Guild Wars 2

Gaile, is this what you were eluding too? http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2nefps/massivelys_anatoli_ingram_visits_anet_hq_confirms/

DeceiverX.8361:

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.

I don’t disagree, but in saying that, the mods get quite picky with what gets said about which competitor’s games. I’ve seen heaps of other threads shut down for a lot less than what’s been talked about here.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

I don’t disagree, but in saying that, the mods get quite picky with what gets said about which competitor’s games. I’ve seen heaps of other threads shut down for a lot less than what’s been talked about here.

That’s what every game forums do. They delete post about other games or move it to a forum no one read.

It’s understandable since the mod don’t want people to be lured to play other games.

I’m surprsied Anet let many post go. If it is on another mmorpg forum, it’ll get deleted immediately.

Well, we all got something really nice update so far, but we’re still have not mutch to do in-game after 1-2 years… Some LS won’t save it, until it’s not unlocking a longer quest each day.

Trivelino.5092:

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?

It was down quarter year to year. So you have to look at the same month in both years. The math was done in another thread by someone who has more experience in finance than I did.

I’m here because my guild of 200+ active players is now about 5. They have moved to other MMOs, console games, what-have-you. I usually stay out of forum threads because I find arguing on the Internet to be the least productive thing I could possibly waste my time doing. The experience of this specific thread, when taken as a single narrative, is telling.

I just sat down and read this thread from start to present. There is such … animus. Resentment. Frustration. There are hundreds of people trying to say “we do not feel respected.” There are a bunch of illogical things and ad hominem stuff, which I simply read and moved on. As a former community manager for a different software company, I appreciate the difficulty of the position Gaile is in, and am glad a few folks are at least trying to spare her from their venting. She personally assisted our gaming community a few times in GW1 and with a delicate problem after GW2’s launch, so I wanted to publicly affirm I have deep respect for her efforts in what others have pointed out is a “no win” situation.

Marriage counselors will tell you that the fastest way to destroy a relationship is by building resentment. The most effective way to generate resentment is through non-communication. The most passionate supporters of this game are right here, in the forums, trying to elucidate their frustrations and disappointments. The resentment is even stronger because not so long ago, the community was told (paraphrasing): “we know we need to communicate better and we will improve.”

Promoting Gaile to interact with forum users was a great first step. Now, to the management team at Anet, give her the tools to do the job effectively.

I was a product manager for a different software company with a similarly-sized user base that was just as demanding of information about updates. They also had an incessant wellspring of cool ideas (some practical, most not), and our management team worked for years to figure out how to balance being competitive in the marketplace, not over-promising, and never under-delivering. And fantastically, other companies had already solved this problem! And existing GW2 customers have been asking for it; cautionary roadmaps and development progress updates.

On a two week sprint cycle, I was able to author blog posts monthly to keep my customers up to speed on what cool things were in the pipeline. These included feature overviews and video demonstrations, even with code still in production. It is not risky. We were publicly-held and our customers and shareholders were delighted to have access to and input in the process. Customers were also able to react early when something was clearly going to miss the mark, so we had the information immediately available to pivot. (I don’t know if your team follows Lean, but it’d be the same in most Agile environments).

Our end result is that our stagnant subscriber base grew by just over 125% in the first year after moving to this method of customer interaction. The second year saw nearly 200% growth.

It only takes a few hours of competitive analysis to demonstrate the successes of game development houses that are effective in this area. In this thread, some great examples have already been pointed out by unhappy, passionate users.

Any organization can choose transparency and customer collaboration. It takes courage at the executive level to make it happen, but myself and thousands of forum posts are (electronically) screaming at you guys to take that step. You will be rewarded with happy players, a vibrant and dynamic community of supporters, and increased sales through the cash shop and people pushing their friends to return because the environment has returned to the health and excitement present pre-launch.

rhael.6317:

I’m here because my guild of 200+ active players is now about 5. They have moved to other MMOs, console games, what-have-you. I usually stay out of forum threads because I find arguing on the Internet to be the least productive thing I could possibly waste my time doing. The experience of this specific thread, when taken as a single narrative, is telling.

I just sat down and read this thread from start to present. There is such … animus. Resentment. Frustration. There are hundreds of people trying to say “we do not feel respected.” There are a bunch of illogical things and ad hominem stuff, which I simply read and moved on. As a former community manager for a different software company, I appreciate the difficulty of the position Gaile is in, and am glad a few folks are at least trying to spare her from their venting. She personally assisted our gaming community a few times in GW1 and with a delicate problem after GW2’s launch, so I wanted to publicly affirm I have deep respect for her efforts in what others have pointed out is a “no win” situation.

Marriage counselors will tell you that the fastest way to destroy a relationship is by building resentment. The most effective way to generate resentment is through non-communication. The most passionate supporters of this game are right here, in the forums, trying to elucidate their frustrations and disappointments. The resentment is even stronger because not so long ago, the community was told (paraphrasing): “we know we need to communicate better and we will improve.”

Promoting Gaile to interact with forum users was a great first step. Now, to the management team at Anet, give her the tools to do the job effectively.

