Why assume that they believe it is alive?
It is not unheard of for armies to shout the name of historical individuals or leaders when going into battle for example.
ArenaNet has set precedent before by offering long betas. I don’t think it’s the fault of the player base for assuming that spending what could amount to many hours trying to get one of these things to drop could and should result in many hours of being able to test the new beta.
They have also set precedent before by offering short betas. In fact, looking at history the vast majorities of the betas have been short and only a few of them have been long.
You mean exactly like they are doing according to the very second post in this thread?
In that case, the thread should have ended with that, which it clearly didn’t.
I would also love to see all these examples of me wholeheartedly supporting supply manipulation.
GW1 : Alot of choice,, alot of fun,, pretty balanced game
GW2 : Not much choice,, meta game,, totally unbalanced
Although,, people say with less skills you have more balance… Well.. from what i have seen… GW2 is the most unbalanced game i’ve ever seen. Not even joking.
EDIT: It’s not the amount of skills that make gw2 so unbalanced. It’s more because there are no roles in gw2. Everyone does the same thing,, only different. But only 1 does it the best (with a few exceptions in certain situations)
Did you ever actually play GW1?
Even years after release the game was far from balanced.
GW2 is MUCH more balanced in comparison.
There were very little actual choices in GW1. Either you played the going meta-build or you basically didn’t play. No one would take anyone that didn’t play meta. Simple as that.
How does the shrines put less strategy in WvW? It is yet another thing that you need to take into consideration before you attack the enemy. As of right now you can basically attack anything in a map without having to worry about anything other than where the enemy zerg is. With the new maps you also have to take shrines and such into account before attacking.
AI have controlled the vast majority of WvW since release, not much is changed in regards to that (except for the upgrade system that is, but that also add an extra layer of strategy now that you can’t completely stop it by just killing dollies, but you actually have to capture the place).
AI won’t run in and take over stuff though, they will defend stuff more or less exactly as they do now (oh, except for the AI that actually attacks stuff nowadays, which as far as we know, won’t be there in the new maps).
And you also bring up another thing that very much increase the strategic point of the map: The fact that it will take some time to rejoin a zerg. That means you have to actually think before just mindlessly engage enemies and also decide if it is worth the chance to rez someone or if they would be better of just running back.
So all in all, what you want is a completely flat map with a grand total of nothing there except for flatness?
AI mobs have been a part of WvW since before release. That is nothing new. Jumping puzzles isn’t really PvE either but rather something that makes the map more interesting to maneuver.
The “ai controlled shrines” simply puts more strategy into the maps, which means that you actually have to plan and thing before just rushing blindly into the enemy keep/tower/whatever.
yep they are turning wvw into a pve map for pve farmer trains. yep big change there. im glad they announced this early so most of the wvw community can cancel their preorders.
How are they turning WvW into a PvE map when they basically remove the ability to PvE in order to stop towers/keeps/castle from upgrading?
That means they REMOVE a PvE-part of the game mode rather than adding more.
I also question how one can cancel a preorder when it is not possible to preorder yet. At least not for real.
But that is just the thing.
They can’t just switch out a Monday for a Saturday. That is not how things work in development. The other teams are depending on team x to be there during the standard working hours.
Beta testing isn’t a ‘privilege’, it’s a legitimate JOB that none of us are getting paid to do. We will have to purchase HoT. It isn’t our responsibility that it runs – that falls exclusively on ANet.
And yet you still complain like mad about being unable to join the beta-test due to the time….
This wouldn’t be a problem if ANet hadn’t treated the event like they did. The Portals were purely a hype thing. That’s it. If they didn’t want people hyped for this like I was, they would have just randomly selected us all from their newsletter subscribers.
THIS is the result of hype. It will hurt them because a lot of their players are just going to ignore the future betas. And then how are they going to test it properly? They won’t have the numbers.
No, the portals were not purely a hype thing. It was partly a hype thing but it was also a way to guarantee that the people invited actually played the game and at least had basic knowledge about it.
I think you are overestimating the amount of people that have an issue with this actually.
There are plenty of people that know what a beta is and accept that betas won’t be on our terms but rather at the company’s terms.
It is also worth pointing out that when they need to do larger scale testing they will most likely do it more akin to the 24h Stronghold beta were everyone gets access or via the Beta Weekend events where everyone that have prepurchase would get access. So they would have plenty of people willing to do their testing, even if you wont.
