Guild Wars 2

Well on the one hand it has been buggy, on the other they’re quick to address most of the game breaking bugs.

Might want to delete your last two paragraphs so the thread isn’t so hostile, but I do agree some sort of statement wouldn’t go unwarranted. I’m sure they’re fully aware of the problems and it would be nice to hear even “we have a plan, the end.”

I’ve been frustrated, at times, by the recent bugs too. However, I have to give ANet a pass as ‘Escape from Lion’s Arch’ was some of the most fun content I’ve played in an MMO (and that’s going back more than a decade).

The 3/7/14 “hotfix” pretty much again raises serious questions. You know how bad it is when people want a reversion to the version that gave no loot…

Arkard.3970:

“Our first release in the new year will be on January 21 as we begin our countdown to the end of this story arc. We’ll use the longer break to spend extra time to ensure that our final four releases are as polished and exciting as possible.”

Source: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/living-world-2013-the-year-in-review/

I for one would like to know exactly what was “polished” during this extra time.

The last batch of releases have not only been far from “polished,” they’ve been some of the buggiest patches to date. Each release has not only contained bugs that have literally crippled the content they were supposed to introduce, but introduced along with it stuff that would make any QA professional cringe.

Examples include: The marionette event not working right if beaten once, worm chain breaking at pirate rum, EOTM literally being down for half a day, everyone and their mother being allowed into EOTM map causing crippling lag, worm exploits, worm scaling, Miasma and citizen counters broken, attunement circles not showing up, Prime hologram going invulnerable, knights not dropping loot, inventory bags magically increasing in size everytime you open your UI, WvW scoreboard being FUBAR, and heck, even an entire server being locked out of a borderland for nearly a day…. and that’s just off the top of my head.

So I’m left to wonder if this was just an excuse to give the devs some holiday off time or just incredibly poor execution. If the former, not many people at all would hold it against ANET for taking some holiday time off, just be straight with it. If the former, seriously? ANET insists it does QA, but the player base seems to be holding fast to the belief that it’s nonexistent, and that’s being reinforced time and time again, not debunked.

The Pavilion was an amazing event – and it was a year ago and they can’t get anything NEAR that in fun and player satisfaction thereafter.

Tells me a lot about who they are trusting with this storyline and the code.

Why are anonymous moderators editing our texts without saying a word about why?

CureForLiving.5360:

Well on the one hand it has been buggy, on the other they’re quick to address most of the game breaking bugs.

The leeching problem has been a problem since the scarlet invasions and continues to be one.

I think that break wasn’t soley for the LS finale but also for the china release. After it went live I am pretty sure we can expect updates on the quality level before the finale (which weren’t too bad) or even better.

Polished Content?

Unpolished, untested, bug ridden, disappointing, a let down, utter rubbish 4 patch fixes later…

Anet sure have ‘learned’ a lot in 16 months of living story…

Really bad update especially with loads of brand new shiney games releasing about now/in the next month or so…

Its such a shame when the first 3 updates in 2014 where so good/fantastic. The ‘Escape from Lions Arch’ was awesome.

kokiman.2364:

The leeching problem has been a problem since the scarlet invasions and continues to be one.

Shamefully enough I must admit I tried to afk-leech Scarlet Invasion events… (I promise I never did something like that again, mostly because) and I barely got any loot at all. Scarlet Invasion was a better designed event since you had to actively participate to get anything. Although if by leeching you’re referring to the champ farming, then yes that was pretty annoying at times. Although ANet did implement something new for the marionette, champs that don’t drop champ boxes, so players had to actively work toward the goal to be rewarded. Still it seem that they’ve reintroduced afk-leeching.

I have to say this update is a bit of a mess, it needed a week more or something in testing and some major tinkering of the knight encounter.

No one in the history of ever has enjoyed or remembers how they enjoyed a game because of how hard it kicked their kitten .

Maybe if content and achievements were less challenging and/or a pain in the rear to do we wouldn’t need to hide in the corner or afk-leech for their rewards.

