[merged] About the Skyscale Timegate...

[AmadeoKristoff.5493]

@"Stephane Lo Presti.7258" said:Hi everyone,

I wanted to provide a brief update after talking to various developers. We’re aware of the concerns expressed in this thread. The team is currently regrouping and we’re aiming to communicate more about this topic as soon as we possibly can.

In the meantime, we're pushing a hotfix that will include hiding the skyscale Mastery line for players who have not acquired the skyscale so that they will continue to gain Mastery experience toward acquiring Spirit Shards.

We're also working on another hotfix coming later that will alleviate issues with finishing the Skyscale of Ice achievement in Frostgorge Sound by making the Corrupted Ice Elementals near the Claw of Jormag event respawn regularly. These creatures can encase you in ice and progress the Skyscale of Ice achievement. This is a temporary fix until we can get something more permanent.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

I hope you guys do something to fix this time gate stuff. I work 8 AM to 5 PM then attend college 7PM to 10PM. When is a person supposed to do any of this stuff?Secondly, in my opinion, the skyscale is not even a good mount to make everyone work this hard. This is why:

Pros:

• The skyscale can hover. Amazing.
• The skyscale can scale a wall. Good.
• The skyscale can ascend and descend. Ok.

Cons:

• TIme gate for everything
• Waiting for reset to continue, if you miss reset while completing previous part, you have to wait till the following day.

A lot of people in guild are not happy, they don't even feel the skyscale is worth the effort any more due to the time gating, as well as its usage.Want to make it worth it? Remove the time gating. I have no qualms about the 4 day wait on feeding. it sounds logical, just as you would feed yourself or your pet 3 small portions a day. I have no problem with 4 days. But the issue of waiting till reset for next part? Or missing the reset because you were still on the previous part? Come on. Remove that. Do not bind it to "server reset" timer.

Another suggestion? Remove the time gate on charging quartz crystal...because 22 days?! Come on. Almost a WHOLE month to do one part?!

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

Just discovered you can throw the ball for the baby skyscale. <3 <3 <3

I am no longer in a hurry for her to grow up.

[Starfall Leyline.2481]

@"Daishi.6027" said:People compare this to a legendary but when the patch dropped within the first hour people had Exordium, no time gate there so long as you had the items, and anything that could possibly be time gated was NEVER hard locked to reset, and could be by passed with gold purchases.

I think the "Legendary" analogy just came from some of the collection "quests" that you get sent on to complete various legendary weapons, but (originally) I think it was only meant as an analogy, not an actual, true legendary mount.

Newbie: "Nice dragon bro! how'd you get it?"Vet: "I stood around for 10 days waiting for A-net to let me go from one step to the next. Aren't I pro?"

Vet: "I completed a lot of map content, did a bunch of item hunts, and fought some massive things, not to mention I farmed a lot for mats just to make some of the components. Save up and it'll save you a headache when you go to get it."

(Fixt.) Saying "I stood around for 10 days" doesn't nearly equate to the amount of effort people are complaining that this takes in conjunction with the time gates. If all you had to do was stand around for 10 days, everyone would be doing it. Because that's kinda what everyone does anyway. Does not compute :bleep_bloop: Either it's really difficult with large collections that take effort, or it's standing around. But it isn't suddenly just effortless because time gates exist.

[Squirrel.6318]

what's the harm in making the mount as easy to get as the PoF mounts. seriously. we play games to have fun not to do mindless fetch quests.

[Daishi.6027]

@"Starfall Leyline.2481" said:(Fixt.) Saying "I stood around for 10 days" doesn't nearly equate to the amount of effort people are complaining that this takes in conjunction with the time gates. If all you had to do was stand around for 10 days, everyone would be doing it. Because that's kinda what everyone does anyway. Does not compute :bleep_bloop: Either it's really difficult with large collections that take effort, or it's standing around. But it isn't suddenly just effortless because time gates exist.

I gotta say it's felt like a lot of standing around since I've spent wayyyy more time waiting for resets than I did actually working on what I need to obtain the mount. But, okay fair there is more involved with these. To clarify I 100% do not stand with the idea that any of this is to difficult or takes to much effort, I am only staunchly against the time gate which is my main point and complaint.

Which still, even conceding that doesn't change the fact that a time gate adds nothing to the level of prestige, and is just pointless delays.

