Guild Wars 2

Hello,

So after reading the comments here, http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2b51d5/spvp_what_does_it_need/,

It seemed a lot of people had great ideas. Others had similar complaints about the lack of transparency from the developers in the regard of sPvP.

Now I can understand why the developers would not want to be too transparent. Things can change easily, people may get mad, speculators on the tp, etc. However I had an idea that could be a compromise.

So since balance patches come every 6 months, every 3 months you can do a ready up episode or a forum post on what you’re working on. Nothing specific, you can be as general as you’d like. However just to show people that yes, you are working on projects.

Like you can talk about or confirm you’re working on game modes, new maps, armor, anything really. Nothing specific, just to confirm you’re working on them. IF you feel the need you can say there is no set time for releases of them. Just some ideas. Heck you can do this for every game mode if you’d like. I remember during season 1 it seemed like ever other living story patch we had new WvW, balance, or sPvP information coming out. Whether it be a new map, wvw skills, etc. I liked it a lot and gave me more things to discuss with guildies and friends.

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

I’ll take it. Thanks for responding! :P

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

#evanLeshForCEO2015

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

Thank you respectfully Evan Lesh for answering. I am happy and satisfied with your answer. Keep up the good work and have fun.

Deified.7520:

Nothing specific, you can be as general as you’d like. However just to show people that yes, you are working on projects.

the problem there is we end up with the baseless banter that we once had before they decided to stop communicating all together.

we need specifics. no more of this…
“We’re working on a solution Not ready to talk about the details yet”
(taken from a dev post 4 months ago on the subject for 4v5s which are still happening)

“we don’t have any plans to remove skyhammer from solo arena right now, doesn’t mean we aren’t kicking around ideas.”
(5 months ago, no change)

without specifics we will just get these vague “oh yeah we’re trying some stuff” cop-out responses with no action ever taken.

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

Much appreciated that there’s a response, can you please ask Izzy for the go-ahead for a little more transparency? People are starving and feel like they have nothing to look forward in the near future, silence is assumed as absence.

Liewec.2896:

without specifics we will just get these vague “oh yeah we’re trying some stuff” cop-out responses with no action ever taken.

One of the last times they gave specifics they were talking about I believe custom arenas, which was then used against them every single day for months because they talked about it before it was ready for release.

If you don’t talk about anything people say you aren’t working on anything.
If you say you are working but not what you are working on people say its a cop-out.
If you say what you are working on but not when it will be released people will assume its coming out tomorrow and use it against you at every chance.
If you say what you are working on and when its being released (which is often impossible anyway) then you better hit that date or you are incompetent.

There is no way to win with players. My preference would be general ideas but without too many specifics. Also I’d much prefer they start putting up balance forecasts with the changes they plan to make (balance wise) before it comes out, like literally every other decent game in existence does, so they can get some feedback before they Dumbfire us again.

Seriously if you do it right there is nothing anybody ckittene against you. Just be open transparent and honest:

for example;

- blog about new pvp maps and modes (a real thing released ages ago, now 9 months or so later still nothing)

- we are currently testing the maps internally and are expecting to release them in 3 months

- we tested and realised that two of the new mapconcepts where just not working, because it complicated balance to infinity

- we are working on a map which blabla but wont give more details

- we had a huge setback in our pvp team because two members left and we want to focus on the new story and tol first, we are still working on the new maps tough

- release map drawings screenshots of failed maps, let the community discuss. Maybe it didnt fail. Why not use a whole forum of experts which are alsonthe customers and let them help (for free by the way.. If the pvp team is small why not outsource problems to the community, you save money and time and resources and your customers design the thing they want. So you dont spend much money, means you earn more, while the customers have the product they want and if its not liked afterwards you are not to blame. Everybody wins)

but thank you evan! You didnt show us a carrot but you told us that a carrot exist and that we one day may also see and eat it maybe.

im not even sarcastic. That comment really helped me. At least i know that some change is still possible for pvp, and mayve a reason to log in again in the future

Liewec.2896:

Deified.7520:

Nothing specific, you can be as general as you’d like. However just to show people that yes, you are working on projects.

the problem there is we end up with the baseless banter that we once had before they decided to stop communicating all together.

we need specifics. no more of this…
“We’re working on a solution Not ready to talk about the details yet”
(taken from a dev post 4 months ago on the subject for 4v5s which are still happening)

“we don’t have any plans to remove skyhammer from solo arena right now, doesn’t mean we aren’t kicking around ideas.”
(5 months ago, no change)

without specifics we will just get these vague “oh yeah we’re trying some stuff” cop-out responses with no action ever taken.

