Guild Wars 2

lugnutusa.3157:

Kotaku is now reporting that Anet is planning to change in response to the outcry:

http://kotaku.com/guild-wars-2-players-angry-over-currency-exchange-chang-1649519173

Update: ArenaNet has responded with plans to update the Currency Exchange so players can use it as they wish. They offered the following statement:

“It’s clear that quite a lot of you would like to have greater flexibility in using the Currency Exchange. Our intention when we designed the new interface was to streamline large volume purchases, which make up the majority of transactions.

In light of your feedback, we will update the Currency Exchange so that you can decide how you want to use it. We will keep the new streamlined system and also offer a new “Custom” button on the panel that you can use to exchange any increment of gems or gold.

We anticipate rolling this out soon. Stay tuned!"

Did they actually post that on the forums?

Koviko.3248:

Bug report:

I have 800 gems. I want to buy a 700 gem item and sell 100 gems. How can I sell 100 gems? I don’t see an option to sell 100 gems.

“Hi,

I made a gem purchase, and I have a balance of gems that are too low in quantity to exchange for gold. I’m really confused by this!

I see that there are no quantities of gems for purchase that will allow me to use my 3 gems, that I paid for in cash, nor are there any items in the store in an amount ending in 3. So no matter how many I buy, I’ll never get the value of my 3 gems! This hurts my silly little head!

Please help!

Sincerely,
A very confused new player. "

Done.

Bellizare.5816:

nightwulf.1986:

Bellizare.5816:

lordkrall.7241:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Of course people have had issue with that as well, i think this is just a sum reaction to all the unwanted changes and the purported reasoning behind them. I don’t think treating your player base like they are imbeciles helped them at all and the complete lack of real communication for a very long time just added to the vitriol. There’s an old saying, don’t kitten on my cupcake and call it frosting, and that’s exactly what happened yesterday with this change, so hence the reaction.

Oh? I can’t remember pages upon pages of raging about the fact that you can’t spend exactly what you want or get the exact amount of gems you want with real money. But I suppose I might have missed it.

Because using your credit card to buy is not the same as converting gold or jewels.

That sort of logic is a big mistake. The moment gold can be used to obtain something you can get with real money, those systems are linked in real ways with real ramifications. The design of each considers the other.

Actually not.

Credit card purchases are subject to minimum purchase amounts. Also it is a convenience to buy blocks of jewels.

The gem-gold, gold-gem conversion worked just fine, and apparently only ANET saw any problems with it’s functionality.

Don’t kid yourself. This is all about increasing revenue. That’s fine with me. What isn’t fine is the ridiculous excuses that we were subjected to.

The concerning aspect is that we buy blocks of gems with real currency, and yet we can’t fully utilize all of the purchased gems in some cases, as there are many items which, when purchased, leave a balance of gems that cannot be fully cashed in for gold (with the set conversion amounts) nor can they be useful in obtaining goods without adding additional funds. Previously, if you made a purchase and had less than 25 gems, you could just cash them out for gold. Now, you can exchange them in groups of 8 gems for gold, but there are some instances in which you’re stuck with less than 8 gems, and the only way to use those gems is to buy more and eventually break even, I guess?

I’m stuck with a balance of gems that I can’t exchange. It’s a small amount, yes, but I also paid for them – and unless I buy more, I get nothing for them.

Bellizare.5816:

nightwulf.1986:

Bellizare.5816:

lordkrall.7241:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

Of course people have had issue with that as well, i think this is just a sum reaction to all the unwanted changes and the purported reasoning behind them. I don’t think treating your player base like they are imbeciles helped them at all and the complete lack of real communication for a very long time just added to the vitriol. There’s an old saying, don’t kitten on my cupcake and call it frosting, and that’s exactly what happened yesterday with this change, so hence the reaction.

Oh? I can’t remember pages upon pages of raging about the fact that you can’t spend exactly what you want or get the exact amount of gems you want with real money. But I suppose I might have missed it.

Because using your credit card to buy is not the same as converting gold or jewels.

That sort of logic is a big mistake. The moment gold can be used to obtain something you can get with real money, those systems are linked in real ways with real ramifications. The design of each considers the other.

Actually not.

Credit card purchases are subject to minimum purchase amounts. Also it is a convenience to buy blocks of jewels.

The gem-gold, gold-gem conversion worked just fine, and apparently only ANET saw any problems with it’s functionality.

Don’t kid yourself. This is all about increasing revenue. That’s fine with me. What isn’t fine is the ridiculous excuses that we were subjected to.

The concerning aspect is that we buy blocks of gems with real currency, and yet we can’t fully utilize all of the purchased gems in some cases, as there are many items which, when purchased, leave a balance of gems that cannot be fully cashed in for gold (with the set conversion amounts) nor can they be useful in obtaining goods without adding additional funds. Previously, if you made a purchase and had less than 25 gems, you could just cash them out for gold. Now, you can exchange them in groups of 8 gems for gold, but there are some instances in which you’re stuck with less than 8 gems, and the only way to use those gems is to buy more and eventually break even, I guess?

I’m stuck with a balance of gems that I can’t exchange. It’s a small amount, yes, but I also paid for them – and unless I buy more, I get nothing for them.

dace.8019:

islarose.7356:

Pretty sure that’s the spike that comes with every major patch that offers new items, as well as the changes to the conversion options, forcing people to pay a minimum of 70-80 gold for gems, or another $10.

No. Also yes. But mainly no.

The spike is higher and steeper than any update ever. The reason is kind of because it’s patch day with a holiday content update. But it’s probably because the volume of Gold->Gem is way above what you could expect during this period.

The reason for that is why we’re posting here – players have a minimum Gold -> Gem purchase of 400 Gems. This baseline is obviously pushing Gems purchased by gold way above normality, given the trend we’re seeing.

It seems calculated to remove gold savings at record high gem costs to exhaust this stream. Once it has dried up sufficiently it’ll nudge players into using cash, along with the model they’ve adopted which has the same goal.

I know the purpose of this thread, I’ve gone a bit overboard in it, as you can see if you’ve read through it.

I am all for the transparency of the gem history graph, but I was unaware that the spike was more significant than any of the past holiday/major game updates (LS1, as LS2 seems to be less spiky). That said, I’m all for a fix for this issue – either a slider for precise amounts, or the reapplication of an input field (ideally, wherein we could change amounts for both gold and gems).

LordDragonHeart.9352:

slamfunction.7462:

bloodletting wolf.2837:

LordDragonHeart.9352:

So far there’s an overwhelming voice that says this update is bull. The only dev “input” we’ve heard with in these 30 pages is that they are open to suggestions, which is basically a passive-aggressive way of saying “yea, nah. We’re not going to change it back but, look! We’re open to suggestions : ))))))))))”

So as they say: “The only winning move is not to play.”
No, literally, let’s just boycott gw2 till they realize they need to clean up their act.

Already called my guild and told them that I wouldn’t be on and why. They agree with me so we will move on to something else until Anet decides to knock off the foolishness.

