Guild Wars 2

Rednik.3809:

And its not about believing or not. As I said, its all about pure facts. We getting raid content and we not getting other content. We getting information about Anet happy with locking exclusive types of items behind raids and NO word about adding anything else for anyone else.

It’s literally “Eat raid or gtfo. What, you don’t like raids or like something else? Too bad, because you not getting anything else. Oh, and we plan to add more raid content, hope you like raids.”

Your post is not facts, it’s hyperbole and impatience. You want facts? OK, here they are.

In the last 7 months:

Raids

• 6 bosses; some trash
• Some rewards, but the big one isn’t here yet

Other PvE

• 4 maps (OK, maybe 3.5 if running around DS is not your thing)
• Each contains a meta cycle, so 4 of those
• Each map contains several boss encounters, VB alone has 5
• Exploration objectives and Easter eggs
• Other events
• Multiple armor and weapon sets
• Legendary journeys for Precursors V. 1.0
• Two festivals
• Shatterer revamp
• Gliding in core Tyria
• Mastery system, which is mostly open PvE stuff

WvW

• 1 new map, triplicated (which was at least a partial disaster)

Going forward:

Raids

• 1 new wing, so 3 more bosses
• Maybe L. Armor will appear, maybe not

Other PvE

• April update (whatever it is)
• LS S3 (whenever it hits)
• July update, whatever it is
• HoT revamp, whatever it is, whenever it hits

People who prefer “other” PvE had to wait about 9 months for HoT. People who prefer harder instanced content have waited a lot longer for not as much.

Those are the facts. Your perspective amounts to, “We haven’t had any PvE content since HoT and raids got 2/3’s of what HoT was supposed to deliver.” You want to be angry that ANet is no longer churning out updates every few weeks? Blame them. You want to blame other players? Blame the ones who burned LS in effigy every time it was offered. For all I know, you were one of them.

Rednik.3809:

]its not about believing or not. As I said, its all about pure facts. We getting raid content and we not getting other content. We getting information about Anet happy with locking exclusive types of items behind raids and NO word about adding anything else for anyone else.
It’s literally “Eat raid or gtfo. What, you don’t like raids or like something else? Too bad, because you not getting anything else. Oh, and we plan to add more raid content, hope you like raids.”

This alone could make Raids a bad thing currently, with too much focus and emphases on them, all kinds of special and unique loot linked to them, with nothing to curtail the blow to the casual crowd and toss them some tokens to keep them happy as well.

Astralporing.1957:

randomguy.1283:

“To be honest I could not care less about your enjoyment” Well thanks.

Well, it’s not like you care about his enjoyment either.

TexZero.7910:

Your hyperbole about the current situation is comical, but wrong. Raids have nothing to do with the content drought.

You’re saying that if the same team was doing anything else except raids they would not have been as succesful?

Because it seems now that all the best/most effective developers were put on raid team (and possibly next expac team) and everything else is being done with those that just weren’t that good enough.

“Well, it’s not like you care about his enjoyment either.”

Sorry unlike you guys I do actually care that the community overall in this game is happy, which is one of the reasons why I am also really disappointed in the latest content drought outside of raids, even though I am mainly here for raids.

Astralporing.1957:

TexZero.7910:

Your hyperbole about the current situation is comical, but wrong. Raids have nothing to do with the content drought.

You’re saying that if the same team was doing anything else except raids they would not have been as succesful?

Because it seems now that all the best/most effective developers were put on raid team (and possibly next expac team) and everything else is being done with those that just weren’t that good enough.

I dont have a crystal ball so i cannot say in good faith what the results would have been. However, if you sincerely believe that 5 people in a company of 200 are responsible for the content drought that’s even more absurd.

What i do see from a consumer perspective is poor resource allocation thus far, but that is not the fault of the raid team. As i stated before there’s virtually 0 reason to have 70 people on expansion pack 2 at this juncture in time, given the current state of the first pack and how much work it still needs.

But sure blame the raids team, saw this coming ages ago anyway. First it was blame the e-sports team, now its raids, next team to be blamed will likely be WvW. Shame players are being this petty about raids when infact they have been a boon to the game as a whole.

The reason why there are different teams is so each can push out different content consistently, it’s not the raid teams fault that the other teams aren’t pushing out content as fast, you guys saying they should scrap the rid them nd put them into other teams would be taking away from the people that enjoy that content.

Sorry unlike you guys I do actually care that the community overall in this game is happy, which is one of the reasons why I am also really disappointed in the latest content drought outside of raids, even though I am mainly here for raids.

I am curious, if you are mainly here for raids, which the game did not have at all six months ago, what were you doing for the previous three years?

IndigoSundown.5419:

People who prefer harder instanced content have waited a lot longer for not as much.

Excuse me, but to say you wait for raids would be a misnomer, as you were never promised them, in fact the decision to put them in was a very recent one, so you could not in any way have be waiting for them. You would have slacked your thirst for harder instance content on fractals and higher tier dungeons, Arah, HotW, Atherpath, TA, not to mention the increased difficulty of Shatter, Teq, and the added Triple Trouble World Boss, Etc. So, you have not been waiting at all for hard content.

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People who prefer harder instanced content have waited a lot longer for not as much.

Excuse me, but to say you wait for raids would be a misnomer, as you were never promised them, in fact the decision to put them in was a very recent one, so you could not in any way have be waiting for them. You would have slacked your thirst for harder instance content on fractals and higher tier dungeons, Arah, HotW, Atherpath, TA, not to mention the increased difficulty of Shatter, Teq, and the added Triple Trouble World Boss, Etc. So, you have not been waiting at all for hard content.

None of those things are even remotely difficult though…

IndigoSundown.5419:

Rednik.3809:

And its not about believing or not. As I said, its all about pure facts. We getting raid content and we not getting other content. We getting information about Anet happy with locking exclusive types of items behind raids and NO word about adding anything else for anyone else.

It’s literally “Eat raid or gtfo. What, you don’t like raids or like something else? Too bad, because you not getting anything else. Oh, and we plan to add more raid content, hope you like raids.”

Your post is not facts, it’s hyperbole and impatience. You want facts? OK, here they are.

