Guild Wars 2

I think its funny they had time to make a long quest chain for an ascended backpiece in this LS that could of worked just as well with precursors.

Charak.9761:

I think its funny they had time to make a long quest chain for an ascended backpiece in this LS that could of worked just as well with precursors.

some people speculated that this is a test run for recursor crafting.

“We don’t want to provide a wide FoV because our art is pretty and you should see it up close”

“We don’t want to provide a 1st person view, that would let you see the pretty art up close, because… reasons.”

“sense of direction in combat is really important in our game, as well as positioning – positioning is really important.” You don’t even follow the first part right now – I can easily swing the camera away from the direction I’m facing. It’s tremendously useful to do so. And if I need to see exactly where I’m standing in combat relative to everything else, I’ll zoom out. It’s just that easy. Yes, positioning IS important. Like being able to see where my kittening feet are, when I’m doing a jumping puzzle.

My favorite : “We don’t have anything we can say right now”.

Why on earth are you doing a kitten interview than?

It’s unreal how bad anet is when it comes to dealing with media, from the gamescom disaster to this interview lol. How embarassing it is right now…they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.

The “it doesn’t fit in living story” in regards to SAB being added back is such a joke haha.

Who the heck cares about the impact on living story? Ppl play MMOs to have fun, usually with a group of friends, and SAB was an absolute blast for many ppl.

The amount of logic anet has with its decision making is just incredible

I agree that they are significantly out of touch when it comes to their playerbase. To add what I’ve already said in another thread: the main draw for me in GW2, and anyone else I’ve spoken to, is map exploration, dungeons, wvw or spvp. Yet what Anet seems to focus most on is storytelling, something that hardly anyone remembers GW2 for (and if they do it’s rarely in a positive light).

One of the main reasons people like the new season so much is because we finaly got a new map! But what about dungeons, wvw maps or new spvp game modes? You know, the stuff the community makes most content about? Why are they left behind for (singleplayer!) storymode?

The entire interview was Anet refusing to say anything of major significance at all.

I loved the transcript and how every paragraph was about absolutely nothing

Lets not even mention the whole Trait Fiasco !!

They don’t care about the small minority on the forums, they care about the vast majority of players.

They are finally producing the game I want. Maybe the problem is with you and not Anet…

SAB… worst thing to ever happen to this game, couldn’t be happier it’s gone.

FOV and 1st person view… waste of resources, not a good use of time, not how the game was meant to be played.

Commander tags… player speculation with no hard facts… about par for the course for players. I’ll withhold judgement until you know… Anet actually announces the feature.

Precursor crafting… You win on that one, Anet has really dropped the ball here.

sMihaly.1492:

Looks like they aren’t even trying to be in touch anymore.

It… feels like…. idk… this interview has shown how out of touch they really are, and its so sad too, they believe they know what the players want, when in reality they have no clue.

I wouldn’t mind see a first person view even if it couldn’t be accessible in combat. My screenshot folder would certainly appreciate it.

I’d really like first person view until I start thinking about swirling attacks and weird head movements with skills like ranger axe 5… shudders

Quite shocked about this interview indeed. Mainly because it demonstrates that there is not a clear line in what arenanet wants, taking other forum posts by devs into account, and that its not at all in line with what the players (Reddit, gw2 buddies, guilds and other random people ingame taht i speak with) want. Also because the reasoning for why Anet isnt doing certain stuff is so flawed that even a 14 year old can take down the reasoning with one simple question.

Just weant on teamspeak to speak with my gw2 buddies about the interview. After discussing it we were all really talking about taking a break from it all because were losing faith, kind of. Mainly because there are so many issues that remain unadressed and unfixed.

I hate being negative and I myself always disregarded these kind of negative posts, but there are so many issues. For example just a few problems (from my point of view): mesmer bug list with 40 bugged skills (some dev said that he had his eyes on the warden 5 months back, well still looking?), fractal hammer bug (been there to long), fractal rewards (got 120+ rings and 251 pristines and never dropped a fractal sword, bloody awesome), precursors, lack of replayable content (yes story can be replayed for story sake, but no rewards to be found there so no point).

Really hope that the feature pack will make the sun shine on gw2 again.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Commander tags… player speculation with no hard facts… about par for the course for players. I’ll withhold judgement until you know… Anet actually announces the feature.

Precursor crafting… You win on that one, Anet has really dropped the ball here.

