Guild Wars 2

Hi! i played Guild Wars 2 until just after the expansion was released then i stopped because of Real Life work.
I’m going back now and i found out that Colin left ArenaNet and he was such a great guy, i’d like to know how GW2 is doing without him

As far as I can tell, it’s doing lots better. Other opinions may vary.

Pretty good, but it’s being developed quite differently from the past.

Smaller but more frequent PvE updates, with an expansion in the works, more focus on WvW and PvP / Esports.

Haven’t really enjoyed it myself, used to play everyday but now me and my partner only go on to do the new content when it drops which usually takes us about 2 days, didn’t bother with Christmas or Halloween as they where copy and paste’s pf previous years.

It seems to mostly be about grinding AB meta for gold now rom what I hear xD

I’ve looked the news feed and didn’t found many interesting posts, unless they’re annoucing stuff on livestreams now?
i am aware of the second expansion, probably targeting 2018?
I was quite happy that SAB got back but i didnt had the time to play it.

Lordareon.6851:

I’ve looked the news feed and didn’t found many interesting posts, unless they’re annoucing stuff on livestreams now?
i am aware of the second expansion, probably targeting 2018?
I was quite happy that SAB got back but i didnt had the time to play it.

They tend not to hype and communicate much about forthcoming content anymore. I think they felt they overhyped stuff so now we get a small bit of info then the content launches shortly after. Mike said he wanted to be judged on what they deliver, not by what they hoped to deliver (or something along those lines). He had to make a pretty tough call on the legendaries when production stopped to change direction on them to ensure they could be produced at all. I’m not happy we lost what was proving to be an exciting direction with the collections, but I understand why it was made.

The content has largely been pretty solid, with decent maps and improvements on the story (except the last one imo). I think it will be easier to judge when either the season ends or we know where we are headed with this expac. It feels a bit more like direction has stabilised and things are proceeding better now, rather than chopping and changing due to constant experimentation.

I really liked Colin, but I think it is doing better. More consistent and new content. New maps. LS has improved IMO.

It actually feels like things are really leading to the next expansion.

I’m not actually saying that Colin leaving was a good thing, but the game seems to be powering ahead better than in previous years.

Very interesting, seems the general opinion that the game got on its tracks.
Hot was indeed hyped a hell lot, and with no release date, it was a tough time indeed.
Good to know, so those twice a year big updates are gone? I’ve have to play the expansion and the new LS.
But indeed, better be judged by what you deliver than what you promise a.k.a. No man’s sky

It’s definitely been better since Colin left. I’m not sure how much of it is due to Colin leaving vs how much of it is coincidence and would have happened regardless, but my opinion is that Colin, while seemingly an overall cool and intelligent guy, was just not that competent in his role and continually made and then doubled-down on bad decisions that sabotaged a lot of GW2’s potential success for years.

It’s a lesson to be learned about people who are primarily developers and engineers being put in charge of big picture/high level stuff. It just doesn’t really work; there’s a dichotomy in the way people with disparate skill sets actually think. He was arrogant and insisted on doing things his way even when all signs of reason pointed against it. And when players vocally disagreed with the direction of something, he would basically just tell them they’re wrong rather than listening and adjusting the game’s direction.

My biggest problem is that they still under-communicate and the profession balancing methodology is still really bad. It needs to be much more frequent at the very least.

I have come to believe that the wrong person left.

Development seems more directed and up front with us. I like the Reddit AMAs after each major update. Expectations are more realistic. And ANet has made some of it’s usual forum naysayers eat their words. We are seeing work being done in all game modes of the game so no one area feels ignored for what seems to be years.

Esquilax.3491:

Pretty good, but it’s being developed quite differently from the past.

Smaller but more frequent PvE updates, with an expansion in the works, more focus on WvW and PvP / Esports.

I would say the opposite, less often updates then before. I miss the every 2weeks new content. If collin was a major reason why the base game was so amazing, i’d say it’s a shame he left. I don’t like the direction HoT went overall. I don’t know when they started working on HoT probably b4 gw2 was released? but if that’s not true.. I kinda wish they woulda focused a little more on HoT b4 jumping back on the money train known as another Xpac.

base game- casual fun, HoT – uber grind. I left WoW because of the uber grind.
Of course maybe when things are new, you don’t see it as a grind, but after 4 years and they increase the grind elements even more, it kind of gets boring quick.

