Guild Wars 2

Your post said absolutely nothing, Jonathan. This is almost identical to the blog post, a huge wall of nothing but a ’’soon’’

Oni.5429:

Your post said absolutely nothing, Jonathan. This is almost identical to the blog post, a huge wall of nothing but a ’’soon’’

Been over a month since the “SotG” and nothing has changed. Good to know lots of work is going into pvp.

JonathanSharp.7094:

• Custom Arenas. This is still our top priority for the time being, as it allows the playerbase to do so many things. You guys can set maps up in the ways that you want, and it you can set up your own servers to allow you to practice with your friends. It also allows custom tournaments, etc. It just gives you guys a lot of control over the game, so we’re pushing hard on it.

Maybe I missed something, but didn’t you say you shifted priority off of custom arena to focus on matchmaking? I thought matchmaking was #1 atm. Has that changed or did I just misunderstand.

The 1v1 team for Storm only pisses me off. We can’t kittening leave the core tpvp settings (tournaments) to req 8 kittening teams for ONE.

overreacted. But still, better make team/team single matches the only tpvp possible.

Sigh………………….

JonathanSharp.7094:

Hey all, hope you guys had a great break!

There are so many things to talk about, so instead of quoting individual people, I’ll just make a post outlining things that people have mentioned.

New features: As I said in the Guru state of the game, January won’t see any big updates. Everyone is getting back from vacation, so it’s a small patch. We’ll see bigger updates in later patches, etc.

I plan to write out a full blog for these features as they’re closer to being ready. But I can give a few details now:

• Custom Arenas. This is still our top priority for the time being, as it allows the playerbase to do so many things. You guys can set maps up in the ways that you want, and it you can set up your own servers to allow you to practice with your friends. It also allows custom tournaments, etc. It just gives you guys a lot of control over the game, so we’re pushing hard on it.
• Ratings/matchmaking/leaderboards. These are being worked on. I’ll give more details on this later, but quickly: We will be using our MM (matchmaking) system to match teams up against one another. Each player has their own rating, and these ratings are used when 2 teams are fighting one another. MM obviously won’t be used in public matches (because people are jumping in/out all the time), and instead will be used in tournament formats. We will be using the MM system in the background as you play, and then we will be showing player ranks via our official leaderboards. These leaderboards will show things like player ranks, wins, losses, qualyfing points, etc.
• New player experience/teaching the game better. We want players of all experience levels to enjoy the game, not just the hardcore. We’ll talk more about this stuff later, but we want to make sure all players enjoy the game. Custom Arenas will help here as well, because players can find arenas where they feel comfortable, and play the game with the same players every day while they learn the game, etc.
• 1 team vs. 1 team. Like with other things, I was going to do a more robust blog on this later, but we are doing this. We will be testing out Temple of the Silent Storm for tournament rotation play by doing a 1 team vs. 1 team setup (as opposed to the 8 team setup we use in tournaments). This will mean only two teams play, one wins, one loses. It will cost less to enter these 1on1 matchups than tournaments, but rewards will also be scaled down. You won’t have to go multiple rounds, and once a match is over, both teams can jump right back into the pool. So overall, compared to tournaments, it will have less rewards, but it’s quicker to play and easier to get into/out of. We’ll be testing this system in the near future to see how it works, and if feedback is positive, we may look at trying to incorporate the 1on1 format into PvP. We know that free tournaments are going almost all the time, but we recognize that paid tournaments are having some issues right now, so have been listening to you and have made plans to improve the experience. You guys have made some great suggestions, and a lot of your ideas are in alignment with the things propounded in our internal meetings. So thank you for all your passion and suggestions!

That’s all I can say for now on that stuff for now. I’ll try to jump back in this thread during the week as time allows.

Cheers,

-J

Hi John

Ur post told nothing for us, We all know thats the basic things but its should be NOW, not SOON and we all wants to know when will be ur SOON. U dont need to tell its will be on 21.01.2013 but u can tell we gonna start ladder on January etc. Its not time for SOON and another promises its time for efects of promises!

Match-making bruh, we need solo q, duo q, 5 q

Ty for you reply Jonathan.
I’m satisfied of your post.

You think the 1 team vs 1 team will be support by a ladder so we can get funny as a competitive mode? Maybe the tourny MM could be followed by more rating points than single 1 team vs 1 team (as it is just one match ).

Thank you

any info on pug vs. premade? and larger meta changes?

thanks for the post.

nerva.7940:

any info on pug vs. premade? and larger meta changes?

thanks for the post.

