Guild Wars 2

Gehenna.3625:

marnick.4305:

Nope. In business, the cost of wages is the highest of all. Always has been and today more than ever. Infrastructure has never been cheaper, and A.net has almost no marketing budget.

I agree that the cost of wages is highest of all. If they have almost no marketing budget sounds like an assumption to me, but it doesn’t really matter. Wages are certainly not the only cost and it stands to reason that the mother company NcSoft invested into the game before it was released to build the game. They would like to see their money back as well of course.

Irrelevant.

marnick.4305:

marnick.4305:

The reason sub free MMOs can survive nowadays is exactly that … network infrastructure has become so insanely cheap that there’s no fair reason to ask a sub anymore. Add to that the real estate bubble burst and offices have likewise become just as cheap.

Sub free MMOs tend to be the usual brand of f2p’s. Generally poor quality and not what we could call a AAA game, which is more where GW2 would want to be positioned. I am sure it wasn’t cheap to build, but what I do see is that how the game is handled does show cost restraints. They are limited by their tools and resources, just like any game, but for me it is more obvious in this game. B2P is fairly unique as I see it and I haven’t seen anybody else pick it up as a good idea yet.

And yet there’s only room for one AAA sub game. A.net knew they’d fail with subs, regardless of the quality of the game. For a company only producing 1 game, they can’t afford to be the next Tabula Rasa, SWTOR, WAR, Conan, Aion, … you get the point. It’s been a smart business decision. These were all good games, and each was forced to go free to play or shut down.

But what I am arguing it is that it doesn’t seem to me that this game is doing better than other MMOs out there. Sure their subs didn’t fill the needs of enough players so they went for a mix and this has increased sales and populations in those games considerable, but the subs are still there and that is also important to realise.

GW2 is a niche game just like it’s predecessor, in that at least they are alike. That also means that they are not really trendsetters or changing the face of MMOs as someone said.

I personally prefer a good niche game over a bland game for everyone. However, no one can deny A.net changed the landscape. People who move to other MMOs consistently complain about node stealing, stationary combat and other major issues, to the point where even Wildstar had to change some things before launch. Other MMOs including the big p2p one will have to follow suit. GW2 defined what a 21th century AAA MMO has to look like.

The start was amazing, the current situation is fine but I think that if more games would be B2P it would be bad for GW2. They have a unique system without any subs and that’s exactly the part where they don’t want competition and it looks like they won’t because every MMO that I’ve read about coming out now or in the near future (FF, TESO, Wildstar to name a few) all will come with subs.

All those will fail within months or go f2p. Mark my words (except FF … maybe). There’s room for only 1 themepark MMO with subs. Especially for Wildstar and TESO that’s a death on arrival mistake.

I’m just afraid of the extremely dangerous slippery slope. What will happen once every locust has full ascended on the first of January 2014? It is very easy to see them clamoring for a tier2 ascended. And that’s the kicker … at no point has a.net said that the locust will be shafted.

Then, after tier 500 has become the norm for locust, and the 99% are still trying to get tier2, the game will be reset by introducing an arbitrary lvl 81.

I’m not saying this is going to happen, but we’re currently at an extremely uncomfortable point, where no one knows for sure what the future looks like gearwise.

The only statement thus far has been “no new ascended tier in 2013”. And that’s an extremely uncomfortable thing to know at this date (September 2013).

Merely a statement that no new tier will be added until 70% of the active playerbase has full ascended, coupled with a formal promise that level cap will never be raised is all we want.

Because players asked for that since launch.

Are you guys never happy?

GW2lfg.com is still vibrant with groups for all kinds of content. Don’t know what the fuzz is about.

zaxziakohl.5243:

Honestly I don’t know why they don’t just make a wallet for legendaries.

Once you equip a legendary it enters the wallet. To be equipped on any character on the account. You can only play one character at a time, so there is no issue with 2 chars using it at the same time. They could even make this a nice little achievement type thing. Own all the legendaries! It would be very similar to how the skins are placed in the account box for the Achievement Chest. You just get a Legendary Account box, right click and equip.

It would also drive collectors to try to get them all as they would be presented in a nice little setup. It would also make it so that players know what’s out there and could preview them to see what they wanted. I think it would be a great way to showcase the legendary system. Especially when you get in new players going, oh that is so cool how do I get it! I would also totally be behind adding things like the magic clovers and such to the storage bank. There should be a nice little section for legendaries. Each spot holds exactly the amount of x needed for a legendary. It would be a great way marker for those working towards it.

Now that’s a suggestion if I’ve ever read one. Has my full support.

cesmode.4257:

fellyn.5083:

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

All I see is + 100.000.000.000 added to him and a few dungeon mechanics in the process. I already told myself ‘nope, this is not for me, i hate spamming dps, and have the feeling it won’t finish for the first hours’. Then they show ‘finish it or you don’t get 100 achievements’. Lame, very lame. Anet.