Even though i still play every day, it’s gone from playing for a couple hours to just logging in to do dailies and logging out.

plus in beginning it was like yay no sub extra money to waste on gemstore. Now its like meh…why bother, they aint getting my money or ingame gold.

The game has gotten better. I liked Colin, but it seemed he got more into the idea of playing to other games audiences (like a “raid” was put in seemingly to attract the WoW raider) while now it is going back to it’s GW roots.

More frequent updates have gotten on track then before with more of the storyline being picked up. A good example is the human personal storyline involving Caudecus is FINALLY moving forward showing the links of the White Mantle, bandits and inquest. Lazarus from the end of GW1 has even shown back up.

All in all the pacing seems to be really getting in gear with much more to do.

The game improved a little over the year as far as I am concerned. Wether this happened due to Colin leaving is a good question. Many changes people enjoy must have been planned way in advance. While others certainly happened due to the change in leadership and direction.

However, the thing I noticed most of all is the difference in communication. It improved greatly after he left and then subsided down to the lowest levels we ever had. Well, feels that way to me at least.

depends on who you are asking . for the most part tho with Colin gone . some of the

stuff that has been add to the game . was a mistake and should have never been . while

other things have been good for the game . despite lacking of game fixes and so forth

that is need . like i said it just depends on who you are asking

I don’t know if the release pace of LS3 is a result of Colin leaving, but personally I really like the schedule for LS3 so far and it is packed full of content for most types of players. We finally got new fractals (it’s been ages), new maps (also been ages – not counting HoT). LS3 is how the game should’ve been during LS2

For those that want it there are always things to do in GW2 provided u got time. Let’s say u did dailies/fractals etc. I usually clear raids monday-tuesday, the other days its either wvw/pvp and dungeon/world boss tours. Pretty fun if you are doing it with company. Another thing i found is that if u don’t mix it up between game modes it’s really easy to get bored/burned out like in pretty much every MMO.

Note that I don’t know and can’t say if this is at all related to Colin leaving, but in the past year I definitely think that the game has take a more positive direction.

We have received updates to all 3 game modes. Not quite enough for PvP and nothing near enough for WvW but its a start. We’ve received skill splits between different game modes, and with PvP league season 5 we actually saw the first iteration of PvP specific balance patch (for me it was notable because it was “off schedule” from the PvE balance team, which means that in the future we may be receiving quicker PvP balance iterations). ANet realized that temporary achievements are a bad idea, which is a good thing imo.

So far LWS3 has been really good content, and we have started getting LWS1 re-incorporated into the game with the nightmare fractal (though whether this will continue or not is unknown to the players). The 2nd gen of leg weapons has continued to be released steadily. April patch fixed most of the biggest problems with HoT content imo, and really showed a commitment to keeping new content more in line with GW2. John Smith has stepped back and is now tuning the economy with a steady hand and a scalpel instead of the drunken waraxe method he used when HoT dropped.

Overall even though it had its problems, 2016 signaled that ANet was heading in a very good direction with this game.

They’ve lost most of their talent and brains to Amazon Games.

Idk what this supposed “focus on WvW/eSports” is supposed to be about. Class balance is still a pipe dream, the same power creep clown show carries on.

Basically they are producing the least amount of content necessary to buy time until the next expansion comes out with more power creep.

The current way they’ve been doing LS3 was likely in place before Colin left.

Better IMHO… feels less punishing for players with limited game time.

I don’t think the game is any better or worse really. Mind you the fact that I am an outsider to the development room really hurts my ability to take a stance; stated philosophies are fun and fine but how the team actually works with and without Colin is really unknown. For all I know all that is occurring was rather eventual and planned for months or even years prior to the release. I mean lore is rarely written in a day after all.

I didn’t get much of a chance to see how the game was before HoT ( I was about 5 month in when it dropped). And while I’ve enjoyed everything before LS3 came about, there were times I felt like we were in a “content drought”.

