Curse

winkgood · Dec 20, 2006, 02:29 AM // 02:29

In the last couple hours, I read one of the longest, but best posts ever with this title. So I click on page 2 to see what other responses there were and poof, it doesn't exist anymore. Where has the thread gone? If it was deleted, please explain why. Its not often that I read a thread that really hits home for me and this was one of the few. If anyone managed to copy and paste the original post, please PM me with it. Thanks in advance.

arcanemacabre · Dec 20, 2006, 02:33 AM // 02:33

I'm baffled as well. Shortly after I replied with (IMO) a well thought-out response - Bam, gone. I smell shinanigans!

bart · Dec 20, 2006, 02:35 AM // 02:35

Hey all......

Some of you probably notice that I am not on as often as I have been in the past.

Part of this is because it is the Holiday season, and in addition to shopping it seems everyone I know wants to go out for lunch, dinner or drinks all the time......

The larger portion of the reason however has nothing to do with the holidays.........

It has instead to do with Guild Wars itself.

For me, the real "joy" of an online game like this is developing my characters.

Developing a character means more to me than simply capping a bunch of elite's and getting max armor and weapons. I want them to be pimp.

In most games of this type, there is a far greater diversity to the weapons and items one can find. The whole max damage/max mods/max bonus / Low Req thing really never excited me much. It always seems a little silly to spend the time and effort needed saving huge amounts (often more than a million) of gold to buy an item with a skin I wanted; when someone who started the game 5 minutes ago could go to a collector and get one with the same damage and bonus for 5 piles of troll poop.

Still, when all was said and done, I was satisfied with the system. It felt really good to have 15^50% Req 8 20/20 +30 Zodiac Swords and Fellblades and Golden Phoenix Blades and Stormbows and Chaos Axes etc etc in my box. They may not have been that much more powerful than the stuff you got from the collectors and crafters, but they were things that others sought. They were things that not everyone had or could make. They were things that required a lot of work to afford and obtain. They were things I could be proud of.

The new system ensures that nothing is truly rare.

In the past the chances of an item having a low Req AND a desirable bonus (15^50% being my favorite) was very limited. If you look at all the possible (vs. hexed, in stance, while enchanted, under 50%, over 50% etc etc) and then consider the range (10%- 15% while enchanted, 10-20% while health under 50% etc etc) There were a lot of possibilities! The likelihood of getting a weapon with the perfect bonus you wanted a low Req and a desirable skin was pretty low. That ensured that the value of million dollar items stayed high. This not only ensured that they stayed out of the hands of newer players who hadn't yet figured out the economy........

It also gave senior players something to strive for.

The new system is nothing like this. Now you can instantly tell by the Req of a weapon whether it is good or not, you don't even have to ID them anymore to know how good they are. The Req is the only true factor in determining the quality of an inscribable weapon. If it is Req 9 it is as good as it gets.

In the past if I were fortunate enough to receive a Req 8 gold weapon, I would get pretty excited about it. I would usually keep it in my storage for a while before ID'ing it. Sometimes I would sell it unid'd for a heap of cash. The ones I did keep however, I would save for awhile, so I could savor the ID'ing process.

It would bum me out when most of them turned out to be crap, but on those rare occasions that I got something awesome, the "HUZZAH" feeling way overshadowed the ones that got away.

Now there is no huzzah feeling. If a weapon with a skin you like falls you can slap any bonus you want onto it for a paltry 5k. If a weapon with a skin you want doesn't fall you can go buy pretty much any skin you want for 10k. In other words ANYONE can afford ANYTHING after a very short amount of playtime. NOTHING is rare. NOTHING is valuable.

I did, and still do, like the idea of not being able to fail salvage on a mod. Had this been the only major revamp given to the weapon system I think things would be working better. The fact that you can't fail salvage on a +30 sword pommel means that there is a far, far greater supply of them on the market than in previous campaigns. This of course means they are worth far less, and much easier to find.

Before the nauseating Halloween 2006 update +30 sword pommels went for around 100k and 20/20 Sundering hilts went for 100k+5 ectos. Today even the Asians are selling them for less than 30k. Real people are selling them for more like 20k. Had this been the sole change, it would have effectively cut 250k + off the prices of high-end items. This would certainly make them easier to obtain, but, due to the rarity of the perfect skin/bonus/Req combo, still keep their value high enough to make them worthwhile to pursue. Instead of 800k for that Req 8 15^50% weapon, you'd have a price tag closer to 500k.

