Hi Cesmode,
You appear to be very combative in your responses and i would ask that you take a deep breath every so often and approach the initiative in the spirit it was created and take the time to actually read and think about what has been posted.
I say this because each of your points (aside from number 5 which was a request for more discussion and will be added to by me shortly) has actually had commentary on it.
1: I said we plan to move forward as we have been. I later said (and as with everything we do) we will continue to appraise quality of the releases as we continue to improve our deployment with the platform and that if through internal and external discussion we felt that the quality was not meeting the expected level then we would reappraise and evolve.
2: To this point i agreed in my main discussion post and talked about how we would solve this problem moving forward. Specifically by ensuring that LW was at the core of the majority of our releases and that we intend to ensure that arcs have little to no gaps in relation to the macro level story arc.
3: I also talked to this and made it clear that the platform is still in its infancy and that we have to move in a balanced development approach to ensure that we don’t start running before we can walk and that our main focus is ensuring quality and then moving up to the next level of sophistication in regard to what the platform is capable of. I also clearly stated that we want players to shape the world (physically and in terms of the evolving history) and that we needed to make the players more central to an epic story experience, where there needs to be more ‘meaningful’ connection to the world and what goes on within it.
4: Regarding Rewards i also spoke to this saying that we need to have more rewards that ‘celebrate’ the player’s accomplishments that are like rites of passage and that also meet the expectations of time vs. investment.
5: I will be posting on this discussion shortly now that i have had time to read and think about what the community has put forward.
Post like this Cesmode really don’t need to occur. Many of your questions can be answered by keeping up to date with the thread and understanding what the stated goals are of the initiative. I appreciate your feedback and some of your commentary but please understand that this slows the process down and can also derail extremely valuable discussion.
I hope you understand,
chris
I’d like to point out how aggressive people are or aren’t is in your own hands. Allocate time to post in this thread and people will be a lot more constructive. Regardless of that. Aggressive post shouldn’t be looked down upon or not replied to. People are passionate and tempers can fly high.
A lot of people start to feel ignored when the developers are not posting. You keep bringing up that you, anet, needs to be better at communicating back. Well that starts with making time to do so.
Furthermore do not dismiss items without giving a reason. The release schedule is a hot topic, but is being dismissed without giving a reason.Nothing should be off the table. While you might not see it feasible to implement it right of the bat. A full discussion might spark ideas.
I agree with you but think we player’s should still strive to be polite. I think since this is the first time they misjudged the time commitment this discusion would take and seem to be taking care of it. If you want an example of dev’s not taking this collaboration seriously go check out the wvw version of this collaboration thread.
We are committed to quality not quantity.
Perhaps it would have been more accurate if I’d stated that you were prioritizing release dates over quality. I get that you guys have every intention to release quality content. You’re all very passionate and committed to what you do, and you obviously want to create things that people enjoy.
However, allow me to make an observation. I’ve noticed that when you discuss future content or features (other than Living Story), you never commit to a release date. My understanding was that this is because game design can be unpredictable: things change, features may not work exactly as you intended, bugs may pop up, or it may simply take more time to polish a feature for release than you intended. And you don’t want to release content before it is ready, hence…you never commit to a release date.
Except for when it comes to Living Story.
Suddenly, every two weeks, just like clockwork, there it is. Right on schedule. How, then, can it be that your priority is on the quality of the release, when you are committed to releasing it on a specific date no matter what?
If you are saying that you now have the ability to make sure that content is ready by a specific date, then surely you have the ability to commit to dates for all your releases (not just Living Story). But of course, we know that this isn’t the case.
So while you may want quality, it certainly isn’t your priority. It can’t be. Not on a specific release schedule. It’s impossible.
This said there is a lot we can and are doing to meet concerns regarding the cadence and really polish the positives we have already achieved in this area.
I would be really interested to know what you guys are doing to meet my concerns regarding the cadence. Because I honestly have no idea how you can do that while simultaneously stating that the cadence will continue unaltered no matter what any of us says.
The cadence is something we discuss frequently. We are a very collaborative team and do our best to never sweep anything under the rug (-:
I’m curious as to what these discussions are like. When you are having these discussions, does it ever come up that many people are vigorously opposed to it? Or is it the impression of the team that the current cadence is both popular and desired? If so, do you have any metrics to back this up?
Finally, a simple question:
Why are you unwilling to adjust the release cadence? What is the reason that it must continue, no matter what anyone says? Can you at least help us understand that?
everyone keeps bringing up the release schedule even after you have said it is non negotiable this is the best written post expressing our concerns and questions about it.
So with all of this in mind it would be cool to carry on discussing around this area in much the same form as Nike has. Specifically brainstorming on top of the foundation of known systems and functionality.
Chris
How about rewarding the players who do this brainstorming? Ok, suggestions may come free but brainstorming activities should be rewarded, right?