Yup, i think a good long boycotting is called for here. They know how to fix it. But seriously, that “suggestions” line was PRICELESS! Someone needs to call EA and tell them they been trumped. ROFL

We should spread the word to the people online. Let them know we can actively do something to force Anet’s hand. Anyone?

on page 15 or 16, we had a number of gemstore whales agree not to spend anything until this is resolved. Frankly, from the tone of this thread, I’m pretty sure the majority of posters will hold off. I can’t even bring myself to log into the game, this is so distasteful.

Robert.8206:

I think change of the GEM conversion system was very unfortunate. It just added one more obstacle to prevent players to use the system.

But what extremely facinates me is the MAGIC they did with prices. It skyrocketted from 14.5 G / 100gems to something above 20G.

graph from tentonhammer.com
[img]https://cdn.tentonhammer.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/GemSpike.png?itok=ewbTE1uZ[/img]

Pretty sure that’s the spike that comes with every major patch that offers new items, as well as the changes to the conversion options, forcing people to pay a minimum of 70-80 gold for gems, or another $10.

Retain the preset system for those you think won’t be able to understand it, and add an alternative that doesn’t force “Veteran Players” to be locked in to specific amounts, or with excess gems they can’t liquidate for gold.

Problem:
The new system is restrictive and limits choice. Players are forced to buy more than is needed for the items they want, and are unable to exchange the excess gems to gold without left over gems. The market graph has been removed, which removes an element of transparency to the system, which is problematic for those who want to make purchases with confidence.

New players rarely have access to enough gold to make the lowest gold to gem conversion, and those that do have access to enough gold surely have a keen understanding of game systems and/or gem purchasing mechanisms. If the “ease of use” is to encourage gem purchases with cash, and conversions to gold, the amounts available guarantee a remainder that is useless and a loss for the player (they paid for 400 gems, but are unable to convert the full gem amount into gold, and thus have a remainder of gems that are useless for future purchases, i.e., 1-3 gems).

Solution:
Return flexible options to players. The vast majority understand the system, and feel upset and alienated with this change. Many do make conversions of small amounts, especially to make up for the discrepancies between gem purchase amounts and item pricing, which is of course an intended system to encourage more sales.

— Add a slider that allows players to adjust for precise conversions (Important: not limited to set amounts). This allows players to see the conversion ratio, and offers precision so players are not left with excess gems, nor are they forced into spending a significant amount more that they can or wish to.

— Add a text input field, again, for precise conversions. You can even hide it behind a “Advanced option” or “Other amount” button. This will lead to an additional tab/window/field that provides input fields like any other currency converter (the google currency converter, for example).

If you’re really doing this because of the few players who opened tickets for “accidental” purchases, perhaps add a confirmation screen. “You are about to exchange X gold for X gems. OK / Cancel”

- Re-add the market history graph. This allowed players to make informed decisions based on value patterns, and it was an interesting aspect of the conversion besides.

Proposal

Several suggestions have been made, the two best options, IMO being:
- an additional “advanced” option for direct input of gold/gems
- a slider option (which is stupid easy and convenient, and thus meets the given reasoning behind the change) wherein one simply manipulates a slider to their desired gem or gold amount. Both amounts are transparent, and the ratio / relationship is made obvious.
- an addition button at the bottom of the conversion chart that simply says “other amount” which allows the user to input their desired quantity.

Background

I previously spent way too much money on the gemstore, I think the last quarter of 2013 I wound up a bit shocked at how much I’d spent (something around $500-600 – often in small transactions). I tried to curtail it to a set a limit every month, which was easy in 2014 as the updates were fewer and far between, with less desirable options being offered in the store (in terms of my tastes – subjective, and certainly not a critique). Even so, I was still spending about $50 or so every month. I then started to use gold to gem conversions, especially for convenience things like boosts (farming), or makeover contracts (altoholic) and the gem conversion was always a convenient, easy to understand feature that facilitated my frequent transactions. It was also often in small quantities, the largest gem to gold conversion I ever recall doing was about 350 gems for a contract. The rest were small amounts to add to my existing balance, or to make up the difference between what I was willing to purchase (with cash) and what I wanted. Often about 50-100 gems.

The old ui allowed me to get exactly the amount I needed, and to quickly and easily cash in my remaining gems for gold. Now, I have to go through 7-10 transactions to exchange my gems, even if I spend $10 for the lone purpose of getting gold, I have to go through eight transactions to convert it all. (400-340 = 60) and the next highest option is 69, so I have to do numerous transactions of 8 gems, which leave me a remainder of 4 gems. I don’t even get to exchange the entirety of the 400 gems I purchased.

If I want to buy something small or simple with gold, I have to spend way more than I’d like or feel comfortable with to get it. That’s ludicrous. It is not convenient, and it is the change itself that confuses me. Worth noting: I started playing with the gem system within my first month of gameplay. It was not, in the slightest, confusing.

A final note

As a fan and devotee of the game, I say the following with the utmost sincerity; At some point, these occasional misguided decisions need to be taken into account, and perhaps there needs to be some discussion on who is responsible for them, or maybe you need a retreat in order to better understand your gaming community/customer. Or, maybe you just need someone who intimately understands the MMO player experience, and thus has an intuitive sense of changes that won’t go well.

I know that those in leadership may not be able to afford to second guess themselves, but seems as though these changes are made without any insight into the community, and by someone who is pretty much in the dark. It’s hard, as a member of the GW2 community, to try to comprehend how someone who depends on this community would fail to pick up these various themes. It’s important that your “decision makers” get some insight, and soon – because these fumbled “improvements” are getting to be very frustrating – I’m sure for you, as well as for us.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’m not here to apologize. I’m here to communicate and right now, the communication is coming in without a whole lot of substance. Over to you for suggestions and constructive input!

I wonder why you need a lot of constructive posts, shouldn’t it be the job of the developer to create a system that is in Anets AND the players best interests? Shouldn’t it be easy enough to recognize that this change is not a good one? O_o

Maybe Anet is just confused.

Pixelpumpkin.4608:

Okay, 25 pages later, I think everybody has stated their opinion (pretty much in unison for the first time in GW2 history) so let’s move on to suggestions…

Summary

1. Replace fixed amounts with fields that you enter the amount of gold/gems you desire to buy
   Original suggestion by playerbase since release
2. Keep fixed amounts, but add custom amounts field at the bottom
   Best of both worlds. We have enough room in the UI; if necessary, we could get rid of the 2000 gem exchange. (Nobody needs the ability to exchange 400 gold to gems with a single click.)
3. A sliding scale
   A sliding scale was just implemented to make the TP “easier to use”, why would the gold-gem exchange be treated differently?
4. Roll back
   The old interface sucked, but it had functionality that the community is not happy to give up.

And the other issue

1. Bring back the exchange rate history (maybe add a button that opens a pop-up) so players don’t have to go to outside sources to find the information.

Honestly, if “ease of use” for new players was really what they were concerned about, the slider would be the best option. Not only that, but it adds a measure of convenience for the existing player base, removing the guesswork of the input system in which we (without confusion, I might add) had to enter varying amounts to determine how much gold was needed for our desired amount of gems. (That is, if you weren’t inclined to bust out a calculator.)

I still favor a 2-way input system, wherein we can enter the gem amount, i.e., 368, and get exactly the price for the exchange in gold.

The only reason they wouldn’t do something like this is a.) they already went ahead with the dev time for the current poorly thought out change, and don’t want to reinvest, or b.) the whole purpose of this was to force players into restrictive buying options, and ease of use, convenience/quality of life is meaningless in this regard.

