Guild Wars 2

1 Update the reward system, challenging content and innovative play should be rewarded, boring easy gameplay (trains/zergs) should not yield more value then lv 49 fractals.

2 Focus on different types of content both easy and more difficult, open world/dungeons/fractals/pvp modes/raids.

While I like LS 2 better than LS 1 as a story, dry top and SW ain’t cutting it for replay value nor are the rewards. However I highly doubt developers etc didn’t know this already. New content is probably in conflict with the current business model, and I don’t blame a company for wanting to make a profit.

Dalanor.5387:

On a side note, does anyone else have the feeling that ANet take a look on their metrics and see “Wow every player plays the LS, so it’s succesfull. Great, no expansion for them.” meanwhile everybody plays it just to do something else finally? It’s refreshing after doing something new, even if it’s badly implemented or just boring. A few hour worth of content is still something. I guess. Opinions? (don’t want to derail, just food for tought)

I hope not, but it wouldn’t surprise me. All we’d be able to do is speculate….unless they’d open up.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Gulesave.5073:

Gaile was not asking whether the promise of more LW is sufficient to sate our desires for intel, just whether it counts.

Yes, this is correct. When I see comments like “there’s nothing new to do” or “we need fresh content” it just occurred to me to ask if you’re taking LW into account, if you see that as new content and pretty significant chunks of it, at that. (Admittedly, it may not be what you personally have requested, but if the statement is “there’s nothing new” that doesn’t seem quite right.)

Thanks everyone for not barking at me when I asked the question. Again, the question was not “is it enough?” I really was pointing to it to ask for your impressions of the concept and the execution as continuing, new content in an ever-changing world.

If the content was added in the same way it was in gw1 I think a lot of aggression and dismay would end. Permanent content is what every one wishes for. If you are unable to do typical expansions and LW/LS are your current means of implementing the content that would otherwise be in a boxed expansion, then it needs to permanent, challenging, and profitable for the players. The current LS and LW combined isn’t even comparable to when Cantha came to be, It’s fun and all to play new stories for the lore, I love the lore of Tyria, it is extremely NOT fun to do so and still feel like it has impacted my character to a degree of ZERO. I sincerely believe that the memorialized areas and systems of gw1 need to be brought into this game. The changes that occur in gw2 feel so minuscule, the changes in gw1 were groundbreaking, and they were permanent.
When the game was being talked about before release, and I heard that events had direct effect on the areas around them, I was jaw dropped, THAT IS A REAL LIVING STORY WITHIN A GAME, when I realized that 10 minutes after I managed to save this village from being erased from the map that the enemies were respawned to do the exact same event chain again, I felt lied to, and I was definitely mad.

Gaile Gray.6029:

You mention wanting to know there will be more to the game. The new and continuing episodes of the Living World count towards that, right? The fact that players know there’s a team working on new content and features, and that there are releases on a regular basis? I fully understand that may not fulfill every desire, but it does show a continuing commitment to “new stuff” for us players, wouldn’t you agree?

The thing with the Living World is that it’s story. The most people don’t wait for more story but for more things to do. You can give it decent replayability by adding achievements, you can add some interesting mechanics to make it challenging, but in the end of the day it’s still just story. And once you’re done with the story you only come back for the nostalgia.

I personally think that the Living Story should be oushed back until the game is in a state that the most players can enjoy the story. The problem is that ANet advertised the Living World as expansion-like content when in fact it’s just story. That’s the reason why people want new maps and new dungeons, because they still believe the Living World is more than just story.

So no, the Living Story does not count as new content because it’s not repeatable.
The Living Story should be a bonus to a flawless game. But the game isn’t flawless and that’s why I think the LS is the wrong way to go atm.

Yes, this is correct. When I see comments like “there’s nothing new to do” or “we need fresh content” it just occurred to me to ask if you’re taking LW into account, if you see that as new content and pretty significant chunks of it, at that. (Admittedly, it may not be what you personally have requested, but if the statement is “there’s nothing new” that doesn’t seem quite right.)

It’s new content, but it’s not super-significant. I mean, my general experience is that I load the game up on Tuesday, and complete the LS elements that afternoon. I then might go back in and complete the achievements if the reward is compelling enough (I did for the first one and the most recent, but not for the ones in between), but I HATE redoing the personal story chapters for achievements, because I don’t enjoy redoing the story content at all, and the achievements are usually annoying. I wish you could just do the achievements the first time through and move on.

So while I enjoy the living story, I still have thirteen days to fill until the next one. Now of course updates bring other content, like adding and expanding Dry Top and the Silverwastes, but overall these have been fairly minimum updates, two micro-zones over the past two years.

Dry Top was opened up over a period of eight weeks, and that’s a fair pace, but then you took ten weeks off before the next update. I think if the game can maintain a steady pace of one Dry Top zone every ten to twelve weeks then you’ll be in good shape, but right now you’re at a significant deficit from basically taking the first year and a half off.

Orpheal.8263:

@ palador

When i saw that with Marjory, i was also hoping for it, that this is a kind of sign, that we maybe will see in a distant near future Sub Classes, like I suggested that in the Chracter progression CDI, which could be used to unlock for the classes new Weapon Options and new Utility Skills.

“snip”

I appreciate the hope and enthusiasm but . . . when I saw that and watched Majory hacking away with the greatsword later all I thought was that it was more of ANet’s “the rules apply to players not to our favorite members of the Scooby Gang” stuff. Done for drama and plot convenience and nothing more. IMO ANet’s behavior to date really doesn’t support any other more “hopeful” conclusion.

Just call me “destroyer of hope.”

I’ll recap some of the opinions that I thought captured the bulk of the argument:

Cross.6437:

The regularity of the Living Story assures us that we’ll get more of the same: story content to fulfill a few hours worth of regular play and maybe a new map with meta events. We know we’ll get more open world PvE, but it doesn’t tell us about the attention other game modes are getting behind the scenes.

And one of our biggest fears as a community right now is that because open world PvE appears to be the focus, we think that maybe those other game modes aren’t getting any or very much attention. We’re afraid more effort is being poured into the Living story than those other areas.

Cross did a great job summarizing the concerns of several large communities in the game.

Bri.8354:

We have been waiting for a meal for such a long time now, yet all we keep getting is appetizers, and then we are told in an interview with the chef that you aren’t even cooking a meal, only more appetizers. Then the restaurant creates a policy where the workers are not allowed to speak about the meal or appetizers.

Has our meal even been started, or is it just taking a while to cook? Are you just going to keep throwing appetizers at us until we get fed up and leave? As customers at your restaurant this is something we would like to know, and the silence isn’t helping at all.

Hands down, this is best analogy I’ve seen for the experience of being a long-term player outside of the PvE farming community. Let us smell a steak cooking!

