Guild Wars 2

Zaxares.5419:

Vayne.8563:

But..but…I’m number 467! lol

Yeah I don’t love the leaderboard. On the other hand, it gives competitive times something to do. Keeps them playing. Might as well leave it and ignore it.

Out of curiosity I looked up my ranking on the Leaderboards. Apparently I’m 683.

Nice. I used to look all the time. I stopped looking. I’ve dropped about a hundred points since then. I don’t care. lol

But..but…I’m number 467! lol

Yeah I don’t love the leaderboard. On the other hand, it gives competitive times something to do. Keeps them playing. Might as well leave it and ignore it.

I’d actually bug report it, because it should probably no longer be account bound.

I have 19,500 plus achievement points and I don’t care about getting every gem store items. The fact is you can actually see how many people are in the top 100. And guess what.

It’s 100 people. Even the top 500 (which I’m in) it’s a pretty small percentage of people playing the game.

Welcome to the game Theif, lots of cool stuff in the patch. Watch the Wooden Potatoes video if you haven’t yet.

If you guys haven’t seen it, you should check out the Wooden Potatoes preview of the patch. It’s a great preview, but more, even he says this patch is more than the sum of its parts.

New patch looks great. Just saw the Wooden Potatoes Video. It really is a major addition to the game.

OP, I understand why you’re annoyed. But there’s such a thing as cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I left Guild Wars 1 because I was hacked in the days before they had a restore option. I lost a ton of stuff. I had to almost start over in some ways.

I missed a year of playing a great game, because I was hurt. It wasn’t really Anet’s fault. They have to answer to their bosses too.

If you really think that it’s that important to not play the best MMO on the market (it is to me anyway), then I guess you’ll do that. But to me, it’s not personal. Anet didn’t do this to hurt you…even if you were hurt. Anet did this to make the game better. And they keep making the game better, at least for people like me.

I think you should reconsider…but you know…everyone does what they have to to get through the night.

Their are a bunch of devs. No doubt some play more than others. But what you guys are forgetting is that they play on another account as well. Just because they don’t play on “this map” doesn’t mean they’re not playing.

So if they play on their test server and then play a bit on this map…how much do you really expect of these guys.

What they probably don’t do is play one type of content for zillions of hours. The probably don’t pug dungeons for days on end. Why would they?

Is it reasonable to expect them to? I don’t think so.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

The line will just continue to move and the sheeple will continue to defend the line as they run after it.

The game is in financial trouble, expect an acceleration of the line firmly into the P2W category.

This is just the next logical progression of the gem store eroding away the game.

This game is so far from financial trouble, it’s not even funny. There’s a whole lot of things wrong with this game, but financially it’s doing fine.

Essence Snow.3194:

Is that confirmed or just expected speculation?

It was at least implied in this article:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-fresh-start-the-new-player-experience-in-guild-wars-2/

The line is:

Personal Story

As another addition with the level-up guide, we’re updating the personal story steps using our new Story Journal so they come in story chunks that unlock all at once per chapter. When a story chapter is unlocked as a level-up reward, you’ll be able to play straight through the entire chapter from start to finish and not have any awkward starts and stops that throw off the storyline. In this way, story chapters become another big moment to look forward to earning and unlocking as your character levels up.

Essence Snow.3194:

I really for appearances sake that they do not nerf the key run at the same time as adding this. That would look really bad.

Well the key run is nerfed no matter what, because you’ll have to level to 10 to unlock the personal story. I don’t think you’ll be able to start it right away.

From a storytelling point of view, this is definitely preferable.

insanemaniac.2456:

Vayne.8563:

Though I expected this, it still troubles me. It doesn’t trouble me enough to get my pitchfork out, but it’s that whole shifting line thing. How far can you shift the line before people get annoyed/angry.

I can see why people would be apprehensive about this.

why is it troubling? how is the line shifting? bl skins are in the wardrobe, this is nothing new.

I think the issue for me is that if you’re an achievement hunter, you’re pressured to get black lion skins. I guess it is the same for the wardrobe completionists, but there’s something about making a point system, putting up a leaderboard for it, making it so everyone can see your point total (no one can see what’s in your wardrobe)…it’s quite subtle, but it’s pressure.

I’m not going to be pressured to get every skin, but for some people it’s going to be very hard to resist.

It may not make a difference to anyone else, but I perceive one.

tigirius.9014:

MikaHR.1978:

tigirius.9014:

Behellagh.1468:

MikaHR.1978:

Behellagh.1468:

MikaHR.1978:

Note that “experts” didnt even notice half of those games arent even sub based. Thats ought to tell you their “expertise”

And no, youre wrong, Wildstar had preorders and reelase in 1 quarter, so if you add 45+119 and the deduce like 40ish for 1 extra month you end up with 119-ish for GW2 (preorders+release month). Anyway, WS is not even in ballpark to GW2. It actually has to survive to 2 years mark yet

Apples to apples please.

I don’t know how you get more Apples to Apples than the quarterly statements. GW2 went live Aug 28th, 2012 so 34 days for 3rd quarter sales ending Sept 30th. WildStar went live June 3rd, 2014 so 28 days for 2nd quarter sales ending June 30th. Both had just as much time for preorders.

As for some of those games aren’t sub-based. They are all, just not everywhere and they include games with a Hybrid business model (ie optional subscription).

Actual sales werent reported until next quarter and 45m is just for preorders.

SWTOR is F2P
LOTRO is F2P
RIFT is F2P
TERA is F2P
Aion is F2P in the west and P2P in the east
L2 is F2P in the west and P2P in the east
B&S is F2P or B2P in china afaik
Even WoW is not sub based in China heh, but thats another story alltogether (and why they are allowed to lump it with total subs)

game having some sort of alternate (optional) “subscription plan” doesnt make it sub based. What, now GW2 is sub based because it has “vip” option in China?

The only sub based games on that list are WoW, L1 and EvE. 3/10 for a “list of sub based games” lol

Ah, no they were reported in the 3Q12 and 2Q14 quarterly reports for GW2 and WildStar respectively. You can look it up yourself at NCSOFT’s corporate website under IR earnings release.

SWTOR is hybrid and was subscription only once
LOTOR is hybrid and was subscription only once
RIFT is hybrid and was subscription only once
TERA is hybrid and was subscription only once
B&S like Lineage I, Lineage II and AION is subscription based in South Korea and several other areas in Asia.
Lineage II and AION were subscription based when they first came to the NA market and also embrace the hybrid model now in NA.

Like I said, if they offer a subscription VIP level and were once subscription or they are subscription somewhere else other than NA, it counts as a subscription game.

Not to mention that almost all of these games require a purchase or a sub in order to unlock certain things that are considered normal features for most games like talents/traits, bag space, the ability to quick travel etc so basically they are forcing people to at least sub once which imo is no different than forcing players to buy their traits or get enough gold together to get the enchants they need to enhance their gear at level 80 properly. This is not a simple B2P game if gold were not tied to directly to progression there would be no issue but it is for alts and for new players.

You mean those are exatcly like other F2P games where you have an option to drop some cash each month to ease “progression woes”.

