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Be careful what you wish for..
rescorlian
Member Posts: 41 Arc User
Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
Following is what I hope, will anger EVERYONE! I want to HAMSTER off the PvP players and PvE players alike. I want to do it with an idea that extends beyond Neverwinters walls. Stretches to other games and the truest challenge facing us all as gamers. Attitude.
This fellow released a video for WoW, arguably the greatest MMO of all time. Certainly the most notable in popularity. I happened across this video by accident, and watched it because of events similar to the challenges that face Neverwinter. There were moments where I could have sworn he was talking about our game, some of the similar challenges facing us.
https://youtu.be/4WCmHkTGZSQ
I want to start off by saying, the fault does not lie with the developers. As far as I'm concerned, they have only made 3 mistakes.
3. - Removing content from the game, pulling the dungeons out for reworking.
2. - Trying to give players what they want, as opposed to what they need.
1. - Being human, yes they're people too; they do care, and feel like HAMSTER when players insult them and make them feel lesser.
The fellow made that video, hit the nail on the head. Biggest challenge we have here, is loss of community, loss of challenge, loss of attitude. The game is too easy, this comes from trying to make people happy. We had a guildie join recently, who wanted to run a CN, this is a freshly minted GF still wearing uncommon and rare armor pieces, and accessories. Then proceeded to get very angry when I told him he's not ready. When this game was in it's earlier days, CN was the show. What you worked towards, the goal. You had to EARN it! You had to do the grind, you had to try the dungeons you had the gear to run over and over again, until you had earned the next one. Then you ran that dungeon, over and over again, until you earned your next piece of armor. That was what made MMOs popular, that effort. There in lies the beginning of the challenges, players feeling it's easier (not better, easier and better are NOT synonymous) to come onto the forum and whine and complain that content is to hard, or that their class isn’t strong enough. The classes aren't supposed to be balanced. Their imbalance was their strength. Great weapons fighters damage is out of control because we don't have to build defensive stats. Control wizards are unhappy, because they don't NEED to control mobs, the great weapon fighter is just going to go in and kill everything. Trickster Rogues and Hunter Rangers had their purpose taken from them, no need for a high mobility, high burst character to eliminate high priority targets. The Paladins bubble, was created for more difficult content. The solution the community seems to feel is to nerf, buff rework the classes endlessly. You're wrong, yes you, if you feel that that's the issue, the challenge, then I am saying YOU'RE WRONG. You're one of the players that is at fault and has lead us to this challenge.
Here is where I feel the PvP community has a lot to answer for. Though they have paid their own consequences, as their gameplay and community has suffered. They want the classes in balance, to be able to play whatever they feel like, and be able to win. Their consequences? Players don't come to this game for PvP, they came for PvE and played PvP as a side project, an extra bit of intense fun. They have effectively killed off the source of new players. Which will result in the loss of renewing their community, which has led to decline as the players that enjoy PvP shrinks every day, week, month year. Every time they get what they ask for, PvP gets worse, they're getting what they want, not what they NEED. PvP players, you have shot yourselves in the foot, repeatedly, and everyone else has suffered for it. The ugliest truth of all, is this is where you find the HIGHEST concentration of players that buy from third party sites. I have no issue with those that choose to buy lots from the zen store. If this game is to survive, revenue must be created to continue to fund new content. Or the game stops, stagnates, perishes. The stagnation and "broken" state of PvP is YOUR OWN FAULT!
Insulting, hating on those that choose to spend their hard earned money, is also a problem. If you think this way, you're WRONG. The developers have to eat too, must make money, unprofitable business, games, companies don't survive. If you don't understand this very simple concept of economics then perhaps you shouldn't be expressing your opinions so loudly in the first place. Once again, this comes from players that can't/won't do it themselves, whether it be from hard economic challenges of their own, or some misbegotten ideology hatred of capitalism, doesn't matter, the end result is the same. Developers time isn’t free, server time, isn't free.
Module 6, was a lot of change. Here, all three mistakes were committed at once. The removal of content, which was angering for ALL. Then the community screamed, SCREAMED that the rework had made things to hard. What do you mean we have to have healers and tanks again? What do you mean I have to build a properly built team?! HOW DARE YOU!! This could have been a very good change, but then the other two mistakes happened at once. The developers cared, and gave the community what it wanted, not what it needed. The lowering of damage and health on the mobs and bosses made it too easy. Too.....easy... if I were in the developers shoes I would have been screaming. What do you silly players WANT?!