As far as I am concerned, GW2 is not a finished game and it will never be. it is just lingering around an open beta stage 2 phase where the players take the role of testers every 2 weeks. It kind of reminds me of Firefall where it is still in open beta only that those guys haven’t released 30 zones but only one
the reward is a better game
I don’t mind the changes but i think anet needs to remember they introduced ascended gear and swapping builds just isn’t as easy anymore. once they add ascended armor they really need to think about how to allow us to switch stats on our ascended gear when they break a build.
You bring out good point with ascended gear.
I have my 5 gear sets for my main character. I don’t even have ONE full ascended trinket set and 0 ascended weapons this far.
It makes me sad since in WvW ascended stats do matter, alot.
Now that they introduced this ascended stuff it takes very long time to get even one gear set for one character so it becomes just a gold farming race to be honest if you want to stay at least nearly competitive.
In my opinion problem there is too high cost and time gating.
right they break a build or nerf a weapon so that it is useless for my exotic stuff its no big deal I have the gold to buy a whole new set no problem. I might have preffered to spend the gold on something else but Its well within the reach of most people. If they do it to a build after they introduce ascended armor it will be what a month or 2 to fully gear up a new build? It’s a problem they really need to address.
I don’t mind the changes but I think they need to remember they introduced ascended gear when they nerf builds to irrelevance. I think once anet introduces ascended armor they will need to give us a way to trade out the stats in gear when they decide to break a build as getting a new build will no longer be trivial.
I don’t mind the changes but i think anet needs to remember they introduced ascended gear and swapping builds just isn’t as easy anymore. once they add ascended armor they really need to think about how to allow us to switch stats on our ascended gear when they break a build.
I think you should look closely at the two quotes, and not just my question alone. Chris practically cuts the discussion on the cadence of release, while Bobby says it’s good to have the feedback on the cadence.
See the contradiction there?i dont see the contradiction to me it looks like bobby is saying i am not in charge of this decision but thank you for sharing and chris is saying i am in charge of this decision the answer is no. Maybe they can clarify.
He isn’t just saying thanks, he’s encouraging us to continue discussing the cadence, while chris says that the cadence can not be changed. That’s the slight contradiction.
It’s like being told at work by one manager, “The turnaround speed of each project, from start to finish can not be changed” and the other manager only stepping in to state: “…..but continue telling me about how stressful/tiresome it is. kthxbai.”
In my later post, I chalked it up to pretty much just talking the talk and keeping all feedback noted as not to appear that this specific type isn’t being looked at.
fair point.
The season 1 schedule cannot change while the season is in progress. Feedback and data will be taken into account when scheduling the next season, but the scheduled matchups and league structure are locked in until the end of this season.
this is something that shouldnt need feedback and data. if you put 5 minutes of thought into it you could have seen this problem ahead of time. I get the feeling from the comments anet makes they don’t understand how the game works right now and that makes me pessimistic about their ability to fix the problems we are having.
We are committed to quality not quantity.
Perhaps it would have been more accurate if I’d stated that you were prioritizing release dates over quality. I get that you guys have every intention to release quality content. You’re all very passionate and committed to what you do, and you obviously want to create things that people enjoy.
However, allow me to make an observation. I’ve noticed that when you discuss future content or features (other than Living Story), you never commit to a release date. My understanding was that this is because game design can be unpredictable: things change, features may not work exactly as you intended, bugs may pop up, or it may simply take more time to polish a feature for release than you intended. And you don’t want to release content before it is ready, hence…you never commit to a release date.
Except for when it comes to Living Story.
Suddenly, every two weeks, just like clockwork, there it is. Right on schedule. How, then, can it be that your priority is on the quality of the release, when you are committed to releasing it on a specific date no matter what?
If you are saying that you now have the ability to make sure that content is ready by a specific date, then surely you have the ability to commit to dates for all your releases (not just Living Story). But of course, we know that this isn’t the case.
So while you may want quality, it certainly isn’t your priority. It can’t be. Not on a specific release schedule. It’s impossible.
This said there is a lot we can and are doing to meet concerns regarding the cadence and really polish the positives we have already achieved in this area.
I would be really interested to know what you guys are doing to meet my concerns regarding the cadence. Because I honestly have no idea how you can do that while simultaneously stating that the cadence will continue unaltered no matter what any of us says.
The cadence is something we discuss frequently. We are a very collaborative team and do our best to never sweep anything under the rug (-:
I’m curious as to what these discussions are like. When you are having these discussions, does it ever come up that many people are vigorously opposed to it? Or is it the impression of the team that the current cadence is both popular and desired? If so, do you have any metrics to back this up?
Finally, a simple question:
Why are you unwilling to adjust the release cadence? What is the reason that it must continue, no matter what anyone says? Can you at least help us understand that?
