Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

Originally posted by Anaba77

--- > here is the link and the text:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside

 

 

 

Head of Global Community

 

Our Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside just posted this:

“I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.
Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores."

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

 

 

The answer to the question people are asking should be "Yes we will create a gear treadmill" or "No we will not create a gear treadmill". Instead, ANET says "Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill" There is a huge difference and when someone is non committal, well, just prepare for something you may not like.

It doesn't even matter.

Adding a new tier of gear is creating a gear treadmill, regardless what they said.

It is a question of how much grind - apparently is substancial since they need to spread it to give time to acquire them.

The goals shifted from acquiring exotic to acquiring ascended.

Of course apparently cosmetic progression doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

So what we have is that any player starting tomorrow will be farther away from max stats.

Since Legendaries have always been the max stats, and according to Anet, always will be, the addition of a tier in between exotics and Legendaries isn't really a gear treadmill.  Especially if this is a one-time addition.

"Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two."

I think this is what most people are overlooking.  Anet saw a gap between the highest tier and the second highest tier.  They fixed that gap.  I think going off half-cocked without actually seeing it in action is kind of ridiculous.

It doesn't sound like they are going to make another tier of equipment, stat wise.  So, I don't see where the problem is.  We have to keep in mind that the game is still barely over 2 months old.  They are still working out the kinks.  As far as I've ever seen, every game goes through something similar.  I will change my tune if Anet starts adding extra tiers of equipment, but until then I think this is much ado about nothing.

Originally posted by botrytis

Originally posted by xpiher

Originally posted by Torvaldr

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

The answer to the question people are asking should be "Yes we will create a gear treadmill" or "No we will not create a gear treadmill". Instead, ANET says "Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill" There is a huge difference and when someone is non committal, well, just prepare for something you may not like.

You will never get that sort of commitment out of them or any dev studio in their right mind.  Trion won't tell you what exactly will happen years down the road either becasue they don't know.  Maybe what they think works doesn't and they need to adjust accordingly.  That is one reason RIFT has been so successful, because Trion has changed directions as needed in response to their community.  ANet is wise to follow in this path.  It will piss off some people just like it does in RIFT, but overall the community is happier for it.

 

The difference is Rift didn't make any drastic changes to the game that went against their initial game philo. You know, what caused peopel to buy it in the first place?

Actually they did - they went from 2 sided PvP to 3-sided when they said they wouldn't do that. Also, they said they would add in areas for lower level characters and they have not. I don't know where you are getting your information from but your anger with A.Net is clouding your judgement - just my opinion.

 

Go back and read the threads about all the hacked accounts Rift had when the game first came out. It took them 3 months of debacle to fix that. Gold farmers/sellers were there for over 9 months also. People need to get perspective - it is only a game, afterall. Your life doesn't depend on it.

The only thing this changed was players had a new WF to queue for. If you didn't queue, nothing in Rift changed for you. 

For this comparrison to work, Trion would have had to do something where by adding CQ to Rift, it would threaten to undermine the progression that PVPers had invested to that point.

Originally posted by evolver1972

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

Originally posted by Anaba77

--- > here is the link and the text:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside

 

 

 

Head of Global Community

 

Our Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside just posted this:

“I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.
Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores."

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

 

 

The answer to the question people are asking should be "Yes we will create a gear treadmill" or "No we will not create a gear treadmill". Instead, ANET says "Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill" There is a huge difference and when someone is non committal, well, just prepare for something you may not like.

It doesn't even matter.

Adding a new tier of gear is creating a gear treadmill, regardless what they said.

It is a question of how much grind - apparently is substancial since they need to spread it to give time to acquire them.

The goals shifted from acquiring exotic to acquiring ascended.

Of course apparently cosmetic progression doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

So what we have is that any player starting tomorrow will be farther away from max stats.

Since Legendaries have always been the max stats, and according to Anet, always will be, the addition of a tier in between exotics and Legendaries isn't really a gear treadmill.  Especially if this is a one-time addition.

 

"Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two."

 

I think this is what most people are overlooking.  Anet saw a gap between the highest tier and the second highest tier.  They fixed that gap.  I think going off half-cocked without actually seeing it in action is kind of ridiculous.

