Guild Wars 2

Years ago there was a company named Valve, and they made games. Now they just make money. Has Anet caught the same virus? Guild Wars 2 has been launched in August 2012. It has now been 3 years and a half and what have we had since then to chew on? Living Season and a small expansion which received its fair share of critics. A lot of people vent their frustration on a lot of things; PvP, WvW, Fractals and such but what troubles me most is that after all this time there are enormous regions in Tyria still blurred and inaccessible among which are the Deldrimor Front, Blazeridge Mountains, Blood Legions Homelands, Far Shiverpeaks, Woodland Cascades and so forth. Some say that it’s a lot a work but see, in the same time frame within the original game scope we got Factions, Nightfall and Eye of The North. Core was fun but now it’s getting a bit stale if you ask me. From the looks of it we’ll get to Primordus when I’ll be in a retiring home…

So, how about getting to work Anet?

You do realize there’s more work in GW2 maps than there ever was in GW1 maps? They need to account for jumping, creature design, potentially new weapon skins etc.

And now they’ll need to worry about gliding, potential masteries, etc.

Noa.7490:

Years ago there was a company named Valve, and they made games. Now they just make money. Has Anet caught the same virus?

No. Valve made one of the best games ever. Top 10 at least. It’s not the same virus.

Mishoo.5918:

Valve made one of the best games ever

Yeah, still in love

aren’t those fogged out areas we can’t access actually the map areas from GW1? the homelands of the various factions or something like that. It would be cool if they could be accessible at some point though I agree.

Ykfox.3825:

You do realize there’s more work in GW2 maps than there ever was in GW1 maps? They need to account for jumping, creature design, potentially new weapon skins etc.

And now they’ll need to worry about gliding, potential masteries, etc.

Yes but the GW2 team is certainly more substantial than the original. and it’s been three years and a half, going on four.

malachi.7503:

aren’t those fogged out areas we can’t access actually the map areas from GW1? the homelands of the various factions or something like that. It would be cool if they could be accessible at some point though I agree.

I know there was an overlay image of both maps.

Lyp Sao.1375:

malachi.7503:

aren’t those fogged out areas we can’t access actually the map areas from GW1? the homelands of the various factions or something like that. It would be cool if they could be accessible at some point though I agree.

I know there was an overlay image of both maps.

Yeah. I think That_Shaman on Reddit made it.

http://guide.thatshaman.com

Ayrilana.1396:

Yeah. I think That_Shaman on Reddit made it.

http://guide.thatshaman.com

Yes. This one. Thx

Hmm. Crystal Desert

Noa.7490:

Years ago there was a company named Valve, and they made games. Now they just make money. Has Anet caught the same virus? Guild Wars 2 has been launched in August 2012. It has now been 3 years and a half and what have we had since then to chew on? Living Season and a small expansion which received its fair share of critics. A lot of people vent their frustration on a lot of things; PvP, WvW, Fractals and such but what troubles me most is that after all this time there are enormous regions in Tyria still blurred and inaccessible among which are the Deldrimor Front, Blazeridge Mountains, Blood Legions Homelands, Far Shiverpeaks, Woodland Cascades and so forth. Some say that it’s a lot a work but see, in the same time frame within the original game scope we got Factions, Nightfall and Eye of The North. Core was fun but now it’s getting a bit stale if you ask me. From the looks of it we’ll get to Primordus when I’ll be in a retiring home…

So, how about getting to work Anet?

Well, as they say “Other people’s work is easy”.

Mishoo.5918:

Noa.7490:

Years ago there was a company named Valve, and they made games. Now they just make money. Has Anet caught the same virus?

No. Valve made one of the best games ever. Top 10 at least. It’s not the same virus.

“Look here, young one. I don’t care what you’ve done in the past. The Vigil needs heroes, not tale-tellers.” – Warmaster Forgal

Noa.7490:

Years ago there was a company named Valve, and they made games. Now they just make money. Has Anet caught the same virus? Guild Wars 2 has been launched in August 2012. It has now been 3 years and a half and what have we had since then to chew on? Living Season and a small expansion which received its fair share of critics. A lot of people vent their frustration on a lot of things; PvP, WvW, Fractals and such but what troubles me most is that after all this time there are enormous regions in Tyria still blurred and inaccessible among which are the Deldrimor Front, Blazeridge Mountains, Blood Legions Homelands, Far Shiverpeaks, Woodland Cascades and so forth. Some say that it’s a lot a work but see, in the same time frame within the original game scope we got Factions, Nightfall and Eye of The North. Core was fun but now it’s getting a bit stale if you ask me. From the looks of it we’ll get to Primordus when I’ll be in a retiring home…

So, how about getting to work Anet?