Did you watch the live stream? There is now more to the fight than just “spamming dps” and it’s entirely possible we will fail it. A lot.

Which is exactly the kind of thing the game needs. I’m looking forward to it.

While this is true and many, including myself if I were still playing, would welcome it… but with the increase in necessity of a ectos and resources for ascended gear.. they propped up one portion of the game and made another even more of a grind.

I wish I had the time to troll on forums for games I don’t play anymore.

In any case, your opinion is no longer relevant. Thanks for making that clear.

Please don’t be a spoiled brat, makes you look bad.

Some people might need some time because they have other stuff to do too … maybe some people can’t even do the monthly due to real life priorities. You’re good at insulting a massive part of the paying playerbase.

People have been complaining about the loot pinata bosses since launch, so it’s nice to see them finally being worked on. Hopefully they can do several at the same time.

To the nay-sayers … this is definitely an oft asked feature so it just shows some people can never be happy. I’m neutral until I’ve played him.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08/30/super-adventure-box-is-returning-to-guild-wars-2-and-we-got-the/

Please arena.net, put that or other kits up on the store!

Or else I volunteer for the next round of strangers giving me A.net swag.

Zeldain.5710:

Galen Grey.4709:

SilverShadow.3021:

Galen Grey.4709:

Gehenna.3625:

The financial reports shows that Last year GW2 made a lot of money and in the first two quarters of 2013 sales are down dramatically, like 70% down…Also the second quarter was down from the first quarter again. So the financial reports actually show that the game is going down financially in the first half of this year. In that sense GW2 has followed the same trend as other MMOs.

Anet/NcSoft have also said that by now the game is stabilising and slowly growing again. So the game is not dying but financially I don’t think they’re exactly sitting on roses either.

So my assessment is that it’s doing ok. Not great, not horrible, but ok.

First quarter it made a ton of money cause it sold a ton of boxes. it did what 2 million in 1 month? at $60 not counting deluxe and collecters thats $120m right there. No game can keep selling 2 – 3 million boxes per quarter. At lauch you have all the people who have been waiting for it buying it. Then its people who come across it, or who change their minds etc.. the later will always be a lot smaller.

They choose micro transactions as the revenue driver and that has increased quarter over quarter according to the financial reports . That means its actually doing great for them.

Well, not really. Let’s do a basic calculation.

Anet is said to have +300 employees long before release, today there might be a lot more. To be conservative with this assumption I’m going for 300 employees.

The average annual salary in the US in the games industry is around 75-80k, but I’m going for 70k like the first time.
300*70k=21 mio $
So we have at LEAST 21 Mio $ of costs to be covered, not counting in additional employees (well, you could try to count them from the recent ANET image we got) or lots of other expenses.

According to the NCsoft earnings release 2013 Q2 they achieved gem shop sales of 7,7 mio. 7,7*4=30,8 mio; that’s not a lot compared to my very conservative assumption of expenses.
I don’t see how they could cover studio costs while maintaining a decent revenue share just with gem shop sales.

The biggest income factor is still boxed sales with 20 mio in 2013 Q2. So yes, including boxed sales Anet is doing really good, but boxed sales WILL go down rapidly as time goes on (-4mio compared to last quarter).

To be honest that makes me really happy, because it’s basically predicting that they HAVE to deliver an expansion at some point (apart from the fact that the LS is pretty much bs in my opinion).

Ehh I dont follow sorry. The Q2 report says they did $25m this last quarter they reported on. not $7.7m Unless I am misreading something. Its $28b krw which are equivalent to $25m usd. Thats excluding the box sales. Total so far is $160m which covers all the wages for 5 years alone.

Thats also not counting the easter market which generally is greater then the western market making it so potentially it could do $200m a year from the gemshop alone.

During the call itself they said the game is doing strong and seems stable financially. It would be illegal to say that if the income was smaller then the expenses.

There’s also much more to supporting the game than salaries… there’s infrastructure, there’s marketing, there’s business operations….

My educated guess is they are on thin break-even ice.

Nope. In business, the cost of wages is the highest of all. Always has been and today more than ever. Infrastructure has never been cheaper, and A.net has almost no marketing budget.

The reason sub free MMOs can survive nowadays is exactly that … network infrastructure has become so insanely cheap that there’s no fair reason to ask a sub anymore. Add to that the real estate bubble burst and offices have likewise become just as cheap.

So if income is enough to pay wages for 5 years, rest assured it more than covers infrastructure.