I guess MM will sort that problem out. Don’t have a clue about meta.

Thanks for the post, Jon. Clearly some people are never satisfied no matter how many bones you throw them. I’m really looking forward to the official blog. I do hope there is some long-needed progress in s/tPvP. Also, I hope this online rankings business is only temporary while the dev team works to make an in-game interface.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Hey all, hope you guys had a great break!

There are so many things to talk about, so instead of quoting individual people, I’ll just make a post outlining things that people have mentioned.

New features: As I said in the Guru state of the game, January won’t see any big updates. Everyone is getting back from vacation, so it’s a small patch. We’ll see bigger updates in later patches, etc.

I plan to write out a full blog for these features as they’re closer to being ready. But I can give a few details now:

• Custom Arenas. This is still our top priority for the time being, as it allows the playerbase to do so many things. You guys can set maps up in the ways that you want, and it you can set up your own servers to allow you to practice with your friends. It also allows custom tournaments, etc. It just gives you guys a lot of control over the game, so we’re pushing hard on it.
• Ratings/matchmaking/leaderboards. These are being worked on. I’ll give more details on this later, but quickly: We will be using our MM (matchmaking) system to match teams up against one another. Each player has their own rating, and these ratings are used when 2 teams are fighting one another. MM obviously won’t be used in public matches (because people are jumping in/out all the time), and instead will be used in tournament formats. We will be using the MM system in the background as you play, and then we will be showing player ranks via our official leaderboards. These leaderboards will show things like player ranks, wins, losses, qualyfing points, etc.
• New player experience/teaching the game better. We want players of all experience levels to enjoy the game, not just the hardcore. We’ll talk more about this stuff later, but we want to make sure all players enjoy the game. Custom Arenas will help here as well, because players can find arenas where they feel comfortable, and play the game with the same players every day while they learn the game, etc.
• 1 team vs. 1 team. Like with other things, I was going to do a more robust blog on this later, but we are doing this. We will be testing out Temple of the Silent Storm for tournament rotation play by doing a 1 team vs. 1 team setup (as opposed to the 8 team setup we use in tournaments). This will mean only two teams play, one wins, one loses. It will cost less to enter these 1on1 matchups than tournaments, but rewards will also be scaled down. You won’t have to go multiple rounds, and once a match is over, both teams can jump right back into the pool. So overall, compared to tournaments, it will have less rewards, but it’s quicker to play and easier to get into/out of. We’ll be testing this system in the near future to see how it works, and if feedback is positive, we may look at trying to incorporate the 1on1 format into PvP. We know that free tournaments are going almost all the time, but we recognize that paid tournaments are having some issues right now, so have been listening to you and have made plans to improve the experience. You guys have made some great suggestions, and a lot of your ideas are in alignment with the things propounded in our internal meetings. So thank you for all your passion and suggestions!

That’s all I can say for now on that stuff for now. I’ll try to jump back in this thread during the week as time allows.

Cheers,

-J

ETA, or didn’t happen.

Seriously Jonh, those things are nice and cool, but saying “soon this, soon that” is nothing more than saying " we’re looking at your feedback, don’t worry".

We don’t want to be left in the dark.

We’re doing as much as we can to push this game out, ( trying to involve people not interested in PvP to try it, to help them learn how to play, to give tips , tricks and strategies in order to become better) because it has potential and we STILL love playing it, altough you devs seem are doing as much as you can to make mists like a ghost town.

How many more poeple do you want to leave this game ?

Why can’t you understand this " it will happen soon" strategy is failing?

Why can’t you give us ETAs in order to have something to still believe into ?

Why can’t you understand that even delaying those ETAs by whole months ( as long as you are clear and explain the reasons well ) is 1000 TIMES BETTER than leaving us struggling in the dark like you’re actually doing ?

Your communication strategy is terrible: customers ( because we’re customers before being a gaming community) want transparency, and you’re absolutely giving the worst example of all.

Thank you for your attention.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Hey all, hope you guys had a great break!

There are so many things to talk about, so instead of quoting individual people, I’ll just make a post outlining things that people have mentioned.

New features: As I said in the Guru state of the game, January won’t see any big updates. Everyone is getting back from vacation, so it’s a small patch. We’ll see bigger updates in later patches, etc.

