Guild Wars 2

This is very close to what I asked for in the old CDI a pet-less ranger (since AI is toooooo hard to fix) let’s hope it’s better than druid which I hate. I’ll let the new players test it for me before I buy. Back to hiatus

Griffin.5379:

WhiteKnight.6759:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Thanks for selling me a BUY TO PLAY MMO then giving it away for free! You’ve tought me to never ride hype trains.

To be fair, there’s a whole lot of limitations on the free to play game. No daily log in rewards, so very very few laurels, only 2 character slots, not full access to the trading post, no talking in map chat at all, and limited ability to whisper people who aren’t on your friend’s list. Can’t use a guild bank. Can’t send money or items to people at all. It’s a pretty long list.

I see the free to play as more of an unlimited demo than a full copy of the game.

While WhiteKnight is right, you see that from a wrong perspective.
Point is, you brought a game for money x and played a lot of hours. Would you say that your enjoyment of the game was not worth the money you payed?
In my case, like with Skyrim where i dumped hundreds of hour into, was way way more worth than my original purchase price, the same goes for GW2.
(I think for a Gamer there is just one important calculation: spend money / time of enjoyment)

Offering the game as F2P now only causes more people to play who did not want to take the risk of buying the game and not enjoying it at first, people who were not on the hype train.
End result is, a lot more people playing the game who would otherwise not play.
And for an MMO, the more people the better.

After your logic i have to be kittened about any game I bought for a high price that got cheaper over time. Or were on a sale somewhere, sometime.(Hint: that’s about any game).

So,
Thank You ArenaNet for turning most of the base Game F2P, so our community grows, and you get more people probably buying the game, thus earning more money, thus being able to make the game better.

And they make less money now than before FTP. Thanks for giving GW2 away? I’ll never understand some people, GW Factions still isn’t free and they don’t even support that game anymore.

Vayne.8563:

Sounds like a plan. I bet when I show you how to do the HOT zones, you’ll have a very different experience. Just give a chance. No amount of answers in this thread are going to help you see in more clearly.

HoT offers a different type of experience than the core zones. That different experience was actually needed for people who like it. It’s not the entire game, it’s still a small percentage of the game.

It’s an additional experience, not a replacement experience.

My head exploded

Mikali.9651:

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Not a trend? Watch next quarter

I will. My guess is it will be higher than this quarter. I guess we’ll see.

Edit: Assuming the next quarter encompasses the 2 week half price sale, and the launch of LS 3 which I believe it does.

you are so right, I agree with you) I think everything will be fine, it’s all almost perfect!

Love you man

The fiddle player on the Titanic received 2 standing ovations, the third guy was busy dog paddling.

Randulf.7614:

They do it, simply because they make more money this way and it gets it into the game and the hands of players quicker. In many ways that’s a win/win

I’m sure if enough ppl objected and didn’t buy skins like these from the gemstore, they’d re-consider their strategy. As it is, it seems to be working for them.

Check the financials.

I just want the legendary weapons I kittening paid for. They still haven’t delivered what they sold with HoT.

If they released the new weapons as drops not collections I’d be fine with that.

nighthawke.3075:

My main take away from this is that 2Q2016 was the lowest quarter, the reasoning for this is nebulous we could argue forever about what we believe it was that caused it but without ANets analytic’s we will never know for sure its all assumption. What we do know is their desired action to correct it.

“What we are planning to do going forward is that we are going to shorten the span for the next launch of the expansion pack. So right now we are in the phase for preparing for the 2nd expansion pack we ae going to shorten the launch timing between the different boxes that we launch to create more momentum”

This tells me that they believe the content drought was the main factor (this is an assumption yours may vary). They wish to correct this by accelerating the expansion pack release schedule.

My question is do we believe this will be successful? What would they need to produce, at what price point, on what schedule, for it to be successful?

The content drought has gone by LS3 has started, HoT has launched it can’t be taken back and if they spend too much time on it future content will suffer. Simply put whats done is done and it cant be undone. I’m looking forward to the future of the game not dwelling on the past.

Fair enough for you but the past got them here. GW2 was “the fastest selling MMO ever.” © and they’ve broken something. We all have opinions on what that something is or if there is something broken at all as players but the numbers say they have a problem.

I won’t buy another xpac in the current Anet climate and won’t buy another gem, that should worry them.

I’ll link the video of MO saying the gem store won’t interfere with the game, is that helpful?

IndigoSundown.5419:

Aidenwolf.5964:

HoT and FREE TO PLAY! Did not in any way increase revenue for Anet or their parent company NCSoft. The game made less Q2 2016 than at any point since launch.

Since we’re talking facts, this statement is factually incorrect.

Q4 15 revenue was up by something like $15M over the median revenue of the prior 3 quarters. Q1 16 revenue was up by a significantly lesser amount (~$8M) over that same median. There is no reason to believe that that is attributable to anything but HoT sales. So, while NCSoft did indeed state that PFF conversions to paying customer were disappointing, HoT itself did increase revenue. By ~$23M.

If you look back at the game’s financial history, this is not the first revenue decrease which occurred associated with a dearth of new content . Also, as the game has aged, there has been a general downward progression in revenue with up-spikes here and there. The most significant spike up (percentage-wise) was in Q4 15, with HoT launch. This downtrend is in the latter stages of a lengthy content drought, preceded by an XPac, which was preceded by a similarly long content drought.

What you’re trying to do is to blame this past quarter’s revenue decrease on HoT. I don’t believe we can point to one factor and say, “That’s it!” Was HoT a factor? For some people, sure. But was it the nature of the content, the price point, the perceived low volume of content, the perceived “screwing” of veterans by linking core? I think it’s fair to say that all of those had an impact. It’s also fair to say that 2 lengthy content droughts had something to do with it.

It’s fine for you to look at the game with bias because you dislike both HoT and PFF. However, bias tends to distort perception. It can also lead to erroneous statements, such as, "HoT … did not in any way increase revenue for Anet or their parent company NCSoft."

