Guild Wars 2

Well let me try to make this in a more simple question

• Will there be a new expansion?
• Will there be new Classes/Professions/Weapons/Higher character stats/Levels?
• And if it’s a yes, Are we going to wait a year? 2 years?

Enough with the LS small contents and no endgame enjoyment anymore with them, seriously.
You’ve made the approach in season 1.. There were ups & downs..
Now Would YOU please focus on a BIGGER content? Expansion?

An expansion will never happen in the lifetime of GW2, because ANet depends on constant cash flow from the cash shop and needs to produce contents that would promote the cash shop stuff. They cannot just sit back for one year and create an expansion which people would run through in the matter of days and then ask for another expansion and so on.

If ANet ever decides to develop an expansion then its needs to introduce some VIP program to keep the cash flow going while developing an expansion. Honestly at this point I doubt anyone would pay a fee to play GW2 and a VIP program can easily ruin the economy in game.

The living story model is here to stay if you like it or not. At the end its just business, nothing personal. You don’t like it? there are subscription MMOs out there that have expansions. The question is, can you afford it?

Zylonite.5913:

An expansion will never happen in the lifetime of GW2, because ANet depends on constant cash flow from the cash shop and needs to produce contents that would promote the cash shop stuff. They cannot just sit back for one year and create an expansion which people would run through in the matter of days and then ask for another expansion and so on.

If ANet ever decides to develop an expansion then its needs to introduce some VIP program to keep the cash flow going while developing an expansion. Honestly at this point I doubt anyone would pay a fee to play GW2 and a VIP program can easily ruin the economy in game.

The living story model is here to stay if you like it or not. At the end its just business, nothing personal. You don’t like it? there are subscription MMOs out there that have expansions. The question is, can you afford it?

An expansion will happen but with high probability not as a pack. In some areas we are already in an expansion cycle if you look at the expanded number of zones gear sets or stat combinations. There is a high chance that the future seasons will have more content but will also cost 200 gems for all players.

Wow, there is a lot of hyperbole here.

I think we made our points and now we wait and see what comes back. If it’s yet another disappointment, then it’ll be a shame, but that’s just how it is.

I don’t believe they have nothing to say. But, it’s highly likely what they could tell us isn’t going to fit into some grand ideas many of us have about what the future should look like. There in lies the problem with sitting quiet so long, without trying to manage expectations.

Us players have become that girlfriend (or boyfriend) you stopped buying nice things for…

munkiman.3068:

Us players have become that girlfriend (or boyfriend) you stopped buying nice things for…

“Hey hon, I got you a gift. I think you’re going to like it.”

“Oh my god, what is it? I bet it’s really special, if he’s going to tell me about it. He knows I want to get a new dress. Maybe it’s that new dress I told him I really liked, he seemed really quiet and shrugged it off but what if he listened? He must have been playing it cool!”

“Hon, I know you really liked that one singer you pointed out to me the other week. So I got you her last album.”

“. . . you’re hopeless, you don’t listen, and I don’t know why I loved you.”

Please, tell is something about Tengu

ClaviculaNox.8762:

Well let me try to make this in a more simple question

• Will there be a new expansion?
• Will there be new Classes/Professions/Weapons/Higher character stats/Levels?
• And if it’s a yes, Are we going to wait a year? 2 years?

Enough with the LS small contents and no endgame enjoyment anymore with them, seriously.
You’ve made the approach in season 1.. There were ups & downs..
Now Would YOU please focus on a BIGGER content? Expansion?

Picture this from a company’s standpoint. If they answer either one of these questions, their expectations are set and not only that, it’s highly likely that they will stop playing the game until the expansion comes around. Simply put, if they are ready to release an expansion, they will release a trailer of it.

Simply put, if you are just going to keep on demanding this, its not going to make the expansion come any faster. If it does come faster, expect it to be very sloppy.

I for one am confident that they will release an expansion in the future.

Eric.6109:

Please, tell is something about Tengu

Tengu is a Tier 3 cruiser that has 5 configurable systems for offense, defense, propulsion, power, and electronics. Each of the configurable slots has 4 modules available for it allowing many different customized configurations.

Ohh I’m sorry got side tracked with a successful niche game for a sec.

Taking a turn for the worse, you say? Last I checked, I don’t see that happening outside of technical issues that are present and are still on the verge of being fixed.

I agree there are some glaring issues with the game, but I think all MMORPGs have glaring issues. If you think these forums are bad, take a read of the Archeage forums.

However this topic really isn’t about whether the game is good or bad, or well or dying. It’s about Anet clarifying their direction for the game.

I’ve met very very few people who think it’s a bad idea.

Vayne.8563:

However this topic really isn’t about whether the game is good or bad, or well or dying. It’s about Anet clarifying their direction for the game.

I’ve met very very few people who think it’s a bad idea.

It’s not whether it’s a bad idea or not…they can’t clarify their direction for the game because they don’t have one that will satisfy the current population. Here’s what I think they are working on:

1. Tyria Farms[sup]™[/sup] - where you have your own instanced farm. You can get “friends” to help plant things in your farm. You can send constant in game mail to the accounts of anyone you want, begging for help, or spend gems to get more exotic plants. “Tyria Farms[sup]™[/sup] - nothing like Farmville, no sir”

2. Fashion Designer – where you can buy patterns, mix-and-match, and design your own clothing! Patterns available in the gem store if you don’t want to wait for the RNG to kick in.