Aveinda.9260:

I want to be able to spend as many gems (or gold) as i like. Why should you force me to purchase an ‘amount’??? If have 750 gems, I want to buy 750 gems worth of gold! if I had 120 worth of gems, and I wanted to spend them all on gold, why couldn’t I? Today I had 650 gems, and wanted 50 gems to get an outfit. I couldn’t get the 50 gems with my gold, so I go without. This is not fair for either party (gem buyers AND gem sellers). Do not punish us because you have no faith in new players intelligence. It is unfair and rude.

I decided to give this a go with my remaining gems, and converted them to gold. I had approx 418 gems, after having purchased gems for consumables and devil horns. I had considered adding more for the outfits (before I knew of this change, and I maintain my stance of boycotting the gemstore until this is addressed), but wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend the gold on them.

After hearing about this change, I decided to get rid of my gems. The increments I can sell them in, however leave me with a permanent remainder, which is frustrating.

New players won’t have the gold to be able to use the exchange, at least until after their first month in the game, as 81 gold takes quite some time to get to. Even if one is relying on farming, trains, and world bosses – all of which a new player would probably fail to understand, especially if they struggle to understand a simple input system.

Now, they’re excluded from participation entirely, and forced to buy gems with cash if they want anything. INTERESTING. Particularly if said new player just wants to obtain 25 gems for a boost or something.

I’m a bit confused about the options for the gem>gold exchange, as the amounts of 1698, 680, 340, 69, 8 don’t seem to match up well with what is typically left remaining. If I wanted an armor set for 900, I would have to buy/exchange 1200 gems. I would then have 300 gems left over. So, being less than the preset 340 gem exchange, I’d have to opt for several transactions for lesser amounts. 4 * 69 = 276. This leaves 24 gems remaining, resulting in 3 more transactions to bring my balance to zero. This is one of the few scenarios that works at clearing the remainder, but requires seven transactions to get there. I think Anet had this in mind, although they failed to take into account the fact that many had random amounts for their gem balance, and because they didn’t tell us of the change, we’re stuck with them.

If I buy anything that leaves me with a balance ending in 5, it gets messy. i.e., 400 gems, use 200 on a head piece, and 125 on a black lion key, I’ll have 75 gems left over, with the only option being buy something else or exchange 69 gems and be left forever with a remainder of 7.

I’m currently stuck with 1 gem, which I will never be able to get rid of. If you have a balance that is less than 8 gems, you’re pretty much SOL unless you buy more. Even then, you might be able to reduce it by buying something ending in 5, but then – again – you’re stuck with gems remaining.

VergilDeZaniah.3295:

And if I’m being too rude, I’m sorry: I’m confused by good manners, so I removed them from my education.

Oohhhhhhh snap.

ShadowKatt.6804:

I made it to about page 7 or 8 of this thread… took a while, and now I don’t have time to play.
But what is worse… now I don’t really WANT to play.

I just came back to the game today, after having played ArcheAge, WildStar and SWTOR for the last month or two – having been bored out of my skull and with no desire to farm in GW2 – and I don’t know if I’m going to bother logging in tomorrow. I mean, they make these ridiculous decisions, then try to justify it with horrible reasoning, and just when you think, maybe they’ve learned, maybe they’ll focus on what actually needs to be done, and “it can’t get worse than that”… they totally outdo themselves.

My hope for this game has been waning since the launch of LS2 and the stark contrast to the fun that was LS1.. but now? Now it’s just bad. I want to want to play this game, I want to enjoy it, and yet I can’t. And these decisions just kill any hope I have for the future, and the potential that they’ll eventually figure it out and offer something worthwhile.

Sure, they’ve been trying to balance with the China client, and perhaps they’re preparing for an influx of new players, but they’re also kind of setting the grounds for a second mass exodus by repeatedly insulting and alienating their players. And that’s unfortunate and unwise.

I was a producer for an indie dev, obviously on a different scale, but I honestly can’t understand this change. I can’t figure out the logic of the person who made this call, and others like it. It’s like they’ve never played an MMO beyond some precursory QA testing. They just don’t get it. They seem to have never have lived the MMO player experience, with the rise and fall of title after title. And that’s sad, because this is a beautiful game with amazing potential.

KStudios.2850:

Aexo.6491:

Not spending another cent on this game so long as this system exists, full stop.

Serum.4067:

As a frequent gem purchaser, maybe 10-20 dollars every paycheck, this change will keep my money in my wallet. Never buying gems again as long as this system is in place. Very distasteful ANet. You’ve lost yet another customer with your unnecessary changes and horrible decision making. I know a cash grab when I see one. Sad to see such a revolutionary and innovative videogame slowly being ruined due to poor management. You’re bleeding yourselves out….

I completely concur… I honestly wished I’d noticed this change before I picked up the new outfit. And I’m just about the same in habit, approximately $10-$20 per paycheck. So that’s now three of their TP-whales they’re losing until this system reverts back to old form. Do I hear more? This needs to backfire so hard.

/signed

The fourth gem whale. $50-75/mo. No more. Not until they pull their heads out.

CorvusofMorlich.8450:

islarose.7356:

Sithaco.4673:

I love how they seem to focus on fixing problems that no one here has heard people complain about, rather then fix the problems people are very vocal about.

Preach.

A thousand times THIS.

You know, I’ve played a lot of games, and almost every AAA title available. I know there are always discontent players, and they come with the territory. I’ve never counted myself one of them. Until now.

I’ve never seen a game implement such mind boggling changes before or since GW2. Two years into the development of this game, they decide to change a very simple, effective, and rather self-explanatory ui for “new players” – despite the new players of the last two years managing just fine, when there are many other issues, that are given much more weight among the existing players, that go unaddressed.

Trust me, the gem conversion ui wasn’t the element chasing away or hindering new players. I get it, if this is an attempt to encourage more gem sales rather than conversions, or something, but I still can’t see the logic behind investing your resources into this, of all current issues. Whoever is managing this, and giving these very poorly thought out projects that reflect an overwhelming disconnect with the player base needs to be put under review. Because that person is FURTHER hurting your game and your loyal players.

I honestly feel bad for your dev team, because this is just another entry in an embarrassing streak of blunders. This game could be improving, you could be retaining the players who are bored out of their minds, having exhausted every element of available content, but instead you insult the intelligence of both the veterans and the new players by thinking the game needs to be made simpler…. That is the last thing GW2 needs, it’s plenty simple enough by comparison with every other major competitor on the market. If not the simplest.

We were all new players once, and it would seem the majority of us did not have an issue with the conversion ui. It’s nice that you’re considering the few who opted to write tickets rather than spending the few seconds it takes to understand the very simple (and informative!) ui. Perhaps you’re broadening your demographic to the simple minded?

FINALLY, I’m curious as to how many “new players” have the gold to even bother with conversions? What about the wealth of items in the store that are less than 400 gems, like most of your consumables? And is this tied to your practice of pricing cosmetic items at amounts that exceed the gem purchase options, ensuring additional purchases/higher revenue? Not only does one have to buy more than they need when purchasing with cash, but now we can’t even convert gems in a precise manner with our game currency? I assume so, as now converting gold to make up the difference is prohibitive. Is this an attempt to show gem store sales in a more favorable light, seeing as players won’t be able to collect their “change” (9 gems? seriously?) and thus are more likely to spend it?

