums or reddit. Just because all of us, me included, learned those systems well and thought it was all really easy doesn’t mean we are the norm
My point of view: while I agree that gating such things behind levels implies thinking of your players as Facebook Farmer clickers, I also agree that there is an overwhelmingly surprising amount of people who just can’t handle the simplest things without being spoonfed. I don’t like it and don’t think the game should be adapted to the lowest common denominator, but oh well… maybe if they do speed up the 1-15 leveling as I’ve heard in the preview, maybe they’ll find a balance between ultra casual people who pay for the game and still let us play without a sub, and the amount of frustration such things bring to veteran players leveling alts.
So our levelling process has to be handicapped for the “less gifted”?
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
They what!? Why would they do something like this….
Levelling alts keeps getting more and more annoying.. First making traits expensive as hell now this.
I’ve been playing since the 3-day headstart. And I love making alts, I got 20 already. It’s really the only way to keep the game fun for me. This change compared to the changes they made to traits makes levelling alts a lot more tedious and less fun.
Thanks for taking the only part of the game I still love and completely butcher it.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Everyone knows the ministry is power hungry and plots against the queen. I’m truly astonished they are still alive. If I was the head of the Shining Blade, those ministers would have died of “accidents” and “natural causes” long ago.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
As long as pvp/pve skills and traits are not seperated, there will never truly be balance. Many skills/traits/builds that work great in PvP suck in PvE and vice versa.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
Funny because we see a lot of Charr gladiators/ring fighters/pirates…
And a lot of Norn in the vigil/lionguard/orders…
Looking back, that line really can be viewed more as saying “We can do this with 5 guys, humans need a small army.” Different races mean different things. Why would a norn fighting alone or in a small group = “Not playing with a full deck” when they physically equal an entire Charr warband?
In EOTN, basically five norn did the same thing as the ebon vanguard group dispatched…
Because they think every threat can be fought with just a few warriors. And those 5 norn warriors only won because there was a huge army of stone dwarves at their back.
Unless you are some kind of elder god, you need armies to defeat apocalyptic threats like the elder dragons.
But forgive me, I’m really biased against norn culture.
Dear A-net: Please nerf rock. Paper is fine
~Sincerely, Scissors