[hostileskeleton.7364]

@"cptaylor.2670" said:

@"tekhiun.8653" said:First of all, I really think all other aspects of ep6 were excellent. However I see no reason at all for time gating the Skyscale collection, and making it so grindy . Today I ran around the map and collected 56 items, in most cases I had to go to the same location 2 or 3 times to interact or collect different items. Only to find out that I will only be able to get the mount on Sunday at best,since I actually finished the first part 10 minutes after daily reset (so today no progression at all for me).

I have to say that the whole thing feels really disappointing, it wouldn't be hard to believe that most people thought that they would end the story with the mount already unlocked. So please Anet, next time you release something that is going to be artificially timegated like this, at least tell us before hand. "You will be able to start unlocking the mount on the 14th and it may take a week to unlock it, maybe less" , that way we don't build up expectations about it. Also for the sake of future players that might try this, cut down on then number of things we have to interact and collect, maybe just enough so we don't have to back to the same area multiple times. If the goal is to make us come back and play the map as it is now you achieve the exact opposite. This entire aspect of the release was a big let down and all the hype about the new mount is actually gone now , at least for me.

Yeah, I got excited when I finished the eggs and then realized I had 4 more daily resets worth of collections to do, which might be more exhausting than these. I can understand making a lot of collections, but this is overly excessive, and locking them behind daily resets? Aside from this it seems pretty good so far.

I just finished the eggs before work today and came back foolishly thinking I would have the mount. Instead Anet punched me in the teeth. I didn't know about the time gating until about 30 mins ago and I've honestly lost all desire to play. Haven't even done my dailies yet. I didn't think the mount was the best but I defended the hell out of its existence because it gives the player a new form of mobility. Now instead of a cool, new feature it feels like a cheap way to keep us on the hook while they work on pumping out more story.

[Deihnyx.6318]

@Squirrel.6318 said:what's the harm in making the mount as easy to get as the PoF mounts. seriously. we play games to have fun not to do mindless fetch quests.

Well for once, because people have fun differently.Making everything easy and insta-rewarding is mindless. Quests are mindless because they are purposely made easy.They could have less quests, and make them harder, but then again, can't do that with a community that calls out for nerf if they can't press 1 to win.

[Solion.9658]

I think that once we get a taste of " must have skyscale to play this level" people who are embracing this will go.. wait.. WTF?

And it is coming and we all know it in the back of our heads that there is going to be major content that is going to REQUIRE the skyscale toprogress. You don't "one shot" a mount like this and we all know it. You , me, and everyone in the next expansion can expect that there is going to be arequirement to have this mount regardless of the 18 freaking collections and the gold cost (however by then I am sure you will be able to "buy" feeder machines , ball throwers ect... by then)

If you don't think it going to happen, I hope you are right. But game mechanics like this is not going to be left to one small island in the middle of the ocean. Skyscale is going to lock content behind it or Ill eat my greatsword.

[hostileskeleton.7364]

Why in the world did they not give us they skyscale in the beginning of the story and make us "train" it/run the collection gauntlet to level the masteries?

[Ashen.2907]

@Deihnyx.6318 said:

@"Rukario.1695" said:1) Good for you, you knew what to expect. However this point has already been covered. The previous LWS collections required a majority of items that are obtained in that season, this one does not. A mount has never been locked behind this much of a wall, Anet advertised it would be available to players on the 14th with the new season, everyone had high expectations. No one was told it was timegated until it was already too late to start rushing, except the very few who realized it and then the information did not spread fast enough. Those who did not ever hear about the timegate were smacked in the face right after they finished the first collection, thinking that was the very end of it - already longer than the Griffon collection and much more boring; honestly I did not care for it but it wasn't horrible, however the time constraint is what we are upset about.

2) Yes, we got an Aurora, something that most people do not have and did not attempt to obtain. Nothing new here. The mount is borderline-useless without its Masteries available and quite frankly the rent-a-griffon was fine without any Masteries associated with it. The rent-a-scale being available doesn't mean anything except giving you practice at this point since most of it's utility is behind the Mastery wall.

