Guild Wars 2

GW2 is now the ‘fastest updated MMO ever’ with a 2-weekly update cycle.

We are bloody spoiled, the sheer amount of content they’re putting in boggles my mind when you compare it to what else is out there.

They reputedly have four teams working on living story content. And they pretty much leap-frog the content to work on and implement stuff. That’s pretty reasonable and it makes sense how they’re doing it.

But I’d really like them to put some effort to other aspects of the game.

For example:

• 1 team could work on living story – we’d get living story content updates every 4 weeks.
• 1 team could work on dynamic events – implementing more per zone, and fixing and updating ones that are too slow/never get completed/difficulty scaling
• 1 team could work on PvP elements. So introduce more aspects to WvW instead of just the supply & zerg meta. Add some other mechanics and some pvp in a more structured manner (WvW instanced dungeon where 3 servers can queue up and fight to a central victory for example.)
• 1 team could work on itemization. It’s pretty obvious that players want more skins. More options for legendaries/skins. Have a monthly cycle where new skins are added to the game and like a Moba – you can play the game to earn currency to buy the new ones. Could also be applied to minis or something.

I think this would mean every two weeks we get content that is amazing for the game, progressive for the game, it’s not rushing through the living story at a crazy pace.
I think many people would like this.

I really like this suggestion.

I’d also include they organize a team to add new permanent gameplay options such as a couple classes or a race every… 15-18 months?

We are not spoiled by the short development cycle, we are rather punished by it. It favors short-term thinking over deep story telling and hampers quality concepts as well as quality code. As a software developer myself, I have made the suggestion, countless times as bad results of a short cycle continue to roll in, that they simply extend the cycle to 2-3 months. This would allow them time to develop quality ideas and quality code that is well-tested prior to release.

Yeah, but like any good suggestion here, it never receives the attention it needs to be seen by the right people.

What about the other teams that are already working on that stuff? They don’t count? It’s not that every team Anet has is working on the living story. They have four teams working on it, and other teams working on other stuff.

Jatacid.3725:

• 1 team could work on living story – we’d get living story content updates every 4 weeks.

Not if you want your one LS team to have the same amount of time to produce the content.

One team working on Living Story would mean we get Living Story updates once every 4 months. The cycle for the teams is each team is responsible for 2 releases (related to each other) per month. This gives each team 4 months to create the content released during ‘their month’. I don’t know why people think that the teams only have 2 weeks to create content, but I hear that a lot on the forums.

Also, the devs have stated, repeatedly, that there are many other teams working on projects…many different longer-term projects.