Arenanet's Philosophy
Its certainly feeling that way. With empty promises and bugs stretching beyond just our profession, it feels like ArenaNet is taking its players for a short ride.
I came to this game because I saw all the press before launch. I was really impressed by the (apparent) outreach of the developers to their players. I did not participate in the open beta weekends, but if I did, I may have reconsidered buying this game.
I rolled a ranger because it looked fun. I chose it over a Thief, who’s playstyle seemed very “spammy.” Around level 30 I noticed something felt off. At level 40 I noticed a variety of issues. I thought it was just me, but then I came to these forums and immediately noticed that I wasn’t alone!
Since coming here, I’ve become more and more disheartened by the state of the game, especially the state of the Ranger. I know it could be better, I can see its potential, but the code and developers work against me. I have been a very unhappy player for over a month, and I hope ArenaNet knows that. I hope they know that a lot of us are very unhappy.
Thank you for your post, Synical.
Azhandris – Sylvari Thief
Tarnished Coast
Tarnished Coast
communicating on the forums is not the best answer. most players don’t even read the forums, and many rangers probably don’t even care that the class is under-powered, communication only affects such a small portion of the player base it is not often worth it.
i also don’t think they are catering to new players. the game has a powerful pve focus, one that most all other games don’t have, with the tedious gear treadmill gone new content and events are the best way to keep the pve crowd. i do agree however that the pvp crowed could use a little attention in the form of balance patches.
transparency with the players is also not always the answer. if you have played league of legends, you should be aware of the terms ‘magma chamber’ and ‘stealth rework’. these were 2 instances of transparency that went horribly, horribly wrong.
finally there is the problems with us forum goers. we are an incredibly inhospitable bunch. whenever we get a developer post, there is always someone flaming the developer or complaining about one thing or another. on large we don’t appreciate them. perhaps if we could be a little kinder they would have more incentive to post more, but for the most of what i’ve seen we really don’t deserve the this communication.
Maybe we can buy bug fixes and balancing with our gems?
Would that get Anet off their behinds to help Rangers out?
I do my share of complaining about the reneging on ranger changes, but truth be told, the number of issues rangers have is greatly exaggerated. Especially on these boards.
While you do have to do some extra work to perform well in PvP, the ranger is a perfectly viable class. With a number of specs, even. In PvE, there simply is no fight that would require greater sustained or burst damage output than what the ranger can provide, and as for group utility, the ranger has that in spades.
The few things that cause the requirement for extra work are the pet portion of our damage/utility not function as expected, a number of unused utility skills and a few hiccups with weapons and synergies. Other than that, it’s bug fixes, as with other classes.
I think the main gripe people have with the ranger is that it actually takes a lot of effort to perform at the same level as certain other classes, and so you feel that you’re “paying more for less.” While this may be true, it doesn’t diminish the fact that you can perform well.
As for Arenanet being an ideological traitor – the game’s been out for less than three months, and they’re overworked. They’re also human. Give the poor comrades a chance.
I’m a frustrated Ranger, too, and I’m struggling to find the motivation to lvl up another character, but I’m also a realist.
A-Net wants to sell more copies of GW2, more gems, future expansion packs, and other A-Net titles, so of course they care about their customers. That does not mean they agree with every opinion of every customer or prioritize things the same way you or I do, nor that they have the manpower to fix everything in a timely fashion, but it’s a huge leap to say they just don’t care. If I had my druthers, the number one and two priorities would be fix Rangers and fix and improve WvWvW, but they as a company have a different perspective and have to do what they think is best for the business overall.
I expect over time that things will be balanced out, but it will take many months and the work will never be complete.
but they as a company have a different perspective and have to do what they think is best for the business overall
Then why can’t they tell us anything at all about what their perspective is? The silence is deafening.
transparency with the players is also not always the answer. if you have played league of legends, you should be aware of the terms ‘magma chamber’ and ‘stealth rework’. these were 2 instances of transparency that went horribly, horribly wrong.
I never played LOL enough to know what those terms mean, So I would be in the dark there. Yet it sounds to me like a simple bait and switch tactic from the way you talk about it.
A-Net wants to sell more copies of GW2, more gems, future expansion packs, and other A-Net titles, so of course they care about their customers.
