Guild Wars 2

Im taking my white knight armor off for a few minutes. It’s rare for me to talk bad on anet or any device to be honest unless it has to do with necro axe and ranger. I’m really starting to lose interest in HoT. No matter what I’ll have it first day and play it like a mad man but the lack of information especially lately l, and no release date have killed the hype for me. I was absolutely certain the expansion would come out on the 3 year anniversary but it’s July now and we haven’t seen the specs, theres more betas coming out and the anniversary is next month. So now I’m thinking september? It won’t come in October due to Halloween I think. It’s been a sold 7 months with nothing new and almost my entire guild has quit. My former friends list, They’re all playing ff14 and don’t care about HoT anymore and it annoys me. OK I’m done venting, sorry for my crying fellas and ladies.

I thought it might come out then too, but really, that’s my own doing. Anet didn’t say it was coming out then.

But then, we just got one of the biggest expansions we’ve seen to date. That expansion was huge. Fixes to the LS, QoL fixes, like the wallet, the whole new skill/specialization system and even a way to transform ascended armor and weapons to other stat sets.

Anet shifted gears when they went from a living world to an expansion, which fans insisted on. It’s going to take some time..because they had to switch gears.

imo, don’t be sorry …and it’s not crying. Feedback helps the company, and I’ve experienced the same things as you. White Knighting can actually hurt the company when it’s vs valid complaints that are in fact affecting attendance to the game.

Vets complain, because we love the game and are doing our best to preserve it and help Guide anet on things that their metrics don’t show. The idea is to sift through valid complaints, and trolling.

People are more volatile than metrics lol

with all the complaining i do, it’s because i want to see gw 2 number 1 -

it bothers me to see other games getting 800k players a day, on something anet did long ago. bad decisions are being made and anet is losing people when they shouldn’t be, and yes they are losing people – check alexa rating …they dropped 16k ranks – that is no light drop.

there is a trust issue, and metrics go but so far.

Vayne.8563:

I thought it might come out then too, but really, that’s my own doing. Anet didn’t say it was coming out then.

But then, we just got one of the biggest expansions we’ve seen to date. That expansion was huge. Fixes to the LS, QoL fixes, like the wallet, the whole new skill/specialization system and even a way to transform ascended armor and weapons to other stat sets.

Anet shifted gears when they went from a living world to an expansion, which fans insisted on. It’s going to take some time..because they had to switch gears.

I 1000 percent agree with you. I’m not really knocking anet so much as knocking myself and guildies. Everyone, except me that I know of anyway, hated the living story and wanted an expansion. Now that we’re actually getting it everyone literally can’t wait and it’s getting sad for my now rather small circle.
But I stand by my comment that anet is not giving enough info at all. E3 went by and I saw lots of pretty things but let’s put some words to paper so we have something to talk about. I was positive queens gauntlet and def SAB would both be back by now but nope.

It’s not unreasonable to want something new to do in between. QoL update or not, the game has been rather stale for a long time now.

I understand where you’re coming from Azure. I think a lot of people actually do. Yes, the hype has dwindled, but that doesn’t really bother me. Personally, though, I never expected the launch to come in August. At the earliest I was thinking mid September; however, given the current state of affairs, now I’m leaning more towards a holiday release.

My guild right now has 50 members but only two of us play regularly. This expac took too long well before HoT was announced. I have been with GW since Prophecies and will play the kitten out of this expac, but I have eight 80s and just created a second War because…well we have to invent our own fun right now.

I still have about 100 people logging in every week. The new patch brought some people back too. The new LA was pretty cool and the scavenger hunt took a while if you didn’t run to dulfy to find everything and followed the clues instead.

I still have to do the new jumping puzzle.

But yeah, it’s always like this in MMOs before an expansion.

Anet does really need to take a look at necro’s axe, its dreadful. I would like to see the attack made to a cone cleave, with axe 2 being a health syphon. That would definiately make it more useful. Its terrible wading into battle (pvp and pve) with the axe being single target. Its essentially useless, because several classes spam vuln faster than we can put it on with the weakest autoattack in the game (aside from necro staff, which is even weaker).

necro’s weapon skills in general leave a lot to be desired, which is more noticeable as we have to rely on autoattacks so much.