3. Miss/Mr Tyria – where the style-conscious can gather to vote on their favorite outfit. It’s like Barbie, but with Charr!

Then NCSoft and Anet can claim to have created a new style MMO…not an MMORPG, but MMOCGPE (Massive, Multiplayer, Casual Game Play Experience)!

misterman.1530:

Vayne.8563:

However this topic really isn’t about whether the game is good or bad, or well or dying. It’s about Anet clarifying their direction for the game.

I’ve met very very few people who think it’s a bad idea.

It’s not whether it’s a bad idea or not…they can’t clarify their direction for the game because they don’t have one that will satisfy the current population. Here’s what I think they are working on:

1. Tyria Farms[sup]™[/sup] - where you have your own instanced farm. You can get “friends” to help plant things in your farm. You can send constant in game mail to the accounts of anyone you want, begging for help, or spend gems to get more exotic plants. “Tyria Farms[sup]™[/sup] - nothing like Farmville, no sir”

2. Fashion Designer – where you can buy patterns, mix-and-match, and design your own clothing! Patterns available in the gem store if you don’t want to wait for the RNG to kick in.

3. Miss/Mr Tyria – where the style-conscious can gather to vote on their favorite outfit. It’s like Barbie, but with Charr!

Then NCSoft and Anet can claim to have created a new style MMO…not an MMORPG, but MMOCGPE (Massive, Multiplayer, Casual Game Play Experience)!

How do you know they won’t have one that will satisfy the “current” population. First of all no one knows what they have planned, so you’re guessing. But even if you did, my guess is what they have planned, almost whatever it is, will satisfy a portion of the “current population”.

Part of the current population might like having their own farm to grow things. And part won’t.

This is what I talk about all the time. Everyone thinks that they have some idea of what the current population wants. What we have here is a whole bunch of micropopulations with some crossover.

I do believe, however, that anything Anet implements will kitten off someone.

In the end, not everybody will be satisfied even after a major update comes out. You can’t please everybody, you know.

At the end of the day, it’s not our game and not our company, they couldn’t be more clear about that. So I’ll do what I want to do and when the season ends with this asinine gag order still in place I’ll just wait to login again until I see there is more to do.

I can’t imagine they expect any other outcome from their players. I love playing the game but what am I going to do farm silverwastes another 3 months?

Zylonite.5913:

An expansion will never happen in the lifetime of GW2, because ANet depends on constant cash flow from the cash shop and needs to produce contents that would promote the cash shop stuff. They cannot just sit back for one year and create an expansion which people would run through in the matter of days and then ask for another expansion and so on.

A matter of days? What are you talking about?

The new ‘content’ they are putting out now is content that players run through in a matter of days, if not hours.
Whereas I think most of us are talking about an expansion similar to Factions or Nightfall, i.e. new world / race / class etc.
Content that would be played, alongside the original content, for the rest of the game’s lifespan. Content that would also, obviously, feature a whole range of new possible items for the cash shop.

Malkavian.4516:

In the end, not everybody will be satisfied even after a major update comes out. You can’t please everybody, you know.

Of course. That’s why any decent MMO company should inform their players about future direction for their game. So they may decide whether they should stick around or not, instead of finding this on the patch day few years in the future.

Unfortunately Anet seems to prefer stringing people along for as long as possible. This is why they avoid any definite announcements. This may be also why they delay with introducing any definite content – as long as the future of the game stays undefined and nebulous, they can pretend that everyone will like it. Even if they do know it’s simply not true.

First of all, I would expect them to deliver an expansion very close in style to the game we all purchased, why wouldn’t they?
As far as who holds the reigns I’m sure it is NCSoft and not Anet, and if they could answer one thing it would be this “who’s policy is this, Anet’s or NCSofts?” At least then we would know who to direct our frustration towards and know if there is any way to have it changed.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

First of all, I would expect them to deliver an expansion very close in style to the game we all purchased, why wouldn’t they?
As far as who holds the reigns I’m sure it is NCSoft and not Anet, and if they could answer one thing it would be this “who’s policy is this, Anet’s or NCSofts?” At least then we would know who to direct our frustration towards and know if there is any way to have it changed.

I think it’s pretty foolish to answer that question. I mean it would be like me as a manager, telling customers that sorry about this policy it’s the owner and I can’t do anything about it…but doing it publicly where the owner can see it.

I wouldn’t think it would help my status in the company. I mean in a more casual environment, you might get away with saying it to a customer here and there, but posting it publicly on a forum for everyone to see is probably not going to endear you to management.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

First of all, I would expect them to deliver an expansion very close in style to the game we all purchased, why wouldn’t they?

…we might, that would be reasonable. Unfortunately, there are things that have happened in GW2 that i wouldn’t have expected in the GW2-that-i-purchased. One of them happened three month into the game. What that means in the context of a hypothetical expansion? I don’t know. Which is the point.

Vayne.8563:

I think it’s pretty foolish to answer that question. I mean it would be like me as a manager, telling customers that sorry about this policy it’s the owner and I can’t do anything about it…but doing it publicly where the owner can see it.

I wouldn’t think it would help my status in the company. I mean in a more casual environment, you might get away with saying it to a customer here and there, but posting it publicly on a forum for everyone to see is probably not going to endear you to management.

