Guild Wars 2

They are still “testing” their competitive system.

Does it take 10 years to get a system which works and they are happy with? Isn’t this a bit strange?

Add solo queue, remove solo queue, add solo queue again.

Add leaderboards, remove leaderboards, add leaderboards again.

Add queueing outside HOTM, remove and then add again.

Add new maps, remove new maps, add the maps back again on a trial basis.

Add new game mode, remove new game mode.

Remove jewels from amulets.

Add a bunch of amulets, remove many of those amulets and add different ones.

In game tournaments at launch, in game tournaments removed because reasons.

8 vs 8 lobbies removed.

This game just removes features. Are there any other games like this? Surely 8 years ago they should have sat down and designed a system they were happy with as the final pvp system in gw2. Then all their actions should have been to add features to get to this point.

But instead….just constant going back on themselves. What is going on? The amount of wasted effort must be huge.

Probably changes in management. It’s a business after all. Besides, the devs won’t have jobs if the game is on autopilot.

Why do real world rules and regulations change every couple of years?

Because when dealing with real dynamic human beings, solving a problem isn’t linear.
———————————
You’re right about gw2 removing a lot more stuff than other games. Other games just leave abandoned broken things lying around for years.

Have they tried turning GW2 off and on again?

I used to watch the changes happening in this game and wonder how progress was so slow and the devs were seemingly so inept. And then I read the employee reviews on glassdoor.com. The problems with the game are a result of basic management principles being flubbed.

Simply put, talented employees are underpayed and not recognized at anet. Instead, the more senior guys “go with the flow” guys rise up the ranks and are not held accountable for poor performance. What we have been seeing recently is much of their talent leaving the company resulting in an employee base consisting largely of the least effective and productive employees. Granted, it likely varies by department, and the disparities in the quality between the various content released shows as much, but at the end of the day their management style sucks.

And so, that’s why poor systems are repeatedly released and we are still in the testing phase five years in.

Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

Thanks for sharing that, I wouldn’t have thought to look on glassdoor. Yeah sounds like a lot of employees are pretty jaded by the management.

CptCuddles.8912:

I used to watch the changes happening in this game and wonder how progress was so slow and the devs were seemingly so inept. And then I read the employee reviews on glassdoor.com. The problems with the game are a result of basic management principles being flubbed.

Simply put, talented employees are underpayed and not recognized at anet. Instead, the more senior guys “go with the flow” guys rise up the ranks and are not held accountable for poor performance. What we have been seeing recently is much of their talent leaving the company resulting in an employee base consisting largely of the least effective and productive employees. Granted, it likely varies by department, and the disparities in the quality between the various content released shows as much, but at the end of the day their management style sucks.

And so, that’s why poor systems are repeatedly released and were are still in the testing phase five years in.

Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

Half of their staff probably left for amazon game studios at this point lol. The pay is better, I don’t blame them one bit.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

Have they tried turning GW2 off and on again?

Shutdown procedures failed after an Anet tech spent 2 hours trying to get the usb cable to the keyboard in the right direction.

Sounds like you’ve been playing on the beta servers.

Wait.. I’m on that server.

Crinn.7864:

Why do real world rules and regulations change every couple of years?

Because when dealing with real dynamic human beings, solving a problem isn’t linear.
———————————
You’re right about gw2 removing a lot more stuff than other games. Other games just leave abandoned broken things lying around for years.

Yes but the vision for the game should have been established years ago. Sure, small changes in that vision are fine.

But they just add stuff then remove it then add it then remove it. It is completely illogical.

It cannot be the case that this game having leaderboards was a good idea and then for 18 months became a bad idea before becoming a good idea again.

They don’t know what’s good for their own game plain and simple. Also not listening to the community is a big factor as well. A small minority wanted Stronghold, but it was given the green light regardless because mobas are popular so it must work here, right? It was very low effort and they treated it like the second coming of Christ.

But yet are now deleting it. Proper communication would have saved so much wasted time and frustration on both ends. Out of all the games I’ve played, Guild Wars 2 has to be the worst in terms of relaying information with its community. When it’s ready, soon, when we have more info, etc. How about just be honest with the community when you have an idea and get some proper feedback before going knee deep on something the majority won’t like and driving more dedicated players away?

The glassdoor reviews doesn’t shock me either, from the reviews I’ve read from present or past employees it seems to be a trend of the following. These are quotes from the people who work or have worked there.