Necro still needs help in pvp and pve, and I truly hope they will actually do something to improve it. The mesmers sure were improved drastically, and i think they could do the same thing for the necro.

Gryph.8237:

Anet does really need to take a look at necro’s axe, its dreadful. I would like to see the attack made to a cone cleave, with axe 2 being a health syphon. That would definiately make it more useful. Its terrible wading into battle (pvp and pve) with the axe being single target. Its essentially useless, because several classes spam vuln faster than we can put it on with the weakest autoattack in the game (aside from necro staff, which is even weaker).

necro’s weapon skills in general leave a lot to be desired, which is more noticeable as we have to rely on autoattacks so much.

Necro still needs help in pvp and pve, and I truly hope they will actually do something to improve it. The mesmers sure were improved drastically, and i think they could do the same thing for the necro.

Great suggestions btw. I have a thread in the necro forum called axe for help where we are gathering g data to fix axe and hopefully a dev reads it. Should throw this in there

My latest “Game Slobs” video explains my feelings on the matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6YCv4Ajw-s

Im in sort of the same boat, as are many in my guild. We still play an insane number of hours, buy virtual knicknacks on the TP and sit in teamspeak talking about things like mesmer builds for hours, but there is a definite lull in excitement levels right now.

Part of it is Anet’s fault for staggering their information the way they have. While it may seem like a good way to keep interest high, I think it is having the opposite effect. What is happening is that people have come to expect major announcements every week or even every other week.

This is causing Anet to sit on information and trickle it out in ways that often disappoint players. When you’re expecting something big and the weekly announcement ends up being mediocre, it is like letting the air out of a balloon.

A better strategy, imo, would be to tell us everything they have to tell us at once – a big announcement that includes the names and general themes of every specialization, exactly what they mean by difficult group content, the names of the maps were getting and any other surprises (fractals, guild missions, etc).

Then – follow that up with a series of in-depth blogs similar to those weve seen for the specific specializations. This sets expectations and raises excitement (and, just as importantly, squashes rumors) – while still giving people a reason to keep coming back to the website (the in depth blogs).

They wouldn’t lose attention by taking this route – in fact, they would probably see more people paying attention in the long run.

TLDR – they need to stop the slow trickle of news and excite us with a big reveal – followed by a steady flow of indepth analyses.

Coopziana.1802:

My latest “Game Slobs” video explains my feelings on the matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6YCv4Ajw-s

I’ll be sure to watch this later today my friend

Anet might have been planning that too but in development you never know when you come across something that destroys all your plans.

Perhaps they even intended to release it close to january this year, I mean we dont know how long its been in the development but it would have been really cool if LS season 2 finished an 2 weeks later Expansion launches. Maybe that was the initial plan ony it had to be delayed because of issues. I mean with the agressive content release they had its kind off hard to imagine they planned for such a long content draught.

Ehh I so miss the Living story

Galen Grey.4709:

Anet might have been planning that too but in development you never know when you come across something that destroys all your plans.

Perhaps they even intended to release it close to january this year, I mean we dont know how long its been in the development but it would have been really cool if LS season 2 finished an 2 weeks later Expansion launches. Maybe that was the initial plan ony it had to be delayed because of issues. I mean with the agressive content release they had its kind off hard to imagine they planned for such a long content draught.

Ehh I so miss the Living story

I can’t believe there aren’t more posts in general saying this. I miss the living story so much

Hype only lasts so long, the problem is they started trying to “Hype” the expansion wayyyy to early. You can’t release little tid bits of info for over 6 months and expect everyone to be hyped. It’s human nature, we have some patients but it has limits, they are beyond those limits. Most people I talk to in game are no longer excited at all, it’s having the opposite effect on people now, it seems most are annoyed , they aren’t interested in teasers anymore, they want to know what we’re getting. I really don’t blame them, like I said, you can’t drag people along for months on end while only giving teasers, it just kittenes them off.

