Guild Wars 2

Current Status Gaile gets it, and is pushing internally to relax some of the more draconian communication restrictions.

Original post:

Before I get a ton of “Well, I don’t have a problem with this, stop speaking for all of us,”, I’ll make it clear that this is my viewpoint, shared in the hopes that it will put some of my negativity towards this game in perspective.

Simply put, I just have no idea what direction the game is headed.

I felt cheated. I spent more than a year waiting for content that they knew a lot of us wanted, but they knew it would never come. And we only found out because someone slipped up in an interview. To this day, we have no idea what they intend to add. New races? Professions? Opening up a new continent? More PvP maps? WvW improvements? We have no idea.

I don’t need exact details about what content is on the way. I (and many other vocal players on these forums) just want to know what sorts of content ArenaNet is even interested in developing. Basically: Will we ever see the content we want to play?

tl;dr What does Guild Wars 2 hope to accomplish in the next few years? What is ArenaNet’s development focus? Will we see more than new open world PvE zerg maps and “accessible to all” (read: impossible to fail) living story instances? From the overwhelming negativity on the forums/reddit (not to mention glassdoor), it sounds like ArenaNet would benefit greatly from sitting down, figuring out what their goals are, and communicating that with their customers.

BTW, I know we had a raiding CDI and that we can probably expect a few raids, which will make me happy. But that’s only one aspect of a large game that at the moment, feels aimlessly adrift.

Nope!
Full stop!
Halt right there.

All another manifesto will do is give people something to kitten, moan, and complain about. Anet has better things to do with their time (like make dragons for us to pummel).

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

Nope!
Full stop!
Halt right there.

All another manifesto will do is give people something to kitten, moan, and complain about. Anet has better things to do with their time (like make dragons for us to pummel).

This is an online game. No matter what they do, people will kitten, moan and complain ;-) They need to stop being so afraid of that, and just communicate what their goals are. If people complain, at least they’re getting feedback before they release content that flops.

Otherwise, our frustration is only going to fester in the void of information.

Manifestos work when you are proposing a direction for a game in development.

Once the game is released though, there is only one “manifesto”, and that is “do what the publisher tells you to do, or be fired”.

[Edit: OP changed title from “time for a new manifesto”]

No, hopefully they learned their lesson from the first manifesto. Its too bad that developers can’t stick to their ideals and create the game that they imagined at the start of the process. Clearly those ideals were popular – that’s why many of us were attracted to the game and why so many are now disappointed.

dlonie.6547:

This is an online game. No matter what they do, people will kitten, moan and complain ;-)

Yeah, but let’s not give them more ammo shall we? Have we already forgotten the assorted debacles the original manifesto caused when they opted to change the course a bit?

dlonie.6547:

They need to stop being so afraid of that, and just communicate what their goals are. If people complain, at least they’re getting feedback before they release content that flops.

Otherwise, our frustration is only going to fester in the void of information.

I wouldn’t necessarily say their afraid of it. I don’t think that’s the issue at hand.

Yes, the kittening, moaning, and groaning is feedback, of a sort. Though, I’d rarely classify (most of) it as ‘good’ or ‘helpful’ feedback.

People are going to be frustrated either way. If they make a new manifesto, they get frustrated that the ‘promises’ haven’t been kept yet. Or they get frustrated that there isn’t enough transparency. Then they turn around when Anet does interact and kitten about how its not enough, or how it’s not right. It’s a self perpetuating loop of negativity. Really not healthy =/

I discussed this in my thread earlier but got no replies, would be great if you could have a read and see if you agree:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Anet-please-re-focus-your-efforts/first#post4560580

EDIT: since this now seems to be the main thread, OP please feel free to copy/paste what was in my thread (if you agree of course) though it all pretty much pertains to what you’re saying.

Ok, ok, I changed the topic. People were getting too hung up on “manifesto”.

My point is that a lot of us have been waiting for content that appears to not be important to ArenaNet and will never come. This is frustrating.

I think it’s time for a statement of where their development focus is, and what their goals are now that we’re two years into the experiment that is GW2.

Edit: I used “they’re” instead of “their”. I hate myself for it, and apologize to anyone else I made cringe

Bryzy.2719:

I discussed this in my thread earlier but got no replies, would be great if you could have a read and see if you agree:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Anet-please-re-focus-your-efforts/first#post4560580

I noticed that, but my thread is different: I’m not asking for any specific content, I’m only asking that they share what their direction is.

