To-date Good, Bad, and ugly of Anet
So, first the Good…..
ANet has first and foremost done a good job with the CDI, and while the CDI needs some more infrastructure built around it, I think it is a great step, and one of the biggest hopes for the game’s future. The proof will be in the pudding, as they say, when the ‘major feature patch’ and the Living Story Season Two starts. These have had enough time to fully implement the CDI input, and their use of the CDI input (or lack thereof) will be VERY telling of how much of an impact the CDI will have.
They have additionally seemed to be learning. Many small improvements have been made, such as more permanent content, adding active NPC dialogue in dungeons and such, splitting zergs into smaller groups for epic world events, and so forth. The process has been slow, but they do seem to be learning.
Guild Missions are excellent content on the whole, and expand the game as a whole. Likewise Southsun was introduced and revamped. It may lack the number of megga events and story ties like Orr, but I personally think it is a fine addition to the game at this point. Fractals of the Mists are new dungeons from post-release (despite what people may think), and got a boost a few months back too. Other things like Tequatl’s rework, the epic Wurm fight, and the Tower of Nightmares permanent rework of Kessex are all decent things which are a step forward, not sideways or back. Far enough? Debatable, but I think there are some reasons i will get to later.
I think people also forget how many quality of life changes have hit the game too. The wallet, the new condition damage display, targeting fixes, camera fixes and adjustments, billions of bug fixes all around, revamped dungeon balance, revamp of Orr, a decent number of balance changes, economic adjustments to help stabilize the economy (which is in fact more stable now, and more meaningful), and many others. These things took time, resources, planning, and so forth, and make the game generally better.
Next, the Bad….
Players have been requesting expansion type content for a long time now: More personal story, more zones, more dungeons, add Raids, add guild halls, add skills, etc. Anet has claimed the LS can deliver this kind of content, but to date little of this has happened. We have gotten fractals, 2 sort-of-like-a-raid-but-not-quite world bosses, one new zone(which was really finished before the game was released and just held back), a partly revamped zone, and 2 new skills. If you include WvW, we have gotten additionally one more revamped zone and one more new zone (which actually is pretty cool). None the less, coming up on 1.5 years in, I really don’t feel like this is ‘expansion-level’ content, nor is it what the players have been asking for. Expansions (like the ones in GW1) traditionally contained new zones totaling 30% the original area minimum (25 areas now not including cities and southsun, so 7 new zones), a new class and/or new basic skill options for existing classes (i.e. a new weapon + 5 utility skills per class), a new story chapter, a new content type with equal support, and usually a new race (or variant on an existing one). ANet’s efforts are pidly when compared to this. If you count all the temporary content, the numbers get a bit better, but despite many new maps (Bazaar, Gauntlet, SAB, etc), these amount to less than one new map, because they are available only part of the time, one at a time. ANet has failed to give us an expansion-type of content, and I would feel much better if they would own up to this, and be more honest about how much we will be getting.
Finally, the Ugly…
ANet has adamantly refused to give up on their ‘new vision of the perfect game’ and resort to traditional methods (like Raids, paid expansions, more role-based class design that (heaven forbid) looks remotely like a trinity, etc). You can learn a thing or two from those that came before you; it’s called standing on the shoulders of giants. ANet doesn’t need to copy them, but it should seriously consider the old ideas had SOME merit.
Tying into the above, they have tried to strike out on their own and ‘do things their way’ often. This has had bad consequences more than once. Think back to the original Southsun Cove release and the lag, timeouts, disconnects, and so forth. Brilliant idea, terrible execution, with many ramifications. Or, more recently, consider Tequatl Rising or the Marionette, and how getting a guild in the same overflow was a hugely difficult task. What good is a multiplayer game where all your friends cant play together? This ruined the experience for many, myself included (for Teq at the least). They didn’t want instanced raids, and yet that is exactly what an overflow which a guild builds up to on a map, then exoduses to the overflow is fundamentally.