It is still a lot of gold, it still takes a lot of playtime to obtain, but it is that much more satisfying when you are actually holding one.

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I remember way back when, I saw a character named “Athena Max Impact” wielding a brute sword out in the Shiverpeaks. I was still reasonably new to Guild Wars, and while I had just completed the game with one character of each class, I was still a little noobish when it came to the economy. I LOVED the way that Brute Sword looked, and I knew that was the sword I wanted for my warrior.

I got involved in serious trade for the first time. I didn't really see a whole lot of really great Brute Swords out there, and I preferred to wait until the one I wanted showed up. I saved up every gold piece I got for quite awhile. By the time I finally saw someone selling the Brute Sword I wanted (a Gold Req 8 15^50% 10% Furious +30 fortitude beauty) I had saved up 28k.

I whispered the seller to find out how much he wanted, and I was kind of put off by the fact that he wouldn't give me a price, he insisted I offer. I decided that getting the sword was important enough to me to spend more than half my savings. I had beaten the game with 6 characters and I hadn't really spent a whole lot, so I assumed the 28k in my box was going to be enough.

I offered 15k.

When the seller got done laughing at me and calling me noob, he put me on ignore. I sat in that district for more than an hour spamming that I would pay 25k. I didn't realize at the time that he wouldn't be able to see my spam in the ALL and TRADE chat once he had placed me on ignore. People were whispering me left and right to tell me to shut-up and to make fun of me. Finally a rational person explained to m that a sword like the one I was looking for was worth, at the time, around 2.5 million gold (remember when ectos used to go for closer to 20k than 5k) and that no one was going to sell me one for 25k.

At first I had a hard time believing this, I had beaten the game with 8 characters, and played a LOT after that, I had never gotten anywhere near 100k, never mind 2500k. How the hell could anyone have that kind of money......

I sat in trade for a few more days, truly believing I would get my sword for the 28k in my box. Finally I realized it was not going to happen, and I moved on.

I am no stranger to time sink games. I knew that to get money, the best thing to do was to kill a lot of enemies all by my lonesome. I set out to find a large group of enemies that were high-level enough to yield some good cash and were all in one place.

The first area I went to was the minotaur at Elona. I was still new to the game, and I was unable to come up with a build that would allow me to truly dominate them. I would go in there and kill 3 or 4 of them before thy finally killed me. I would make about 1k every 5 trips and 5 trips took about 20 minutes. I was making 3k an hour. My build improved with experience and I finally got to a point where I could kill them all. The key was in swapping out my preferred weapon, the sword, for an axe. Soon I was making closer to 7k in an hour and the gold tally in my bank was on the rise. This was all I did for about a week, at the end of which I had earned my first 100k.

It felt really good. Not only had I earned some cash, but also I had learned a LOT about how my warrior-monk worked. When I had started that week those minotaurs would kick my ass. By the end of the week I was butchering them. The warrior build I use today is still a derivative of the awesome build I came up with to farm those 'taurs. It seemed like it would be impossible to kill them all when I had started, but I found a way. I used my head to overcome a group of powerful enemies on my own, and on their terms. It was an awesome feeling.

Soon I was bored with the minotaurs, so I looked for other places. The Trolls out in Tangle Root were my next target. They were weaker than the 'taurs, but there were a lot more of them. So it wasn't easy. Long story short, after a few days of hunting them, I came up with a build that let me dominate them. They were worth a lot; I was making closer to 15k per hour than 7k. I kept at it for quite some time. By the time I got bored with them, I had over 500k in my box.

I continued looking around for large packs of enemies. I found quite a few. Eventually I ended up in Augary Rock, farming Griffons. Most people would go out and kill 4 or 5 of them at a time by themselves or go in a farming group. I was not really satisfied with that, so I learned how to kill them all at once. I took a lot of pride in this. Other warriors would be looking for a partner to farm with, and I would teach them my method, which always blew them away. People looking for powerleveling would give me huge tips. Pretty much everyone I came across was impressed with my build/skills. To my knowledge I was the first person to go out there with a WaMo and take them ALL on. I have to admit farming those Griffons was about the most fun I have ever had in Guild Wars.

It was only a couple weeks before the 500k in my box was 1000k.

At this point, I realized I needed to do something with all that cash. The storage box maxxes out at 1000k and will hold no more.

Also, truthfully, it was burning a hole in my pocket. I decided to buy my first set of 15k armor; something I had sworn never to do. It was quite a rush. I remember just staring at myself in the game screen for awhile because I thought I looked so cool!