In the last 7 months:

Raids

• 6 bosses; some trash
• Some rewards, but the big one isn’t here yet

Other PvE

• 4 maps (OK, maybe 3.5 if running around DS is not your thing)
• Each contains a meta cycle, so 4 of those
• Each map contains several boss encounters, VB alone has 5
• Exploration objectives and Easter eggs
• Other events
• Multiple armor and weapon sets
• Legendary journeys for Precursors V. 1.0
• Two festivals
• Shatterer revamp
• Gliding in core Tyria
• Mastery system, which is mostly open PvE stuff

WvW

• 1 new map, triplicated (which was at least a partial disaster)

Going forward:

Raids

• 1 new wing, so 3 more bosses
• Maybe L. Armor will appear, maybe not

Other PvE

• April update (whatever it is)
• LS S3 (whenever it hits)
• July update, whatever it is
• HoT revamp, whatever it is, whenever it hits

People who prefer “other” PvE had to wait about 9 months for HoT. People who prefer harder instanced content have waited a lot longer for not as much.

Those are the facts. Your perspective amounts to, “We haven’t had any PvE content since HoT and raids got 2/3’s of what HoT was supposed to deliver.” You want to be angry that ANet is no longer churning out updates every few weeks? Blame them. You want to blame other players? Blame the ones who burned LS in effigy every time it was offered. For all I know, you were one of them.

1. 4 maps. Aside from Drytop, how many plattformer maps had been released until HoT? If you are a vanilla GW2 fan, HoT is as much problem as solution to the content drought.
2. A meta circle. So what? Kessex Hills contains a meta circle too, except that there is no special reward for doing it. Every PvE map has it, it just restarts more often most of the time.
3. Ok? Boss encounters. What would a PvE map be without bosses? How does that upgrade HoT compared to other maps and raids in that regard?
4. Where has the time gone by when JP were optional?
5. What other events?
6. Festivals, I am pretty sure that Anet had to work overtime to bring the same stale festival over and over again.
7+8. Ok, this is undispitably helpful.
9. Mastery system was so grerat that Anet had to backpeddle as quick as possible with it.

For me, it looks like Anet puts in the absolute minimum for casuals right now and the absolute maximum for raiders. Not that they were overly creative with their festival stuff anyway and ls2 was a brutal desaster, but it was not on that scale yet. If that tactic proves successfull for them and they continue to exclusively churn out stuff like raids, my favorite game that I considered a refugee from raidcentric MMOs is no more.

Torolan.5816:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Rednik.3809:

And its not about believing or not. As I said, its all about pure facts. We getting raid content and we not getting other content. We getting information about Anet happy with locking exclusive types of items behind raids and NO word about adding anything else for anyone else.

It’s literally “Eat raid or gtfo. What, you don’t like raids or like something else? Too bad, because you not getting anything else. Oh, and we plan to add more raid content, hope you like raids.”

Your post is not facts, it’s hyperbole and impatience. You want facts? OK, here they are.

In the last 7 months:

Raids

• 6 bosses; some trash
• Some rewards, but the big one isn’t here yet

Other PvE

• 4 maps (OK, maybe 3.5 if running around DS is not your thing)
• Each contains a meta cycle, so 4 of those
• Each map contains several boss encounters, VB alone has 5
• Exploration objectives and Easter eggs
• Other events
• Multiple armor and weapon sets
• Legendary journeys for Precursors V. 1.0
• Two festivals
• Shatterer revamp
• Gliding in core Tyria
• Mastery system, which is mostly open PvE stuff

WvW

• 1 new map, triplicated (which was at least a partial disaster)

Going forward:

Raids

• 1 new wing, so 3 more bosses
• Maybe L. Armor will appear, maybe not

Other PvE

• April update (whatever it is)
• LS S3 (whenever it hits)
• July update, whatever it is
• HoT revamp, whatever it is, whenever it hits

People who prefer “other” PvE had to wait about 9 months for HoT. People who prefer harder instanced content have waited a lot longer for not as much.

Those are the facts. Your perspective amounts to, “We haven’t had any PvE content since HoT and raids got 2/3’s of what HoT was supposed to deliver.” You want to be angry that ANet is no longer churning out updates every few weeks? Blame them. You want to blame other players? Blame the ones who burned LS in effigy every time it was offered. For all I know, you were one of them.

1. 4 maps. Aside from Drytop, how many plattformer maps had been released until HoT? If you are a vanilla GW2 fan, HoT is as much problem as solution to the content drought.
2. A meta circle. So what? Kessex Hills contains a meta circle too, except that there is no special reward for doing it. Every PvE map has it, it just restarts more often most of the time.
3. Ok? Boss encounters. What would a PvE map be without bosses? How does that upgrade HoT compared to other maps and raids in that regard?
4. Where has the time gone by when JP were optional?
5. What other events?
6. Festivals, I am pretty sure that Anet had to work overtime to bring the same stale festival over and over again.
7+8. Ok, this is undispitably helpful.
9. Mastery system was so grerat that Anet had to backpeddle as quick as possible with it.

For me, it looks like Anet puts in the absolute minimum for casuals right now and the absolute maximum for raiders. Not that they were overly creative with their festival stuff anyway and ls2 was a brutal desaster, but it was not on that scale yet. If that tactic proves successfull for them and they continue to exclusively churn out stuff like raids, my favorite game that I considered a refugee from raidcentric MMOs is no more.

Yes I can agree that the more casual players got the short end of the stick when it came to the quality of content, but again its not the raids that made that new content bad quality.

Yes I can agree that the more casual players got the short end of the stick when it came to the quality of content, but again its not the raids that made that new content bad quality.

How do you know that? Maybe raids took up the lions’ share of the quality work, leaving very little quality left over for other projects.

Ohoni.6057:

Yes I can agree that the more casual players got the short end of the stick when it came to the quality of content, but again its not the raids that made that new content bad quality.

How do you know that? Maybe raids took up the lions’ share of the quality work, leaving very little quality left over for other projects.

How many times does it need to be pointed out that there are only 5 people on the raid team…

Astralporing.1957:

Rising Dusk.2408:

For those asking for the current legendary armor to be made more accessible, ANet will not be doing that (I can say this safely). The Forsaken Thicket legendary armor is a big component of encouraging players to get better at the game and tackle raids, and ANet recognizes that.

So, they acknowledge that without it Raids would not have enough sustainability?

Also, they tried to “encourage people to play better” more than once in the game history. The players are still the same. It’s just there’s now way less of them.

Rising Dusk.2408:

That would be like making the PvP back piece legendary more accessible to PvP players who can’t progress past Emerald, which they simply won’t do in order to encourage devotion to the game mode.

Technically, you can get it without progressing past Emerald. It would just take you 2 and a half years.