But yes. I agree that those are areas of the game that could use some attention.

Bryzy.2719:

EDIT: since this now seems to be the main thread, OP please feel free to copy/paste what was in my thread (if you agree of course) though it all pretty much pertains to what you’re saying.

Let’s keep them separate. Yours is a plea for more permanent content, mine is for a clarification of the game’s future goals :-)

Haven’t they stated that their focus is on the Living World paradigm and all it encompasses? Many, many times?

So far, it seems to be the Living Story and Feature Packs. That suits me, so far. Is it something different you want them to focus on? Is that what you are asking for? Because, like I said, it seems they have stated where their focus is, already. /shrug

The focus is Esports and the Gem store.

They have a very well defined focus that is reinforced by their actions. The problem is, is that 90% of the players don’t like their focus so they just pretend there is no focus.

People keep hoping for some mystical announcement that the game is going to suddenly take off in a new exciting direction after 2.5 years. Get real, the focus is to promote esports and throw stupid amounts of prize money at it to make it look like people are interested. Since almost no one actually plays PvP and even less people actually watch it they are boosting their profits by heavy use of the gem store in recent months.

Well, for all we know there is a new manifesto – they just can’t talk about it!

dlonie.6547:

…I’m not asking for any specific content, I’m only asking that they share what their direction is…

WHAT?! Anet share their direction?! Ludicrous!!!

What’s even more ludicrous is they shoot themselves in the foot because of their ‘policy’ and leave players in the lurch, wondering what’s gonna hit them next.

Not a great way to run a business, or get people excited for your game.

So far, two posts adamant that the focus is clearly on (eSports and gemstore) and (LS). That’s my point — there’s no consensus.

And yes, the LS is how they’ve said that they plan to introduce new content — but what sort of content? We’ve been told “content like you would normally see in an expansion,” but that’s still extremely vague, and has not been lived up to when you consider what an expansion provides in similar games.

So, what are their goals?

They did a new manifesto :

“We won’t say anything because whatever we say we got bad reviews and people moaning.
Deal with it.
Sincerely,
Arenanet.”

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

dlonie.6547:

…I’m not asking for any specific content, I’m only asking that they share what their direction is…

WHAT?! Anet share their direction?! Ludicrous!!!

What’s even more ludicrous is they shoot themselves in the foot because of their ‘policy’ and leave players in the lurch, wondering what’s gonna hit them next.

Not a great way to run a business, or get people excited for your game.

A prime example of the frustration that the silence and aimlessness creates. I agree with you, btw.

I’m just going to leave this here…

Yeah, it’s so whiny to expect people to mean what they say. Super unreasonable.

Guhracie.3419:

I’m just going to leave this here…

Yeah, it’s so whiny to expect people to mean what they say. Super unreasonable.

Sorry about killing your thread, Guhracie. I really thought my post there was relevant :-/ I was sad to see it locked.

I still feel bad for Gaile. It feels like after the communication blow-up, they just shoved her outside of the ArenaNet fortress of silence, bound and gagged, and told her to do a little dance to keep us entertained. As much as I’d like to see the things she’s said in that thread come true, it’s not up to her to make them happen. :-(

<3 Gaile, even though I’ve been a kitty to you sometimes!

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Haven’t they stated that their focus is on the Living World paradigm and all it encompasses? Many, many times?

Not really. What they said is that what they want to accomplish, they hope to accomplish through LS model. LS is not a goal, it is only the means.

dlonie.6547:

Guhracie.3419:

I’m just going to leave this here…

Yeah, it’s so whiny to expect people to mean what they say. Super unreasonable.

Sorry about killing your thread, Guhracie. I really thought my post there was relevant :-/ I was sad to see it locked.

I still feel bad for Gaile. It feels like after the communication blow-up, they just shoved her outside of the ArenaNet fortress of silence, bound and gagged, and told her to do a little dance to keep us entertained. As much as I’d like to see the things she’s said in that thread come true, it’s not up to her to make them happen. :-(

<3 Gaile, even though I’ve been a kitty to you sometimes!

