[when does the greed stop?]

Just now, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

He doesn't understand the term Pay to Win as it is understood for this genre.  To fit his argument hew has picked a temporary moment in time where 2 played both under the 10 year old gear ceiling are 'racing' in some way or another, which has nothing to do with the core gameplay of GW2.

So have you reached the ceiling in this game? You are at max bis equipment and you will never need anything else? And this took you a few days? Ok, I concede, if thats true.

I'm playing for 5 years and I doubt I can reach that even if I spend all my gold and materials.

[when does the greed stop?]

2 minutes ago, Zok.4956 said:

What are you playing? PvE? No you dont have advantage over him. sPvP? Gear is normalized to create equal sitation. WvW? If you are on the same server, of course not.

Full exotic BIS gear costs only a few gold. Every player could have the required gold for exotic gear just from playing the game after a few days.

The stat difference between exotics and ascended gear is only a few percent.  The stat difference between ascended and legendary is zero. The DPS differenced between a bad and a good players is around 1000% (can be 10 times, or more).

Gear is not unimportant in GW2 but skill matters most, not gear.

This was addressed in my first post in this topic and I agree. The hurdle you can pay to overcome is very small. Its still there and its technically still pay2win though. 

[when does the greed stop?]

1 minute ago, Obtena.7952 said:

So you think that if people have the ability to obtain gems with gold, they are more likely to do transactions , i.e., purchase them with RL money? Um ...maybe. Seems ... unlikely to me. 

I mean, the point here is that people are trying to sell the idea that 'engagement' and gold conversion has some comparable value to Anet  getting revenue. It doesn't. Sure, these are good and have positive reflection of the game, but you can't take 'engagement' to the bank. Gold conversion of gems in NO WAY makes Anet revenue. 

 

"Gold conversion of gems in NO WAY makes Anet revenue." The act itself not. But it opens additional market in the game. The gold market which brings additional different type of customer. Customers that want gold. That was my point. 

But you actually make a great point in first paragraph. That might actually be the best argument how this makes money for Anet. Hooking people with a little bit of "free" gems that they buy with gold. That is a common tactic, just get them to spend a few gems and the chance they will want more increases. 

[when does the greed stop?]

2 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

It doesn't matter if the game is generating some extra gems for that trade economy or not (though if you think about it ... that market has to be controlled to some degree anyways because it impacts Anet's revenues).

The option of gold conversion most certainly does not make Anet money and because it's an option to obtain gems, also likely has a negative impact on revenues. 

I get your point and I am not sure I am correct on this one.

I would still say the gem to gold exchange opens additional market which brings more transactions. I am actually not sure though. I'm mostly basing this on my habits. I sometimes buy gems and its really a non issue for money wise. I just have so much gold that I just buy it with gold because I dont know what to do with it. But on the other hand someone bought gems to buy gold which wouldnt be possible without the market.

[when does the greed stop?]

Just now, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

which is relative to you, not relative to the ceiling.

Relative to both, always.

[when does the greed stop?]

Just now, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

Did you read what i've posted or indeed any article of malicious pay to win in mmorpg written in the last 20 years?  GW2 has a power ceiling (as in competitive edge), its impossible to buy a power advantage.  You can buy catch ups, skins, QOL, mount skins,expansions etc etc. 

All games (or most) have power ceiling. It only depends how high it is.

Its impossible to buy advantage? So if me and my friend start with the game today. He plays normally, I buy lege weapons and full exotic BIS gear on day 1 from TP with gold from gems I have no power advantage over him? Hmmmm.

[when does the greed stop?]

3 minutes ago, Obtena.7952 said:

That's not true at all because the gems that are purchased with gold conversion are recycled/traded. Those gems would be making Anet revenue if those gold converters had to purchase them with RL money. 

This is where I am not sure. Is the game generating extra gems for the gem to gold trade or not. 

