- “What part of the release process gets impacted by snow and power outages?” asked one dude. “Just the parts that require electricity or people being able to get into the office. ;)” AnetFrosty with the dunk, though it turns out that “data corruption in the prepared release” also had a bit to do with it.
- There are no plans for anything like practice or easy-mode or PUG raids. When met with complaints that ANet is burying story behind “hardmode” raids, Bobby Stein basically told players to enter somebody else’s cleared raid instance and catch some story that way. Side-eye. [Update: Stein clarified for us that while he’s the one who stepped up to address that question, he’s not the one who makes the call on story/raids, so shooting the messenger is a wasted arrow. “I speak up because I want people to be aware of their options. Hoping that they’ll be inspired to raid but I know it can be hard,” he tweeted.]
- Insider trading among early patch testers continues to plague the game; Mike O’Brien says the team shut down recipes using ingredients suspected of being the target of these cheaters and hotfixed them with new ingredients.
- The team will not be at PAX East, so if you were hoping to see an expansion reveal then, no dice.
- The Mac client is still a work in progress. They’re also still considering controller support.
- The next balancing patch will land before the next PvP season.
- “We don’t currently have any team that would work on changes to the achievements panel or log-in rewards.”
- There won’t be a preview on the medium and light legendary armors. “We’ll focus on shipping and let the armor shine in the game.”
- In PvP: “The team has been investigating various ways to bring back team play in a meaningful way but we aren’t at a point where we can discuss any particulars yet.”
- Paul Ella and Cameron Rich both veto the idea that the game might ever see vertical progression, as its lack is “one of the strong points of GW2 raiding.” (We assume they mean more than there already is.) “I love the feeling of getting more powerful, but I think the way our game is set up, it allows us to craft experiences which evoke a feeling of getting better at the game.”
- “We added the new map achievements mainly because we think they are fun and people would like them. We brought back the limited time Capricorn achievements (and decided not to disable the Coliseum achievements) because we felt limited time achievements were not fun.”
Chris Cleary clarified the rules on DPS meters — they’re OK — but gear-checking mods that circumvent the native API are not.
Finally, the ongoing mystic coin argument. “We’re continuing to monitor them but aren’t taking any action at this time,” O’Brien says. “I know the question of the moment is: why increase supply of leather but not of mystic coins? Mystic coins are a currency that all players get in small quantities and then can sell to wealthy players who want to use them to craft aspirational or luxury items. Seen in that light it’s not inherently bad for them to be expensive, nor is it unnatural for them to increase in price as wealthy players continue to accumulate more wealth. We can measure their success more in terms of their use: are they actively traded between players and actively used? And the answer to those is a resounding yes. […] Mystic coins are doing their job. Having said all that, there are arguments on both sides, and I don’t mean to imply that there aren’t, but there isn’t a compelling case at this time that would make us go in and change the supply or sinks.”
