A theory
I think the dream would be that the devs actually loved the universe they are in control of the same way fans do and thus would give it the care and love it deserves. I’m sure there are a lot of devs who actually care but from what I’ve read from glassdoor.com it’s certainly not the people in upper management, the official forums and the ‘creative environment’ inside Anet is more akin to North Korea due to all the censorship.
People like Robert Hrouda and Josh Foreman who put their love into this game are getting laid off or frowned upon. I think this quote from Hrouda sheds light on how kittened up neoAnets ways are. First quote reflects the sheer amount of disconnect inside the studio and how awful the living story is/was as a content delivery method
“Today marks the release of the last bit of content I built for ArenaNet. I had always hoped my last hurrah would be an epic dungeon that would stand the test of time, and provide entertainment for players to the very end… but instead it’s an instance that will only persist for two weeks, and then go away.”
Foreman on the other hand tried to be transparent about SAB and talked about it to fans. What did he get? Positive feedback from the community and a frowny letter from his higher ups. To quote his blog:
If the company that pays my paycheck and lets me work on my own crazy pet projects like SAB tells me to resist a difficult urge to interact with players because I’m jeopardizing the company so be it. I’m told I can still post, but much much less, and I need to get my posts approved first.
It’s not really about “too many players”, but I have no doubt they have something content wise hidden away as a hole card. This update was a code consolidation move and the changes themselves were for the China playerbase (when they originally released in China).
I do believe that if the changes generate a revenue slump (which it certainly could), we will see an Expansion Pack level campaign released to “revitalize” the game and (attempt) to draw retired players back to the game (and I think it will likely be successful if the content is strong enough). The “no sub fee” model allows for that type of long term strategy plan.
Now the theory that this update is an intentional sabotage by the Devs to hasten this situation (RELEASE THE KRAKEN!)…..well, that’s kind of far fetched (but interesting and not impossible to some extent).
We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Na, I’ve been talking to some ex-ncsoft guys.
If the rumors are to be believed, this is all coming from ncsoft, who want the game to be more like the Korean grinders. Those games make a lot of money for their primary single-voice shareholder: Nexon. Nexon bought a 15% share of the company, making them a huge, huge, huge voice in the boardroom. Nexon was the originator of the the pay to win model, and still escrows billions of fiat currency in it’s NX currency.
Anet is small fish compared to the sharks in the pool where they swim. If the directions are coming from nexon and ncsoft to make the game match what the Korean and Chinese markets expect from an MMO; then there is nothing Anet can do about it.
I mean, look at what happened with Garriot and Tabula Rasa. Sure, ncsoft eventually had to pay him 30 million dollars because of their fraud, but in the mean time, a game idea with great potential was destroyed by a company that wanted it to be a different sort of game.
Or ncsoft and City of Heros. My point being, if ncsoft has decided that GW2 is going to the pay to win model whether the players and developers like it or not, then that’s the direction the game is going to go, and there’s not a kitten thing that the devs at Anet can do to stop it.
This is my theory, and I stand by it.
Cruella LaDucki: Have corpses, will travel
Torwynd Trueheart: Here I come to save the day!
NSP – Quak Resident Duchess L’Orange
Torwynd Trueheart: Here I come to save the day!
NSP – Quak Resident Duchess L’Orange
Na, I’ve been talking to some ex-ncsoft guys.
If the rumors are to be believed, this is all coming from ncsoft, who want the game to be more like the Korean grinders. Those games make a lot of money for their primary single-voice shareholder: Nexon. Nexon bought a 15% share of the company, making them a huge, huge, huge voice in the boardroom. Nexon was the originator of the the pay to win model, and still escrows billions of fiat currency in it’s NX currency.
Anet is small fish compared to the sharks in the pool where they swim. If the directions are coming from nexon and ncsoft to make the game match what the Korean and Chinese markets expect from an MMO; then there is nothing Anet can do about it.
I mean, look at what happened with Garriot and Tabula Rasa. Sure, ncsoft eventually had to pay him 30 million dollars because of their fraud, but in the mean time, a game idea with great potential was destroyed by a company that wanted it to be a different sort of game.
Or ncsoft and City of Heros. My point being, if ncsoft has decided that GW2 is going to the pay to win model whether the players and developers like it or not, then that’s the direction the game is going to go, and there’s not a kitten thing that the devs at Anet can do to stop it.
This is my theory, and I stand by it.
THIS THIS…SO MUCH THIS! Welcome to the wilderness! Glad to have another voice in it!
This patch is the result of R&D that told them that they would inconvenience a minority of players while making the game accessible to many, many more people.
They are not going to lose money or players (overall) as a result of this patch.
Server: Devona’s Rest
This patch is the result of R&D that told them that they would inconvenience a minority of players while making the game accessible to many, many more people.
They are not going to lose money or players (overall) as a result of this patch.
OMG! Another voice in my neck of the woods! Welcome! ;p Only caveat I have on this is, as long as they interpreted their data correctly AND implemented the changes needed accurately to enable people to learn easily.
(edited by Roybe.5896)
Na, I’ve been talking to some ex-ncsoft guys.
If the rumors are to be believed, this is all coming from ncsoft, who want the game to be more like the Korean grinders. Those games make a lot of money for their primary single-voice shareholder: Nexon. Nexon bought a 15% share of the company, making them a huge, huge, huge voice in the boardroom. Nexon was the originator of the the pay to win model, and still escrows billions of fiat currency in it’s NX currency.
Anet is small fish compared to the sharks in the pool where they swim. If the directions are coming from nexon and ncsoft to make the game match what the Korean and Chinese markets expect from an MMO; then there is nothing Anet can do about it.