If its not and all the gem to gold trades are between players then each and every single gem is paid in cash and thus makes 0 difference to Anet through how many hands it goes further on. Actually its even better its kept somewhere in the system and not spent on trading post because there are piles of gems that were bought from Anet and not utilised which means more cash for Anet compared if we would have better utilisation. 

[when does the greed stop?]

3 minutes ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

putting something in "quotes" doesn't make it a thing.  Pay to win is not about QOL its about a deliberate strategy employed in vertical games where those not buying power items from the shop are at a disadvantage competitively.  

Exactly. You can buy power in gw2 and you get advantage over other people. That is usually the definition of pay 2 win. Ability to buy power. You can buy power in GW2.

I put it in quotes because it depends on player if he sees it as a punishment. 

[when does the greed stop?]

Just now, Obtena.7952 said:

Hold on ... the question here is what is the revenue that Anet make when someone converts gold to gems? I don't care where those gems come from. People obtaining gems with gold can only be a decrease in revenues because the alternative is to spend RL money on them. 

There is no alternative. Each gem in game is paid in cash. There is 0 difference for Anet. 

[when does the greed stop?]

1 minute ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Yeah, except he's wrong ... I mean, someone clearly explain how people converting gold to get gems is making Anet money when it is an substitute to people spending RL money for gems?

 

Its a trade between 2 players correct? I honestly am not sure. 

If it is, then someone needs to open wallet before gems are on the market. 

[when does the greed stop?]

Just now, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

really? this is not pay to win, pay to win is well defined.  Pay to win refers to games that punish those that do not buy from the shop.

You get "punished" with needing to play more time. Same as Diablo Immortal. 

And you definitely get punished with lack of qol, artificial problems for which you can buy solutions. 

[when does the greed stop?]

The game is definitely pay2win. You open your wallet and can deck your char to almost max power lvl within minutes. Its the definition of p2win and technically no different to lets say Diablo Immortal. In Diablo you can also get everything for free technically. 

The difference is with paying you just bought yourself a few days of gameplay while in Diablo you would need many many years. 

[How will "Hide player visual effects" impact gem store items?]

I recently bought a new gaming computer after like 8 years. I log the game, set everything from low to highest, finally this is gonna be sweet... w t h I cant see sh

[CC kills this game]

The judges are very annoying to solo I would agree. I think they can also spawn in the tombs and that makes it super hard if you are solo. The map is not as populated and the whole chain takes a looooong time so even if someone joins for one of them they usually leave for the next.

But thats not really a cc problem, its more of a old content problem. Did you open lfg for some help? 

Also forget about open world tanking. Open world is designed with the necessity to avoid getting hit and not face tanking.  Face tanking is just plain bad for anything but specific raid encounters.

And let me tell you a secret, toughness tanking only works with raid bosses. With other mobs aggro is  acquired  through other means; proximity/distance, highest dmg, random. I'm not going to say toughness is not the best stat for open world but in most cases it is. But unless you play trailblazer or celstial something, its probably bad.

If you want to be an open world tank think less mmorpg type of tank and think more MOBA style tank. Tank is a distruptor (CC) and/or active group support. Now imo a trailblazer/celestial Herald is probably the closest thing to an OW tank. But not because it can take dmg but because it has huge amount of disruption (knock backs, pulls, blind...) and great group boon support.

[Central Tyria Mastery Points... ugh.]

8 hours ago, Endaris.1452 said:

 

I've seen the general complaint about Tyria mastery points several times and with how super niche the last legendary crafting mastery is (you only need it for 4 of the gen2 weapons) and how you don't have to invest into fractals without playing fractals I've always found complaints a bit weird. 

Im quite sure you need to do fractals for those gen2 collections anyway so theres that. 

Anyway while you dont need to do fractals to max out masteries, they are one of the easiest source. You can get most in t1 and t1 is mostly open world level of difficulty

[Making A and D strafe by default was a good first step, but more needs to be done]

I'm pretty sure this is a bait thread.

