Bast.7253

> @"mauried.5608" said:

> Whether Anet fails or succeeds is NOT your concern, unless you are a shareholder of Ncsoft.

> If you dont like the game , then dont play it .

>

If they don’t succeed there will be no game to play...

I would think updating the loot table of spearmarshal's plea would at least help some. Could add new mini's, tonics, or even ultra rare items as a gambling mechanic like someone above mentioned. Maybe keep it at three wishes, but give you the option to deposit a higher amount of eyes to increase your chances of getting better loot.

> @"Rasimir.6239" said:

> > @"Eloc Freidon.5692" said:

> > > @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> > > > @"Eloc Freidon.5692" said:

> > > > In PvE it should be as fast as raptor because its abilities aren't useful

> > >

> > > Why, if you can just use raptor? You effectively ask to develop a new mount with Warclaw's skin on it. Why just won't wait till Anet will provide a new mount for PvE, then?

> >

> > Because if it gets cool skins I want to be incentivized to get them as bare minimum decent mount. There is specifically no reason not to bring it up to speed.

> Actually someone above already posted the reason: spending development resources on enhancing the mount exclusively in a gamemode it's not intended for removes those development resources from projects that are more solidly planned and targeted (e.g. developing abilities for the next pve mount instead).

>

> WvW got a mount. It takes a bit of wvw gameplay to unlock, and a lot of wvw gameplay to fully master (126 world ability points for a fully trained warclaw vs. 1060 world ability points to train every single other wvw ability). As a bonus to wvw players (who often don't even have all the other pve mounts unlocked, much less mastered) they are also able to use their new mount in pve once they have it unlocked.

>

> Nowhere in this though process is any focus on "pve players need a new shiny mount so they buy more skins". ANet hat a lot of other content aimed at those willing to spend gems on the game that are probably much better focussed on their target audience. The warclaw skins are targeted at the players finding a use for a warclaw mount, which are wvw players using it in wvw.

>

> There is no reason whatsoever to waste resources on making the mount more appealing to pve players when there are lots of better ways to spend those resources targeting each part of the playerbase in their preferred area of content.

I still kind of wonder why they didn't take the opportunity to give it unique abilities in pve though, since it has a different skill bar in each game mode. I also think the 3 evades should be baseline in pve. It could have something like a dash or sprint ability in pve. But it's not a biggy. I mostly use griffon anyway.

I'm willing to bet they'll add some more skills to this in wvw though. I can definitely see a prowl-stealth like skill at some point. You might argue that that would be broken, but it wouldn't be any different than blasting smoke fields to a bunch of people on mounts and could come with a movement speed reduction.

I'd also bet that we'll eventually get some ability that lets us do damage to walls, but perhaps the camp tactic dune buggy level damage and a long cooldown or something.

I enjoyed it, non-the-less.

> @"Balsa.3951" said:

> > @"sigur.9453" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > To be honest, an entire LW season is essentially an expansion.

> >

> > to be honest. if it wasn´t for mounts & new elites, POF was essentially _just_ a whole LS season.

> >

> > without adding new features, this "new" content is just more of the same. while it may work for others, it is not working for me. would i pay money for those LS releases? never. a new expasion with a CLEAR feature/content list (something like for example: 6maps, 1 new class, housing, 3 raids, 5 new fractals with cm, new pvp mode, wvw changes.........), i would open my wallet instantly

>

> Aaand there u go the LS gave u 2 mounts what would stop anet from giving u an Elite Spec with LS if they sees its financial more beneficial that way ? Is there some magic in x pac that only this format can do that ?

>

> Many mobile games are without suscription and they adding new content on the fly. They are play for free micro transaction only and they so i heard are the new most profitable market...

>

> What Anet could had done and maybe was or is planing is an GW2 Mobile addon which makes it easier for players to buy stuff in game using their mobile.

>

> EDIT / An expansion creates hype Yes but so can do Any form of advertising. GW2 Says welcome gamers join our game for free this summer we roll out this and that and this and its amazing.

>

> or

>

> welcome gamers join our game buy the 2 xpacs plus core game and this summer we roll out an 3third x pac and its amazing.

1 mount. Warclaw isn’t living story

I'd imagine to pull off their living story meets expansion content model, they'd have to restructure in a way that everything is really specialized and maybe reduce down to two teams instead of three. And maybe have the two teams working on the playable content like story/maps, and then have a third team working on additional features that they can add in like elite specs or what not. Then again, those features would probably have to be integrated pretty well with the other teams, and if the feature is scrapped it could throw off the whole workflow. So I don't know. I'm not sure how I'd feel about getting elite specs getting split up like that, and it may not sit well with the community with our current cadence. I think it would be a great opportunity to introduce them in the story and give the elite specs more lore surrounding them, but I just don't see it as being worth risking the backlash.

Would probably be better to just have them released in one episode, whether it be the beginning and a result of events of the last season, the end of the season and the results of the current season, or the dead center after some climactic story event that helps enforce their introduction. I'm not sure I see any of that happening though.

Best case we get another iteration of Sun's Refuge that actually sees more development and use than one episode, or new mounts.

But most likely scenario is that we will get more mounts. Underwater/spider. Mounts are designed really well, and I doubt they would do this because it would diminish the value of every other mount and reduce mount sale skins.. but if they didn't care about those factors I could easily see them introducing an Aurene/Aurene themed mount. If you think about it, you could give it a lift-off function that provides the same altitude of the springer, a gliding over water/hover ability like skimmer, a teleport ability like jackal in the sense that it ports in and out of the mists instead of typical jackal animation, and maintain the same flight functionality of the griffon, with a leap being kind of pointless but implemented similarly... maybe even a raptor leap that reaches the altitude of a maxed mastery springer leap and propels you forward. I don't really see this happening in terms of being implemented as a new mount, but I am rather surprised we haven't seen it implemented in a story instance so far.