Sithaco.4673:

I love how they seem to focus on fixing problems that no one here has heard people complain about, rather then fix the problems people are very vocal about.

Preach.

>A lot of newer players had trouble with the interface. That doesn’t apply to you, you’re veterans who have been around the conversion block a time or two. But newer players will benefit from the updated system.

Yeah, veterans who were once new players, who seemed to manage the original gem conversion ui just fine (same goes for downed state, and the like).

How I imagine a “new player” might feel at seeing all of the changes to make a very simple thing “easier to understand”: http://i.imgur.com/kOCUIh5.jpg

Seriously. I’m not sure what demographic you’re trying to appeal to, or if you really mean to insult potential new players by suggesting they’re stupid, but either way.. it’s not going to draw crowds. Especially when you’re dumbing down several very basic, very obvious elements, while at the same time making the leveling/trait system incredibly tedious.

But I guess tons of gamers are looking for easy, right?

Randulf.7614:

Gail..if you ever leave Anet for new pastures, please can I call shotgun on your Bow of the Mighty Slaughtering of Fools? (there is a gem store item or a unique weapon drop crying out though…)

Fine policy otherwise.

Ohh! The particle effect has GOT to be salty tears!!! And the sound effect! The sound effect should be the sad trumpet (Wah-Wah Wahhhhhh). YAYYYYY! Best legendary ever.

kimeekat.2548:

Stephane Lo Presti.7258:

The Feature Pack announcements will continue next week and some of them will definitely contain information that’s relevant to those of you who’ve been playing the game for long. We won’t tell you about them until the articles are live though, to keep the element of surprise!

Thank you, Stephane, it was nice of you to comment and reassure us. That said, I really feel that the three week parceling out of information like this sprinkled by dev posts telling us to be patient and that we’ll be excited is increasing the fandom kitten within the community. The blog posts feel a little fluff-y to get a length out of them that may not be warranted. I venture to guess that there would be a little less bitterness if the announcements were more compact and substantial. Of course, I can see how small nibbles of information is easier on the PR team when it comes to fan feedback; perhaps merely changing up the order, or two instead of three weeks would ease the feelings of being strung along. Hopefully you guys can see where the disappointment/antsiness from veterans stems from on this, the most glorious of birthday weeks, having nothing to do with us in the news department. Your fans hang on your every word, which is a double edged sword that I don’t envy, haha. It is demoralizing hearing that some of my favorite elements of leveling have been gated and at the same time seeing no news relating to my current in-game situation. Thanks again for the communication and all your hard work <3 Enjoy those cupcakes.

It’s like getting a surprise pair of socks. Sure, I’ll use them… but did it really warrant the hype of a surprise? It stimulates hope and imagination, only to be let down with something banal.

Last feature pack, it made sense. There were a few big changes. This time? I’m pretty sure it would have all done nicely in one release, with blog posts to elaborate on the features. Then we wouldn’t have the “Surprise!”>Disappointment issue we’re seeing now.

Because, socks.

Considering that next weeks updates are related to “Trade & Collectibles” (“we’re rethinking the way you collect and trade items!”) the best thing I can think of that they would implement would be, possibly (but probably unlikely w/ the TP tax/gold sink) player-to-player trade windows, and best case something like the shared account bag, so all of your characters have access to account bound items like the unlimited harvesting tools, salavage-o-matic, tickets/passes, etc. Ideally, it would include a rework of the loot tables so farming wasn’t a necessity, but that’s highly doubtful.

It’s unlikely, but I can’t really think of anything really revolutionary they could implement, even after reviewing past CDIs and whatever is off the top of my head after following the subreddit/forum for the last year or so.

I can’t really think of anything exciting enough (in a feature patch) to make me want to log in again, and that’s a sad thing, because I love this game. I’m just tired of it, and lack motivation to sign in for more than a few minutes. I miss the excitement and hype of patch announcements, and the even greater rush of patch day (a whole week later!) shoulder to shoulder with my server mates laying waste to enemies (Tower, LA, Marionette, etc.). Now I just have what’s feels like more solo personal story instances, which I never bothered to finish in the first place. :/ Ah well, hopefully they didn’t change the halloween and christmas events too much.

Kysin.6349:

islarose.7356:

Kysin.6349:

And it turned out (most times, not every time) that the guys just didn’t know how the farm worked.

I’ll be glad to see it go personally.

Every run I’ve done has a few people giving direction, explaining how it works, and why it’s beneficial to let the event fail. It’s simple: 1. Stack on Blix, spawn champs through scaling. 2. Stay in tunnel, use reflects. 3. Keep elites alive, never let the circle go empty, focus champs. Kill mobs when they reach the group.

Pretty easy.

I’m sure you were also glad to see the other trains go, and every other means of earning gold aside from TP flipping, farming the same dungeons on repeat 2 years in, and the world boss circuit.

#BuyGems!

Tinfoil hat ftw, no I was sad to see the ember farm go (but I understood it needed to). It was way less toxic and about 5x more rewarding, it also changed the economy way more than blix farm. I was also bummed when they extended the timer for plinx/shelt/penit. Why don’t you start “TP flipping” since you seem to know much more about it than everyone else, haha.

Ha, oh I didn’t say I knew more about it. I’ve read “the guides” and followed market trackers, but I suck at flipping, plain and simple, because I am terrible at identifying niche markets, I don’t like risking a ton of gold, and I am not fond of my gameplay consisting of sitting at the TP in LA while alt-tabbing to GW2Spidy. Most of my gold was gained through speculation, but alas, that tapers off between major updates. I enjoy farms because I like running with groups of people, and I’m a bit burnt out on everything else (dungeons, WvW, EOTM – fractals lack payoff). I mean, I don’t want a legendary, I have a comfortable amount of gold, and I don’t want any other items in game (my mains have their ascended sets).. so other than not logging in (which has been my MO lately) silly little farms like this give me something to do, and I get to joke around and have a good time with other players.

Also, it would be tinfoil if I accused some grand conspiracy, or some theorized but ill supported claim. Not, by identifying the major means of earning gold in game. I come from r/asoiaf, my Reynold’s Wrap is strong.

DeWolfe.2174:

islarose.7356:

I mean, working on a legendary, the argument exists that you’re more likely to – eventually – earn the gold to buy your precursor

Not exactly, you have to earn enough gold to keep up with inflation. Many of the higher sought after items have doubled in price the past year. Say for the “The Legend”, you’d have to make 700 gold over the past year just to give to inflation. You’d still be the same value away from being able to purchase it you were a year ago. 700 gold for a casual player is substantial.

Oh, no doubt. 100 gold for a casual is pretty substantial. The inflation is likely due, in part, to the nerf to rewards. The price keeps rising, and thus people keep farming. Even still, with inflation, you’re more likely to eventually get the gold for it, through constant farming, than actually having the item – or any precursor really – drop for you.

Bloodstealer.5978:

You’re [edit] wrong.. the only reason players began to form up and try to stop the event being farmed was because when they tried legitimately run the event chain previously they were abused by the #bandofexploitbrothers.

