Game Economy Suggestion - Fissure Armor

I read the most recent Fansite Friday article, and agree with everything ANet says. But I have one problem with the way they're going about things:

Fissure Armor is impossible to attain for the average player.

If 75% of us don't even have 20k (According to thier survey), how could ANet, with a clean conscience, make Fissure Armor the price that it is? It would take FAR TOO LONG of a time playing the game to earn enough gold for even one piece of Fissure Armor, let alone a whole set. If one Glob of Ectoplasm plus one Shard of Ecto costs 15k together, plus the 15k for the Forgemaster to make, PLUS the already basic supplies needed to make the armor, wouldn't it make sense to lower the Ecto/Shard requirement per armor piece?

I mean.... I dont even think it's that crazy of an idea just to make the Fissure Armor Requirements look something like this:

- Fissure Chest Piece : 1 Glob of Ectoplasm
1 Obsidian Shard
45 Iron Ingots
20 Bolts of Cloth

I mean really.... The only reason you would want to buy the Fissure armor is for the look, right? You can get the same stats with DROKNAR's armor, for crying out loud. I dont see why ANet would make the requirements for Fissure Armor impossible to attain. (After all, if we all play the way they want us to, without farming, we'd get, what, like 1k a day?). So if you add 15k, per piece of armor, that's roughly 175k for a set of Fissure armor (Which is ALOT of money to work for, for the average player), as oposed to about 80k for Citadel Armor, as oposed to about 15k for Droknars.

Then ANet would just have to make the Obsidian/Ectoplasm drops even more rare, and still have traders sell them for 5k/10k(respectively). So that way, if you do happen to get an Ecto drop, you're 1/10th of the way closer to your fissure armor. And chances are you won't get another drop.

If all the Fissure Armor is good for is it's looks, why would ANet make it impossible to attain? I dont think that an extra 100k for the best looking armor in the game is unreasonable. I DO think, though, having to save up 1000k just to look cool is very unreasonable.

The FoW armor is mainly there as a money sink, and quite a good one as well IMO. Also, it's not meant to be something everyone has, it's meant to be something that makes your character unique. It's supposed to be a lot of work to get it (and that is certanly the case).

If they actually improved your character you'd have something to argue about. Right now they're there simply to show that you're rich and can afford to show it.

So, by creating this mecca for all Guild Wars Money Collectors, they're just encouraging a good number of farmers to continue farming and looking for exploits to make them more powerful.

Tailon, I understand there's suposed to be alot of work involved. But if ANet is discouraging farming, how are we suposed to make 1000k (Or whatever Fissure Armor is worth) while still even maintaining interest in the game? I assure you, a great number of "average gamers" don't want to spend months of thier life playing the game and saving thier gold just to "look cool". The rewards aren't worth the process. For an average gamer (Again, the average gamer is who ANet is targeting thier game at), 175k is, in my opinion, a high enough goal to strive for. I've reached 200k one time I think, and I would spend alot of my time in the summer playing.

Align, I disagree with you that "They're simply to show that you're rich and can afford to show it". ANet strives to make the playing ground level for everyone. By my inferrence, ANet is trying to do the exact oposite of what you're saying. Thier purpose of Fissure Armor is not to show off how wealthy you are. To some extent, it is, because the better looking your armor is, the wealthier you are, yes. But 1000k rich is different from 200k rich. To reach 1000k rich, you would need to have either:
a) Played Guild Wars so much that it's unhealthy
or
b) Found some way to exploit a money-making process (Farming, bots, etc.)

1000k is out of hand, insane, uncontrolable wealth. 200k is not.

In fact, if the Fissure Armor DID improve your stats, then i WOULDN'T have anything to complain about. That extra AL or Energy Boost is everything a player could need to make a new build, or to make thier character more powerful. And that little extra boost could be worth the extra 800k to someone. So I disagree with you on both counts of your argument.

I strongly disagree with that idea:

The Fissure Armor is the ONLY long term motivation in all of Guild Wars. I realize that the game basically has a "everyone gets everything for free" attitude, but ONE item you actually have to work for doesn't hurt. Especially since it doesn't improve your character anyway.

wrong.

it is a money sink of grand proportions based strictly on being one of the few who can afford it.

lower the requirements enough that a casual player can get it quickly and you destroy its value.

LEVEL PLAYING field exists as this is cosmetic showing that you have the rarest armor and very few others have it.

it is a status symbol for the very rich

I know it's long term. But if you're following ANet's rules, it would take months and months to get Fissure Armor. If it was lowered to maybe 200k for a set, it would still be a long term goal for the AVERAGE player. MOST players don't even have 20k. Did you know that?

Anet talks about trying to get all of the money out of the hands of a very small number of people. It's a thing they're striving for. They're just encouraging people to farm and become one of those select few by making prices so high. Why do people farm in the first place? It's the reason why the Invinci-Monk build was SO popular; because the market for Ecto and Obsidian is so big. Why is it big? Because most people want the armor.

Fantus, I dont think this game is so Left-wing that "everyone thinks everythign should be handed to them". But don't let your wealth fool you... You may think that buying something for 10k isn't a big deal at all. 10k, to most players, is an enormous amount of money.

Again, I want to emphasize that ANet does not want, by any means, people to be insanely rich.

