tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post4098921072618054677..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: A Gated Community : GW2Bhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-89873122977748518442015-10-27T05:53:52.048+00:002015-10-27T05:53:52.048+00:00If Arenanet had increased the level cap to 160 and...If Arenanet had increased the level cap to 160 and said "look to get everything for the elite spec you need to reach level 160" I wonder what the reaction would have been instead.<br /><br />Masteries are no different than a level cap increase with the exception that a level 20 mastery guy can fight alongside a level 1 mastery and there is no power difference.<br /><br />My experience has been that most of the champions in the hero challenges can be done by a duo and that simply advertising it in map chat and LFG will yield 2+ people.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05925345204945426269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-61102116672816219572015-10-26T20:11:41.840+00:002015-10-26T20:11:41.840+00:00The weirdest thing about HoT is that it feels more...The weirdest thing about HoT is that it feels more like playing right after launch three years ago than almost any new content they have added between then and now. The new maps have that same feel of actual places where odd creatures live and go about their lives, something Southsun, Dry Top and Silverwastes never came close to replicating. Exploring them is enormously enjoyable.<br /><br />For all the fuss, getting the Elite Specs works very much the way getting all the original traits and skills worked. Those were all gated although the type of gate varied revamp by revamp. There were level and gold gates and Skill Point gates and the "go and do this thing in that map" gates but as far as I can recall you always had to do something. <br /><br />The problem here seems to be that the pre-release publicity failed to put that over to a lot of the people who bought HoT. That's a marketing error rather than a design one. It was clear to me but obviously not to everyone. I haven't even gotten around to starting on one Elite Spec yet and I've played almost non-stop since Friday evening. I'm happy to let the Hero points build up and get around to using them when the point bank is full.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-88869727626987554992015-10-26T19:59:15.076+00:002015-10-26T19:59:15.076+00:00As I said when they were first announced, Masterie...As I said when they were first announced, Masteries are what DBG would call AAs. AA stands for Alternate Advancement and they were invented to give players something semi-structured to chip away at as well as or instead of levels. It's a system I've always liked because it lets you do whatever you'd normally do and get interesting or useful abilities as a side-effect of doing it.<br /><br />To my mind the issue here is with players' expectations and preferences not game design. For me, Heart of Thorns works really well because I like to potter around doing whatever I feel like doing and yet I like to see substantive character progression while I'm doing it. From my perspective I have no need to "grind" anything - not Hero Points, Masteries or xp. I can just wander about exploring, do Hero Challenges, events, vistas and Mastery locations as and when I happen upon them and then spend the points on whatever looks interesting.<br /><br />I only looked at the Personal Story at all to see how enjoyable it might be and I've progressed a fair way through it because I found it both easy and entertaining. By contrast, after three years and seventeen Level 80 characters I have never finished the original Personal Story on anyone and many of them have never even started.<br /><br />As far as the Personal Story being locked behind a Mastery "grind", Mrs Bhagpuss didn't begin playing Heart of Thorns until late Saturday afternoon and as I write this she's on the final chapter (which is bugged apparently). It seems to me that a storyline that can be completed in one weekend's play can scarcely be said to be inaccessible. She soloed the whole thing too.<br /><br />That said, I wouldn't have made the Masteries a pre-requisite. As I said I'd have given the abilities temporarily in the instances that used them which would have solved the problem neatly I think. I'd also have difficulty options (Easy, Normal, Hard, Nightmare for example) on all instanced content and I'd have a "Skip Combat" option in addition to the existing "Skip Dialog" one. Give the customer the choice to tailor his or her own experience and get away from this "One size fits all" obsession, at least in non-competitive instanced content.<br /><br />As for the satisfied vs unsatisfied customers, who knows where the numbers fall on that? I'm enjoying it a lot, that's all I can say for sure.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-59027094751770229022015-10-26T18:57:06.969+00:002015-10-26T18:57:06.969+00:00Sorry this is a long one. Judging from the little...Sorry this is a long one. Judging from the little I have seen so far, HoT seems to be focused on giving players a sense of progression without an explicit character level involved as everyone stays at 80. In one of your previous articles, you mentioned that they were making a slow 180 towards a more traditional themepark game. It is already here. Instead of levelling your character, you are levelling masteries. That is Anet's version of the levelling grind and like every other themepark, it is gating content behind these masteries or compelling you to do specific content to obtain specific masteries. Instead of main story being level locked like FFXIV, it is content locked via masteries. That in my opinion is worse because in the latter I have to do specific content to advance versus having the freedom to decide how to level in the former.<br /><br />As I recall in old GW2, the grind was optional for legendaries and for achievements. Masteries is mandatory. So is getting specific gear for specific activities in GW2 such as raiding. The experience is much more guided and much more rigid in HoT vs GW2 vanilla. Players have a right to be upset as it is a significant change in the experience to my mind. As for the argument about slowly introducing people to skills and to make things more meaningful and satisfying, that is nonsense. There is nothing complex about the gameplay or concepts involved in GW2. It is most certainly filler to stretch the game's replayability. Gliding does not need a mastery. Get in the glider and use the controls to fly it. Done. <br /><br />As for the increased mob challenge, I actually welcome it. I thought PVE combat incredibly dull in GW2 despite the interesting skills. It was one of the big reasons I left two years ago. Another positve: the maps! A joy to explore spoiled only by some ridiculous immersion breaking gating.<br /><br />You mention that it may be true that far more people are enjoying HoT than complaining on the forums. Any marketing person worth his salt will tell you that for every customer that complains directly, there are far more that say not one word and simply shut their wallets to you in silence. I do not take the smooth launch as a good indicator of the expansion's interest. Time will tell.Adrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17377005509866420932noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-60927342901867064962015-10-26T18:54:37.546+00:002015-10-26T18:54:37.546+00:00I hate to sound like one of those embittered ex-fa...I hate to sound like one of those embittered ex-fans you always find online, but the more I read about HoT, the clearer it's becoming to me that GW2 has become almost completely divorced from everything that once attracted me to it.<br /><br />I had assumed elite specializations would be analogous to new classes or talent choices as they appear in other games. That is, they would be available immediately upon logging into the expansion, or at most require a nominal amount of leveling or equivalent content to unlock. That such a core expansion feature is apparently locked behind a fairly major grind is baffling to me. It wouldn't make sense for any game, but it makes especially little sense for a game that once prided itself on a casual and laidback attitude like GW2.<br /><br />Well, I'm glad I didn't fall for the initial hype and buy the expansion. Thankfully, I've got plenty of other games to occupy myself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com