Guild Wars 2

Bernie.8674:

Believe me, I sympathize, but I’m telling you that your hopes were misguided. Going forward, you now know better than to spend money on a MMO in hopes of improving it. When you buy gems you’re buying access to features that exist here and now. You’re not buying any future features. In fact, the agreement pretty much states that ArenaNet reserves the right to delete all your gems (as well as the content you bought with them) at any time.

I’m aware those hopes were misguided. That’s why I’m not giving them any more money.

And I now know better not to give ArenaNet any more money. Luckily, other developers, on the other hand, do continue to improve their games and add content, and so my money will go towards them in the hopes that they continue to do so. And if those developers stop improving their game, then I will no longer give them money.

There’s a difference between “paying for future features” and “hoping that money and interest spurs them to want to make more features”. Clearly ArenaNet does not want my money, though.

Obtena.7952:

There isn’t anything strict here. Revamping definitions to recast what you view yourself as in the business model doesn’t change why Anet’s policy exists and why it’s a reasonable one. It simply your self-justification for why you think you NEED to know the game’s future developments.

There is no revamping of definitions. An investment, by a completely actual definition, is putting something, be it money, time, effort, or energy, towards something in expectation of a worthwhile result. An investor is one who invests said money, time, effort, or energy.

And no, I don’t think I need to know where the game’s going. I know I do. Do you know my justification for knowing that I need to know where the game’s going? It’s because in my time here, the game has really gone nowhere, except down. There are other games which are going up. If I were to continue to spend money here, I need to know that it’s not just going to waste and that the end-all of content is going to be some lack-luster living story and more skin recolours to spend more money on. If I were to be told “Hey, we’re going to add in a dozen more dungeons,” then I might be tempted. If I were to be told, “Hey, we’re going to put the story back the way it was before we messed it up,” I might be tempted. If I’m not going to be told anything, then I’m not going to be tempted at all.

I don’t have an infinite money cheat code in real life. If I did, then I wouldn’t really need to know what the smartest investment for my money is. I could throw it at all the MMOs ever and watch them fight to the death. But I don’t. So I need to know which games are going to improve and grow and make it worth my time, effort, energy, and money. And at this point, GW2 is even below SW:TOR, and I literally only enjoy that for the amazing story.

Edit: And as the OP says, we don’t need details. We’re not asking for industry secrets. We’re not demanding to know every inch of any new maps that might come out before they’re released. We just want to know that there’s something.

Iason Evan.3806:

Factions was a standalone game like Nightfall and Prophecies whereas EotN was an expansion. Hence there being less content in it that in Factions.

My wall of text wasn’t that clear. My point was that EotN marked the point at which ArenaNet realized that they weren’t going to be able to put out the quantity of content that merited a full-on $40+ investment. EotN was priced significantly cheaper than any of its three predecessors. The new business model relies on micro-transactions rather than pay-for-play content.

Filaha.1678:

Edit: And as the OP says, we don’t need details. We’re not asking for industry secrets. We’re not demanding to know every inch of any new maps that might come out before they’re released. We just want to know that there’s something.

Well, then you and the OP aren’t being very reasonable because we know there is always ‘something’. That’s just silly … when has there NOT been something? We get somethings all the time, in fact MORE often than other MMOs. You might complain it’s not the something you want, or the quality of it, but don’t be so obtuse that you don’t see something on the horizon when Anet’s track record for something is not arguably quite good.

I’m not arguing with you that you’re an investor because it’s stupid. You paid money and got gems. THAT is the expectation Anet gives you for that exchange and they deliver, nothing more. Anything above and beyond that exchange you expect is one you fabricate to justify your demands for information that you DON’T need as someone who exchanges money for gems.

Obtena.7952:

Filaha.1678:

Edit: And as the OP says, we don’t need details. We’re not asking for industry secrets. We’re not demanding to know every inch of any new maps that might come out before they’re released. We just want to know that there’s something.

Well, then you and the OP aren’t being very reasonable because we know there is always ‘something’. That’s just silly … when has there NOT been something?

Right, we know that there’s Living Story and more cash shop items. That’s all we know. Clearly I was talking about if there’s anything more than that.

Obtena.7952:

Anything above and beyond that exchange you expect is one you fabricate to justify your demands for information that you DON’T need as someone who exchanges money for gems.

Clearly I do need to know it as I’m not exchanging money for gems until I know it.