Anet has been struggling, no matter what the press releases say. their writers are hitting word caps on releases, they reskin/reuse models with reckless abandon, they release whatever they can without forcing a rework of any other aspect (tippy toe-ing around the personal story and destiny’s edge timelines whenever possible, for example), and they resist making chest/leg armor whenever possible, yet still release fewer weapon/armor than players expect, mostly as temporary or cash shop (or both) items. The big content we got (fractals and Southsun) were likely either finished before release, or salvaged from projects discarded in the development process. They claim they have been hiring, but they won’t quote the number of devs/artists they have been hiring. They are hugely gearing up for a china release, and when the game came out they laid off HALF of their dev staff at least. Their employee count didn’t drop because they hired support staff in the dev’s place. the recent 50 employee increase is likely 90% support for china. EDIT: I cannot find my source for the layoffs, though I specifically remember an interview with a GW2 lead that it was ‘part of transitioning to a post-production team.’ My claim is, however, hearsay without a source.
What’s more, this will only get worse as they expand to china and other audiences. East Asia has a very different view on games; for them, grind is good. they like it. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know. But look at any game released there, and which ones are successful, and you will notice it. They will demand more grind, more vertical progression, and Anet will either deliver, costing us features, or they will not, costing them the continental Asia market. It will mean more translation overhead, and will mean we will be even less likely to hear our character speak ever again.
And why is all this? Are the developers just so full of themselves and so blind that they don’t see this? Well, in small part, yes. Their reactions in the CDI were often (shockingly) ones of revelation, epiphany, and enlightenment, as if they had never heard of such ideas and opinions before, when the forums had been filled with such feedback for a full year. But I think the much bigger reason is NCSoft and money. Now, they are a business, and need to make a living. I’m not questioning them wanting to make money, but we have to remember this is a fact of life. The ‘free to play supported by cash shop’ idea doesn’t seem to me like it was ANet’s idea. they had a model that worked for GW1, and worked VERY well. it even funded GW2 entirely. It is my suspicion that NCSoft handed down this new model, and gave ANet a Divine Decree that it would be this way, and no other way. For a cash shop to work, you need people to be playing a lot. traditionally you do this by making a game grindy, but they didn’t want to do that. Instead, they made the game temporary. The idea is if it’s temporary, you are incentivized to play, or else miss the content! They can’t provide enough content to keep the majority of their players always playing if it’s permanent; many people will just wait till there is an expansion’s worth of content, then go and do it all at once, and then wait for more to build up again.
(edited by dreadicon.5840)
In Conclusion…..
All that said, the finale is upon us in two days time, and Anet may yet show we are mistaken with these final two living story patches and the feature patch in the subsequent month.
I feel that the failings of GW2 are the fault of NCSoft’s intervention, not ANet. ANet was forced to scrap months of work on their Cantha content which they had lined up because Korea was offended by it, and because NCSoft thought it would steal Blade and Soul’s thunder. They were forced to use a release/income model which runs counter to their design philosophy, and they were cut to a team smaller than we have been led to believe. Many of the original founders of ANet have left, oddly around 6 months to a year before GW2 came out. The take-away from all this is to be as vocal as ever about wanting an expansion, and to take this to places like Reddit, twitter, and facebook (NCSoft looks there, not here. I work for a corporation, I know where they look.) I know free stuff is great, but wouldn’t it be even better if we just had to pay 40$ a year (that’s $3.34 per month) for more, better content?
trinity doesnt entertain me, so not giving into the vocal minority that wants a trinity is actually good in my eyes, not ugly
They have additionally seemed to be learning. Many small improvements have been made, such as more permanent content, adding active NPC dialogue in dungeons and such, splitting zergs into smaller groups for epic world events, and so forth. The process has been slow, but they do seem to be learning.
I would question, 2 examples:
None of the issues with Tequatl have been addressed in the 2 current zone wide encounters.
The release of ascended armor with even more absurd requirements than ascended weapons despite clear feedback from players.
