The number of threads I have seen along of the lines of, “I don’t like this person. Please let me kill them.” kinda makes me worried about what you people do in real life when you encounter troublesome personalities.
The simple answer is, “Yes… people really ARE that stupid.”
Yes, they really DO get confused when their skill bar changes, and they have no particular interest to learn, either. They DO get overwhelmed by seeing a map filled with all these… things… and really don’t want to deal with them.
So they play the game five hours, and quit because it’s “too confusing.” Which, hey, great! We don’t want people that dumb playing this game anyway!
But there’s a problem. Farmville and Candy Crush Saga have shown AAA developers that this crowd will pay metric kitten tons of money to play games they like (and don’t even have particularly high standards, either). So NCSoft and the execs at Arena.net get $$$ in their eyes, and say to the developers, “Get this market into the game.”
And here we are, this is Arena.net’s attempt to tap into that very lucrative market.
Sorry, OP, but “maybe this game isn’t for you” is a perfectly justifiable response to some suggestions.
Now, let’s be totally fair here.
How many of those builds would have been accepted as “meta” in GW1? I’m guessing a fraction of those you have.
I fully understand the complaint that GW2 is far limited to GW1, but let’s not exaggerate the claim by citing the meta for one game, then ignoring the meta for the other.
Actually in the case of the trait hunting system, players had been asking for something in that vein.
The problem was, players wanted new SKILLS, which Arena.net doesn’t want to add. So Arena.net borked the trait system as a compromise.
I think the best you can hope for is that new zones have similar mechanics.
Overhauling everything would be a far greater undertaking than you probably think.
I won’t lie, I’ll be curious about your thoughts on the leveling process. The forums have been ablaze with seething hatred because it changed several things that are considered annoyances now.
What I would do:
- Levels have been removed.
- No trait or skill hunting
- All items have normalized stats.
- The only thing that changes as you approach “endgame” zones is that enemy AI changes to be more difficult and more complex.
I would love it. But I know it would fail miserably as an MMO.
It’s going to continue to be a problem as long as there are events that give more “loot” for repeated failure than success.
It might not be “right”, but that’s how MMO players are. Arena.net should know this by now.
I also don’t think that the experience from this point on (outside of the clumping of skill points and stats) is going to be all that terribly different. At level 40, outside of the kittened up trait system, the game really wasn’t playing all that differently for me. By this point, it doesn’t feel particularly new. It’s, outside of those details, pretty much the leveling experience I know and remember. I really don’t think I’ll find anything unique to comment on going from level 40 on… it’ll just be pretty much the same review as 31-40.
So, I’m confident enough to call it here, honestly. I find leveling to be fairly tedious as a general rule regardless of system used, and I’m not particularly keen to go through 40 more levels of stuff I already know.
31-40
Ya know, I kinda like how the Personal Story is clumped together. I find I don’t have to think, “Who is [x] character again?” because it was several levels between visits.
I do like how the rewards have improved as well (many of the items allow you to choose what stats you want rather than pre-determined (and usually pretty poor). And of top of that, finishing this PS segment earned me an Order related weapon skin. Not too shabby.
I also conveniently earned another clump of skill points just in time to grab my elite skill just as they unlocked (Rampage as One, obviously). I guess it kinda worked out… but I’m skill not completely sold on this entire “get everything in clumps” strategy. I mean, I kinda get the logic behind it (I can see how players could kinda “forget” getting 1 trait point and 1 skill point when each step requires multiple points), but it’s still kinda meh.
Meanwhile, as far as trait hunting goes, I immediately found one absurd one that was fairly fundamental for the Ranger build (Vigorous Spirits), which required exploring all of Harathi Hinterlands to unlock.
Eff.
That.
I mean, I kinda get how it could work, as additional incentive for new players to do things they wouldn’t normally think of doing. But for someone who has already explored Harathi three times?
Eff.
That.
So I cheated, and had my other ranger (the level 80 with a bajillion skill points) buy the guides and drop them in my bank. Sorry. I guess it’s nice that you can do it that way… but it’s still pretty stupid that something that was perfectly fine to begin with is now something so poorly implemented.
Other traits weren’t particularly time consuming, and often were a surprise to stumble on, like earning one through kill Kol in Harathi. If more were like that (having to go off the more beaten path) rather than something merely time consuming (like zone exploration), it’d be more bearable.
