Guild Wars 2

webtoehobbit.4201:

How is this last one not a cliffhanger? It ended right as we were about to go in the door…. If that’s not a cliffhanger, then I don’t know what is.

A cliffhanger would have been, we open the door, and there stands Snaff — alive and well! And he says, your choice:

1. “Come with me if you want to live.”
2. “By the Eternal Alchemy. It’s full of stars.”
3. “Heeeeeere’s Snaffy!”
4. “Of all the bloodstone dust joints in all the towns in all the world, you walk into mine.”
5. “You shall not p — oh, hi, Marjy. Come on in.”

/e fade to black

webtoehobbit.4201:

How is this last one not a cliffhanger? It ended right as we were about to go in the door…. If that’s not a cliffhanger, then I don’t know what is.

A cliffhanger is unexpected, while the door had been shown for a week…

A real cliffhanger would have been the door being open, followed by a sound or a short cinematic.

Having a break from the Story part of LS2 for a while isn’t all too bad, if there is a possibility of adding to the “world” aspect of LS2 while on a break, please do so.
Have a vine or two pop up in either the Silverwastes or Dry Top (to remind players of the dragon’s reach). Make more cosmetic changes to push mordy’s agenda forward without the need to add to the story with words.
One goal was to let players experience part of the story by playing on the maps, which has been working quite well and it’s feeling more and more like a truly living world with a natural pacing.

The second half of LS2 started with a bang, partially to reassure players that big things are coming. At least that’s how it felt for me. In general, subsequent episodes shouldn’t feature less than half the (story) content we got in the beginning though.
TV series don’t suddenly air 2 × 10 minute episodes instead of the usual 30 minutes after all.
Not the end of the world but it doesn’t feel that great either.

Also, letting the last episodes before breaks be shorter than the start could create a vacuum which let’s players consume the next, bigger update a bit faster than they should/could.

Or increase rewards slightly for playing through the older episodes again during season breaks perhaps?

The quality has gotten more consistent overall, the quantity however is still off and the constant ups and downs don’t really help fueling any hype, if this is/was one goal.

Caithe’s secret was introduced roughly 10 months ago, 1 month wait for a door to open is nothing.

Look at it this way. Remember Halloween? Everyone, and I do mean everyone, was thundering through the Mad King’s Labyrinth to get all that lovely loot – and that includes yours truly, who took advantage of the heaven-sent opportunity to get 20-slot bags at a far cheaper price than I would ordinarily get them otherwise. I’m pretty certain that all the other events in the game slowed down because everyone was concentrating on Halloween stuff. Heck, people were even taking advantage of the opportunity to level up low-level characters in the Labyrinth – that’s what I did with my guardian.

Now, consider that Wintersday is going to have a lot of events, and there’s probably going to be at least one that delivers a lot of loot that you can only get this time of year. People are going to be concentrating on those events – I know I am, especially because my time is going to be limited (I’m away from home most of Christmas week and I don’t know how often I’m going to be able to log on from my laptop, so I’m basically going to have to concentrate on 12/16-12/22 and 12/28-1/13 to get the goodies). That’s going to cause a lot of other areas and events to be less populated. It was the same way in GW1 with Halloween and Wintersday.

Now, consider that people have been complaining the last week or so that the new JP in the Silverwastes is distracting other players and causing them to pay less attention to the fort-defense rounds. Don’t you think that this is going to be intensified during Wintersday? In that case, why release the last episode of this season of the LS during a period where people are going to be spending their (limited due to RL factors) game time largely on the Wintersday events?

I don’t think this was unexpected and I don’t think that’s the real reason for the rage I personally think it has more to do with disappointment. There has been far too much disappointment lately stemming from many things;

- No real information or forecast due to their policy
- NPE
- Too many unanswered storylines
- No new dungeons comment
- RNG/TP
- Long & more frequent breaks between content
- Rehashed holiday content
- SAB
- Balance issues
- PvP match-up issues
- WvWvW concerns
- Megasever/roleplaying
- Condition damage
- Zerker Meta
- Traits

Those are just the ones that immediately come to mind. It all boils down to feeling completely shunned by Anet on many levels and very unappreciated though many have supported this project from beta stages. I know that the predominant feeling I’ve had is that the customer base is nothing but an unwelcomed pain who’s every attempt at getting real answers is met with the door being slammed shut and there doesn’t seem to be anyone over there willing to open it again.

