Game updates and "design notes"

Game updates and "design notes"

in Suggestions

Posted by: Refeuh.8493

Refeuh.8493

Hi all -

Reading the forums, there seems to be lots of misconceptions about some of the game fundamentals and design mechanics.

Some examples taken from the recent forum activity :

- Daily rewards, seen as chores
- Ascended gear, seen as gear treadmill
- Guild missions, seen as gated content that small guilds will never access
- Updated dungeon mechanics, perceived as “insane” difficulty
- and so on

I don’t pretend to know better than everybody else, but there are players that do still enjoy the game, and I am one of them ; my common answers for the examples I mentionned would be, short version :

- Daily rewards > the rewards come for free, just play the game normally and you complete 90% of the objectives at no extra effort
- Ascended gear > the stat difference is so insignificant that “BiS” theory doesn’t apply. The only “gated” content is 20+ FOTM, but fractals players get AR easily while leveling up. Other ascended gear are just long term rewards: play the game normally, and every now and then you’ll get an Ascended item, which is supposed to make you feel great ! These items are breaking the gap between exotic and legendary. You’re not supposed to “rush” and get them in days to be competitive
- Guild missions > this is supposed to give people new content over time. Guilds are not supposed to flush 500k Influence right now and play all the new stuff right now (even though some can and will access the missions slightly earlier than others). Again, long term goals, and the Influence-based unlocks let each guild prioritise the queue of upgrades. In months, you’ll still be unlocking missions. Once you accept that, it gets much easier
- Dungeon mechanics > I played AC yesterday, and the changes do not increase the difficulty, they actually makes things easier if you understand the logic. This creates a gap between “good use” and “bad use” of the game mechanics. Grave zergs and pure DPS brute force just don’t work anymore. This is a GREAT incentive early in the game to encourage players to explore the game mechanics. Arguably, some other dungeons could use the same kind of attention (HoW, aka. straight-line-brute-force-bashing)

This thread is not about daily rewards, ascended gear, guild missions or dungeon balancing though. Please do not comment on these There are many other (endless) topics already debating these at great length.

My point is that I am convinced many players simply misunderstand what the updates are about, and how the game is supposed to be “played”.

Just read some threads on this forum… it’s ridiculous – People second guess and misunderstand the motivations for the changes, and end up blaming the developper for this or that, suggesting alternatives that would be “obviously better” (even though most just don’t work when you look at the big picture), and finally state that ANet employees are all dumb for not doing what they want. Seriously ?

Game updates and "design notes"

in Suggestions

Posted by: Refeuh.8493

Refeuh.8493

That being said… to my actual point -

Every time there is an update, we get a fairly comprehensive change log, with details of all the small modifications. But these are mostly just details. Game changing details, but implementation details nonetheless. What we are missing is the motivation behind the changes, i.e. the thought process that lead to the changes, the reason why the changes are an improvement.

Some players do get the reasonning behind the changes, and some don’t. And I don’t pretend to understand, but at least I still enjoy the game, and it still matches the expectations I had on day 1, unlike some people who seem to consider playing GW2 a chore.

Once you understand (or think you understand…) why things are the way they are, it is much easier to accept the update. And sometimes you will still disagree, but at least you know what the intent was.

There is absolutely no reason why ANet would want to frustrate the players, “break” the community, or any of the things we can read on these forums. When you develop a game, your product is played by thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people, and you pay attention to the feedback, and you’re proud when the players like your game. There is nothing more frustrating as a game developper than working on a product that people don’t enjoy.

Therefore, my suggestion is quite simple : monthly updates should have “design notes” to explain the motivation behind the changes. Quite similar to change logs, but more about the intent rather than the actual changes.
If you look around, you can find partial information ; an interview here, a blog post there, and article over here, maybe some reddit additions, etc.
We get the very high-level (the update overview : you’re told it’s about guild missions, rework of the dailies, etc.), we get the very low level (the change log), but we only partially get the intermediate level, the one explaining the motivations and the way game designers expect people to play the game.

I find it infuriating when I see people complaining that the game is lacking content, that there’s no “end game”, that daily rewards are a chore, that you have to grind for pink items, and so on ; to me it seems all these people are completely missing the way the game is supposed to be played.

As a tangible example for GW1 players, we got one of these “design presentation” when Dervishes were reworked completely ; for example it explained why Flash enchants were required to improve the mechanics of that class. Some people did still complain about the changes, but at least you could point them to a reference and say “eyh look, that’s a good thing and that’s why it’s a good thing”

We shouldn’t need to understand the thought process, but apparently, given the amount of complains on the forums, we do. I am suggesting an additional layer of communication to help solve the issue.

Thanks for reading