Filaha.1678:

Clearly I do need to know it as I’m not exchanging money for gems until I know it.

This is the beauty … I don’t think Anet really minds if you don’t buy gems until you know because they don’t expect to give you anything BUT gems in that exchange; there is no motivation from that perspective to change their approach to telling us stuff. So as much as you claim you need that information to buy gems, it’s not a guarantee you WILL buy gems. It doesn’t fit into your profile as a player who buys gems for money in their business model.

That’s an important distinction because their business model factors in these kinds of things and helps them decide on policies like not telling us ‘stuff’. In essence, you just defined yourself as a consumer and properly placed yourself and your ‘voice’ in the hierarchy of their business model … which they understand pretty well I imagine.

Obtena.7952:

there is no motivation from that perspective to change their approach to telling us stuff.

So there’s no motivation from a business perspective to get a customer to give them money in exchange for nothing but a minor bit of information that isn’t going to adversely affect them in any way?

Okay, seriously, are you just trolling?

That’s just a lack of comprehension. There is no motivation for Anet to tell us their future plans because players threaten to not buy gems; the idea is laughable when you think about why people buy gems in the first place. Players buy gems because they want to buy something from the gemstore, or perhaps flip them for gold or whatever. I’m discounting philanthropy where players simply buy gems to support the game because I assume that number is very insignificant.

There is also no motivation for Anet to change that policy because obtuse players claim they want to know ‘something’ is coming, considering we get somethings very frequently (and we don’t directly pay for them). It’s irrelevant if it would hurt them. In fact, due to same obtuse players, not following up on future developments DOES hurt them. If I were Anet, I would want to keep flexible design approach in my back pocket too. You can’t do that if you tell someone something is coming in 1 year. Y’all are just blinded by your lack of objectivity and perspective.

Bernie.8674:

Iason Evan.3806:

Factions was a standalone game like Nightfall and Prophecies whereas EotN was an expansion. Hence there being less content in it that in Factions.

My wall of text wasn’t that clear. My point was that EotN marked the point at which ArenaNet realized that they weren’t going to be able to put out the quantity of content that merited a full-on $40+ investment. EotN was priced significantly cheaper than any of its three predecessors. The new business model relies on micro-transactions rather than pay-for-play content.

EotN carried a $40 purchase price in the U.S. on initial release. Ergo, it was a $40 investment, just not the $50 investment the three campaigns were.

I think what spoj was getting at is that when you buy gems, you are telling Anet:

“I like this product as it currently is, thus I am giving you this money now in return for goods now.”

Whereas an actual investor, like someone who buys stock in a company, is saying:

“Here, have this money now. In return I hope that the value of your company goes up so that later I can take my money back with a bonus.”

I imagine they have stock holder meetings and stuff to discuss the future of the company, and the expected returns their investors can expect. Buying gems is not the same thing. Buying gems is only going to perpetuate Anet’s current business behavior. If you want to change their minds, you either stop giving them revenue (gems) or become an actual investor.

Xenon.4537:

I think what spoj was getting at is that when you buy gems, you are telling Anet:

“I like this product as it currently is, thus I am giving you this money now in return for goods now.”

I actually think it tells ANet:

“People are buying gems, and their accounts are then purchasing Item #3354 with it. Clearly people want more things like Item #3354.”

Or

“People are buying gems and flipping it into gold more than using them on intended store purchases. Therefore, we might need to look about a way of getting these things out there other than gold.”

. . . also the “being invested” and “being an investor” stuff is just semantics being argued, and I’m sad I missed throwing my chips into that

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Xenon.4537:

I think what spoj was getting at is that when you buy gems, you are telling Anet:

“I like this product as it currently is, thus I am giving you this money now in return for goods now.”

I actually think it tells ANet:

“People are buying gems, and their accounts are then purchasing Item #3354 with it. Clearly people want more things like Item #3354.”

Or

“People are buying gems and flipping it into gold more than using them on intended store purchases. Therefore, we might need to look about a way of getting these things out there other than gold.”

I agree with Tobias. ANet is not going to look at a drop in revenue and say, "We need to change the direction we’re taking the game, they’re going to say, “We need to produce more/better/different stuff to get people to buy gems.”

That’s not to say that businesses don’t have revenue targets, because they do. If those targets are not met, then the business looks at how to increase revenue. If consumers are telling the business, “Hey, we’re not buying because we don’t like what you’re doing.” then the consumers have made the connection between low revenue numbers and whatever the consumer is up in arms about. Taht might cause a change in direction.