I’m not expecting an answer but I thought it would be good to point out that there might very well be a others that could be responsible for the policy and perhaps that’s where the frustration should be directed. I doubt this was an Anet change and thus perhaps we should refocus the anger towards the stupid policy and not Anet.

Vlad Morbius.1759:

I’m sure it is NCSoft and not Anet, and if they could answer one thing it would be this “who’s policy is this, Anet’s or NCSofts?”

I would say : Its ANet.

At least if i look at Wildstar they still post about future updates.

When i remember Lineage 2 and Aion NCSoft was never really talking much with
their players, but at least we got some informations aboute future updates a while
ago.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Sytherek.7689:

Gaile,

Don’t let the obsessives and forum warriors get you down. There are millions of people enjoying the game and playing. Happy players are playing, not posting.

Well, I’m posting as a counterpoint (probably lost in the rancor) to the incessantly unhappy. Nothing ANet does will satisfy the hardcore dissatisfied.

I’d love to know what’s coming. I understand why you don’t tell us. People have unrealistic expectations of software companies that they do not apply to car makers, TV shows, authors, construction, or other industries. No one (almost) demands Ford have a public detailed five-year plan, or that an architect make detailed plans available to everyone who might someday walk into the new building.

This is the internet; rationality is in short supply.

ANet is one of the most responsive game developers I know, and I’ve been an avid/active player/dev since the days of Wolfenstein 3D (yes, I’m in my 50s). Guild Wars 2 is a game, free-to-play after initial purchase, and it’s great for most of your players (at least the ones I know personally).

Thank you for being communicative.

Let’s put it another way: Were I young, whole, and on the West Coast, I’d be thrilled to work on GW2. No, not a job hunt, I’m happily employed in another industry. But I do appreciate what you do.

I really appreciate your point of view and your supportive comments.

And for me this is where that last sardine flipped the wagon.

Opposite to Gaile, i do not appreciate the point of view stated and the supportive comments, when those supportive comments do not truly reflect the state of the game.

Lets not discuss the merits of the game because we all know what the strong points are, and lets not discuss the demerits of the game because there are people happily playing the game and the rest are just forum warriors?? I mean, what is going on with GW2 that we can discuss?

I, personally, don’t want to discuss the current content that GW2 has to offer, because for me that is not a reason to pick up this game again. And, following the stated point of view, because i don’t play it anymore but i keep coming here hoping that finally i get a reason to do so, i find out that i cant discuss it because im not happy with the game.

Let me tell you something i do know. I do know when i log in that “other” mmorpg i instantly start missing GW2, but as i keep playing it i become aware why that “other” mmorpg rules this genre with no visible opposition.

While Anet excels in many other areas of development, the other developer excels in delivering content that grasps all corners of this genre, and does so openly and with a main goal: to give players what they want.

These guys are just masters of delivering content in all forms: pvp, pve, mini games, collectibles, lore, classes, professions, they just keep adding, adding, adding, until everything is covered, until everyone as a reason to log in , may not leave everyone happy, but will leave most players happy, some not very happy but with a reason to play, and others unhappy but still with a reason to play, and the occasional leavers.

Here, i just see, mounts no, GH we dont know, GvG we dont know (kudos for chris for the CDIs, gives me a bit of hope), cross professions skills no, Cantha no yes no, etc etc

I truly believe that ANet lacks in these 2 points, and i believe that improving on those 2 points would bring GW2 to where it belongs on top of this genre with the big guy.

I have played many AAA tittle, as many of my fellow “forum warriors” , and i know theres no other tittle out there that can match the impressive graphic quality, sound score and game mechanics of GW2, but its severely lacking on open communication with player base and therefor the inability to fast deliver content by ANet is constantly shaded by this lack of communication, because i dont know if its lack of money for development, lack of freedom for continuous development, lack of time, i mean, i do not know anything.

I do know this: if Mike O´Brien posted in the forums today saying that ANet is currently on low budget for development because the project took more resources than expected, and asking players what they think of a crowd funding project to speed and deliver content to GW2, i would be on top of that list to donate something from my pocket. Save this for future references.

My name is Alves, from Portugal, and i am a forum warrior, because i care for this game.

If you think that ncsoft is pulling the strings, then assume expansion coming soon because they keep promising one to shareholders.

wwwes.1398:

If you think that ncsoft is pulling the strings, then assume expansion coming soon because they keep promising one to shareholders.

I’m not sure I see that. The last time they said anything was back in 2013 and to be honest all of that is before the China launch. I have not seen anything official regarding an expansion coming from NCSoft other than Lineage and like I said in my previous posts I just cannot see Anet going the other way since the out front and public was a major reason for their successful launch. Why would anyone go backwards and change from a policy that brought you the success to begin with?

I have never seen a company as terrified of being held accountable for their own words as Anet. It leaves the impression that management has no idea where they are going next.

More importantly, it does a superb job of convincing me to keep my wallet tightly closed.

If one is confident in their vision for the future and in their ability to achieve it, then talking about it (IN BROAD STROKES) should not be a problem. Complete silence is nearly always an indication that that confidence is missing.

Vayne.8563:

Part of the current population might like having their own farm to grow things. And part won’t.

This is what I talk about all the time. Everyone thinks that they have some idea of what the current population wants. What we have here is a whole bunch of micropopulations with some crossover.

I do believe, however, that anything Anet implements will kitten off someone.

