Ever since Mario fought Bowser, having a 'boss' is not a new concept or a new game mechanic.
Raids are essentially 'boss' mechanic for MMOs.
GW1 had dedicated cosmetic gear chasers for endgame, it didn't appeal to me but I have a few friends that played quite a bit on it. It'll be interesting to see if GW2 will have those people again.
To the post above, unless the GW2 system drastically changed recently, certain classes benefits more from certain stats.
This means 'best in slot for class XYZ' will exists. Now you have a split playerbase with varying amounts of 'power'.
Unless GW2 does 'rubberband AI', it'll be interesting to see what happens next.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
in older days, being good raider meant few things, usually whole server knew you, you had bit more respect and new players looked up to you
it was never actually about gear, not for raider than enoyed raiding anyway, we needed gear so we can raid next tier, we didnt pvp much, apart when someone decided to take you on ( which there werent many because you were somewhat famous and usually better geared)
it was more about being exlusive and famous, that gear was just cosmetic +500 respect +500 anti pvp gank protection
now all that changed, everyone have raid gear, people barely know anyone on server , because of mass tranasfers and so on
and because when there is 50 skilled players which you can easily seprate , and when there is 500 in same gear, its far more complicated
maybe if it was cosmetic it would go back to its root, only raiders ( good ones ) that enjoyed raiding would have it, and that would make it more vip like, thought not sure about respect , everyone would just despise you because you are supposedly " no lifer " even if you work 10+ hours a day and play 1-2 hours a day..
in older days, being good raider meant few things, usually whole server knew you, you had bit more respect and new players looked up to you
it was never actually about gear, not for raider than enoyed raiding anyway, we needed gear so we can raid next tier, we didnt pvp much, apart when someone decided to take you on ( which there werent many because you were somewhat famous and usually better geared)
it was more about being exlusive and famous, that gear was just cosmetic +500 respect +500 anti pvp gank protection
now all that changed, everyone have raid gear, people barely know anyone on server , because of mass tranasfers and so on
and because when there is 50 skilled players which you can easily seprate , and when there is 500 in same gear, its far more complicated
maybe if it was cosmetic it would go back to its root, only raiders ( good ones ) that enjoyed raiding would have it, and that would make it more vip like, thought not sure about respect , everyone would just despise you because you are supposedly " no lifer " even if you work 10+ hours a day and play 1-2 hours a day..
The 'everyone has raid gear' is actually a success from a game designer point of view.
5% of the playerbase saw Naxx in WoW-Vanilla.
How much money/staff was put into that content? And then only to be seen by 5% of the playerbase? That's a failure.
Trying to stop people from experiencing the content makes no sense from a game designer point of view.
If I make something, why the heck would I want people to NOT see it?
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
in older days, being good raider meant few things, usually whole server knew you, you had bit more respect and new players looked up to you
it was never actually about gear, not for raider than enoyed raiding anyway, we needed gear so we can raid next tier, we didnt pvp much, apart when someone decided to take you on ( which there werent many because you were somewhat famous and usually better geared)
it was more about being exlusive and famous, that gear was just cosmetic +500 respect +500 anti pvp gank protection
now all that changed, everyone have raid gear, people barely know anyone on server , because of mass tranasfers and so on
and because when there is 50 skilled players which you can easily seprate , and when there is 500 in same gear, its far more complicated
maybe if it was cosmetic it would go back to its root, only raiders ( good ones ) that enjoyed raiding would have it, and that would make it more vip like, thought not sure about respect , everyone would just despise you because you are supposedly " no lifer " even if you work 10+ hours a day and play 1-2 hours a day..
The 'everyone has raid gear' is actually a success from a game designer point of view.
5% of the playerbase saw Naxx in WoW-Vanilla.
How much money/staff was put into that content? And then only to be seen by 5% of the playerbase? That's a failure.
Trying to stop people from experiencing the content makes no sense from a game designer point of view.
If I make something, why the heck would I want people to NOT see it?
agreed with this one. cosmetic rewars on where the game is focused realm vs realm.
"Raiders" have enough gear progression raid centric games they dont want to play (WoW/LOTRO/Rift/SWTOR...). Lets GW2 not become one of those games....noone wants to really play in endgame and has 30% retention rate like those games.
I specifically am looking forward to GW2 because it will be different than the other games, it has its own version of Raiding and I would like to enjoy that
- Duke Suraknar - Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
If WoW proved anything during its lifetime it is that majority of the playerbase wants to 'raid'.
During Wrath, 50%+ of the playerbase went to a raid instance. That's a fact.
Content is there to be 'consumed' and if the playerbase gravitates one area of content, it is smart business to expand that area.