I decided to use some more of the money to get things rolling with our Guild; the ATF. The leader we had then, (Ryan AKA Smooth Stone) was a friend of mine in real life. This was his first real game experience, and I had taken him under my wing. One of the things we had been talking about for awhile was a Guild Hall. We had agreed to split the cost of the Sigil (which was 60k at the time), however he had been putting me off on his half for awhile, so I offered to pay for the whole thing. He readily accepted.

I remember how excited we were when we were picking out the hall. It had seemed very far away, due to the expense, not very long previous. It was cool to go pop through each of the halls, and discuss which one we liked best. It was like a couple of buddies getting ready to invest in a house or business. I really enjoyed the night we toured the halls. It put me in a really great mood, and I decided to do something really nice for Mr. Ryan. I bought him his very first set of 15k armor that night. I remember how psyched he was. It felt awesome. I hooked him up with some decent gear and a little spending cash too. He was my buddy, and I was happy to hook him up and help him out.

By the time I was done buying the hall and treating my buddy, and getting some new 15k's for myself my bank had dwindled quite a bit. I was down to around 350k. So it was back to the grind.

I still wanted that Brute Sword!

A few more weeks passed and I was up to 1000k again. I knew that ectos were the appropriate form of currency to look for once my cash storage was maxxed out, so I started buying them.

This may sound ridiculous, but at the time I didn't even know where UW was, let alone that it was the only place (at the time) to get ectos. After trading in ectos for a week or so, I got hip to UW and decided to go try it out. I found it was real tough to get anywhere down there. The 8 man groups I was joining would rarely get past the Ataxes at the start. Even so I had seen some ectos drop and I was determined to get some!

I kept going down in 8 man groups with my warrior and getting nowhere.

I noticed people looking for "experienced teams for 6-man" and some times "4-man" I had a hard time understanding how it could be done in this way because I was having so much trouble in 8 man teams. I tried asking a bunch of times but usually the "experienced" players would just call me names and tell me what a noob I was.

I noticed the shortage of monks. The first character I ever played thru the game with was a monk. E V E N H A N D S. I was told on many occasions that I was quite a competent monk, and even though I preferred to play as a warrior, I knew if I wanted some better groups I needed to be a monk.

I hooked up with a 6-man team, and we went farther than I ever had before.

Pretty soon I wanted nothing to do with 8 man teams. It was not only because of the drop rates, although that was a big part of it........

The simple truth is that experienced players just didn't want to go in an 8-man team. If you want to run with the big dogs, you have to be a big dog. It was not very long before E V E N H A N D S made his mark on the Temple Of Ages. I knew a lot of the regulars out there, and was friendly with them. My skills as a monk were honed in a way they never could be playing in the regular game areas. My heals were on the ball, always just enough, never too much, always the right heal in the right situation. My horizons as a monk were broadened. I had always felt protection was a sort of "extra" and I really hadn't paid enough attention to the skills of that attribute. It was not long before I knew what every monk skill in the game did, what attribute it fell under, and how to combo protect skills. My monk was (and still is) one sharp cookie.

Periodically I would go and help friends of mine through some of the storyline missions. I was seriously into monking at the time. The first time I had gone through with my monk I had received a lot of compliments, and, I felt, did a good job. After all the time I spent sharpening my skills in UW monking was a whole different ballgame. Missions that had previously seemed insanely hard when I was monking with a partner were now able to be monked alone. The Leeeeeeeeeroy effect that came with most pugs kept everything interesting, but even as the sole healer in a party I was always on top of things. I had learned what to do when my hands got full. I had learned how to manage my energy. I had learned which skills worked best to counter specific attacks.

My cashbox was brimming at this point of course. I had earned it. I still didn't have the 2.5 million gold I thought I needed for my Brute Sword, but with nearly 1000k and a growing stack of ectos I was well on my way.

After many parties into UW, I decided it was time for me to conquer it myself. After all, every group of enemies I had encountered had seemed impossible at first when challenged solo.....

I felt certain that UW would be no different. I would find a build that worked. My instincts were to start with my warrior, which, ended pretty miserably. The Ataxes at the start just hit too hard. Even with stances and heavy HoT spells in my arsenal I was getting wrecked.

I finally came to the conclusion that I was going to need to not get hit at all to make it work. My Mesmer, Necro and Elementalist all had their turns down there. Some of the builds I had come up with worked better than others had, but none of them got me out of the Labyrinth.