I honestly cannot remember a patch that didn’t introduce bugs to the game, and I’ve been playing since headstart. There probably were some that didn’t have any bugs at all, but what my brain remembers the most is all the ones that had at least one bug. That’s not good for customer satisfaction.

This latest patch, in particular, is a mess. This has seriously been the buggiest and least well thought out content, and their recent “fixes” don’t seem to have really fixed much. 6 Minutes to Knightfall is still bugged. Lasers in the holofight still hit you after they’ve gone, or don’t have an AoE warning before they hit. You also still have a chance to load in on one and immediately get downed/lose your chance at the achievement. Forcing players into splitting up in the Knight fight has crippled low pop severs and overflows. It’s also an extremely questionable decision in the first place, and seems like they are forcing us to play the fight how they want us to.

I hope Anet are embarrassed about this patch, because I’m embarrassed for them.

You have to keep in mind, most ANet staff probably took off for the holidays. (Although, we had at least a month of Wintersday… And that was basically all re-hashed content.)

It’s almost like they learned nothing from the prior releases…

They just assumed that people would break the zerg up. (When there’s no clear reason to do so, especially if each Knight drops its own loot.)

There should have been a single reward chest ala the marionette/wurm events for participating.

And so, LS season one ends as it began…

So, after a night of the hotfix, it seems:

- Healing of Blue Knight has been bugged again
- 6 Minutes to Knightfall not being awarded on actual completion, still being awarded at random
- Loot nerfed, possibility of NO loot if you fail to kill a knight at all
- Knights HARDER to kill now with players doing ~50% less damage
- Scaling still messed up

Honestly, ending the living story with the buggiest patch to date is an embarrassment.

The concept of Battle for LA is excellent, but the execution is terrible. Anet, you should be ashamed for releasing this.

Definatly the worst and most buggy living story part so far.

Squee Squashington.5189:

No one in the history of ever has enjoyed or remembers how they enjoyed a game because of how hard it kicked their kitten .

I disagree. There are many games out there that kick my kitten because they’re built on that challenge. For example, Borderlands 2 Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode… Was the most difficult, frustrating, and head-beating experience I’ve ever had playing a game, but it was outrageously kittening fun and I enjoyed every second of it.

I think what you’re trying to say is “no one in history of ever has enjoyed or remembers how they enjoyed a game because of how horrible certain designs were, how badly it was implemented, and how many bugs are present.”

Yup – it’s a sad end. And I for one am glad to see it is gone. With over 5k hours of play I feel used and abused.

But the good news is I have a torment shield to remind me of the good old days.

DominiFactum.7103:

The concept of Battle for LA is excellent, but the execution is terrible. Anet, you should be ashamed for releasing this.

Sadly enough I agree with this statement.

But most off all, to add insult to injury rubbing salt in an open wound, the hot fixes just keep getting worse. I am finally to the point where it is no longer appealing to spend real world cash in the gem shop (which I have admittedly spent way too much on) in support of the content that is being released in such shoddy and dysfunctional manner. Will I quit playing all together? Probably not, but the $$ I have been spending in the gem shop will end as this game is losing its fun factor.

I have to agree about the lack of polish. Even doing an heirloom run now is downright unpleasant due to the miasma in hooligans, the green laser, and the cannoneer. Not surprising since hardly anyone bothers to clear out 2 out of 3 of those.

Don’t laugh, but I play as a ranger nearly 100% of my PVE. I know this affects Mesmers and Necros, but having our minons/pets not allow us to complete achievements is ridiculous.

This last LS patch has actually caused me to want to log in less and less. I do understand that there will be bugs with patches, I expect them. I also expect people to be able to take a vacation/break and enjoy time away from their job, but I do not expect, nor do I accept having game breaking bugs. Not being able to complete events, achievements is just not acceptable.

I’m interested to see what comes with the March 18th patch, but I’m not holding my breath.