MO stated that the way ANet was going to deliver was going to change and honestly, I like it. For me, it’s the perfect amount of stuff to do with just the right amount of time to enjoy it before the next episode of the LS releases. Also, I love how they are really making the new maps have more incentive to return after you map complete.

Also, the reintroduction of the Legendary Weapons is really nice. A lot of people were kittened about the initial release and the previous call to suspend them indefinitely. Now, we’re seeing one new Legendary per chapter. To me that tells me that ANet is trying to please their customers. I’ve got a good feeling about this post-Colin ANet.

Night and day.

GW2 runs like a balanced machine, meaty content packs every two months, new legendary every 2 months, Fractals are getting content, two new PVP maps, PVP ranking system revamped, WvW some progress.

Silas Eorth.7348:

I didn’t get much of a chance to see how the game was before HoT ( I was about 5 month in when it dropped). And while I’ve enjoyed everything before LS3 came about, there were times I felt like we were in a “content drought”.

Core was generally okay. And the content drought feeling might have been different if HoT delivered. It didn’t (and the fact that during that content drought Anet was pumping juicy content updates for a small minority of players didn’t help any).

Now, i sincerely doubt that all of this can be blamed on a single person. It’s not a single mistake, it’s the whole game direction during that time that was a problem. Things that likely have been thought up by a lot of people, accepted by marketing, and signed on by Mo.

That saying, the stuff that happened since Colin left did make the game better. Some of the problems with HoT maps were fixed (not all, but there’s a limit to what you can change without needing to redo the whole map), new LS3 maps seem to be way better, LS3 story is also better (well, besides chapter 3, that one was really bad, can someone shoot Braham please?), WvW team at least seem to be talking to people and trying to do something, PvP is in a state of evolution (i’ll leave it to other people to speak on that one, got burned way too much with 2nd and 3rd league season to be able to make any unbiased judgment now).

There are still some things that were introduced that had a huge negative (at least to me) impact on the game that weren’t addressed yet. And some things that were done after HoT that i dislike. I guess i’ll have to wait to see what will be done about them (or whether anything will be done at all). Some of those may still make or break the game for me.

So, TL;DR:
Yeah, the game is better after Colin left. That may not have been entirely his fault. And “better” does not necessarily mean that the game is in a good spot now. Not yet.
But it certainly has a better chance of recovering now.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

Night and day.

GW2 runs like a balanced machine, meaty content packs every two months, new legendary every 2 months, Fractals are getting content, two new PVP maps, PVP ranking system revamped, WvW some progress.

Meaty might be an overstatement on the size of these content patches, but yest they are very good in my opinion.

I’m quite happy with it. It’s really hard to say with the content droughts on either side of HoT in mind. Or maybe it’s really easy to say.

I’d say it’s in a better place than it was back when Colin was here, but that doesn’t mean that Colin was at fault for what was going on. Anet has a long history of putting stuff out and reacting to fan comment after the fact.

For example, HoT wasn’t well received but many complaints about it were corrected at least for a lot of people in last April’s patch. Colin was still here at that time. HoT got better at that point for a lot of people.

I think the game is in a better place than it was when HoT launched. I think it’s probabliy going to get better over time, but there’s some work to do to bring it back to what it was before HoT launched.

Keep in mind also that some of us really like HoT content.

I’d post what I really think, but it would just get infracted/deleted in the usual fashion of these forums.

LS contains way too many ‘scenes’ which are just NPCs talking whilst you are unable to do anything other than listen. Pretty tedious first time through, totally offputting if you play more than one toon.

spvp got a couple new maps, same broken pvp mechanics. Bad balance.

wvw is the neglected area of the game and has got nothing of any real note for ages. Needs a complete revamp as it’s become totally stale- the server system was OK until megaservers came along at which point trying to attract players to play in your server became impossible and bandwaggonning is rife.

Fractals got some more maps.

New maps got JPs which are required for certain completions, so if you don’t like them (personally they are on a par with Himmler for me) then you either try and endure the tedium and annoyance in an attempt to do them without logging off/dcing/being called away etc.

New maps have yet more currencies that don’t store, so buy bigger bags. Apparently newest map needs some anti- freeze item or something that requires things to be collected so you can make one a day in order to play it

Baldrick.8967:

I’d post what I really think, but it would just get infracted/deleted in the usual fashion of these forums.