At this point we have nothing to look forward too except the next LS and for a lot of us this is no longer nearly enough. Nothing to be hyped about down the road but more of the same. We’ve been given no plan, no direction we are just outsiders trying to get a glimpse of what the future holds and being told that it’s none of our business.

Just a simple question: is the next LS update (Jan 13th) the final LS update in “Season 2” or is there more until the next big break?

Again, ranging around here comes from little/no information. So answering that could really help shed some light on things.

So to sum up the year:

We had a 6 week break from December 10th to January 21st

Then we had a 4 week break from March until April

Then we had a 12 week break From April to July

Then we had an 8 week break from September til November

And now we are having a 6 week break from December to January

Anet’s total break time for the year = 36 weeks of break out of a 52 week year…

Well I guess it is no wonder why people are complaining about the amount of content… Anet gets more breaks than congress…

hedix.1986:

Just a simple question: is the next LS update (Jan 13th) the final LS update in “Season 2” or is there more until the next big break?

Again, ranging around here comes from little/no information. So answering that could really help shed some light on things.

Unknown unfortunatly.

They did not answer that question.

it could really be the last episode of season 2.

However I hope it will be something bigger, since I guess we might get another break after that, since I do not believe that we get right into S3 from there.

We hae to wait and see.

The big issue here for me is not that the break is happening. I expect a break, I am glad the employees are given a holiday break (my company for example only gives 2 days break). What I don’t like is the apparent poor schedule planner for this episode. It seems that little to no thought was given to the segmentation of the story. If you are going to have a nearly 2 month break, you should leave the audience with some sort of conclusion, not an end that frankly just seemed like a forced cliffhanger.

Please, take a look at your schedule and segment the story in a bit better way in the future. I’m a fan, and although don’t agree with everything, have enjoyed this part of the LS season. I just question some of the project owner’s decisions on things like this as it feels like it was an “oops we ran out of time to finish” rather than a well thought out project plan.

I personaly don’t think that there is anything wrong with having Wintersday patch being released on its own.
But the break between the build up and the finale is rather unwelcome. It’s almost like watching your favorite tv show, just to find out that the final episode will air after the holiday break. Holiday break where we have the most free time out of the entire year.
I understand the limitations and everyone wanting to spend time with their families and so on. There is no misunderstanding in that whatsoever.

But (and it’s a significant “but”) we’re caught in a very weird situation. Considering that the Episode 8 is the final episode of the season (which was never communicated, nor any schedule was provided for full season episodes release, but that’s entirely different conversation), we have nothing to look forward for the beginning of the year, BUT that one episode. Considering that you guys will take the normal “in-between” seasons break, all we have to look forward to is 1 episode and then another weeks(if not months)-long break.

I don’t think that this break is the actual issue, but a “break before the break” is. Which puts a lot of us in the situation where we have nothing to look forward to for the next few months other than that 1 final episode, which judging from the build up and all those unanswered questions and events that happened over this season, I can only assume will leave us with another BIG cliffhanger.

Thought I’d share my piece.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

So to sum up the year:

We had a 6 week break from December 10th to January 21st

Then we had a 4 week break from March until April

Then we had a 12 week break From April to July

Then we had an 8 week break from September til November

And now we are having a 6 week break from December to January

Anet’s total break time for the year = 36 weeks of break out of a 52 week year…

Well I guess it is no wonder why people are complaining about the amount of content… Anet gets more breaks than congress…

Uhm… first of all, it’s just 33 weeks of “breaks” (you counted the three weeks of December 2013 in). And second- everything that gets rolled out after the “breaks” has to be programmed somewhen. I’m pretty sure the ppl @ Arena.Net didn’t just sit around and practicing breaststrokes in a pool filled with money every now and then but put some work in “stuff” we already got served earlier this year or in the (near) future.
I don’t say Arena.Net is doing everything fine and that this game is perfect and doesn’t need any improvements. I also do understand that some ppl are more of less frustrated with the course that the game took. I’d be the first in line shouting “Hoooray!” for new small-scale PvE content (e.g. new dungeons, fractals, etc.) or some rework of ingame rewards.
But ascribing Arena.Net to sit around doing nothing for almost 2/3 of the year is just nonsense and helps nothing.

