Guild Wars 2

Here’s the thing. Anet has introduced new elements into their game that, as a player base, we would have never expected. Why? Because, before we bought this game, we were strongly convinced that this game would be different. It still has a chance to be.

Two paths lie before Anet:

1) Informed Trust from the Players -They begin to listen and respond to their player base. No, I don’t mean that they should cater to whiners. But they sure could be more open and communicative in regards to why they seemingly disregarded their manifesto with blatant disrespect to the players who purchased the game on account of what they told us it would be. Honestly, anything said from the dev’s will only help us decide for ourselves whether this is a game we still want to play.

2) Blind Trust from the Players – They continue their current path, which unfortunately seems to be a pattern of little communication to the players and when they do communicate, it’s so ambiguous or contradictory to previous statements that it’s like deciphering a cryptic inscription on a tomb right before the walls start closing in. This path would mean that, as a player base, we will simply need to accept that Anet has both our and GW2’s (they should be the same) best interest in mind.

Personally, I still think Anet might know what they’re doing. All MMO’s have shaky starts. However, they’re on a slippery slope with two paths before them. They can still remain on solid ground if they make efforts to do so now, by instilling (or regaining) trust from the player base. Option one is, to me, the only serious and legitimate option if they want to create a game that players want to play over any extended period of time. Option two will only lead to distrust and lack of interest. In my opinion.

Which path should Anet take? Giving us something to work with, or expecting us to swallow whatever they feed us?

How can they regain your trust, or is it even possible?

Its funny… people think “the forum community” is the vocal minority.

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Hope Anet makes a genuine heartfelt post about all the problems and dislike people have with not just the patch… but the game and its direction in general.

I’m really hopping for Anet’s post explaining all of this, but to be honest I don’t think they will. If they do I would be the first in line to log back in.
But I don’t think they will.

The way I see it Anet is stuck pick which side to satisfy. This first one that is happening now is the new Endgame dungeon and Ascendent gear.

Before release….

1) A lot of people complain of lack of real endgame dungeon and a long term goal other than legendary weapon

2) The other lot complain the game doesn’t need some long term goal and being short is fine even though you’ll finish the game sooner than you wanted and get bored but what they need is to release the other part of the map we can’t explore yet.

Anet had to choose between one of these 2 angry mob of fourm community and they chosen #1. Now #1 is satisfied but now #2 is raging like a angry bull who can only see red.

A you can see Anet will be constantly stuck between 2 angry community groups and no matter what they do they will start a rage fest no matter how hard they try.

EdwinLi.1284:

The way I see it Anet is stuck pick which side to satisfy. This first one that is happening now is the new Endgame dungeon and Ascendent gear.

Before release….

1) A lot of people complain of lack of real endgame dungeon and a long term goal other than legendary weapon

2) The other lot complain the game doesn’t need some long term goal and being short is fine even though you’ll finish the game sooner than you wanted and get bored but what they need is to release the other part of the map we can’t explore yet.

Anet had to choose between one of these 2 angry mob of fourm community and they chosen #1. Now #1 is satisfied but now #2 is raging like a angry bull who can only see red.

A you can see Anet will be constantly stuck between 2 angry community groups and no matter what they do they will start a rage fest no matter how hard they try.

I think the choice was easy. All that they should’ve done was to follow their own manifesto. Simple as that. So whoever gets angry because of it, it’s not their problem.

Ballistic.4531:

I think the choice was easy. All that they should’ve done was to follow their own manifesto. Simple as that. So whoever gets angry because of it, it’s not their problem.

That is the sad part. No matter what they did people would of made it their problem.

EdwinLi.1284:

Ballistic.4531:

I think the choice was easy. All that they should’ve done was to follow their own manifesto. Simple as that. So whoever gets angry because of it, it’s not their problem.

That is the sad part. No matter what they did people would of made it their problem.

I get your point, but it wasn’t me (us) who asked for a manifesto. It was them who published it as their own vision and guidelines. Users (some of them) bought their product because of that manifesto.
Again, I get your point and it is true. There will always be dissatisfied customers. But all I’m saying is that when it comes to decisions like this, that’s why you have manifesto for. So you won’t kick your customers in the ribs (majority, minority that’s open for debate).

