I'm not really trying to be argumentative here, but wasn't one selling point that there would be no content locked by gear requirments? While it may be a small amount of content, it sets a precedent to add more IMO, especially if people aren't speaking out against it.
That said I can see how people would view this as a road down bait and Switch avenue. The whole reasoning argued over this games development was that gear treadmills were a carrot used to string along subscriptions. Yet they went down the road of testing the water for it. Which basically throws those original statements down the drain if followed up on.
All I can say about it is if they continue down such a road, it would render many of the Anet talking points pre-launch moot. It would prove those comments as simply being a decisive way to turn people away from the competition and sell some boxes. It would certainly serve up some humble pie at the very least. As it would show games may need those carrots to keep people around, regardless of the fee. This is all speculation of course, as they may steer away from going down such a road.
Fractals aint gated by ascended gear. You can do fractals in greens if you want.
Then why did aerowyn state you need them for the top fractals?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Right now I don't have the game installed on my machine. That's not to say I'll never play it again, but I'm not spending any more money until something like an expansion comes along that actually justifies opening my wallet. I don't care whether it's balanced, unbalanced, good for the game, bad for the game, or even whether it has WvW consequences. Ascended gear is a bait and switch and an abandonment of the principles that caused me to be interested in the game. So I'm not spending any more money on it.
huh? why would you need ot spend any money on the game at all? I have only spent $30 total aside from the box price and that was just for some bag/bank slots.. also how is it a bait and switch at all? you don't need ascended gear for anything in the game aside from the top fractals.. so basically less than 1% of the entire game.. you really don't even need exotic gear to enjoy most everything the game has to offer
I'm not really trying to be argumentative here, but wasn't one selling point that there would be no content locked by gear requirments? While it may be a small amount of content, it sets a precedent to add more IMO, especially if people aren't speaking out against it.
That said I can see how people would view this as a road down bait and Switch avenue. The whole reasoning argued over this games development was that gear treadmills were a carrot used to string along subscriptions. Yet they went down the road of testing the water for it. Which basically throws those original statements down the drain if followed up on.
All I can say about it is if they continue down such a road, it would render many of the Anet talking points pre-launch moot. It would prove those comments as simply being a decisive way to turn people away from the competition and sell some boxes. It would certainly serve up some humble pie at the very least. As it would show games may need those carrots to keep people around, regardless of the fee. This is all speculation of course, as they may steer away from going down such a road.
Of course carrots are needed, but you need to know your crowd and what carrots they like. Trying to make the carrot pleasing for everyone will most likely satisfy noone.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I'm not really trying to be argumentative here, but wasn't one selling point that there would be no content locked by gear requirments? While it may be a small amount of content, it sets a precedent to add more IMO, especially if people aren't speaking out against it.
That said I can see how people would view this as a road down bait and Switch avenue. The whole reasoning argued over this games development was that gear treadmills were a carrot used to string along subscriptions. Yet they went down the road of testing the water for it. Which basically throws those original statements down the drain if followed up on.
All I can say about it is if they continue down such a road, it would render many of the Anet talking points pre-launch moot. It would prove those comments as simply being a decisive way to turn people away from the competition and sell some boxes. It would certainly serve up some humble pie at the very least. As it would show games may need those carrots to keep people around, regardless of the fee. This is all speculation of course, as they may steer away from going down such a road.
Fractals aint gated by ascended gear. You can do fractals in greens if you want.
Then why did aerowyn state you need them for the top fractals?
But to reach the top fractals you will finish the low fractals and so will be rewarded enough ascended items to do the top ones.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Fractals aint gated by ascended gear. You can do fractals in greens if you want.
This is factually false.
Fractals requires 'Agony' gear.
Agony gear also has higher stats than 'exotic' gear.
No, it isn't false.
You can enter and complete fractals without any agony gear.