This cuts right to the point and deserves a direct and serious answer. We have already seen lackluster content released because of the living story that could have used an extra month or so of polish. We hear you say one thing and do the opposite and it hurts your credibility.
I think you should look closely at the two quotes, and not just my question alone. Chris practically cuts the discussion on the cadence of release, while Bobby says it’s good to have the feedback on the cadence.
See the contradiction there?
i dont see the contradiction to me it looks like bobby is saying i am not in charge of this decision but thank you for sharing and chris is saying i am in charge of this decision the answer is no. Maybe they can clarify.
You think our feedback on that is necessary, but there’s no point, because it’s ultimately futile?
he is the head writer not the guy who decides the cadence. you want to direct your complaints at the cadence at chris who makes that decision.
One huge challenge facing the Living World narrative, in my opinion, is guidance. Personal Story has the journal. Dynamic Events have the event UI. Until now, the Living World had: mails, achievements, and scattered icons. That’s all. There was nothing to guide you to the content directly. We never taught the player how to navigate the releases using these systems, which were never designed to be used in this way.
The first improvement to address this went live on 10/29. The special event UI now tells you where to go and in what order to experience the story bits. We have designs for another system that will potentially sort out the timelines and provide other mechanisms to enhance LW releases, but until it’s confirmed for a specific build I can’t divulge more specifics.
I also didn’t notice the new ui i stopped paying attention to that part of the ui because at the moment it is cluttered with my daily, the 2 ls updates my personal story and whatever quest chain i am lose to at the time. I think the living story really should be told better through the tools you already have the npc’s. I recall the scavenger hunt in the first halloween started with a clue and each other spot had a clue to the next every other time you had us find object’s you abandoned this method and just asked us to wander around aimlessly and hope to find stuff this has lead people to simply check guides and it becomes a chore not fun.
The more i think about it the more i agree with devon. the best comeback mechanic to fight the lopsided scores is to SIGNIFICANTLY increase the rewards for killing the first place server. if we got champ bags from players on a server beating us by 100k points our fairweathers would show up with all their friends to farm the winning server and we wouldnt see such a slump at the end of the week when we fight. while it wouldnt fix nightcapping it would fix the morale problems nightcapping causes.
sigh …
if it makes you feel better based on every other time they try to give rewards to wvw player’s even if they do go with this plan they would undershoot the rewards by so much that it would be a waste of time.
I actually listed out every release and noted why I loved or didn’t love it, but you said pick one of each. I did the best I could. If you want a full breakdown just ask!
i am interested in your thoughts on the other releases
It is a lengthy post, I’ll await what the red banners say.
At the absolute minimum I could message you the thoughts.
I would encourage you to share it with everyone your post was well written and i find myself agreeing with it for the most part. but if you don’t want to share your thoughts with everyone feel free to send it to me.
The more i think about it the more i agree with devon. the best comeback mechanic to fight the lopsided scores is to SIGNIFICANTLY increase the rewards for killing the first place server. if we got champ bags from players on a server beating us by 100k points our fairweathers would show up with all their friends to farm the winning server and we wouldnt see such a slump at the end of the week when we fight. while it wouldnt fix nightcapping it would fix the morale problems nightcapping causes.
I actually listed out every release and noted why I loved or didn’t love it, but you said pick one of each. I did the best I could. If you want a full breakdown just ask!
i am interested in your thoughts on the other releases
However the points raised around achievements being too time consuming is something that I do acknowledge and something we have already taken steps to address both in terms of overall time to complete and the nature of the repetitive achievements. We will continue to make strides in this area and are aware that the current time requirement also cuts in to the player’s ability to achieve goals in other aspects of the game.
I don’t feel that the actual amount of time is the problem or the specific number. The bigger problem is that they are not enjoyable to do. Take for example Toxic Spore Cleanser vs the sonic periscope thing. Neither are particularly enjoyable but Toxic Spore Cleanser is worse even though the number is lower. At least with the periscopes I could have done one today, two tomorrow and ten the day after. Toxic Spore Cleanser just seems too random or maybe it is not actually random but the mechanic is just very badly communicated(non-existent?).
Repetition plus random is a horrible combination.
Then there are the ones like the obelisk transcription where if you accidentally miss one you have to waste a lot of time backtracking. Yes there are workarounds such as pen&paper but that is a bandaid solution.
i think its just poorly communicated. there are 3 champs in kessix that almost always have the buff and spawn semi regularly. this achievement took the most time but even still killing champs is very rewarding so i didnt feel like i was wasting time like an acheivement like stand next to 50 things and press f feels. I agree about the obelisks though i missed one in an map i did before i found a guide and it took me finding about half the obelisks again to get the one i missed. I preferred the way they did the mad king scavenger hunt again where the clue’s to find the things are in game and we don’t need to spend s a few hours searching blindly or just go to a guide.
