Gemstore makes me want to quit playing

[Ashen.2907]

45 minutes ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

ofc it is, and people making these comments are being disingenuous and a little mean spirited. When you play a game where you develop an avatar over time,  how that character looks is a part of that development, that's not being a peacock its getting pleasure out of how your character looks.

Except that he has not been speaking just about getting pleasure out of how his character looks but rather getting pleasure out of how others react to how his character looks. If it was just about how his character looks then there would be no point to his thread.

[Bladestrom.6425]

1 hour ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Except that he has not been speaking just about getting pleasure out of how his character looks but rather getting pleasure out of how others react to how his character looks. If it was just about how his character looks then there would be no point to his thread.

And? he gets pleasure out of using gear that he thinks makes his char look awesome.  Good for him, we all do it.  Case in point, I have a mixture of gem gear/ Legendary gear and even a HOM skin.  I think it makes my character look cool to all including me, i get pleasure out of it and so value for money.  Its all objective.

Edited August 6, 2022 by vesica tempestas.1563

[Ashen.2907]

4 minutes ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

And? he gets pleasure out of using gear that he thinks makes his char look awesome.  Good for him, we all do it.

He says that he gets his pleasure, not from his character looking good, but from other people thinking that his character is epic for having gear that lesser players cant get. His entire post is based on disatisfaction that other players can choose to have their characters look good too. That they might look as good as his characters.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Ashen.2907

[Bladestrom.6425]

ah, that's typically a raider pov but nothing wrong with it, its part of the raiding scheme and a huge part of their reward cycle which ofc is a minuscule part of GW2.  An Olympic athlete may wear a medal to show it off, not because it looks amazing, but because it represents a tough achievement.  Its all good, the only issue is people judging others.

Edited August 6, 2022 by vesica tempestas.1563

[Ashen.2907]

21 minutes ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

  An Olympic athlete may wear a medal to show it off, not because it looks amazing, but because it represents a tough achievement.

Agreed. But if that Olympic athlete then argued that those highschool kids that won their state championship shouldn't be allowed to have a trophy, or that he felt that he should quit athletics because their trophy was as shiny as his medal, it is a different matter entirely.

[Bladestrom.6425]

ok

[Wallieappel.2640]

2 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

He says that he gets his pleasure, not from his character looking good, but from other people thinking that his character is epic for having gear that lesser players cant get. His entire post is based on disatisfaction that other players can choose to have their characters look good too. That they might look as good as his characters.

You're really missing the point.The way you chose to interpret that does not represent me.

Edited August 6, 2022 by Wallieappel.2640

[Khisanth.2948]

8 hours ago, Wallieappel.2640 said:

For the the people saying stuff like this or similar remarks. It's not about worship. It's about people finding recognition for the time they've put in. In Guild Wars 1, people proudly showed their titles, even now I still see many people cling on to GWAMM title, even though that was 10 years ago. Isn't that pride? Same goes for diploma's and trophies in real life. Pride is something else than lacking self-convidence.

Pride does not need recognition from other people, you can be proud of your accomplishments alone in the middle of nowhere. You can be proud of something even if the rest of the world thinks it is trivial.

 

6 hours ago, vesica tempestas.1563 said:

ofc it is, and people making these comments are being disingenuous and a little mean spirited. When you play a game where you develop an avatar over time,  how that character looks is a part of that development, that's not being a peacock its getting pleasure out of how your character looks.

You would have a point if OP didn't make it about comparing to other people.

[Mickey.4207]

On 8/4/2022 at 7:32 PM, Wallieappel.2640 said:

I’ve played this game since day one and I’ve definitely seen most of the content. Once you hit endgame, you’ll most likely be on a hunt for the most epic gear in the game. Legendary weapons aren’t just looking awesome, they’re a token of your effort and skill as a top tier player. Other players immediately understand you must be one strong dude and are looking forward to crafting one themselves one day.

 

Or so it should be.

 

Unfortunately, with the gemstore making more and more insanely looking weapons available to the average joe, aside from a few benefits, they completely lost their significance. Even people that have just started playing are running around looking like shiny unicorns and it makes me feel like all the effort I made to get my legendaries was kind of a waste.

 

So why not buy a few epic skins then?

 

I feel like epic gear should be something that makes you want to keep playing the game and try out more challenging content. And what else is there to do after you’ve seen everything to game has to offer? If I would just buy, then what incentive is there for playing raids or T4 fractals? Money? To buy what?

 

I understand this is a free game, and they need to make money somehow, but there should’ve been a line. I think weapons skins like the ones you find at The Vaults in LA  are acceptable, but anything with some kind of effect or animation should not have been there.

 

There is no way Anet would undo some of these changes, so in that sense this post is kind of pointless, but I’m very curious if more people feel discouraged to keep playing because of this.

