Posts by BJWyler

    Hey all, I was just wondering if anyone sponsors districts for the Canthan New Year event any more. I'm working tomorrow and was wondering if it was worth parking characters in a district for the finale, or just not bother because no one really attempts to help complete the dishes any more.

    Thanks!

    A couple of months ago, I was farming Altrumm Ruins and Zos Shivros channel for some faction points. I know of the afk glitch you can take advantage of in Zos, but was curious to know how some people are able to score so high in Altrumm. Just this month the high is 500 points. The best I can usually do, if the boss respawns are quick enough for me, is the 310's to 320's. I am using one of the party metabuilds I saw in a couple of guides, but can't seem to do much better than the 300's - and only if I am not waiting for a boss to respawn.

    I was just wondering if there are glitches or better strategies to use in order to up that score a bit on a regular basis.

    Thanks!

    Howdy all,

    I'm looking for some help (as in someone carry me mightily) in getting the Amatz Basin challenge to 100. I've attempted it a handful of time with a hero group set up I saw on the wiki, but cannot keep myself alive long enough in the mission. If anyone could lend a hand in helping me get a run to 100, it would be greatly appreciated. Let me know what I need to do. I am out of work for the next couple of weeks, due to health, so scheduling should be fairly open.

    Thanks all!

    BJWyler

    First off, heroes were introduced only for the sole reason that gw1 was loosing players. It has nothing to do with back to the classic days of RPG. GW1 isnt a RPG. from the very start to the start of when gw2 was released no one had any problems with getting players to do stuff together, like vanqing,missions,elite areas, not stupid cons until NF was released either.

    Uhmm, that's incorrect. GW was not losing players when Nightfall released. It was peaking at that time, and continued to host a healthy population through Eye of the North. True they didn't do it in the spirit of the classic RPG, but it nonetheless helped those who played those games recapture the feeling. Arenanet took the bold step of introducing the Henchmen system into their MMO. They did so specifically so that people could use these NPC characters in lieu of real people, not only to round out groups, but to make being able to go out and explore and play the game a whole lot faster. The heroes came about because people who made use of the henchman had been asking for an upgrade to the system for the year and a half the game had been out. So Arenanet provided that to them, and then later enhanced it with the mercenary heroes.

    MMORPG, or in the case of GW COOP-RPG as Arenanet called it. So yes, it very much is a Role-playing Game. To this very day, I see plenty of people still forming groups and even getting some PvP action going in Fort Aspenwood and Jade Quarry.

    Gw1 isnt made for solo play, People only care for meta builds nowadays and they don't care to accept players because heroes are more reliable than human players and they want to only gw with the most OP heroes so they can breeze through gw1 without any resistance.

    Guild Wars as made as a cooperative MMO. They designed it with group play in mind, but again, the henchman allowed for solo play in many areas. Certainly not as efficient as a full human party, but the bulk of the game allowed for complete solo play if one desired.

    I got news for you - people have always cared about meta builds. Heroes have nothing to do with that. It's existent in any and every MMO out there. Henchmen and Heroes are still no substitute for a full human party. They literally cannot be more powerful than a full group of humans based on their design. So a full group of 8 humans of at least average skill level will always outperform 1 human of the same skill level and 7 heroes.


    Heroes were never a thing at the beginning of gw so its laughable that you point to a concept of why NPC helpers were created in MMO's.

    And lastly a designed mmo with defined roles so grouping has to be a thing to get stuff done is necessary, and I have never looked at gw1 grouping up is a forced thing. If you do feel that way,you should play something else than gw,go play gw2 instead or other casual noob friendly mmo's

    Heroes were not a thing at the beginning, but henchmen were, and I explained why. And that is also why many MMOs began to use similar systems in their games, like SWTOR, Neverwinter, and Everquest. I never felt that grouping was a forced thing in GW either, precisely because of the Henchmen and Heroes. In fact that system and the lack of a monthly sub were the two primary reasons I bought the game in the first place. Socialization is part and parcel of the MMO experience. The best MMOs give players a wide variety on how to socialize. Grouping is but one of those ways. Previously, in the early days, it was necessary to group with people to progress through content. However, as time has gone on, the industry has matured and the games reflect the paradigm shifts that come with that. Solo play is very much part and parcel of MMOs, as it should be, so that players can choose how and when to be social in their MMO.

