Guild Wars 2

Based on what we’ve seen from Anet in 2014 the outlook is bleak. They are hemorrhaging talent. Couple this with the fact that chaos reigns supreme in their home office (reference to recent employee reviews on Glassdoor) I don’t see anything substantial coming in 2015 beyond more thin Living Story and QoL improvements.

I would love to be wrong in this. 2013-2014 was the era of suck for GW2, let’s hope 2015 is the year Anet turns it around.

A Lizard Bolting Skin.7426:

I am currently playing GW1 almost exclusively over GW2. Every now and then I’ll check in on GW2, help my guild do missions, try new content, get sorely disappointed, and go back to GW1. GW1 is full of players who tossed GW2 aside. GW1 hasn’t had new content in 2 years, and a sizeable crowd STILL chooses GW1 over GW2. GW2 isn’t beyond saving, but if another developer releases a instanced only high quality MMO, ArenaNet will see a migration.

GW1 has a much larger base right now than it’s predecessor, at least in NA. I thought I was seeing things when I logged into GW1 and found areas brimming with players. Reminded me when GW2 was still fresh. Something like this was bound to happen. GW2 has gone beyond stale to the point of player desertions. While some of migrated to other MMO’s who are actively working to expand their respective world, GW1 has seen a major influx of players. I’ve gone back to finishing off my GWAMM title with friends I haven’t seen in nearly a year.

Doll Mistress.9267:

I have only bought one costume, and although I like the new one very much, I probably will not buy it for a few reasons. I like to be able to switch out individual pieces, not look exactly like everyone else…and more importantly, I don’t like being forced to spend money to buy gems. (I have bought many in the past when I didn’t feel forced).

That just answered a question I’ve had lingering, thank you. Looks like I’m not buying this one either. It’s really a shame Anet cannot give the players what they want, even on the smallest of scales like releasing a single skin. This bring the total to 5 outfits I cannot/will not buy because they cannot be mixed and matched with other skins.

To give posters some clarity, Anet released the Zodiac skin which IMO was a bold change. I purchased this one was able to mix and match freely. The skin has a complex design with animation, and is mixable. The decision to make the outfits limited in appearance is by choice.

With every recent outfit release there has been negative forum feedback surrounding them, yet Anet continues to release these limited outfits.

Relshdan.6854:

it really is fantastic looking……it’s a shame it comes from a gemstore that now has a dishonestly altered conversion system that will leave me with 100 spare gems that are completely useless to me unless i buy more gems.

I read the Hexed outfit can be earned through gameplay. But new skins in the TP is nothing new. Anet has gone to the well too many times. In a game lacking an expansion for two years they should be giving away new outfits rather than milking the players who haven’t left for fresher MMO’s. SWTOR, Rift, EQ II, AA, WoW and others have expansions releasing soon. When is ours coming?

Obsidian.1328:

This is one of the oldest GW2 gripes in existence, sorry you came about it just now. :/

The reason WvW is included for world completion is simple: WvW was never intended to be competitive.

ANet initially wanted it to be a casual, friendly PvE area with some mild PvP elements. Obviously that didn’t materialize, as WvW is highly competitive…zergfests notwithstanding. Why ANet never decided to actually remove the WvW requirement for world completion is beyond me. Then again, there’s a lot of things they did that I won’t understand.

Short answer: unintended consequences.

Well said. IMO World vs World was going to be the equivalent of AB in GW1 but that didn’t pan out.

Sariel V.7024:

takes a drink If you didn’t leave it for last, you wouldn’t have nearly the issue with it.

The only person with any right to gripe about this is someone on a server that never wins in WvW. In all other cases, you’re looking at this from the wrong perspective. Mapping anyplace in PvE is a job for an hour. Mapping in WvW is something you should PLAN on spending a few weeks on. Week to week, your server’s color and starting position should change. This will give you better access to different areas, often ones you couldn’t get into the week before.

The color your server is assigned is based on how well it did the previous week. So if your server always wins or always loses… well, you’re stuck if you can’t get a group to knock in doors with. Otherwise, go do something else until the weekend rolls through.

Why should any player have to wait to finish their completion? Your argument holds no common sense. In fact, it sounds like you support the backwards thinking which led to many players getting frustrated to the point of quitting on their goal to attain a Legendary.

Halloween events in GW1 were hotly anticipated and generated hours upon hours of fun for a month. This two week deal is a sad comparison.

Gaile Gray.6029:

I think this post may be a valuable read: Mike O’Brien on Communication.