 

It doesn't sound like they are going to make another tier of equipment, stat wise.  So, I don't see where the problem is.  We have to keep in mind that the game is still barely over 2 months old.  They are still working out the kinks.  As far as I've ever seen, every game goes through something similar.  I will change my tune if Anet starts adding extra tiers of equipment, but until then I think this is much ado about nothing.

The two reasons given:

"Our most dedicated players were gettinng bored due to no progression" - give or take a word.

"Big grind gap between exotic and legendary".

First reason.

How do they expect to keep these players ever satisfied with a finite amount of item progression?

I mean, at some point, these players that grinded exotic items in a few days will be grinding ascended seeing no progression again.

Right or wrong?

About the gap.

So I have two options now: I skip exotics and go straight to ascended or I get exotics and then ascended.

Ascended will take longer than exotics to get.

At first sight it will make the gap smaller.

2 catches - I'll start pooling resources for legendaries later. So while the gap in amount of grind is smaller, the total amount is bigger, making legendaries an even more distant objectives.

I go for exotics and then ascended.

Same story as before but even longer before I start pooling resources for legendaries.

So they want to make legendaries an even more distant objective.

An interesting turn of events as Anet increased dungeon and karma rewards (jugs of liquid karma).

So they make exotics easier to get because of too grind complaints and then they add a new tier to be grindier because exotics are too easy to get.

Sounds confusing?

Result - exotics are a crap investement, legendaries are a safe heaven vs gear progression.

Max stats is (was) easy to get in Guild Wars franchise. GW is about skill not time spent-

The longer it gets to get that max level the less GW is about skill and more it is about time.

What I LOVE the most is:

Before: you dont need gear treadmills, if you want that then go back to WoW

After: its just a gear treadmill, its no big deal

Some people can rationalize anything ...well, as long as its in GW2.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

What I LOVE the most is:

Before: you dont need gear treadmills, if you want that then go back to WoW

After: its just a gear treadmill, its no big deal

Some people can rationalize anything ...well, as long as its in GW2.

Some fans ignore the fact their 'beloved' company is doing things to make money and not appease them.

ANet had a lot of fans so some really believed that ANet would be different.

The fact is that ANet lied so most fans will try to rationalize it and get really upset if you remind them of facts.

Originally posted by Xiaoki

What I LOVE the most is:

Before: you dont need gear treadmills, if you want that then go back to WoW

After: its just a gear treadmill, its no big deal

Some people can rationalize anything ...well, as long as its in GW2.

Actually, it's not a gear treadmill. The progression still ends at legendaries. Only difference is that there's now a layer in between exotics and legendaries, one that will take more time than exotics to get and less time than it takes for legendaries.

It's filling a time-void. 

Originally posted by evolver1972

Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter

Originally posted by GeezerGamer

Originally posted by Anaba77

--- > here is the link and the text:

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/info/news/A-message-from-our-Studio-Design-Director-Chris-Whiteside

 

 

 

Head of Global Community

 

Our Studio Design Director Chris Whiteside just posted this:

“I’d like to respond to concerns players have raised about ascended items. Please keep in mind that we’re releasing this as one portion of a massive November update that introduces and improves many aspects of challenge, progression, and rewards. With this and upcoming updates, we view ourselves as introducing large amounts of content with supporting systems and features, akin to an expansion pack, building on Guild Wars 2 through a series of live releases. So it’s important for us to be able to add an expansion pack’s worth of progression and rewards to support that content.

Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will slowly add the remaining ascended gear items and legendary items in future updates to allow people time to acquire them as we add exciting new content that deserves exciting rewards. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.

Ascended and infusion rewards will be available in both PvE and WvW over time, and be made available through all sorts of content around the world including existing content. PvP will remain unaffected to ensure our intended PvP balance going forward. We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features. As you know we care very much about your support and opinion and are listening intently to what you say.
Finally we look forward to hearing your thoughts on the upcoming content, and we will ensure we share our thoughts with you on the experiences we share in the Lost Shores."