On the topic of is LS, as a content delivery medium, successful?

munkiman.3068:

My personal take is that the LS is likely an extremely stressful process internally, one that would be better served to longer, more substantial releases, maybe once a month, leading up to a typical boxed expansion.

I’d imagine so! And the dev team has to hit hard deadlines to keep the story delivery on time…how wise is it to develop the entirety of the game’s content in this way? Not to mention the issues with “LS doesn’t happen in HotM/EB” concerns.

Xillllix.3485:

All the work that went into that last chapter mini-dungeon would have been better served going to make a repayable dungeon. Then the story mode of that dungeon could be the living story.

Oh, this would have made my day. I can guarantee you the dungeon community would have made a return. And the best point: this way the artwork wouldn’t have just gone into a story instance that would just be farmed for achievements a few times, there could have been a compelling, challenging, rewarding component to keep people playing it for months. Glint’s Lair was gorgeous. big thumbs up to the artists.

nightwulf.1986:

So what I’m hearing then is that Living Story as a content delivery system isn’t necessarily a failed idea. It’s more that they haven’t delivered the type of content some of us want to see. […] So, shouldn’t we work that angle and suggest that they improve on it? If an idea doesn’t work out initially, you can scrap it or you can make it better. Some people just want to scrap it without considering the merits of fixing it.

While I’m not opposed to a revamp of the LS vehicle to be more inclusive of other game modes, I think munkiman’s point about the internal stresses of that process are still valid — I’m not sure that introducing all content, which may require varying degrees of testing and development effort, under a tight, lore-dependent deadline is the best way to produce quality results.

tl;dr? Quality content requires flexibility about development — hard deadlines that a story introduces are bad. New content/overhauls should not happen in a time crunch. For this reason: No. LS is not a sufficient content delivery medium.

Gaile, just wanted to say that I like where the communication is going. This thread feels different — we’ve moved from having a more-or-less passive ArenaNet presence that did little more than announce itself, to your guiding questioning. I appreciate that you’re shaping the conversation to be more useful for the Decision Makers to digest.

Now, I obviously don’t expect them to have answered by now, after all, it is the weekend, but do you think there is a likelihood that we might hear from a Decision Maker at ArenaNet about this? Maybe someone who could put the silence policy in perspective with our concerns about the damage it is doing to the community? This issue comes up over and over again, I’m curious how folks who call the shots feel about it.

From the response this thread has gotten and the many shared stories of people leaving over the uncertainty of this game’s future, there are a number of concerned customers who feel that changing that policy is need to truly address the communication issues that are manifesting in so many ways. As Conner put it so well:

Conner.4702:

When for the last 3 months the same bad communication threads keep popping up don’t you think it is time to make real changes and not just posting more when under a gag order is not better communication, it is just more communication.

+1, emphasis mine.

dlonie.6547:

Gaile, just wanted to say that I like where the communication is going. This thread feels different — we’ve moved from having a more-or-less passive ArenaNet presence that did little more than announce itself, to your guiding questioning. I appreciate that you’re shaping the conversation to be more useful for the Decision Makers to digest.

Now, I obviously don’t expect them to have answered by now, after all, it is the weekend, but do you think there is a likelihood that we might hear from a Decision Maker at ArenaNet about this? Maybe someone who could put the silence policy in perspective with our concerns about the damage it is doing to the community? This issue comes up over and over again, I’m curious how folks who call the shots feel about it.

From the response this thread has gotten and the many shared stories of people leaving over the uncertainty of this game’s future, there are a number of concerned customers who feel that changing that policy is need to truly address the communication issues that are manifesting in so many ways. As Conner put it so well:

Conner.4702:

When for the last 3 months the same bad communication threads keep popping up don’t you think it is time to make real changes and not just posting more when under a gag order is not better communication, it is just more communication.

+1, emphasis mine.

I really love this thread and the way it…feels…!
This is (p)hands down the first thread i came across without flaming, hating and bragging! Just some friendly individuals that seek the winds of change. Together.
Even if not all of us here hope for the same things to happen. Still. All of us feel the need of transparency.

Way to go folks!
+1 @ all

I have a few points to make, so I’ll try to keep them brief.

Players have been desirous of a roadmap for quite some time. Even in this thread people are calling for one, but I haven’t see anyone bother to post one. If someone did and I missed it, sorry. There was a lot to read here and I may have missed it in skimming. This is a purely hypothetical roadmap, but it’s an example nonetheless of something I’d like to see Anet do.

• February 2015: end of LS S2.
• March: Feature Pack: craftable precursors, 500 Jeweler/Chef, etc, QoL patch: hobosack fix, LS vendor-tokens moved to Wallet, trait rebalance
• April-May: WvW tourney
• June-July: housecleaning: sweeping bugfixes. Ideally, the list of bugs in the bug forum would all be solved in this time.
• August: 1st expansion: New Playable race (see note 1)
• October: Halloween
• November: Feature pack: traits back to pre-April 2014, except keep the free, on-the-fly respec,. 1 new additional weapon for each class.
• December: Wintersday
• January 2016: LS S3 starts, has nothing to do with the story of the Expansion. (see note 2)

• Note 1: New race is only unlocked after the player finishes the Personal Story and beats Zhaitan. This will encourage players to finish the PS and allow Anet to avoid having to program the new race into Zhaitan’s story. If each expansion introduces a new race, the previous expansion must be completed in order to unlock it.
• Note 2: LS S3 could explore Malyck’s tree and what happened to him after he exited the Sylvari personal story, then LS S4 could focus on humanity’s establishment of New Ascalon around Ebonhawk following the peace treaty. You should be using the LS to tell important, lore-rich side stories that don’t involve the Elder Dragons, while the dragons themselves are the subjects of each new Expansion.

If this were to be announced on Tuesday with the new LS chapter, you will not have given away anything of the current story. There’s no spoiler for how LS S2 ends, nor is there any info given at all on the expansion, but you’ve told us that it IS coming, and that’s enough to get people interested again. You’ve also shown that issues the players care about, like hobosacks, traits and precursors, are not just vaporware topics of fleeting discussion but cold, hard things that you plan to make happen.

As always any of the roadmap is subject to change based on problems with design and programming. If, say, a hobosack fix wasn’t going to be finished on schedule, the proper procedure would be to immediately get on the forums, facebook, twitter and every other communication outlet you can find and tell everyone:

“Hey, we said we were going to get this, but some problems have come up. Every time we do X, bad thing Y happens. We’re not going to get it out as scheduled, but we’ll keep working on it and get it patched in as soon as we can. We’ll keep you updated.”

The problem with this type of roadmap is that it will necessarily compel Anet, as a company, to dispense with the “no talking until it’s done” policy. I think many posts in this thread and others have made it clear that we the players, by and large, don’t like it and don’t understand why you folks at Anet put it in place. We just don’t think silence is a good idea, and don’t understand how you could possibly think it IS.