LOL WoW had that two years ago. Some were like Wtf. Basically those that liked it used it those that didn’t didn’t no big deal. Now two years later Blizz introduced Garrisons which is turning out to be near unanimously considered to be fairly awesome. So far this has been the largest single expansion of content ever released in that game. Having looked at a few of the Living Story content. Personal observations way more content then all the trickle GW2 content. And there are the content release patches coming out every couple months that are by themselves generally bigger then the LS patches.

So if GW2 wants to survive they better come out with something that can compete with that. Because for at least the next year or so till the next inter expansion lul happens pulling people off real content for freebie content is gonna be difficult. I think it was GameBreaker that had an article about NCsoft financial calls with GW2 in decline.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-14-guild-wars-2-in-steep-decline-in-weak-q4-for-ncsoft

25% of previous year? OUCH. Well that’s what the big company direction is. Server and staff consolidation.

Astralporing.1957:

Malkavian.4516:

In the end, not everybody will be satisfied even after a major update comes out. You can’t please everybody, you know.

Of course. That’s why any decent MMO company should inform their players about future direction for their game. So they may decide whether they should stick around or not, instead of finding this on the patch day few years in the future.

Unfortunately Anet seems to prefer stringing people along for as long as possible. This is why they avoid any definite announcements. This may be also why they delay with introducing any definite content – as long as the future of the game stays undefined and nebulous, they can pretend that everyone will like it. Even if they do know it’s simply not true.

Pretty much all the details of Warlords has been talked about for a year. To the point of Blizzard publishing and keeping updated line by line notes. Everything was known about the expansion before it came out. Creates huge excitement for the game. Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm(which is awesome to play btw), Project Overwatch. all of these are talked about and tweaked for months before release will near full transparency before release. Which method of communicating with players seems to be better?

The problem with AN vs Blizz vs even CCP is that Blizz is capable of delivering on it’s hype. CCP is capable of delivering on it’s threats. AN talks more grand talk and talks and talks. They probably realized that they can’t deliver their hype so just stop hyping.

Clerigo.9475:

And for me this is where that last sardine flipped the wagon.

Opposite to Gaile, i do not appreciate the point of view stated and the supportive comments, when those supportive comments do not truly reflect the state of the game.

Lets not discuss the merits of the game because we all know what the strong points are, and lets not discuss the demerits of the game because there are people happily playing the game and the rest are just forum warriors?? I mean, what is going on with GW2 that we can discuss?

I, personally, don’t want to discuss the current content that GW2 has to offer, because for me that is not a reason to pick up this game again. And, following the stated point of view, because i don’t play it anymore but i keep coming here hoping that finally i get a reason to do so, i find out that i cant discuss it because im not happy with the game.

Let me tell you something i do know. I do know when i log in that “other” mmorpg i instantly start missing GW2, but as i keep playing it i become aware why that “other” mmorpg rules this genre with no visible opposition.

While Anet excels in many other areas of development, the other developer excels in delivering content that grasps all corners of this genre, and does so openly and with a main goal: to give players what they want.

These guys are just masters of delivering content in all forms: pvp, pve, mini games, collectibles, lore, classes, professions, they just keep adding, adding, adding, until everything is covered, until everyone as a reason to log in , may not leave everyone happy, but will leave most players happy, some not very happy but with a reason to play, and others unhappy but still with a reason to play, and the occasional leavers.

Here, i just see, mounts no, GH we dont know, GvG we dont know (kudos for chris for the CDIs, gives me a bit of hope), cross professions skills no, Cantha no yes no, etc etc

I truly believe that ANet lacks in these 2 points, and i believe that improving on those 2 points would bring GW2 to where it belongs on top of this genre with the big guy.

I have played many AAA tittle, as many of my fellow “forum warriors” , and i know theres no other tittle out there that can match the impressive graphic quality, sound score and game mechanics of GW2, but its severely lacking on open communication with player base and therefor the inability to fast deliver content by ANet is constantly shaded by this lack of communication, because i dont know if its lack of money for development, lack of freedom for continuous development, lack of time, i mean, i do not know anything.

I do know this: if Mike O´Brien posted in the forums today saying that ANet is currently on low budget for development because the project took more resources than expected, and asking players what they think of a crowd funding project to speed and deliver content to GW2, i would be on top of that list to donate something from my pocket. Save this for future references.

My name is Alves, from Portugal, and i am a forum warrior, because i care for this game.

You, Sir, deserve an award! It’s what I feel, others deliver.

Sytherek.7689:

Gaile,

Don’t let the obsessives and forum warriors get you down. There are millions of people enjoying the game and playing. Happy players are playing, not posting.

Well, I’m posting as a counterpoint (probably lost in the rancor) to the incessantly unhappy. Nothing ANet does will satisfy the hardcore dissatisfied.

I’d love to know what’s coming. I understand why you don’t tell us. People have unrealistic expectations of software companies that they do not apply to car makers, TV shows, authors, construction, or other industries. No one (almost) demands Ford have a public detailed five-year plan, or that an architect make detailed plans available to everyone who might someday walk into the new building.

This is the internet; rationality is in short supply.

ANet is one of the most responsive game developers I know, and I’ve been an avid/active player/dev since the days of Wolfenstein 3D (yes, I’m in my 50s). Guild Wars 2 is a game, free-to-play after initial purchase, and it’s great for most of your players (at least the ones I know personally).

Thank you for being communicative.