If I understand correctly, the OP’s argument is:

“ANet imagined a Tyria with more zones than they have time to implement. Therefore, that proves that ANet is only interested in making money and isn’t doing nearly enough work on GW2.”

Something like that. What really new zones/content did we have in the last three years and a half? But, oh lookey, new wings in the gemstore!

Noa.7490:

Something like that. What really new zones/content did we have in the last three years and a half? But, oh lookey, new wings in the gemstore!

New Zones: The four HoT zones, which are very large – I would say about twice the size of regular zones when you take into account their verticality – Southsun, the revamp of Lions Arch (which sort of happened twice), Dry Top, and the Silverwastes.
That’s 8ish new zones, which is quite a lot. And that’s ignoring all of the other content that occurred in existing zones and all of the story found in the new zones.

Yeah there are new wings in the gemstore. They’re a company not charging a subscription fee for their game. They have to continually sell new things so that they can pay their employees. Or do you have a problem with people being paid for working hard?

There’s been a lot of new content added to the game over it’s life span. We’ve had two massive Living World seasons and an Expansion, as well as countless smaller releases that have seen the WvW maps overhauled, the introduction of EoTM, JP’s added, etc.

What’s going on at Anet is that they’re working hard to produce what they’re producing on the schedule they’re producing it.

That’s what’s going on at Anet.

Or did the OP think they were sitting around sipping tea while rolling their toes through the pools of money at their feet?

It’s a huge game, far more ambitious and expensive to make then Guild Wars 1. I don’t understand why some people don’t understand the difference between an pathed lobby game and an MMO that has to work with hundreds of people in a zone simultaneously.

I hate farming collection war, stop it plz, i didn’t have fun anymore.

Noa.7490:

Something like that. What really new zones/content did we have in the last three years and a half? But, oh lookey, new wings in the gemstore!

What most of the hardcore fanboys and new player still don’t unterstand (look at the other posts here):
Anet could give us a lot of new maps if anet wouldn’t waste so much ressources every two weeks on a new bltc set + costume + glider + some other gemshop item.

Noa.7490:

Something like that. What really new zones/content did we have in the last three years and a half? But, oh lookey, new wings in the gemstore!

Then this game isn’t for you. The game has had a ton of ‘content’, but apparently not the sort that interests you. I don’t care about 99% of the cosmetics in the gemshop, so I never include that as part of “what’s new” in the game.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I don’t care about 99% of the cosmetics in the gemshop, so I never include that as part of “what’s new” in the game.

So you don’t care about 99? of all content anet creates and that’s the reason why all the other people that care about new content should get none too?

Maybe a single player game (an old one, because you don’t care about new content) is better for you instead of an mmo.

Bomber.3872:

Noa.7490:

Something like that. What really new zones/content did we have in the last three years and a half? But, oh lookey, new wings in the gemstore!

What most of the hardcore fanboys and new player still don’t unterstand (look at the other posts here):
Anet could give us a lot of new maps if anet wouldn’t waste so much ressources every two weeks on a new bltc set + costume + glider + some other gemshop item.

Without the cash shops, Anet could give us precisely no new maps because they couldn’t pay their employees.

Comparing Anet with Valve is like comparing One Direction with Beethoven

Noa.7490:

Years ago there was a company named Valve, and they made games. Now they just make money. Has Anet caught the same virus? Guild Wars 2 has been launched in August 2012. It has now been 3 years and a half and what have we had since then to chew on? Living Season and a small expansion which received its fair share of critics. A lot of people vent their frustration on a lot of things; PvP, WvW, Fractals and such but what troubles me most is that after all this time there are enormous regions in Tyria still blurred and inaccessible among which are the Deldrimor Front, Blazeridge Mountains, Blood Legions Homelands, Far Shiverpeaks, Woodland Cascades and so forth. Some say that it’s a lot a work but see, in the same time frame within the original game scope we got Factions, Nightfall and Eye of The North. Core was fun but now it’s getting a bit stale if you ask me. From the looks of it we’ll get to Primordus when I’ll be in a retiring home…

So, how about getting to work Anet?