Nash.2681:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

So to sum up the year:

We had a 6 week break from December 10th to January 21st

Then we had a 4 week break from March until April

Then we had a 12 week break From April to July

Then we had an 8 week break from September til November

And now we are having a 6 week break from December to January

Anet’s total break time for the year = 36 weeks of break out of a 52 week year…

Well I guess it is no wonder why people are complaining about the amount of content… Anet gets more breaks than congress…

Uhm… first of all, it’s just 33 weeks of “breaks” (you counted the three weeks of December 2013 in). And second- everything that gets rolled out after the “breaks” has to be programmed somewhen. I’m pretty sure the ppl @ Arena.Net didn’t just sit around and practicing breaststrokes in a pool filled with money every now and then but put some work in “stuff” we already got served earlier this year or in the (near) future.
I don’t say Arena.Net is doing everything fine and that this game is perfect and doesn’t need any improvements. I also do understand that some ppl are more of less frustrated with the course that the game took. I’d be the first in line shouting “Hoooray!” for new small-scale PvE content (e.g. new dungeons, fractals, etc.) or some rework of ingame rewards.
But ascribing Arena.Net to sit around doing nothing for almost 2/3 of the year is just nonsense and helps nothing.

I believe he meant the last 12 months, and not necessarily the calendar year. They just happen to be very close to one-another.

lordkrall.7241:

For everyone complaining about this:
Would you really prefer to have a (potentially big) release now with potential progression breaking issues that would not be fixed for weeks due to holiday?

I can almost guarantee that the same people complaining about the short break would also be the loudest if they did release it just before the holidays and something broke and couldn’t be fixed until after the holidays.

If their scheduling had been better and episodes not cut up into small portions so much lately, then there would likely not of been the need for such a delay.
Honestly though for every player complaining about it, there is someone complaining about those complaining in the first place until pretty soon no one really knows what it is they are actually complaining about or too.

I honestly see it as a sign the LS schedule is flawed with little room to breath.. with the 2 week window becoming more of a fire fighting exercise every update…it only takes few poor patch releases to suddenly infect the delivery schedule which I would hope has been planned months in advance… there in lies the issue I think and to get round it they have been forced to rehash episodes and cut them about. I mean lets be brutal here, the last few updates have carried very little in terms of story development but a lot more grind of the same previous content in the Wasteofsilver to grind different body parts for armour. I am guessing that’s been used as a way to soften the blow of small LS patch content due to last 2 episodes being cut in half.. hence the two cliff hangers… its poorly thought out imo and I can understand the frustrations of others.

As for Gaile’s red post stating its all done in the name of festive holiday planning where players play less cos they have gone away, at parties etc… hmm I don’t buy that for a second and would love to see the metrics that demonstrate it… how many kids are on breaks, how many industries afford their workers holidays, how many people might get bought the game as presents only to see it sit idle… nah I am not buying that one ANET.
As for running Wintersday alongside LS.. why not, its not like the LS takes all that time to digest .. farming Mordrem parts aside each time.

I do agree though players would likely want the content to be better quality, not rushed through and not have it supported properly over the break.. but then even regurgitated events are prone to throwing up those same kind of things, worse still the same kind of things that affected it previously… will shall see and lets hope that the next episode is as good as they are leading us to believe.

At least anet shouldn’t use the two week release schedule as a feature or excuse if they can’t actually deliver.

Shinzan.2908:

At least anet shouldn’t use the two week release schedule as a feature or excuse if they can’t actually deliver.

Can you show me where they still advertise that? Afaik, that was for Season 1, which featured mostly temporary content with a few permanent additions. In Season 2, they developed a new system to make the LS episodes permanently available and started adding new zones via LS. I cannot recall seeing any statements that the new paradigm would also feature a perpetual two week release cycle.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Shinzan.2908:

At least anet shouldn’t use the two week release schedule as a feature or excuse if they can’t actually deliver.