Oh, I’m not blaming you for it, not even a little. I blame myself, honestly. I just felt like that response was relevant to the topic of this thread. I hope I haven’t misstepped by mentioning it.

Guhracie.3419:

I hope I haven’t misstepped by mentioning it.

Doesn’t bother me, that was a good thread :-)

I’d love to know if more challenging content is ever going to come. At this point my main frustration in this game is that I have no motivation to get better. I’m far from great at this game, I have a lot of room for improvement but i have no motivation to work on it as there’s really nothing to do past what I can already do well enough.

That’s why I spend most of my time afk or half afk farming nonsense. I hop in and do Arah when I can because I do find that engaging. I don’t really do fractals as while they’re individually fun I hate the random jump between them and some of them I absolutely hate because I don’t feel it’s about read and react gameplay because the models are small and effects cover them up so well that I can’t see what they’re doing to read, so it’s more guess and react to me.

I’d be so happy if they were to put out another Lupi style encounter… it’s so well made.

I agree with the OP, for instance Bungie announced what is to be expected from the first expansion of Destiny and I can right away tell if it’s something I’m interested in or not.

I’ve stopped putting time in GW2 because of the lack of direction. (didnt even participate in the lackluster halloween event and logged in for about 2-3 to explore the new content which implied doing a bit of everything on the new map & finishing the story) The exact same is to be said of my friend. GW2 after 2 years doesnt excite us and we don’t know what to expect next from the game to actually look forward to.

dlonie.6547:

I still feel bad for Gaile. It feels like after the communication blow-up, they just shoved her outside of the ArenaNet fortress of silence, bound and gagged, and told her to do a little dance to keep us entertained. As much as I’d like to see the things she’s said in that thread come true, it’s not up to her to make them happen. :-(

Brrrr, this picture made me shiver and hiss irl. Uncomfortable and awkward.
I’ve been having this feeling since she started coming occasionally to the trashc-dungeon subforum… you know… that feeling…

Heh. Well, I mean, are we really sure that they have a plan somewhere, but they’re just not telling us?

I wouldn’t expect anything for GW2 for the future. Their policy states they cannot reveal info about it. I mean, how ridiculous is that? They should be announcing upcoming content, with something to look forward to. 1-2 weeks in advance doesn’t cut it, because it’s mostly for living story. Is there anything else to look forward towards? Currently, no.

I don’t think ANet should be scared to have Colin announce some of their plans for the year.
- The only reason people we’re angry with them about the Precursor Crafting was that we were told it would come in 2013, but when some issues came up they didn’t tell us. They didn’t share with us that they had encountered difficulties and had to postpone it.
- If they had, more people would probably have been more understanding, but instead we waited and suddenly everyone was angry that nothing had been announced, no news about anything.

Instead they chose to keep us in the dark out of fear that if they didn’t deliver, we’d be angry with them again.
- And all they really had to do was keep us informed; – You want to release something awesome? Great! – You encountered problems? That’s part of the development process. – You want to hear some suggestions? You got it!

Let us know what we have to look forward to, ANet!

You do know that ifffff a red comes here, he’s just gonna post a link to the, uhm, enlightening speech O Brien gave about communication, don’t ya?

deSade.9437:

You do know that ifffff a red comes here, he’s just gonna post a link to the, uhm, enlightening speech O Brien gave about communication, don’t ya?

I hope they do.

Refocus & Clarify GW2’s goals?

They are the same as they have been since release…

Gem Store, Gem Store, ( nerf any farm so people need gem store for gold), Gem Store, Gem Store, Gem Store, random post promising “news about new content coming Soon™”, Release LS content to distract for a weekend, rinse and repeat…

imo the BEST thing they could have released was the purported “Scavenger Hunt” for account bound pre-cursors which would have made a lot of the playerbase happy (again imo)

deSade.9437:

You do know that ifffff a red comes here, he’s just gonna post a link to the, uhm, enlightening speech O Brien gave about communication, don’t ya?

You mean the thread about improving communication that got locked so more discussions could happen more organically?

The original manifesto was a hype-inducer. It talks about the personal story, the cooperative nature of game design, and some about the combat system. There’s not a lot of meat to it. The one statement that gets discussed a lot when the point is made that ANet has “abandoned the Manifesto” is, “It all gets back to our basic design philosophy. Our games aren’t about preparing to have fun, or about grinding for a future fun reward. Our games are designed to be fun from moment to moment.” This statement is very general, as “grind” and “fun” are both highly subjective. I think ANet believes that this statement still guides their design.

