Guild Wars 2

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome. Isn’t it odd that all these new hires and ads for specific people (one would associate with expansion like content) have hit so far down the road, 2 years in? I think to be honest the silence is a way to keep us all distracted from the truth, LS and rehashed holiday content is all that is on the horizon for a very long time and if they do lay out the roadmap the fear is that many will simply walk away and stop supporting the game.
Think about it and tell me you don’t draw the same conclusions at this point. Why the silence, why the lack of a roadmap, why the lack of specific answers regarding things like dungeons, classes, traits, races?

This thought has crossed my mind as well sadly.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome. Isn’t it odd that all these new hires and ads for specific people (one would associate with expansion like content) have hit so far down the road, 2 years in? I think to be honest the silence is a way to keep us all distracted from the truth, LS and rehashed holiday content is all that is on the horizon for a very long time and if they do lay out the roadmap the fear is that many will simply walk away and stop supporting the game.
Think about it and tell me you don’t draw the same conclusions at this point. Why the silence, why the lack of a roadmap, why the lack of specific answers regarding things like dungeons, classes, traits, races?

This seems really obvious oooor … Tinfoil hat time!
NCsoft told them to shut up until they release their newest cashcow (Wildstar) but it’s already out a few months and we can assume it failed a bit so i see absolutely no reason to not say anything. Beside your idea of course. Thats just a horrible scenario.

Even if they want to show us something amazing and big and woooooaaaaah it’s still makes no sense to not hype the hell out of it. Like an expansion. Or kitten mounts. Or whatever.

GW2 is at the moment the only game that sends me following message: An unknown amount content with unknown composition well be delivered by an unknown concept at an unknown point in time. No other game an know sends me so many “unknown”. Even the fundamental information about the concept to deliver larger amount content is not available.

I remember the event when Turbine gave up on traditional expansion packs for LOTRO. They also talked a lot about the fact they abandoned traditional raids. Threr change of paradigm was well explained. What paradigm has Arenanet? I am not able to describe it clearly.

You talked about point of no returns in the LW in blog posts. What about the point of no returns for the game. At the end decisions have to be made or stagnation will stay forever. LW or X-pac as vehicle? Redsign of WvW? Core mechanics of raids?

And there is a time where you have to talk to the players to prepare them for your decisions and take them with you. The dramas with the colored commander tags and the new gem to gold interface should have been a good lesson not to wait too long with communication.

Despite how some people seem to want to keep arguing semantics, its pretty clear what this thread is getting at. IF Anet chooses to respond they aren’t going to be confused about what the player base is asking for.

In the typical MMO expansions are a given, along with raid patches in between. GW2 is different, and initially it was announced LS was going to be an expansion replacement. While I think LS is superior to the standard raid patch updates since it is succeeding in delivering an ongoing story, it definitely isn’t an expansion replacement. Which is the main reason so many players are asking “what is the plan?”

It would be helpful to know what parts of the game Anet considers the core part that will receive the lion’s share of attention. Is it just open world? Is the core open world, WvW, and PvP? Are dungeons, a huge reason people play MMOs, considered side material now? The biggest question is will we get an expansion, or is the idea still that LS will replace expansions for GW2? When LS was announced it was basically a prototype, hadn’t really been done before and they weren’t sure if it was going to work how they wanted it to. The purpose of a prototype is to get that final test, and right now the players don’t know if Anet considered it successful for its initial plan.

It could be Anet already plans on addressing most of these questions in an announcement in the next couple months which would be fine, but tell us that since we have now made this huge request for information.

Gaile, since I know you’re reading this, please at least tell us what is considered the core of the game, I think even just that small amount of information would go a long way right now. GW2 is in a solid place as far as a casual MMO, it has an amazing open world but if open world is the primary focus for everything we’d like to know. This game functions much differently than most MMOs, so we don’t have comparisons to really use for expectations.

Rabe.2456:

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome. Isn’t it odd that all these new hires and ads for specific people (one would associate with expansion like content) have hit so far down the road, 2 years in? I think to be honest the silence is a way to keep us all distracted from the truth, LS and rehashed holiday content is all that is on the horizon for a very long time and if they do lay out the roadmap the fear is that many will simply walk away and stop supporting the game.
Think about it and tell me you don’t draw the same conclusions at this point. Why the silence, why the lack of a roadmap, why the lack of specific answers regarding things like dungeons, classes, traits, races?

This thought has crossed my mind as well sadly.

I’m on this boat too. :/

Gaile Gray.6029:

Remind me: It has to do with Harry Potter.

Woah, you’re in love with it’s design too?
Just say some hint about plans to make DR’s streets look like Diagon Alley / 18th century London, and I’ll die right here in happyness…

… Don’t mourn me dear, I’m a Lion, will still have 8 lifes left.
Can I haz cookies?

Credit where credit is due, this just happened:

ColinJohanson.2394:

That was poor wording in the press release, there is no “new game mode” in the traditional sense we’d think of (new map/ new rules) being released in this update, though our competitive team continues to work on new game mode options as we speak. As with all things, they’ll give details on this when it’s far enough along we’re able to talk about it.

The reference to “mode” is talking about how players will be organized in PvP games, details later this week.

While it’s a far cry from the roadmap that we’re looking for, acknowledging that other PvP game modes are in development is definite step in the right direction.