> @"MetalGirl.2370" said:

> Honestly, I'd pay £30 just for them to patch in like 50 hairs or so. I'm desperate.

> Oh, and a cat skin for jackal.

I think the cat skins will be given to the Warclaw now. lool I'm hoping for a pretty Bengal, lion, jaguar, and a star one that I can dye bright pink!

Which leads to gold influx from lion chest trash and as far as I know depleted the value of gems. But idk.

> @"Emprer.7256" said:

> > @"wickedkae.4980" said:

> > > @"Emprer.7256" said:

> > > Expansion has been their main source of revenue given that not most players buy stuff from the gem store. If there isn’t an expansion coming, I don’t know how they are going to sustain with just living story and more importantly show Ncsoft this game is still worth investing resources into. You can only buy so many cosmetic items. /shrug

> >

> > What makes this worse is that their cosmetic options have been hot garbage for years now. It blows me away how Anet squandered the fashion wars aspect of this game. They could be making billions had they had real artists and released ARMOR sets instead of costumes. I have over 12000 gems sitting in the bank and nothing that matters to spend them on.

>

> I agree some of the options are questionable. I am also finding it harder to spend gems on things simply bc the new releases aren’t that interesting. If they were armor pieces that can be customised it’d be a lot more appealing. Too bad technical difficulties are still an issue for that.

And the pieces that are, are lion chest random drops like the exalted shoulders even though the gloves were bought with gems. I guess they think they’ll make more money from people wasting keys than just selling the skin.

> @"MoriMoriMori.5349" said:

> > @"mortrialus.3062" said:

> > > @"C Cspace Cowboy.5903" said:

> > > They can’t properly balance what they got now and y’all want more profession classes? Lmao

> >

> > Yes. Elite specializations are the most fun thing about expansions aside from a wealth of new regions to explore. And heck theory crafting new OP builds from Elite Specs is half the fun of elite specs too.

>

> Current elite specs often only use one title weapon "intended" for them. Like, there is very little sense in using anything except sword on Weaver, or not using Warhorn on Tempest - anything else would most of the time will be times worse in terms of DPS. By simply re-working skills on the other weapons, may be even making them change into something new when equiped by e-spec (comparing to the core class), you'll have your "new experiences", without adding even more madness in hardly existing current balance. I really, really hope Anet knows better than adding new profession in the game, at least before fixing issues with current ones (tons of them, half of current professions either severely overshadowed by their and other e-specs, or just significantly under-performing comparing to them). The last thing this game needs is more broken professions.

>

> That's not even mentioning that creating even more unique professions is simply impossible. Many of the current ones are not that unique, if you'll stop looking at animations, and will look at mechanics and numbers. They can't even balance the current set for years, if they will add even more, they won't be able to manage them at all. That's a straight road to disaster.

Umm. Weaver uses staff all the time. The only profession I can think of that’s locked into a weapon is deadeye and even they use dagger dagger. If you’re referring to pvp only, then sure. But tempests don’t use war horn in pvp. And southeast doesn’t use dagger in pvp. And warrior if I’m not mistaken uses axe axe in pve and whatever they want in pvp. Firebrands are locked into staff and mace shield if supporting zerging or what not. And dragonhunter rarely uses longbow at all except a little in pvp. Elite specs don’t lock you into one weapon just to be efficient. With the exception of a few specific game modes and builds. But that’s true of any spec.

> @"Yasi.9065" said:

> Btw, if I see correctly, then they left out a rather pertinent part of MikeZs statement, that traditional "expansion level" content might be released alongside living story.

> I always understood that in a way that they dont need expansions currently because the story arc allows for that constant storytelling of living story, and the tech we usually would see added to the game via expansion gets released alongside the story as its needed or ready for release.

> Of course you can now say its because they hadnt anything BIG planned to begin with, but to make this into "they didnt have anything planned" or "the game is dead" thats very far reaching guys. So could you stop the drama already? Dont fall for every tabloid spin out there and just wait how it all progresses.

>

> After all, you all are playing the game for free. Theres no monthly subscription. So go and enjoy it and stop worrying.

Well, as I've mentioned before, I don't know how many more types of mounts they could really create at this point. So that's expansion-level content that I don't see being implemented, beyond maybe one or two niche areas that we don't currently have mounts for. I.e. Spider mount or underwater mount. I can't remember exactly what episode was released before he made that statement but I think it might have been Long Live the Lich, in which case he could have been referring to things like Sun's Refuge that we received in A Star To Guide Us. I think something like that could develop into something that you would see as expansion-level if expanded upon and turned into a form of customizable player housing using more of the Guild Hall systems than just the phasing system integrated with collection achievements.

But outside of that, beyond pushing the quality of the story telling and story-instances further and the addition of new mounts that I can't see being expanded much further, I haven't really seen anything thus far that would give me the same sense of excitement that I get from expansions. And even at that, if we're factoring in mounts, the mount feature was released with Path of Fire as Gliders were with Heart of Thorns, so technically they're just finally choosing to expand a feature they released with a previous expansion, not some new feature that you would expect as a selling point for an expansion. Of course, that all boils down to your personal interpretation of expansion-level content, but if you have already released two expansions, when you make a statement like that people are going to compare that content to the expansions that have already been released. The two expansions we have gave us new elite specs, a new profession, new movement systems, an entire continent of maps which we can probably deduct from this as we get new maps with living story. Those first three are things we have come to expect and think of as "expansion-level content." And given the way things were shaping up in terms of team structure, as I mentioned before, I highly doubt they had a full line-up of elite specs or some new game-changing feature like mounts or gliding to implement within the scope of a living story. The only ray of hope that this isn't the case is Sun's Refuge and the possibility that they were creating something that would allow them to deliver a feature like player housing, that isn't just abandoned after one episode or redone with each map taking up development time and resources for a feature that people complete and move on just like they do other collection achievements and map or story content.

