Huh O M G... even more Grinding and time consuming stuffs!?...

I mean I am still level 19 and 25 on DZ .... am a Solo player because of CASUAL play.... Was hoping on the possibility to AT LEAST ABLE to do and enjoy the seemingly sensible and attainable late game CRAFTING... not likely to play incursions or other grouped type game types much if at all....

I guess now I can only complete the story and move on till new basic contents or basic features are added ;( darn lol... I should've known MMORPGs always wants to take my real life away... I just hoped at least the Hybrid shooter part of this mmo title could have had made this typically "hardcore" game to be more accessible and cater a little bit more to players who play a bit more casually who prefer grind reasonably and then to just jump in and jump out of a play in bursts.

Maybe.. (just maybe) if we stop asking and demanding Game Devs to consume (Or ERASE?! :)) our lives... and if we wouldn't judge games' worthiness primarily by its "game hours" instead of its' ability to deliver quality immersive and memorable experience LOL (keyword is to Balance it ppl!).... Or maybe At least every gamer shouldn't just play ONE single game so hard like it's work and they earn a living from it... Surely it is not that hard to take it down a notch. Support the game industry better by playing many games :) there are actually so many decent titles out there... Try them out :)

Too much entertainment time is never good for you at the end!

Balanced life moar plz.. I mean just looking at the crafting here.... the rough approximate crafting effort required increased: from green to blue is 200%; from blue to the next one is 300%; then 125% increase to the last material tier.

That means crafting solely from upgrading materials roughly you will need 750% more effort?! That is not mentioning or including 50% deconstruction nerf which in turn Doubles that total effort needed to astounding 1500% than the originally Intended!? My rough approximate might still be wrong please correct me.. but yeah.. seems like we're playing 15X too much(or too fast) more than what the Devs originally expected... ;p wow amazing feat nevertheless...

Just to confirm that all these titles have DLCs/Season Passes/etc... and like all business practice do you priced the upfront cost low so you get more or you recover the rest from the "subscriptions".

Just know that so you don't get disappointed later or feel like you're being forced to spend more. Plan and spend wisely, know what you're getting into, and you'll be fine if you so choose.

and oh yeah.... customer support is really the worst... so make sure you can take care of any potential problems yourself, don't expect anything (or too high) is the motto here.

I've not watched any let's play playthrough vids on games that I own unless I'm stuck somewhere and need help and/or for hidden easter eggs and collectibles.

I don't normally watch a playthrough or let's play videos even on a story focused/driven game if I plan to buy it. I consider it as spoiling the experience.

In fact I went to watch let's play videos when I know I won't be playing/buying it because of personal reasons... like I don't even like/interested in the genre or game itself. So: If I don't like playing car/racing games... But I am curious as to how the story unfolds I would watch it. But to be honest... I have not got the patience/time to watch it all the way. and thus so far I've not ever completed any let's play videos. But I never feel like it makes me want to buy after watching NOR does it make me dislike it more...

Because I watch let's plays videos to see what elements I want to see and not for the whole actual gaming experience. If I don't care enough or are being selective (for example just want to know the story - which I said earlier in reality even if I am super interested I've never actually watch the let's play completely for that story) that means other elements of the game... e.g. the gameplay or mechanics are not well made to my liking. So I am not motivated enough to buy ... and If I want to know the story I'd probably just go read about it somewhere as it is more time efficient... otherwise I would have already own and played that game.

TBH watching let's play videos takes as much time as watching and entire TV series sometime... and usually for a good story I can just go watch a 90 min blockbuster movie.

I'd watch proper and honest gameplay videos most of the time though... and those do affect my purchasing decision. Coz yeah... demos are called betas these days... and sometimes those "betas" are invite only etc.

@truthiscurrensy: Out of my 10-12 separate support/inquiries throughout the decade with ubisoft starting back in the day from the 2nd installment of splinter cell game.... only 3 ever gets answered... even if I followed it up or chase it up.

So roughly only 25% chance for proper response... even then it may not get resolved as it were in my case only ONE (1) gets actual resolution.

So yeah you kinda need score a heavy CRITICAL HIT to get a decent ubisoft customer support experience. What a total load of ****** company... Pardon my french.. ;p hahah

The Division's MAJOR Game Breaking Backpack Bug? about time a more serious issues gets covered rather than wasting manpower resources on minor tweaks etc...

It's causing COMPLETE TOTAL LOCK OUTS! ffs... Lol what is worse and more exciting BREAKING NEWS than this? Lucky I am not locked out so far.... though I have encountered this bug making my backpack capacity down to 40(30 base +10 additional from perk - first unlock of one of the base's wing reward) no matter the additional slots any kind of equipped backpack gives you.

I wasn't even using crafted backpack - but yes it was one of those mod slot-able one... and no I haven't bothered to report my issue or post about it.

I wonder why this has been hiding under the shadows for such a long time? Maybe the most recent patch (1.02 - 22 March) somehow increases the occurrence of this problematic bug and as a result much more customers have been affected thus raised level of awareness?

For some of these poor souls who spent money and anticipation they couldn't even log their characters since the 8th of March and the responsible company didn't even acknowledge the problem for such a long time... wowzer imo...