I’m not even sure I understand this need for hype. I’m not hyped. I haven’t been hyped yet. Maybe because I’m old, I don’t know, but it seems some people want to be hyped and can’t enjoy things because they’re not. This is like an alien concept to me.

Being excited doesn’t really do anything, except raise your expectations, which no company can probably live up to. Hype is not your friend, or at least it’s not my friend. To me, hype is the enemy. It clouds judgement.

Rnger spec has been announced. ? It’s 2nd july 2015? My bad, was to post this 2016. Nvm, i was not here;P

Vayne.8563:

I’m not even sure I understand this need for hype. I’m not hyped. I haven’t been hyped yet. Maybe because I’m old, I don’t know, but it seems some people want to be hyped and can’t enjoy things because they’re not. This is like an alien concept to me.

Being excited doesn’t really do anything, except raise your expectations, which no company can probably live up to. Hype is not your friend, or at least it’s not my friend. To me, hype is the enemy. It clouds judgement.

It’s a Marketing scheme, build excitement, sell more copies. It does work but not this far in advance. I would rather have had Anet come out in say "We are working on HoT, here is what you can expect from the expansion, we plan to release in summer of 2015 (or fall, or winter which ever) and then worked on the game. This is what most companies do, they start releasing more info as it gets close to release (not 6 months+ prior) to build sales. They use the rest of their time to work on the game.

They announced HoT

Then went and paraded it to all the gaming shows and any event they could really plug. They trickle information out like there actually doing something when we all know the game is probably complete and the twiddle there thumbs before the next big show so they can present more. I’m not a white knight but have been called so but am more of a realist in that NCSoft released Wildstar and as a result we didn’t get any content at all during it’s launch and NCSoft controls these sort of things because they have many MMO’s under the belt and many smaller companies like Anet underneath them. The price has been set the game is probably done but won’t release until both companies give the green light and by both companies I mean when it doesn’t interfere with NCSofts other MMO’s. For the record Anet is Valve and NCSoft is EA games.

Azure.8670:

Im taking my white knight armor off for a few minutes. It’s rare for me to talk bad on anet or any device to be honest unless it has to do with necro axe and ranger. I’m really starting to lose interest in HoT. No matter what I’ll have it first day and play it like a mad man but the lack of information especially lately l, and no release date have killed the hype for me. I was absolutely certain the expansion would come out on the 3 year anniversary but it’s July now and we haven’t seen the specs, theres more betas coming out and the anniversary is next month. So now I’m thinking september? It won’t come in October due to Halloween I think. It’s been a sold 7 months with nothing new and almost my entire guild has quit. My former friends list, They’re all playing ff14 and don’t care about HoT anymore and it annoys me. OK I’m done venting, sorry for my crying fellas and ladies.

Welcome to how I have been feeling for the last 2.5 years!

With WvW being ignored for so long why should I pay $50 for a game which will not update the part of the game I like?

One new map after 3 years is not worth $50! They have to give a lot more to get my money now.

Orochimaru.4730:

Welcome to how I have been feeling for the last 2.5 years!

With WvW being ignored for so long why should I pay $50 for a game which will not update the part of the game I like?

One new map after 3 years is not worth $50! They have to give a lot more to get my money now.

To be honest it is more than just the borderlands, general functionality of wvw will changed quite a lot (see here) and guild claiming will also be quite different (see here).

That said, most of those things will come via free updates (the possible exception being guild claiming, though it might be enough if the others in your guild have HoT). However, of course the Revenant and elite specializations are also HoT additions to WvW. The same goes for any stat combinations and armor/weapon skins that might be a part of the expansion.

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

The game is in a sad state for sure. This is exactly what I didnt want to see. Long periods without content updates. Though living world and event udates were small they kept my guild logging in.

My guild, my friends list, If I showed these things to my former self back in Febuary, there would be little that would be familiar. Though larger and more active than it was then I would not know anyone I know today than back then.

It is now a constant cycle of receuiting new and returning players coming in. Then getting to level 80 or checking out whats new then dropping off the game from lack of content. Many long time consistant players have gotten tired of waiting and moved on. I thought the LA patch would bring many of them back, but nope.