Chris Whiteside – Studio Design Director

 

 

The answer to the question people are asking should be "Yes we will create a gear treadmill" or "No we will not create a gear treadmill". Instead, ANET says "Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill" There is a huge difference and when someone is non committal, well, just prepare for something you may not like.

It doesn't even matter.

Adding a new tier of gear is creating a gear treadmill, regardless what they said.

It is a question of how much grind - apparently is substancial since they need to spread it to give time to acquire them.

The goals shifted from acquiring exotic to acquiring ascended.

Of course apparently cosmetic progression doesn't seem to be enough anymore.

So what we have is that any player starting tomorrow will be farther away from max stats.

Since Legendaries have always been the max stats, and according to Anet, always will be, the addition of a tier in between exotics and Legendaries isn't really a gear treadmill.  Especially if this is a one-time addition.

 

"Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from exotic up to legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two."

 

I think this is what most people are overlooking.  Anet saw a gap between the highest tier and the second highest tier.  They fixed that gap.  I think going off half-cocked without actually seeing it in action is kind of ridiculous.

 

It doesn't sound like they are going to make another tier of equipment, stat wise.  So, I don't see where the problem is.  We have to keep in mind that the game is still barely over 2 months old.  They are still working out the kinks.  As far as I've ever seen, every game goes through something similar.  I will change my tune if Anet starts adding extra tiers of equipment, but until then I think this is much ado about nothing.

Legendary and exotics have similar stats. Legendary just look different. They should have quite easily made ascended gear in same manner.  Different looks, same stats.

Originally posted by Volkon

Originally posted by Xiaoki

What I LOVE the most is:

Before: you dont need gear treadmills, if you want that then go back to WoW

After: its just a gear treadmill, its no big deal

Some people can rationalize anything ...well, as long as its in GW2.

 

Actually, it's not a gear treadmill. The progression still ends at legendaries. Only difference is that there's now a layer in between exotics and legendaries, one that will take more time than exotics to get and less time than it takes for legendaries.

 

It's filling a time-void. 

According to ANet's statement there will be 'more powerful gears'.

Legendary will be scaled up so the next set of tier gear will once again bump up lengedaries while introducing better gears.

X 100 = gear threadmill.

Not a fan or follower but what is all this talk about gear? I was always under the impression that GW2 wasn't a gear dependant game? Sounds like there is a lot of QQing about something that shouldn't even be a concideration.

wierd

Originally posted by jpnz

Originally posted by Volkon

Originally posted by Xiaoki

What I LOVE the most is:

Before: you dont need gear treadmills, if you want that then go back to WoW

After: its just a gear treadmill, its no big deal

Some people can rationalize anything ...well, as long as its in GW2.

 

Actually, it's not a gear treadmill. The progression still ends at legendaries. Only difference is that there's now a layer in between exotics and legendaries, one that will take more time than exotics to get and less time than it takes for legendaries.

 

It's filling a time-void. 

According to ANet's statement there will be 'more powerful gears'.

Legendary will be scaled up so the next set of tier gear will once again bump up lengedaries while introducing better gears.

X 100 = gear threadmill.

 

We know there's going to be more powerful gear. They aren't introducing all the ascended right away, nor have they started introducing legendary armors and items.

The facts remain the same. Exotics, then Ascended, then Legendary. Someday, if you're a little nuts I guess, you can be decked out in full legendary armor.  The effort for that makes me dizzy pondering it...

Originally posted by DAS1337

Originally posted by xpiher

Originally posted by Anaba77

Well, this guy is talking about no treadmill and that new gear will be available from more content (new and old) so it doesn't feel a grind.

For me that's an answer and tbh I hate it when ppl whine before content is released.

 

/my 2 cents

I don't care about the content. I care if there will be new gear after ascended that will be required to do future content. And it doesn't answer anything because 

 

" We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features." 

This could mean anything! It could mean more gear, it could be Ascended armor with future upgrades that can placed into that slot. I want to know what they exactly plan! 

And like my edit says. ITS NOT ABOUT THE CONTENT.  I care about direction!

[mod edit]

Work in a game?

