Guild Wars 2

I watched this recently and honestly I cant say hes wrong. One of the biggest issues lately is that while GW2 has been reletively successful and decent, the lack of information about each episode and indeed the upcomming expansion is not generating hype or interest but loosing it.

He has a fantastic analygy in this: A-net taking us to a surprise birthday party with no information about what we are getting or when were getting it only that we will see when we finally do. Honestly the idea that we will see things when they arrive is a nice thesis but a terrible delivery. We need hype, we need something to look forwards to.

I recommend a short 20 second teaser every 2 weeks building up to the launch of episode 5 and 6, small snippets we can get excited about and get ideas for, aswell as for the next expansion, maybe a small 1 minuate trailer of specific zones/teasers every month.

Just something to get us interested.

Right now, that lack of hype is not helping GW2, even if GW2 has been doing decently, ive noticed a massive drop in players recently and its because everyones only here for 2-3 days of new content, followed by leaving until the next big thing comes out.

Their policy of developing 5 hours worth of content for 3 months of work is stupid anyway. Especially when new zones have almost no reason to go back to them

The new zones feel terrible as a result of that, yeah. Sure, nice, we are getting what people clamored a lot for especially in the first year, “Make new zones instead of re-cycling existing ones for living story”.

And yes, ofc, yay more landmass.

But while I can go back into the zones, they feel so purpose-designed, they feel immediately outdated once I’m done with the LS and got the maybe 3-4 items I want from the vendor. Their design just doesn’t feel like a natural part of the game world. It was ok when it was a single such zone, but now it also adds that it’s just… “rote”. Happens every time.

And I can’t begin to imagine how much dev time these zones must be eating up.

+1 Completely Agree
Never a hype
Overall communication is bad, if you look at the forums, devs respond on 1-2posts a page

Sariel.2143:

+1 Completely Agree
Never a hype
Overall communication is bad, if you look at the forums, devs respond on 1-2posts a page

The most communciation I ever got was that they changed a title of my topic without saying anything in the discussion.

but on topic: They have made a statement once that the long hype of the previous expansion backfired so they don’t want to hype up coming content anymore. So now we get a week advance LS teasers, and we’ll get a trailer and a reveal sometime soon when they’re closed to finishing the next expansion. The lack of hype may be what’s killing the game, I don’t know, but the overhype we got last time almost definitely killed the game so I rather have this silence.

Hype!

/YouRequireMoreCharacters

CaptainVanguard.4925:

I recommend a short 20 second teaser every 2 weeks building up to the launch of episode 5 and 6, small snippets we can get excited about and get ideas for, aswell as for the next expansion, maybe a small 1 minuate trailer of specific zones/teasers every month.

Maybe this is me being old fashioned (or just old) but a 20 second teaser doesn’t sound like it’d be worth watching. What would it be? A few flashes of cut scenes and maybe a shot of an enemy that could, or could not, be a boss? I’d most likely just wait until there’s some actual information about the next episode.

Likewise I don’t understand this idea that games need to maintain constant “hype” for anyone to stay interested. I think of it as similar to going to a concert – when my favourite band announced they were back on tour I was extremely excited, I got excited again when tickets went on sale and especially when I managed to get some (standing tickets at 3 shows!), and I’ll be very excited when it gets to the day of the gig and literally jumping up and down screaming in excitement when the show starts.

But in between life goes on as normal. I don’t need to be kept in a constant state of excitement about the fact that I’ve got a gig coming up to ensure I want to go when it does happen, or even to ensure I remember to buy tickets.

To me that sounds like how you’d market to very small children who do have short attention spans and are likely to forget about things far in the future or get bored and frustrated with a wait longer than a few days. But this game is rated 12+ and even a 12 year old can grasp the concept of waiting for something without constant prompting to be excited when it does happen.

Also going by this forum getting people interested isn’t a problem. We’ve got a regular stream of posts from new and returning players (in fact lately the Players Helping Players section seems to be entirely people who bought the game at launch, quit because they couldn’t keep up with season 1 and have decided to give it another go now).