To me, expansion-level content, implies something that will fundamentally alter the way you play the game moving forward, and change the way you play already existing content. Creating something with a lifespan that lasts just until the next episode comes out, regardless of whether the scope of the map or story is larger or is filled with more cinematics, is just our current living story on a larger scale. Sure, new maps are technically expansion-level content, but if many of those maps only have 3 specific areas where people congregate or where gameplay is actually engaging, the rest as beautiful as it is, is just wasted space beyond the random role-player or person exploring just to see if there's anything there only to move on when they discover there isn't. (I.e. Silverwaste, Drytop, Ember Bay item collections that encourage you to explore the map without needing to jam pack it full of events. Things that are largely missing in the latest releases and I think the maps suffer to some degree because of it, especially given how sparse or unengaging some of the events are.)

And I'm attempting to be completely analytical, not melodramatic or insisting the game is dead. Obviously the game isn't dead, but I don't see the game thriving as much as it could with the addition of something like an expansion. Sure, I don't know all the facts and it's entirely possible they did have something big planned for the upcoming season, but in light of recent events and news, it would seem that the current live-service team wouldn't really have the means to produce such content thus leading to my speculation that such content either wasn't in development or such content wasn't much further beyond the scope of what we've already seen.

If the living story so far is all you need and what you deem as "expansion-level" then good for you, but I and many other players expressing concern it would seem that may not be enough moving forward and as some of those people leave, the quality of what you receive even being far more easily satisfied, will suffer. So insisting that anyone who expresses concern or discontent is being dramatic or insisting for them to be silent and "keep waiting" doesn't really do you any favors.

"Keep waiting," "wait and see," and "show, not tell," stop becoming hype-generators and start becoming units of measure after a certain point. To some degree, I think it evolves into the mentality amongst many that it can be simplified to, "be patient" or "if you're not satisfied find another game." And to be honest, I think random leaks of info here and there create for more hype than simply telling people to look forward to content and not having a shred of detail as to what makes that content exciting, outside of story continuation and an undoubtedly, as usual, visually stunning map to explore.

But you're right, I've widely expressed my opinion, in just about every thread at this point. And ultimately, it boils down to waiting and hoping as usual. But I personally find myself spending more time on the forums discussing the state of the game or hopes for it than actually playing it, and if many others are too, then they aren't really spending any money. So the more time spent waiting with less reasons to play the game, the less revenue potential. Honestly, I have less time to play right now anyway due to school, so it's not really a big deal for me personally but if sharing my thoughts helps to improve the state of the game for when I do have that free time, I'd rather share them than keep quiet and hope for the best. That being said, they certainly have a lot on their plate right now and despite having a lot less trust in them as a consumer, I still have confidence in their ability and the talent they have in abundance at the studio.

Looking forward to hopefully starting my kitty mount on Tuesday though and potentially finding new enjoyment with WvW. Despite protest, it's decisions like this that impact the game modes in major ways that do give me a little faith in this idea that they can deliver my expectation of "expansion-level content" in living story. Changes that reinvigorate content and create opportunities for the future.

Well, new features for 1. Things that aren't as heavily abandoned as Guild Halls.

A few examples:

1. Obviously elite specs.

2. A new race/new races

3. An entire continent to explore with a story that you can play at once, instead of waiting 4 months

4. Player Housing - Guild Hall systems being reworked and expanded

5. A new Guild Hall in general

6. A bulk injection of new fractals - with fractals that actually give us a way to connect to a non-abstract moment in time like most of them, i.e. more fractals like the one with Joko that gives us a bit more history about current living story or things that we can see in game, like one themed around the gods and the exodus, or a pre-cataclysm Arah.

7. A new wvw map, which will now factor in the addition of the mount system

8. Dungeons reimagined and maps for said dungeons actually appearing on the core game map instead of being blotched out painted splotches of undiscovered land - dungeons that also incorporate the addition of mounts and are perhaps a bit more grandiose in size such as Arah explorable. Dungeons that have better loot and specific items to those particular dungeons. I think the Indiana Jones trap style dungeon mechanics are fun, and I wouldn't want to see them taken out completely, but I think it deters a lot of people from really getting into them. As does the fact that some of the trash mobs hit as hard as the bosses, leading people to just skip them all together knowing that they drop nothing but trash anyway.

9. New raids with essentially story mode versions that allow you to feel as though you're participating in the raid, or a much more simplified version of them. These raids would could also be used as a way to fill up the parts of the unexplored map that aren't large enough to logically fit an entire living story map.. and ways to visit content and plots that aren't completely related to the living story. Honestly, this and number 8 could be tossed into the same feature with the only thing preventing that being the cosmetic rewards you would receive creating exclusivity issues.

10. More content that could allow expansion of guilds and guild missions, that gives people incentive to play together or opportunity to bond through gameplay.

This is just a brief list of things I'd love to see, and nowhere near what they could actually do. They're always very innovative in what they do, but I think expansions really allow them to take that innovation to the next level that can't be done within the scope of a living story, outside of features like Sun's Refuge which was seemingly a one-time gig and may never see another iteration. And even at that, seemed like more of a greater understanding of how to culminate existing tech into one feature than a completely built-from-scrap feature that's entirely unique, i.e. a lot of guild hall tech and phasing tech reused or enhanced.