LS contains way too many ‘scenes’ which are just NPCs talking whilst you are unable to do anything other than listen. Pretty tedious first time through, totally offputting if you play more than one toon.

spvp got a couple new maps, same broken pvp mechanics. Bad balance.

wvw is the neglected area of the game and has got nothing of any real note for ages. Needs a complete revamp as it’s become totally stale- the server system was OK until megaservers came along at which point trying to attract players to play in your server became impossible and bandwaggonning is rife.

Fractals got some more maps.

New maps got JPs which are required for certain completions, so if you don’t like them (personally they are on a par with Himmler for me) then you either try and endure the tedium and annoyance in an attempt to do them without logging off/dcing/being called away etc.

New maps have yet more currencies that don’t store, so buy bigger bags. Apparently newest map needs some anti- freeze item or something that requires things to be collected so you can make one a day in order to play it

+10, agree with all your points. But it really isn’t a result of colin leaving, it’s more because of who is ultimately in charge.
PS. I would edit that 1st line.

DoctorDing.5890:

As far as I can tell, it’s doing lots better. Other opinions may vary.

Barely anything got done and the LS stuff that has been released probably was ready before Colin left…

I think we’ll only know with the next expansion.

Lordareon.6851:

Hi! i played Guild Wars 2 until just after the expansion was released then i stopped because of Real Life work.
I’m going back now and i found out that Colin left ArenaNet and he was such a great guy, i’d like to know how GW2 is doing without him

Its doing way better without him. They actually created a fixed blueprint for creating content. Meaning that now they know how to structure everything, allowing them to work faster and better.

Xillllix.3485:

DoctorDing.5890:

As far as I can tell, it’s doing lots better. Other opinions may vary.

Barely anything got done and the LS stuff that has been released probably was ready before Colin left…

I think we’ll only know with the next expansion.

Episodes one and two were already in development before he left. Kind of odd that people have been praising the content as a result of him leaving when they would have gotten it regardless.

Same goes for the legendary weapons. They got “cancelled” when he left and now people are praising it when they are steadily being brought back. Not sure how that works when someone can take something away and then give it back to you overtime while being praised for it.

That I’m the first one to say WvW is doing much worse is probably a symptom of its doing much worse.

The rest of the game seems to have improved so long as you’re not too worried about balance.

Adry.7512:

Lordareon.6851:

Hi! i played Guild Wars 2 until just after the expansion was released then i stopped because of Real Life work.
I’m going back now and i found out that Colin left ArenaNet and he was such a great guy, i’d like to know how GW2 is doing without him

Its doing way better without him. They actually created a fixed blueprint for creating content. Meaning that now they know how to structure everything, allowing them to work faster and better.

You can’t be sure that this wasn’t already in development by the time Colin knew he was leaving.

I liked Colin but I think this really was a separation due to creative differences. One creative view isn’t inherently better than another in an abstract sense but in this case, Colin’s view made the game a lot less enjoyable for me and I like the new direction.

Overall, I think things have improved.

Been improved quite a lot. HoT was a low point, with WvW being hit especially hard where people were leaving left and right but that seems to have recovered a little.

I thought the Living Story was pretty good. Not really a fan of Ember Bay, but thought Bloodstone Fen was great, and Bitterfrost Frontier to be alright.

qbalrog.8017:

I liked Colin but I think this really was a separation due to creative differences. One creative view isn’t inherently better than another in an abstract sense but in this case, Colin’s view made the game a lot less enjoyable for me and I like the new direction.

Overall, I think things have improved.

Disagree with parts, yes he left because of creative differences, most likely he asked to go because he challenged the boss. The leaving to be with family was just a story he likely agreed to for a bonus and provide a public picture of a cohesive team. But that is only speculation.
Colins’ view had to be MOs’ view. The person totally responsible for every aspect of the game is MO, if you disagreed with his version, then there’s the door. Any ‘improvements’ so see were started and planned while he was an employee. The real test will be when the next exp comes out.

PvE? Does it matter?
General gameplay? Worse, but this was the same when colin was on the team, so it doesn’t really matter.