I mean, look at what happened with Garriot and Tabula Rasa. Sure, ncsoft eventually had to pay him 30 million dollars because of their fraud, but in the mean time, a game idea with great potential was destroyed by a company that wanted it to be a different sort of game.
Or ncsoft and City of Heros. My point being, if ncsoft has decided that GW2 is going to the pay to win model whether the players and developers like it or not, then that’s the direction the game is going to go, and there’s not a kitten thing that the devs at Anet can do to stop it.
This is my theory, and I stand by it.
Being 15% of the share holder doesn’t actually entitled you to anything, unless you can somehow prove that Nexon execs have a seat on the board.
Because stockholders don’t make decisions, board members do. They sit in a room and make decisions and every quarter give a report to the stock holders.
So if there’s no one from Nexon on the board, I’m not sure what kind of power you think they have.
This patch is the result of R&D that told them that they would inconvenience a minority of players while making the game accessible to many, many more people.
They are not going to lose money or players (overall) as a result of this patch.
OMG! Another voice in my neck of the woods! Welcome! ;p Only caveat I have on this is, as long as they interpreted their data correctly AND implemented the changes needed accurately to enable people to learn easily.
Yeah, there is always the possibility that someone made a huge mistake in R&D, but until proven otherwise it is safe to assume that they’ve plotted a course for a sound reason.
Server: Devona’s Rest
This patch is the result of R&D that told them that they would inconvenience a minority of players while making the game accessible to many, many more people.
They are not going to lose money or players (overall) as a result of this patch.
Actually the game is far less accessible and new player experience is worse than it was before. Their demographics test was obviously horribly misguided and was probably done with people outside the group of people commonly known as ‘gamers’. China had these changes made and they hated it, now NA and EU gets it and everybody hates it. Colin is trying to backpedal and blame it on bugs but it’s a harmful change regardless, removing many of the features that made GW2 so appealing to the players
This patch is the result of R&D that told them that they would inconvenience a minority of players while making the game accessible to many, many more people.
They are not going to lose money or players (overall) as a result of this patch.
Actually the game is far less accessible and new player experience is worse than it was before. Their demographics test was obviously horribly misguided and was probably done with people outside the group of people commonly known as ‘gamers’. China had these changes made and they hated it, now NA and EU gets it and everybody hates it. Colin is trying to backpedal and blame it on bugs but it’s a harmful change regardless, removing many of the features that made GW2 so appealing to the players
That’s your opinion, which you are entitled to hold. I’m simply telling you the fact of the matter which is that their corporate data told them that they will make more money doing this.
Server: Devona’s Rest
Being 15% of the share holder doesn’t actually entitled you to anything, unless you can somehow prove that Nexon execs have a seat on the board.
Because stockholders don’t make decisions, board members do. They sit in a room and make decisions and every quarter give a report to the stock holders.
So if there’s no one from Nexon on the board, I’m not sure what kind of power you think they have.
That’s not quite how boards work, but I can only speak to the American experience. I am not at all familiar with regulations and procedures on the Tokyo and Korean exchanges.
Business Week reported that nexon is the largest shareholder, and the shares that were sold were preferred, whereas many of the public shares are non-voting. Ergo, a 15% share, even in an American traded stock would be enough to have directional vote power, but in a system where a 15% preferred stock means that you have a majority voice in vote…
It’s hard to dig up accurate information on the crosslinks of companies traded in the Asian markets because they have different disclosure rules, and stricter privacy policies protecting the upper echelon of the business community. Ergo, their filings are not easily searchable like using Edgar searches in the US, and in those instances where searches are available, like Edgar, they are available in the native language of the country, and I am illiterate when it comes to Asian languages.
However, there was a significant crossover in executives. Four or five directors from Nexon moved over to ncsoft. Many of them noted it themselves in their linked in profiles.
I do not know the Asian markets well enough to be able to untangle the differences in the reporting required when people on are multiple steering boards, but there were lateral transfers of knowledge workers at the director level from nexon to ncsoft within 6 months of becoming the largest single shareholder.
Additionally, nobody buys a minority stake in a company unless they intend on steering the direction of said company. A minority stake isn’t like the stock you and I might buy. Nexon bought 3.218 million shares of ncsoft in a private purchase from Taek Jin Kim, the ncsoft chairman and founder. The details of the transaction were not required to be public information like an exchange on an American market would be.
So really, you and I have no way of knowing what caveats and benefits came with becoming the largest single shareholder.
And like I said, it’s a theory. It’s a theory that I think has a lot of circumstantial evidence, but no bloody knife. To be completely fair, I’m not married to the idea, but I’m willing to go have a coffee with it.
Cruella LaDucki: Have corpses, will travel
Torwynd Trueheart: Here I come to save the day!
NSP – Quak Resident Duchess L’Orange
Torwynd Trueheart: Here I come to save the day!
NSP – Quak Resident Duchess L’Orange
If the rumors are to be believed, this is all coming from ncsoft, who want the game to be more like the Korean grinders. Those games make a lot of money for their primary single-voice shareholder: Nexon. Nexon bought a 15% share of the company, making them a huge, huge, huge voice in the boardroom. Nexon was the originator of the the pay to win model, and still escrows billions of fiat currency in it’s NX currency.
Never ever bring up Nexon again lol! They helped to further ruin Shaiya when they purchased that a few years ago.
Korean company’s that like grind games, really don’t give a kitten at all about the over seas community. They cater for the eastern and official servers of their games. Everyone else gets the crap end and dodgy patches that end up bugged and hardly ever fixed.
I remember leaving when the pvp bugs prevented people from seeing their health drop, or from not being able to res when killed in the raid. Constant lag and bugs worse than Anet could ever implement.
(edited by LionHeart.2804)