Guild Wars 2

For those that are interested, he’s talking in the comments section about his experiences with working with ANet and stuff. (He doesn’t have the ANet red archway icon anymore so you have to look for “DevonCarver”)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u58xc/devon_carver_wvw_design_lead_is_no_longer_with/

That pretty much sums up why WvW didnt get any attention, either Anet decided to entirely abandon this game mode, or this guy got fired for coming with the terrible new BL maps.

These games are created by small teams who wear a bunch of hats. Everyone has their hands in many aspects of the game. They all get some credit for destroying WvW.

But it’s the person in charge of the whole operation (company, division, etc) that is ultimately at fault. They set the tone, priorities and direction of the team(s) involved. If things fall apart it’s because leadership is failing.

he was a complete failure as a wvw dev, but he says some true words about modern times, how people have to be friendly and constructive all the time to get into the closed circles of the powers that be in business. basically how you cant expect a thing from people in charge except them knowing how to smile and nod and fire / ban / close you down while thinking they got it all figured out.

From reddit

Devon Carver (WvW Design Lead) is no longer with Anet. by suppox in Guildwars2
[–]DevonCarver [score hidden] 56 minutes ago
Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I think the hope is to solve some of the larger, underlying problems as soon as possible. But I haven’t been directly involved in WvW decisions for some time, so that’s really just an understanding from the outside.
[–]DevonCarver 5 points an hour ago
No, that’s not even remotely related. The good is balanced with the bad, but regardless, that’s not really a large enough part of the job that it would have caused me to leave.
[–]DevonCarver 5 points an hour ago
I don’t think it should be labelled as ArenaNet’s fault here. You need to think about this as a business as well. It is usually the case that people have opinions about the place that they work and those aren’t always 100% in line with reality. If you are disgruntled, you are going to remember the bad things and not the good ones.
So studios aren’t particularly interested in bringing in people that are going to bring that kind of negative energy with them. It’s a relatively small industry and people know each other. If you’ve been airing grievances, it’s not going to reflect well on you.
ArenaNet is a wonderful place in a lot of ways, there are problems, sure, but there are problems anywhere. I certainly wouldn’t have had the opportunities I’ve had at many other places and I wouldn’t have been able to work with so many wonderful people. I hope that I’ve learned from my many mistakes and that I’m a better designer for it.
Devon Carver (WvW Design Lead) is no longer with Anet. by suppox in Guildwars2
[–]DevonCarver 39 points 2 hours ago
They were elevator doors, so it wasn’t really an option.
Devon Carver (WvW Design Lead) is no longer with Anet. by suppox in Guildwars2
[–]DevonCarver 41 points 2 hours ago
I left ArenaNet because I had an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. The part of me that enjoys candor and openness in games would love to do an AMA, but not only would that likely be disrespectful to ArenaNet, a place that I owe a great deal, and the people that continue to work there, but it would also not be particularly illustrative, I suspect.
The reality is that I’ve been wrong enough times about things to know that I can’t really expect my decisions to be infallible and while I’ve certainly disagreed with some decisions made for GW2, I suspect that the number of times I was wrong to disagree outweigh the number of times I was right.
[–]DevonCarver 9 points 2 hours ago
I assumed it that way as well.
[–]DevonCarver 47 points 2 hours ago
Yeah, you can totally toss me under the bus for anything you didn’t like. I probably had nothing to do with it, but I’ll happily deflect any anger for those that did.
[–]DevonCarver 166 points 2 hours ago
It’s generally the case that there will be no comments about internal stuff like this. For a variety of reasons, but, that’s just the reality of things. WvW will continue to be an important part of the game.
[–]DevonCarver 51 points 2 hours ago
Thanks. It’s been good to be a part of this community, for the most part. I hope you all continue to enjoy the game.
[–]DevonCarver 37 points 2 hours ago
If I told you, I’d have to kill you. I was working on the expansion, specifically building content.
[–]DevonCarver 118 points 3 hours ago
I haven’t been working on WvW since March of this year.

rchu.8945:

That pretty much sums up why WvW didnt get any attention, either Anet decided to entirely abandon this game mode, or this guy got fired for coming with the terrible new BL maps.

He didnt got fired, he left. He stated that he got an offer he couldnt refuse.

That said, who did or gonna take over if at all?

