9th Birthday Disappointment [Merged]

[Tanith.5264]

Maybe it's a ruse. Maybe they're only giving us these piddling little gifts for now so they can snicker at our complaining here, but on the actual anniversary (which I think is Saturday) they're going to wow us with something stunning!

[Glacial.9516]

I'm not at my 9th birthday yet but broadly I don't think it's a big deal if a gift is a bit lackluster, especially compared to the year before. If they continue to make each year top the one before it they will eventually have to give out an enormous amount of items! So at some point, at least one year is going to have to be a disappointment.

 

That said it does sound like they've made two large oversights and/or poor decisions. The first of course being the reused title. And the second being the dye. Every previous dye from Birthday gifts has been on a per-character basis. To suddenly change this to per-account is strange and confusing.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Glacial.9516

[Mikuchan.7261]

I'm not going to demand anything, but yes, I am in fact complaining about free stuff.

 

Before, the gifts have actually been quite fun and a bit exciting.

This year it's just.. meh.
It's free stuff, sure... But compared to before, it's just meh.

 

It's not only about celebrating that your character is 1 year older, even if that's a big part of it. It's also about celebrating that Guild Wars 2 is one year older... And we aren't really celebrating it to the same extent as we've done with the older gifts... Not nearly I feel.

 

The gift feels like one of those sort of gifts you would get repeatedly after the game has ended its lifetime and has gone into its maintenance phase.

It disappoints people who were excited.
And that's a bit sad.

That's all.

Edited August 23, 2021 by Mikuchan.7261

[Farohna.6247]

20 minutes ago, Glacial.9516 said:

I'm not at my 9th birthday yet but broadly I don't think it's a big deal if a gift is a bit lackluster, especially compared to the year before. If they continue to make each year top the one before it they will eventually have to give out an enormous amount of items! So at some point, at least one year is going to have to be a disappointment.

 

That said it does sound like they've made two large oversights and/or poor decisions. The first of course being the reused title. And the second being the dye. Every previous dye from Birthday gifts has been on a per-character basis. To suddenly change this to per-account is strange and confusing.

Agree with you, while I'm not at the ninth birthday either.  Perhaps an entire exclusive birthday only dye pack as opposed to one would have been better. I can see where players feel like hey auntie gave me a bicycle and a pony and a car, and this year I got...socks?  

 

That being said, most games send nothing to mark a character's age.  You don't have to log in for x years, they don't have to do anything, it's just something fun.  How many out there truly use all the previous gifts.  I see a few infusions.  Most of it, no, I don't see backpacks and finishers everywhere, maybe for the week they were received.  

[Pifil.5193]

These are pretty poor presents compared to the previous years. The per character rewards are especially dull now without the dye pack.

 

Worst. Birthday. Ever.

[Shrimpkin.4851]

Just received my 8th birthday gift yesterday.

 

Someone posted earlier asking who needs a karma infusion after 8 years.  I do.

 

Replaying all the LW stories and getting things I need, I am currently at 9-10k karma.  I need 300k to get a final item from Siren's Landing, so at this point I can't progress Aurora.

 

Since they removed karma boosters I can't use those.  A karma infusion helps a bit but a 5% boost is meh, so my character is currently in Sandswept Isles with Karmic Retribution (level two since I don't have the gold for the third one) and just the thought of how long it's going to take me to get what I need makes me sigh most times and decide it's maybe not worth logging in.

 

Think I'll go murder stuff in BL3 to take my mind off it.

[Razor.6392]

ANet to new players: "Yes come play, we got a lot of fun stuff in PvE!"

 

ANet to loyal 9 yr players: "Ah here's your gift I guess, hope you dish out 30usd for the expansion".

[Gibson.4036]

In response to the "Hey, it's free, quit complaining," there's such a thing as something free being worse than nothing at all.

It's kinda like getting all of those prepackaged "happy birthdays" on Facebook that you know are only because FB shoved your birthdate into everyone's faces and let them click a single button to send to you. It cheapens the whole thing, and a few thoughtful happy birthdays from people who actually remember completely outweigh dozens solicited by Mark's algorithms.