In fact, until the llast month the only way to get ascended items was to do fractals so if you requerid agony gear to do fractals while agony gear was only obtainable inside the fractals after finishing fractal chunks it would be impossible to get them.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
But to reach the top fractals you will finish the low fractals and so will be rewarded enough ascended items to do the top ones.
Hmm it's hard to ask this question without sounding argumentative, out of curiosity how does this differ from what many call gated content? I'm not really familiar with these systems I never did the gear grinds in games like WOW, etc. My idea of getting gear is finding top crafters, and exotic resouces to make it.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Originally posted by mikahr Originally posted by jpnzOriginally posted by mikahr
Fractals aint gated by ascended gear. You can do fractals in greens if you want.This is factually false.Fractals requires 'Agony' gear.Agony gear also has higher stats than 'exotic' gear.You are, again, factually false. Go do lvl1 fractal and report back. lvl1 1 fractal is exactly same content wise as lvl 10155494 fractal.
Fractals are NOT gated with ascended gear. Fact.
High level fractals are gated by the agony mechanic, so you can still play fractals without until you start hitting the agony mechanic once you've gotten high enough. That's a tiny portion of the game but the gating does exist.
But to reach the top fractals you will finish the low fractals and so will be rewarded enough ascended items to do the top ones.
Hmm it's hard to ask this question without sounding argumentative, out of curiosity how does this differ from what many call gated content? I'm not really familiar with these systems I never did the gear grinds in games like WOW, etc. My idea of getting gear is finding top crafters, and exotic resouces to make it.
When you say "gated content" its content you cant (mathemacically) finish (or in exterme cases) even enter without cerain level of gear.
Fractals are not gated by ascended gear. You can play fractals all you want in rares if you want, but if you start to attack higher level fractals (that are not any different content wise just more challenging in HP/Damage/Agony) and you need agony resists (infusions).
But as far as Fractals go - nope, not gated.
Originally posted by jpnz
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Those same rational people that defined word "same"
Okay, so every time I go to the GW2 forums I come over threads where people say they will/have quit the game because of Ascended gear.
My question to those players; How does ascended gear hurt you?
GW2 fans seem to be either hot or cold... and the cold ones are sometimes just not fans at all. I honestly don't care about Ascended gear. *shock horror* I still enjoy... you know, the game.
But to reach the top fractals you will finish the low fractals and so will be rewarded enough ascended items to do the top ones.
Hmm it's hard to ask this question without sounding argumentative, out of curiosity how does this differ from what many call gated content? I'm not really familiar with these systems I never did the gear grinds in games like WOW, etc. My idea of getting gear is finding top crafters, and exotic resouces to make it.
Have you ever tried to kill a level 15 foe with your level 8 character in GW2?
Now lets go to gameslike WoW.
You have the character level and then you have an item level/gear score.
Once you reach max character level you keep levelling via item level.
And if you don't reach the item level it is no different than fighting a level 15 foe with a level 8 character.
In fact, to use LFD (looking for dungeon) and LFR (looking for raid) you need to rach the minimum score or the game doesn't allow you to queue for it(so you don't waste other people time).
So the only way to do "raid number 2" is to do "raid number 1" first until you get the drops from that dungeon that will raise your item level.
There might be other ways to acquire those items, generally by grinding dailies or other kind of content for tokens or points that allow you to exchange gear.
Not only that but raids generally require a ton of people and not everyone will get loot. More, there is locks on many times you can do the raid per week and caps on how many points and daillies you can grind.
Ascended items and Fractals while closer to that than the rest of the game have a difference - you can go in without grind by just be level 80 and have level 80 equipment.
If Fractals and ascended was the same as a game like WoW you would have to farm Arah for example for enough tokens or drops to get ascended items (by the way you can't do this, just as an example) or you would have to get the 35 laurels to acquire the ascended items.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
You are, again, factually false. Go do lvl1 fractal and report back. lvl1 1 fractal is exactly same content wise as lvl 10155494 fractal.
Fractals are NOT gated with ascended gear. Fact.