I suppose the baseline is, I am disappointed. And I won’t be hyped for any beta events ever again. And doesn’t that hurt them in the long run?
Why would it hurt them in the long run?
They don’t want people like that in the betas anyway. They want people that know what a beta is about and do what they supposed to do.
You’re right, this ‘beta’ isn’t primarily for the pleasure of the player base. But ANet are a company providing a service and the happiness of their customers (which is essential for keeping our business and money) is something they should be primarily focused on.
Not during a beta.
A beta is purely for ArenaNets benefit.
And who are going to pay those ArenaNet devs that need to spend 24+ hours straight at the office? Sure they could switch them out, but that could usually lead to issues, misplaced data and misunderstandings. It is always better to have the same team in place for the full duration of a test.
You have a point about area size…. But it still doesn’t make the time staggering any less illogical. Or lessen my saltiness that I won’t be able to play it.
The staggering quite logical I would say.
That means they can tweak and change stuff between the different runs based on the previous stats and feedback.
Lets say they have map limit set to 20 on the first run.
Based on that they see that they could easily fit twice as many in there or they need to decrease the limit. Then they can do that before the second run and so on.
Actually no, I believe the majority of the playerbase is NOT based in the US.
What you are ignoring however is the fact that ArenaNet is based in the US. And in order to actually maximize the gain of the betas they would have them when they have people in the office that can monitor bugs and stats. Therefore the test will take place when they are in the office.
Simple as that.
They don’t normally work on weekends, so in order to get it running on a weekend they would have to order in plenty of people to the office.
I don’t know about you, but I always assumed that the beta tests would be during a time where ArenaNet actually work, since that is basically what it is. It is work that has to be done. It is not about being able to preview the content, it is about finding bugs and making sure stuff is stable.
I mean, yes. I’d argue yes at least – we haven’t (yet) paid real money for HoT, but we spent time one these Portals. As for bug finding – we don’t have adequate time for that to happen properly.
That depends on how much there is in the beta.
Two*three hours is usually plenty of time to find bugs in a map, especially if you don’t have access to the whole map.
No, 24 hours would not be good.
This is not supposed to be a preview, it is an actual test.
For actual tests to be useful they need to have people on site to check out exactly what is happening.
Do you really expect ArenaNet to force people to spend 24+ hours straight at the office?
why not make it open for 24-hours ? you can get all your tests and data in the early few hours, let ppl enjoy it and EU then can play the next day and as i recall they have a QA EU team.
with these times i feel bad, all that insane farming for just 2 hours.
Because they don’t want to force their employees to stay at the office for over 24 hours straight?
And once again, it is not suppose to be a preview. It is supposed to be an actual test. Tests are always best to do when the people conducting the test can get the most out of it. Which usually is when said people actually are at work.
Or maybe people should stop thinking about betas as preview events and accept that they are actual tests and as such doing short burst is logical and makes sense?
Really!! the test times has no consideration for EU players, just like the 1st one.
maybe ill get to participate in the 1st one a bit late, but the others are too late for me.
That is because ArenaNet is a NA-based company and they will do their tests (especially the early ones) when they are in the office, seeing as they need to be there to gather information and stats and fix/change stuff based on it.
You can’t really expect them to get to work in the middle of the night just to cater to the EU player (and that comes from someone from Europe).
The world is not fair.
But on the other hand: How fair is it to require that ArenaNet’s employees spend less time with their loved ones just so that some players can beta test?
Spreading it out would probably not be such a good idea from a testing point of view. It is easier to gather and organize information if you have it at one point rather than three different ones. There is also the point that there WILL be more betas after this one. It is not like they will do this beta and then release the game. There will be more betas and there will very likely be beta weekend events closer to release as well.
Yes I know, and ofc. you’re right in what you say that they work during weekdays too.
But it would be a bit funny if maybe 5-10% participate in the beta because they also have to work right? Would the test even be worth it then?
It would be most beneficial for Anet to do a stress-test and evaluation when you can actually get players into the game I would speculate.
And if they need to work one day on a weekend, they could have a weekday off. It’s not impossible, since its maybe one beta test in 2-3 years time.
At least spread it out during a couple of different dates would have been fair.