Odds are, Colin was a scapegoat for the bad expansion which was created strictly from community demand for a “hard mode” power-creepy boxed expansion that people were demanding in droves, despite ANet’s very clear claims towards launch they had no intentions of releasing anything like one. You can’t blame your community for making terrible demands/creating a bad situation without a huge PR backlash, so you do the next best thing and save face by getting rid of the guy who maybe looked like made the bad call.

Seems like it didn’t matter much. There is definitely a developer out there who if they left would definitely cause amazing, positive changes for the game.

Seems like a lot of employees are getting hung up on this someone, though; I imagine it’s also why Josh left, too.

I think Colin was responsible for ignoring the core demographic of GW/GW2 and of pandering to the vocal minority. The result was HoT. Just look at the reception it got. I’m sure he was not solely to blame but I’m also sure he was a key driver of it.

DoctorDing.5890:

I think Colin was responsible for ignoring the core demographic of GW/GW2 and of pandering to the vocal minority. The result was HoT. Just look at the reception it got. I’m sure he was not solely to blame but I’m also sure he was a key driver of it.

The buck stops with Mo.

DoctorDing.5890:

I think Colin was responsible for ignoring the core demographic of GW/GW2 and of pandering to the vocal minority. The result was HoT. Just look at the reception it got. I’m sure he was not solely to blame but I’m also sure he was a key driver of it.

I remember a long forum thread praising the more difficult mobs in HoT to the skies back during the betas. Me and a couple others were arguing against the increased difficulty and the high mob density but post after post said, We love the hard mobs! Don’t nerf them! I don’t blame ANet for listening to what everyone was saying during beta.

Mob difficulty: feedback

DeceiverX.8361:

You can’t blame your community for making terrible demands/creating a bad situation

Of course you can’t. Especially since the community did not ask for that. It was only some voices that did, not the community as a whole. Granted, those were very loud voices, but they never represented anything more than a small subgroup of players.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

DoctorDing.5890:

I think Colin was responsible for ignoring the core demographic of GW/GW2 and of pandering to the vocal minority. The result was HoT. Just look at the reception it got. I’m sure he was not solely to blame but I’m also sure he was a key driver of it.

I remember a long forum thread praising the more difficult mobs in HoT to the skies back during the betas. Me and a couple others were arguing against the increased difficulty and the high mob density but post after post said, We love the hard mobs! Don’t nerf them! I don’t blame ANet for listening to what everyone was saying during beta.

Mob difficulty: feedback

Biggest problem with relying solely on beta feedback from a game catered towards casual players is that those same casual players are the least likely to participate in those beta events for various reasons. So you are skipping a lot of their feedback and taking it from the more dedicated players. Nothing wrong with this of course, but the game is pretty casual friendly, so I’m not surprised that the general feelings towards HoT difficulty was different between beta tests and release.

One of the biggest factors influencing this is ofc that there is no ramp up in difficulty of core tyria mobs to those in HoT maps. Even now there is still a HUGE gap between silverwastes/DT mobs and those in HoT maps, and a lot of players (too many imo) just aren’t forced to learn how to use GW2’s combat system. So when they actually need to know how it works and how to be good at it, they can’t. Leading to frustration all around for them. If ANet would slowly ramp up the difficulty of mobs in core tyria it would be a better transition for the average player and I think the difficulty would have been better received.

Aha, and I have two words:

Desert Borderlands.

Astralporing.1957:

DeceiverX.8361:

You can’t blame your community for making terrible demands/creating a bad situation

Of course you can’t. Especially since the community did not ask for that. It was only some voices that did, not the community as a whole. Granted, those were very loud voices, but they never represented anything more than a small subgroup of players.

You’re not wrong, but you still can’t do it.

Fact is, the mistake was listening, and the continuous mistake they’re making is they’re still listening.

OriOri.8724:

Adry.7512:

Lordareon.6851:

Hi! i played Guild Wars 2 until just after the expansion was released then i stopped because of Real Life work.
I’m going back now and i found out that Colin left ArenaNet and he was such a great guy, i’d like to know how GW2 is doing without him

Its doing way better without him. They actually created a fixed blueprint for creating content. Meaning that now they know how to structure everything, allowing them to work faster and better.