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1214263/starks-of-winterfell-communication
Those are my thoughts on the classes and how they're to work together. This has been lost, and the consequences are long reaching. It has come time, and time again from the developers trying to make everyone happy. Giving them what they want, not what they need. If you think the developers are stupid, you are part of the problem. I want you reading this to take a moment and be honest with yourself; if you've thought the developers are stupid, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! I am guilty of this, I have thought this. It wasn't until recently and a paradigm shift that I realized this was part of the problem my tune has changed. The moment you think someone is stupid, your respect for them drops, immensely. Were I on the development team, and I thought the community thought I was stupid and had no respect for them, my motivation, inspiration, though process would go something along the lines of HAMSTER YOU! The developers aren't stupid. They aren't, the idea, attitude that they are must change. Don't forget, they have bosses/pay masters just li8ke the rest of us they have to answer too. The majority of them are individuals, people, that are doing their best and their hardest to make this game the best it can be and make people happy. Module 6 some of these people lost their jobs, more followed not long after as aftermath. Shame on us, all of us for this. A good example, there was a stream where Andy had a really rough run on his Paladin. The HAMSTER people said made me ill. If you were one of these people, hang your head in shame. We should all hang our heads in shame. There's a large number of players who can't/won't think critically enough to be able to understand this and their own role. They are the ones SCREAMING for classes to be balanced. THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE! They're supposed to be unbalanced to each perform their own roles (huh, roleplaying game, almost like that's supposed to be an integral part of it) and we should have been shielding, defending the developers from these HAMSTER. There are some who did, who tried, my hat is off to you. I wasn't one of them, and I am ashamed.
An attitude change, idea change is hard, are you capable of it. Are you strong enough to admit you're wrong? I was, again and again.
Have you ever sat and watched traffic? So many seem to feel that because they drive a car, they can understand how traffic, lights and intersections work. You are as wrong about that as you are about thinking you understand how this game works as a big picture. Often times, traffic lights are timed out to control flow MILES, BLOCKS, away. You can't see it because you can't see the big picture. Here too is the same. Having coalescent wards removed from the tarmalune trade bar store was frustrating, seen as a bit and switch. There may be truth to this, but there is a bigger truth that has been IGNORED. We can't/won't see the bigger picture, and those guys being so readily available was damaging. Everyone hates the pay 2 win, and yet when they remove one of the things that was putting the pay 2 winners further ahead, they hate on them. Hypocrisy, thy name is gamer. We can't see across the board the effects these changes happen. Party because most don't WANT too. I would be BiS by now, sporting all rank 12s had they not made that change, frustrating yes...
But when everyone's special, no one is.
If you think the developers are stupid, or were wrong for making this choice. YOU ARE WRONG, and part of the problem. Simply because everyone agrees on something, doesn't make it right. Mob mentality is dangerous, is the world flat? Because at one time that was right, and I see this way of thinking reflected here. I want to see it end here. You are only seeing, and demanding, what you want, without understanding or looking to what you need.
Following is what I hope, will anger EVERYONE! I want to HAMSTER off the PvP players and PvE players alike. I want to do it with an idea that extends beyond Neverwinters walls. Stretches to other games and the truest challenge facing us all as gamers. Attitude.
This fellow released a video for WoW, arguably the greatest MMO of all time. Certainly the most notable in popularity. I happened across this video by accident, and watched it because of events similar to the challenges that face Neverwinter. There were moments where I could have sworn he was talking about our game, some of the similar challenges facing us.
https://youtu.be/4WCmHkTGZSQ
I want to start off by saying, the fault does not lie with the developers. As far as I'm concerned, they have only made 3 mistakes.
3. - Removing content from the game, pulling the dungeons out for reworking.
2. - Trying to give players what they want, as opposed to what they need.
1. - Being human, yes they're people too; they do care, and feel like HAMSTER when players insult them and make them feel lesser.