I think what it boils down to is that the team are clearly working their backside off to produce something excellent and epic – and by in large I do think they were achieving this more and more each patch. However, what this patch showed to me was that time constraints were the problem and a rushed out patch caused;

- bugs and repeating bugs
- QA not being able to test all tactics. There was a QA dev post saying that the Knights were intended to kill together not one by one. Well, I expect further time allowed for testing may have taken that more into account.
- no directional information. It was unclear within the game what people were meant to be doing and where they were meant to be going etc. That had the hallmarks of being something that was removed due to time constraints.

Like I said, the massive hard work the team put into the releases is laid out bare, but I think the big learning curve from Season 1 is scheduling – releasing something when it is ready, not to a pre-detremined and very tight schedule.

My 2-penneth

RIP season one finale.

http://i.imgur.com/kWCLC8z.jpg

It’s fun when it worked though, one of my fav bosses (scarlet not the knights)

I know it can be frustrating to run into several bugs but then you must consider that it’s not that easy to have a free-bug content as everyone else thinks. Any content, whether it’s a patch or an expansion, is found to have bugs because unfortunately some things are not straightforward to test and some problematic situations are discovered only in the game (often when a massive number of players are involved).

The best thing is to simply bring patience, I imagine that they will already be working like crazy to fix these problems as soon as possible in the game.

If I released anything close to this patch’s quality at my real job, I would be fired on the spot. My career would arguably be ruined, too, because I work in a very public atmosphere.

This isn’t a new problem with the game, either. Ever since launch, Guild Wars 2 has been plagued with bugs. Remember when the developers tried to do a live stream of the Orr temple events only to have three of them bug in a row? Remember at launch when literally every dynamic event in the world stalled in some servers? Remember all the class bugs some classes deal with to this day, some of them part of fundamental class mechanics?

But this patch, while wonderful in concept, is probably the buggiest, most dysfunctional content I have personally witnessed in any game. It’s definitely the buggiest content in any AAA game that comes to my mind.

Randulf.7614:

I think what it boils down to is that the team are clearly working their backside off to produce something excellent and epic – and by in large I do think they were achieving this more and more each patch. However, what this patch showed to me was that time constraints were the problem and a rushed out patch caused;

- bugs and repeating bugs
- QA not being able to test all tactics. There was a QA dev post saying that the Knights were intended to kill together not one by one. Well, I expect further time allowed for testing may have taken that more into account.
- no directional information. It was unclear within the game what people were meant to be doing and where they were meant to be going etc. That had the hallmarks of being something that was removed due to time constraints.

Like I said, the massive hard work the team put into the releases is laid out bare, but I think the big learning curve from Season 1 is scheduling – releasing something when it is ready, not to a pre-detremined and very tight schedule.

My 2-penneth

That’s the thing though, according to the front page post, they spent EXTRA time on this. Either they didn’t or it was so poorly spent as to be the buggiest set of releases yet. Either is unacceptable.

Well, I see this as the most polished content, ANet can produce. So this, or worse, is what we are to expect as content in the future.

Why would I be looking forward to any update again?

Arkard.3970:

So, after a night of the hotfix, it seems:

- Healing of Blue Knight has been bugged again
- 6 Minutes to Knightfall not being awarded on actual completion, still being awarded at random
- Loot nerfed, possibility of NO loot if you fail to kill a knight at all
- Knights HARDER to kill now with players doing ~50% less damage
- Scaling still messed up

Honestly, ending the living story with the buggiest patch to date is an embarrassment.

that and some achievements are still bugged even if Anet won’t admit or acknowledge it, events are poorly thought out for some classes, etc…

I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is disappointing because (at least for me) it’s not,
overall i like it but “unpolished, untested, bug ridden” (like someone wrote above) it definitely is and even after 4 hotfixes it still is.

Over my few months of playing the game I’ve tried to focus on the positive because there’s quite a lot. But it’s getting hard to do. The quality of the releases seems to be going in the wrong direction.

The OP’s comments were overly harsh, but the overall gist of the complaint is hard to argue with. There’s a distinct lack of polish in this content that’s noticeable even to someone like myself who only started last fall.

I think the reason is obvious: tying the releases to specific dates rather than putting stuff out when it’s actually ready. This LS event was not ready, and quite obviously so.

