Do you think account bound/timegated materials are healthy for the game?

[Ayrilana.1396]

Without account bound or time-gates, players would blast through content and rewards fairly quickly. Player participation would drop at an even more rapid pace as a result. These are necessary as content/rewards cannot be created at a rate to satisfy those that choose to blow through new releases.

The game is healthier with them than without.

[Vayne.8563]

This is a badly constructed pole. Account bound items are not time gated items. They're two different things, and require either multiple questions or multiple answers. It's easy to say that account bound is fine, but I don't like time gated, for example, or vice versa.

I like account bound stuff, generally and don't like time-gated nearly as much. I think account bound stuff is very good for the game (and good for altaholics like me as well, when compared to soul bound). Time-gated stuff it depends on the situation and how it's done.

[Arton Leirra.9760]

I quite like the idea of Account Bound items. I think it incentivize people to play content and challenge themselves. You get a sense of achievement when finally getting and also can be fun for collectors with certain item sets too.. although that's not my cup of tea - I can appreciate it's a goal for some people.

I also think account bound items within games, stops them from certain games becoming completely pay 2 win. Which I think GW2 does very well.. Although there's an argument there's no really way to 'win' GW :grin:

As for time-gates; throw them into the development furnace - If I want to farm an item for 24 hours. I should be allowed to :skull:

[Ayakaru.6583]

Acountbound materials force people to put in some actual work, rather than buying everything.Im indifferent about timegated crafting, but timegated resource gathering is good.

[Cuks.8241]

Account bound / soul bound equipment is OK with me.Some materials for legendaries and ascended are also fine with me.All other materials should be non bound and should be able to be traded on TP. Also they should all have a spot in the material storage. I've read that there is a technical limitation but I have some doubts that it can not be fixed.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Vayne.8563" said:This is a badly constructed pole.That's what they said about the (original) Golem of Chelm: it was a poorly-constructed Pole.

[XatraZaytrax.2601]

I only dislike items that are useless or you don't if they are useless, but you can't vendor them or salvage them. The only way to get rid of them is deleting them, and sometimes you fear deleting them so they clog your inventory. It would be nice if stuff was clearly labeled as no longer useful, or made to be censored or turned into karma when no longer useful, as they started doing.

[sasya neko.1985]

account bound has a reason, however, anything the limits stuff even further is nothing but a horrible cheap system. (like soul bound or timed gem items)

[Daddicus.6128]

It has pluses and minuses. The problem is that time-gating is a complete failure to accounts that are played a lot. The more time you play the game, the more loot you get. Then, you want to use it. One of the ways to use it is to create more characters.

I have 27 main characters. While I'm able to outfit most of them in ascended equipment, the time-gating prevents me from doing all of them, except over VERY long periods of time.

Now, for someone who only has the initial crop of characters (I don't know how many that was), it's not a big deal, because they can be outfitted.

On the other hand, time-gating is essential to keep people from buying their way to success.

The RIGHT way to do time-gating would be to use hours played, not calendar days. But, that would be a nightmare to code, so calendar-gating is probably their only option.

Oh, and most account bindings are OK. There are a few that should be relaxed, but for the most part they're good.

[Ayrilana.1396]

Hours played would just mean that players leave themselves logged in.

[dodgerrule.8739]

Account bound crafting materials are when they’re limited, but having too much time gated crafting can lead to a decline in community morale

[Vayne.8563]

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:This is a badly constructed pole.That's what they said about

the (original) Golem of Chelm

: it was a poorly-constructed Pole.

Sure, my spell checker didn't catch that one. Sue me. lol

[VDAC.2137]

No, I want to be able to sell stuff I have in excess, even if only to merchants, but preferably to other players as that helps everybody.

How does it make anything better to make materials account bound? If they are needed, someone is going to go to the map to collect them — no reason it has to be the same person who wants to use them!

[VDAC.2137]

@Etria.3642 said:Well someone I know started playing the game four months ago. He bought gems, converted to gold. Bought Eternity. Bought outfits, bought materials, in one month he had five completely outfitted and leveled characters. He bought the collections for legendary raid armor.

Then bored, he asked us what on earth to do. Following our suggestions he bought someone to help and completed the griffon that week. Then next he had someone drag him through HOT map completion and began crafting Nevermore.

It took him a month of hero trains(which he did on each of those other characters to get them specializations) but he got all masteries. He linked Nevermore a couple weeks ago.

I see him rarely now. Which is a shame since he seriously must have pumped well over a thousand real life dollars into the game. He bought skins, keys, outfits, tools. At one point he sent everyone in the guild one of the new dye kits.

I guess if you have the disposable income there are almost no time gates.

Also if you keep an eye on the market there are times the materials will sell for more than the completed item.

That doesn’t seem like any kind of argument for making stuff account bound and/or time-gated. If people want to spend their time and money that way, that should be their prerogative! And a boon for all those players this one bored rich person paid, lol!

[robertthebard.8150]

Yes, it does benefit the overall health of the game, by keeping players invested in getting the things they need for whatever it is they're working on.

