Guild Wars 2

This is not meant to be disrespectful to the hardwork Anet has done to WvW/PvP/PvE as I think it does put a tremendous amount of effort and time behind trying to enhance their game in a meaningful way.

However, with that being said, it appears they always seem to fall short of the goals they want to hit and it seems to be a problem that doesn’t just affect one aspect of the game but all of them.

The driver behind this constant missing of the mark I believe is in the timing and way they incorporate feedback into their development cycle. They appear to adhere to a waterfall methodology. Example: They take in a bunch of feedback when they are planning a 3-6 month release….they setup a development plan and path…and then they precede to code for next 3-6 months or longer, with no input or feedback in the interim (in fact they tend to stay radio silent up until almost release time) then they go ahead and deploy and get feedback and fix everything that appears to be wrong.

In development land this is a very good way to go way off course unintentionally and deliver a product that doesn’t at all deliver what the customer wants and sometimes not what you even meant it to do. One of the easiest changes I believe they should make, is coordinating feedback DURING their development as you would in an agile scrum environment. Having developers or delegated staff handle putting an idea out there getting feedback and adjusting in the middle of the process instead of after it. I feel this would help address and find big issues earlier in the process and avoid the large amount of rework after to bring it inline with what was expected.

tl;dr; Anet should use feedback and communication during the development process to avoid going way off course of the planned features. For the same reason you wouldn’t plan a trip across an ocean in the beginning and then just hope you magically arrive at your destination, you make periodic course corrections along the way. If Anet could just open up that process more and incorporate feedback into their development cycle more I think it would end being a better product for everyone.

Scrum is just a new buzz in development.
They simply need to list what people want and let them vote on the biggest issues.

Do they want more content?
Do they want bug fixes?
Do they like huge zerg blobs?
Do they like siege decay?
Do they want a “report hacker” option?

Really just take some polls.
THEN figure out what you are going to do.

The problem is they don’t even ask. They just work on some kitten they want to work on.

Skeletor.9360:

Scrum is just a new buzz in development.

It’s not new buzz. It hit buzz level 16 years ago.

Skeletor.9360:

They simply need to list what people want and let them vote on the biggest issues.

Do they want more content?
Do they want bug fixes?
Do they like huge zerg blobs?
Do they like siege decay?
Do they want a “report hacker” option?

Really just take some polls.
THEN figure out what you are going to do.

The problem is they don’t even ask. They just work on some kitten they want to work on.

A Scrum process that incorporates the end-user as a stakeholder in both production and product outcomes is one which addresses exactly the sort of things you’ve listed there.

ANet uses an insular Scrum process that treats all of their actions and thoughts as tightly guarded intellectual properties.

It was not buzzing 16 years ago…it was introduced. The idea of getting user needs early and often has been around much longer. Scrum is simply a management tool for poor managers. Agile and scrum are still just only being accepted within the last 5 years or so.

Notice he used the term “stakeholder”…very agile!

Skeletor.9360:

It was not buzzing 16 years ago…it was introduced. The idea of getting user needs early and often has been around much longer. Scrum is simply a management tool for poor managers. Agile and scrum are still just only being accepted within the last 5 years or so.

Notice he used the term “stakeholder”…very agile!

It was introduced 21 years ago, tracing its origin back to at least 30 years ago, and the PDF I linked was an example of it buzzing well after its introduction. The PDF comes as a citation in the scrum Wikipedia article’s first (2006) publication.

Virtute.8251:

ANet uses an insular Scrum process that treats all of their actions and thoughts as tightly guarded intellectual properties.

Yep this is clearly the issue with anets development plus the fact that they ignore any feedback unless its phrased as nicely as possible. Its pretty ridiculous with this whole alliance rumour cause they are established RvR mechanics.