You did see the gamescom interview where a dev said yes, they cost 300g now and you have to buy each color individually right? I mean, that was the announcement…

Actually Zudet, the commander thing came straight from Anet during another preview from an outside site. As for the other issues, I wouldn’t have made this post if I didn’t hear about these problems as often as I do. Plus it’s not like the resources needed for a first person view are that high. Heck, it’s already in the dev client. Same goes for FoV. Standard features like that are not hard to add if you know much about game development.

Their excuses come down to “we don’t like it, so we’re not going to add it because we think our playerbase is stupid.”

The whole thing left me sad.

Almost everything was a “No” or “Not at the moment”…

The SAB thing had the the most stupid excuse ever. They went through soo much trouble to have a narrative for the SAB written which binds that thing into the world and then they say: “oh, it won`t fit into the LS”
Why not? Just put it there for people who do not care about the LS (Which i start to slowly turn to… )

It`s either the people there had no clue what they were talking about or, if that was the case, then this game is in serious trouble, as it is out of touch with it`s community…

btw. Where is the next CDI?

ZudetGambeous.9573:

They don’t care about the small minority on the forums, they care about the vast majority of players.

Absolutely zero (0, none, nadda,) bit of proof or data to support that statement in any way,shape or form. It is your own personal feeling and pure speculation about both (who Anet cares about as well as who is actually the minority/majority) and easily dismissed.

I totally agree with the SAB thing. They should give refunds to people who purchased the infinite coin.

Blude.6812:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

They don’t care about the small minority on the forums, they care about the vast majority of players.

Absolutely zero (0, none, nadda,) bit of proof or data to support that statement in any way,shape or form. It is your own personal feeling and pure speculation about both (who Anet cares about as well as who is actually the minority/majority) and easily dismissed.

Sort of like the rest of this thread?

Or do you only need proof when someone has an opinion different from you?

munkiman.3068:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Commander tags… player speculation with no hard facts… about par for the course for players. I’ll withhold judgement until you know… Anet actually announces the feature.

Precursor crafting… You win on that one, Anet has really dropped the ball here.

You did see the gamescom interview where a dev said yes, they cost 300g now and you have to buy each color individually right? I mean, that was the announcement…

I think Zudet was referring to the 300g per color rumor that players have been spreading around like crazy despite no confirmation (that I’m aware of). It was said 300g would be the cost, and that you would have to buy each color separately, and that there is no particular order in which you must get them, however, it is yet to be confirmed that each tag after the first will be 300g.

Which is really stupid, because if a single person with the relevant information at ANet came and looked at the forums, they could probably make that clarification for us.

And here we have further evidence why Arena.net doesn’t talk to their fans.

Every time they do, the players lose their kitten.

Stormdancer.4972:

“We don’t want to provide a wide FoV because our art is pretty and you should see it up close”

“We don’t want to provide a 1st person view, that would let you see the pretty art up close, because… reasons.”

Basically this. It’s obvious that camera changes aren’t on the short list of things to do, they didn’t make the cut. Fine, I can get that. But don’t make up bs excuses that contradict each other.

I think they should just stop doing these interviews, unless their reps are going to be authorized to give real details. It just makes the company look evasive, and then look at how they handled the SAB announcement.

chemiclord.3978:

And here we have further evidence why Arena.net doesn’t talk to their fans.

Every time they do, the players lose their kitten.

Not exactly… people are getting annoyed because Anet is basically saying nothing 90% of the time and then popping in at 10% to give a lot of bad news. Also, a lot of what was said in that interview could have been said in like 2 sentences per question on the forums.

For example, SAB answer can be summed up as, “We feel it would detract from the more serious direction we’re taking the living story in, so at this time, we have no plans to bring it back. But we hope that with this new direction, the living story will be an experience that is more memorable and vivid than what you’ve seen before.”

I feel kinda bad for these guys because it’s clear that their area of expertise is making games and they were not trained for communicating with the public but are being asked to do so anyway.

chemiclord.3978:

And here we have further evidence why Arena.net doesn’t talk to their fans.

Every time they do, the players lose their kitten.

You call what they did in that interview “talking to their fans,” really? Because all I saw was them talking around the interviewer. I’ll take communication over talking points any day of the week.

I do apologize, because the shot was misdirected and it was not appropriate.