Let’s put it another way: Were I young, whole, and on the West Coast, I’d be thrilled to work on GW2. No, not a job hunt, I’m happily employed in another industry. But I do appreciate what you do.

Dude, it’s not unrealistic to create an expansion full of new areas, races, lore etc. It is done by a dozen of MMOs every 2 years… Why comes this argument all the time? Maybe Anet HAS certain approach to develop games – that may be possible – which takes a lot more time/recourses, but it’s certainly not the industry standard.

McSlappy.1372:

And there are the content release patches coming out every couple months that are by themselves generally bigger then the LS patches.

So if GW2 wants to survive they better come out with something that can compete with that.

Didnt they say that they will release 2 raids in the next mothns and 2 others after 6 months ?
Are you personaly ok with that , rather that taking torch and forks so they must justify the 1 billion per year they get ?

ProtoGunner.4953:

Dude, it’s not unrealistic to create an expansion full of new areas, races, lore etc. It is done by a dozen of MMOs every 2 years… Why comes this argument all the time? Maybe Anet HAS certain approach to develop games – that may be possible – which takes a lot more time/recourses, but it’s certainly not the industry standard.

Just ignore them. They have drank so much of the coolaid they’re beyond hope. Millions of people playing? A couple million boxes sold. With so many of the 2.4 initial sales guilds gutted and completely barren there’s no where near that many playing. Such a small %age. If I had to put a finger in to the air and guess I’d put it at 100k players on the high side. You can’t have more people playing then boxes sold and you are going to have the majority % sold completely inactive in any game. WoW has maybe sold 50-100mil boxes over the course of it’s life. I think the max number of subs at any given time was 10+ mil. Before WoD it was 7ish and has been reported to spike up but who knows how much.

So there’s no possible way that millions are playing GW2. It’s not a notion based in rational reality.

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Didnt they say that they will release 2 raids in the next mothns and 2 others after 6 months ?
Are you personaly ok with that , rather that taking torch and forks so they must justify the 1 billion per year they get ?

Who Blizzard? Sure I’d be okay if that is their release schedule. There’s a ton of stuff to do right now. I’m through about 2 zones of the new expansion and have tons of stuff remaining to do. Will probably start doing the raids when they come out with them. Also when they release a raid it’s generally part of a .1 release. Which means new gear, new PvP season, possibly new 5 man instances, all sorts of stuff. Not just another raid zone or something like that. Each .1 release is probably about the same amount of content as a 6 month stretch of Living Story. And it’s content that you can still go back and do if you missed it or just liked to take a stroll down memory lane with a few buddies. Not temporary content that is gone after a certain time frame.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I fully and completely understand the frustration. I truly comprehend that players would like us — someone, anyone! — to “open the floodgates” on information.

It is not a question of opening the “floodgates” on information:

12 months ago Devon said that the Orbs were “definitively coming back to WvW”. What happened? When the forum thread was bumped to ask that question it was immediately locked.

Why did you released literally nothing for WvW in over a year (the endgame for a large % of the players)? Is it because you gave up on the game mode or because you are working on something very big for it?

The gems I bought just by myself would have paid for the little content you made in the last year (siege disabler and 3 tags colors).

So do you have a WvW development team? If yes, how large is it and what have you been working on all year long?

McSlappy.1372:

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Didnt they say that they will release 2 raids in the next mothns and 2 others after 6 months ?
Are you personaly ok with that , rather that taking torch and forks so they must justify the 1 billion per year they get ?

Who Blizzard? Sure I’d be okay if that is their release schedule. There’s a ton of stuff to do right now. I’m through about 2 zones of the new expansion and have tons of stuff remaining to do. Will probably start doing the raids when they come out with them. Also when they release a raid it’s generally part of a .1 release. Which means new gear, new PvP season, possibly new 5 man instances, all sorts of stuff. Not just another raid zone or something like that. Each .1 release is probably about the same amount of content as a 6 month stretch of Living Story. And it’s content that you can still go back and do if you missed it or just liked to take a stroll down memory lane with a few buddies. Not temporary content that is gone after a certain time frame.

Funny that you love the the introduction of the new gear :P
But why do you hate the grind on GW2 ? :P
You are ok , every 3 month with the introduction of new grind rather that 1 that is reniew every 2-3 years ?

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Funny that you love the the introduction of the new gear :P
But why do you hate the grind on GW2 ? :P
You are ok , every 3 month with the introduction of new grind rather that 1 that is reniew every 2-3 years ?

Yes actually. That is how WoW was designed. Each season you get a new gear level. New look and stat bump. The reason for it is it’s used to equalize out the population. You can come in at any time and get base gear fairly quickly to “catch up” to where the current content is. Each season has a race to get the ranked gear but even that is limited to a certain number of points each week. So if you keep up with it every that is partaking in the higher grade gear will stay about the same and not have gear gaps. And we’re talking 5% differences here. Less then the GW2 5-10% for ascended and legendary. Just that small number makes a huge difference. Someone will smite you fairly easily if you have honor gear vs conquest gear.

But the thing is with that I can sit down for an evening of arena or rated BGs and get to that weeks conquest cap which for most items is one piece of gear. You can sit down and accomplish something in one sitting. I can log in and progress my legendary. To put it like AN likes to I can play the game the way I want to play. I can get the best gear in game through PvPing or through raiding. I have do X and Y or S and T and you get Z.