I take on board some well-expressed comments here. Quite honestly, I’m not sure how it would work to say “Yes, we’re aware of XYZ.” Those who say “We just want to know you’re aware” are terrific. But we all know that there are others for whom that wouldn’t be satisfactory. “We want to know you’re aware and we want to know what you’re going to do about it” can even become "We want to know you’re aware, we want to know what you’re going to do about it or [insert something here, from “I’m taking a break” to “I’ll never buy another gem,” to “I’m encouraging my entire gazillion-member guild to jump to Game Z].”

Please understand I’m not dismissing the desire for the first level of info, not at all! But can you see how the outcome can be unpredictable and how, no matter the question or request, there is no perfect answer? Further, can you see how “We’re aware of this and we plan to [whatever]” can become “Ok, you said you were aware of it three days ago, where’s the fix?”

I’m sort of writing to think, but I’d like to understand what truly reaches the point of “I’d like more info, but I’m satisfied with what you’ve been able to tell us right now.” Can you give me a few examples, where players would really like to know everything, but where there is a level of disclosure that meets the basic info request?

This was the single most exciting article thus far:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/

Each feature lasted no more than two paragraphs. The release gave players enough information on what they can expect the end result to be without divulging specifics.

Korossive.7085:

Hey there’s also the possibility Colin woke up one day, saw box-sales not going anywhere and gems are neglectable and decided to close shop. “John / Gaile, you two stall time while we put a few nails in the coffin, tell them we can’t say sh— even though we’d love to, should be enough. Art, you guys put some new minis, hell anything you want, don’t care. Programmers – you’re all fired. Lore, you guys, … lore? oh I forgot. So guys its been a good run but I have a private jet to take me to my yacht, see were sailing to the Bahamas where I’ma swing it again lol, so turn the lights off, and keep some servers up so they wont feel anything ADIOS SUCKERS!!!”

… did I go too far? o_o

It does feel like ArenaNet closed up shop. It’s been over two years without a substantial content release. No one can argue the lack of excitement coming from ArenaNet in regards to the future of Guild Wars 2. It’s telling of where the company is now. Maybe there’s some underlying issues at homebase which has affected the end product. Even the most naive of players should now be aware there’s something wrong. Going two years without a major infusion of PvE content has rendered the game useless IMO.

Recently WoW has released their current subscriber base figure which shows a marked increase. I can say from personal experience many new recruits in guilds I used to manage came directly from WoW. Who wants the guess the percent of those returning players are from GW2?

Gaile Gray.6029:

A teaser has to be carefully devised — for a book, a movie, a game. I find the portal and the date to be enticing. Others here do as well. It’s ok — your mileage may vary. But I don’t think we (as devs) want to go the way of TMI for upcoming content because that takes away the joy of discovery and the sense of wonder that everyone will experience as they play the new episode.

Again, just a personal opinion, but as you can see, something I have thought about quite a bit!

You make some good points, Gaile. Also, for a little bit of history, I remember you made an appearance in Rata Rum one day and subsequently became swarmed by eager players to meet a community member of Anet. I was one of them You even answered a question I had amongst all that chaos.

Going back to the image for the Living Story; teasing future media ( film, novel, video game) is tricky and should be well thought-out. Agree. However, there’s been a lot of friction between players and Anet when it comes to transparency. For months players are left in the dark in regards to what’s coming down the pipe whereas other MMO’s entice/notify players with images, trailers, emails and announcements you name it. The Living Story is supposed to be Anet’s version of expansion-like content, but an image of a portal doesn’t tell us much of anything. As it stands, Dry Top so far is the only new zone to come by in a long while and may vets including myself were hoping for more at the two year juncture.

So, if Anet had adopted GW1’s method of annual expansions we’d be preparing for our second (or delving into the 2nd expansion). The well of new content has run very dry. I feel more meat on the bone to restore the excitement and fervor we all enjoyed at launch.

Emtiarbi.3281:

zenleto.6179:

^ Exhibit A

Why would anyone want to communicate when faced with this drivel? A degree of maturity and politeness will get everybody further than some in your e-face ranting.

What about the people who are polite and show a good degree of maturity? We just want information of what is the future of Gw2

Just look at this announcement, just a plain image with a date, that is just sad.

I agree. When I saw the advertisement I felt disappointed and a bit miffed. It does nothing to excite me about the upcoming release. Furthermore, it reinforces Anet’s terrible company decision to not relay information about upcoming features.With Mike O’Brien cowering behind the “it’s our company policy” spiel he ensures the disconnect between developer and playerbase remains firmly in place.