The fellow made that video, hit the nail on the head. Biggest challenge we have here, is loss of community, loss of challenge, loss of attitude. The game is too easy, this comes from trying to make people happy. We had a guildie join recently, who wanted to run a CN, this is a freshly minted GF still wearing uncommon and rare armor pieces, and accessories. Then proceeded to get very angry when I told him he's not ready. When this game was in it's earlier days, CN was the show. What you worked towards, the goal. You had to EARN it! You had to do the grind, you had to try the dungeons you had the gear to run over and over again, until you had earned the next one. Then you ran that dungeon, over and over again, until you earned your next piece of armor. That was what made MMOs popular, that effort. There in lies the beginning of the challenges, players feeling it's easier (not better, easier and better are NOT synonymous) to come onto the forum and whine and complain that content is to hard, or that their class isn’t strong enough. The classes aren't supposed to be balanced. Their imbalance was their strength. Great weapons fighters damage is out of control because we don't have to build defensive stats. Control wizards are unhappy, because they don't NEED to control mobs, the great weapon fighter is just going to go in and kill everything. Trickster Rogues and Hunter Rangers had their purpose taken from them, no need for a high mobility, high burst character to eliminate high priority targets. The Paladins bubble, was created for more difficult content. The solution the community seems to feel is to nerf, buff rework the classes endlessly. You're wrong, yes you, if you feel that that's the issue, the challenge, then I am saying YOU'RE WRONG. You're one of the players that is at fault and has lead us to this challenge.
Here is where I feel the PvP community has a lot to answer for. Though they have paid their own consequences, as their gameplay and community has suffered. They want the classes in balance, to be able to play whatever they feel like, and be able to win. Their consequences? Players don't come to this game for PvP, they came for PvE and played PvP as a side project, an extra bit of intense fun. They have effectively killed off the source of new players. Which will result in the loss of renewing their community, which has led to decline as the players that enjoy PvP shrinks every day, week, month year. Every time they get what they ask for, PvP gets worse, they're getting what they want, not what they NEED. PvP players, you have shot yourselves in the foot, repeatedly, and everyone else has suffered for it. The ugliest truth of all, is this is where you find the HIGHEST concentration of players that buy from third party sites. I have no issue with those that choose to buy lots from the zen store. If this game is to survive, revenue must be created to continue to fund new content. Or the game stops, stagnates, perishes. The stagnation and "broken" state of PvP is YOUR OWN FAULT!
Insulting, hating on those that choose to spend their hard earned money, is also a problem. If you think this way, you're WRONG. The developers have to eat too, must make money, unprofitable business, games, companies don't survive. If you don't understand this very simple concept of economics then perhaps you shouldn't be expressing your opinions so loudly in the first place. Once again, this comes from players that can't/won't do it themselves, whether it be from hard economic challenges of their own, or some misbegotten ideology hatred of capitalism, doesn't matter, the end result is the same. Developers time isn’t free, server time, isn't free.
Module 6, was a lot of change. Here, all three mistakes were committed at once. The removal of content, which was angering for ALL. Then the community screamed, SCREAMED that the rework had made things to hard. What do you mean we have to have healers and tanks again? What do you mean I have to build a properly built team?! HOW DARE YOU!! This could have been a very good change, but then the other two mistakes happened at once. The developers cared, and gave the community what it wanted, not what it needed. The lowering of damage and health on the mobs and bosses made it too easy. Too.....easy... if I were in the developers shoes I would have been screaming. What do you silly players WANT?!
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1214263/starks-of-winterfell-communication
Those are my thoughts on the classes and how they're to work together. This has been lost, and the consequences are long reaching. It has come time, and time again from the developers trying to make everyone happy. Giving them what they want, not what they need. If you think the developers are stupid, you are part of the problem. I want you reading this to take a moment and be honest with yourself; if you've thought the developers are stupid, YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! I am guilty of this, I have thought this. It wasn't until recently and a paradigm shift that I realized this was part of the problem my tune has changed. The moment you think someone is stupid, your respect for them drops, immensely. Were I on the development team, and I thought the community thought I was stupid and had no respect for them, my motivation, inspiration, though process would go something along the lines of HAMSTER YOU! The developers aren't stupid. They aren't, the idea, attitude that they are must change. Don't forget, they have bosses/pay masters just li8ke the rest of us they have to answer too. The majority of them are individuals, people, that are doing their best and their hardest to make this game the best it can be and make people happy. Module 6 some of these people lost their jobs, more followed not long after as aftermath. Shame on us, all of us for this. A good example, there was a stream where Andy had a really rough run on his Paladin. The HAMSTER people said made me ill. If you were one of these people, hang your head in shame. We should all hang our heads in shame. There's a large number of players who can't/won't think critically enough to be able to understand this and their own role. They are the ones SCREAMING for classes to be balanced. THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE! They're supposed to be unbalanced to each perform their own roles (huh, roleplaying game, almost like that's supposed to be an integral part of it) and we should have been shielding, defending the developers from these HAMSTER. There are some who did, who tried, my hat is off to you. I wasn't one of them, and I am ashamed.