Did NCSoft make more money from the GW IP in Q2 2016 than they did in Q2 2015? No.

Now speaking for myself, as a consumer who owns a GW2 Collector’s Edition, every GW game, and has next to his monitor a stack of GW2 gem cards as a reminder of what I’ve spent on this Buy to Play game…

Free to Play, the overpriced xpac, and the absolute shift from casual non-MMO to wannabe hardcore MMO ruined the IP for me. I’ve always been critical of Anet since they removed unid dyes from harvesting in 2012. I smelled a cash grab and called them out. I hated the ascended gear that ran counter to what we were sold. They as a company have never lived up to the promise that was Guild Wars 2.

Why did this bother me? Because I genuinely believe this could have been an elite MMO, and they’ve constantly shot themselves in the foot trying to grab the low hanging fruit of gem sales.

The 19 minute mark of this video is when they killed GW2. Notice how MO brings up the 40 “Free” updates to GW2 almost as if he’s promising that with HoT. Then he gives my game away. I don’t play FTP games.

https://youtu.be/veJMHxgUGxM

Mitch.4781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Mitch.4781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

But what made me play GW was the freedom to do what I wanted solo, in a group, whatever. That all died with HoT.

What exactly could you solo before that you now cannot? How did that die exactly?

Without a Taxi go in to any HoT map and complete the meta. The maps are built like mass co-op encounters. I ran all over the world pre HoT and never bothered with servers, it’s a complete shift.

Rewards are participation based not kill based and farming those maps is a nightmare on an unpopulated map when in vanilla GW2 I could and did go anywhere I wanted to do what I wanted.

Um.. But we’ve had the taxi system for yonks? People taxi’d in for Orr, Teq, Triple Trouble etc etc. All way before HOT was even out. If anything HOT made it easier because of the squad system. There are still dozens of events and encounters that can be solo’d in HOT. I literally spent the weekend doing just that.

Orr was unique in that regard. It was at launch the only map that needed a Taxi and it was nerfed to the ground because it was avoided. They made an entire xpac around the pre nerfed Orr or SW map style and it’s killing them.

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Mitch.4781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

But what made me play GW was the freedom to do what I wanted solo, in a group, whatever. That all died with HoT.

What exactly could you solo before that you now cannot? How did that die exactly?

Without a Taxi go in to any HoT map and complete the meta. The maps are built like mass co-op encounters. I ran all over the world pre HoT and never bothered with servers, it’s a complete shift.

Taxi-ing has been a thing for a long time. Maybe you don’t remember when servers were seperate and you needed an open temple of balthazar, but I do. I remember having to change servers to get into that map.

I remember how many failed attempts there were at the marionette if you couldn’t get into your home server. You may not remember that, but I certainly do.

And I don’t know any way to do Triple Trouble without getting onto a server that was doing it with a large, organized group.

I remember using server switches to get to unbugged temples and events as well.

I’ve been switching servers almost since launch. Even down to getting a free switch to another WvW server to finally complete the world, because we were the same color ever week.

Yes, it’s more often now. But it’s not like server swapping was just introduced yesterday either.

In fact, for a year or more now, people have been using it to get into silver wastes maps about to do the breach event, or T4 or higher Dry Top servers.

Edit: With the advent of the upgraded LFG tool, server, taxi-ing to an active map is pretty kitten ed easy. It might annoy you, but I don’t really see why anyone would have an issue with it.

I’ve been here every minute you have. Day One minus 3.

Well then it’s not a complete shift. lol

I’m LOLing at your refusal to admit you’re part of the problem. Walk around a HoT map for fun and tell me it isn’t a shift.

WvW server switch you brought that up? Absolute joke.

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Mitch.4781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

But what made me play GW was the freedom to do what I wanted solo, in a group, whatever. That all died with HoT.

What exactly could you solo before that you now cannot? How did that die exactly?

Without a Taxi go in to any HoT map and complete the meta. The maps are built like mass co-op encounters. I ran all over the world pre HoT and never bothered with servers, it’s a complete shift.

Taxi-ing has been a thing for a long time. Maybe you don’t remember when servers were seperate and you needed an open temple of balthazar, but I do. I remember having to change servers to get into that map.

I remember how many failed attempts there were at the marionette if you couldn’t get into your home server. You may not remember that, but I certainly do.

And I don’t know any way to do Triple Trouble without getting onto a server that was doing it with a large, organized group.

I remember using server switches to get to unbugged temples and events as well.

I’ve been switching servers almost since launch. Even down to getting a free switch to another WvW server to finally complete the world, because we were the same color ever week.

Yes, it’s more often now. But it’s not like server swapping was just introduced yesterday either.

In fact, for a year or more now, people have been using it to get into silver wastes maps about to do the breach event, or T4 or higher Dry Top servers.

Edit: With the advent of the upgraded LFG tool, server, taxi-ing to an active map is pretty kitten ed easy. It might annoy you, but I don’t really see why anyone would have an issue with it.

I’ve been here every minute you have. Day One minus 3.

Mitch.4781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

But what made me play GW was the freedom to do what I wanted solo, in a group, whatever. That all died with HoT.

What exactly could you solo before that you now cannot? How did that die exactly?

Without a Taxi go in to any HoT map and complete the meta. The maps are built like mass co-op encounters. I ran all over the world pre HoT and never bothered with servers, it’s a complete shift.

Rewards are participation based not kill based and farming those maps is a nightmare on an unpopulated map when in vanilla GW2 I could and did go anywhere I wanted to do what I wanted.

Not a trend? Watch next quarter

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Vayne.8563:

The income this quarter is down that’s true. But that doesn’t mean the expansion and free to play are the cause of it. I daresay the way Anet handled the launch of the expansion has far more to do with it. That’s my opinion.

I can’t prove it any more than you can prove your theory.

But you see… I have.