Thus, I don’t believe that a new design philosophy is needed. Further hype inducement or vague, general statements will do nothing to appease posters demanding to know if/when their desired feature/content X will be added. What’s more likely to produce the desired results is a more specific development statement, along the lines of the abandoned State of the Game blogs. It is only with such a statement that the OP, and those who agree with him, will be able to see if what they want might be coming.

So, OP, I know you deleted Manifesto from the title, but I believe you should also delete it from the post. It really isn’t what you’re after.

the devs are a bit myopic. They dont see that their development focus is really unpredictable, and that people need to have an idea where things are going in oreder to stay engaged in online services.

Basically no one knows what to expect from anet, and people need to know something to believe in an online service.

Columbus would probably have most likely had a mutiny if he told no one where he was going, even though they ended up in america as opposed to india.

the allusion of ending up in the opposite direction is sooooo apt good post

IndigoSundown.5419:

So, OP, I know you deleted Manifesto from the title, but I believe you should also delete it from the post. It really isn’t what you’re after.

Very good advice. I’m aware of the issue, and nothing is off the table! I’ll be sure to ping my editor about this.

…

…

Seriously, good point. I have done this, as it does seem to be detracting a lot from my intended message. I hadn’t realized that the word had such a charged meaning to this community. I’m glad you saw what I was getting at :-)

phys.7689:

Columbus would probably have most likely had a mutiny if he told no one where he was going, even though they ended up in america as opposed to india.

Clever and apt analogy!

You made it, dlonie

dlonie.6547:

tl;dr What does Guild Wars 2 hope to accomplish in the next few years? What is ArenaNet’s development focus? Will we see more than new open world PvE zerg maps and “accessible to all” (read: impossible to fail) living story instances? From the overwhelming negativity on the forums/reddit (not to mention glassdoor), it sounds like ArenaNet would benefit greatly from sitting down, figuring out what their goals are, and communicating that with their customers.

So you want content that is NOT accessible to all .. to how many percent of the playerbase should it be accessible ? 10 % .. 5% .. 1% ?

Do you think its good to produce content that most players can’t access ?

Maybe you should took a look at Wildstar.

And GW2 was never meant to be a hardcore dungeon/raid grinder. Nearly everything
they said about the game pre release was about the open world.

Beldin.5498:

dlonie.6547:

tl;dr What does Guild Wars 2 hope to accomplish in the next few years? What is ArenaNet’s development focus? Will we see more than new open world PvE zerg maps and “accessible to all” (read: impossible to fail) living story instances? From the overwhelming negativity on the forums/reddit (not to mention glassdoor), it sounds like ArenaNet would benefit greatly from sitting down, figuring out what their goals are, and communicating that with their customers.

So you want content that is NOT accessible to all .. to how many percent of the playerbase should it be accessible ? 10 % .. 5% .. 1% ?

Do you think its good to produce content that most players can’t access ?

Maybe you should took a look at Wildstar.

And GW2 was never meant to be a hardcore dungeon/raid grinder. Nearly everything
they said about the game pre release was about the open world.

And as always, they read what they want to read.
“I’d like a single piece of content to be a little more challenging for the playerbase that enjoys said challenge”
“Omg this is a game for casuals and you want content that can be completely in 10 hours of gaming straight by only 0,01% of the playerbase! You elitist!!!!”
And now I’m out of here before I get angrier at people like that and derail the thread. I want it to stay.. how do you say it? constructive. Whatever that means.

go for it!!! /cheeeer

Gaile Gray.6029:

dlonie.6547:

I still feel bad for Gaile. It feels like after the communication blow-up, they just shoved her outside of the ArenaNet fortress of silence, bound and gagged, and told her to do a little dance to keep us entertained. As much as I’d like to see the things she’s said in that thread come true, it’s not up to her to make them happen. :-(

<3 Gaile, even though I’ve been a kitty to you sometimes!

Hey, dlonie — <3 you too!

And that is not what happened, with me getting this job. I’m not bound and gagged and told “don’t dare talk to them!” On the contrary, I’m here to do whatever I can to increase our talking to you! That’s the objective for my whole team.

