Why bother making a “main product” at all

My guess is legally protecting themselves against potential new laws and regulations, so they have more time to make changes or continue making money if these practices get outlawed.

Why is this exclusive to the mobile market?

It’s not; it exists in computer and console gaming too, just to a lesser extent. As to why, my guess here is that mobile has a lower barrier to entry, and they’re always accessible where a computer or console might not be. There’s probably some sort of “cultural” aspect here too, where it’s already prevalent in mobile so people are more accepting of it, but computer/console gamers had their own culture where this didn’t exist for many decades and so won’t be as accepting.

I guess that’s just how F2P goes in games where most content is P2P.

GW2 has actually had remarkably little powercreep compared to other games, but even so, there’s still enough that players without a glider, mounts, elite specs, etc will struggle to keep up.

I wish there was a way for players to reduce their own power in OW in exchange for slightly increased rewards, even if those rewards were account bound. Most players would go for this (I think) and it would reduce how much stuff gets obliterated in seconds without making players feel like they got nerfed.

I have a separate account specifically for self-imposed challenges and semi-RP. I often end up running around in white gear; you know the worst gear you can get, the trash you buy from vendors?

Goddamn does it make the game tough. But goddamn does that difficulty make the game so much fun, much like how OP is describing it.

I wish there was an in-built mode that supported this kind of play.

Haha fair enough.

I agree with what you’re saying, but why do you bold so many words?

There’s definitely pros and cons. It looks like there will be some fun stuff, and GW2 is still cheaper than every single other MMO on the market (WoW and ESO+ cost 6x as much as GW2 per year), but it does feel like a lot of content, especially OW, is slowly being invalidated by crazy new mechanics and power creep. I mean, we’ll soon be able to mount up in combat? Death was already pretty meaningless lol; now you’ll never die unless you’re actively trying to.

The combat and exploration is still the best of any MMO on the market though, so yeah, it surprises me how extremely negative some people are about what’s coming.

No rush dude, enjoy your Series X!

I’m new to Lemmy and couldn’t find a way to tag you, so apologies for that! But my reply to Skiptrace was also kind of a reply to you :)

Oh man, please hit me up if you’d like to jump into GW2. One of my favourite things in any game is just adventuring across the land, doing quests, uncovering and discussing characters and lore, slowly improving out items together without worrying about “trading efficiently”, taking on little challenges like Dungeons or bosses, etc.

I’ve also gotten into Raiding lately with other first timers. We literally just go in without reading any guides, no roles assigned, and just try to work out how to get past each encounter/boss together.