Guild Wars 2

Dashingsteel.3410:

Does anyone truly have the numbers on either side? Is there an official record???

We have the income statements from NCSOFT, which include sales figures from GW2. As expected, income went sharply up when HoT was in pre-purchase mode and for a bit after launch. However, it didn’t go up as much as predicted by NCSOFT shareholders and Korean market analysts.

As expected, sales went down after the honeymoon (“expected” because that always happens for every game), hitting GW2’s lowest figures. (That is typical, although wasn’t expected, again because the predictions were very rosy.)

People who disliked HoT (or preferred GW1 over GW2) point to the figures as signs that HoT was a failure. The fact that ANet added staff, doubled down on Raids and Fractals, and plans to release expacs regularly … those are signs that HoT was a success.

The fact that there have been big changes in how the game is hyped, the parts of game worked on, and the sorts of things we’ve seen… those are signs that ANet learned something from HoT’s rough times.

Of course, the community remains divided about what lessons should have been learned and what ANet should do differently as a result.

No one has numbers on which side has more people but as I’ve said many times, I don’t think any demographic has a clear majority. The problem I have is when people come in assuming or implying they do have some kind of majority just because they find some people that agree with them. The forum represents a small portion of the playerbase, but it also represents a very negative section of the playerbase..and always has.

This game is a niche game now and it’ll likely remain a niche game, but that doesn’t mean it’s not successful. It means it’s not mainstream. It’s possible to be both niche and successful. The problem is if Anet doesn’t stay with something, they don’t maintain a niche.

I was one of the people arguing for the casual playerbase before HoT came out because I felt the core game was very casual and the less casual it became, the more people it would leave behind.

Once that ship sailed, and more casual people did walk, it made sense to stay with what they had, because some people came back to play it.

I’m not sure who the seasaw favors, but it seems to be a good compromise is likely to kitten off a percentage of both factions.

Fortunately the people most aggreived are the top percentage of harder core players and the lowest percentage of casual players.

The best hope for the game is that Anet finds a comfortable middle ground that allows the most people to continue playing. I’m not a raider for example, and pretty much don’t raid, (or at least very rarely). I just don’t enjoy the content. There is obviousliy a group of people who raid who are interested in that content.

I don’t love specific reward types being locked behind raids, but I refuse to play content I don’t enjoy to get rewards.

At the end of the day, the people for or against HoT with any strength are not the ones who will drive the game going forward. It’s the more adaptable people in the middle who are going to be here next year and the year after.

You can’t make a game for the outliers, because you’ll lose more of the people in the middle.