What the heck happened to the ArenaNet we so adored?

Vayne.8563:

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about raids in threads. Please don’t get your hopes up for what a “raid” is. Raids in Guild Wars 2 are likely to be immensely different than raids in other games. Just the idea that there’s no trinity in Guild Wars 2 makes raiding a whole differerent kettle of fish.

More to the point, I think the raids will be like guild missions. Directly associated with guilds. If you don’t have a big enough guild, you might not be able to raid at all. If you have a casual guild that isn’t interested in raiding, you might have to join a bigger raiding guild or at least a bigger guild that raids.

The thing is, a lot of people are totally hyping themselves up for this, and for a surety, they’re going to blame Anet when those raids don’t meet those expectations.

We only know one thing about raids so far.

They’re going to be discussed in a CDI as part of the Guild CDI initiative. That’s ALL we know.

Don’t hype yourself up and if you do, don’t blame Anet when you don’t get what you think you’re going to.

Anet would only be blamed for conducting CDI’s on raids, summarizing exactly what we – the players – would like to experience, and develop something completely out of left field. Otherwise, I see no problem in people getting excited about the possibility of raids. There’s very little in GW2 to be excited about right now.

The UI and visuals in GW2 are fine. If too many people are in one area simply limit the number of avatars rendered nearby.

Too many releases have come out that were not up to par. That’s what you get for outsourcing your QA. For raiding to be successful the first time Anet must implement a test server. A limited number of players must be given access to this test server. Anet has full control of what the environment is, make this happen.

Brutality.9631:

Someday they’ll add guild halls and GvG and we’ll have something to BUILD again.

I recruited every day since day 1, kept a guild of 300 adults happy for 2 years, now they’re all bored and playing other games. I still recruit but the rate at which veterans of this game quit, is much greater than that of noobies looking for guilds (at least for my statistics purposes, at the times, zones, and mediums I use to recruit daily).

I was part of a guild that spanned 4 rosters of 400+ members eight months ago. The guild has since shuttered two branches and is close to a third. The guild leader achieved very little in maintaining a positive culture with members aside from a select few officers, but players joined because we tackled content together. When given the opportunity I was recruiting four players a night on Fridays and Saturdays alone.

You can only run through the same content so many times before you get bored, no matter how many players there are. It’s the natural order of things.

Elsdragon.5109:

Where are you getting those info from? Could you link them? Cause I don’t recall any of those… If you mean the every 2 weeks for a LS2 update, I already said they probably paused that for the September Feature Pack.

GW1 and GW2 are fundamentally different games. It’s easy to design lots of explorable areas when they are all instanced as compared to a living breathing world in GW2. As for classes and skills, GW1’s system of skills made it more difficult to gain skills and was centered around skill combinations. With the backlash of how the trait system was reworked, I don’t think Anet plans to make the skill system similar to GW1. The current classes in GW2 also have almost all bases covered, so there really isn’t much else to add to those classes that wouldn’t ruin lore or immersion. Your arguments fall short when you take actual context into play.

These are the kind of excuses which has put GW2 into a wretched state. We can’t have no new zones because they are persistent and Anet may have to work harder? Utter nonsense. We can’t have new skills because the bases are covered? More nonsense. The skill system in GW1 was perfect. Players would spent eons cooking up unique builds. You had the freedom to make what you wanted to make. So what if Anet spent more time balancing classes, the game was fun. Players enjoyed themselves. If it wasn’t for the incredible success of GW1 there wouldn’t be a GW2.

The excuses you relay to indicate a lazy developer. If you don’t believe this read into why dungeons will no longer be made. Your answer awaits.

I’m all for Anet getting off the schnide and releasing an expansion (and not a hopped up Living Story episode). This game deserves so much more than it’s been given. Anet created a beautiful world. I enjoyed my time in it immensely.

Shen Slayer.3058:

If Anet don’t start releasing new content soon, there’s going to many people abandoning this sinking ship. It’s shame, GW1 had such a long run and people still play it, whereas GW2 is already dying after 2 years.

Upon logging into GW1 last week I was surprised at the numbers of players. The game has maintained a serious playerbase and is enjoying an influx of older players who left it to play GW2. Guilds are still recruiting, players are still doing Zaishen missions, FoW and UW are still tangible adventures.

As much as I loathe this current regime in Anet who have done nothing substantial with GW2 since launch, content-wise, I appreciate my old characters and their respective inventories are still present in GW1.

