Guild Wars 2

Let me elaborate on this.

I think it’s a pretty one sided argument that the game has a lot of fundamental problems. CCs have zero use on bosses, a lot of skills bugged, condition builds having no use in PVE whatsoever, and entire classes like the Ranger being non-functional all being examples.

Problems which really needs to be addressed and have been in existence since launch.

Perhaps Anet is working hard to address them, but another side of the argument is also quite valid: there is just no urgency to fix them. The game did extremely well in terms of sales and reception, and arguably continues to do very well, so fixing or not fixing them probably isn’t a huge concern.

So if the game didn’t do so well, not disastrously such that it gets closed, perhaps there would have been more urgency to address those problems and the game might have been better than it is now.

Discuss?

So I can agree with some points, but I think what we’re really not seeing, is an effort on the part of ANet to iterate these functionalities and get feedback from the community quickly. I could be wrong on this, but it’s great they are doing quick iterations on the living story and all, but they aren’t doing to the same with other things they’re working on as far as I’m aware.

They are very closed doors, and offer very little visibility into what they’re doing until they’re extremely far along into development. They are an agile shop from what I hear, but it doesn’t feel to me like they are getting the kind of quality feedback they need from the playerbase.

I have no clue if most other shops are like this as well, but it feels to me like they are developing without going back and forth between the consumers and the developers. It’s crucial that this communication be fairly frequent, because a lot of the time your consumers think they know what will give them what they want, or your developers are developing something based upon inadequate feedback, or what the consumer wants/needs actually changes/evolves.

For all I know this could be wrong, but we have no visibility to really tell unfortunately. They definitely have play testers, but maybe they don’t have have a wide enough array of play testers. Maybe there’s some glaring gap in the angle in which development is being looked at, we don’t know. We don’t know, because there’s no transparency until late in the process.

Xae Isareth.1364:

Perhaps Anet is working hard to address them, but another side of the argument is also quite valid: there is just no urgency to fix them.

Both of these statements aren’t valid for the simple reason we don’t know how hard they are to fix / how many people are working on it / how high a priority these issues are.

This, I feel, is where communication should come into it.

While “we’re looking into it” wouldn’t cut it, if someone made a post as to what things they’ve tried to resolve the issue but it turns out it didn’t work I feel it would sate a lot of people that they are looking into the issue.

Xae Isareth.1364:

I think it’s a pretty one sided argument that the game has a lot of fundamental problems.

1. CCs have zero use on bosses
2. a lot of skills bugged
3. condition builds having no use in PVE whatsoever
4. entire classes like the Ranger being non-functional

Discuss?

1. Untrue. CC is extremely difficult to apply to bosses in massive herds with everyone freelancing. CC can be used in small coordinated groups quite readily.
2. Name five, please. I’ve got 8 @ 80 and can’t name one off the top of my head.
3. Incorrect. Condition play suffers from diminishing returns the larger the group and is mostly a waste of time in massive herd play.
4. If non-functional is a euphemism for, “I wish that profession X were stronger in all game modes,” sure. Otherwise, incorrect. Non-functional would indicate not viable in any game mode. I don’t think you can make that claim.

That’s not to say there aren’t issues with the aspects of the game you’ve mentioned, but exaggerations and incorrect claims are over the top. And that’s without dissecting the use of the K word in the thread title.

Maybe what some feel are glaring issues, others do not. Maybe the metrics show a different take than what is expressed on the forums.

For instance, I do not feel the Ranger is non-functional. It is my go-to Profession. I have no idea how the entire player-base feels. I’m not sure anyone on the forums does.

It would be nice if there were more blogs or posts or announcements on what is to come, though. Of course, no information that competitors could run with should be released early enough to be of benefit.

Maybe the Developers are not as cognizant of the fact that we don’t know as much about what’s going on as they might think we do, because they are so familiar with the workings of the game. /shrug

Its not dead so it was not killed by its own success.

Any way the cc thing is you can cc bosses but if every cc worked every time then you could endlessly stun blind root etc.. a boss making a boss fight less then nothing it would make the game way too easy so i am not sure why your complaining about that.

Most things have been fixed to the point where your not really naming off any real problems in the game (as in bugs).

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

It would be nice if there were more blogs or posts or announcements on what is to come, though. Of course, no information that competitors could run with should be released early enough to be of benefit.

Maybe the Developers are not as cognizant of the fact that we don’t know as much about what’s going on as they might think we do, because they are so familiar with the workings of the game. /shrug

Dolyak express and CDI came about as a result of forum members wanting to be better informed and have a dialog about where the game is going (and some unfortunate comments made about the forums that were supposed to remain internal but were leaked to the public).

