Guild Wars 2

I’m quite willing to help people. Last night for example I spent several minutes trying to explain to someone that there was no way to summon a GM in-game and walking them through how to contact Support step by step.

But most of the time, for normal maps and events, I find people don’t need that kind of support. Even on Silverwastes I’ve stopped typing out a summary of the meta-event and what to do at each stage because I found people were doing fine without it (and if I did I’d get “lol we know”) so I restrict myself to things like pointing out that if we can get an “empty” map started we can taxi people in for the harder parts.

At times when I think there might be a lot of new people in game (like when free accounts came out, and when HoT was 50% off) I’ll go to a starting zone and offer to help people who need it and I’ve gotten very little response, and it’s usually people who need 1:1 help or detailed answers which aren’t appropriate for a tag.

If I do use the mentor tag I find people expect it to be marking the location of a special event – something like the bloodstone enemies, world bosses (when they’re active), not simply another generic event. (The one exception is when it’s the map for the daily events achievement, and then you need to be careful that you’re giving people enough time to arrive.)

Actual commanding – leading a lane in a HoT map or the WvW zerg is a whole other ball game that takes committed and knowledgeable players to do well. As much as I think there are lots of people who could do it and are too nervous to try I don’t think we should be encouraging everyone to do it all the time.

I always use my mentor tag for a few minutes when I call out certain things that people might be interested in seeing. Toxic Seedlings I come across, events that start… I haven’t been abused for doing so but really the only reason I don’t keep it up all the time is that it’s so obnoxious sitting over the top of my character’s head it often gets in my way when playing. :P

I do know one thing, when there are daily JP/Minidungeons to be run in lower-level areas, I often see the Mentors parked on the map directing everyone to them to help them out and that’s awesome to see.

I have both tags, but nowadays I never tag up. I’ve tried to lead in HoT, but it’s like trying to herd cats. I can generally stand most abuse, but the combination of people ignoring everything I say and then yelling all kinds of stuff at me when the event fails eventually eroded my interest in trying to lead.
I admire the rest of you that still tag up, you’re all good people and deserve more thanks than you’re probably getting.

I know it seems ‘crazy to you’ that people don’t want to herd you around but commanding is actually an incredibly exhausting and frustrating experience. I don’t help people learn because people don’t want to learn. Hell, they don’t even want to try! People just want to mindlessly follow the colored tag and mash 1 until they get loot.

I ask people to please stomp the mushrooms, they don’t and the Gerent battle fails for everyone on the map. I ask them to please break the vinetooth prime’s bar, they don’t and the event fails and nobody gets their mastery point. I tell them please for the love of god stun these frogs and lead them away from the octovine you’re killing us, they don’t and another lane has to come in and help. They don’t do these things because they don’t want to do these things. People don’t want to have to think.

Maybe people who would use the tag to show events got abused for putting up the Apple and now dont use it.

Mentor tag. Don’t use it if you don’t know anything

Mentor tag abused as Commander tag

Can we make Mentor harder to get

The Apple tag needs to go

And so on and so forth.

There was and still is hostility for “welfare tags” being used in events like a Commander tag, and people didn’t hesitate to say so in the forums and in map chat.

I’ll answer questions in map chat but I rarely put up the Apple.

You can rationalize against it all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that its absolutely wrong, and unfair.

Lets say i have 100 apples. Current TP price is 1 copper. I go ahead and put them up, and get my 1 silver. A week down the road now, people start putting up the applies for 1 gold a piece…just “out of the blue”, well ok, i shoulda waited (i think to myself). Next, a patch drops where apples are now the #1 commodity to sell. Think about that. Seriously. That right to you?

Sure, i sold my apples. I got what they were worth at the time, but had i known that they were now going to to go for 1g a piece in a week, don’t ya think i would have held on to them?

You say: “This doesn’t hurt the every day user”. No, no it doesn’t, but it screws us out of a profit, because we didn’t have the farsight that the insiders had in the first place.

Now, lets say because i’m bestest chums with Gaile Grey, she gives me a secret buff in WvW or PvP with her developer magic, and i go own everything in sight, because we’re best buddies. Does that sound ok to you? It doesn’t really hurt the majority of players, because i’m not doing it in PvE, so who cares? Cheaters running speed hacks are clearly more dangerous. Right?

The logic you are placing here is that if ANet is ok with it, then its ok to exploit. As long as it doesn’t directly affect you, then its ok.

Wrong is wrong, and this is something thats been going on for quite some time. Granted, its not enough to kill my enjoyment of the game, but it sure speaks volumes to those involved, which may hold sway against ANet later down the road.