I’ll admit to bias, I’m not a fan of “hunting” things for trivial reasons. I despised the elite skill capping of GW1. I came into this having already decided I was going to hate the trait capping of GW2. So take that in mind when I say I pretty much entirely loathe what Arena.net did to the trait system.
Revert it back to the way it was, please. I want all my traits without having to do stupid stuff to get them. Thank you.
So, I’m now at level 40, where the NPE was supposed to really come to an “end” initially, and my personal judgment of the matter is “eh.” It’s not nearly as terrible as the vocal forum presence wants to claim… but it’s not a particularly impressive improvement on what existed before.
Some things are better. Some things are more annoying. I guess if you had never played the game before, you wouldn’t be bothered, and would probably like it. For a veteran, I really think the best Arena.net can hope for is that you find it more different than worse.
For me, that’s how I’ve decided to view it.
Except for trait capping.
That can die in a fire.
Have you tried putting “no skipping/stacking, lowbies welcome, be cool” or similar in your LFG post? It’s always gotten me more patient/laidback groups. Not as awesome as a good guild, but the next best thing :-)
I have done speedruns with friends, but yeah, I never join “exp only” or “speedclear” LFG posts. They’re usually full of obnoxious kibbehs :-P
Not all of them, but enough of them.
At issue isn’t what I prefer (I have no problem with either “speed-clear” or taking your time). The issue is the complaint that Fractals are “too short” to be considered “real” dungeons, while by my experience the dungeon crowd wants to power through dungeons as quickly as possible anyway.
It’s really hard to accepted “Fractals are too short” when all I’ve personally heard from the dungeon community is “30 minutes is too long for CoE. I’m out.”
It’s a complaint that doesn’t mesh with my personal experience.
Ya know, I MIGHT buy that argument that Fractal of the Mists shards are too short if dungeon groups didn’t spend their time in dungeons skipping as much as they can to make the run as short as possible.
And we’re the ones who make sweeping generalizations O.o
Just my experience, man. I have yet to join a dungeon group that was willing to experience the full run. It’s ALWAYS been skip as much as we can, get the loot, and get out.
And I don’t mean that as hyperbole, either. EVERY run I’ve been on has been to get it over with as quickly as possible.
I’m glad you apparently have a different one, but by MY experience? Yeah, players DON’T want a long experience, and so it makes the criticism of Fractals fall pretty kitten hollow.
Ya know, I MIGHT buy that argument that Fractal of the Mists shards are too short if dungeon groups didn’t spend their time in dungeons skipping as much as they can to make the run as short as possible.
It’s only something I’ve observed in aggregate, honestly. That, combined with the new level and PS awards, have allowed to me to pretty much stay on the gear curve without having to resort to crafting.
As I’m leveling, it honestly isn’t something I notice.
(edited by chemiclord.3978)
21-30
Completing this personal story chunk got me to level 21… and also earned me the skin for a T1 chestpiece. I’m sure there are some collectors who won’t like that little development.
Shortly having finished said personal story, the rules changed on me. Now I have all three utility skills. Okay… I guess that’s how it goes when you are doing something in the middle of a revision process.
It is during this period where I really start to see the improvements in the leveling system. With the utility traits unlocking more or less as normal, the tweak to gear dropping (as well as the occasional toy from leveling), has really helped prevent me from being underpowered for level relevant content without having to resort to crafting (which is an element I’ve never particularly liked in any MMO).
These levels also seem to be going by faster than I remember… though granted, I could just be fooling myself.
Really, there’s not much else to say on this particular clump, as by the time I got here, there was nothing particularly new to unlock, and as such there’s not much I can say about how it felt before.
But now I take a deep breath, for I have now unlocked the new trait mechanic. I already know I’m going to hate it. The question is how much? We shall see!
To be perfectly blunt, I’ve seen a lot of the “help” offered by players over the years.
I wouldn’t want to listen to it either, because most player ideas are terrible.
At this point, through 20 levels, I’m really not sure I’d call one way or the other “better” or “worse” rather than “different.” There have been some things that I think have been improved, some that I think haven’t.
I suspect that opinion will change once I hit 30. I haven’t really attempted the trait hunting system, but I know I loathed the elite skill capping of GW1, and this promises to be even more obnoxious.
But I’ll give it an honest shot coming up. I’ll see…
11-20
Pretty uneventual initially (Personal Story pushed me to level 13 as it was), and really up until 13 it was all the same until finally unlocking utility skills and the ability to access skill points.