Deli.1302:

maddoctor.2738:

Deli.1302:

We’ve already known from NCSoft investor meetings that an expansion is in the works, hoping for a 2015 release.
How else can you explain the complete disappearance of Eric Flannum, Ree Soesbee and Jeff Grubb?

You mean those investor meetings that were talking about a 2010 release for GW2 and an “expansion to come in late 2013”? I don’t trust anything GW2-related that comes out of NCSoft, they’ve been proven false so many times in the past that they are not a reliable source of information.

Also, no to Elona or Cantha, there are still too many areas of Tyria (continent) yet to be explored.

What part of “hoping” did you not understand?

Hoping for a 2015 release based on what NcSoft says is like hoping Santa Claus brings us faithful GW vets Alienware rigs for X-Mas. It’s anyone guess outside of Anet what they plan to do, and they do not share information freely. They will open the table for discussions (CDI threads) but beyond that it’s pure speculation. It’s better we hope Anet decides to even begin thinking about an expansion right now, at least that signifies a possible change in direction.

Simon.3106:

Hmm.. CDI for GUILD HALLS…. when is the expected release date? How long does Anet usually take for this?

Under their current policy Anet will never give an ETA for release unless it’s very near completion. That said, who knows? Your guess is as good as everyone else.

fellyn.5083:

Vix.6730:

Between talk of guild halls and the possibility of raiding content being produced, who thinks ArenaNet has shifted gears towards a traditional expansion? I know it’s way too early to tell what kind of format release either feature could be exported to, but one can hope…

FWIW there is no actual talk of raiding content being produced. It’s only speculation by some people based on a job listing for anet.

And the job listing may not even be for GW2 for all we know.

“We will be discussing ideas around Guild Raids,” design director Chris Whiteside says in a post.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/10/03/guild-wars-2-getting-raid-content

If that’s not talk about raids, then what is?

darkace.8925:

Who needs an expansion when we’ve got the Living Story giving us “an expansion’s worth of content” for free?

The Living Story has the feeling of supplemental content. RIFT made bi-weekly releases popular, but they have continued to develop expansions. In fact they have a new expansion releasing soon. Three new zones, six dungeons, mounts and skills.

In theory an expansion would contain a new class, new skills, dungeons, a new continent to explore, quests, and QoL improvements. The current iteration of the Living Story is one large quest broken up into bite-size chunks.

Devata.6589:

Vix.6730:

What do people see as the benefits of instanced?

Instanced guild halls would bring exclusivity to members. Celebrations and events could happen without outside grievance. Meetings can be held in relative tranquility.

Not to tackle you personally but to me most of those negatives seem technical difficulties. So I figured I would use this as an example.

If you can build a guild-hall the way you want you can make it as closed as you want. Doors (like in WvW) would only let guild-members in and then add the function to keep chat inside, and map-chat outside and you would have your exclusivity also with open world guild-halls, not?

Right. My first answer was to address the sole benefit of instanced guild halls. Further down I mention an open world guild hall as being the nicer of the two options and offer the idea of a swinging door/access gate. My day job allows me to configure region access tools among other tasks which include avatars, voice, chat and media within parcels who sit alongside other parcels. The same basic theories could be applied here. In fact I recommend whoever’s representing Anet (and reading this) to look into how Second Life allows private island owners to control their regions as a guideline for open world hall configuration tools. They are practical in use.

Aguri.2896:

I hope there is an expansion. If I hear the word expansion from Anet I will have 3x the fun in GW2 pre-expansion, purely from the hype for the upcoming expansion..

Excellent point. Even if the expansion doesn’t hit until Fall 2015, players will return just to familiarize themselves with the world, or wrap-up past achievements. See? We’re not asking for something tomorrow, we’ll wait for something good (if there’s something worth waiting for).

Cantha and Elona are both rich with lore, either continent would be a joy to explore. I tend to favor Elona as I found the main storyline inspiring.

A traditional expansion would net ArenaNet major dividends. Based on what I’ve been reading on Glassdoor.com I’m not sure they currently have the manpower for such an endeavour; however, between Anet and NCSoft there’s more than enough free flowing cash to make it happen. The reasons for undertaking an expansion would far outweigh the cons.

Between talk of guild halls and the possibility of raiding content being produced, who thinks ArenaNet has shifted gears towards a traditional expansion? I know it’s way too early to tell what kind of format release either feature could be exported to, but one can hope…

What do people see as the benefits of instanced?