Which is why Fissure Armor is there - it makes insanely poor. :P

The one thing I concede is that if prices for Ecto would get into the 17-20k range, this is over the top, because it would result in the Fissure set costing like 2.5 million gold. That's a sum which is unreachable even for most hardcore players as you'd have to do massive item trading or selling runner services to get this rich.
However, I think that a complete Fissure set should cost no less than 1,000k if bought. Anything else is not long term. Yes, I define long term in "has to be worked on for months". Yes, it means that casual players will never have one. Fissure armor is the only item in the game that rewards hardcore players. It should stay that way. Give us hardcore players ONE thing to look forward to, too. As I said, it doesn't make us stronger than you anyway.

There's a difference between "casual gamers" and "average gamers".

If the vast majority of people only have, at the most, 50k, to make Fissure Armor 1000k is kind of hypocratic of Anet.

You make a good point about the hardcore players needing something to look forward to, yes. And 1 Ecto and 1 Shard per piece is probably too small... But 1000k? If Fissure Armor cost about 500k, I wouldnt be complaining, but I think Anet is just making a case against itself here.

Everyone i talk to that has fissure on atleast on character says they got the ecto from solo farming, or from playing the game earlier on where money was easier to attain, how is it fair to players that missed UW soloing, or havent played the game in times where gold was easier to come by.

They nerf every half decent farming spot within a week or so, but they took a month to close UW if not more, and its still do-able now but requires a lot more time and wields worse drops that it did before.

Its like saying, you can either spend the rest of the year farming 10k a night for the armour, or forcing people to go to ebay to get the cash, which in turn encourages bots.

You can get FoW armor in 2 ways:

1. either getting very lucky and finding that sword/axe everyone wants worth few millions + few hunderd Ectoplasm,

2. or farming every day for one month or so.

So if I do not want to play whole day, and I am not lucky at all (never found ANY 15>50 in 5 months or so of playing) I can not get "best looking armor" in the game?

Give me 15>50 Storm Bow for each 100 consecutive 4 vs. 4 wins or give me death.

FoW armor is overrated anyway. >.> The only one i like Female Monk..

I think the 1 mil price is over the top. On the contrary, it should not be so cheap that it would take a month to make by a casual 3 hour a week gamer.

If they do change it, they should modify the ecto and shards to about a tenth their current status. That would mean it costs around 150K, which is more logical considering it is 10 times the citadel/grotto.

Fissure = 10X grotto/citadel = 10X droknar

This would be a better proportion than
Fissure = 1000X grotto/citadel = 10X droknar

But then again, decreasing the amount of cost would mean more players have it and it will turn into 15K platemail.

When I just got the 15k armor on my ele/monk 1/200 people had 15k. Not 1/5 like now.

[QUOTE=Melkor of ZoSo]There's a difference between "casual gamers" and "average gamers".

If the vast majority of people only have, at the most, 50k, to make Fissure Armor 1000k is kind of hypocratic of Anet.

QUOTE]

the fissure armor is a long term goal for only a few super hardcore gamers and some people have said the price should be HIGHER not lower.

NOW

what do we have for a long term goal for the AVERAGE gamer?

Why we have the 15 K VANITY armor.

And what do we have for a long term goal for the TRULY CASUAL gamer?

Why we have the 1.5K DROKNAR FORGE set of armor

there is a long term goal for each class of gamer.

FORGE ARMOR
15 K ARMOR
FISSURE ARMOR

Here's the thing; you don't NEED FoW armour. If it increased your stats, THEN you'd have a legitamite arguement. But it is quite unneccesary. Therefore, there is no need for the price decrease, as there is no loss in NOT having it.

/not-signed, even with the system there is I will never have FoW armour.

/not signed

Eltargrim pretty much said what i wanted to say

And how many people with Fissure armor bought their money on eBay? Buying money on eBay to buy Fissure armor isn't a "long term in-game investment" as many of you are claiming Fissure armor is suppose to be. I'd assume we'd have a drop in Gold sales on eBay if the Fissure armor wasn't so expensive. What else would someone need to buy 1000 plat for?
If ANet is correct about 75% of players having less than 20k, I see no problem with lowering the cost/number of Fissure armor supplies. I agree it should be lowered to roughly 200k a set. For a cosmetic look, and no upgraded stats, 1000k is too much to ask, following ANet's rules.

Buying money on eBay is a "criminal act" according to the Terms of Service. So your point is to change the game world because there are criminals in it or did I get something wrong?

1) it is great that is cosmetic only. You don't need it!
You just saved 1000k. Congratulations.

2) 15k armors is a money sink and help game economy. The prices of ecto's and shards are player driven, and are the cause of the expensiveness of FoW armor. After all, it takes 60k as a fixed price by ANet, so 9940k is made up mostly by the players. Don't blame ANet for the madness of its players.

If the Fissure armour was cheap, everybody would have it.
I don't plan to get Fissure armour cos I don't think I can afford it and even if I could, I don't think I'd wanna spend it all on one set of armour.

I don't get why every casual player wants Fissure armour.
Is it fair that a player who buys Fissure armour today spends ~1.5mil and you buy your Fissure tomorrow and spend ~150k?
150k is ridiculously low for Fissure armour as my 15k platemail cost me about 100k including materials and dyes.

I very much doubt, and happily too, that Anet would reduce the cost of Fissure armour.