When you don’t tell us things, we have to assume. That’s rarely a good thing because we’re prone to assuming the worst. Gamers are pessimistic and melodramatic like that. And worse, when we assume the worst and you don’t correct us, we have to assume that “oh goodness, we’re RIGHT! If we were wrong they’d tell us!” For example, there has been no information from Anet about new game modes for sPvP. We therefore assume that not only are no new modes coming, but that you don’t have any plans whatsoever to make more. We have to assume that sPvP will remain stale in perpetuity.

I think that’s why you saw a sigh of relief, disappointed thought it was, from the dungeon crowd when Anet finally, albeit accidentally, let slip that nothing was being planned for dungeons for the foreseeable future. Dungeon players don’t like that they aren’t going to get anything new, but at least they KNOW they aren’t getting anything new. That’s an assurance the rest of us don’t have, and one we desperately need.

dlonie.6547:

Gaile… do you think there is a likelihood that we might hear from a Decision Maker at ArenaNet about this? Maybe someone who could put the silence policy in perspective with our concerns about the damage it is doing to the community? This issue comes up over and over again, I’m curious how folks who call the shots feel about it.

Snipped for the important part. We need someone with authority to tell us why this policy exists, and why Anet thinks it’s a good idea. Ideally, for me at least, I’d like to hear it straight from Mike O’Brien himself.

Tobias Valin.5893:

Dungeon players don’t like that they aren’t going to get anything new, but at least they KNOW they aren’t getting anything new. That’s an assurance the rest of us don’t have, and one we desperately need.

I hate to admit it but you are right with this.

Coming from playing GW1 to GW2 I can say that overtime GW2 has become more and more disappointing in terms of content. As stated before, if you don’t care about living story what reason is there to play anymore? There has been literally no more new content. Players have been doing the same stuff over and over again since what we’ve been provided at launch. I believe that the implementation of having set stats and gear is one of the reasons why everyone is complaining because there is literally no progression. In GW1 you could farm over and over to try and get the stats that you wanted and after that you could grind for lower requirement weapons etc as where once you’re maxed in GW2, youre maxed, and thats the end of it. Simply replying to a thread doesn’t mean you’re communicating with the community when all of your answers seem like they’re automated messages.

I love Guild Wars for what it is and I’m not hating on the game, it’s merely my opinion. Take it or leave it but the direction the game is headed is not a good one. Without a clear distinction of what is going to be implemented in the near future besides living story, players don’t have a reason to stay.

DanzBurG.8635:

Simply replying to a thread doesn’t mean you’re communicating with the community when all of your answers seem like they’re automated messages.

I have to agree with this statement. I think the “We won’t talk about it until it’s ready” policy is going to be Anet’s downfall. I’m not saying release an expansion pack tomorrow, but at least let us know you are working on something. I bought the game, I supported the game buying gems, but where is my money going? I want to look forward to something besides 1.5 hours of content every 2 weeks. You don’t have enough money? I’ll gladly give you guys more money, but just tell us what’s coming for GW2.

Tobias Valin.5893:

dlonie.6547:

Gaile… do you think there is a likelihood that we might hear from a Decision Maker at ArenaNet about this? Maybe someone who could put the silence policy in perspective with our concerns about the damage it is doing to the community? This issue comes up over and over again, I’m curious how folks who call the shots feel about it.

Snipped for the important part. We need someone with authority to tell us why this policy exists, and why Anet thinks it’s a good idea. Ideally, for me at least, I’d like to hear it straight from Mike O’Brien himself.

There is a procedural canned answer so I’ll just go through the steps to save you waiting for the response:

At this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Communicating-with-you/first Mike O’Brien himself gives an explanation stating that that’s their policy and basically that that’s just how it is.

I do not believe they are receptive to reconsidering their position even though it is extremely frustrating and confusing for the player base and the silence about the future causes serious damage. In the absence of solid statements, wild speculation about the future runs rampant. We know so little so we fill so many gaps about the future with our own imagination.

They remember a time where some things some devs said got interpreted as “promises” and players overreacted banking on these supposed “promises.” Look at player perception about “the promise of a precursor scavenger hunt at X time” to see what they’re afraid of. They don’t want that happening again so they’ll keep us in the dark about everything upcoming in the future (hyperbole: read many things, and/or until it’s ready to ship) because it’s “safer” that way.

For them, the fear of that happening again overrides all. Even though it is an irrational fear. Even though with a few simple disclaimers (“This is an idea. It may or may not make it into the game. There is no timeframe. This is a brainstorm.”) would solve it. Look at these forums. My guess is that if someone ignores such a disclaimer twenty people will remind that poster about it and point out the disclaimer quite clearly.

They could also have a blanket policy that “even if something looks like a promise for the future it’s not” and users would likewise point to that when someone starts ranting about “broken promises.”

So yeah, they’re scared of the fanbase. Particularly the section that keeps talking about “broken promises.” To some extent it’s justified, but their policy of silence about the future is, admittedly, a gross overreaction to that somewhat legitimate fear. It’s blown way out of proportion. And looking at the general tone of the forums these days it’s more than clear that the policy of silence about the future is taking its toll. This thread and countless others are all testament to that sad truth I’m coming to learn as time goes on… :/

Piro.8762:

DanzBurG.8635:

Simply replying to a thread doesn’t mean you’re communicating with the community when all of your answers seem like they’re automated messages.

I have to agree with this statement. I think the “We won’t talk about it until it’s ready” policy is going to be Anet’s downfall. I’m not saying release an expansion pack tomorrow, but at least let us know you are working on something. I bought the game, I supported the game buying gems, but where is my money going? I want to look forward to something besides 1.5 hours of content every 2 weeks. You don’t have enough money? I’ll gladly give you guys more money, but just tell us what’s coming for GW2.

I legit hate being a broken record on this, but it needs to be reiterated that this is the truth. Know what? Forget next year, I am barely excited for Tuesday. I know intellectually there will probably be cool stuff, but when I think about the new patch and the last preview, I"m just like, “eh.”

THAT’S NOT WHAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING. The entire reason that it’s like that is because I just have no clue what’s going to be on the way. And remembering now, the only reason it was any different for the last patch was that China accidentally put out a preview with actual information that was then disavowed and treated like a shameful, horrifying spoiler. That we might actually know what we should be looking forward to. Heaven forfend.

I’ve read Mike O’Brien’s post about the communication policy multiple times. I question whether he’s actually read our posts about why that policy makes us less enthusiastic about the game. Maybe I missed the post where he said that less enthusiastic players is a totally acceptable side effect.

DanzBurG.8635:

Coming from playing GW1 to GW2 I can say that overtime GW2 has become more and more disappointing in terms of content. As stated before, if you don’t care about living story what reason is there to play anymore? There has been literally no more new content. Players have been doing the same stuff over and over again since what we’ve been provided at launch.

Without a clear distinction of what is going to be implemented in the near future besides living story, players don’t have a reason to stay.