A.net is extremely stable by their own words. Otherwise we’d have seen an expansion already.

milo.6942:

They are running this game like a business. I mean to say they’ve got things backwards from what a game is supposed to do. You have to have a vision of what fun will be like in your game, and you’ve got to make it the best it can be. Here they are trying to cater to various people and their playstyles and their wants and their wishes. All different demographics, like a large business might try to net as many customers as it can by offering different products that have various markets. Except, this is only 1 product. A single video game. If you try to please everyone you will end up pleasing no one.

I’d be more worried is A.net was being run as a game instead of the kitten business it actually is.

Bright.9160:

Not really… I think that if you got the numbers of how big of a percentage of the GW1 playerbase completed DoA, UW, FoW, Urgoz and/or Deep, you’d be surprised how small it would be. Especially if you take into account that a bunch of people (although not such a significant amount) used running services to get their DoA, UW, FoW, Deep and Urgoz achievements.

GW1 end game was still amazing, even though a lot of people weren’t able to do it. You might argue that it’s still bland because it used the trinity, but I’d like to see you 4 lord Shadow Walk trench tank DoA. It took a lot of skill and knowledge of an area to be a prominent tank for example. Yes, spikers could be just about anyone, and could be carried by the rest, but it took at least a couple of skilled players to be able to complete the areas.

That’s true, but GW1 end game was also distinct by not having any soulbound rewards. Everything was up for trade. Raiding almost never has that in western MMOs. In GW1 the most casual player could eventually save up the 2 million needed for obsidian, without ever setting foot in UW. That’s what defines good content imho, most other MMOs don’t have that at all.

Apart from (maybe) Urguz’ and the Deep, there wasn’t any proper raiding, the endgame were just very very hard areas, but regular areas non the less. The endgame didn’t play by vastly different rules than the rest of the game.

To end this argument … nothing in GW1 gave you a stat advantage, merely because you beat something. That’s the cornerstone of the entire GW1 model.

It’s not that I’m against raiding per sé, but I’m against all the bad that usually comes with it namely
- 3 hour long, extremely boring dungeons with 30 idiots who can’t play despite their epix
- having to repeat that dungeon ad nauseam because it drops a weapon of awesomenss +0.01
- to need that weapon for the next coolness tier +0.02
- the requirement to have whack-a-mole roles like tank or healer because properly hard content would wipe said group of 30 elitists.

That’s inherently not fun. I pass for such content. So while large group content can be fun to a degree, it’s the repetition required for the VP that’s the deal breaker to me. I don’t think people would set foot twice in a place like Naxx if it weren’t for the epix. But I agree, killing the end boss in any dungeon the first time really is a nice achievement. The 50 times after that … not so much.

Tier 7 in jumping puzzles please!!!

And please fix mesmer portals, character parking and other cheats.

I give A.net quite a lot of slack. I don’t know if that’s because of my own job as customer support giving me perspective, my functional brain, my adult age, my fanboy level or my gullibility. Probably all at the same time.

When I’m 100% honest … this game is fun. I like most mechanics and I’m not forced to join in the mechanics I don’t like.

Sirendor.1394:

Hey all, I held a survey and finished it yesterday (with a variety of questions about the different game aspects). The data has been collected and uploaded to this forum thread (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Survey-Scores-of-GW2-UPDATED-DAILY/first#post2729450) aswell as a number chart.

Here it is, hope it helps you discuss things and helps Anet to see the player’s wishes.

Rather silly to claim your data to be 100% true and correct when everyone knows there’s three kinds of lies:
Lies, kitten lies and statistics.

as I’ve said before, your poll was as biased as could be, and no relevant data can be pulled from it. Your conclusions are as fair and balanced as fox news, about as trustworthy as conservapedia.

Good try though, next time, with honest options, you might get honest conclusions. And don’t claim truth. Let people do that for themselves. Makes you look really, really bad.

If ascended weapons and MF buff are done right, they’ll be able to revitalize a lot of the game. If not, it may be a nail in the coffin. I don’t think the playerbase accepts another crafting/ascended puppy up.

Fairly sure Arena.net knows this, and therefor ain’t going to release something broken this time. This really has to work. Last few patches gave me hope they’re going to to it right.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Bright.9160:

Vayne.8563:

Nuka Cola.8520:

No endgame August 28th 2012, no endgame August 29th 2013.

The best reason to play in my opinion. This is what makes this game better than every other MMO. Thank you so much for sharing this positive opinion.

I don’t enjoy endgame, therefor, they shouldn’t put it in the game, because this game is just for me.

Got it.

He doesn’t enjoy anything but buying musical instruments on gem store and spam them in Lion’s Arch while talking to others how he dislike rng BL chests which NO ONE FORCES YOU TO BUY. Vayne doesn’t play the game, that’s the main reason he’s all well and happy about current gw2 endgame. I bet he haven’t even done half the dungeons or even reached lev20 fotm. So to him, he has all dat content left to do cuz he’s doing one dungeon path per month and the rest is spent in LA talking about his new irl haircut.

