#and it's more like people who has an invested interest in keeping mo ran chained down by his obsession i guess

[d-lissa]

2ha book 2 (7S) - Ending

I swear this story is gonna ake me violent. I never was one to punch walls and other over dramatic gestures in dismay, but I sure am close to that point. For now, I am just pulling at my hair real hard and trying to keep myself from crying.

The FUCK you mean he forgot once again ?? I am so done with that fucking story. There was SO MUCH progress, why are you doing this to me you heartless story I just want Mo Ran and Chu Wanning to get along for once in their fucking life, who the fuck is that asshole other reincarnator and WHY IS EVERYONE PUSHING FOR MO RAN TO BE IN LOVE WITH SHI MEI ????

(By the way, I feel sooooo validated right now, I knew Shi Mei was shady as fuck, but whatever, this is just too frustrating.)

He doesn't actually CARE about Shi Mei, take him out of Mo Ran's sight for more than a few days and Mo Ran will forget about him ! I just ... Urgh.

Anyway, Shi Mei probably drugged his wontons with that infatuation pills thing (there WAS a mention of a love spell being in use so like ... You know. Thanks Wanning for your stellar no bullshit attitude, I am 120% sure that the victim of said spell is Mo Ran) and in his last life, Mo Ran was probably also drugged with the Love Pill that gives the victim an obsession 10 years long, which, no big deal I guess. Urgh. I am sick and tired and I am going to bite someone.

As there isn't anyone around, I will have to just do with biting myself. Anyway, the pain of book 1 is almost done right ? Not the official translation, the actual books. I am on chapter 89 and book 1 ends before the hundredth chapter, I think ? Please tell me he will have gotten over Shi Mei by then, I am begging you, I am so close to ending up bald. Or with a concussion from how much I am knocking my head into the table due to sheer exasperation.

#2ha #tanxian jun #mo ran #chu wanning #shi mei #Anyway #yes i am enjoying myself but also this is the most aggravating shit ever #still on my shi mei is sus agenda and i am rocking this shit #i am pratically sure that he's the one behind the fake goushi but also probably not #and it's more like people who has an invested interest in keeping mo ran chained down by his obsession i guess #ooooh maybe shi mei works for them ? #maybe it was the plan all along and his death in the last life was premedited ? #could be #anyway chu wanning is great and i love him and i still think he needs anger management classes but he's getting better so there's that #i love how he's like ... the base #everyone is compared to him to decide whether or not they're strong #i love me a strong love interest #boss as fuck indeed tanxian jun boss as fuck in-fucking-deed #i still really want mo ran to get bugui back somehow #he loved his sword dammit #and he wasn't full of rage and despair when he got it the first time right ? #since it was before shi mei lost his life #also is it just me or does mo ran has an incredibly skewed memory ? like sometimes he just remembers stuff without noticing it wasn't THERE #before he remembered at that very moment. it is annoying. but also interesting why is his memory like that ?? #and why was he so different as tanxian jun ? was he like drugged once again with some anger pill or something ? #poor man more drugs than food in his life it seems #tho considering how eagerly he violates his shizun without his consent he probably always had that i guess #goddamn this guy is a fucking mess i love him

[felidae-charr]

A Final Comment on the Lootbox Discourse

I’m highly disappointed by MO’s response towards all of this - which you can read here if you haven’t seen it.

On the one hand, it’s good that ArenaNet have decided that this is not the way to release mount skins in the future. But... on that same hand, that’s actually the only positive thing to come out of his post. The rest of it is PR jargon that’s been regurgitated several times inside their own office to staff because it’s very clearly out of touch with the player base themselves. Under a read more for some people who just don’t care - and if you’re tired of this issue already, I’m sorry I’m still posting about it. 

But I think there’s a deeper problem inside ArenaNet than just the fact we had RNG lootboxes added. And I’d like to talk a bit about MO’s response to try and explain why I’m so disappointed in what has happened and, in particular, why I’m so disheartened in ArenaNet as a company based on the response we’ve had. I’ll dissect it:

1) There’s no comment on releasing mount skins - even simple ones - as in game rewards. Why? We have our legendary weapons and we have some legendary gliders and backpieces that you can do as collections. They take a while, sure, but they’re things people can work towards at their own pace if they want to! Why is this not even a consideration on the table? 