(edited by gidorah.4960)
I was referring to the Clockwork Chaos invasions where the meta designs split groups up in order to complete the objective efficiently. Sorry for any confusion.
So… that would be the event chain where the actual meta that evolved was to stack up as tightly as possible (gather on commanders) to force the individual sub-events to spawn as many champions as possible where they could then be briskly annihilated by that same poorly scaled over-mass of players because the rewards for doing so were a literal order of magnitude greater than playing out the event as you envisioned it (60 champ bags for systematic farming, 6 for event completion…).
I honestly don’t know how I could showcase more clearly that our perception of the game you created is wildly different from yours, and that you are not successfully designing towards the actual player experience.
As I said, I’m less concerned about the two week cadence than by the unusable junk or complete voids each episode leaves behind. If you fix that, then yes, the 2 weeks cycle has some possible virtue.
Well in all fairness all they can really do is give you the content. If players utilize it in a way that wasn’t intended and that some don’t like then I don’t see how that’s their fault. Personally, I liked the way that event played and liked the rewards. I still think players zerg because they enjoy zerging. Of course, a lot also like complaining about it while they’re doing it.
I’m really happy to hear they intend to try and keep up the 2 week cadence. Absolutely annoying to hear players complaining about too much content being added, especially when most releases only take several hours to complete.
I am disappointed in the 2 week cadence because sometimes they clearly release stuff that they didn’t have time to finish. the cannach’s lair or this years halloween bloody prince “dungeon’s” are pretty clearly rushed and not up to the quality of the other content they have put out. I don’t mind not having a release because i still enjoy actually playing the game. If they delayed some content so that it meets the quality we all know they are capable of I have a week or 2 where I dont feel rushed to do Living story acheivements and can do more wvw do some extra fractals explore the world on some alt. the game is fun enough that people aren’t going to abandon it if they release ls content a week or 2 late so that the quality is on par with all the other content.
We are committed to quality not quantity.
Chris
the hard adherance to the two week release schedule seems to indicate the opposite. there has clearly been releases that just seem unfinished. Cannach’s lair comes to mind of something that left the majority of players thinking the content was rushed out to meet a 2 week schedule. There have been others but that was the one that comes to mind first. I think its ok to just have a balance patch and delay content that clearly isnt ready so that our enjoyment of great content is merely delayed not ruined by clearly rushed release schedule.
Hi Gidorah,
To be clear we are absolutely focused on quality. We feel that we can have both this cadence and high quality and are continuing to work toward this. If we feel that we cannot reach this balance then of course like everything, we will evolve as necessary. This said there is a lot we can and are doing to meet concerns regarding the cadence and really polish the positives we have already achieved in this area.. My point is the current plan is to continue with this cadence.
Chris
I hear you say that you are focused on quality but i am not seeing it in the actual releases. I understand that not every release is for me. I am not a fan of jump puzzles but some people are and they loved the zephyr sanctum and aetherblade retreat while i wasn’t as much of a fan. I could however still see the quality in those releases I think there is content everyone can see was rushed and was lacking in quality again even if it is in an area of the game the do not enjoy as much like cannach’s lair. My feelings on it are I would have much preferred you delayed the content than release something that just feels unfinished as cannach’s lair turned what was a great update into something that felt disapointing.
to edit for clarification. upon reading the first sentence seems unnecessarily harsh. I see great quality in most releases it just makes the missteps stand out much more .
(edited by gidorah.4960)
also chris any comment on the poor reception of scarlet and when you plan to get rid of her. It seems obvious from this thread that for every 1 person who thinks she is great there is 10 who just get annoyed by her and view her as poorly written deus ex machina. While showing her motivations may lower the ratio she is not a well received villain and it is likely too late to fix that.
Hi Gidorah,
I expect Bobby will speak to this point in more detail.
Chris
bobby already spoke on it and I would love if he went into more detail but surely you have some opinion on it as well?
also chris any comment on the poor reception of scarlet and when you plan to get rid of her. It seems obvious from this thread that for every 1 person who thinks she is great there is 10 who just get annoyed by her and view her as poorly written deus ex machina. While showing her motivations may lower the ratio she is not a well received villain and it is likely too late to fix that.
We are committed to quality not quantity.
Chris
the hard adherance to the two week release schedule seems to indicate the opposite. there has clearly been releases that just seem unfinished. Cannach’s lair comes to mind of something that left the majority of players thinking the content was rushed out to meet a 2 week schedule. There have been others but that was the one that comes to mind first. I think its ok to just have a balance patch and delay content that clearly isnt ready so that our enjoyment of great content is merely delayed not ruined by clearly rushed release schedule.
It is great to see the discussion evolve. When i get some time i will be posting about the Living World cadence and entering that part of discussion with you all.