The WvW developer Devon Carver, no longer works at Arena Net. He hasn’t since October. Also, according to some information, he hadn’t worked on WvW since March 2015. Can we please get an official response on to why this was not announced to the WvW players…

We are part of Guild Wars 2 as well… We would like to be included in the loop and to know if a NEW Developer is working on what is referred to as WvW.

They Don’t GaF.
Pretty much clear it looks like no one has even looked at WvW since March LOL

Wasn’t he the dev that occasionally posted on reddit?

saturn.4810:

Wasn’t he the dev that occasionally posted on reddit?

That is where I found out he hasn’t worked on WvW since March 2015 and was working on HoT content… The LEAD WVW Dev was NOT working on WvW for 8 months… March – October

Yup, it’s pretty sad.
https://www.reddit.com/user/DevonCarver
A few post-shards:
“I haven’t been working on WvW since March of this year.”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. I was working on the expansion, specifically building content.”
“It’s generally the case that there will be no comments about internal stuff like this. For a variety of reasons, but, that’s just the reality of things. WvW will continue to be an important part of the game.”
“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I think the hope is to solve some of the larger, underlying problems as soon as possible. But I haven’t been directly involved in WvW decisions for some time, so that’s really just an understanding from the outside.”

If that’s what the WvW Lead Designer can tell to us, it’s pretty sad…
And… understanding from the outside… as the Lead Designer?

This certainly explains Golem Week.

#neverforget

Uhhh those of us who have been in the loop have known that he hasn’t been the lead designer for WvW for over a year.

It was blatantly obvious when John Corpering started posting on this subforum.

Sandrox.9524:

rchu.8945:

That pretty much sums up why WvW didnt get any attention, either Anet decided to entirely abandon this game mode, or this guy got fired for coming with the terrible new BL maps.

He didnt got fired, he left. He stated that he got an offer he couldnt refuse.

That said, who did or gonna take over if at all?

who knows. TBH i do not think anyone would want to take over a dying game

Funny they keep on posting there but completely ignoring their own “official” forum with a broken search function.

Steelo.4597:

he was a complete failure as a wvw dev, but he says some true words about modern times, how people have to be friendly and constructive all the time to get into the closed circles of the powers that be in business. basically how you cant expect a thing from people in charge except them knowing how to smile and nod and fire / ban / close you down while thinking they got it all figured out.

So what?

I guess as an older person it seems like a lot of you make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Yes, you should be friendly to others if you expect them to be friendly to you because they outnumber you. That is nothing new. Politeness was not invented in modern times. Negativity does nothing progressive. Do you think this historic event was the result of negativity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pillaOxGCo Without failure no one can learn to how proceed.

How many WvW lead designer switches is this now? 4? perhaps 5? Me thinks there is some major mismanagement, the higher ups need to stop drinking the koolaid and making decisions based purely on spreadsheet numbers.

[–]DevonCarver 118 points 3 hours ago
I haven’t been working on WvW since March of this year.

Well, no great surprise there then.

My theory about the new BL map being a cast off from an abandoned LS3 next to Dry Top where gliding and mushrooms would ahve come in is looking a lot more likely now. Insert shiny keeps, make them bigger to fit in the map and hey presto, new BL map. Does it work for wvw players? Who cares?

Notsoperky.2348:

My theory about the new BL map being a cast off from an abandoned LS3 next to Dry Top where gliding and mushrooms would ahve come in is looking a lot more likely now. Insert shiny keeps, make them bigger to fit in the map and hey presto, new BL map. Does it work for wvw players? Who cares?

/yes. You could definitely make a good case for that. We’ll never know for certain.

Well that explains the silence in this forum…

And it makes me really angry. Not because we are switching WvW designers like underpants and not becauseof the silcence in the WvW forums.
What makes me angry is that this is the last final proof that ArenaNet has changed for bad in the past years. So many good people who left or have been forced to leave since release.
What happened to the good old “when it’s done” ? Why can’t you just release the expansion 4 months later but make everything good?
I don’t care how long it takes or how complicated it is to make some meaningful WvW changes. I was defending you, because up to this point I had the hope that you were simply busy discussing and testing things internally.
And now? It has been 8 months without a lead designer and dear Mr. Colin dares to speak about WvW beeing the #1 priority now?
You Sir, you sold the good soul of this game and threw it away like a used tissue.