Not sure if it’s consistent among classes or races, but for my human ranger, I got Signet of Renewal for free as my first unlocked utility, which is pretty much the worst one that could have been provided for a PvE leveling experience. I had to backtrack to earlier regions to gather up skill points to replace it and Heal as One, a healing skill I normally replaced as soon as I possibly could (seriously, Troll Unguent heals nearly as much per tick, ticks 9 more times, and only has a 5 second longer cooldown).
At level 15, I finally have the ability to swap weapons. Previously having it at level 7 before, it was something that irritated me, even though I really couldn’t think of any one place up until then where I felt, “If only I could weapon swap here…” While it didn’t negatively impact the game itself, any maybe in terms of total time spent it wasn’t much longer, it felt like it took longer, and felt like an annoyance.
I also gained my pet’s F2 skill at about this time… 15 levels to finally feel “complete.” I understand for other classes, it can take longer to unlock the “base” mechanics of your given class. Maybe having that slow unlock process DOES help new characters, but for veterans, it’s an annoyance.
And that’s kinda what these first 15 levels kinda feel like… quick, not painful, but just a little series of annoyances one after the other, stretched out longer than we were used to.
After level 15, the exp curve returns to what a veteran player recognizes as “normal.” At about level 17, I stumbled onto my first trait (that I can’t use for another 13 levels), not that it’s a particularly useful one, and is a reminder of something I am reasonably certain I am going to loathe going forward, trait hunting.
I can’t say I’ve really noticed too much of the “profession compatible” loot adjustment that this Feature Pack provided so far at this point up to level 20. I’ve gotten much more relevant gear from leveling up.
I also noticed that I wasn’t getting skill points at level up after about level 14. I don’t know if that is intended or a bug or what. That’s not a small irritation. (Edit: I got 8 skill points at level 20. Uhh… okay…)
I still really haven’t felt “underpowered” at any point, even with the stats being clumped together rather than a gradual gain… but I still don’t see any compelling reason to clump them together, either. The skill points are a more “visible” thing, so I guess I can get that… but the stat points? Really?
All in all, there seems to be two very different experiences in this level range, pre-15 and post-15. Once you get past that barrier, the game plays much like it did before, as far as I can remember (although if I recall correctly that second utility skill unlocked right at 20).
Will having that second slot delayed 4 levels impact my experience? Will my character’s 20s be as boring as mine was? Stay tuned!
Wonderful! Now if only they’d fix the dang flesh of the master bug for necromancer minions. -_-
I can only guess that fix is harder than simply removing an internal cooldown. I mean, really, all things considered, fixing Frost Spirit really wasn’t hard at all.
Arenanet is basically saying : “We need everybody to play this game. We need your grandma, we want your babies, we even want your dog to play our game.”
There’s more truth to this than falsehood, though not for the implication the original poster uses.
AAA developers NEED large player bases to meet the expectations their publishers set. So yeah, they need to constantly attract more and more players. If their metrics were telling them too many people were quitting in those early levels, their publisher is going to say, “Fix it.”
And let’s face it… the biggest pool to draw from is from the “social games” crowd, and yeah, I’ll bet they WERE very confused and frustrated by those early levels. They probably DIDN’T know what to do with themselves when their skills changed upon picking up a bundle. They probably WERE confused by dodge mechanics, and those red triangles and blue chevrons all over their mini map. They probably DID feel overwhelmed by it all.
Now the question is… did they make the right fix? Are they wise to appeal to the “social games” crowd? That’s something that only time will tell.
Looking forward to your continued reports.
How was using a ranger pet from level 5 onward? Another poster said you don’t get access to all the F keys until level 24.
For the record, I had access to everything except F2 from level 5 on.
I’m holding off because apparently fixes are on the way. I’ll progress further once those go live.
You know most of the “I’m a veteran and hate the new leveling system” posts are really from veterans that hate the new key farming experience. You can see through it a mile away. So does Anet. The new system is quite good I think. I have leveled a new mesmer to 37 so far and dont feel it has been as grindy as it was in the past. In fact I like it. I can see where a new player would really enjoy it.
I dunno about that. While I’m sure that there is a lot of rage from the key-farmers, I do think the levels of criticism run deeper than that, some of it warranted, some of it not.