Keep opening up, guys! +1

Edit: This too: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-improvements-to-pvp-and-the-ladder-test-season/

They’re still just announcing stuff two weeks away, but good to hear PvP is getting some QoL changes.

dlonie.6547:

Credit where credit is due, this just happened:

ColinJohanson.2394:

That was poor wording in the press release, there is no “new game mode” in the traditional sense we’d think of (new map/ new rules) being released in this update, though our competitive team continues to work on new game mode options as we speak. As with all things, they’ll give details on this when it’s far enough along we’re able to talk about it.

The reference to “mode” is talking about how players will be organized in PvP games, details later this week.

While it’s a far cry from the roadmap that we’re looking for, acknowledging that other PvP game modes are in development is definite step in the right direction.

Keep opening up, guys! +1

Edit: This too: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-improvements-to-pvp-and-the-ladder-test-season/

They’re still just announcing stuff two weeks away, but good to hear PvP is getting some QoL changes.

Still they are not mentioning new maps or new game modes in that post. It’s just interface tweaks/improvements. Basically repackaging old content like the NPE.

If you want a NPE then add new skills and traits to be unlocked. Same with PvP, if they want a new PvP experience they can’t just give us a map selection screen (because we all know what that leads to, only the same map will get selected over and over), they need to add new game modes and maps at the same time.

But, CJ did mention that new game modes are being developed. Not a lot of information, but at least it’s more than their policies typically allow.

I don’t want to get too deep into PvP specifics, but I agree, more details about what the new modes are and roughly when we might see them would be the next step towards a healthy customer/company relationship. Players have been waiting for a long time — something a little more concrete would make a big difference.

It was well know since China Joy that they are working on a new game mode in PvP. Around one year ago they showed prototyps of maps for possible game modes.

It seem we are getting closer to an announcement in the not too far future since the fundamental changes like leagues and better match making are on the way now

3 days and 4 pages with no reply have Gaile forsaken us?

Linken.6345:

3 days and 4 pages with no reply have Gaile forsaken us?

I hope not! It has been a while, but she doesn’t seem to be on the forums at all for the last couple of days:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Gaile-Gray-6029/showposts

With any luck, we’ll hear from her when she returns. We shall see.

Linken.6345:

3 days and 4 pages with no reply have Gaile forsaken us?

It’s more likely that she just doesn’t have anything new to say, since most of the newer posts have been rehashing old points.

Nice to hear from CJ, just hope we can get a bit more, are we talking a year? Months? That’s about as specific as I’d ask.

What about Dungeons? WvW?

I have heard they have WvW stuff coming, just curious on a little more information, when, what, whatever they can tell us. Please hype us up, right now I’m expecting nothing and only sticking around for friends, give me a reason to get excited.

Fosio.8217:

Obtena.7952:

I realize what your thread is about but I still feel the same way … why do players insist they need to know about what’s coming down the pipeline? How does knowing that impact any players’ interaction with the CURRENT game version on live?

Games are founded on the backbone of veterans and those that actually dedicate time, effort and resources (real currency). This being said, you need to be open and transparent about your intentions, as a publisher or a direct DEV, so as to build a fair amount of loyal fans in order for the game to live and produce revenue. This is also a reason why new content needs to be added and while Guild Wars 2 is on the path of it’s third anniversary, not many things were added, not many things were fixed or changed.

It also seems that the additions to the game, i’m talking about Living Story, are what ArenaNet is focussing upon, but many players would prefer different content.

At this point, players that really are interested in spending their time and money here, rather than in other games or whatever else leisure activity they prefer, need to know what is programmed for GW2 (other than Living Story).

I’m not sure that’s true … I’m not playing this game because devs are open and transparent. I’m doing it because it’s a fun game to play. I’m a loyal vet because the game is inline with my idea of what a good game is. Nothing a dev says about what happened before, happens now or happens later affects my level of enjoyment of the current game state, nor should it. I don’t think my philosophy to playing games is all that different from the actual reason others play it either. The game should be enjoyed for what it is.

Obtena.7952:

Fosio.8217:

Obtena.7952:

I realize what your thread is about but I still feel the same way … why do players insist they need to know about what’s coming down the pipeline? How does knowing that impact any players’ interaction with the CURRENT game version on live?

Games are founded on the backbone of veterans and those that actually dedicate time, effort and resources (real currency). This being said, you need to be open and transparent about your intentions, as a publisher or a direct DEV, so as to build a fair amount of loyal fans in order for the game to live and produce revenue. This is also a reason why new content needs to be added and while Guild Wars 2 is on the path of it’s third anniversary, not many things were added, not many things were fixed or changed.

It also seems that the additions to the game, i’m talking about Living Story, are what ArenaNet is focussing upon, but many players would prefer different content.

At this point, players that really are interested in spending their time and money here, rather than in other games or whatever else leisure activity they prefer, need to know what is programmed for GW2 (other than Living Story).

I’m not sure that’s true … I’m not playing this game because devs are open and transparent. I’m doing it because it’s a fun game to play. I’m a loyal vet because the game is inline with my idea of what a good game is. Nothing a dev says about what happened before, happens now or happens later affects my level of enjoyment of the current game state, nor should it. I don’t think my philosophy to playing games is all that different from the actual reason others play it either. The game should be enjoyed for what it is.