I plan to write out a full blog for these features as they’re closer to being ready. But I can give a few details now:

• Custom Arenas. This is still our top priority for the time being, as it allows the playerbase to do so many things. You guys can set maps up in the ways that you want, and it you can set up your own servers to allow you to practice with your friends. It also allows custom tournaments, etc. It just gives you guys a lot of control over the game, so we’re pushing hard on it.
• Ratings/matchmaking/leaderboards. These are being worked on. I’ll give more details on this later, but quickly: We will be using our MM (matchmaking) system to match teams up against one another. Each player has their own rating, and these ratings are used when 2 teams are fighting one another. MM obviously won’t be used in public matches (because people are jumping in/out all the time), and instead will be used in tournament formats. We will be using the MM system in the background as you play, and then we will be showing player ranks via our official leaderboards. These leaderboards will show things like player ranks, wins, losses, qualyfing points, etc.
• New player experience/teaching the game better. We want players of all experience levels to enjoy the game, not just the hardcore. We’ll talk more about this stuff later, but we want to make sure all players enjoy the game. Custom Arenas will help here as well, because players can find arenas where they feel comfortable, and play the game with the same players every day while they learn the game, etc.
• 1 team vs. 1 team. Like with other things, I was going to do a more robust blog on this later, but we are doing this. We will be testing out Temple of the Silent Storm for tournament rotation play by doing a 1 team vs. 1 team setup (as opposed to the 8 team setup we use in tournaments). This will mean only two teams play, one wins, one loses. It will cost less to enter these 1on1 matchups than tournaments, but rewards will also be scaled down. You won’t have to go multiple rounds, and once a match is over, both teams can jump right back into the pool. So overall, compared to tournaments, it will have less rewards, but it’s quicker to play and easier to get into/out of. We’ll be testing this system in the near future to see how it works, and if feedback is positive, we may look at trying to incorporate the 1on1 format into PvP. We know that free tournaments are going almost all the time, but we recognize that paid tournaments are having some issues right now, so have been listening to you and have made plans to improve the experience. You guys have made some great suggestions, and a lot of your ideas are in alignment with the things propounded in our internal meetings. So thank you for all your passion and suggestions!

That’s all I can say for now on that stuff for now. I’ll try to jump back in this thread during the week as time allows.

Cheers,

-J

ETA, or didn’t happen.

Seriously Jonh, those things are nice and cool, but saying “soon this, soon that” is nothing more than saying " we’re looking at your feedback, don’t worry".

We don’t want to be left in the dark.

We’re doing as much as we can to push this game out, ( trying to involve people not interested in PvP to try it, to help them learn how to play, to give tips , tricks and strategies in order to become better) because it has potential and we STILL love playing it, altough you devs seem are doing as much as you can to make mists like a ghost town.

How many more poeple do you want to leave this game ?

Why can’t you understand this " it will happen soon" strategy is failing?

Why can’t you give us ETAs in order to have something to still believe into ?

Why can’t you understand that even delaying those ETAs by whole months ( as long as you are clear and explain the reasons well ) is 1000 TIMES BETTER than leaving us struggling in the dark like you’re actually doing ?

Your communication strategy is terrible: customers ( because we’re customers before being a gaming community) want transparency, and you’re absolutely giving the worst example of all.

Thank you for your attention.

ETA doesnt do anything for anyone. it only puts unneeded pressure on the devs. if youre impatient/fed-up, just leave the game and come back in 2 months. im sure everyone would be ok with that.

Hmmm, I’m really concerned about this Spvp side of things now…. Tpvp (free and paids) are basically dead; especially for puggers. And maybe it is just me, but it seems this past week that the hotjoin quality has really gone downhill (Yes, even more so than normal). I’ve never seen so many lopsided games with people fighting on the roads so much. However, that might just be my attitude towards the game now with so much built up frustration and my patience gone. Unless we get something besides conquest (or a change to bunkers or allowing caps when outnumbering the node at least) mode soon it may just be EOL for the spvp side of this game. Hopefully I’m just an cynical kitten and dead wrong?

I’m 39 and was going for 40 this week, but I’ve noticed that I’m getting owned by classes/specs that never used to bother me (dodging! Whats that?!?), and I think it’s just due to me not giving a crap because of the state of the game. There is no reason I should be this bored/frustrated with a game that has so much going right for it (or maybe I just see the potential), but is lacking in so many key areas.

Art.9367:

Thanks for the post, Jon. Clearly some people are never satisfied no matter how many bones you throw them. I’m really looking forward to the official blog. I do hope there is some long-needed progress in s/tPvP. Also, I hope this online rankings business is only temporary while the dev team works to make an in-game interface.