I was a product manager for a different software company with a similarly-sized user base that was just as demanding of information about updates. They also had an incessant wellspring of cool ideas (some practical, most not), and our management team worked for years to figure out how to balance being competitive in the marketplace, not over-promising, and never under-delivering. And fantastically, other companies had already solved this problem! And existing GW2 customers have been asking for it; cautionary roadmaps and development progress updates.

On a two week sprint cycle, I was able to author blog posts monthly to keep my customers up to speed on what cool things were in the pipeline. These included feature overviews and video demonstrations, even with code still in production. It is not risky. We were publicly-held and our customers and shareholders were delighted to have access to and input in the process. Customers were also able to react early when something was clearly going to miss the mark, so we had the information immediately available to pivot. (I don’t know if your team follows Lean, but it’d be the same in most Agile environments).

Our end result is that our stagnant subscriber base grew by just over 125% in the first year after moving to this method of customer interaction. The second year saw nearly 200% growth.

It only takes a few hours of competitive analysis to demonstrate the successes of game development houses that are effective in this area. In this thread, some great examples have already been pointed out by unhappy, passionate users.

Any organization can choose transparency and customer collaboration. It takes courage at the executive level to make it happen, but myself and thousands of forum posts are (electronically) screaming at you guys to take that step. You will be rewarded with happy players, a vibrant and dynamic community of supporters, and increased sales through the cash shop and people pushing their friends to return because the environment has returned to the health and excitement present pre-launch.

Absolutely nailed it. I work as a CM for another MMO, and this is precisely what keeps players willing to stay and return. Those who berate Gaile don’t seem to understand she is not a developer and not in charge of what can be said due to confidentiality agreements which if broken can cost her her job. The bottom line is that execs need to hear this information, but sadly enough this is so difficult to do in this industry for whatever reason. It makes me upset that games after games fail on the basis of a lack of interaction, and that upcoming content is so frequently referred to as “top-secret,” as though a random surprise is going to garner more appreciation than paying attention, building some hype to fix the real issues and interacting, and then EVENTUALLY delivering the desired content after further interacting and refining the idea to perfection.

rhael.6317:

I’m here because my guild of 200+ active players is now about 5. They have moved to other MMOs, console games, what-have-you. I usually stay out of forum threads because I find arguing on the Internet to be the least productive thing I could possibly waste my time doing. The experience of this specific thread, when taken as a single narrative, is telling.

I just sat down and read this thread from start to present. There is such … animus. Resentment. Frustration. There are hundreds of people trying to say “we do not feel respected.” There are a bunch of illogical things and ad hominem stuff, which I simply read and moved on. As a former community manager for a different software company, I appreciate the difficulty of the position Gaile is in, and am glad a few folks are at least trying to spare her from their venting. She personally assisted our gaming community a few times in GW1 and with a delicate problem after GW2’s launch, so I wanted to publicly affirm I have deep respect for her efforts in what others have pointed out is a “no win” situation.

Marriage counselors will tell you that the fastest way to destroy a relationship is by building resentment. The most effective way to generate resentment is through non-communication. The most passionate supporters of this game are right here, in the forums, trying to elucidate their frustrations and disappointments. The resentment is even stronger because not so long ago, the community was told (paraphrasing): “we know we need to communicate better and we will improve.”

Promoting Gaile to interact with forum users was a great first step. Now, to the management team at Anet, give her the tools to do the job effectively.

I was a product manager for a different software company with a similarly-sized user base that was just as demanding of information about updates. They also had an incessant wellspring of cool ideas (some practical, most not), and our management team worked for years to figure out how to balance being competitive in the marketplace, not over-promising, and never under-delivering. And fantastically, other companies had already solved this problem! And existing GW2 customers have been asking for it; cautionary roadmaps and development progress updates.

On a two week sprint cycle, I was able to author blog posts monthly to keep my customers up to speed on what cool things were in the pipeline. These included feature overviews and video demonstrations, even with code still in production. It is not risky. We were publicly-held and our customers and shareholders were delighted to have access to and input in the process. Customers were also able to react early when something was clearly going to miss the mark, so we had the information immediately available to pivot. (I don’t know if your team follows Lean, but it’d be the same in most Agile environments).

Our end result is that our stagnant subscriber base grew by just over 125% in the first year after moving to this method of customer interaction. The second year saw nearly 200% growth.

It only takes a few hours of competitive analysis to demonstrate the successes of game development houses that are effective in this area. In this thread, some great examples have already been pointed out by unhappy, passionate users.

Any organization can choose transparency and customer collaboration. It takes courage at the executive level to make it happen, but myself and thousands of forum posts are (electronically) screaming at you guys to take that step. You will be rewarded with happy players, a vibrant and dynamic community of supporters, and increased sales through the cash shop and people pushing their friends to return because the environment has returned to the health and excitement present pre-launch.

Very well said.

rhael, DeceiverX, rather well said. Some great ideas which I personally will applaud, however there’s a problem. The people at Anet don’t seem to give these threads very much credence, even though the information within is probably invlauable. The communication of these threads to the appropriate people is also something that’s lacking.