I had spent a couple hundred K on all these attempts and I realized that I was actually going away from my Brute Sword at that point. I went back to going in smallish groups again. One day I got into a 4-man group with a ranger. Most of the Rangers I had played with up till then had been Barragers or Interrupters. I liked my Ranger, and I knew he was capable of pretty good damage, and was very resilient, but I had never really experimented with trapping. Traps take a long time to set up and I was used to playing with PUG's who simply would not wait.

In retrospect I know that the Ranger in that group was a novice level trapper. But at the time I was VERY impressed. Soon I was off on my own to try and solo trap in UW.

I was going much further than I had with the other classes. I would make it out to the smites about once in every 20 tries or so, and once I got there I would usually finish the Ice Wastes. It was a LOT of fun, but, if you take the cost of all the failed attempts and contrast it to the amount of ectos I actually scored, I wasn't making much. I didn't lose much either, but I wasn't really gaining.

I decided that the best thing to do was find a partner. I knew 2 Rangers could handle it. I didn't realize at the time that 2 or 3 man trapping in UW was actually pretty common. The first Ranger I hooked up with in that dynamic was very experienced. She taught me ALOT. She was cool too; I didn't really use spirits properly until I met her. I used to spread the traps out a little also. She taught me more about trapping than I realized there was to know.

She and I got together pretty much every night to talk on TS and 2-person trap in UW. It was less than a month before the little stack of ectos I had started became a Max Stack +.

At this point I knew it was finally time to get my sword.

Trading in Lions Arch has never really been too pleasant for me. Still I knew it was the place I had to go. I traveled out to Kryta, ready to wheel and deal in the black market of the trade capitol of Tyria.

I was very surprised to see "Green" weapons being sold. I was no noob at this point. There is no way I could have missed an entire class of weapons. I quickly learned that they were a new kind of Item, "Unique", and that they were dropping from monsters out in Sorrows Furnace, an area that had just been added to the game. I bought a few for less than 100k each, and with the exception of Flints Wand, I profited on every single one of them. When I saw the potential for money making I HAD to get out there. Just one of those weapons was worth 5 or 6 ectos.

I got my warrior geared up for the trip, joined a party of explorers who were heading out there for the first time. It was one of the best experiences I had had in the game. Everyone was very excited about the new area and the challenges it represented. I will never forget that on my first trip out there; a green item dropped in Grenths Footprint....... FOR ME! It was Mogriffs Scepter and it was the only green to drop for the party on the way to Deldrimore War Camp. The Monk in my party offered me 4 ectos for it before we even got to War Camp. I took it.

Sorrows Furnace was REALLY tough those first days. The bigger part of it was trying to get into a group that was skilled enough to succeed. The 5 man barrel farm had not yet been discovered, and the clearing of the entire area was something few, if any, had been able to accomplish.

It was only a day before I hooked up with a competent group. We went in 8-man style. It was such an awesome feeling to pioneer that area. We'd go a little further every time. Each trip would reveal more of the Dwarves secrets.......... and greater treasures!

Green items were selling like rolling papers at Woodstock. My bank grew in a way it never could have by doing UW. Some of the items I pulled out of there were the first of their kind I had seen. I remember being the first in the group to get a Brohns Staff. It was on the same trip that someone else in the group had gotten the first Razorstone I had seen. I was expecting to get 100k for Brohns staff, but I ended up getting 350k. They were new; many people hadn’t seen them yet. The market was BOOMING. EVERYONE who had enough skill to go down and plumb the depths of the Dwarven stronghold prospered.

By the time the average group had improved enough to get deep into the mines, which of course caused the values to plummet, I had found and sold enough Greens and other items to have accumulated close to 10 million in gold and ectos.

Sorrows Furnace was starting to get a little stale, and the drop rate had fallen enough due to the massive amount of people going down there, that I started to get a little bored with it.

NOW it was time to get my %^$#ING BRUTE SWORD!

The first day I was out in Lions Arch looking I had no luck. The next day I found someone selling a Req 9 15^50% 10/10 +30 Brute Sword, and I was tempted. My heart though had been on a Req 8. I wanted THE BEST. I had worked for it. I had earned the privilege of wielding a weapon of choice quality. I decided not to settle.

It was only a few days later that someone contacted me about the sword I was looking for. Oddly enough I was not in trade at the time. They had heard from a friend that I was looking for one, and was willing to pay choice coin for a choice weapon.

If he had asked me for an offer at the time, I would have offered 2.5 million. That number had stuck in my head as the value, and I didn't want to play games, I wanted my sword. Indeed, had he asked for MORE than 2.5 million, I would probably have paid it. But he was ready to name his price. He was asking 850k.