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Apart from the difficulty, can you list what's actually different about them? Seriously, I'm curious as I've never been that high up in Fractals (they are a blast though!). If they're not presenting you with new content at lvl 20, how is it gated content?
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Those same rational people that defined word "same"
By this logic, any 'difficulty' setting in any video game is the same content.
Also, Chris Whiteside from ANet disagrees
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. - Reddit AMA
I'd seriously ask that the 'pro-gw2' side at least look at what the official ANet devs are saying cause contradicting them is probably not going to work out for your side.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Originally posted by Eir_S Originally posted by jpnzOriginally posted by mikahr
You are, again, factually false. Go do lvl1 fractal and report back. lvl1 1 fractal is exactly same content wise as lvl 10155494 fractal.Fractals are NOT gated with ascended gear. Fact.So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?Apart from the difficulty, can you list what's actually different about them? Seriously, I'm curious as I've never been that high up in Fractals (they are a blast though!). If they're not presenting you with new content at lvl 20, how is it gated content? I don't know and don't care at what level fractals get agony to such a degree that the ascended gear is crucial, I play fractals for the fun not the gear and am not interested in increasing my difficulty level, just about the fun with the people I'm with. Having said that agony resistance is crucial for survival at much higher levels, it's probably the only real difference, so no fractals aren't gated until you get to a much higher difficulty level, then they are most definitely gated by agony resistance. Like I said it's such a tiny portion of the game that for me it's not currently worth worrying about. But gating does exist.
You are, again, factually false. Go do lvl1 fractal and report back. lvl1 1 fractal is exactly same content wise as lvl 10155494 fractal.Fractals are NOT gated with ascended gear. Fact.
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Apart from the difficulty, can you list what's actually different about them? Seriously, I'm curious as I've never been that high up in Fractals (they are a blast though!). If they're not presenting you with new content at lvl 20, how is it gated content?
I don't know and don't care at what level fractals get agony to such a degree that the ascended gear is crucial, I play fractals for the fun not the gear and am not interested in increasing my difficulty level, just about the fun with the people I'm with. Having said that agony resistance is crucial for survival at much higher levels, it's probably the only real difference, so no fractals aren't gated until you get to a much higher difficulty level, then they are most definitely gated by agony resistance. Like I said it's such a tiny portion of the game that for me it's not currently worth worrying about. But gating does exist.
Ah, I see. I was thinking more along the lines of WoW, where it was impossible to do certain raids without getting certain gear (usually from other raids), making the whole thing a headache to me. I guess I don't consider doing content that doesn't offer different story or bosses "gated", so that's where my confusion lay. I still don't consider it gated, but obviously there are some different feelings on the whole thing going around.
Ah, I see. I was thinking more along the lines of WoW, where it was impossible to do certain raids without getting certain gear (usually from other raids), making the whole thing a headache to me. I guess I don't consider doing content that doesn't offer different story or bosses "gated", so that's where my confusion lay. I still don't consider it gated, but obviously there are some different feelings on the whole thing going around.
1. If you beat Devil May Cry in easy and did again hard, was that the same content twice?
2. ANet accepts that it is 'gated content'.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Those same rational people that defined word "same"
By this logic, any 'difficulty' setting in any video game is the same content.
Also, Chris Whiteside from ANet disagrees
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. - Reddit AMA
I'd seriously ask that the 'pro-gw2' side at least look at what the official ANet devs are saying cause contradicting them is probably not going to work out for your side.
And if the difference is only difficulty level it is the same.
Here is a more complete answer:
So to the question of vertical progression. So as we know there is already vertical progression in the game and we do intend to keep moving forward with this philosophy. However we have no intention of adding a new Rarity of Gear such as Ascended. Instead and as we evolve the game existing Rarity’s will evolve over time. However these will not be common occurrences, for example full Ascended gear will be introduced over a long period of time and will be earn able through lots of different parts/activities of the game. We had intended for example for the first release of acsended items come from other parts of the game but sadly it did not work out this way. Moving forward this is how it will work however.