It just gets… tiring (that’s the word I’m looking for), that every time Arena.net says ANYTHING, be it in an interview or feature pack post, or stream, or whatever… players come out of the woodwork screaming like Chicken Little that Arena.net doesn’t care, they’re lazy, they don’t listen, they hate their fans, it’s the end of the world, the game is going to die tomorrow if they don’t change their mind, etc… etc…

I get it, you’re not getting what you want and you don’t like the reason given. But for crying out loud, they’re not doing it to spite you. Their reason is given, and frankly, I’m more willing to buy the reasons given of the people with the code right in front of them and the limitations they have than the legion of armchair developers who have decided “NO! YOU’RE WRONG!”

Then in two months time, the rage froths over, just in time for another statement to stir up all the dander all over again. It’s like people on this forum (and the Internet as a whole, I suppose) WANT to be angry, and will seek out reasons to rage like a hatred-seeking missile.

It’s just tiring. And I’m sorry for lashing out.

chemiclord.3978:

I do apologize, because the shot was misdirected and it was not appropriate.

It just gets… tiring (that’s the word I’m looking for), that every time Arena.net says ANYTHING, be it in an interview or feature pack post, or stream, or whatever… players come out of the woodwork screaming like Chicken Little that Arena.net doesn’t care, they’re lazy, they don’t listen, they hate their fans, it’s the end of the world, the game is going to die tomorrow if they don’t change their mind, etc… etc…

I get it, you’re not getting what you want and you don’t like the reason given. But for crying out loud, they’re not doing it to spite you. Their reason is given, and frankly, I’m more willing to buy the reasons given of the people with the code right in front of them and the limitations they have than the legion of armchair developers who have decided “NO! YOU’RE WRONG!”

Then in two months time, the rage froths over, just in time for another statement to stir up all the dander all over again. It’s like people on this forum (and the Internet as a whole, I suppose) WANT to be angry, and will seek out reasons to rage like a hatred-seeking missile.

It’s just tiring. And I’m sorry for lashing out.

Hey, no worries man. I think it happens on every game’s forum.

But honestly, tiring is probably the same thing that some of these long-time players are encountering; tired of hoping for certain improvements and getting bad news instead. I know the feeling of sticking it out with a game way longer than I would on my own time because of the people I know, friends I’ve made, etc.

So sometimes it looks like baseless chronic complaining, but it can also be people who really just want the best for the game and have too much stake in it to leave easily.

Edit: And you are right that there is a lot of attempted armchair development that goes nowhere. I have mixed feelings concerning that; there are some great ideas sometimes from people who are closely in tune with a game and the community – but more often than not, suggestions are not looking at the larger picture or missing important data that would change the landscape.

I have seen enough suggestions in games that did yield positive results to know that once in a while, players do have some valuable ideas. After all, many of these industry veterans are players from the old days of games who found their way into development.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Blude.6812:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

They don’t care about the small minority on the forums, they care about the vast majority of players.

Absolutely zero (0, none, nadda,) bit of proof or data to support that statement in any way,shape or form. It is your own personal feeling and pure speculation about both (who Anet cares about as well as who is actually the minority/majority) and easily dismissed.

Sort of like the rest of this thread?

Or do you only need proof when someone has an opinion different from you?

https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/burden-of-proof

The one question I would have asked with regards to “how pretty the art is” is that if the pretty artwork is a driving force behind many of their decisions why not implement DX11 support versus the archaic DX9 thus letting peoples’ graphic cards determine how pretty the world is?

chemiclord.3978:

I do apologize, because the shot was misdirected and it was not appropriate.

It just gets… tiring (that’s the word I’m looking for), that every time Arena.net says ANYTHING, be it in an interview or feature pack post, or stream, or whatever… players come out of the woodwork screaming like Chicken Little that Arena.net doesn’t care, they’re lazy, they don’t listen, they hate their fans, it’s the end of the world, the game is going to die tomorrow if they don’t change their mind, etc… etc…

I get it, you’re not getting what you want and you don’t like the reason given. But for crying out loud, they’re not doing it to spite you. Their reason is given, and frankly, I’m more willing to buy the reasons given of the people with the code right in front of them and the limitations they have than the legion of armchair developers who have decided “NO! YOU’RE WRONG!”

Then in two months time, the rage froths over, just in time for another statement to stir up all the dander all over again. It’s like people on this forum (and the Internet as a whole, I suppose) WANT to be angry, and will seek out reasons to rage like a hatred-seeking missile.

It’s just tiring. And I’m sorry for lashing out.

I think its more just that fact that they arnt showing us they are listening.
iv noticed a real lack of comments by devs on the forums of late. sure they are busy but isnt that what community representatives are for?(they hire people to talk to us)

Then when they do it feels like they give us little to no information
im frustrated cause i dont know where the game is going.
we get the points of intrest and the round up, those are… okay
(i mainly play pve so more interested in the points of interest episodes)
but thats just based on the current living story episode ( what we are told is only a very small team is working on)

what are the rest of arena net working on then?