Can you show me where they still advertise that? Afaik, that was for Season 1, which featured mostly temporary content with a few permanent additions. In Season 2, they developed a new system to make the LS episodes permanently available and started adding new zones via LS. I cannot recall seeing any statements that the new paradigm would also feature a perpetual two week release cycle.

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35267

Therefore he didn’t want to say how many episodes are going to be left in the season, but did say that starting with the Halloween episode they are back on their two-week cadence up through Wintersday on December 16th before going on holiday break.

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Mavis.1463:

Vayne.8563:

Wolfey.3407:

The only thing that really annoys me with this note….
Veteran players are stuck for a few weeks with nothing to do but re-re-play wintersday content with the added bonus of most likely not being able to unlock anything from season one, unless it’s stuck behind another lottery. And the possible chance of some super adorable mini being locked behind wintersday gifts at a drop rate equivalent to precursors with the added insult of not being able to be sold or traded to other players.

Whereas veteran players in World of Warcraft waited a year while paying a subscription with no new content and just repeating stuff.

And I know people who’ve already beaten the new WoW and returned to Guild Wars 2. There’s no game alive that can keep people in content as much as they want.

FF14.
“Baaah, I don’t like THAT game, it sucks! therefore, the fact that they produce more content is irrelevant!”

Did I get that right?

According to a Developer interview the stuff in the game was supposed to be in there at launch and they just finished adding it. Sounds to me like you don’t read stuff about a game you’re touting. It also sounds like you’re deliberately trying to mislead people.

Or did you not read the bit where the developers of that game said the game is now complete with that last patch?

Edit: Aside from which my comment is about WoW, not Final Fantasy. I didn’t bring up Final Fantasy here, you did. So not only is your comment off topic, but as I’ve said above, it’s also misleading. It’s okay to like whatever game you like. No real reason to invent stuff about it.

You brought up WoW in a topic about GW2 and he’s the one posting off topic ?

I know you don’t agree with me, but it’s no excuse to be disingenuous. Comparing the content of how this game is released to another game isn’t off topic. People are complaining they’re not getting content fast enough. There is no conceivable way that pointing out that another game, a popular game, a game with a sub, doesn’t necessarily have a better track record.

You can’t play in a vacuum. People compare games all the time. If people are saying Anet is releasing content too slow, this is a completely valid response.

And if anyone else had posted it you wouldn’t even be responding and you know it.

In a topic about GW2 you brought up a second game and then called someone else out for being off topic for mentioning a third game in response.

Personally I am all for the break. I hope that Anet’s staff have a wonderful holiday and come back refreshed and with renewed creative vigor. They deserve the time off and all that comes with it.

Gaile Gray.6029:

snip*

Thank you for a reasonable comment that really stands out for its logic and perception. It’s true: The team can’t roll out content a month in advance on request. There is a plan and a master schedule, and with the much-loved and keenly-anticipated Wintersday Festival, Episode 8 will receive its full due in January, as intended. And as outlined in Colin’s blog post, there are other nice things coming, too!

Please, if this thread is going to continue, I ask you to think before posting. This is a forum, sure, but let’s all do our part to tamp down the DramaBeast with his +5-gazillion to Hype Attacks.

This post deserves the Jay Carney award
Good chuckle with my morning coffee, thank you.

Kratos.7948:

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35267

Therefore he didn’t want to say how many episodes are going to be left in the season, but did say that starting with the Halloween episode they are back on their two-week cadence up through Wintersday on December 16th before going on holiday break.

Which is exactly what they are doing.
They are releasing something two weeks after the last update, in this case it will be Wintersday, then they take a holiday break.

How is that not exactly what they said?

wwwes.1398:

Gaile, the difference is that I know how many episodes are in each season of Game of Thrones ahead of time and we don’t have months in between the episodes. As a fan of the show, what would your thoughts be if they decided to delay the finale a month so HBO could ruin a miniseries for a month. You can’t do anything about the latter, but can you at least answer the first question? I feel like asking this is reasonable and I’m getting really irritated that it is being treated otherwise.

Then consider the Song of Ice and Fire books on which the TV series is based instead. I’ve been reading them since 1996, and each novel has taken longer than the previous one to be released. As frustrating as this is, I also recognize that without George R.R. Martin’s attention to detail and perfectionistic tendencies there would probably never have been a TV series to begin with. I’m willling to wait as long as it takes to get the best result possible.