The blog’s going to say the same thing and it will be ready in four weeks and released in two months.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We will be using our MM (matchmaking) system to match teams up against one another. Each player has their own rating, and these ratings are used when 2 teams are fighting one another.

I dont understand why you dont want to make a GUILD ladder. Why supporting non-guild teams while having this guild system where you can easily represent a guild only for a few hours if its needed to have 3 ppl from one guild to be a guild-team. A guild-only system would make many things easier. If you rate a team by the average ratings of the players in it, there are many problems. E.g. if there is only one player in a top team, maybe a guest or sth, that is much lower in these player ladder and u build the average ladder position of the 5 ppl, the whole team will be handled like a less good team what it isnt. With a guild ladder you also could make easily a 1 team on 1 team matchmaking system. Why u dont look at the great GW1 systems? …

Well, I’ve skipped most of the thread except ANet post ofc. And I have something to say.
I can’t understand what’s wrong with Anet politics about the game.
You, guys, have created such a beautifull game. Mechanics of pvp are really what were alot of MMO-pvp players looking for. You are done with THE MOST DIFFICULT part of creating a succesfull pvp game. All you need is to implement working ladder system and some content like new game modes and maps. Comparing to setting up an interesting and fresh mechanic its a joke.
Still here we go. 5 monthes have passed and what do we have implemented in pvp? Nothing. Ok, paid tournaments, which are same as free but with entrance fee.

I just can’t understand, whats the problem. A team which is able to create such a good mechanics can’t bring us some (at least some) new content. Even new game mode using exsisting maps will help and I don’t think it would take alot of effort.

So I’m still a bit frustrated, but whatever. I won’t abandon this game, my hope is still alive.

Mrbig.8019:

I want an ETA.

You got half of an ETA, sort of, unless Mr. Sharp wants to clear this up for me, it seems that there will be none of what was spoken about in his post in this months update. That means I’d expect to see rebalancing, some streamlining on the 5v5 hotjoin… and that’s about it. That means another month of struggling without the key features like ladders and matchmaking.

What I want to ask is, for the 1v1 for teams, are you planning on rolling it out like Temple as a “beta” format (much like how storm is a beta map) and keep it out of general PvP, or, when you say testing and popularity, do you mean within your own QA? I don’t quite understand what you meant with that part of the post, Mr. Sharp. I don’t think you’re going to be surprised if you find that 1v1 is going to be popular becuase it would be the, currently, only format where people would really be able to practice their teamwork and builds without having to enter whole tournaments. It would need MM to really work but we really need a quick format for teams to be able to jump in and out of for practice and team building.

Even a vague “some x month” would go a long way.

For all of you guys complaining about ETA’s not given. There’s a simple reason. If they don’t meet that deadline for or another, there is going to be massive amounts of raging on the forums. How often do you see dev’s give ETA’s? Personally, I see very few. There’s also the possibility that they simply don’t know. Hype can be a very bad thing, especially when people love to take words from devs and just throw it right back at them. If people would stop doing that, maybe the risk-reward ratio of giving an eta would be worth it. As it stands now, Jonathan already tried to appease you guys by stating what they are working on, and instantly you guys pounce on him like a pack of rabid wolves. This is precisely the reason companies hate posting on forums, giving ETAs and things of that nature.

JonathanSharp.7094:

Hey all, hope you guys had a great break!

There are so many things to talk about, so instead of quoting individual people, I’ll just make a post outlining things that people have mentioned.

New features: As I said in the Guru state of the game, January won’t see any big updates. Everyone is getting back from vacation, so it’s a small patch. We’ll see bigger updates in later patches, etc.

I plan to write out a full blog for these features as they’re closer to being ready. But I can give a few details now:

• Custom Arenas. This is still our top priority for the time being, as it allows the playerbase to do so many things. You guys can set maps up in the ways that you want, and it you can set up your own servers to allow you to practice with your friends. It also allows custom tournaments, etc. It just gives you guys a lot of control over the game, so we’re pushing hard on it.
• Ratings/matchmaking/leaderboards. These are being worked on. I’ll give more details on this later, but quickly: We will be using our MM (matchmaking) system to match teams up against one another. Each player has their own rating, and these ratings are used when 2 teams are fighting one another. MM obviously won’t be used in public matches (because people are jumping in/out all the time), and instead will be used in tournament formats. We will be using the MM system in the background as you play, and then we will be showing player ranks via our official leaderboards. These leaderboards will show things like player ranks, wins, losses, qualyfing points, etc.
• New player experience/teaching the game better. We want players of all experience levels to enjoy the game, not just the hardcore. We’ll talk more about this stuff later, but we want to make sure all players enjoy the game. Custom Arenas will help here as well, because players can find arenas where they feel comfortable, and play the game with the same players every day while they learn the game, etc.
• 1 team vs. 1 team. Like with other things, I was going to do a more robust blog on this later, but we are doing this. We will be testing out Temple of the Silent Storm for tournament rotation play by doing a 1 team vs. 1 team setup (as opposed to the 8 team setup we use in tournaments). This will mean only two teams play, one wins, one loses. It will cost less to enter these 1on1 matchups than tournaments, but rewards will also be scaled down. You won’t have to go multiple rounds, and once a match is over, both teams can jump right back into the pool. So overall, compared to tournaments, it will have less rewards, but it’s quicker to play and easier to get into/out of. We’ll be testing this system in the near future to see how it works, and if feedback is positive, we may look at trying to incorporate the 1on1 format into PvP. We know that free tournaments are going almost all the time, but we recognize that paid tournaments are having some issues right now, so have been listening to you and have made plans to improve the experience. You guys have made some great suggestions, and a lot of your ideas are in alignment with the things propounded in our internal meetings. So thank you for all your passion and suggestions!

That’s all I can say for now on that stuff for now. I’ll try to jump back in this thread during the week as time allows.

Cheers,

-J

Thank you Jonathan for the post.

I do not understand why a lot are being so negative with their posts. It is not like they say they will do it and it is ready the next day.
Yes he wrote before talking about this , but do you like really expect it to be ready in a day or two ?
Implementing something is not done over the course of a night. They do not want to release something unless it is completely working as intended. A lot may come and say they are running out of time , but seriously , if you are not happy with the game , just quit. We do not need more negative posts .

I appreciate what the developers are trying to do, and I would rather wait and have fully working features , than have them tomorrow and not working as intended.

Meanwhile enjoy the game and have fun !

Sometimes it feels like NCSoft should reorganize ANet and fire like 20% of the stuff b/c they are wasting time writing blog posts about nothing.

^ Make those leaderboards ingame btw. I find it very annoying to use the forums for the WvW/QP one.

Thanks Jonathan. I’m lookin’ forward to it.

I can’t blame anyone in here for the pessimistic attitude towards this “update”. My biggest concern is getting past the things he listed so some new content can actually be enjoyed, you know like maybe a DIFFERENT GAME MODE????????????????

Instead of deleting my post, why don’t you give your players what they want instead of sweeping us under a rug like we don’t matter?

Mange.8324:

I can’t blame anyone in here for the pessimistic attitude towards this “update”. My biggest concern is getting past the things he listed so some new content can actually be enjoyed, you know like maybe a DIFFERENT GAME MODE?

you know they cant do everything at once right? and if they are working on these few features, they cant make new modes at the same time… just be patient and wait until one thing is done, then ask another one

The changes sound good. I look forward to seeing them.

What I’m most curious about it why they need to push them at the same time. Why not just release one as soon as it’s done. Just one of these improvements would help out greatly.

MaXi.3642:

Mange.8324:

I can’t blame anyone in here for the pessimistic attitude towards this “update”. My biggest concern is getting past the things he listed so some new content can actually be enjoyed, you know like maybe a DIFFERENT GAME MODE?

you know they cant do everything at once right? and if they are working on these few features, they cant make new modes at the same time… just be patient and wait until one thing is done, then ask another one

I think waiting 4+ years for the game to be developed and 5 months of sterile sPVP after launch is being more than patient.

MaXi.3642:

Mange.8324:

I can’t blame anyone in here for the pessimistic attitude towards this “update”. My biggest concern is getting past the things he listed so some new content can actually be enjoyed, you know like maybe a DIFFERENT GAME MODE?

you know they cant do everything at once right? and if they are working on these few features, they cant make new modes at the same time… just be patient and wait until one thing is done, then ask another one

You know I didn’t ask them to do everything right? “…getting past the things he listed…” means they need to finish this overhyped update they are planning so they can add something that’s fun.
Who cares about leader boards enough to be willing to wait 4 months for it. It’ll be players winning a contest that no one is competing in at this rate.

At least he admitted that paid tournaments are ‘having some issues’ even though any rational person can tell they are a total disaster.