No, sadly, here we’re just the forum users. As much as we’d love for them to sit up and pay attention to some of our great ideas, it won’t happen… not until 1. the people who can put up red posts start actually taking heed and implementing this information, and the processes behind them, and 2. the policy is either amended or abolished.

Gaile’s doing a great job for what it’s worth, in the position she’s in, considering she’s bound also by the very same policy.

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

This game takes money to run, and it’s exploding with content built with the money players have invested in the game. Not the money spent to buy the game; that money paid off ANet’s pre-dev debts. The money spent in the gem store is keeping the game alive.

Yeah, you can play free forever and that’s awesome, but if you play ALL THE TIME and you’re feeling like you have nothing to do, then maybe you DON’T have anything left to do and it’s time to play two games instead of one.

I stopped playing the game for about 6 months. When I came back I was SO behind everyone. So many fractals levels, so much ascended gear, everyone has tons of gold. There is so much in this game I’ve yet to complete I don’t know when I’m going to catch up even though I’m playing obsessively again.

If you feel like there is not enough content in the game then WOW! That means either one of two things:

1. You rushed through the game. You brought this upon yourself. Rushing through the game is a fast track to boredom and burnout. Don’t believe me? Go get on a free private Aion server that has speed-leveling enabled and see how anti-climactic and underwhelming your game experience becomes.

2. You play the game way too much to be healthy and it’s time to cool it down. Take break and do something else every once in a while.

If you’ve been playing the game since launch you probably have wads of gold and tokens in your wallet and you could feasibly enjoy this game without ever having needed to spend real money on gems. In other words, some of you have been playing this game for over 2 years for the low low price of $60. At the current life of the game that comes out to $2.25 a month. If you’ve burnt out all your time on GW2, it’s time to spend money on a new game to play while you’re waiting for new GW2 content.

This game takes MONEY and TIME to create. If you don’t feel like they’re chugging out content fast enough, first off you’ve gotta be joking me. Second, try and commit to spending a little money on gems as you are able, and encourage others to do the same.

You don’t have to spend any extra money to enjoy this game, but if you want MORE game than you already have, then SOMEBODY is gonna have to open up their wallet.

[/justsaying]

The only way they’ll see any more of my $$$ is with an expansion. I don’t speak for players, but a lot of people I’ve seen have the same mind about that.

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

This game takes money to run, and it’s exploding with content built with the money players have invested in the game. Not the money spent to buy the game; that money paid off ANet’s pre-dev debts. The money spent in the gem store is keeping the game alive.

Yeah, you can play free forever and that’s awesome, but if you play ALL THE TIME and you’re feeling like you have nothing to do, then maybe you DON’T have anything left to do and it’s time to play two games instead of one.

I stopped playing the game for about 6 months. When I came back I was SO behind everyone. So many fractals levels, so much ascended gear, everyone has tons of gold. There is so much in this game I’ve yet to complete I don’t know when I’m going to catch up even though I’m playing obsessively again.

---

If you feel like there is not enough content in the game then WOW! That means either one of two things:

1. You rushed through the game. You brought this upon yourself. Rushing through the game is a fast track to boredom and burnout. Don’t believe me? Go get on a free private Aion server that has speed-leveling enabled and see how anti-climactic and underwhelming your game experience becomes.

2. You play the game way too much to be healthy and it’s time to cool it down. Take break and do something else every once in a while.

---

If you’ve been playing the game since launch you probably have wads of gold and tokens in your wallet and you could feasibly enjoy this game without ever having needed to spend real money on gems. In other words, some of you have been playing this game for over 2 years for the low low price of $60. At the current life of the game that comes out to $2.25 a month. If you’ve burnt out all your time on GW2, it’s time to spend money on a new game to play while you’re waiting for new GW2 content.

This game takes MONEY and TIME to create. If you don’t feel like they’re chugging out content fast enough, first off you’ve gotta be joking me. Second, try and commit to spending a little money on gems as you are able, and encourage others to do the same.

You don’t have to spend any extra money to enjoy this game, but if you want MORE game than you already have, then SOMEBODY is gonna have to open up their wallet.

[/justsaying]

That’s nice, whatever, but Arenanet does not pay me to say nice things about the game or its current state. I’m not going to sugarcoat or go around saying “Guys this game is awesome, come play!” when it’s not, and when the developer has one of the most insulting and aggravating communication policies ever.

If arenanet wants my money, they should release an expansion or start talking more to the community

Well, to be fair, it is a holiday here and we might not even hear much till at least after December 2 patch. I’m just as impatient as many of you, but we all can recognize that the holiday season is personally taxing. I’m of the mind that if anything really changes, it won’t be till sometime in January.