Bernie.8674:

wwwes.1398:

Gaile, the difference is that I know how many episodes are in each season of Game of Thrones ahead of time and we don’t have months in between the episodes. As a fan of the show, what would your thoughts be if they decided to delay the finale a month so HBO could ruin a miniseries for a month. You can’t do anything about the latter, but can you at least answer the first question? I feel like asking this is reasonable and I’m getting really irritated that it is being treated otherwise.

Then consider the Song of Ice and Fire books on which the TV series is based instead. I’ve been reading them since 1996, and each novel has taken longer than the previous one to be released. As frustrating as this is, I also recognize that without George R.R. Martin’s attention to detail and perfectionistic tendencies there would probably never have been a TV series to begin with. I’m willling to wait as long as it takes to get the best result possible.

And when he dies of old age with the series unfinished?

Also he just doesn’t work on the books very often, he releases a TON of other material, and makes appearances all the time…. I guess he is a very good representation of Anet actually… always selling things people didn’t ask for… makes lots of hype all the time… never delivers the actual content… lol

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Bernie.8674:

wwwes.1398:

Gaile, the difference is that I know how many episodes are in each season of Game of Thrones ahead of time and we don’t have months in between the episodes. As a fan of the show, what would your thoughts be if they decided to delay the finale a month so HBO could ruin a miniseries for a month. You can’t do anything about the latter, but can you at least answer the first question? I feel like asking this is reasonable and I’m getting really irritated that it is being treated otherwise.

Then consider the Song of Ice and Fire books on which the TV series is based instead. I’ve been reading them since 1996, and each novel has taken longer than the previous one to be released. As frustrating as this is, I also recognize that without George R.R. Martin’s attention to detail and perfectionistic tendencies there would probably never have been a TV series to begin with. I’m willling to wait as long as it takes to get the best result possible.

And when he dies of old age with the series unfinished?

Also he just doesn’t work on the books very often, he releases a TON of other material, and makes appearances all the time…. I guess he is a very good representation of Anet actually… always selling things people didn’t ask for… makes lots of hype all the time… never delivers the actual content… lol

The first three books are about as grand and glorious as it gets, but the fourth and fifth make it seem like he needs a new editor or something. “Now, just hold on a minute there, George, you’ve already introduced 523 new characters so far in this book and you’re only on page 3. Why not leave the flashbacks about Lancel Lannister’s childhood best friend’s dog’s chew toy for a sequel or an appendix or something? Those HBO fellows are catching up with you and you really don’t want to give them any more slack than absolutely necessary. Next thing you know, they’ll be filming that silly Meereenese Knot’s Landing idea you gave them. You really shouldn’t make jokes like that around those guys, George. You know how they are.”

ZudetGambeous.9573:

So to sum up the year:

We had a 6 week break from December 10th to January 21st

Then we had a 4 week break from March until April

Then we had a 12 week break From April to July

Then we had an 8 week break from September til November

And now we are having a 6 week break from December to January

Anet’s total break time for the year = 36 weeks of break out of a 52 week year…

Well I guess it is no wonder why people are complaining about the amount of content… Anet gets more breaks than congress…

I broke this down in a now closed thread.

We had LS 1 conclude between Jan 21 to Apr 1st if you grant the last chapter two weeks even though it lasted 4.

Then Feature Pack 1 on Apr 15th. Then 5 weeks until the Festival which lasted 6 weeks.

LS 2 Part 1 started on July 1st and ran 8 weeks. Then a four week gap until Feature Pack 2. Then six weeks to Halloween which lasted 2 weeks until LS 2 Part 2 which started on Nov 4th and ran 6 weeks.

Then Winterday 2014 starts on the 16th.

So overall we had:
36 days of Winterday between 2013’s and 2014’s.
14 days of Halloween
42 days of Festival of the Four Winds (which I admit is a bit much)
70 days of LS 1
98 days of LS 2

Which leaves 105 days, roughly 3 and 1/2 months of nothing besides adapting to Feature Packs which moved the cheese of many a vet players while on the carrot side did give us the wardrobe and better organization of the Hero screen. TP changes were a mixed bag at best. Traits were a disaster and the lack of a reasonable treatment of vet players in the NPE left a bad taste in a lot of mouths.