The game has lost more veterians than some people would like to believe and those are the people that woukd have stuck around after the expansion loses its initial “new” factor. Expansions don’t retain players. They drive then away until it comes out, brings them back for awhile, then they are gone again. You would think with the genstore model arena net woukd want to retain players.

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

You seem to forget you’re not the only person playing this game. How about we say YOU people that keep requesting LS junk are ruining it for all of us that play SPvP, or WvW. Your LS does nothing for us, they made a game with several different game modes, that’s on them to cater to ALL game modes not just what YOU want.

Your post has got to be the most self centered, self absorbed post I have read yet. this might be hard but try to realize you are not the only person playing this game.

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

I agree. Anet gave into a bunch of players that were not even playing the game and are still not until the expansion comes out. Then when the content drys up. Won’t be playing again. ArenaNet has pretty much taken a crap on its loyal following for hyped up quick sales.

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

What makes you think that continuous content updates to the live game and development on an expansion are mutualy exclusive? LS was bad because it never added anything of significance in my opinion. An expansion was needed but nobody could have known that would result in a content drought for well over half a year.

Azure.8670:

They’re all playing ff14 and don’t care about HoT anymore and it annoys me.

Of course they are. Game is amazing!

Well, if you are looking for a new guild, mine is recruiting and we are all still active players.

Crovax.7854:

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

What makes you think that continuous content updates to the live game and development on an expansion are mutualy exclusive? LS was bad because it never added anything of significance in my opinion. An expansion was needed but nobody could have known that would result in a content drought for well over half a year.

Their hyped “bi-weekly” episodes turned out to be something like 4 episodes of “bi-weekly” content every six months. That’s why LS failed.

All the expansion model does is change release dates from spread out, to all-at-once. Only the content delivery system has changed. So if they were incapable of creating content at a decent pace before, we’re still not going to see enough content with an expansion (which is what all the evidence available points to).

Mireles Lore.5942:

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

I agree. Anet gave into a bunch of players that were not even playing the game and are still not until the expansion comes out. Then when the content drys up. Won’t be playing again. ArenaNet has pretty much taken a crap on its loyal following for hyped up quick sales.

yes, and I personally blame that on metrics – it’s obvious that they are looking for new players …..the problem is not all new players are the same.

Their orignal fans are the ones that moved on to other games and made those esports, while anet used metrics to see how they can copy wow. Anet was filling a void that wow was not ( aside from the no monthly fee ) – now dota 2 and lol filled that void and are stronger than wow and anet put together. How they overlooked those facts is beyond me.

I agree with a lot of the things being said here. My Guild and I will still play HoT hardcore when it releases, but we have lost that feeling of “hype” for the release. I understand they are tweaking things, and don’t want to release info that they may have to change or go back on. However, we have only heard some of the Specs, nothing on group content, etc and this has been dragged out across months. Just like in poker, slow-rolling isn’t a good thing, especially when it’s being done to a player base that is starved for content. For some time, I was checking the site religiously every day (even from work) to see if there were any announcements, but 90% of the time, only gem store updates. As a result, I have lost interest; I don’t really feel “excited” like I did before. Don’t mistake me, I will still be playing as much as I have been, and so will my Guild. This is just customer feedback so that they might take these things into account for future expansions.

Yeah, I was hoping we’d at least have a release date by now… the only problem is that in my mind there’s no way they’d announce a release date a week before release, or even a month before release. So at least 2-3 months plus whatever time between now and announcement of release

Azure.8670:

So now I’m thinking september? It won’t come in October due to Halloween I think. It’s been a sold 7 months with nothing new and almost my entire guild has quit. My former friends list, They’re all playing ff14 and don’t care about HoT anymore and it annoys me.

Personally I figured we wouldn’t have it til next year.

Question: If they hadn’t announced the expansion at all, would you and your friends have quit playing?

Thats what I figure until they announce the first beta weekend we are well over 3 months until release happens. Heck they are just now getting around to a closed WvW beta.

Mireles Lore.5942:

Thats what I figure until they announce the first beta weekend we are well over 3 months until release happens. Heck they are just now getting around to a closed WvW beta.