Ubi.4136:

I really, really hope not. I loved the stormbow skin in GW1, and, although that skin is ok looking, it is NOT the stormbow. Every time they try and “modernize” the skins for GW2, they just make them worse.

May be nostalgia speaking. Personally, to me, that new skin is way better (and yes, i am a GW1 veteran too).

The staff will likely be a gemstore item. It’s an envoy weapon, with ties to Cantha, so it’s extremely unlikely to end up as LS/open world reward. Theoretically it might be a fractal one from some new fractal as well (but i don’t think anyone here is going to actually believe that) or a new raid skin (due to name tie with envoy armor).

Still, gemstore is the most likely idea.

(though if the bow is not a legendary longbow skin, i will be extremely disappointed)

Djinn.9245:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I like the screenshot from dulfy better than I liked the Storm Bow in GW1. Similarly, the Fiery Dragon Sword in GW1 was ok, while the FDS in GW2 is one of my favorite skins.

And sure, reboots fail, while others succeed (some Spiderman/Batman movies were great, some were meh). A good reboot is awesome because it gets us right in our nostalgia and is worth it on its own merits. A bad reboot is, of course, far worse than just something bad, for the same reasons.

Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” is good; Hendrix’ is better. (Well, to me, anyhow.)

tl;dr it’s good to evaluate things on their own merits before dismissing something as being unworthy as a reboot, sequel, successor, clone, etc.

Good points about reboots. Although I think many or even most times people reboot something that is already successful because they want to ride on that success. In those cases, the original is successful because it is already good. So when people reboot it, it is almost never as good as the successful version. In the case of classic songs, I’m always like “Why are you covering that song? You’re never going to be Michael Jackson” or whoever.

I don’t understand what that has to do with the Storm Bow or, more specifically, this Storm Bow. ANet is taking their own skin and updating it for their own sequel. To argue that they shouldn’t is like saying they shouldn’t have made Guild Wars 2, because it’s riding off the success of Guild Wars 1 (while true, it has little to do with whether GW2 can be a good/great game on its own merits).

This isn’t Clash of the Titans (2010). This is closer to Paul McCartney deciding to sing a Beatles tune.

I like the screenshot from dulfy better than I liked the Storm Bow in GW1. Similarly, the Fiery Dragon Sword in GW1 was ok, while the FDS in GW2 is one of my favorite skins.

And sure, reboots fail, while others succeed (some Spiderman/Batman movies were great, some were meh). A good reboot is awesome because it gets us right in our nostalgia and is worth it on its own merits. A bad reboot is, of course, far worse than just something bad, for the same reasons.

Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” is good; Hendrix’ is better. (Well, to me, anyhow.)

tl;dr it’s good to evaluate things on their own merits before dismissing something as being unworthy as a reboot, sequel, successor, clone, etc.

Lamont.5973:

This is unquestionably the worst designed event in all of GW 1 and GW 2. How could developers with any experience at all think this was well designed?

I think that’s still the Mordrem Bloom events. This is a strange design though, like the team hasn’t learned from past events.

B is for Bass Players.9845:

b)Keep recommending it to friends and perhaps coworkers. There is very little chance of getting someone brand new to try out a free account, possibly leading to a purchase, if said player is so annoyed that they have nothing at that moment positive to say about said game. In fact, said player may even be capable of being so annoyed that they talk people out of trying it at all.

Just a note: Free to play accounts wouldn’t be able to access the LS3 content without a purchase.

Frustrations conveyed strongly though.

Considering Q2 is exactly when nothing happened, and right after the game director switched to a job closer to home, I’m really not that surprised.

What is more interesting is what the next quarter will bring since the release of living world story 3. Which hopefully will bring back the sustainability MO was talking about.

I personally wouldn’t really be too optimistic, but I pretty much think from here on, if the sustainability MO is talking about is provided, the only way from Q2 2016 is up.

Then again, I do hope they have some more updates planned for in between episode 1 and episode 2.

Hornet.6357:

Well. Let’s see Guild Wars 2 went free to play, I’m not sure that has helped overall revenue when you give away your product for free. The base game is very dated compared to other free to play games out there.

Black lion keys need to be overhauled and updated, I’m simply not excited when I obtain one. This is due to the average drop being trash, even with 3 drops I’m always starting at a useless booster (yes they are mostly useless to me, outside of WvW reward tracks), a tome of knowledge (10 min of game play, or 30 sec crafting) and unidentified dye (< 1g on the tp). Basically an Azurite orb for mawdrey is more valuable to me, then something you sell for real world money.