Instanced guild halls would bring exclusivity to members. Celebrations and events could happen without outside grievance. Meetings can be held in relative tranquility.

What do you see as the benefits of open world guild halls?

The chance to share your greatness with everyone. Let all who pass marvel at this hall of wonders! Open world halls can be used a destination point for large public gatherings. They can also serve as a staging ground for PvE events.

How could we get the benefits of instanced guild halls in a system of open world guild halls?

Provide guild leaders a switch to toggle open/closed – private/public access. A good example are Private Islands in Second Life. Region owners are given tools to allow public access, or limit access to groups. In GW2’s case, the access can be limited to members wearing the proper guild tag.[/i]

How could we get the benefits of open world guild halls in a system where guild halls are instanced?

See answer to previous question .

An instanced guild hall is the easy of the two options, relatively speaking. Like the halls in GW1, formatting is pre-determined. Leaders can decide which NPC’s to purchase for use. However, in keeping line with the persistent atmosphere an open world hall is the better option. Access to the hall can be programmed into the door. For instance, if a guild is holding a members only meeting the door would grant access to members wearing the guild tag, but the hall itself would still be visible from the outside.

My money is on this skin becoming another useless costume.

Devata.6589:

For the more important ones I agree it should be a reward / unlock for doing something specific like killing a boss or completing a dungeons and so on. But I can imagine there are many many many different type of walls and doors and windows and chairs and decorations and so on available. Imho they would be fine to just randomly (so rng) drop.

That would however still then drop in specific places! so if you want a specific one you know you can do that specific content and should be able to get that soon enough. No general world drops that means you can’t work directly towards them.

Walls, doors, windows and chairs are lovely if the game allowed us to interact with them I can imagine a GH blueprint containing everything needed to spawn the lot minus the NPC’s which are small enough to gain through influence spending.

While I’d love to see housing in GW2 or at least aspects of housing implemented in guild halls, I think instanced, pre-built halls are what’s for dinner.

ipan.4356:

And, above all, put out more content. Lots of it.

Build it, and they will come.

People are becoming disillusioned with GW2.

I’m having more fun right now playing Skyrim and Star Citizen (Arena Commander alpha).

Your game is stale, fix it.

Great points. I had more fun in Guild Wars 1 the other night than I did in GW2 going back to launch. The original world was robust, engaging, and the rewards kept you coming back for more. I achieved GWAMM and still have 30 some odd quests to complete and there’s a lot more I never picked up.

An expansion done right would solve a lot problems and give disillusioned players (including myself) a reason to be active again.

The Living Story in its current form will not stop the hemorrhaging of players.

I’d trade in all the waypoints in all the zones for realistic travel. Sad part is, the maps are too small to accommodate anything but running.

Nothing spectacularly new content-wise. Other than Drytop the game has reached a stalepoint. There may be good news around the corner with discussions of raids and guild halls.

Iason Evan.3806:

Trent.5201:

We saved up 2 million influence just to spend on guild halls!!!

This is exactly why Influence or being in a big guild shouldn’t be the “gate” for building or upgrading a guild hall.

Exactly. This type of carrot would either 1) Kill smaller guilds or 2) Force smaller guilds to merge. With Anet these days you never know, but this is an obvious pitfall to avoid.

Gathering blueprints to form guild halls is a good idea. It shouldn’t be based on chance, rather a reward for killing a boss or completing a meta-event.

Kythan Myr.4719:

I have to wonder if there is even enough of us active to justify Anet even feeling the need to do something for those wanting something more.

I bet a fair number of the players are still around. They may not be in Tyria, however like myself they may still receive email alerts about GW2 and read news clippings on MMO sites. Will it take some effort to convince these players to return? Yes. Is ArenaNet willing to do it? That remains to be seen.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

Personally I’d rather see housing than Guild Halls. Guild Halls is exclusive for players in guilds, housing would be for everyone. This could then be expanded to Guild Halls where players live in neighbourhoods of other guild members, having a specific number of players and their homes located in an instance. Huge guilds will have more than one neighbourhood and players could visit homes of other players.

see: LotRO http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Housing

I find some ideas here quite odd, some guys seem to forget that there are guilds as large as hundrets of players, not 5-10.

A few of the earlier long-winded proposals wouldn’t be considered as they were either too complex for the average player to manage or just not related to guild halls.

Housing would be much better than any instanced or persistent hall. They fit well in GW1 because everything was instanced, but how many times have we visited our home district? A persistent housing district within the confines of the home cities or outlying towns could have major, positive impacts across the board.