Also, Raids are not like sPvP league. They are completely binary here – either you do all wings or you don’t get the armor. There’s no 50% effort getting you to goal slower. That would be like PvP backpack requiring progressing to Legendary Division. Which, curiously, it doesn’t.

TexZero.7910:

If anything the unreasonable request being made is for Anet to 180 at the behest of a very vocal minority of players

Just as a very vocal minority making a request for Anet to do a 180 by bringing Raids in this game was unreasonable then?

No you can’t get it in two and a half years.
You have exactly 4 seasons, then they will release a new backpiece with new achievements.

Woulnd’t it be funny if they would add a PvP legendary armor, so the people who are complaining about them locked behind raids won’t get either of them?

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

People who prefer harder instanced content have waited a lot longer for not as much.

Excuse me, but to say you wait for raids would be a misnomer, as you were never promised them, in fact the decision to put them in was a very recent one, so you could not in any way have be waiting for them. You would have slacked your thirst for harder instance content on fractals and higher tier dungeons, Arah, HotW, Atherpath, TA, not to mention the increased difficulty of Shatter, Teq, and the added Triple Trouble World Boss, Etc. So, you have not been waiting at all for hard content.

So… When was the last time Anet added a new fractal? A new dungeon path? Open world PvE should get new stuff regularly but instanced should get nothing new, ever? Isn’t that what those complaining about the content drought want — something new? If you expect those players to play 1.5 to 3.5 year old content and be happy, then why can’t you play a lot more 7 month to 3.5 year old content and be happy?

Open world just got a new region in the XPac. You waited a whole nine months for it. The last new dungeon path was added nearly three years ago and the rewards in dungeons were reduced. Fractals has seen a new path more recently that that, but the gap is wider than it is for open PvE.

And yes, I know that raids were not promised until last year. That does not change the fact that the game was sold originally with the idea that explorable dungeons would be the game’s raid equivalent. People who bought the game primarily for that type of content had every expectation they would see new stuff, too.

For the record, I did not say that I waited. I said they did. I don’t raid. I don’t even dungeon anymore.

I recognize that people play a lot and burn through content quickly. I recognize that people want something new. However, if you want the game to prosper, it needs to attract and hold multiple demographics. That means ANet has to put things in for those different tastes. Raids did nothing for GW2 other than give a lot of people a reason to continue to play. That’s good for the longevity of the game.

Raids did not lead to the current perceived content “drought.” You want a scapegoat? Ask why ANet has likely spent thousands of dev hours reinventing systems over and over. Ask how many dev hours it took/will take to make adjustments to make HoT more casual-friendly. Ask why they went from Living World, which had regular updates, to XPacs. Ask why their code and/or systems are such that it would take, literally, years to craft L. journeys for 12 more weapons. Ask why new story episodes require such a long lead time.

I don´t think that Anet made a contest to find the most capable devs and put them into raids while the leftovers have to toil over the rest of GW2. It still baffles me how there can be so much content from one side and so little content from the other, and the first thought coming to mind is to give the game a new direction. Maybe that is my tin foil hat speaking, how could a company be interested in loosing so many customers, but it just does not make sense to assume incompetence in such a number of professional game designers for me.

Torolan.5816:

1. 4 maps. Aside from Drytop, how many plattformer maps had been released until HoT? If you are a vanilla GW2 fan, HoT is as much problem as solution to the content drought.

How is that the fault of instanced content being added?

2. A meta circle. So what? Kessex Hills contains a meta circle too, except that there is no special reward for doing it. Every PvE map has it, it just restarts more often most of the time.
3. Ok? Boss encounters. What would a PvE map be without bosses? How does that upgrade HoT compared to other maps and raids in that regard?

Because HoT was (still is, really) new content. That thing people want and blame raids for not getting it faster.

4. Where has the time gone by when JP were optional?

Yeah, I get it. ANet started increasing the amount of “If you want X you must do Y.” with the most recent iteration of dailies. I’m not fond of it, either.

5. What other events?

Run around the HoT zones, you’ll find them.

6. Festivals, I am pretty sure that Anet had to work overtime to bring the same stale festival over and over again.

It was something different to do. Some people seemed to appreciate them. Sorry you didn’t.

7+8. Ok, this is undispitably helpful.
9. Mastery system was so grerat that Anet had to backpeddle as quick as possible with it.

What backpedaling was that?

For me, it looks like Anet puts in the absolute minimum for casuals right now and the absolute maximum for raiders. Not that they were overly creative with their festival stuff anyway and ls2 was a brutal desaster, but it was not on that scale yet. If that tactic proves successfull for them and they continue to exclusively churn out stuff like raids, my favorite game that I considered a refugee from raidcentric MMOs is no more.

Well, it seems they are talking about changing HoT somehow to reduce perceived grind and make the maps allow for a more casual experience. Bet that’s taking a lot more resources than raids do.

HoT was a flop for you. I get it. That does not mean it added less to the game than raids did. If you dislike almost everything that’s been added since LS S1, don’t blame that on raids.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raids did nothing for GW2 other than give a lot of people a reason to continue to play. That’s good for the longevity of the game.

Not at all, Especially when you factor in that any long standing player (Anyone that has been playing GW2 for a year or more) left a game with raids, to play a game without them. Thus is raids did not help the other game retain people, they will not Help GW2 retain people. Sorry, but that’s just the reality of games and every "raider " on this topic is proof of that fact. So the only thing Raid have added to the game is putting in a Skill Gate to Content, like Legendary Armor.

Now I left the other topic, because I don’t care if they put in an Easy Mode, in fact I made it clear that I think they needed to put in a Hard Gear check like Fractals have, just to kick it up a notch. No one liked that idea. How ironic, they are in favor of content needing Ascended, but are not in favor of content needing ascended. If that makes any sense to anyone. So I don’t care about the raid, I don’t care about the legendary armor either. Number of Legendary’s I have is 0, and I care zero about that fact.

But I do care about this game, because I enjoy playing it. So I want to see it thrive. So I can get back to my SAB solo runs, and doing my daily fractal runs, and hope that they add a few new maps along the way, or make it more dynamic and fun as opposed to the slog of HP that it is now in the higher tiers. But I degrees.

Getting back to Are Raids a Good Idea, One of things I learned is, alienating an entire demographic of players is not a smart move, and that is irrespective of the game in question. Now you may say “But they can play something else”, and while that my be true, it does not change the fact they can’t play the new shiny.

Few things really are as bad for a game, as a content update, that players either simply don’t enjoy, or that while they may have done all there is to do in the older content, so they have been looking forward to this update, they discover that they don’t have the skills/time/connections to do it.