2) Highly deceptive language that’s come straight from the mouths of the people that exploited the lootbox trend in the first place: nonsense like “You get a brand-new, unique mount skin every time, for a substantial discount versus an individual purchase price.” This is exceptionally false - the big complete pack only saves you a total of 600 gems. A one and a half license ‘discount’ is, in fact, not a discount. Every skin here is worth 400 gems minimum - the Halloween pack was worth I think 360 gems per skin or around that. These skins are not discounted substantially at all in the long run.

3) While I doubt every mount skin released in future will come to 2000 gems like the reforged dog does... there’s also nothing to say they won’t, either. I dislike this intentional lack of transparency as ArenaNet are trying to pull their pants back up from their ankles.

4) “You’ve requested variety, and this is a way to support variety. Individual sale is a mechanic that works with a few, flashy skins. Using a grab bag mechanic gives us leeway to create skins to suit a wide range of player tastes while offering a lower price per skin.” is flat out absolute bullshit. End of story. 

Ultimately, here is my problem with the RNG skin boxes in Guild Wars 2, and it is a problem not only not addressed but, in fact, totally ignored because it would look bad if they actually addressed it: if I have to buy your game and buy the expansions to your game, you should not be using free to play lootbox economy. Lootboxes started in free to play mobile games, along with deceptive “microtransactions” that weren’t actually saving you much money but masqueraded to make it look like they did. And to be fair, it’s not only GW2 that has this problem: this is rife throughout the game industry like a disease that just won’t die. Developers want to use freemium economy marketing tactics in games that are not freemium games and I find it incredbly distasteful. Especially when their freemium economies begin to exploit their players solely to make more $$$.

MO’s response probably wasn’t written purely by MO himself - mostly because I don’t think most responses like these ever are. It was probably ran through a chain of people internally to make sure it seemed appropriate and also admitted as little fault as possible while trying to be apologetic because angry customers that make bad press need to be tided over so that they stop complaining about issues and the bad press just disappears. As a result, a lot of MO’s response is out of touch with a lot of the complaints actually levelled to the company, and it has a tone of “Well oops, you guys caught us with our pants down this time! We’ll be careful not to let you do that in the future.” The claim about protecting “investments” made by players who bought the skins is also absolute rubbish because ArenaNet (prior to MO’s ruling era, I should be clear) have actually been quite willing to, you know... protect player’s previous investments by refunding them when gemstore goods changed.

Town clothes and the Flamekissed sets are good examples. Do you remember when the Flamekissed Armour Set could be bought on the gemstore - and players were outraged because it used Human Cultural T3 armour skins while the Medium and Heavy flame-based armour did not? I do. I also remember what ArenaNet did: they allowed all player who purchased the armour to keep the new Flamekissed skins (now based on the Feathered set) and they also refunded them the gems they spent buying the original set. 

So I hate to be the cynic here, but no. ArenaNet is not protecting the investments of their players. ArenaNet is protecting themselves and offering a sugar-coated poor reasoning as to why they are not going to actually address the bigger problem, try to rectify the system even a little and reimburse spenders their gems. Because they just want your money. They don’t want to change the skins (not even by splitting them into RNG boxes based on mount so you can at least try for a specific mount skin more reasonably!) because if they did that, you could buy more things from the gem store without buying gems.

I’m going to level with you all.

I don’t like ArenaNet with MO in charge. I have had hesitations and questions about the way MO runs this ship for a while - but this has to be the most telling thing about MO’s leadership of ArenaNet as a company. A company that was once well-known for listening to player feedback and making rational decisions that both addressed complaints and re-imbursed their players fairly across the board is no longer willing to make even a modicum of effort. 

This company isn’t the same company it was three, four years ago. And I think this is possibly the most telling example of how. Which is sad, I think, and I know I’m going to be a lot more picky about my gem purchasing in the future. I can no longer rely on ArenaNet to actually care about my feedback, I can only rely on them to protect their own interests and offer me an out-of-touch apology for when I catch them trying to exploit me.

#GW2 #GW2 lootbox fiasco #lootbox discouse #mount skins discourse #mount skins lootboxes #i don't know how else to tag this honestly #felidae rambles #i'm very upset to be honest #mo's response says a lot about how he runs the anet ship #and it isn't a good response