I fully believe that they throw out “stress tests” (not even betas) whenever they need to kill time. I can guarantee next week will be another week with no new info, why? Cause man oh man, it is gonna take the entire team to handle this “stress test” which not everyone will be able to play, but lets alienate everyone with no new info ;-)

They clearly have nothing new to show and it alarms me. This game, I feel, is far from being done, just makes me sad, I can’t continue to let myself hold out hope for this game anymore. Currently looking at other MMO’s I can sink my time into.

webtoehobbit.4201:

Mireles Lore.5942:

Thats what I figure until they announce the first beta weekend we are well over 3 months until release happens. Heck they are just now getting around to a closed WvW beta.

I fully believe that they throw out “stress tests” (not even betas) whenever they need to kill time. I can guarantee next week will be another week with no new info, why? Cause man oh man, it is gonna take the entire team to handle this “stress test” which not everyone will be able to play, but lets alienate everyone with no new info ;-)

They clearly have nothing new to show and it alarms me. This game, I feel, is far from being done, just makes me sad, I can’t continue to let myself hold out hope for this game anymore. Currently looking at other MMO’s I can sink my time into.

Exactly why I havent prepurchased. They way the are handling the content gap, news, and the lack of release date is absolutely alarming. They are selling something strictly based on hype and some info on features with no release date.

Who does that? How do we know that its still not a year off and will still be interested when it does come. If this was really something to be worth the wait and the price. I’d think they would have something more to show us.

If this was being described to me without names and titles. Id say this is what EA games does before the release a crap game with a favorite classic title slapped on it.

It’s an understandable concern. ANet need to get their fingers out and give us info. They need to stop with this utterly absurd “We’re only going to talk about things when they’re 100% iron clad and set in stone” policy and just talk to us.

I’d imagine it’s also horrifically frustrating for the Anet staff too but they need to speak up against their senior’s policies and a lot of people won’t do that for fear of their job security.

The silence policy from ANet has driven off quite a number from my guild and even I am slowly becoming more and more frustrated with the drips, not even trickles, of info we’re getting.

I was under the impression reveals would speed up after they announced prepurchases but clearly I was wrong. Now we’re getting info about some new tweak to the pvp map rather than the content that so, SO many people have cried out that they want to know about.
Anet: Please for the love of all you hold dear, give us the challenging group content info ASAP at the very least. Hold off on other things if you have to, but my guild and I are growing incredibly restless and increasingly disinterested.

I have been in love with GW2 since the day I started playing and I’ve defended Anet where I’ve seen I should and criticised where I thought it needed, and right now severe criticism, change and growth is in dire need.

Orochimaru.4730:

With WvW being ignored for so long why should I pay $50 for a game which will not update the part of the game I like?

One new map after 3 years is not worth $50! They have to give a lot more to get my money now.

The WVW isn’t part of the expac anyway.

I too won’t be supporting this dodgy company with any more $$ either until I see a character slot included as standard for all purchasers, pre- and post-release.

You know, because asking for a product to be playable by itself without hidden extra charges is asking a lot….

My feelings are similar to Vayne. I’m older and I don’t get the “hype” either. :-)

The Guild I’m in still has quite a few daily participants.

I’ve been around since GW2 was announced and (in my opinion) Arena Net has not changed a bit. They make announcements without any release dates and use the verbiage “soon” or “when it’s ready” until release (which is usually farther away than you may have anticipated) along with trickles of information here and there.

I’ve pre-purchased HoT and will participate in the Betas. I’m not sure I will enjoy HoT that much because I don’t care for Dry Top nor the Silverwastes, but I will give it a whirl none the less. I’m more excited about the Guild Halls and having a nice place to hang out with my Guildies.

