Acheron.1580

Oh, oh heavens no. Not at all. I think the 5AA login bonus was just so that people who had multiple login accounts couldn't get refunds because they would still be getting "something". I don't even know if doing all your daily quests will net you 2 gold, because even if it gives you enough to buy your 2 gold you probably won't just so you can get other things that are out of reach.

Always vote with your heart... and your wallet. Refunding an ultimate edition is the most clear way to get your voice heard than anything said in these forums to be honest. As for me IF I get it, it will be down the line when it's either all or mostly actually released, and even then probably on sale. The poll about pre-ordering or not (which honestly, as far as any poll does doesn't accurately reflect the position of all players because we won't have everyone come to the forums or even participate in it) shows something you probably don't ever want to see: a 50/50 split on new content. They've found a weird way to alienate a lot of different players across several different reasons. Whether I agree with passive farming or not, Anet isn't going to listen to what I have to say about it, but they will notice lost revenue.

Still need to point out, your estimations are pure speculation and not based on anything we know about it other than we do know it won't be 1:1. Losing the 2 gold a day will be felt for sure, but maybe the value of things I can pick and choose for myself are move valuable than that 2 gold would have been anyways.

There was a time where I simply just played the game lol. Now I play the forums. It's oddly the one change to the game that feels like an improvement (to me, clearly not to everyone) since it gives a bit more direction when you aren't sure what you want to do, and ironically it isn't even tied to the expansion. If it was tied to the expansion only, I'd be out so fast, since based on how I feel they have been treating the game I don't want to get the expansion until I see some changes. And I'm hopeful that it might be around the time or shortly after new weapons / weaponmaster has been acclimatized to, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope. These days it's a few mins for my daily stuff. So yea, something I was doing anyways with more incentive and different rewards (no more repair canisters for me!) are something that has sparked a renewed interest.

I'll be trying to max out mine too but I'm curious how it will compare with the current system for example. Today you log in, get your free reward, do your 3 daily things with the option to do more but not the need to. I'm curious if doing 3 gets you your "daily cap" (presumably it will be the same requirement for the achievement points), or if after you are done that you have a list of more that can just be done for more AA.

You can already see the impact on the TP for MCs and they haven't said anything, and the reaction has been panic over conjecture that the passive farm accounts will be pumping less into the economy, resulting in a small spike in price. Whether it's actually going to be easier or harder to get MC would have a very direct impact on the TP so it makes sense from that standpoint to be a bit more tight lipped about it.

Im very curious if there will be incentive to do more than 3 daily quests or if they are going to try to make sure people don't burn themselves out by restricting it to having a hard cap on the amount of quests you can do per day. As it stands I kind of do the bare minimum, so if they change that I don't know how I'll feel about it. Maybe it'll add an extra 10-15 mins to my day.

Ah that's something I was looking for. Seasons will be quarterly it looks like. So yea... things will probably be on the expensive side. But it does also suggest that we won't have a wallet cap because if we did, having things get more expensive after would just be really tricky.

Yea most likely is my guess, skins are a big money maker for Anet so they will probably be "prestigious" in terms of work spent getting them through this system.

Honestly I don't know. Rubi mentioned in another post (somewhere on the SoTo threads) that people were going to be plenty surprised and excited at release. I mean it could just be bubbly PR speech, and likely is, but maybe (just maaaaaybe, the bar is set really low), they expect people to be pleased and want it to be a surprise. I also think the 1300 or 1500 whatever is the cap not on the wallet, but for the season maybe? You can't get that much in a week so it isn't a weekly cap, and I doubt the wallet has a cap itself (I mean it could just to encourage spending all of it instead of holding on to any AA between seasons). The forums are going to be pretty wild again on tuesday.

Nobody from Anet told you to do it. A streamer did while bragging about how broken it was as a system. It wasn't going to take long for Anet to notice. It doesn't change the fact that if you use something for the unintended use, it is an exploit. Honestly think it took them this long to deal with it because they couldn't decide how to close it off while not screwing over all the people actually playing their game.

It's still just a guess though, pure conjecture. We don't even know if the best (like the gryphon skin) will cost more, or less than the 1300. Got to remember seasons are usually pretty long and if they intend to pad it out for a long period, the pricey stuff could be REALLY pricey, and everything else could just be little distractions.

