Mungrul.9358

I haven't played since they announced Relics, and if they don't give me back the functionality I had before Relics, I doubt I'll ever play again. This is a serious breach of trust, and moves the goalposts on EVERYTHING. Oh, so you think you've got a full set of Legendary trinkets? Wait until they release new genital rings! Full set of Legendary armour? Just wait until they add socks!

Yeah, I've just seen the skinner box surrounding me and walked out the door. I have, for the time-being, realised that this genre and GaaS in general just aren't worth my time and money, because any one of them they wants all of it. There's a lot of talk around BG3 at the moment, and how it's shaken up the industry, and it's right. I want to play games to have fun, not as a second job. The whole mentality of having to work for rewards in games has been blown so far out of proportion, it's gotten ridiculously toxic. It's not helped by Stockholm Syndrome communities that jealously gate-keep access to this stuff and mewl like spoiled children at the slightest mention of reducing the grind to make things more enjoyable and flexible for everyone.

So I poked my head back in here to see if it's worth coming back yet (I've still not played SotO despite pre-ordering it), only to find that ANet have made the new "Open World" legendary armour a nightmarish grind to acquire, Relics are everything I feared they would be and the legendary versions are probably also going to require a hellish grind, even if you already had 7 legendary runes. Lol, yeah, not coming back to play this game, not while so many others are keeping me entertained without feeling like they're exploiting me. Maybe if ANet finally get around to respecting their players instead of treating them like addicts, maybe then I'll come back and play. There's a lot to like in GW2. Shame it's increasingly obscured by sleazy gameplay design.

I paid for it. I still haven't played it though. I'm still playing a better game that respects my time more.

Yeah, like-for-like functionality is the only acceptable "compensation".

I feel that. I look at GW2 in my list of games, and while I love the combat, I feel that at the moment, there are other things I can play which will respect my time more and which offer a more worthwhile experience.

See, I think you've hit the nail on the head with this. I think they've lost the person who knew how to add new rune effects and then add them to legendary runes. Look at EoD... where are the elite spec runes? No Rune of the Bladesworn, no Rune of the Virtuoso, etc. So instead of learning how to add new runes and then add their effects to legendaries, they're instead stripping the 6th rune effect completely and making a whole new slot item, which from their perspective means less complicated work figuring out a system no-one has any expertise in any more and also drives the economy forwards, resulting in more people buying gems to convert to gold.

With recent feature revelations, there has been a lot of kick-back from the community. Are you among the disaffected?

I'm curious to see what's going to happen to Black Lion Chests now that the UK industry has agreed to ban lootbox use for those under 18.

Just to throw another cat among the many pigeons, remember that the final quarter of a year for some companies can be the first three months of the next year...

The only thing that I'm looking forward to now is open world legendary armour, and seeing the mess they've made of the relic system, I'm sure they'll find a way to screw this up too.

At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire expansion consisted of glorified Dragon Response Missions.

By the way, a little game called Baldur's Gate 3 launches on August the 3rd and can be played co-op... For any disappointed with this announcement that haven't bought SotO yet (unlike my dumb keister), maybe you're money's best spent elsewhere. After all, ANet have announced in plain sight that SotO won't be feature complete until some time next year. Its effectively Early Access. Plenty of time to play other games or partake in other activities.

May I suggest that if you're unhappy with it and have enabled the ability to play GW2 through Steam, you leave a "Thumbs Down" on the newest update article?

You've just broken the covenant you had with your customers regarding Legendary being top tier, so I can't wait to see what you do next. 🙄