Guild Wars 2

Shen Slayer.3058:

I agree with OP, I hate these jumping puzzles. I’m a casual gamer with a full time job and 2 kids, and only able to spend a few hours a night on it. I don’t have time and patience for them.

It’s a good thing the jumping puzzles are optional then.

I’m about ready to record myself playing the story sections to make note of exactly where you are forced to use an aspect crystal. I can honestly not recall any part that was in any way challenging except the Aerin fight.

Ashen.2907:

Customers providing feedback, even complaints, to a business that wants their money is not a, “first world problem,” situation.

Zin.1673:

Anet implemented some innovative gameway concept

Innovative ?

Jumping puzzles is an innovation in the realm of MMOs. In the past, they have had much less focus on environmental interaction of this type.

I believe the true issue here is people stamping “MMO” on GW2 and forcing it to be associated with expectations which limit the possibilities. The more people do this, the less GW2 can be different. People keep stamping their MMO expectations on GW2 instead of letting it try to be different and unique. Genres shouldn’t be like prisons.

Hi slushey!!!!!!

Have you tried switching back to personal story? Or does that not work? I haven’t tried it.

Djinn.9245:

And no one likes being forced to do things they are bad at. Especially in games which are supposed to be fun.

Is someone holding a gun to your head when you play GW2? A game is fun based on whatever the user finds fun in it. I find jumping fun. If GW2 had no jumping it would be far less fun to me and I would be far less likely to play it.

Lets make a hypothetical universe. In this universe, GW2 has no jumping. It’s way more fun for you because you aren’t forced to do something you don’t like or are bad at. I, however, love jumping and hate the fact that GW2 has none of it. So I come to the forums and complain about the lack of jumping. What would you say to me?

Vol.7601:

““Your not meant to see that” , “that isn’t ready yet”
We don’t care… "

And then you come across an area with junk assets and terrible terrain and complain that the game is unfinished and choppy

When it was never supposed to be revealed in the first place…

If you’re going to complain about something, it shouldn’t be about this.

No, they have a good point. It’s the designers job to keep the player from accessing unintended areas. The designer is supposed to do it in such a way that minimizes exposure to invisible walls. Actual rocks and things should be placed to prevent this occurrence. It would help Anet if they actually had screen shots to show the method of reaching these spots.

I hope they keep with the idea of new zones having special mechanics unique to each zone. Some jumping would be cool in those area of Kaineng with tall buildings.

Here’s an idea for a Kaineng zone:

- Lots of streets between tall buildings (you can’t reach the top of these)
- You navigate through the streets among crowds of friendly NPCs.
- Some streets have rail tracks for small steam trains that block traffic or run you over, so you have to watch out. (environmental hazard)
- No hostile enemy mobs initially.
- Instead, some NPCs turn hostile randomly as you pass by them. They are thieves and assassins trying to mug you.
- Dynamic Event: A thief is running from a police official and you can help catch the thief.
- Dynamic Event: A citizen is being harassed by Jade Brotherhood thugs.
- Dynamic Event: A riot has broken out against the oppressive city guards.
- Dynamic Event: A building under construction is in danger of collapsing due to shoddy masonry. You can help fix the building.

Map mechanic: Helpful citizen, or mischievous thug. By participating in certain activities, you can either raise favor with the guards, or you can raise favor with the criminal gangs.

- Raise your guard favor by helping them stop crimes. You get access to defensive stat gear vendors and “guard themed” armor skins. However you will be more likely to be mugged.

- Or you can raise favor with the gangs by helping them harass citizens and steal things. They give you access to some unique “criminal looking” gear skins and you will be less likely to be attacked by thieves and muggers.

I haven’t really gone nuts trying to explore the new map. Can you show us screen shots of where the invis walls are and how you got to them?

Well as I understood it, the realm of torment was inside Abaddon’s mind. the area known as Nightfallen Jahai was actually Abaddon’s dream recreation of that area from the real world. Abaddon’s dreams were so powerful, they would manifest themselves physically.