I think that’s an interesting comment. “The game should be enjoyed for what it is”… What is it?

That’s the question we’re asking.

I came to this game about 7-8 months ago. I dove headfirst into the dungeon community, had a blast, still enjoy some parts of it. But as I’ve been playing it’s become pretty obvious that what the game WAS, is no longer what the game IS.

What the game WAS incorporated multiple elements. There was Open World, WvW, sPVP, and Dungeons/Fractals

All different elements of the game as a whole. You coudl even split it up and have some subsections, with Mini dungeons, jumping puzzles, and what not.

Point being, thats what the game WAS, doesn’t seem to be what the game IS.

That’s what we would like some clarification on. What will the game become in the future?

dlonie.6547:

Linken.6345:

3 days and 4 pages with no reply have Gaile forsaken us?

I hope not! It has been a while, but she doesn’t seem to be on the forums at all for the last couple of days:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Gaile-Gray-6029/showposts

With any luck, we’ll hear from her when she returns. We shall see.

Yes, she went to the UK to meet the members of her European Communications Team for a couple of days.

Linken.6345:

3 days and 4 pages with no reply have Gaile forsaken us?

She didn’t say that she’d be out of contact, not here at least. Probably she’s not got a lot left to say in the thread; it pretty much speaks for itself by now.

Fact is, Anet’s policy is to prevent information getting out about the game and its ongoing developments. I’ll say it again — this is bad. Problem with this policy is you’re stuffed if you don’t talk about it, and stuffed if you do. Where will you lose more customers?

I keep in touch on these forums and log in to see what’s going on patch-wise. I finish the LS episodes, but the last one didn’t take a lot to get through; even the new achieve to get the ‘Dark Traveler’ title didn’t take much. Other than that I have not a lot of reason left to log on daily. I don’t want to talk in place of people here, but that’s what it feels like with plenty of others as well.

A lot of people got off the hype train a long time ago, and as such there’s not much to get them excited about stuff, apart from what’s been discussed in this thread. One thing to remember is people will convey positive feelings for this game when something they want is introduced into the game. Those feelings quickly turn sour and a backlash occurs when that part of the game in development isn’t being worked on anymore, and people know that it isn’t (precursors, SAB, etc.).

It’s a double-edged sword to try to keep people involved in this game for the longer term. Keep us excited by telling us what’s going on, or turn us away by not telling us, or removing that part of the development. Either way, you need to be more communicative with your customers.

dlonie.6547:

Credit where credit is due, this just happened:

ColinJohanson.2394:

That was poor wording in the press release, there is no “new game mode” in the traditional sense we’d think of (new map/ new rules) being released in this update, though our competitive team continues to work on new game mode options as we speak. As with all things, they’ll give details on this when it’s far enough along we’re able to talk about it.

The reference to “mode” is talking about how players will be organized in PvP games, details later this week.

While it’s a far cry from the roadmap that we’re looking for, acknowledging that other PvP game modes are in development is definite step in the right direction.

Keep opening up, guys! +1

Edit: This too: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-improvements-to-pvp-and-the-ladder-test-season/

They’re still just announcing stuff two weeks away, but good to hear PvP is getting some QoL changes.

When I first saw the re-merging of solo and team que, I was about to make a point-and-laugh post, but the split to rated and unrated modes spoiled the fun, so I’ll instead give them a /highfive for adding what is probably one of the best pvp QoL improvements two years in.

That said, I do think you should read his statement with a grain of salt, because the wording on game modes merely suggests they’re looking at options, which could be quite far from being ‘in development’, as you seemed to have interpreted it.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome. Isn’t it odd that all these new hires and ads for specific people (one would associate with expansion like content) have hit so far down the road, 2 years in? I think to be honest the silence is a way to keep us all distracted from the truth, LS and rehashed holiday content is all that is on the horizon for a very long time and if they do lay out the roadmap the fear is that many will simply walk away and stop supporting the game.
Think about it and tell me you don’t draw the same conclusions at this point. Why the silence, why the lack of a roadmap, why the lack of specific answers regarding things like dungeons, classes, traits, races?

That seems the likeliest explanation for their behavior unfortunately.

The forums have become increasing hostile, suspicious, and generally negative towards Anet for a reason that can be summed up in three words: Anet’s communication policy. I’m convinced that some of the most ’questionable" changes made recently (trait unlocks, etc.), as well as most of the negativity coming from their customers could have been avoided or mitigated substantially by a professional/competent/sensible communication policy.

Their current communication policy can only be seen as professional/competent/sensible if in fact the situation is as Vlad suggests.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

The whole lack of direct communication now has me feeling like the direction of the game itself might be in limbo and that is worrisome.

Arrow.4619:

The forums have become increasing hostile, suspicious, and generally negative towards Anet for a reason that can be summed up in three words: Anet’s communication policy.

I am afraid you are both probably correct. They couldn’t possibly tell us that, except for a few tweaks on mechanics (Traits…gah, that one is so bad, etc.), seasonal events, and the occasional living story chapter, that they have nothing on the horizon – nothing on their roadmap. People would leave the game in droves. So, keeping silent seems to be the best strategy. They appear to be cherry picking the topics they respond to, and unless I am missing something, they only respond to ones regarding tweaks to mechanics, or complaints about current content, or to close WvW matchup threads.