I’m literally laughing out loud at this post. You’re such a funny jester, almost thought you were serious.

Bright.9160:

marnick.4305:

Bright.9160:

marnick.4305:

Here’s an assumption:

There’s only one type of person who can’t afford a new computer and is forced to play on a three years old laptop.

Someone who just spent a lot of his savings on a roadtrip through Africa?

Even someone who did that, should have the 600 euros necessary to buy a Guild Wars 2 capable notebook.

Maybe you want to save up for a really decent pc, but Guild Wars 2 running at 10fps, and you not being able to see the mobs is not A.net’s fault in this case.

I’m not going to explain to you my reasons why I don’t have money to spare on a gaming rig. Not to mention there are more important things that I need to pay for, like, you know, a place to stay. It’s not because I have 600 euro’s saved up that I have to spend it. My parents luckily taught me how to handle money better than that.

If you don’t have a decent hobby budget, your parents thought you to waste money some place else.

As for it not being Anet’s fault, to me it is. Because their priority should have been the culling of enemies, not the culling of players. If you honestly believe that it’s the other way around, you’re delusional in my opinion.

I do believe it’s your fault to play on a computer that obviously can’t handle the game. I don’t know how your parents raised you, but mine told me that I should buckle up and take responsibility for my own mistakes. Blaming others won’t help one bit.

I don’t blame them for my crappy computer. I can however blame them for their skewed priorities and worthless updates.

And yet culled enemies have been fixed. I’ve got no idea what you’re on about. If you’d try on a Guild Wars 2 capable pc, you might have noticed that.

A lot of prices dropped across the board, except for ectoplasm. This means ecto rose naturally to make sure legendaries still have the exact same price as before. Economics 101.

Sunlyte.3768:

Inflation is really just side effect of the government printing money to pay for things it can’t afford. They realized that they can gradually devalue currency without most people noticing, and then indoctrinate the public into believing that inflation is “normal” and acceptable (it’s not).

Sure is acceptable to me. The loan on my house gets 2% cheaper every year, my salary gets adjusted automagically to inflation. People do notice, people don’t really complain. The ones who are against normal inflation the most are the extremely rich. Should give you a little hint about who profits most

As long as it isn’t a hyperinflation spiral, small amounts tend to improve the economy, stimulate business and form an effective form of tax relief for the lower and middle class. Think about it next time you go voting.

Dench.5968:

Vol.5241:

Dench.5968:

Saint.4789:

Wow, thank you for that! Yes I forgot that in the real world there is finite,

It’s finite for everyone but central banks or well connected entities.

Vol.5241:

You really need to analyze deeper than looking at prices before blaming it on inflation. Various other things can cause a price increase, such as changes along the demand/supply curve, shocks and speculators. Not to mention, promotions that you have with the gem store.

I could waste the entire weekend collecting endless amounts of evidence in regards to this games inflation.

Why bother? the dev’s already said it’s going on. I don’t need to collect evidence, it’s been said. They said it, and I’ve seen it. I’ve pulled in 350g+ off the market in the past 24 hours and probably 20-35% of that is profit. And that took 30 mins of effort. People have the money to blow on my listings because the game is flooded with cash. That wasn’t the case a while back. I’ve been a heavy trader since NOV, and I’ve never seen people throw money around like they are right now.

Players are going to spend more when they make more, which is going to warp the economy and cause inflation. The more money the less it’s worth.

Yes, inflation is happening but as was said here previously it’s not as rampant as people want to believe.

You don’t seem to understand what inflation is or what causes it.

Farming for an hour and getting 40g worth of materials does not cause inflation
Farming for an hour and getting 40g in pure GOLD does

You pulled off 350g from the TP in the past 24 hours? Cool, but that didn’t actually bring gold into the economy. Gold actually got removed from those transactions.

woah woah woah. you mean to tell me there is a TP tax fee?!?! WHAT! oh man, I had no clue! I also don’t understand what inflation is.

I hereby state publicly that I am far to stupid to continue on this conversation. My goals are the following:
-learn English better
-understand what inflation is
-learn to understand anet saying “yes there is inflation” means something else, depending on what the next persons interpretation of that phrase means.
-understand that money is magically removed from the game via tax on TP

In the future, please talk to me like I am 4 years old. If you could break out MS paint and draw me images describing what you are talking about, all the better.

Oh, and I’m at 378g since I last posted. I don’t have a clue how the market works probably. maybe. I don’t know. I just click around the screen randomly, don’t look at numbers really and the gold just doesn’t stop coming into my account. It’s actually really annoying.

heh

No to be a kitten but it would be very wise of you to actually take your own advice.

And you youngsters … I’m still using paintbrush.

Buttercup.5871:

Vol, you forgot to mention that the sky will fall and we’ll all be doomed.