Yep which pretty much breaks the whole myth of this game being B2P which was my point exactly. It’s like that ruling in the UK recently where a judge made it illegal to call a game free to play or any variation thereof if at any time players are forced even indirectly to pay real money for the purpose of progression of any kind. That’s what people consider B2P you pay once to buy the game the rest is absolutely free until you purchase an expansion, it’s simply wrong in the case of this title. What’s worse is that people are actually trying to advocate for this kind of eastern style economy in other titles that are newly ported to the west as if they are the holy grail when nothing could be further from the truth and they actively attack anyone who says anything about how they are being taken advantage of, sound familiar?

I’m still confused about what you have to buy to progress in this game.

Many of us got world completion and the title for it as well as the reward before those areas were added.

I think a lot of people would be annoyed if they just took it away from us every time they add a new area.

By the same token, new people will have to explore so much more without getting more reward. That’s unnecessarily punishing.

Though I expected this, it still troubles me. It doesn’t trouble me enough to get my pitchfork out, but it’s that whole shifting line thing. How far can you shift the line before people get annoyed/angry.

I can see why people would be apprehensive about this.

BlueZone.4236:

http://dulfy.net/2013/07/16/gw2-colin-johanson-livestream-transcript/

Q: What are your plans for future professions/races.

A: Races, no promises of which race to do first. New profession is a lot harder, a lot of the core archtype is covered. We might do additional weapons/skills for current professions before putting in new professions. We have 8 now so if we want to do a new profession is it is probably a 3rd heavy armor to balance it out. New profession is probably the furthest thing out.

Cool thanks for that. I saw it, but didn’t remember it.

Leo Paul.1659:

-Dragon pops up, having minions destroying the country.
-Group of people who could fight them have no interest being involved
-You bond group to fight the Dragon

We still don’t know why Scarlet awakened Mordremoth. He might be a benevolent elder dragon and Scarlet was a good guy in an insane sort of way :/ . Would be cool to see 2 elder dragons fight!

I thought we did know. I thought she awakened him to confront him. Or at least that was the original plan. She wanted him out of her head. I think at the end though, he’d taken over completely.

Come hang out with me and watch how I level OP. Bet it would be a different experience.

pepeu…no game can implement everything. Even WoW has things it hasn’t implemented and it’s much older than this game. Every company has to choose what’s important to them and where their time is worth being spent.

This game has a lot of issues other similar games don’t have. For example, most games start with about 500 quests, but you need about three times that number of dynamic events to make things work. So the priorities were shifted away from the standard.

Anet decided they didn’t want people to wait in queues, which is relatively normal in new games. In Rift I waited in queues when it launched. When SWToR came out people waited in queues. With the exception of WvW you don’t have to wait in a queue here, and even there they made EotM so you can at least work on leveling while waiting.

It’s a different set of priorities. Anet didn’t give us first person. They didn’t give us movable skills. They put their priorities into other things that other games don’t have to.

It isn’t that they couldn’t do it, so much as it wasn’t high on their list of things to do. Because you want it, it’s a priority concept for you, but other things were priority concepts for them.

There’s nothing wrong with you wanting it, but expected any game to have every feature you want won’t help you enjoy it more.

It’s a good thing then that they’re going to be making changes to the leveling experience on the 9th then.

Hopefully it’ll be better.

Iason Evan.3806:

Vayne.8563:

VitaminK.2517:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

People tend to forget that the Feature Patches only improve already existing mechanics. They neither aim for changing the entire gameplay, nor do they aim for implementing new content.

In my opinion that’s the biggest problem in communication for Anet. They improve or fix existing features. Still they call it Feature Packs instead of, let’s say, Improvement Packs. Paired with their “one news per day policy”, it’s easy to be hyped as a player and therefore being disappointed. And that is really sad because some points are really nice and don’t get the right attention because of said miscommunication.

Except that before all this started, Anet explained what feature packs were, and people simply decided to make their own definition instead of using the one provided.

The separated the content packs from the feature packs so they wouldn’t take away from each other. Essentially all the other fixes and new stuff that wasn’t new content would go into feature packs. This was in one of the blog posts on Anet’s site.

There are miscommunications though Vayne throughout this announcement phase. While not directly related to the feature pack, the first person/Third person camera interview stuff is a terrible miscommunication. Do you really think they believed that people wanted a 1st person camera for combat? Really?

The original Commander Tag implementation was handled terribly. They fixed it. That is great, but they still have turned it into a gold sink instead of a QoL thing for the players. The tags don’t even have the functionality that they deserve or many of the amazing functions that players were asking for with it. It took that long to implement color coding for it?

These changes are all really good for the most part. Players still have the right to be ticked that certain things like waiting two years for armor sorting weren’t implemented a long time ago. That’s basic functionality in 2007’s market. Are there people being unreasonable? Sure, *but there are reasonable people responding to some of the unreasonable changes and misscommunications on ArenaNet’s end as well.

Well yes, I’ve said Anet’s communication has been bad in the past and that they do make a lot of their own problems. But with the feature pack, because they did define what it was, this shouldn’t be one of them.

I don’t think it’s right to punish the company for what they did right.

I’ve not only said before communication needs to improve, I’ve even made a thread about it. But on the point of what a feature patch is, I feel I need to speak out on their behalf, because I feel that was adequately communicated.

But improvement is surely needed. And I appreciate that they’re trying to improve it.

Devata.6589:

Vayne.8563:

Devata.6589:

“Now “real” MMOs were subscription based ”
Except for some very recently released MMO’s all games released after wow did go F2P so not sure why you think all “real” mmo’s where sub-based.
The whole talk about not being P2W is irrelevant for anybody who’s not focusing on stats. There is no fun mini hunt like in many games because mini’s are one of the supposed cash cows in GW2. That’s one example how the cash-shop focus influences the game. So it does not have to be P2W to be bad.
“The box purchased essentially paid for the development cost but due to the more complex nature of the game, they couldn’t quickly do expansions like they did with GW. ”
And nobosy expedted them to. GW1 released an expansion after 6 months. GW2 would be fine with releasing one after a year. (I could even understand if the first expansion was a little later)

“There is a contingent of players who yearn for a reward system where they earn usable loot directly rather than “work” as adventurers who sell to other players to earn coin that then they can spend to buy the loot they want. It’s a little too real world. ”
That’s a long way of saying the game was turned into a gold grind because of it.

Except that plenty of minis in this game are not from the cash shop at all but are obtained in game. You’re simply ignoring them to try to prove a point. Want a mini liadri…beat liadri and you get one. Want a mini clockheart. Do all the aetherpath achievements and you get one. I remember making minis associated with Christmas through the mystic forge. I remember getting a mini queen Jennah (or twelve) for my first year birthday). I remember mini reef riders, mini captain magnuses, mini clockwork knights…there have been plenty of minis in game. Why do you ignore that?

I think most people are okay with the cash shop or have at most minor concerns. I think that you’re in a very small minority.

I’m not ignoring them. This example is not just to make a point this is an example I notice when playing the game. If most mini’s are just a gold-grind (or buy) it’s not fun to collect them anymore even if 10% is in the game. Now if a few where in a cash-shop it’s easy to ignore them but if many are it’s not.

Not to mention that many of the mini’s you refer to where only available temporary what only makes it worse because that was a grind against time and now you can’t get them anymore at all. Luckily we should not have that anymore in the future.