An attitude change, idea change is hard, are you capable of it. Are you strong enough to admit you're wrong? I was, again and again.
Have you ever sat and watched traffic? So many seem to feel that because they drive a car, they can understand how traffic, lights and intersections work. You are as wrong about that as you are about thinking you understand how this game works as a big picture. Often times, traffic lights are timed out to control flow MILES, BLOCKS, away. You can't see it because you can't see the big picture. Here too is the same. Having coalescent wards removed from the tarmalune trade bar store was frustrating, seen as a bit and switch. There may be truth to this, but there is a bigger truth that has been IGNORED. We can't/won't see the bigger picture, and those guys being so readily available was damaging. Everyone hates the pay 2 win, and yet when they remove one of the things that was putting the pay 2 winners further ahead, they hate on them. Hypocrisy, thy name is gamer. We can't see across the board the effects these changes happen. Party because most don't WANT too. I would be BiS by now, sporting all rank 12s had they not made that change, frustrating yes...
But when everyone's special, no one is.
If you think the developers are stupid, or were wrong for making this choice. YOU ARE WRONG, and part of the problem. Simply because everyone agrees on something, doesn't make it right. Mob mentality is dangerous, is the world flat? Because at one time that was right, and I see this way of thinking reflected here. I want to see it end here. You are only seeing, and demanding, what you want, without understanding or looking to what you need.
Bonk - Damage dealing machine and midnight lover of all things tasty
The first inner look at majesty - https://youtu.be/8Yavk790hMA
The second build and some fun - https://youtu.be/b5U0H-Mdkxg
A little update - https://youtu.be/0F-qUKOv4UU
The thread where this can be found - http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1210188/bonk-a-tale-of-damage
The first inner look at majesty - https://youtu.be/8Yavk790hMA
The second build and some fun - https://youtu.be/b5U0H-Mdkxg
A little update - https://youtu.be/0F-qUKOv4UU
The thread where this can be found - http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1210188/bonk-a-tale-of-damage
1
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
A change must happen, but we can not change the developers. they will do as they must do. All we can do, is change the attitude we present them. Restore their hope and faith in us as a community. Relight the fire in them that this game, the effort they put in it is worth it. Stop complaining about EVERYTHING. Has it been forgotten that the point of the game is socializing? Yes it has, Mercenary mentality has happened with guilds. This was an unforeseen consequence of Strongholds. You have your top end guilds with the biggest boons, and players will only go to them despite whether they actually like the poeple there or not. Having all these dailies is horrible, well then don't run them. Well I need the boons, well then run the dailies. Stop complaining about having the extra boons, but having to EARN them. Yes. you have to EARN things. Good example, the new elemental weapons that came out. They released the easy sticks you can get from the trade bar store, to answer a want from people complaining the grind was to hard. GET OVER YOURSELF! It took 10 hours to grind out the fiery motes, I hopped into my team chat and conversed with my guildie while doing it. That's the point that has been lost right there.
DEVELOPERS!!! MAKE EVERYTHING IN THE GAME EASIER!! NO, TOO EASY, TOO EASY!! GOD YOUR STUPID!!
If you were on of the people that complained the grind on these was to hard, you are WRONG and part of the problem.
Have I missed anyone? I hope not, the goal was to HAMSTER off everyone, except for the VERY select few who are those thast already think this way (I mean, very few, odds are you aren;t one of them)
Final thoughts, I don't want the classes balanced, I want them to do their jobs. I want TR players to LOVE their class, to be able to sneak around behind the main fight, and annihilate those archers that are killing the tank off (remember when you had to actually kill off adds or they were going to kill the tank, then everyone else? that was good gaming) I control wizards, to be proud of their ability to control a battle field and allow everyone else to be able to survive, and kill them in an orderly fashion. I want GWF to have to build defensive stats again, or they die and die hard. I want this game to be fun and challenging again. Before this can happen, the attitude from all of us as a community must change. Or it isn;t going to get better. PvP players, you want to slaughter each other, that's excellent, stop trying to get the classes all balanced and ruining the very aspects of the game that make individual classes fun to play, and your own gameplay. The developers aren’t to blame for the sorry state of PvP. You are, again and again you are. They gave you what you wanted many times over. Want a good example? Sure, tenacity, how did that work out for you? New players don't want to get involved in PvP when the grind is worse, because it has the PvE AND PvP. So what do you get? Well you get all the straight up Pay 2 win players with not exactly the greatest attitudes.