I smiled as I typed, "Ok where can we meet?"

It was the first major purchase I had ever made in the game. 100k and 57 ectos at the trade rate that existed then. I remember hovering like 20 times before accepting because the price seemed too good to be true. I remember the AWESOME, AWESOME feeling I had when I equipped it for the first time. I was so happy. I made small talk with the guy until he went offline, and then I ran around to show all my friends my new treasure!!

I customized that sword that very day. For more than 6 months it was in my hand for every battle. I was proud of it. I earned it. It made me feel good to hover on the weapon slot and see it there. It didn't matter to me that it didn't do much more damage than the 14^50% Req 11 Wingblade it had replaced. It was the Ferrari I had been wanting since the very first time I had seen one. Guild Wars was great. My character was great. I loved the game more than I ever had before.

My next "big acquisition" was a Chaos axe. I had the money and all was well. I eventually bought one, and, in the process of showing it off, sold it for 35 ectos MORE than I had paid for it. This was the start of my foray into the biggest cash sink in the game. Open Trade.

Farming was great. It had taught me to use my characters in ways I never would have imagined otherwise. I truly enjoyed all the time I spent farming. I would never get too bored, because when an area went stale, I would move to another place. I made great bank farming.

It did not however compare to the bank I earned buying and selling. I was making 10,000K + a week. I would sell for just a few hours every evening. I would generally turn about 1000k daily Sunday through Thursday, and 2000k-3000k daily Friday and Saturday.

I got my characters PIMPED OUT! Best runes, best weapons, and choice armor. Fellblades, Longswords, Raven Staves (don't laugh, Raven Staves were HUGELY popular for awhile)........

All the most elite items in the game went through my hands again and again. I would sell for less than the Asians, so they actually became my best advertisers. With a little patience and cunning, I would recognize which items would sell for what. I could buy low enough to make a good profit on everything without being a BOFH Asian.

I had a lot of repeat customers. I enjoyed great financial success, at one point I had maxxed my storage with cash + ectos. That is 1000k and 20 stacks of 250 ecto.

When the big AoE nerf came out soon after, prices plummeted a little bit. Everyone was talking about how the solo monk was dead because of the changes in UW as well as the change to some of the monk skills and the way enemies reacted to smiting.

I had never really messed with the solo monk; I didn't really understand it, or the potential it represented. Ryan explained the solo monk to me right around that time, and gave me a demonstration. To be honest it seemed pretty useless to me. He would die pretty fast. He was using the original solo monk build, the one that relied on Protective Bond. I had done everything Prophecies had to offer 1000+ times, conquered the economy as well as the Lich, and I wanted to try something new.

It was clear to me that the build he was using didn't work. TBH, I am not sure how it worked BEFORE the big AoE nerfs. But I recognized the potential and messed with the build.

I am NOT trying to claim I invented the Protective Spirit 55 monk. I am not trying to claim I was the first one to build one. I am NOT looking for credit that way. I AM saying that the build I used was one I came up with, not a build off Wiki or GayassGuru......

My own. I was sad that I missed the days of solo'ing UW, but I enjoyed the Prot Spirit SOJ monk a LOT. I tried all the common farms............ as well as a few I found that will remain my own.........

I got into the whole 55+SS UW, and I put trade away for a long while.....

By the time factions came out I was rich as hell, and the advent of Factions and the new weapons and items it brought opened up a whole new world of trade and another (though slightly less prosperous) huge opportunity to make big bucks.

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You are probably wondering what all that history has to do with the New Nightfall economy, and believe it or not it has a lot to do with it.

The pursuit of my perfect Brute Sword, had taken me FAR. From the Barren wastes of the Crystal Desert, to the mystical jungles of Maguuma I had overcome all foes. I was a pioneer into the Dwarven stronghold at Sorrows Furnace, and even the land of Grenth himself was my playground. From the heights of the Shiverpeaks to the lava crusted depths of Hells Precipice. I had conquered all.

I had thought that the reward at the end of the journey was the Brute Sword I had so coveted way back when I saw “Athena Max Impact” wielding one. By journey's end though, I realized that the sword was never the goal. It was the medal. It was the physical manifestation of my total triumph and mastery over Tyria.

The goal was the journey itself. In setting out to obtain my "dream weapon" I had to expand my knowledge of the game further than I had even realized was possible. I had to extend my skills and think in an outside the box way that I never , ever would have had to do in normal gameplay. I had to develop as a player far beyond the norm.