Its also very good to hear that single matches are in the mix, but again we are hearing “testing soon” and "may look into incorporating if feedback is good’ which in Anet terms means we will be waiting forever. He did say single matches would have lower costs which could help with the ticket barrier that is making the game unplayable for new teams (see Reroll’s post #2).

We are pretty much 6 months in at this point. Players have every right to feel angry about being delivered a bad product then strung along for months with vague info that has new priorities every month.

Rather than spending the next 5 months begging for scraps while Anet sits on its numerous GOTY laurels, spvpers should just stop logging in and kill the mode entirely until there are basic competitive features in place.

Personally, I read J’s post as “Custom Arenas have an internal ETA in February”

What really bugs me, is that spectator mode is not on your top 4 list. If we are really optimistic, we get Custom Areanas, Ladder/Leadership, 1vs1team in Feb, Mar, Apr respectively, meaning that the #1 feature for eSports is not released before May.

You may rethink your priorities.

pmnt, how long did it take league of legends to get a spectator mode?
how about replays?

I think you are mistaken in your belief that spectator is important to make a game an esport.

When will we get new game modes? Yes, a lot of utility features are missing from sPvP, but the reason it’s so dead is because Conquest is an okay gametype. GW1 launched with like 5. We need new gametypes. Random Arenas and Team Arenas were awesome due to the varied Deathmatch gametypes/kill the monk, Hall of Heroes was awesome, GvG was great. GW2’s sPvP has been massively disappointing. There’s no way what John just mentioned will revive such a dead scene.

Please, all of you take a step back and ask yourselves this question: Have you ever been in a development team for a game this size?

Anet has not only PVP to contend with, but PVE. And both are really complex beasts. Coding a product this huge isn’t a walk in a park, I’m sure you’re all smart enough to at least assume that. They can’t just say, "Hey, let’s just do it!" No, everything has to be weighted properly to ensure the players have the best experience they’ll have.

Just be patient with things for once. It’s quality over quantity. What a bunch of entitled children.

Draygo.9473:

pmnt, how long did it take league of legends to get a spectator mode?
how about replays?

I think you are mistaken in your belief that spectator is important to make a game an esport.

This argument has been brought so many times and it is grossly invalid.

LoL has been a successful game from the very beginning, so was Starcraft. They didn’t need those features, because people were just playing these games. Additional and more robust features came later and just improved the already great experience.

This is not the case of Guild Wars 2. SPvP isn’t successful and it needs features or it hemorrhages to death.

I would like to remind everyone that programming is not as simple as you seem to make it out to be when you say “we need x!” and then are surprised when such a feature is not available within weeks. I would also like to remind everyone that people to do such jobs need to be paid and work standard and you simply can’t just dump more people onto a job to make it happen faster.

Wonloong.7159:

Please, all of you take a step back and ask yourselves this question: Have you ever been in a development team for a game this size?

Anet has not only PVP to contend with, but PVE. And both are really complex beasts. Coding a product this huge isn’t a walk in a park, I’m sure you’re all smart enough to at least assume that. They can’t just say, “Hey, let’s just do it!” No, everything has to be weighted properly to ensure the players have the best experience they’ll have.

Just be patient with things for once. It’s quality over quantity. What a bunch of entitled children.

I think waiting 4+ years for the game to be developed and 5 months of sterile sPVP after launch is being more than patient.

Jngrow.1268:

When will we get new game modes? Yes, a lot of utility features are missing from sPvP, but the reason it’s so dead is because Conquest is an okay gametype. GW1 launched with like 5. We need new gametypes. Random Arenas and Team Arenas were awesome due to the varied Deathmatch gametypes/kill the monk, Hall of Heroes was awesome, GvG was great. GW2’s sPvP has been massively disappointing. There’s no way what John just mentioned will revive such a dead scene.

We need TDM (arena) with que with and without ressurection and deeper combat as in more unique, note unique abilitys per weapon

leman.7682:

Draygo.9473:

pmnt, how long did it take league of legends to get a spectator mode?
how about replays?

I think you are mistaken in your belief that spectator is important to make a game an esport.

This argument has been brought so many times and it is grossly invalid.

LoL has been a successful game from the very beginning, so was Starcraft. They didn’t need those features, because people were just playing these games. Additional and more robust features came later and just improved the already great experience.

This is not the case of Guild Wars 2. SPvP isn’t successful and it needs features or it hemorrhages to death.