The problem with that approach in an MMO is the lack of any organization among potential buyers to both refrain from purchase and generate a class statement about why. GW2 consumers could generate that kind of leverage, but only by presenting a concerted, united front. I don’t see that happening.

Filaha.1678:

Obtena.7952:

there is no motivation from that perspective to change their approach to telling us stuff.

So there’s no motivation from a business perspective to get a customer to give them money in exchange for nothing but a minor bit of information that isn’t going to adversely affect them in any way?

You make a kittenumption there. Specifically, that the information is not going to adversely affect them in any way.
It’s clear from their statements that expectations of adverse reaction is exactly why the hush policy is in place.

If a company makes a policy based on expectation of adverse reaction, then that’s exactly what they’re gonna get in return. Behaviour breeds behaviour.

There’s no win/win with their idiotic policy.

I’m at a point in my playing this game that I know Living Story comes out every second tuesday(when they feel like it). I don’t need to be told, or teased, or hyped on that, because I’ll log in and play that content. What I want to know about and get hyped about is all the stuff that may(or may not) be coming that isn’t living story. Because policy prevents you from telling me anything about what may or may not be coming, I can’t get exited about it. I’ll log in today, get about 1 1/2 hours of enjoyable story, and then will likely put the game down again until the LS comes back in January.. or whenever… maybe I’ll be back..

Edit: You know what, I feel the need to further elaborate. I’d played Guild Wars from its 2005 release all the way until GW2’s release. I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since the head start. I have 8 level 80s and map completion. I have greatly enjoyed playing this game and have tried to sell my friends on it.

I – was – excited.

Then some time past. Within the first few months we had expanded into Southsun Cove with a brand new area and Fractals was released. Its new content, and and its free. Awesome. Christmas rolled around with and then in the new year they sold us on Living Story. It didn’t have the greatest of introductions with Flame and Frost, but hey, its new stuff and was full of promise for great things to come. Over the rest of the year we’d deal with the introduction of Scarlet, the Queen’s Jubilee, and the Nightmare Tower. Sure, some of the content was fun, but a lot of it was zergy and mindless, with prohibitive time constraints. But we played, hopeful for new content.

By this time the game was a year old, and the only new additions that had stuck around were Southsun Cove, Fractals. Then, really taking to heart the concept of Living Story as content delivery system, they introduced the Fractured path and later the Edge of the Mists. Why did it fit into the narrative? Because reasons. It needed to be shoehorned in because that was how they were doing things.

Then they took a break for awhile, before finishing Season 1. Then they took another break for awhile, and put out parts 1-4 of season 2… then they took another break and while the story was really good in season 2, the stop-start-stop pacing in conjunction with the lack of new content was taking its toll.

I do not mean to say that the introduction of Dry Top or Silverwastes was poorly done, quite to the contrary. However, for many players like myself, the damage had already been done. I’ve no desire to go farm drytop endlessly for Dynamic events and I’d already become disinterested for the most part before SW was released. Based on past history and lack of any (Non Living Story) content news, I’ll assume that there’s nothing. Which means there’s nothing to get excited over.

Astralporing.1957:

Filaha.1678:

Obtena.7952:

there is no motivation from that perspective to change their approach to telling us stuff.

So there’s no motivation from a business perspective to get a customer to give them money in exchange for nothing but a minor bit of information that isn’t going to adversely affect them in any way?

You make a kittenumption there. Specifically, that the information is not going to adversely affect them in any way.
It’s clear from their statements that expectations of adverse reaction is exactly why the hush policy is in place.

I know what their expectations are. They expect that if they announce something that doesn’t end up making it into the game, people will complain (ignoring that people are already complaining that they’re not announcing anything). That’s why they keep silent. It’s not because they’re scared someone is going to steal their ideas, because so far their ideas have been pretty much already done. The whole NPE is basically how almost every MMO does levelling. Gating thing behind levels, both story and skills.

Now, here’s the thing.

If the only adverse effect that they’re worried about is that people will be mad if what they announce doesn’t make it into the game, what really are they working on? Is that suggesting that there is literally no project in the entire office, short of cash shop items (which won’t take a large team) and living story (which takes up a fraction of their company), that definitely will make it into the game? Is everybody who’s not working on living story and cash shop items just building card houses and waiting to see whether or not they get to finish it or if an exec is just going to come in and knock it over?