Living Story is nice addition and it’s different from many other games in that the world is changing. But as has been said in this thread many times, it’s not enough if there is nothing else.
It brings something more to do and see for couple of hours after release and possibly for a day or two after that. But all the LS is not equal to a expansion. Why? Because a new player would have lot more to do and see with expansion than with the LS that he can’t play as it has already happened. The LS is addition but it needs something more alongside it to become a full upgrade on what to do in the game.
Most players are not interested in doing it again and again, unlike the dungeons and world bosses which are gone through again and again.

Also what bugs me in LS is that everything else is always put on hold and only the one thing that current LS episode does is taken into account. Why is the no change in the status of what has been happening elsewhere? What about Pale tree? What about the pact, why is there no sign of the new heading of pact in their citadel? If episode ends with NPC X going to go home and do thing Y. Why can’t I find NPC X in his home and ask how it’s going?
So far the LS has been railroaded story, where you can’t do anything but one thing only. NPC’s can send me mail asking them to meet me, but I as their boss can’t get hold of them. Really? I though I was their boss.

Enough ranting for now. Back to the goals of GW2.
Goals I’d like to see published from Anet side are not what the story brings, but more on the lines of improvements to home instances (yes I know about the thread about it, but there is nothing if it will ever happen), new races and classes, new dungeons (there are plenty of places in the current world already to include new dungeons), new areas to live in and see (not just small story areas, but full zones). In generally what is coming to GW2 other than Living Story, so far it has been nothing and if it will not change Anet will be losing lot’s of players as the LS is not enough.

Everyone mentions all these other companies…but seems to forget the other 800 lb gorilla in the room that is right in A.nets back yard…Valve, who has a very similar policy to A.net…yet I don’t see many kitten about them.

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

This game takes money to run, and it’s exploding with content built with the money players have invested in the game. Not the money spent to buy the game; that money paid off ANet’s pre-dev debts. The money spent in the gem store is keeping the game alive.

Yeah, you can play free forever and that’s awesome, but if you play ALL THE TIME and you’re feeling like you have nothing to do, then maybe you DON’T have anything left to do and it’s time to play two games instead of one.

I stopped playing the game for about 6 months. When I came back I was SO behind everyone. So many fractals levels, so much ascended gear, everyone has tons of gold. There is so much in this game I’ve yet to complete I don’t know when I’m going to catch up even though I’m playing obsessively again.

---

If you feel like there is not enough content in the game then WOW! That means either one of two things:

1. You rushed through the game. You brought this upon yourself. Rushing through the game is a fast track to boredom and burnout. Don’t believe me? Go get on a free private Aion server that has speed-leveling enabled and see how anti-climactic and underwhelming your game experience becomes.

2. You play the game way too much to be healthy and it’s time to cool it down. Take break and do something else every once in a while.

---

If you’ve been playing the game since launch you probably have wads of gold and tokens in your wallet and you could feasibly enjoy this game without ever having needed to spend real money on gems. In other words, some of you have been playing this game for over 2 years for the low low price of $60. At the current life of the game that comes out to $2.25 a month. If you’ve burnt out all your time on GW2, it’s time to spend money on a new game to play while you’re waiting for new GW2 content.

This game takes MONEY and TIME to create. If you don’t feel like they’re chugging out content fast enough, first off you’ve gotta be joking me. Second, try and commit to spending a little money on gems as you are able, and encourage others to do the same.

You don’t have to spend any extra money to enjoy this game, but if you want MORE game than you already have, then SOMEBODY is gonna have to open up their wallet.

[/justsaying]

Since you feel the need to white-knight for ANet:

Many of those complaining about content or lack thereof are not those who have not spent anything but those who have spent the most. I’m certain that my bill for this game has extended at least triple the amount I could have spent on say, WoW in the last two years. Simply, the paying customers are upset because their money seems to be going nowhere.

Also note that GW2 built so much hype that it profited before it was even released, since ever single player on day 1 spent $60 or more. $60 is close to what Blizzard can expect to make in the lifetime of a given player based upon drop-out rates and the overall in-game lifespan of the average MMO player.

I think you’re mistaking content and meaningful content. I assure you that this game shipped with an absolutely immense amount of content and detail, and that while a lot has been released since the game’s launch, not a lot of meaningful content has.

And quite frankly, a lot of what has been released as “major content updates” has ultimately been terribly detrimental to the game, such as the NPE and trait “rework” which have threads about them which have views into the hundreds of thousands with thousands of replies demanding that the system be reverted, reworked, and/or simply removed because it’s absolutely terrible and has been nothing but detrimental to both new and veteran players alike, and has costed both ANet and the players a lot of money and a massive number active of community members. Remember that we’re in an MMO. It’s a combination of both publisher and player responsibility to keep new players interested and playing. The core systems and overall population of the game seems to be in a very good place in this regard. Frankly, ANet has been failing on many fronts to properly implement changes and find new engaging content for everyone to enjoy.

(continued)

So what is meaningful content? Simply put, it’s content that has a permanent, definite effect on the game and re-defines what is considered “normal” every day.

I’m not one of those who really wants or feels the need for a geographical expansion, especially since the player-base feels to be at an all-time low, and I don’t think spreading people out further is going to help anyone. What I want is new content within the scope of the existing stuff. Have the game balance team working on balance with say, new implementations of weapons for different classes in mind, or simply release a pile of new weapon types. Get the artists drawing and building these, the animators making new combat and idle animations for them, and programmers implementing them.