There have been other priorities throughout the years that took precedence. They told us they’re working on the next expansion several times already, if you missed the message. You’re complaining as if we’re still in 2014.

The tempt content idea exploded in their face and left large swaths of people disconnected with living story content even after they stopped it from being temp. This created a push for an expansion which turned out to just be living story content released in one big drop with some more fluid elements to tie the content together.

Content production is still retooling and the staff has high turn over. They probably want to go back to the living story model since the expac didn’t crush GEM revenue. Turns out, even if we say we don’t like microtransactions, we actually love them with our wallets.

Hopefully ANET never tries temp content again. I still have the barest clue what happened in LS1 since I was either taking a break or doing other stuff in the game at the time.

Valve is evil.
Adobe is evil.
Anet is not evil.

Bomber.3872:

What most of the hardcore fanboys and new player still don’t unterstand (look at the other posts here):
Anet could give us a lot of new maps if anet wouldn’t waste so much ressources every two weeks on a new bltc set + costume + glider + some other gemshop item.

And what you don’t seem to understand is the team making all those pretty gliders, weapons, costumes, minis, etc. are probably all artists and animators designing skins to already existing mechanics. They probably have no expertise in figuring out how mobs attack/defend, nor interact with each other or the players, nor design maps and how events take place within their space. Heck, they very well might not even be the same artists who make the trees, rocks, wildlife, etc. within those maps. They might be solely costume and weapon designers and throwing them into a level design team would have little to no value.

DaikonSamurai.6714:

Bomber.3872:

What most of the hardcore fanboys and new player still don’t unterstand (look at the other posts here):
Anet could give us a lot of new maps if anet wouldn’t waste so much ressources every two weeks on a new bltc set + costume + glider + some other gemshop item.

And what you don’t seem to understand is the team making all those pretty gliders, weapons, costumes, minis, etc. are probably all artists and animators designing skins to already existing mechanics. They probably have no expertise in figuring out how mobs attack/defend, nor interact with each other or the players, nor design maps and how events take place within their space. Heck, they very well might not even be the same artists who make the trees, rocks, wildlife, etc. within those maps. They might be solely costume and weapon designers and throwing them into a level design team would have little to no value.

That’s a sweet wish, but it’s not the truth. Since 3 years people claim what you claim and it seems like noone who claims that is able to use google and actually look what anets employees are working on. Anet very openly shows everyone over their different streams, blogs, systems who at anet works or worked on which part.
Yes, for sure there are some programmers that of course are only working on something totally different (like the awesome guy I always forget that created the first person combat system for a long time). No designer could help there much (well beside on the icons like he said during one guildchat stream). On the other side you can read/watch a lot for example about the weapon designers. (For example the people that wrote and spoke during on stream about the new legendary’s) They actually design weapons for blc and ingame. So each design for blc they work on is time and design taken from ingame available items through pve for example.
Another area is the staff that designs collections. Each gemshop collection they design could have been an ingame collection, same effort! (If you don’t believe it, watch the streams anet did at the time they release their collection system)

So yes not everyone is working on the gemshop, but every work that is put into the gemshop could have been put ingame through pve/pvp/wvw with the same effort too. (And I agree fully with you, that the gemshop probably has the big advantage that they need no programmers at all to put it in, but the same way is possible with collections! Best example that there is no big work difference in implementig are the blc weapons and their collections!)

PS: Actually if you look it up, it’s a pure marketing/economic decision that anet spams us with gemshop items instead of a different way. And there is nothing wrong with that, because anet shall make money and they shall have the happiest shareholders that exist! The question is the proportion and that proportion could be handled way differently and better for the customers. (For example, only create 6 (or less) new blc sets each year and reroll one old set every month) or every two month.

DoctorDing.5890:

Valve is evil.
Adobe is evil.
Anet is not evil.