We have that for 2 years now. People that still think those quick “the development is still alive- one-sentence-posts” have any meaning, probably still believe in Santa and search for unicorns in their free-time.

Django.5923:

but thank you evan! You didnt show us a carrot but you told us that a carrot exist and that we one day may also see and eat it maybe.

im not even sarcastic. That comment really helped me. At least i know that some change is still possible for pvp, and mayve a reason to log in again in the future

Considering the both of us have been quite around going to ask for “carrots”, this is indeed a sentiment I share…

Evan, we do not need specific dates and stuff, just a word from you guys that you are “trying” and stuff – We don’t wanna be left in the dark, and your specific comment gave us a shred of light again

You guys honestly thought they weren’t working on pvp features?

Branden Gee.2150:

Still baking potatoes.

Gimme! I wanna eat potatoes too!

butch.8136:

You guys honestly thought they weren’t working on pvp features?

No, I think its more of “It’s been 2 years and I still haven’t even seen a GLIMPSE of another PvP mode” All I’ve been doing for 2 years is capping a point lol

Obviously they are working on something but 2 years and hardly any meaningful change to PvP? The team must be less than 5 guys working on actual PvP (features/balance, not artists)

If gamemodes is your toppriority then yes. But last feature patch added quite some good stuff for pvp. Some important groundwork for the future.

We’ll be getting info in august if they wanna hold up on their promise of quarterly feature packs. Gamescom is 14-17august which is an important fair for Anet. Now we’ll just have to pray that they listened to the CDI’s and drew the right conclusions.

SkiTz.4590:

Obviously they are working on something but 2 years and hardly any meaningful change to PvP? The team must be less than 5 guys working on actual PvP (features/balance, not artists)

Hardly any changes? Let’s ignore the maps for a minute (although they’ve added 4 conquest and 1 TDM), they’ve put in Custom Arenas, Spectator mode, the PvP build setup, completely revamped how you rank in PvP and the rewards you get including Reward Tracks, they implemented Leaderboards, put in soloQ, completely changed the teamQ setup (compared to the two different team queues that required tickets).

Hotjoins, the first three maps, and the very base mechanics behind sPvP are really the only things that haven’t changed since launch.

Bhawb.7408:

SkiTz.4590:

Obviously they are working on something but 2 years and hardly any meaningful change to PvP? The team must be less than 5 guys working on actual PvP (features/balance, not artists)

Hardly any changes? Let’s ignore the maps for a minute (although they’ve added 4 conquest and 1 TDM), they’ve put in Custom Arenas, Spectator mode, the PvP build setup, completely revamped how you rank in PvP and the rewards you get including Reward Tracks, they implemented Leaderboards, put in soloQ, completely changed the teamQ setup (compared to the two different team queues that required tickets).

Hotjoins, the first three maps, and the very base mechanics behind sPvP are really the only things that haven’t changed since launch.

ignoring EotM, its actually way more then WvW have gotten. PvP players should be grateful, some of the other areas of the game often got to wait months or in some cases years to get pressing issues fixed, ironically, the WvW problems translates to the whole server, as the WvW buffs are server wide (unless they changed that again)

Evan Lesh.3295:

There has always been a PvP team working on features! (I know because I’ve been on it forevs)

Yeah, but I noticed that people in all game modes always talk about being neglected by you guys (which isn’t true of course). I think maybe putting in what we’re working on or a progress bar/development path (which a lot of companies are doing now a days) can help sway these comments.