EdwinLi.1284:

The way I see it Anet is stuck pick which side to satisfy. This first one that is happening now is the new Endgame dungeon and Ascendent gear.

Before release….

1) A lot of people complain of lack of real endgame dungeon and a long term goal other than legendary weapon

2) The other lot complain the game doesn’t need some long term goal and being short is fine even though you’ll finish the game sooner than you wanted and get bored but what they need is to release the other part of the map we can’t explore yet.

Anet had to choose between one of these 2 angry mob of fourm community and they chosen #1. Now #1 is satisfied but now #2 is raging like a angry bull who can only see red.

A you can see Anet will be constantly stuck between 2 angry community groups and no matter what they do they will start a rage fest no matter how hard they try.

All they had to do to satify those who so deperately wanted progression was to limit the effects of the new content to the new content and not allow it to overshadow everything that has already been acchieved.

I would be quite happy if ascended gear, stayed in ascended dungeouns, and the stats were otherwise benign.

That would make sense. Much like the sPvP gear having different stats to the equivalent gear outside sPvP wouldnt’t give you a competetive edge.

But no.

I think a good option would be to provide additional end game content that gives an different way of accessing legendary items.

Adding alterative runes would have also been acceptable, such as 2 stats with higher bonus rather than 3 with lower as drops from dynamic events in PVE, dungeon drops and WvW rewards.

People wanted more stuff to do not higher level gear. More creative content is needed not another endless grind through a dungeon.

Its simple. They sold the game to me on the premise there would be no vertical progression. I was excited to hear that and bought the game.

With that mantra, I was more than willing to support them through the purchase of gems, which I did. Then I got a load of the gankfest instagib pvp and stopped purchasing. I was willing to give them time to work it out.

Since then, they did a 180 on the concept of no vertical grind. I was lied to, and that is unacceptable.

Now if they want to me spend any money on this game, they need to demonstrate that they VALUE me as a customer as much as they do the vertical progression people.

Solution:

1. Apologize.
2. Immediately make exotic gear as powerful as Ascend or reduce Ascends gear to the level of Exotic.
3. Continue to tweek pvp so its less of a gankfest.

Quite frankly … The more i look at this the more i believe this was not because of player feedback.
I think it might really be that the upper ranks of the company forced their hands because they wanted more money.

Man you sure are a whiner.

What is PVP without ganking? You want slow strategic games with perfect balance, play chess (and even that kitten is not balanced).

If you want to stop getting instagibbed, stop running into 3 – 4 people alone or if its a single thief gibbing you, put on some toughness and vitality.

The “vertical grind” they added, is optional at best as the stat difference is barely worth mentioning. No where will you see that one person was owned by another, because he had 3 more points in power. or 4 more points in vitality. Lol what a joker

RhysSebastian.7651:

The “vertical grind” they added, is optional at best as the stat difference is barely worth mentioning. No where will you see that one person was owned by another, because he had 3 more points in power. or 4 more points in vitality. Lol what a joker

Not entirely correct. It’s an 12-14% improvement over exotics with the current blue infusions.
This will increase with higher tiers of infusions.
The stat increase is consistent with the increases between the old tiers.
It’s fair to say that someone in exotics vs. someone in ascended is the same difference in power, relatively, as someone in rares vs. someone in exotics.
With that being said – currently you can not get a complete set of ascended items so right now the difference is not massive – this will change however.

“Man you sure are a whiner.”

You don’t need to run into 3-4 ppl to get instagibbed. One thief or warrior might do it.

The new vertical grind is not optional as pointed out by several preceding posts. However, that does not matter, nor does your opinion when it comes to me making any purchases with my money.

I was sold this game with the design ideology that there would be no vertical progression which is why I bought it. WOW is > way and if I wanted it as a consumer, I would have bought it over GW2.

I have time to sit and wait it out. If they don’t reverse this process, I’m more than willing not to spend any money and request a refund.

It boils down to this they need to make money! If the players that spend the most money want this it will happen! If u don’t want to play the game because of this no more, then don’t!