The game makes less post xpac than pre xpac FACT.

You aren’t required to agree and I’d be disappointed if you did, you’ve worked hard backing any direction Anet wanted to take this game.

Math is Proof.

Math doesn’t prove the expansion caused it. Math only proves it’s lower. Assuming the direction of the game instead of say the price of the expansion, or the bad publicity surrounding the decision not to include a character slot…that’s a guess.

Not a fact.

Again with semantics when presented with fact.

The point of an xpac is to increase revenue, fact.
(that’s indisputable)

The game makes less money post HoT, fact.
(that’s indisputable)

Argue the game’s in better shape than ever before all you like but Anet is a business and business isn’t booming, fact.

Fact: You don’t know how much this game would be doing if there had never been an expansion. It could have increased sales beyond what sales would have existed.

That’s your logical fallacy. Can you prove that this game would have remained stable and not fallen if they continued in the same direction that had originally or continued the living story. That’s an assumption.

The fact is you have no real knowledge about whether or not we’re better off now at this point in time than we would be if the expansion had never launched. It’s a guess.

Any business expendature that does not raise revenue is money wasted. If you can’t agree to that then never reply to me again. I’m too old to debate 1+1=2

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Vayne.8563:

The income this quarter is down that’s true. But that doesn’t mean the expansion and free to play are the cause of it. I daresay the way Anet handled the launch of the expansion has far more to do with it. That’s my opinion.

I can’t prove it any more than you can prove your theory.

But you see… I have.

The game makes less post xpac than pre xpac FACT.

You aren’t required to agree and I’d be disappointed if you did, you’ve worked hard backing any direction Anet wanted to take this game.

Math is Proof.

Math doesn’t prove the expansion caused it. Math only proves it’s lower. Assuming the direction of the game instead of say the price of the expansion, or the bad publicity surrounding the decision not to include a character slot…that’s a guess.

Not a fact.

Again with semantics when presented with fact.

The point of an xpac is to increase revenue, fact.
(that’s indisputable)

The game makes less money post HoT, fact.
(that’s indisputable)

Argue the game’s in better shape than ever before all you like but Anet is a business and business isn’t booming, fact.

The game’s been chasing money from people who hated it for years and taken for granted the players who’ve paid the bills.

NPE (for people who bought and quit)
Ascended (for the gear grind lovers)
Fractals then Raids (for the WoW crowd)

But what made me play GW was the freedom to do what I wanted solo, in a group, whatever. That all died with HoT.

Vayne.8563:

The income this quarter is down that’s true. But that doesn’t mean the expansion and free to play are the cause of it. I daresay the way Anet handled the launch of the expansion has far more to do with it. That’s my opinion.

I can’t prove it any more than you can prove your theory.

But you see… I have.

The game makes less post xpac than pre xpac FACT.

You aren’t required to agree and I’d be disappointed if you did, you’ve worked hard backing any direction Anet wanted to take this game.

Math is Proof.

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Vayne.8563:

The biggest thing is normal traffic patterns. You can see it in WoW for years. The ycome out with an expansion, get a huge boost in population for 6 months or so, and then subscriptions plummet. It happens all the time.

In WoW it’s people not subscribing. Here, it’s people not playing and not buying stuff in the cash shop.

Heart of Thorns came out 9 months ago. During those 9 months we mostly have PvP and Raids as updates. Who would have not expected sales to drop?

There’s just no evidence HoT is the reason for the drop.

There is empirical data showing that the game is in the worst financial shape in it’s existence less than a year after HoT. This is fact, we like facts.

HoT and FREE TO PLAY! Did not in any way increase revenue for Anet or their parent company NCSoft. The game made less Q2 2016 than at any point since launch.

Had the game continued to run LS S1 style instead of a box would it have done better financially? There is no way to know for sure, but what is known, what can be proven is that the expansion has left the game less profitable than it was before.

Opinions are great and some of you have made it a life’s mission to attempt to counter me and people similar to my thoughts on the state of the game over the years. These numbers show quite clearly that the game is in trouble.

Or the content drought left the game less profitable than before. It’s a 4 year old game and before it wasn’t so old. That affects things too.

The expansion is at fault is the easy answer. That doesn’t make it the right answer.

And if the expansion is at fault, it might have nothing to do with the expansion itself, but the way Anet botched the delivery of it.

How many people left the game due to the dungeon nerf. Not really expansion content. An unrelated decision Anet had to partially reverse.

The price was bad. If this expansion had launched at $30 bucks would it have made more money?

The publicity was bad due to the character slot decision.

These are all things that don’t talk to the quality or direction of the expansion.

The expansion is the easy answer. I’ve learned a long time ago that Occam’s Razor doesn’t always apply.

The point of an expansion in an MMO is to increase revenue of an IP. Simple but true. You don’t invest money in a product with the hopes of breaking even. The expansion and it’s FREE TO PLAY promotion have actually done the opposite. The game made more money before both.

Yes it’s a 4 year old game but the expansion is one year old and changed everything about GW2.

If you love the xpac I’d suggest playing It like mad because I’d bet my account (which I’d gladly have refunded) that you’ll never see a “Challenging Group Content” xpac for GW2 again.

It failed to increase revenue and in fact it’s decreased it.

Vayne.8563:

The biggest thing is normal traffic patterns. You can see it in WoW for years. The ycome out with an expansion, get a huge boost in population for 6 months or so, and then subscriptions plummet. It happens all the time.

In WoW it’s people not subscribing. Here, it’s people not playing and not buying stuff in the cash shop.

Heart of Thorns came out 9 months ago. During those 9 months we mostly have PvP and Raids as updates. Who would have not expected sales to drop?

There’s just no evidence HoT is the reason for the drop.

There is empirical data showing that the game is in the worst financial shape in it’s existence less than a year after HoT. This is fact, we like facts.

HoT and FREE TO PLAY! Did not in any way increase revenue for Anet or their parent company NCSoft. The game made less Q2 2016 than at any point since launch.