I remember back after I had beaten the game a few times and was feeling pretty confident in my skills, someone one would call me a noob. I remember thinking .oO(“PFFT I beat the game 5 times, I am no noob.”) When I look back on that time and compare the player I was then to the player I became in pursuit of my Brute Sword, I realize that I really was a noob. I was the epitome of noob, because I didn't really understand how much more there was to learn.

The Brute Sword I earned was certainly an impressive Trophy, one I was quite pleased with. The true reward however came in the form of the knowledge I earned pursuing it.

I know a lot of low-lives and Asians do a lot of E-bay trade. I personally hate that they do, because it taints the economic achievements of those of us who earned our Brute Swords and Fissure Armor. But the truth is, I don't really feel they can ruin the economy. More gold in the economy means more gold in the economy. Yes you have to pay huge amounts for stuff, but you can sell stuff for huge amounts too. It evens out.

It is true that some players will never take the kind of journey that I did. It is true many of them will never devote that much playtime to a single item. That is fine, Guild Wars offered them a lot of alternatives in the way of collector, crafter and Green weapons. If they really wanted a perfect, sweet gold item with a desirable skin and killer mods, they would need to take "the journey of enlightenment" and really work for that sick item they want.

In the economy of Guild Wars today; if you want a particular thing chances are it is going to drop for you sooner than later. There is really no reason to spend much on keys because you can buy any skin you want in the best Req possible (except a crystalline) for 5 or 10k. In no time at all you can snag a 15^50% and whatever mods you desire, and slap them on. Guild Wars really screwed us all with this one. Not just we senior players who understood and undertook the journey..........

......................but the newer and more casual players as well. They have been cheated out of their reason to evolve. The greatest goals in the game never came from defeating the Lich or Shiro or Abbadon, they came from within each of us.

It is what we desire most that drives us, not the conflict in the storyline, but the very human NEED to keep up with, and surpass the Joneses.

The inability to effectively farm large groups of enemies has really taken away a lot of the games extended life and appeal. 2 man UW and solo farming was a fun way to spend my time in between guild events. It was often a lot of fun to hook up with someone from my guild and go do some 2 man or 3 man farming. It meant that there was always a lot to do, well after the storyline conflict was sorted.

The introduction of Heroes has made team play rather pointless anyways. Our guild, which is a large great guild, rarely plays together in PvE anymore. A few of us still get together once in awhile. But it is less and less often. The fact that you can’t run to missions also serves to keep people apart. Often my guild has full groups of people on, all of whom have beaten the game a zillion times only a few missions away from one another. In Prophecies we would run everyone to a central point and play on together as a guild from there. There was no harm in that. Yes it is true a lot of people exploited it and neglected to play the game. But what about those of us who didn't ? Does GW even care about the honest players ? It certainly does not seem so.

When people ask questions like this of A-net, they send Graille Gay out to whitewash everything. It is always funny to watch her avoid serious questions by bringing up dye, mini-pets or heroes and watching the throngs of newer players drown out the topics with such intellectual banter as "OMG DAT COO" or something similar. I know people who claim to have been banned during her visits for stating that they do not like the new agro/economic system. I believe them.

One of the officers in my Guild asked Graille on one of her visits just after Nightfall, why the developers were so intent on keeping people poor. Her answer was "Because it stops inflation" and she immediately started talking about dye.

Use oppression to combat inflation?........... Thank God the GW staff is not a real government. The whole notion is ill conceived and ridiculous.......

Whatever though, it is what I have come to expect from A-net and NC-soft. They have for some reason decided to adopt a developer VS player mentality that I doubt any of us can truly understand. I have never played a game where the developers put so much effort into dampening the experience by keeping players on invisible rails. They want us to play a certain way, if we want to play any other way, or think creatively, they have Graille Gay come out and call us exploiters. I would be lying if I said I understood their point of view.

Even more perplexing is the true consequence of the "economic improvements" they have implemented. With everything being common as hell, it is also valueless. This creates a wider rift between E-bayers & Asians and the honest players. Basically they have GIVEN the Asians and E-bayers the economy. Because everything is so cheap , the e-bay gold buyers have all started turning to FOW armor, and DoA Gems, the last bastion of treasure in all 3 games. It sickens me to see all the new sets of FOW armor popping up all over the GW Universe. I know just by playing with some of the peeps that I have seen that they never earned their armor. They do not play well enough to have taken the Journey. They bought it online for 5 bucks, or whatever it costs.....