> @"mortrialus.3062" said:

> While Living World has been excellent since Season 3 started as far as I'm concerned. And Season 4 has truly lived up to expansion "quality" content like Roller Beetle, Warclaw Soon, as well as the epic quality and scope of storytelling.

>

I can't say that I feel similarly, but I'm glad that you do. The Warclaw isn't really a living world release, and the roller beetle was already in some form of development as I believe they mentioned during one of the livestreams. It just wasn't released when they originally planned to because of technical difficulty and an insane amount of bug-fixing involving mount physics in general due to how this mount functions.

But if new mounts are what give you enough satisfaction to declare it as expansion "quality" content, then I think you will continue to be pleasantly surprised moving forward and I'm happy for you.

Don't get me wrong, I love mounts and think they've been extremely well done so far.. my lack of skill with the beetle aside, but with the mounts we currently have, I'm not sure how much further they can push the envelope in terms of creating new ones or their general benefit to the game beyond what we already have. Outside of an underwater mount, which probably wouldn't get much use at this point, and a multi-seater mount which would be great but have fairly limited application and potentially impossible to do considering how the mounts work, I'm just not really sure what else they could add.

I suppose they could keep pumping in skills to existing mounts and enhancing their functionality, whether it be giving Jackals the ability to create Mesmer-like portals, or griffons being capable of more freely ascending, despite already being able to gain endless altitude, I would think that outside of game-type specific circumstances like the Warclaw and WvW, there really isn't much that can be added at this point in terms of completely new mounts. And simply expanding their functionality doesn't seem like it would create that same level of enjoyment that you've received from getting completely new ones.

So when he referred to expansion level content released in season 5, I don't see how mounts would really a factor moving forward.

> @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > @"AlexxxDelta.1806" said:

> > PoF is relatively recent, the standard is 2 to 3 years between expansions. What they need to do is deliver on the promise of "xpac-like content" with the next living world season. After seeing Price's comments about barely having enough resources for one cinematic in season 4 I can't say I'm too optimistic. I wish they go back to LS1 and 2 in terms of quality and quantity, that would be more exciting to me than a new expansion.

>

> We can't take her words wthout a massive mountain of salt because S4 is also the one that gave us actual cinematic trailers for the first time, lots of proper in-engine cutscenes and more. How did they raise the bar THIS much when it comes to this when their budget was so pathetic?

>

> ANd LS1 was awful quality. It was literally quantity over quality and just because had something new every couple of weeks doesn't make it interesting. The fact it had impact on the core game world was nice, but that wouldn't work as well, maybe as side content nowadays. In fact, that is pretty much what LS1 is. It had its big moments, especially the destruction of LA that had a large impact, but stuff like the puppet fight was definitely only on the scale of "Current Events".

Salt aside, even if her entire career is based on persuasion, her story and take on the situation kind of wrote itself. I feel like if there weren't some validity to what she said, it wouldn't be as easy as it is to make the conclusions that people have been making. It would be a lot easier to chalk it up to her being spiteful, which doesn't really seem to be the case given how much praise she showed for the talent at the studio. Sure, she could have been merely manipulating emotions because she's just that super duper good at writing and persuading people, but I'm inclined to believe a lot of what she said.. even if her entire twitter presence seems to be a channeled rage towards men. There are plenty of female developers at the studio, or were, and if her entire purpose was simply to be divisively malicious, then she would be well aware that she's intentionally harming many bystanders. I just don't see that being the case.

As far as your comment goes, I think the quality of the cinematics we've seen boils down to the individuals within the team. With Kourna we had a practically unplayable patch at release, a meta that seemed Frankensteined at the last minute, and very little replay value within the map itself. Yes, the Joko cinematic was extremely well done, but it seemed like it received most of the focus of that patch. The roller beetle was obviously a big addition, but given that they mentioned they planned on releasing the roller beetle much earlier on, could just as easily have been tossed in to make up for some of the other aspects of the release. Which, honestly, would make sense given that the map itself outside of the sand dune area and the breakable doors, doesn't really seem to be built to showcase the mount. I'd even argue that some of the Path of Fire core maps seem more advantageous for the beetle. Speculatively, the decision to implement the beetle with that episode may have created cause to redo parts of the map, leading to a general mess of a workflow and some of the issues that the map currently has. But back to the point, its my impression that even with more focus on the cinematics with that particular release, it may simply be that the devs working on that release are just stronger at developing them.

The only other major cinematics I can think of that are truly unique, are the ones during All or Nothing, and they're of a completely different style than that of Joko's speech. They're good, but I'd argue that they're pretty much the same style as what we get with Mordremoth in Dragon Stand and of a style and delivery that we've already seen. The true showcase cinematic remains in Long Live the Lich, and ultimately I think that was of such a higher quality because they put more focus and development into it. But they kind of had to in order to pay tribute to such a beloved character.

> @"derd.6413" said:

> > @"Healix.5819" said:

> > They had likely planned on running the living world with a minimal team for a few more years while they were focused on their other project. Now that they need more funds, expect expansions to be the new focus and occur more quickly. They ultimately need a new game however, as GW2 is only guaranteed to decline no matter what.

>

> i was wondering when the "anet broke, gw2 dead" post would show up

How is that salty? It's a pretty valid assumption given what we actually know at this point. It seems like this is exactly what they were doing, shrinking teams the smallest size possible and putting as much effort into those other projects as possible. For all we know this was done because of difficulty arising from development of one of those projects and an overall attempt to salvage development.