Or, for another analogy, it's like a big group leaving you a ten cent tip after you waited their table for an hour and a half. Better to not put anything on the table. A dime is just pure disdain.

Just recently I realized that I had a few birthday gifts unopened sitting in various character's mailboxes. This is because I always want to take extra care picking which sweet dye I'll add to my collection, so I tend to leave them there and think "I'll get back to that".

 

I also realized there were some pretty nice weapons skins currently available for tickets, and that I had one, a few scraps, and a chunk of statuettes sitting in my bank. I'm not a BLkey farmer or buyer, so I'd never given these things much thought. As I opened those parked presents, I realized I was getting statuettes, so I went looking at how they work. Two statuettes.... okay, need 50 for a ticket, three tickets for most of the skins.

Wait. So six to eight years of playing this game is worth about 1% of one pretty weapon skin for each of those years?

Kinda feels like that dime.

But at least the dyes on each character were cool....

Edited August 23, 2021 by Gibson.4036

[Josiah.2967]

They really should of given us something cool and unique to show off and get people excited for the expansion...

 

This feels like a missed opportunity.

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Josiah.2967

[SexyMofo.8923]

Way to show new players that the game rewards get worse the more you’re committed to the game. 

[JustTrogdor.7892]

I'm glad the cake does not override food already consumed.  That way when people place them on chests to troll it won't override my already consumed better food if I accidentally click it.

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by JustTrogdor.7892

[DarkSnowman.8527]

This time I don’t feel it as entitlement, like I must have something. I just feel like this one is a let-down. Every year I have giddily waited for my next gw2 birthday, even have a excel to keep track. Really fully invested in this world and kept most of my characters from the first few years just with the goal that it is rewarded.

I would have never thought that getting free stuff would left me feel disappointed. But really thinking it, 9 years, I have spent 9 years with this game. Meanwhile irl finished school, getting married, buying house etc. But all this time I have played this game, and getting a dye for this long commitment, it just feel so wrong.

[hugo.4705]

Frankly huge disapointment, level of birthday gift downgraded to level one gift with its mini queen jennah. Btw why queen jennah and no knut, smodur, pake tree or high councilor flax?

Not gonna lie, after other gift giving amulet and infusion, both ascended, wated for a precursor choice, no joke. Or dunno, to continue the set if unique skins, a cape/glider/mount skin, all with gw2 logo on it.

If the player is sensed to feel rewarded, something missed the target here. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by hugo.4705

[Excursion.9752]

Everyone makes mistakes. Its about what you do after the mistake that matters. So hopefully after seeing the discontent of this years lackluster rewards they should release something special for their Vets All they would have to do is put it on the birthday vendor for free accessible to characters that can receive it..

[Sobx.1758]

Yup, that's pretty weak

[Fuchslein.8639]

6 minutes ago, Excursion.9752 said:

Everyone makes mistakes. Its about what you do after the mistake that matters. So hopefully after seeing the discontent of this years lackluster rewards they should release something special for their Vets All they would have to do is put it on the birthday vendor for free accessible to characters that can receive it..

 

How much mistakes can someone do whitout getting scolded?

 

Many people only talk about the icebrood saga, meanwhile there are so many other things that Anet just did worse. One of them they really kittened up AND demonetized it.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

I get people saying free is free, but you also gotta understand the fact that this is ANet who set the expectations for the Birthday gifts based on how they did it over the years.

 

It's one thing if players hyped themselves up for no reason and got disappointed in return. It's another for a company to set an expectation and underdeliver, which in this case they did since previous gifts were more well received by most people.

[EnemyCrusher.7324]

I didn't have the highest hopes for this year's birthday gifts, but I'm still disappointed.

Anet, please:

1. Change one of the "Committed" titles. Preferably the raid one, because it doesn't make sense in that context.
2. Change "Delectable Birthday Dyes" to "Delectable Birthday Dye Kit". The plural name is misleading.
3. Change the Feast of Delectable Birthday Cake's nourishment to override the Birthday Blaster's nourishment instead of the other way around.

