Guild Wars 2

Yup they are the largest shareholder:
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/08/nexon-invests-6-8m-in-ncsoft-becomes-largest-shareholder/

StormcrowX.9236:

This wouldn’t have gotten so bad if it weren’t for anet’s stony silence and lack of communication on the matter. unfortunately, it looks like an reccurring pattern from what i’ve been seeing eg. the “botting” debacle, when all bot-related threads were merged, dumped into one huge containment thread, ignored and subsequently locked. Now this just looks like more of the same.

Ps. I’d like to point out that the OP’s post is pretty inflammatory as well. And you know what they say about fanning flames…

Because well, if you start a post with “you people are the worst thing that happened to this game” and dont understand how that could be construed as offensive…i really don’t know what to say.

+1, and could someone LOCK this thread, it’s basically just trolling.

As much as I would like to see a straight, yes or no. We probably won’t get that, since they want people to hang around as long as possible, regardless on their preferred gaming style. It is their actions that will tell what the truth is.

Lunar Sunset.8742:

I’m not trying to white knight but you should treat people with decency instead of implying things that you know barely anything about.

So advertising for product A, but selling product B in product A’s packaging, would you call that treating people with decency?

The reason I was hoping for C, is that this is the only way, I can get the GW2 I am hoping for. It entails of a small chance, that they will “correct” or “improve” on their mistakes, and make a game I will love playing for many years. (call me naive)

I think it sounds very probable, yes. :-|

I’m thinking B or D, due to the communication we’ve seen so far, but who knows maybe ArenaNet have actually realized they need to communicate more openly – with less secrecy.

I’m hoping for C!

There has been a lot of discussion in the forums regarding the new Ascended items and the new dungeon design. Some players feel, that there has been a radical change in the vision of the game – that the game is taking a course that is inconsistent with earlier statements from developers.

So will they address this sensitive topic on Monday’s AMA?
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/AMA-with-Chris-Whiteside-on-Monday-November-26/first#post827481

I’m sure a lot of players have formulated questions concerning this topic, and below is one from Reddit, that suits as a good example:

G4: Can we get a direct, on-the-record answer on where vertical progression will be headed? Specifically as it applies to gear-checks and gated content? Will there be an amended manifesto, or are there plans to alter current content to align with the manifesto?
Reddit:http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13lio6/prepare_for_the_chris_whiteside_ama_here/

I’m sure an answer to this question is something a lot of us are waiting for in anticipation.
It’s a tricky topic to address for ArenaNet. What communication options do they have?

A) "Due to this and that, it has been necessary for us to change the direction of our initial design philosophy. "
This wouldn’t improve on their damaged brand at all. People would still feel betrayed. Bad strategy, that is not saving any of the lost brand equity.

B) “We do not think our philosophy of creating a great game has changed.”
The strategy of plain denial. People would feel even more angry. No one will buy into this – it will feel like a slap in the face.
This would be the worst strategy, further increasing brand damage.

C) “We admit our mistakes of this and that, and we are working to implement a solution that will make everyone happy. Further details will follow.”
This strategy would be a better choice. It will buy them some time. People will await their “solution”. The future however will reveal what course they are actually taking.

D) Not touching the issue at all, ignoring questions addressing this topic.
I guess this is somewhat similar to option B.

What do you think?

dalendria.3762:

This one is tricky. Because it is not just about introducing new gear and having serious problems in the November content launch. They have been asked to explain their radical change in product design and undermining of their game vision.

What statement could they make for that?

“We have realized that everything that Mike O’Brien, Arenanet President, has been saying for 7 years about how to make a "different and better MMO’ is incorrect. We have decided that he was wrong – gear stat progression is required in any MMORPG. Mike now sees the error of his ways and agrees. We also have statistical evidence that the “dedicated players (gear grinders)” spend tons in the cash shop and love buying items based on RNG mechanics."

I agree it’s very tricky. I wonder what we will see in the AMA on Monday.

A) "Due to this and that, it has been necessary for us to change the direction of our initial design philosophy. "
This wouldn’t improve on their damaged brand at all. People would still feel betrayed. Bad strategy, that is not saving any of the lost brand equity.

B) “We do not think our philosophy of creating a great game has changed.”
The strategy of plain denial. People would feel even more angry. No one will buy into this – it will feel like a slap in the face.
This would be the worst strategy, further increasing brand damage.

C) “We admit our mistakes of this and that, and we are working to implement a solution that will make everyone happy. Further details will follow.”
This strategy would be a better choice. It will buy them some time. People will await their “solution”. The future however will reveal what course they are actually taking.