Even the LS that is in HoT, which often the LS caters to the casual group previously, in HoT, it requires a sizable grind to experience.

Arguably, we could say that Raids, in and of their own, could be benign, but coupled with a update like HoT which seems directed at the hard-core players, with their heavy mob density, and near-to jumping puzzle style zone layouts, Raids could be the final nail that sets the pace for the game away from the Casual, and shall we say, the “Sign on the Wall” that says “get out”

So.

What will happen, I don’t know. Maybe Anet can turn things around, maybe they have a content update that will make the casual demographic feel more included, I don’t know.

But as it stands right now, it really looks like Anet is kicking them to the curb, and that final Straw, being Locking Legendary Armor behind the Raid, could set the stage for players realizing and accepting that this “New Direction” does not include them.

What happens when that happens?

Well, lets go back to the fact that a bunch of people left a game with raids, to play a game without them…..

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raids did nothing for GW2 other than give a lot of people a reason to continue to play. That’s good for the longevity of the game.

Not at all, Especially when you factor in that any long standing player (Anyone that has been playing GW2 for a year or more) left a game with raids, to play a game without them. Thus is raids did not help the other game retain people, they will not Help GW2 retain people. Sorry, but that’s just the reality of games and every "raider " on this topic is proof of that fact. So the only thing Raid have added to the game is putting in a Skill Gate to Content, like Legendary Armor.

Now I left the other topic, because I don’t care if they put in an Easy Mode, in fact I made it clear that I think they needed to put in a Hard Gear check like Fractals have, just to kick it up a notch. No one liked that idea. How ironic, they are in favor of content needing Ascended, but are not in favor of content needing ascended. If that makes any sense to anyone. So I don’t care about the raid, I don’t care about the legendary armor either. Number of Legendary’s I have is 0, and I care zero about that fact.

But I do care about this game, because I enjoy playing it. So I want to see it thrive. So I can get back to my SAB solo runs, and doing my daily fractal runs, and hope that they add a few new maps along the way, or make it more dynamic and fun as opposed to the slog of HP that it is now in the higher tiers. But I degrees.

Getting back to Are Raids a Good Idea, One of things I learned is, alienating an entire demographic of players is not a smart move, and that is irrespective of the game in question. Now you may say “But they can play something else”, and while that my be true, it does not change the fact they can’t play the new shiny.

Few things really are as bad for a game, as a content update, that players either simply don’t enjoy, or that while they may have done all there is to do in the older content, so they have been looking forward to this update, they discover that they don’t have the skills/time/connections to do it.

Even the LS that is in HoT, which often the LS caters to the casual group previously, in HoT, it requires a sizable grind to experience.

Arguably, we could say that Raids, in and of their own, could be benign, but coupled with a update like HoT which seems directed at the hard-core players, with their heavy mob density, and near-to jumping puzzle style zone layouts, Raids could be the final nail that sets the pace for the game away from the Casual, and shall we say, the “Sign on the Wall” that says “get out”

So.

What will happen, I don’t know. Maybe Anet can turn things around, maybe they have a content update that will make the casual demographic feel more included, I don’t know.

But as it stands right now, it really looks like Anet is kicking them to the curb, and that final Straw, being Locking Legendary Armor behind the Raid, could set the stage for players realizing and accepting that this “New Direction” does not include them.

What happens when that happens?

Well, lets go back to the fact that a bunch of people left a game with raids, to play a game without them…..

An agony check will kitten your equipment if you are really a min/max guy as long as + 7AR/ +5 Stat infusions don’t exist. It also goes against the initial statement from arenanet, that there won’t be any entrance limitation (and yes exotic isn’t a limitation and the first wing got cleared in full exotic).

The problem with raids in other games is the gear threadmill which doesn’t exist in GW2. Raids here give you nothing except some skins and boss encounters (story can be experienced in cleared raids, which you can get for free from some people).

It was not even a total flop, HoT gets better once you reach higher levels of gliding and talking to X creature.
I am not against festivals, quite the contrary. I am against the same festival I had last year. Not the theme, but the exact same festival with another currency.
And there are indeed some events in HoT that are not directly linked to the meta. I thought you meant other events somewhere else on Tyria.
I confused mastery points with hero points, my bad on Nr 5.

Miellyn.6847:

It also goes against the initial statement from arenanet, that there won’t be any entrance limitation

I don’t recall Anet saying this. And if they did, the fact that we have AR should have burst whatever bubble you had about it’s validity.

STIHL.2489:

Miellyn.6847:

It also goes against the initial statement from arenanet, that there won’t be any entrance limitation

I don’t recall Anet saying this. And if they did, the fact that we have AR should have burst whatever bubble you had about it’s validity.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/

With the purchase of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, once you’ve found a group of level 80 players ready to go, entering the first raid wing is as simple as walking up to the instance entry and zoning in. That’s it. No attunements and no repetitive gear grinds are going to stand in your way. The true challenge for raids in Guild Wars 2 should be in defeating the encounters, not getting inside.

And AR doesn’t restrict you from seeing fractals, it only restricts you from seeing higher levels of fractals. You can see every fractal without a single point AR.

How many times does it need to be pointed out that there are only 5 people on the raid team…

And how many times does it need to be pointed out that “that there are only 5 people on the raid team” is completely irrelevant to the conversation?

No you can’t get it in two and a half years.
You have exactly 4 seasons, then they will release a new backpiece with new achievements.

No, they’ve officially said you can continue to earn if after the first 4 seasons. They have been unclear on the details but the assumption is either that you can:
a. advance both the “year one” and “year two” achievement tracks simultaneously.
b. only advance one at a time but can choose.
c. only advance one at a time but need to complete year one to start year two
d. if you fail to complete tier 4 then you never will, but there is some alternate method of gaining the parts.

Personally I am betting on a.

Well, it seems they are talking about changing HoT somehow to reduce perceived grind and make the maps allow for a more casual experience. Bet that’s taking a lot more resources than raids do.

Perhaps, but it would benefit a lot more players, so that only makes sense, right?

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raids did not lead to the current perceived content “drought.” You want a scapegoat? Ask why ANet has likely spent thousands of dev hours reinventing systems over and over. Ask how many dev hours it took/will take to make adjustments to make HoT more casual-friendly. Ask why they went from Living World, which had regular updates, to XPacs. Ask why their code and/or systems are such that it would take, literally, years to craft L. journeys for 12 more weapons. Ask why new story episodes require such a long lead time.

