The joy of playing DRMs for achievements

[Hotride.2187]

I'm doing the "Champions" mastery achievement and I'm really bothered by the DRMs ("Dragon Response Mission") structure - now that they are dead content. I'm sure they won't be changed (why re-iterate content, just leave it dead to clutter the game), I'm commenting for the sake of commenting.

Gameplay-wise I think the DRMs are fine, as long as you are doing the dailies only. They are somewhat boring and mostly repetitive, but the environments are varied enough for me to not get bothered by this. They are also short, unless doing CMs.

Rewards I won't comment on, other than to say they are likely the main reason the content is dead.

Its really the structure around the gameplay that bothers me:

1. Can't join an instance after the initial locking. Why? So someone doesn't get things for "free"? Every other type of instanced content can be joined at any point (excluding Forging Steel, which is topic of its own). Why are DRMs so special?
2. Can't initialize challenges in public instances. Since DRMs are dead, there are almost no groups in LFG. So if I want to do the "tide turner" achievements (there are a lot of them) the best way is to either:

• Wait a few hours for a daily DRM CMs group to appear, watching the LFG intently (cause the LFG needs 5 years worth of QoLs to be usable). Join that, do the dailies in an hour, repeat for 1-2 weeks (more probably). Note that some groups go in "early", i.e. with less than 5 players. If I don't spot the group "on time" I miss at least 1 DRM daily (going back to the first question, why is the instance locking a thing).
• Enter a private instance and solo the entire thing. The timer challenge is a no-brainer for this. But why am I doing instanced content alone? Much MMO, such social aspect? How hard it is to vote on challenges at the start, like in fractals?

Are both problems due to the half-baked attempt at the automatic LFG tools from WoW, where you press 2 buttons and a group is formed by the tools? Cause normally you LFGs, someone joins you, they enter the instance, etc..

Somehow the worst of both words is combined in DRMs, players auto-join them instead of making LFG groups, and so both LFG is empty and the auto-joined instances are empty (due to the locking mechanism).

 

Edited June 7, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[Gehenna.3625]

What do you mean with DRM? The only reference I have is Digital Rights Management and I'm sure you're not talking about that.

[Hotride.2187]

14 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

What do you mean with DRM? The only reference I have is Digital Rights Management and I'm sure you're not talking about that.

Woah the content is even deader than I thought.  Dragon Response Missions, added for the "Champions" chapter in the Icebrood Saga living world. I updated my post.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[Zok.4956]

22 minutes ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

What do you mean with DRM? The only reference I have is Digital Rights Management and I'm sure you're not talking about that.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Dragon_Response_Mission

 

[Gehenna.3625]

7 minutes ago, Hotride.2187 said:

Woah the content is even deader than I thought.  Dragon Response Missions, added for the "Champions" chapter in the Icebrood Saga living world. I updated my post.

Ahh right, yeah I never do those. I did once for the story, so that abbreviation didn't ring a bell.

[Rasimir.6239]

Let me see if I understood this correctly: to play challenges, you either wait for a cm group to appear in lfg that you can join, or you try to solo the thing? Have you tried starting your own "daily cm" group and putting that into lfg?

[Hashberry.4510]

Yep LFG is totally kitten here

[Hotride.2187]

1 hour ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

Let me see if I understood this correctly: to play challenges, you either wait for a cm group to appear in lfg that you can join, or you try to solo the thing? Have you tried starting your own "daily cm" group and putting that into lfg?

No, since I don't want to lead one. Technically maybe a few people are waiting on someone to create a group. Most times I join a group though, it takes 15+ min before players in the group go "OK lets do this with 3". And that is the rare group I see once in a few hours.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[Rasimir.6239]

47 minutes ago, Hotride.2187 said:

No, since I don't want to lead one. Technically maybe a few people are waiting on someone to create a group. Most times I join a group though, it takes 15+ min before players in the group go "OK lets do this with 3". And that is the rare group I see once in a few hours.

You can put groups into lfg without intending to lead them. Put something like "looking for help with challenge modes" to attract both other players looking for help as well as those looking to assist. It's not a guarantee, but at least a lot easier to get things started than just trying to catch a group another person put up.

[Hotride.2187]

Lol, daily DRMs just got deleted ... : D

Because the IBS dailies got "consolidated", there are now no longer even daily missions that players will funnel towards...

Just absolutely amazing. On top of extra killing dungeons. Who is making this game even? I guess I do the mastery (solo) and forget this content exists.

Edited June 7, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[Schimmi.6872]

Regarding your 1. point, as DRMs are the only 5-man instances that scale with player-number, I guess this might be the reason why they are locked, so people can't easily abuse the scaling.