Many of your examples are indeed how they should be in the game. One mini for a list of achievements another for beating that challenge, another you earn with (returning) winter-day activities, anther drops in a dungeon and so on. But that’s only fun if that’s how you get almost all of them, else collecting is not fun and then you will only go for the one or two mini’s you really like in stead of having ‘collecting mini’s’ as part of your game-play.

That’s not an excuse to have a point that’s how it simply works (for me and others).
Not to mention that the fact that you see all icons in the collections does not do much good for it because it takes away the fun of discovering new mini’s.

Back half year after release I was in a minority now i’m not so sure. I see more and more complains about the cash-shop or people who say the cash-shop is part of GW2’s ‘end-game’. Not to mention the many complains not directly about the cash-shop but about things that likely are the way they are because of the cash-shop focus. (from the lack of end-content (you know like the mini examples that’s also end-content) to the lack of expansions or the heavy gold-grind)

I wanted to collect minis in Guild Wars 1, but by the time I started playing many of the rarer ones were way out of my reach. I tried for a polar bear. No shot. I would have loved an Island Guardian but I’d never have been able to afford one. Missing those few minis was as bad for me there as missing the gem shop ones here.

Except most of the gem shop ones here are actually attainable.

Just a matter of perspective I guess. I had the same problem in Guild Wars 1 that you have here.

VitaminK.2517:

Vayne.8563:

VitaminK.2517:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

People tend to forget that the Feature Patches only improve already existing mechanics. They neither aim for changing the entire gameplay, nor do they aim for implementing new content.

In my opinion that’s the biggest problem in communication for Anet. They improve or fix existing features. Still they call it Feature Packs instead of, let’s say, Improvement Packs. Paired with their “one news per day policy”, it’s easy to be hyped as a player and therefore being disappointed. And that is really sad because some points are really nice and don’t get the right attention because of said miscommunication.

Except that before all this started, Anet explained what feature packs were, and people simply decided to make their own definition instead of using the one provided.

The separated the content packs from the feature packs so they wouldn’t take away from each other. Essentially all the other fixes and new stuff that wasn’t new content would go into feature packs. This was in one of the blog posts on Anet’s site.

I know, they also said players want it that way because of spoilers. Many people don’t follow Anets’ blog, forum, etc. And afterwards it’s easy for Anet to say “but we explained…”. To me that is a lame excuse / miscommunication.

To say it’s miscommunication to say what something is seems very strange to me. Anet communicated it. It’s up to the players then who get that communication to spread the word. That’s what community is for.

Maybe Anet should have reiterated what they said back then, but honestly, for a fan base that latches on to every single word the company says and brings it up four years later, its’ a shame they only do it to prove the company wrong, rather than to understand what the company is trying to do/say.

This feature pack is pretty much what I understood feature packs to be, because I listened. So Anet did in fact communicate.

And I continue to tell people that’s what it is, because that’s helpful.

Saying someone hasn’t communicated after they specifically tell you something just can’t be right.

Illuminati.2431:

Vayne.8563:

This feels like a bit of a misnomer. I don’t think you paid Anet to produce specific content and if you did, I’m not quite sure what to tell you.

I give money to companies that are doing stuff I like to support those companies, but I have zero control over what they actually do. I’m not sure what gave anyone the idea that Anet would make more and more challenging content over any other type of content.

Indeed, you have no control, but you EXPECT certain things from certain companies. You expect from a MMO company that they will use SOME of your money to produce more content. That’s the same that I expect from my bank, who charges me a bit of money every 3 months for having a bank account, that SOME of that money will go to improving security for things like online banking.

Funny, I played a lot of content. I played tons of content. The content wasn’t permanent, that’s true, but it was still content. You’re just not content with the content or the way the content was delivered. But I think it’s a misnomer to say content wasn’t delivered.

People are still saying we don’t get new zones, even though Living Story Season 2 started in July and we already have 1 new zone.

VitaminK.2517:

HHR LostProphet.4801:

People tend to forget that the Feature Patches only improve already existing mechanics. They neither aim for changing the entire gameplay, nor do they aim for implementing new content.

In my opinion that’s the biggest problem in communication for Anet. They improve or fix existing features. Still they call it Feature Packs instead of, let’s say, Improvement Packs. Paired with their “one news per day policy”, it’s easy to be hyped as a player and therefore being disappointed. And that is really sad because some points are really nice and don’t get the right attention because of said miscommunication.

Except that before all this started, Anet explained what feature packs were, and people simply decided to make their own definition instead of using the one provided.

The separated the content packs from the feature packs so they wouldn’t take away from each other. Essentially all the other fixes and new stuff that wasn’t new content would go into feature packs. This was in one of the blog posts on Anet’s site.

Behellagh.1468:

Vayne.8563:

Except that plenty of minis in this game are not from the cash shop at all but are obtained in game. You’re simply ignoring them to try to prove a point. Want a mini liadri…beat liadri and you get one. Want a mini clockheart. Do all the aetherpath achievements and you get one. I remember making minis associated with Christmas through the mystic forge. I remember getting a mini queen Jennah (or twelve) for my first year birthday). I remember mini reef riders, mini captain magnuses, mini clockwork knights…there have been plenty of minis in game. Why do you ignore that?

I think most people are okay with the cash shop or have at most minor concerns. I think that you’re in a very small minority.

Tough to say with out going through each and every one to see what was only available from an event. 174 are tradeable out of the 263 or so minis. The ones tied to a LS achievement I believe are account bound. But neither are ones that were special mini sets at the Gem Shop like the mini hippo or ones you purchased with alternate currency like the SAB ones.

I’m not sure how this response applies to what I said.

Devata says that we can’t have nice minis or hunts for minis because so many minis are in the gem store. We can STILL have minis for rewards even though minis are in the gem store. That’s all I’m saying.

I feel this is a piece of information being ignored.

Devata.6589:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

It’s amazing how people are willing to say that Anet lies about this and NCsoft lies about that, but they’re perfectly willing to accept at face value the concept that someone was working on the trading post for two years, without even questioning the comment.

Did the person who said this actually say it was the only thing they were working on for two years. Did they say that during the time of working on it it was a priority at any time. Were they working on it in the background while doing a dozen other things.

I had a novel that took me 25 years to write…but I wasn’t writing it for 25 years. Working on something for two years, doesn’t necessarily mean what some are implying it means. It’s at the very least open to interpretation.

Of course not. Whatever else took priority has been released, or perhaps other stuff got chucked in the back burner when it tried to take priority.
We already know Kate did some work on the wardrobe.

It still doesn’t change the fact it required programmer(s) to gut the old trading post browser engine and stick in a new one. And that is a lot of work.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2fhpny/investigative_research_about_the_trading_post/

Vayne.8563:

If you don’t want to believe stuff is being worked on, it’s certainly your prerogative.

Everyone knows they’re working on stuff. Look at what they’ve produced over the past 2 years. Expect more like that.
Hoping they’re got some secret slaves working above and beyond on an expansion, though? Highly doubtful. You can feel how burnt out the developers are through their content.
I’ll eat my hat if I’m wrong about an expansion.

So to be clear, you don’t believe they’re working on a race or a profession?