Stop it, Indigo, you’re making too much sense :c

Ohoni.6057:

How many times does it need to be pointed out that there are only 5 people on the raid team…

And how many times does it need to be pointed out that “that there are only 5 people on the raid team” is completely irrelevant to the conversation?

No you can’t get it in two and a half years.
You have exactly 4 seasons, then they will release a new backpiece with new achievements.

No, they’ve officially said you can continue to earn if after the first 4 seasons. They have been unclear on the details but the assumption is either that you can:
a. advance both the “year one” and “year two” achievement tracks simultaneously.
b. only advance one at a time but can choose.
c. only advance one at a time but need to complete year one to start year two
d. if you fail to complete tier 4 then you never will, but there is some alternate method of gaining the parts.

Personally I am betting on a.

Well, it seems they are talking about changing HoT somehow to reduce perceived grind and make the maps allow for a more casual experience. Bet that’s taking a lot more resources than raids do.

Perhaps, but it would benefit a lot more players, so that only makes sense, right?

It is not completly irrelevant to the conversation. If the other teams had a similiar content output as the raid team, the discussion wouldn’t be here.

And again, ANet could also release a legendary PvP armor. Then we would have two sources in two different game modes, just like the backpiece.

It is not completly irrelevant to the conversation. If the other teams had a similiar content output as the raid team, the discussion wouldn’t be here.

Yes, but saying “there were 5 people on the team” is meaningless. It is a fact, it does not effect anything that anyone actually cares about, which is what makes it into the game. Either A. There are only five people on the core team, but dozens of other ANet employees contributed portions to the raids, meaning that it wasn’t just five people it was actually dozens, and those dozens could have been working on other content, OR B. Those five people are gods amongst developers, each capable of doing the work of ten other devs in similar roles, and if any one of them had been working on another team we would already have had Seasons 3 and 4 out by now and another open world map.

But basically, the quantity of developers assigned to a task is just trivia, it has no actual importance. What IS of actual importance is what gets accomplished, and what got accomplished is two, nearly three significantly sized and scoped content regions for raiders, and nothing for anyone else but re-fried existing content. Even SAB was just done as a side project because those devs are too cool not to do it. However many people were assigned to work on raids, if they could manage to get out those raids, then they could have managed to get out some other content of significance if they hadn’t have been on raids, and that’s a fact. Now you might like that they did raids instead, and that’s totally fine, but there is no point in downplaying the fact that there could have been alternatives.

Miellyn.6847:

STIHL.2489:

Miellyn.6847:

It also goes against the initial statement from arenanet, that there won’t be any entrance limitation

I don’t recall Anet saying this. And if they did, the fact that we have AR should have burst whatever bubble you had about it’s validity.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/

With the purchase of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, once you’ve found a group of level 80 players ready to go, entering the first raid wing is as simple as walking up to the instance entry and zoning in. That’s it. No attunements and no repetitive gear grinds are going to stand in your way. The true challenge for raids in Guild Wars 2 should be in defeating the encounters, not getting inside.

And AR doesn’t restrict you from seeing fractals, it only restricts you from seeing higher levels of fractals. You can see every fractal without a single point AR.

They also said:

GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.

And

We founded this company because we wanted to shake up a risk-averse industry, and show that game companies don’t have to just keep making the same games over and over again to be successful. We believe that gamers want to try new things, new experiences, and that they’ll reward the companies who can bring them something new.

and yet.. now we have Raids. Something everyone, everywhere has, with the same idea of needing to grind out Elite skills and prep to have fun.

Ho Hum.

Anet also said:

But what if your business model isn’t one based on a subscription, and your content-design motivations aren’t driven by creating mechanics to keep people playing as long as possible? When looking at content design for Guild Wars 2, we’ve tried to ask the question: What if the development of the game was based on…wait for it…fun?
If we chose fun as our main metric for tracking success, can we flip the core paradigm and make design decisions based on what we’d like to play as game players? Can we focus our time on making meaningful and impactful content, rather than filler content to draw out the experience? Can we make something so much fun you might want to play it multiple times because it’s fun, rather than making you do it because the game says you have to?

So do raid fall into this “Fun Category” well, it’s obvious that for some players, the answer is a resounding NO

So I Am going to repeat myself:

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raids did nothing for GW2 other than give a lot of people a reason to continue to play. That’s good for the longevity of the game.

Not at all, Especially when you factor in that any long standing player (Anyone that has been playing GW2 for a year or more) left a game with raids, to play a game without them. Thus is raids did not help the other game retain people, they will not Help GW2 retain people. Sorry, but that’s just the reality of games and every "raider " on this topic is proof of that fact. So the only thing Raid have added to the game is putting in a Skill Gate to Content, like Legendary Armor.

Now I left the other topic, because I don’t care if they put in an Easy Mode, in fact I made it clear that I think they needed to put in a Hard Gear check like Fractals have, just to kick it up a notch. No one liked that idea. How ironic, they are in favor of content needing Ascended, but are not in favor of content needing ascended. If that makes any sense to anyone. So I don’t care about the raid, I don’t care about the legendary armor either. Number of Legendary’s I have is 0, and I care zero about that fact.

But I do care about this game, because I enjoy playing it. So I want to see it thrive. So I can get back to my SAB solo runs, and doing my daily fractal runs, and hope that they add a few new maps along the way, or make it more dynamic and fun as opposed to the slog of HP that it is now in the higher tiers. But I degrees.

Getting back to Are Raids a Good Idea, One of things I learned is, alienating an entire demographic of players is not a smart move, and that is irrespective of the game in question. Now you may say “But they can play something else”, and while that my be true, it does not change the fact they can’t play the new shiny.

Few things really are as bad for a game, as a content update, that players either simply don’t enjoy, or that while they may have done all there is to do in the older content, so they have been looking forward to this update, they discover that they don’t have the skills/time/connections to do it.

Even the LS that is in HoT, which often the LS caters to the casual group previously, in HoT, it requires a sizable grind to experience.

Arguably, we could say that Raids, in and of their own, could be benign, but coupled with a update like HoT which seems directed at the hard-core players, with their heavy mob density, and near-to jumping puzzle style zone layouts, Raids could be the final nail that sets the pace for the game away from the Casual, and shall we say, the “Sign on the Wall” that says “get out”

So.

What will happen, I don’t know. Maybe Anet can turn things around, maybe they have a content update that will make the casual demographic feel more included, I don’t know.