With time in mind i don’t think a week is long enough to discuss this topic so we will keep the close date open. At the end of the day i want to make sure we have enough time to discuss the topic with you and not feel rushed.
Chris
i don’t think this discussion thread is what I thought it would be . Where has the collaboration been I see only players bringing up points and the one anet employee who responded has simply explained his view on the situation. there hasn’t been any actual collaborative development. To help this discusion move further could you say what you mean by collaboration and if you think this thread has lived up to what you intended so far?
Hi Gidorah,
The main focus of this initiative is to discuss design philosophies with the community as outlined here in the rules i set out for the topic discussion:
1: This initiative is all about discussion.
2: We will not be disclosing information pertaining to what is currently in development.
4: Together we will share and evolve design philosophies which will impact how we develop the game moving forward.I also want to reiterate this rule:
6: The teams primary focus is work toward the development of GW2 and therefore posting of discussion and commentary may not be as frequent as you like. Please do understand that the initiative is taken very seriously by us all and that we will be reading the discussions and joining in as often as it is possible to do so.
Currently we are keeping up to date with the three threads and posting when we are able to. Bobby has posted in regard to story, Colin has posted in regard to vision and i will be posting about the Cadence of the releases. I am hoping we will be able to discuss many issues with the initiative and we are learning as we go along. One factor is clearly us having the time to post currently, and personally i am building out time to be able to enter the discussion appropriately. This is why i have extended the windows on the threads to ensure we give the discussions the respect they are due.
The intention of this plan is have mind share, to educate one another on our feelings and philosophies and ultimately together through these discussions impact the evolution of Guild Wars 2. We all want the best for the game and this is at the core of the plan.
I feel it is going pretty well currently. I think that the majority of the posts from the community show a clear understanding on the goals of the exercise and there has already been some great discussion and insights. I am looking forward to being able to enter the discussion soon and would say that i wish we had a little more time presently. With this in mind I certainly have some suggestions to tweaking the initiative moving forward which we can discuss after this phase.
I hope this answers your questions.
Chris
Thanks for the response. I think the player’s have been doing a great job at discussing idea’s and keeping things civil. I understand that you have other things to do than discuss things but don’t understand why you started this now instead of when you had the time to take it as seriously as you say you do. I appreciate that you extended it but anet’s lack of participation is starting to become a hindrance to moving the discussion forward. And you may want to pop into the wvw discussion and do some damage control as it looks like devon’s only post in it is about to turn the thread toxic.
It is great to see the discussion evolve. When i get some time i will be posting about the Living World cadence and entering that part of discussion with you all.
With time in mind i don’t think a week is long enough to discuss this topic so we will keep the close date open. At the end of the day i want to make sure we have enough time to discuss the topic with you and not feel rushed.
Chris
i don’t think this discussion thread is what I thought it would be . Where has the collaboration been I see only players bringing up points and the one anet employee who responded has simply explained his view on the situation. there hasn’t been any actual collaborative development. To help this discusion move further could you say what you mean by collaboration and if you think this thread has lived up to what you intended so far?
I think I read they were collecting data for a few days open up a discussion then close it on Monday. This thread is so flooded though it should have its own dev tracker. Or program the last dev comment on a thread at the top of the topic.
the problem is what you describe isn’t a discussion or collaboration its a survey. This thread is flooded with players trying to have a discusion 1 writer explaining why thing are the way they are and a dev asking questions. If chris meant something different than a discussion or collaboration he should have said so but what we have so far is neither.
At this point I think most of the different ways to address the issue have been stated. It would be nice to have anet come and try to direct us or add to the discussion.
i think it’s pretty bad that anet started a process to make up for the lack of dev interaction and then doesn’t take part in that process. It is starting to get ridiculous at this point. I think most wvw players already feel ignored by dev’s to ignore the players in what is supposed to be a collaborative process is a problem.
It is great to see the discussion evolve. When i get some time i will be posting about the Living World cadence and entering that part of discussion with you all.
With time in mind i don’t think a week is long enough to discuss this topic so we will keep the close date open. At the end of the day i want to make sure we have enough time to discuss the topic with you and not feel rushed.
Chris
i don’t think this discussion thread is what I thought it would be . Where has the collaboration been I see only players bringing up points and the one anet employee who responded has simply explained his view on the situation. there hasn’t been any actual collaborative development. To help this discusion move further could you say what you mean by collaboration and if you think this thread has lived up to what you intended so far?
He’s all but said he hasnt had the time he wants to respond in this thread as much as he probably wants. He’s extending the “deadline” of the discussion to accomodate this. The OP has a disclaimer saying Anet response would likely be pretty sparse right now.
This thread was started in good faith… give em a chance.
i am giving it a chance i’m not trying to be rude but a 1 sided discussion isn’t very collaborative at all do you think it would have been a better idea to start the discussion when they had the time to take part in it?