- Refused to replace lost talent, opting to rely on current staff to pick up the extra work

- performance reviews are heavily ignored, and almost no room for expansion as the company refused to expand for years.

- Upper management is run by Yes men. Deadlines don’t mean anything, good for you if you’re always late because you won’t get any adverse action taken or be fired. Bad because the game has slid in quality and stability. Every team has a different process, making it hard to move between teams or to figure out what is going on with the entire project. There is a lot of blame slinging and service teams such as marketing,

- Sometimes I wished there was a little less hesitance to fully get behind new ideas.

- non-collaborative.

- Steady increase in number and scope of projects, but no increase in staff.

- firing of employees based on performance is very rare, and normally only occurs when you have upset one of these people.

When you see all this does it honestly surprise you when the game is in the shape it is? If you answered no then there’s clearly something wrong with you. Don’t get me wrong there seems to be effort going in, but the people making the decisions at the top have too many screws loose that’s sinking the ship as a whole.

Countless

Trigr.6481:

They don’t know what’s good for their own game plain and simple. Also not listening to the community is a big factor as well. A small minority wanted Stronghold, but it was given the green light regardless because mobas are popular so it must work here, right? It was very low effort and they treated it like the second coming of Christ.

But yet are now deleting it. Proper communication would have saved so much wasted time and frustration on both ends. Out of all the games I’ve played, Guild Wars 2 has to be the worst in terms of relaying information with its community. When it’s ready, soon, when we have more info, etc. How about just be honest with the community when you have an idea and get some proper feedback before going knee deep on something the majority won’t like and driving more dedicated players away?

The glassdoor reviews doesn’t shock me either, from the reviews I’ve read from present or past employees it seems to be a trend of the following. These are quotes from the people who work or have worked there.

- Refused to replace lost talent, opting to rely on current staff to pick up the extra work

- performance reviews are heavily ignored, and almost no room for expansion as the company refused to expand for years.

- Upper management is run by Yes men. Deadlines don’t mean anything, good for you if you’re always late because you won’t get any adverse action taken or be fired. Bad because the game has slid in quality and stability. Every team has a different process, making it hard to move between teams or to figure out what is going on with the entire project. There is a lot of blame slinging and service teams such as marketing,

- Sometimes I wished there was a little less hesitance to fully get behind new ideas.

- non-collaborative.

- Steady increase in number and scope of projects, but no increase in staff.

- firing of employees based on performance is very rare, and normally only occurs when you have upset one of these people.

When you see all this does it honestly surprise you when the game is in the shape it is? If you answered no then there’s clearly something wrong with you. Don’t get me wrong there seems to be effort going in, but the people making the decisions at the top have too many screws loose that’s sinking the ship as a whole.

Countless

Agreed. Stronghold seemed like a grudging new game mode that was requested. But it almost seemed intentionally sabotaged as if some of the devs wanted it to fail so they could say i told you so. It lacked any sort of vision behind it and any sort of creativity. I refuse to believe the design minds who created gw2 originally were behind this new game mode or the terrible HOT elite specs. I think they lost their top talent

CptCuddles.8912:

I used to watch the changes happening in this game and wonder how progress was so slow and the devs were seemingly so inept. And then I read the employee reviews on glassdoor.com. The problems with the game are a result of basic management principles being flubbed.

Simply put, talented employees are underpayed and not recognized at anet. Instead, the more senior guys “go with the flow” guys rise up the ranks and are not held accountable for poor performance. What we have been seeing recently is much of their talent leaving the company resulting in an employee base consisting largely of the least effective and productive employees. Granted, it likely varies by department, and the disparities in the quality between the various content released shows as much, but at the end of the day their management style sucks.

And so, that’s why poor systems are repeatedly released and we are still in the testing phase five years in.

Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

Thanks for the article.

Min wage is gonna be $11 at the end of the month here and the Bellevue, Redmond, Seattle Area are easily the most expensive places to live.

Seattle pays bike messengers pretty well based on packages delivered.

Alot of the things written are not surprising but now it brings all suspicions full circle.

I mean the Deus EX Machina that has been happening in the GW2 story since HOT release has been really hard to accept. Like everyone was willing to accept the Zhaitan situation until you got to the dungeon.

The WvW and PvP scene has straight been dump since HOT. I mean they force a new guild hall which requires a gold sink but WvW and PvP give you very little rewards personally and for the guild hall. Thats balance aside as well as the OP point of direction. Clearly they are at a lost.

Wooden Potatoes last video on Braham actually showed some serious flaws in the thought process the character and the story lines process.