Change servers sound great.. except within a few days every map copy you could get into was doing the same thing…

It takes an action to cause a reaction… blix farmers began purposely harassing players that did not want to conform to there exploitation of the shelter event and as always happens that kind of abuse causes the reaction and yeah, players get fed up of being called a noob, a c*** etc etc and began to learn how to use the failtrains own tactics of scaling the event to spawn champs.. by simply aggroing the mobs onto it whilst ressing the NPC’s to almost full health and waiting for their time to fully res them.

Curse Shore became vacant across most parts of the map since Blix became so overly exploitable by the hoards and the LFG system utilised to spread the exploit virally across the player base..

I for one am glad ANET have at least looked into putting an end to it… hopefully the worst offenders of this exploitation will see actions taken on their accounts, but I doubt that is going to happen, which just says its fine to exploit for as long as you can until a patch comes.. that’s not a deterrent merely a mini game of chase.

Cursed shore was dead prior to this farm and the foxfire cluster farmers. Megaservers killed the temple events, there were other champ trains that were more convenient elsewhere. In other words, it was a ghost town before recent events. Prior to this farm, I’d rarely seen anyone at the Blix event (with exception to when the defend event was a major farm) – moreover if the constant “in combat” WP status is anything to go by. It was not the Blix farm that made the map a ghost town. Even in the beginning (first 6 mos) I used to farm for ori and ancient wood, and I rarely saw other players – aside from temple events and other material farmers. Now people are occasionally champ training through Orr, but it’s still not even close to the scale of FGS or QD.

And no, people didn’t form up to ruin the event because they were against the farmers, they did it because they had fun getting a rise out of thwarting a group trying to accomplish something. Probably for the same reason the farmers were there in the first place; because what else are they going to do?

It was the same with QD, people intentionally ruined what others were working toward, because they’re trolls. I just find it amusing that people are complaining about one event on a map of several, as if they would have done it if the train wasn’t there.

It honestly does not matter if this gets nerfed to lack rewards like other events. There are more out there. If you really want farms like this to stop? You should probably support the idea that they’re a significant consequence of this game’s reward structure.

- Events are more rewarding if failed.
- Nerfs to champ bags mean people will farm more.
- Low drop rates for desired items mean people will farm more.
- Low rewards in general mean people will farm more.
- Items of value require incessant grinding? People will farm more.
- What does acquiring significant amounts of gold require? Farming or really good RNG luck.

Don’t like farming? You probably don’t like TP flippers manipulating markets either. So perhaps you should jump on the “fix the reward system” bandwagon, rather than railing against those that are trying to work with what is available. If you just enjoy kittening off a group of players, keep trolling, I guess. There will always be those who don’t adhere to “don’t feed the troll” practices. But it’s at your own material loss. There will always be another farm, until there isn’t, in which case those people will likely stop bothering to play.

Getting banned because Anet made failures more rewarding than successes, and doesn’t properly reward normal gameplay? Fine. Alienate those zergs of players across various servers. It’s not like there aren’t more games out there that make gameplay feel rewarding. They may not be as pretty, but at least your time is worth something.

kokiman.2364:

Wrong approach to the whole situation, imo. They should just ban the players who literally abuse failure states of events.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, they could revamp events so that they don’t give better reward for failure? and 40-50 players per MS map farming this banned? For taking advantage of their reward system design? Seems like a bad idea in killing a large part of your active playerbase.

Fact it, this isn’t the first farm, nor will it be the last. So long as the rewards are better for failure, and the loot tables are so skewed, people will keep farming. Not to mention the lack of reward for “normal” gameplay. It’s the only way to generate enough mats/gold to acquire the few valuable items in game.

Farmers aren’t the problem, they’re the symptom of a greater problem, that will not disappear by nerfing events. In the case that every event that can be farmed is nerfed? They’ll just leave the game, or resort to flipping on the TP (most will probably fail, as it requires some degree of experience and insight). Probably not good for a game reliant upon microtransactions to further alienate a significant amount of their playerbase.

Deaths.9165:

They nerfed Queensdale and Frostgeorge to unplayable. What u guys expect. We stand still. We will just move on even if it is blix. And blix is not an exploit.

If A-Net nerfs everything farmable we will find ways to earn Gold.

Gems-Gold conversion is what I believe they’re pushing us toward. They remove farms, leave the loot table/reward dismal, and then introduce items that require a ton of the most expensive materials in the game.

To obtain the things you want, in a game focused on horizontal progression, you have to have gold, as the chance for said items to drop for you are so minimal that you’d be more likely to earn enough to buy them through farming for them, before they ever dropped for you.

I mean, working on a legendary, the argument exists that you’re more likely to – eventually – earn the gold to buy your precursor before it ever dropped for you. Want to use Mystic Forge? That requires a ton of gold as well.

Everything of value requires gold, or a few stacks of materials, and the only way to reliably get either is via farming. Or gems to gold. I believe this is their business model, as they seem very disinclined to implement meaningful rewards for “normal” gameplay.

Gedekran.1487:

The toxicity of the community that once existed in Queensdale is as ever prevalent now during the Blix event.

They only get toxic when someone botches it intentionally. The rest of the time they’re typically friendly and having fun, sharing boosts, telling jokes, whatever.

Methal.9045:

I dont mind that its there. Its just that its all people do. There isn’t another event on the map that can gather more than 4 or 5 people.
Fail or not, set the re-try timer to 10-15 minutes so that there is room for other events to be done during the down time.

Because rewards.

chemiclord.3978:

Local chat only gets bad when you find those farming groups (like the people exploiting Blix) who KNOW they’re not playing the game the way its intended, and just don’t care. They’re focused entirely on grinding their phat loots, and get unfathomably furious when that gravy train is disrupted.

They are the absolute dregs of the GW2 community. I will honestly say outside of those cesspools, the in game community in GW2 is among the best I’ve ever experienced in an MMO.

The dregs? The friendly bunch sharing their boosts and chatting, telling jokes, and generally having fun in a game reliant, in part, on events? They’re friendly, they give instructions & reasoning every few minutes, and they only got kittened once in my few hours there tonight when they got trolled. (Thanks for the heads up on the train by the way, OP!) True, they shouldn’t have taken the bait, but whatever. I’m on my last legs as it is. WvW is still recovering after seasons, and I’m only logging in for WB circuit and farming.. for some reason. There are other events like this already, where players will go farm when this gets nerfed. When it’s all gone, they’ll move on. Dungeons are just tired, and less social, fun and chaotic, and fractals have kitten rewards.

Shivan.9438:

We’re gonna put diminishing returns on loot so you can’t farm. Then we’re gonna nerf good farming spots into the ground, all to make the game less grindy. Riiiiight. Keep swiping your credit card for gems.

Of course people are going to get mad when a good thing gets disrupted.

Not mad per say, but a bit baffled.

Azrael.4960:

Don’t be too surprised that in the next update the event will be patched to prevent this from happening. Players are creative, they’ll find another place to mob and farm. Give them some time to realise the sheer amount of time wasted getting worked up over trivial things like this. The sweet, sweet moment of revelation

Eh, they know the next site to go to for farming. And they will. They’re not so much worked up, but more about enjoying it before it’s gone. If I hadn’t found out about this tonight, I definitely wouldn’t have bothered logging in.

pdavis.8031:

I wouldn’t call it an exploit. But it is stupid and cheap. I was passing through the other night, and got at least 5 group invites, and prompty rejected them all. I don’t mind farming, kind of enjoy it really, but purposly failing events to get a champ is just lame. But hey, if thats how you want to play it….