In regard to gear checks specifically all increases in the power curve will be minimal and therefore there should be no straying from the intended power curve that you see in the game now, in terms of trajectory.
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. Note that this statement is somewhat contradictory to the philosophy laid out above if the required items do not drop elsewhere or the ultimate rewards don’t either. This is something we are going to fix.
8. Ascended gears are making a lot of people worry about an ever-increasing gear treadmill. Many players did not want the exotic/legendary system to change, and they don’t like ascended gears. Was this expected? Can this be something fixed in a painless way? Can it happen?
Yes the response was definitively expected. We did not intent for the information to come out this way. Going back to my previous answer the issue is that we believe in the vertical progression system we had pre launch and that the introduction of an element into the system post launch was going to cause concern but something we believe in. That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve. This said we certainly don’t want to create a system where itemization blocks progression in the game globally and we also need to be careful of this in areas such as FotM if the primary reward isn’t available elsewhere in the game. So in short its an exciting problem but one that has been poorly communicated and handled.
And for this i take responsibility and apologies. However the future of this philosophy and the design challenges it throws up are going to lead to a pioneering world and one that we are very excited about.
So anyway i kind of went of topic here so in short. We don’t intend to have an item rarity gear treadmill, we intend for the progression for gaining these rewards to have lots of different avenues for different types of player and where possible lower no fun grind within the whole of the game.
Word culling can be interesting can't it?
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Ah, I see. I was thinking more along the lines of WoW, where it was impossible to do certain raids without getting certain gear (usually from other raids), making the whole thing a headache to me. I guess I don't consider doing content that doesn't offer different story or bosses "gated", so that's where my confusion lay. I still don't consider it gated, but obviously there are some different feelings on the whole thing going around.
1. If you beat Devil May Cry in easy and did again hard, was that the same content twice?
2. ANet accepts that it is 'gated content'.
If you quote out of context maybe.
When you quote it in the context like I did in my above post, I don't see any admission.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
When you quote it in the context like I did in my above post, I don't see any admission.
Here's a copy paste from your post. The whole answer of 'gated content'. We know it is about gated content cause Chris specifically mentions it (highlighted red).
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. Note that this statement is somewhat contradictory to the philosophy laid out above if the required items do not drop elsewhere or the ultimate rewards don’t either. This is something we are going to fix.
So we have a word here called 'fix' (highlighted in yellow). So logically it isn't working as intended and they need to fix it.
Since it isn't working as intended we can logically conclude that it is gated content and they are looking to fix it so that it isn't.
So now we have ANet accept that it is gated content.
Like I said, contradicting ANet dev's is probably not going to work for you guys.
I really hope we don't get down to the "ANet does not know their own game" type of reasoning though.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I was against ascended gear simply because of this feeling of "anet lied to us." But honestly - I got 3 ascended rings from fractals and my amulet from the dailies without hassle, so I don't mind anymore.
I feel that jewelers are getting screwed over because of this though. When they add more ascended gear they will also have to make them craftable or crafting will become pointless.
Ah, I see. I was thinking more along the lines of WoW, where it was impossible to do certain raids without getting certain gear (usually from other raids), making the whole thing a headache to me. I guess I don't consider doing content that doesn't offer different story or bosses "gated", so that's where my confusion lay. I still don't consider it gated, but obviously there are some different feelings on the whole thing going around.
1. If you beat Devil May Cry in easy and did again hard, was that the same content twice?
2. ANet accepts that it is 'gated content'.
1. Er... yeah, it was. EDIT: Never played DMC, but I assume there was nothing other than tougher enemies, but still the same enemies.
2. I don't care what ANet considers it. They probably have the same definition as you do, but doing something on Hard Mode is just getting hit harder to me, it's not different content. *shrug*
How dare A-net toss the hardcore a bone and give them something to work for.