Honestly, I suspect that they are understaffed. One post in particular stated that they don’t have the kind of staff necessary to really communicate with the community the way many in the community would like.

Going back on design philosophy won’t make people buy the game and will not promote gem sales, this is just pure logic.

I think they should do 2. 8 of my good friends went back to League of Legends because of a lack of an unmotivated endgame, no arena PvP, and imbalanced WvW. Only 1 of my good buddies still plays with me, and I think he just quit yesterday.

I want people to have a reason to keep playing the game. The majority player-base, that is. Maybe these players will come back. I love Guild Wars 2 too much for it to become another niche game like SWTOR. The art style, the movement — everything is too good about this game for them to limit their potential.

Irnhide.3428:

Its funny… people think “the forum community” is the vocal minority.

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Hope Anet makes a genuine heartfelt post about all the problems and dislike people have with not just the patch… but the game and its direction in general.

Let them make an in-game poll or something. It’s not going to change.

And my path is separate from GW2.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6020/notanidlethreat2.png

It’s going to be just as hard to get acend items as it is for legendary, grind+50g crafting costs with the material you farmed for.

Kills my motivation to continue playing, that’s all that really needs to be said about the matter and I am sure others feel the same.

I was told ANet would listen and respond to their player base when two friends IRL convinced me to go with this game (up to a year ago). Both my friends IRL gave up on ANet and I’m still here because this is the only ANet that I know. Since joining a guild, I’ve found that the “GW2 ANet” is far different from the “GW1 ANet” and I think the word communist is the only one that won’t get me totally banned for describing them.

In their communication they should address the main issues being discussed here in the forum.
I just wish they would communicate in detail what their near future intentions are for the game, and their reasoning behind the newly implemented patch. They are very vague on everything.

I’ve never understood why devs like ANet don’t communicate with their players.

Why can’t they tell us their plans?

Why can’t they explain their vision for a profession and the direction they want to take them?

Why do they outright refuse to acknowledge major community concerns?
(Except for rangers, apparently Jon Peters can communicate with rangers, but no one else, what gives?)

They really need to take a look at the Square-Enix team currently working on FFXIV. The game’s current producer/director (Yoshi) who took over from Tanaka post-launch has shown the best communication with the playerbase of any MMO I’ve seen. He posts monthly letters explaining all of their future plans (even with a project timeline). He discusses issues openly with the community. And he actively responds to player feedback. The game might not have gotten off to a great start but Yoshi’s communication with the community has been enough to keep their trust and keep their faith.

ANet really needs to start doing the same as a LOT of players are starting to get frustrated at being ignored.

Keelin.5781:

Quite frankly … The more i look at this the more i believe this was not because of player feedback.
I think it might really be that the upper ranks of the company forced their hands because they wanted more money.

Not a smart one i have to suppose after looking this mess xD

Irnhide.3428:

Its funny… people think “the forum community” is the vocal minority.

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Hope Anet makes a genuine heartfelt post about all the problems and dislike people have with not just the patch… but the game and its direction in general.

I remember reading several comments identical time this during Diablo 3’s launch. Diablo 3 still has a forum if whiners, But when you play public games you find a lot of happy players. Judging The forums as the entire playerbase’s opinions are about the equivalent of taking the exit polls during the mid-term senate election in a small town and projecting that to the entire populations congressional satisfaction rate.

That is, taking an opinion from a small group of a population(aka a minority) about specific topics and applying it in a broad manner, which is not reliable. Even if the majority of forum goers are leaning one way, we are still the minority. We are a small set of a very large population.

I think the op makes a point about the game having two paths, however the paths he explains doesn’t strike me as some sort of sudden revelation, but rather as a pretty common set of circumstances for any developer trying to win over a fan base.

Sion.1653:

How can they regain your trust, or is it even possible?

If you’ve ever been part of a team working hard on something for many years you can see how easy it is to get blinders on and to be biased when considering the overall perception of your product…. I’ve used this analogy before but I think it’s perhaps the best one. They are like a high profile five star restaurant that opened its doors to incredible hype. Some of the items on the menu did meet or exceed expectations, but about half the menu is just horrible. Often being returned to the kitchen repeatedly because they just couldn’t seem to do them right.

