Sgt Bubbles.4908

Again, I want to be very clear that it's not really immersion breaking that I'm talking about. I want plenty of variety and options for everyone. I am also not commenting purely from a taste perspective. There are cosmetics in the gem store I like and other people don't, and the other way around. AND by the way, I want the gem store to exist and for there to be plenty of cool new things for us to buy and support the game. My grievance is specifically from a design language perspective. It feels that there are mass produced generic assets that are clearly outsourced without necessarily considering any design guidlines ANet has. This inconsistency then slowly removes any sense of a clear and unified artistic language which starts to make the game look/feel cheap, uncohesive and a bit generic/forgettable. Someone should be able to look at any random sample of assets from the game out of context and be able to go "Yes, I see it. That's from that Guild Wars game."

Fair point about the priority of issues. It is definitely not the biggest problem facing the game. Just a particular gripe I was feeling. I disagree though about not being top 3 MMOs though. I think without a doubt in my mind the big three are WoW, FF14 and GW2 with ESO closely following. No idea about player numbers, but certainly in overall package, quality and scale. What would you say are the top 3?

I haven't read everything yet, but a lot of people are focused on the immersion element of it. Maybe also misunderstood some of what I was trying to say. To clarify, it's not immersion I'm worried about, or even other players "bad fashion sense". I love the dumb items like HMS Divinity, or the Quaggan shield - they are ANet sense of humor to a T. What bothers me is the lack of an artistic identity of the game, atleast with cosmetics (as wanky as that sounds). As someone pointed out, Blizzard is really good with this. If you see a cosmetic from one of their games out of context - no matter how ridiculous - you could pretty much immediately tell it's from that game. It's the polish, and feel of the game. It helps set the game apart from others, helps make it marketable, and I think not having it makes the game feel cheap, like buying a flagship smartphone and having it load up with a bunch of bloat/adware (And to be clear, it's not entirely lacking, I just think the clearly outsourced Gem store cosmetics are diluting the mix a little to fast and hard).

Okay maybe *unique* was the wrong word, but certainly cohesive, consistent and identifiable.

This is just an opinion and maybe (or may not) be hot take (and I am genuinely curious to hear what other peoples thoughts are on the topic) but I am so frustrated with the slew of cosmetic options available to us on the gem store and strongly think they are slowly destroying the game. But let me explain... I am 100% for the gem store, and frequently purchase things from it. The more ways I can support the game without having a sub-fee the better. I LOVE that it is entirely convenience and cosmetics, and not a hint of anything pay to win. There are cosmetics on there I also LOVE like the god outfits, GW1 skin come backs, anything SAB related. The thing I hate is this constant stream of mass produced items that feel like they've been outsourced to a company that has never played GW2, making items that could easily be sent to multiple MMOs indiscriminately without a second thought. Specifically I think they have ruined any sense of a distinct and cohesive artist style. The game went from having its own visual language and identity to feeling like a bloated outsourced Perfect World clone. Or like playing Skyrim with *every* mod installed. Items like the jade bot skins, maid outfit, kitty kat outfit, enormous wings, pointy elf ears, or Pegasus griffon are cute and funny and that's all well and good...but they don't at all feel like they belong in this world. They don't feel "Guild Wars". (And as a side note, they often feel quite pandering which doesn't always feel nice) And I want to make clear I have NOTHING against cutsie, joking or bombastically over the top kind of items in and of themselves. Because there are items on the gem store that are like this, that manage to still fit into the game in a really wonderful way. Examples being the Choya hammer (bloody brilliant!), Job-O-Tron backpack, the quaggan hat/backpack, SAB mount skins or mad king outfits, just to name a few. It really feels like there are two teams of people developing items for the gem store that are actively working against each other, and I am curious if that is infact the case. One set of AnetDevs and some outsourced team to make sure there is a constant revenue stream. (Which if that is the case I certainly understand that the company needs to maintain revenue, but it would be a shame if that corrupts the game). Because currently I really get turned off the game by this 'Skyrim with *all* the mods' feeling and frequently wish for a universal 'standardize all player models' button like in PvP. Very curious what other people think about this. [EDIT] Having read some things, I should clarify that the key thing I am worried about is that the experience and feel of the game is being cheapened because of a diluted and miss-matched artistic identity by outsourced gem store junk. I am not worried about immersion here (it's an MMO not a single player game after all), nor am I wanting to be fashion police. But if you were to take any item or cosmetic out of the context of the game, increasingly more of them could be from just about any generic mass produced MMO or Mobile Game. And if it continues I worry it will feel less and less like a polished top 3 MMO in the market game that it is, and more like something cheap and forgettable.

Really great changes all around. Lots more fun interactions and class fantasy/identify. Love to see you guys working along those lines. Would really really REALLY like to see some changes to engineer turrets next!