Sad to say it but I am with you there… I was super excited but I’m sorry A-net, I’m a college student, the last thing on my mind in September or October will be GW2

Not to mention all the Triple A games coming out around that time…

A-net need to do one of two things, release the thing before August is done, or if that’s not an option, do some massive content update, yeah we had the recent rebalance patch and new LA, don’t get me wrong those were amazing! But I have to be honest, that’s not going to last most people more than a few weeks. Heck I’m already not looking twice at the new LA…

The Hype train has run out of fuel and is now threatening to derail completely… In short, I’ve gone from super excited (January/February) to happy (March) to concerned (June) and now I am just plain old annoyed, I am sick of the dev’s sitting back with a PR smile and gleefully spouting “When it’s ready” or “Soon”

Don’t even get me started on the “you’ll get the character slot only if you pre-order before July 31st” if they don’t have a release date before that, I will be rioting

sigh I’d never thought I’d say this but I think it’s time to reconsider buying ESO, that game just had a huge content update and no longer requires a subscription… if HoT isn’t out by August and you’ve done NOTHING to update the game with new content… Well I guess you can consider me a lost sale A-net maybe I’ll see you guys around in a different MMO.

Lord Kuru.3685:

Crovax.7854:

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

What makes you think that continuous content updates to the live game and development on an expansion are mutualy exclusive? LS was bad because it never added anything of significance in my opinion. An expansion was needed but nobody could have known that would result in a content drought for well over half a year.

Their hyped “bi-weekly” episodes turned out to be something like 4 episodes of “bi-weekly” content every six months. That’s why LS failed.

All the expansion model does is change release dates from spread out, to all-at-once. Only the content delivery system has changed. So if they were incapable of creating content at a decent pace before, we’re still not going to see enough content with an expansion (which is what all the evidence available points to).

Hey wait a second there. Season one was perfectly bi-weekly with no breaks but players complained about how small each update was. For season two Anet listened to its players and each episode was essentially 4 – 5 season 1 episodes bundled in 1. Thats with the same team and naturally Arenanet aren’t super human, they cant simply produce 4 – 5 times the content in the same time period so something had to give. Living story was split into two and the teams were given a little time to catch up.

Also dont exagerate there were never any 6 month breaks except for now. There were only 2 breaks between end of LS 1 and start of LS 2 april 1st- July 1st and even then there were content releases on April 15 (feature pack) and May 20th Labyrinthine cliffs and Crown pavilion) so essentially it was just monthly instead o biweekly content for a while and the festival of the four winds lasting an entire month.

The 2nd break was between august 26th and November 4th but we got feature pack on sept 9th and halloween event on october 21st so once again they merely switched to montly updates while Living story team was catching up.

No 6 month break anywere.

Diovid.9506:

Orochimaru.4730:

Welcome to how I have been feeling for the last 2.5 years!

With WvW being ignored for so long why should I pay $50 for a game which will not update the part of the game I like?

One new map after 3 years is not worth $50! They have to give a lot more to get my money now.

To be honest it is more than just the borderlands, general functionality of wvw will changed quite a lot (see here) and guild claiming will also be quite different (see here).

That said, most of those things will come via free updates (the possible exception being guild claiming, though it might be enough if the others in your guild have HoT). However, of course the Revenant and elite specializations are also HoT additions to WvW. The same goes for any stat combinations and armor/weapon skins that might be a part of the expansion.

1) Zzzzzzz
2) Still not worth $50 to me.

Galen Grey.4709:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Crovax.7854:

PlatinumMember.5274:

This is the result of giving the people what they wanted. I preferred the LS route, it was a change, but you (not you OP) people wanted an expansion because this mystic expansion. Supposedly, was going to make all your dreams come true and turn gw2 into the MMO you dreamt off.

Well, this is what it is. The ls was the best thing about this game and you people have ruined it for me anyways.

What makes you think that continuous content updates to the live game and development on an expansion are mutualy exclusive? LS was bad because it never added anything of significance in my opinion. An expansion was needed but nobody could have known that would result in a content drought for well over half a year.

Their hyped “bi-weekly” episodes turned out to be something like 4 episodes of “bi-weekly” content every six months. That’s why LS failed.

All the expansion model does is change release dates from spread out, to all-at-once. Only the content delivery system has changed. So if they were incapable of creating content at a decent pace before, we’re still not going to see enough content with an expansion (which is what all the evidence available points to).