In regards to it only declining because they don't have an expansion, I think the game is declining either way because the genre itself is declining. Expansions are extremely beneficial for creating renewed interest among veteran players as well as enticing new ones. Short of word of mouth and the community pulling in friends, having the main selling point of getting into this game being that it has two expansions and gets a new map every 3 months wouldn't create nearly as much interest as a game like WoW, where even as bad as some of the expansions may be their eventual existence is predictable. I think this living story model could work to create the same hype as an expansion, but the living story needs to be more than 2 hours of story instances and a map. Not only that, but they need to create new exciting features to ship with those living story episodes that you would normally expect in an expansion.

That leads me to this point, that when Mike Z mentioned "things that would normally be delivered with expansions," Mike Z was most likely referring to the existing content model and new mounts. I think it's pretty safe to assume from the quote in this article about expansions, that major features like Elite Specs/Player Housing/Races/Battleships or whatever else you can think of, weren't really on the table at this point. Those features would be far beyond the scope of this living story team, who seem to have been the main ones responsible for our large content updates. And even at that, these teams have been struggling to deliver even close to the cadence they originally talked about, and the quality of some of them like Kourna has been... not quite there. Given what we've seen this season, assuming that these teams are even remotely capable of being able to juggle the task of creating this same content PLUS major expansion-worthy features, is just a pipe dream. But as usual, one flashy sentence has been spun into all of this unnecessary expectation that was probably never going to be met, and it's a combination of fault of the players expecting more than they should and false hype generated by pr.

Of course, this is all speculative in the end and we could wind up with new elite specs next season, but it seems highly doubtful given the trajectory they were on with the teams they had. For all we know about their structure before the layoffs, which is practically nothing, a best case scenario is that they had a separate team working on these expansion-worthy features that will simply integrate them with the episode releases allowing those devs to continue their focus on the story/map/fractal/raid aspects.

The only thing that gives me even a slight impression that these features are more than new mounts and what we have receive in normal episode releases is that Mike Z hasn't stepped in and clarified what he meant in regards to that statement. Which could mean that we will all be pleasantly surprised, or we're just pretending that statement couldn't have been wildly misconstrued and will focus on managing player expectations when they realize they aren't getting anything monumentally different from other living story updates thus far.

And to the people complaining about balance and citing that as a reason not to add elite specs, you do realize they could stop future content creation, push all of the focus into balance, and you would still complain that something isn't balanced.. right? "Power creep" this and "power creep" that aside, elite specs are one of the best way to make existing content more exciting. They allow for more customization and create new opportunities to have fun or get creative with content we already have. They're also huge selling points for expansions. Just look yet again at WoW and the addition of Demon Hunters and Death Knights. Each elite spec drastically changes the way you play your existing character, and can sometimes feel like an entirely new profession all together. Balance or not, they're a huge attraction for many players old and new.

Hopefully, once everything settles, part of this communication can involve a little bit more transparency about things like this statement regarding content normally saved for expansions, but this specifically runs the risk of spoiling the surprise if there is something larger planned, or creating discontent when its revealed that the content was more or less of the same scope. It would also be nice after this restructure to have some clarification on existing teams and numbers, but that's probably not something they feel comfortable doing given that the information could be weaponized in the future by disappointed consumers.

Either way, after all this information I can honestly say that my expectations have been drastically lowered in regards to the future. Which, is good because it may allow me to enjoy upcoming releases without frenzied anticipation, but adversely it just gives me less interest in playing the game or freely spending money on it like I have in the past. And I doubt I'm the only one, which circles back to the op I quoted in that many players who feel similarly not spending the same amount of money as they used to may lead to a more rapid decline in revenue and an eventual release of an expansion to rekindle that interest.

Though doubtful, hopefully they can salvage some of the work they did on the canceled games and use it to make this one that much better as well as see some that investment return. But depending on what those games were, that may be impossible.

This won't be about redoing any events, or creating a more "living" world, with maps being altered to a less time-encased state. This is merely a suggestion to create incentive to revisit those maps with minimal work and keeping the existing structure.

In another thread, someone mentioned that they find the only reason to go to the new maps outside of achievement points is because of the currency that's specific to that map, i.e. Kralk Ore, Dragon Crystals, etc...

But that isn't what drives me back to those maps, it's the events and how engaged I feel in those maps. For instance, if I wanted to go to a season 4 map, I'm most likely to go to the maps that provide the most enjoyment for me in terms of gameplay, which are Istan - for Palawadan and Hall (not for gold farming because I honestly just identify and mystic toilet pretty much everything anyway), Sandswept - for the djinn meta, the wyvern fight, and the Inquest meta, or Jahai for the Shatterer and escort event. Admittedly, the Shatterer is fueled by my desire to get the infusion though I know I have a greater chance of getting struck by non-branded lightning, but still.. it's what the map offers that drives me, not the currency or what I can buy from the currency.

Getting more to the point, a lot of people mention that the new maps are lacking in replay value. Many rush through the collections, do most of the events, burn through the content and get whatever they want from it whether it be a new weapon collection, a backpack, minis, or an armor set. Once they do that, the only thing driving them to revisit the map is how much they enjoy it, if they enjoy it.

So my proposal is that there needs to be a reason to go back to those maps to gain that currency and spend it. Something for the ones that have already obtained everything they wanted from them. They need something to entice them to visit even the maps they don't find particularly engaging, but that leaves them feeling rewarded that they did. A goal to drive them through the indifference.

With the launch of Path of Fire, we had a vendor Elisa? and her springer, that appeared in different zones each week, and though what she provided wasn't much, she offered different items.

So, following that theme, what if we had a rotating vendor or even rotating loot on the already existing vendors in each of these living story maps offering something unique only to that map, for that period of time, that would encourage people to revisit them and play that content again to purchase some of these items.