That’s exactly what I’m afraid of…
Come buy the new “Lost Shores Expac” 59.99$ Now with MORE RANGER FIXES
Why do things for free when you can charge people for them?
I’m not saying communication is the be all end all of what needs to be done, but it’s a start in the right direction. As of now rangers are a severely below par class with nothing to look forward to on the horizon, for all we know a patch could come out tomorrow to fix us or 6 months from now.
Do you want to continue to play in a game where when you whisper someone and ask for a invite they decline you based on your class?
I don’t want to re-roll to be useful and I don’t feel useful on my ranger, hell even my guildies ask if I have any alts to come on when I ask for dungeon invites now… It’s that sad.
(edited by Synical.3108)
for the stealth remake, riot said they would remake the characters evelyn and twitch because they were extremely strong with their ability to be permanently stealthed. the first thing they did was nerf the characters into the ground below where any character had gone before, telling the playerbase that they were getting reworked soon. about a year after this they were finally reworked, but the year was filled with the forum goers spamming “stealth remake where?” for the entire year, and riot’s answer was “when its finished” which didn’t help anything.
the magma chamber was a new map that riot was going to release, and gave a formal announcement of the map. the community was quite hyped, but then riot turned around and said that they were not going to release the map(i dont remember the reasons). the community was not pleased.
anet really isn’t attracting new buyers with the lost shores expansion. it added an endgame area and a repeatable dungeon, the outsiders do not care much for these things, they are meant to give existing players something to do.
OP i’m sorry to say, but that’s entirely false, as much as i would love them to communicate to us and blah blah blah most players don’t read these forums, and every ranger i’ve talked to doesn’t even realize they’re “under powered” infact, the only people that think rangers are under powered are the ones who have only found bad rangers, or the ones that go to this forum (which if you haven’t noticed is about the same 5 people complaining about how we’re broken).
And as for your whole, “Oh waaaah they don’t cater to my every will this means they don’t care about me after i bought the game!” yeah, totally, that’s why they’ve had a patch every month, and it’s looking like it’ll stay that way, as well as making balance changes fairly regularly, i mean look at the whole OP backstab thing, that got changed pretty freaking fast, as well as a few other things.
Just because the prof YOU play solely isn’t getting very many changes going on with it doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing anything with the game, i personally don’t even see half of these problems this forum complains about, so i think this is just more over dramatization from this same forum area, surprise surprise…
They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
for the stealth remake, riot said they would remake the characters evelyn and twitch because they were extremely strong with their ability to be permanently stealthed. the first thing they did was nerf the characters into the ground below where any character had gone before, telling the playerbase that they were getting reworked soon. about a year after this they were finally reworked, but the year was filled with the forum goers spamming “stealth remake where?” for the entire year, and riot’s answer was “when its finished” which didn’t help anything.
the magma chamber was a new map that riot was going to release, and gave a formal announcement of the map. the community was quite hyped, but then riot turned around and said that they were not going to release the map(i dont remember the reasons). the community was not pleased.
anet really isn’t attracting new buyers with the lost shores expansion. it added an endgame area and a repeatable dungeon, the outsiders do not care much for these things, they are meant to give existing players something to do.
Actually… the new instance has enticed a number of my wow playing friends to the game… so this isn’t all true…
I know i table flipped and kitten near killed my roommate when riot nerfed twitch though, it will never be the same…
They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
Twitch is a rastard…lol Im a volibear/alistar/nasus kinda guy.
I was only disappointed when I logged on one day, only to see that my shortbow auto attack was slower…. this was shortly after making my ranger, but I still use my shortbow all the time.
Brauhaus – Ranger
I put my traps on yo’ walls and outside yo’ doors.
FA- “We Love Puttin’ Our Wood in your Asspen”
I put my traps on yo’ walls and outside yo’ doors.
FA- “We Love Puttin’ Our Wood in your Asspen”
Twitch is a rastard…lol Im a volibear/alistar/nasus kinda guy.
I was only disappointed when I logged on one day, only to see that my shortbow auto attack was slower…. this was shortly after making my ranger, but I still use my shortbow all the time.
Yeah, i was a twitch, then he became lame so i started playing soraka/sej/nunu
As for the shortbow, i didn’t even use it until AFTER the nerf, and i thought it was pretty beast post “nerf” only thing i disliked about it was the significant lack in control/support then the longbow, and it looks worse…
They sing dark, delicious notes about power and family.