What do you think we will see?

(EDIT) Actually it just came to my mind – they could also choose following option.

D) Not touching the issue at all. “What problem? There is no problem.”
I guess this is somewhat similar to option B.

If they only plan to communicate via narrow minded surveys – they’re not gonna accomplish anything meaningful.
Narrowminded in the sense, that this is about a lot more than an event.

Sumii.2845:

Why should we (ArenaNet) care:

• Aside from losing consumers you’re damaging any future legacy your brand name might have. I am a Marketing & Brand Developer. I work in progressing my brand’s name and making sure that it’s outlook in the future is improved. By jeopardizing your brand’s image you are liable to lose any future chance of new consumers or old consumers giving you a second chance.
  (2/2)

I am thinking the same. I am studying my graduate in Brand Management and Communication. I have no experience in the real world – but this inconsistency and the “breaking” of a brand-promise, it goes against all theory we’ve had.

This will not hit the GW brand only, it will hit ArenaNet for years and years. Basically you’re throwing A LOT of brand equity out the window.
I think one of the reasons WoW became such a hit back in the days, was because it was Blizzard behind the game – they were already known for many successful game titles back then.

ArenaNet will end up as a weaker brand because of this – people won’t forget that easily.

So far we’ve uncovered these additional player types:
Player type G(or Z): The Laid-back Explorer: laid back when it comes to “perfect gear”, explores a lot, and enjoying a lot of content non-related to dungeons or WvW. This type of player is pretty happy with the game so far.
Player type H: PvE’ers who play a lot of PvE, but still don’t fancy the new dungeon.

xiv.7136:

Except Norn guardians rock.

Also, Liam Neeson:

Ha, that’s funny

xiv.7136:

Loumy.7841:

xiv.7136:

Type 7:

“I do WvW, PVE, dungeons and sPVP; I am a competent player and I can do maths, so I realise the new gear with 3% total extra stats has literally no impact on the outcome of any of those activities.”

But your math is WAY off xiv :-D

It’s not.

Compare total stats of your character with full exotics, then replace the backpack and 2 rings with ascended and check your total stats.

That is how you measure the increase in power, not just quoting “omg it’s 10 more precision on that piece of gear, that’s 20% more!!!!!”

I’m not sure I understand what you are saying, are you saying it’s a 3% increase?

Tanith.5264:

I am a player who doesn’t have a whole lot of time to play, but when I do so I’m enjoying it. I love the beautiful gameworld, love the challenges presented by the skill system, and especially love the lore. Gear and wealth are secondary concerns for me.

As I don’t see that covered in your chart, I’ll call this “Group Z”. And for all I know, I may be the only player in it.

That’s okay, too.

Always room for laid back explorers! ;-)

GADefence.5634:

I’m surprised there isn’t one that says “I enjoy PvE, I have lots of time to play, and I hate the new geargrind to the point I quit.”

You have a point, that type wasn’t mentioned!

xiv.7136:

Type 7:

“I do WvW, PVE, dungeons and sPVP; I am a competent player and I can do maths, so I realise the new gear with 3% total extra stats has literally no impact on the outcome of any of those activities.”

But your math is WAY off xiv :-D

I tried to segment the players of GW2 into 6 categories: A, B, C, D, E and F.
See attachment below.
It’s probably way off, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, or if there are types of players that I forgot to mention. ;-)

I got inspired mainly by the discussions on the new Ascended gear.

EDIT:
So far we’ve uncovered two more player types (not in the table):

• Player type G (or Z): The Laid-back Explorer: laid back when it comes to “perfect gear”, explores a lot, and enjoying a lot of content non-related to dungeons or WvW. This type of player is pretty happy with the game so far.
• Player type H: PvE’ers who play a lot of PvE, but still don’t fancy the new dungeon.

Onshidesigns.1069:

Masterpyro.4310:

I don’t understand what peoples problem is about a “gear grind”. After max level, full exotics, what do you expect to do?

What do you do after obtaining a new Ascended item? You wait for the next patch.

More horizontal progression is whats needed. This includes:
*wardrobes so we can collect all skins we like and upgrade them to Exotic level.
*More Dynamic DE’s, so their is always something new to see in old areas.
*more interchangeable skills that can be unlocked.
*more combos
*housing and guild halls that can be upgraded
*More lore to find
*More crafting items but that can’t be too powerful.
*expansion that are playable without the need you a more powerful weapon.