Paid modes was an amazing idea. Internet ruins everything

Bomber.3872:

On the other side you can read/watch a lot for example about the weapon designers. (For example the people that wrote and spoke during on stream about the new legendary’s) They actually design weapons for blc and ingame. So each design for blc they work on is time and design taken from ingame available items through pve for example.

Well what makes you think that loot item design is something that is slowing down the production of new maps then? They can design all the in-game loot they want, that’s not going to speed up development of enemy AI, event chains, map layouts, etc.

Bomber.3872:

Another area is the staff that designs collections. Each gemshop collection they design could have been an ingame collection, same effort! (If you don’t believe it, watch the streams anet did at the time they release their collection system)

Again, nothing to do with developing AI, events, or layouts. They could already have collections planned for future maps or they may have their hands tied until more things on the other teams progress.

Bomber.3872:

So yes not everyone is working on the gemshop, but every work that is put into the gemshop could have been put ingame through pve/pvp/wvw with the same effort too. (And I agree fully with you, that the gemshop probably has the big advantage that they need no programmers at all to put it in, but the same way is possible with collections! Best example that there is no big work difference in implementig are the blc weapons and their collections!)

OK so you’re just saying you want gem store items as loot. Again, nothing that will develop more maps nor the various mechanics within them. That’s fine to have that opinion, it’s always cool to open a bag and find something new. But if it really offends you that much, just buy gems with gold.

Bomber.3872:

PS: Actually if you look it up, it’s a pure marketing/economic decision that anet spams us with gemshop items instead of a different way. And there is nothing wrong with that, because anet shall make money and they shall have the happiest shareholders that exist! The question is the proportion and that proportion could be handled way differently and better for the customers. (For example, only create 6 (or less) new blc sets each year and reroll one old set every month) or every two month.

Correct, but again nothing to do with map development. You just meant you want more items in the loot tables rather than the gem shop. I can understand that, though I don’t mind either way. I just earn gold to get gems if I don’t want to pay cash.

DoctorDing.5890:

Valve is evil.
Adobe is evil.
Anet is not evil.

omg Adobe Creative Cloud angers me so…

Yes. My main post was about anet introducing more directly ingame and not using this much ressources on the gemshop. The map creation is just an example and the same people of course could help out / work on parts (the designed weapons, amrors, …) there, but of course they wouldn’t create just a new map by their own completly.

Sorry if that wasn’t clear enough^^

“Anet could give us a lot of new maps if …” That was the bit that threw me off. yeah I get you now.

Bomber.3872:

So you don’t care about 99? of all content anet creates and that’s the reason why all the other people that care about new content should get none too?

Maybe a single player game (an old one, because you don’t care about new content) is better for you instead of an mmo.

KEK this game is all about fashion a.k.a. fashion wars 2, everything is in the gem shop. What content are you talking about? Farming trains for gold or?

FlamingFoxx.1305:

Noa.7490:

Something like that. What really new zones/content did we have in the last three years and a half? But, oh lookey, new wings in the gemstore!

New Zones: The four HoT zones, which are very large – I would say about twice the size of regular zones when you take into account their verticality – Southsun, the revamp of Lions Arch (which sort of happened twice), Dry Top, and the Silverwastes.
That’s 8ish new zones, which is quite a lot. And that’s ignoring all of the other content that occurred in existing zones and all of the story found in the new zones.

The four HoT zones, even if large are part of an expansion which cost almost as much as the original game. And what’s more, these zones aren’t exactly the most popular. Countless times if I go there I’m offered by the game to switch to a more populated map. LA’s revamp was done to accommodate LS and it could have been done elsewhere, in a new zone, without touching LA which was perfectly fine. The team unfortunately didn’t take the time to adjust the Personal Story and whenever you transit by LA you find yourself in the old one. A bit confusing for people who never knew the old version.

The original GW launched in 2005 got, a year later, Factions, which included a new continent, storyline, soundtrack and two new professions. Six months later we got Nightfall which again included a new continent, storyline, soundtrack and again, two new professions. Less than a year later we got Eye of the North, which opened up new territories and prepared us for GW2. All of that done with a smaller team and in the same time that covers the time GW2 came out and present time. Make the comparison and you’ll see what I meant originally.