The LS was the worst thing that could happen to GW2.

By now we could have had about 4 to 5 big content releases and probably a real expansion.

All that was sacrificed for temporary bug fests.

I have two things to say on this subject.

First, when you tell players you’re taking two weeks to ensure your finale is as polished as possible, then you release a finale as bugged and as big a mess as this, you just look bad. Shooting straight with your customers is almost always the best way to go. I don’t think any reasonable person would have begrudged you guys a thing if you’d simply said “we’ve been working hard, so we’re going to take a two week break around the holidays to rest and spend time with our families. We’ll be back to work after the new year.” But saying what you said, then releasing this mess? That’s just egg on your face.

Second, and more importantly, I think this finale illustrates what I and many others have been saying about the Living Story all along: two weeks simply isn’t enough time to ensure the quality of your release is where it should be. There’s not enough time to get the quality up to the level of the quality in the game at release, and there’s not enough time for the QA time to find and the developers to fix bugs. This release underscores exactly that. We’re three full days into content that will only be available for 14, and we’re still faced with serious bugs and design issues. You should be striving for better than this. You guys need to abandon “when it’s due” and go back to “when it’s ready”.

While this content did have major bugs, I still enjoyed it and think the majority of people have as well.

The problem with the Living Story expansions is that they cannot be completely tested before releasing to the public. “Public Test Servers” then people say. Well that is an option, but it is not an option if you want to tell a dynamic story as it goes along. Part of the excitement that people find in the new content is that it is “new”. You get to be the first one to experience and learn something. I find that enjoyable. Am I also one of the first to see the annoying bugs? Yes, but I also know they will fix it and the content will be around long enough to experience all of it.

Games like these come in two forms: Television and Movie. TV episodes are released more often and you get more, especially considering you don’t pay for it; Movies come out much less often and but they are usually higher quality and they aren’t free. I enjoy both and I actually appreciate the effort Anet puts into all the additional content they are constantly releasing. I also played the first game since the beginning and saw how far they came over its lifespan and I expect the same from this game.

I see the thought police are already monitoring…..happy thoughts only….

What is the excuse this time for the errors? Bad Design? Player’s fault? Bad QA? Surely it can’t be that the 2 week release schedule is impacting the quality of the releases. Even recently, this was brought up and it was deflected/shot down again when someone at Anet was interviewed.

While patches bring bugs, it is extremely detrimental to your product when each release has such a short lifespan. If the release is broken for over 50% of the time, what does that say for your company/efforts. Serious effort to fix/QA are likely abandoned in the realm of “it will be gone in two weeks, why waste company time/resources to fix it.”

At this point, I’m more likely to trust the local politicians than the quality coming from the releases.

Riviriel.9718:

Games like these come in two forms: Television and Movie. TV episodes are released more often and you get more, especially considering you don’t pay for it; Movies come out much less often and but they are usually higher quality and they aren’t free. I enjoy both and I actually appreciate the effort Anet puts into all the additional content they are constantly releasing. I also played the first game since the beginning and saw how far they came over its lifespan and I expect the same from this game.

Wait, you tell us, that if we want blockbusters, we have to find some other games, or we should settle with mediocrity every two weeks.

OK, than this game is not for me.

Well I for one like the LS and the regular releases of content. It doesn’t matter if it’s temporary, because the honest truth is that people would get bored of permanent content and stop playing it anyway. The devs understand that, which is good.

The problem is that they’ve clearly set a pace they can’t keep up with. Hopefully they understand that now and can adjust when the next LS story begins.

Everyone has already mentioned much of what I want to say. But maybe it’s time to let go of world boss events for a while. They ALWAYS result in zergs. You lose the player in this mass group. Essentially, you don’t matter (especially if you are not a warrior or a guardian). What I loved was the new dungeons in some of the living stories; I could do them with guildies and actually feel like what I do will make a difference. But, if you guys are really going to continue with zerg-world-bosses how about make them guild instances. You already have guild missions why not make world boss guild missions. This will help groups coordinate better and make being in a guild matter.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Riviriel.9718:

Games like these come in two forms: Television and Movie. TV episodes are released more often and you get more, especially considering you don’t pay for it; Movies come out much less often and but they are usually higher quality and they aren’t free. I enjoy both and I actually appreciate the effort Anet puts into all the additional content they are constantly releasing. I also played the first game since the beginning and saw how far they came over its lifespan and I expect the same from this game.