Also remember that Winterday likely covers a fair amount of dev vacation time. You really don’t want to see the kind of stuff that comes out of an eggnog/champagne haze so I grant them mid December to mid January as a reasonable downtime period.

Kratos.7948:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Shinzan.2908:

At least anet shouldn’t use the two week release schedule as a feature or excuse if they can’t actually deliver.

Can you show me where they still advertise that? Afaik, that was for Season 1, which featured mostly temporary content with a few permanent additions. In Season 2, they developed a new system to make the LS episodes permanently available and started adding new zones via LS. I cannot recall seeing any statements that the new paradigm would also feature a perpetual two week release cycle.

http://www.zam.com/story.html?story=35267

Therefore he didn’t want to say how many episodes are going to be left in the season, but did say that starting with the Halloween episode they are back on their two-week cadence up through Wintersday on December 16th before going on holiday break.

It’s obvious that the “two weeks separates releases” thing is in play when the LWS2 is “on.” However, the poster I quoted was referring to ads from Season 1 where ANet stated, “Update every two weeks.” He believes that means every two weeks no matter what. I agree that that’s what the wording says, but those ads are no longer up and S2 is a different animal than S1.

I just hope:

When we get to the patch on january 13th My hopes are we will get something mindblowing, not just an explorable area with a dragon, but someting truly epic…

Vexx Lair (dungeon?), a dragon (guess?), the dominion of winds(here birdy, birdy, birdy? ? Dervishes? Return to the white mantle and revisiting of the bloodstones… (Maybe even the mursaat, with agony and the ring of fire?) YES YES??

Something like Dry top and Silverwastes just will not cut it anymore… I love the areas, they are nice have a beautiful environment, but we need something BIG

Changing should be a truly big one this time… not adding a little piece, please…..?

PaxTheGreatOne.9472:

I just hope:

When we get to the patch on january 13th My hopes are we will get something mindblowing, not just an explorable area with a dragon, but someting truly epic…

Vexx Lair (dungeon?), a dragon (guess?), the dominion of winds(here birdy, birdy, birdy? ? Dervishes? Return to the white mantle and revisiting of the bloodstones… (Maybe even the mursaat, with agony and the ring of fire?) YES YES??

Something like Dry top and Silverwastes just will not cut it anymore… I love the areas, they are nice have a beautiful environment, but we need something BIG

Changing should be a truly big one this time… not adding a little piece, please…..?

I love your enthusiasm, but typically, you look at history to determine the future. ‘the past is prologue’ is an apt saying, I think. Look back at the history of what Living Story has delivered so far, and that is what you should expect for the future.

Any more, and you’re setting yourself up to be very, very disappointed.

Jaken — I understand your thoughts. I admit I feel the same way with a favorite TV show, where you expect the next episode the following week and learn something else is stepping into the space for a while. Oh heck, I feel the same way at the end of each season, too. Darn that Game of Thrones!

I really have to say, two weeks ago, when people were wailing and gnashing their teeth about “ending on cliffhanger,” I was on your side. I thought it was fine, it’s episodic gameplay, we can wait two weeks, no problem. But now this. It’s not a two week gap, it’s a two month gap, and in some cases that wouldn’t be a problem, but you guys were the ones that poorly paced out your season. The episode that we ended on was not a proper mid-season finale, it was not a proper break point for more material.

If you do have a master calender and do plan out when to take these breaks, then plan better, and pace out the storytelling so that breaks occur only where breaks make sense to the plot.

It’s a month gap not two.

Behellagh.1468:

It’s a month gap not two.

Well, he is talking about the cliffhanger from Episode 6. Which he’d likely finished on the first day. In that case, waiting for the cliffhanger being resolved is going to take 2 months. Assuming, of course, that the next episode will indeed resolve it, instead of introducing a grand cliffhanger finale to the Season 2 (“Want to know how this all ends? Wait for Season 3 start in April!”)

If you are going to start counting LS episodes as single day bits of content then I can understand why some find it lacking. I’m still on the first chapter of LS 2 Part 1.