I think there’s some criticism simply because it’s a change. People as a general rule don’t like change, even if it doesn’t effect them. They openly wonder what was wrong with the old system, even if they haven’t leveled a character in a year.
Some people like running alts, and don’t like being gated from stuff they used to be able to enjoy right from level 1. To them it doesn’t matter that the level curve to unlock everything at level 15 is faster. They used to be able to do it right from the start.
Some people don’t like games being simplified, because they think it encourages a dropping of the overall skill level of the player base. Poor players tends to mean that content (even at higher levels) eventually gets dumbed down to suit that lower skill level.
Are they wrong? I dunno. That’s for the developers and their management to decide.
Jesus guys… come on.
Is it that hard to accept that you are above the bell curve of the average MMO player, and that maybe it WAS too kittening confusing or “too hard” for those on the average or below?
Or is always all about you, and anything that doesn’t cater to you and your needs is worthless and terrible and ruins the game?
Vayne’s trying far too hard to prove what we already know. The general thrust of the forum hates the new leveling system, for whatever reason. He didn’t need a vote to prove that. So yeah, he’s spinning a wee bit.
That said, he’s not ENTIRELY wrong that elsewhere the response (outside of the initial revulsion) has been less venomous. I dunno if I’d call it balanced, but that certainly the most rabid hate (like usual) has been on the official forums.
(edited by chemiclord.3978)
Was there ever an explanation given for supposedly chopping out an entire section of the personal story?
I created a new character (a ranger), and at level 10 used the Eye of the North trinket to pick up some alternate animals and skins.
At that point, I found a lot of things were unlocked instantly, like the pet F2 skill and weapon swapping that were previously locked. I was wondering if anyone else had that experience, or if they were willing to try with one of their new characters to see if they could replicate it.
I’ll add to this thread the further I go.
Because I hate myself, apparently, upon hearing the rage and fury from the online contingent (and knowing if there’s anything the online community loves, it’s irrational rage and hyperbole), I decided to put this “horrible”, “terrible”, “worst patch in history” to the test.
1-10
Because I really hate myself, I chose to level another ranger. Okay, in truth it’s because it’s my primary class and I felt it would be the most easy for me to notice not just significant, but also subtle changes as well.
The first thing I noticed was a complete inability to control my pet, as the pet bar didn’t unlock for me until level 5. Basically set to a guard state, but with no call back until it unlocked, potentially running from combat would be troublesome. However, since level 5 unlocked in about 20 minutes, it was a minor bother at best… not to mention I didn’t actually HAVE to run away from anyone.
Many of the things that weren’t visible on the mini-map were still accessible, and I think one source of a TON of misinformation being thrown about by the fanbase. YES, you can dodge roll from level 1. YES, you can still activate vistas and complete heart quests. YES, you can still mine/log/gather. Just for some reason, you can’t see vistas and gathering nodes on the mini-map.
Yes, it’s silly (are new players REALLY getting overwhelmed by all this stuff?), but as a veteran player who knows where the vistas are (let’s be honest, after three times through Queensdale, you don’t need a marker to know where they are), and what the gathering nodes look like, at the very worst, it was a quirky inconvenience. Worth the incendiary rage I’ve been seeing? Not in the slightest.
(Additional note: the simplification of some heart quests was… humorously poor. Were people really having so much trouble with “see cow, grab bundle, feed cow?”)
Skill points cannot be gathered, however, which as I recall is a deviation from before. Now, you’re completely gated from them until you reach level 13, as it sounds. That’s a bother, because being able to get a bit of a “head start” on skill points before you could unlock them was nice. Now… bleh.
One part that WAS a handy improvement was the weapon skill unlocking. Yeah, for all the spite it received, getting to level 10 and having ALL weapon skills unlocked for ALL weapons at that point… I liked that. No more having to grind through every weapon. So yeah… the haters are wrong here. Sorry guys. This way is better.
Finally, key farmers no doubt hate the new patch (to the point where I wonder if a lot of the rage is from the key farmers more than anyone else). While you still get a Black Lion Key from the level 10 personal story chain, you have to wait until level 10 before that clump of instances unlock. It makes what was once a 15 minute key run into something like 45 minutes (I would wager). Yeah, I’m sure they’re royally kittened off.
At the end of the day; 1-10 really… isn’t much different than before. If you didn’t like the low level grind, you aren’t going to like it now. But on the same token, if you didn’t mind it before, I see little that would make you despise it now other than the fact it’s a change.