That’s not the same as working in the background on stuff they will then release as an expansion.. I mean it might be the case if they change there approach to releasing content in the future. But while they say it’s still on the table to truth seems to be they made the decision to go for the LS approach and might change there approach in the future.

But yeah they might be working on that. Then again Colin said professions are the lowest on the list because of balancing problems. He did say that a long time ago so they might be working in that now but we have also not yet seen things higher on the list like guild halls. And of course they could have shifted priorities. But with what with know professions are still lowest on the list.

I’m not sure where you saw Colin say professions are lowest on the list, because I’m pretty sure he never said that.

Illuminati.2431:

MikaHR.1978:

VOLTCIEAGE.3029:

MikaHR.1978:

nethykins.7986:

MikaHR.1978:

Illuminati.2431:

MikaHR.1978:

Illuminati.2431:

MikaHR.1978:

Illuminati.2431:

No, but you are talking about Anet monitoring numbers, and according to you, the numbers for ‘hard’ content like Aetherblade path are to low for Anet to make any new content like this.
All I’m saying, is that your way of logic: Anet’s numbers say not enough % of the playerbase plays this type of content, so why make more?, is wrong. Like I said, the numbers are totally not representable to the type of content, but they represent that if you make hard content that gives crap rewards, no one will play it.

Do you even read what I say before you rant on again and again? I never said that you said anything about Aetherblade path not being played. What I said was that when you used the Aetherblade path in your “Anet monitoring bullkitten” story, it is totally not representable.

But it is very representable.

It means you will do any crap if it has better rewards.

You are now saying it yourself:) It’s representable, yes, but for a whole different aspect for the game. It’s representable that a lot of players choose reward efficiency over challenge. Like you said:) But some guy keeps coming up with this that it is representable for the fact that players LIKE hard content or not. And it’s not representable for that.
The fact that’s it may or may not be played doesn’t mean we don’t want it. I think that from the whole discussion topic we can come to a conclusion that maybe the bigger problem lies in the reward structure.

Reward structure is fine.

If you want challenging content you have it. You dont want to do it. It IS representative.The end.

And of course they will focus what 99% wants and not what 1% wants. Man hours are very finite resource.

Yeah, ofcourse. I spent 2-3 hours on a way harder dungeon than regular dungeons, and I get the same or sometimes even worse loot than I would have gotten in regular dungeons. Yeah, that reward structure is fine.

If you enjoy challenge it is.

If its not about challenge it isnt.

Case closed.

I suppose you’d prefer content to have no reward tied to it?

Just a “Difficult for difficulty’s sake”

Nope, it shoud be exactly how it is, same rewards and you do what you enjoy.

If for nothing else, for the sake of constant proving people like in this thread wrong in claiming thers some huge demand when it isnt (there are still people in hard denial out there) and not skewed by bribing players with better rewards.

Its objective mesure, its like people measure 1 meter and you still argue its not and some your random measure is 1 meter and blaming 1 meter for being 1 meter. It may be cute in the start but it gets hilarious afterwards.

sry but games where everyone has everything are just boring . Maybe everyone should have very style just for loging in ?

Well, pay ANet to make something unique just for you then.

Sry, but if you dont see how ridiculous your statement is, well….

A lot of us paid ANet to make this type of content. Not with just paying for the game, but also paying for stuff in the gem store. We did this with the thought to help ANet deliver more content, to help the game. Now, after 2 years, a lot of players feel like their money hasn’t been put to good use, thus resulting in a lot of threads like this one.

This feels like a bit of a misnomer. I don’t think you paid Anet to produce specific content and if you did, I’m not quite sure what to tell you.

I give money to companies that are doing stuff I like to support those companies, but I have zero control over what they actually do. I’m not sure what gave anyone the idea that Anet would make more and more challenging content over any other type of content.

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

It’s amazing how people are willing to say that Anet lies about this and NCsoft lies about that, but they’re perfectly willing to accept at face value the concept that someone was working on the trading post for two years, without even questioning the comment.

Did the person who said this actually say it was the only thing they were working on for two years. Did they say that during the time of working on it it was a priority at any time. Were they working on it in the background while doing a dozen other things.

I had a novel that took me 25 years to write…but I wasn’t writing it for 25 years. Working on something for two years, doesn’t necessarily mean what some are implying it means. It’s at the very least open to interpretation.

Of course not. Whatever else took priority has been released, or perhaps other stuff got chucked in the back burner when it tried to take priority.
We already know Kate did some work on the wardrobe.

It still doesn’t change the fact it required programmer(s) to gut the old trading post browser engine and stick in a new one. And that is a lot of work.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2fhpny/investigative_research_about_the_trading_post/

Vayne.8563:

If you don’t want to believe stuff is being worked on, it’s certainly your prerogative.

Everyone knows they’re working on stuff. Look at what they’ve produced over the past 2 years. Expect more like that.
Hoping they’re got some secret slaves working above and beyond on an expansion, though? Highly doubtful. You can feel how burnt out the developers are through their content.
I’ll eat my hat if I’m wrong about an expansion.

So to be clear, you don’t believe they’re working on a race or a profession?

Devata.6589:

Behellagh.1468:

As former members of Blizzard, Guild Wars followed the same model as Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft. Inital game followed on a year later with an expansion pack. Online play was free. Yes they later added a cash shop with exclusive skins and convenience items. But GW was more of a hub/instance model than a traditional MMO like UO and Everquest. It was more like Phantasy Star Online.

GW2 was going to be more like EQ, WoW and the MMOs that have come after. A world where all players can interact with one another with few instanced areas, unlike City of Heroes which you could be free to roam the world but “quest” wise was mostly instanced play.

Now “real” MMOs were subscription based but ANet didn’t want to give up on the buy once model but still wanted to add on to the game so they compromised. The box purchased essentially paid for the development cost but due to the more complex nature of the game, they couldn’t quickly do expansions like they did with GW. So they went with the successful F2P model of funding MMOs. But they drew the line at pay 2 win. So the vast majority of items are convenience and appearance only. Yes they have various boosters and a lock box like most F2P MMOs offer but they haven’t offered actual items of power to the store.

So far this has done okay in terms of income. So far other than the initial price reduction from $60 to $50, store boxes haven’t ended up in the bargain bin. And online sales, well even at 1/2 off I would guess they end up with as much money as they get from store bought boxes once all the various costs and cuts get factored in. Same can be said from online gem sales Vs gem cards.

I think one of chief complaints is coming from one the more clever things they did was the gem exchange.

We have now reached the point where players who what gem store merch for nothing have now realized that it’s becoming an impossibility from pure play. I’m not saying learning to make money from flipping but I know I make a lot more coin from supplying mats, upconverting mats, selling items not to the high bidder, etc. It’s being TP/economic savvy. ANet isn’t going to up the coin drop rate because that’s truly inflationary. So it’s up to the players to supply other players with their needs as a way to earn coin in the game. And there is a lot of push back to that. There is a contingent of players who yearn for a reward system where they earn usable loot directly rather than “work” as adventurers who sell to other players to earn coin that then they can spend to buy the loot they want. It’s a little too real world.