Gaile, I think most of us (on the forums, before a certain someone comes at me with an unwelcome passive-aggressive response) just want to cut through NCSoft’s (and I know it’s NCSoft’s, ArenaNet can’t have changed that much since GW1) PR crap and just want to be given the information that so many other titles go completely out of their way to deliver to their customers (Because each and every one of us is, after all, a paying customer).

“Not wanting to raise expectations” is a terrible, terrible excuse for not delivering information. Staying completely silent has a far more adverse effect on the community than a few idiots getting bent out of shape because something mentioned as a development possibility didn’t happen.

Any producer of content, across any industry, absolutely needs to keep their clients/customers/investors/etc informed of their content directions, lest they run the risk of losing those potential investors (which isn’t as much of an issue for GW2 admittedly, with it being buy to play).

There’s absolutely no valid reason for the silence, and if it is your company policy, then that policy needs to change, and change swiftly.

I’m in love with GW2. It’s a beautiful game, an amazing concept, and most importantly an amazing community, but I am quickly losing faith in the developers.

I appreciate Gaile’s input when it happens, but (Having worked in PR myself) I recognise that what Gaile is doing isn’t really communication, rather than attempting to give the illusion of communicating to try to calm the playerbase, instead of actively working on solving the communication issues.

We need to know what direction the game we love is going, plain and simple. If that comes with a few disappointments, then so be it. Following a lit path is much better than being lost in the dark.

It’s like watching season one of your favourite TV show over, and over, and over, and over, and over, while the writers state “Season 2 is in the works…maybe…”

Lucky if I log in to this game once a week anymore. The LS is a bust outside vets and lorehounds, taking a sitting or two to complete. Apologies for repeating a worn out forum mantra but this game needs a full expansion….badly.

Distaste.4801:

ArenaNet needs to come up with a way to add progressive goals to the game that aren’t farming or achievement points. MMO’s are all about progression and GW2 has always lacked it. The easy cop-out is a new tier of gear, but ArenaNet has already used that card. Clearly raids will be the next attempt, but very quickly they will find that if the rewards aren’t good enough it’s more wasted development time.

As soon as GW2 gets another “progressive” game i’m out here. Some years ago i left
RIFT and bought a lifetime subscription for Champions Online just to make clear
that i bever again wanted to play a progressive raid-grinder.

@Topic
Communication can still be misleading and people then pack their torches and pitchforks.

For example if we look at SOE, somewhere last year it sounded like we would get
at least the open Beta of Landmark in the first half of 2014, and maybe EQNext
then in 2015.

Now 2014 is nearly at its end and there still is no open beta, and so i see EQNext
even more far away.

Now i ANet would have said something like that about an X-Pack i’m pretty sure
that would be the next endless “precurser hunt” theme here.

Beldin.5498:

Distaste.4801:

ArenaNet needs to come up with a way to add progressive goals to the game that aren’t farming or achievement points. MMO’s are all about progression and GW2 has always lacked it. The easy cop-out is a new tier of gear, but ArenaNet has already used that card. Clearly raids will be the next attempt, but very quickly they will find that if the rewards aren’t good enough it’s more wasted development time.

As soon as GW2 gets another “progressive” game i’m out here. Some years ago i left
RIFT and bought a lifetime subscription for Champions Online just to make clear
that i bever again wanted to play a progressive raid-grinder.

@Topic
Communication can still be misleading and people then pack their torches and pitchforks.

For example if we look at SOE, somewhere last year it sounded like we would get
at least the open Beta of Landmark in the first half of 2014, and maybe EQNext
then in 2015.

Now 2014 is nearly at its end and there still is no open beta, and so i see EQNext
even more far away.

Now i ANet would have said something like that about an X-Pack i’m pretty sure
that would be the next endless “precurser hunt” theme here.

I honestly think it might be too late for Arena to offer an expansion. At best we can expect something the tail end of the summer next year, at worst it could even be 2 years or more out. By then, the decline would be pretty extreme and a good chunk of players will have washed their hands of GW2.

I haven’t noticed really if the NPE even did much but get people riled up and not want to make alts (or level existing ones), i mean starting zones and mid-level zones certainly aren’t awash with players.

I’m glad to see they are working on PvP modes at least and WvW realistically better be right around the corner, those modes tend to stick players better than most PvE experiences. Even if i think that stuff should have been in day one, if they wanted to sell PvP at all.

It’s kind of sad i’m not all that excited about an announcement for an expansion…

fireflyry.7023:

It’s like watching season one of your favourite TV show over, and over, and over, and over, and over, while the writers state “Season 2 is in the works…maybe…”

Lucky if I log in to this game once a week anymore. The LS is a bust outside vets and lorehounds, taking a sitting or two to complete. Apologies for repeating a worn out forum mantra but this game needs a full expansion….badly.

A better analogy would be this: LS 1 was 2 episodes into the first season of the show, there’s the long delay before we will see episodes 3 and 4 (which would be LS2) and the wait on seeing the rest of the season is what we typically have to wait for between seasons on tv shows (you know those 6-8 months), there was also a long delay between episodes 2 ending and 3 starting and we couldn’t record LS 1 to watch it again, and they are being extremely hush hush about season 3 (episodes 5-6) even occuring much less if the show is continuing and who will play in it.

