Quote Originally Posted by Johners View Post
If they were going to get rid of all timegates, yes the weekly lockout system is a timegate, they might as well take the MMO servers offline and just make a single player action combat game using the Unreal Engine.
The current savages are an accurate example of why that is false. They face many problems and flaws that instead of being fun end up being anoying, and cause many players to be done faster.

First of all, if you have a good team, only the first clear takes a bit more time, after that its just a weekly reclear and you are done already. Once everyone has the gear (which in a static is managable), you are done. No need to do the content anymore unless you want the gear for other jobs (why bother though, just wait until the weekly restriction is done and then grind it). Its a terrible timegate, and causes several issues to those without a static: there is no benefit to help people, you are most efficient being as selfish as possible. Thats the exact opposite of what you want in an MMO.

Yet, they could have taken a more similar approach to regular extremes: make reclearing more rewarding, but also more demanding to grind for the best:
Lets say that instead of the 2 good pieces dropping, it now always drops 2 less but still good ones. These 2 are an upgrade, but to get the best, you need to be lucky for the 3rd item (5 ilvls higher) to drop, or buy it with totems. The weekly clear now instantly gives 5 of these. And extra clear adds 1 to this. However, for any player that hasnt completed it yet, you get another. Would you go for a team where 6 have it completed and 2 havent? Sure, you might face a few more wipes, but the totems can compensate for that. The items then can for example cost 20 each (single clears now take 4 weeks for 1 of such tiem).
But the key here is: because players are now busy grinding the gear here, the next fight can get a delayed release. Like for example 3 or 4 weeks. You now end up with at least 16 weeks of content, of which even for those who only want a single clear takes at least 9 weeks (3w cycle) or 12 weeks (4 week cycle).

For some it might be more anoying if its staggered like that, but it also keeps the grind alive longer.

For 'the' late game content, its bad since once the next patch is out, the content becomes completely obsolete. Extremes do a much better job here.

Timegating can be anoying, but it can also be a tool to increase the fun by making it less of a 'everything at once and now' situation.