Hey wait a second there. Season one was perfectly bi-weekly with no breaks but players complained about how small each update was. For season two Anet listened to its players and each episode was essentially 4 – 5 season 1 episodes bundled in 1. Thats with the same team and naturally Arenanet aren’t super human, they cant simply produce 4 – 5 times the content in the same time period so something had to give. Living story was split into two and the teams were given a little time to catch up.

Also dont exagerate there were never any 6 month breaks except for now. There were only 2 breaks between end of LS 1 and start of LS 2 april 1st- July 1st and even then there were content releases on April 15 (feature pack) and May 20th Labyrinthine cliffs and Crown pavilion) so essentially it was just monthly instead o biweekly content for a while and the festival of the four winds lasting an entire month.

The 2nd break was between august 26th and November 4th but we got feature pack on sept 9th and halloween event on october 21st so once again they merely switched to montly updates while Living story team was catching up.

No 6 month break anywere.

In my opinion it was the type of content that made it seem like little was added. In season 2 they put a lot of effort and ressources into story instances that many players would play once, twice, maybe a third time for achievements but that’s it. Had they put more effort into developing long lasting content like silverwastes I doubt there would have been as many complaints about those LS releases that literally took an evening to complete, even for casuals, with nothing new to do for the next 13 days -more in some cases-.

Yes the story instances were pretty. But dedicating at least half of your resources to something most players will only spend a tiny fraction of their time seems not smart.
Plus, wasn’t the reason they also didn’t want to do dungeons and raids similar? Not a lot of players spend their time there so it’s not worth developing at all?
What’s -in theory- the difference to story instances in the LS?

That’s what happens when you want to turn an MMO, a genre that lives off replayability and long lasting content, into a single player experience with focus on story.

rapthorne.7345:

It’s an understandable concern. ANet need to get their fingers out and give us info. They need to stop with this utterly absurd “We’re only going to talk about things when they’re 100% iron clad and set in stone” policy and just talk to us.

Thing is, they don’t even do that. They seem like they do that, but it you listen carefully, especially during the specialisation livestreams, they are always telling us (as well as it being evident from the in-game footage) that certain things are still in flux or just haven’t been designed yet. Feels a bit like HoT is being rushed out to please the Publisher.

Perhaps a better course of action would have been to had LS Season 3, and then announced HoT, since in the later half of the year we have many more festivals to “keep us entertained”, unlike this long period of time where we’re twiddling our thumbs waiting for the next specialisation reveal.

I’d actually be OK if HoT didn’t come until 2016. I’d be in a more comfortable position to play it by then, but I still find myself becoming very impatient at the lack of information they’re willing to divulge. They shouldn’t have announced it so soon.

Crovax.7854:

In my opinion it was the type of content that made it seem like little was added. In season 2 they put a lot of effort and ressources into story instances that many players would play once, twice, maybe a third time for achievements but that’s it. Had they put more effort into developing long lasting content like silverwastes I doubt there would have been as many complaints about those LS releases that literally took an evening to complete, even for casuals, with nothing new to do for the next 13 days -more in some cases-.

Yes the story instances were pretty. But dedicating at least half of your resources to something most players will only spend a tiny fraction of their time seems not smart.
Plus, wasn’t the reason they also didn’t want to do dungeons and raids similar? Not a lot of players spend their time there so it’s not worth developing at all?
What’s -in theory- the difference to story instances in the LS?

That’s what happens when you want to turn an MMO, a genre that lives off replayability and long lasting content, into a single player experience with focus on story.

They didnt use 1/2 their resources, the living story team is 20 people out of 330. Yes each release had about 2 hrs of actual game play but it also had days of speculation for those who followed the story at least. Then like you said you had the achievement and with season 2 they also did some nice rewards. They were also a kittenallenging so it was fun to try different professions too.

As for content like the silverwastes.. well how about the silverwastes? you do know the silverwastes and Drytop were released as part of the living story right?

Galen Grey.4709:

They didnt use 1/2 their resources, the living story team is 20 people out of 330. Then like you said you had the achievement and with season 2 they also did some nice rewards. They were also a kittenallenging so it was fun to try different professions too.

You make little sense. ANet may have 330 employees total, however only a small portion of those people are actual developers as has been said many times before.