Meanwhile some of their shows from the first season have plot holes, obvious problems with the filming, and the quality is terrible when you play it the first time and there’s no one to report that to, no customer service department contact to let the producers know what’s happening with the show that makes it so unbearable to watch sometimes when a new episode comes out.

That’s a better analogy.

Beldin.5498:

Distaste.4801:

ArenaNet needs to come up with a way to add progressive goals to the game that aren’t farming or achievement points. MMO’s are all about progression and GW2 has always lacked it. The easy cop-out is a new tier of gear, but ArenaNet has already used that card. Clearly raids will be the next attempt, but very quickly they will find that if the rewards aren’t good enough it’s more wasted development time.

As soon as GW2 gets another “progressive” game i’m out here. Some years ago i left
RIFT and bought a lifetime subscription for Champions Online just to make clear
that i bever again wanted to play a progressive raid-grinder.

@Topic
Communication can still be misleading and people then pack their torches and pitchforks.

For example if we look at SOE, somewhere last year it sounded like we would get
at least the open Beta of Landmark in the first half of 2014, and maybe EQNext
then in 2015.

Now 2014 is nearly at its end and there still is no open beta, and so i see EQNext
even more far away.

Now i ANet would have said something like that about an X-Pack i’m pretty sure
that would be the next endless “precurser hunt” theme here.

I’m totally with you on the raid grind, but considering they are hiring a raid designer that’s the likely path. They will then have to have fitting loot for the raid or it will seldom be done. Just look at 3 headed worm, it’s not rewarding so there are like 2 guilds that do it. The class balance issues that will arise from it as well will create a lot of outrage as well, because of course in 2 whole years they are STILL just talking about possible condition solutions. Let’s not forget that having no raids was a selling point of GW2 and people like yourself will stop playing. Raids are not a good idea in GW2, I don’t think the devs(managers mostly?) have any forethought and are simply grasping at other MMO’s major draw and hoping it works in GW2. Had they learned anything from the decade of WoW clones, they would have realized that just copying a mechanic doesn’t mean success.

What I was trying to say is they need some form of meaningful advancement for people to pursue. Think like the alternate advancement in EQ2. There needs to be a reason to do things in GW2. Since everything is so segregated there is very little to drive players and keep them entertained. For instance WoW had raiding and PvP as driving forces. People raided to get gear to do more raids, some raided to get gear to PvP, others PvPed to get gear to raid. I am not saying we need a gear treadmill, ascended was already stupid. We just need something that lets us play the game yet gives players a sense of progression. ArenaNet needs to find a solution that fits GW2, unfortunately their track record points to never successfully happening. They run in fear of making big changes and when they do they are poorly designed.

Most guy here get it right.

With the history of A-Net hyping their future contend there is just one explanation.

They don’t announce something because there is nothing to announce.

And what do you expect the poor Gaile to say ????
The Questions are always the same and always get the same cookie cutter answers
without any information content.

If she comes back it will be like “yes we understand you are concerned,
Love you all”

Kurrilino.2706:

Most guy here get it right.

With the history of A-Net hyping their future contend there is just one explanation.

They don’t announce something because there is nothing to announce.

And what do you expect the poor Gaile to say ????
The Questions are always the same and always get the same cookie cutter answers
without any information content.

If she comes back it will be like “yes we understand you are concerned,
Love you all”

Not the most constructive comment in my history…still… you forgot to add the Anet- running gag
“Nothing is off the table”

Let’s be honest for a moment. Anet’s form of announcement for November 4th Living Story was a… Picture of a portal with November 4th written on it.

Anet’s standard has been screenshot, copy, paste for some years now. Same for content. Copy creature here into zone here. Then label it ‘new content’. We’re kind of on the rocks at this point and asking questions about the integrity of the hull; if the ship is beyond the hope of repair.

fireflyry.7023:

Apologies for repeating a worn out forum mantra but this game needs a full expansion….badly.

What luck, because if the current ANet makes an expansion, that’s just how they’ll make it. Badly.

Take a look at the raid CDI. They want us to think outside the norm, to come up with new ideas that play well with GW2, things that you don’t get in other MMOs. And yet, what are they looking to hire? Someone that’s made those standard raids in other MMOs. THAT’s who will be in charge of any raids we get.

ANet is like a person at a fork in the road, trying to decide if they want to go left or right. Unable to decide, they instead simply stand there, going nowhere while telling themselves (and others) that this is important. And when they DO move, they try to go both ways at once, giving us elements that conflict with each other, like the trait revamp being done with the goal of getting people to experiment with builds more.

So, ask yourself this: Do you REALLY want ANet to make an expansion for this game? Is it worth the risk to what we already have to ask them to make that much of a change to it? Or should we just be happy with what we’ve got until a better game from a smaller, more focused company comes along?

I also have a lot of faith that they can provide an amazing expansion, most of which comes from the base game and how much fun I’ve had. Granted nothing is ever going to satisfy everyone but I loved a good chunk of what has been done, I just don’t feel there’s enough left or coming to keep me here at the rate I’d like to be.
I would prepay for the expansion if it were announced today to be honest that’s how much faith I have in them but unfortunately I don’t see any announcement coming anytime soon so it’ll just become a matter of how long do I stick around before becoming invested or interested in something else.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

I also have a lot of faith that they can provide an amazing expansion, most of which comes from the base game and how much fun I’ve had. Granted nothing is ever going to satisfy everyone but I loved a good chunk of what has been done, I just don’t feel there’s enough left or coming to keep me here at the rate I’d like to be.
I would prepay for the expansion if it were announced today to be honest that’s how much faith I have in them but unfortunately I don’t see any announcement coming anytime soon so it’ll just become a matter of how long do I stick around before becoming invested or interested in something else.