Look... you don't have to bother with fractals. You could hit max level, level alts, craft nice gear, run normal dungeons, do map completion, run dailies, complete achievements, run lower level zones with guildies for fun, WvW, sPVP...
This game offers so much yet people seem to focus on this tiny bit of content designed for the players that want to get insanely far into fractals.
This isnt World of Warcraft where there's 20+ tiers of raid gear and raiding is the only viable content at max level.
The majority of the stuff you gain at max level in GW2 are cosmetic...
You wont be considered a second class citizen in GW2 for not having Ascended gear, like you would in WoW for wearing blues and crafted epics.
Ascended gear hurts me ( the last piece, specificlly, the amulet) because i have 6 characters who need one, and the only way to get them is to log in every single day and do some stupid daily chore to get 1 laurel. I must do this everyday for a month, for one amulet. I must do this 6 months in a row to get 6 for each of my character.
You asked, i answered.
Ah, there we go. Found your problem. You actually don't "need" them for anything... you want them for the six characters however. That's what ascended gear is for... something for people to go for that won't be needed, will give slightly better stats and may get some people to spend the time required to get them for that sense of progression that some need.
Ascended gear fills the time gap between exotics and legendary items. It gives progression minded people their placebo without actually introducing a treadmill to the game. Think about it... exotics take no time at all to get anymore. Legendary weapons take considerable effort. To fill in the gap between them, ascended items. The amulet (I got one for my mesmer) takes about three weeks if you include the monthly 10 laurels. Another three weeks or so and I'll have an infusion for it. Eventually I'll get them across my 80s, but it'll take time... time spent playing regardless doing the dailies.
Comments
Then why did aerowyn state you need them for the top fractals?
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Of course carrots are needed, but you need to know your crowd and what carrots they like. Trying to make the carrot pleasing for everyone will most likely satisfy noone.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
This is factually false.
Fractals requires 'Agony' gear.
Agony gear also has higher stats than 'exotic' gear.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
But to reach the top fractals you will finish the low fractals and so will be rewarded enough ascended items to do the top ones.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
No, it isn't false.
You can enter and complete fractals without any agony gear.
In fact, until the llast month the only way to get ascended items was to do fractals so if you requerid agony gear to do fractals while agony gear was only obtainable inside the fractals after finishing fractal chunks it would be impossible to get them.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
You are, again, factually false. Go do lvl1 fractal and report back. lvl1 1 fractal is exactly same content wise as lvl 10155494 fractal.
Fractals are NOT gated with ascended gear. Fact.
Hmm it's hard to ask this question without sounding argumentative, out of curiosity how does this differ from what many call gated content? I'm not really familiar with these systems I never did the gear grinds in games like WOW, etc. My idea of getting gear is finding top crafters, and exotic resouces to make it.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
This is factually false. Fractals requires 'Agony' gear. Agony gear also has higher stats than 'exotic' gear.
You are, again, factually false. Go do lvl1 fractal and report back. lvl1 1 fractal is exactly same content wise as lvl 10155494 fractal.
Fractals are NOT gated with ascended gear. Fact.
High level fractals are gated by the agony mechanic, so you can still play fractals without until you start hitting the agony mechanic once you've gotten high enough. That's a tiny portion of the game but the gating does exist.
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
When you say "gated content" its content you cant (mathemacically) finish (or in exterme cases) even enter without cerain level of gear.
Fractals are not gated by ascended gear. You can play fractals all you want in rares if you want, but if you start to attack higher level fractals (that are not any different content wise just more challenging in HP/Damage/Agony) and you need agony resists (infusions).
But as far as Fractals go - nope, not gated.
Those same rational people that defined word "same"
GW2 fans seem to be either hot or cold... and the cold ones are sometimes just not fans at all. I honestly don't care about Ascended gear. *shock horror* I still enjoy... you know, the game.
Have you ever tried to kill a level 15 foe with your level 8 character in GW2?
Now lets go to gameslike WoW.