Grind for better items in a franchise always proud of skill>time farmin gear?

The longer it takes to acquire max stats the more the game is about time spent grinding and less about skill,

Originally posted by DAS1337

Originally posted by xpiher

Originally posted by Anaba77

Well, this guy is talking about no treadmill and that new gear will be available from more content (new and old) so it doesn't feel a grind.

For me that's an answer and tbh I hate it when ppl whine before content is released.

 

/my 2 cents

I don't care about the content. I care if there will be new gear after ascended that will be required to do future content. And it doesn't answer anything because 

 

" We are also working on other reward and progression systems for the game that tie into current and new content and features." 

This could mean anything! It could mean more gear, it could be Ascended armor with future upgrades that can placed into that slot. I want to know what they exactly plan! 

And like my edit says. ITS NOT ABOUT THE CONTENT.  I care about direction!

[mod edit]

A lot of players loved Anet's philosophy because they were trying to distance themsleves from this very crowd which likes to 'work ' in games.

Hey guys I dont have time to read those monster threads and i dont want to...so i have a guestion..

The new gear is needed only for the new dungeon or is a must if i want to do lets say WvW,lev 80 zones or other dungeons?

also if i want to do this dungeon one time or two to see how is it can i craft that gear?(im master crafter btw :D)Thanks!

Originally posted by Dietengu

Hey guys I dont have time to read those monster threads and i dont want to...so i have a guestion..

The new gear is needed only for the new dungeon or is a must if i want to do lets say WvW,lev 80 zones or other dungeons?

also if i want to do this dungeon one time or two to see how is it can i craft that gear?(im master crafter btw :D)Thanks!

 1. - It's needed if you want to go in farther in the new dungeon, it's not a must in WvW but it will surely give you an edge, same with dungeons and zones.

2. You can't craft that gear as of yet, they said that they will have different methods in the future of obtaining the gear, but no word of when. So for right now only way to get it is through dungeons and the Infusions (upgrades) in the Mystic Forge, details are not out yet.

Originally posted by xposeidon

Originally posted by Dietengu

Hey guys I dont have time to read those monster threads and i dont want to...so i have a guestion..

The new gear is needed only for the new dungeon or is a must if i want to do lets say WvW,lev 80 zones or other dungeons?

also if i want to do this dungeon one time or two to see how is it can i craft that gear?(im master crafter btw :D)Thanks!

 1. - It's needed if you want to go in farther in the new dungeon, it's not a must in WvW but it will surely give you an edge, same with dungeons and zones.

2. You can't craft that gear as of yet, they said that they will have different methods in the future of obtaining the gear, but no word of when. So for right now only way to get it is through dungeons and the Infusions (upgrades) in the Mystic Forge, details are not out yet.

One of the dungeon rewards you can get is a Gift of Ascension. That actually seems to imply you can craft the armor, likely at the Mystic Forge.

Originally posted by Masa1
So no new tier every 3 month, but every 4 month?

Arenanet would never do that. 

Originally posted by skydiver12

Nope that's not an answer. (i don't expect any - Anet is like every bad company out there)

 

They need a LOGICAL step from Exotic to Legendary.  So they're doing it with Ascended.    They've told you this.   It is the answer and it does answer the question. Sticking your fingers in your ears and going 'la la la la' and pretending they didn't answer the question doesn't change it.

Originally posted by MosesZD

Originally posted by skydiver12

Nope that's not an answer. (i don't expect any - Anet is like every bad company out there)

 

 

 

 

They need a LOGICAL step from Exotic to Legendary.  So they're doing it with Ascended.    They've told you this.   It is the answer and it does answer the question. Sticking your fingers in your ears and going 'la la la la' and pretending they didn't answer the question doesn't change it.

No, they didn't need it, they could have make all steps above exotic on par with exotic with only significant cosmetic differences; however, this direction is something that anyone should have expected as a possibility. So to everyone complaining: make your research better, all information was out there; it was easy to see that this was a possible scenario and therefore your purchase should have taken this scenario into account.  If you still took the risk and bought the game, then you have none but yourself to blame if things don't go as you had hoped to.