3) Pettiness? Because I work from 2pm to 10pm and the server resets at 7pm? Because I often get called in early or have to stay later? Because when I or others finish a collection 30 minutes into my meager free-time, I'm told to stop and I can't devote my last hour to getting a slight gain on my next day's hour or so of playtime? Yeah, that seriously pisses me and other people off. If you have all day to play the game, cool. If you don't want to wait just because, cool. The fact of the matter is we do not want to be told when or when we cannot progress on something that was advertised to be ready and available

days ago,

as something many people took time off of work for due to Anet's lack of transparency on the mount obtaining process.

4) Cool, you played 16 days and worked towards something. I wonder what that felt like to everyone else who couldn't but wanted to. "A game that had become a job," is exactly the thing we are trying to avoid here. If we can progress at our leisure then we do not have to confine ourselves to time-circumventing mechanics that honestly do not belong in this particular collection. A mount with a time constraint has never happened, was not explained it would happen, and to this point everyone is pissed off about it. There is no reason why you should defend it when in the end it isn't doing you any bit of justice nor is it helping you with anything; as it sounds by you speaking about previous collections, it seems you only want the gating here because if it's removed

you will personally feel cheated on what you did in the past.

1) A mount being a mount does not mean it can't have prestige "requirements". Because it hasn't been done before doesn't automatically mean it won't. As I said, I do agree the marketing didn't properly prepare to it, but I also -know- that with this community it would have changed nothing. People wanting a mount cause it's cool would have had the same complains, minus this one. Look at the gryphon gold sink in old threads.

2) We played 6 years of a game without it, and we were happy. The prospect of working towards improving the experience and "convenience" is a normal design in MMOs. You "work" hard for little added convenience. If you don't want that convenience, or if it's not worth it, you have the option not to do it at all. It's not a job.

3) If you wanna go that way... I work often way more than 40 hours a week. Normal weekdays, and I love raids. Raids reset at 1 am or 2 am, where it's the most fun to raid. Highly annoying for me, but that doesn't mean it should be changed to match my expectation, because then someone else wouldn't be unable to do reset. They cannot make everyone happy.But anyway, this argument changes nothing when it comes to timegatesLet's assume no timegate: It takes you 15 days to do it at your own pace. It will take a "no life" an entire day and they'll have it 15 days before you.Let's assume timegate: Let's say it takes you 3 days for each collection. 15 days + 8 days of timegate = 23 days. For a "no life", they'll get it in 8 days. Still 15 days before you.Working or not working affects everyone the same way. Actually, it is better for people who don't have a whole day, as it can get a little easier to catch up on the no life people.So really, I know this argument is being thrown around here, but it just doesn't work. If you work and have a busy life, you will always be behind. There is nothing you can do and it's not the MMOs fault.

4) Not everything in a MMO is meant for everyone. It just isn't. Seasonal events are temporary. "timegated", and there's a pretty good reason for that. So if they wanted to but couldn't? Well again, too bad. But they can also realize it doesn't matter, that they'll be able to get it in just a little bit longer, just like the mount here.

@FuguZombie.2938 said:The big problem isn't that it can't be completed at once, it's pacing. Yes there will always be those that engage in unhealthy play habits to get things as fast as possible but that's ultimately their choice to make. Even in this wasn't time gated, it will likely take quite a bit of time especially for those who only allocate a limited amount of time to playing each day.A lot of people are upset cause they want the mount in good time and are forcing themselves to rush the collection so they can complete it before rest. This isn't a particularly healthy behaviour either. Regardless of whether this content is time gated are not, there will always be those that engage in unhealthy amounts of playing, but just because there are those that make that decision doesn't mean that there should be these gates put in place that ultimately will effect those who don't play as much more so than those who do rush content. That's the big thing that people keep saying, it's not about those who will rush through the content regardless, it's about those who don't have the time or do want to limit themselves to a more healthy degree of play time that are being affected in unintended negative ways.Answered that point in previous comment. It does not impact people who work as much as you think. Would still have taken them longer.

In point 1 you contradict yourself. You say that nothing would be changed and then immediately describe one of the changes...fewer complaints.

In point 3 you say they cant make everyone happy, well perhaps not about everything but if the time gate were removed then those wishing to space the collections out over days or weeks could do so while those wishing to hurry the process could. Everyone gets what they want...unless those arguing for the time gate are doing so, not because they want to take their time but because they want others to be forced to play the way they do.