“Now “real” MMOs were subscription based ”
Except for some very recently released MMO’s all games released after wow did go F2P so not sure why you think all “real” mmo’s where sub-based.
The whole talk about not being P2W is irrelevant for anybody who’s not focusing on stats. There is no fun mini hunt like in many games because mini’s are one of the supposed cash cows in GW2. That’s one example how the cash-shop focus influences the game. So it does not have to be P2W to be bad.
“The box purchased essentially paid for the development cost but due to the more complex nature of the game, they couldn’t quickly do expansions like they did with GW. ”
And nobosy expedted them to. GW1 released an expansion after 6 months. GW2 would be fine with releasing one after a year. (I could even understand if the first expansion was a little later)

“There is a contingent of players who yearn for a reward system where they earn usable loot directly rather than “work” as adventurers who sell to other players to earn coin that then they can spend to buy the loot they want. It’s a little too real world. ”
That’s a long way of saying the game was turned into a gold grind because of it.

Except that plenty of minis in this game are not from the cash shop at all but are obtained in game. You’re simply ignoring them to try to prove a point. Want a mini liadri…beat liadri and you get one. Want a mini clockheart. Do all the aetherpath achievements and you get one. I remember making minis associated with Christmas through the mystic forge. I remember getting a mini queen Jennah (or twelve) for my first year birthday). I remember mini reef riders, mini captain magnuses, mini clockwork knights…there have been plenty of minis in game. Why do you ignore that?

I think most people are okay with the cash shop or have at most minor concerns. I think that you’re in a very small minority.

Illuminati.2431:

Vayne.8563:

Illuminati.2431:

Vayne.8563:

Stiofan.6720:

Windsagio.1340:

Stiofan.6720:

I can’t remember arenanet doing a poll asking players if they like hard content or not.