Wait, you tell us, that if we want blockbusters, we have to find some other games, or we should settle with mediocrity every two weeks.

OK, than this game is not for me.

Nah… if it were a TV series, it would have been cancelled after season 1… Oh wait… they are.
Let’s hope Living Story 2: The Next Generation will be better.

I have to say that next to southsun, this is the absolutely worst update they have ever done.

Re-posting this since it’s relevant here.

I have to say when you have the numbers and everyone’s on the same page the event seems pretty well balanced, challenging and rewarding.

I just finished a successful run on TC main (got straight into main so obviously not enough for overflow). Seemed like we had about 15-30 for each knight, one commander at each point doing head counts before the event. Most actually didn’t think we had enough people but things went pretty smooth.

BUG: The health indicators for the knights however are bugged, all but ours (green) showed no health the whole time. Ours was the last to go down and everyone got their loot (I got 1 core & boxes).

Entered the airship and had a few minutes of down time before some cut-scene dialogue started (never actually saw this before as I was always getting jumped in mid fight).

BUG: A few people got stuck upon entering the airship, locked in an invisible box it seemed. They were told to do an emote and I guess it worked since everyone was unstuck once the fight began.

A few simple commands were issued during the fight (kill ads etc.) and everything seemed really smooth. Still challenging and right up to the wire but we won. Chest appeared, everyone got loot (I got 3 more cores…this time the ones I actually wanted!) and then went into the instance. Unfortunately I got disconnected right as I was leaving so didn’t get anything more (don’t even know if the rewards are repeatable) but whatever. Mission accomplished.

So overall my impression of this latest change to the Scarlet encounter is improving with one very important caveat. As I said I am on a high population T1 server (TC) and we barely had enough people. I don’t see how a low population server or overflow would have any chance of success. This coupled with the mechanic that unless your knight goes down you get nothing widens the gap between those who will spread out and those who want to ensure they at least get something.

Kumu Honua.2751:

I have to say that next to southsun, this is the absolutely worst update they have ever done.

At least at southsun, we got some nice backpiece for achievements (LS) and exotic loot + exotic trinket +20 slot bag for being there at the opening event.

Back in the days we were at least rewarded for being part of the bug fest…

I think we’d just need to petition for NCsoft to give the devs a bit more breathing room. This 2-week schedule simply isn’t enough. And I can imagine that the dev teams involved in LS creation are worked to the bone.

Honestly, the tight schedule introduces unnecessary bugs, breeds complaints and the people trying to give us something exciting only get spite for their work, for the most part. While I’m also amazed by the amount of gamebreaking bugs, in most of the LS updates, I feel sorry for the people having to create this and then fix it, only to have people getting angry at them for the lack of polish, which I’m convinced isn’t their incompetence but a lack of time.

So please, make the biweekly schedule a monthly or bimonthly one, or a ‘when it’s done’. This rushed out chunks just don’t cut it in the long run.
And give the dev teams more breathing room.

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Kumu Honua.2751:

I have to say that next to southsun, this is the absolutely worst update they have ever done.

At least at southsun, we got some nice backpiece for achievements (LS) and exotic loot + exotic trinket +20 slot bag for being there at the opening event.

Back in the days we were at least rewarded for being part of the bug fest…

That’s the wrong mindset for this thread. This thread is about content quality, not loot quality. Well implemented content with no rewards should be preferable to poorly implemented content with good rewards by everyone.

darkace.8925:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Kumu Honua.2751:

I have to say that next to southsun, this is the absolutely worst update they have ever done.

At least at southsun, we got some nice backpiece for achievements (LS) and exotic loot + exotic trinket +20 slot bag for being there at the opening event.