Reference:

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1411122-Division-Account-locked-in-permanent-connect-until-Ubisoft-addresses-data-issue <---(Note the OP even go as far as offering to PAY money to someone who can solve this issue)

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1418016-Connectivity-Infinite-Loading-Crafting/page14 <---(Yes 14 pages of unique individual accounts who bothered to notice or voice out... The latest post is as of Today)

https://www.reddit.com/r/thedivision/comments/4bkfdv/players_are_getting_locked_out_of_their_accounts/ <---(The current surviving reddit thread)

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1402937-Stuck-at-Connecting-Screen-on-Startup/page37 <---(Current state and referenced responses. As of this post now it is Bug day +16 - yes it FIRST happened on the RELEASE day. From what I read it is after many deleted and locked threads and live copy pasting questions (because ignored) by number of people in a live twitch stream etc they responded (took almost 2 weeks to get an acknowledgement of the problem!)

IMO... this is what happen if you let the big publishing guns of the games industry Re-Define the meaning of "Proper Beta testing procedures" into "Demo Marketing Publicity Stunt"... such a missed opportunity to root out annoying little bugs who have now grown and infested your golden backpack... stained ;p

@skyhighgam3r: Heh... heavy bag anger management...I have a $600 skin colored punching bag shaped of a 3/4 of a man... He's also bald and sour faced to, now I realized it is strikingly like Mr. 47.. I've dressed it up when punching too.. attached pictures of now unrecognizable faces too... perhaps I should tattoo a barcode behind the head and put up a suit as well now? But I have to fix that small dent on its nose first caused by my dog jumping at and biting it. Good times.... playtimes.. I bet you also vent using GTA?

I loved this series, played since the very first one and all that when the industry was still more pure... But since there are so many games and so little time these days, I didn't follow the news very closely...

So I just realized from this review... that this game is EPISODIC??? I mean what is it exactly? like Telltale series?? Or I mean... soap opera tv series... where they justify getting paid more from advertisements from having more air time for certain stations.. and where they can get some money from unfinished or work in progress... where they can charge 1 game for the price of 5 etc...

The thing is I am surprised that I noticed a fair number of people who are also not aware about the fact that this is made to be Episodic..

Seriously there was no reasonable public indicator or announcements that this is EPISODIC. I don't expect them to be naked and publish the profit projection or anything but AT LEAST have the DECENCY to be more transparent with this crucial gameplay experience affecting information?

You know some people... especially those who can't wait buying certain things.... generally can't wait to see a conclusion of a story either....

I can see the advantage of having it in episodic business model though, for example the constant improvement based on feedback etc.... but at the end of the day you're instilling and reinforcing the industry to do this unfair practice where for example a product/art is made OVERVALUED (just because being based of current average market purchasing power) regardless of the underlying "old" technology which is going to be keep reused for future contents.

So obviously there are some disadvantage as well such as delayed innovation/creativity competition since they can/should wait for another year before having to work on a new engine version etc.

Still probably seemed like a good game hearing that it came back to its roots from the gameplay videos around the net... Fortunately I'm a patient person with lots of backlog of unfinished games... It can wait till the price is more fair for a job "half"(?) done.

edit: and oh always On DRM is a bit of a let down too.. if it is justified because of the gameplay mechanics/model/significant features then fine... but if just for statistical and e-peen numbers to compare in the net...? Unfortunately IMO not justified..

@putaspongeon: Haha ok but I did not able to think of any other better comparison, reference or analogy... and ithe term crossed my mind because all this news and commotion fits the Japan themed mafia. Maybe you can give another alternative?

@ragnar320: You want constructive? Maybe I can give my 2 cents...

Grinding in games is in essence taking advantage of human psychology (even animals) who crave for deserving rewards after completing an assigned task.Over and over you can train whoever and anything to be good at certain things as long as you can motivate them enough with varieties of carrots on a stick.

However this model and concept takes more than reasonable time and literally your life-time (no pun intended).

Games are originally designed and meant for entertainment, which is in essence is your actual life's actual reward for completing actual tasks. It is to fill your downtime, to recharge you, to take a break, and to motivate you further....

But this has been down-scaled into game-worlds in the form of "levels", "loots" etc. Same concept...

Good game makers are plenty... but great game makers IMO would try to evolve and upscale us humans (at least.. ) to play games and be actually productive at the same time. Instead of potentially overtly and excessively making us consume and wasting time "rewarding" ourselves with game-time.

Because at some point... the same reward over and over would numb us. Just like how some people complain about loots... or that level prestige rank in some FPS game.... You've done that and you've seen that. So that's why people complain also about the genre... Somebody who play this genre too much at the end of the road will actually also numb themselves from enjoying it. It applies to other genres too and all other things in life including playing too much games.

SO what is good? Take everything in Moderation but always expect high quality experience (Storyline, music, atmosphere, presentation) each time. Soak in the experience and let it end... (while also waiting for the next great masterpiece :)! )

Make no mistake tho... Experiencing MMO-RPG genre is a great experience too.... it is in itself an experience :). But one must always be critical, aware and evolve as to what extent the experience is overall positive or negative will determine your overall life quality too...

So that's how you make things better IMO...

It is just that how the genre has evolved overtime that it wants to take as much time as possible is making me cringe a bit.... I know I'm rambling but then again it is constructive :) and it's just food for thought. Enjoy the game too tho.. :)