I agree with this 100%. I have been playing since beta and for the last year I have just been hanging around thinking, we should get some real content any time now… 3,200 hours of walking the same zones, we need a new continent to explore, a new class (or 2) and some new skills (not 1-2 every 6 months).

Piro.8762:

DanzBurG.8635:

Simply replying to a thread doesn’t mean you’re communicating with the community when all of your answers seem like they’re automated messages.

I have to agree with this statement. I think the “We won’t talk about it until it’s ready” policy is going to be Anet’s downfall. I’m not saying release an expansion pack tomorrow, but at least let us know you are working on something. I bought the game, I supported the game buying gems, but where is my money going? I want to look forward to something besides 1.5 hours of content every 2 weeks. You don’t have enough money? I’ll gladly give you guys more money, but just tell us what’s coming for GW2.

Relevant-
“Meelad Sadat, Head of PR at ArenaNet, jumped in to answer our question. He compared it to a movie, where if you know that there is only 10 minutes left in the movie it can clue you in to how and when the plot points are going to end instead of keeping the suspense. 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. As to what is going to happen after that, Meelad said that they will keep players informed of when there will or won’t be a patch, like how they announced the Halloween and start of each half of Season 2 well in advance.”

Other relevant quotes: “Bobby (Stein) stepped in to add that players are not going to have to wait long for some big reveals.” “Bobby, as well as Steven (Waller), didn’t want to reveal anything too spoiler for what is awaiting players, but they are excited for the moment later on when players can compare where things are compared to where they were when the story started.”

Notice a trend? They think keeping us in suspense is a good thing. You have to convince them it’s not. They want us to speculate about what’s coming in the future. That is apparently their end game. There is both positive and negative speculation going on here. Not just negative. You have to yell a whole lot louder to get through.

wwwes.1398:

Piro.8762:

…the “We won’t talk about it until it’s ready” policy is going to be Anet’s downfall. I’m not saying release an expansion pack tomorrow, but at least let us know you are working on something. I bought the game, I supported the game buying gems, but where is my money going? …You don’t have enough money? I’ll gladly give you guys more money, but just tell us what’s coming for GW2.

…I am barely excited for Tuesday. I know intellectually there will probably be cool stuff, but when I think about the new patch and the last preview, I"m just like, “eh.”

THAT’S NOT WHAT SHOULD BE HAPPENING. The entire reason that it’s like that is because I just have no clue what’s going to be on the way… That we might actually know what we should be looking forward to. Heaven forfend.

I’ve read Mike O’Brien’s post about the communication policy multiple times. I question whether he’s actually read our posts about why that policy makes us less enthusiastic about the game. Maybe I missed the post where he said that less enthusiastic players is a totally acceptable side effect.

I’m also getting less enthusiastic as time goes on. On the one hand, I am very glad that the current storyline ties strongly into GW1 lore and that from the look of it that will continue as the plot unfolds…

…but on the other hand, when that fact sits in the context of everything else that’s going on these days (like the ongoing huge plot hole problems with Personal story in the wake of the latest Feature Patch) it’s just hard to get interested or excited. And since we know so little about if they’re even aware of a lot of things, it’s just hard to get hyped. And I want to be hyped. But I’m right there with you. Having trouble getting into it and feeling like that’s not how it should be.

nightwulf.1986:

Piro.8762:

DanzBurG.8635:

Simply replying to a thread doesn’t mean you’re communicating with the community when all of your answers seem like they’re automated messages

…

Relevant-
“Meelad Sadat, Head of PR at ArenaNet, jumped in to answer our question. He compared it to a movie, where if you know that there is only 10 minutes left in the movie it can clue you in to how and when the plot points are going to end instead of keeping the suspense. 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. As to what is going to happen after that, Meelad said that they will keep players informed of when there will or won’t be a patch, like how they announced the Halloween and start of each half of Season 2 well in advance.”

Other relevant quotes: “Bobby (Stein) stepped in to add that players are not going to have to wait long for some big reveals.” “Bobby, as well as Steven (Waller), didn’t want to reveal anything too spoiler for what is awaiting players, but they are excited for the moment later on when players can compare where things are compared to where they were when the story started.”

Notice a trend? They think keeping us in suspense is a good thing. You have to convince them it’s not. They want us to speculate about what’s coming in the future. That is apparently their end game. There is both positive and negative speculation going on here. Not just negative. You have to yell a whole lot louder to get through.

The problem is that it gets harder and harder to get excited as time goes on. If they’re worried about story spoilers, I think that’s not entirely the same as the things we want to know about. I think a lot of players are starting to reach a point where they’re asking “are the things that are important to me even on your radar?” and that question is being met with the same general silence as plot points. I don’t want to know how the movie ends or even how much time is left in it. I just want to know if the things I care about are still the things they still care about too. Because it seems like they were – at least they were a long time ago – but I just don’t know anymore…

Tobias Valin.5893:

• March: Feature Pack: craftable precursors, 500 Jeweler/Chef, etc, QoL patch: hobosack fix, LS vendor-tokens moved to Wallet, trait rebalance

One reason they can’t make announcements like this is the economy. Precursor craft for exemple will make the prices of all legendary related mats explode in a few minutes as soon as it’s announced (even if it’s not related at all to current precursors).

Gaile Gray.6029:

Gulesave.5073:

Gaile was not asking whether the promise of more LW is sufficient to sate our desires for intel, just whether it counts.

Yes, this is correct. When I see comments like “there’s nothing new to do” or “we need fresh content” it just occurred to me to ask if you’re taking LW into account, if you see that as new content and pretty significant chunks of it, at that. (Admittedly, it may not be what you personally have requested, but if the statement is “there’s nothing new” that doesn’t seem quite right.)

Thanks everyone for not barking at me when I asked the question. Again, the question was not “is it enough?” I really was pointing to it to ask for your impressions of the concept and the execution as continuing, new content in an ever-changing world.

The concept of living world?
as we understand it and anet understand it, may be different

If the goal is to create a world that feels more alive and ever changing? nope, i mean some things have changed but overall the game never feels renewed by living world, especially this season. The stories are more interesting, but most the content outside of them feels the same.

but really the living story angle is a bit of a digression. people arent saying in this thread that anet is doing nothing. They are saying (at least in the OP) that no one knows what to expect from the game going forward.

unless you are saying all we should expect from anet for the foreseeable future is stuff similar to ls2.

wwwes.1398:

I’ve read Mike O’Brien’s post about the communication policy multiple times. I question whether he’s actually read our posts about why that policy makes us less enthusiastic about the game. Maybe I missed the post where he said that less enthusiastic players is a totally acceptable side effect.

You didn’t miss anything.

I remember that post from the first time around, and just because it’s policy, that doesn’t make it a good policy.