Not sure what people want, considering that while the forums are a gathering place for the most vocal players (and trolls pretending to care about the game while doing everything possible to undermine it) it represents a tiny portion of the game population. Releasing too much info through the forums risks alienating the rest of the game population because we have more information about upcoming changes and thus an advantage over other players.

Even if there was just one full-time staff member who was tasked with nothing but managing the forums and keeping us updated about the game, that represents tens of thousands of dollars every year being spent on a tiny portion of the players. Besides generating warm and fuzzy feelings, how does that translate into a benefit for Anet, especially considering the way many forum posters misinterpret casual remarks and turn them into broken promises?

tolunart.2095:

Not sure what people want, considering that while the forums are a gathering place for the most vocal players (and trolls pretending to care about the game while doing everything possible to undermine it) it represents a tiny portion of the game population. Releasing too much info through the forums risks alienating the rest of the game population because we have more information about upcoming changes and thus an advantage over other players.

Good grief. An advantage from reading something about the game posted by a dev on the forums? That’s an amazing assertion. Dulfy releases more things about the game that allow players to finish content faster than any dev ever could. If there’s anything on the forums that gives an advantage, it’s advice from players about builds which might provide an advantage in a PvP mode.

tolunart.2095:

Even if there was just one full-time staff member who was tasked with nothing but managing the forums and keeping us updated about the game, that represents tens of thousands of dollars every year being spent on a tiny portion of the players. Besides generating warm and fuzzy feelings, how does that translate into a benefit for Anet, especially considering the way many forum posters misinterpret casual remarks and turn them into broken promises?

And yet ANet employs more than one staff member whose job is to manage the forums. They must think the forums are more worthwhile than you do.

I’m not sitting here thinking the developers should talk more to us. I understand why they don’t. But defending those actions with such statements does no one any favors.

How hard is it to make a pod cast telling us what they plan on doing?

really? You all are defending that crappy argument that developers cant talk to us?

Knighthonor.4061:

How hard is it to make a pod cast telling us what they plan on doing?

really? You all are defending that crappy argument that developers cant talk to us?

Not hard, but I can understand why they’re reluctant to. Unfortunately, some people around here don’t have the reading comprehension to understand that “we plan to, but it’s subject to change” =/= “we promise”.

However, on long-standing issues and complaints they’ve said they’re looking into; they could post a small post as to what they’ve tried and what they plan on trying.

I have a different view. I believe GW2 is being hurt by its own attempt at innovation, coupled with a kinda unfocused direction at times.

Unlike a game that takes existing ideas and improves upon them, GW2 tries to implement things differently. As a result, it does stand out as a mmo in the market, but leads to plenty of unpredictable problems and generally a more experimental/ less “polished” title (not to say that GW2 isn’t a polished game in other areas). Many of those problems aren’t probably easy to fix without serious revamps.

This problem becomes bigger when, at times, the game seems directionless, with conflicting design decisions clashing against each other. Like when they were designing the super alt-unfriendly, anti-horizontal progression ascended gear at the same time as they were making QoL changes and creating the wallet system for the sake of the opposite goal. And sometimes, the game seems to go in completely unexpected directions (living world), while old features are left ignored (dynamic event system was expanded in two years, but only very slightly). Sometimes even new features, which are full of potential, like guild missions, come in, show themselves to be a bit underwhelming, and instead of getting further improved, they are also left abandoned.

Anet doesn’t seems to stick to the same feature for too long. They’re always trying to create new mechanics, new types of completely different content, while spending very little time expanding upon what already exists and what could be improved upon. It makes the game kinda like a graveyard of experimental ideas at times.

tolunart.2095:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

It would be nice if there were more blogs or posts or announcements on what is to come, though. Of course, no information that competitors could run with should be released early enough to be of benefit.

Maybe the Developers are not as cognizant of the fact that we don’t know as much about what’s going on as they might think we do, because they are so familiar with the workings of the game. /shrug

Dolyak express and CDI came about as a result of forum members wanting to be better informed and have a dialog about where the game is going (and some unfortunate comments made about the forums that were supposed to remain internal but were leaked to the public).

Not sure what people want, considering that while the forums are a gathering place for the most vocal players (and trolls pretending to care about the game while doing everything possible to undermine it) it represents a tiny portion of the game population. Releasing too much info through the forums risks alienating the rest of the game population because we have more information about upcoming changes and thus an advantage over other players.