Building a game that’s more rewarding for failure is lame. But, if that’s how they want to build it..

Anyway, I’ll shut up now. The farm was fun, made some gold – which was refreshing after months of EOTM, dungeons and World Bosses. Broke up the sheer boredom a bit. Archeage this weekend! (No need to farm content? What?? Rewarding “normal” gameplay?! You don’t say!)

CETheLucid.3964:

ixiduffixi.6384:

Meh, all the farmers knew it was going to happen. “Toxic” community or not, it happens to every farm. I agree that some people go off the deepend about others completing the event. They have every right to complete it for legitimate reasons. However, there was rarely a case of anyone completing it just to complete it. I’m not defending one side or the other, but no one was ever at those events other than to farm, otherwise they would still be completed just whenever a small group of players felt like it.

That’s nonsense.

If I go out there right now with the intention to complete it with my friends, I’d bet you gold at least one person will have a conniption about it.

Likely several, if not the whole map. Try and say that isn’t true. Show me how convincing you can be to sell that pile.

Of course they will, because they know that you know it will thwart their efforts. You’d be doing it intentionally. There are other maps, other events, but you’re basically saying “kitten you guys, this is what I want to do! I don’t care if you’re trying to make something happen, or not happen – I don’t care if it’s a 20 minute respawn, and the most social area and most rewarding gameplay at the moment. I want to ruin it for you.”

Gedekran.1487:

Here’s some screencaps where I do not engage the farmers at all in conversation, and instead just try to complete the event. http://imgur.com/a/cgNmN

Because you’re intentionally halting the train, making it take 20 minutes to respawn. You didn’t go to other map instances, or try any other event in the zone, you intentionally went to the one people wanted to fail. There’s no innocence in that. I will say, it takes some confidence to go in front of your fellow players and hinder them from what they were working toward knowingly and intentionally. That’s why they get upset.

Especially when they explain the strategy every minute in /say chat. That’s what they’re upset about; not your desire to complete it, but your desire to thwart what they’re collectively working on. But, you’ve got Anet’s backing, so bra-vo. They’ll just move to the next.. and the next.. and the next.. until trolls continue to get them shut down. Then, when there’s nothing left, they’ll leave. Because trains, like it or not, keep people playing. It’s their only means of decent reward. Without reward, the motivation to sign in dies.. unless they want to idle in LA and have a glorified chat room.

Letifer.4360:

If you feel offended in anyway by anyone just use the report function, as for the farm I see no problem with it and if ANet keeps nerfing every farm in the game there will be a lot of qq about the AH not having certain items anymore or because the price is too high, guess what those items need to be farmed I know crazy right.

I mean, beyond WvW & PvP, what else is there to do but farm? Farm dungeons, farm fractals, farm world bosses, farm events/champ trains.. Kill off the variety and it gets old, even faster than it already is. Even EOTM is basically a karma/champ farm. Aside from dungeons/fractals/worldbosses.. there are trolls everywhere. They get off on upsetting others, whether it’s destroying siege, killing a boss before the mob, or forcing an event to succeed/fail. This community at its most vitriolic is a good day in most other games.

Galen Grey.4709:

Lippuringo.1742:

Ravion Hawk.4736:

Then again, is this where the QD Champ Train went to? If it is as toxic as it sounds, I’m willing to bet Gems that it is the remnants of the toxic element of the QD Champ Train.

It’s toxic not because of big group playing as they want, it’s toxic because of trolls. I was in QD train, and i run on Blinx farm. It’s always the same: someone just ignore all persuasion for group and kill champs in QD before zerg, or complete Blinx’s event. So essentially just wasted time of big group of players.

Thats exactly the thing though. Train is going around doing its thing which is fine. Some players arent part of the train and they’re doing their thing. If they come across a champion they are free to just attack and kill it. its unrealistic to expect players need to threat champions as untouchable until the train arrives or having to enquire if there is train and if this champion is part of that rotation and when the train will arrive etc..

The train simply has no right to be angry much less toxic because someone killed a champion before it got there.

At the end of the day the player doing his/her thing is playing the game as intended, the train a bit less so.

The QD train lost it’s mind with 1-2 particular players who would show up almost daily and kill the bosses out of order. It was never a random player who “just didn’t know”. even then, I never saw a toxic rage fest in my time farming the monthly champ/event achievements. I don’t think I ever saw FGS get toxic either.

Kysin.6349:

And it turned out (most times, not every time) that the guys just didn’t know how the farm worked.

I’ll be glad to see it go personally.

Every run I’ve done has a few people giving direction, explaining how it works, and why it’s beneficial to let the event fail. It’s simple: 1. Stack on Blix, spawn champs through scaling. 2. Stay in tunnel, use reflects. 3. Keep elites alive, never let the circle go empty, focus champs. Kill mobs when they reach the group.

Pretty easy.

I’m sure you were also glad to see the other trains go, and every other means of earning gold aside from TP flipping, farming the same dungeons on repeat 2 years in, and the world boss circuit.

#BuyGems!

FrostSpectre.4198:

Dagraan.2854:

(anti farmers rich elites)

The rich elite? More like some player, mostly some casuals who are not really rich, wants to complete the event chain.

Part psychological, players want to complete the event, even if it’s less rewarding, just for sake of completing the event. They don’t always have time for “later”.

On one thought tho, I really wish that the players exploiting this design flaw would have their accounts reverted, due to very hostile behaviour and supporting use of exploitable issues…

Yet I’ve only seen that event completed successfully maybe twice before the farm got popular. It’s usually a ghost town. Oh, that’s with exception to when the defend event was a popular farm, which they fixed ages ago.

Orpheal.8263:

Such exploits need to get fixed in the future much sooner, before already everyone and their moms have abused it for half an eternity to the point, that it seriously affects the game economy…

Why get such things always first fixed, when its way tooo late?
Why must always first someone write something about these exploits in the forum, before some actions are being made against such kind of exploits

However, thanks that this gets fixed now, even it its already too late.
At least take a look it it now, who exploits this now extremely more in the moments before it gets fixed, so that those people which keep on exploiting this further, get punished…

Just increasing only the respawn timer alone doesn#t fix everything!!
You have to look also at the event design self, that failing intentionally an event shouldn’t stop countless other events at this map to appear.
Events need to be independent from each other!
If 1 event fails, then there should appear other alternative events which could be done to lead to the point, that an event chain doesn’t get broken, only because of one event failing.
Thats what is beign meant with real dynamic events. There is nothing dynamic about it, if you can bring forcefully an event chain to break, if just one event fails.
Dynamic it would be, if you can continue your event chain, but failing one quest means, you have to do next an alternative different event, than that, what would normally have to be done next, if the previous quest would have been done successfully.

Thats the way, how real dynamic event chains have to work. An event chain should never be breakable!.

“Just increasing only the respawn timer alone doesn#t fix everything!!
You have to look also at the event design self, that failing intentionally an event shouldn’t stop countless other events at this map to appear.”