TL;DR No active GW2 player with whom I interact in-game has ever complained about LW pacing being too fast.
Almost every active GW2 player with whom I interact in-game HAS complained about LW pacing being too fast. YMMV.
i think it was clarified earlier the 2 week releases are what people say is too fast the progress of the story arc is seen as too slow
It is great to see the discussion evolve. When i get some time i will be posting about the Living World cadence and entering that part of discussion with you all.
With time in mind i don’t think a week is long enough to discuss this topic so we will keep the close date open. At the end of the day i want to make sure we have enough time to discuss the topic with you and not feel rushed.
Chris
i don’t think this discussion thread is what I thought it would be . Where has the collaboration been I see only players bringing up points and the one anet employee who responded has simply explained his view on the situation. there hasn’t been any actual collaborative development. To help this discusion move further could you say what you mean by collaboration and if you think this thread has lived up to what you intended so far?
i think its about time for anet to come here there isn’t much of a discusion without half the parties.
I agree, I hope Devon and his team really read all of the suggestions and think about them, sure were not always right but there is nothing wrong with admitting that some of the ideas are really good and worth investigating. This would probably bump Devon up a notch or two with the players if he came here open minded and ready to work together. I can see why he might be a bit reluctant, were not always the easiest people to please and one wrong sentence could mean the wolves are snapping at his ankles.
i may be confused by what chris meant by collaborative discussion if what the meant was start a thread then abandon it I wouldn’t call it a discussion.
i think its about time for anet to come here there isn’t much of a discusion without half the parties.
There are some folks who feel that the Living World story is moving too slowly and/or that the themes and plots feel disjointed between releases. I somewhat agree with this sentiment.
why just somewhat?
One of the challenges of the semi-monthly release cycle is that we’re limited in how much content we can put inside each one.
this seems like a self imposed problem that you can solve by simply saying we will release stuff when it is ready and it will last as long as it is appropriate. Freeing yourselves from self imposed time constraints would also help the quality over quantity problem people have been bringing up as it is pretty obvious some of the stuff is rushed and just disappointing.
If memory serves me, we foreshadowed Scarlet’s existence through a comment Mai Trin made during one of the summer releases. This got some folks speculating on who she was, her part in all the attacks, etc.
you did get us speculating. your delivery of the villain behind it all did not live up to the speculation and was disapointing. part of this is pacing and part because scarlet is just not a good villain.
I will readily acknowledge that her presentation has elicited some strong reactions in the community. Some people love her. Others hate her. While that kind of polarizing view can sometimes be an asset, it brings some polarizing baggage to the conversation every time her name is brought up. Here’s where I think we could have done a better job with her.
it doesnt bring the good kind of polarizing baggage where we want to stop the evil villain. it brings the bad kind where she is annoying and we just want her to go away and never be mentioned in game again. People think she is a cardboard cutout villain because thats all you have shown and i think its too late for more. You have poisoned the well on scarlet with the poor introduction and the sooner scarlet never shows up again the better. I wish you could give us an in game poll on this and if scarlet is as unpopular as almost everyone I talk to thinks then it would be great if you could change your plans and make her go away early and for good.
In regards to the Living World constraints, there are a few factors at play that prevent the player from speaking:
With our current tech, the PC cannot speak outside of a cinematic conversation (which were featured inside the Personal Story at ship) or contextual chatter (crippled = “My leg!”). We intend to explore possible solutions in the somewhat near future.
Our revised cinematic technology does not currently support player voice variants (i.e. 10 different PC voices).
The text of every player line has to be translated 10 times per language to account for each player race/gender combination.
The VO of every player line has to then be recorded 10 times per voiced language. (In other words, it’s freakishly expensive to voice the PC as 1 PC line in English = 10 English voiced lines + 10 German voiced lines, etc.).
That stated, the player doesn’t need VO in order to have agency in the story but we are limited in what we can track since it gets added to the player’s record, which is already large.
these limitations are very understandable but they don’t speak well for anet being able to deliver expansions type content within the context of the living story format.
ugg it feels like they took what we said about wanting permanent content and gave us the worst possible implementation of it out of spite.
Event-related daily achievements, beyond those available in a single day, should not be required for the meta-achievement. The introduction of daily achievements that count towards the meta-achievement was a great idea for people who find a handful of the base set of achievements overly onerous, but it should not be required to complete dailies over several days to get the meta. Someone who, for whatever reason, can only play during one day during the period should at least have a chance.
I’ve said this many times. I completely understand the reasoning behind having it so that players with only a short time to play each day can still achieve the Meta. Having a daily event fills that need. But, when daily events are required to be able to complete the meta it completely overrides the needs of the players at the other end of the spectrum — those that can’t play for an hour everyday, but have 6 – 8 hours available to play on a weekend. We who play in blocks of time should have the possibility to win the Meta reward too. Currently, even though we devote as much time overall as other players, we lose out on a great deal of rewards: laurels, achievement points, and crafting the high tier items.