The Sylvari Dream could be very similar. It could be a powerful alternate reality created by the Pale Tree, and clearly Mordremoth, the Pale Tree, and the Sylvari are all closely related somehow. Mordremoth could have his own version of the Dream. In fact I think he was psychically influencing Scarlet and Aerin.

This release is one of the best they’ve done so far, but I do want to see more quantity in the future. Keep up the quality, but find a way to stretch out the size of the maps and the length of the content in general.

Boneheart.3561:

OtakuModeEngage.8679:

FlamingFoxx.1305:

There wouldn’t be a legitimate lore explanation for using crystals anywhere else, so hopefully we don’t have to worry about it. The excuse for where we are in is that the crystals fell off the ship when it crashed, but there shouldn’t be crashed ships anywhere else, so there shouldn’t be crystals.

I don’t know, following Aeren to the western area of the map there were still crytals, and that’s pretty far from the crash sight in my opinion. the best explanation, is because the master of the zephirites and Aeren were carrying them with them. Well, we killed Aeren, but there is still the master and the inqest to spred them, so I have this dreadfull premininition that we have yet to see the last of the aspect crystals… don’t get me wrong, its an interesting mechanic, and has nice lore behind it, but hopefully it does not become a standard in gameplay

I was convinced the Master of Peace was helping you. Notice the Rucksack on his back.

Did anyone else notice the rucksack Aerin was wearing had no bird cage on it? Maybe I was seeing things, but I think it was missing.

Chase.8415:

As far as I know, the living story part involved very little to none jumping puzzles. It included jumping mechanics, which I managed to go through just fine with a cheap laptop running at 20 fps on the lowest settings.

If you want to complete all of the content, then there are some jumping puzzles but that to me is considered optional because it is not required to experience the entire story.

Thank you, kind sir! There’s too many hot heads around here right now. People need to cool off and look at what they are really playing. I can only recall having to jump in the story part maybe 3 or 4 times, and they were all incredibly easy jumps. I’m talking like… there’s a lightning crystal right here, and a gap 2 feet away, and all I have to do is aim a ground target, and I have all the time in the world because the enemies are dead and I get teleported right back here if I miss. The only truly frustrating part is the final Aerin fight, which was no big deal for me because I was a mesmer running greatsword. I can see pure melee having trouble but… Come on, either switch to ranged, or learn to jump. If you thought that was hard, I’d like to introduce you to a few Dark Souls bosses…

ekimsfree.9406:

What has the world come to when people complain about simple jumping mechanics in a videogame…sigh..

It’s the internet. People will complain about anything. First world problems and all that.

Raenzjar.4210:

Many misconceptions in this thread, incl. OP. Sadly enough.

It is not about not willing to learn how to push some buttons, or asking a friendly Mesmer for a portal, but rather not being able to maneuver ones char as Anet intended them to be used in this state of the game – in this new zone. This effectively leaves out many players who already have accepted some content could not be done by them, and who decided to go do other stuff. As the whole jumping stuff was kinda optional.

Awesome when someone actually can do the jumping! It really is! But that’s besides the point.

Okay, please explain to me the disparity between being unable to “maneuver ones char” and learning how to do exactly that by learning to press the buttons? You are literally suggesting that the idea of learning or improving is completely out of the question. That is a serious handicap.

Do people really not have the physical ability to press the buttons?

Do people really not have the mental capacity to figure out how to press the buttons?

If the answers are yes, one wonders exactly how Anet is expected to design around such huge handicaps and still design the product to be fun and satisfying for non-handicapped players.

Something I don’t get is if you are physically or mentally handicapped in such a way that you cannot jump, how can you do things like dodge, skill rotations, etc.

And before you jump down my throat, NO I am not calling you or anyone kittened. I’m trying to get to the bottom of this silly argument. You are suggesting people are unABLE to do these things. I’m suggesting they are completely able to do it, they are just unwilling due to laziness and/or personal feelings. And I don’t want other people’s laziness or personal feelings to ruin what I enjoy in the game. So I’m going to do my very best to counter their threads with my own. Some people actually love the jumping, and Anet needs to see that.