Been playing this game for a decade and not once i saw someone in legendary and thought he is some tough or epic dude. What are you even talking about here?

[kharmin.7683]

13 hours ago, Mickey.4207 said:

Been playing this game for a decade and not once i saw someone in legendary and thought he is some tough or epic dude. What are you even talking about here?

Same.  Except, in many cases, I see a toon decked out in legendary gear and think, "Ugh, that's hideous."

[Southerncarl.2740]

On 8/6/2022 at 12:44 PM, Wallieappel.2640 said:

You're really missing the point.The way you chose to interpret that does not represent me.

 

It's best not to reason with the cash shop Andy's. They are choosing to misunderstand you they know what you mean. Personally for me I don't feel incentivized to work towards attaining legendaries or other high level looking armour sets when the cash shop weapons and armours look equally as good if not better. Cosmetics matter in MMO's they show the progression of your character. It's a pretty well used formula in literally every game that you start with basic weapons and armour at first and the cosmetics get more elaborate as your character develops because it makes you more immersed in the game and your journey.....this was even the case when guild wars 2 first released. However this isn't the case nowadays because arena net has decided to sacrifice the integrity of the game and the experience to make a bit more money using the cash shop. This is fine if they want to do that it's their game but let's not pretend we all don't know that's what they are doing.

 

I wouldn't mind so much if it was just going to stop at cosmetics but now they've branched out to things like buying extra character slots, buying extra bag slots, buying bank tab expansion, buying extra build spaces. These things are the developers making the game and your experience intentionally worse for you so they can sell you the solution.

 

You can now even buy a waypoint unlock box now which unlocks all the waypoints in a region of your choosing. At this point we are literally buying the game.....and then paying the developer to not have to play it. It's only going to get worse from here maybe when we have to pay to unlock skills or skills slots on the skill bar people might realise it wasn't a good idea to allow companies to monetize games in this way.

 

 

 

 

[lezbefriends.7516]

Complaining about subjective thing, how productive.

[Hesione.9412]

On 8/5/2022 at 8:47 AM, Freya.9075 said:

I make my fashion for myself. Not others. Do I feel good when someone tells me my asura is cute? Ofc I do. That’s natural. But that is not the reason why I make my fashion. If no one likes it, I wouldn’t care cause I like it and it’s my cute rat. That’s me though. Can’t speak for others.

and to add to this. I have ad infinitum. Know what I do with it? Transmute it to blue quaggan backpack. Cause that’s the backpack I think fits my cute rat fashion best. Not all legendaries are good looking. 

Hard agree.  I have one character that is designed to be cosplay (and I play her normally as well). She has a lot of legendary stuff on her, which is for the convenience - I've had to reskin the hammer to something that fits with the cosplay, turn off the backpack, turn off the trinket effects, etc. Does it bother me that people don't realise I have legendaries on her? No, because the character is cosplay and the legendaries on that character are convenience. 

And it makes me happy when people guess what I am cosplaying, because 1. the actual character name is probably long taken and 2. I continue to try to make my characters have statistics-related names, so I had to get one of those to fit the specific cosplay.

[Sunchaser.9854]

There's been some interesting and pretty funny cosplays that people have figured out. One circulating on Reddit was someone who figured out how to make a SPIDERMAN cosplay of all things haha. I always imagine that if a major name is taken like most MMORPGs, you could always make your own character if Peter Parker and Petey Parkeyr are taken as well as Spiderdude and Splider mlan. 

As mentioned there's always those weird ascii symbols maybe, but honestly it's been pretty easy to get nice names in gw2. Character slots on the other hands for 5/9 mains however... 

[Rogue.8235]

On 8/4/2022 at 10:02 AM, Wallieappel.2640 said:

I’ve played this game since day one and I’ve definitely seen most of the content. Once you hit endgame, you’ll most likely be on a hunt for the most epic gear in the game. Legendary weapons aren’t just looking awesome, they’re a token of your effort and skill as a top tier player. Other players immediately understand you must be one strong dude and are looking forward to crafting one themselves one day.

 

Almost no one conflates cosmetics with any skill level.

Also, a lot of players, if not most, choose aesthetics based on their personal preference with no regard for what others think.  All of my characters are themed based on their (extremely vague) back story.  I think it's good that ArenaNet gives us (the players) options for character customization that is easily obtainable.  I don't care for cosmetic items that are purely positional in value, i.e., only valuable based upon the proportion of players that don't, and can't, own it.

 

Also, if all you care about is prestige, then why would the actual animated aesthetic matter?  The value is in how many other players do not have what you have. 

If what you truly value is animated aesthetics themselves, then why does it matter who else has them?  The cosmetic choices are there for you to choose for yourself, and other players having the same skins don't diminish the value of what you have.  