A good change in direction for GW2. Between talks of guild halls and raids it almost makes you feel as if they are working on (or preparing for) an expansion.

Aither.2859:

I have been playing GW2 since it’s launch. I was in the head start and before that the beta. For the longest time GW was one of my favorite franchises, I earned enough points in GW to obtain all the HoM items and spent well over $300.00 within the GW2 gem store.

I have had many guild members and friends quit GW2 already because they felt cheated out of the game, they too had played since the beginning and never once did a precursor drop for them, not once did they feel that the rewards of Guild Wars 2 were strong enough to keep playing for, and I am starting to think they were right.

You and your friends are right. I too have been an avid player since GW:Prophecies. My guildmates and friends and I made the transfer to GW2 during beta and headstart. A year after launch my friend’s list was halfway active, tack on another year and it’s dead. This is a list of 40+ diehards of whom I spent countless hours in UW, The Deep, Urgoz, FoW, DoA, rolling alts after alts with. Farming ectos and shards and armbraces til the cows came home. We played Guild Wars because our efforts were rewarded. We played Guild Wars because the develop created new continents filled with new races, classes, enemies, quests and missions.

Where are those types of rewards in GW2? Where are those new types of lands filled mysterious enemies waiting to unleash havoc?

Just today I logged in after a three week layoff to see I was kicked from my guild because I didn’t “fit the culture” anymore. Well, if that culture is running through the same content that’s been stagnate for over two years than yes I do not fit that culture. In fact, I refuse to be affiliated with a culture that accepts ill-conceived and executed development work for the sake up updating a release notes page every two weeks. I refuse to keep my head in the sand and accept Arenanet’s poor decision-making of late.

If Arenanet wishes to see their game return to the level of excellency it once enjoyed then give the players what they want: an expansion with a stronger, more everlasting reward system. You can keep your Gem Store skins.

I’m glad more people are coming to realize how stale GW2 has become. ANet seriously needs to reconsider the Living Story idea because it’s not panning out. Now if that means hiring more people (yes we know your resources ate strained) then do it. NCSoft is posting huge profits so ask daddy for a loan if you need it.

Thuggernaut.1250:

(4) I don’t think I even need to mention how superior the writing and content in GW1 was compared to GW2. it simply goes without saying. in order to make another “me too” MMO, they had to throw in additional races, and instead of making one race with one solid, compelling story (GW1), they made five races with mediocre, forgettable stories.

The Nightfall campaign inspired me to become a writer. One published book and two more manuscripts in the works I’d say it’s been a very positive change. GW2’s writing is anything but. It feels commercial, overly simplified and not well thought out. Story drove the missions in GW1. You were immersed in the world, and you cared about your character. In GW2 you run kitten-boy errands for Trahearne. Your character means nothing in the personal story nor the Living Story. Now if you can’t connect with your character are you going to care about the world?

Warrior is extremely boring, but very easy to learn. I found Mesmer to be the funnest throughout.

Julie Yann.5379:

RiverSong.5067:

You will excuse me for saying so but there is, or was, an employe of anet in my alliance. I heard, not from him but from a guildie, that the developers had a problem.

This hypotetical problem would be that they’re told how to develop the game, against their best judgement sometimes.

I do not have detailed information as i was not part of the conversation but i can’t just put this aside. If there is someone else calling the shots, i feel the devs should go in damage control mode. Traits changes, NPE changes… Those were very sudden, no brutal moves for the players. That is why they rejected them.

I would like to suggest that in the case where my suspicions were right, and the devs have to answer to a higher up, they request that the question is debated by their team.

What i mean is this: Boss X says to Dev Y, remove key farming by scrapping the personnal story until level 10. Dev Y then goes: why? Boss X goes just do it. Dev Y goes: no. Boss X goes: what?! Dev X goes: you will tell me what the problem is and we will fix it how we see fit, IF we see fit. Boss X dies of a heart attack. Boss XY goes: ok.

This is all just a theory.

Check out Anet’s reviews on glassdoor.com, should give you some perspective.

Current and former employees appear to be universal in their criticism towards Anet, particulary upper management and how they are steering GW2. To quote a July 14th posting by former employee:

“Upper Management is poor: Some directors and design leads pay more attention to graphs and data then what people both in and outside of the studio are saying, and this often ends up with projects either being poorly prioritized, scoped beyond what a team can handle, or just driven in the wrong direction. The majority of the people driving the studio are severely out of touch with/don’t care about the people in the trenches and the players.”