    If that's something you dislike, then perhaps you should look to play one of those older games that still have a reliance on forced grouping. There are still several out there.

    My disappointment with GW2 began long before the release. I was initially hyped for the game when first announced, but the more Anet talked, the more I started to lose faith that it would be anything I would find enjoyable compared to GW1. It started when the HoM went from being a way for us to transfer our stuff and accomplishments to the new game to something that was pretty much a grind fest for a limited number of things that could be completed within 2 months by a noob. And the stuff we were getting in GW2 was completely unrelated to the stuff we were putting into the HoM.

    Then they came out with the Manifesto. And proceeded to fail at pretty much everything they were claiming the Manifesto would bring. And there was Colin claiming that everything we loved about GW1 was being brought over to GW2 - except: instanced zones, certain professions, henchmen and heroes, a deep and varied skill system, dual professions, etc. And finally for me, was the Engineer. The "anti-magic" class whose weaponary miraculously imitated magic weapons in function in every way. I still remember the day they released the video for Glue Shot I believe it was called. I called it the Snot Gun from that day forward in the classic forums and on that day, I checked out of GW2 permanently.

    I don't think GW3 would be a bad idea if it were a modernized version of GW1 (but without asinine jumping puzzles. This is not a platformer genre. If you want platforming, go play Mario Bros). Sadly, I don't think the team today is capable of bringing that to fruition. A lot of people have mixed feelings about Nightfall, but I think GW1 really hit its stride in many areas with it.

    Mission design was probably the best there out of the three games, and making those areas explorable outside of the mission was a boon. The advent of heroes was a boon to those looking to get back to the classic days of RPGs when you could form a full party of characters that you set up the way you want - Merc heroes being even better as they were skinned as your own characters. I know a lot of people look down on heroes, but they made the game playable for a great many of us who preferred to solo content, or couldn't play during prime time hours. To take them away would be completely antithesis to the concept of why NPC helpers were created in MMOs in the first place. Without them, or putting limits on them would require any content to scale according to the group size to allow for solo play. This is the 21st Century, forced grouping is a concept that has gratefully gone by the wayside.

    Forget is pretty much spot on. I don't think most devs on the team now would even know GW1 existed if it weren't for the "2" on the current game. I remember someone was going to interview one of the devs years ago, but the dev backed out once they learned a lot of questions would be about GW1 because they knew nothing about the game. Bill and Stephen were the last two on the team who could do anything with GW1, I believe, and now they've been gone for a while as well.

    The December 2004 beta weekend. I had a crappy old laptop that could barely run 3d games, but I still managed to create my first character and get into the game. Still have that old monk (recreated for launch of course). Bought a second account shortly after launch. Over 12k hours on both.

    I'd say it's more than paying attention and decent builds. There's definitely a lot of strategy, patience, and nerve involved. I specifically chose a Ranger for this task because of their ability to effectively solo farm, being ranged and less prone to dying from melee, and having +30 vs elemental on all armors. Farming the materials, nick sets, and consumables, especially during events that only occur once a year, takes a lot of patience. And finally, the fear of failure (dying) keeps the player on edge no matter the task. The further the progression, the greater the defeat. We aren't talking about spending a week on something and dying here. This is months to a year of daily work that disappears with one wrong move.

    That is true.

    i highly doubt that the small developer team that is left for gw1 will do that.

    Since the two guys who were doing some work on GW a few years ago (Stephen and Bill!) left the studio, I don't think they have anyone dedicated to GW. They just have a few of the GW2 crew do stuff when its necessary.

    Don't just naysay, do it! Whats the worst that can happen first of all, and secondly it only takes 5 min away from gw time in hopes to bring alot more life to gw

    As indicated this has been tried before. It's not going to go anywhere. Sure we don't lose anything by sending e-mails, but pointless task is still pointless and it's 2 minutes best spent on something else worthwhile in life.