 

This is why "prestigious" skins that must be animated don't make any sense to me.  Do you just want to have an attention-grabbing flashy look that no one else can have?

 

 

[itspomf.9523]

This whole thread reminds me of playing GW1, where the "prestige" armor was more detailed and a sort of badge of honor simply because you spent that long getting the platinum and materials for it (nevermind getting to the vendor for it).

Best part?  It wasn't better.  It was exactly the same as the highest level of gear you could get otherwise.

But then again, I'm happy with the current system.  Let me do whatever and have fun.

[Rasimir.6239]

On 8/4/2022 at 9:33 PM, Wallieappel.2640 said:

Legendaries make me want to play the required content (like Nevermore has you play fractals and the armor has you play raids) and farm gold, but I just feel like wasting time if I can make that money 5 times faster in real life.

That is not a game problem, that is a you problem. You might feel that way, and I'm sure others do, too, but there are easily just as many players that feel the opposite. Personally I am playing this game precisely because it does not lock the vast majority of gear and skins behind some arbitrary requirements like having the time and connections to play the same instances at the same time each week with the same group of other players to maybe be lucky to get what you're looking for (been there, done that, down to raiding with a static group for a whole expansion cycle without ever getting the top-tier equipment piece for my class, in another game of course).

 

You seem to be looking for a game that tells you what to play by giving you an "incentive" for playing specific content to get a chance at specific rewards. I came to GW2 precisely to get away from that kind of thing (after running instances, bosses, whatnot in other games way past the point of enjoyment, because it was the only way to get what I was looking for). GW2 from the start has been advertised as the game that gives you a variety of ways to get to pretty much anything in game for pretty much anybody playing. Changing this to locking useful or pretty stuff behind barriers that only a few players can achieve, mostly not even because of personal skill but simply because their real life does afford them to no-life this game, would be a sure way to turn off a big part of the playersbase.

 

There are plenty of games out there that give you what you want: gear and skins that are only available by a few, and populations that accept this as "prestige". GW2 is the game that many of us play because it respects our time and allows us to play what's fun and still progress towards the equipment or skins we enjoy. It's two different ways to look at gameplay and rewards that are almost polar opposites and don't mesh with each other.

 

 

On 8/4/2022 at 9:33 PM, Wallieappel.2640 said:

Why else do people ping their mats before they forge their legendaries?

To be honest I've always wondered about that. To me, whenever I see somebody ping the legendary mats, I rather pity them for what seems to be a need to be validated by others for in-game pixels. I have a pretty extensive legendary wardrobe myself, but rarely if ever use the skins or auras associated with those items because they just never seem to suit my tastes.

[Bladestrom.6425]

 

 

7 hours ago, Rasimir.6239 said:

SNIP

 

To be honest I've always wondered about that. To me, whenever I see somebody ping the legendary mats, I rather pity them for what seems to be a need to be validated by others for in-game pixels. I have a pretty extensive legendary wardrobe myself, but rarely if ever use the skins or auras associated with those items because they just never seem to suit my tastes.

lol that's kinda sad and mean spirited is it not.  If someone pings mats for a legendary just before they craft it I usually gz them, especially if in guild, they are celebrating what they view as an achievement. good for them, positivity is a good thing in a mmorpg.

Note I would only do this is GW2 not other games like WOW as generally speaking the GW community is much more positive and warm.

ps reading op post again, I do agree that associating recognition as a powerful player via gear is misguided in GW2 if  he thinks it should be exclusively tied to difficulty, that's not in keeping with the GW2 ethos. for e.g a player may wear gear from a raid as a statement to show he has achieved X - no problem with that.  But getting offended by other players because they  have objectively shiner gear from source X is missing the point.

Edited August 9, 2022 by vesica tempestas.1563

[Westenev.5289]

I kinda agree. Mmo's are social games, to some of us it matters how people perceive our achievements. Without that gratification, where's the motivation to power through content you dislike?

 

That being said, considering "bright unicorns" is indeed a legendary weapon, perhaps another analogy would be better?

[Khisanth.2948]

21 hours ago, Sunchaser.9854 said:

There's been some interesting and pretty funny cosplays that people have figured out. One circulating on Reddit was someone who figured out how to make a SPIDERMAN cosplay of all things haha. I always imagine that if a major name is taken like most MMORPGs, you could always make your own character if Peter Parker and Petey Parkeyr are taken as well as Spiderdude and Splider mlan. 

As mentioned there's always those weird ascii symbols maybe, but honestly it's been pretty easy to get nice names in gw2. Character slots on the other hands for 5/9 mains however... 

The best one is Ronald McDonald that goes around giving people burgers and fries 🙂