I’m not saying it’d be a bad idea to give us more information if they can commit the time to do so and if they can get around the reoccurring problem of anything they so much as hint at becoming a solemn promise they have given to players which cannot ever be changed in any way, shape or form, ever.

But if they did I’d prefer more ‘road ahead’ type articles – actual information on their plans. Not a few snippets of a flashy cut scene shown out of context so we can make wild guesses at what we may or may not have seen.

I’m fine with no hype from Anet. I’m not quite as ok with hearing absolutely nothing. I just want a general roadmap. I want to know what direction this game is headed in.

While I hope there is some hype for the expansion, I don’t think it’s really needed for a Season release. In this very thread it is stated that a season is only five hours of content, for which one has 2-3 months to complete before the next one, so doesn’t the announcement that “it is coming next week” or the actual release serve just as well?

Well yes a road map would be perfect.

But honestly the problem is that silence isnt always golden.

Just as much as over hyping HoT was a bad thing, underhyping Season 3 and Expansion 2 is doing just that, people dont really care enough to invest in them. Alot people go onto Season 3 to play the episode, then log off until the next one comes on.

This isnt necessarily new since it was rather similar in S2, but at least in S2 there was alot of buildup to things, we kept getting snippet teases and things going on regularly giving us information about other new updates in the meantime.

Even if it was just to give us some information a new pvp system, wvw system, a new way to make pve interesting, or maybe a revamped gemstore, it’d be “something” new to look forwards to.

But this absoleute silent treatment isnt making anyone excited, its just… lifeless.

I agree that some idea as to the design direction the game will be taking in the next 12 months would be very welcome, but I’m not sure even Anet knows what that direction will be.

More than anything, imo, Anet needs to hire a game director. Colin has been gone a long time and MO always said his filling that position is temporary while they find someone new.

So, while the lack of communication is a problem predating Colin leaving, I believe the current situation is more a case of Anet being in maintenance mode while they look for a new director – something they probably desperately need right now.

They overhyped the expansion giving less content for more money. Now they changed to no information until they put something out. I hope this silence wont backstab them if new expansion dont give enough content/areas/stuff for a price of 60€/$. This could be end of this game.

Anet has always had serious game management problems. It’s like their whole team is comprised of developers with no proper communication or resource management skills.

the thing is.. communication of this sort would be ok in my book if the updates we got every lw update lasted for more than 3 days. The new maps feel uninspired whith 1 time things you can do in 1 day then just remaine there as daily farm which serve no puprpose and feel disconectedfrom the world. Idk homestly each new map takes spot where a good map could have been. The maps look great but looks alone aimt keeping me bussy for 3 months or at least 3 weeks. Frankly i wouldnt trade sylverwastes or drytop for any of the new maps. I had far more hours of content there with rare mobs, titles and the skins that were long term goals. Also the multiple visits on the same map made them feel all that more existing and importand like an actual part in tbe world.

I commend them for the productivity tho but i would take 3 maps in 8 episodes that are well thought out and give me a reason to be there for weeks.

he OP hasn’t produced any evidence that the lack of hype matters that much. It’s clear that they want more hype; it’s not clear whether it matters to the majority of players.

Also where are all the random blogposts the guild chats and every i dont mimd not talkimg for new contemt all the time but at least talk for what you think of the present the future, looking at past and what you could do differently, talk about how great cooked quagans smell idk just talk to us about stuff

No to hype. Yes to actual information.

If the community could actually handle “this is what we’re working on and it may/may not happen” without crying, we’d be so much better informed. Instead, every scrap of possibility is mistaken for a promise, so Mo has to err on the side of caution.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

he OP hasn’t produced any evidence that the lack of hype matters that much. It’s clear that they want more hype; it’s not clear whether it matters to the majority of players.

idk pll quiting the game coz its stale feels like a legit reason to me

Any hype they have given in the past usually winds up biting them in the kitten here and on reddit. They get crushed when content doesn’t live up to people taking the hype and blowing it into something bigger than it actually was. So they stopped altogether. People can’t say it wasn’t what they expected when there was no information given to expect anything out of.

I think there could be a happy medium to get people excited, but I have no idea what that could be. Maybe they could vague something up that would interest people and get them excited without giving any real information or clues away.