In GW2 you get you have to do A B C …… X Y Z for months with little reward in the middle for a RNG rare chance you’ll get Z. Or you can just spend RL cash to buy it……… That doesn’t give value and meaning to in game items. Okay I wasted a ton of time to get this I could have just purchased it. In a word Lame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=trueview-instream&v=xyPzTywUBsQ

That shows how a design team makes a truely great evolving game that Millions of players do enjoy to the point of paying to play. People have memories of their experiences and achievements in their guilds. In this game my experience has been Titan Alliance undefeated in WvW. Then Ascended gear coming out and the game going from having fun doing stuff not worrying about grind, to being the longest and most unrewarding grind I have ever seen in a game. The time is literally better spent not playing because it would take up so much time/effort/or money to get the best items that they really aren’t worth it.

I tired the WvW season 1. Did the meta achievement thinking okay maybe AN would actually do something rewarding for all this. Nope. That was an error on my part thinking that the game would be rewarding. When it started it truly had the possibility of having all the best parts of MMOs without the negatives. It on launch day was that game. Then they turned it in to the worst of their competitors without any of the positives.

Someday maybe AN will wake up and make their game fun again. But I’m guessing that even now we are past the point that if they did anyone would care. Why go back and play that game when we have other new ones and the good ole staple game to spend out time with?

At this point, expecting anything reasonable from this company is unreasonable.

It’s been made abundantly clear that we will get just as much information asking the nearest brick wall what’s in store for this game as asking anyone here. Therefore, these ‘official’ forums are a pointless waste of time and resources, and should be shut down.

The same goes for the company’s ‘official’ presence on facebook, reddit, or any other social media site. Since company policy precludes meaningful discourse regarding the game’s potential future development, which by definition includes potential changes that might or might not be being made to existing development, which in turn makes the game itself, as a work in progress, something that cannot be discussed with customers, per policy, then the clear choice of action is to dispense with every pretense of interactive customer/company communication about the game, everywhere. Which means dispensing with the official website, as well.

Heck, when you get right down to it, they should close the game to the public altogether and play it themselves.

It’s their game, after all.

Sound reasonable?

McSlappy.1372:

Astralporing.1957:

Malkavian.4516:

In the end, not everybody will be satisfied even after a major update comes out. You can’t please everybody, you know.

Of course. That’s why any decent MMO company should inform their players about future direction for their game. So they may decide whether they should stick around or not, instead of finding this on the patch day few years in the future.

Unfortunately Anet seems to prefer stringing people along for as long as possible. This is why they avoid any definite announcements. This may be also why they delay with introducing any definite content – as long as the future of the game stays undefined and nebulous, they can pretend that everyone will like it. Even if they do know it’s simply not true.

Pretty much all the details of Warlords has been talked about for a year. To the point of Blizzard publishing and keeping updated line by line notes. Everything was known about the expansion before it came out. Creates huge excitement for the game. Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm(which is awesome to play btw), Project Overwatch. all of these are talked about and tweaked for months before release will near full transparency before release. Which method of communicating with players seems to be better?

The problem with AN vs Blizz vs even CCP is that Blizz is capable of delivering on it’s hype. CCP is capable of delivering on it’s threats. AN talks more grand talk and talks and talks. They probably realized that they can’t deliver their hype so just stop hyping.

You forget that although Blizzard can deliver, they also got the resources, much greater experience with MMOs compared to Anet. Whether the hype becomes great or not on their part is entirely up to the person who gives in. If they want to keep things under wraps until they think it’s okay to reveal more information, I say go with it. I got all the time in the world.

Okay getting back on track though honest question. Blizzard communicates what they having coming up over a year down the road. Honestly with this following link obviously their doing it right.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/11/19/world-of-warcraft-passes-10m-subscribers/

Should AN rethink their policy of hush hush?

If that is the case, I don’t see why not? Nothing wrong with a bit of change with how they distribute information to the fans without having it bite them in the kitten . Though, even if they did provide such information, I’d take it with a grain of salt all the time to avoid disappointment.

McSlappy.1372:

Each season has a race to get the ranked gear but even that is limited to a certain number of points each week. So if you keep up with it every that is partaking in the higher grade gear will stay about the same and not have gear gaps. And we’re talking 5% differences here. Less then the GW2 5-10% for ascended and legendary. Just that small number makes a huge difference. Someone will smite you fairly easily if you have honor gear vs conquest gear.

:P
GW2 PvP gear = normilized 365 days /year
WoW PvP gear = 5-10% every 3 months

WoW Open world PvP = pvp starting gear > pwn easily the PvE gear
Mythic (top raiding gear) = almost equal stats with Conquest Gear(top pvp gear) = both huge investment/time like Ascentant)
GW2 WvW gear = true = 5-10%

You worked in the industry yourself at the past :p
Details are crucial :P

Its ok that you want more from GW2 , as i do :P
(I WANT HEALERS !!!!!!!!)

Killthehealersffs.8940:

:P
GW2 PvP gear = normilized 365 days /year
WoW PvP gear = 5-10% every 3 months

WoW Open world PvP = pvp starting gear > pwn easily the PvE gear
Mythic (top raiding gear) = almost equal stats with Conquest Gear(top pvp gear) = both huge investment/time like Ascentant)
GW2 WvW gear = true = 5-10%

You worked in the industry yourself at the past :p
Details are crucial :P

Its ok that you want more from GW2 , as i do :P
(I WANT HEALERS !!!!!!!!)