Signing in with a block of time to play, heading out to enjoy the new content and then discovering that there is no possibility of achieving the LS Meta Reward really hurts.
More buildup. We saw how much attention the little teaser for Tower of Nightmares got. Imagine if that had been built up over a couple of months. Start with new events involving the krait collecting lumber and slaves. Somebody shows up to investigate the increased krait activity just as the barrier and illusion goes up. Next update the tower is taller, and the full cast (including that golem’s owner, who is planning a reconnaissance mission close to the barrier) has shown up and is discussing it. Finally, in the last update before the full reveal, the illusion reaches its full height, and the golem’s owner, who we had an opportunity to meet in earlier teasers, has gone missing – basically, at the point that it was at a fortnight ago.
As much as I agree with the previous point I wholeheartedly disagree with this one. Too much build up ends up with too slow a story. Any more than a week of the Tower teaser and I would have simply lost interest, kinda like following those refugees around looking for their lost items. It was too drawn out. I sure don’t mind seeing things change a little at a time, but those changes need to occur over the course of days, not weeks.
well it can be done right they just havent done it in a while. the halloween last year was just the right amount of buildup. the hit a sign for 2 months was obviously way off the mark. but with the poor track record of anet i would rather they just scrap buildup they haven’t gotten it right in a long time.
i think alot of people have said great things here in this thread here is what i agree with most
*the living story pacing is just bad there is no way to sugar coat it
*scarlet is a terrible villain no one is afraid of what she will do next they just don’t want to see her ever again hopefully she dies soon or just goes away never to be heard from again
*it seems like you are emphasizing quantity over quality for each aetherblade retreat dungeon and motlen alliance dungeon there is a canach lair and bloody prince thorn “dungeon” in fact it seems the good dungeons where from the beginning when the teams had time to work on stuff and now we are getting unfinished content to meet a deadline
*some of the acheivements are waaaaay too grindy 300 holograms press f near something 50 times just because people do them doesnt make them fun at all
*2 weeks works for some patches and not for others there is no need for you guys to be so strict on this. look at this years halloween patch its been here too long already and its so disappointing for content this light it would really have been fine to just have it for the week of halloween and then remove it by the time halloween gets here in 2 days no one cares anymore and then it still sticks around.
*your marketing over promises and your developers under deliver. remember what was said right before we got 2 months of hitting signs “the living story will give an expansions worth of content” i dont feel like we have gotten an expansions worth of content yet and certainly 2 months of hitting signs directly after that statement was really disappointing.
(edited by gidorah.4960)
A lot of writing and very little reading in this thread. Everyone just says what he wants to say and very few check what others have said.
Anet, you shouldn’t leave this thread for a couple of days, stay active, engage and direct the conversation/discussion or you’ll just have a bunch of messages directed straight at you and not an actual discussion.
i agree anet needs to be in here directing the flow of discussion not abandoning the thread for a few days until it goes off topic
There is only one balance issue. Queues are not a problem Arenanet should be addressing, they are a symptom of players being unwilling to transfer or ignorant of the transfer opportunity.
The balance problem is that of coverage. While some servers have many overnight players, other servers have barely any. This leads to situations where the maps are completely one colour overnight with waypoints and full upgrades in every keep. This, in turn, leads to boring games that nobody enjoys and makes the score irrelevant.
i’ve been on my t1 server since beta. WHY SHOULD I Have to leave because bandwagoners showed up later? We started in 17th place BTW.
because you invited the bandwagoners without thinking the consequences through.
I think the common trend I am seeing in these posts are that we are asking for actual numbers posted. Nothing can be resolved until we get a more clear picture of what is going on.
In example:
-Ratio numbers of WvW players to actual Server Population per world
-Number of hours each world puts into WvW, and the timezones
-The number of players allowed into a given map per world
i agree with this alot too. for someone wanting to have a discusion with players you seem to want to make sure we know as little as possible of whats going on.
My suggestion would be that, once the overflow WvW map has been implemented, reduce the per map cap (by around 15 players, +/- some depending on many factors).
Ideally, the existing WvW maps would undergo some changes (as well as some other components) in order to accomodate for the lesser number of players. However, seeing as how WvW already functions for a varying amount of players (i.e. when there are few players for each server), the necessity for those changes is low.The idea is that the lesser number of players would help limit the severity of server imbalances. (Using hypothetical numbers here). Fighting 50 vs 125 will always be hard, but it will still be easier than 50 vs 140. The absence of those extra 15 players could mean less players are in the zerg since their roles need to be filled. Reducing the zerg size would reduce the rate at which objectives are captured, thus reducing the rate at which the score imbalance is accumulated. It would also make it easier for the outnumbered server to fight back and slow down the enemy zerg. And if those 15 players don’t leave the zerg, they may a price by losing a tower due to poor scouting. A change like this could also encourage players to spread out across other servers, could reduce the occurrences of map lag due to less players in the zerg, and increase the importance of each individual’s effort.