If you have read this far, thank you for your time. I have a challenge for you, proof to yourself and your brothers and sisters that maybe attitude can change. Focus on what we agree upon, don't insult the idea, grow it, build it, did I have a thought not quite right, add your own element. But if all you can do is insult and flame, well, you have your own answer if you're part of the problem... don't you
The first inner look at majesty - https://youtu.be/8Yavk790hMA
The second build and some fun - https://youtu.be/b5U0H-Mdkxg
A little update - https://youtu.be/0F-qUKOv4UU
The thread where this can be found - http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1210188/bonk-a-tale-of-damage
The above quote should be on the Forums Header to remind posters of the harm they could do.
I too loved the difficulty of building up to, and then taking on, Castle Never. I hate the little short race-tracks that dungeons have become, and I pine for those epic-length dungeons that were full of hidden bosses and secret areas.
On the other hand – I can sympathise with people who don’t want to sink hours into a dungeon, only to run into roadblock when the difficulty spikes at the end of the level. It’s annoying, but perma-bubble was not the answer we needed.
I think a rebalance of all the classes to give them their specialties back is needed – but for content going forward the Underdark offers an intriguing look at how you can offer some reward to everyone, while still rewarding the elite. Having said that, it’d be nice to see the RNG more closely tied to the reward tier- no +5 rings for bronze runs, not +1/2 rings for gold.
In my ideal future there would be a dungeon, and every boss would offer bronze/silver/gold rewards. You could even have a mechanic where a bronze at a sub-boss ends the run with a lesser reward (which would stop people bailing the moment they get a bronze result).
But while I like some of the stuff that Cryptic are doing, and they seem to recognise some of the missteps they’ve made, they need to deal with these issues with some level of speed. The game can’t afford to spend another whole year broken.
Join us brothers and sisters and distant relations and confused onlookers.
Join us in the shadows where we stand mostly vigilant... although slightly distracted by our inventories.
"In war, unqualified. In peace, disorganised. In death, mild irritation."
JOIN US.
They did all of this to themselves. Blaming the customer is pointless. The company set the objectives. The company set up the business model. They knew what kind of folks that would attract (or should have). If it drives them under, then too bad.
One thing I will point out though is that the +5 ring and other things associated with RNG are not necessarily earned. In fact I know some people in my guild did get +5 rings when Underdark and Castle Never was released. I have yet to get a +5 or anything and I do a lot of dungeon crawling. So some people will get them the first day and others will never get them. There is no way to earn items that have RNG associated with them and I personally find that part of the game frustrating.
I definitely understand that "we're wrong", but you also mention what "we need". And if you tell us what we need, it becomes immediately what you want again.
Example: "Final thoughts, I don't want the classes balanced, I want them to do their jobs". Using your own words: Be careful what you wish for... What does it mean "do their job?" It's a so general statement that it can be whatever and in any case it's your wish only. What does it mean the you don't want class balance? Are you aware that class balance and class role are two different things and you're are using your own semantic to explain this? This is the point: we use the same words, but players and devs have a different concept about the meaning of it.
Your arguments are pointless: there's someone at Cryptic paid to take decisions.
If he decides to follow what "we want", then I know who is responsible for what we have (infact the devs filter and implement the change requests that THEY believe are good).
If the game is going down and down, it's because there is someone who take decsions about it: they are not the players.
Devs are not stupid (I agree), but they make mistakes like all of us. The problem is the magnitude of such mistakes, including the implementation of what "you want".
There's a big difference between what "you want" and how what "you want" is interpreted and implemented: look at the 6 seconds op bubble nerf. We wanted the op bubble nerf (right request imo), they interpreted the request and gave us back something that many players don't want. Who's responsible for this? Welcome in the chicken & egg problem. There's only one way to solve it: check who is responsible and who has the power to take the final decision.
PS: Often the news say "we listened you and we decide.."
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
— (The unwritten rule)
who are you , never heard of you
PC players have been doing this for years. Destroying great games with there constant whining and complaining. It's never gonna change. Then once they get everything they want in changes. The game is no longer fun or challenging. No one wants to play.