Then get LW and those in map design to work on re-worked dungeons to help bust the PvE metas and the implementation of some new ones. Programmers with a background in AI can try and perform some monster and boss updates within the scope of these, etc.

The game doesn’t need what’s necessarily new content as much as it needs substantial upgrades and freshening up of the old content. People are simply desperate for something different. It’s why huge numbers of people move to LS when it’s released on day 1, but feel the same way they did before the release the next day since they’ve exhausted the new content for the most part. Nobody’s discrediting the work put in as much as where ANet’s priorities stand.

^And yet, that is the opposite of what I, personally, would want to see. Thus, it must be difficult for the Devs to know exactly what would please the playerbase the most.

Yep DeceiverX’s idea of meaningful content has nothing to do with my idea of meaningful content.

Which is where it all falls apart of course.

Sure i want new stuff to but i understand the need to rework old stuff instead, the more new stuff we cram in the harder it will be to get people to do old stuff.

Easy example right now silverwaste vs dry top and thats what 2 months old?

Vayne.8563:

Yep DeceiverX’s idea of meaningful content has nothing to do with my idea of meaningful content.

Which is where it all falls apart of course.

Which is exactly why we need to know upfront what Anet considers a meaningful content.

Gaile said that LS is what they consider meaningful, substantial content.

People’s response to the statements about “meaningful content” is a perfect example of what I’ve said in other threads if not this one.

This game is being made for MANY people with MANY interests.

I personally love the game, and if you don’t love it that’s okay, but I’m saying you need to appreciate the amount of time and effort and money it takes to complete any project.

Also you need to appreciate that ANet is trying to appease tons of people with conflicting demands.

When they make changes to the game they’re trying to make the game better. Is the new trait system awesome? Not really, but they have a thread where people can discuss what should change.

Hey if you want the game to go in a different direction, go ahead and keep voicing your opinion. But too many people here “voicing their opinion” by framing their statements as if ANet has “betrayed” them and they are so woefully distraught.

Stop being so melodramatic.

Why would ANet betray you? They want to you to keep buying gems so as a very facet of their needs as a business they’re going to be searching for a way to keep customers interested.

Want to tell them what will keep you interested? Try and do it in a rationally-voiced clear statement so it’ll be easier for the mods to dredge through these forums for feedback.

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

I, along with many others asking for change, have spent quite a chunk of personal change in the gem store. As for me personally, it’s easily a few hundred USD since launch. I didn’t include that in my post because I’m trying to make a more consummate point about how software development could be run more effectively, not trying to throw my weight around as someone who has continued to fund the game more than the median player.

(All of which is neither an effective debate technique, nor germane to the root problem I found reading this thread.)

Personally I have no problem with the Living Story. I understand some people like it and I also like it when it’s made to play with other people.

What I don’t understand is the removal of past content and the lack of new content for the endgame (WvW mostly, PvP and dungeons).

If I was designer/manager at Anet I would make the Ring of Fire area asap with a WvW map in the middle of it.

Xillllix.3485:

Personally I have no problem with the Living Story. I understand some people like it and I also like it when it’s made to play with other people.

What I don’t understand is the removal of past content and the lack of new content for the endgame (WvW mostly, PvP and dungeons).

If I was designer/manager at Anet I would make the Ring of Fire area asap with a WvW map in the middle of it.

So you want a separate WvW going on in a different location? Or just a new map? My understanding is that EotM was made partially to give people something to do when there were high queue times in WvW, but also EotM spreads out the player base.

Wouldn’t you think adding another WvW map would spread things too thin?

Otherwise I’m all for continued improvement and iteration in WvW to make it more engaging.

I don’t know about dungeons too much, but what are the reasons they might not think releasing more dungeons would be a priority?

I don’t know the answer I’m just asking, but one thing to note is that they can see how many people are engaged in doing dungeons. Maybe they’ve never seen a high enough percentage of the player base using dungeons to think they were worth investing much time in. I’m sure you could imagine dungeon usage going down as people get bored with them, but maybe there never was a ton of usage from the start.

Vayne.8563:

szygum.2607:

The simpliest answer is always the best answer.
They aren’t annoucing anything because there is nothing to announce. Simple.

The simplest answer is that business announce things like expansions when it’s profitable to do so. When SWToR came out, Trion went completely silent about Rift and stayed silent for three months. It wasn’t that they had nothing in the works. It was that they didn’t want to waste advertising dollars, because they knew they couldn’t compete with SWToR.

The WoW expansion has been hyped for months and it’s just come out. Which means that spending time hyping or even mentioning something that would get lost would be a waste of opportunity.

Watching the industry is how you find out what’s going on. Not by guessing.

If for 2 years always better games come out you can’t compete with something
is really wrong don’t you think ??
I know you are always defending, but telling people for 2 years they didn’t come out with an announcement of an expansion because it would always be overshadowed
is a little bit riudiculous.