You need to sell your gems between tomorrow (because F&F dyes) and the next patch (because Vol’s reasons). It’s not that hard to figure out.

Oh, and while you’re at it, think about what people need after they crafted their ascended weapons for once. You’re all focusing on what materials are needed to craft ascended weapons, speculating like mad, but you’re not focusing on the obvious. What does anyone need after they crafted a weapon? (except for the obvious: love, peace on earth, and pizza).

More nukes? Because the world has never been more peaceful.

Oh and a way to have 3 women for every male IRL but that’s another discussion entirely.

Time to farm some karka I guess.

Was it really impossible to make a proper list of needed features, instead of a selection of things we don’t need?

Like first person screenshots. Now that’s something to ask for.

You make one big mistake.

People who work their kitten off IRL to buy gems, won’t sell them for a price that’s too low to be considered fair. Many people on the forums have commented that “fair” would be around 5gp/100gems. Regardless of what happens next week, gem prices have to rise a lot before the stable equilibrium is reached.

A small dip might happen, but I don’t think the rich casuals are the ones who’ll want ascended weapons yesterday. They’re more likely to go for a legendary instead.

Could be another tier to lodestones, and not to totems/blood etc.

In any case, the t6 for a legendary are not too difficult to come by. Gambling clovers gives you a ton and laurel bags give you plenty too.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Catering to casuals?

In order to complete the new content, you must complete it within 2 weeks before it’s gone forever (or a month in half of the cases).

Casuals wouldn’t be able to keep up. The Living Story is catering to hardcore players for sure. So are legendaries. So are Ascended gear. So is anything taking time and gold in the game. You cannot even find a good amount of lore without going in depth of the content.

How exactly is GW2 catering to casuals?

Apparently 2 weeks is too much for the self proclaimed hardcore, especially since the content usually doesn’t involve absurd day-long grinds.

Vayne.8563:

darkdomino.9578:

Well, it’s been a year and the game is pretty much the same game it was a year ago… I’m curious to know why that is, if not for financial reasons.

It’s been a year and I still sometimes see my character chop down trees with his pickaxe. Hell, there are bugs in this game that are still there from the beta.

If GW2 is making money, when are they going to start investing in this game? Temporary events every 2 weeks is great and all, and I’ve enjoyed all of them – but that’s not content.

Let’s put it this way: I’d trade 5 living story events or festivals for 1 new class. I’d trade 10 living story events for 1 new playable race.

The game is still the same as it was a year ago? Really?

Aside from the myriad bug fixes (there have been pages and pages of them, many not even documented), there were quality of life upgrades (the account wallet, aoe looting, the end of culling, previewing in the market place), the addition of the Fractals, WxP in WvW, a revamp of AC, new jumping puzzles, new dynamic events, new minigames.

Maybe you’re just not paying attention.

You’re forgetting daily laurels and guild missions. The game has definitively grown.

We now have a full world of relevant content, and a stable, relatively bug free game.

We bashed the dragon, didn’t you remember?

1/ there’s only 10 MMOs in the west with more than 100,000 subscribers let alone online users, including the mastodont. 400,000 at any time would be extremely good.

2/ all reports point towards the apparent fact that Guild Wars 2 and Arena.net are doing extremely well financially. They’re still growing as a company and there’s a lot of job opportunities on their website.

3/ Several hints about behind the scenes projects, and that the living world is actually one of the smaller teams. Something big is going to happen eventually, but no one knows when or what.

4/ the current b2p model and cash shop without p2win seems to be a very solid financial strategy.

Read through massively’s GW2 section to find a lot of good sources.

Vol.5241:

marnick.4305:

AndrewSX.3794:

Robert has been the only dev who really sat with players. Like going to ranger forums, talking, exposing, discussing. Same for DG forums, back in the days there was a DG team.

Anet should hire like 15 Robert, not lay off (? unsure, only rumors seems here) the only one you had.

Arena.net has a no lay off policy. Hrouda most likely left out of his own accord.

No lay offs policies are rare. NCSoft West had layoffs last December and even though Arenanet is their own subsidy, I’d think NCSoft has a say on their budget.

Not relevant. The No lay off policy at A.net’s is relatively well known and part of the reason they can attract high quality people. If NCSoft wants to have a well functioning subsidiary, they’d better keep their hands off from such policies.

Gehenna.3625:

marnick.4305:

Everyone knew this was advertisement but let’s be clear. If you expected anything different from advertisements, you are terribly naive.

To be honest, I don’t remember any of the games I played making quite such a numbers display as Anet have done here in preparation of their China offensive.

Sure, companies may at times indicate sales numbers but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any of the games I played before make such a hoopla about it.

Maybe you have different experiences.

Personally when I see numbers I want facts and context so I can weigh the value of these numbers. Advertising like this obviously doesn’t give you that context.