    To be perfectly honest, and to reiterate what I stated in the previous discussion surrounding this topic (New campaign for Guild Wars 1, we can make it happen if there is a will.), I don't want the current ArenaNet doing anything with this game. The crew who built GW2 is not the same crew who built GW, and many of the current team have no idea how to work the code for this game, as I understand it. There are two different philosophies for these two games, and I certainly don't want GW becoming remotely like GW2, which is bound to happen if they re-activate development on the game without any of the original crew who was there in 2005 through 2007.

    The best bet is for NCSoft to release the code and put it in the hands of a dedicated community team who has the ability to continue development. Not unlike what happened with Pirates of the Burning Sea, and the rogue server for City of Heroes (which is negotiating with NCSoft for official status). That would be a worthwhile venture. Quite frankly, if a community team formed and set up a rogue server for Guild Wars to show ArenaNet and NCSoft that they could handle running and developing the game, we might actually get some traction on that front.

    I'm very impressed by this. How were you able to survive for so long? What kind of escape plan or preventative measures did you have for yourself in case of an emergency? Just the fact that you got Legendary Survivor like this is impressive. You should not retire the character and continue as Iron Gwamm, as there are still many challenges that will present themselves, maybe even try for 50/50 HoM as an Iron-player.

    It's really just a matter of paying attention and having decent hero builds. There's only a few areas that pose a real danger. I, myself, have a 0 death character that I am wrapping up EotN with and simply played through each campaign as normal. In fact, when I originally started, I got through to the final Prophecies mission before I got careless and ran him too far just to clear some fog and he died. At that point he was about a year old (playing only casually and not daily as I had in the early going). I ended up deleting him and recreating to start all over again. That was a few years ago now.

    I've always kind of played this way. I remember having a Necro I got to some point in Kryta I think before he died for the first time. And this was back before Factions even released - the good ole days.

    That's pretty much why they removed the unlocked chests and such and went with the key system. People (and RMTs) were farming the heck of the things. I think the only unlocked stuff you find now (if not related to a quest) is in Pre-Searing Ascalon and the Hidden Treasures, et al. in Nightfall.

    I like this idea. I do miss popping into those arenas back in the day as I was leveling. I think this could be expanded to the Factions and Nightfall arenas as well, though of course that requires starting new characters in those campaigns, but they should be a lot quicker and easier to do than in Prophecies. It also gives the added bonus of being able to explore those arenas for cartographer. They're not necessary to complete the titles, but it would be nice for us completionists to get every little bit of fog lifted from the map.

    One other note about the bonus items. You can create multiple copies of each item on each character by putting the item you want either in your Xunlai storage or equip on a hero.

    As noted, however, they are still customized to that character and cannot be traded to other characters.

    I'm with Jayson on this one. Every gaming community is going to have a bad group of people. I play a lot of MMOs and multiplayer games, and some of them can be quite toxic. I assure you, in every single one of them, people are still called noobs on a regular basis.

    This community was no different back in the day, and now it is rife with bots and still the occasional RMT. But overall, in all these years, I can say that the GW community has been one of the least toxic that I have seen. Your experience is more the exception and not the rule.

    Ah, let me jump in here too.

    1) It appears to have been initiated via the cauldren in the Northlands. That's pretty much what you see in the cinematic before entering Post-searing. It was either a suicide mission on the part of the Chair, or it was possible that they didn't anticipate the strength of the magic they were using and we're caught by surprise.

    2) I think the concept is that the ancient magic if the Dragons transformed much of the land. From a practical standpoint, this allows ArenaNet to re-create Tyria in the new game engine, but also explain away the differences. In terms if the man-made objects, like the statue, they can just simply have been rebuilt or what have you during that span of time.

    3) You can throw science out if the window. When dealing with a fantasy realm where magic is not only possible, but normal, then magic can explain why anything happens or looks the way it does.

    What Gentleman said. G2A has been found to be pretty shady at best. To be honest with you. I would avoid any and all third party key code sites, unless they have a proven track record like humble bundle. Most if the time these third party sites don't have any realation with the game devs of the keys they are selling, so the devs never see a dime of the money from those keys.