Had the game continued to run LS S1 style instead of a box would it have done better financially? There is no way to know for sure, but what is known, what can be proven is that the expansion has left the game less profitable than it was before.

Opinions are great and some of you have made it a life’s mission to attempt to counter me and people similar to my thoughts on the state of the game over the years. These numbers show quite clearly that the game is in trouble.

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

But you also speak as if this is widely accepted by all people

This is patently false. When almost every sentence he posted specifically refers to, “me,” or, “I,” he is clearly not speaking for others.

I think you should probably stop defending people. This is a direct quote from him:

“Dude, help us fix the terrible game, the numbers are starting to roll in, and as expected it is looking bad, real bad.”

He’s saying this is a terrible game, and it needs to be fixed. Not that he doesn’t like it. He’s had many posts and his language leaves little to the imagination. He’s not saying they made changes that other people like that he doesn’t. He’s saying that the game is bad.. Big difference.

That is nowhere in the post you quoted inspiring my response to you.

Regardless, there’s still no reason to defend someone that says the game is terrible full stop, not as an opinion but as a fact. That it needs to be fixed. You’ve now seen it with your own eyes, so I assume this conversation has run its course.

The sales being at an all time low might be indicative of the game being worse, or it might be indicative of a content drought, or even more people playing new games that came out that aren’t MMOs.

It’s likely a combination of many factors. But Lizardly thinks it’s all just because the game isn’t good, and I highly doubt that’s the case.

That’s a paying customer Vayne. You chime in when you like and defend Anet like it’s your job, which you’re entitled to do because you paid for the game.

You like the game the way it is? Good for you, bad for NCSoft.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Malediktus.9250:

The raid are not hardcore, they are what dungeons are supposed to be difficultyy wise imho. If you consider these raids hardcores already you barely played other games

And yet the game is losing revenue. The game shifted away from casual to “challenging group content” in every aspect with HoT. Raids are not dungeons.

No these raids aren’t as hardcore as the other MMOs I raided in but I left all of those to play Guild Wars.

Look at the results of pandering to hardcores.

There is zero evidence that the game is suffering lower revenue because of raids. The game does not pander to hardcore players.

ANet made a mistake in how they structured the HoT maps, as we can partially see with Bloodstone Fen. It’s more challenging than core, but nothing as crazy to navigate or play as HoT is for those who don’t worry about min-maxing their DPS.

ANet made mistakes in allocating resources to the expac, at the expense of the rest of the game. The were too ambitious in the Legendary collections and couldn’t keep up with QA for the events required to complete them. They didn’t take into account people’s reaction to a dearth of new PvE content. They didn’t change direction fast enough, based on the criticism that HoT was too much new infrastructure and not enough stuff to do. They goofed on the popularity of adventures (and how many people would repeat them).

tl;dr sales went down and to the extent we have any evidence about how or why, raids probably contributed to more income, not less.

They made 99 problems, but challenging group content was not one of them — that was perhaps the only thing they got completely correct. Raiding is incredibly popular among its target audience and some people have tried it and become hooked.

They pandered to a more “hardcore” gamer and they make less money than they did pandering to casuals, this is fact.

The complete and total focus of the xpac was on challenging group content. They are bleeding money because of it. I said that raids aren’t dungeons that is a fact. “Some people have tried it and become hooked” is accurate I’m sure but the game’s losing income and that’s fact as well.

Malediktus.9250:

The raid are not hardcore, they are what dungeons are supposed to be difficultyy wise imho. If you consider these raids hardcores already you barely played other games

And yet the game is losing revenue. The game shifted away from casual to “challenging group content” in every aspect with HoT. Raids are not dungeons.

No these raids aren’t as hardcore as the other MMOs I raided in but I left all of those to play Guild Wars.

Look at the results of pandering to hardcores.

Before launch Anet swore the gem store wouldn’t interfere with the game, then it did.

Anet spent a year on the China port which failed.

Anet built temporary systems for LS S1 that were discarded wasting resources but they loved those gem sales.

Anet shifted to the expansion model because they wanted more revenue.

(they make less now than they did at any point)

Anet went FREE TO PLAY WITH A BUY TO PLAY GAME.

(they make less now than they did at any point)

Buy HoT we’ll release all stated features later. Then they cancelled legendary weapons and removed the uber WvW maps they claimed were amazing.

(they make less now than they did at any point)

Guild Wars 2 was the un-MMO with a no grind philosophy but HoT was built to bring in players from other MMOs.

(they make less now than they did at any point)

HoT was overpriced and extremely light on content but the usual white knights all claimed that future content which would be unlocked with HoT would more than make up for the lack of content on release. Hey it was 3 years post launch so 3 years of content to come post HoT right? Now we’re getting word that another xpac is coming even sooner making HoT even LESS worth the money. Not to mention that HoT will be given away for free to anyone buying the next xpac.

I haven’t played this game in months but I own it so I’ll speak up. I have played this game since beta and see no reason to give Anet another dollar. White knight all you like but the dark knights were right, jenga.

Torzini.1523:

I don’t really understand why people are complaining about this? Guild halls are a part of the expansion, HoT — thus if you want all the features that accompany them, you have to purchase HoT. It seems pretty simple to me.

Nobody “needs” guild halls, and nobody is going to die without access to their features. Complaining how lame it is that a company doesn’t just give them stuff for free (when it’s advertised as part of a paid product) seems very childish to me.

It works no differently than how it does in real life— unless said otherwise, if you want a product, you pay for it. No, your fun will not be ruined without this QoL/cosmetic feature… and if it is, then I would seriously consider rethinking your mentality.

Guild halls were part of Guild Wars not GW2 but GW1, and were dangled like a future carrot to be included in GW2 long before the xpac. Excluding a supporter of Anet who may have purchased 10 years worth of games and been a long time GM from updating a guild hall because they didn’t purchase an expansion seems shallow.