But as it stands right now, it really looks like Anet is kicking them to the curb, and that final Straw, being Locking Legendary Armor behind the Raid, could set the stage for players realizing and accepting that this “New Direction” does not include them.

What happens when that happens?

Well, lets go back to the fact that a bunch of people left a game with raids, to play a game without them…..

If your only objection is fuss about AR, then you missed the whole point of post.

TexZero.7910:

I dont have a crystal ball so i cannot say in good faith what the results would have been. However, if you sincerely believe that 5 people in a company of 200 are responsible for the content drought that’s even more absurd.

No. I’m saying that it seems content priorities are responsible for content drought. And yes, Raids seem to have the highest priority now.

TexZero.7910:

What i do see from a consumer perspective is poor resource allocation thus far, but that is not the fault of the raid team.

I didn’t blame the raid team. I blame Anet for making those poor resource allocations. And i blame Raids for being one of the reasons why Anet is making those poor resource allocations.

TexZero.7910:

Shame players are being this petty about raids when infact they have been a boon to the game as a whole.

They may have been a boon to you, but a boon as a whole? I do not think so. I am afraid they had a much more negative than positive impact.

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

… stuff …

… more stuff …

My first online game was Guild Wars. So I know all about expectations. As a result of my past experience. I expected easy-to-achieve max stats with no increases, ever. So did a bunch of other people. In GW2 they put in Ascended, which is a compromise between gear treadmills and what GW offered. I was kittened off. So were a bunch of others. I still don’t craft, because I find it to be a massive pain in the kitten.

Why did they do this? Perhaps because they believed that appealing to more groups of player expectations would lead them to greater sustainability and/or profit. ANet is a business. I didn’t like it, that’s life.

• With raids, ANet put in something that might appeal to some new customers, and which also filled a void created by the abandonment of dungeons.
• I disagree that “anyone” whose played GW2 for a long time bought it specifically to play a game without raids. I know people who bought it back then hoping that dungeons would be all ANet hyped them to — this game’s raids.
• On Alienating a demographic: how about the people who like hard instanced content? Aren’t they a demographic?
• On HoT in general: I’ve said more than once here that Anet miscalculated with HoT by expecting everyone to buy it (to continue with story) but using a map plan featuring harder enemies, a large number of group events and the timed metas — none of which appeal to a different demographic that did in fact get alienated. The people who die in core open world a lot. Yes, I see them all the time. That’s not on raids, though, that’s on HoT design, and we’ll indeed see what they’ll do about it, if anything.
• I also believe that L. Armor as a tier should be available in multiple modes, with each having unique skins. Anyone who believes that skins ought not to be exclusive should read this.

“Everyone, including casual gamers, by level 80 should have the best statistical loot in the game. We want everyone on an equal power base. The rare stuff becomes the really awesome looking armours. It’s all about collecting the unique looking stuff and collecting all the other rare collectable items in the game: armour pieces, potentially different potions – a lot of that is still up in the air and we’ll finalise a lot of those reward systems as we get closer to release. And those come off of things like the bosses at the end of dungeons – the raids.”

So, that was always the plan.

randomguy.1283:

How many times does it need to be pointed out that there are only 5 people on the raid team…

How many times does it need to be pointed out that it’s not what devs said?
(they said that 5-6 devs were working exclusively on second wing. In addition to more people that were working on it non-exclusively. Hint: the work almost certainly started when the first wing was still being done, and ended after the work on third wing has started)

STIHL.2489:

Anet also said:

But what if your business model isn’t one based on a subscription, and your content-design motivations aren’t driven by creating mechanics to keep people playing as long as possible? When looking at content design for Guild Wars 2, we’ve tried to ask the question: What if the development of the game was based on…wait for it…fun?
If we chose fun as our main metric for tracking success, can we flip the core paradigm and make design decisions based on what we’d like to play as game players? Can we focus our time on making meaningful and impactful content, rather than filler content to draw out the experience? Can we make something so much fun you might want to play it multiple times because it’s fun, rather than making you do it because the game says you have to?

So do raid fall into this “Fun Category” well, it’s obvious that for some players, the answer is a resounding NO

So I Am going to repeat myself:

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Raids did nothing for GW2 other than give a lot of people a reason to continue to play. That’s good for the longevity of the game.

Not at all, Especially when you factor in that any long standing player (Anyone that has been playing GW2 for a year or more) left a game with raids, to play a game without them. Thus is raids did not help the other game retain people, they will not Help GW2 retain people. Sorry, but that’s just the reality of games and every "raider " on this topic is proof of that fact. So the only thing Raid have added to the game is putting in a Skill Gate to Content, like Legendary Armor.

Now I left the other topic, because I don’t care if they put in an Easy Mode, in fact I made it clear that I think they needed to put in a Hard Gear check like Fractals have, just to kick it up a notch. No one liked that idea. How ironic, they are in favor of content needing Ascended, but are not in favor of content needing ascended. If that makes any sense to anyone. So I don’t care about the raid, I don’t care about the legendary armor either. Number of Legendary’s I have is 0, and I care zero about that fact.

But I do care about this game, because I enjoy playing it. So I want to see it thrive. So I can get back to my SAB solo runs, and doing my daily fractal runs, and hope that they add a few new maps along the way, or make it more dynamic and fun as opposed to the slog of HP that it is now in the higher tiers. But I degrees.

Getting back to Are Raids a Good Idea, One of things I learned is, alienating an entire demographic of players is not a smart move, and that is irrespective of the game in question. Now you may say “But they can play something else”, and while that my be true, it does not change the fact they can’t play the new shiny.

Few things really are as bad for a game, as a content update, that players either simply don’t enjoy, or that while they may have done all there is to do in the older content, so they have been looking forward to this update, they discover that they don’t have the skills/time/connections to do it.

Even the LS that is in HoT, which often the LS caters to the casual group previously, in HoT, it requires a sizable grind to experience.

Arguably, we could say that Raids, in and of their own, could be benign, but coupled with a update like HoT which seems directed at the hard-core players, with their heavy mob density, and near-to jumping puzzle style zone layouts, Raids could be the final nail that sets the pace for the game away from the Casual, and shall we say, the “Sign on the Wall” that says “get out”

So.

What will happen, I don’t know. Maybe Anet can turn things around, maybe they have a content update that will make the casual demographic feel more included, I don’t know.

But as it stands right now, it really looks like Anet is kicking them to the curb, and that final Straw, being Locking Legendary Armor behind the Raid, could set the stage for players realizing and accepting that this “New Direction” does not include them.