Anet has been struggling, no matter what the press releases say. their writers are hitting word caps on releases, they reskin/reuse models with reckless abandon, they release whatever they can without forcing a rework of any other aspect (tippy toe-ing around the personal story and destiny’s edge timelines whenever possible, for example), and they resist making chest/leg armor whenever possible, yet still release fewer weapon/armor than players expect, mostly as temporary or cash shop (or both) items. The big content we got (fractals and Southsun) were likely either finished before release, or salvaged from projects discarded in the development process. They claim they have been hiring, but they won’t quote the number of devs/artists they have been hiring. They are hugely gearing up for a china release, and when the game came out they laid off HALF of their dev staff at least. Their employee count didn’t drop because they hired support staff in the dev’s place. the recent 50 employee increase is likely 90% support for china.
Interesting points, how do you know they laid off half their dev staff after release? I agree on fractals and southsun.
Jade Quarry [SoX]
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro
(edited by morrolan.9608)
Another person who thinks they even have the whole story, when in reality they can only see the tip.
trinity doesnt entertain me, so not giving into the vocal minority that wants a trinity is actually good in my eyes, not ugly
I wouldn’t say its a vocal minority. It’s the vocal experienced who know/understands ideas that they aren’t able to physically see (aka able to use their brain). This game would have done better with a trinity than the hack and slash dps singularity that the game is now. They didn’t have to follow the typical trinity. They had their own trinity laid out for them but they abandoned it. Instead of tank healer dps they had:
DPS – Damage dealing, control/interripts.
Enfeebling/Utility – Conditions, conditional control, utility debuffs.
Support – Boons, aoe healing, etc.
They had this, and it would have been amazing if they made these roles matter, and have “hardmodes” that required each role to be filled to be executed. Instead they took the lazy way out because admittedly it’s not easy to make sure every roles feels their use. Making all dps the best route is DEFINITELY easier.
What did they do? Meh you can do it all! NP! Need “support”? Here stack yourself up to 25 might yourself, so people who actually dedicate themselves as support are useless. Everyone has conditions tied to their attacks, so most dps can bring all the utility needed to win fights. Just dps dps dps, the rest is covered lazily.
PvP? Burst condi damage/power damage or play a build that is completely useless but really good at night dying when rolling around inside of a circle. Afterall you don’t have to kill anyone in pvp, just have better knockbacks and not die.
Good game design, fanboys.
High Warlord Sikari (80 Reaper) / Lord Siekron (80 DH)
Warlord Sikari (80 Scrapper)
Warlord Sikari (80 Scrapper)
@phys,
I never intended for there to be a full-on trinity. The dodge mechanic itself is a game-changer, and I doubt the trinity would behave in a traditional way even if it was implemented. That said, I am not suggesting a traditional trinity, just less trinity-phobia. There were good and bad things about the trinity, and I would like to think we could have some of those good things without degrading the benefits of what we have now (besides, perhaps, the ability to solo a dungeon meant for 5 players).
@morrolan,
The issue of overflows is not something you can fix in a month, or 6 even. The only solid fix is instances, which they adamantly refuse (I covered this issue in ‘The Ugly’ section).
As to ascended armor, I have found that overall the cost was similar for the first month and a half, but unlike weapons did not go down. this goes into the ‘lack of foresight’ I mentioned as to how they will impact the game at times, and I expect an adjustment to be made in the future (hence I sell all my silk right now that I don’t need). The problem is they don’t seem to be learning very quickly, but also as I said the proof one way or the other will be with the ‘feature patch’ and the beginning of Living Story Season 2.
Finally, in response to your inquiry, I spent an hour or so looking for the article I originally saw, but was unable to find it. I have edited my post as appropriate.
@Judge Banks,
I have as much of the story as anyone who is not in direct contact with an arenanet employee. I would love one such employee to tell me I am wrong on these points. I may draw conclusions as I see fit, as may you. I encourage all those who have challenges to my views here to provide counter arguments and help me broaden my view so as to have more of the bigger picture. If you disagree with any particular area of my points, please present them so we may find which facts and assumptions we disagree upon.
@ronpierce,
I agree with you to an extent about PvP, it could use more modes, and more scoring criteria. I also do think that the original idea of a ‘new trinity’ was a perfectly viable thing to explore, and they have handicapped themselves by pushing the ‘no-trinity’ mantra to the point they have done. On the other hand, I do not think a strong trinity is necessary for GW2, just more of one than we have now.