Today my last bit of hope for WvW died. I never believed I’d say that.

If I remember right, Devon Carver was in lead of WvW when we got

• EotM
• seasons with their (free/cheap) wtj-transfers
• The WEXP system

He is also responsible for this depressive interview:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

There are no plans to change WvW at all!

Confirmation: 6minute in, straight from the mouth of the D-man himself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyWxsJU4InM&t=6m04s

Warning: Watching this video may make you leave GW2 earlier than you were expectin!

I cannot say that I miss him as WvW-Lead. John Corpening made a great start with his 3 selected topic’s for WvW

• griefing (don’t have the link)
• balance https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Solution-to-fix-the-population-imbalance/4437596
• scoring https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Scoring-Discussion/4472575

As positive results I would count:

• the new wvw-based server population (It may not be perfect, but at least for EU it improved thins a lot)
• finally the realistic wvw-achievements

The new BL-map was always a player wish by many people, but so far probably not really a success

If he didnt work on WvW content since march, does it mean he made the new BL?
OKOK I show myself out.

Entenkommando.5208:

Why can’t you just release the expansion 4 months later but make everything good?

You have to look through the business side not player one. All games now are released as betas (even if they call it release ver) as it will generate more profit which might be lost due to waiting and tweaking/fixing it to be “everything good” version. Anet is not an exception. You paid the money for HoT, but it doesnt work? Who cares … balance is fine.

Sad reality…

Not many people on these forums ever had anything nice to say about this guy. I’m sure if they announced it you would only get cheers and claps from a lot of players.

And those of us out of the loop have know there hasnt been a WvW team in 3 years!

Can you imagine if Anet did tell us this, we’d all leave! They dont want us to leave and want us to buy their skins from the gem store. Whilst telling us they’ll fix WvW Soon™

I’ve been telling you guys this for 2 years now! And of course a lot of those comments have been removed.

But hey, for the optimists like coglin and krall, I am sure they’ll be working on something Soon™ and that they just cant talk about it.

He’s gone and I’m leaving wvw with him…….wvw is dead anyway.

Hope he’s utilized better at his new job.

All the best to Mr. Carver, but regarding WvW he did not have the slightest clue what was going on or what people wanted. Arenanet is so distracted from their own game regarding WvW, it´s hilarious.

“WvW will continue to be an important part of the game.” ?? Yeahh exactly…….., we all see how important WvW is for Arenanet right now, they don´t even care to come here and half of the half baked kitten that the new maps are, is not working.

Fellfoot.8156:

Notsoperky.2348:

My theory about the new BL map being a cast off from an abandoned LS3 next to Dry Top where gliding and mushrooms would ahve come in is looking a lot more likely now. Insert shiny keeps, make them bigger to fit in the map and hey presto, new BL map. Does it work for wvw players? Who cares?

/yes. You could definitely make a good case for that. We’ll never know for certain.

lol no way.

Bubi.5237:

Yup, it’s pretty sad.
https://www.reddit.com/user/DevonCarver
A few post-shards:
“I haven’t been working on WvW since March of this year.”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. I was working on the expansion, specifically building content.”
“It’s generally the case that there will be no comments about internal stuff like this. For a variety of reasons, but, that’s just the reality of things. WvW will continue to be an important part of the game.”
“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I think the hope is to solve some of the larger, underlying problems as soon as possible. But I haven’t been directly involved in WvW decisions for some time, so that’s really just an understanding from the outside.”

If that’s what the WvW Lead Designer can tell to us, it’s pretty sad…
And… understanding from the outside… as the Lead Designer?

Dark Side:This statement fills me with dread. Essentially we have no dev in there fighting for us, and it’s quite possible that our old lead dev was trying to fight for us, and got canned for it, or quit in disgust.

Bright Side: ANet decided that Devon wasn’t doing enough on the WvW front, and decided to go another way.

Generally I am an optimist, but I can’t help but lean dark side here.

Kaiser.9873:

Bubi.5237:

Yup, it’s pretty sad.
https://www.reddit.com/user/DevonCarver
A few post-shards:
“I haven’t been working on WvW since March of this year.”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you. I was working on the expansion, specifically building content.”
“It’s generally the case that there will be no comments about internal stuff like this. For a variety of reasons, but, that’s just the reality of things. WvW will continue to be an important part of the game.”
“Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I think the hope is to solve some of the larger, underlying problems as soon as possible. But I haven’t been directly involved in WvW decisions for some time, so that’s really just an understanding from the outside.”