What happens when that happens?

Well, lets go back to the fact that a bunch of people left a game with raids, to play a game without them…..

If your only objection is fuss about AR, then you missed the whole point of post.

“I don’t find pvp fun and anet said this game would be fun so clearly it doesn’t belong in this game.”

^ your argument against raids

STIHL.2489:

GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.

I get the feeling context may be being missed here, and that these are specific retorts to specific MMO tropes.
“Suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill” this is specifically referring to gear treadmills which invalidate the gear you earnt from prior content by raising ilvl and lvl caps on intervals. GW2 hasn’t done this beyond the initial releases of Ascended gear. You could argue Viper’s>Sinister I suppose but it’s not like Sinister is a toilet tier set.
“Doesn’t force you to spend hours preparing to have fun instead of having fun” frankly this seems like more of a contest of the issues with HoT maps rather than raids. We have to first establish that you would indeed have fun in the raids they’ve implemented, lest we forget that raids are the content specifically designed for people who enjoy this kind of buildup and climax (that’s what she said). Turning it from “you don’t need to grind on a treadmill” (which you broadly do not) into “you should enjoy all the content in the game that we put out” is unfair in a big-tent MMO.

STIHL.2489:

We founded this company because we wanted to shake up a risk-averse industry, and show that game companies don’t have to just keep making the same games over and over again to be successful. We believe that gamers want to try new things, new experiences, and that they’ll reward the companies who can bring them something new.

Which doesn’t really strike me as a permanent position but more of an insurgent/underdog position thing to say. Which they were- and they already have shaken up the risk-averse industry and shown that game companies don’t have to just keep making the same games over and over again to be successful. Problem is that they’re no longer the insurgent and they can hardly be thought of as the underdog to anything but WoW.

Don’t forget that we have to keep this position in context with the releases we’ve seen about the response rate to raids, including things like “resounding success”. If those are to be taken at face value, then the position that shaking up the formula- in this avenue, at least- is wrong.

STIHL.2489:

Miellyn.6847:

STIHL.2489:

Miellyn.6847:

It also goes against the initial statement from arenanet, that there won’t be any entrance limitation

I don’t recall Anet saying this. And if they did, the fact that we have AR should have burst whatever bubble you had about it’s validity.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/designing-challenging-content/

With the purchase of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, once you’ve found a group of level 80 players ready to go, entering the first raid wing is as simple as walking up to the instance entry and zoning in. That’s it. No attunements and no repetitive gear grinds are going to stand in your way. The true challenge for raids in Guild Wars 2 should be in defeating the encounters, not getting inside.

And AR doesn’t restrict you from seeing fractals, it only restricts you from seeing higher levels of fractals. You can see every fractal without a single point AR.

They also said:

GW2 doesn’t fall into the traps of traditional MMORPGs. It doesn’t suck your life away and force you onto a grinding treadmill; it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun; and of course, it doesn’t have a monthly fee.

And

We founded this company because we wanted to shake up a risk-averse industry, and show that game companies don’t have to just keep making the same games over and over again to be successful. We believe that gamers want to try new things, new experiences, and that they’ll reward the companies who can bring them something new.

and yet.. now we have Raids. Something everyone, everywhere has, with the same idea of needing to grind out Elite skills and prep to have fun.

Ho Hum.

And where is this gear threadmill? Ascended isn’t required for anything other than high level fractals and you get exotic at the same pace as the best armor in GW, runes are different but there were also expensive runes in GW like superior monk runes and superior life rune. Ascended equipment makes it easier, but isn’t required so you don’t have to grind for hours to have fun (or to do raids).

Buying bufffood takes seconds and hardly counts as ‘preparation’ in comparison to other MMOs.

Astralporing.1957:

randomguy.1283:

How many times does it need to be pointed out that there are only 5 people on the raid team…

How many times does it need to be pointed out that it’s not what devs said?
(they said that 5-6 devs were working exclusively on second wing. In addition to more people that were working on it non-exclusively. Hint: the work almost certainly started when the first wing was still being done, and ended after the work on third wing has started)

RisingDusk has already confirmed that all of your speculations here are completely false, please use actual facts about the situation and not your useless speculation.

Also let’s be honest, anet has went back on their word so many times can you really dig this stuff up from years ago and still expect them to hold to it? They also anounced a new set of legendary weapons over 2 years ago.

Miellyn.6847:

No you can’t get it in two and a half years.
You have exactly 4 seasons, then they will release a new backpiece with new achievements.

They said the backpiece will be available after this year ends (though the stuff from the vendor will cost more)

Miellyn.6847:

Woulnd’t it be funny if they would add a PvP legendary armor, so the people who are complaining about them locked behind raids won’t get either of them?

If it was at the same difficulty level as pvp backpack? It would be fantastic. As long as they won’t mess up matchmaking system again, of course (s2 was truly terrible due to it).

randomguy.1283:

RisingDusk has already confirmed that all of your speculations here are completely false, please use actual facts about the situation and not your useless speculation.

Funny thing that, because i’m just repeating what the devs said.

randomguy.1283:

Also let’s be honest, anet has went back on their word so many times can you really dig this stuff up from years ago and still expect them to hold to it? They also anounced a new set of legendary weapons over 2 years ago.

More the reason to ask them to change their minds once again, then.

IndigoSundown.5419:

STIHL.2489:

IndigoSundown.5419:

… stuff …

… more stuff …

My first online game was Guild Wars. So I know all about expectations. As a result of my past experience. I expected easy-to-achieve max stats with no increases, ever. So did a bunch of other people. In GW2 they put in Ascended, which is a compromise between gear treadmills and what GW offered. I was kittened off. So were a bunch of others. I still don’t craft, because I find it to be a massive pain in the kitten.

Why did they do this? Perhaps because they believed that appealing to more groups of player expectations would lead them to greater sustainability and/or profit. ANet is a business. I didn’t like it, that’s life.

I heard it was because people wanted better stats for their Legendary Weapons then just exotic which they were at one time, so Anet made Ascended weapons, giving Legendary weapons these augmented Stats, but also at the same time made items with equal stats available to anyone for far less effort then grinding out a legendary.

But random guessing aside.

You already admitted that they “kittened you off” the long and short term effect of that are variable, but I do know that there is no recovery from that, they can never remove the fact that they kittened you off, so, the damage is done, now it’s just a question of how many times or how much they can “kitten you off” before they totally alienate you.

I am sure many, the Raid and Legendary Armor were the final straw, just the final “kittened them off” before they opted to walk away and find something else to do.