Thanks for completely agreeing with me. Spectator mode is actually one of the small things that would be ‘nice to have’ but has little to do with why the mode isn’t popular.

I would like to see proper matchmaking implemented, as I think its a core feature that is integral to the success of many real esport level games. Allowing people to play fair matchups will keep people playing longer and widen the community of players. No one likes getting stomped over and over again. Spectator can wait.

Thanks for the update Johnathan Sharp. And please, PLEASE, ignore all the condescending remarks. The majority of us appreciate all the hard work you guys are putting in to this game and it does not go unnoticed.

Every time I come on these forums I see all the negativity and just wanna give you guys hugs.

Writetyper.1985:

I would like to remind everyone that programming is not as simple as you seem to make it out to be when you say “we need x!” and then are surprised when such a feature is not available within weeks. I would also like to remind everyone that people to do such jobs need to be paid and work standard and you simply can’t just dump more people onto a job to make it happen faster.

Where do these apologists keep coming from.

Spvp was released in a highly bare bones / unfinished state, yet was marketed and sold as an esport. The pvp community has been strung along for months and months with very minimal updates and vague promises that seem to change every time we hear from a dev.

If I sell you a Lexus then deliver you a 2001 civic then say you might get your Lexus in 6 months you would probably be pretty angry.

‘When its ready’ is not a valid excuse when you have charged people money and they have spent 5 months doing what amounts to free beta testing.

Is there anyone else out there that agree with this. Once the ranking system comes out i feel like “paid” tournaments shouldn’t cost tournament tickets! 1st Free tournaments should become Unranked and Paids can become Ranked. 2nd the current paid system is helping out the more experienced players by constantly refilling their tournament tickets while the lesser teams dont get anything and then may have to wind up spending money or finding other ways to refill their tickets also adding another reason why paids only happen for a 5 hour window a day! (i currently have 1600 gems and have not had to worry about tickets in months so this isn’t a noob player complaining) 3rd NEVER in the history of a competitive pvp game have you had to spend ANYTHING to play competitively. For instance League of Legends dont need to do anything but be level 30 and own atleast 16 champions to play ranked after that you can keep going as many times as you want (none of which require real money) World of Warcraft Arenas are FREE nothing in game or real cash needs to be spent on this. This tournament ticket thing is probably the leading cause of the paid downfall because new teams have to think twice before signing up for a paid because they dont want to waist there tickets and I find that extremely dumb. Leave the ticket system in until rankings come out and then please GET RID OF IT as long as its in place Paids will not have the population it should.

I am getting pretty close to loosing hope here. My Guild played GW1 GvG till pretty much the bitter end of just playing the same teams and waiting 1 hour for a match. The game is only 6 months old and Spvp is already in the same state. PvE & WvW lost my love in 3-4 months.

So lets Spvp on the hopes of a ladder soon, lets get ready for some real team based competition. Nope doesnt sound like it. I can not understand why there is not a guild ladder based match-making system on top of the system you already have in place for single players. Or the length of time its taking to get it in.

The game is Guild Wars after all where is the guild in sPvP that is supposed to be the competitive part of the game right.

This single person ladder match making and private servers doesnt matter a bit to your player base. Winning matches is supposed to be about teamwork. Your priority list is completly in the wrong order. Guild Ladder then obs, you want people to learn let them obs players to learn.

For those that want to say be patient and wait, sure come out with this 6 months from now and hope players return, but I doubt it. Spvp is already in the same state as GW1 GvG is right now and I know its becuase no guild ladder. No guild ladder soon and forget about it, it will be too late your players will go elsewhere and not come back becuase something else new and shinny will already offer what you didnt. Its the wave.

I wish I didnt sound like I was crying here but ya no guild ladder and my guild will be done, not that I want it to be but my players will make the choice and move to something that satisfyies our teams requirements.

Bah now im just depressed.

Draygo.9473:

pmnt, how long did it take league of legends to get a spectator mode?
how about replays?

I think you are mistaken in your belief that spectator is important to make a game an esport.

Too long.

Spectator Mode and Replays are basically the same thing. The difference is how long the data for replays are available: a few minutes (delayed spectator mode) or a few days (replays, for example GW1 mATs). Sure, advanced replay features like fast forward, jumps in a time line, slowmotion, … take additional time.

I may be mistaken, but even ANet stated how important a spectator mode is for the esport scene. Or maybe I’m just giving spectator mode a higher priority because I enjoy watching tournament plays ingame.