I will agree that something should be done to keep us interested other than LS content we have come to expect.

As far as the new zones go. Like pre-HoT zones, they can easily send us back to these places for other things and new events. Maybe we don’t have much reason to go back after the LS, it doesn’t mean we will have no reason in the future.

The one to Rule.2593:

Their policy of developing 5 hours worth of content for 3 months of work is stupid anyway. Especially when new zones have almost no reason to go back to them

I have replayed the heck out of many new maps.

jheryn.8390:

Any hype they have given in the past usually winds up biting them in the kitten here and on reddit. They get crushed when content doesn’t live up to people taking the hype and blowing it into something bigger than it actually was. So they stopped altogether. People can’t say it wasn’t what they expected when there was no information given to expect anything out of.

I think there could be a happy medium to get people excited, but I have no idea what that could be. Maybe they could vague something up that would interest people and get them excited without giving any real information or clues away.

I will agree that something should be done to keep us interested other than LS content we have come to expect.

As far as the new zones go. Like pre-HoT zones, they can easily send us back to these places for other things and new events. Maybe we don’t have much reason to go back after the LS, it doesn’t mean we will have no reason in the future.

nah ppl could say about what they expectd for bioms for the gen 2 legendaries and the legendary armor.

zealex.9410:

nah ppl could say about what they expectd for bioms for the gen 2 legendaries and the legendary armor.

Anyone can say anything they want about anything. I’m not sure what you are getting at as it pertains to what I said.

jheryn.8390:

zealex.9410:

nah ppl could say about what they expectd for bioms for the gen 2 legendaries and the legendary armor.

Anyone can say anything they want about anything. I’m not sure what you are getting at as it pertains to what I said.

we were given information in these matters what we got was far less what we were hyped for tbh. Tbh it has become a meme today that gen 2 leggies will be a sellimg point of expac 3 LUL

zealex.9410:

jheryn.8390:

zealex.9410:

nah ppl could say about what they expectd for bioms for the gen 2 legendaries and the legendary armor.

Anyone can say anything they want about anything. I’m not sure what you are getting at as it pertains to what I said.

we were given information in these matters what we got was far less what we were hyped for tbh. Tbh it has become a meme today that gen 2 leggies will be a sellimg point of expac 3 LUL

That kind of proves my point. We didn’t get some of the things promised, but most people complaining were complaining starting with “I thought it was going to be…” and “They made it seem like…” People over hyped the information that was given.

I agree that they didn’t provide some of the things they promised. That sucked and was wrong IMO, but they didn’t over hype what they actually provided. The community did that.

I agree that we need more communication & hype.

When it comes to the living story, I think new maps are great and all, they’re nice & fun to explore for the first time but after doing whatever you need from hem there’s close to no reason to go back to them.
As much as I love the design of Bloodstone Fen, I haven’t really been there since completing the story, achievements & getting the rewards i wanted.

I also liked the idea of the living story taking pace in certain parts of the already existing maps. Maybe having to revisit certain parts of older maps or actually changing parts of certain maps (like Kessex Hills.) or add parts/instances to already existing maps.
It makes the maps feel more alive in a sense. We remember the history of the map and events that took place there whenever we see them.

Honestly with how GW2 was previously treated by both the developers and the community, silence was basically the only solution.

A roadmap would be nice, but I’m not expecting it because ArenaNet has made promises beforehand and got burned when they couldn’t give what was promised. The smallest information offered can (and does) drive the community insane with theories, guesses, a want for more information and all of that places pressure on the devs. Game development is wonky, things can and do go wrong, and features that may be offered from a marketing standpoint sometimes fall to the sideline and then never appear. Really the only time that you can confidently say what’s going to appear in the game is about a week before you launch it. You can attempt a great many things, and if you have the time, the budget AND the understanding of the community you can generally accomplish most things that you try to develop. But ArenaNet has unfortunately lost trust through a lot of promises that never entered the game, they don’t have the budget of massive companies because of the payment system they went with and tied with that budget idea is that they have to release content to keep players in the game and thus they don’t have as long to develop things as other companies.

