I wonder how much money Arena net needs to keep a game like GW2 running. It certainly can’t be free to run the servers, and to pay the staff for updates. I know when the game was launched it made a huge amount, but a lot of that also had to be paid back for the production of the game.
I have recently researched and found that every one of NCsoft’s mmos eventually are just shut down, sometimes with only a months notice to the players who have invested who knows how much time.
Arena net is pushing that stuff in the cash shop pretty hard. Most of it isn’t even useful save for the bag slots, bank space, and transmutation stones. Wow I can wear a winter coat, I mean really come on. The gem shop/cash shop is full of that stuff. What the real kicker here is though, you can use in game gold to buy gems.
The community is getting angrier, and meaner with each passing day. The nicer people who make these games great, simply walk away from all the horrible stuff in chat, they are just tired of reading it. The lack of any real new content is just making people unhappy, they are bored, and they didn’t log on to just do the same thing again. Before someone says of you leveled to fast, please just look at what level most people are when you pass by them, then reconsider that statement before you even make it.
The Slippery slope here is Arena net, has made it so players can swap gold for gems. How is this a problem you might ask? Well here is in a nutshell. The game has launched, the income for that launch has been made. Now hopefully new players will try the game, hopefully being the key word. Then there is the cash shop, those are the only two sources of income for Arena net when it comes to GW2. You can’t really rely on hope though it will get you into trouble. What I am seeing is more people are leaving the game. Compared to the amount of people buying a new version of GW2. The servers are already rather empty, and there has been no indication that they will be getting any fuller. No big deal right, there is still the cash shop to make huge $$ right?!? Well maybe, but consider this. If people just swap there in game gold for gems. Then they can get the gem item with in game money. This would basically decrease Arena nets source of income from the cash shop, possibly even to a point where it doesn’t produce the needed profits. Then Arena pushes the cash shop items harder, to the point where the updates drive existing costumers away. When people will no longer even log on to see what color the latest fur coat or funny hat will be.
The new content that is introduced is often broken from the start, and goes unfixed for months. Arena net tells players new content is ready, when it obviously is either lacking dynamic events(Karaka island now). Or it is just bugged to the point where most players won’t even bother to try to complete and, or won’t log on to try very often(FoTM).
It is sad to say but I see GW2 going the same way the rest of NCsoft’s titles have gone. Thanks for playing for the last 5 years, sorry that you are about to loose that entire social network of people that you love. Its not like you wasted 5 years making friends/contacts, most of whom you will loose, because it was fun right?
Maybe Arena net will see this post, and change for the better, maybe not, but that is why I wrote it for Arena net. Not for you to paw through and point out what you think is stupid while calling it a different name so you don’t get in trouble. So you can keep harassing people through your computer. Don’t waste time with your witty replies they will go unread. If you write a response to me I will assume its just one long insult that has the under tone of you don’t know what you’re talking about, and I’m smarter than you. This is a forum, and that is what you people enjoy doing, and I want no part in it.
Most dungeons are indeed extremely hard until you get them. At that point they become very easy. To me that’s evidence of good design.