A poll would automatically be ccorrupted. Beyond campaigning, the other piece is that these groups are far more vocal than the other groups.

~~~

A few points though:
1) Anet knows who does what, and how often.
2) Anet is de-emphasizing further development of this kind of content.

They want their game to be successful and to get the greatest return of improvements for their investment. The fact that they’ve decided to not focus on that stuff right now shows they know what players want to do based on their actual actions as compared to forum noise.

snip

You guys should watch the movie ‘Idiocracy (2006)’ its seriously like looking into the future.

First of all they don’t have to monitor it “at all times”. They have software which tracks it at all times. They get numbers and totals.

They have put harder content in the game. My guess is even new hard content is under-utilized. What if they put in TA Aetherblade path and only 20% of the game’s population ever finished it and only 25% have ever attempted it.

That’s a lot of resources when 75% of the population hasn’t entered at all. Yes I’m making these numbers up, they could be completely wrong. But my point is that Anet DOES have those numbers and if you think they don’t, you don’t know Anet.

Again, you pick up TA Aetherblade path as an example. Wasn’t it made clear that this dungeon is never played, not because it is ‘hard’, but because of it’s reward structure.
Let’s say 25% attempted it. They finished it and found out: Hey, look what god awfull kitten junk this dungeon gives me. And that for all the effort I put into this!
When that happens, you tell it to people. You tell it to your friends, to your guild etc. etc. A lot of people would still like to play and try it though, but I guess A LOT of people just didn’t care after they read someone said that. And it’s a common given that TA Aeatherpath just gives such, such, such bad rewards.

So again, I’m sure they monitor numbers, but I also agree with some other posters that the numbers they have are not representable at ALL. Like the numbers for Aetherblade path. If they are low, which could be the case, that doesn’t necessarily have to mean people avoid one of the only hard content in the game, it could also mean: kitten you Arenanet, if you make harder content which take up way more time, the rewards should be better too! That’s normal for humans to think that way: more effort=more reward.

I’m not talking about why TA isn’t played now. It came with achievements and people would have played it once if they were interested in it, no matter what the rewards. It had enough of a reward to TRY IT.

So what if Anet saw most people didn’t try it or at least finish it? It would tell them something.

Even people who don’t like dungeons but like achievements would have tried it.

No, but you are talking about Anet monitoring numbers, and according to you, the numbers for ‘hard’ content like Aetherblade path are to low for Anet to make any new content like this.
All I’m saying, is that your way of logic: Anet’s numbers say not enough % of the playerbase plays this type of content, so why make more?, is wrong. Like I said, the numbers are totally not representable to the type of content, but they represent that if you make hard content that gives crap rewards, no one will play it.

Do you even read what I say before you rant on again and again? I never said that you said anything about Aetherblade path not being played. What I said was that when you used the Aetherblade path in your “Anet monitoring bullkitten” story, it is totally not representable.

Yes, I’m reading what you’re saying. You’re ignoring what I’m saying.

I said, and I’ll repeat, that when new hard content comes out, no matter what the rewards are, people are going to attempt it. Particularly if it has achievements attached to it, like the Aetherpath does.

Anet doesn’t only know how many people are attempting it now, but they know how many people have EVER attempted it. And don’t kid yourself, for many, achievement points are a reward.

If not enough people EVER attempted it, or never completed it, that gives Anet information they can use, no matter if people play it now nor not. Nothing you’ve said in the paragraph above invalidates anything I said in this response, or indeed my last response.

Devata.6589:

Vayne.8563:

Behellagh.1468:

Vayne, buddy, take it easy.

NCSOFT has announced expansions twice before and was denied. KDB Daewoo once again doesn’t mention it in any of the four reports they released after the one you linked.

Those other two articles were from May 2013.

Do I think they have a race and/or a profession or two ready to pull out in case of a dire turn of income, sure. It’ll be stupid not to think they have a group working on such a contingency. But the professions can’t come out of nowhere. There has to be a story element involved.

Honestly, calm down, they’re just baiting you.

I’m not sure why you think I’m not calm. lol

As I said, let’s take a look at 2015 and see what happens. Obviously if Anet never releases skills, races, or classes, the game is going to see less people. That’s logical. If you were Anet wouldn’t you be working on these things?

It’s just a matter of timing.

A lot of people who are ‘defending’ Anet with many of these things do say “lets wait for this, lets wait for that” as you know because you have said it many times before yourself.

When after 6 months Anet announced they would not release an expansion if the LS would work out many people said ‘lets wait until GW2 is one year old’. When we where at 1 year many people still complained about that and included that the LS was not living up to being expansion-like. The ’ defenders’ then said “Anet promised to do it better’s, lets wait till we see more of the LS”. Then we had to wait to the 1,5 year mark then people had to wait till a next patch, then people had to wait till the end of season one, then people had to wait till the average time other mmo’s released expansions, then we had to wait till the 2 year mark or wait until the same time after release WoW got there first expansion and now you say we have to wait till the end of 2015?

Well it’s nice that the waiting steps seem to be increasing but as you might see many people are tired of waiting. And with every ‘wait’ that does not result in the expectation you lose players. Funny thing is.. it’s very likely at some point they will get an expansion (or the game might simply die) so eventually you will be right as long as you wait long enough. But many people are tired of waiting.

This game was released as B2P and looking at GW1 I expected an expansion about every year. That would mean we would have a second expansion about now however the first expansion has not even been announced yet. By the end of 2015 I would have expected to have the third expansion. The thing I did not expect wash cash-shop related stuff influencing the game negatively however I got it just the other way around. They did not release expansions and to pay that we did get the cash-shop related influence on the game.

So now I am waiting and hoping on the moment they change there model back to a true B2P model.

Hope springs eternal, but it’s never going to happen. And when I say never, I really believe that. Even subscription games have cash shops now.

As for people getting tired of waiting….okay.

You may have noticed a few MMOs have come out since Guild Wars 2 and none of them are doing particularly well. I’m wondering why that is. Could it be it’s easy to say you’re going to make a great MMO but it’s harder than actually making it?

If you don’t want to believe stuff is being worked on, it’s certainly your prerogative.

But there’s no evidence either way that’s not cirumstantial.

It’s amazing how people are willing to say that Anet lies about this and NCsoft lies about that, but they’re perfectly willing to accept at face value the concept that someone was working on the trading post for two years, without even questioning the comment.

Did the person who said this actually say it was the only thing they were working on for two years. Did they say that during the time of working on it it was a priority at any time. Were they working on it in the background while doing a dozen other things.

I had a novel that took me 25 years to write…but I wasn’t writing it for 25 years. Working on something for two years, doesn’t necessarily mean what some are implying it means. It’s at the very least open to interpretation.

Behellagh.1468:

Vayne, buddy, take it easy.

NCSOFT has announced expansions twice before and was denied. KDB Daewoo once again doesn’t mention it in any of the four reports they released after the one you linked.

Those other two articles were from May 2013.

Do I think they have a race and/or a profession or two ready to pull out in case of a dire turn of income, sure. It’ll be stupid not to think they have a group working on such a contingency. But the professions can’t come out of nowhere. There has to be a story element involved.

Honestly, calm down, they’re just baiting you.

I’m not sure why you think I’m not calm. lol

As I said, let’s take a look at 2015 and see what happens. Obviously if Anet never releases skills, races, or classes, the game is going to see less people. That’s logical. If you were Anet wouldn’t you be working on these things?

It’s just a matter of timing.

Shockwave.1230:

Vayne.8563:

Shockwave.1230:

Vayne.8563:

The only question is how the expansion content will be delivered. I believe they’re working on at least 1 new profession and 1 new race. I believe they’re working on a skill pack. I believe they’re working on new areas to explore.

Will it be a boxed expansion? That I can’t say. Do I firmly believe this stuff is being worked on to be delivered into the game somehow.

I really do.

I cant see them implementing this content slowly, via numerous smaller updates. If you release a full boxed expansion, it creates hype and the more hype the bigger the draw.

Now if they were to released a full box worth of expansion just for buying the base game… Would that create more hype than a b2p expansion to the point it’d be worth doing? Idk.

From what I can tell, and this is ALL speculation. I don’t have proof. I have no links…

Anet wants to provide these updates through the living story, not a boxed update. The idea is that we then have all players on the same page, since everyone can use them. They believe keeping everyone playing is better than breaking them up by having one group buy the expansion, which would create a rift in the player base. Again just an opinion not fact.

I believe NcSoft, who has to shoulder the financial risk wants an actual tried and true expansion which is considered less risky.

Originally NcSoft said their would be an expansion. Then they said, we’ll see. They’re looking at numbers. If the sales of gems gets too small, then an actual boxed expansion will be how the content is released.

If the gem store sales remain strong enough, then we’ll probably see another delivery method.

The thing about doing the living story is it doesn’t create excitement for NC Soft or investors. Which may be a problem.

But also as a player my experience has been disappointment numerous times with the living story releases, but the last 3 I’ve been content with. And the very last one I was very happy with.

Because I feel like ANet feels that people feel that relates until recently have been underwhelming, I think they would like to do a free release expansion. But they’d have to justify that to NC Soft somehow, and I don’t know how they’d do it.

Maybe some kind of compromise that is similar to if you missed a living story journal. But how do you market that properly to get new players involved too? Do a relaunch of GW2?

So how does this change when Anet says a new race or new profession is coming? No one will come to try it? No one will buy the game when they see we’re getting stuff like that for free?

I don’t have an answer to those questions, but I think Anet is banking in the idea that if they can provide for free what other’s charge for, that will start catching on and snowballing. I don’t know if they’re right. I don’t even know if I’m right about that’s their thinking. lol

Shockwave.1230:

Vayne.8563:

The only question is how the expansion content will be delivered. I believe they’re working on at least 1 new profession and 1 new race. I believe they’re working on a skill pack. I believe they’re working on new areas to explore.

Will it be a boxed expansion? That I can’t say. Do I firmly believe this stuff is being worked on to be delivered into the game somehow.

I really do.

I cant see them implementing this content slowly, via numerous smaller updates. If you release a full boxed expansion, it creates hype and the more hype the bigger the draw.

Now if they were to released a full box worth of expansion just for buying the base game… Would that create more hype than a b2p expansion to the point it’d be worth doing? Idk.

From what I can tell, and this is ALL speculation. I don’t have proof. I have no links…