I’ll just leave this here.

Oh, and video games are art. There’s technically no right or wrong way to do art. That’s what avant-garde is about afaik. That’s essentially innovation and experimentation for those that don’t know. That’s how the games industry grows and advances. You want to eliminate that? Buy the next Call of Duty game.

The notion that it’s just intrinsically wrong for a specific game to employ a specific type of gameplay because of its genre is… well… its like a racial stereotype. Saying all MMOs should be intrinsically a certain way is like saying all asians should be good at math, or all black people should be good at sports.

Limiting a game by stamping the MMO label on it is just wrong. There’s jumping in GW2. Press your space bar and get over it.

Vol.7601:

The coding challenge isn’t so great, it’s just going to be time consuming. You have to design, animate and code all different interactions for all classes for every single release.

And then you’d have to balance each of them

I think what he means is Anet should design the environment to have sections where a specific class can solve a problem by pressing F near it. If there’s a gap to cross, a necromancer builds a bone bridge. They would only have to make 1 animation: bones popping out. They could put that anywhere they want. The problem I see here is then you would need a necromancer to cross that gap, or else design alternatives for the other classes, at which point it kind of defeats the purpose. At that point there could just as easily be a wooden bridge that anyone can drop by pressing F, regardless of class. Indeed it would be easier to make 1 wood bridge for all the gaps, than to make 8 “themed” bridges with 1 for each class.

Jahroots.6791:

Apart from the unwelcoming map design of Dry Top, the real issue with the jumping and aspects is that it interferes with regular PvE gameplay. Jumping is fine when it is optional, some players just don’t like it when you mix too many different types of content into any one activity. A great example of this is the TA Aetherblade path. Puzzles and cutscenes can add a lot to the game in the right areas, but are generally unwelcome in dungeons.

This is the first reasonable anti-jump argument I’ve heard. And it’s not even about the jumping itself. You pointed it out perfectly: this is a problem of overload. Having aspect crystals combined with combat is too much for the average player. The crystals by there design are mutually exclusive from combat because they replace weapon skills. Fine. We can discuss that in the hopes Anet finds a better implementation. That’s the kind of discussion we should be having. But instead we just have 900 whiners with nothing constructive to say.

I suppose I can’t really blame the average player from realizing this nuance. They play and get frustrated and thats the end of it in their head. A game designer thinks differently, however. They need more detailed, constructive, and specific feedback in order to diagnose the problem.

spoj.9672:

And omg that Aerin fight was beyond frustrating. Pick up the crystal to jump to him, drop it and dps a bit. Oh look he moved! Pick up another crystal and jump to him again. Oh look he moved again! Pick up another crystal….

The fun in that fight was completely taken away for me by the tedious crystal picking and jumping.

What would you rather have? A punching bag that stands there while you exchange blows? I think we’ve had enough of that over the last decade or so of MMOs…

Greyalis.2309:

I can write a story for the rest of the year in a couple days.

Can you deliver that story through an interactive medium including scripted and programmed actions and interactions, 3D character models, environments with lighting and detail, etc all in the span of a couple days? If so I’d love to play your game and see how it is.

jheryn.8390:

Xenon.4537:

jheryn.8390:

Well, certainly not everyone agrees with you. I like jumping and have been looking forward to new jumping puzzles. I also like the aspects.

I don’t see either as flawed. That is purely your opinion.

Don’t give him the “opinion” credit. Let’s stop all this “agree to disagree” nonsense that has corrupted society. Someone is either right or wrong, and discussion is how we get to the bottom of it.

Are the aspects and jumping mechanics flawless? Well humans are never flawless, their creations are thus never flawless, and certainly any game developer will agree that games are never free of bugs or issues. So by extension, the jumping and aspects are not flawless. They could be better.

