Guild Wars 2

Random forum bug /fixed.

Devata.6589:

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.

I’m willing to wager it has changed, considering this was something that Mike directly addressed in an interview or AMA, not sure which. My guess is Mike might be better at resource management than Colin was.

Every game developer has strengths and weaknesses. There’s no good reason to believe it hasn’t changed, because there is a different guy running the show.

Vayne.8563:

Devata.6589:

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.

I’m willing to wager it has changed, considering this was something that Mike directly addressed in an interview or AMA, not sure which. My guess is Mike might be better at resource management than Colin was.

Every game developer has strengths and weaknesses. There’s no good reason to believe it hasn’t changed, because there is a different guy running the show.

Yeah that is what I said. It’s just not clear what part did change and what part would have been the same without ‘the differend guy’. That’s all.

ArchonWing.9480:

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.

HoT needed a full extra year of development before being released. It was way too small of an expansion for 50$. Just looking at the new collectables was depressing because there were so few of them.

Silverwaste release was the strongest release for GW2 in my opinion; but knowing that their expansion would lack so much in content they should have kept this map along with Dry top for the expansion.

The elite professions were rushed out, they also needed 1 more year of polishing, balancing and in certain cases (Tempest) a complete redesign.

We only got a few of the legendaries and they’ve made them too hard to obtain. Precursors should have dropped. I had saved 3k gold for nothing, that infuriated me.

Legendary armors? Who knows when, it been over a year since HoT’s release.

Stronghold: Well that didn’t turn out to be GvG as they announced it to sell it to us, but it was somewhat enjoyable. Where are the other maps?

New Cities? Hot Has no new cities.

New Dungeons? Hot has no new dungeons.

World maps: only 4 maps for the price of the full game that contains like 25+?
Only one of them had 2 levels of exploration.

Raids: Timers ruin it for 95% of the player base. It needed difficulty settings, or a more casual mode that didn’t wasted half your day to prepare for.

WvW: They lied about a overhaul being developed to hype HoT.

Anyway, I don’t see how they can do worse with the next one unless they rush it out faster.

Since your asking for a simple opinion, mine is that Colin was going for fun and Mike is going for difficulty. Both have their advantages but I suspect Fun would make more money for the game. If it’s not difficult, players leave. Too difficult, they leave. Seems unfair in the requirements placed on us, they leave. Feel pushed into content they don’t enjoy, they leave. When players have a little fun, or a lot of fun, they stay, and they pay.

Devata.6589:

Yeah that is what I said. It’s just not clear what part did change and what part would have been the same without ‘the differend guy’. That’s all.

Only S3 is vastly different to the previous two seasons of the Living World, especially S2. We get new maps on a regular schedule, we get new PVP maps, new Fractals. We get a focus on multiple parts of the game instead of what happened with S2. It’s not certain if it’s because Colin left, but the total change in direction is rather clear.

The only thing that 100% changed after Colin left is the hype train. It left with Colin

Xillllix.3485:

New Dungeons? Hot has no new dungeons.

Honestly they killed off dungeons and made it clear that no dungeon development will ever be done again before they even announce HoT.

maddoctor.2738:

Devata.6589:

Yeah that is what I said. It’s just not clear what part did change and what part would have been the same without ‘the differend guy’. That’s all.

Only S3 is vastly different to the previous two seasons of the Living World, especially S2. We get new maps on a regular schedule, we get new PVP maps, new Fractals. We get a focus on multiple parts of the game instead of what happened with S2. It’s not certain if it’s because Colin left, but the total change in direction is rather clear.

The only thing that 100% changed after Colin left is the hype train. It left with Colin

S2 was very different from S1 and players have been asking for maps as part of the LS content so the inclusion of maps might be because of that, and not because of Mike. I don’t know.

Getting Thaumanova Reactor Fractal was part of S1 (while implementation came later, we selected that fractal during Cutthroat Politics). Then there are Molten Boss Fractal and Captain Mai Trin Boss Fractal what was content from season one, while added to the fractal at a later time. People asked for non-temporary content so now they add it directly to the fractal. But the type of content is similar.

S2 was a little different as they seem to try and combine the PS with the LS what was a mistake in my personal opinion, but that might also be because I was not a huge fan of the PS. It feels like a single player game inside an MMO. And so S2 did have the same ‘problem’.

I can’t remember when Battle of Champion’s Dusk was added, wasn’t that during S2? Nonetheless, it was added during’s Colin’s time.

So all I am saying, yes things changed but things have always been changing based on how something worked out. It’s really hard to know what changes are because of Colin or because of Mike.

You know I all about the B2P model, and that is also what Mike is always talking about while ‘his game’ was not a B2P. So I could simply blame Colin and cheer for Mike, but it is not that easy.

And then there is the issue that what people are cheering for now, they might be complaining about in half a year time.

Devata.6589:

So all I am saying, yes things changed but things have always been changing based on how something worked out. It’s really hard to know what changes are because of Colin or because of Mike.

That’s true we can only guess. But taking the question in the OP as it is, how the game is doing after Colin left, we can say how the game is doing now, regardless of the changes being made by Colin (in advance) or by Mike or someone else.
And I’d say judging by the content we are getting it’s doing well, the question is how much of the damage caused by previous decisions was permanent, or if it can be repaired.

Devata.6589:

And then there is the issue that what people are cheering for now, they might be complaining about in half a year time.

Or you know it might be different people. For example, many praised LS2 and disliked LS1, while others loved LS1 and didn’t like LS2. Of course there will be complaining about everything, this is how a video game’s forums work, but it’s not the same people.

Colin left! Colin left! Why didn’t someone tell me about this? Why didn’t I get an e-mail?
Heads will roll until I find out who is responsible!

But one matter needs to be clarified before I rain down holy terror on whomever is behind this.

Who is Colin exactly?

Nutjob.9021:

Colin left! Colin left! Why didn’t someone tell me about this? Why didn’t I get an e-mail?
Heads will roll until I find out who is responsible!

But one matter needs to be clarified before I rain down holy terror on whomever is behind this.

Who is Colin exactly?

He was the Game Director for GW2 during development and up to HoT.

Nutjob.9021:

Colin left! Colin left! Why didn’t someone tell me about this? Why didn’t I get an e-mail?
Heads will roll until I find out who is responsible!

But one matter needs to be clarified before I rain down holy terror on whomever is behind this.

Who is Colin exactly?

Colin Johanson, the guy with the big smile who was with Guild Wars for yearssss. He went to work for Amazon about a year back.