People waited years for the grand opening. Some want to believe what was said to be true and just can’t accept the failure before them.

Meanwhile the staff and owners of the establishment are oblivious. Business has dropped by 40% but during their weekly meetings they find ways to justify it. “Oh this was expected after the grand opening…. Things are tapering off”. They refuse to understand how something being sent back to the kitchen for refire repeatedly IS a huge deal to the customer.

The Lost Shores event has had too many bugs. The content itself not well enough documented and overall felling very half-baked. This Lost Shores feels like the product of a desperate team rushing to release to meet a deadline. It’s kitten.

The new dungeon and gear treadmill additions are their attempt to fix the hemorrhaging. Yes, they will go against their own manifesto to make players keep playing and ONLY THEY know just how many have dropped off since launch. Rumor is it’s enough to strike fear internally (why else would they be giving away 3-trial accounts to every customer to give to friends).

Guys, the game is definitely in trouble.

TL;DR
They can’t win my trust back. They shipped their game too early and the amount of fixes needed in additional to fundamental design flaws are insurmountable. They released the lost shores to great hype and several components of that have been bugged. We’re three months in and they don’t have a grip on things. Their game engine is not stable and they don’t know how to fix it apparently. The the new gear tredmill they’ve gone against their own design manifesto, sacrificing integirty to desperately try to keep players and gain new ones. I called it a month in, the haul has large holes and the ship is way out to sea. She’s going down.

Done. Done. Done. Fork please?

P.S. Considering video recording myself taking a blow torch to the precious Rytlock statue and posting it on the web just for the emotional impact that will have on the staff who worked so hard on it. They need a wake up call to understand how upset some of us are and that we can hold our silent symbolic protest as well.

Dissatisfied customers? I have recently seen posts here and in other threads saying Arenanet had to make a radical change to satisfy those that wanted gear progression.

Really? Arenanet built and delivered a product based on features it has been marketing for years. If a potential customer did not like those features, they should not have bought the product. Gear stat progression was never an advertised feature. Moreover, Arenanet created a manifesto and video that further explained why they do not support gear stat progression in their product.

Now after launch, they change a core feature of their product. People bought their game based on Arenanet’s original vision and features. Those are their customer base that they should be satisfying.

What if Call of Duty suddenly changed to 3rd person view and limited the number of times you could kill people? What if they did that because some people complained about the first person view and dying all the time? Do you think call of duty fans would be happy?

What if Assassin’s Creed eliminated assassinations because some people felt uncomfortable killing people in a game? Do you think AC customers would be happy?

These games will never introduce those kind of changes because it goes against the core features of their games. Even if there are customers asking for those features, they will not do it. They will continue to market their core features and cater to their core customer base.

Well said, OP. I am normally the one to soapbox about things like this, but you said it all. Anet’s path “Forward” is seen from the perspective of Googly-eyed envy of Blizzard’s success. Well, if using the example of a stagnant game that’s changed very little in eight years is Anet’s idea of “moving forward,” then it’s high time to abandon ship for bluer seas.

Actually they have a third path which they’re already taking:

Plagiarize the kitten out of World of Warcraft because it’s popular.

Sion.1653:

Here’s the thing. Anet has introduced new elements into their game that, as a player base, we would have never expected. Why? Because, before we bought this game, we were strongly convinced that this game would be different. It still has a chance to be.

Two paths lie before Anet:

1) Informed Trust from the Players -They begin to listen and respond to their player base. No, I don’t mean that they should cater to whiners. But they sure could be more open and communicative in regards to why they seemingly disregarded their manifesto with blatant disrespect to the players who purchased the game on account of what they told us it would be. Honestly, anything said from the dev’s will only help us decide for ourselves whether this is a game we still want to play.

2) Blind Trust from the Players – They continue their current path, which unfortunately seems to be a pattern of little communication to the players and when they do communicate, it’s so ambiguous or contradictory to previous statements that it’s like deciphering a cryptic inscription on a tomb right before the walls start closing in. This path would mean that, as a player base, we will simply need to accept that Anet has both our and GW2’s (they should be the same) best interest in mind.