Even if there was just one full-time staff member who was tasked with nothing but managing the forums and keeping us updated about the game, that represents tens of thousands of dollars every year being spent on a tiny portion of the players. Besides generating warm and fuzzy feelings, how does that translate into a benefit for Anet, especially considering the way many forum posters misinterpret casual remarks and turn them into broken promises?

Really?

I was thinking of the blog posts we used to get, and the bi-weekly release pages that let us know a week in advance what to expect. Or maybe the ‘State of the Game’ blog that is so exciting. And you feel we should no longer have those? Even your examples haven’t been around for awhile.

Geez. I’m really disappointed, now.

IMO GW2 is in a precarious situation. Once a new MMO innovates and implements better from the innovations of GW2 is the moment we’ll see this game’s downfall, otherwise we’re kinda stuck in limbo until Anet finds out how to capitalize on this game’s system.

CC – I´d say working as intended, though not a very ingenious way of doing it. With huge zerks, bosses being vulnerable to CC abilities would lead to ridiculous “stun locks”.

the rest of your post: No, I don´t think so. With diminishing resources, it would become even more unlikely. Succesful companies try to become even more succesful, struggling ones barely can keep up the status quo, that applies to the quality of products just as well.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I was thinking of the blog posts we used to get, and the bi-weekly release pages that let us know a week in advance what to expect. Or maybe the ‘State of the Game’ blog that is so exciting. And you feel we should no longer have those? Even your examples haven’t been around for awhile.

Geez. I’m really disappointed, now.

The last DE Q&A response was April 11, just over a month ago. Granted, in recent months the devs have had their hands full with the big patch (wardrobe, trait changes and such) and coordinating with another group in China for their release. CDI is a pretty intensive project where they have to spend hours a day reading and evaluating posts from dozens of players. So I can understand if the devs haven’t had time for it.

But your post sounds like it’s been months since they did anything… the big patch was a month ago, DE was a month ago, a huge release of a new version of the game is imminent, new LS events coming next week… they have a lot on their plates right now. How many 16 hour days do you expect them to work?

Are you really implying that the team members that write up the releases or blogs are doing so for China? That they are proficient in Mandarin or whatever dialect they use there? It has been some time since we got the Release pages, as they decided to stop doing that a week before each release. And we haven’t had a State of the Game blog in about 10 months.

I’m not the one that brought up the CDIs, which is nice, but hardly gives us any information. It’s a great vehicle for us to give the Devs information about how we feel, though.

The Dolyak Express is nice, as well. I can’t imagine it would have been too difficult for a Community Manager to write the ’Hey, we are taking questions on (insert any topic here) post, and leave it open for us to contribute to, even if no one had the time to answer the questions for awhile.

And why bring content into it? I didn’t say anything about a lack of content. It’s great you feel the need to defend ArenaNet, I’m totally on the White Knight side. But, it really hasn’t anything to do with missing some of the great ways they disseminated information in the past, and stopped doing so some time back.

Xae Isareth.1364:

snip……..and entire classes like the Ranger being non-functional all being examples.

Who knew…..here I been playing a non-functional class since 2 months after release and doing pretty good with it. (in Pve, Wvw, and Pvp) I should just quit the game, as obviously I have been in a completely delusional state for well over a year now……lol.

Um, yeah, whatever. Can I have some of whatever it is you’re drinking? It’s been a long day.

Buhbye.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

It has been some time since we got the Release pages, as they decided to stop doing that a week before each release.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/feature-packs/

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/prepare-for-the-festival-of-the-four-winds/

How long has it been since they talked about upcoming releases?

Well they missed one (hype for the festival of the four winds on the release page) cause the bosses are in China but it is in the news section. And State of the Game tends to be once a year on the anniversary unless some milestone in sales was reached.

I have a feeling they are trying not to drop the ball on the first LS content China will see.

Behellagh.1468:

Well they missed one (hype for the festival of the four winds on the release page) cause the bosses are in China but it is in the news section. And State of the Game tends to be once a year on the anniversary unless some milestone in sales was reached.

Not surprised by a lack of State of the Game, people are still complaining because some of their announced plans from last year were delayed, such as the “scavenger hunt” or precursor crafting or whatever it’s going to be.

Their plans for the first six months of 2014 were already announced: End of LS pt 1, break with no new releases, Features Update, start of LS pt 2. So if they avoid announcing things they want to do but haven’t locked in yet, the SotG would just consist of telling us things we already know.

Which, of course, people would spend the next several months complaining about.

Which, of course, people are going to do anyway. Might as well focus on actually doing things instead of talking about what they could be doing if they weren’t just talking about what they could be doing.