    My advice? Always by from a dev store. You may pay more, but at least the devs get an honest buck for their work.

    Unfortunately, PvP died off after GW went into maintenance mode while the team worked on GW2. There have always been bots, but they seem worse now since we have fewer people to drown them out.

    As Smexy said, there is a group that organizes FA battles every weekend, and AB battles during the bonus times. They'll also do JQ on occasion during a bonus time or for the Z quest.

    At this point, for anything else, our best bet is just to try to get a group of players organized to play together in the other arenas - enough to fill out both teams.

    Back in my day:

    A Necro in a group could actually exploit the corpse of the group's Beastmaster pet.

    In order to cap an elite skill, you had to do it while the boss was activating the skill.

    When you took a character from Pre to Post, you actually had an opportunity to play the PvP part of the mission (and get some nice exploration done of the area behind the combat arena).

    In order to reach Level 20 in Pre, you had to Death level in the Northlands.

    That's the thing, isn't it? We can all sit around the campfire singing Kumbaiya and High Hopes, but at the end of the night, all that gets us is a bunch of burnt marshmallows.

    We talk about using this poll to see whether it is worth the effort or not to pursue this thing any further. But what does that really mean? What's the magic number, and why is it that number? Either this is a thing worth pursuing or not. Since most of us would like to see GW1 return to active development, then for me it is worth pursuing. What is the stumbling after that? The financials.

    So, in that case, are there enough players to support the costs of starting up development again. Many of us already touched upon that subject, and why it is not a simple yes or no question.

    Let's make it simple.

    GW went into maintenance mode a decade ago. That's 10 years of players hoping and asking for more content. How many players do we have today? I'm willing to estimate that our active playerbase is about 10,000 players. I'm also willing to bet that CoH had a lot more than that when it was shut down, and it was still an active game.

    In order for this to get any traction, we would need every single one of those 10k players to buy into the cost of new content, just to have any hope of covering just the cost of a small expansion. Does anyone here REALISTICALLY think that is going to happen?

    As much as I want it to, I just don't see it happening.

    It would be nice to see all those pre order items and other limited edition items be released into the game, either via the store or through a quest ( like the PC Gamer mini pet one I did oh so long ago). I am still missing the Chimeric Prism from the EU pre-order.

    It would also be nice to have those items' stats bumped up to max, so we can use them on our max level characters.

    I believe what others said may be correct. Since GW uses a live update system, a lot of stuff gets downloaded in the background while the game is active, and when you access an area for the first time.

    IIRC, you need a max level character in order to access and play through the EotN content.

    On another note, official support ended for GW some time ago. I don't think they answer any tickets related to GW1 any more. At one point, the only way to resolve an issue was through an official forum space, but that ended several years ago as well.

    The problem here is that some may want to see this poll as a simple yes or no answer, but it's not that simple. I explained that in my previous post and others in this very thread have shown why it is not a simple yes or no answer.

    Like I said, ANet already knows there is overwhelming support for seeing development return to GW1. This poll tells them nothing they don't already know. Whether NCSoft knows how much support there is to have development return to GW1 is irrelevant. Again, as I pointed out - there was overwhelming support to keep City of Heroes from shutting down. Yet it was shuttered, despite being a profitable game.

    Showing NCSoft a petition with 1,000, 10,000, or a million signatures on it is not going to make one iota of difference without money to back it up. I have yet to see anyone here claim to have the funds necessary to cover the expense that it will cost to restart development on GW1. Until that happens, you can have as many petitions as you want with as many signatures. They still aren't worth the dirt under my feet. NCSoft doesn't care about names, they care about money. The promise of money based off some names on a petition are as good to them as a candle in the wind. As Cuba Gooding, Jr. once said "Show me the money!"

    Do I want to see development begin again for GW1? Yes.

    Am I willing to shell out $40 or $50 for new campaigns and expansions? Nope. Not until I know who will be on the team and their roadmap for said content.

    Am I going to spend $40 or $50 on that content if it is produced by the current ANet team? That's a resounding HELL NO!

