Guild Wars 2

I completed the survey that was sent out via email today concerning The Lost Shores event weekend. One of the questions was asking how much I agree or disagree with the following statement:

“One-time-only events allow me to impact the world of Tyria”

My question to the devs: what impact?

Did some servers fail to deal with the Karka? Was there some sort of different outcome that could have occurred? I really am curious if the devs had a contingency plan if a server just totally went MIA and didn’t even bother with any of the events. Would something special have occurred? If there really is only one outcome, then you aren’t ‘allowing’ me to impact the world, I am just along for the ride.

They probably meant it by the idea that “you were there. You saw history unfold”. I’m getting the distinct impression that one-time events are what ANet meant when they said “your actions will impact the world”, and not things like repeating dynamic events.

Which is fair enough. I like the concept, but it’s just implemented quite badly at the moment.

I disagreed with that choice on the survey. Because so far as I could tell, the event essentially just broke another building in Lion’s Arch. And that doesn’t really strike me as the events having a real, lasting impact on the world.

I agreed with the choice, personally – I feel like, of course, no matter whether I’d been there or not, the outcome would’ve been the same, but the event did change the game world – we got a new map, the LA restoration began, we learned about the Consortium and what Canach did, and so forth – it did add world-changing content, and the ancient karka battle is something that probably would go down in history and so forth. But yes, ultimately our choices don’t actually impact the game – that would be impossible to do in a massively multiplayer game without having some means of going back to fix the damage (a la dynamic event chains).

travathian.3829:

plan if a server just totally went MIA and didn’t even bother with any of the events. Would something special have occurred? If there really is only one outcome, then you aren’t ‘allowing’ me to impact the world, I am just along for the ride.

I agree and yes a great analogy and a great question.. Do we really impact the world ??

Jatari Thundercloud.3794:

travathian.3829:

plan if a server just totally went MIA and didn’t even bother with any of the events. Would something special have occurred? If there really is only one outcome, then you aren’t ‘allowing’ me to impact the world, I am just along for the ride.

I agree and yes a great analogy and a great question.. Do we really impact the world ??

I miss the Aslan status in Lions Arch. I wonder it it will be rebuilt. =)

I thought that question odd as well, as well as a few others.

It impressed me that they took the time to do the survey, but I thought the questions didn’t really get at what I personally drew from the weekend.

In short, I thought their aims with the event were quite good, but the delivery came up a bit short. I participated in all 3 events but didn’t gain any reward for any of them, and even the enjoyment of play was hampered by technical issues (on the bright side, each one glitched in a different way!). Thus no intrinsic or extrinsic rewards for my time. That was kind of a bummer.

So on the question of whether I think Anet should do more big, one-time world events, I didn’t want to say no since I think it’s a great notion, but at the same time I probably won’t continue to participate if they design massive events that the game can’t actually handle.

The survey was misformulated and did not cover the weekend at all.. I posted a wall of text in those “other” fields

The survey should have been in this format:

Regarding (subject, eg the Ancient Karka event), please rate the following aspects from 1 to 10, where 1 is “totally unenjoyable” and 10 is “perfect”.

• Concept
• Storytelling
• Art and sound
• Fun
• Timing and duration of availability
• Ease of finding and understanding content
• Difficulty of completing content
• Technical implementation and stability
• Rewards

In your opinion, which of the above aspects was most important to your enjoyment of (content)? Pick only one.

Do you have any other comments to make about (content)?

… and then repeat across all the Lost Shores event content, and then finish up with the summary questions and invite-a-friend questions at the end, plus the following questions:

• Do you consider seasonal events like Lost Shores to be an important part of your game experience? and
• How would you compare this event to seasonal events in other MMOs? and
• How would you compare this event to your expectations for seasonal events in Guild Wars 2?

The survey was sorely missing a reference to the new item rarity as well. You’d think given the 11k thread that they might be curious about that one…

I too had a LOT to say in the ‘other’ boxes.