“sorry your not part of our inner circle, begone pesent, also go buy some black lion keys”

^ while i know this isnt really what they are saying, its the feeling they are giving me when ever i try to show intrest in the game

even

( to be continued when i can logg on again)

promise it has a nicer ending

The interview the OP refers to gave me no hope that ANet is ever going to do anything to make the game appeal more to me. Not that I had any hope before…

I feel sorry for the guys that got stuck doing the interview. Management did not adequately prepare them. While management does seem to have a coherent vision of where they want the game to go, so many decisions they’ve made seem to sabotage their intentions.

For instance: "There is always a tension there because we spent a lot of time… and we’re very proud of the art that we do, and we have a fantastic art team and they are spending a lot of time making things look really, really good up close, so that’s part of the tension that we see and we want you to be immersed in the world and see all the hard work that they’re doing.

Then, I look at the reality of what I often see:

The interview in Guild Mag is terrible. It’s bad PR. If this is the way Anet is going to answer interviews, they shouldn’t give interviews at all.

That said, stuff like first person view and wider field of vision, aren’t in the game. They haven’t been in the game since launch. No one from Anet has ever implied they’re coming.

In those instances, even though the answers are terribly phrased, the truth is we shouldn’t have been expecting them. I would love to see first person point of view, but not having it in the game is not a game changer for me. Same with SAB. I really enjoyed it.

But I completely understand why in the middle of a serious storyline they might not want to bring it in. It doesn’t mean it will never be back.

One of the complaints about the first season of the living story was that it lacked cohesion. We were doing different stuff every two weeks. Sometimes it was the Scarlet story then we jumped to Tequatls return or SAB which had nothing to do with the story. Anet has taken that on board and made it so while the living story is coming out, they’re not going to change the flow with SAB.

I think the answer is to put SAB in the game permanently. Because if it was in the game permanently, it would be forgotten about by most people in a month.

And the people who want to play it can happily do so.

No one even mentioned about the Foxfire Clusters grind?

Angelica Dream.7103:

No one even mentioned about the Foxfire Clusters grind?

For an optional backpiece that you have forever to make? No, why would they?

Theftwind.8976:

The one question I would have asked with regards to “how pretty the art is” is that if the pretty artwork is a driving force behind many of their decisions why not implement DX11 support versus the archaic DX9 thus letting peoples’ graphic cards determine how pretty the world is?

First, Dx11 isn’t automatically “prettier”. You have to design your assets and shaders to take advantage of the additional capabilities that Dx11 provides that can make objects “prettier”. All of their assets are built around Dx9 and it’s limitations.

Second, the game engine was developed way before Dx11.

Third, it would take more time to implement than a FPV, which they have on the dev builds, mechanism that would snap back to TPV in combat which should satisfy their concerns about FPV outside of combat.

I’m still waiting on dyeable weapons, legendary dyes with special effects, and precursor hunting. 2 years later… still nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

>_<

Speaking not only for myself but of discussions with fellow guildies who DON’T frequent the forums but have heard of this interview…

… the PR of Anet is horrendously bad, from the gamescon stream to this interview – it isn’t representing anyone but lack of end goals and like the OP mentioned, total lack of relations with the community, whom at times on the forum, do represent quite a lot of gamers who don’t speak out.

And finally, coming from someone who loves GW1 and GW2 with a passion, this interview has come across as a total let down and a reason to not play as much because why? Developers of this game don’t seem to envision an end goal and do not listen to the community in whole.
2 years on creating another method of a precursor and the only answer is “it’s on the radar” and “soon.” soon was two years ago, buddies.

Domino.1359:

Developers of this game don’t seem to envision an end goal and do not listen to the community in whole.

For a while now I’ve felt like if GW2 is a ship, it’s crewed by competent, but weary sailors lead by a captain who has no idea where he’s going.

Vayne.8563:

That said, stuff like first person view and wider field of vision, aren’t in the game. They haven’t been in the game since launch. No one from Anet has ever implied they’re coming.

But they were in the beta, and to my knowledge, Anet has never been able to articulate a good (i.e. not self-contradictory, like the reasoning we just saw) reason why they didn’t make it from the beta to release in some form or another, even if it’s a limited form. It’s not a matter of people asking for features like this to be created out of the blue; the features exist, they just aren’t being used.

