Endgame DRG Armor

[Nalien]

And obviously it's something that's working for most companies, because it's still here.

Yeah, it's working real great for WoW. Record subscriber losses, but what's that? They're still making plenty of money off it?

Having 100k subscribers, all paying 15$ a month, or having 50k subscribers, paying the same 15$ a month, but also willing to pay 15$ frequently in the cash shop? Which is better?

From a corporate stand point, the later. From a players standpoint though?

but any extra money they get from things like Cash Shop go towards a better experience for you.

In theory. In practice?

So far we've gotten EU servers. That's... About it? Perhaps the cash shop has finally afforded them a solution to housing come 3.3, but I wont hold my breath. Meanwhile the content they have been delivering has begun to be unimpressive, to say the least. We've had two major delays, back to back (Heavenswards release, and 3.1 because apparently SE can't schedule vacation time properly). We've had crap like Lords of Verminion and Diadem. People are starting to wake up and realize how recycled much of the games content is.

What better experience has the cash shop afforded me exactly? What's the major difference between Pharos Sirius (Hard) and the original Pharos Sirius? How is Diadem any better than Hunts? How much old content is actually improved upon, rather than just recycled? They seriously need to take that cash shop money, and hire some people with a damned sense of how to design content, because content has taken a step back, not forwards, or at best it has stagnated.

Ironically, PvP is where I perhaps see the most improvement in this game... Glad I enjoy PvP... Everywhere else though? They've streamlined content down to a fine art, rather than innovating or trying new things... The difference between Sastasha and Antitower? The mobs I burn down and the box I'm playing in. They haven't improved dungeons or done anything different with them. The same, to an extend, goes for Trials and Raids. When they do try to innovate, there is clearly an utter lack of any attempt at such a thing... Diadem is just a pretty box to play in. They just slapped Hunts in there (despite Hunts questionable popularity) and threw Gathering on top and called it a day, despite the obvious issues a choice like that presents (gatherers not contributing but casting lot on gear, for example). There was no attempt to work Hunts differently (and some how they're surprised when groups teamed up in Diadem in the same way they team up for Hunts...), there was no attempt to work gathering into the actual event in any meaningful way (slap temporary items to help in combat in the chests gatherers dig up, that ones free, SE). Props to the guys that made the zone and enemies, but the guys that made the event messed up. Lets not forget Relics, too... Oh look, despite extra money from the cash shop and months of subscription fees, we get... Pretty much a condensed version of the Zodiac weapon grind with the only new piece of content being the weapons themselves...

In a recent interview Yoshida mentioned how they're perhaps looking to hire content designers, and I hope to God they do, because the game really needs it at this point... The current guys putting this stuff together are just recycling the same tired ideas... Guys working on PvP are at least listening to the community and addressing some (though sadly not all) of the concerns of the PvP community. On the PvE side we're just getting the same stuff over and over, despite consistent complaints over the stuff... They clearly need some new blood coming up with ideas, because right now it seems they're going "People didn't like Atma... Oh well, lets give them Atma again!".