Let’s be realistic here, video game companies tend to announce games and expansions at least a year in advance, and then it get’s delayed a few months. There has to be a polarization of the potential consumers around the idea (hype), otherwise they would just hurt their potential revenues.

So unless Anet is victim here of some really poor marketing strategy I don’t think we will see anything like an expansion before spring 2016, and that is if they announce something in January.

Xillllix.3485:

Let’s be realistic here, video game companies tend to announce games and expansions at least a year in advance, and then it get’s delayed a few months. There has to be a polarization of the potential consumers around the idea (hype), otherwise they would just hurt their potential revenues.

So unless Anet is victim here of some really poor marketing strategy I don’t think we will see anything like an expansion before spring 2016, and that is if they announce something in January.

Without that on the horizon I highly doubt it’ll survive to be as healthy as it is now another year of just LW and I’m not being pessimistic, I’m a realist. I love the game but without an announcement of some very meaty content on the horizon I won’t be able to stay interested through another year of LW no matter how compelling the hour every two weeks will be. I’m on my 16th or 17th character and have amassed so much stuff and repeated all the content that interest me so many times I just can’t see it regardless of how much I’ve enjoyed it.
Well my plan is to see it through until years end and hope that they conclude things with an announcement but if that isn’t the case I’ll put my eggs in another basket and make a decision down the road. It’s a shame really so much potential.

Jerus.4350:

Obtena.7952:

Fosio.8217:

Obtena.7952:

I realize what your thread is about but I still feel the same way … why do players insist they need to know about what’s coming down the pipeline? How does knowing that impact any players’ interaction with the CURRENT game version on live?

Games are founded on the backbone of veterans and those that actually dedicate time, effort and resources (real currency). This being said, you need to be open and transparent about your intentions, as a publisher or a direct DEV, so as to build a fair amount of loyal fans in order for the game to live and produce revenue. This is also a reason why new content needs to be added and while Guild Wars 2 is on the path of it’s third anniversary, not many things were added, not many things were fixed or changed.

It also seems that the additions to the game, i’m talking about Living Story, are what ArenaNet is focussing upon, but many players would prefer different content.

At this point, players that really are interested in spending their time and money here, rather than in other games or whatever else leisure activity they prefer, need to know what is programmed for GW2 (other than Living Story).

I’m not sure that’s true … I’m not playing this game because devs are open and transparent. I’m doing it because it’s a fun game to play. I’m a loyal vet because the game is inline with my idea of what a good game is. Nothing a dev says about what happened before, happens now or happens later affects my level of enjoyment of the current game state, nor should it. I don’t think my philosophy to playing games is all that different from the actual reason others play it either. The game should be enjoyed for what it is.

I think that’s an interesting comment. “The game should be enjoyed for what it is”… What is it?

You don’t really need to ask to figure that out, you just need to play. That’s MY point.

Jerus.4350:

That’s what we would like some clarification on. What will the game become in the future?

I’m not saying that’s an unreasonable question but I am wondering how the lack of answer or an answer to that question affects anyone’s decision to play the game in it’s current state.

Maybe I’m just too old to get it but games used to be enjoyed for what you paid for on disks. No patches, no online help, no one to tell you how to complete content. This isn’t different. I don’t see how some dev telling me his plans changes the fact that the game exists as it is on live and you play it because you like it, not because maybe in 6 months, they punt in a feature you may like.

This game is slightly different though. We want to know what direction the game is going in so we know if its worth sticking around. Some of us have been playing since release so as much as we enjoy the game for what it is. Its become boring now. Most people dont play the same game for 2 years unless there is new stuff they can be excited about.

The game has great potential but people are upset that the Devs are not communicating and keep dodging questions. People would like to know if the Devs actually have a roadmap on content they are planning/creating/working on. YES the Living Story is new content no one is debating that(Gaile), many players want to know if the game still has a future for them.
People don’t want LS spoilers they want some insight on the rest of the games content PvP/WvW/Fractals. To me it looks like the Gem Shop gets the most attention, I buy stuff from it from time to time. Some of the gem shop items should have been added to the LS or to the main story looking at the new mini and Pact weapons.
For many people the game has become stale, this is because anet now only cares about the “new” players since everything now a days revolves around them.
One person already posted the amount of content difference between 2013 and 2014, that just makes GW2 look pitiful.
Hopefully the devs will come around and speak to the gamers/supporters but i wont hold my breath. Any word on first person view?
In the meantime GW2 actually forced me to resub to another game since they have new content coming out and communicate with their player base.

No one communicates. Hackers running rampant in every part of the game. Stagnant content. Slow and small content delivery. Price gouging on the gem store.

Why are you still playing this game? I’m genuinely interested because I myself and frustrated beyond belief and would like a second coming.

GW2 is a job for me now

Starts at camping teq from 3 to 4, then camping wurm for an hour. You can get away with being a lil late to teq, but not wurm. Reminds me of vanilla WoW trying to set up 40 man raids, but in GW2 it’s 120 man. Raids should be instanced, 10-20 man.