After the next episode we’ll probably get Canthan New Year festival for about one month. They obviously won’t follow right away with season 3, another break (exept if they love the sight of torches and pitchforks) on an eventual expansion they’d need to advertise first for weeks (even if it’s free).

I suspect the original plan had everything coming out this year, but then stuff happened and they needed more time. I’m disappointed because I want to see the next part too and it’s a long time to wait, but sometimes stuff happens. It doesn’t make sense otherwise.

While I haven’t been as actively playing as I once did (work takes up a lot of time) I have been closely watching the game and keeping up with changes and the direction things have been going. Overall, I’ve been very happy with what I have been able to experience of the new content, and with ArenaNet in general.

The way you guys interact with the community on a regular basis has us spoiled. Not many other companies out there take the personal approach with their fans to the level that you have. In fact, I think that the only other companies I have seen attempt to do so are indie developers with much smaller teams.

I’m glad you guys have found your sustainable pace and are putting out content in a flow that works for you. The health of the dev team and the sanity of the people working at ArenaNet is by and far more important than any content patch. Even though it means no new content until after the holidays, I am happy to hear that there will be a much needed window of opportunity for the team to have some breathing room and spend some time with family and friends.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday break and look forward to hearing more exciting news about GW2 in the coming months. Thank you all for putting your heart into this game, and for opening your hearts to the community and sharing your creation with us.

At least come up with something new not the same content recycled.

mikeew.8607:

At least come up with something new not the same content recycled.

The entire point of having recurring content is to allow them to NOT release something new while still giving you something to do.

Still idea with new episode and Wintersday is (imo) good.
Like others said that, we will have time to do new episode and than Wintersday events and for me sounds great because i will have something to do in this game.
Yea yea bugs etc, but you must know that Wintersday will have bugs, same with Episode in 13 January, there will be bugs and you know it.

Anet had BIG BREAK recently and that is why we are complying.
Also 2 BIG mmos are having expansions (raids in WoW + new season of PvP and New expansions to Tera online, game which didn’t have major patches in long long time) and leaving us with nothing (Copy paste Wintersday is nothing, this is not 2006 where events like this were something big) is like saying “This shop have break, go buy something in other shop” and no, i don’t play these game but with breaks like Anets i am thinking about to play.

Think about this, and yes, i know i sound like kitten saying “Go work on holiday because i want amusement” but you must start thinking how get players, not thinking about yourselves, holiday break won’t give you money for waffles on releases.

aRestless.6213:

I’m not mad that we don’t have two patches at once.

I’m not mad that good content needs time to be developed and is hard to mantain over the holidays.

But I think that the pacing doesn’t feel right. As far as I remember, the first half of season 2 was fine in that aspect. But then we had a mid-season break after a point in the story where the plot was just about to gain pace. And that break felt very long. Now the second half began with a big patch, that not only contained a new map, but also a big chunk of story (the library! glint’s lair! and that was only one instance with gameplay out of THREE). Then we had two episodes that not only felt very short in comparison, but both also ended with a massive cliffhanger, with the first one still not being resolved. And now, with the feeling that we’d finally be getting answers, the next episode comes a month later than most people had expected.

I like the story and I really like how you tell it, but with the variation in patch sizes and release intervals, it feels like I’m listening to a stuttering narrator. At a moment, where the story reaches a high pace, the narration seems to slow down, due to smaller patch sizes and an additional break.

So if possible, try to keep a certain pace during a season, that means roughly equal “size” of updates and no interruptions of the update cycle other than season- and mid-season breaks.

ANet Announcement

Due to a suggestion from aRestless, we have decided to rework the upcoming releases of the Living Story. The new plan is as follows:

Release 1: “This Won’t End Well”
Trahearne summons the Pact for a rousing speech about how important it is to track down Glint’s egg and protect it, as well as making sure that as few people know of it as possible.

Release 2: “Moving On”
The second half of Trahearne’s speech, where he reminds us all of how he lead the Pact to victory, in no small part due to his right hand… and the sword it held.

Release 3: “And On, and On”
Trahearne’s speech somehow moves into a THIRD half as he reminds the Pact how important it is to not just stand around talking, but to act.

