the hunts made me hate this community now

[Iriadysa]

The complete game has been devalued by Hunts. This was a step in the wrong direction in every single aspect and while the damage is already done one can only hope SE realizes this and does not repeat this mistake in future content.

This damage is permanent for the current iteration (2.3x), but due to this game's fast self-obsolescence cycle it's possible to fix it by the next big patch (2.4). This may or may not cause SE to change plans to ensure that hunts are no longer not only the most sought out content but also the only relevant one.

But there's a problem here. Hunts may not actually be the mistake some of us firmly believe it is, when you look at it in perspective.

There's certainly many people happy with this system. It gives easy top tier gear, requires no skill whatsoever or understanding of game mechanics, it's perfect for horde mentality guilds where a handful of people know what's happening and the rest follow on command (i.e. 4-5 leaders know the ToDs and where to look for the spawns while the rest of the FC waits till they are told where to go) and gives around-the-clock activities for the whole FC.

On the side of the people that complain about the hunts, there's two clearly opposed arguments:

- "Hunts suck because they make the game pointless" and
- "Hunts suck because I cannot get the credits I want"

While it may seem we are both on the same side ("Hunts suck!"), the problem is we most definitely are not even close. You often see "hunt defenders" argue back that people not liking hunts are jealous because they cannot get the stuff they want. While aggressive and juvenile, this is in a way true. The second group would be perfectly happy with the hunts if they could get the rewards they want from it.

This is a big problem because it means that there may be few people (relative to the mass of players) that believe that hunts are fundamentally flawed, not because we cannot get the rewards we want but because it makes everything else in the game pointless.

I firmly suspect that the player base that believes hunts are fundamentally wrong is rather small and it makes me wonder about the future of this game and the genre as a whole. This is a worry that has been going on for a while and as time goes by my expectations are met.

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Disclaimer: I have no problem getting the hunt credits I want in the most cases. I do believe the hunts have ruined most of everything else the game has to offer by trivializing it and replacing it with a Skinner's box style system: press button for (chance of) reward.