You have the character level and then you have an item level/gear score.
Once you reach max character level you keep levelling via item level.
And if you don't reach the item level it is no different than fighting a level 15 foe with a level 8 character.
In fact, to use LFD (looking for dungeon) and LFR (looking for raid) you need to rach the minimum score or the game doesn't allow you to queue for it(so you don't waste other people time).
So the only way to do "raid number 2" is to do "raid number 1" first until you get the drops from that dungeon that will raise your item level.
There might be other ways to acquire those items, generally by grinding dailies or other kind of content for tokens or points that allow you to exchange gear.
Not only that but raids generally require a ton of people and not everyone will get loot. More, there is locks on many times you can do the raid per week and caps on how many points and daillies you can grind.
Ascended items and Fractals while closer to that than the rest of the game have a difference - you can go in without grind by just be level 80 and have level 80 equipment.
If Fractals and ascended was the same as a game like WoW you would have to farm Arah for example for enough tokens or drops to get ascended items (by the way you can't do this, just as an example) or you would have to get the 35 laurels to acquire the ascended items.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Apart from the difficulty, can you list what's actually different about them? Seriously, I'm curious as I've never been that high up in Fractals (they are a blast though!). If they're not presenting you with new content at lvl 20, how is it gated content?
By this logic, any 'difficulty' setting in any video game is the same content.
Also, Chris Whiteside from ANet disagrees
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. - Reddit AMA
I'd seriously ask that the 'pro-gw2' side at least look at what the official ANet devs are saying cause contradicting them is probably not going to work out for your side.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
So who decides that Fractals level 20 is exactly the same content as Fractals level 1?
Apart from the difficulty, can you list what's actually different about them? Seriously, I'm curious as I've never been that high up in Fractals (they are a blast though!). If they're not presenting you with new content at lvl 20, how is it gated content?
I don't know and don't care at what level fractals get agony to such a degree that the ascended gear is crucial, I play fractals for the fun not the gear and am not interested in increasing my difficulty level, just about the fun with the people I'm with. Having said that agony resistance is crucial for survival at much higher levels, it's probably the only real difference, so no fractals aren't gated until you get to a much higher difficulty level, then they are most definitely gated by agony resistance. Like I said it's such a tiny portion of the game that for me it's not currently worth worrying about. But gating does exist.
Ah, I see. I was thinking more along the lines of WoW, where it was impossible to do certain raids without getting certain gear (usually from other raids), making the whole thing a headache to me. I guess I don't consider doing content that doesn't offer different story or bosses "gated", so that's where my confusion lay. I still don't consider it gated, but obviously there are some different feelings on the whole thing going around.
1. If you beat Devil May Cry in easy and did again hard, was that the same content twice?
2. ANet accepts that it is 'gated content'.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
And if the difference is only difficulty level it is the same.
Here is a more complete answer:
So to the question of vertical progression. So as we know there is already vertical progression in the game and we do intend to keep moving forward with this philosophy. However we have no intention of adding a new Rarity of Gear such as Ascended. Instead and as we evolve the game existing Rarity’s will evolve over time. However these will not be common occurrences, for example full Ascended gear will be introduced over a long period of time and will be earn able through lots of different parts/activities of the game. We had intended for example for the first release of acsended items come from other parts of the game but sadly it did not work out this way. Moving forward this is how it will work however.
In regard to gear checks specifically all increases in the power curve will be minimal and therefore there should be no straying from the intended power curve that you see in the game now, in terms of trajectory.
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. Note that this statement is somewhat contradictory to the philosophy laid out above if the required items do not drop elsewhere or the ultimate rewards don’t either. This is something we are going to fix.
8. Ascended gears are making a lot of people worry about an ever-increasing gear treadmill. Many players did not want the exotic/legendary system to change, and they don’t like ascended gears. Was this expected? Can this be something fixed in a painless way? Can it happen?