If that’s what the WvW Lead Designer can tell to us, it’s pretty sad…
And… understanding from the outside… as the Lead Designer?

Dark Side:This statement fills me with dread. Essentially we have no dev in there fighting for us, and it’s quite possible that our old lead dev was trying to fight for us, and got canned for it, or quit in disgust.

Bright Side: ANet decided that Devon wasn’t doing enough on the WvW front, and decided to go another way.

Generally I am an optimist, but I can’t help but lean dark side here.

Dont give Carver too much credit, he might’ve been the WvW dev, but all the things he has done for WvW were not great. Having someone clueless leading this part is pretty much what killed the WvW game mode.

This disappearance of a wvw dev is pretty much the only evidence we have of there ever having been one.

Notsoperky.2348:

My theory about the new BL map being a cast off from an abandoned LS3 next to Dry Top where gliding and mushrooms would ahve come in is looking a lot more likely now. Insert shiny keeps, make them bigger to fit in the map and hey presto, new BL map. Does it work for wvw players? Who cares?

Sounds logical to me.

Chaba.5410:

So what?

I guess as an older person it seems like a lot of you make a mountain out of a mole hill.

Yes, you should be friendly to others if you expect them to be friendly to you because they outnumber you. That is nothing new. Politeness was not invented in modern times. Negativity does nothing progressive. Do you think this historic event was the result of negativity? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pillaOxGCo Without failure no one can learn to how proceed.

Amen… o7 Here, have some videos aswell:

Politeness becomes stupid if the one adressed does not listen.

Devon also claimed that he hasn’t worked on ANY WvW content since March on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u58xc/devon_carver_wvw_design_lead_is_no_longer_with/

ANet, please respond.

Read the tread you linked maybe?

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they get rid of WvW should they stop making money off of server transfers from it.

The only way to make Anet respond is to bait them with a positive thread.

Too bad it’s impossible to make a positive thread about WvW nowadays.

rchu.8945:

Devon also claimed that he hasn’t worked on ANY WvW content since March on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u58xc/devon_carver_wvw_design_lead_is_no_longer_with/

ANet, please respond.

You really believe that they will answer to this? why so naive?

I think ANET has some serious internal problems they are dealing with and that is why they don’t show here or anywhere.

Colin said they’re working on a WvW overhaul.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3u7bo1/no_hope_for_legendary_effect_on_engineer/cxcqyvo

I T E R A T I O N

Wow a dev comment on WvW! On reddit of course…

As an engineer main, this remains one of those things I’d love to see addressed…But the reality is we need the bulk of our own internal engineers (coders!) to continue to focus on stuff like our major WvW overhaul right now we’ve been working on for over a year that’s much higher priority for the game over-all.
This remains on the someday that’d sure be awesome list.

Major WvW overhaul (re-)confirmed!

saturn.4810:

Wow a dev comment on WvW! On reddit of course…

Probably because more people are reading reddit than the official forums.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

saturn.4810:

Wow a dev comment on WvW! On reddit of course…

Probably because more people are reading reddit than the official forums.

No wonder if the devs prefer to post there, and not in their own official forums.

Well the reddit has more quality posts than the QQfest that happens here. There is a more balance between positive and negative. Just by reading the official forums, you’d think no one likes this game.

that’s exactly the reason why I prefer reddit. Mindless whining is mostly downvoted into oblivion. Well, not always.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

that’s exactly the reason why I prefer reddit. Mindless whining is mostly downvoted into oblivion. Well, not always.

And mounts are upvoted into the sky. Populism is flawless.

Steelo.4597:

he was a complete failure as a wvw dev, but he says some true words about modern times, how people have to be friendly and constructive all the time to get into the closed circles of the powers that be in business. basically how you cant expect a thing from people in charge except them knowing how to smile and nod and fire / ban / close you down while thinking they got it all figured out.

I wish there was a + one billion

many people like mounts, I don’t see your point

Many people like housing in games too, or pretty toons, or many other aspects of fluff that add nothing to the game play…..I’ll agree with NonToxic on this one, just because something is up or down voted doesn’t change the nature of the argument. It’s very easy to rig up or down voting over a period of time.