Guild Wars 2

I have the fortune of being able to chat about game design with a lead designer at a very influential game developer. One of the most interesting things he’s told me is that while a lot of gameplay problems have fairly simple solutions, the true challenge is delivering these changes in a way that doesn’t frustrate a large portion of the playerbase. Though I didn’t understand at the time, I’ve come to realize that managing expectations is extremely important to the long-term happiness of the playerbase, and that failing to do so can create more problems than whatever you were trying to fix in the first place ever did. What solidified this belief is what I’ve witnessed in the defiant response to Bloodlust in the Borderlands. Whether you agree or disagree with the implementation of Bloodlust, it’s hard to argue thakittenrepresents a major change in WvW. It’s also hard to argue that this change hasn’t fractured the community and engendered resentment between various groups of players. I feel like, regardless of the new gameplay, WvW is worse for it because of the damage it has done to the community. These problems could have been avoided by better managing the expectations of the players.

Something that content developers (be it game designers, writers, artists, etc.) struggle with is the concept that their creations are not entirely theirs. The communities around these works guide their direction just as much as the people who created them. Often, only minor adjustments are required to accommodate the communities, but sometimes there are more extreme cases. Take Super Smash Bros. for example; it was designed as a casual party game, but it developed a large tournament scene. Another example is My Little Pony; it was designed as a television show for young girls, but it developed a large adult male fanbase. I feel like WvW also belongs in this group. It was designed as a more casual PVP environment that simulates war (and all of its unfairness), but it became the place where competitive players went to have large-scale, evenly matched, open field battles with few objectives involved. In cases like these, the developers need to make a decision: is it worth changing our vision to accommodate this new demographic? Are we equipped to deal with the backlash that comes with heading in a different direction than the one they expect? If a developer does not ask these questions, they may be faced with an angry, fractured community – just as ArenaNet is experiencing with WvW.

I feel like this was a long time coming. This development team has implemented many controversial changes, and in doing so they have failed to adequately manage player expectations and have failed to clearly communicate their overall vision to the community. They have not changed course based on the evolving play styles of their players, and in doing so are going in a direction that is not in their best interests. Community is critical, and as I stated before, these divisive changes damage the community. A common argument is that players who were not playing according to the intended WvW rules are disruptive and harmful to the overall campaign. It is not hard to see that they will need to become even more disruptive to the campaign in order to continue playing in their own way. Why implement changes that incentivize players to do this? It speaks to a lack of understanding of the community and all its facets, and things are only going to get worse if the developers do not become more transparent and more in-touch with ALL of their players.

I really hope this debacle is a wake-up call to the WvW team. Where you sit on this side of the Bloodlust debate should not be your primary concern right now. I would be more concerned with the lack of community management and understanding that the WvW team is demonstrating. Unless they realize that game design is so much more than creating gameplay systems behind closed doors, we’re just going to have more controversies and fights in the future. We’re already seeing established members of the community leaving not because they’ve stopped enjoying the game, but because they’ve lost faith in ArenaNet. It is way harder to regain faith and trust than it is to fix a gameplay problem. I just hope the WvW team comes to understand this before it’s too late.

Agreed. I’m no student of game design, but I really think Devon and crew have ignored a very large portion of the dedicated populace of WvW, and it’s showing.

I mean, the old GvG scene thread has spent a page or two discussing other games to move to. Anet is at a huge risk of losing most of their organized, competitive PvP players.

Great post. After playing 5 months and still being new to many aspects of the game, I have come to the sad realization that ANet’s focus is PvE and there is very little done on the WvW front. We can wait and see what the WvW season brings us and keeping my fingers crossed for some new maps etc.

In regards of the communication between the developer and WvW players, all you need to do is to go to the living story forum sub and you will find many comments from the devs on different posts. Sadly you come on teh WvW section and it is a ghost town and players basically talking to a wall with an illusion of someone listening and the hope of change.

I’ve been involved with customer service for a long time, and I’ve seen companies I work for fail and succeed based on their level of customer service. Interwebz gaming is no different. Customers will always migrate to where their needs can be better met.

I’m curious to know if Anet has ever considered having volunteers for filtering through forum suggestions, ect.

violentlycar.5267:

Something that content developers (be it game designers, writers, artists, etc.) struggle with is the concept that their creations are not entirely theirs. The communities around these works guide their direction just as much as the people who created them.

This is spot on and can be seen in the GvG scene. Anet have their head in the sand about not changing direction to accommodate it.

Warlord Lu Bu.7905:

I’ve been involved with customer service for a long time, and I’ve seen companies I work for fail and succeed based on their level of customer service. Interwebz gaming is no different. Customers will always migrate to where their needs can be better met.

I’m curious to know if Anet has ever considered having volunteers for filtering through forum suggestions, ect.

This is so important. And I know Colin Johansen has said in couple of interviews, that MMO’s are “software as service” i.e. a consumer service product.

That idea seems completely lost on the WvW developers though. All the recent design decisions seem to go out of their way to frustrate the desires of their customers. They are just lucky it is almost a captive audience, as there is little competition for this game mode.

Now maybe they’ve calculated their PvE/casual WvW’ers are their better customers, and those are the ones they are going to cater to. I’ve never seen that work in any PvP game though. They all need the dedicated (or “elitist”) layer of committed players.

If they do alienate this group, WvW won’t be worthy of any future design. (But it could well continue to exist in maintenance mode as extra content for PvE’ers).

Anyone else have some thoughts on this? Would like to hear from ANet directly on this, though I’m not getting my hopes up.