Black lion services are out of whack too…. Why on earth would I pay 800 gems to change the name of my character, when I can simply pay 800 gems to make a new one. Even then, nothing on any toon that is soulbound, is even worth that much even if I deleted it. I’m perplexed to how this stays so expensive.

Armor and outfits are absolutely kittened, I understand it takes time to make a quality armor set. However a good chunk of what you sell in the store are incompatible with each other. Scarfs, Glasses, and Hats should have some sort of priority in outfits. I don’t understand why its “Okay” that I can’t mix and match two separate gem store purchases together.

You want my money Arena Net, Give me a reason to hand it over.

Core game went F2P because HoT was going to be the new SKU for the game and the core game comes with HoT. Plus after 3 years and numerous permanent discounts and sales, it’s likely their key sales weren’t a major part of their income. Remember the HoT pre-sales became the only way to buy access to the core game months before the core game went F2P. Only a few retailers who had boxes in stock were still selling the core game.

Again, the purpose of BL Chests are to expose players to minor items on the gem store. I’ll say it again, it’s a sampler that include a chance to “win big”. You are suppose to be buying it for the “junk” they contain, not expecting a big prize every 5 keys. And since you are always guaranteed a booster from a chest, you shouldn’t be shocked you get boosters.

Have you bothered to look up the name change cost on other MMO’s with cash shops? Cash shops that you can only access with cash? The prices are pretty much in line with the industry. And in GW1 it was $15 for a name change while here it’s $10 or some amount of in game earned gold.

Well I think character auras should have their own slot(s) rather than take an armor slot with some meh piece of armor. But it makes sense that scarves are shoulder pieces and in a design where there is only a head slot, that you can have either glasses or a hat (without hair). And I find it odd that on one hand you acknowledge that armor is more complicated than outfits but on the other still want to mix them. It’s because you can mix them that armors are more complicated, as well as the total number of variations across profession and race.

ChrizZcE.5981:

Killing off dungeons was a huge mistake. I´m really missing small group instanced content so I rarely play the game anymore and will likely move on to WoW Legion because of this. Raids don´t count because they cater to the 0.5% of the community.

Then go run dungeons. They restored the rewards and even added them to dailies sometimes.

Blanche Neige.7241:

Expect an announcement for the start of the development of Guild Wars 3 later this year.

I really hope not. I know a lot of Guild Wars 2 players weren’t around for Guild Wars 1 but I was since the early betas and I really don’t want GW2 to suffer the same fate as 1 did. Yeah it’s still on but they pretty much stopped all development on it in one fell swoop. Unfinished new quests, long promised class reworks left to fester in whatever condition they were in, Utopia completely scrapped in favor of GW2… it was sad to see.

Not to mention they throw GW1 players a bone every once in a blue moon, recently we got Balthazar Skins for a celebration which is fun, but at this point it’s more of an insult than anything else, a small morsel of false hope that maybe it wasn’t totally forgotten… but we know it was.

I really hope GW2’s playerbase doesn’t have to experience the same.

DeceiverX.8361:

Just saying now, I told you so, to all the people who kept screaming for an expansion for years, and the white knights claiming HoT would be a huge boon for profits and the number of active players.

Expansions, unless in widely-popular subscription games, do not make money. Microtransactions for cosmetics do, and focusing on important things like gameplay make any content droughts much more enjoyable. Games like League, which has an astrononical budget know this; almost all profit comes from skins and their tight gameplay mechanics and good balance, with a very occasional new champion/content release.

ANet has failed repeatedly to provide us with a quality, detail-driven gameplay experience as a whole for well over a year, now. Most aspects of the game which were once great selling points have been stymied, while an excess of attention has been put in all the wrong places in hopes to expand their bleeding playerbase via niche markets. Unfortunately, the real, hard truth is that the existing greatness of the game is being continuously tarnished through negligence, and in many respects, blatant ineptitude of maintaining such a great experience.

If every MMO has a failing, it’s lack of content. The fact is the model is designed for players to spend a lot of time at it, but in the process they rapidly burn through content and find themselves wondering what to do next. It’s the big content patches/expansions players look forward to at that point.

You seem to be suggesting that instead of developing the HoT expansion, ANet should have focused on class balance. In other words, the game was almost perfect and should have been left that way (more or less).

Are you primarily a PvP player? Because that actually makes a lot of sense in the PvP realm. PvP players are far more sensitive to balance issues. New content is great, but ultimately you’re there to compete against other players and you can’t do that very well when they drop a bunch of overpowered elite specs that only half the players have access to into the mix.