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
As their mother, I have to grant them their wish. – Forever Fyonna
I guess that the definition of “significant changes” differs from person to person. Unfortunately the dev in charge of rangers thinks that making pets less stupid is a significant change. I would like to trade devs please. Give the rangers the thief class dev. They seem to like to buff the heck out of a class.
Blackgate Server
Charr – Ranger
Human – Guardian
Charr – Ranger
Human – Guardian
but they as a company have a different perspective and have to do what they think is best for the business overall
Then why can’t they tell us anything at all about what their perspective is? The silence is deafening.
Because it’s a no-win proposition, IMO. No matter what they say, there will be complainers, and certain segments of their user base will feel alienated. How many other companies you do business with honestly explain all of their priorities to you? Do you really think you’d be happy with every company you do business with if they did explain their priorities every time you weren’t satisfied?
Generally speaking, the best public message for any business is that they want to fix all problems and always work make their product/service better for everyone.
(edited by slingblade.1437)
OP i’m sorry to say, but that’s entirely false, as much as i would love them to communicate to us and blah blah blah most players don’t read these forums, and every ranger i’ve talked to doesn’t even realize they’re “under powered” infact, the only people that think rangers are under powered are the ones who have only found bad rangers, or the ones that go to this forum (which if you haven’t noticed is about the same 5 people complaining about how we’re broken).
And as for your whole, “Oh waaaah they don’t cater to my every will this means they don’t care about me after i bought the game!” yeah, totally, that’s why they’ve had a patch every month, and it’s looking like it’ll stay that way, as well as making balance changes fairly regularly, i mean look at the whole OP backstab thing, that got changed pretty freaking fast, as well as a few other things.
Just because the prof YOU play solely isn’t getting very many changes going on with it doesn’t mean that they aren’t doing anything with the game, i personally don’t even see half of these problems this forum complains about, so i think this is just more over dramatization from this same forum area, surprise surprise…
Clearly a warrior in disguise.
but they as a company have a different perspective and have to do what they think is best for the business overall
Then why can’t they tell us anything at all about what their perspective is? The silence is deafening.
Because it’s a no-win proposition, IMO. No matter what they say, there will be complainers, and certain segments of their user base will feel alienated. How many other companies you do business with honestly explain all of their priorities to you? Do you really think you’d be happy with every company you do business with if they did explain their priorities every time you weren’t satisfied?
Generally speaking, the best public message for any business is that they want to fix all problems and always work make their product/service better for everyone.
I mean you are always going to have someone somewhere complaining. Yet if they told you that x changes were coming on the 30th of this month. I would be ok with that. Even if they weren’t exactly the changes I had hoped for. Yet as it stands now, we have no idea what their priorities are or when they are going to fix anything. We can’t even get them to admit the “animation fix” was a nerf.
John wants to claim that they only have 2 devs that do class balance and are hard pressed to find time to work in any of these supposed changes. At least that’s what they tell us and want us to believe. Yet 2 patches ago rangers were skipped and he said don’t worry rangers your patch is coming next. So we waited and the supposed “Ranger Patch” the rangers actually had the least amount of bullet points from any class. We had the least changed. No we didn’t get nerfed like some classes did but even so. Nothing was fixed not even our bugs. At the least some bugs should have been fixed.
At the current rate that they are pushing out content it is creating more bugs than the dev team can fix. It’s a never ending cycle they fix one thing but break 3 more because of all the new content.
Not to mention if the Devs say rangers are in rough shape then why wouldn’t they devote more time to the rangers than say warriors, Or mesmers? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
(edited by Synical.3108)
You guys are so melodramatic. Anet DO care about their player base. They just aren’t going the right way to show it.
The few things that cause the requirement for extra work are the pet portion of our damage/utility not function as expected, a number of unused utility skills and a few hiccups with weapons and synergies. Other than that, it’s bug fixes, as with other classes.
I think the main gripe people have with the ranger is that it actually takes a lot of effort to perform at the same level as certain other classes, and so you feel that you’re “paying more for less.” While this may be true, it doesn’t diminish the fact that you can perform well.
Heh, you realize you just mentioned there’s problems in every aspect of the class in one paragraph right?
Cognitive dissonance at it’s finest.