You can’t be sure that this wasn’t already in development by the time Colin knew he was leaving.

Colin was a great guy with cool ideas, however he was spastic in the way the game was handled as he would jump from idea to idea while dropping a project in progress, or frankly stretching the devs in too many directions to accomplish anything. While Mike might not be an idea man he managed to take all of the moving parts and make a stable functioning game that has a solid plan for the future.

Oldirtbeard.9834:

OriOri.8724:

Adry.7512:

Lordareon.6851:

Hi! i played Guild Wars 2 until just after the expansion was released then i stopped because of Real Life work.
I’m going back now and i found out that Colin left ArenaNet and he was such a great guy, i’d like to know how GW2 is doing without him

Its doing way better without him. They actually created a fixed blueprint for creating content. Meaning that now they know how to structure everything, allowing them to work faster and better.

You can’t be sure that this wasn’t already in development by the time Colin knew he was leaving.

Colin was a great guy with cool ideas, however he was spastic in the way the game was handled as he would jump from idea to idea while dropping a project in progress, or frankly stretching the devs in too many directions to accomplish anything. While Mike might not be an idea man he managed to take all of the moving parts and make a stable functioning game that has a solid plan for the future.

I think this is a pretty good assessment of the reality. He had a tendency to go in weird directions even when it didn’t really mesh well with the framework of the game.

My biggest complaint about where we are now revolves around the poor attention still being given to profession development and balance along with the apparent lack of concern for the state of wvw.

It’s interesting to see many of these comments, those that cheer mainly talk about the many updates mostly referring to S3. They forget that there was a period of low content before S3 just as before S2. So did much really change on that part? Will S3 end before the next expansion and will there be another period without content? In that case it’s not that different from how S2 was, during S2 there were also many content patches.

So they forget about the lack of content we had before S3 and then compare the content from S3 to a period of lack of content during GW2 and then say its better because there are more patches.. That does not make a lot of sense. It’s really selective.
During S2 many cheered about S2 just as they cheer now about S3. Now many seems to dislike S2 so I would not be surprised that half a year from now many dislike S3. Especially considering how much of the love is based on selective observations. Who knows? I really don’t know, maybe everybody still talks positive about it, maybe not. I really don’t dear to say. But it’s something to keep in mind when reading the comments.

Personally I don’t care so much about having a period without content as long as the content we get (preferably expansions) is of a good quality and keeps me busy (in a fun way) until the next one.

It is also hard to know what changes are because of Colin leaving. He left in March of 2016 so there has been plenty of time for Mike’s changes to really come into effect and be noticeable, on the other hand, it is likely that plans for S3 where already worked out and work on it had already started.

Of course we don’t know any of this for sure just like we don’t know anything for sure in any forum discussion, but that is being used to close topics these days, if they do not like the topic. Just something to keep in mind.

I did not do any S3 so can’t say much about the content itself, I ask a player in game about it and he said the story was fine to play once but the maps where small and that the maps had their own currency you would need to grind to get stuff. That to me shows the main problem (imo) is still not solved, boring grind.

The biggest issue is that by now it does not really matter anymore. Many of the people that left GW2 and came back for HoT left again in the first half year after HoT. IMO you will not see them back even if the game gets better. For many people GW2 simply is off their radar.

This is likely also why Q2 and Q3 both had the worst results GW2 has ever had. And Q3 had plenty of S3, but that did not make a change. I expect Q4 to be better but how Q1 will do??

For the vets that are left you may hope that the game keeps dong well, and grind (imo the biggest issue) clearly is not an issue for them, else they would not be so active yet. But the question then is if those people are with enough to finance the game on a level where the team can stay at its size that is has been.

I am really curious as to what the next expansion will bring, but I am afraid that sales will be lower than hoped (even if the expansion is really good) and so you might see a shrink in the dev-team as a result. The only way I can see the next expansion to be a success (financially) is if they can put it back on the radar of people what imo can only be done by basically making it GW3 and making some radical changes (justifying it being GW3) that gets people interest and willing to give it another try.

Better is an inaccurate choice of word here. GW2 is doing fine.