Everything from the article on the cons sign is a pretty big issue. Low pay equals people living and the identity of the game changing from patch to patch since new eyes are seeing. This also happens because they are riding and dying on this 1 game.

Something Anet should take notice of is most people wrote “free snacks” and never a good indicator of a good company. Liking the people you work with is the same thing because money/time/ and appreciation will always come before the other 2.

Just normal game design, completely normal, move along.

Lordrosicky.5813:

Are there any other games like this? Surely 8 years ago they should have sat down and designed a system they were happy with as the final pvp system in gw2. Then all their actions should have been to add features to get to this point.

But instead….just constant going back on themselves. What is going on? The amount of wasted effort must be huge.

This is a PvE game from the ground up. PvP is just a by-product… always has been with most MMO’s. WoW uses the same strategy.

There simply had never been a successful 100% PvP mmorpg game, so developers never go that route. You’re seeing all these changes because the game’s mechanical structure is Very hard to work with so… decisions are made.

Saiyan.1704:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Are there any other games like this? Surely 8 years ago they should have sat down and designed a system they were happy with as the final pvp system in gw2. Then all their actions should have been to add features to get to this point.

But instead….just constant going back on themselves. What is going on? The amount of wasted effort must be huge.

This is a PvE game from the ground up. PvP is just a by-product… always has been with most MMO’s. WoW uses the same strategy.

There simply had never been a successful 100% PvP mmorpg game, so developers never go that route. You’re seeing all these changes because the game’s mechanical structure is Very hard to work with so… decisions are made.

Funny.. people said the opposite about GW1.

Well, since all I do care about this game is pvp, and I’ve been here since almost 4 years, I can surely say there must be some change of staff in designers. Yes, it might sound harsh but I believe current pvp designers are not contributing to this game anymore. In fact, I am afraid of it might even go backwards.

We, the pvpers in this community have seen really bad times. Season 1 and 2 almost the darkest era of gw2 pvp, and before that there was not even enough competition along with all the bugs and unbalanced stuff that HoT brought.

If you say that this game’s pvp is at esl level, you need to work hard and bring useful arrangements. This includes and not limited with; Better matchkmaking, Balance between professions and builds, Dealing with match manipulators and such.

When you set party size in ranked queue is 2, you need to consider other 3 random teammates must be at same skill level with you. Or else, people will begin to get annoyed and blame system designers justifiably.

Don’t get me wrong. I really hope dark days of pvp will be over and all we do here is remain as worries of overthinking minds.

Yet you continue to play…

Rukia.9860:

Saiyan.1704:

Lordrosicky.5813:

Are there any other games like this? Surely 8 years ago they should have sat down and designed a system they were happy with as the final pvp system in gw2. Then all their actions should have been to add features to get to this point.

But instead….just constant going back on themselves. What is going on? The amount of wasted effort must be huge.

This is a PvE game from the ground up. PvP is just a by-product… always has been with most MMO’s. WoW uses the same strategy.

There simply had never been a successful 100% PvP mmorpg game, so developers never go that route. You’re seeing all these changes because the game’s mechanical structure is Very hard to work with so… decisions are made.

Funny.. people said the opposite about GW1.

Yeah, but in fairness, most PVE encounters functioned similiar to PvP, in many cases you were fighting PVE mobs with past PVP meta builds. The mobs in this game aren’t intelligent enough to execute them.

As I remember it, PvP, or “SPvP” as it was called at the time, was basically released unfinished. They had no idea what it was going to do, and to some extent were relying on the player base to develop the game mode for them. Things were going great until the first feature patch, and there’s been a steady decline ever since. It’s not really surprising that things never developed as they’d hoped when they were basically winging it from the start.

hackks.3687:

As I remember it, PvP, or “SPvP” as it was called at the time, was basically released unfinished. They had no idea what it was going to do, and to some extent were relying on the player base to develop the game mode for them. Things were going great until the first feature patch, and there’s been a steady decline ever since. It’s not really surprising that things never developed as they’d hoped when they were basically winging it from the start.

I had no idea this was the case – I guess I can Google it (yeah, I still capitalize the verb form lol) and read more. That would go a long way to establish why pvp structure feels as whiplash as it has.

I still maintain that there are more broken pvp systems out there. Neverwinter comes to mind – that’s just a steaming mess in there. I haven’t touched it in years so I don’t know of any of it has been fixed, but believe it or not it’s a far worse experience than league matches here.