Now it’s just a question of what it will take before you join them.

Discussions regarding the internal resources spent on raids are moot. They’ve already said that they’re a success and that they are helping player retention. There is no reason to believe that they’d halt raid development on the back of that information; any reasonings otherwise are based on speculation rather than fact.

IndigoSundown.5419:

• On Alienating a demographic: how about the people who like hard instanced content? Aren’t they a demographic?

Problem is, GW2 was never about hard instanced content. There are plenty of other games offering that and there was no reason to cater that demographic. (Of course, falling sales might have been the reason).

randomguy.1283:

“I don’t find pvp fun and anet said this game would be fun so clearly it doesn’t belong in this game.”

^ your argument against raids

PvP was always there, raids have only been added recently. Your argument is invalid.

Manthas.6234:

IndigoSundown.5419:

• On Alienating a demographic: how about the people who like hard instanced content? Aren’t they a demographic?

Problem is, GW2 was never about hard instanced content. There are plenty of other games offering that and there was no reason to cater that demographic. (Of course, falling sales might have been the reason).

randomguy.1283:

“I don’t find pvp fun and anet said this game would be fun so clearly it doesn’t belong in this game.”

^ your argument against raids

PvP was always there, raids have only been added recently. Your argument is invalid.

By that logic anet should never add anything new to the game. Do you guys even read your own posts?

" there was no reason to cater that demographic" Other than you know, that catering to people is the entire point of selling a game.

Manthas.6234:

there was no reason to cater that demographic. (Of course, falling sales might have been the reason).

Evidently there was, otherwise they would not be contributing to player retention

IndigoSundown.5419:

• With raids, ANet put in something that might appeal to some new customers, and which also filled a void created by the abandonment of dungeons.

Raid as a feature to attract new customers, like, something rare and not seen before?

• I disagree that “anyone” whose played GW2 for a long time bought it specifically to play a game without raids. I know people who bought it back then hoping that dungeons would be all ANet hyped them to — this game’s raids.

Huh? It was one of their strongest selling points, game without toxic raiding community and their typical attitudes. Have fun, not second job.

• On Alienating a demographic: how about the people who like hard instanced content? Aren’t they a demographic?

Ahem. Wildstar. Remember that word every time when you seeing someone bringing up an argument about raiders as something worthwhile to sustain a game. Only game that managed to pull it off and survive long enough was WoW, and WoW did it only because they was smart enough to trash whole “raiding for elite” concept and made them available for everyone in wide range of difficulties.

Rednik.3809:

Ahem. Wildstar.

Wildstar failed because it was a full-price box with a $15 sub fee for a fresh IP when rock-solid IPs were transitioning to B2P/F2P left and right. Even if the game was god’s gift to man it wouldn’t have worked at that price.

Sarrs.4831:

Wildstar failed because it was a full-price box with a $15 sub fee for a fresh IP when rock-solid IPs were transitioning to B2P/F2P left and right. Even if the game was god’s gift to man it wouldn’t have worked at that price.

They are F2P now, but still remaining pretty dead.

randomguy.1283:

Manthas.6234:

IndigoSundown.5419:

• On Alienating a demographic: how about the people who like hard instanced content? Aren’t they a demographic?

Problem is, GW2 was never about hard instanced content. There are plenty of other games offering that and there was no reason to cater that demographic. (Of course, falling sales might have been the reason).

randomguy.1283:

“I don’t find pvp fun and anet said this game would be fun so clearly it doesn’t belong in this game.”

^ your argument against raids

PvP was always there, raids have only been added recently. Your argument is invalid.

By that logic anet should never add anything new to the game. Do you guys even read your own posts?

" there was no reason to cater that demographic" Other than you know, that catering to people is the entire point of selling a game.

Not every new thing fits to the demographic you are catering. And you can’t fulfill everyone’s need, you have to choose your customer.

My logic is: add new things, but stick to the original formula or rebrand.

Rednik.3809:

They are F2P now, but still remaining pretty dead.

Because people either enter MMOs at launch or soon after launch, at an expansion launch or soon after expansion launch, or not at all.

No WS expansion on the books at all. They wasted their opportunity at launch with their pricing model and now the game’s toast.

Sarrs.4831:

Rednik.3809:

They are F2P now, but still remaining pretty dead.

Because people either enter MMOs at launch or soon after launch, at an expansion launch or soon after expansion launch, or not at all.

No WS expansion on the books at all. They wasted their opportunity at launch with their pricing model and now the game’s toast.

So, no raids at launch → raiders won’t enter GW2. Why would they enter now?

Manthas.6234:

So, no raids at launch -> raiders won’t enter GW2. Why would they enter now?

Because you don’t understand raiders.

Sarrs.4831:

Manthas.6234:

So, no raids at launch -> raiders won’t enter GW2. Why would they enter now?

Because you don’t understand raiders.

A few scouts enter the game with no raids, demand them to be added, get them, all the raiders invade, clear them in a week, leave the game for another one with no raids.

Only now I understand that raiders are raiders in a much more literal sense.

Astralporing.1957:

No. I’m saying that it seems content priorities are responsible for content drought. And yes, Raids seem to have the highest priority now.

I didn’t blame the raid team. I blame Anet for making those poor resource allocations. And i blame Raids for being one of the reasons why Anet is making those poor resource allocations.

They may have been a boon to you, but a boon as a whole? I do not think so. I am afraid they had a much more negative than positive impact.

Again, hyperbole. You cannot rationally claim raids have had the highest priority when we know already that from the just shortly after HoT launch about the same number of devs were back restoring SAB. I can’t even begin to guess how many worked on the Shatter Rework, Gliding in Core Tyria (and all the junk that comes with changes to every JP), Skill Balance, PvP/Matchmaking, WvW (and its massive rework which has been going on for months now) and everyone’s favorite the Gem store. But sure lets say raids have had the lionshare for the sake of being disingenuous.

Your accusation literally says, the following…. If we took said 6 devs and asked them to stop everything and push living world we’d be somewhere better than we are now. Which is dead wrong. We’d be in a far far worse state, with nowhere near what HoT promised to ship to its players.

Finally, yes the raids have been a boon to the whole game, sorry your experiences are garbage but that does not change the facts. The game was missing challenging and engaging content that was not a zerg fest, raids fulfilled that role without taking away the core of the identity that was fractals. Now there’s 2 unique pieces of content that play different but present their own unique challenges for players who want to enjoy a challenge. In other words people who aren’t you.