It’s a two way street really, Anet has gone under quite a few changes over the last year or so, and the changes DO seem promising. Legendary weapons are back on the menu of development, we are getting regular, if infrequent, content updates for PvE, I’ve heard that there was an attempt to bring back the old WvW map at some point (don’t know the status of this), I don’t know about PvP for the moment but I’m sure they’re at least trying to figure out what to do there, if maybe falling flat on actually delivering it. All in all, I’m more confident with Anets direction now than I was a year ago (even if basically most of the above didn’t affect me). So the change is good, at least to begin with.

Once Anet has regained some of it’s lost trust, I’d hope that there would be slightly more communication. For now, I understand their lack of it. I’m not happy about it, don’t get me wrong, but I understand where it’s coming from.

The downside is, of course, if there’s no communication, there’s no way for the players to push the game in a better direction if for some reason there’s a huge flaw in what they’re current designing.

Now as for the hype/marketing arguments. It makes NO sense whatsoever to hype up each living world release. The content updates are extremely small and genuinely unworthy of notice by anyone who isn’t currently playing Heart of Thorns. What would be worthy of notice? Something that you could genuinely advertise for, an expansion. As others have discussed on the forums, advertising these extremely tiny releases won’t help the game, in fact it would definitely cost more to advertise these living world releases than the profit they would receive from advertising it. So it’s not a worthy investment. Investing in the advertisement of an entire expansion? That’s worth the money. And that’s where they need to put their advertising money into. Once the current season of living world is finished and they announce that an expansion is coming, they can point to everything extra released after Heart of Thorns and make that the primary focus of advertising for free to play GW2, where as the new shiny stuff also gets advertised as something that you need to pay for.

Except that if they were hyping more we would get the exact opposite complaint. “You Overhyped this and now everyone is disappointed and so people are leaving and not coming back for the next time cause they know that they will be disappointed again.” This is EXACTLY what happened when HoT rolled out, which they had constant hype train for. There is NO way of winning this battle. Half of the community will always complain one way or the other.

Hype is only good when accompanied with real, permanent and active communication with the player base. Creating hype over something people will not be able to properly test, help to develop and actually change if needed is just a straight path to frustration.

I would love if they begin sharing the development of the new expansion early, but only if I can support the proccess closely, actually influencing it in some way.

IMO true, active, well planned participation is the only way to avoid some mistakes, like those HoT suffered the most (Power creep, incomplete ideas, non-popular systems, badly balanced difficulty, etc). However, if they aren’t going to go all the way with this, I prefer them to anounce any change as close as possible to the actual release.

^^ lol exactly Sojourner : no hype -> too much hype -> they promised! -> they lied! -> they hyped!

personally i love a bit of hype, there’s only a couple times in the lifetime of a mmorpg when we all get excited – new releases and new expansions. Hype is fun not a legally binding contract that means everything hyped must be delivered or else!.

I will also say this – the excuse that they dont communicate the way they used to because of how the community responds is silly imo. These are professional game developers and a company that makes a good deal of money from the sale of the game. Surely they are professional enough to take criticism – even extreme criticism – for what it is without falling apart.

The bottom line is this: Hype is nice, but we want results. Given what happened with HoT before and after, silence is the better course. The next expansion will make or break Guild Wars 2 . . . and there’s no getting around that.

Why they put themselves in this position in the first place, especially given their earlier success with a different model, is still beyond me. But here we are . . . and time will tell if they survive it. Guild Wars 2 is the MMO I’ve played the longest, and even I can see they’re in trouble.

Hype isn’t going to save them, but an amazing expansion might.

Devs are busy writing code and testing and doing all the things we want them to focus on. That aside, how can forum patrons possible criticise if they are not part of the day to day development work and know exactly what all the problems are first hand? the answer ofc is they cant, but yet they will still criticise anyway, pointless exercise.

vesica tempestas.1563:

Devs are busy writing code and testing and doing all the things we want them to focus on. That aside, how can forum patrons possible criticise if they are not part of the day to day development work and know exactly what all the problems are first hand? the answer ofc is they cant, but yet they will still criticise anyway, pointless exercise.