AlienMenace.7516:

They could also have a blanket policy that “even if something looks like a promise for the future it’s not” and users would likewise point to that when someone starts ranting about “broken promises.”

Something like this would be a far better system IMO.

nightwulf.1986:

Notice a trend? They think keeping us in suspense is a good thing. You have to convince them it’s not. They want us to speculate about what’s coming in the future. That is apparently their end game. There is both positive and negative speculation going on here. Not just negative. You have to yell a whole lot louder to get through.

It’s so frustrating! I’ve come to the conclusion that they must just be repeating a line they’ve been told is the best possible spin they can put on this, because otherwise it just means they’ve completely not seen anything that anyone has been saying.

I’ve never in my life seen anyone say here, “You know what? I don’t want to know what is going to be on the way next year”. Except when followed up by “…because I’m not going to be here for it”. Everyone is frustrated, and nobody thinks it’s “fun” to sit and wait for info because they want to mete it out slowly.

And as for another break? I made it through this last few months because I wanted to make sure I didn’t drop out before Mad Kings Day again like I did the year before (which happened because of GTA V and me breaking my hand). If there’s another two month long WvW tournament with nothing else to do and nothing else being promised except “stay tuned for a screenshot”? I genuinely don’t know if I can stick that through, I’d probably just tune out for awhile and find something else to do with my time.

nightwulf.1986:

Piro.8762:

DanzBurG.8635:

Simply replying to a thread doesn’t mean you’re communicating with the community when all of your answers seem like they’re automated messages.

I have to agree with this statement. I think the “We won’t talk about it until it’s ready” policy is going to be Anet’s downfall. I’m not saying release an expansion pack tomorrow, but at least let us know you are working on something. I bought the game, I supported the game buying gems, but where is my money going? I want to look forward to something besides 1.5 hours of content every 2 weeks. You don’t have enough money? I’ll gladly give you guys more money, but just tell us what’s coming for GW2.

Relevant-
“Meelad Sadat, Head of PR at ArenaNet, jumped in to answer our question. He compared it to a movie, where if you know that there is only 10 minutes left in the movie it can clue you in to how and when the plot points are going to end instead of keeping the suspense. 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. As to what is going to happen after that, Meelad said that they will keep players informed of when there will or won’t be a patch, like how they announced the Halloween and start of each half of Season 2 well in advance.”

Other relevant quotes: “Bobby (Stein) stepped in to add that players are not going to have to wait long for some big reveals.” “Bobby, as well as Steven (Waller), didn’t want to reveal anything too spoiler for what is awaiting players, but they are excited for the moment later on when players can compare where things are compared to where they were when the story started.”

Notice a trend? They think keeping us in suspense is a good thing. You have to convince them it’s not. They want us to speculate about what’s coming in the future. That is apparently their end game. There is both positive and negative speculation going on here. Not just negative. You have to yell a whole lot louder to get through.

I don’t want to know how the story goes. I want suspense for the story line. The story telling this season has been the best story work ArenaNet has done for this game so far as a whole. There are pieces of the PS I thought were really good and pieces of S1 that I thought were engaging, but S2 has been fantastic thus far across the board. The content has been sorely lacking though

That’s why players are calling for a development roadmap. Not for story, but for what is coming int he future for the game. I want to know what’s coming because I want to know if I am going to feel like it’s worth it to keep this as my main game or not. I don’t want to keep sticking around playing the same old maps for another year. I want an expansion. If they aren’t doing that, that is 100% fine. That’s just not what I am looking for in the long term of this game. I want an expansion’s worth of new maps.

AlienMenace.7516:

The problem is that it gets harder and harder to get excited as time goes on. If they’re worried about story spoilers, I think that’s not entirely the same as the things we want to know about. I think a lot of players are starting to reach a point where they’re asking “are the things that are important to me even on your radar?” and that question is being met with the same general silence as plot points. I don’t want to know how the movie ends or even how much time is left in it. I just want to know if the things I care about are still the things they still care about too. Because it seems like they were – at least they were a long time ago – but I just don’t know anymore…

The way I see it, and I could very well be wrong, if they are working on improving the living story as a primary content delivery system, then they are probably thinking that they can keep quiet on content and locations that are tying in to the story as they would reveal too much about the plot as well. Imagine if there are skills being released that are tied to a rite of Ascension in the story. If the skills and places where the skills are acquired are gated behind story related content, they may not be inclined to let us know that those skills are coming ahead of time. Beyond that, a lot of things that people want to know about like condition damage revamp, pet AI and what not are probably just big issues that they don’t have any new info on. They’ve got a big audience with varying levels of tolerance for the pace at which projects are completed so they can communicate as little or as much as they want for all I care. Someone’s going to shout at them and no one wants to be told their pet project is low priority.

Edit:I highly recommend reading up on some of the fansite/mmo site interviews they post every now and again. I’ve found some good stuff there. Anet doesn’t post links to all of their third party interviews on the main page. It can help provide a more comprehensive picture of what’s going on in the game. At least, that’s been my experience.

I don’t want to sound like a negative Nancy but it seems as if every time we create these kind of threads it attracts attention but eventually gets swept under the carpet as if our opinions don’t matter. I understand that Gaile among other employees respond to our posts but in hindsight these threads always get closed. Please realize that we’re not trying to badmouth the game but rather provide our insight as to how we see you could better the game, for your interests and ours. We want to see the game flourish, trust us. But without implementation of content or communication we’re left empty handed and forced to go elsewhere.

Like I said in my previous post, I’ve supported the game since early GW1 and I (and others of the community.. not representative of all of course..) feel as if there needs to be a change or else players will continue to leave. Don’t get me wrong, but something needs to be done. Living story IS content but its not sufficient to most players. Not to mention so much of the content that has been deemed ‘new’ is simply rehashes and problems take ages to fix which leaves us to question what is really happening over at ANet.

Please take what we’ve posted into consideration and not reply with some generic comment.

We support the game! We don’t want to see it die off..

Tachenon.5270:

~Snip~

I believe many GW2 players must surely wonder when, if not indeed, if, they may see the advent of new professions, new skills, new weapons, new playable races, new areas — that is, new areas that would require months of diligent exploration to fully explore.

~Snip~

It seems I’m the only person around here that remembers anything that was said by Arena.net when this game was released a little over 2 years ago. Based on what was said then, I would never expect new professions, new playable races, or very many new skills…at all. I would like to see additional weapons, new areas(which we are getting, not as fast as some would like, but that’s personal taste), more weapon choices for the existing professions.

Also, we’ve been told what A.nets stance is on giving out information, yet people keep asking for stuff that clearly isn’t on the table per their own(A.nets) stance that they will only talk about stuff that is ready for release. I understand you want more, but consider for once the business, they’ve put rules in place, they’re trying to abide by them, whether we think they’re correct or not is not our place to decide. It’s time to just let it go and live with it. I don’t know about everyone else, but someone above said they don’t get e-mails when ever a new LW episode is released, well, they should probably check their junk mail folder, because every Tuesday on release day, I get a mail from NCSoft telling me to log in to GW2 and unlock the new episode.