For example, we could have new minis rotated in, more combat tonics, cosmetic items or skins, novelty items, guild decorations, etc.. all rotated through those vendors and updated. Then you can play around with how often they're updated to tide people over during the downtime after a new episode drops.

You could even take it a step further, and this might sound pretty crazy because people might wind up just complaining that it's a huge grind, but you could even have mount skins added to those maps, with a much higher currency requirement giving people a reason to go back and gain that currency as more of a long term goal.

Of course, a lot of this has the large issue, of needing the new things to be created to be added to the vendors which would still take a resource and development investment of a set amount, but at the very least it wouldn't involve completely overhauling events or the map itself. It's just extra incentive to play that content, to keep that content lively and add more value to them.

As much as I would like to see all the maps fit my particular standards as much as Istan and Jahai do, this is just a suggestion as to what would drive someone like me, who doesn't particularly go to some of the other maps, incentive to revisit them and may have a similar effect on many other players with the same mentality.

Ultimately, the design of the map can do this without needing the incentive boost, maps like the ones in Heart of Thorns that give enough incentive through gameplay and group content alone, but it might be a way to stretch out the longevity of maps with less development and less cost.

Anyway, just food for thought. Not sure how many people feel similarly, and I'm certainly not a developer, but it seems like a potential way to revisit older content and give it more value without actually having to rebuild or rework the map to have an appearance of progression through time or story. And to some extent, we already see similar structures in game, whether it be the bonus crafting materials you get from core zones, Elisa the traveling vendor, or the Karma mastery trade vendor that sells unique items. (Admittedly, ironically, I don't really care for any of those three I just mentioned, but if you add a combat tonic, guild decoration, or somekind of armor or weapon skin you bet I and lots of others like me will be immediately interested.) Obviously, if it's something people really want, they're going to burn through it just as quickly, but if the items are updated ever so often, it still gave them incentive to revisit these areas that otherwise had none outside of whether they just liked the map in general. It also potentially boosts the value of the zones for new players to come.

Okay, wordier than I intended, as usual, but that's the gist.

Edit* Rereading my post I want to emphasize that I did not mean updated or rotated out completely, just rotated with an eventual return. Cycled, so to speak.

> @"Balsa.3951" said:

> > @"cptaylor.2670" said:

> > > @"Balsa.3951" said:

> > > Nothing unusual u guys played the game long time now u have most what u wanted. About currency how else u get ppl to play a specific map

> >

> >

> > You give those maps an identity other than that if the currency they contain. You create engaging content that’s specific to those maps, I.e. meta events and others that are unique. You focus that exclusivity into heart vendor rewards. Lots of ways.

> >

>

> Come on u know that people rush thru content and looking for the easiest way to farm. Or u tell me that Instan is the best designed map in game ?

>

> How many would do Dragon stand if there are no specific rewards ?

Umm.. sometimes I do Dragon Stand just because it's fun. I haven't tried going for any gen 2 legendaries in ages, so there isn't really anything I need from there. It's a great place to go if you want some engaging pve, whether you're trying out a weird build or just wanting to play but don't really have any goal in mind.

Istan is a lot smaller scale is and the meta is a lot faster pace. And I think most people go to Istan is to farm the loot drops and chests from the meta, not specifically for the Kralk Ore or currency there. People go there because it's lucrative. And despite it being a champion tag train, it's still a mass multi-person meta, and the kind of thing that I enjoy most in Guild Wars 2.

It's funny you mention two of my most favorite maps in the game as your counter. lol If we're talking about the best designed maps in the game in general, I would say Heart of Thorns maps in general. Because of the connectivity that you have with the other players, and how alive they feel because of it. How interwoven the events are and how organic the flow is between them.

With Path of Fire and many living story maps, I don't feel that same kind of connectivity. It feels like all the events, or what few there are, kind of work independently of one another. The main questchain I can think of off the top of my head is the Elon Riverlands Hall of Ascension event chain. As well as perhaps the Maw of Torment chains.

But yes, people still do Heart of Thorns metas even to this day, just because of how engaging and fun they are. Sure, many of them are looking for infusions, legendary materials, or have specific things they want from them. But I think plenty of them do them just for the fun of it.

And honestly, bounty trains are still going fairly strong and they're arranged over many many maps by people seeking a currency that they all share. So I don't think you need to create map specific currencies. I would think, similarly to bounties, you could have one currency with a cap and force players seeking that currency to revisit other maps. That could be good or bad I guess, but I just don't see the argument that you HAVE to have map specific currencies to create populations on those maps. You can't have the same currency obtained in many different maps, and then have one map be much more proficient at providing that currency because then you will have people swarming to that map and abandoning others if their sole intention is gaining that currency though, but that could be managed without needing to have a separate currency per map. I suppose the main problem with that would be that people would stockpile currencies from older maps, and then immediately purchase what they want from the new maps. So to that extent, I agree that there needs to be something to keep that from happening.

But either way, I think there could be a little bit better items to spend this currency on in these maps than just material crates or gathering tools. Because as it stands, I have the full requiem set, I have all the two whole combat tonics from Istan and Sandswept, I have the rewind device, and I have everything that I could want the currency for. I don't have the full Stellar weapon set, or the full Dragonsblood weapon set, but I'm not keen enough on those to pursue them. And I doubt many people aside from hardcore skin collectors, completionists, and achievement hunters are going to pursue that goal anyway. So ultimately, the maps I go back to, are the ones that I feel are most engaging. I may go back to Sandswept for the Djinn escort meta or the Subject fight and Inquest ambush, I may go back to Istan to enjoy the Palawadan and Hall metas, I may go back to Jahai for the Shatterer, admittedly mainly because I want to hit that infusion lottery... but I'm going back because of these events, not because I need whatever currencies these events provide me.