Anet is not going to see any more of my gaming money until they fix traits, gem conversion, and the TP sell interface. It’s really that simple. Until then, my gaming money is going to Steam and I’m investigating several other MMOs. Once I get engaged in a new MMO, it’ll be too late to win back my business, even with the changes I mentioned above.

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

I do. I’ve probably spent enough on gems that I could have subscribed to a subscription-based game until the day that game closes down.

I still feel like I’m not respected and ignored.

Any other advice?

I have purchased Dragon Age Inquisition and Far Cry 4. Both of those games could have gone to gems or an expansion if it was available. The money is there Anet.
2 years of the same meta events.
2 years of the same classes and weapons types
2 years of the same races
2 years of the same dungeons

Did you guys seriously think that the LS was going to be enough for me to invest 2 years into?
GW2’s 20+/- GB space has been allocated to my storage drive until an expansion or significant update(not a one hour LS) has been offered.

I concur with what Guhracie.3419 has said about becoming invested into other games. It is becoming too late for Anet to sway many people’s minds, and wallets!

Filaha.1678:

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

I do. I’ve probably spent enough on gems that I could have subscribed to a subscription-based game until the day that game closes down.

I still feel like I’m not respected and ignored.

Any other advice?

QFT.

A little over a grand for me.

Stormcrow.7513:

I have purchased Dragon Age Inquisition and Far Cry 4. Both of those games could have gone to gems or an expansion if it was available. The money is there Anet.
2 years of the same meta events.
2 years of the same classes and weapons types
2 years of the same races
2 years of the same dungeons

Did you guys seriously think that the LS was going to be enough for me to invest 2 years into?
GW2’s 20+/- GB space has been allocated to my storage drive until an expansion or significant update(not a one hour LS) has been offered.

I concur with what Guhracie.3419 has said about becoming invested into other games. It is becoming too late for Anet to sway many people’s minds, and wallets!

It’s hard to justify buying 2000 gems to craft an ascended armor or transfer server when games are 75-80% off on Steam. For 5$ you can get an AAA title like the latest Deus Ex, while it would cost me 20$ in gems to transfer server or craft 2 ascended armor pieces. Guess where my money went today.

Hhaha the funny part is that they are not replaying still nothing official from arena net :P
i dont understand the direction this game is going i really dont can anyone here explain me pls im confused a lot!!!!

Gele.2048:

Hhaha the funny part is that they are not replaying still nothing official from arena net :P
i dont understand the direction this game is going i really dont can anyone here explain me pls im confused a lot!!!!

There isn’t one, not until ANet decides to open it’s food-hole and talk.
I hope you enjoy Living Story, cause that’s what you’re getting until the game dies.

Player since head start here. I just bought some games on steam for cheap. The last 2 days I’ve been playing Black Flag. So much fun! I’ll be logging into GW2 every 2 weeks or so for the LS, but the next day when I’ve exhausted the content it has to offer I’m back to the other games. I wish that GW2 would live up to the “expansion type content” and the “2 big projects” that Colin spoke of.

I’ve learned to take anything CJ says with a grain of salt. Expansion-type content isn’t really good enough – an expansion however would get more people into the game and increase sales for Anet. However, they don’t look at this as being a big enough win-win as we do.

In order for this game to progress it has to be addressed not only depth-wise (story development, etc.) but also breadth-wise (expanding the playable area to different maps) which, no doubt, will have to be introduced.

There’s a hidden agenda going on and it’s based on the LS, because the commonsense to do the right thing and retain players is just being defeated hand-over-fist. LS alone isn’t going to keep players in the game. It’s become very clear that commonsense isn’t enough to win over the devs.

Not everyone agrees that an expansion is win-win. It is possible to give us everything you’d normally see in an expansion through the LS. At this rate it’ll take another 2 years to have it, but we’ll get it.

Torsailr.8456:

Not everyone agrees that an expansion is win-win. It is possible to give us everything you’d normally see in an expansion through the LS. At this rate it’ll take another 2 years to have it, but we’ll get it.

Will we get it? How do you know? Has ANET communicated something to you that they haven’t communicated to the rest of us, or did they communicate it and everyone missed it but you? If not, what evidence are you basing your statement on, and what reasoning did you use from there to determine your statement was correct enough to not just be mere random worthless speculation that merits no weight at all?

As I see it, there is no evidence to conclude we will get anything other than the following from LS:
1. Story “content”. With most of that being pure story, and small amounts being playable content.
2. Achievement Points to hunt.
3. Open world zones for maximum level players to farm in.

This is an extremely small portion of the content we’d normally see in an expansion. So small, that saying it’s anything like what we’d see in an actual expansion is pretty disingenuous. It’s also not the kind of content that has compelling repeated replay value for many players, which is a primary reason a lot of people want to see expansion-like content.

The only way we can know what we’ll be getting is if ANET tells us. They don’t need to tell us specifics. They can tell us very generally. But their communication policy in this respect is “do not communicate”. This is why this thread exists. What direction is this game actually headed? No one really knows. We’d like to know. We’d like some communication.