    You can have my name on some petition voting yes for new content, but neither NCSoft nor ArenaNet is going to see a dime of my money until they prove that whatever content is produced is going to be the content that deserves the GW1 label and fits with the game. So while some people may want see this as a distraction and irrelevant to the question, it's going to be one of the overriding issues that NCSoft is looking at. I'm sorry, but I see it as the most relevant factor in the poll question because that will determine whether certain people will actually support said content.

    In all reality, if we really want to make a statement and see where the rubber meets the road, we need to start a GoFundMe page and see how many people are actually willing to pony up the cash for new content for this game. Like I said, you can have my name on a petition in support of new content, but you sure as heck won't see me open my wallet until I see what I am paying for.

    OK, so we have two things to consider here. Let me start with the easier one first.

    To put it bluntly, a petition of this nature doesn't really mean Jack Squat. It doesn't matter if you have 1000 signatures at the end, or 10,000. It is nothing more than a bunch of names on a virtual piece of paper. Arenanet already knows there is keen interest from the dedicated GW1 playerbase for seeing new content in the game. They have known that for years. Nothing will be done unless it is approved and has the backing of NCSoft. I don't think I need to remind anyone that petitions (and a whole lot more) did nothing to save City of Heroes. Regardless, if we want to see hope of new content being produced for GW1, it is going to require convincing NCSoft that it is the profitable thing to do. Your best bet is to get in contact with them and find out exactly what it would take for them to provide the go ahead for ANet to dedicate time, manpower, money, and resources into developing new content for GW1. However, I don't think for a minute you would get your foot in the door without something to bring to the table aside from a petition with a bunch of names on it. Let me explain why.

    Back during the turn of the Century, I was a manager at a bowling center that also had an attached bar and grille. We were planning a huge celebration for the New Year (2001 of course!). People could reserve packages that included bowling, food, and drink, and party the night away in style. However, during the planning stages, a lot of our regulars started in inquire about merchandise - hats in particular. They suggested we get hats made up for the event. Myself and the center owner considered the proposition and thought it might be a good thing to do since there seemed to be interest in it. However, that would require a big up front cost on our parts to get the hats produced. So I created a petition for people sign asking if they would be interested in purchasing one of these hats for a nominal cost (they would have been priced just above our cost to have them produced, so we wouldn't really be making a whole lot on the sale). We ended up with over 200 people signing the petition saying they would be interested in buying the hats if they were available. Now, again, since this would be a big out of pocket expense for us to get these things produced, we decided to do a trial run first, and only ordered a batch of 50 hats. If they sold well, we would get the rest of them produced. As it turns out, despite all those names committing to buying one of the hats, we sold a total whopping of 13. One of which I purchased for myself.

    NCSoft won't give you the time of day if all you can bring to the table is a petition and a Guild Wars 1 fanboy smile. To have any hope of getting them the least bit interested in this project, it would require an investment group coming to the table with a good looking bank statement and a business plan for how this content is going to be produced, and the long term plans and goals for the team and the game. Maybe Stephen and Bill can help get the ball rolling on ANet's side of things and bring this petition and proposal to Mike O'Brien, who can then broach the subject with his NCSoft contacts, but I really don't see this getting anywhere with NCSoft without a big fat check to back it up.

    Now remember, I said that was the easy part of this equation. The tough part is the creative aspect of the project. For that, let me highlight some things from your post above:

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    It is well known that the second generation of anything is always better than the first.

    This is just me nitpicking, but I couldn't resist: this statement couldn't be further from the truth. There are myriads of examples where a follow-up product was vastly inferior to its predecessor. Heck most of us here think that with Guild Wars 2.

    Quote

    Also from a artistic prespective, why would we not want new ones? We do not want another NF/Fac or EOTN but new works of art. Sometimes, the previous artists are very versatile and imagine new things and make them completely different from the previous ones. So if we get the old artists of GW1 who want and can contribute towards this, well and good and if not, new ones can be hired.

    We're not talking about artistic style here. Of course we would want any new content to have a look unique to that content, but still be the familiar Guild Wars that we all know and love. Each of the three campaigns and expansion have that, so that's not the issue. The real issue here is one of design and mechanics.