Areananet can still have infusions as long as their is a limit to their power. And you they are limited to some endless dungeons.

+1

And also OP suggestion +1

On with the tin foil hat again! :-D

I think he was just making a funny remark. Do you really think anyone thinks that the devs sit here and make comments? Maybe that’s why they aren’t fixing bugs, lol

Robbyx.1284:

You dev alts should stop posting these threads, you’re just embarrassing yourselves now.

LOL :-D

AcidicVision.5498:

Exactly how much more do you need? And on that last point, just to drive a nail home, why was a producer for micro-transactions releasing a statement on a game-design change as her first order of business? Dude, if that doesn’t give you shivers, nothing will.

I like to think it went like this:
(Dramatization)
Cox: “So i’ve gone over the initial details and I thin kwe can make some money off of these dyes, but not if you only need one per account. So lets change that.”
O’Brien: “umm…well we have already released info that…”
Cox: “Ok, I just need to call and give my weekly update…”
O’Brien: Ok we will look into it..but you can make the announcement."
Cox: -tappidy-tap-tap-tap-click-post-
Guru: RRRAAWWRR COMMUNI-SAURUS-REX RAGE
Cox: “Ok, that’s enough of that. From now on you deal with them.”
O’Brien: /snicker

Hahahahaha

Argh! It’s so SAD that this is the future for GW2 :-/

Crystin Cox is running the show in ArenaNet now. The new Monetization Producer (former Nexon Producer) recently placed in ArenaNet by Nexon.

What they’re looking at is ingame metrics, revealing how much money each segment of customers spends. They don’t care what you want, they care about how much money your segment spends.

RoShamBo.2618:

One of the major design concepts of GW2 was that tank, dps and healer ‘classes’ would no longer exist. If you don’t like this idea then go back to WoW (or whatever) but stop trying to turn this game into yet another WoW type MMO!

Why on earth mention WoW? Yes there were dedicated healers in WoW, but WoW was basically just a ripoff of previous MMOs back then (DAoC, EverQuest etc etc), with more user friendliness and incremental improvements.
Dedicated healers have existed long time before WoW entered the gaming universe.

The problem with the current score system is that it only rewards kills independent of a “participation-indicator” i.e. a player can tag 20 people in a zerg fight, without significantly contributing to the fight.
I guess dps is the only way to measure participation.

It’s a good idea to implement something similar to realm points in DAoC, but I wish people playing supporting roles would get some credit also – in the group at least.
For example the Mesmer can play a very supportive role with less focus on dps.
When I think of it, I think all points should be distributed evenly within the group independent of dps within the group.

I’ve seen again and again, that people are begging for Anet to communicate honestly and openly. We’re not getting any response at all.

It could be a sign that original developers have nothing to say anymore (powerless).
I mean would you defend something you think is wrong.
The power balance has changed within Anet.

Yashimata.2986:

It’s a protest. It’s meant to be in your face and get attention. You don’t just pack up and leave your protest once people have seen it. You keep getting in their face to let them know whatever it is that’s going on is not okay, you’re not okay with it, and it needs to change.

Yup, it’s a sign of hope really – people are trying to keep what little hope they have – that change will come!

Ryuujin.8236:

Can someone just clarify this for me: What changed?

People are saying the game is no longer fun, but the game that existed before the patch is still here. They simply added new content.

“They simply added new content” o_O

You should repost this on
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/2-tyrian-assembly/
before it gets deleted :-|

Would be such a shame to loose this one!

I usually play games to torture myself!

Haha, this post is great.

Thumbs up!

“By creating this strategic relationship, both Nexon and NCsoft strengthen their commitment to deliver unrivaled gaming experiences to users (grinders) around the world.”

Oh

What a marvelous idea! +1

Oh wait

I would really like to be able to level in WvW just by running around zerging, but it’s SO SLOW right now, compared to PvE :-|

I’m lvl 40 on my alt, and I’m so tired of PvE’ing

I plan to craft 10 lvls at lvl 50 or so.. but I just wish there was another alternative to PvE.

You can level with crafting

Andovar Edoras.2143:

2) the worst part, people care SO MUCH about your level ‘’are you 80? no? well ok, bye then’’
i mean, you get SCALED up… (the character i wanted to do it with, was 65, and yet people werent ok with me being scaled up 15 levels)…

3) So once i got a group, at some point, we seemed to be dying a lot, so i unequipped my clothes, and when i explained that i dont wanna spend that much money on that overpriced repair system, they kicked me from the party and i had to do it all over again..