How about: Failing an event intentionally shouldn’t be more rewarding than succeeding it.

Honestly, if players are trying to obtain T6 mats for legendary crafting, greens and blues for salvaging, and the occasional yellow to sell or salvage for ectos.. I don’t see this as disrupting the economy significantly. They’re actually having fun, and earning a small amount of gold. The only other options for the same are similar events (fail>win), world bosses, or EOTM. End game consists of WvW, PvP (which are, admittedly, not for every PvE player), dungeons & fractals, and events. Without trains, they’re left with occasional event chains and world bosses. Which most definitely get old, relatively quickly. Dungeons and Fractals reward less than events, have a cap, and are stale. Fractals are very unreliable in their loot tables (rings, rings and rings) and don’t reward the effort and coordination required adequately.

DeWolfe.2174:

chemiclord.3978:

Local chat only gets bad when you find those farming groups (like the people exploiting Blix) who KNOW they’re not playing the game the way its intended, and just don’t care. They’re focused entirely on grinding their phat loots, and get unfathomably furious when that gravy train is disrupted.

They are the absolute dregs of the GW2 community. I will honestly say outside of those cesspools, the in game community in GW2 is among the best I’ve ever experienced in an MMO.

So, when players are working together, helping each other in a social manner, thats somehow a "bad’ thing in an MMO. Compared to the people in this thread, including the one whom already admitted to grieving them? You folks certainly have a quirky moral compass. I think it’s truly the pot calling the kettle black. Especially when one of the known players to troll the Queensdale Train was found trolling Blix repeatedly yesterday. I think these complainers are the bad seeds in this scenario. Especially when Blix isn’t being run on every layer. You have a choice NOT to taxi to a layer running Blix.

Oh, and btw… since you mentioned loot, let’s call it what it is, jealously. These few players complain incessantly and whine whenever any large group of players socially farm an area with good rewards. The greater GW2 community would do better without the few bratty children whom can’t allow others to have fun and obtain loot.

Yep. I’ve been running it tonight, and people have been having a good time – fireworks, dropping boosts (because, really, where else are they useful aside from champ/karma trains?), fun boxes, and joking around in chat.

Let’s be honest here, trains are popular because the loot in this game is skewed. The few things of value are rather expensive to obtain, and the game fails to provide adequate rewards. Thus, farming becomes necessary if you want to craft (or hell, BUY) your ascended items, or if you’re working toward a legendary. Dungeons and Fractals certainly don’t provide much – you have to run dungeons repeatedly to generate decent rewards from them (without a chance of dungeon armors dropping…) and the several fractal loot tables (through 50) that players have shared & recorded are pretty dismal.

This game has a great deal of things to do, but players gravitate toward farms because they actually get rewarded. When Blix is gone they’ll simply gravitate to the next one. Because it’s the best way to get money without resorting to playing the TP, which to be honest, can be less fun than a good, social train (also more prone to failure, depending on experience). It’s also the best odds at getting a valuable drop, although they’re still quite low.

Perhaps this is just coming from games that were rewarding across the board, where it never felt like “normal gameplay” was somehow setting me at a disadvantage, and I could quite possibly obtain something of value through the normal course of gameplay. If I was desperate, I’d just run all of the dailies. Crafting had value, as did the items that were craftable, so that added another layer of income. The same can’t exactly be said here. My prior games were less grind oriented, and I never farmed for anything – because truthfully, it’s not that appealing in a world full of content – I worked for my loot, my gold/credits/whatever, but it was never reliant upon farming. Odd, that.

If Anet wants train activities to cease (as evidenced by FGC, QD, the Lyssa Farm, and now Blix) they clearly need to rework the level of reward offered by standard content. Nothing over the top, but enough that a player doesn’t feel the need to farm incessantly (look at what foxfire did to the playerbase, ha). Or perhaps that’s their means of retaining replayability? Until then, people will continue to hop farming opportunity to farming opportunity, or running EOTM. It is what it is.

Zach & Tyler, thank you for sacrificing your weekend to fix this for us. It really means a lot to not only be assured that the devs are listening, but to know that you immediately worked on the change to ensure it made it into the FP. You guys deserve a batch of cupcakes and a case of red bull. <3 For now, you have our gratitude!

Thank you for listening to us, Anet. This is the change we needed, and it certainly helps restore some faith in the game’s future.

Baldrick.8967:

Bear in mind the dev team has next to zero input from anyone remotely connected to wvw. This is purely a pve move, as there are a ton of ‘commanders’ in pve and giving the rich pve’rs somehing else to spend their money on is what this is all about.

The fact that pure wvw players have little to no money but at the same time actually need different tags in order to make wvw better never entered the equation.

In addition to having to supply superior siege, trays of food, and so on.. with very little by way of loot to generate revenue.

Refuse to buy it until they remedy this fumbled attempt at implementing a community QoL (NOT VANITY) feature.

Perhaps if their attempted goldsink fails, due to too few buying it, they might actually listen, a la, their “fix” of the light T3 human armor reskin in the gemstore. Mayhaps if enough of us refuse to buy gems until it’s fixed, they might listen.

Clearly, money talks here.

Malediktus.9250:

Kaamau.5341:

not that I support this, but it’ll make it so that the commander will generally have to have the support of the general community to get these different color tags, so if some one is rolling around with a red tag… you know their good?

But the same thing still works for your system and its less crazy in terms of price. I like it a lot better.

Not really. Any person who plays the TP can buy them all instantly without a problem. Usually the good commanders are the poor ones.

Exactly. The ones that spend 12+ hours in WvW leading, deploying superior siege, putting out food, and so on. If this is just going to be a vanity thing, which it seems that’s how Anet’s playing it, it seems this will have the opposite effect (pretty peakittens vs. good commanders.)

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

grifflyman.8102:

I think it’s clear the community has spoken. I can’t remember the last time this many players came together to discuss a feature that was not well received.

I personally feel like the WvW community is dieing, if we are ignored after all these people have come together I think I’ll just join the Archage band waggon.

I’ll likely be following right behind you.

I’ve been playing in this weekend’s beta, it’s a blast!

I thought the whole point behind colored commander tags was for commanders to be able to better coordinate among themselves when multiple commanders are on the map, i.e., one for main zerg, one for havoc/guild group(s), splinter zergs for tactical strikes, GvGs, or additional offensive/defensive coordination. I believe the requests that were made on the CDI specified the need for flexibility between tags, to increase situational response on behalf of the commanders and to better facilitate greater strategy in WvW group maneuvers. Blocking that flexibility behind, what, 1500g? or 1200g (fifth free, right?) is rather obstructive, and completely undermines the entire point of having a variety of colors. You’re better off buying a precursor and sticking with your existing tag.

That is to say nothing of their use outside of WvW.. like world bosses, event chains, guild events, living story, and so on. However I don’t think there are as many instances in which multiple tag colors would be beneficial, unless there were multiple commanders on the map, running different content.

