Originally Posted by Juanrdp Go to original post
I think that the problem is way deeper than that and is really a design decision because they are trying a change in the ways the games are played.

GR Wildlands is half a "conventional" game, you have a playground, a history that keeps you attached to the game and activities to keep you playing (and some added content in the form of DLC)

Then they change the concept from "games as product" (GR Wildlands, AC Origins and AC Oddisey) to the concept "games as service" (The Division, R6m For Honor) that keeps the income in the form of seasons, loot boxes, consumables, etc....


You could change this change in the release of a "year 2 pass" for GR Wildlands, that it's not really a DLC (it didn't add a single drop of content) but some goodies to a PvP mode, probably because it's cheap to make and get a lot of income in comparison with the cost of doing it.

But for in-game shop, seasons, etc you need to increase the player retention once the en-game is archived, quality content is difficult and expensive to make, but "grind" content is easy and cheap to make.

And that's why you get gear score inside the game, because they add a carrot to the player and allow the developers to add a layer of grind to keep the players doing cheap content and sell in the while anything from year passes, to in-game boxes or cosmetics or easy unlocks.

In summary:

You must add some meaningful carrot to the player to keep playing (to sell them things from seasons to loot boxes, equipment....) that could be:
1 - Quality content (expensive to do)
2 - Pvp content (cheap to do, but GR is not a known game for the Pvp, it's a PvE game even they insist to add a PvP layer in the form of Ghost War and probably they don't expect to have a lot of players by the pvp)
3 - Grinding content (the old way of grind > raids > raise equipment level > back to start)

One is expensive, another seems to be a failure in this game, what do you think the developers try?
And if you remove equipment level what would be the carrot to keep the players grinding the same content?
Effectively a lazy way of making a game somewhat lasting and enjoyable rather than putting in some effort to make the gameplay the thing that keeps players coming back for more. Annoying!