Thomas Kaira

Repost from AFK Mods: Cosmetic additions is a bit of a touchy subject as far as I'm concerned for MMOs. For one of the most popular (Guild Wars 2) cosmetics and customization is THE reason to play the game for several hundred hours. TES has a different philosophy (exploration), but still if an emphasis is going to be placed on unique looks for a character, then in a subscription MMO, armor and weapon skins should not be put in the cash shop, it sends a bad message (pay to win, which if you send that message in a subscription MMO fresh out the gate you can kiss your ass good-bye). Boosters is another no-no for subscription MMOs, because you are already paying for the damn game. Guild Wars 2 offers boosters in its cash shop, but since it's free to play after purchase I can deal (plus you can get them for free from time to time). As I said before, subscription MMO + pay-to-win mentality + new kid on the block = no sales. People don't want to be forced to invest money in a game only to be outstripped by the people capable of investing MORE. Here's what I could see being offered in the cash shop: -Character name changes -Character slot expansions -Inventory expansions -Bank space expansions -Vanity items (items that look neat but have absolutely no use in the game whatsoever. In Guild Wars 2 these were Mini-pets) -Fun items (fireworks, etc.)

My Oblivion install is fixed now, I can start the game again at least. Now I need to re-import all my mod stuff. Hopefully it wont take long since I tried to preserve everything as-is.

Time-gating means a feature that has player access restricted by setting a time limit that must expire before the player is allowed to make use of that feature again. ArenaNet makes very heavy use of this in their reward systems for Guild Wars 2. It is also the main reason I'm not playing as much anymore. I think time-gates are a lazy band-aid measure that is only good for temporary content.

As an MMO player, Guild Wars 2 is now driving me away. The content is becoming stale (new carnival every two weeks = bored now) and the reward changes are starting to use time-gates as a crutch (see new dungeon rewards, textbook example of unnecessary time-gate) in order to try and discourage the "farming mentality." Farming is a way of life in MMOs, and unfortunately ArenaNet doesn't seem to understand this. They make content that pretty much requires farming (legendaries) but then make it so you CAN'T farm by time-gating everything. If I knew they were this desperate to keep people logging in every day, I would not have bought the game at all. The game is becoming less "what I want to do" and more "what ArenaNet is allowing me to do," and I'm sorry, but I will not stand for the developers telling me what to do with my time. I will spend it as I damn well please, and would appreciate if I get more than pocket-change back for it. But no, in ArenaNet's mind, passing the time-gate is a sin worthy of eternal damnation. I am now officially fed up with the "once per day" crap ArenaNet is doing. It is lazy, uninspired, and creates a bad co-operative environment where once people finish their daily activities, they will not want to help others do them because they won't get anything for it. THIS IS THE REASON TIME-GATING IS A BAD IDEA FOR COOPERATIVE ACTIVITIES. It causes genuine problems with the group forming when the payout for the time spent is going to be almost nil for one or two people (at this point, enough so that they'll actually drop out of the group). The dungeon reward change is one I sincerely hope will be reverted or overhauled. Individual time-gates on rewards for group activities? Let me say it loud and clear: TERRIBLE IDEA.

I'll just leave this here...

Thanks for the well wishes

Did the trick. Thanks all

I am having issues with the BethSoft forum formatting not showing up properly. It looks like this when I navigate: http://i.imgur.com/55XkZm5.jpg Any ideas on fixing it?

Of course.

I have left my guild. Our leader lied to the guild's face about a number of things, and when we talked to her to try and explain things, our words were twisted in ways I can't even describe. And then when we left, she started mudslinging to the rest of the guild trying to make us look like filthy elitists when that is a flat-out lie. Ama, If you want to join the guild we are now a part of, please let me know.

Next time Ama, make sure I'm on before running dungeons. I know people who are great for running them and will not give you a hard time. You deserve better than going with randoms.

Can you find THIS THING? Ama, I dare you, find this thing.