Back in the days we were at least rewarded for being part of the bug fest…

That’s the wrong mindset for this thread. This thread is about content quality, not loot quality. Well implemented content with no rewards should be preferable to poorly implemented content with good rewards by everyone.

I just prefer poorly implemented content with good rewards to poorly implemented content with bad rewards.

I usually never speak in map chat, but there where players asking everyone to go to the knights. I was whispered twice by different players to go to the knights they need everyone to help. I told the rest of the map, sorry, I am not doing buggy content that I have already done several times for no reward. Amazingly, only a few people replied and I was not raged at and actually received a few whispers agreeing with me.
There where problems from day 1 with this patch. Players where reporting the problems on the forum for days and we where completely ignored. No responses, no comments. Days after the release when many had already given up a dev responded. The response was too little, too late. We where not asking a lot, only for a dev to take 1 minute out of their time to respond and just say they are aware and working on it.
I do tech support/help desk for a living. I know how it is when you have dozens or even hundreds of people all asking for help. You simply acknowledge that you are aware of the issues so people know some one has heard them. We where ignored. This update could have been fun, and it was for the first hour or so, but when you run in to bug after bug after bug, AFK leechers, no loot, griefers because or poorly designed mechanics, you lose interest. They threw a bandaid on the patch and “fixed” some issues but ignored others, but again, too little, too late. I could say what I really think, but I would get my forum account banned for sure. I am just sick of it.
Like they said in the old movie, “I’m mad as (heck) and I am not going to take it any more”.

Sourde Noire.5286:

I think we’d just need to petition for NCsoft to give the devs a bit more breathing room. This 2-week schedule simply isn’t enough. And I can imagine that the dev teams involved in LS creation are worked to the bone.

Honestly, the tight schedule introduces unnecessary bugs, breeds complaints and the people trying to give us something exciting only get spite for their work, for the most part. While I’m also amazed by the amount of gamebreaking bugs, in most of the LS updates, I feel sorry for the people having to create this and then fix it, only to have people getting angry at them for the lack of polish, which I’m convinced isn’t their incompetence but a lack of time.

So please, make the biweekly schedule a monthly or bimonthly one, or a ‘when it’s done’. This rushed out chunks just don’t cut it in the long run.
And give the dev teams more breathing room.

That tight release schedule also keep players logging in every other week. I’m sure you’ve noticed that every Tuesday new items are added to the cash shop. That’s ultimately the purpose of the LS, to keep players logging in so they’ll purchase those new, temporarily-available items. And that means quality will always take a backseat to money where the LS is concerned.

CC Danicia.1394:

Hello all,

Please remember to be respectful towards our staff while giving your feedback. You can be critcal and offer your opinions & suggestions, but we ask that you keep the rude & insulting comments out of your feedback. Thank you.

This is mature common sense communication etiquette that unfortunately sometimes needs to be repeated…and I respect this.

Squee Squashington.5189:

No one in the history of ever has enjoyed or remembers how they enjoyed a game because of how hard it kicked their kitten

q.v. Dark Souls, Demon Souls, God of War, Devil May Cry, or fans of trib-mode SAB for obvious rebuttal

This post is full of internet rage, but I have to concur the quality of this patch was really disappointing to me. The first day when the knights glitched for me three times, then scarlet glitched when I finally got in (we finished it but no rewards) and then glitched again the next day (invuln at 25%), I felt like logging out and never logging back in. It is a long fight, bugs are much more frustrating.

I have 18.7k acheivement points but am not going to attempt In Tune and no Tricks, since it took me a long time to actually get them unlocked, i.e. to beat scarlet due to bugs. I am simply sick of the event and the time it takes to do it and then to fail (with no warning, because of aoe attacks, because of pets/clones). It just feels like these events and achievements are not very well thought out or tested, and for the finale it was a big disappointment. Even a little thing like not getting to skip the cut scene when there is an achievement to complete following it is a pretty egregious oversight. And it only took me 8-10 tries, I was sick of the video the first time.

Still not seeing anyone who thinks this ISNT the buggiest set of releases yet.