When the only possible adverse effect from announcing something is that if it gets vetoed people will get upset, and nothing is being announced, that silence speaks louder than any announcement. Namely: expect nothing, hope for something.

So this came out a few days ago, granted it’s the avengers soundtrack, but it’s really well produced, compared to the stuff Arena tends to release.

Talk about properly communicating using exciting trailers.

Yes, that’s what i am afraid of. That they are not afraid of backlash from announcing things that will end up in the game. That they are afraid of people learning what will not be coming.

In my opinion, ArenaNet should put more focus back on game components that are more timeless, not so event-bound. I played GW1 and the only thing I currently enjoy about GW2 is the WvW. I spend most of my time there, I can’t connect to the Living World Story and the events really. GW1 had this air of the long journey. Going from seared Ascalon to finally arrive at the gates of Kryta through those kitten yeti caves, that was something. I’m really missing these moments in GW2. It has got this feeling of a squirrel running around between nuts falling from a tree. “Oh, a nut…Oh, another nut… oh another nut”. No real connection between the nuts and nut 1 is forgotten once nut 2 dropped.

Second, Guilds… The game is called Guild Wars… But for all intents and purposes, whether you’re in a guild or not doesn’t really matter outside of social aspects.

Third, the new way to unlock traits… I see what ArenaNet tried there. I commend the effort (it is the right idea IMHO). They tried to reintroduce the skill hunting aspect from GW1, an aspect that I personally really liked. Problem is… it doesn’t work in GW2:P This is tied to my first point, the journey. Getting an Elite in GW1 when not using the tome was a little journey of its own. And often, you needed good people from your guild for it. In GW2, it is just a chore. Because it doesn’t evoke that certain spirit it did in GW1.

This is fundamentally a result of the open world, adhoc-event design of GW2. Again, the design by itself is not a bad thing but it poses a challenge when it comes to percieved consistency and, for lack of a better word, wholeness of the world you wish to depict in the game. Right now, it remains nebulous to me and I can’t connect to it and my interest wanders to other aspects I rather enjoy (WvW).

I like this game very much if I would ask ArenaNet to refocus it would be conerning Living story. In july 2013 ArenaNet started marketing Living story as biweekly story updates. Although these updates very much lacked a good overall story except for the magic word (Scarlet) we had at least the promissed biweekly story updates.

When you took some extra time this January to polish the final updates I understood it and I also understood you took a break in March when you finished season 1. When season 2 came in July I was excited new biweekly story releases like a year before. But in August I grew sad when you told us there would be mid season break of allmost 3 months before living story continued. For me it kind of felt like betrail to what you promised a year before.

So if I would like to ask to refocus it would be on the release philosphy you are following. Especially since it took about a month for the feature patch to come after Dragons Reach part 2. Also the WvW season following the feature patch did not feel like living story since it was more of the same with extra rewards. Then came Halloween no problem you recycled the old event but please recycle the whole event meaning make the Mad Memories available again since not many players reached lvl 80 or whatever was neccesassarry to get to the last ghost in a month after release. So please say yes we will be releasing things biweekly or say no we quited that and you will only be getting about 8 episodes of living story a year (assuming you will use the same schedule you used this year).

To everyone who wants to debate about what “investing” means…

I made you a new thread here. Please use it and try to stay on topic in this thread (which is the effect of ArenaNet’s silence policy on the community). Semantic debates should go into new threads.

Thanks.

dlonie.6547:

To everyone who wants to debate about what “investing” means…

I made you a new thread here. Please use it and try to stay on topic in this thread (which is the effect of ArenaNet’s silence policy on the community). Semantic debates should go into new threads.

Thanks.

Firstly, that debate ended yesterday, so you’re late.

Secondly, it was related to the topic, in that it was about people not investing their time and money into a game which gives no returns in the way of new things to do and how the silence regarding new things to do doesn’t make people want to continue to invest their time and money in it.

I’m not keeping up with this thread – is there any progress being made here or tons of paragraphs regarding feedback that ANet will ignore?

Such a waste of time…

Filaha.1678:

dlonie.6547:

To everyone who wants to debate about what “investing” means…

I made you a new thread here. Please use it and try to stay on topic in this thread (which is the effect of ArenaNet’s silence policy on the community). Semantic debates should go into new threads.