Quite honestly, this is my best, most favorite, most beloved of all opportunities, and I’m thrilled to be here. Extra thrilled to be able to give some tasty information, like this about Engineers or this about copyrights, or this about the Gem Conversion Tool and any variety of other significant topics that you care about. Ok, fine, happy, too, to talk with players about favorite game moments, attainments, welcomes, and squirrels, too.

I have a thought, but I have a meeting. I want to ask a question so I’ll come back to this in a while. Remind me: It has to do with Harry Potter.

Hi Gaile! I thought that bit might get your attention ;-)

I see what you did there, and it has been good to see communication improving. You’ve been doing your best to get as much information out as possible, and it is appreciated! I actually got a chuckle out of the squirrel thread, and wished I could command a little horde of the buggers in-game…

I hope my posts don’t discourage you in any way, it’s the policies binding you that are frustrating us. The hush-hush attitude about the entirety of this game’s future is hurting it. As someone above put it, the company is shooting itself in the foot. Players are leaving with a very poor opinion of the game — in my guild, in other’s guilds, on the forums, reddit — I see it everywhere.

Why? Because they’ve been waiting. They’ve been looking for something to keep them here, and they’ve run out of content that interests them. I know the game is not sub-based and they’re free to return if/when more content come out, but think about the impression it leaves: They wait for months or more, don’t see any new releases in area X, watch ArenaNet ignore requests for information about future content, get fed up and leave their friends and guildies to find another game.

Are they going to come back easily after being driven away from the time/cash/social investments they’ve made in this game?

It’s very hard to build a community when people don’t have a reason to stay. Tell whoever needs to know internally: Players are rapidly losing hope and leaving. Give us something positive about the future of the game to look forward to.

steps off soapbox

Now, what was your question? Be warned I don’t know too much about Harry or his lore (I know, I know, it’s 2014 — shame on me >.<)

I agree with the OP. I’d like to have some idea of what’s coming up myself.

Beldin.5498:

dlonie.6547:

tl;dr What does Guild Wars 2 hope to accomplish in the next few years? What is ArenaNet’s development focus? Will we see more than new open world PvE zerg maps and “accessible to all” (read: impossible to fail) living story instances? From the overwhelming negativity on the forums/reddit (not to mention glassdoor), it sounds like ArenaNet would benefit greatly from sitting down, figuring out what their goals are, and communicating that with their customers.

So you want content that is NOT accessible to all .. to how many percent of the playerbase should it be accessible ? 10 % .. 5% .. 1% ?

Do you think its good to produce content that most players can’t access ?

Maybe you should took a look at Wildstar.

And GW2 was never meant to be a hardcore dungeon/raid grinder. Nearly everything
they said about the game pre release was about the open world.

See deSade’s reply, I’m not gonna get drawn into an argument from your angry defense of your strawman.

Suffice to say, LS is in a good place accessibility-wise and fills the role of “available to all” nicely. Personally, I’d like to see more of a challenge (edit, because I apparently wasn’t clear enough: this would be in addition to LS, not to replace it). I’m not demanding one, I’d just like to know if ArenaNet’s interests align with mine.

If you like to discuss the topic of my OP (The policy of eternal silence damaging the community), feel free. Otherwise, start a new thread, please.

Interesting. The game most certainly isn’t for those who enjoy Dungeons and Instances, neither it’s intended for those who enjoy large scale PvP or balanced sPvP, the main focus of the game is Living Story, however Arena Net is not going to admit it and is hoping on clueless buyers.

Direction? More Living Story, more Gem Store, more Fashion Wars.
Maybe they’ll give us a new Dungeon but only because of Living Story.

dlonie.6547:

Beldin.5498:

dlonie.6547:

tl;dr What does Guild Wars 2 hope to accomplish in the next few years? What is ArenaNet’s development focus? Will we see more than new open world PvE zerg maps and “accessible to all” (read: impossible to fail) living story instances? From the overwhelming negativity on the forums/reddit (not to mention glassdoor), it sounds like ArenaNet would benefit greatly from sitting down, figuring out what their goals are, and communicating that with their customers.

So you want content that is NOT accessible to all .. to how many percent of the playerbase should it be accessible ? 10 % .. 5% .. 1% ?