I too work more than 40 hours per week. I think you underestimate the impact of time gates on those with limited play time during the week. I, as an example, might not have time for all that much more than wvw dailies throughout the work week, but could potentially play 30+ hours over the weekend if so inclined. Without a time gate I could make up, dramatically so, for progress not made during the week. The time gate ensures that I can not use my available game time to focus on this as a goal. It ensures that my 20 hours in game is valued less than someone else's 20 hours.

[Thundabolt.8541]

@"Katastroff.1045" said:I got a full time job, a wife and a life. Still i managed to be at the feeding part of the collection. Since i dont plan on dying or having my upper limbs amputated anytime soon, in about three day i will enjoy my skyscale, and all of that while enjoying the game and not letting myself get aggravated by some little delay. Because that's what it all boils down to, people letting some inconvenience get to them.

Good thing come to those who wait. bla bla bla.

But i admit, it is nice reading all those rightious justification post about why it should not be time gated.

;)

All I'm seeing from your input is an attempt to troll and belittle the players who aren't happy with how slow the progression of the Skyscale is.

It seems that a collective opinion here is "if I'm not having any issues, nobody else should have any issues".

Since you are not in the position of someone who is affected by the timegate, you shouldn't therefore sit back and smugly berate those who are less fortunate than you.

I suggest that you think about it as if you were in the position of someone who completed the griffon and beetle collection despite their time constraints, and have come forward to say that this is the one that slammed on the brakes the hardest for them.

[Celldrax.2849]

Question about the skyscale care collection?

Apparently it's supposed to take a minimum of four days to complete with feeding your skyscale three times a day, but what I'm confused about is unlocking the hatchling icons. I've already completed skyscale treats but only have the pinweight hatchling icon. So unless I'm completely misunderstanding something about this collection, that would take a lot longer than four days...

[Aerlen.5326]

yOu cAn AsK fOr HeLp WiTh SkYsCaLe

Not a SINGLE group in LFG, everyone I know is past what I'm doing AND several group events are broken.

What now? This is exactly what my concern was.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

@Celldrax.2849 said:Question about the skyscale care collection?

Apparently it's supposed to take a minimum of four days to complete with feeding your skyscale three times a day, but what I'm confused about is unlocking the hatchling icons. I've already completed skyscale treats but only have the pinweight hatchling icon. So unless I'm completely misunderstanding something about this collection, that would take a lot longer than four days...

You can give them the skyscale food three times a day, and each one unlocks a new icon. (The treats and toys do not affect this.) If you think you have given your skyscale three doses of food, check your bag and count how many you have left--I noticed that unless the aim is perfect, sometimes feeding does not actually happen, even if visually it looks like it worked.

[Celldrax.2849]

Well like I said, I've already completed skyscale treats, so the little fella has literally had something of everything, and I only collected one of each food.

So yeah, dunno there...

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

@Celldrax.2849 said:Well like I said, I've already completed skyscale treats, so the little fella has literally had something of everything, and I only collected one of each food.

So yeah, dunno there...

Yeah, but the treats aren't the actual food. The actual food is the stuff that you make in the mystic forge with charged quartz, ecto, bloodstone dust and red meat. (Or buy off the trading post.) You need 12 doses of that, and can give three a day. The 'treats' that you hunt down, you can feed all 14 of those to the baby in a single day, and it will not grow, just complete the Skyscale Treats achievement.

[Celldrax.2849]

Oh shit, so that's what I was getting confused about...

Well that clears that up, thanks.

[Rukario.1695]

@Aerlen.5326 said:yOu cAn AsK fOr HeLp WiTh SkYsCaLe

Not a SINGLE group in LFG, everyone I know is past what I'm doing AND several group events are broken.

What now? This is exactly what my concern was.

What exactly is broken? Personally heard of no issues aside from people who had a problem getting something to freeze them in ice.

As for people being beyond what you are doing, I suggest getting help from a guild. At most you need 3 ~ 4 people, except for the Djinns and the single META that is required -- however you can complete the Djinn section without fighting the champions, it should be relatively easier avoiding those.

[FuguZombie.2938]

@Ashen.2907 said:

In point 3 you say they cant make everyone happy, well perhaps not about everything but if the time gate were removed then those wishing to space the collections out over days or weeks could do so while those wishing to hurry the process could. Everyone gets what they want...unless those arguing for the time gate are doing so, not because they want to take their time but because they want others to be forced to play the way they do.