Ascendent gear takes unless it’s been way easier, which it hasn’t sounded like from the forums, way way longer then Conquest. I can get a new piece of conquest gear each week except for legs, torso, or helmet without rating. With skill and higher rating the cap goes up and I can get a main piece each week. Getting one ascended sword took the entire duration of WvW season one. Conquest way way less of a grind and way more satisfying.

I don’t want more from GW2 I would at a minimum require it. Haven’t really played since WvW season 1 and really don’t care too. They’d have to go back to the core of what the game was before they ruined it. And lets face it……..that’s never going to happen.

I’m sitting here thinking about this now. What would it take to possibly get players back from other games. For me, even if they came out with the scavenger hunt promised years ago that wouldn’t be enough. Because AN’s method you’d have to spend six months looking for a random drop off some random rare spawns just to get the precursor for a weapon that as of today is 2 years old. PASS. They’d need to come out with a whole new legendary line. Newer graphics, same flexible stats but straight forward to get. A challenge but not based on RNG. Would have to look at it and kittenay if I spent this amount of time and effort I could be guaranteed to get this. Then would have to make a decision if it’s worth it or not.

But still it’s coming back to a 2 year old game with worse mechanics then the day it released, and that hasn’t really progressed or been innovated on since…… I dunno it’d be a tough sell even if we were in the middle of a inter expansion lul. For the next year it’s going to be near impossible to pull players back and then when they may get a window we’re looking at 3 years? If AN stock were involved this is definitely a sell all now and get what you can salvage.

If an expansion was announced today, bad timing or not people would still line up to buy it. What is causing the most harm is leaving all this room for doubt and expecting it not to impact them. It’s almost as though the feeling is hey we made a great game and they’re still basking in the glory of that successful launch over 2 years ago.
That isn’t how it works, people get bored and move on some return many don’t and some new players will come with the expansion but at the end of the day if you could keep even 10% more players here just by laying out the future plans why the hell wouldn’t you?

Killthehealersffs.8940:

I still dont understand your thinking …
You need 1,5 months to complete the Conquest set , then you have 1,5 months to enjoy them before the newer set gring starts .
But you want less grind here .

Okay let me try to explain it this way. You can quickly get your honor gear or Exotics. Easy no limitations gets you to a base level. Then to get to work on your next set. Yes you are correct every few months you work on a new set. This is done because every few months everyone get caught up to the current content. To do the current content you need a certain base level of gear. So to prevent people from getting left behind this is done.

The difference why it feels like less grind is because I can sit down to night of gaming and get a piece of gear for my efforts. No it’s not the entire set but it’s an item. In GW2 you login and do a whole night of WvW and walk away with well not much. Next night I can get another piece towards my set. WvW I get well not a lot just a little closer to a piece and repeat. Yes you get more but your getting rewarded much more for the time you spend. It is by definition a much more rewarding game. Where as spend a evening getting a couple Exotic drops if you can even get them that often anymore I don’t know to turn around and get nothing from a Mystic Forge of nothingness. Not very rewarding.

In the other game you are getting gear from the new current content. In GW2 your grinding the same old stuff over and over and over and get reward very little spaced fairly far apart. Now this may not be an issue for some. But that’s why the game doesn’t have a chance of being a big MMO. And I do call BS on their “Fastest Selling ever MMO” when the other company sells 3.3 million expansions in the first 24 hours of release not including pre-sales.

Anyways it’s time for me to get back to enjoying Warlords. I think the points have been adequately made. Will check back in a few months to see if this game is still around and if they’ve made any progress at turning it around.

McSlappy.1372:

The difference why it feels like less grind is because I can sit down to night of gaming and get a piece of gear for my efforts. No it’s not the entire set but it’s an item. In GW2 you login and do a whole night of WvW and walk away with well not much. Next night I can get another piece towards my set. WvW I get well not a lot just a little closer to a piece and repeat. Yes you get more but your getting rewarded much more for the time you spend. It is by definition a much more rewarding game. Where as spend a evening getting a couple Exotic drops if you can even get them that often anymore I don’t know to turn around and get nothing from a Mystic Forge of nothingness. Not very rewarding.

You must have taken a long break from WoW, because last time I played it, the casual player could hope to run LFR and come away with a “raiding” set that was literally half as powerful as a full-on heroic raiding set. If they wanted to be a little more committed they could try to get in on “Flexible” raids which took several hours apiece to complete, could only be run once a week, and, on average, would only provide maybe one upgrade per week. Then there was the fully committed raider. In the typical raiding guild you would run “Normal” level raids that required everyone to bring their A-game for every single boss. If just one player spent one second distracted the entire group was guaranteed to wipe and the fight had to start from the very beginning. Provided you could get good enough to “farm” bosses, the intra-guild competition for loot would commence. Most guilds fell back on various systems for distributing the loot “fairly,” but rarely was a player ever happy. But that’s not even the highest level of raiding. Beyond that you had “heroic” raids. In those, not only did everyone have to bring their A-game; they also had to be fully decked out in full Normal gear sets. If one player failed to show up that night the rest of the guild could forget about making progress on the bosses. Do you really want to bring that “joy” to GW2???

McSlappy.1372:

In the other game you are getting gear from the new current content. In GW2 your grinding the same old stuff over and over and over and get reward very little spaced fairly far apart. Now this may not be an issue for some. But that’s why the game doesn’t have a chance of being a big MMO. And I do call BS on their “Fastest Selling ever MMO” when the other company sells 3.3 million expansions in the first 24 hours of release not including pre-sales.

