Guild Wars 2

Throughout GW2’s lifespan we’ve had various content given to us at different phases/rates. At some point Anet kept going for two week updates, more specifically towards living world/pve players. Fastforward before the expansion we had like no content for nearly a year in anticipation of its release. We all play the game for different reasons, and one could argue certain type of content (be it pve, pvp, wvw, etc) have been nurtured over the other.

But what is your take on the rate we’ve gotten content if you compare it, in general, with other AAA mmorpgs, without mentioning names. And do you feel we have been fed well during these 3 and a half years?

The only other MMO I’ve played in the last 15 years is Elder Scrolls Online so I can’t really compare it to many others. GW2 has certainly had more releases than that game – I think they had 1 new map and a handful of new features during the first year and 2 or 3 big updates in the second year.

But which of those approaches is better is debatable IMO.

One of the things I really like about Arenanet is their willingness to experiment. Right from the beginning when they decided to make one of the first (possibly the very first?) buy-to-play MMOs they’ve never stuck to the way everyone else does things simply because that’s how it’s done. If they think something might work better then they’ll try it and see.

But the downside to that is new things don’t always work, especially on the first attempt. Fortunately Areanet are also willing to admit that and sooner or later give up on ideas that aren’t working. But when all this experimentation is going on within one game (as opposed to conventional, non-MMO games where it’d be a matter of doing things another way in the sequel or a new franchise) the end result can be….a bit of a mess.

One-time events are the obvious example to me. On paper it sounded good – you have these special weekend events where everyone gets together to complete new activities and the end result changes the world forever. But the first one (Lost Shores) was such a disaster they had to scrap that plan and switched to short events with different ‘phases’ for Halloween and Wintersday 2012, then eventually settled on the bi-weekly update model for the Living Story.

That was ok IMO, although as someone with unpredictable work hours and other commitments that can mean being away for days at a time I sometimes found it hard to keep up and a lot of the core game got put aside because I had to focus on the limited time stuff.

Personally I’m glad they settled on a somewhat slower release rate (or rather breaks between releases, Season 2 was still bi-weekly) and especially permanent content. But then my perspective is very different to some people because I can’t always play and even when I can my mentality is very much that of a single-player gamer. I’m used to switching between games, putting one aside for days or weeks or months (or years sometimes) without giving up on it completely and then coming back to it as and when I feel like it.

Whereas someone who’s more used to MMOs and the idea which seems to go along with them of focusing on one game at a time until you get burned out or angry or bored or whatever and then quitting it completely to focus on one other game is going to have different expectations. Most likely they’ll want more content, and more regular releases.

But for me the game at the moment seems to be in a pretty good place.

My only concern is that ANet is inconsistent.

• The best thing about semi-monthly updates is that there’s always something new. The worst part is it puts insane pressure on the devs, maybe distracting them from the big picture.
• The best thing about quarterly updates is that it gives the devs time to retune before having to turn their attention to the next big thing. The worst thing is that if the update is considered ‘meh’, it’s a long time to wait and people can lose interest.

I’d like to see ANet do both: 3-6 months/year of frequent updates, perhaps alongside a new Living Story and infrequent updates the rest of the year.

What I’d hate to see is what we saw in 2015: very little new stuff, with ANet missing every opportunity to generate excitement for the expac within the game. A lot of people lost interest and by the time HoT went live, their expectations were sometimes unreasonable… or they had given up and gone elsewhere.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

My only concern is that ANet is inconsistent.

• The best thing about semi-monthly updates is that there’s always something new. The worst part is it puts insane pressure on the devs, maybe distracting them from the big picture.
• The best thing about quarterly updates is that it gives the devs time to retune before having to turn their attention to the next big thing. The worst thing is that if the update is considered ‘meh’, it’s a long time to wait and people can lose interest.

I’d like to see ANet do both: 3-6 months/year of frequent updates, perhaps alongside a new Living Story and infrequent updates the rest of the year.

What I’d hate to see is what we saw in 2015: very little new stuff, with ANet missing every opportunity to generate excitement for the expac within the game. A lot of people lost interest and by the time HoT went live, their expectations were sometimes unreasonable… or they had given up and gone elsewhere.

This sums up how I feel about the whole thing, pretty much.