This is a great point. I see a lot of people saying they like having time gates so they don't rush through things, but why can't you manage that for yourself without everyone else having to be limited as well? People play games in different ways and will like different things. People are free to like time gates, but it's also fine for people to not be okay with them. Everyone has different schedules and ability to play for an amount of time but it becomes harder when there are locks put in by developers. Everyone is free to take their time and do things at their own pace, but it's also fine if someone wants to push through the content. That's ultimately their choice.

[Deihnyx.6318]

@FuguZombie.2938 said:

@Ashen.2907 said:

In point 3 you say they cant make everyone happy, well perhaps not about everything but if the time gate were removed then those wishing to space the collections out over days or weeks could do so while those wishing to hurry the process could. Everyone gets what they want...unless those arguing for the time gate are doing so, not because they want to take their time but because they want others to be forced to play the way they do.

This is a great point. I see a lot of people saying they like having time gates so they don't rush through things, but why can't you manage that for yourself without everyone else having to be limited as well? People play games in different ways and will like different things. People are free to like time gates, but it's also fine for people to not be okay with them. Everyone has different schedules and ability to play for an amount of time but it becomes harder when there are locks put in by developers. Everyone is free to take their time and do things at their own pace, but it's also fine if someone wants to push through the content. That's ultimately their choice.

So, the idea of releasing the collections little by little could indeed work... But people would still get the mount later, and not at release date. Personally i'm fine with that though.However, with how things are currently, if you were to completely remove the timegate it would impact other people. If anything, some people who haven't even started the last episode (cause they may... be working during the week :)) would be spoiled right away and would start seeing the new mount all over the place day first. Timegates can matter for that, too.

@Daishi.6027 said:There is a massive difference between a strait set goal and pacing yourself compared to the gamblers fallacy.People who lack the self control in this way can overcome this, and by comparison; it is not an insidious marketing ploy to make as much money as possible. Even IF someone has a problem, we are still talking about something that can reasonably be finished within a day or two, at most a week; and is not detrimental for any serious amount of time. If it is a serious problem then this is only a symptom of a larger problem, and holding them back now doesn't do anything for the long term issue. (Actually this is more in line with the evidence of gaming addiction and all that.) Regardless, psychologically it is very different, I am not a certified expert, but I am a 3rd year psych student with a focus on gambling and addiction, and wrote a paper about loot boxes just last fall getting pretty high marks.Do not assume these are anywhere near the same.As a crazy gambler and an achievement hunter, I can assure you the consequences are the same, "I need to gamble" can be just as draining as "I need to complete the latest collection/achievement". One is made out of malicious intent, but it has similar effects.

@Daishi.6027 said:A-net just dropped a patch and that will bring people back in regardless. One way or the other, unless A-net has that raw data there is no way to tell that time gates have any effect on gem sales (and that's still going to be correlation data in conflict with the release). However, common sense would say bitter customers are far more likely to not pay for gems, and regardless people will buy skins for the skyscale once we unlock it, since skins and toys has always been the drive and the business model. The fact A-net has even responded to this thread may be telling, but who knows transparency clearly isn't their forte.The mere fact that they are still using timegating is an indicator that it is working. Bitter people are legion in the forums, but I doubt they're that many in game. Or at least, I doubt that many people are going to leave the game forever because of it. All MMOs have some form of BS like that.

@Daishi.6027 said:The game is going to live and be populated regardless, even if this is done to retain players on the daily it's a short term solution unless again we're looking at a LONG time to get the mount, and there is going to be a limit to how much people will tolerate being gated in such a way.Raiders are still going to raid.PvPers still going to compete.and WvW still going to take keeps.RPers still going to RP.And the ones who afk in towns and treat the game like a chat room, are still going to do so.I really don't agree, many raiders are taking a break right now because the last wing was a little underwhelming and the content is just too slow to get out. You can only do the same content without a specific goal for so long. Same for WvW or Fractals.There's a reason raids (and WvW) are so heavily timegated.

[LadyRhonwyn.2501]

Ok, the time gate I can live with (I don't have that problem with reset, being EU based, as that happens in the middle of the night :p). But the combination of time based and having to wait around for ages for events to start just doesn't sit well with me. My time is limited, and having to sit around doing nothing (and hoping that others are there sitting around doing nothing with me) is just frustrating.

