It’s not a matter of “if” we go back to dragons or not, it’s more a matter of “when”, and it will most likely happen when they feel they’ve built up the systems they wanted to, to go forward with a new dragon storyline.
It’s like you’ve never tried to put yourself in a developer’s shoes before. I’m pretty sure Zhaitan feedback was on the underwhelming side, and ANet is aware of that.
They’re not going to go back into the personal story/dragon lore making the same mistakes again. They need time to build systems up, and when they do go back to it, they want it to be good.
Living story is practice. Players may whine all they want, but down the road, things will just get more and more efficient as the tools they use get more and more refined. Both months of Southsun, were practice. Flame and Frost is practice. Bazaar of the four winds, and cutthroat politics are all practice. Clockwork Chaos is practice. SAB, while seperate from the game, is an exercise in game mechanics, which may inform future jumping puzzles. And most recently, the Tequatl revamp, is most definitely practice, and if ANet is to be believed, the would be the first exercise in better ‘major boss’ mechanics. They would practice with each of the existing world dragons (and maybe some new ones) and then they could go back and revamp the zhaitan fight, or have a completely new and polished, elder dragon fight.
And if you try and think of their alternatives, they really did go with the best route of action. You may say “Well, if this is all practice, then they should’ve practiced it before releasing, I’d rather have higher quality releases than this”. Sure, you’d be fine, but one hundred foaming players right behind your back will scream and shout “WHERE IS THE CONTENT ANET.” Or what if, let’s say they went with something more traditional – they announce an expansion, but that expansion will be exactly what an expansion would usually entail – more maps, higher cap, etc. There will be people screaming “SO UN-IMAGINATIVE BORING SAME OLD SAME OLD I COULD BE PLAYING insert other game here”.
OP, please get some empathy, and think in their shoes for once. They’re people. They have to answer to a playerbase who wants everything. They have to answer to NCSoft who only want a bottom line. They also have their own goals they want to see, ideas they want to see come to fruition. It’s not a matter of “if”. It’s a matter of “when”.
(edited by Dunan Atreides.5436)