Do you think its good to produce content that most players can’t access ?

Maybe you should took a look at Wildstar.

And GW2 was never meant to be a hardcore dungeon/raid grinder. Nearly everything
they said about the game pre release was about the open world.

See deSade’s reply, I’m not gonna get drawn into an argument from your angry defense of your strawman.

Suffice to say, LS is in a good place accessibility-wise and fills the role of “available to all” nicely. Personally, I’d like to see more of a challenge (edit, because I apparently wasn’t clear enough: this would be in addition to LS, not to replace it). I’m not demanding one, I’d just like to know if ArenaNet’s interests align with mine.

If you like to discuss the topic of my OP (The policy of eternal silence damaging the community), feel free. Otherwise, start a new thread, please.

I’ll ask a question. How many times have you run the aetherblade path?

Nick.6972:

Interesting. The game most certainly isn’t for those who enjoy Dungeons and Instances, neither it’s intended for those who enjoy large scale PvP or balanced sPvP, the main focus of the game is Living Story, however Arena Net is not going to admit it and is hoping on clueless buyers.

Direction? More Living Story, more Gem Store, more Fashion Wars.
Maybe they’ll give us a new Dungeon but only because of Living Story.

^^ This. This is what we think when we don’t hear about what the team is up to. It doesn’t paint the company or the product in a positive light to be 100% tight-lipped about everything, especially when there’s already outcry over a long period of content releases below industry standards. Now is not the time to be silent.

laokoko.7403:

I’ll ask a question. How many times have you run the aetherblade path?

Several times, not sure exactly? Probably more than 5, but less than 10.

It’s not as often as I’d like, unfortunately, as the rewards/time are very, very low compared to, say, Arah or AC, and it’s difficult to get a group together for it. There are a lot of posts about why the path is unpopular in the dungeon forum (Look for a locked [Suggestions] thread from a couple months back if you’re really interested). I don’t want to rehash them here, but mainly low rewards and too many time-gated puzzles.

dlonie.6547:

laokoko.7403:

I’ll ask a question. How many times have you run the aetherblade path?

Several times, not sure exactly? Probably more than 5, but less than 10.

It’s not as often as I’d like, unfortunately, as the rewards/time are very, very low compared to, say, Arah or AC, and it’s difficult to get a group together for it. There are a lot of posts about why the path is unpopular in the dungeon forum (Look for a locked [Suggestions] thread from a couple months back if you’re really interested). I don’t want to rehash them here, but mainly low rewards and too many time-gated puzzles.

Right. That’s what I’m trying to say. Even if they make new content. If the reward is not good enough people don’t do them.

And in a game which is all about skin. I’m not sure what they going to reward people with. If Anet dont’ make the Aetherblade path skins RNG, maybe more people will run it.

Aetherblade? As far as I know rewards are even lower than FOTM 49-50.
And it’s already hard to find or create a FOTM party due to neglected state of the game mode. Just read go read the reddit/dungeon section.
Rewards are all messed up, each new patch fixes 1 bug and creates 3 different new bugs.
Reactor fractal will probably take good 6-12 months to fix, just look how long it took to them to finally tone down the ridiculous Dredge fractal.

There is no dungeon team at Arena Net, and as they’ve shown before, on forums and on interviews, they have no desire whatsoever to invest time and effort on creating or fixing existing or new dungeons.

Nick.6972:

There is no dungeon team at Arena Net, and as they’ve shown before, on forums and on interviews, they have no desire whatsoever to invest time and effort on creating or fixing existing or new dungeons.

Exactly, and a lot of the dungeon runners found that interview very freeing, and refreshingly honest — they stopped hoping for something that was never going to happen and were able to move on. I’m sure other neglected areas of the game are wondering if they too have been put on a backburner for the foreseeable future. Would they lose a few players by saying they didn’t have plans for, say, PvP? Sure. But are the ones who would leave still buying gems if they’re disgruntled enough to walk away? Plus, those players are likely the “toxic” ones that are generating bad word-of-mouth for the game, as they’re the most frustrated.

There was also a decent amount of backlash over that interview, at least from my perspective. I’m somewhat curious if they’ve reconsidered that idea — after all, we did start talking about raids shortly thereafter.