Especially now that EVERYTHING worth a kitten we paid for with the original GW2 (a BTP game) has been gifted, gratis, to anyone with a PC is catastrophically bad form.

We’re not talking about free players here, these people bought Guild Wars 2, they’ve spent money, they own the game.

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Times change. ArenaNet changes things quite fast as well. Holding on to the breadcrumb that something that wasn’t different before with ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 is rather silly.

Not sure why you expect it was never subject to change. Not sure why it’s important that it is always the same either.

Because I paid for a light expansion that continues to get lighter. Now, the head of Anet is confirming that they will not do LS as they had before. Now it’s an issue.

Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.

/crickets

I don’t think they ever said the frequency exactly, but they did say in the AMA thread on Reddit that they wouldn’t be returning to the every two week update schedule.

Gw2 is not going back to biweekly updates

That’s from 1016, try harder.

I’m afraid I don’t know what 1016 means.

The AMA thread is from March of this year, 4 months ago. As O’Brien says in that thread, “The final thing you should know is that we’re working hard to avoid having a default assumption that “this thing will ship on this date,” or even, “this thing will ship,” and instead we’re proactively deciding to ship things when they’re done and polished and we’ve played them and love them.”

Which would include the Living Story having set 2 week updates.

I clearly stated “show me pre HoT” I bought HoT 8 months before the link you just referenced.

Actually, the post I quoted from you didn’t say pre HoT. It only said that buying HoT would allow access, etc, etc…

“Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.”

People are buying HoT to this day so a quote from March is relevant according to what you said.

I’m talking about pre HoT but if you want to white knight bring your A game

its not my fault if you don’t state the time period when you demand a quote.

However since you’ve decided that people going by what you write and what you specifically ask for in your quote is white knighting, then I’ll leave you to it.

It should be crystal clear that as I’m referencing legendary weapons that I’m talking about a timeline before the post you referenced as that same post cancelled legendary weapons but hey you’re right people are still buying HoT so I’ll amend to indicate that I am NOT a new player. I’m talking about pre HoT and promises made before I bought the expansion (which was a year ago).

Have at it, and welcome to Tyria.

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Times change. ArenaNet changes things quite fast as well. Holding on to the breadcrumb that something that wasn’t different before with ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 is rather silly.

Not sure why you expect it was never subject to change. Not sure why it’s important that it is always the same either.

Because I paid for a light expansion that continues to get lighter. Now, the head of Anet is confirming that they will not do LS as they had before. Now it’s an issue.

Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.

/crickets

I don’t think they ever said the frequency exactly, but they did say in the AMA thread on Reddit that they wouldn’t be returning to the every two week update schedule.

Gw2 is not going back to biweekly updates

That’s from 1016, try harder.

I’m afraid I don’t know what 1016 means.

The AMA thread is from March of this year, 4 months ago. As O’Brien says in that thread, “The final thing you should know is that we’re working hard to avoid having a default assumption that “this thing will ship on this date,” or even, “this thing will ship,” and instead we’re proactively deciding to ship things when they’re done and polished and we’ve played them and love them.”

Which would include the Living Story having set 2 week updates.

I clearly stated “show me pre HoT” I bought HoT 8 months before the link you just referenced.

Actually, the post I quoted from you didn’t say pre HoT. It only said that buying HoT would allow access, etc, etc…

“Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.”

People are buying HoT to this day so a quote from March is relevant according to what you said.

I’m talking about pre HoT but if you want to white knight bring your A game

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Times change. ArenaNet changes things quite fast as well. Holding on to the breadcrumb that something that wasn’t different before with ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 is rather silly.

Not sure why you expect it was never subject to change. Not sure why it’s important that it is always the same either.

Because I paid for a light expansion that continues to get lighter. Now, the head of Anet is confirming that they will not do LS as they had before. Now it’s an issue.

Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.

/crickets

I don’t think they ever said the frequency exactly, but they did say in the AMA thread on Reddit that they wouldn’t be returning to the every two week update schedule.

Gw2 is not going back to biweekly updates

That’s from 1016, try harder.

I’m afraid I don’t know what 1016 means.

The AMA thread is from March of this year, 4 months ago. As O’Brien says in that thread, “The final thing you should know is that we’re working hard to avoid having a default assumption that “this thing will ship on this date,” or even, “this thing will ship,” and instead we’re proactively deciding to ship things when they’re done and polished and we’ve played them and love them.”

Which would include the Living Story having set 2 week updates.

I clearly stated “show me pre HoT” I bought HoT 8 months before the link you just referenced.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Times change. ArenaNet changes things quite fast as well. Holding on to the breadcrumb that something that wasn’t different before with ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 is rather silly.

Not sure why you expect it was never subject to change. Not sure why it’s important that it is always the same either.

Because I paid for a light expansion that continues to get lighter. Now, the head of Anet is confirming that they will not do LS as they had before. Now it’s an issue.

Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.

/crickets

I don’t think they ever said the frequency exactly, but they did say in the AMA thread on Reddit that they wouldn’t be returning to the every two week update schedule.

Gw2 is not going back to biweekly updates

That’s from 1016, I specifically asked about pre HoT. What I’m saying is that Anet have pulled a massive bait and switch that many of you are willing to accept, but I am not.

That’s a really long time ago. ; )

I changed it to 2016 (silly autocorrect)

Chad.6104:

Aidenwolf.5964:

FrizzFreston.5290:

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Times change. ArenaNet changes things quite fast as well. Holding on to the breadcrumb that something that wasn’t different before with ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 is rather silly.

Not sure why you expect it was never subject to change. Not sure why it’s important that it is always the same either.

Because I paid for a light expansion that continues to get lighter. Now, the head of Anet is confirming that they will not do LS as they had before. Now it’s an issue.

Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.

/crickets

I don’t think they ever said the frequency exactly, but they did say in the AMA thread on Reddit that they wouldn’t be returning to the every two week update schedule.