Finally, don’t bother disclosing the per map cap, because it would become very difficult to change it even slightly without massive amounts of complaining and would hinder experimentation to find the right number. Plus, it’s more of a curiosity thing than necessary information. Knowing the map cap isn’t going to change how players will play the game; we already have guestimations if it were indeed important, and I’ve never experienced a situation where knowing the map cap would change anything other than the amount of complaining.
Edited for clarity.
i think this is a great idea but maybe only make the decrease temporary until the queue forces the population to spread out more
i hit a ele with a 17k killshot once on my cof running war. makes it worth being rallybait to occasionally one shot people.
i like to wave then when they dont suspect anything use a knockback to push them over the edge and kill them.
cut the amount of people allowed per map by alot temporarily and make the transfer cost based on wvw population and the queue should force everyone to spread out
I’m more concerned by the abuse in map chat that’s been cropping up……map chat is getting hostile :\
map chap on mag has always been hostile
We have only a few hours we can play WvW hard, but we are spending most or all of that in queue. We are being told, no room. Go elsewhere.
you should listen.
what que are you talking about?
Hi Anet, still waiting on developer feedback on all these queue times and skills lags/ etc that have been brought up since the Seasons started? In other words any news on removing all JPs from WvW maps on the next patch?
you got your response before the season started. don’t stack on server’s. feel free to look it up in devon’s post history.
Nice try, I am on the lowest tier and it’s unplayable at times. You can even feel the difference in playing without encountering a blob.
i’m in gold league and it’s never unplayable its your settings.
no i did. i just don’t care since i dont have a que. most people didn’t stack their server with recruitment efforts don’t have a que thats why most don’t care. you created your own problem so people tend to not have sympathy.
I understand if you don’t WvW much or don’t have to deal with this problem as acutely because you are not on a higher population server. But I don’t like how you are laying the blame on me and people like me, in order to trivialize a problem that impacts a very significant portion of the playerbase.
I did not recruit anybody to stack my server. I have been on Jade Quarry since launch. I am not a hardcore WvW player. I am a very active general PvX player who enjoys WvW in addition to other parts of the game. Under normal circumstances, I’ll play a few hours of WvW every week or two. Because of the introduction of the season, I would like to play more WvW to participate in the highlighted content and support my community. This is the entire purpose of the season. I have done absolutely nothing wrong, and I am certainly not going to pay gems to leave the community I’ve been with for over a year so I can experience a core in-game event that Anet is emphasizing for everyone.
I do not mind the fact that people transfer to my server because my server is awesome. I do not mind having to wait a long time because a lot of people want to WvW. That is how a lot of things in life is – if you show up at a sandwich shop and there are a lot of people, you just wait in line. What I do have a problem with is that there is no line, there is a mysterious arbitrary system that chooses who gets to go next that the devs admit does not function like a line. There is no reason one person has to queue for 2 hours when someone who queues after them waits only 10 minutes. If Anet is not physically able to fix this soon, they should publicize this in-game and give directions for players to work around any bugs with their individual queue statuses.
On a separate note, I would like to thank whichever moderator changed the title of this thread. The old title was not really conveying what I am trying to do, and a lot of people were getting caught up on that.
nope i wvw constantly and am in gold league. the que problem stops at tc and all 4 servers who have que problems have only themselves to blame.
Hey people,
for few weeks Anet was telling you that moving to T1 is not good idea.
They also made some free transfers so you can move from overpopulated servers.
Nobody cared about it that time.And it is not Anet fault. I dont see people from Bronze league whining about queues.
People aren’t whining about having to wait in a que… they are whining because the QUE SYSTEM DOESN’T WORK.
A lottery system is not a proper Que system.
no they are definitely whining about being in que.
the extra players works out fine in the lower tiers it is solely a problem because they stacked their server. again they made the problem on their own and know exactly how to transfer off if they don’t like it no one cares about their qqing.
stacking is the problem. you seem to ignore non stacked servers don’t have the problem at all.
Stacking is part of the problem, obviously
Reading comprehension.
no its not part of the problem it is the problem. the que times everyone is qq’ing about are exclusive to the stacked server’s. you guys made your bed, sleep in it without qqing.
So obviously the lack of problems before the season started, but after the transfers happened, shows nothing about the season and its achievements causing problems.
lol as if there are no pve acheiv hunters on any other server but t1’s. its a problem because people recruited like crazy and got the supe rserver’s they wanted despite being warned it would be a problem. they dev’s gave the answer to your problem weeks ago it is simply no one’s fault but your own you chose to ignore it.