Ok but how does the values earned have anything to do with the prices paid? We still don't know so there is no math behind it.

Removing an obvious exploit doesn't warrant compensation, especially if said person has made significant profit off of it already.

There is so much more to a paid account than a ftp than just the log in bonus. The fact that people were making so many accounts just for the log in bonus sounds so absurd as a game design. There is no possible way when they changed over the idea behind monthly achievements to the log in bonus they had intended people to use it that way because it only hurts the income of the company in the long run, and doesn't promote actually playing their game, which would be the point.

I mean, really depends on how many MC you can get without depending on the TP now, or even what the legendary starter kits include.

Im pretty sure Rubi has mentioned several times it doesn't require the expansion. In all irony, it looks like the FTP crowd is getting a leg up over all the people who bought several dozen accounts for login bonuses (I'm assuming the FTP crowd actually just want to play). There is a LOT that is being stripped away which has been pointed out several times, ignoring the log in bonus, like the daily gold, karma from doing the dailies, writs of exp, potentially the bonus exp pots from pvp and wvw, and maybe the MC from the mystic forge daily. Assuming everything lost can be purchased with the new currency, all they are doing it making you work a little harder for it while discouraging buying multiple farming accounts. Is it good? Is it bad? I'm going to lean to it will feel really bad the first few days/weeks as you accumulate AA instead of spend it because you want something specific. It'll only be obvious at the end of the season whether it was an overall improvement, though arguably when we finally see prices, purchasing limits, and the rewards for daily and special, etc, we will be able to napkin math it.

How would one even know that the same person it buying multiple accounts? How would you even enforce or recognize that? And people can own multiple accounts without using it just for login bonuses. Maybe they bought a spouse, their kids, a friend an account. There's simply no way to police that. The game encourages you to spend real money, hence the gems and even gems to gold conversion. But you basically made a 1 time payment for gold, and then made more than you could have over time compared to the price of buying gems and converting them to gold now, meaning you wouldn't need to support their model further down the line. As I mentioned with basic math you more than break even 5 months down the line per account, and the longer it goes on for the more you got for the same investment. That could be considered an exploit. The only requirement for an infinite amount of gold is an infinite amount of resources, which you have with your daily log in bonus. The coins aren't pulled from anywhere. Just because they don't sell for infinity+ gold each doesn't mean it isn't infinite. There is no well it pulls from that can dry up, there isn't a finite amount of it. Therefore, infinite. As long as you can sell it for ANY amount, then that by definition means the money you make off of it is also infinite.

It took me something like 4 years to finish HoT. I do understand time limitations very well, my job left me no room for person enjoyment but I got in what I could. Still wouldn't have done passive gold farming even back then.

Let's just assume you are some kitten streamer who bought 40 accounts and then brags about how you make 2K gold a month doing nothing. And then other people start doing it too. And you spent what $400-$500 buying those accounts? But now you make so much gold each month that you never have to spend a dime buying gems ever again. Guess where Anet probably makes most of their money. So early yea they are thrilled you spent so much buying their game (although you just did it when it was on a discount but hey). And now they won't see a dime of revenue from you again. You did nothing to earn it, you threw money at an exploit, which was publicly announced, and of course was going to be closed off at some point. And yes, the gold is infinite. The resources you are getting literally come from thin air, you have to do nothing but show up to get it.

Not an unreasonable concern but we may see a decrease in price if MCs are easier to get for the individual, or the legendary starter kits (while maybe not useful to people who have the legendary already in terms of value) might be a big swing for those players. We just don't know yet.

I think 4-5 is reasonable. Assuming daily stuff takes 5-15 mins and the rewards for participating are even more than before I see this as a win for you too. For people with 20-40 accounts, I have no sympathy (and in those cases I really doubt they have invested anything into them beyond being able to log in).

You are absolutely right. I'm not debating that at all. It goes back to my early comment that exploits get fixed when it is costing Anet money down the line.

The balance changes since even last year and some of the game directions really do feel like they were made by someone who doesn't understand the game. That being said adding a seasons pass that isn't monetary is oddly jarring, and I would bet real money that someone fought against adding a price tag to it since it adds BLTP skins, etc. That being said I can't defend relics at all.