That is not a fact. Blizzard themselves revealed in a fanfaire after the release of Lich King, that all along, no more than 20% of the player base participates in raiding. It's why they started putting more emphasis on solo / small group content afterwards. People were finally starting to pitch a fit with the constant focus on raid content and raid only rewards. That's also the time period that hardcores started throwing around the term "welfare epics" because Blizzard was trying to give normal gamers and PvPers equitable gear through other methods than raiding.
I have nothing against providing fun challenging (instanced) content for groups larger than 5 people, that only offers cosmetic rewards. So I guess that's a yes.
That's the crux of the problem though. Just like cash shops, once you start down that road, sooner or later that fluff stuff is no longer just fluff, but game changing.
I have nothing against providing fun challenging (instanced) content for groups larger than 5 people, that only offers cosmetic rewards. So I guess that's a yes.
That's the crux of the problem though. Just like cash shops, once you start down that road, sooner or later that fluff stuff is no longer just fluff, but game changing.
Not neccesarily, adding a dungeon or 2 for 2 groups similar to Vizunah square in Factions is OK, It never made GW1 a gear focused game.
But traditional raids is another matter, a Co op dungeon for 2 groups which start by themselves to meet up somewhere before the endboss is not really a traditional raid.
Comments
Ever since Mario fought Bowser, having a 'boss' is not a new concept or a new game mechanic.
Raids are essentially 'boss' mechanic for MMOs.
GW1 had dedicated cosmetic gear chasers for endgame, it didn't appeal to me but I have a few friends that played quite a bit on it. It'll be interesting to see if GW2 will have those people again.
To the post above, unless the GW2 system drastically changed recently, certain classes benefits more from certain stats.
This means 'best in slot for class XYZ' will exists. Now you have a split playerbase with varying amounts of 'power'.
Unless GW2 does 'rubberband AI', it'll be interesting to see what happens next.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
in older days, being good raider meant few things, usually whole server knew you, you had bit more respect and new players looked up to you
it was never actually about gear, not for raider than enoyed raiding anyway, we needed gear so we can raid next tier, we didnt pvp much, apart when someone decided to take you on ( which there werent many because you were somewhat famous and usually better geared)
it was more about being exlusive and famous, that gear was just cosmetic +500 respect +500 anti pvp gank protection
now all that changed, everyone have raid gear, people barely know anyone on server , because of mass tranasfers and so on
and because when there is 50 skilled players which you can easily seprate , and when there is 500 in same gear, its far more complicated
maybe if it was cosmetic it would go back to its root, only raiders ( good ones ) that enjoyed raiding would have it, and that would make it more vip like, thought not sure about respect , everyone would just despise you because you are supposedly " no lifer " even if you work 10+ hours a day and play 1-2 hours a day..
The 'everyone has raid gear' is actually a success from a game designer point of view.
5% of the playerbase saw Naxx in WoW-Vanilla.
How much money/staff was put into that content? And then only to be seen by 5% of the playerbase? That's a failure.
Trying to stop people from experiencing the content makes no sense from a game designer point of view.
If I make something, why the heck would I want people to NOT see it?
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
agreed with this one. cosmetic rewars on where the game is focused realm vs realm.
It'll be interesting if GW2's 'cosmetic gear only' progression system works for ANet like it did in GW1.
I personally do not find that appealing but that's just me.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I like to eat my carrot instead of contantly chasing it.
"Raiders" have enough gear progression raid centric games they dont want to play (WoW/LOTRO/Rift/SWTOR...). Lets GW2 not become one of those games....noone wants to really play in endgame and has 30% retention rate like those games.
No,
I specifically am looking forward to GW2 because it will be different than the other games, it has its own version of Raiding and I would like to enjoy that
Order of the Silver Star, OSS
ESKA, Playing MMORPG's since Ultima Online 1997 - Order of the Silver Serpent, Atlantic Shard
That is not a fact. Blizzard themselves revealed in a fanfaire after the release of Lich King, that all along, no more than 20% of the player base participates in raiding. It's why they started putting more emphasis on solo / small group content afterwards. People were finally starting to pitch a fit with the constant focus on raid content and raid only rewards. That's also the time period that hardcores started throwing around the term "welfare epics" because Blizzard was trying to give normal gamers and PvPers equitable gear through other methods than raiding.
That's the crux of the problem though. Just like cash shops, once you start down that road, sooner or later that fluff stuff is no longer just fluff, but game changing.
Not neccesarily, adding a dungeon or 2 for 2 groups similar to Vizunah square in Factions is OK, It never made GW1 a gear focused game.
But traditional raids is another matter, a Co op dungeon for 2 groups which start by themselves to meet up somewhere before the endboss is not really a traditional raid.