Should I do the same old dungeons or fractal for no good loot? hrmm.. wasted enough time today, let’s go play WoD.

I will never know how GW2 fans are so oblivious to the fact game is rly grindy and requires a ton of wait time to do the only half decent pathetic rewarding content in the game.

Open world that requires 120 people to set up is inferior to instanced raiding ala WoW but most people will deny it up and down and that format is a ‘second job’ when really GW2 is much worse. When I raid with my guild in WoW we literally log in, hop on teamspeak, go to the raid entrance, and begin raiding once inside.

Instanced raids also have the benefit of saving your character to the raid, meaning if you down a boss it remembers and you can progress from that boss onwards and not have to repeat kill every time. (force-resets every week)

Yes, real raids have more than 1 boss fight!

In terms of open world pve absolutely nothing has changed with the megaserver, you still camp the main map for an hour to get a successful run.

But hey.. if we keep logging in, doing our daily routine, in 9 or 10 years that precursor might drop! Game truly feels like a job now, trying to get those impossible drops that will never happen and you’ve completed everything else in the game… we all know no significant content is coming and ANet will ride the LS out until game is completely dead but it’s worth a shot posting this in the hopes they read it and a little light bulb lights up in their head. Not likely, but hey.

GW2 had massive potential. ANet making the same mistakes made by past devs from other major MMOs and those mistakes went really viral and had important impact on those games but I don’t think they are even in the loop. I think they have their fingers in their ear screaming “LALALALA!” and do w/e the hell they want even if it’s not good for the game and all can see it except them.

They don’t even seem to be able to grasp the most simplest of concepts. THEIR OWN concepts from GW1…. I truly truly weep for this once wonderful universe of amazing lore and gameplay… GW2 is not part of that universe.

You know what people say about this games pvp? “lol GW2 doesn’t have pvp.” <— true quote.

I don’t hate the game honestly, but it has lost its spark and is in no hurry to get it back, cuz the devs will not allow it to. And no I’m not talking about the precursor, that spark never dropped in the first place lel.

Most MMOs release more pve content with their gear grinds. It is ugly to release ascended armor and weapons but deny players any decent content with some longevity. ANet is basically just handing people more and more grinds, and they aren’t even trying to hide it… lol at the very least Blizzard makes me forget about the grind MOST of the time. In GW2, it’s in my face 24/7 cuz that’s all I see.

Gods forbid I even attempt gearing an alt… lol not happening in GW2 bro. Eventually I will be unable to log in anymore, I love my friends who play but idk how they can take the mundane task of doing the same thing over and over every day. 30 minutes of a LS episode is just not enough to keep me interested, everything stays the same. Open world zergs is all I’ve seen added to the game thus far.

I tried spending some time in silverwastes after I got all the achievements I was like what’s the point… the loot is garbage, the whole pacman thing was frustrating considering I had just made a post about ANets instagib 1shot mechanics being so annoying so after I got that achievement, I never and will never go back.

Not to mention, big surprise here, it’s just yet another open world zerg with lots of waiting time in between doing mundane tasks.

^Nailed it.

kitten .9460:

Should I do the same old dungeons or fractal for no good loot? hrmm.. wasted enough time today, let’s go play WoD.

Hahahah. Oh boy, do i know this feeling.

This is just my personal opinion, like it or not!
Let me say my feelings truly to ANet, the game now is 2 years old
To me the Living Story is a FAIL.. honestly.. Zerg fights is getting ridiculously annoying & boring due to the fact of the FPS mess up you guys did since September stupid patch, WHICH you can not fix yet regardless of whatever being said on it’s thread.

-The loot.. The precursor..
It’s STUPID watching some YouTube videos seeing people having 9k GOLD & 4k GEMS..
8 Legendries
And I’ve been playing for 2 years and nothing DROP
-The reward kitten loot is TERRIBLE.. BY ALL MEANS.. across all events/living kitten story/Dragon events/Chest rewards

I’m speaking for myself, I NEED A NEW EXPANSION PACK. period!
The game needs a new expansion pack

Gaile, you guys over at Anet promised more and better communication.

You’ve nailed the more, but so long as you keep quoting, and sticking to O’Brien’s gag policy on telling us what is going on with the game, you will never achieve better communication.

You can quote his post til you’re blue in the face, but I’m sorry. Mike is wrong on this decision. He will always be wrong in this decision. This very thread should be proof that your policy of silence doesn’t work.

Either you all are going to communicate better, or you aren’t. Which is it going to be? Cause I can tell you that if one of your fears is stringing everyone along? Well, you’re doing that at this very moment by keeping everyone in the dark.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, here’s some info on these specific comments:

• No, the game is not lacking direction. Nor is it lacking vision or goals, plans, ideas, concepts, or any of the other properties that guide our future. The quiet now is not an indicator of anything other than the fact that, at this time, the company is not talking about the future but is, instead, working on it.
• Game companies, like most major industries, experience a certain level of turnover, and hire to fill those spaces. They also hire for new or expanded roles. Nothing startling here whatsoever.
• The silence is decidedly not a distraction effort. As Mike O’Brien said, "We’ve set a clear policy in the past year: “We don’t talk speculatively about future development. We don’t want to string you along. Creating fun is an uncertain business: sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t; sometimes we go back to the drawing board over and over before we get something right. If we make optimistic promises and then can’t deliver on them, everyone suffers. So when we attend a trade show or give an interview, we’re there to talk about what we’re getting ready to ship, not to speculate on what we might ship someday.”
• Living World and holidays are important, yes. They are not the only thing on which the team is working, quite clearly, when you see substantial updates coming out on a regular basis. (Case in point: feature packs, the coming PvP update, etc.)
• We are not “afraid” to lay out a roadmap. Quoting Mike again, “The intention of the CDI threads is to talk with you about the roadmap.” If you’re not participating, you’re missing out on a means of sharing your feedback and a method that we may use to give information, when the time is right.
• No, we’re not fearful of player reaction to our plans; we’re simply choosing a different path in communicating in the here and now.
• In general, with nearly anything, there are ebbs and flows in communication. If we’re in an ebb right now, you can count on there being a flow in the future. That’s just logical.

I’ve bolded the parts I want to repond to.

• We respectfully beg to differ. If the game isn’t lacking direction, then why won’t you at least share it with your concerned players? To hell with the policy… we want to know where the game is going. Gaile, put yourself in our shoes for a minute — wouldn’t you want to know too?

• CJ must be ruing his announcement (last year?) in a vid on youtube, about precursor crafting before the end of 2013. Disregard the fact that it was announced to people looking forward to this particular feature that it wouldn’t make it in the feature patch that it was supposed to be released with — in the interview it shouldn’t have been discussed at all.

• These ‘substantial updates’ have very little actual content involved. It may be an LS update where a new zone comes out, but that’s hardly what a lot of people here are looking forward to. When you see quite a lot of complaints about LS being pushed too hard over actual player-retaining content releases (ie. stuff people actually want in the game and have been crying out for for over 2 years), then ‘what’ is substantial to ‘whom’ would have to be brought into question. The latest feature packs have been broken from the start, and no attempt has been made to either fix them or at the very least communicate with us why there is such a major delay in fixing them. You’ve brought out a couple of new zones in the recent LS updates; don’t pat yourselves on the back too hard.

• You say that the communication ebb and flow is logical, but that doesn’t mean that it’s right. It might be the ‘done thing’ with you, but to keep invested players in the game, you communicate with them about stuff that’s going on, you know, keep them excited for something. This is why we’re so concerned about the direction the game is going in, and silence DOES NOT HELP IT.

The bottom line is we’re looking for a direction this game is headed, mostly regarding actual content and less so about LS. While no one knows what direction it’s headed, and no one who knows talks about it, the air of uncertainty thickens. And while you’re marking time with LS and not fixing stuff like the player story, traits, feature packs from previous patches, etc. players will continue to leave.

We hear ANET saying they have a direction for the game, but we really don’t know what that direction is, and you’re simply not communicating it to us. It seems the fundamental issue here is your communication policy, which is to limit communication.

You say the policy is about not stringing us along, but we feel strung along due to the communication we’re getting. You say you have a direction for the game, but we just don’t see it. Is ti small chunks of moderate quality extremely low replayability story content? Is is that plus some open world content areas that appeal primarily to open world farmers? Seemingly so, but this can’t be all you’re working on. You even claim it’s not all you’re working on. So, very generally, what else are you working on? Seriously, where is this game headed?

Of course, you can’t tell us. So, under the assumption (and surely you would agree this is a good assumption) that ANET is benevolent, we (as in we the playerbase) hope. And every time that direction that supposedly exists other than LS has a chance to show its self, we don’t see it, because seemingly there’s nothing for us to see. So every patch, our hope sours a little bit more. It’s almost like this whole thing is a carefully crafted strategy to get players to stick around long after they’d otherwise quit, but that’d be crazy, because all it results in is a lot of bad PR for GW2 from dissatisfied but continuing players (the people most likely to spread bad PR about your game), and I’m doubting that those players buy gems. I can’t think of a single reason to not just answer those players simple question. What direction is this game headed? Maybe they’ll like it and keep playing because of it. Maybe they’ll even buy gems or resume gem purchases because of it. Maybe they won’t like it, and finally quit. But it’s good for ANET either way, and it’d be in the spirit of the current policy if the spirit of that policy is indeed not to string players along. Because your communication right now is stringing players along (even if it’s not intentional, this is the clear and obvious result of the basic nature of your players coupled with what communication we have gotten), and telling us what direction the game is headed in would fix that issue.

No offence Gaile, because you do this as your job and you have to follow strict guidelines but every answer we get is the same kitten over and over again. We’re kind of fed up by now. If you’re going to communicate, communicate effectively. All of the answers are rehashed pointlessness, you know it just as well as we do.

I’ve stated before and I’ll state again, I’ve been a fan since the GW1 and this is honestly killing your game, like it or not. I understand I don’t speak for the entire player base but from what it looks like this entire thread is trying to get answers while any ‘answer’ we do get is the same thing over and over again.

Maybe it’s about time we realize that our opinions clearly don’t matter.

recycled hollow answers are empty

Spiderbite.8049:

recycled hollow answers are empty

Exactly my point. Please give us a NEW answer. Not something reworded from every answer we’ve been given.

Yes. As we told you the last time you repeated ANet’s policy to “not tell us stuff until it’s done,” the community’s policy is to “demand that you tell us about stuff before it’s done.” For the zillionth time, please reiterate that point to the developers.