An Open Letter to ANet

Dear ANet,

I love your game for the most part. The story is awsome when played through and through, and the player versus player zones are alot of fun when everyone on both teams has access to the same skills.

I am writing this letter as a casual player. I recently had the last week off of college and was able to play non stop ... I now have 100+ hours behind my belt and my avatar is at Thunderkeep Mission.

I am somewhat troubled as I still have 0 major runes and 0 superior runes unlocked. I had always planned on farming Riverside as that's where everyone in my guild (and all guilds that plan on doing serious PvP) got their stuff from.

Unfortunately your PvE content is so much fun I decided to "play the game first" instead of farm and now it would seem I am being punished for not farming my bum off. It is for this very reason that I am rushing my wife's avatar through the first infusion mission to get all her pieces infused before that area is hit with the nerf bat. It is obvious that players were only meant to get their armour infused once at the "easy" spot ... and I do not want her avatar to also be "punished" when this infusion spot gets nerfed.

The reason that I am writing all this stuff is that the recent changes to gameplay (riverside farming in particular) seems to indicate that the game is moving away from one of a "player skill in PvP over time spent in PvE" dynamic to one that emphasises "time spent in PvE over player skill in PvP"

I truly don't understand how a casual player is expected to be competitive in PvP without unlocking all the items. The "powergamers"/"Hardcore" players have already unlocked everything they needed at Riverside before you (ANet) hit it with the nerf on drops ... so it is the casual player that wants to PvP that is being punished in this move.

ANet in your BWE weekend events the game was a joy to play. It was easy (as advertised) to get PvP ready, there was bountiful loot everywhere. Nowadays I'm lucky to see a blue drop let alone a yellow or purple. I can assure you that players like to collect "cool stuff". Your team has the optimal drop system in place, with farms like Riverside and Gate of Kryta in place for the powergamers. Everybody was happy. Now I feel like a man dying of thirst. When will the item famine end?

Where is the exotic skill trader? Are players now expected to grind through PvE content sometimes many times in order to get all the elite skills? Again I don't understand this move to the Sig of Capture ... I can't speak for everyone but I know the vast majority of people I knew bought their elites from vendors.

I am writing this letter not so much to ask for changes. I am writing this letter to ask for an explanation. As a casual gamer that played GuildWars alot during beta I don't understand why all these changes are taking place but I WANT to understand the logic. You guys seemed to listen to your fan base in the BWE's ... are you still listening now?

Sincerely,

Bamelin

*edit* I'm posting this on a couple of my favorite fan forums in hopes that somebody from ANet sees this.

I've only played 30 hours, and so I haven't really experienced the need for Runes yet, but from what I have read, it seems to be a problem...And being the casual gamer I am... (30 hours in 19 days) I sure do hope it gets fixed.

What you have to consider is that GW has to appeal to a broad range of players. A game geared soley to the casual gamer will quickly lose a big chunk of their player base.

A lot of people are complaining that *only* people who grind in pve will be able to put up a fight in pvp. As far as I know, this is completely unfounded and is probably a knee jeck reaction, to overuse a phrase.

I've played about 30 hours, and I've gotten 2 major runes so far. About 4 minor ones.

What's this about not being able to infuse?

Haha I was thinking about that too. I've sunk 80+ hours into this game, at least a few hours every day since release. Being the perfectionist I am, I've restarted 2 times. I haven't even gotten to the infusion mission yet, but I hope I can get all my armor infused. But if some new patch prevents that...

So what? Guild Wars is good enough so that I can try to work a way around that: guess what my main character is? A W/R. Why?! you ask? Because I like Rangers, and I want to look cool like a Warrior. So I deal with the 20 energy (27 with Gladiators) and play like a Ranger. But wait, doesn't gladiators give 28 energy? No! I don't wear the helm cause it's ugly! Haha! That's the end of my rant. The moral is Guild Wars is good enough as it is; the patches bring lots of improvements, but someone will always find a fault in the game. You can't please everyone, but if you've pleased the other 99.999999% of the players, then what's the matter?

There are 5 different infusion missions throughout the game. It is being speculated it was never the designers intent for people to infuse all 5 times at the first infusion mission. Many think this is an oversight on the devs part (being able to do the 1st infusion mission more than once) ... one that will soon be fixed.

wait...theres 5 different infusion spots?! I only thought there was one! Even with 5x Infused the Mursaar and Jades are still the hardest level 24 enemies in the game, I HARDLY see a reason to make them any more difficult.

Oh and...100 hours?!...I beat the game (final boss) at 50 hours, and have farmed for many runes/gold/whatever items now, and I'm not even sure if I hit 70 yet...am I just fast or something?

Although his complaint about drops have merit, even though Ive farmed, I don't recall ever unlocking a superior (or whatever the +3 one is called) rune, maybe I'm not farming the right stuff?