The dungeon should be challenging and maybe not even complete able if the groups isn't strong enough or smart enough to figure it out or equipped for the challenge. The reward drop rate could then be higher.
Running them now is just a boring grind with really no thinking involved.
And its my fault they never fix bugs/ made broken classes/ made broken Sets etc..? Who are you, dear thread opener? Employed at Cryp?
Rain check, being in the minority doesn't make what you say correct, any more than being in the majority does. The terms "right" and "wrong" are purely subjective and based on opinion, but its good to know how much more your opinion is worth than everyone elses.
You want to know the real problem? they are UNABLE to develop content in a timely manner that is warranted to the power they develop at the same time. THIS is and will always be there biggest issue.
My hr was 1.8k and I got it through spinward during ARP and difficulty settings. They dropped both of those and my HR is now 2.5k , with limited time ive spent/built with it (its like a 5th alt or so for me)
its not even built all that great.. and I promise you if they put BOTH of those items back into the game, it would be vastly easier on me now.
Tell me the last time they released 5-6 new actual dungeons with new mechanics and such that was balanced out on the top 1/3rd of players and was content that was designed to engage players.
ALSO both sharp and I posted many thoughts on shortening the power curve that THEY again.. THEM (cryptic) implemented in a game that had zero reason for it.. other then they know selling power makes them money.. so they will always do it.
Make enchants linear.
Only allow one buff type to stack.
Put limits on total of power stacking.
there is a slew of things they can do to fix what is a obvious mistake.. the mismanaged power curve.
reducing lostmouth is not the only solution that is needed/warranted.
But the biggest issue is the above, they cant make content as fast as they allow power to be given. They give you mods worth of more buffs/boons/power and give you the same difficulty ratings every time.
i wish for that they check all the new stuff before they release it (2 new enchants both broken both fixed more than a month later)
i wish for they try to do a dungeon before releasing it
i wish for new content
i wish for they check companion mechanics and see if they work as intended
i wish for some QA on patch notes
so yea i hope someday i get what i wish for
zhentarim-warlock-companion
Pure -> Transcendent Plague Fire weapon enchantment giving 80damge/20 seconds for 500k+ AD is a joke.
plague-fire-weapon-enchant-r11-vs-r12
Do you think Apple does everything its customer's want? Hell no. They take the feedback and out of all the yammering they try to discern what they think the customers actually NEED. If they do it correctly, they go on to make boat loads of money (as Apple has done). If they don't do it right, they fail miserably and die.
Bottom line, Cryptic owns the product. Everything that goes into it is their doing and, ultimately, their responsibility. How the game plays, customer satisfaction, the kind of people who are attracted to it....all on them.
So when you decide to blame the PvP folks for ruining the game, you should really be mad at Cryptic for 1) Putting in the game mode in the first place, 2) Listening to PvP folks more than PvE folks and 3) actually implementing changes based on their feedback (the PvP folks don't program the game you know).
P.S. I don't actually buy the whole "PvP players ruined the game" thing anyway. Whales ruined the game (although they may have also kept it alive). Most PvP (and PvE) players wanted a level playing field. The Whales didn't. They spent money. They wanted something for their investment. And Cryptic responded (in both PvE and PvP) to give them just that. Now you got what you got.
P.P.S. And even blaming the Whales is stupid because they are here due to decisions made by Cryptic/PWE.
Go ahead and knock me down. I will never cease to rise again.
There was no progression, there was no grind, it was nothing like you described. The reality was, for a few thousand AD you could buy an entire T2 armor set. And for a few thousand more you could get a set of CN weapons. That wasn't earning it. Heck, I managed to equip all my characters in full T2 gear before they even set foot in a single dungeon.
What we have now is what you describe. People will reject you if your iLevel isnt high enough. You all but have to do T1s until you earn enough seals for gear. Then T2s for more seals. Even if you short cut it a bit by skipping T1 or going straight to the Drowcraft gear, or if you are lucky enough, to have access to guild armor. You will still fall short of a quick ticket into CN. You will still need to grind for refinement. Gota boost that artifact gear to even think of being accepted.
As much as there were real problems with gear glut and over farming. I would MUCH rather have it like it was. Even if it is a far cry from what thought it was.
As far as the rest of your rant, there is simply too much inaccuracy. Too much stuff remembered wrong for me to take it seriously. It just comes off as a bunch of buzzword filled hyperbole by the misinformed.