However, on the PvE side of the coin, these forums are full of players who dislike HoT and probably wish it had never happened. But do you think before HoT released they were looking forward to nothing but minor balance tweaks and the odd content release every now and then? Not likely!

PvE players want content. They always want content. Balance is great, but they play the game cooperatively or by themselves rather than competitively (for the most part). They aren’t sensitive to the razor’s edge on balance issues the way PvP players are and they don’t get as much replay value out of the combat itself as AI is far less dynamic.

You referenced “League” (I assume league of legends?). I’ve never played that one, but is it primarily a PvP game? If so, do you think perhaps their model of maintaining and refining class balance with only minor content upgrades would be a good fit in a heavy PvE game like GW2?

ikereid.4637:

Malediktus.9250:

ikereid.4637:

Malediktus.9250:

ikereid.4637:

Malediktus.9250:

Halandir.3609:

So much for “challenging group content” boosting the game – Casuals leaving was expected.
Too bad most “hardcore groupers” seem to spend ingame-gold instead of RL-cash.
Catering to the least profitable group 101?

I never buy gems with gold, I spend 100s of euros per year on gems
buying gems with gold is a bad use of my time

Let me ask, do you feel you get your money’s worth on Gem Purchases?

Not really, considering I could buy at least 10 full AAA games for my gem purchases

yea I kinda thought so.

The last time I bought a series of Gems was on the Heroes weapon sets (Kasmeer’s Staff, Majory’s Daggers…ect) when they were first released.

Since then I have just banked Gold into Gems on a weekly Basis, but I cant bring myself to buy anything on the store anymore. Its all just a bunch of lame stuff that will do nothing for me. Its all Glider Skins and outfits.

They need to change their direction with what they are doing here. and fast.

But what could they sell in shop to make more money without going straight up pay to win? I would like to see armor sets over outfits again, but Anet insists they are too much work

Lots of things, actually. But anything I say on the subject will start a flame war and ruin this thread :-)

But, does not have to be pay to win to be successful.

Well then, here’s your thread to suggest what will make ANet tons of money, Suggestions: Gemstore items

I look forward to seeing what you post there.

On a brighter note, HoT is back on the UK PC sales charts at 19. That’s likely due to the LS coming back.

What we are seeing here is the April-June doldrums due to the lack of content. While the Spring Update bumped up the active players, the “Hey we fixed most of the missteps we did in the expansion” isn’t an advertising slogan you can take to the bank.

Since we now have some indication about how much of the income they book from selling gems, hopefully some will now realize why their is always new stuff at the Gem Shop.

Also in the 2nd quarter we saw the exchange rate go from 22 gold to 30.6 gold per 100 gems. We know the rate increases as more gems are withdrawn than deposited in the exchange. What if this increase wasn’t just due to the increased rewards delivered in the Spring Update but also a decrease in actual Gem purchases that were then sold into the exchange? If GW2Efficiency reflects a reasonable cross-section of players, players don’t keep gems around. They seem to sell the left over ones they have due to buying gems in amounts in excess of what they immediately need (hot dog/bun problem). Now if they aren’t buying gems (with cash) because there is either nothing they like in the shop (or they have everything they are interested in) or they can earn enough gold to satisfy their need, that may be one reason gem sale income is down. Just some armchair analysis.

Also if staffing is still around 300, 15.9 billion KrW (roughly $13.6 million) for the quarter is still not troublesome yet. It’s still $180,000 per person per year in income. And game/expansion income is used to buffer these dips in income. First two quarters of 2015 income was 42.5 billion KrW and in 2016 it was 46.5 billion KrW.

As for when to expect the next expansion? Not this year, maybe 3Q17 putting it two years after HoT and five years after launch?

Just my thoughts. I’ll listen to the call later but nice summary @Belenwyn.

Blude.6812:

Zedek.8932:

Are you hired for the Nielsen company or do you just make these claims because of some angry reddit posts and close friends? As someone who joined just 1 year ago to me it seems people like you waited for something that did not happen and now you’re here to cause mad beef. If there are many other games that apparently are so good and not dying, why aren’t you trying those meanwhile? I am pretty sure you come back soon – or stay there (for good).

As a ’ 1 year’ player you really do not have the history to make those accusations. The game is going to be 4 years old soon. Many have been playing since that long (and longer if they played the beta and add to that GW1 for some). You have no idea what the game was like. The dungeon nerfs, lack of content, nerfs for PvP that affect PvE, concentration on Raid, times gates, ruining small guides etc. If you joined with HoT you can’t really appreciate what the game was.