Gw2 is not going back to biweekly updates

That’s from 2016, I specifically asked about pre HoT. What I’m saying is that Anet have pulled a massive bait and switch that many of you are willing to accept, but I am not.

Remember Colin saying he’d seen the new legendary weapons and they were awesome? I do. Where are those weapons? Vaporware

It’s a massive misstep on Anet’s part that I hope will be rectified. Guilds are why people log in. We make friends, we conquer obstacles and have fun.

Locking GMs out of their own guilds because they’ve shown fiscal responsibility and sound judgment isn’t a good thing.

FrizzFreston.5290:

Aidenwolf.5964:

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Times change. ArenaNet changes things quite fast as well. Holding on to the breadcrumb that something that wasn’t different before with ArenaNet and Guild Wars 2 is rather silly.

Not sure why you expect it was never subject to change. Not sure why it’s important that it is always the same either.

Because I paid for a light expansion that continues to get lighter. Now, the head of Anet is confirming that they will not do LS as they had before. Now it’s an issue.

Show me one time, just one time that Anet said buying HoT would allow you access to future LS but at half or less than half the frequency of what they had delivered pre xpac, and I’ll apologise.

/crickets

Behellagh.1468:

Aidenwolf.5964:

My problem with Anet is not that they’re changing the content release schedule but that like most things GW2 since release of HoT, they weren’t communicated to us before we bought HoT

But HoT today but we’re not planning on releasing new content besides raids for half a year.

Buy HoT today but those WvW changes will go live, be bad, and be reverted.

Buy HoT today but we’re not going to bother finishing those legendary weapons we built the entire collection system around.

You think they planned the post HoT drought? That they intended development to go so long for LS3? No, it’s because of HoT’s less than stellar impact on the game that threw everything for a loop. It became a case of “lets keep the boat from sinking and then worry about which way to get us to port” triage.

If the polls are any indication, we will see those desert borderlands again in WvW. The last iteration before alpine came back really improved the movement issues those maps had. And a lot of the game play additions added to WvW when HoT went live are still there today in the alpine maps. Refined but still there.

And to nitpick, the collection system for legendary weapons were also for previous existing ones and we got all of those. But they wanted a story mode for the new ones and they thought they could do it quickly and it turned out ANet couldn’t. Sounds like a production bottleneck they couldn’t reasonably fix for the short term and it was easier to shelf the new legendary weapons for now to alleviate the bottleneck for everything else being worked on.

They have 70 people working on the next expansion while throwing their hands up and not delivering what they’ve already sold us.

Disagree all you like but I’ve been here the whole time and LS (both of them) had fast release schedules.

Chaos.5072:

The entitlement makes me cringe

Gamers calling other gamers who paid money for something entitled makes me angry.

Cringe away.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Actually, Episode 8 released on January 13, 2015. Thus, 8 Episodes released from July 1st through January 13th; six and one-half months or 26 weeks. Eleven weeks between Dragon’s Reach-Part Two (August 12th) and Echoes of the Past (November 4th).

1-6 July 1 – Sept 15
Mad King and feature pack
7
Winter’s Day
8

There you are, all cleaned up.

1-6 were on a 2 week then festivals got in the way. 8 was release after WD though you’re quite right.

Season 1 and 2 were without question on a FAR more brisk pace than we are going to see for 3.

Ashen.2907:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Ashen.2907:

Aidenwolf.5964:

“Nostalgic” about the 2 week release cycle? Anet never once said that was going away while they flogged an over priced expansion

The two week schedule had been long gone before the expansion launched. Season two did not follow the season one release schedule.

Season 2 was broken into 2 parts because of a feature pack and shadow of the mad king. Double check your facts on the release schedule as if you’ll recall we had 2 weeks from the start of each to claim them for free.

Yes it had a break but that was for more content and a festival.

Not, “my facts,” just the facts. As you note in your response, season two did not adhere to a two week release schedule.

Note that this is not a complaint. I was glad to see season two spread out over a longer period and am further gladdened that they are spreading season three out even further.

LS S2 was on a 2 week release cycle. They took a month break after act 6 (acts 1-6 released July 1 – Sept 15). Oct was Mad King’s and a feature pack. The final 2 parts were in Nov, then Dec was Winter’s Day.

That’s content non stop from July 1 – Dec 1 only separated by a festival and a feature pack.

It was very much a 2 week release schedule.

My problem with Anet is not that they’re changing the content release schedule but that like most things GW2 since release of HoT, they weren’t communicated to us before we bought HoT

But HoT today but we’re not planning on releasing new content besides raids for half a year.

Buy HoT today but those WvW changes will go live, be bad, and be reverted.

Buy HoT today but we’re not going to bother finishing those legendary weapons we built the entire collection system around.

Ashen.2907:

Aidenwolf.5964:

“Nostalgic” about the 2 week release cycle? Anet never once said that was going away while they flogged an over priced expansion

The two week schedule had been long gone before the expansion launched. Season two did not follow the season one release schedule.

Season 2 was broken into 2 parts because of a feature pack and shadow of the mad king. Double check your facts on the release schedule as if you’ll recall we had 2 weeks from the start of each to claim them for free.

Yes it had a break but that was for more content and a festival.

Leaa.2943:

Ok i am baffled at the answers here. People are complaining that there are only one episode coming and i wonder why? I can understand if this is the first time you will interact with the living story and don’t get how it is working, but if it is not then why the complaints?

Every living story comes in episodes and have since the first season. This is how it is done and how we want it to be done. This is what makes it special. How about you adjust to how this game is making things instead of jumping on the whining train before you even get to try it?

Anyway back to topic, and it is great to finally hear something and i look forward to play through it.

I’ve been here since before day one. The reason this is not how living world has been handled before is the cadence going from a 2 week cycle to who knows what release.

Saying this is how it’s always been makes you sound like the new kid on the block.