This dampens MY accomplishment. For what should be the penultimate visible upgrade in the game, I end up getting more crap than praise. My Guildmates have long known of my involvements in trade, often even helping me with sales when business got to be more than one person could handle, they know I earned my stuff, they respect the accomplishment. Others should too, but they don't. Instead they all scream e-bay and call me noob. It sucks. It is not right.

All in all the gist of what I am saying is that the new economy has basically destroyed post game activity for me (and many people I know). I hardly log on at all lately, there is just nothing to do.

Titles are cool, but all my characters have titles, and frankly, it is boring. It is frustrating to have to play the game on rails to grind a title. Do this this and this 5000 times and earn a title. It would be cool if there was still some excitement to drops and loot........ but there isn't.

I would like to apologize to my Guild for being here so much less. I know that with the presence of heroes I am not needed so much as I used to be. Randy and Heart have done an AWESOME job maintaining the Guild in my absence, and I appreciate it a lot you guy. The truth is I don't feel there is anything else to do in the game. I do pop on several times a day to see if anyone needs help with anything, but no one ever seems to anymore. Everyone is carrying the most elite items the game has to offer and they have their heroes at their back, and it is generally quicker to just hench everything. Even the endgame missions are totally henchable with most classes.

After Christmas we may need to consider electing a new leader. WoW is really looking better and better to me. I know I have left before, for short times, but this is different. In the past my love of you guys and gals in the guild would always be enough to overshadow the games shortcomings and the atrocities of the latest updates. The latest changes though have affected the game on a very fundamental level, most of you Guildmates know how bad the more experienced players got screwed over, I know a lot o you feel the same way.

We lost a lot of people to Factions, and that saddened us all. In Nightfall we are losing less people, but it seems that it is the key people who are losing interest. I miss Kaly and Matt and the gang, hell, I even miss Lockenvar. I understand why they come on so infrequently now though, they feel as I do......

The games new economy is so severely limiting, that it takes all the joy out of the game. There is nothing for accomplished players to shoot for anymore.

While I have nothing good to say to A-net or Graille Gay, I must say that the ATF is the finest group of people I have ever had the joy and privilege to be a part of in ANY setting. You guys and gals are the greatest , nicest, coolest team I have ever been a part of. The future for me is uncertain in GW, but with Sierra's Nightfall Rage growing everyday, I think it is likely that after the holidays she and I will be moving on. I think it is fair to say that A-net, NC-soft and Graille Gay are some of the worst entities I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with in an online service. I will not likely ever support them again, HOWEVER, I got my moneys worth out of the $400$ I have sunk into multiple accounts for the 3 campaigns. Truly Prophecies provided that and more. I think Guild Wars peaked at Prophecies, and I wish I had moved on when we all saw what a cruddy, pile of excrement Factions was. In any event ATF, I love you guys, and you have made the game one of the best experiences I have ever had, despite the developers retardations.

Thank You to all the good people I have come in contact with over the last 18 months!

Good thing i copied it! My response below.
While reading your story i was nodding all the way. everything you wrote is what i felt and experienced throughout my time in GW. Just wanna say all the best to you mate and hope we come across each other in WoW so that i can personally /salute you ingame.

winkgood · Dec 20, 2006, 02:37 AM // 02:37

Apparently any topic of interest or that isn't a "Thank you Anet" thread is immediately stomped on by the moderators. Shinanigans indeed.

dreamhunk · Dec 20, 2006, 02:37 AM // 02:37

i think i would love to read too

TheLordOfBlah · Dec 20, 2006, 02:42 AM // 02:42

yea i have to admit that thread made some very good points that need to be adressed.

bart · Dec 20, 2006, 02:43 AM // 02:43

Copied it and pasted it in my post above. I'm gonna get banned for sure! >_<

winkgood · Dec 20, 2006, 02:49 AM // 02:49

Thanks for that bart. I copied it into word just in case they decide to axe this thread as well.

generik · Dec 20, 2006, 02:50 AM // 02:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by winkgood

Apparently any topic of interest or that isn't a "Thank you Anet" thread is immediately stomped on by the moderators. Shinanigans indeed.

How do you think the people behind the so called "MMO Guru Network" make their living? By having people continually play the MMOs on which they depend on. Any opinion that does not promote positive groupthink is naturally not welcome. Players leave all the time, the community does not need to be informed of each and every of such incident.