If they felt the need for a gold sink of sorts (which, between keeping up with quality siege and limited rewards/drops.. I don’t think this is necessary. I mean, you have to work and grind to be swimming in coin in GW2 – look at any other game’s reward rates.. they far surpass those of GW2 in terms of value and usefulness…) they should utilize the WvW badges, rather than the same amount of gold as, say, a precursor. It seems more logical, from a game design perspective, to have some of the tags gated behind badges of honor, as one would have to be well versed in WvW to get them, while others can be available for gold. That is, if they’re really committed to the idea of making players purchase multiple tags – which is really ridiculous. If I understand the implementation correctly, not only will the tags take up more inventory space, but it makes it an additional hassle to switch it up.. rather than having the ability to activate the tag and change the color on the fly. I mean, this was initially intended to be, in part, a QOL feature too, wasn’kitten Sounds a bit scheme-y to me.

Instead, it seems Anet thought it was a cosmetic thing? Which would suggest that they barely skimmed the CDI and multitude of requests for this feature. Sure, some will enjoy the novelty of showing off a new commander tag.. and with the price they’ve made it a status symbol rather than what was needed, a useful additional tool (which again, are lacking) for improving WvW. I mean.. requiring someone to spend 300g on each color severely limits the number of commanders who will go “beyond the blue” thus, defeating the purpose of the colored tags. Sure, some are possibly rolling in gold.. but what about the small guild groups and havoc groups? Those many, many players who tag up to help out when the map lacks the leadership needed for militia?

It is as if they completely overlooked the reasoning and justification the players made for the change request in the first place, which makes this another disappointment, rather than something much awaited and needed that people could be excited over. I’m not one to complain often, nor would I consider myself a malcontent, but I am really underwhelmed with this, and a bit frustrated at the fumbled implementation. Like I said, it completely defeats the purpose.

The season chests won’t be awarded until after the season ends (after May 30). Some people will get chests when they complete their meta, depending on which achievement you finished your meta with. I’m guessing this is what your friends/guildies are referring to. Some of the achievements reward chests, tomes of knowledge, or ascended crafting materials (you can check your progress and see the rewards you’ve collected so far – they’re listed next to each achievement’s point value).

VideoGamermike.5813:

I’m not angry about the economy. In fact, I don’t care about the price, at all, it’s worthless for me so I’ll just save my money and get it myself. The cost of quick jumps across Tyria is smaller than what I would have to pay in market(so to speak.) No, what I’m frustrated at, is what I’m forced to do.
These are items I’m more or less just throwing away as junk half the time, I wanted to put them in the market because there are likely players who aren’t a bit overstocked in copper like I am, so I figured I could throw out some cheap salvage for people who needed them, while still making a handy profit, a lot more than I would get in shops. Instead, I got pushed to sell my items at prices that in no way reflect that idea, or even how I got it. I feel like I’m being pushed into cheating people out of their money by means of ‘market value.’ THATS where my problem is, for those people who arent able to get many of those items and -only- get them from the market, yes, the market value is by essence, the only way they can think about a profit, but thats not me. I’m out getting these items, it takes no effort at all to get these items, there more or less -trash- to me.
See what I’m getting at? why should I be forced to sell at these prices when, I’m so far removed from the -reasons- for those prices, that I’m jsut robbing people blind. I feel like I’m cheating the game, myself, and others…because the market value says so. -thats- my problem. If I’m underselling because I want to..why not? Are we that afraid people purposely collapsing a market that we end up not letting people make what they consider to be fair trades? I don’t transmute my items, I dont need to, see where I’m getting at?

But I digress, thank you for the actual response, I just wish some of the players would have done so…rather than just insult me with on sentence…why even post if that’s all you’re going to do.

If I understand correctly, the issue you’re referring to is the buy order system, where you’re seeking to list items at a lower price than their market price (established by player demand) based on the value you attribute to them, and your listing is instead sold to a buy order placed by another player at a higher price than your intended sell listing? So the price you are establishing based on your own interpretations of value and demand is being overridden by the price others are willing to pay for it? Genuine question, as I’ve never tried to list something lower than the buy order price (with exception to listing without buy orders, which I just vendor).

So, market and value (convenience, time, effort, demand, etc) aside, you’re wanting to undercut other sellers and sell for a lower amount than the existing buy orders from players, to reach out to players that don’t have the funds to place a higher buy order for items like jute and copper? Unfortunately, even if you were able to sell at lower rates than the buy offers, your items would likely be purchased and flipped for profit as opposed to going to those that could afford them.

mtpelion.4562:

I think it should be pointed out that you are not forced to do anything. You have the option of destroying, salvaging and using, or vendoring those scraps. Your choice to hurt yourself by not selling at the current price due to your misunderstanding of basic economic principles is a self-inflicted problem that we won’t be able to assist you with.

Beautiful.

ColinJohanson.2394:

clint.5681:

Colin im going to let you in on a secret that is worth tens of thousands of dollars, but since I like you ill give it to you for free.

Put in capes and the people will come. Especially good trimmed capes for the upper tiers.

Everyone will be jelly and want to know how to get one and if you can only get them through pvp people will come. So they would be good rewards.

I love me some capes, agreed!

“She got the Norn T3 and the cape with the furrrr, the whole server looking at herrrr”

Uh, yeah, anyway.. My Norn would like a fur trimmed cape, please.

Thank you for clarifying Gaile, I had been opening tickets in-game, as opposed to tickets through the website.

DiogoSilva.7089:

Josh Davis.6015:

Nice try. I don’t think we have a public date yet.

Ancient Ranger.3276:

Sounds like an awesome time. Just one question will the balance happen after the living story finishes or sometime in between when it is ready?

That’s what I was most interested to know when I asked my second question. The “feature-only” patch seems to be so far away…

Considering that they’re still working on and “fleshing out” a lot of the details, plus the actual implementation and testing for sufficient results, I would not only avoid expecting an answer regarding a release date so soon, but additionally, if we truly are seeking balance, time is not the enemy, despite how anxious we may be to see how it impacts us.

Fenrir.3609:

It would require a combat mechanic and mob attack pattern overhaul in order to change the current situation. Something unlikely to happen.

We are more likely to see a nerf which will only make things worse.

I’m afraid you’re going to be right.

Ciucan.5092:

I will not repeat what the majority of players stated above .What the community implies requires a huge amount of work from Arena Net,utterly huge amount,redesigning most of their game mechanics,the living story patches cannot even scratch the surface of these problems unless the team is made to work 24/7 full time.

You killed diversity in PvE due to limited game mechanics that promote unity instead of trinity or diversity or w/e you wanted and you destroyed your chances of revitalising this game with your consistent denial of an expansion for reasons that will haunt you when you start losing money by the millions.The amount of work necessary to correct this game can only be done through an expansion….

You have hard MMO’s coming out the block very soon,1.5 years have passed and the game is on the verge of imploding,with the WoW expansion,Elder Scrolls Online and EverQuest soon here only a huge amount of work input as in an expansion or shutting the game down for some time to do all the reprogramming necessary can make a difference.

In other words,it was fun,time to pack our bags and let them work on Guild Wars 3..

Sorry but.. WoW xpac won’t revitalize their combat system, and ESO is pretty dismal in terms of combat – simplified, and hindering rather than engaging. Also lacks a hard trinity with far more diversity in builds, and thus bad builds, than GW2 does. Not to mention an unfortunate crafting/gathering system. GW2 may not suit your needs, of course, but I don’t think it’s a dead game, by any means – nor do the others outshine it in my experience.