Personally, I still think Anet might know what they’re doing. All MMO’s have shaky starts. However, they’re on a slippery slope with two paths before them. They can still remain on solid ground if they make efforts to do so now, by instilling (or regaining) trust from the player base. Option one is, to me, the only serious and legitimate option if they want to create a game that players want to play over any extended period of time. Option two will only lead to distrust and lack of interest. In my opinion.

Which path should Anet take? Giving us something to work with, or expecting us to swallow whatever they feed us?

How can they regain your trust, or is it even possible?

Why pretend it hasn’t already chosen a path long before release? The Black Lion chest scam was not an accident and the gear grind was something it must have planned well before release, because all that new content was not whipped up in a week. It’s a company that has chosen to be deceptive and attempted to sucker its customers to make purchases rather than inspire its customers to make purchases. Like any criminal—and its behavior has literally been criminal, if any of our authorities were savvy or wired enough to press charges—it can earn trust only by apology fully and changing its ways utterly for a meaningful period of time. It hasn’t and it won’t, so no money for it.

dalendria.3762:

Dissatisfied customers? I have recently seen posts here and in other threads saying Arenanet had to make a radical change to satisfy those that wanted gear progression.

Really? Arenanet built and delivered a product based on features it has been marketing for years. If a potential customer did not like those features, they should not have bought the product. Gear stat progression was never an advertised feature. Moreover, Arenanet created a manifesto and video that further explained why they do not support gear stat progression in their product.

Now after launch, they change a core feature of their product. People bought their game based on Arenanet’s original vision and features. Those are their customer base that they should be satisfying.

What if Call of Duty suddenly changed to 3rd person view and limited the number of times you could kill people? What if they did that because some people complained about the first person view and dying all the time? Do you think call of duty fans would be happy?

What if Assassin’s Creed eliminated assassinations because some people felt uncomfortable killing people in a game? Do you think AC customers would be happy?

These games will never introduce those kind of changes because it goes against the core features of their games. Even if there are customers asking for those features, they will not do it. They will continue to market their core features and cater to their core customer base.

This.

Shooopa.5632:

Actually they have a third path which they’re already taking:

Plagiarize the kitten out of World of Warcraft because it’s popular.

Has that ever worked ?

Sion.1653:

Here’s the thing. Anet has introduced new elements into their game that, as a player base, we would have never expected. Why? Because, before we bought this game, we were strongly convinced that this game would be different. It still has a chance to be.

Two paths lie before Anet:

Three paths, actually:

1. Return to the original manifesto and try to somehow win the trust of players back. It would be hard (trust, once broken is not easily regained) but possible – lot of us still want to believe that we can have the game we wanted back. The cost might be losing the grinders though.

2. Switch to the new approach. Go for treadmill, raids, mounts, holy trinity – all that the grinders want. This will lose them their old core community, of course, but if the management decides that such is the price of business, then so be it.
I personally think they will lose the grinders too, because so far no game managed to pull that crowd away from WoW for long, but Anet may think differently. Who knows, they may even succeed when other games failed.

3. Continue on the current path. Don’s explain anything, don’s speak with the community, try to please everyone with partial gestures.
It’s very unlikely to satisfy anyone but the most pure casual crowd, that doesn’t even buy anything in shop. For grinders it will not be enough, for old community it will be too much, and it will mean losing a distinct game image.
This option will most certainly will lose them the game. There’s no buts and ifs about that.

LadenSwallow.1468:

And my path is separate from GW2.

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/6020/notanidlethreat2.png

Lucky you, being in the EU and having fit-for-purpose laws. Bet us North American players won’t have nearly as much luck getting money back (especially those who purchased long enough ago, like me, to have been in since BWE1).

I made a huge error in judgement, and its my own fault.

I did not adequately evaluate their business model before I purchased the game. I drank the KoolAid of their manifesto and was fool enough to believe that they would honor it.

My mistake was not realizing that monthly subscription games are superior to “free based” games who made their money off an AH or gem store. The temporal relationship to the events which has transpired only confirms this.

Subscription based games sees all clients as equal and tries their best to satisfy all parties and maintain as close to possible the core of their game as advertised.