People are talking. Obviously it works.

The lack of context can be easily interpreted by anyone with a brain.

AndrewSX.3794:

Robert has been the only dev who really sat with players. Like going to ranger forums, talking, exposing, discussing. Same for DG forums, back in the days there was a DG team.

Anet should hire like 15 Robert, not lay off (? unsure, only rumors seems here) the only one you had.

Arena.net has a no lay off policy. Hrouda most likely left out of his own accord. Apparently he worked there for almost three years, which is a point where many people reconsider their options.

I sincerely wish him the best in his future career.

Bright.9160:

marnick.4305:

Here’s an assumption:

There’s only one type of person who can’t afford a new computer and is forced to play on a three years old laptop.

Someone who just spent a lot of his savings on a roadtrip through Africa?

Even someone who did that, should have the 600 euros necessary to buy a Guild Wars 2 capable notebook.

Maybe you want to save up for a really decent pc, but Guild Wars 2 running at 10fps, and you not being able to see the mobs is not A.net’s fault in this case.

Bright.9160:

I guess it’s also my own fault I can’t afford a big gaming rig and have to play on a 3 year old laptop with the worst graphical setting imaginable that needs a fan on it just so my graphical card won’t melt?

I need to play on lowest setting of everything just to be able to break 10 FPS. So no, it’s not because I don’t know how to change my graphical setting.

But hey, keep the assumptions coming, whatever makes you feel superior I guess.

Here’s an assumption:

There’s only one type of person who can’t afford a new computer and is forced to play on a three years old laptop.

Seras.5241:

marnick.4305:

You have such a soft, nice voice. Like the genuine good guy type of person². I’ve got the feeling you’re constantly trying not to cheer out as a rabid fanboy

² (as compared to the frustrated misogynists that usually self-identify as good guys)

Are you talking about the guy with the American accent in the video or the one with the New Zealand(its like the Australian accent but less evil) accent?

The one at the start, the first to speak.

I don’t perceive Australians as evil. Love the accent.

Mileinnor.7125:

I haven’t seen Robert Hrouda posting in the forums for a while now, so I went and search his last post. According to the records, https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/Robert-Hrouda-1327/showposts , his last post was on the 10th of August. I then did a quick search on FB to see what he’s been up to, and boy I was surprised. In his profile he has the job title “former Content Designer at Arenanet”, and has posted that on August 20th is the last of his work that will be live on GW2.

So, an important person working for GW2 has just left, and we’re not even informed? Someone please tell me that he’s still working for Arenanet and I’m totally wrong.

Last thing I heard was that the 14th amendment was not yet repealed. Therefor slavery is still illegal and mr Hrouda has the right to chose whether or not to leave Arena.net and pursue other avenues.

Whether or not we have to be informed is another issue entirely. Personally I’m of the opinion that career switches don’t always have to be broadcast, especially not to customers.

LordByron.8369:

marnick.4305:

You don’t need a single piece of gold for full BiS.

The only value of gold is cosmetics, and I like it that way.

cool..where do i get free legendaries?

Did you expect me to answer that or can I just ignore your trolling?

Evans.6347:

marnick.4305:

It’s easier by far to make small group content extremely hard, because you’re limited primarily by your own lack of skill. Clock Tower is a very good example. There’s only one person to rage against when you fail.

Oh ho ho ho. I just had to comment on this while I was reading through.
There were and still are plenty of people to rage at in jumping puzzles, the larger the character the better.

You can’t believe the abuse I got for doing it on my Charr.
Luckily, time heals all wounds.

People giving you abuse doesn’t mean you are the source of their failure They are the ones to make a false jump.

Sirendor.1394:

phiplayer.2865:

I find this thread funny with all the haters trying to mock the game as hard as they can.

And i find this funny too, because of people (mostly haters) aske anet to show off their big numbers. And now, when we got the answer, people:
-don’t believe them,
-think those are advertisments,
- that they are too small,
- that even with alive, healthy, think that community of this game is dead.

You know what i’m going to tell you ?

You are wasting your time, dear hater. Go do something for christ sake, by posting in this thread you didn’t gain anything. And if you think that your efforts damaged, somehow, GW2, you are totally wrong.

In response to this comment, the only thing I can do is sigh.

Criticism is something developers are supposed to learn from and should be grateful for. It means there are people who care enough about their game, that they are willing to spend time to shout out what they like/dislike/think should be improved. There isn’t a single comment out there that is completely made up out of negative criticism, they always state what might be a good solution to the problem, which in turn should – theoretically – help the developers.

I’d also like to add that if you think this isn’t an advertisement on Anets part, you are terribly naive.

Everyone knew this was advertisement but let’s be clear. If you expected anything different from advertisements, you are terribly naive.