I personally find all these threads asking for more information highly amusing, it’s like you’re trying to get blood from a turnip, it’s not going to happen.

nightwulf.1986:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Alerno — Taking what you have (and everyone else has) put on the table I do wonder something. I want to ask, and hope nobody will bite my head off here.

You mention wanting to know there will be more to the game. The new and continuing episodes of the Living World count towards that, right? The fact that players know there’s a team working on new content and features, and that there are releases on a regular basis? I fully understand that may not fulfill every desire, but it does show a continuing commitment to “new stuff” for us players, wouldn’t you agree?

We want mounts. We want flying mounts.

uhm no. kitten off with your mounts.

Zaklex.6308:

Tachenon.5270:

~Snip~

I believe many GW2 players must surely wonder when, if not indeed, if, they may see the advent of new professions, new skills, new weapons, new playable races, new areas — that is, new areas that would require months of diligent exploration to fully explore.

~Snip~

It seems I’m the only person around here that remembers anything that was said by Arena.net when this game was released a little over 2 years ago. Based on what was said then, I would never expect new professions, new playable races, or very many new skills…at all. I would like to see additional weapons, new areas(which we are getting, not as fast as some would like, but that’s personal taste), more weapon choices for the existing professions.

As has been said many times on this forum (see the countless Manifesto posts) things change. What was said two years ago might or might not be relevant now. Therefore, it is not unreasonable to ask if the things I mentioned are on that alleged table — or not! — and I’m sure plenty of others here would like to know the answers to these and other questions. Right here, right now, as it were.

Kraljevo.2801:

nightwulf.1986:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Alerno — Taking what you have (and everyone else has) put on the table I do wonder something. I want to ask, and hope nobody will bite my head off here.

You mention wanting to know there will be more to the game. The new and continuing episodes of the Living World count towards that, right? The fact that players know there’s a team working on new content and features, and that there are releases on a regular basis? I fully understand that may not fulfill every desire, but it does show a continuing commitment to “new stuff” for us players, wouldn’t you agree?

We want mounts. We want flying mounts.

uhm no. kitten off with your mounts.

Hehehe, personally, I agree with you. Put all the pieces together. You are number two to stumble into that one.

DanzBurG.8635:

I don’t want to sound like a negative Nancy but it seems as if every time we create these kind of threads it attracts attention but eventually gets swept under the carpet as if our opinions don’t matter.

It’s because they are only opinions on a forum and, essentially, no they don’t matter. I said from the start that this policy and the direction they’re taking this game is going to be its noose, and that still stands now while we have only Gaile to occasionally talk to about what direction we feel the game is headed.

In reality, however, more players are leaving as I speak. It’s because nothing changes around here and there’s no real communication about the health and development of the game that people like myself and a lot of others are primed to just walk out.

Sad really, because they could do something, but they just won’t.

Kurrilino.2706:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Which became approximately 20 members total. I’m sure the other Devs are working on something else. Whatever those big projects in the background are.

---

What do you mean ????
This is like a conspiracy since around 1 year.

There is no hidden super secret project running and A-Net isn’t announcing
anything because there isn’t something to announce.

GW2 was announced 5 years before to hype the crap out of it.

Even the argument it’s just 20 people working on living story isn’t holding anything.
Sure A-Net has 300+ employees but lets break this down.
- 20 guys living story
- 20 people for forum and PR
- CEO and department heads maybe 30
- 2 ground keeper
- 10 server maintenance
- 3 cleaning ladys
- 2 front desk ladys
- 12 dolyak sheppards
- 199 programmer for the gem store

Where do you get the idea someone is working on an expansion?

I don’t recall typing the word ‘expansion’. I merely repeat what the Devs have stated numerous times. I’m pretty sure they didn’t specify what those big projects were, either. You should probably try not to project your own interpretation onto others’ words, in the future, if it all possible.

Good luck.

Zaklex.6308:

but consider for once the business,

Yeah, there are very few business that see an increase in profits from silence; game development is not one of those businesses. And there is no business that is improved by silence when you have unhappy customers.

Zaklex.6308:

they’ve put rules in place, they’re trying to abide by them, whether we think they’re correct or not is not our place to decide.

We are their customers. It is the place of any and every customer to argue the rules of the business if they don’t agree with it. Businesses change what they do for two reasons: Profit, and kittened off customers.

Yes Anet has a policy of not talking about things before they’re ready for release. A year ago it was a bad decision, but an understandable one. Now it’s still a bad decision and they need to rethink it.

I’ve heard that the policy is being adjusted and communication is being given priority, this might be a good time/place to actually say what that means moving forward.

Also, we’ve been told what A.nets stance is on giving out information, yet people keep asking for stuff that clearly isn’t on the table per their own(A.nets) stance that they will only talk about stuff that is ready for release.

Yes, which is why we keep telling them that this stance is not good enough.

Zaklex.6308:

I personally find all these threads asking for more information highly amusing, it’s like you’re trying to get blood from a turnip, it’s not going to happen.

No, it IS going to happen. At some point, they will realize that people just aren’t coming back anymore as much as they did when they post teaser trailers exactly one week ahead of time after 2 months of nothing. They’ll realize that everyone is treating their feature pack with “meh” because it is largely packed with stuff people didn’t want and leaves out things people really did want. And at that point, they’ll realize that refusing to indulge people’s sense of hype doesn’t create an air of mystery, it just makes people lose that hype.

The reason I keep posting about this is because I recognize this truth and really want change to happen sooner rather than later. Because they have to change this policy while people are still clamoring for it. When people stop, then it’s already too late, you’ll never get that hype back. And if there is a prolonged period of no new content and no announced content like there was a few months ago after January…. well, speaking only for myself, I am not sure if I can make it through the downtime again. Because it wasn’t fun.

For the most part I have found this to be one of the most refreshing threads in a long while on any gaming forum. Community: Pat yourselves on the back but keep being civil in your request. Super proud to be a part of this community right now.

wwwes.1398:

Zaklex.6308:

I personally find all these threads asking for more information highly amusing, it’s like you’re trying to get blood from a turnip, it’s not going to happen.

No, it IS going to happen. At some point, they will realize that people just aren’t coming back anymore as much as they did when they post teaser trailers exactly one week ahead of time after 2 months of nothing. They’ll realize that everyone is treating their feature pack with “meh” because it is largely packed with stuff people didn’t want and leaves out things people really did want. And at that point, they’ll realize that refusing to indulge people’s sense of hype doesn’t create an air of mystery, it just makes people lose that hype.