Strange, did they only send the survey to folks who completed it?
I played all weekend, and missed every event because I didn’t realize that one-time didn’t mean one weekend only, but noon pst only.

The survey didn’t allow me to voice out my response in a detailed manner. i hope ArenaNet would see this:

I took part in the “bombing the ancient karka cave” part of the final event. At some point, my internet connection got lost. I got disconnected from the game. When I logged back, I was sent to a different overflow server. I couldn’t keep up with the others anymore because they were deep in the cave already and I was still in the nearest waypoint. There were many hard-to-defeat karka mobs along the way. I wish ANet considered the possibility that some players might get disconnected from the gave during the event and had to deal with lots of challenging karka mobs by themselves just to keep up with the others. I even got more sad when I found out later that one of the event rewards was a legendary precursor. I lost the chance to get it.

If only the game developers just returned me to the overflow server where I originally participated the event.

Sadly I wish this survey had a field to leave further comments. The “other” section doesn’t always apply, and I feel given the circumstances that arose in a lot of the cases in the weekend we should of had more ways to express like/dislike for it. Usually surveys ask for reasoning behind our decisions… but yeah. At least there is a survey, maybe that will open their eyes.

As for the survey not showing up for some people. Mine was in my spam folder on gmail. So check there.

I don’t know why but the survey is not protected and made public accessible for anyone.
You don’t have to be a Guild Wars 2 player to complete.

http://newsletters.ncsoft.com/emp/gw2/announcement/2012-11-21/na.html
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/eGW2LostShores_en

This may cause false results ….

Liliana Moore.4237:

I don’t know why but the survey is not protected and made public accessible for anyone.
You don’t have to be a Guild Wars 2 player to complete.

http://newsletters.ncsoft.com/emp/gw2/announcement/2012-11-21/na.html
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/eGW2LostShores_en

This may cause false results ….

That is a real problem. I think I may have taken the survey twice, once without being logged into my GW2 email. I thought someone was performing their own survey and copying the ArenaNet ones.

I was encouraged to see ArenaNet sending out that survey. I don’t recall there being a survey after the Halloween event, so seeing a survey sent out after the Lost Shores event shows ArenaNet does realize that there were problems with it. (Don’t laugh, we’ve all seen other MMO developers who could convince themselves that Lost Shores was a resounding success)

Realizing there was a problem is the first step toward fixing things. ArenaNet has shown a very rare ability to learn from their past mistakes. That is unusual for an MMO developer. They have been able to recognize errors not only in other MMOs but also in their own past product, Guild Wars 1.

I never expected to see something as buggy and badly designed as the Lost Shores final event in GW2. It was something I would have expected from an MMO in the past. After Sunday, I was really hoping there would be some kind of tangible response from ArenaNet. Seeing them take the action of surveying feedback from players has helped bolster my shaken confidence in the game.

Thank you, ArenaNet. I am cautiously optimistic that you will fix what needs fixing.

I just hope that the survey results are not messed up because the survey is available to anyone, not just people on ArenaNet’s customer list.

I miss the Aslan status in Lions Arch. I wonder it it will be rebuilt. =)

Wasn’t there new wooden framework and the beginnings of scaffolding around the base of the statue? I’m almost certain that wasn’t there back when that guy dressed as the Mad King was standing there giving out Witch Hats after the Halloween event. I took that to mean NPCs are going to start rebuilding the statue and we’ll get to see it, which I thought was very, very cool

(It makes me wonder if the other NPCs hammering buildings in cities might actually change over time?)

it should be “The Precursor Shores” instead

I agree. There is no way I personally had an impact. The event ends the same way no matter what; given time.

shameless bump

“Something that will change the world of Tyria forever” is what Arenanet stated when releasing info about the Lost Shores update.

I might be wrong, but I didn’t see any world changing things?
Or was this a ‘blow-up-this-rock-and-now-it-ain’t-there-anymore-the-world-is-changed’ thing?