As a side note though, I just realized the old water combat area in the Heart of the Mist was replaced with some big structure. Is this area the tdm map you guys added in a couple months ago? Or is it something else you have planned (if of course you can talk about it XD)

Bhawb.7408:

SkiTz.4590:

Obviously they are working on something but 2 years and hardly any meaningful change to PvP? The team must be less than 5 guys working on actual PvP (features/balance, not artists)

Hardly any changes? Let’s ignore the maps for a minute (although they’ve added 4 conquest and 1 TDM), they’ve put in Custom Arenas, Spectator mode, the PvP build setup, completely revamped how you rank in PvP and the rewards you get including Reward Tracks, they implemented Leaderboards, put in soloQ, completely changed the teamQ setup (compared to the two different team queues that required tickets).

Hotjoins, the first three maps, and the very base mechanics behind sPvP are really the only things that haven’t changed since launch.

I said “Meaningful change to PvP”…What you are talking about is PvP features, most of which just now came in april feature patch…

There’s still nothing unique about PvP rewards (outside titles). You get the same freaking scraps of greens/blues/mats and dung gear you can get in half the time from doing PvE..

Skyhammer is still in soloQ which is a pure troll map

No matter what, after 2 years, PvP maps is all about capping points with one unique feature like orbs or killing the lord or skyham cannon….. there is still no new game modes for soloQ/teamQ which is the only competitive part of gw2 pvp… There’s a team deathmatch map now yea, but we can’t even freaking play it in solo/team Q… whats the point?

GW2 PvP could be A LOT better is all I’m saying… I know these guys like evan are working hard but obviously it looks like they could use some more help but NCsoft/Anet doesn’t even want to bother with PvP… it gets an update maybe every 6 months? if we’re lucky lol.

Since release the only good pvp changes were;

- temple of the silent storm (i like the map its well designed.)

- the pile of dirt on legacy (also not sarcastic on this one.. I honestly think thats one of the best things ever)

and failures (basically everything from and pre dhuumfire balancewise) removal of the 3 round tournaments

and another topic. WHY design a tdm map when its only in custom arenas (meaning its not in the game)
Throw it in soloqueue and hot join rotations, im sure people would enjoy it! (cant be worse than skyham and\or spiritwatch)
risk something, have some balls

also i think capricorn was a better designed map than skyham and spiritwatch.. Just needed to remove the point underwater and put it on the ship

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

Lel.

butch.8136:

You guys honestly thought they weren’t working on pvp features?

Anet’s pvp team has been absolutely silent, and balancing patches are starting to disappear from this game. It almost feels like there’s no longer a meaningful team dedicated to this area of the game, even though there is.

Optimistically wishing, they could be working not only on big features (which I’m sure they are), but addressing/ reshaping several core gameplay elements, to the point that they might feel it’s not worth worrying too much on balance until those concepts are redesigned/ rethought. But realistically thinking, anet’s superiors probably thought it was a better idea to leave all balancing to feature patches,to separate them completely from the living world updates, and the skill & balancing team has no other choice but to follow the new orders set by the company.

I think the PvP team consists of only Evan. It’s been a year since we’ve had a new map.

Evan Lesh.3295:

There has always been a PvP team working on features! (I know because I’ve been on it forevs)

We live in the real world though, and “too little, too late” is a thing when in a service industry.

You need to whet the appetites and keep people interesting, lest their interest wanes and people come to a point where they move onto something that they know exists. Like changing jobs, if something better comes along without change from the former, they will leave.

“We are totally working on things!” doesn’t do much when it has rarely ever been seen… spvp features are kinda feeling like vaporware…

Screenshots, blog posts, mini videos, etc. all go a long, very long, way.

Tick Tock, 2 years and counting for 1 gamemode from launch and 2 added maps total.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/structured-pvp-iceberg/ (We have taken steps backwards it seems)

Zietlogik.6208:

Evan Lesh.3295:

There has always been a PvP team working on features! (I know because I’ve been on it forevs)

We live in the real world though, and “too little, too late” is a thing when in a service industry.

You need to whet the appetites and keep people interesting, lest their interest wanes and people come to a point where they move onto something that they know exists. Like changing jobs, if something better comes along without change from the former, they will leave.