The reason I keep posting about this is because I recognize this truth and really want change to happen sooner rather than later. Because they have to change this policy while people are still clamoring for it. When people stop, then it’s already too late, you’ll never get that hype back. And if there is a prolonged period of no new content and no announced content like there was a few months ago after January…. well, speaking only for myself, I am not sure if I can make it through the downtime again. Because it wasn’t fun.

Well, there’s also millions of people like me out there that could care less what is coming out, they play for the hell of it, just to have fun and kill a few things. I didn’t participate in LS1 after Flame and Frost for a couple of reason, was doing something else(SecondLife) and I didn’t particularly care for the story, but, the great thing about GW2, you can stop and start any kitten time you like. Around July I decided to jump back on, not any particular reason, just because I wanted to check some stuff out, been playing pretty consistently since then. I’m not a hype person, hype means nothing to me for anything…and I do mean anything…movie gets super hyped, could care less, would only go see it if it looks interesting to me…TV, don’t even watch it. Life is all about fun, and getting hyped up about something or wondering what is coming up in the future isn’t fun to me. Tomorrow is tomorrow, today is all I care about, and to suggest that something must be said is pretty arrogant in my opinion. Would it be nice to know, sure, but personally, I don’t need to know…all I need to know is that I can come home from work, the computers on and I can log in and play…whether something new is here or not or coming down the road doesn’t change that…for me. These are all opinions, and everyone’s opinion is valid to a point…but we can’t nor should tell anyone else what to do or think, in the end, it is not our decision.

Another thing people keep forgetting, when they talk about the player base leaving is that there are still four(4) major markets the game has not officially been released in that GW1 did well in, such as Brazil…and I don’t remember the other ones off the top of my head…eventually everything should have to stand up on it’s own two feet and not live off the hype…that’s the ultimate test.

People keep using words like what the player base wants. Some people think the “player base” wants new dungeons. I’m sure that’s true for a percentage of the playerbase, but I’m not so sure it’s true for the player base as a whole.

People talk about people logging in or not logging in. They may not be logging in but plenty of people seem to be.

The living story is hit and miss. On a well liked chapter, people log in more. The recent chapter has seen a lot of activity in my guild and on maps as well.

I think people should talk for themselves instead of “the community”. Because I don’t think this community speaks with one voice.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Gulesave.5073:

Gaile was not asking whether the promise of more LW is sufficient to sate our desires for intel, just whether it counts.

Yes, this is correct. When I see comments like “there’s nothing new to do” or “we need fresh content” it just occurred to me to ask if you’re taking LW into account, if you see that as new content and pretty significant chunks of it, at that. (Admittedly, it may not be what you personally have requested, but if the statement is “there’s nothing new” that doesn’t seem quite right.)

Thanks everyone for not barking at me when I asked the question. Again, the question was not “is it enough?” I really was pointing to it to ask for your impressions of the concept and the execution as continuing, new content in an ever-changing world.

In that case: NO

The LS is fine at it stands, however right now it feels like it holds back evolution in other parts of the game, or covers up the lack of it.

The downside of the LS is it`s narrative focus, as things only happen in the area of the story and only very few changes are in other areas (mostly some fixes), which makes the whole LS approach a very narrow view.

With a game that is so vast and has so many different layers to grab on to, it is easy to say: LS gives a lot of content

While it is true, it`s coverage is too limited and not for everyone.

There are many more parts of the game which need tweaking, fixing or redesign and we do not know anything about it.

Most of what we get is a feature pack at some time after the whole LS chunk (btw I love the LS, but I still want to know what else is being worked on), which is for us always a gamble and can quickly backfire as the last one has shown.

All good intentions aside, there are several questions about the future out there and we got no answer to them, besides: maybe , soon or no statement

We got CDI, which might get something done, but it is all far away.
All I mostly want at the moment is just infos on these things.

Dungeons, legendaries, expansions, changes, common questions, etc…

Where are we now, where are we going? How far are we from the roadmap we got postet at the end of last year and are we still heading in that direction, or did we say: “Screw the Grand Cannyon, I am going to Hawaii, it has coconuts”

People keep using words like what the player base wants. Some people think the “player base” wants new dungeons. I’m sure that’s true for a percentage of the playerbase, but I’m not so sure it’s true for the player base as a whole.

True. Personally I don’t care if they add any more dungeons, I’m not a fan, but I’m aware that there are a sizable number who very much do want dungeons. It’s ANet’s job to accurately gauge the size and passion of this group.

AlienMenace.7516:

They remember a time where some things some devs said got interpreted as “promises” and players overreacted banking on these supposed “promises.”
(snip)

For them, the fear of that happening again overrides all. Even though it is an irrational fear.

At some time i thought so as well. Now, i suspect something even worse.
I am afraid, that their policy of not saying anything is there, because they do know that no matter what direction the game will go, it will be unappealing to some players, who will be disappointed and leave. They know that those players will leave, but they don’t want those players to know until the very last moment. So, by not telling people they won’t get what they want, they are stringing them along for as long as possible.

Of course, that also means that any hard decisions are being kept pushed further and further out. As long as they don’t commit to anything, they can pretend that everything is possible, and that all players will eventually get what they are waiting for. Even when they know it’s not true.

I may be wrong, of course. I still hope i am wrong. But the feeling that it may be what’s really going on is getting stronger and stronger with each day.

Astralporing.1957:

snip They know that those players will leave, but they don’t want those players to know until the very last moment. So, by not telling people they won’t get what they want, they are stringing them along for as long as possible.snip

I don’t know about that. The devs keep telling people “No Mounts!” and despite that, those players are still here. Still asking for….mounts. When it comes to hearing “No”, ymmv. I mean, aren’t they telling you no when you keep asking for information they don’t intend to give you? And yet, we keep asking. That sounds an awful lot to me like they are telling you that you won’t get what you want. And that’s some pretty disappointing info for some of the people here. I’m sure they’ve gotten that picture by now. How……does this not apply? I feel like there is a certain amount of perspective missing here.

Anet was always reluctant talking towards future content. I remember when GW2 was in development for years and we didn’t have any screenshot or video. Many thought it is vaporware and then – BAM! – it was announced with big success.

Me too would like to know the roadmap of the game. Is there an expansion? Or only Living Story? Dungeons and Raids? Stuff that usually the game industry likes to share with the community – especially in MMOs. Nonetheless, I think we will see more revelation in 2015.

Anet was always reluctant talking towards future content. I remember when GW2 was in development for years and we didn’t have any screenshot or video. Many thought it is vaporware and then – BAM! – it was announced with big success.

I wasn’t following GW2 until soon before the open betas, but keep in mind that an ongoing game has a bit more responsibility to its customers than a distant future product.

Zaklex.6308:

Tachenon.5270:

~Snip~

I believe many GW2 players must surely wonder when, if not indeed, if, they may see the advent of new professions, new skills, new weapons, new playable races, new areas — that is, new areas that would require months of diligent exploration to fully explore.