Zedek isn’t suffering nostalgia and past grievances that cloud his/her perception of what the game currently has to offer. In that, Zedek has a clearer perspective than many of the longer-stayed players.

~EW

Seyiwaji.4082:

I have been waiting for this.
Now continue to say the game is not dying.

Even those sales short before the end of 2Q 2016, didn’t change anything.
As it is now, this game won’t last long as worthy.

But you know Fan will say: The game is doing fine. That I laugh.

Profit is profit. So long as they make enough to pay their employees and all costs to run the game and work on future content, while the community remains active, then the game is not dying nor in any kind of trouble.

Companies can’t make an ever-increasing profit year after year except in unusual circumstances. It isn’t sustainable. Even if that’s how the shareholders would like it to be, and what the CEO is charged with doing. Also, given that the decline in monies made is attributed to an understandable/predictable decline in box sales (the expansion has been out for long enough that the initial peak of buying it has passed), there’s really not much in this report to worry about.

When GW2 starts running in the red, that’s when it’s time to worry. There’s nothing in this report that forshadows that future at all.

The people who cry that the game is dying are the same kinds of people who stand on street corners holding up signs saying, “repent, the end is nigh.”

~EW

You mean 9 month content droughts and failing to deliver 50% of an expansion people paid for aren’t good for a game? huh… who would have thought…

Elyssa.8307:

HoT drove away a massive number of people. They gutted WvW and dungeon communities by killing the game modes, and the extreme grind drove away casual players.

Are you hired for the Nielsen company or do you just make these claims because of some angry reddit posts and close friends? As someone who joined just 1 year ago to me it seems people like you waited for something that did not happen and now you’re here to cause mad beef. If there are many other games that apparently are so good and not dying, why aren’t you trying those meanwhile? I am pretty sure you come back soon – or stay there (for good).

Seyiwaji.4082:

I have been waiting for this.
Now continue to say the game is not dying.

Even those sales short before the end of 2Q 2016, didn’t change anything.
As it is now, this game won’t last long as worthy.

But you know Fan will say: The game is doing fine. That I laugh.

Its not dying. The PvE and WvW maps are still somewhat full with a steady audience. I think this is more an issue with ANet not putting a whole lot on the gem store to drive sales.

They’re in a tough spot, because any major development project, such as new armor (not outfits), maps, and legendaries – the stuff that fans want – takes forever to build, and with very little profit to ANet. So i’m hoping that they continue to build these things in the xpacs. If so, then the xpacs will always be worth buying. On the hand, a constant string of gem store items (that are actually good), might be of interest.

I’m not a fanboy, either. There are times were i have to quit the game for a few months, because “ANet”, but things are great right now, and the game is really fun atm.

I think many people confuse “a game is dying” with “a game is dying for me” almost all the time when they make statements like that

Real question: How is Wildstar doing so well? Or Why?

Seyiwaji.4082:

numbers speak for themselves, what you are saying is ridiculous.
This game is only 4 years old.
If you see a bright Future for it, be happy with your Illusions.
Come on even Aion made more money, Seriously?

And Aion catter in the Western or the Asian audience ?
What is their mentality and what kind of things they will open their wallets and buy from the gemstore ?
Even Overwatch had 120.000 viewers on launch and 3 months laters its on 30.000 on twitch*** .Does this means its dying ?

Killthehealersffs.8940:

Seyiwaji.4082:

I have been waiting for this.
Now continue to say the game is not dying.

Even those sales short before the end of 2Q 2016, didn’t change anything.
As it is now, this game won’t last long as worthy.

But you know Fan will say: The game is doing fine. That I laugh.

It if was dying , then they would stop having these public economy conference , just like WoW (where from now on they will link how many boxxes they sold and not how much revenue they make in each quarter)

And if GW2 is dying , then there will be grimm era for the mmos (what would WoW copy-paste then to keep their population?)
/popcorn

numbers speak for themselves, what you are saying is ridiculous.
This game is only 4 years old.
If you see a bright Future for it, be happy with your Illusions.
Come on even Aion made more money, Seriously?

kurfu.5623:

Revenue dipped significantly below what it was pre-HoT… that’s not good. Looks like HoT actually did drive away a large portion of players.

I doubt HoT drove people away, more likely the content drought post HoT caused that.

Well Bloodstone Fen and recent patches are promising, if it goes on like that, this will probably just be remembered as a little stumbling stone in GW history, who knows.

Tanith.5264:

Right now a pair of Anet peeps are probably looking at this thread:

“What else have you found so far?”
“What haven’t I found? This thread is amazing!!!”

And then they repeat it every 30 seconds until the other people in the office run out screaming.