Finally, to those of you who read my entire set of posts, thank you for your patience.
trinity doesnt entertain me, so not giving into the vocal minority that wants a trinity is actually good in my eyes, not ugly
I wouldn’t say its a vocal minority. It’s the vocal experienced who know/understands ideas that they aren’t able to physically see (aka able to use their brain). This game would have done better with a trinity than the hack and slash dps singularity that the game is now. They didn’t have to follow the typical trinity. They had their own trinity laid out for them but they abandoned it. Instead of tank healer dps they had:
DPS – Damage dealing, control/interripts.
Enfeebling/Utility – Conditions, conditional control, utility debuffs.
Support – Boons, aoe healing, etc.They had this, and it would have been amazing if they made these roles matter, and have “hardmodes” that required each role to be filled to be executed. Instead they took the lazy way out because admittedly it’s not easy to make sure every roles feels their use. Making all dps the best route is DEFINITELY easier.
What did they do? Meh you can do it all! NP! Need “support”? Here stack yourself up to 25 might yourself, so people who actually dedicate themselves as support are useless. Everyone has conditions tied to their attacks, so most dps can bring all the utility needed to win fights. Just dps dps dps, the rest is covered lazily.
PvP? Burst condi damage/power damage or play a build that is completely useless but really good at night dying when rolling around inside of a circle. Afterall you don’t have to kill anyone in pvp, just have better knockbacks and not die.
Good game design, fanboys.
I’m fairly intelligent, even if this system has flaws, and they need to improve it, i dont think the type of rigid role system you seem to be suggesting would be very fun for me. I find having only one aspect to be aware of boring.
Now yeah, the current meta is pretty lame, it reminds me of how trinity usually feels. Stand in once place, do as much DPS with people trying to survive/heal till you win, but the answer isnt to go back. They should improve the AI routines, and fix the CC block that bosses have so the only effective Control isnt hiding in a corner. Also create strong groups of varied enemies whose styles compliment each other.
For me, trinity would be the number one way to kill the fun of the game. dps rotations without risk, and inability to do anything but one specific task is ehhhh.
@
@Judge Banks,
I have as much of the story as anyone who is not in direct contact with an arenanet employee. I would love one such employee to tell me I am wrong on these points. I may draw conclusions as I see fit, as may you. I encourage all those who have challenges to my views here to provide counter arguments and help me broaden my view so as to have more of the bigger picture. If you disagree with any particular area of my points, please present them so we may find which facts and assumptions we disagree upon.
You’re not wrong, but you don’t have 10% of the story. The reason as why things are the way they are, it’s enough to make you say, why even bother with this game. Then again I know people who know and they still play, and still vehemently defend the game’s weak points. That is something I’ll never understand.
-Refusal to increase reward drops for skilled gameplay instead of farming
-Refusal to un-tie gold requirement for skins for a game based on cosmetics
-Refusal to tone-down tedious encounters, 5min AA maw? 10min AA golem?
-Refusal to provide extrinsic rewards
-Refusal to add additional pvp gamemodes
Meh
@morrolan,
The issue of overflows is not something you can fix in a month, or 6 even. The only solid fix is instances, which they adamantly refuse (I covered this issue in ‘The Ugly’ section).
IMHO until they resolve it they shouldn’t even design and introduce content like that then. Several people from one of my guilds have actually left the game over it.
Jade Quarry [SoX]
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro
Miranda Zero – Ele / Twitch Zero – Mes / Chargrin Soulboom – Engi
Aliera Zero – Guardian / Reaver Zero – Necro
(edited by morrolan.9608)
Don’t need any new fractals or dungeons. No new Trinity crap. You want 5 man dungeons go to a traditional game like, wow. I think you might find many that cater to what you want. I like the dynamic quality and wish they would stick with it. The Puppet is my favorite lately they can take the Wurm it’s to dumb to bother. I’ve won on the Puppet in over a few times and in my main. So for that encounter overflow doesn’t matter but for Teq or if you choose to bother with the Wurm you might want to try TTS or another group that specializes.