Quote Originally Posted by Chezen View Post
You just described most of the RPG genre. Seems to have been a good design for a lot of people.

Working towards something builds character, and dare I echo the boards, a sense of acomplishment. Now, I'm not against changing the system up and/or making it better, but automating the abilities completely? ...I'd rather he not do that, please.
I'm sorry, i didn't exactly state that correctly. So lets give it another shot.

So locking basic skills abilitys and traits behind a superfluous grind wall was a good idea?

Let me further refine that.
The idea of lateral character growth is good. Heck its what the armory system is built upon. but to tell you the truth i do not feel any sense of accomplishment when i fork over the marks to unlock a basic attack, skill, or class trait that should have been part of the skill package in the first place.

Now do not take this as i am saying the whole shebang is with out merit. The guild marks system was definitely cool on paper, but it suffered from the same problem that a lot of the other cool on paper things that were in at launch. It was done in such a way that when you really look at it you are just left scratching your head. When you step back its a bit like playing pachinko in a place where gambling for cash is illegal. Instead of the machine paying out cash, you get balls that you exchange for tokens. then go next door to redeem your tokens for cash.

I think i might be rambling a bit now so let me wrap this up.

Jumping through extra hoops for really cool and game play redefining things, ok (example xi's merit system). Jumping through hoops for basic stuff that should have been given to you in the process of jumping through the ones you already have, No bueno.