Do they work well enough, however? Yes. Once you understand their functionality and quirks, they work just fine. Anet could stand to improve them a bit, but this is not grounds for removing jumping puzzles from future content. It will be a sad and boring day in Tyria if Anet lowers the bar that much. They should continue to add flavor and unique mechanics to every release.

We are getting into hyperbole and subjective thought here. Flawless can also be seen as a subjective word. “What is perfect to one, is flawed to another.”

I agree with you that nothing man made is flawless, but using the word “flawed” to indicate that something is not working or bad when it clearly is not, is also a misnomer.

The aspects work generally just as they were designed to to. They aren’t ‘flawed’ in the sense that they were indicated to be in the post I replied to.

Your response is exactly what my signature is referring to. The word “flawed” has a definition. It is a plain and simple fact that the programming in this game is not perfect. No one should expect the programming to be perfect. Again, any dev will tell you games are never perfect. They have flaws. They can always be improved. Calling this an opinion is just ludicrous. It has nothing to do with whether or not you are satisfied with the game. You can be satisfied with something that is imperfect. I’m satisfied with the game. I enjoy the jumping mechanics and aspect crystals. This is completely separate from the fact that they are imperfect.

Somewhere along the road over the last 10 or 20 years, society decided facts are opinions, and opinions are like votes, and everyone’s opinion is somehow equal, making facts irrelevant. It’s time to turn this around. “Blue is pretty” is an opinion. “Blue is a color” is a fact. There is a difference. “The jumping is fun” is an opinion. “The jumping is imperfect” is a fact. Again, there’s a difference.

Nat.4029:

What happened to doing a cool quest line or killing a difficult boss to get a weapon skin in games?

You get that from the good ole sub-based games. Anet has to keep paying the rent, so the Gem Store is what we get.
[/quote]

Actually in those “good ol’ sub based” games it’s always about grinding 9001 hours of something to earn the item. Why? To make you pay for 9001 hours of subscription time. You want to earn a reward for beating a challenging boss? Go play Dark Souls. Single player games are the only ones that still truly design around challenge, because replayability is important when the game is paid for only once. Persistent games always come with time-based caveats.

You would have a much better time reaching Anet if you actually took the time to organize your thoughts and format your post nicely. Punctuation, grammar, spelling, and common courtesy go a long way. Here, I’ll help you out.

“Dear Anet,

I would like to suggest you add an option to the sound menu which allows me to turn off phrases and vocalizations made by my character. I find that when my character says random things during gameplay, it annoys me. I don’t want to hear it. If I could turn off these sounds, I would enjoy the game more. Thanks.

Yours truly,
hero mcb.8165"

I think people would complain just as badly, if not more, if you had an exclusive skin tied to an exclusive stat. Skins and stats are not closely related in GW2. The expectation is that you reskin your gear once you get the stats you want.

But sure, I would enjoy more in-game skins to earn. The amount of gem store vs in-game skins is badly disproportionate.

Ashen.2907:

I would hate to see jumping puzzles removed from the game. I would similarly be disappointed if they, and their like, were used to gate content.

Are you calling this latest release gated by jumping puzzles? Lets be real. That’s like calling a cement street curb a “gate.” I suppose those in wheel chairs would be kept out, but in GW2 people aren’t crippled for life. They can learn to press 1, 2, 3, and space bar just like anyone else.

Well I can agree with most of your post, but there’s no reason to have a subscription in this game. The game was sold on a promise of no subscription.

I’ve seen at least 4 threads calling for an end to jumping mechanics in GW2 due to frustration with this release and it’s auxiliary mechanic; aspect crystals. I just want to remind Anet that many of us love the jumping in this game.

Environments in GW2 have real physical depth and consequences. A mountain actually means something because you can climb it and jump off of it. A cliff actually means something because you can fall off of it. 3D is pointless if you don’t actually make use of the 3rd dimension. Jumping is pointless if there is nothing to jump on, over, around, through, etc. Without jumping, GW2 would be a flat, boring, 2D landscape full of punching bags for us to auto attack until we fall asleep from the monotony.