[Rukario.1695]

@"Deihnyx.6318" said:

So, the idea of releasing the collections little by little could indeed work... But people would still get the mount later, and not at release date. Personally i'm fine with that though.

I'm glad we can both agree on this, and yes that's pretty much how people were expecting it to be released. Even if the collections took days, literally just because they were hard or bloated, we would still complete them. It's just telling people "no, stop, you cant do this right now because we say so, come back in 24 hours" that really upsets them. People will always complain about the length of collections or the work they require, but at the end of the day you are either going to do it or you are not; or you will eventually. In very rare cases Anet changes something, but not usually when it comes to gold, collections, or something more concrete like these.

However, with how things are currently, if you were to completely remove the timegate it would impact other people. If anything, some people who haven't even started the last episode (cause they may... be working during the week :)) would be spoiled right away and would start seeing the new mount all over the place day first. Timegates can matter for that, too.

Frankly this is no different than Expansion Players using mounts in Core Tyria maps. The only thing this does is encourage people purchase the expansions in addition to extra revenue given to Anet--and then to have a goal of obtaining those mounts.

In this case it would encourage players to purchase the Expansion, the LWS4 Epsiodes (as required,) and from there it gives them a peek at the story and they can decide if they want to do the LWS content from the beginning or not; which would require purchasing them in either case. It's a win-win for Anet.

As a crazy gambler and an achievement hunter, I can assure you the consequences are the same, "I need to gamble" can be just as draining as "I need to complete the latest collection/achievement". One is made out of malicious intent, but it has similar effects.

I'm not sure what to say about this, but the harsh reality is that it's an issue that only affects a very small majority of people then. In this case, you might want to question playing this game at all.

The mere fact that they are still using timegating is an indicator that it is working. Bitter people are legion in the forums, but I doubt they're that many in game. Or at least, I doubt that many people are going to leave the game forever because of it. All MMOs have some form of BS like that.

They used it on stuff that it made sense for, up until now. There were no obscenely massive outcries that could not be contained before simply because it was timegated. Legendaries, Armor, Accessories... those are all what you would like to call "Prestige" equipment. It's for the bragging rights and ease of access after you get them. Mounts have a function, purpose, and unique traits that equipment does not provide. Lastly, prior to now there has been no precedence for how they handled this release; this is the main cause for outrage: No Warning.

With as much as they threw into this, everyone would have expected some kind of warning or hint about the amount of time or work was going to be required to obtain this mount. However, instead nothing was said, they made it sound like we could all get our long-awaited mount on the 14th to enjoy after a content dry spell. Due to nothing being said at all, people took off of work like they did for any previous release and instead of being greeted by the joy of playing through content with the mount they just omitted $7x8h ~ $56+ per day of work taken off, they instead get shown they wasted their time. This was one of the first major issues that really pissed people off.

Is that everyone? No, of course not, but everyone has different reasons and life conditions which lead up to them being very disappointed and upset. But anyway.

I really don't agree, many raiders are taking a break right now because the last wing was a little underwhelming and the content is just too slow to get out. You can only do the same content without a specific goal for so long. Same for WvW or Fractals.There's a reason raids (and WvW) are so heavily timegated.

If this is indeed the truth for the majority of those players, then this shows how important it was for this release to be done correctly and as smooth as possible. If they were bored and wanted something fun and new to do after such a long time, I don't believe hitting them with "come back in 24 hours" is going to make them happy.

[CJtheBigBear.9610]

@Deihnyx.6318 said:So, the idea of releasing the collections little by little could indeed work... But people would still get the mount later, and not at release date. Personally i'm fine with that though.However, with how things are currently, if you were to completely remove the timegate it would impact other people. If anything, some people who haven't even started the last episode (cause they may... be working during the week :)) would be spoiled right away and would start seeing the new mount all over the place day first. Timegates can matter for that, too.

I don't really see how you could get spoiled by just seeing the new mount though? Anyone who's seen any news for the new episode already knows a new mount was supposed to be coming. Plus, its existence doesn't really spoil anything, as long as people are courteous and don't reveal any spoilers in map chat. But that's an issue of courtesy, not content gating.

@Deihnyx.6318 said:As a crazy gambler and an achievement hunter, I can assure you the consequences are the same, "I need to gamble" can be just as draining as "I need to complete the latest collection/achievement". One is made out of malicious intent, but it has similar effects.