This is such a weak argument that I feel the need to call it out. The existence of professional game critics is the most obvious counter to your point “how can forum patrons possible criticise if they are not part of the day to day development work and know exactly what all the problems are first hand”. There are objective issues that non professional critics are able to point out. There are subjective issues that deserve to at least be voiced to see if others agree with their stance. You cannot call ‘criticism’ unwarranted from anyone who’s not actively working on GW2, that’s not how criticism works. If you produce something and give it to the world, everyone has a right to criticise it because it’s out for the world to see. That’s the very nature of criticism and critique. We can criticise government officials because what they do impacts us, we can do the same with video games because it impacts us, the players.

No one is safe from criticism because everyone has the right to criticise a product they paid for. There ARE extreme versions of criticisms that border on insults, yes, they do objectively exist. But this conversation and many of the criticisms thrown Anet’s way are warranted and needed for the game’s survival. If you’re no being properly critiqued, you can’t improve, you will always believe that your work is the best thing every even when you have room to learn. Anet definitely has room to learn. There wasn’t enough content in HoT, storywise or otherwise (living world episodes are DEFINITELY helping with that), WvW isn’t anywhere near where it needs to be, PvP is suffering, there are objective criticisms that can be made with how ArenaNet are handling the development of GW2 and they need to be heard. Saying you can’t possibly criticise something because you’re not actually working on it yourself is exactly the same as saying you can’t criticise a chef who undercooked chicken and gave you salmonella. It’s ridiculous to claim such a thing. Again, there are MANY unwarranted comments that have flown past ‘criticism’ and have landed smack dab in ‘hate’ territory, those comments do objectively exist, but this discussion about hype vs silence is not in that territory and is very well within the confines of ‘legitimate criticism’.

professional game critics criticise games and game design they do not criticise individual devs. Also, forum patrons will typically not care or understand what part of the game the dev works on, i.e is he an engineer working on the engine, is he a designer, etc etc. Also the issue is not necessarily the objective carefully worded critique, its all the other noise we know exists, and that’s the problem ofc the dev gets bogged down trying to deal with noise. Lose lose and a waste of peoples time.

There is another simpler answer, devs are just like us and care about what they do, and have decided that they think more harm than good will come from posting to said forums – the issue is actually people ascribing some sinister ill thought out reason behind this.

This is just typical Anet. They only know Zero or 100. They don’t know anything in between. Look at leather, look at balance patches, and now look at the communications. It’s always either all or none.

Blaeys.3102:

I will also say this – the excuse that they dont communicate the way they used to because of how the community responds is silly imo. These are professional game developers and a company that makes a good deal of money from the sale of the game. Surely they are professional enough to take criticism – even extreme criticism – for what it is without falling apart.

It isn’t as if they can’t take criticism, but the backlash was beyond that for HoT.

Anet hyped it so much that the community blew the hype into a giant monster that most companies couldn’t accomodate. When it wasn’t this god-like version of an expansion that people had dreamed it into being, they went apekitten.

Granted, it most definitely was less than most seemed to want even without the hype and they did not give some of the things they promised, but it wasn’t the failure/object of hate that the forum/internet community at large made it out to be.

If it were my company and I endured the backlash Anet did over HoT, I would have stopped hype and communications too.

‘they can’t take criticism’ is a pretty childish assessment of why a professional has chosen to no longer post in a gaming forum, and kinda demonstrates the issue. (i dont mean that as a personal attack, i see that comment often)

re hype,

No hype -> too much hype -> they promised -> they lied! -> they over hyped! -> it can only be perfect or don’t tell us, but tell us early! but don’t tell us too early! it goes on lol.

The problem with HoT is people alerted about a lot of problems BEFORE Anet even publish the expac. They hyped, they showed, they received feedback, they barely took that feedback into account, then the failures were just what the feedback screamed about.

This is what made the most damage: to not complete the product, to not hear the critics on time, and to get out in the proper date, without the proper quality.

vesica tempestas.1563:

professional game critics criticise games and game design they do not criticise individual devs.

In my post, I said this:

There ARE extreme versions of criticisms that border on insults, yes, they do objectively exist.