This all actually gives me an idea that I think I might make a separate thread about before I forget!

> @"Balsa.3951" said:

> Nothing unusual u guys played the game long time now u have most what u wanted. About currency how else u get ppl to play a specific map

You give those maps an identity other than that if the currency they contain. You create engaging content that’s specific to those maps, I.e. meta events and others that are unique. You focus that exclusivity into heart vendor rewards. Lots of ways.

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"derd.6413" said:

> > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > @"derd.6413" said:

> > > > > @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > > > > I had suggested a couple years ago that a new bloodstone, or its equivalent, be created which will store all of the excess magic.

> > > >

> > > > i doubt that's a good idea given what happened with the last bloodstone we found

> > >

> > > There was nothing wrong with that piece of the bloodstone. There’s no indication that there would have been any issues, had the White Mantle not damaged it, as it would have just continued to expand.

> > >

> > > Oh, and using dragons to absorb magic didn’t really work out well when you look at Zhaitan and Mordremoth. I just want to point that out since you had used the same argument against one of the bloodstone pieces from LS3.

> >

> > except the dragons took a coalition spanning multiple civilizations while the bloodstone took a splinter cell of one illegal cult

>

> Doesn’t matter. Also, there are no other dragons other than the elder dragons.

>

> Being able to have Aurene absorb the magic from the mists makes everything pointless as we could’ve had Vlast and Glint so the same.

>

> Also, if those three can absorb magic, whether they’re spirits or just echoes of their former selves, what’s to assume that Zhaitan, Mordremoth, or Kralk can’t do the same from the Mists? Opening the door for entities in the Mists to have an impact on the living world is just going to cause issues. It’s already bad enough that POF pretty much opened up the path to freely enter the Mists (aside from WvW, fractals, etc from core).

Agreed, but I fear that with the current story we’re going to see some pretty glaring inconsistencies at some point revolving around all of this. They’ve kind of backed themselves into a corner but we’ll have to wait and see.

> @"Astralporing.1957" said:

> > @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > > @"Balsa.3951" said:

> > > If this is not than I don’t know what is

> >

> > Exactly you don't know what is so throwing that kind of accusation around serves no purpose other than to show your lack of knowledge.

> Okay, have it your way. Having to lay off nearly 150 people (last number i saw was at 143, much higher than 100) and cancelling a number of side projects that so far ate a lot of money for no return whatsoever is definitely a sign of perfect management.

> [/sarcasm]

>

> Seriously, layoffs don't happen without reason. And (to put it mildly) it's highly unlikely that reason was due to _good_ management. Not the way they happened, at the very least.

Not to mention Josh also mentioned they weren’t focused as a studio. But I guess we can just ignore that part.

I think it's kind of all been said before. The counter to this is the also repeatedly cited incident in which they removed the Cantha district from Divinity's Reach due to Western pressure and cultural misrepresentation or some such.

But yes, despite wanting to see much more of Tyria, I do crave to see a Guild Wars 2 version of Echovald. And if I had to pick the pipe up and start tossing out theories, or just simply posting ideas that correlate to your post, I would propose without any evidence or hint, that we could theoretically have or have had a Season 5 in which instead of getting Cantha as an expansion, we receive it as living story updates.

Cantha is a large landmass, but it's also the perfect size to build and unveil over the course of a living season. And honestly, I think the story involved around it could be pretty well done within the scope of a living story. Just to further this insane theory, some of the expansion-level content could have been Tengu as a playable race and new elite specs. Is or was any of this likely, probably not, especially given some of the decisions they've made with restructuring and resource allocation, but it was a theory I had in the back of my mind for quite some time before all of this happened and this new incite into their development emerged.

In regards to our lack of communication, with Zhaitan gone, I think the biggest issue is still the fact that the rulers are xenophobic and isolate themselves. So, I would assume that the main reason it hasn't seen much exploration in terms of lore, or mention, is that going there is essentially going into hostile territory. And this time it wouldn't be some all-consuming Elder Dragon or a Lich that forces an eternity of slavery on people, but an independent Empire that just wants to be left alone.

I think that could easily be bypassed though. Because as strong as they may be as an empire, if they are faced with elder dragon troubles like Bubbles, they're far more likely to ignore their differences and just seek for help in any way they can.

Excited about the ele changes even though I never play tempest anymore.

I can't say that any of these will really directly impact the builds that I play, but they seem like pretty interesting changes at least. I do play condi mirage sometimes though, so that worries me a bit. And I feel bad for the chronos. Looks like core guard Valk builds may suffer a little bit and boonbeast may more problematic but I'm not sure how many stances they use for their build. The changes for rev song sound good.

I think more frequent changes like this would really help to keep people interested, and I think there's still quite a few skills that could see a little love or reengineering. But all in all, it's a glimmer of hope amidst everything that's going on, and thank you for the detailed update. It's communication like this that I and I think many others have been desperately craving more of.

> @"Gehenna.3625" said:

> Well, this sounds to me like they delivered PoF and handed GW2 over to the live service people that do the LS chapters and put the rest on these two projects. And now Ncsoft deemed these projects as not going anywhere, so they cancelled them and fired the amount of people that were used for that. Which also implies that they did have the full team working on PoF. I know, I know, there's speculation in there but that's what it sounds like.

>

> And Mike Zadorojny also makes sure to not mention anything related to future expansions in his post here on the forum. It just stands out to me that that's the one thing they're not talking about. I dunno, time will tell of course, but I think it would not be good for the game if expansions will no longer be possible.