If you remove auxiliary mechanics from existing or future content, you will be removing the flavor that brings the content to life. You will be dumbing it down. Lowering the bar to the lowest common denominator. Every time this happens in a game, it diminishes the entire industry. See Call of Duty as an example.

For every one person complaining about it, there is another person who thoroughly enjoys it and is willing to learn to press 1, 2, 3, and space bar from time to time. Please don’t curtail “fun” from the game.

Also please bring back SAB! :P

You know what gets really tiresome? Self-professed “older” people belittling everyone by calling jumping “childish.” It’s a kitten game mechanic. Jumping has been a thing since 1981.

I’m willing to bet any real swordsman will have objection to you using a katana with only one hand and no offhand. I know you have a stylized idea in your head about ninjas, I’m just saying it’s not realistic. :P

Sad Swordfish.9743:

2) when on the back(unequiped) it’s sheathed. Does this mean it has a drawing-sword-out-of-sheath-animation? That would be really cool!

I can guarantee you the animation will be no different from any other greatsword. Your character will instantly have it in their hand upon using a skill. If you stand still long enough your character will put it on their back the same way they would sheath a fellblade, sunrise, or zenith avenger.

jheryn.8390:

Well, certainly not everyone agrees with you. I like jumping and have been looking forward to new jumping puzzles. I also like the aspects.

I don’t see either as flawed. That is purely your opinion.

Don’t give him the “opinion” credit. Let’s stop all this “agree to disagree” nonsense that has corrupted society. Someone is either right or wrong, and discussion is how we get to the bottom of it.

Are the aspects and jumping mechanics flawless? Well humans are never flawless, their creations are thus never flawless, and certainly any game developer will agree that games are never free of bugs or issues. So by extension, the jumping and aspects are not flawless. They could be better.

Do they work well enough, however? Yes. Once you understand their functionality and quirks, they work just fine. Anet could stand to improve them a bit, but this is not grounds for removing jumping puzzles from future content. It will be a sad and boring day in Tyria if Anet lowers the bar that much. They should continue to add flavor and unique mechanics to every release.

Tsubaki.8732:

the feeling that much of the content seems to be designed around the “playstation target group” – the gamers who grew up with xbox/playstation controllers in their hands

I just threw up in my mouth a little. I’m sorry for this, but I’m gonna have to settle your hash.

Playstation? Xbox? Jumping was a core game mechanic in 1981 and was really solidified through Nintendo and Super Mario.

Tsubaki.8732:

I knew about jumping puzzles when I started GW2, but I always thought they’d be some optional thing to do, like “I do not feel like killing stuff today, I’ll go do some puzzles”. That these mechanics (precise movement, limited reaction time even outside of fights) now show up more and more as OBLIGATORY stuff (i.e. necessary to get to other content) is worrying, it might mean that a lof of players will skill Living World content out of frustration.

Dude… What game did you play? It doesn’t sound like GW2. You’re making a mountain out of an anthill. The “required” jumping in this release is what? Okay, you have to use the sun dash to move past the first sandfall. Easy. Then you ground target the lightning thing to jump to the next platform, then use an air thing to jump 2 feet. Thats the first “section”. Then you walk a few yards to the next story instance where you make a grand total of like 2 jumps, one with a ground targeted lightning thing, and a childs-play jump up a cliff (with no risk of falling) with another air thing. If you do happen to fall, you get teleported a short distance and Kasmeere leaves all these convenient portals to skip the jumps you already made.

@Anet

Please don’t dumb this game down any further. For every person that can’t locate their space bar, there is another passionate gamer who LOVES your jumping puzzles. The environments in this game actually feel real! There’s physical depth and real obstacles. It’s not some flat, generic space filled with punching bags to kill. Each time I am required to jump over a log, rock, hole, or cliff is a time when I am actually interacting with the world space, and that means something no other MMO has been able to pull off before. It’s 2014. Why make a 3D game if the spacial interactivity is going to be 2-dimensional?

Thank you, and mahalo.