Yes the response was definitively expected. We did not intent for the information to come out this way. Going back to my previous answer the issue is that we believe in the vertical progression system we had pre launch and that the introduction of an element into the system post launch was going to cause concern but something we believe in. That is why there is no plan for new Rarity Tiers of loot but there are plans to enhance or gain items within the existing rarity design whose properties continue on a shallow power curve. This said we certainly don’t want to create a system where itemization blocks progression in the game globally and we also need to be careful of this in areas such as FotM if the primary reward isn’t available elsewhere in the game. So in short its an exciting problem but one that has been poorly communicated and handled.
And for this i take responsibility and apologies. However the future of this philosophy and the design challenges it throws up are going to lead to a pioneering world and one that we are very excited about.
So anyway i kind of went of topic here so in short. We don’t intend to have an item rarity gear treadmill, we intend for the progression for gaining these rewards to have lots of different avenues for different types of player and where possible lower no fun grind within the whole of the game.
Word culling can be interesting can't it?
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
If you quote out of context maybe.
When you quote it in the context like I did in my above post, I don't see any admission.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Here's a copy paste from your post. The whole answer of 'gated content'. We know it is about gated content cause Chris specifically mentions it (highlighted red).
In regard to gated content via gear then i think that this is something we are going to give more thought to. Specifically if the reward at the end of the activity applies to players that are not just looking to do a specific type of content. Note that this statement is somewhat contradictory to the philosophy laid out above if the required items do not drop elsewhere or the ultimate rewards don’t either. This is something we are going to fix.
So we have a word here called 'fix' (highlighted in yellow). So logically it isn't working as intended and they need to fix it.
Since it isn't working as intended we can logically conclude that it is gated content and they are looking to fix it so that it isn't.
So now we have ANet accept that it is gated content.
Like I said, contradicting ANet dev's is probably not going to work for you guys.
I really hope we don't get down to the "ANet does not know their own game" type of reasoning though.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I was against ascended gear simply because of this feeling of "anet lied to us." But honestly - I got 3 ascended rings from fractals and my amulet from the dailies without hassle, so I don't mind anymore.
I feel that jewelers are getting screwed over because of this though. When they add more ascended gear they will also have to make them craftable or crafting will become pointless.
1. Er... yeah, it was. EDIT: Never played DMC, but I assume there was nothing other than tougher enemies, but still the same enemies.
2. I don't care what ANet considers it. They probably have the same definition as you do, but doing something on Hard Mode is just getting hit harder to me, it's not different content. *shrug*
Oh lord here we go...
How dare A-net toss the hardcore a bone and give them something to work for.
Look... you don't have to bother with fractals. You could hit max level, level alts, craft nice gear, run normal dungeons, do map completion, run dailies, complete achievements, run lower level zones with guildies for fun, WvW, sPVP...
This game offers so much yet people seem to focus on this tiny bit of content designed for the players that want to get insanely far into fractals.
This isnt World of Warcraft where there's 20+ tiers of raid gear and raiding is the only viable content at max level.
The majority of the stuff you gain at max level in GW2 are cosmetic...
You wont be considered a second class citizen in GW2 for not having Ascended gear, like you would in WoW for wearing blues and crafted epics.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
Ah, there we go. Found your problem. You actually don't "need" them for anything... you want them for the six characters however. That's what ascended gear is for... something for people to go for that won't be needed, will give slightly better stats and may get some people to spend the time required to get them for that sense of progression that some need.
Ascended gear fills the time gap between exotics and legendary items. It gives progression minded people their placebo without actually introducing a treadmill to the game. Think about it... exotics take no time at all to get anymore. Legendary weapons take considerable effort. To fill in the gap between them, ascended items. The amulet (I got one for my mesmer) takes about three weeks if you include the monthly 10 laurels. Another three weeks or so and I'll have an infusion for it. Eventually I'll get them across my 80s, but it'll take time... time spent playing regardless doing the dailies.
Oderint, dum metuant.