Again, there are MANY unwarranted comments that have flown past ‘criticism’ and have landed smack dab in ‘hate’ territory, those comments do objectively exist, but this discussion about hype vs silence is not in that territory and is very well within the confines of ‘legitimate criticism’.

So, we both agree that these things exist.

Also, forum patrons will typically not care or understand what part of the game the dev works on, i.e is he an engineer working on the engine, is he a designer, etc etc. Also the issue is not necessarily the objective carefully worded critique, its all the other noise we know exists, and that’s the problem ofc the dev gets bogged down trying to deal with noise. Lose lose and a waste of peoples time.

So why are you calling out ‘criticism’ in general and not ‘people who directly insult the devs and don’t understand development’? That stuff that you mention needs to be called out and culled, definitely, but in your post:

vesica tempestas.1563:

Devs are busy writing code and testing and doing all the things we want them to focus on. That aside, how can forum patrons possible criticise if they are not part of the day to day development work and know exactly what all the problems are first hand? the answer ofc is they cant, but yet they will still criticise anyway, pointless exercise.

You specifically call out criticism in general. That’s what my post was about. Say the insults and misunderstanding of game development need to stop, don’t call out ‘criticism’ in general.

There is another simpler answer, devs are just like us and care about what they do, and have decided that they think more harm than good will come from posting to said forums – the issue is actually people ascribing some sinister ill thought out reason behind this.

That’s what this ENTIRE discussion is about, specifically it’s criticism about the devs decision to not release some details about what’s going on. Not the insult throwing, not the misunderstanding of game teams etc. but specifically the devs philosophy about hype vs silence. And I agree that there is a reason why the devs are silent.

I haven’t actually seen anyone ‘ascribe some sinister ill thought out reason’ for the decision to stay silent, all I’ve seen is criticism saying that devs aren’t hyping the game enough. Although I have seen a couple of posts misunderstanding the development process.

@ Ardid everyone on the internet is an expert, Anet clearly did not listen to ‘us’ (everyone on the planet us?) ‘it wasn’t complete’ so on and so forth.

In reality if you understand software development you will know there is no such thing as ‘complete’, there is simply a backlog of things to build that never ends and you pick the next most important thing next. separately you decide when to release, for example releasing with ABC and wait for live feedback to see if customers want D next or do you deliver nothing for another period and give ABCDE and risk D being a waste of resource (there is no right answer here)

Carighan.6758:

while I can go back into the zones, they feel so purpose-designed, they feel immediately outdated once I’m done with the LS and got the maybe 3-4 items I want from the vendor. Their design just doesn’t feel like a natural part of the game world. It was ok when it was a single such zone, but now it also adds that it’s just… “rote”. Happens every time.

And I can’t begin to imagine how much dev time these zones must be eating up.

We simply need more Silverwates-like zones, that are actually worth returning into if you know what i mean.

Sometimes i even forget zones like Dry Top exist – usually once you finish your achievements in these zones, there is nothing interesting/profitable or even fun to do. At least we got dailies in the “new” zones.

vesica tempestas.1563:

everyone on the internet is an expert, Anet clearly did not listen to ‘us’ (everyone on the planet us?) ‘it wasn’t complete’ so on and so forth.

In reality if you understood software development you would know there is no such thing as ‘complete’, there is simply a backlog of things to build that never ends and you pick the next most important thing next. separately you decide when to release, for example releasing with ABC and wait for live feedback to see if customers want D next or do you deliver nothing for another period and give ABCDE and risk D being a waste of resource (there is no right answer here)

Ah, but there is a difference between understanding software development and understanding what ArenaNet did.

ArenaNet sold the expansion on quite a few promises that never actually made it to Heart of Thorns launch. There’s a difference between acknowledging the limitations of software development and acknowledging that ArenaNet over promised and under delivered.

ArenaNet marketed things that weren’t ready. That’s an objective fact. ArenaNet marketed things that may never make it into the game. One example I was personally burned on was the new elite specialisation lore. That NEVER happaned. They promised it and marketed it, but it never showed up in HoT. In the end, ArenaNet should have ONLY marketed what they KNEW would be in the game. But they didn’t. They marketed stuff that didn’t end up in game, and they’re now trying to play catch up. THAT’S the problem with what ArenaNet did with Heart of Thorns. They shouldn’t have overhyped the expansion and promised things that didn’t end up in the game. They should have done a modest interpretation of the development schedule, realised what may or may not make it in, and only promise what they knew for a fact would make it, not what they were hoping to include that may not make it.