    We had new people coming to ANet with new ideas and talent from 2006 to 2012. What we got as a result of that is Guild Wars 2. Why would we not want new people to come in and work on the new GW1 content - that's your answer. It's true that we don't need one single person from the ANet of 2000-2006, but unless we get people who are going to hold true to the designs and ideas of that original team, what we will get will be no different (and perhaps no better) than what the team brought to us with Guild Wars 2.

    I feel the same way about the Star Trek movie reboots and the latest installment of the Star Wars franchise. For me, the movies produced by JJ and Rian are absolutely terrible when compared to the core products that spawned them. Why? Because for me, they hold nothing of what made the originals great and spawned such a massive following. The Trek reboots and Last Jedi are nothing more than a generic sci-fi product with a famous IP attached to it. They may be entertaining movies in their own right, but they are soulless husks when it comes to the IP they are supposed to represent.

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    EXAMPLE: Do not view this as a task where the original person is no more so it cant be done again. This is not a painting made by Pablo Picasso. It was a collective effort of many individuals working as a team which was never static. Dynamic team is always way better than a static one in any case. If you are made to believe that this simply not possible because the original team is no longer their, then that is simply not true and nothing more than a distracting comment. These are just generic replies that any one would make in this case.

    In all reality, we really are talking about a Picasso. or a Van Gogh, a Da Vinci, or a Monet, or a Rembrandt. Games are in all reality a work of art. As such, the enjoyment one receives from a game is going to be varied and a purely individual thing. There can be no doubt that the people I just mentioned are considered greats in the world of Art. But that doesn't mean that their artwork is universally liked or appreciated. Each individual person is going to have their own likes and dislikes regarding a work of art. Games are no different. For me Guild Wars 2 is not a bad game. It's pretty solid and a very good effort put forth from a talented developer. However, in the context of a Guild Wars game, it is nothing that I have any interest in playing whatsoever, and find the original a much superior and enjoyable product.

    We will never see another original Picasso made. There can be some artist out there who can mimic Picasso's style and produce a lovely piece of art in its own right, but any fan of Picasso will always see it as a cheap knock-off that is inferior to any work produced by the original master. This is what many people here are talking about when there are hesitations made about having anyone on the current ANet team produce new content for our game, and even if we bring in yet more people, those fears can still be justified. Any new team may be able to reproduce the look and feel of the Guild Wars we all know and love, but at the end of the day, if it just turns out to be a soulless clone, what good is it?

    This is not a distracting or generic comment, but it is the very core of the issue we are talking about. That's why this part is vastly more difficult to address than the financial one with NCSoft. Money and numbers are easy. Getting people to do right by Guild Wars 1 and us fans is going to be an infinitely more difficult process, and one that cannot be understated or underestimated.

    As a certified PC technician, I can guarantee that there are a bunch of people at ANet that would jump at the chance to play around with the old code, just like I enjoy playing around with old PC's and Apple machines from the 80's and Operating Systems going all the way back to the DOS days. It's just plain fun to muck around with the classic stuff. That's not going to be the issue. Getting them, or someone new up to speed and really understanding what the code of GW1 is like and all the nuances and limitations in the code is going to be a time-consuming process. But at the end of the day, no matter how talented they are, or the talent of any new people that might be brought into the project, it doesn't mean Jack Squat if they don't understand what makes GW1 the Guild Wars we love.

    Exactly my point. Why not??? The great question. This should have never happened in the first place and both models of GW1 and 2 could have run simultaneously. Sadly, we as fans were sleeping back then and obviously intrigued to try GW2 out before realizing that GW1 would slowly fade away.

    It is never to late I guess to try :)

    I don't think anyone was caught sleeping. We pretty much knew full well what was going on and going to happen after the first meaty bit of news about GW2 came out. It was clear the new game was going to be the focus, and GW1 was going into maintenance mode. The team was going to try to get the Nightfall chapter of Beyond complete, as well as more story for Mad King, but they said it was not a guarantee to be done.

    Most of the fanbase was excited for the new game and was looking forward to it. That is until we learned more about it, and ANet released that infamous Manifesto.