When they are willing to give answers so embarrassingly bad that they literally contradict themselves, I can only imagine that means that the truth is even more embarrassing, something like, “oops, we accidentally fired all the coders who understood this feature, and now we have no one capable of altering it and no budget to hire anyone else.” I completely understand why someone would rather make nonsensical statements than admit the truth if it’s anything like I imagine it to be.

Well, I think you should say the reason was not satisfactory… for YOU.

For me, I can totally see Arena.net support getting flooded by bug reports that the game is broken, they can’t see themselves and can’t tell if they are dodging and they’re dying to mobs they can’t see and how could you break this game like you do every patch…

Long story short, I can very easily see combat in FPV mode being near impossible to manage, many many many players not knowing how to use it properly, and getting angry at Arena.net for that lack of knowledge.

I don’t think it’s as simple as just switch it on, and any auto dump out of FPV mode in combat wouldn’t be just a little bit of coding that would go off without a lot of bug fixing.

Just because you don’t like the reason doesn’t mean it’s not a valid reason.

Posting my thoughts here as to not create a separate thread that will get lost or inadvertently merged with this one about some of the listed points here.

I find the arguments for the First Person and PoV not being in the game rather weak from the interview. The fact there is a working tool in the developer panel lends credence that it COULD be something opened up to the players. Also since the PoV and First Person is check box or optional slider, that means it the player has control over there decision The argument given as to why it’s not given to players could be true from the design side in respect to art and combat, its not what the PLAYER wants. What the players want is an unobstructed view of landscapes and players, without the HUD and player model, not for immersive combat with floating arms that show the player swing there weapons or casting.

I the argument for the PoV slider in the inter view suffered from the same weak art argument in that it can “Ruin” artistic choices that where decided upon. The argument is weak because art is subjective to the beholder, as it is the interpretation of whats being seen by them. A much stronger argument was made much earlier in the year about PoV in WvW with arrow carts as people would adjust there PoV as far out as they can to fire over walls and hit things not in the line of sight. I am confident that the game can not handle enforcing the manual override of the developer PoV slider because there is no trigger built to enforce said camera element, such as entering a WvW zone or PvP map. Building such a trigger and mechanic is not mine to estimate, only the people who built the game would know how difficult or long to make.

I have faith in the Arena net team they can solve ANY problem and limitations, since they made some rather large and successful changes over the last 2 years. With something as complex as the player camera, this might take awhile like the other big changes they have done. One does not simply re-write ones rendering and parenting code with wild abandon.

As for the argument for the super adventure box not being able to fit into the living story, that is also a weak argument. This short story shows that Super Adventure Box never really was part of the Living Story, it was it’s own story about an Asura who made this amazing box. Josh Foreman started this as a small April Fools prank with help of a very talented staff who put there soul into the first world, it would be a shame to keep it locked for a second or third year because it’s “not finished”. I know how disappointing world two was for some, but it was still fun to play through. World three can wait, just don’t over develop it because you have more time. Trust me I done that a few times in level design and overly complicate it and watched people struggle to pass even the second level.

I can understand why things are cut and pushed off, but the reasons given in the interview felt hollow and weak. I would of been happy with:

“We the team eagerly wanted to show you what we learned form the first session as session two. This in turn would mean many popular projects where placed on hold for something we felt would mean just as much to you as to us as the living story. As for the functionality of the player cameras, we have the tools but are currently not set up for player use. The design of the games art was built around the current player camera, but if the players feel that that these tools can be used to enhance there enjoyment , we will look into releasing these tools for player consumption at a later date or feature patch.”

I know interviews can be hard to come up with good reasons for things especially if it’s about design choices that you might not of been involved in. Hopefully during the release of the blog posts for the upcoming feature patch that more clarity is given on these design choices. Please excuse the rambling but I felt kinda crappy after reading the interview and felt the need to express my option.

Now on THAT score, the interview was poorly done and the answers were not well phrased and PR friendly. But I think we ALL know Arena.net is rather poor on that score, and have been for some time.

VincentDW.9376:

Vayne.8563:

That said, stuff like first person view and wider field of vision, aren’t in the game. They haven’t been in the game since launch. No one from Anet has ever implied they’re coming.

But they were in the beta, and to my knowledge, Anet has never been able to articulate a good (i.e. not self-contradictory, like the reasoning we just saw) reason why they didn’t make it from the beta to release in some form or another, even if it’s a limited form. It’s not a matter of people asking for features like this to be created out of the blue; the features exist, they just aren’t being used.