“We are totally working on things!” doesn’t do much when it has rarely ever been seen… spvp features are kinda feeling like vaporware…

Screenshots, blog posts, mini videos, etc. all go a long, very long, way.

Tick Tock, 2 years and counting for 1 gamemode from launch and 2 added maps total.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/structured-pvp-iceberg/ (We have taken steps backwards it seems)

I can’t agree 100% more with this post. I’ve played this game since launch, done wvw for most of the time, got bored then came to pvp. As much time that i’ve spent in here i really would like to see something new already. Conquest is a hard concept for people to grasp and think most matches are just deathmatch(which at this point i can’t blame some with nothing left to work for). But for the ones that like to win, its a real let down. as much as I’d say i’d like to believe you mr. lesh, this is just seeming like another rumor…

Evan Lesh.3295:

There has always been a PvP team working on features! (I know because I’ve been on it forevs)

That’s like almost as long as it takes to release a new gamemode!

jk jk..

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

Surely if it’s some really interesting features you would release the information right? So people that have quit or on the verge of quitting know stuff like “Oh PvP rewards will be coming in X amount of days, I’ll stick around for that!” or “Wow I cant wait to play 2v2 Arena in X amount of days I’ll start looking for somebody to 2v2 with!”

We as a community are completely in the dark (And that is not a good thing), it would be nice to know at least something about a future feature patch that isn’t fake promises like SoTG coming back.

PS: Evan what happened to our New Maps talked about 7 months ago?

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

I think I just splooshed a little……

So like … big things? or is it like small things?
Commme on you can’t just give us the tip and walk away…

Katanas confirmed?

Evan Lesh.3295:

There has always been a PvP team working on features! (I know because I’ve been on it forevs)

thanks evan!

i am looking forward to the new pvp features!

Hahaha it’s gotta be a real bummer for some players that have put a lot of time into this game. The biggest event still has not happened and it’s at a booth not a featured stage. It won’t have local LAN support and players will log into eu servers. #stateofthegame

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

pvp features? or pvp balance?

Evan Lesh.3295:

There has always been a PvP team working on features! (I know because I’ve been on it forevs)

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t believe you. I was so excited several months ago on a ready up where you guys showed map creation and some of the cool stuff. But I haven’t seen anything yet! Nothing!

Lesh- give us something more please!

dying over here!!

Evan Lesh.3295:

ukuni.8745:

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

pvp features? or pvp balance?

I personally do not work on balance other than whining to designers every once in a while when I get rekt.

atleast I know we have a whiner on the inside now.

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

I hope I am not the one who realizes the tricky part this could be…

this is a proof that Evan reads forums and responds to us. That is good.
But in absolutely no way is this a proof that anything is being worked upon or that we can expect to see them in the near future…

Some might feel this is enough, but I am totally unconvinced. Call me paranoid~

Dev team working on pvp, is this a joke ?
How can it take to fix 4v5 game ?
How can it take to put a minimun hotjoin game played before ppl can go tornament ?

Sorry for that silly post but be honnest and just remove pvp from gw² !

Evan Lesh.3295:

ukuni.8745:

Evan Lesh.3295:

I can confirm I am working on PvP features <3
No more details than that, though!

pvp features? or pvp balance?

I personally do not work on balance other than whining to designers every once in a while when I get rekt.

Sounds like it’s mostly going to be UI and gamemode mechanics adjustments, ready up button? map choice? /resign feature? a new dishonarable system? SCOREBOARD?

i would welcome these features before a new gamemode or map tbh.

We know they’ve been working on new maps (modes?). We know that they want to implement leagues + templates. We know that they plan on having a feature pack each quarter. We know that they love gamescom which is 14-17 august.

I think it’s safe to assume we’ll be having pvp-related info in the near future. Whether that’ll be satisfying, remains to be seen.
We’re not getting info because they probably want to release it in a marketing push. We’ve had our chance to give constructive feedback in the CDI’s and in these wonderful forums.

I’d rather have no kitten info/teaser to get hyped over ’till they release the real deal.