“Production doesn’t schedule teams well: Crunch time lasts far longer than it should, projects end up far out of scope, and deadlines are frequently treated as movable guidelines. Despite the desire to make quality content, a lot of teams are forced to quickly move from project to project, which has resulted in releases far below the quality they deserve.”

http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/ArenaNet-Reviews-E255820.htm

So when they say, “our numbers xx number of players enjoy this, so we made that” you know that’s a problem.

While digging I found this quote from another former employer posted Feb 9th:

“Lastly, the recent move to offload the entire QA department to a third party agency is undeniably an unhealthy move in regards to the studio culture and the pre-existing dynamic of mentoring/hiring young developers and producers from within. This is often referred to as “cutting off the hand that feeds” in this scenario. There will be a trickledown effect that will likely become visible six months to a year after making this move. "

Any correlation between outsourced QA team and NPE disaster? I think so.

RiverSong.5067:

I see, one of those case where it was not broken and they fixed it anyway?

Right, and therefore broke it. Compound this with a lack of new content aside from thin Living Story episodes and you have a fairly good section of the playerbase either taking a break or leaving altogether. Sad times.

notorious bob.2061:

So I logged back into my GW1 account yesterday, just to have a potter about for old times sake.

Did a few “solo” runs including some of the old stuff that I developed for the Ranger’s Beacon in The Jade Sea and The Deep.

Grabbed henchies and heroes and had a few bashes at dropping a froggy sceptre.

Took some folks on a guided tour of the Fissure

Went and capped a Black Widow solo – just because I could.

and then something stopped me in my tracks. I realised that I cared about my toons, felt connected to them. They had a personality and playing the game was FUN!

More than that, I could play GW1 in various styles and no part of the game world was “off limits” or restricted.

And that’s where GW2 has failed. Sure it looks pretty, but there simply isn’t the connection, my toons have no personality and the game is an un-ending grind for cosmetic skins, short term FPS “shoot and scoot” mentality and Anet wasting effort on trivial “improvements” rather than letting players PLAY in a style that suits them.

Sad that after such a short time GW2 has become a pale imitation of its predecessor.

I completely agree. The past two years I’ve felt like I’ve been playing a rent-a-toon. Sure it’s mine to throw around but it’s not mine to customize. My sword skills are locked in the same 5 boring options, as are my GS, staff, etc. I’m forced to choose utility skills. This disconnect along with Anet’s decision-making has driven me away.

Anet felt the playerbase is too simple to understand the original traits, so they dumbed it down. Same way they felt about how players learned gameplay mechanics, they made the NPE.

Shen Slayer.3058:

nexxe.7081:

As for people that keep bringing up AA…

Archeage is nothing like GW2. For one, it’s tab-target without dodge. It has quest hubs, worse dungeons with 3 player limit, no raids, etc. All it has is open world pvp, where guilds will control open land, raze your house and ships, and you will be left helpless without a mega guild to protect you. It also uses labor points for everything… no seriously, literally for everything. If you want to harvest, craft, open loot, you will need labor points. Just think how “energy” works in those facebook games, and that’s archeage’s labor point system.

Archeage sounds like what I wanted GW2 to be, sounds very interesting. I might be leaving GW sooner then I thought.

ArchAge is funner than I thought it would be. It features many elements that GW2 promised but never delivered. The world feels vast and filled with wonder.

Brimstar.9036:

With the recent changes and the direction the game is going, I think it’s time for me to bid you all a very fond farewell. Try not to complain too much without giving credible feedback and I hope they fix many of the things wrong with the feature pack that over killed me. I had some good memories these 2 years and I wish they could of lasted longer. Take care!

Safe travels. I feel like I’ll be headed in the same direction very soon. Everyone I made friendships and acquaintanceships with in Guild Wars have left for greener pastures. It feels like an empty vessel now. I stuck with the game because I believed in the developer. I believed in their manifesto, then I believed in their new direction.

I do not believe in the developer any longer. Statement after statement has been contradicted at a later point. They don’t seem willing or able to produce content for veterans aside from Living Story episodes. Part of me is glad my friends didn’t stick around to see our once cherished and admired franchise devolve into the mess it is now.

Sarabande.8260:

very expansion in the original Guild Wars required new professions, with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content.

You must have meant, “every Guild Wars expansion included new professions with a corresponding new glut of skills and new tutorial content.” Expansions aren’t required to have new professions, its just makes sense to release them there from a monetary/marketing perspective. And a glut of new skills would be most welcomed right about now.