    I voted yes because I certainly want to see new content for the game, and see the ideas the team had in mind and early production, before GW2, realized.

    However, I have to agree with Ghost and Cosy. The ANet of today is nothing like the ANet that created this game, and hasn't been since shortly after Nightfall. Any attempt by the team to do anything with GW1 would turn into an unmitigated disaster.

    Quite frankly, I would just rather see the game ported to an offline single player mode so that we can continue to enjoy it after the servers are shut down. But I don't see that happening either. At best, we can only hope a team of fans can pull together an emulator to keep the game alive and maybe see more content in the future.

    It's a toss up for me between Proph and NF. The latter finally gave me the party based exploring that I was looking for since the classic Wizardry days with the Advent of heroes. The former had that vast and open exploration that I love.

    My fav place in Proph to hang out is Beacon's perch. Kodash is my spot of choice in NF.

    Not really fond of Factions because of the smaller and locked off feeling of the world, and the overall look of the areas do not appeal to me at all, except for Shing Jea and a couple parts of the Jade Sea. Don't even have a favorite hang out spot there.

    That was some stuff. To be fair, both Jessica and Peter had valid points in terms of game development and "working conditions" in the industry. Quite frankly many of the responses from the playerbase, especially in reddit were completely uncalled for - and one of the reasons why I avoid reddit like the plague. It's an unfortunate incident that only enforces a lot of the negativity that surrounds the gaming community as a whole.

    That being said, Jessica was completely in the wrong in how she handled the incident, and some of her comments certainly deserved the outcome that she received. I can understand her frustrations, but at the end of the day, in this 21st Century age of technology and social media, I find there are still a lot of people who completely miss the mark on how it works in the real world. And it is especially critical in an industry like this one where interaction with your customers is critical to success or failure. Nobody likes being told how to do their job by someone who really doesn't have good working knowledge of such - it has happened to me several times throughout my adult life, so it's not a gaming thing or a gender thing. And no, the customer isn't always right. But there is always a right way and a wrong way of handling that situation, and Jessica most certainly took the wrong way.

    I'm with Jayson on this one. Not exactly sure what kind of benefit this would ultimately have over just equalizing the economy for a period of time. I'm a collector, to me it seems easy enough to farm for the wealth we need right now. If anything, I would like to see Anet release some of those harder to find collectibles to the store or add them as trade-ins for holiday tokens or some such - especially the ones that were "lost" in the old account ban waves.

    I started new characters in each of the campaigns for a video series to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary and do a "video diary" of the content for prosperity. You can't really recapture that "newness" feeling like the old days, but it has been an enjoyable adventure for me and I haven't needed to really send these adventure characters any gold or items in all this time, and they have been relegated to their own campaign - so no cross-campaign skills. It's been a great way to experience the content again, and remember things I forgot long ago. That's always been the draw for me outside of my hording/collecting OCD.

    There are still plenty of people out there who like grouping up and doing content together - I think our little community here is example of that.

    This idea reminds me of something a player in the Defiance forums said in relation to the updated version of the game releasing next week. He is a relatively new PvP player, and was upset that he wasn't as competitive as the vets who have been playing the game for the last 5 years. Obviously skill and the ability to use 5 years worth of item upgrades and such have something to do with that. He sees the "resetting" of the playerbase with the updated version as a way to equalize that.

    My response was that it's not really going to do what he thinks it's going to do. One of his complaints was getting one-shot in a lot of matches by max level peeps. I told him that resetting the playerbase isn't going to change that. The core PvP people are going to focus on doing what they need to do to get back to their current position as quickly as possible. Sure at launch time and for about a week thereafter, there will be that normalization of everyone, but by the end of the week, people are going to get one-shot again.

    I see the same thing here. The normalization of the market is only going to last until the farmers and bots get underway again. At the end of the day, we'll still be right where we are right now. Maybe even worse off because the playerbase is so small now compared to GW during it's heyday. It's the problem with player-driven economies. Something will always be out of the reach of a group of players. The only way to achieve a truly fair and equal economy is to have it system run with all items available at vendors for a set price determined by the desired rarity of any particular item.