Anyways it’s time for me to get back to enjoying Warlords. I think the points have been adequately made. Will check back in a few months to see if this game is still around and if they’ve made any progress at turning it around.

Right now you are in the WoW post-expansion honeymoon phase. The “limitless” gear you’re talking about comes from heroic dungeons and is destined to be an absolute joke three months from now. As soon as the raids start coming you’re going to be right back on that gearing treadmill, and then you can come back here to tell us all about the “lack of grind” in WoW. The description you gave for GW2, “grinding the same old stuff over and over and over and get reward very little spaced fairly far apart,” is an apt description for about 75% of the time I spent in WoW. I’ll take the current GW2 gearing system over that any day of the week.

It just kills me. More guildmates bored with the game and it has pretty much fallen apart. I think the next two updates will be amazing, and they all will probably check it out. But it just isn’t enough. Makes me so sad.

McSlappy.1372:

Vayne.8563:

Part of the current population might like having their own farm to grow things. And part won’t.

This is what I talk about all the time. Everyone thinks that they have some idea of what the current population wants. What we have here is a whole bunch of micropopulations with some crossover.

I do believe, however, that anything Anet implements will kitten off someone.

LOL WoW had that two years ago. Some were like Wtf. Basically those that liked it used it those that didn’t didn’t no big deal. Now two years later Blizz introduced Garrisons which is turning out to be near unanimously considered to be fairly awesome. So far this has been the largest single expansion of content ever released in that game. Having looked at a few of the Living Story content. Personal observations way more content then all the trickle GW2 content. And there are the content release patches coming out every couple months that are by themselves generally bigger then the LS patches.

So if GW2 wants to survive they better come out with something that can compete with that. Because for at least the next year or so till the next inter expansion lul happens pulling people off real content for freebie content is gonna be difficult. I think it was GameBreaker that had an article about NCsoft financial calls with GW2 in decline.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-02-14-guild-wars-2-in-steep-decline-in-weak-q4-for-ncsoft

25% of previous year? OUCH. Well that’s what the big company direction is. Server and staff consolidation.

Before one comments on markets, one should understand how markets work. The guy who wrote that article apparently doesn’t have a clue either. To simplify…

Almost every single game drops significantly over time. Only a tiny percent of games make as much two years after launch than 1 year after launch and, get this, these falls are figured into the business plan. Guild Wars 2 is meeting the business plan, the expected profits, or NCsoft would have laid off workers when they laid off the other workers associated with NCsoft Northwest.

More important is that the profits of the game/company are quote in Korean currency because it’s a Korean company. Now, money a game makes in US and EU currency, which is most of the money of Guild Wars 2, has to go through changes to get to the currency of the game. A year ago, Won was weaker against the US dollar so the exchange rate was smaller. Now the Won is stronger and so the exchange rate is weaker…and yes that figures heavily into profit.

Which means even if there was a 25% decreased year on year (there wasn’t, it was less than that) almost half that decrease comes down to global exchange rates, rather than how much the game was taking in.

There are many people here who will never play WoW or will never play WoW again. I’m pretty sure there are more people who will never go back to WoW than there are those who actively play the game.

So yeah, before commenting on finances, you might want to do some research.

If things are genuinely in the works, then all I have to say is a simple dare:

Surprise me.

So far in two years, I’ve yet to be surprised. I know of games released over a decade ago with around maybe 5% of ANet’s staff are continuously doing so to far greater extents.

So far, I’ve just seen the same pattern happen, and it’s yet to really make the game more appealing since the content offered at launch.

Vayne.8563:

More important is that the profits of the game/company are quote in Korean currency because it’s a Korean company. Now, money a game makes in US and EU currency, which is most of the money of Guild Wars 2, has to go through changes to get to the currency of the game. A year ago, Won was weaker against the US dollar so the exchange rate was smaller. Now the Won is stronger and so the exchange rate is weaker…and yes that figures heavily into profit.

Which means even if there was a 25% decreased year on year (there wasn’t, it was less than that) almost half that decrease comes down to global exchange rates, rather than how much the game was taking in.

Sorry if off topic, but where are those numbers coming from? I see KRW 1% stronger at 31st dec 2013 vs prior year against $ (and 4% weaker vs euro). Does NCSoft have a non-December year end?

McSlappy.1372:

Okay getting back on track though honest question. Blizzard communicates what they having coming up over a year down the road. Honestly with this following link obviously their doing it right.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/11/19/world-of-warcraft-passes-10m-subscribers/

Should AN rethink their policy of hush hush?

Wait .. Blizzard upped their subs from 7 to 10 millions because they sold 3.3 million copies of Warlords of Draenor ?

Doesn’t that sound a little strange ? In the end that means that nobody with an
active subscription bought the new addon, and only players without an active
subscription bought it.

Stick to the topic, guys… this is about GW2 not it’s competitors.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

Stick to the topic, guys… this is about GW2 not it’s competitors.

On the contrary. The antics used by a company often determine whether or not it is successful, and monitoring the competition is essential for understanding good and bad practices to succeed.

If all companies operated in a vacuum, there would effectively be no such thing as competition in business. And with this being a luxury business, offering a reason to stay is much harder, and thus more competitive than anything, so focusing on the competition is absolutely important for the success of one’s company.