What Happened to Anet?

What Happened to Anet?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: DaShi.1368

DaShi.1368

First, let me state that I really do like this game. The art is beautiful. I find the movement and combat to be one of the best I’ve ever played in an MMO. There are numerous things to love about this game and they keep me playing.

However, Anet has been seriously dropping the ball lately. There’s been a decline in quality with an increased emphasis on the gem store and some questionable practices. I’m going to highlight a few of the more recent and significant ones here. I’m sure there are more and others are free to post them. But the general theme is the same. Less quality for us, more money for Anet.

1. Halloween. It’s broken. Anet has admitted that it’s broken. I can accept that these thing happen. However, Anet has also said they are not going to fix it this year. Sure, they have an excuse. But it’s an excuse that no one outside of Anet can validate. What’s worse is that it rings similar to their poor response to the over-hype Mordrem Invasion event not too long ago. There they admitted that they screwed up, but also said they weren’t going to fix it. This is becoming a highly discouraging pattern.

2. Anniversary Sale. Sure there were some items that people were happy to buy again. However, very few of them were among the highly requested (were any?). Those items that people have been waiting over a year for never showed up. Why were people waiting for these items? Because they were pulled from the gem store to create artificial scarcity among several other items. This along with Anet’s tampering with the gem-to-gold exchange last year made a lot of us seriously consider whether they had improving the game on their list at all.

3. Heart of Thorns. This is the big one. This is the one that Anet should be hanging its hat on. It’s the one that often used as the excuse for everything else. Living Story 2 short and lite on content: HoT. Bringing back popular events/festivals: HoT. Fixing broken events: HoT.

When the prepurchase for HoT started, many people reasonably pointed out that the price seemed very high for what Anet had told us was in the game. Others pointed out that we might not be seeing everything yet. Yes, in a way, they were right. There were some skins that we hadn’t seen yet. But does HoT look like $50 worth of content today?

Let’s look at what we did see during the beta weekends. We got full elite specializations available. We got smooth access to the maps that they wanted to show off. We got the impression of a game that appeared to start out strong and could only get better. People were excited to start playing their elite specializations and explore the new maps. And they thought (maybe wrongly) that this was just the tip of the iceberg of HoT. Rather the beta’s were the end game of HoT. What you could expect to play after hours of grinding hero points and masteries. Not the thrilling beginning we were promised, but a disappointing end state that doesn’t live up to the hype.

Frankly, I feel scammed. The game that was presented to us over the past 10 months and in the betas was very different from the game that was actually given to us. I see kitten expansion padded with tedious grind and gates to cover up that there is really only a $15-20 game underneath.

What’s worse is that I don’t see anything changing. There has been this continuing pattern from Anet from at least as early at the NPE. It’s simply a company that I can’t trust anymore.

What Happened to Anet?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: bravoart.5308

bravoart.5308

Let’s look at what we did see during the beta weekends. We got full elite specializations available. We got smooth access to the maps that they wanted to show off. We got the impression of a game that appeared to start out strong and could only get better. People were excited to start playing their elite specializations and explore the new maps. And they thought (maybe wrongly) that this was just the tip of the iceberg of HoT. Rather the beta’s were the end game of HoT. What you could expect to play after hours of grinding hero points and masteries. Not the thrilling beginning we were promised, but a disappointing end state that doesn’t live up to the hype.

This part specifically.

If the beta weekends had included the mastery/400hp grindfest, none of the elite specializations would have got tested by the playerbase and they knew it.

No hands on experience = no hype
no hype = no sales.

It’s bait and switch.

Finally I recalled the stopgap solution of a great princess who was told that the
peasants had no bread and who responded: “Let them eat brioche.”

What Happened to Anet?

in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Posted by: Selkirk.4218

Selkirk.4218

i don’t really feel scammed as much as dissapointed and confused. they spent a year and a half on this…this is all we got. if you are going to make a very limited content release that content needs to be really good-hot is not good.

the reason we are upset with hot is we actually enjoy the core game and after 3 years would like to have seen a great release…but we got hot.

the people defending hot would defend nosepicking as a fun activity.

(edited by Selkirk.4218)

What Happened to Anet?

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Posted by: Auralae.7482

Auralae.7482

Your post (OP) nicely sums up several of my feelings.

What Happened to Anet?

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Posted by: smekras.8203

smekras.8203

Not trying to invalidate your point, but it amuses me to see how easily people disregard the work needed to produce the stuff we find in HoT. I say this both as a roleplayer and a programmer, on top of just someone that enjoys all aspects of the game (PvE/PvP/WvWvW) …there is a ton of stuff in there, it’s just not always apparent at first glance.

I’m also not saying HoT shouldn’t have been less expensive on principle.

Server: Kaineng | Guild: Blackflame Legion [BFL]
Perhaps the only RP-oriented guild on the server
Main Character: Farathnor (sylvari ranger) 1 of 22

What Happened to Anet?

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Posted by: Avlaen.7241

Avlaen.7241

Hot is a massive let down with a huge grind wall.

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Posted by: Selkirk.4218

Selkirk.4218

if this was 3 months of development that would be fine (hey they messed up..try again). the problem is this was a year and half of development at the expense of the core game.now what? we wait another year and half and hope they come up with something good this time?

i’m not faulting the effort just the misguided ideas behind hot (seriously what player was asking for mazes with jumping puzzles populated with powerful trash mobs?).

i guess the most troubling aspect of the hot release is they actually thought/think they did a good job with hot. you can sense they are caught flat footed by the largely negative reaction to hot..just as they were with the recent invasion event.

the devs are unaware of what we like about the core game and in fact seem unable to create compelling content anymore.

(edited by Selkirk.4218)

What Happened to Anet?

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Posted by: Healix.5819

Healix.5819

2. If you’re looking for bunny ears, they likely won’t come back for the same reason the swimsuits and school uniform were never added. The devs were trying to be funny about the uniform, considering it was at the same time as the sclerite stuff.