Buy Heart of Thorns and we’ll scrap the release cycle was never said, not even once. Buy Heart of Thorns and have access to future content was, but it’s been a LONG time waiting and this is what we get?

“Nostalgic” about the 2 week release cycle? Anet never once said that was going away while they flogged an over priced expansion that now officially is worth even less.

New player if you’re unhappy? No, try old school.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Aidenwolf.5964:

But Heart of Thorns for living story (as we knew it) and new legendary weapons… Fail, best of luck selling me another xpac.

That’s the very point here. LS3 is part of HoT, and their chance at redemption before new xpac hits. If they play it well and fix/add stuff that’s missing/was insufficient at start, then both sides win – we get what we wanted (better late then never), they reduce the damage done and get our trust back (at least some of it) before next xpac launch.

I haven’t logged in or even posted in months so what I say they’ll disregard but I’ve been hard done by HOT and they need a miracle to get another penny from me. The best thing HOT did was allow me to play other games and man… Are they good.

Sad, but GW2 went on a cash grab and in doing so they’ve cut the cord to my wallet.

Buy Heart of Thorns for living story (as we knew it) and new legendary weapons… Fail, best of luck selling me another xpac.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Here is the refund policy:

How do I get a refund?

We are happy to review your refund request. For refunds related to games or serial codes purchased directly from http://buy.guildwars2.com or unspent gems purchased through the Gem Store, please follow the instructions below. For purchases from third-party vendors, please contact the retailer or your financial institution.

Game Refunds

If you purchased Guild Wars 2 from http://buy.guildwars2.com and would like a refund, please submit a request to our Support team within 30 days of the purchase and provide the following information:

Your Guild Wars 2 purchase Order ID provided in the receipt of the purchase (if available).
The e-mail address you used when making the purchase. (if available).
Your billing zip code or postal code.
For transactions involving a credit/debit card, ONLY the last 4 digits of the credit/debit card used.
For transactions involving PayPal®, the invoice ID or from your PayPal® payment history for the transaction.

Note: The refund process includes permanent closure of the Guild Wars 2 account. If you wish to continue to play Guild Wars 2, or if you desire to play in the future, you will need to purchase a new serial code and create a completely new account. Characters, names, items, and other features from the refunded account cannot be transferred to a new or different account. Not all serial code purchases will be eligible for a refund. No refunds will be given for any account that has been terminated for a breach of the Guild Wars 2 User Agreement.

This is the exact policy that has been in effect since the page was created, long before Heart of Thorns was announced, much less released. Nothing about refunding HoT closing Core account, but that refunds close accounts.

Though, if you search the Account Support sub-forum, and possibly GD, as well, you will find posts/threads where others have gotten refunds on HoT, and kept their core accounts.

If OP wants to seek a refund, he/she will need to discuss the issue with the CS Team.

Good luck.

Semantics, the account, my account would be closed even if they allowed a refund. You actually linked proof of my complaint in an attempt to invalidate my arguement…

Ayrilana.1396:

Unless you bought HoT recently, I do not see why you should be refunded.

Has WvW been implemented?
Have legendary weapons?

No.

DoctorDing.5890:

Aidenwolf.5964:

coso.9173:

I don’t know about MMO consumer laws and regulations, but asking for a refund after 7 months of playing a game seems awfully like claiming thy gave you the wrong soda after drinking most of it…

I already owned GW2. The game I played the last 7 months was mostly core content so that’s innacurate.

The expansion I payed for has major advertised features that have still not gone live. One major feature has been cancelled so yes, I would ask for a refund as services paid for will not be delivered. The fact that I was willing to allow them 7 months to implement said features should not count against me.

So have you actually asked for a refund and been told you can have one?

It says right on the refund page that if you are granted a refund for HoT your entire account is deleted.

coso.9173:

I don’t know about MMO consumer laws and regulations, but asking for a refund after 7 months of playing a game seems awfully like claiming thy gave you the wrong soda after drinking most of it…

I already owned GW2. The game I played the last 7 months was mostly core content so that’s innacurate.

The expansion I payed for has major advertised features that have still not gone live. One major feature has been cancelled so yes, I would ask for a refund as services paid for will not be delivered. The fact that I was willing to allow them 7 months to implement said features should not count against me.

Vayne.8563:

Aidenwolf.5964:

Vayne.8563:

I agree with you. I think a roll back to before you owned HoT is reasoanble.

I’ve spent money on gem store items that would be wiped out, that’s atrocious business from Anet.

I don’t get you, I’m agreeing with you and you’re still arguing with me. Force of habit maybe?

Haha no Vayne, I was continuing your point, although arguing with you is second nature.

Vayne.8563:

I agree with you. I think a roll back to before you owned HoT is reasoanble.

I’ve spent money on gem store items that would be wiped out, that’s atrocious business from Anet.

Refunding HoT should not delete my GW2 account. I paid $150 for my GW2 Collector’s Edition (something you now give away like old food). Requesting that my purchase of Heart of Thorns be refunded due to Anet’s inability to provide what I paid for should roll back my account to pre HoT, not obliterate it.

This is unacceptable and needs to be addressed by Anet.

felessan.9587:

Thanks for the heads-up about the Fractal achievements!

soundsonic.1704:

No new content? It was a pity to buy heart of thorns expansion. 4 new map 45 eur… Cool!

It sounds like people have forgotten that ArenaNet has made a very strong distinction between “balance” and “content” patches in the past. Quarterly balance patches won’t contain much, if any, new content (though the Fractal changes in this one may be something significant). Balance patches are intended to fix or alter existing content, not provide a boatload of new stuff.

From the most recent release schedule that I’ve seen, new content is supposed to resume in July or so. Yes, that means 9 months without any actual content updates. MO implied that the pace is unacceptable to them too.

After selling the expansion as a doorway to future updates. God forbid I remember what they sold me.

eNeRgOo.5463:

MadRabbit.3179:

eNeRgOo.5463:

First they moan about Legendaries, because ‘we paid for them’ now they moan about deleting Desert Borderlands. Haven’t you paid for this?