AH and gem store based games run demographics on the individuals who do the most purchases and then evolve the game orientated to those customers. It is inherently biased and in the interest of the company above any and all other interests. This is true even if it become necessary to violate their own manifesto.

The manifesto is nothing more that a minor inconvenience to them. They have ran the numbers and have made their decision. I have made mine, you shall not get one more dime, and I will seek a full refund.

Personally, I don’t think it’s Anet that is driving this train anymore…..

All MMO’s have shaky starts.

I disagree. GW2 had the BEST launch I have ever seen from an MMO.

The launch wasn’t the problem. The problem is the poor post-launch development, the complete and utter lack of respect/communication to the player-base and this new direction that flies in the face of their own tenants and design manifesto. That is what is going to cost them players and money as a result.

There was nothing wrong with the launch. AN had success in their grasp but then let it slip through their fingers.

Amulrei.4973:

All MMO’s have shaky starts.

I disagree. GW2 had the BEST launch I have ever seen from an MMO.

The launch wasn’t the problem. The problem is the poor post-launch development, the complete and utter lack of respect/communication to the player-base and this new direction that flies in the face of their own tenants and design manifesto. That is what is going to cost them players and money as a result.

There was nothing wrong with the launch. AN had success in their grasp but then let it slip through their fingers.

I generally agree with what you’ve posted; I suppose by ‘start’ I meant the first three-four months including and after launch, which in the grand scheme of the potential lifetime of an MMO of this caliber I still consider to be the beginning.

Your post is spot-on.

Godorn.2931:

I made a huge error in judgement, and its my own fault.

I did not adequately evaluate their business model before I purchased the game. I drank the KoolAid of their manifesto and was fool enough to believe that they would honor it.

My mistake was not realizing that monthly subscription games are superior to “free based” games who made their money off an AH or gem store. The temporal relationship to the events which has transpired only confirms this.

Subscription based games sees all clients as equal and tries their best to satisfy all parties and maintain as close to possible the core of their game as advertised.

AH and gem store based games run demographics on the individuals who do the most purchases and then evolve the game orientated to those customers. It is inherently biased and in the interest of the company above any and all other interests. This is true even if it become necessary to violate their own manifesto.

The manifesto is nothing more that a minor inconvenience to them. They have ran the numbers and have made their decision. I have made mine, you shall not get one more dime, and I will seek a full refund.

You’re right. The purpose of a video game developer is the same as any other business; to make money. And, sadly, when the demographic of people who actually spend a large amount of money on gems is not the same as their original demographic targeted by the manifesto, they’ll change. Because they have to financially. I just hope it can stay moderate and not degrade the game entirely.

Astralporing.1957:

3. Continue on the current path. Don’s explain anything, don’s speak with the community, try to please everyone with partial gestures.
It’s very unlikely to satisfy anyone but the most pure casual crowd, that doesn’t even buy anything in shop. For grinders it will not be enough, for old community it will be too much, and it will mean losing a distinct game image.
This option will most certainly will lose them the game. There’s no buts and ifs about that.

I comment only this.
Well this is the worst choice, you cant make all the ppl Happy with mid choice or keeping silence.
This is a choice that keep players unsatisfied for a while, and then all leave.

Godorn.2931:

You’re right. The purpose of a video game developer is the same as any other business; to make money. And, sadly, when the demographic of people who actually spend a large amount of money on gems is not the same as their original demographic targeted by the manifesto, they’ll change. Because they have to financially. I just hope it can stay moderate and not degrade the game entirely.

But how does Arenanet know that “gear progression” players will spend more money in the Cash Shop?

Have any players received a survey from them assessing this type of behavior? Have they posted surveys on their forums? Has anyone been contacted by a third-party market research company?

I have tried to find analysis on this via the Net. The only things I have found support the importance of “gear progression” within a sub-based game. No one says it is important for a Cash Shop. In fact, whether we like it not, some studies show that people will spend in Cash Shop for “pay to win” items.