Thanks.

Firstly, that debate ended yesterday, so you’re late.

Yep, RL has been eating into my forum’n time shakes fist at sky

Secondly, it was related to the topic, in that it was about people not investing their time and money into a game which gives no returns in the way of new things to do and how the silence regarding new things to do doesn’t make people want to continue to invest their time and money in it.

Some of it was, but there was a good chunk of it that was nothing but arguing semantics and colloquial vs. pedantic definitions.

shrugs The mods decided a new topic was unnecessary, for some reason (love when they close with no explanation), so keeping it here is fine, I guess.

Oh well…back to DA:I. Somebody ping me when ArenaNet gets its kitten together.

slamfunction.7462:

I’m not keeping up with this thread – is there any progress being made here or tons of paragraphs regarding feedback that ANet will ignore?

Such a waste of time…

Last thing that happened: Gaile is going to try running some ideas past folks at ArenaNet to try to get them to open up about future additions.

Personally, I don’t see it making a difference, but maybe they’ll start to hear us at some point.

Rather than give specifics on features, it might be nice to have a Manifesto 2.0. In the runup to the original release, I always enjoyed reading about the team’s thoughts on design. A lot of the original manifesto might still apply, but there have been plenty of changes as well.

Togashi Jack.9531:

I’m at a point in my playing this game that I know Living Story comes out every second tuesday(when they feel like it). I don’t need to be told, or teased, or hyped on that, because I’ll log in and play that content. What I want to know about and get hyped about is all the stuff that may(or may not) be coming that isn’t living story. Because policy prevents you from telling me anything about what may or may not be coming, I can’t get exited about it. I’ll log in today, get about 1 1/2 hours of enjoyable story, and then will likely put the game down again until the LS comes back in January.. or whenever… maybe I’ll be back..

Edit: You know what, I feel the need to further elaborate. I’d played Guild Wars from its 2005 release all the way until GW2’s release. I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since the head start. I have 8 level 80s and map completion. I have greatly enjoyed playing this game and have tried to sell my friends on it.

I – was – excited.

Then some time past. Within the first few months we had expanded into Southsun Cove with a brand new area and Fractals was released. Its new content, and and its free. Awesome. Christmas rolled around with and then in the new year they sold us on Living Story. It didn’t have the greatest of introductions with Flame and Frost, but hey, its new stuff and was full of promise for great things to come. Over the rest of the year we’d deal with the introduction of Scarlet, the Queen’s Jubilee, and the Nightmare Tower. Sure, some of the content was fun, but a lot of it was zergy and mindless, with prohibitive time constraints. But we played, hopeful for new content.

By this time the game was a year old, and the only new additions that had stuck around were Southsun Cove, Fractals. Then, really taking to heart the concept of Living Story as content delivery system, they introduced the Fractured path and later the Edge of the Mists. Why did it fit into the narrative? Because reasons. It needed to be shoehorned in because that was how they were doing things.

Then they took a break for awhile, before finishing Season 1. Then they took another break for awhile, and put out parts 1-4 of season 2… then they took another break and while the story was really good in season 2, the stop-start-stop pacing in conjunction with the lack of new content was taking its toll.

I do not mean to say that the introduction of Dry Top or Silverwastes was poorly done, quite to the contrary. However, for many players like myself, the damage had already been done. I’ve no desire to go farm drytop endlessly for Dynamic events and I’d already become disinterested for the most part before SW was released. Based on past history and lack of any (Non Living Story) content news, I’ll assume that there’s nothing. Which means there’s nothing to get excited over.

THIS x 1,000 I agree whole-heartedly.

The start-stop mentality and brevity of the content we do get is the problem. ANet said in their Summer 2013 release (it was either in June or July), that we would either be 7 days out from new content just released, or 7 days away from new content about to be released. Period. I can understand taking a month break for the holidays, but the massive breaks between the end of LS1 and beginning of LS2, and LS2 “mid-season” finale & restart, the is a slap in the face (and blatant renege of their promise) that many players, such as myself, will never forget and will never forgive so long as sub-par content such as we’ve seen recently keeps getting released.