Yeah, I did and it sucks, but I paid for something that has made WvW, one of the limited forms of end game content we have, worse.

It’s not the same as cutting Legendaries, because Legendaries have been what has held up the lack of end game content for a lot of players. I’m one of them. Working on Bifrost slowly over the years added a new dimension to playing PvE content that has provided no rewards of value beyond the first set of gear I acquired on my elementalist three months after launch.

But, hey, who needs reasons right when we can just make a high and mighty, ranty post that makes this overly broad and idiotic generalization that concludes that everybody moaning is moaning about the same stuff for the exact same reasons?

If Legendaries are the only thing that stops you in the game – You should really think about leaving for good, because your moaning can only kitten this game up. That’s my personal opinion.
Story fixes, Bug Fixes, Map Fixes, Event Fixes, Raid Fixes kitten all of these fixes>Legendaries
New Content>Legendaries
Guess what? Gemstore>Legendaries

Lots of players don’t have enough money and you people cry for things that costs sh-tons of gold, because you have them. Look how egoistic it is. You say “skip story, give legendaries”… It’s hard to be not kittened.

MY LOVELY EDIT:
The same situation is with you – WvW moaners. You don’t like the map, because it’s bugged so you want the old one back. What with people who fell in love with Desert Borderlands? Well? kitten THEM, WE WILL MOAN AND MOAN UNTILL WE GET IT.
Because it’s hard to please devs to prepare lots of bug fixes and write things into bug tracker, report them etc. Congratulations. I don’t even want to say what are you, because I believe I’d get ban quickly.

Most people who’ve played GW2 didn’t buy HoT (a VAST majority) and those who did like myself were promised features which have not been and now will not be delivered. If you want to call me a moaner fine, but I paid for something I didn’t get. Don’t like seeing negativity in the boards? Play the game.

mrstealth.6701:

Mirta.5029:

Aidenwolf.5964:

As this post was begun by the head of Anet I’ll assume it’s being monitored. As cotent I paid for will not be delivered (new legendary weapons) and hasn’t been implemented (cool WvW) I am formally requesting a refund on HoT. I’ll play you the announcement video and cite each instance you as head of the company promised and failed to deliver on if necessary. I’ve played since GW1 and not seeing the same company I used to love.

I’ve always been critical of decisions I’ve disagreed with but until now I’ve haven’t been able to say for a fact that you sold me something you 100% didn’t deliver on.

I paid you aren’t delivering so I formally request a refund.

contact support. If they don’t provide it, do a charge back on the grounds of being scammed.

I think that’s a pretty shady thing to do, and even asking for a full refund at this point might be too much. Incomplete as it is, HoT has been out for over 5 months, and unless your purchase was very recent you’ve likely gotten a decent bit of gameplay out it, or at least had the opportunity to do so. I’ll be the first to grab a flaming pitchfork and march to Bellevue, WA to say that we should see some compensation for lack of receiving the advertised product, but I think asking for a full price refund is taking it too far.

I bought HoT not too long after it’s release, for a price I’m still not totally sure it was worth (around $37) in relation to the base game or other games. I did, however, get a decent amount of playtime out of that purchase, even if a lot of that time was spent repeating the same content. Repetition is expended in this genre to some degree, but I do feel that HoT’s content relied on that far too heavily. But, despite that and how I feel about this recent revelation, the time and enjoyment I did get from HoT does still mean something. To me, requesting a refund for a product I did use and get enjoyment/entertainment from is dishonest.

I’m not going to try and name a price I think it was worth, because there is little point in doing so. I made a reasonably informed decision (main reason I waited till after release) and bought HoT for a price I thought was acceptable at the time, based on what I knew. That was my decision and I am fine living with it. However, that was a decision also effected by advertisements and promises by Anet of future additions that were to be included in that purchase. Future additions that we now learn are not being delivered. It is this, and only this aspect, that I feel warrants the need for compensation to customers. (Recent purchases, and those purchased after this statement, while the HOT website still lists a set of legendary weapons as a feature, should have a full refund available)

I don’t know what the compensation should be, or how much value it should carry, but some compensation is certainly in order given the misleading terms HoT was sold under. To offer some suggestions, the most obvious would be Anet’s own currency of gems. Though, I’m sure that won’t mean anything to players that are leaving the game over this decision. We’re all obviously PC gamers here, so perhaps some arrangement with store credit/funds from another game retailer (Steam/Origin/etc) would be more suitable. I’m sure someone at Anet, or on these forums, can come up with something that would be acceptable for most people. An alternate compensation solution also avoids the difficulties of trying to handle refunds for game copies sold outside of Anet’s own store/website, ensuring that even those customers receive fair and equal treatment.

tldr;
We’ve been playing this thing for months now, and it’s a bit late to ask for a full refund for a product we’ve used and gotten entertainment from. However, some compensation is in order for failure to deliver on aspects of the game that were advertised as included features and likely impacted purchase decisions.

The only shady thing here is that I paid for something that was not and will not be delivered. Anet have officially broken their promises and as a consumer it’s my right to demand a refund. Last one out turn off the lights.

FlashAhAhh.4307:

There is no such thing as an “Unlucky” account. Each roll of the dice is a completely separate event that is not dependent on anything that has happened before it.

That being said, I get your frustration. But the whole point of the MF is to remove gold from the economy which benefits everyone, and it does that bloody superbly (don’t talk to me about how many rares and exotics I’ve flushed chasing Dusk which I DO NOT EVEN WANT! lol)

I’ve never known a computer game that didn’t operate on RNG for loot.

Just stick with it, you never know, you might finish it off in the next stack!

P.S Luck is just what overly optimistic or pessimistic people call probability.

Nonsense, I’m an outlier account since day one.

To the OP, /wiki Mystic Clover and look at all of the ways to obtain them not just the forge.