Mid-season Break

Release 4: “I’m Ready to Die Now”
Trahearne’s speech is finally interrupted by the arrival of Kralkatorrik himself, who promptly demands that Trahearne shut the hell up.

Release 5: “Choose and Perish”
Players must choose a side, will they fight along side Trahearne and the Pact, or will they side with the Great Crystal Dragon? We will pretend that player choice controls the next part of the living story, but we’ve already got it all written and timed out.

Release 6: “The Unpleasant Taste of Victory”
Having devoured Trahearne, Kralkatorrik seems to be in distress. What has gone wrong, and can your savior himself be saved?

Release 7: “The Dragon Speaks”
Now possessed by the spirit of Trahearne, the Great Dragon begins the first part of his speech to the gathered forces and Branded around him.

Mid-Season Break

Palador.2170:

Release 3: “And On, and On”
Trahearne’s speech somehow moves into a THIRD half as he reminds the Pact how important it is to not just stand around talking, but to act.

Release 7: “The Dragon Speaks”
Now possessed by the spirit of Trahearne, the Great Dragon begins the first part of his speech to the gathered forces and Branded around him.

These are my favorites — I can see why they would want to put breaks after these denouements.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

So to sum up the year:

We had a 6 week break from December 10th to January 21st

Then we had a 4 week break from March until April

Then we had a 12 week break From April to July

Then we had an 8 week break from September til November

And now we are having a 6 week break from December to January

Anet’s total break time for the year = 36 weeks of break out of a 52 week year…

Well I guess it is no wonder why people are complaining about the amount of content… Anet gets more breaks than congress…

Thanks for the breakdown. This pretty much sums of GW2 at a glance. Maybe 2015 will see a change in leadership or general course for GW2. Either way it can’t get any worse than this.

I don’t understand this focus on PVP. GW2 will never become a real E Sport and even if it does it has no chance to compete with dedicated Mobas like LOL, DOTA2, or Smite. Meanwhile they are taking away resources that can be better spent on new content for wvw and pve.

DeathPanel.8362:

I don’t understand this focus on PVP. GW2 will never become a real E Sport and even if it does it has no chance to compete with dedicated Mobas like LOL, DOTA2, or Smite. Meanwhile they are taking away resources that can be better spent on new content for wvw and pve.

Yeah, god forbid the arguably most neglected part of the game get an update. How dare they?

If ANet had a PvP focus as you claim, PvP wouldn’t be in such a horrific state currently.

NewTrain.7549:

DeathPanel.8362:

I don’t understand this focus on PVP. GW2 will never become a real E Sport and even if it does it has no chance to compete with dedicated Mobas like LOL, DOTA2, or Smite. Meanwhile they are taking away resources that can be better spent on new content for wvw and pve.

Yeah, god forbid the arguably most neglected part of the game get an update. How dare they?

If ANet had a PvP focus as you claim, PvP wouldn’t be in such a horrific state currently.

The point is any effort at all is wasted on PvP. Even if they removed that game mode all together it would not make a difference since a vast majority of players spend most of their time in pve and wvw.

They are wasting too much time on that game mode currently as is.

DeathPanel.8362:

NewTrain.7549:

DeathPanel.8362:

I don’t understand this focus on PVP. GW2 will never become a real E Sport and even if it does it has no chance to compete with dedicated Mobas like LOL, DOTA2, or Smite. Meanwhile they are taking away resources that can be better spent on new content for wvw and pve.

Yeah, god forbid the arguably most neglected part of the game get an update. How dare they?

If ANet had a PvP focus as you claim, PvP wouldn’t be in such a horrific state currently.

The point is any effort at all is wasted on PvP. Even if they removed that game mode all together it would not make a difference since a vast majority of players spend most of their time in pve and wvw.

They are wasting too much time on that game mode currently as is.

If they removed PvP altogether they could kiss a large chunk of players goodbye and we all know how badly ANet needs to trim down it’s overwhelmingly large player base (sarcasm). There are many more who play exclusively or mostly for PvP than you seem to realize.

I would say they’re wasting far too many resources on a horrific PvE experience and they they should no longer develop for PvE, but at least I have the insight to realize my opinions don’t constitute objective fact. Unfortunately, I seem to be the only one in this exchange who realizes that.