Do not repeat the “mid-season finale” crap with LS3. You’re not The Walking Dead or some other hit TV series with the ratings & fanbase to pull it off— you’re an MMO developer competing in a fierce market against juggernauts such as World of Warcraft, Rift, Star Wars: the Old Republic, and Lord of the Rings: Online (not to mention other titles such as League of Legends, DOTA 2 , and so forth). While the ratings weigh in your favor (built largely from initial launch success), you’re quickly conceding ground to your competitors; this player, for one, is fed-up with the direction GW2 has taken and has no longer made it his sole MMO (from highest priority to lowest, to be honest).

Yes, I realize that I can only speak for myself, however what is unknown is the percentage of your player base who feel the same way, and furthermore, those who feel neglected like I do, who choose to remain silent.

Sors Immani.8429:

I can understand taking a month break for the holidays, but the massive breaks between the end of LS1 and beginning of LS2, and LS2 “mid-season” finale & restart, the is a slap in the face (and blatant renege of their promise) that many players, such as myself, will never forget and will never forgive so long as sub-par content such as we’ve seen recently keeps getting released.

It was even more annoying for me, personally, that not only was there that big “Mid-season” break, but there wasn’t anything new to show for it. WvW tourney rewards were same. Halloween was same, with the only “new” rewards being a cash shop skin with a different hat and necklace and a recolour of two minis already in the game.

One would have hoped that if you’re going to stop working on something for that long, you’d have something to show for it.

Filaha.1678:

Sors Immani.8429:

I can understand taking a month break for the holidays, but the massive breaks between the end of LS1 and beginning of LS2, and LS2 “mid-season” finale & restart, the is a slap in the face (and blatant renege of their promise) that many players, such as myself, will never forget and will never forgive so long as sub-par content such as we’ve seen recently keeps getting released.

It was even more annoying for me, personally, that not only was there that big “Mid-season” break, but there wasn’t anything new to show for it. WvW tourney rewards were same. Halloween was same, with the only “new” rewards being a cash shop skin with a different hat and necklace and a recolour of two minis already in the game.

One would have hoped that if you’re going to stop working on something for that long, you’d have something to show for it.

The reason they stopped so long was specifically so they could have the WvW Tourney and not interfere with anyone wanting to participate in the LW/LS, that was the reason given, not so they could take a break. I’m pretty sure they kept right on working through the tourney producing the content for the second half of the LS2 and for future as well.

Sors Immani.8429:

The start-stop mentality and brevity of the content we do get is the problem. ANet said in their Summer 2013 release (it was either in June or July), that we would either be 7 days out from new content just released, or 7 days away from new content about to be released. Period. I can understand taking a month break for the holidays, but the massive breaks between the end of LS1 and beginning of LS2, and LS2 “mid-season” finale & restart, the is a slap in the face (and blatant renege of their promise) that many players, such as myself, will never forget and will never forgive so long as sub-par content such as we’ve seen recently keeps getting released.

Let’s not forget that LS1 was different. The content was temporary. Now, because of player demand, it’s permanent. The “blatant renege” could very well be the result of changing their approach due to player demands. But, posters seldom seem to consider the ramifications of what they ask for or to consider the ramifications of changes made because others ask for them.

Zaklex.6308:

Filaha.1678:

Sors Immani.8429:

I can understand taking a month break for the holidays, but the massive breaks between the end of LS1 and beginning of LS2, and LS2 “mid-season” finale & restart, the is a slap in the face (and blatant renege of their promise) that many players, such as myself, will never forget and will never forgive so long as sub-par content such as we’ve seen recently keeps getting released.

It was even more annoying for me, personally, that not only was there that big “Mid-season” break, but there wasn’t anything new to show for it. WvW tourney rewards were same. Halloween was same, with the only “new” rewards being a cash shop skin with a different hat and necklace and a recolour of two minis already in the game.

One would have hoped that if you’re going to stop working on something for that long, you’d have something to show for it.

The reason they stopped so long was specifically so they could have the WvW Tourney and not interfere with anyone wanting to participate in the LW/LS, that was the reason given, not so they could take a break. I’m pretty sure they kept right on working through the tourney producing the content for the second half of the LS2 and for future as well.

According to Anet sources, the living story team has 20 people, out of an apparent “hundreds”.

What were the rest of them doing during the tournament that couldn’t result in new content for halloween?

Zaklex.6308:

Filaha.1678:

Sors Immani.8429:

I can understand taking a month break for the holidays, but the massive breaks between the end of LS1 and beginning of LS2, and LS2 “mid-season” finale & restart, the is a slap in the face (and blatant renege of their promise) that many players, such as myself, will never forget and will never forgive so long as sub-par content such as we’ve seen recently keeps getting released.