I have to agree that the loading screen art for this is unsatisfying and unpleasant. It’s jarring to look at. Very bright with aggressive colors and angular shapes. It’s too abstract and does not give me a real sense of Dry Top. When I look at that I don’t think of Dry Top. I think of an aborted papier mache project.

It honestly just hurts my eyes. Maybe that’s the thought process Anet had? Dry Top is full of sand storms and harshness… maybe Anet wanted the concept art to reflect that.

The only hard part for me was the last bit getting to the goggles. The zephyr jumping crystal thing runs out WAY too fast and there’s literally no platforms to jump on, only tiny sticks that sometimes send you leaping off sideways.

A quick fix would be to add a few flat, horizontal planks to that mast. Also make the jumping crystal last longer, or put another one closer.

This was by far the best release ever as far as story. I really hope Anet can keep it up!

It’s gonna be neigh useless for everything but WvW healer/support.

They already got the assassin armor in the gem store.. can we PLEASE have SOMETHING to earn in game???

It’s still going to be one of the best runes for DPS period. Hopefully this will simply bring the price down from… what was it like 100g for 6 last I checked? Ridiculous.

This is like the 5th thread in as many days. Is all the fanfare about Gates of Maguuma patch not enough? We got a new map today and people are just now asking if we are ever going to get new maps.

The answer is YES. They have been saying YES to this question since launch.

This just goes to show how bandwagon everything is around here. One guy says “don’t get your hopes up” and next thing you know there’s 700 threads saying “i doubt we will get a new map day 1.”

Well what do ya know? New map on day 1. People being jaded and pessimistic for the sake of looking cool. Why can’t people look at the evidence and make of their own minds…

Karl McLain.5604:

Some great ideas here guys! This skill is something we’ve been looking at, as it’s a little underwhelming at times.

Here’s a bunch of potential things we could do (we would do one or maybe two of these, not all:

1. Look at making it usable on the move. Currently, the animation is ONLY able to be used while standing still.
2. Increase the number of boons removed.
3. Increase the radius.
4. Make this a channeled skill that pulses AOE damage and boon removal while you hold the sword in the ground.
5. Multi-stab! You choose multiple ground targets and stab all of them simultaneously (or one-after the other). We don’t have tech for this yet… but it’s a possibility!
6. ???
7. Profit!

Tagging this thread for later.

I want either #4 or #5. OMG PLZ make one of those happen!!!!!! ~throws mirror blade at screen~

It’s the vigil light armor.

http://www.gw2armor.com/human/male/vigil/light/front.jpg

Yes.

/15 charrs

Chase.8415:

There’s no indication that those stats will be coming to PvP, but if they did expect to see some ridiculously OP Guardian/Engineer bunkers.

Yeah, I doubt it will make it in to PvP anywhere in the near future. With the current way combat works, a pure defensive set would make bunkers even more stupid in PvP. I really hope they don’t add it to PvP.

I think it will only really affect WvW by making support builds more survivable so they stay up long enough to get another water field out or spread some more boons. In essence, zergs will get tankier. People running the set for solo roaming will find themselves getting laughed at by thieves who can neither kill or be killed by them.

For PvE there needs to be a total overhaul and/or new environmental mechanics to necessitate this stat combo. That’s why I’m thinking/hoping Anet plans to drive content in a more interesting direction.

How do you guys feel about this? Will it affect WvW? PvP? Will it do anything for the zerker meta in PvE? Does this indicate the possibility of Anet moving content in a different direction in the future which makes survival and support more important?

Ele is a lot more fun imo. It’s a lot more engaging and fast-paced. Mesmer has moments of sitting there waiting for something. Either to summon something, shatter something, interrupt something, etc. I love mesmer, but I’m just saying ele feels way more in-your-face action.

Mesket.5728:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It is a technical problem that Anet is either unable or unwilling to spend the time to fix. Until they are nothing will change.

Its not really technical… if I design a system so bad it takes up many more resources than it should, it shouldn’t be right to call it technical. They just did it wrong and can’t figure how to redo it right without budget.