For what is worth, they could add some presets for control and other settings. With some explanation. Not really keybinds, although 6-0 is just useless for combat skills. But a more efficient setting with quick cast ground targeting, no silly double tap to dodge and no useless on screen effects.

On the other hand not being able to click is an effective lesson for people to learn to key bind and it doesn't take long to train yourself to use full key binds (just stop clicking, make yourself not click anything ever again and your muscle memory will develop fast, its much lower effort so if you can click you can use buttons). But just making it default would enrage many players and maybe make the game unplayable for some players with disabilities. 

[Research notes :]

If they wanted to add material sink, they could straight add research notes to crafting vendors for the price in materials. 

Or made them tradeable on tp and players that like to spend time behind crafting benches could make some gold and us that dont value gold as much but value playtime outside of crafting could just straight buy them. 

[Gyala Delves Feedback [Merged]]

All they needed was add 1 good boss fight at the end and call it a day on the meta. And expand the map into something worth exploring. 

The second part of the meta is just horrible. 4 identical bad events of collecting the same stuff over and over again and then again for the boss fight. You barely interact with the boss, it doesn't do anything threatening, we might as well leave it there and let it be a tourist attraction. 

[Research notes :]

EOD is full of annoying busy work. One thing I liked with gw2 was reduction of useless busy work compared to other games and here they go and fill the whole expansion with it. 

Research notes, jade batteries, protocols, fishing stacks. Just let me play the game. If I have 1 hour to play, Im not going for the game that doesnt respect my time. 

[Unrewarding metas]

1 hour ago, Sylvari.2953 said:

Yeah, I miss the days when Istan was rewarding (Palawadan + Great Hall). The events were short and started at certain times so I could work or rest my eyes between them. Of course it got nerfed into the ground. 😞 I'm not fond of the long, tedious metas that start at random times because I can't plan around them (and finding good meta maps for them is annoying).

The only nerf I know of is that you can only loot chests once per day. One daily run is still as rewarding as it was. Maybe I missed something. 

I think they nerfed Akili though. 

[Easiest/Quickest way to get an Ascended Backpiece?]

If you like pvp, the legendary back is probably the fastest legendary you can get. 

Also dont be afraid of t1 fractals. Those are made for everyone. 

[Anvils & Protocols : These mandatory buffs we are tired to stack and refresh]

1 hour ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

But the Jade Tech Protocols are really powerful and I would advocate for not only using these always in Open World but modifying your build to take advantage of these buffs.

Thats actually another aspect I dislike about them. They completely invalidate some traits. Why bother with a trait that give self boons if these provide everything. 

Yeah its ow, it doesnt really matter. But ow is great sandbox for playing with some fun builds and often a trait that you wouldnt take in group because you have pocket FB becomes better in solo ow. Yeah you can not stack up on these but gimping yourself on purpose kinda defeats the purpose of min maxing a build for a specific situation. 

[Anvils & Protocols : These mandatory buffs we are tired to stack and refresh]

I mostly ignore them. But I would just delete them all. Period, no compensation. Repair canisters, give them vendor price. To much power creep and they litter the world. The middle ground for protocols would be that they only worked on eod maps. 

Oh and they clutter the already way to busy buff bar. 

[Use the existing WVW borderland maps to create PVE maps]

Or maybe you start on one of south ABL spawns and your goal is to claim garry in a limited amount of time. 

You would need to claim camps for supply. Towers could function as a supply line defending structures, scouting, maybe even add waypoint upgrades for supp cost. Keeps would need to give huge perks like trebs, free golems, friendly npc spawns, dragon banner. 

Could be a very interesting dynamic game mode if its balanced well and offers different strategies. Great, unique idea. 

Champs and all npcs would need to be greatly buffed with some more interesting abilities. 

It would also need 2 modes. Normal for pugs and cm mode as a challenge for guild squads. 

[This noobs campers.]

Dont see an issue if they got there legit.  I support creative terrain use