Alya · Dec 20, 2006, 02:52 AM // 02:52

I think it's a wonderful story of motivation and becoming a better player because of a long term goal.

lyra_song · Dec 20, 2006, 02:53 AM // 02:53

I think it got closed cause that post is just too much flamebait.

sometimes you have to shut down threads that could have potentially good discussions, simply because the possibility of bad discussion is far more likely.

bart · Dec 20, 2006, 02:55 AM // 02:55

I used to love GW for its replayability, ie farming, trading, gold weapon and stuff as mentioned in Veteran Player's long post. That is why i am risking myself to highlight this to ANET that they are taking away the things that makes the game fun. I'm sure a lot of u will bash Veteran's post and you have the right to do so. But ppl like Veteran also have the right to say what he wants to say. So hopefully this will not get deleted again.

Thallandor · Dec 20, 2006, 02:56 AM // 02:56

Thanks bart, bye bart.

got to post in here before this gets closed/del as well.

/quickly copy and paste the article.

Edit:

I just finish reading it. I think the reason it was closed/deleted was because racist remarks and inciting flames and not forgetting its a goodbye GW rant as well. (It doesnt really belong here anyways, probably more appropriate on their own guild/alliance forums instead).

Too bad. It was a nice read in the beginning up until it started flaming asians and started ranting about how l337 he is and how we should respect him. /sigh

I agree with arcanemacabre, just close this and make an example of the violation of forum rules and not ban.....Bart lol.

BrotherKurupt · Dec 20, 2006, 03:00 AM // 03:00

Of particular interest to me are your derogatory remarks about "Asians." In your unnecessarily long-winded banter about how you enjoyed making e-money out of e-monsters for long hours at a time, you managed to classify a whole continent of the human race as sub-par.

"Asians sell for less than 30, real people sell for less than 20." Who the RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO are you to make such statements? Not relevant, but I'm not "Asian" according to your ching chang chong definition. I can sense your hatred--you are taking this game too seriously.

No one really cares about how you and your five friends can no longer get together and mindlessly kill monsters over and over. Especially when it is for the purchase of a brute sword, one of the most hideous skins in the entire franchise. I hope you do get banned--not for your inept critique of in-game economic changes but rather because you're a motherRED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing asshole.

Oh and if you want an on-topic response, I hope you leave this game and follow your heart to WoW. One less robotic bigot to deal with.

Gli · Dec 20, 2006, 03:02 AM // 03:02

Isn't it obvious why it got axed? It violates several forum rules.

lyra_song · Dec 20, 2006, 03:07 AM // 03:07

arcanemacabre · Dec 20, 2006, 03:07 AM // 03:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gli

Isn't it obvious why it got axed? It violates several forum rules.

Agreed... and it is flamebait, as Lyra pointed out. That calls for a *close*, and make an example out of it, not deletion. Best for everyone to understand why a post like this isn't allowed, rather than send it into obscurity, leaving everyone wondering if something very sneaky is going on. That just opens the door to more posts like it.

Sasuke The Betrayer · Dec 20, 2006, 03:09 AM // 03:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrotherKurupt

Of particular interest to me are your derogatory remarks about "Asians." In your unnecessarily long-winded banter about how you enjoyed making e-money out of e-monsters for long hours at a time, you managed to classify a whole continent of the human race as sub-par.

"Asians sell for less than 30, real people sell for less than 20." Who the RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GO are you to make such statements? Not relevant, but I'm not "Asian" according to your ching chang chong definition. I can sense your hatred--you are taking this game too seriously.

No one really cares about how you and your five friends can no longer get together and mindlessly kill monsters over and over. Especially when it is for the purchase of a brute sword, one of the most hideous skins in the entire franchise. I hope you do get banned--not for your inept critique of in-game economic changes but rather because you're a motherRED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOing asshole.

Oh and if you want an on-topic response, I hope you leave this game and follow your heart to WoW. One less robotic bigot to deal with.

The post was.. interesting. I agree with brother Kurupt. How can a person make such derogatory remarks about asians.

"Today even the Asians are selling them for less than 30k. Real people are selling them for more like 20k."

Does this mean that "asians" are not "real people" merely because of the fact that they sell their items for a different price? You can complain about the fact that they sell gold on ebay, but you can't complain about how much someone sells something for. Its their price, you can buy it or not, but you shouldn't make such racist comments when you classify asians to be "Not real people".

lacasner · Dec 20, 2006, 03:10 AM // 03:10

Wow, what is the point of you people wanting this to be closed...your not the mods...wannabee fanboy mods why even comment if you have nothing to say related to it...

myword · Dec 20, 2006, 03:12 AM // 03:12

lynch the noob!