What you described as “just did it wrong” is actually a technical problem, lol. It’s a technical problem as opposed to an aesthetic problem. The technology is at fault here. It’s faulty programming and/or a faulty system under the hood. But you’re right. At this point they need to allocate significant budget to redo it. The problem is so far-gone they would need a complete overhaul or an entirely new mechanic, both of which present serious problems in game design. One little change can throw everything out of whack. Just look at what happened to reflects recently. I’m not even sure what they were trying to fix, but it threw reflects across the game into disarray.

All I’m expecting:

- 1 new map.
- 1 story instance lasting between 3 and 10 minutes and offering somewhere between “meh” and “neeto” as far as satisfaction.
- 1 new world boss eventually to fill in that slot on the schedule, but it will probably be an easy boss, not like triple wurm.
- 3 new sets of armor skins in the gem store
- maybe a new set of gathering tools in the gem store

- maybe (this is just wild and hopeful speculation) 1 or 2 new maps in addition to the 1st, added later on, like 1 new map every 4 months.

Anything else will be a pleasant surprise. I’m not even expecting we will see Mordremoth this season. I think it’s just going to be a lot of build-up, and we won’t get to fight him until season 3 or 4.

Chase.8415:

unless you PvP

Not sure what you are getting at. Are you saying PvPers can’t earn legendaries? Yes they can. They just need to get off their pvp high horse and go play the other 66% of the game.

Inb4 “enjoy”

I don’t care if they only enjoy pvp. Legendaries are designed from the ground up to be a game-encompassing goal. If they want to reach a goal which is defined as covering the entire game, they need to play more than a small portion of that game.

I’m sorry but I just get really ticked off at “entitlement” attitude. Not that you said you were entitled, but you brought the idea up.

Also rich people can buy their legendary without effort at all, it only costs like $400 per legendary with gems.

If they want to spend their hard earned real world money for that, then that’s their business. If there were really that many people converting that many gems, the gold price of gems would be a heck of a lot lower than it is now due to a massive flood of supply. People paying real money for legendaries is neither here nor there.

@maha and Pibriamal

Yep, you guys got it. People hear “play how you want” and forget that there are such things as consequences. A person in real life might “want” to grab a gun and kill random people at the store. That doesn’t mean cops won’t come and shoot him or throw him in prison.

People read one thing and apply their own context without thinking. This is but one of many things people misinterpreted from the manifesto.

People who invest a lot of time and effort are the ones who deserve to be rich and rewarded. Naturally there should be a stratification where the top 1% is the richest because not everyone puts in as much effort as those few who are truly dedicated and have the time and skill.

By the way here is a semi-related analogy that I think brings a proper perspective on this topic. In the US there’s been a huge fuss in recent years over how much taxes rich people should pay. Politicians have been getting average citizens stirred up thinking rich people aren’t “paying their fair share.” They talk about “the distribution of wealth” as if it’s a thing to be evenly allocated like rations.

The truth is that if the US were like a row boat with 10 people in it, 1 person would be busting their kitten rowing, and the other 9 would be sitting around complaining that the 1 person rowing isn’t rowing enough. The lion’s-share of taxes in the US are paid by the top 10%. The top 1% pay something like 30% of the taxes, and the bottom 50% pay nothing.

Now there’s all kinds of discussion to be had about the US economy and that analogy, but the thing to take away here is that the few people who do have wealth are also the ones busting their kittens. If you look at real success stories, people who make it in life had to get up off their bum and work really hard to earn it. My rich friends in GW2 have over 20k AP and don’t spend time faffing about on forums, or complaining that the can only play X hours per day. In fact my richest friend works 40 hours a week, has 5 legendaries, and still finds time to play his guitar (he’s really good).

I guess what I’m trying to say is people shouldn’t feel entitled to gold and wealth in GW2. They should play the kitten game and earn it. Now if you get a random precursor, good for you. But those things should just be seen as a once-in-a-lifetime bonus, not an entitlement.