Coming up soon… 11-20. Does a shift in unlocking utility skills cause me to blow a gasket? We’ll find out!
(edited by chemiclord.3978)
I’d say it’s too EARLY for a revert.
There’s simply no way they’re going to abandon something they worked on after less than 48 hours, and demanding them to do so is unreasonable. Period. We’ve already seen how slowly this ship turns (people only really started seeing SOME results from the first wave of CDI threads MONTHS down the road).
You don’t like it. Hell, I didn’t like the trait revamp, so this current rage over the leveling system is merely added on to my lack of compulsion to buy any new character slots.
They’re aware of how much rage it’s stirred on the Internet, but they aren’t reverting it this soon. If that is your demand, you WILL be disappointed and frankly DESERVE to be disappointed.
I think the big issue is that for a lot of veteran players, they don’t want the level-gated nonsense. They want to have everything available to them on alternate characters so that they can just go out and explore.
I don’t think that’s a wrong sentiment to have.
Of all the things players can get worked up about… THIS is what bubbles up?
Just goes to show someone will find a way to kittened off about anything.
So how does making your game play feel as bad as every free MMO on the market make more players want to choose to buy GW2?
I guess it depends.
If Arena.net honestly thought the problem was genuinely new players were overwhelmed by having “too much stuff” thrown at them too quickly, then I suppose this would be the best solution (because let’s be honest, your average MMO player is going to ignore tutorials much like they left click through any flavor text as fast as they can).
But I personally think they’re chasing a player base that doesn’t exist. Simple fact is the majority of players quit any given game in a matter of hours. If there was a way to actually get those players to “stick”, I think someone would have found it by now.
Let me start off by saying grouping ANY large sum of people into two groups is an exercise destined for failure. Ask five people for their thoughts, you’ll get eight opinions.
While I am sure there are A LOT of people who decided LONG ago that the new leveling method was going to be terrible and were going to hate it no matter what, and a lot of that venomous rage is bubbling to the surface, somehow Arena.net HAS to wade through that acid and glean the nuggets of genuine criticism to be found.
Increasing the number of kills needed would have kittened off the veterans just as much as level gating. Let’s be perfectly honest. They already grumble about the 1-80 “grind”. Making ANY part of that grind more tedious was going to kitten them off, no matter HOW it was done.
It just seems like the best way Arena.net could have applied this new leveling method if they absolutely had to was that once you “unlocked” something on your first character, it was unlocked for ALL future characters.
I’m certain they enabled the “best” of the options they tried, and by that I mean the one that will engage “new” players longer.
I’m dubious that this method will actually “work” in any tangible sense at the end of the day. It’s not that the game is any easier. The mouthbreathing Candy Crush Saga iStore crowd is still going to quit because they’re still going to be frustrated by things being “too hard.”
The new method doesn’t dodge for them. They’re still going to get steamrolled the first time a champion rears back with an obvious tell. The new method doesn’t rally for them. They’re still going to be lost in the downed state.
The people who quit this game because it was too confusing are still going to be confused. They aren’t interested in learning. They don’t want to improve (that would be work). They want to log in, kill things with no difficulty, and earn [x] reward after [y] hours.
If that is the sort of player Arena.net feels they have to cater to, then Arena.net has to submit entirely to their wants, and give them a faceroll easy game. Otherwise, Arena.net has to accept they will never win over that crowd, and focus on their existing players.
My understanding is that Arena.net doesn’t want karma to be something you can essentially “trade” for gold, hence why items you get for karma can’t be salvaged.
It’s the same reason why gear you buy with Badges of Honor can’t be salvaged.
The reason you go F2P from a P2P is the hope that you can increase the player base. High player counts are an MMOs lifeblood, because that is where the money lies. You do whatever it takes to increase that player base, whether that means changing the revenue scheme, release an expansion, or (in GW2’s case) try to lure them in with frequent (if small) updates.
For Arena.net, it really isn’t a matter of could they do BETTER with a traditional expansion model like they had in GW1. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. But that’s not a question they’ll ask themselves until the CURRENT model isn’t meeting expectations.
Meanwhile, the only thing I’ve learned from this thread is that there are some people who REALLY want GW2 to fail, and will cling to whatever they can to convince themselves it’s fading fast.