It was even more annoying for me, personally, that not only was there that big “Mid-season” break, but there wasn’t anything new to show for it. WvW tourney rewards were same. Halloween was same, with the only “new” rewards being a cash shop skin with a different hat and necklace and a recolour of two minis already in the game.

One would have hoped that if you’re going to stop working on something for that long, you’d have something to show for it.

The reason they stopped so long was specifically so they could have the WvW Tourney and not interfere with anyone wanting to participate in the LW/LS, that was the reason given, not so they could take a break. I’m pretty sure they kept right on working through the tourney producing the content for the second half of the LS2 and for future as well.

The “subpar content we have seen recently” is such a tired argument, I have heard those words uttered no less then a dozen times over the past year or two. If there is one thing that is apparent, its that nothing is going to change with this game. Get your jolly’s by completing the living story and extract whatever joy you can get out of the lore, and wait for the next MMO to come along. This game has such HUGE potential to be a true living world with amazing possibilities, and it is just totally squandered. You spend the entire 1-80 levels doing the personal story zhaitan mission, and after defeating the dragon they tell you that all these amazing changes are taking place in the world now that he is gone, and not a single change has been implemented to orr to show that zhaitan was actually defeated. Yet some random scarlet mission ruins half the world permanently (ie lions arch and kessex hills).

The “living world” is an absolute joke. Nothing about the intention behind it being living is ever taken to its full advantage, it merely is a funnel for more DLC and cash generation.

perilisk.1874:

Rather than give specifics on features, it might be nice to have a Manifesto 2.0. In the runup to the original release, I always enjoyed reading about the team’s thoughts on design. A lot of the original manifesto might still apply, but there have been plenty of changes as well.

lol, this was originally in my OP, but I had to take out the word “manifesto” because people are incredibly bitter about that word. They saw it and….well…just look at the first few posts before I edited the topic/OP

But yeah, that’s basically what I wanted to see. “Here’s what’s important to us and where we see the game going.” I really don’t see how that’s too much to ask for.

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?

Speaking only for myself – no. Continuing episodes – which are locked behind the cash shop if you’re not able to play them as they come out – do NOT count as “new content and features”. Not in the same way as most (I think) have been expressing.

Filaha.1678:

According to Anet sources, the living story team has 20 people, out of an apparent “hundreds”.

What were the rest of them doing during the tournament that couldn’t result in new content for halloween?

They were opening ToT bags to make sure the droprate for Mini Gwynefyrdd was “as designed”.

Well now that this thread is on page 4 and going to the abyss of forgotten threads let’s hope that Anet got the message and that we will see the Guild Halls, GvG, WvW maps, Dungeons, SAB, precursor crafting, new traits, skills, classes, weapons, everyone has been asking for soon enough.

Or at least tell us what they are planning for the future.

Maybe we could play Twenty Questions! Nah, that wouldn’t work. Obligatory dramatization:

Players: Is what you’re working on bigger than a breadbox?
Devs: Go fish.

So it seems this has been answered.
Nothing will change.
-

Season 2 Returns on January 13
by Colin Johanson on December 9, 2014
A few months ago, we announced that Guild Wars 2‘s Living World experience was launching on a path that would result in our story-and the whole world of Tyria-reaching a point of no return.

Every “veteran” still talking like they speak for ALL veterans I see. I’ve been playing in the lands of Tyria since 1 month into the release of GW1.

I think some things about the current game should be improved, but I like the direction this game is going. I love the Living Story and enjoy what they’ve done to make it memorable.

Mo Mo.1947:

Every “veteran” still talking like they speak for ALL veterans I see. I’ve been playing in the lands of Tyria since 1 month into the release of GW1.

I think some things about the current game should be improved, but I like the direction this game is going. I love the Living Story and enjoy what they’ve done to make it memorable.

Other than finishing LS Season 2, what direction is this game headed in? You can speculate all you want, and you can be happy with where you perceive it to be going, but no one actually knows where the game is heading (and not heading). We’d like some communication from ANET on this front; unfortunately, their communication policy in this respect is “do not communicate”. That is what this thread is actually about, the communication policy that prevents them from actually communicating with us in a way that’s meaningful and valuable to the players.

It seems like this thread may have outlived its usefulness on the actual topic, but that’s no reason to try and meaninglessly drag it off topic.