Chadramar.8156:

Ashabhi.1365:

The Living Story is a lot of fun if you don’t take it too seriously.

Maybe that’s part of the problem, because I want to take storytelling seriously, as it is one of the main reason why I play games. And he living story elements I’ve seen clash pretty badly with the epic “save this world from the Elder Dragons” theme I bought the game for. It’s been one party after another, oh-so-cool Steampunk pirates, and an out-of-control jerkwad of a teenage brat with godlike superpowers that make her completely untouchable. At best this leaves me cold, at worst it feels like a slap in the face.

You’re playing the wrong genre then. You’ll be far more interested in single player RPGs. MMORPGs almost inevitably have such bland, generic and cliché storylines because they’re easy to digest for massive playerbases.

That’s not really an excuse but sadly a limitation of the genre. Maybe it’ll improve, but even bad RPGs have better stories than good MMOs.

Gehenna.3625:

marnick.4305:

1/ I’m not convinced GW2 is entirely in the different direction. In my experience, GW2 is an MMO while GW1 was not. GW2 is exactly what you’d get when trying to make an MMO out of GW1.

Well, it’s always a matter of opinion but here are some thoughts.

GW1 had henchmen and heroes.
GW1 had group play as a main element
GW1 had well organised sPvP with much variety
GW1 elite armour tooke more effort to collect
GW1 had no TP, trading was done in Kamadan mostly, between players
GW1 had trading between players
GW1 had a world that was darker, more in line with the background story
GW1 had character classes that actually made a difference
GW1 didn’t not have WvW
GW1 didn’t have zerg content
GW1 didn’t have jumping puzzles
GW1 didn’t have tiers for gear
GW1 didn’t have crafting
GW1 didn’t have mystic forge RNG

Now, this is not about what’s good or bad but about differences. I think when you look at it, it is significantly different as a game. To me even the things that are similar are done quite differently.

I could comment on every single one of them, and why this list makes GW2 an MMO while GW2 isn’t. Don’t feel like it so let’s just take three.

Heroes and henchmen go against the idea of an MMO. Removing those is almost necessary to build a proper MMO.

Next up are a decent player centred economy. For that, player crafting and a decent automated trading system are necessary. Honestly, I’m happy I don’t have to deal with Kamadan anymore. Doesn’t mean the current system can’t improve, but I’m more happy with the GW2 economy than the GW1 economy overall.

Third, I don’t think GW2 has less “group” content than GW1, but it’s done in a different way. GW1 is like going to play indoor basket with your team while GW2 is more like street basket where random people come and go all the time. One doesn’t need to invite someone to a party to have a group. I like that. Gives the game a more natural feel.

I still feel GW1 and GW2 have a certain common ground, that’s more described as underlying respect for the player than any particular mechanics. They’re different games, and should be like that. No one was waiting for a GW1.5.

Moss.5371:

marnick.4305:

GW2 is an MMO while GW1 was not.

Howcome? It’s the other way around in my opinion, see I did plenty of actual group play in GW1 in dungeons and story. In GW2 dungeons, you just take care of yourself.

Dungeons have nothing to do with being an MMO or not. The open, persistent world is the key defining characteristic.

Sleuth.7964:

Vayne.8563:

Sleuth.7964:

Vayne.8563:

Sleuth.7964:

DarcShriek.5829:

eisberg.2379:

Guild Wars 2 brought in $25Million in sales in the last 3 months, going by the quarterly, after all expenses and taxes, that is ~$6-7 Million in profits in 3 months.

Financially the game is doing great.

I don’t see as many GW2 is dying posts anymore. They always make me laugh.

if this game is doing so great then where the hell is the content PERMANENT content.

Arguably if you’re doing badly you’d want ALL your content to be permanent, because you don’t want to keep making stuff. Making stuff costs money. Having four teams working on 2 week release schedule costs money. You can’t afford to do that if you’re not doing well.

In fact, many MMOs when they are doing badly, introduce an expansion (which is all permanent content) to get some money back into their coffers. Apparently Guild Wars 2 is doing well without having to have that permanent content.

That said some content is always permanent. For example the current invasions won’t be leaving the game when the event ends (though they will be less frequent).

Sigh there is just no convincing people like you

People like me? Logical people?

What are you trying to convince me of? That temporary content is a sign of a game doing badly? That makes no objective sense whatsoever.

Can you explain to me, in basic logical terms, why a company that’s not doing well would keep making more and more content, and then take it out of the game after a month?

I’m not arguing temporary content is better or worse than permanent content. I’m arguing temporary content isn’t a sign of a game doing badly financially.

I’m trying to convincing you that if the game just focuses on temporary then that is bad

There has to be a balance that so far we have not seen at all. Until I see an actual update that gave something to really do since fractals ill continue to voice my opinion on the fact that this game needs a real challenging content for players who want a challenge and reward with a real risk vs reward.