I guess it really boils down to the sage advice I got from my grandfather many, many moons ago:
If you ever find yourself in a spot where you ask yourself, “Are people really that stupid?” just remember this answer.
“Yes. Yes, they are.”
There are popular games that have more complicated gameplay, and the average player didn’t give up on those games. WoW has complicated mechanics, and there are many different kinds of players (from casual to hardcore) that enjoy it. ArcheAge, Final Fantasy 14, and MapleStory also have mechanics that requires that players take time to learn them. Even uber-casual games like Angry Birds and Super Mario Galaxy have a learning curve. Instead of dumbing down the game, the devs for those programs just created tutorials. And guess what? People still play them.
WoW has actually been dumbed down considerably since the vanilla days, just for the record… because apparently people WEREN’T playing because it was too confusing.
Talent trees have been pared down to the point where the game practically chooses FOR you. Items are now normalized so that you know EXACTLY what best in slot is without having to actually, ya know, LOOK at what you’re equipping.
So yeah, WoW isn’t a very good example for your cause. Just sayin’.
- DPS can provide support and Control, but they focus solely on DPS, while effects of Control and Support are less potent. This is DPS role.
- Support can deal damage and Control, but they focus solely on Support, while effects of DPS and Control are less potent. This is Support role.
- Control can deal damage and provide support, but they focus solely on Control, while effects of DPS and Support are less potent. This is Control role.
And here is where you keep “doin’ it wrong.”
You keep insisting on a set “role” for any given player, and that’s completely not the point of GW2’s combat system. You are expected, at any given time, to be DPS, Support, AND control, depending on the situation. I suspect that’s why you see the scaling of stats where they are (why Healing Power impacts self-healing far more than healing others). They don’t want, for example, “support” guardians or “control” guardians. Just guardians, doing all three.
Now, you are correct that the “vanilla” content stumbles in providing challenges that require any given person to use all three roles at once, especially in the vast mobs that can form. I don’t think they’re going to spend resources going back and revamping all of it though. That would be a much larger undertaking than you think.
(edited by chemiclord.3978)
What item are you talking about specifically? All items that were free to transmute BEFORE the wardrobe has remained so AFTER, as far as I am aware.
Yeah, I’m not entirely certain about the trenchcoat fixation Arena.net’s artists have had for medium armor myself. It doesn’t terribly fit ANY of the classes, and I’d REALLY like to see less of it in the future.
I had originally assumed
They never said or implied anything like this.
Of course not. It wouldn’t be an assumption if they had said it : )
Well, I think Vayne is being a little bit cautious considering how players have run with assumptions in the past and then used that “self-hype” as something to yell at Arena.net about when the reality didn’t quite match what players had conjured in their heads.
It was initially changed so as not to discourage level 80 players from going to lower-level zones.
Now with Ascended armor requiring lower level mats, it probably should change back.
Creating a sandbox feature in a themepark MMO is a LOT harder than you might think.
There is actual endgame (oh how I hate that word) content. That it’s not the type of content you want is not relevant.
Well, it’s relevant in the sense that what’s there isn’t what some players are looking for out of the game they are playing. That, in and of itself it perfectly fine to voice.
It goes too far when those same players try to claim there is NO endgame, though.
And once again we have people adamantly against adding anything they don’t personally intend to play. To hell with everyone else’s fun, right? Such a great attitude to take when trying to grow (or even maintain) a community.
I know right? It’s amazing the number of people in this thread alone furious that Arena.net would DARE seek to improve the leveling experience over “end game” content…
Oh… wait…
No, we should keep silent and hope Anet randomly stumbles upon bugs we are experiencing? That’s a brilliant idea, truly.
I believe in construtive feedback, my friend. This entails that the community is constantly providing Anet the publisher with helpful feedback about the things they plan to implement. That makes Anet happy, when we’re happy and spending money and playing their game. It makes us happy when important things get fixed and new content gets rolled out. In short, if you communciate, everyone can benefit from it and everyone is happy.
Staying silent won’t solve a thing.
I think you’re both right, for what it’s worth. It’s important that you make your voice heard, but at the same time, if a company isn’t giving you what you want, at some point you need to invoke your power of your wallet.
I would say, when it comes to the “endgame” content people on these forums want, we’re definitely in the latter category, because Arena.net clearly doesn’t think you represent a large enough section of the player base to invest heavily in.