When they are willing to give answers so embarrassingly bad that they literally contradict themselves, I can only imagine that means that the truth is even more embarrassing, something like, “oops, we accidentally fired all the coders who understood this feature, and now we have no one capable of altering it and no budget to hire anyone else.” I completely understand why someone would rather make nonsensical statements than admit the truth if it’s anything like I imagine it to be.

They’re not in the game because a decent percentage of the player base would lock themselves into first person view, be unable to play the game, assume the game sucks and leaves. Which is good for no one. Even people who want it.

SkiTz.4590:

My favorite : “We don’t have anything we can say right now”.

Why on earth are you doing a kitten interview than?

Seriously?

They get hassled, hounded, and begged by websites, pod casters, and other various forms of media to let them interview them. If you think they went looking to be interviewed in this case, you are so out of touch with the reality of the situation, that you have no business commenting on it.

coglin.1867:

SkiTz.4590:

My favorite : “We don’t have anything we can say right now”.

Why on earth are you doing a kitten interview than?

Seriously?

They get hassled, hounded, and begged by websites, pod casters, and other various forms of media to let them interview them. If you think they went looking to be interviewed in this case, you are so out of touch with the reality of the situation, that you have no business commenting on it.

Fans: Anet never communicates with us.
Anet: Says stuff fans don’t want to hear.
Fans: Why even bother answering the interview.

Give me a break.

Faux.1937:

sMihaly.1492:

Looks like they aren’t even trying to be in touch anymore.

It… feels like…. idk… this interview has shown how out of touch they really are, and its so sad too, they believe they know what the players want, when in reality they have no clue.

“But my charts and numbers!” they are the absolute truth :O

Everybody should really stop overfreakin reacting. It was just a bad interview.

Vayne.8563:

coglin.1867:

SkiTz.4590:

My favorite : “We don’t have anything we can say right now”.

Why on earth are you doing a kitten interview than?

Seriously?

They get hassled, hounded, and begged by websites, pod casters, and other various forms of media to let them interview them. If you think they went looking to be interviewed in this case, you are so out of touch with the reality of the situation, that you have no business commenting on it.

Fans: Anet never communicates with us.
Anet: Says stuff fans don’t want to hear.
Fans: Why even bother answering the interview.

Give me a break.

I dont call answering 95% of the questions by “Can’t tell you about anything that we are working on, but here is something that nobody wanted, we hope you enjoy” being communication.

Vayne.8563:

VincentDW.9376:

Vayne.8563:

That said, stuff like first person view and wider field of vision, aren’t in the game. They haven’t been in the game since launch. No one from Anet has ever implied they’re coming.

But they were in the beta, and to my knowledge, Anet has never been able to articulate a good (i.e. not self-contradictory, like the reasoning we just saw) reason why they didn’t make it from the beta to release in some form or another, even if it’s a limited form. It’s not a matter of people asking for features like this to be created out of the blue; the features exist, they just aren’t being used.

When they are willing to give answers so embarrassingly bad that they literally contradict themselves, I can only imagine that means that the truth is even more embarrassing, something like, “oops, we accidentally fired all the coders who understood this feature, and now we have no one capable of altering it and no budget to hire anyone else.” I completely understand why someone would rather make nonsensical statements than admit the truth if it’s anything like I imagine it to be.

They’re not in the game because a decent percentage of the player base would lock themselves into first person view, be unable to play the game, assume the game sucks and leaves. Which is good for no one. Even people who want it.

The ability to “lock themselves into first person view” would indeed be a silly feature. That is not the feature that is under discussion. It sounds like what people mostly care about is not having a semitransparent head filling your camera at maximum zoom, so that it’s possible to do things like look closely at art, examine another player’s outfit, see what’s ahead of you in a tightly confined space, or take an unobstructed screenshot. I don’t think a “lock me in first person view” setting would help with any of that.

You are seriously overreacting. The game is going to be 2 years old soon, and the game is starting to improve dramatically since its launch and the year after. You and everybody should stop acting like they are entitled to everything there is in the game and expect everything to be there. The road ANet is going through has been a common road for other MMOs (INCLUDING WoW back in its vanilla days), where the first thing they focus on is to make the game playable, then add stuff to add a variety of activities to expand the gameplay, and to add quality of life stuff to make the game enjoyable to play. Guild Wars 2 hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Its still a very young game. And like anything, it need to grow. Give them time, cause they aren’t exactly working with Blizzard’s amount of money in their pockets.