While the allure might be similar, it's hard to compare lootbox gambling to gated content.

With lootboxes, people are spending real money on the hope of virtual items. Money that can't be spent on food, rent, transport, etc. People can and have thrown all their money away on virtual items, and they feel the detrimental effects of it when they suddenly can't afford actual, real-life services. And as long as they have money, there's no stopping point to how much they'll spend.

With the time-gate, sure people are putting in a lot of time that could be spent doing other things, but there's only so much content there. While it wouldn't be exactly be healthy to run 20 - 40 hours of content in a couple days, but even if they did; that's it. Once the content is done, that's it 'til the next content patch. Then they'll either stop, or move on to something else.

@Deihnyx.6318 said:The mere fact that they are still using timegating is an indicator that it is working. Bitter people are legion in the forums, but I doubt they're that many in game. Or at least, I doubt that many people are going to leave the game forever because of it. All MMOs have some form of BS like that.

The point of this thread isn't to discuss the validity of time-gating as a function in MMOs, it's to discuss why there's a time-gate on this particular content. Time-gates work fine and good for some things, but not for all of them, including this. It's been stated quite a bit here that the time-gating is too extreme for the amount of reward you'd be getting. If this were a huge game-changer, it'd be understandable, but it's at best a side-grade to current mounts.

Also, I can vouch for the fact that there are plenty of people upset about this in-game too. Hanging around the Lily of the Elon in Crystal Oasis, and in the new map, I've seen countless people talking and making the same points we're making here. This isn't just solely related to the forums.

[FuguZombie.2938]

@Deihnyx.6318 said:

So, the idea of releasing the collections little by little could indeed work... But people would still get the mount later, and not at release date. Personally i'm fine with that though.However, with how things are currently, if you were to completely remove the timegate it would impact other people. If anything, some people who haven't even started the last episode (cause they may... be working during the week :)) would be spoiled right away and would start seeing the new mount all over the place day first. Timegates can matter for that, too.

The way things are even if there weren't time gates most people would get the mount day one anyways. I'm confused by what you mean by spoiled? The mount is no secret, it's been more advertised than the actual patch. Also I'd be more worried about the story being spoiled than what the mount looks like.I don't really see how removing the time gate would so negatively affect other players who haven't started yet?

[Starfall Leyline.2481]

@FuguZombie.2938 said:

@"Ashen.2907" said:

In point 3 you say they cant make everyone happy, well perhaps not about everything but if the time gate were removed then those wishing to space the collections out over days or weeks could do so while those wishing to hurry the process could. Everyone gets what they want...unless those arguing for the time gate are doing so, not because they want to take their time but because they want others to be forced to play the way they do.

This is a great point. I see a lot of people saying they like having time gates so they don't rush through things, but why can't you manage that for yourself without everyone else having to be limited as well? People play games in different ways and will like different things. People are free to like time gates, but it's also fine for people to not be okay with them. Everyone has different schedules and ability to play for an amount of time but it becomes harder when there are locks put in by developers. Everyone is free to take their time and do things at their own pace, but it's also fine if someone wants to push through the content. That's ultimately their choice.

I don't think it's so great a point, really. So you propose that it's okay for people to like (or dislike) time gates. Okay, let's apply that logic here. We've had 7 mounts, Seven (for emphasis), without major time-gates. Any time gates I recall were very minor, and I had pretty much any mount I wanted within 2 days if not less. So we've had 7 mounts which were far easier to get. Anet introduces one mount that caters to the people who actually like time-gates (which you have said is okay for them), and everything falls apart? Or can you just let people have this mount and enjoy their time gates? "No, because that affects everyone." So is it not actually okay for them to like time-gates? Self-pacing doesn't count as a time gate.

I see it more as Anet introducing a specific type of content for this mount that not everyone appreciated. They did it once, effectively, but people are acting like that once is murder. While I used to be in the "no time gates" camp, the more I've seen this unfold, the less I care that the time gates are there, and the less compelling I find the arguments in favor of removing them. If you want an actual option that gives everyone what they want, they should have the collection line, or a gemstore unlock that just skips the achievements who don't want to wait.

The content was designed to give a story-like experience of raising the Skyscale, and it does require effort, and time. That's not a bad thing either.