Back to the OP – Guild Wars remained relevant through expansions. Could there have been a different way to release content? Sure! Would it have fared any better than the standard expansion model? Who knows? I left my crystal ball in my other pants.

Bottom line is, the current model is obviously not working. You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t want the chance to explore a new continent or try their hands at a new class. What you will find is a plethora of veterans asking when they can enjoy some new content that doesn’t come in a forgettable, 2-hour dietary pill. The Living Story can never replace the meat you find in an expansion. Not in its current form.

Sarabande.8260:

This community seems to be very, VERY angry. Almost every post I see is bursting at the seams with negativity, so as the title asks, is there anything good about this game? I am just getting back from a break where I was overseas, just built a computer, and am packing up to move to a new state so unfortunately I have not been able to play for more than 2 hours or so over the past few days.

Honestly, and please try and be as mature and rational as possible here, but is this game dying? Are people about to start leaving in high numbers? What is your real assessment of this game? I am thinking about getting my bf into this game, but after reading through these forums a bit I just don’t know.

Try your best to be objective. I would really like to read some mature responses. I see what’s bad, I see it in almost every thread, so what’s this game got going for it?

The game has been hemorrhaging players for some time. Everyone has a different opinion on why: the most used reason has been content in relation to PvE. The original Guild Wars retained and attracted new players through expansions. Guild Wars 2 was given a different approach that hasn’t panned out.

Instead of development time used to create a new continent, new classes, races, and quests we were given the Living Story. The first iteration was a flaming wreck. The 2nd iteration was very short before Anet took a break to “work” on the September feature release.

The feature pack is akin to a home owner redecorating the front of his abode during a house party in an effort to attract more guests, while keeping his back turned to his current ones. Veterans were slapped in the face. Many have voiced their frustration. some have come out and said they refuse to spend another dollar on this game until things are fixed. Others have probably just signed off.

My honest recommendation: stay away from GW2 until they release an expansion. The Living Story will not fix their tarnished image, nor will any Quality of Life improvement. ArenaNet has given the middle finger to every paying customer for too long. It’s expansion or bust.

Vayne.8563:

Vix.6730:

Vayne.8563:

All this patch did was change 1-15 zones to tutorial zones, so people can relax into a character. They’ve greatly increased the speed of leveling. It took me an hour or so to get to level 7. So level 1-15 you level through super fast (or use a 20th level scroll if you have to) and most of the major unlocking is done.

But what this has done is given people more information about what happens when they level.

Anyone who doesn’t think this was necessary hasn’t spent much time on player helping players forums.

Valid points if this was the year 2012.

Valid points for now. No MMO can survive without new blood. All MMOs have natural attrition and lose people over time. If they can’t replace those people, they die.

Anet needs to find a way to get more players into the game. I strongly suspect the free weekends have been failures, or they’d have had more of them. So they want to increase the odds that someone will stay who’s never played the game.

This is a business decision, not one meant to kitten off players. Most of the leveling experience is going to be better, but the first 15 levels sorta suck.

You’re contradicting yourself. On one hand you say MMO’s need new blood and this was a business decision, and the other you say the first 15 levels will now kinda suck? The first 15 levels were some of the game’s strengths. Seems to me this release will be putting off more new players.

The video speaks volumes of the direction ArenaNet has taken the game. Oh well. ArchAge launches September 12th. After that we have Everquest Next and Shroud of the Avatar among others ready to accept the alienated, discouraged and fed up GW2 veterans.

Glory.1493:

its unfair to others who likes the feature patch.u made it seems game gonna die tomorrow while majority have no problem with this patch.it is just unhappy guys speak more.u can just delete the game and leave if u dont like it,but whats the point to post it here.nothing changed on every map. ppl still enjoy this game.could u just leave it alone and play someting else if it bothered u so much.

Every paying customer has the right to voice their opinion regarding the product they own. It’s not within your power to dictate how and when they can voice that opinion. And for the love of all that is holy, can posters stop acting like they are an appointed representative for the playerbase?

Vayne.8563:

All this patch did was change 1-15 zones to tutorial zones, so people can relax into a character. They’ve greatly increased the speed of leveling. It took me an hour or so to get to level 7. So level 1-15 you level through super fast (or use a 20th level scroll if you have to) and most of the major unlocking is done.

But what this has done is given people more information about what happens when they level.

Anyone who doesn’t think this was necessary hasn’t spent much time on player helping players forums.

Valid points if this was the year 2012.