And if you want to make players happy about their 9th birthday gifts:

1. Add something exciting to the Ninth Birthday Gift. It could be a new dye kit, a wardrobe unlock, a black lion key, a Mini Baby Mount Container (with Mini Blue Skimmer Pup and Mini Gray Skyscale Hatchling added to the selection), or something similar.
2. Send the addition to characters who have already opened their gifts.

[Gorem.8104]

Personally? I like the cake, I often run around without a food buff so a good food buff that is almost permanent will be quite useful to me. Could have been something else cooler but otherwise I think its cool. It is interesting to me though that they made this dye take many, many more years to complete the set, instead of just making it a per character dye kit. That would drive ocd dye collector people insane to see they are locked for basically the next 5 years. 

 

Really, just make the buff from the cake last forever and be overridden by any food consumed, now that would be awesome. 

[Zephire.8049]

While it is strange complaining about free items, that's not the core of the issue here. The crux of the matter is Anet spent years (nearly two decades if you include GW1) telling players to look forward to their characters' birthdays because they'll get goodies. I wasn't playing GW1 when they switched to the tonics so I don't know how that was received, but even if you didn't like the mini you got you could sell it for some plat. Then came Eye of the North and you could dedicate the minis you didn't like to help unlock unique skins in GW2.

 

To describe how it feels, it would be like going to see a relative once per year and they'd give you a hug, a $5 voucher, and maybe a trinket they saw that made them think of you. Yes the visit is the main goal and you don't need the rest, but it's been that way for years. Then you show up this year and you only get a gruff handshake and a partially used loyalty stamp card for a place you may not even like. It's disconcerting and while you'd have been fine if you hadn't gotten anything, it's the sudden shift in tone which is alarming, not the lack of something you may never have used or just stuck in a drawer to be forgotten.

 

And it should be noted that current characters that are hitting 9 years old are from the pre-purchase headstart and any character made before August 29th, 2015 involved someone paying for the game. The promise of neat birthday items was also a way to encourage people to buy a new character slot for $10USD instead of reusing one of their existing character slots for free, something veteran players have been advising new and returning players to do for years.

 

It's not the (lack of) free stuff that's an issue, it's that Anet reneged on an unspoken agreement with veteran players after spending years telling players if they play for X years, they'll get goodies.

 

This year's goodies include: a title that was already in-game, a feast that's only useful for low level characters but requires you to be level 80 to use it, and a selection of one colour from a Lisa Frank poster (and not one of the darker ones).

 

It just seems like a last minute gas station birthday gift that you're expected to be grateful for even though they had months (technically years in this case) to plan for. It's not the items that are insulting, it's the complete lack of thought behind them.

[Tony.8659]

 I agree this year was a bit of a disappointment  🙁 7th year we got the victory rock, loved it. 8th year was even better, we got an amulet, and the birthday infusion with the GW2 logo fireworks. This year, dye? meh... and some unlocks I don't use.  I was hoping for maybe a birthday glider skin with the GW2 logo on it with some fireworks animations when you deploy it, that would have been awesome.  I just was expecting something more to top the 8th year. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by Tony.8659

[Excursion.9752]

4 minutes ago, Zephire.8049 said:

It just seems like a last minute gas station birthday gift

Exactly what I thought. It was like they were working on to many other things, forgot about it,  and then quickly through this together last minute.

[Booey Bubblehead.4890]

Also super disappointed.  Big big thumbs down👎

[JustTrogdor.7892]

I think the biggest fail was the Committed title since it was already a title for the Mursaat CM mode.   I mean did they not even look at their own list of titles before going forward?    Now all the people that did Mursaat CM share a title with people that did nothing more than create a character 9 years ago.   My guess is this will be changed at some point.

 

I know, efforts are all in on EoD.   But this year's birthday kind of echos the disappointment that was IBS.    At some point making excuses for going all in on EoD has to end.  

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by JustTrogdor.7892

[Doggie.3184]

I'd at least expect a dye kit for each character.