Torsailr.8456:

Not everyone agrees that an expansion is win-win. It is possible to give us everything you’d normally see in an expansion through the LS. At this rate it’ll take another 2 years to have it, but we’ll get it.

You are very optimistic. And no, there are things that expansions might do that devs will never be able to push through LS. Basically anything with far-reaching and widespread changes is out. So are things like Cantha and Elona (i sincerely doubt it would be possible to introduce them piecemeal, at one zone per LS arc rate – and even if it were, the quality would go way down).

Ashen.2907:

Filaha.1678:

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

I do. I’ve probably spent enough on gems that I could have subscribed to a subscription-based game until the day that game closes down.

I still feel like I’m not respected and ignored.

Any other advice?

QFT.

A little over a grand for me.

Yes the other advice is in the rest of that post.

Also even if you do spend gems stop acting like you’re a VIP and if ANet doesn’t heed your particular opinion than you have been “disrespected”.

Seriously “disrespected”? Who do you think you are? I mean in comparison to the thousands of other people playing this game.

ANet is trying to appeal to EVERYONE. Which is impossible. So instead they go off data and feedback that suggests what the MAJORITY wants.

If ANet continually ignores your requests then you are unfortunately in the minority.

So instead of acting like you’re the top dog an your opinion is the greatest, take a different approach. A CONSTRUCTIVE approach:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/first#post3383470

Zui.9245:

Will we get it? How do you know? Has ANET communicated something to you that they haven’t communicated to the rest of us, or did they communicate it and everyone missed it but you? If not, what evidence are you basing your statement on, and what reasoning did you use from there to determine your statement was correct enough to not just be mere random worthless speculation that merits no weight at all?

Sadly my powers of prophecy and insider information aren’t that great. My statement was based on 2 things.

1. They said we’d get it.
2. Their production rate.

Over the past 2 years they’ve given some things that would normally be seen in an expansion, just nowhere near the quantity that we’d see in an expansion. Give it another 2 years or so and we’ll probably see all of that content that would normally be in an expansion.

They’ve said we’ll have expansion type content through the LS and we’re kind of getting it. No, it’s not what I’d consider a good rate of delivery; the term glacial comes to mind, but it is coming.

Astralporing.1957:

You are very optimistic.

Well I did have some really amazing brownies that put me in a good mood…I’ll probably be back to my usual snark and sarcasm tomorrow.

Ashen.2907:

Filaha.1678:

Mo Mo.1947:

You guys want to feel respected? You want to feel like your voice is heard? Dish out!

I do. I’ve probably spent enough on gems that I could have subscribed to a subscription-based game until the day that game closes down.

I still feel like I’m not respected and ignored.

Any other advice?

QFT.

A little over a grand for me.

/headtable

Mo Mo.1947:

Also even if you do spend gems stop acting like you’re a VIP and if ANet doesn’t heed your particular opinion than you have been “disrespected”.

Seriously “disrespected”? Who do you think you are? I mean in comparison to the thousands of other people playing this game.

ANet is trying to appeal to EVERYONE. Which is impossible. So instead they go off data and feedback that suggests what the MAJORITY wants.

If ANet continually ignores your requests then you are unfortunately in the minority.

So instead of acting like you’re the top dog an your opinion is the greatest, take a different approach. A CONSTRUCTIVE approach:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/How-to-Give-Good-Feedback/first#post3383470

Hear that sound? Yea, that’s the point flying rite over your head.
On a side note, perhaps you yourself should tone down the melodramatic in that sensationalist strawman of a post, given how you called upon others to pipe it down.

Mo Mo.1947:

Also even if you do spend gems stop acting like you’re a VIP and if ANet doesn’t heed your particular opinion than you have been “disrespected”.

So first you say that if if I want to feel like I’m listened to and respected, I should spend money on gems, then you say that I should not pretend like I’m entitled to feel like I’m listened to and respected just because i spend gems?

If ANet continually ignores your requests then you are unfortunately in the minority.

So instead of acting like you’re the top dog an your opinion is the greatest, take a different approach. A CONSTRUCTIVE approach:

You know nothing about me or what I’ve ever brought up to ANet, so stop trying to tell me how to act because you’re ignorant.

You want an example of things I’ve brought up?

Four months ago, I mentioned, in the proper channels in their own proper thread, that the Aristocrat’s Coat (Human T2 cultural) on a female human removes their wrists. They literally do not exist. Your hands float away from your arms. I still have no wrists.

At the same time, I mentioned, in the same place, that human females (at least) do not have a butt underneath the Magitech skirt, which is a gem store item. As such, whenever you’re trying to jump up something (and this was done when Dry Top was in full swing, which meant you were jumping ALL THE TIME), you could see right through her. This is still not fixed and is an issue with something that they’re selling for real money.

It would take one person who can model to fix these. The wrist thing especially I could fix in a day.

So don’t tell me whether or not I should feel disrespected because they’re not listening to me when I post things that should be easy fixes and affect items that they’re expecting people to pay real money for.