Anet wants to provide these updates through the living story, not a boxed update. The idea is that we then have all players on the same page, since everyone can use them. They believe keeping everyone playing is better than breaking them up by having one group buy the expansion, which would create a rift in the player base. Again just an opinion not fact.

I believe NcSoft, who has to shoulder the financial risk wants an actual tried and true expansion which is considered less risky.

Originally NcSoft said their would be an expansion. Then they said, we’ll see. They’re looking at numbers. If the sales of gems gets too small, then an actual boxed expansion will be how the content is released.

If the gem store sales remain strong enough, then we’ll probably see another delivery method.

The only question is how the expansion content will be delivered. I believe they’re working on at least 1 new profession and 1 new race. I believe they’re working on a skill pack. I believe they’re working on new areas to explore.

Will it be a boxed expansion? That I can’t say. Do I firmly believe this stuff is being worked on to be delivered into the game somehow.

I really do.

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

There’s actually many signs why an expansion isn’t in the works.

New classes and skills? Can’t break the game’s balance.
New races? Personal story is inconsistent with the current world state, not repeatable, the cut scenes & dialogue style has changed numerous times breaking consistency.
New maps? 6 months – 1 year to make per map.
New game modes or dungeons? Can’t spread the playerbase too thinly or modes that are not casual friendly.

Many people may believe they haven’t released an expansion worth of content (I’m one of them), but I can believe they’ve spent an expansion’s worth of development work.

Heck, the new trading post took nearly two years to make.

Anet said it would release new skills and they really haven’t. Why not? Could it be they want to release new skills all at once?

Anet said they didn’t want to release new zones because it would depopulate old zones. But that’s why the mega server is being worked on and improved.

There’s no real point in creating a new leveling experience for the few new copies of the game they’re selling so why put time and energy into it, unless of course they’re expecting an influx of new people.

Personal story can certainly be done with a new race, because they’ll do what they did with existing races. I’m sure Tengu could be fit in to use Caledon Forest as a starting area. The experience would be the same as it is for people playing alts now.

In the most recent issue of Flame Seeker Chronicles on Massively (hold on let me get that link for you http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/02/flameseeker-chronicles-whats-next-for-guild-wars-2/ ) the author came to the same conclusion I did.

Oh and NCsoft announced that an expansion for Guild Wars 2 will be coming in 2015, even though Anet denies it (hang on let me find that link http://www.kdbdw.com/bbs/download/182450.pdf?attachmentId=182450 ).

Let me also paste the relevant line: However, NCsoft is scheduled to launch an
expansion pack for Guild Wars 2 in the US and Europe in 2015.

We will see.

No, I doubt they’ll release a lot of skills all at once because
a) Too much to balance for them
b) They want to give each class specific roles.

Depopulation? Even more reasons to not give an expansion’s worth of maps.

Creating a new leveling experience? No idea what you’re talking about here, but they said they wanted to improve this area, hence what the upcoming feature pack intends to do (doubt it’ll be any good, though).

Again, with the personal story, I doubt they want to use the “old” technique. I’m sure players will be utterly confused over the difference in story telling techniques in the old personal story compared to the living story, or fractals, or ANet will use that excuse if needed.

Speculating from a game journalist means nothing, other than speculations.

Here’s something on your second link:

Disclaimers

This report is published by Daewoo Securities Co., Ltd. (“Daewoo”), a broker-dealer registered in the Republic of Korea and a member of the Korea Exchange.
Information and opinions contained herein have been compiled from sources believed to be reliable and in good faith, but such information has not been independently verified and Daewoo makes no guarantee, representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information and opinions contained herein or of any translation into English from the Korean language.

NCSoft has made zero official announcements on an expansion.

NcSoft at a much older stock call said, they’ll be announcing an expansion for Guild Wars 2 when it make sense to do so.

The information from Daewoo says an expansion is scheduled, not that they’re predicting it.

Edit: Here’s a link to another article that claims NCsoft has approved a Guild Wars 2 expansion and that it’s “being worked on”.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/13/4325904/guild-wars-2-expansion-pack-is-being-prepared-says-ncsoft

Edit 2: And another link to show that NcSoft said it.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x101h1d_ncsoft-is-prepping-an-expansion-pack-for-guild-wars-2_videogames

BlueZone.4236:

There’s actually many signs why an expansion isn’t in the works.

New classes and skills? Can’t break the game’s balance.
New races? Personal story is inconsistent with the current world state, not repeatable, the cut scenes & dialogue style has changed numerous times breaking consistency.
New maps? 6 months – 1 year to make per map.
New game modes or dungeons? Can’t spread the playerbase too thinly or modes that are not casual friendly.

Many people may believe they haven’t released an expansion worth of content (I’m one of them), but I can believe they’ve spent an expansion’s worth of development work.

Heck, the new trading post took nearly two years to make.

Anet said it would release new skills and they really haven’t. Why not? Could it be they want to release new skills all at once?

Anet said they didn’t want to release new zones because it would depopulate old zones. But that’s why the mega server is being worked on and improved.

There’s no real point in creating a new leveling experience for the few new copies of the game they’re selling so why put time and energy into it, unless of course they’re expecting an influx of new people.

Personal story can certainly be done with a new race, because they’ll do what they did with existing races. I’m sure Tengu could be fit in to use Caledon Forest as a starting area. The experience would be the same as it is for people playing alts now.

In the most recent issue of Flame Seeker Chronicles on Massively (hold on let me get that link for you http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/09/02/flameseeker-chronicles-whats-next-for-guild-wars-2/ ) the author came to the same conclusion I did.

Oh and NCsoft announced that an expansion for Guild Wars 2 will be coming in 2015, even though Anet denies it (hang on let me find that link http://www.kdbdw.com/bbs/download/182450.pdf?attachmentId=182450 ).

Let me also paste the relevant line: However, NCsoft is scheduled to launch an
expansion pack for Guild Wars 2 in the US and Europe in 2015.

We will see.

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Behellagh.1468:

Then be my guest and post the results as well as the links you pulled them from.

You’ll have to forgive me, as I’m giving Vayne the same respect he gave me whenever he never gives sources/links.

I give sources and links when I have the time and energy to do so. It has nothing to do with respect. It has to do with fatigue. Research was part of how I made my living. Looking stuff up to prove a point often doesn’t appeal to me. When you get paid to do something, you often want to do it less in your spare time.

Ok, that’s pretty hypocritical that you keep preaching on about proofs and facts, yet here we are without your proofs.

Since “looking stuff up to prove a point often doesn’t appeal to” you, then I’m gonna claim this game is dying.
Thank you.

This isn’t a situation about proof and facts and not every situation is. There is one fact though.

Only NcSoft and Anet know what they’re planning and without knowing what they’re planning it’s quite impossible to determine how good or bad they’re doing from a quarterly report.

That’s a fact. I don’t have a link, because what link could anyone offer to make it a fact.

If an expansion is in the works, as many suspect, this is quite acceptable. If an expansion isn’t in the works, then this is a lot more worrisome.

There’s no links that you can give to illustrate the truth of these statements, but that doesn’t make them any less true.

KarlaGrey.5903:

Vayne.8563

Looking stuff up to prove a point often doesn’t appeal to me.

Because proving a point on the basis of personal beliefs and expectations is the way to go in a debate of facts, and elsewhere, amirite.

+1 to Blue.

Nothing I say will ever convince you. Last time I provided a link about what I was saying, it was scoffed at anyway. I’ve already provided the link on what that lotro dev said about raiders in at least two different threads.

I’ve provided links in the past. There’s nothing to provide a link to here, because what I’m saying here, straight up, is that companies have a business plan and without seeing that plan, you can’t tell how well they’re doing. What link would you suggest I provide for that.

Blue is mad because in my analysis I used the word “always” to refer to a situation, when it should have read “current”. Nothing else I’ve said changes in definition or truth.

Unless you think that somehow a single quarter of a business plan is somehow indicative of how well a company is doing, then you’d theoretically agree with me.

This is my statement on this topic so you can agree or disagree as you will.

“It is my opinion that if Anet is making an expansion, as I and some other people believe, than this report if perfectly fine. If they are not currently working on an expansion, this report would be more worrying.”

There you go. That’s the statement. Since we don’t know if they’re working on an expansion or not, we can’t know how to take this report.

If you have links to prove one way or another, feel free to present them.

BlueZone.4236:

Vayne.8563:

BlueZone.4236:

Behellagh.1468:

Then be my guest and post the results as well as the links you pulled them from.

You’ll have to forgive me, as I’m giving Vayne the same respect he gave me whenever he never gives sources/links.

I give sources and links when I have the time and energy to do so. It has nothing to do with respect. It has to do with fatigue. Research was part of how I made my living. Looking stuff up to prove a point often doesn’t appeal to me. When you get paid to do something, you often want to do it less in your spare time.

Ok, that’s pretty hypocritical that you keep preaching on about proofs and facts, yet here we are without your proofs.

Since “looking stuff up to prove a point often doesn’t appeal to” you, then I’m gonna claim this game is dying.
Thank you.

Very often when I quote something, someone else thoughtfully provides a link. Some of what I say isn’t actually linkable, because it’s a combination of things I"ve learned over playing games for the years I’ve played. There’s no one link to that.

I firmly believe that hard core players are in the minority and I have seen in the past lots of devs say lots of things that lead me to believe that’s true. I say that this is my opinion and it seems to be backed up by what I’ve heard devs say. It doesn’t require a link. Because I’m talking about something I heard six months ago, last year, the year before, the year before, the year before. Links like that would be far buried and no matter what I provide, people will disagree anyway. That’s called a bad time investment.

You can say the game is dying and I’ll say it’s not and the quarterly report shows it’s not.

When I can furnish a link, I do. When I can’t I state what I believe to be true.

I agree, not the game for you. And this game isn’t likely to become the game for you. Not every game needs to appeal to every player.

BlueZone.4236:

Behellagh.1468:

Then be my guest and post the results as well as the links you pulled them from.

You’ll have to forgive me, as I’m giving Vayne the same respect he gave me whenever he never gives sources/links.

I give sources and links when I have the time and energy to do so. It has nothing to do with respect. It has to do with fatigue. Research was part of how I made my living. Looking stuff up to prove a point often doesn’t appeal to me. When you get paid to do something, you often want to do it less in your spare time.

And most people forget the new combat log, which is awesome for harder core players, though it wasn’t mentioned in the articles.

Illuminati.2431:

Vayne.8563:

Stiofan.6720:

Windsagio.1340:

Stiofan.6720:

I can’t remember arenanet doing a poll asking players if they like hard content or not.

A poll would automatically be ccorrupted. Beyond campaigning, the other piece is that these groups are far more vocal than the other groups.