That is not how stuff works though.
They can’t just switch a weekend for a week day, simply because they are working in teams. They need to be there when the other teams are there in order to maximize efficiency, especially when getting ready for a major release.
I also think you highly underestimate the amount of people that can (and will join the test). And if ArenaNet can just change out a weekday for a weekend, why can’t other people working do the same?
Go and work on Saturday instead of Tuesday and you can play as much as you want on Tuesday.
You also seem to assume that there will only ever be this single beta test, which is extremely unlikely.
I’m really not surprised though that Anet are only really accommodating to the US players… this really has annoyed me.
You mean the US players that will be in school/at work?
They are not catering to any players, they are catering to themselves and having the tests when THEY work and thus can make the most of the tests. The tests are not for us, it is for them after all.
Exactly.
Most people work on weekdays. Including people at ArenaNet.
Do you really expect them to call in people to work during a weekend just so that you can join a beta? They will have to work plenty of extra hours the coming months before release already so I doubt they would want to require them to do even more so.
The beta tests are not for the customers benefit but rather for ArenaNets.
We saw the new upgrade system actually. There was an in-game picture that showed how it would look. Don’t really see how much else they can show, since it won’t really include much user input.
There was also the part about WPs that we had nothing at all about in the blog post.
I’ll just say that if PvE players had to go into WvW and clear every sentry point (or capture every camp, or every tower, or every keep, or SMC 65 times) we’d hear a lot of whining. I’m sure you’d be able to do it, but you’d resent the requirement.
You mean a bit like having to do WvW for world completion?
Ready Up and Point of Interest have never been about revealing a bunch of new information though. It have always been about giving a bit more in depth information about the blogs that we have had earlier that week. So I really don’t see why it is a slap in the face when it is more or less the same as it have always been. (Or in fact, even more than it usually is, due to us getting quite a bit of new info).
Well they did tell us that you automatically get a wp in your own keeps and you can’t wp an enemies… So basically RIP strategy and keep the karma train rolling, eotm 2.0 sounds so new and exciting!
How is it fun to just get a WP close to the enemy spawn and just stand around there stopping them from even going out?
The stream started at Noon.
They talked about WvW stuff until about 24 past and the whole thing ended about now (35 past).
That sounds like the majority of it was actually about the WvW stuff.
We also got quiet a bit of new information that was not covered in the blog.
Nope no info yet other than the fact that we know that they will be added.
The 24 hours were basically just a sneak peek with the actual release coming at some point in the future.
Yeah, it’s always “remove things now, and maybe we’ll add up something else later on. Or maybe not” with Anet.
Not being done at the time of the blog post does in no way or form mean that they are not done by the time the expansion (and thus they changes) actually happens.
With the last delay of the elite reveal I have revised my expected launch date from early/mid summer to (late? O_o ) fall .
AND YES we HAD an an announcement, search for “Heart of Thorns” on the youtube.
Honestly had I known that the whole expansion complex is that far away from release that even a beta seems to be months away, I wouldn´t have bothered coming back right now.
It is not a delay.
We have known since the very first week of Elite specialization reveals that the first batch would only give us three of them. It is not something they decided last week.
Beta seems to be months away?
I would say beta is less then a month away actually.
You mean the expansion with no release date? Yeahh…lets take stuff away from players til whenever that launches. Game will be in tip top shape til then. No worries, sounds good.
I suppose we ignore the fact that these changes are coming with the very same expansion as well…?
Indeed. If we look at actually history before the release of Guild Wars 2 there were closed betas and Beta Weekend events.
If you prepurchased you got guaranteed access to the Beta Weekend Events, but not to the closed betas. It is very likely that it is the same here. Guaranteed access to the BWEs with prepurchase and guaranteed access to one closed beta with Portal.
I really don’t see what’s cool about removing more content to make the game even more casual but hey, whatever floats your boat I guess?
It will more or less completely change how WvW is played though. At least for a while. And that is big.
As for making it more casual I would say that depends on your point of view.
As of right now you can more or less completely ignore the enemy keep and tower and just keep killing off dollies and they will remain wood forever. With the upcoming changes they will get upgraded sooner or later no matter what. Which means that you actually have to attack the targets themselves to stop the upgrades, which is quite a bit harder than just killing a dolly.