Galen Grey.4709:

As for content like the silverwastes.. well how about the silverwastes? you do know the silverwastes and Drytop were released as part of the living story right?

Oh boy, you are right! How stupid of me, acting as if farming/grinding Dry Top for a full year (LS 2 had its debut on july 1st last year) and SW for about half a year could be considered boring by some.

Galen Grey.4709:

Yes each release had about 2 hrs of actual game play but it also had days of speculation for those who followed the story at least.

So you agree that it had very little gameplay but that’s okay because we could spend days speculating, not playing but speculating about the story?
By that logic The Order 1886 had double the content it actually had on disc because I’d spend ~3h online looking for opinions of others regarding game length and how that should play into the price point.
No offense but I think that’s your inner fanboy speaking and not common sense.

There really should have been a season this year and then the x-pac and killing Mordy in it. I figured the reason they didn’t do a season 3 before the x-pac was because it was coming really soon. Now I can’t be bothered to play except for login rewards.

Crovax.7854:

Galen Grey.4709:

They didnt use 1/2 their resources, the living story team is 20 people out of 330. Then like you said you had the achievement and with season 2 they also did some nice rewards. They were also a kittenallenging so it was fun to try different professions too.

You make little sense. ANet may have 330 employees total, however only a small portion of those people are actual developers as has been said many times before.

They have 350 employees and whats the bases for your statement that only a small portion of them are actual developers? We do know they didnt let go of any people and the same people that developed Gw2 are still working there + 80 people new people. Are you suggesting all of Gw2 was developed by 20 – 40 people?

Even if we look at the current open jobs:
https://www.arena.net/#careers

out of 23 openinings, 16 are for direct content development related jobs, 3 are for testing, 3 are producers and 1 is for localization which strictly speaking are also part of the development process. If like you suggest most positions didnt involve development
would that also reflect on their hiring strategy?

Crovax.7854:

Galen Grey.4709:

As for content like the silverwastes.. well how about the silverwastes? you do know the silverwastes and Drytop were released as part of the living story right?

Oh boy, you are right! How stupid of me, acting as if farming/grinding Dry Top for a full year (LS 2 had its debut on july 1st last year) and SW for about half a year could be considered boring by some.

please move the goal posts that will definitely make your point. First you say the living story was a fail because it didnt delivery content like the silverwastes and when called on it that content suddenly became boring. Also I wasnt aware they took the rest of the game out when they introduced silverwastes.

Crovax.7854:

Galen Grey.4709:

Yes each release had about 2 hrs of actual game play but it also had days of speculation for those who followed the story at least.

So you agree that it had very little gameplay but that’s okay because we could spend days speculating, not playing but speculating about the story?
By that logic The Order 1886 had double the content it actually had on disc because I’d spend ~3h online looking for opinions of others regarding game length and how that should play into the price point.
No offense but I think that’s your inner fanboy speaking and not common sense.

I agree you could finish a single run of a single living story release in 2 hrs yes. It was a 2 week update, what do you expect? 80 hrs of content each time? We’re talking about 20 people who had approximately 7 months to deliver 16hrs of story content and thats not including the content in drytop and silverwastes themselves. Thats compared to the 8hrs average for the order accourding to the how long to beat website and the order was in development for 5 years with a team of about 120 people. (not that you can compare the two because of course more work went to in developing the order then LS) but then again the order is a full game, the living story was content to keep you busy until the expansion.

ima have to flip gears on this one lol -

anet is my favorite developers, i love their art, i love their ideas ….I don’t think it’s fair to judge something because people wanted to rush through it, I had fun with all the events and skins

so i’m going -1 on the content amount claimed by gamers

we have the best developers and artists in the business …I’ll stand whole heartedly by that.

what i’m not standing by are the decisions and choices they are making that are changing the game and pretty much leaving behind the strategy that sold them 6 million copies to begin with.

their content is great, and I respect that they take all of it from story to sound track and scripting very serious, so i don’t think it’s cool to criticize that, especially when they didn’t charge you for it, nor did they force gem sales. – so lets keep things in perspective in hopes of getting real solutions that everyone can live with :p