This post really just sounds like a troll/joke post, but anyways…

I hate this patch and the ascended gear. I haven’t done a single dungeon, cause I don’t like that.
SERIOUSLY these dungeons aren’t made for lvl 65 people running around naked… and you’re basically just a free rider with that setup.

I really would love more multi-player/PvP mini games. They’re just so fun :-)
I had a lot of fun with the Halloween mini-game.

The rewards should be better though – i.e. rare crafting materials, bags with many slots and armor with cool looks – vanity stuff.

There should also be a mini-games ladder where you can see your daily or weekly ranking, that would be fun as well.

Ronah, I doubt that will be a problem, unless you increased the rewards by 400%(quadrupled), then it might actually pay to wait.

I imagine the rewards for completing these group events should be doubled or so, what do you think – is that to much?
I guess it’s about finding a balance. If you don’t increase the rewards enough, people will just ignore them and continue farming their regular events – or in low level zones continue to only do hearts.

Currently some group events cannot be experienced, because there’s no one doing them. Even before the Fractals of the Mist dungeon a lot of group events were rarely completed.
A-net have spend much energy creating all these different dynamic events, but some of them are mostly empty, due to the popularity of other dynamic events – or low player population in the area(low level zones).

Suggestion:
I think these dynamic events that are mostly empty should have their rewards increased.
For example – if a dynamic event has not been completed within 3 hours, the rewards are increased significantly (gold, items, chests etc.). This increased reward should be high enough to break the current habits of players regularly farming certain events in certain areas.
Players in the local area should be made aware of the changed “event-status”.
For example the event-icon on the map should change appearance to indicate the increased rewards and inform players.

- In addition I also think events are broadcast in to small an area of the map.

This improvement of events would enrich players’ experience of dynamic events in general, and make the invested developer hours worth their money.
This would be very easy to implement in a very short time.

Well said OP, well said. +1

If you’re having fun with the game, whatever that might be, doing dailies, running dungeons, collecting mats for crafting, experimenting with recipes, doing the open world events, or participating in WvW or PvP then it’s not a grind to obtain new gear.

The original designers of the game understood this. It only becomes a grind when you are forced into a single type of gameplay that you don’t particular like to begin with or becomes boring because you have to repeat the same action and content over and over again.

If everything you do in the game (crafting, adventuring, dungeons, dynamic events) ticks you a bit closer to acquiring the top end gear in the game then you’re earning the gear as a side effect of you having fun playing the game YOUR WAY. This was the promise GW2 had over other MMO’s

The following post by OP also has a great point:

Here is yet another symptom of the mechanics introduced with this patch. Don’t blame the players for asking for this, this is just another example of how things like resistance armor and scaling difficulty work to divide players.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Please-add-gear-score-2

3 days ago the guy asking for a tool to segregate you from his epic-ness was likely getting a combat rez in the open world from you, today you’re not good enough to be in his group.

That’s how much the game has change in just a few short days.

Ever ask a person what armor they had equipt before giving them a hand up in a open world fight ….no me either.

This is how negative and positive game mechanics impact community.

Shame, I think you can tell what side of the slop we’re on.

Logun.2349:

Eric Flannum himself said: “We have a basic philosophy of that we don’t expect you to play a different game at level 80 that you played up to then”. “We don’t think it’s ok that if you didn’t like to do dungeons before max level we don’t expect you to be forced into dungeons at endgame “.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-YBsK17j6I

It’s not even vague – he’s actually saying this. I’m sure he’s actually being honest, but who can say which developers actually got their opinions through to present?
I wonder why they never considered addressing this issue (incongruity in past and present philosophy on game design) in their communication before announcing the ascended gear.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m assuming that people who like farming for gear tend to enjoy PvE more than PvP?

Would it ruin anyone’s experience if Ascended gear was just PvE only?

yup, Jugs of karma! Just complete your dailies.

My husband just reported an entire group of bots the other day ;-/
But dunno I haven’t really ever paid attention to finding bots

In their communication they should address the main issues being discussed here in the forum.
I just wish they would communicate in detail what their near future intentions are for the game, and their reasoning behind the newly implemented patch. They are very vague on everything.

I think merged-threads should unfold, thus displaying individual threads inside the merged-thread – like a temporary “sub-forum” within the General Discussion forum.

It would make it easier to continue discussion within the individual “sub-threads”.

What do you think?

I agree, Patch notes are vague and lacking.
I also think they are up very late. We should have them at least a week before they go live.

The lag is so bad, I decided to throw myself off the cliff nearby and teleport back to AFK :-D