That’s the general impression. They moved as many people as possible off of Guild Wars 2 to these random projects. Obviously it was left in capable hands or we wouldn’t have received the updates we have. But to think about what could have been had they not made the decision to place that burden on that few people in the first place, and use the funds from said game to fuel other projects, is sad. Then revenue dips because the people still working on the money generator are undoubtedly struggling to do their jobs as efficient as possible and it leads to budget cuts like this. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the developer only known for the franchise I support to make that franchise the priority. Needing to diversifying their products or not, it seems a shame to not make the most out of the one good thing you have before placing most of your eggs in other baskets. Maybe it’s just lost interest in the franchise and people decided they just wanted to move on to something different, with the live service team being the ones that cared enough to volunteer to keep putting their all into it.

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > > @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > > > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > > > Guild Wars 2 is Arenanet's only game (except GW1 which is in maintenance mode). Which means they can't simply drop it and focus on other games like a big studio can. Of course they could make a new game, or a few new games, but they'd have to start over completely from scratch and they'd lose a lot of customer faith and good will in the process - they'd be risking the future of the entire studio and everyone's jobs. That's not something you do because the rumour mill says other subgenres are now more profitable.

> > >

> > > I personally believe they'll be producing GW2 expansions for a very long time but what you say they _couldn't_ do is pretty much exactly what they _did_ for GW2: they dropped development of GW1 in 2007 and focused on developing GW2 for the next 5 years.

> >

> > That's a bit different though. I'm talking about traditional studios where they have different teams working on different games all at the same time.

> >

> > For example if the new Wolfenstein game didn't do as well as expected Bethesda could choose to delay making a sequel and/or make less DLC for it and focus on the next Elder Scrolls game instead, because they already have that franchise established and are almost certainly already working on the next game. Anet can't do that because they don't have any other games to focus on. They'd have to design, build market and release a brand new one completely from scratch, which is much more expensive and more of a risk because there isn't an existing fanbase for the finished product.

> >

> > As I said they _could_ do it, but I don't think they would want to without a very good reason.

>

> I would like to think there was already something in the pipeline for an expansion later next year, but in light of recent events maybe that plan has gone awry, so who knows.. lets hope its a yes because GW2 will need something if ANET wants to ensure a decent enough ongoing return from the game.

> TBH I wouldn't be surprised if that is what some of the cancelled projects were about.. it makes perfect sense for a Studio with one mainstay live product that has likely reached it's peak considering its age. So I wouldn't be surprised to hear ANET and NC Soft had planned these kind projects some time ago, but maybe economic changes caught up with them and decisions made. Who knows maybe there was a new GW related offering already on the horizon until late, as you say it would bring benefits both in the development cost and the likely interest leading up to a release and beyond again.... Time will tell.

Or best case, that expansion was changed from being an all at once expansion to an expansion divided up among multiple living story episodes. Without knowing the features they planned to implement next season that’s a pretty wild theory though. Though if it were the case, maybe they viewed that as a way of creating a more steady revenue model and a way to increase profits from living story without having to rely on expansion sales spikes. This potentially given them a more reliable revenue to devote to content faster. Though the emphasis on these other projects implies otherwise and that they really just wanted to milk our guild wars 2 in favor of these other projects.

> @"Spike.5073" said:

> Mike,

>

> as much as I appreciate this small update, I have a major gripe with it. Nothing in this speaks of the mistakes you made in the past that led this company up to this point, no promises are made that you will be trying even harder in the future for the benefit of this game and its players. What focus is it you speak to regain? Do you want to try your best to uphold the old schedule, the one so many people thought not good enough? The old quality standards that brought us classics like the bugged Living World instances, the screwed balance and abuse of the system in PvP? You'll share a little, but is it again so little that we have no idea what you're actually working on?

>

> All I can read is that you had a stroke of bad luck and that you try to uphold old standards with fewer talent. And that is just not good enough for me. You brought this upon yourself, and I'm very sorry to say this, but your old standards are just not good enough, and it pains me to read that you are trying to reach them and not aim to be better, work harder and get out of this as a stronger company. Instead you prefer to lick your wounds and hope for the support and patience of your community.

>

> We've been very patient in the past already. Your turn. Don't aim at your old good enough, because it wasn't just that.

>

> I sincerly believe you and many other devs need to hear this. Get it together.

>

> See you in your next update.

>

Yeah, I think in an attempt to not shower them with critique I’m just going to say that it feels like a safer route to just distance yourself emotionally and be conservative. Just think I’m going to hold off and speak only with my money from here on out. Not sure there’s much of a point in doing much else. If the developer wasn’t passionate about the game to make it the main priority, should the community be forced to carry it for them? Because it feels like the community has been more passionate about the game than the ones making all of these decisions to divert focus for quite some time now. And despite the mention of quality, I think it’s been pretty noticeable that the bar has slipped quite a bit this season. Relying on hope has been the constant theme lately, and it just seems wiser at this point to drop all expectations and move on. I think a lot more people will just start shelving this game until content updates are released, and maybe that’s ultimately what the goal was for this game to be. A fun thing to come back to every three or four months with brief spikes in revenue during those times. Still feel sorry for the ones left on the project, that have probably had to work their ass off to maintain the quality and content we have had. But shifting focus to other projects and moving all of this development to other projects, then insisting time and time again that the restructuring and existing delays were due to improvements for the future, when the reality is probably that the development was an understaffed mess full of extremely talented individuals that probably didn’t even get to release everything they envisioned due to time and budge cut restraints.... quality that could have been much higher had it the creators had the opportunity and backing of the developer.... sorry, but I’m definitely not eager to express praise. Just feels reallll shady to me.

No more faith than I had in them since the news broke, but I can’t say that I have any less either. I’d like to be hopeful that things can only go up from here, but I feel like in light of recent news I definitely feel like they are a lot shadier than I expected.