Erik Von Caleb.7082:

Thanks for the update Johnathan Sharp. And please, PLEASE, ignore all the condescending remarks. The majority of us appreciate all the hard work you guys are putting in to this game and it does not go unnoticed.

Every time I come on these forums I see all the negativity and just wanna give you guys hugs.

Who speaks for the majority? You? I think (my opinion) the actual majority has already spoken by leaving the game, frustrated/bored with it’s current state (still playing), or at least having stopped playing Spvp.

I for one echo what others have said here before, the update is nice, but even adding in these features won’t save the game let alone grow it. Where are the casual/new/normal run of the mill players going to come from? Why are they going to not only play Spvp, but stick around long term? We’ll need more game-types so we aren’t stuck with the same meta (bunkers are boring OK?). So, we are even farther off from the Spvp gametype even potentially growing (my opinion).

Jacobin.8509:

Writetyper.1985:

I would like to remind everyone that programming is not as simple as you seem to make it out to be when you say “we need x!” and then are surprised when such a feature is not available within weeks. I would also like to remind everyone that people to do such jobs need to be paid and work standard and you simply can’t just dump more people onto a job to make it happen faster.

Where do these apologists keep coming from.

Spvp was released in a highly bare bones / unfinished state, yet was marketed and sold as an esport. The pvp community has been strung along for months and months with very minimal updates and vague promises that seem to change every time we hear from a dev.

If I sell you a Lexus then deliver you a 2001 civic then say you might get your Lexus in 6 months you would probably be pretty angry.

‘When its ready’ is not a valid excuse when you have charged people money and they have spent 5 months doing what amounts to free beta testing.

From common sense and a basic understanding of the work involved. That’s a horrible analogy as everyone uses the same product and it is a mass produced mechanical device as opposed to programming based.

It’s horrifically entitled to assume that it’s easy to fix/implement features like this.

Trust me, I’m not an apologist. I hate a lot of the design desicions here. You’re just being unrealistic and demanding.

There’s too much work being put into things that force people to pay to play. We need a format where whole teams (not just random queued players or groups) can participate ranked in a matchmaking environment.

The game could certainly use:
Unranked Skirmish: two teams are put together based on their ranked matchmaking. Win/Lose does not affect the their rank and record, its a skirmish for practicing and fostering team growth. (If you want to put this into the custom arenas, which seems to be the idea, fine, so long as a general ranked environment in which people can compete is left free of charge to access. There’s admittedly any number of ways to implement this and my idea may well not even be remotely close to the best one.)
Ranked Battle: two teams matched on ranked ratings. (This is the format that needs to remain free.)
Free Tournament: teams enter and face off in what we have now based on the aforementioned matchmaking rank. Winning the free tournament (and certain placements after the winners) should award tickets and will be the free way of acquiring them. (Add in a minimum rank for ticket rewards such that people cannot just remake characters or whatever loophole they might find to farm low rank brackets.)
Paid Tournament: teams enter and face off without matchmaking being used to pick opponents. Winning in this format will reward a unique ranking adjacent to personal matchmaking rankings, akin to the Arena methods of Halo (as an example). Top teams here will be the ones who end up in the big tournaments for PvP.
Grand Tournament: Or whatever the heck you want to call sanctioned big tournament events, only the top X# of teams from Paid can participate and the rewards are, rightfully, large.

Your custom arenas will draw in all the money you might want if they allow private servers, groups, or whole websites to create specialized tournaments based on any number of criteria they might well choose, with the freedom to set maps and rules (TDM, downstate y/n, etc) as they see fit. The idea behind them is great but it shouldn’t distract you from creating an environment in the game itself, beyond the reach of cash and money, where people can compete on some level.

My above idea, the paragraph before the last, is flawed no doubt but it will at least give people some venues to compete on leveled footing and unleveled footing: those who partake in ranked will have a visible matchmaking score, a ladder to climb, and a way to show off their “leet skillz”; there will also be a format for the truly hardcore players and those who want to show just how good they are, where they can compete against everyone for a chance at partaking in the “big” tournies. Other posters are free to rip apart my ideas as they see fit, I’m sure I made plenty of nonsensical claims and decisions.

And for the record, I am not rushing you on this or saying its all needed immediately. It’s just needed, at some point… preferably sooner rather than later. I don’t care about game modes, magical unicorns, or even balance at this point, we need to have these basic features added to create an environment that inspires competition rather than the only current defining quality we have which is QP… and time spent grinding said QP.