Kurrilino.2706:

Vayne.8563:

szygum.2607:

The simpliest answer is always the best answer.
They aren’t annoucing anything because there is nothing to announce. Simple.

The simplest answer is that business announce things like expansions when it’s profitable to do so. When SWToR came out, Trion went completely silent about Rift and stayed silent for three months. It wasn’t that they had nothing in the works. It was that they didn’t want to waste advertising dollars, because they knew they couldn’t compete with SWToR.

The WoW expansion has been hyped for months and it’s just come out. Which means that spending time hyping or even mentioning something that would get lost would be a waste of opportunity.

Watching the industry is how you find out what’s going on. Not by guessing.

---

If for 2 years always better games come out you can’t compete with something
is really wrong don’t you think ??
I know you are always defending, but telling people for 2 years they didn’t come out with an announcement of an expansion because it would always be overshadowed
is a little bit riudiculous.

Actually what I said about Rift is a fact, not speculation. That’s what they did. It was obvious why they did it.

I’m not talking about two years. I’m talking about why they’re not talking about stuff RIGHT NOW. They didn’t talk about much in June because NCsoft had another MMO coming out and they didn’t want to interfere in the initial sales in that.

This is how companies work. If you really think Anet can compete in advertising with Blizzard, or that Trion could have competed in advertising with EA, there’s not much more to say on this topic.

Releases in companies aren’t randomly done. No company looks and says, you know, I have next tuesday free, let’s announce something. It just doesn’t work like that.

So the original post was about a possible roadmap or simply more transparent communication. The poster specifically mentioned dungeons and made it crystal clear, that this was his personal view.
Fast forward 14 pages and people are having the ages old “what is meaningful content?” discussion. Why?
This was never about meaningful content, or any form of content, it’s about informing players of the direction of the game. If someone would tell me that GW2 will focus on casual players in the future, while only maintaining Fractals and Dungeons in case new updates break existing content, I would quit. I am in the same situation as the poster was a year ago. I am hoping for more hardcore content and I would be severely disappointed if, a year from now, I would find out that this form of content wasn’t even planned any longer. It’s a year I could have spent catching up in another MMO.

No, for the most part it’s a discussion about getting an insight into the direction of where the game is going. Since the red-posters aren’t allowed to divulge we’ve been specifying what kind of content that isn’t LS-based that we’d like to see. But it seems that in the short term at least, LS is all we’re gonna get.

It’s like some kid getting spoonfed awful veggies and waiting painfully for dessert.

It’s like hopping on an unfamiliar bus and begging the bus driver to let us know to which direction the bus is heading, so that we can get out at the right time instead of wasting time driving around the town for nothing.

Iris Ng.9845:

It’s like hopping on an unfamiliar bus and begging the bus driver to let us know to which direction the bus is heading, so that we can get out at the right time instead of wasting time driving around the town for nothing.

“I can’t tell you what stops I’m servicing, but I can tell you that they’re some really awesome stops! Even better than the stop you want!”

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

No, for the most part it’s a discussion about getting an insight into the direction of where the game is going. Since the red-posters aren’t allowed to divulge we’ve been specifying what kind of content that isn’t LS-based that we’d like to see. But it seems that in the short term at least, LS is all we’re gonna get.

It’s like some kid getting spoonfed awful veggies and waiting painfully for dessert.

But that was clearly not the intention of the OP, or at least I think it wasn’t. Not that I have a problem with that, it’s just that we all know this discussion will never yield any consensus. Certain well known posters will always reply to this by saying “it’s not what the majority wants”. Whether listening to the majority is a good thing or not, is not part of the thought process. At the end of the day it’s good for business and it doesn’t take Wu Tang Financial to point out the importance of finance in the MMO business.

Anyhow, I simply don’t see a point in having a discussion that’s been had a thousand times already.

Gaile Gray.6029:

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

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

For me, no the LS doesn’t count towards that. Don’t get me wrong, the story has improved over the first season but for the most part it just feels like a delivery method for the latest pay items added to the gem store while the majority of the game goes unattended to.

Right now, for me, it feels like the GW2 roadmap for the next year or more is living world and gem shop only. As has been mentioned too many times to count in this thread; there are things that were planned to be in at launch that still aren’t (shooting gallery), bugs that have been here since launch, features that were discussed before launch that were planned for “sometime after launch” that still haven’t gotten any form of timetable, dungeon and boss revamps that we now know aren’t happening (in the next year, 2, ever?). The full list is here for the reading and I’m only a third of the way through this thread.

I’d like to know if a true expansion is planned for this game? If there will be more playable races or classes? If the shooting gallery and other in-town games are still being worked on or have they been scrapped? Is guild and/or player housing planned to be added in the next 12/24 months?

I find living story a fun diversion when I’m burned out on other content, but as the core of PvE it’s definitely not what I’m looking for.

I loved GW1, this does not feel like a sequel. It did in the beginning but it feels like there was a drastic change in direction about 6 months into the game. maybe it’s just me, maybe my expectations were too high because of my love for GW1, but this is how I feel.