~Snip~

It seems I’m the only person around here that remembers anything that was said by Arena.net when this game was released a little over 2 years ago. Based on what was said then, I would never expect new professions, new playable races, or very many new skills…at all. I would like to see additional weapons, new areas(which we are getting, not as fast as some would like, but that’s personal taste), more weapon choices for the existing professions.

Also, we’ve been told what A.nets stance is on giving out information, yet people keep asking for stuff that clearly isn’t on the table per their own(A.nets) stance that they will only talk about stuff that is ready for release. I understand you want more, but consider for once the business, they’ve put rules in place, they’re trying to abide by them, whether we think they’re correct or not is not our place to decide. It’s time to just let it go and live with it. I don’t know about everyone else, but someone above said they don’t get e-mails when ever a new LW episode is released, well, they should probably check their junk mail folder, because every Tuesday on release day, I get a mail from NCSoft telling me to log in to GW2 and unlock the new episode.

I personally find all these threads asking for more information highly amusing, it’s like you’re trying to get blood from a turnip, it’s not going to happen.

uhh what exactly are you talking about, when the game came out they had said that at least one other race was being considered to have been put in at release. They never said they would do it, but nothing they said suggested they wouldnt. They definately said the simplified skill/trait system would allow that to more easily expand skills, and talked about how our first elites were just the top of the iceberg. Within a week or two of release Jon peters mentioned how one might see a 2 handed great axe one day in an expansion or free update.

The only thing they said they didnt have ideas for was a new proffession. Since then though they have said you would definately see things like a new race or proffessions within the life of gw2.

As to your other point, a bad policy is a bad policy, and it behooves customers to tell business when they have a bad policy. Its up the business to do or not do anything about it, but customers telling them things is not wrong

I didn’t have time to watch and read the entire thread but regarding the LS and whether it is or isn’t enough I must add the fact that for me it is absolutely not enough.

The LS keeps me busy for maybe 4-5 hours on patch day – that’s counting achievements and all and then what?

There needs to be a steadier stream of repeatable content in order for the game to be able to sustain itself content-wise.

Think about it – the LS – after you’ve done the achievements is completely unattractive to replay. The long cutscenes and dialogue make it difficult to pick up again once you know it and have the story part.

There are also no good rewards associated with it which is a killer in this game.

So what’s the solution? In my opinion more repeatable content – more dungeons – more fractals – more of the things players are still playing after 2 years of doing the same thing.

There’s also a problem with focus and communication – sadly right now the player base has nothing to look forward to long-term.

We have no idea what most of the dev teams are doing or what they’re working on. We have no idea what to hope for.

Do we wait for new legendary weapons and gear?
Do we wait for more fractals?
Can we hope for more dungeons?

What about new skins?

We simply have no information and it makes it very hard to simply keep going and stockpiling resources because “something good is bound to come out sooner or later”.

Gaile Gray.6029:

When I see comments like “there’s nothing new to do” or “we need fresh content” it just occurred to me to ask if you’re taking LW into account, if you see that as new content and pretty significant chunks of it, at that. (Admittedly, it may not be what you personally have requested, but if the statement is “there’s nothing new” that doesn’t seem quite right.)

Thanks everyone for not barking at me when I asked the question. Again, the question was not “is it enough?” I really was pointing to it to ask for your impressions of the concept and the execution as continuing, new content in an ever-changing world.

I see. Sorry, I misunderstood the question a bit.

But again, the answer is no. LS sure is content, but not significant chunks of it, not even close.
In my opinion LS is just a very very little part of GW2, 5% or so, but it’s almost the only part that gets significant updates. Which is very disappointing.

Vayne.8563:

People keep using words like what the player base wants. Some people think the “player base” wants new dungeons. I’m sure that’s true for a percentage of the playerbase, but I’m not so sure it’s true for the player base as a whole.

People talk about people logging in or not logging in. They may not be logging in but plenty of people seem to be.

The living story is hit and miss. On a well liked chapter, people log in more. The recent chapter has seen a lot of activity in my guild and on maps as well.

I think people should talk for themselves instead of “the community”. Because I don’t think this community speaks with one voice.

sigh

No offense Vayne but I often see those posts from you in threads that I like.
Not the first time I saw you claiming that some people are using the word “community” when talking about things that they want to see, either.

Let me try to explain this to you as easy as I can:

x = the community of this game
y = Individuals (some claiming to be the “community” some not)
f = factor (In this case the amount of people)

=> x = f* y

so…even if we pretend that there are only 20 ppl here (in this particular thread) that are claiming that they know what the community wants, and (not even close) 10 ppl that share your opinion, => f = 20-10

Don’t you see?
We ARE the community! All of us! Some don’t care about where this game is going. Most people do care and want to know.

I am really not offending you! I just have the impression that you can’t see the meaning of the word “community”

Kveldulf.7605:

Vayne.8563:

People keep using words like what the player base wants. Some people think the “player base” wants new dungeons. I’m sure that’s true for a percentage of the playerbase, but I’m not so sure it’s true for the player base as a whole.

People talk about people logging in or not logging in. They may not be logging in but plenty of people seem to be.

The living story is hit and miss. On a well liked chapter, people log in more. The recent chapter has seen a lot of activity in my guild and on maps as well.

I think people should talk for themselves instead of “the community”. Because I don’t think this community speaks with one voice.

sigh

No offense Vayne but I often see those posts from you in threads that I like.
Not the first time I saw you claiming that some people are using the word “community” when talking about things that they want to see, either.

Let me try to explain this to you as easy as I can:

x = the community of this game
y = Individuals (some claiming to be the “community” some not)
f = factor (In this case the amount of people)

=> x = f* y

so…even if we pretend that there are only 20 ppl here (in this particular thread) that are claiming that they know what the community wants, and (not even close) 10 ppl that share your opinion, => f = 20-10

Don’t you see?
We ARE the community! All of us! Some don’t care about where this game is going. Most people do care and want to know.

I am really not offending you! I just have the impression that you can’t see the meaning of the word “community”

Sorry but this isn’t close to true. When people say they’re speaking for the community, there’s an implication that the community as a whole wants something. There have been many pro mount threads, but no one would say the community as a whole wants mounts. It’s POSSIBLE a majority of the community does want them, but saying the community wants it because 10 people or 20 people or 30 people want it is wrong. In the case of mounts it’s particularly wrong because a large percentage of the community is against them? How many? I don’t know.

And that’s the point. I don’t know. So I’m not going to come in here and talk “for the community”. That’s a way of trying to make it look like you have numbers to support you.

When someone says people in the community want more dungeons, well…people in the DUNGEON community probably do. But that doesn’t mean everyone or even most people want it.

So now we have the question. If you’re not speaking for everyone and only your small demographic what does adding the words “the community” add to your argument?

At best, they add nothing to the argument. At worst, they’re misleading.

I’m part of the community too, and people sure as hell aren’t talking for me… most of the time anyway.