~~~

A few points though:
1) Anet knows who does what, and how often.
2) Anet is de-emphasizing further development of this kind of content.

They want their game to be successful and to get the greatest return of improvements for their investment. The fact that they’ve decided to not focus on that stuff right now shows they know what players want to do based on their actual actions as compared to forum noise.

So you are saying arenanet actively monitors what everyone is doing all the time (doubt it) even if that was true you are missing something important, in gw2 there is no real hard content apart from fotm 50, so everyone is always doing easy content (its basically the only content there is), so then anet looks at the data and it says oh look nearly 100% of all the players are always doing easy content that must mean they love it.

If it was 50/50 hard/easy content and nobody ever did they hard content then you’d have a point. But since guild wars 2 is almost 100% easy content your argument is flawed.

Maybe arenanet is playing a some sort of sick joke mimicking the de-evolution of man?

Guild wars 1 has challenging content that made you think about strategy.

Guild wars 2 has simple content that makes you think about all the pretty colours.

Guild wars 3 will probably be cartoons.

You guys should watch the movie ‘Idiocracy (2006)’ its seriously like looking into the future.

First of all they don’t have to monitor it “at all times”. They have software which tracks it at all times. They get numbers and totals.

They have put harder content in the game. My guess is even new hard content is under-utilized. What if they put in TA Aetherblade path and only 20% of the game’s population ever finished it and only 25% have ever attempted it.

That’s a lot of resources when 75% of the population hasn’t entered at all. Yes I’m making these numbers up, they could be completely wrong. But my point is that Anet DOES have those numbers and if you think they don’t, you don’t know Anet.

Again, you pick up TA Aetherblade path as an example. Wasn’t it made clear that this dungeon is never played, not because it is ‘hard’, but because of it’s reward structure.
Let’s say 25% attempted it. They finished it and found out: Hey, look what god awfull kitten junk this dungeon gives me. And that for all the effort I put into this!
When that happens, you tell it to people. You tell it to your friends, to your guild etc. etc. A lot of people would still like to play and try it though, but I guess A LOT of people just didn’t care after they read someone said that. And it’s a common given that TA Aeatherpath just gives such, such, such bad rewards.

So again, I’m sure they monitor numbers, but I also agree with some other posters that the numbers they have are not representable at ALL. Like the numbers for Aetherblade path. If they are low, which could be the case, that doesn’t necessarily have to mean people avoid one of the only hard content in the game, it could also mean: kitten you Arenanet, if you make harder content which take up way more time, the rewards should be better too! That’s normal for humans to think that way: more effort=more reward.

I’m not talking about why TA isn’t played now. It came with achievements and people would have played it once if they were interested in it, no matter what the rewards. It had enough of a reward to TRY IT.

So what if Anet saw most people didn’t try it or at least finish it? It would tell them something.

Even people who don’t like dungeons but like achievements would have tried it.

Okay this is quite easy to determine. Let’s look at each item in the feature patch that’s coming and say whether it’s for new players, veteran players or both. I’ll lead with the new combat log, since it’s coming in the patch but didn’t appear in the article.

Completely Redone Combat Patch – Favors Veterans
PvP Tournament – Favors Veterans
PvP Visual Model Update For Tournaments -Favors Veterans
PvP new armor sets – everyone
Balance changes – everyone
Siege Golem Mastery Line – favors veterans
Anti-siege trap – favors veterans
Commander tag changes – favors veterans
WvW tournament including reward changes – favors veterans
Guild changes to unlocking servers – favors veterans
Changes to the way meta server sorts – everyone
Dungeon instance owner – everyone
crafting UI improvements – everyone
performance updates for large scale fights – everyone
New leveling items – newbies and altoholics
Crafter backpacks – newbies and people who like crafting
Profession loot – newbies and altoholics
A New Start (leveling experience) – newbies and altoholics
Personal story reward revamp – newbies and altoholics
Leveling rewards – newbies and altoholics
Drops by class – newbies
miniatures and finishers changes – everyone
collections – everyone
new trading post – everyone

I think there are a couple of changes that focus on newbies, but that also helps people like me, who are altoholics. Some focus on crafting and help crafters.

I think that people don’t realize that’s quite a lot of stuff since it’s been five months since the last feature pack. And if it is, as some people say, fixing the foundation to get ready for a large influx of players, say a new expansion, it would probably change what a lot of people are saying.

Erukk.1408:

I’m not all that surprised that Q2 profits dipped a bit. Other than the Feature Pack, April to June offered a whole lot of nothing really. I know I, and I’m sure many other players as well, took a long break from the game during that time, and the decrease in player activity would naturally lead to a decrease in gem sells.

Personally, I’m surprised the dip in profits wasn’t bigger.

It’s not even that. April was the release of ESO (which isn’t doing all that well) and June was the release of Wildstar (which isn’t doing all that well). That means that within that quarter, two competing games were released and people went to check them out. Many have already left those games.

Now you’ll have the open beta for AA to be pulling people away for a bit. I’m not surprised it didn’t dip more because I believe there are a lot of people who ARE happy with this game and playing and buying gems. But obviously there are people who’ll go and check out the new games.

morrolan.9608:

Vayne.8563:

Comparing a game with even an optional subscription to a game that has none is really not that good, which is why the meta data people always put SWToR and Guild Wars 2 on separate lists.

Yes but if you want to compare the performance of different models…………..

Then you run into other problems, because even comparing the performance of different models then wouldn’t account for a lot of other factors.

For example, there are X number of sub games and X number of free to play games. Some free to play games are pay to win and make more money from less people because of it, but then how much do those games cost to maintain? Guild Wars 2 is one of the few games that’s actually buy to play and there’s very little to compare it to in it’s own areas. It’s almost the only buy to play MMORPG that doesn’t have an optional subscription, in fact, I can’t think of any others off hand.

Comparing across lines like that would work better if the payment model was the main reason for a companies success or failure. I think most games tend to succeed or fail not based on the payment model.

It can be done…I just question the value of it.