Now let’s get to what Arenanet should know. They have had a game in the marketplace for 7 years based on horizontal progression. They have historical data for box sales, expansion sales and cash shop revenue based on that design approach. If that game had failed to meet their financial model projections, they would not have made GW2 with the same approach. They got it right for the niche that loves horizontal progression. $2million box sales is proof. If Cash Shop sales are down, maybe consider improving the items offered. Adding horizontal progression has no direct correlation to increasing Cash Shop revenue.

I suspect that this radical change is more to do with a change in their internal leadership. Having been in corporate America for almost 30 years, I have seen this type of behavior before. It usually happens when a new leader steps in or gains more power. You would be surprised how much one person can change the direction of a company.

dalendria.3762:

Godorn.2931:

You’re right. The purpose of a video game developer is the same as any other business; to make money. And, sadly, when the demographic of people who actually spend a large amount of money on gems is not the same as their original demographic targeted by the manifesto, they’ll change. Because they have to financially. I just hope it can stay moderate and not degrade the game entirely.

But how does Arenanet know that “gear progression” players will spend more money in the Cash Shop?

Have any players received a survey from them assessing this type of behavior? Have they posted surveys on their forums? Has anyone been contacted by a third-party market research company?

I have tried to find analysis on this via the Net. The only things I have found support the importance of “gear progression” within a sub-based game. No one says it is important for a Cash Shop. In fact, whether we like it not, some studies show that people will spend in Cash Shop for “pay to win” items.

Now let’s get to what Arenanet should know. They have had a game in the marketplace for 7 years based on horizontal progression. They have historical data for box sales, expansion sales and cash shop revenue based on that design approach. If that game had failed to meet their financial model projections, they would not have made GW2 with the same approach. They got it right for the niche that loves horizontal progression. $2million box sales is proof. If Cash Shop sales are down, maybe consider improving the items offered. Adding horizontal progression has no direct correlation to increasing Cash Shop revenue.

I suspect that this radical change is more to do with a change in their internal leadership. Having been in corporate America for almost 30 years, I have seen this type of behavior before. It usually happens when a new leader steps in or gains more power. You would be surprised how much one person can change the direction of a company.

and lets say that the estetic item section, is really…really poor. Exactly the section where a lot of player are glad to invest money.

Snoring Sleepwalker.9073:

Shooopa.5632:

Actually they have a third path which they’re already taking:

Plagiarize the kitten out of World of Warcraft because it’s popular.

Has that ever worked ?

No but that’s never stopped anyone before.

Anet won’t reply to anything because as long as they are not collecting a monthly fee they can do what they want to the game. They can change their mind about everything that was the selling point of the game. We just got suckered by the hope of change in mmo’s.

Irnhide.3428:

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Until you have figures showing how many people actually post here, versus those that don’t, you have no business really, saying that it is not a minority

Fiennes.9568:

Irnhide.3428:

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Until you have figures showing how many people actually post here, versus those that don’t, you have no business really, saying that it is not a minority

True. However, same goes the other way. We also don’t know if it really is a minority.

Ballistic.4531:

Fiennes.9568:

Irnhide.3428:

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Until you have figures showing how many people actually post here, versus those that don’t, you have no business really, saying that it is not a minority

True. However, same goes the other way. We also don’t know if it really is a minority.

but, if we take the forum as feedback, we cant say that the majority of player asked for a new stats tier. and without an in game survey, the forum is the only feedback they can use…i guess.

Ganzo.5079:

Ballistic.4531:

Fiennes.9568:

Irnhide.3428:

When you have a forum full of angry and upset and frustration…. its not a minority anymore.

Until you have figures showing how many people actually post here, versus those that don’t, you have no business really, saying that it is not a minority

True. However, same goes the other way. We also don’t know if it really is a minority.

but, if we take the forum as feedback, we cant say that the majority of player asked for a new stats tier. and without an in game survey, the forum is the only feedback they can use…i guess.

Again true. However, I’m not sure who said that majority asked for a treadmill.

I suspect that this radical change is more to do with a change in their internal leadership. Having been in corporate America for almost 30 years, I have seen this type of behavior before. It usually happens when a new leader steps in or gains more power. You would be surprised how much one person can change the direction of a company.

If this is the case, then it’s really sad how all of the potential GW2 had could be thrown out the window by a few (or one) executive at the top.