Maybe, just maybe, arena.net understood the huge outcry that happened after FotM and ascended gear was released. Maybe the understand that one update alienated a very large part of the playerbase. Maybe they’re listening and trying to not make that same mistake.

I’m very sorry you’re caught in the aftermath, but I was actually hit in the first blast. I invite you to see it from the perspective of a skilled player with limited time.

Absolutely supported. I’ve asked for this before. I think it’s a much needed feature in WvW but also useful in every other place in the world.

Chuo.4238:

Gehenna.3625:

Oh crap, just when I thought I found all 3 threads about this, there is a fourth one….lol

Numbers without context are what people want them to mean.

I’ll give a couple of example.

It’s about the first year. “Fastest selling MMO” is fastest MMO selling in the west in the first NINE months since release as calculated by a company that was asked by Anet to do these numbers. Take that for what it’s worth.

460K concurrent users (at one time)…Yep when the game came out. Great spin to advertise with that a year later when I think we all know it’s nowhere near there anymore.

So GW2 has got some big numbers, but what they actually mean? Well, it means one thing: Anet is advertising their game, that’s what it means.

I think we’ve learned since GW2 released that ArenaNet is all about hype and spin, implying one thing, and delivering another.

Your analysis is, sadly, probably accurate.

Like every other company in the world. So sad for a.net to be working exactly like expected. I’m so disappointed for the PR in the latest blog to have the exact same spin I expect from every single company in the world. I totally expected that from a for-profit company /irony

Moss.5371:

GW2 is going in the exact opposite direction of GW1. In every single aspect of the game. Which is incredibly sad for all the GW1 fans.

Actually, I would like to know if there’s any GW1 fan that likes GW2 better as a whole.

1/ I’m not convinced GW2 is entirely in the different direction. In my experience, GW2 is an MMO while GW1 was not. GW2 is exactly what you’d get when trying to make an MMO out of GW1.

2/ I don’t like GW2 or GW1 more than the other per sé. I like both in a different way. I don’t like a good wine more or less than a good scotch. They’re different, both are good.

I’m currently playing GW2 almost exclusively and haven’t booted GW1 in a year. But that’s merely because I have every single achievement in GW1, after 7 years there’s absolutely nothing left to do. I like both games.

Bright.9160:

marnick.4305:

Bright.9160:

Not to mention, many people I play with would qualify in the communities’ eyes as ‘hardcore’ and have jobs, or family or study at university etc. Just like the casuals have jobs, family, or study at university. Both sides spend money on the game, until you have any statistics that ‘casuals’ spend more, your argument holds no water and is pure speculation.

My definition of hardcore is 5+ hours a day, at least 6 days a week. Consistently.
That’s not compatible with having a job and a family.

My definition of casual is max 2 hours a day, 3-4 days a week. Often less. Often takes week long breaks.
Let’s not forget that even that time commitment is pretty hardcore when compared to non-gaming hobbies.

So… You kind of missed a lot of middle ground there…

Because the world is not black vs white. I didn’t think it was necessary to add such a simple fact.

Sleuth.7964:

All casual players are not bad but in my experience the majority are not that good. I have a lot of frustrating moments with them.

Same goes for hardcore players. Not all of them are elitists, kittens or simply bad at the game but in my experience, the majority are kittens. I have a lot of frustrating moments with them. And you’re not making my perspective of hardcores any better with your posts.

At the very least, most casuals want to have fun. That’s something I rarely find among hardcores (although it does exist)

Sleuth.7964:

Not true sorry being hardcore is both through playing a game you get better and you can can complete difficult content most causal players are terrible and i’ve experienced this with my 10+ of playing mmos.

I’ve been playing videogames for 24 years. Most of that time was as a hardcore gamer. I don’t need to be hardcore in GW2 to be good.

So please, give me a break. As a currently casual gamer, I’m a rather good gamer due to accumulated experience over the years.

Sleuth.7964:

Morrigan.2809:

so you still have made no comment on Liadri mini?
Did you play in the gauntlet at all?
and now you want ascended armour?
So you do want better stats after all

I haven’t been viewing this thread at the moment and I don’t know what the mini is and I did play gauntlet it was easy some of the stuff was a little tedious though the wind lady was not designed very well to me

And yes I want better stats but that’s just me I understand that they are adding ascended armor to the game which should be earned by raid style content IMO that’s very difficult then having some more grindy way for casuals

They are adding ascended armor so i don’t exactly know why your asking me that question in the first place.

Completing every achievement in the Gauntlet is hard content in my opinion. Casuals can do this though. Casuals ain’t bad gamers, they merely have less time.

Completing the entire Gauntlet 50 times for a piece of armor is hardcore content.

The second is bad content imho, especially if said armor has more stats.