[Weindrasi.3805]

Do you have any idea how much Bloodstone Dust, Empyrian Fragments, and Dragonite Ore I have deleted? Well, neither do I! But I know it's probably in the tens of thousands by now.The eaters are too much bother to use. Getting rid of a stack a day or so isn't good enough when I have an entire bankfull of that crap, and more coming in every day. These days, I just delete as soon as it hits my inventory.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

@VDAC.2137 said:

@Etria.3642 said:Well someone I know started playing the game four months ago. He bought gems, converted to gold. Bought Eternity. Bought outfits, bought materials, in one month he had five completely outfitted and leveled characters. He bought the collections for legendary raid armor.

Then bored, he asked us what on earth to do. Following our suggestions he bought someone to help and completed the griffon that week. Then next he had someone drag him through HOT map completion and began crafting Nevermore.

It took him a month of hero trains(which he did on each of those other characters to get them specializations) but he got all masteries. He linked Nevermore a couple weeks ago.

I see him rarely now. Which is a shame since he seriously must have pumped well over a thousand real life dollars into the game. He bought skins, keys, outfits, tools. At one point he sent everyone in the guild one of the new dye kits.

I guess if you have the disposable income there are almost no time gates.

Also if you keep an eye on the market there are times the materials will sell for more than the completed item.

That doesn’t seem like any kind of argument for making stuff account bound and/or time-gated. If people want to spend their time and money that way, that should be their prerogative! And a boon for all those players this one bored rich person paid, lol!

And then that bored rich person and everyone like them end up fully controlling the market for pretty much everything. Which can happen to an extent currently but with no account bound it would be happening in all aspects of game economy and completely unregulated. No thanks, I prefer playing video games, not cash stores that may have some game elements here and there.

[MrRuin.9740]

Account bound is fine. Time-gated is garbage. I want to spend my time playing doing what I want, not only so much then forced to stop for no reason than a needless time restriction.

[Solvar.7953]

I agree that account bound makes sense. In some odd way, if more stuff was account bound, then it would not need to be time gated.I also find it odd that some of the eaters (dragonite, empereal fragment ,etc) have a daily limit. The material is account bound, so it isn't like I can get a bunch off the trading post, so why does it make a difference how much I convert to something else?If there were limits, I'd rather them be weekly vs daily. Then once a week, I can just say I'll create a bunch of the different limited materials, each a bunch of the other stuff ,etc.

[VDAC.2137]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

And then that bored rich person and everyone like them end up fully controlling the market for pretty much everything. Which can happen to an extent currently but with no account bound it would be happening in all aspects of game economy and completely unregulated. No thanks, I prefer playing video games, not cash stores that may have some game elements here and there.

I cannot think of how that would be the case. If the item is account-bound, then you cannot buy it but must acquire it yourself. If the item isn’t, then you COULD buy it, or acquire it yourself as before. I don’t see what is being taken away from you. You can ignore the market entirely or even sell extra materials that you don’t need but acquired through gameplay that you enjoy.

[Rauderi.8706]

It's good, largely for economic reasons. Time-gates with tradeable materials are even better, since it gives value to those materials and those with the cash to drop on it can buy their way to faster progress.
I wouldn't be opposed to separate formulas, either. A relatively cheap once-per-day and a significantly more expensive (2-4x material cost) to make as many as one wants. The cheap version is good for those who want to acquire their materials naturally, while there's a big sink for rapid progress.

[Ashen.2907]

No.

Antisocial game mechanics are counterproductive in a supposedly social game.

[Xovian.8572]

Account bound for some items i have no issue with.Time gated however is a different story.The argument players are giving that it should be there seem to miss the fact that time gate or not people will stop playing because it becomes unfun.The unfun i found with the first expansion made it almost a 2 year break, and i was far from the only one to take such an extended break due to the massive amount of time gating added to the game.

I remember when people stated "No we don't want mounts" and at one time it was prominent in the community. Now, not only have mounts been added, but yet another time gate that many find annoying.

People are going to play the game, and go through it's content, they will either keep playing after experiencing that content or leave. How fast this occurs doesnt really change anything, cause people will keep playing due to the enjoyment of the game, or they wont. Just because that fractal player had to grind a dungeon a hundred times, doesnt mean they are leaving the game the moment they get the gear. They simply move on to the next challenge/goal or task they enjoy doing (w/ hopefully much less repetition). PvP'ers don't leave the game the moment they win a match, or because they got an item the finally wanted. The point is people will keep playing, they may change game modes for something new, but they are going to keep playing cause they are having fun. Time gates rarely enter that equation unless it causes undo frustration, which can and does happen as well.

[Samnang.1879]

it is unhealthy. i nearly went insane doing wayfarer's henge

[Solvar.7953]

It seems that Anet has been using timegating to try and stretch out the content of LS maps. You want some item or achievement? It will take some number of days, for really no other reason than Anet wants it to.For materials, I just find it annoying. But it is also somewhat unfair to those who have irregular play times - someone who can play 1 hour/day (7 hours/week) has not issue, but someone who has to get all their play time in a couple days is now at a disadvantage.