The one to Rule.2593:

Their policy of developing 5 hours worth of content for 3 months of work is stupid anyway. Especially when new zones have almost no reason to go back to them

This is about the exchange rate of development to play time.

@ castlemanic ‘promise’ or simply a feature that was deprioritised in place of something else? that’s the thing, everything has a cost, you cannot deliver everything, so you pick stuff. reality is a lot more complicated than jsut broken promises, no-one wants to break a promise, but choices for the best have to be made all the time. The alternative is the almost dead waterfall development life cycle – I promised to build ABCDEF even if tastes change or context changes or other issues arise that are critical.

they promised -> they lied -> they over hyped etc etc. Notices its always assumed that a decision was made in error.

Sartharina.3542:

The one to Rule.2593:

Their policy of developing 5 hours worth of content for 3 months of work is stupid anyway. Especially when new zones have almost no reason to go back to them

This is about the exchange rate of development to play time.

I just want to highlight this because Sartharina is absolutely correct. Having a degree in 3D animation definitely helps the perspective on this. If you need another example of how this kind of stuff works, movies can take years to develop until they finally come out, only to be 2 hours long. All creative media suffers from an overwhelmingly tilted ratio between development time and content time.

The “people overhype stuff too much so we’re not saying a kitten thing” is the single most kittened policy ever. Do you know why the bits they threw out were hyped up so much in the past? Because there was barely any communication so when we got anything we assumed “oh, so that’s where all the effort went!”.

So now they “learned their lesson” and communicate even less? What kind of backwards false sense of logic is that?

With nothing to look forward for months then getting a patch that’s a hit or miss followed up by another 3-4 months of silence I almost completely lost interest in this game. I check the news, but don’t log in anymore and that’s sad.

Carighan.6758:

The new zones feel terrible as a result of that, yeah. Sure, nice, we are getting what people clamored a lot for especially in the first year, “Make new zones instead of re-cycling existing ones for living story”.

And yes, ofc, yay more landmass.

But while I can go back into the zones, they feel so purpose-designed, they feel immediately outdated once I’m done with the LS and got the maybe 3-4 items I want from the vendor. Their design just doesn’t feel like a natural part of the game world. It was ok when it was a single such zone, but now it also adds that it’s just… “rote”. Happens every time.

And I can’t begin to imagine how much dev time these zones must be eating up.

Well, living story is only for expansion accounts now, which is why they won’t recycle old zones and have to create new zones for just those accounts to access.

P.S Yes everything gets over hyped because there’s barely any information for players to cling to in the first place, so once they do get some information it gets exaggerated. Anet was also at fault for this in the early days, their sept 2014 feature pack had 3 weeks of blog posts to hype it up lol.

NotASmurf.1725:

The “people overhype stuff too much so we’re not saying a kitten thing” is the single most kittened policy ever. Do you know why the bits they threw out were hyped up so much in the past? Because there was barely any communication so when we got anything we assumed “oh, so that’s where all the effort went!”.

So now they “learned their lesson” and communicate even less? What kind of backwards false sense of logic is that?

With nothing to look forward for months then getting a patch that’s a hit or miss followed up by another 3-4 months of silence I almost completely lost interest in this game. I check the news, but don’t log in anymore and that’s sad.

Personally i think they should go for it and release some kind of video showcasing what they are aiming to release with a little caveat that they may not deliver everything. win win.

Blaeys.3102:

I will also say this – the excuse that they dont communicate the way they used to because of how the community responds is silly imo. These are professional game developers and a company that makes a good deal of money from the sale of the game. Surely they are professional enough to take criticism – even extreme criticism – for what it is without falling apart.

Exactly, surely they can be professional and mature enough to both take criticism and realise that a lot of that criticism comes from immature people. Blaming the people who react badly to news or change for their no communication policy is somewhat childish, IMO.

Hello Mr Forum Bug, how are you?