Faline.8795

I know the community is greatly against these, but I wish GW2 had them:

1) World Chat. The game seems so empty and quiet to me without an ongoing conversation. I know guilds can help with that, but it's limited and I like to be online sometimes without having a leash on me.

2) Random dungeon grouping. Count me in as one of the shy ones, as a lot of people seem to be, who don't like having to apply to groups. A random matchmaking system would greatly help with that. Those that want to manually put a group together still would have that option.

Like I said: never will happen

> @"maddoctor.2738" said:

> > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > I'm actually surprised a game can survive on $6mil a month. Given salaries, overhead, etc. As a comparison, WoW takes in about $45mil/month.

>

> Where do you get that 45mil/month figure?

The general consensus is that WoW has 3.5 million active players. Although a lot pay by the hour, I assumed for the sake of discussion that everything averages out to a simple $15/month per player. That is 45 mil/month total if my maths are right.

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Google is my friend. =)

No it isn't! Google is the embodiment of evil!

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> FYI:

> ArenaNet employes 350-400

> Blizzard Entertainment employees 4,700

> Activision/Blizzard employees 9,625

>

> Quite a big difference.

>

Where did you get that information? Not disputing it. Just dying of curiosity.

So taking those numbers:

400*80K == 2.6 mil/month salary. Assume 1.5 mil/month for other expenses. That's 3.1 mil/month expenditures vs 6 mil income. Profit == 2.9 mil/month.

I don't know about Blizzard. That is across the whole thing. What is the number of employees dedicated to WoW?

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > > > I'm actually surprised a game can survive on $6mil a month. Given salaries, overhead, etc. As a comparison, WoW takes in about $45mil/month.

> > >

> > > I'd say 6mil every 4 weeks is a pretty spectacular income for what is unlikely to be considered a well recognised global franchise in comparison to other leading names and after 6 years to boot

> >

> > I'd say GW2 is very well recognized. Whenever people over on the WoW forums talk about leaving WoW for another game, GW2 is almost always near the top of the list. (FFXIV seems to beat it out mostly.)

> >

>

> Yeah but outside of the niche market, it has little brand impact. Whereas wow, elder scrolls and final fantasy are instantly recognisable across the entire industry. That isnt to say gw2 isnt popular, it just punches well above itself which is a credit to the entire Anet team in trying to keep it relevant and progressive at least in pve

Aren't WoW and FF outside the MMO market anyway? Which expands their recognition.

So yeah, small wonder why GW2 isn't thought of much outside the MMO genre. Because it has no presence outside it.

And WoW was helped by both the South Park episode as well as its large marketing.

But yet, kudos to the GW2 team for making such a great product that it is so well regarded! When people think "alternate WoW", GW2 is the main thing they think of.

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

>

> The staffing numbers are hugely different. I think gw2 is around 400ish, i expect wow is prob in the thousands (5000 a few years ago, but id expect shrinkage)

Just for giggles, let's take those numbers and make some other assumptions. Let's say the average salary is 50K/year.

That would be 1.6/mil month. Let's say another 2-3 mil for other expenses. That's about 2.5 mil/month in profit.

I could live with that. Can ANet? The question being: Can the resources they put into GW2 yield greater profit elsewhere?

Fortunately, ANet seems pretty happy with GW2. There's been an appreciable slowdown in content since it first launched, but so far it seems to be steady. That is a good sign.

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > I'm actually surprised a game can survive on $6mil a month. Given salaries, overhead, etc. As a comparison, WoW takes in about $45mil/month.

>

> I'd say 6mil every 4 weeks is a pretty spectacular income for what is unlikely to be considered a well recognised global franchise in comparison to other leading names and after 6 years to boot

I'd say GW2 is very well recognized. Whenever people over on the WoW forums talk about leaving WoW for another game, GW2 is almost always near the top of the list. (FFXIV seems to beat it out mostly.)

> @"Ayrilana.1396" said:

> > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > I'm actually surprised a game can survive on $6mil a month. Given salaries, overhead, etc. As a comparison, WoW takes in about $45mil/month.

>

> Look at the number of employees each has.

>

I don't know those numbers. I presumed GW2 has a good sized staff because it takes people to come up with this content.

Staff-wise, is WoW and GW2 really that much different? I know WoW pushes out content faster than GW2, so certainly WoW has more staff. But they are both working on the next expac. Certainly WoW has a larger GM staff and CS staff.

But GW2 certainly has a smaller profit margin. We'll never know what that is, though.

I'm actually surprised a game can survive on $6mil a month. Given salaries, overhead, etc. As a comparison, WoW takes in about $45mil/month.

What do you think the next quarterly revenue report will say about Guild Wars 2? The last one was getting pretty close to pre-expac numbers, iirc. Should there be this large of a drop so soon?

> also, world chat is pron to spamming the most useless things, just play any asian MMO with world chat and you'll know how horrible an idea that is.

And that is why you have the option to turn it off.

Why not both? World Chat and Custom Chat channels?

I forgot I had posted this.

I still would like to see a world chat. As I run along, questing, it's fun to watch conversations in the chat tab. I stay on WoW a lot longer than I would normally just because the chat is fun sometimes.

And for those who don't want it, you have the ability to turn it off.

All in all, since it is optional, would it really be so bad to have it?

I am having a terrible time with Elementalist. I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Is there a guide for this profession?

Guild Wars is probably one of the very few MMORPGs that could survive financially by creating a new, modern version of itself. FFXIV is another, but they probably don't need to yet. WoW would by its sheer size. Other than that, I don't know.

> @"Fluffball.8307" said:

>

> All that said, you couldn't pay me to play open world PvE with a continuous ping that high, I'd just buy single player games.

>

I know what you mean, but when you live in rural America, you have to take what is available.

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

>

> Standard is ~3seconds for ones with a charge up but there are some "blink and you'll miss it" types. There are also some with their builtin indicator like expanding to fill a circle.

Out in the world some of those can be pretty unforgiving, but I am led to understand that instanced ones do telegraph. Have yet to do a dungeon though. Only level 45ish

Thanks. You guys are making me feel a little better.

I do understand about synergy. I like my gear to have Power. I like to burn things down quickly. (Fire Elementalist. Go fig. haha)

I do suffer from massive latency, though. 900ms. (Internet by satellite.) How well does GW2 telegraph attacks? Is there enough time to move out of the way? (World of Warcraft gives plenty of time. Final Fantasy XIV sometimes does, sometimes is very fast.)

I was reading a thread in General called "PoF Intro Mission Impossible to Solo. What's up with the Difficulty Spike?" https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/44477/pof-intro-mission-impossible-to-solo-whats-up-with-the-difficulty-spike

The OP was having trouble with the intro mission, and the advice from a number of posters was that you have to have this build or that stat or these specific pieces with those numbers, etc.

It all got really confusing and detailed.

I'm really not that kind of player.

Is GW2 really such an involved game that a super casual person can't just go along, get gear from quests and such with what appears to be higher numbers, and go to it?

Or am I going to need a spreadsheet and blueprints on boss mechanics to just barely survive?

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > Where is this person getting his information from? To me, the post looks like he is just pulling things out of the air

>

> It is a known fact that ANet likes to spread rumors a few weeks/months prior to the release of a new expansion, with a few truths being hidden in them. Maybe that person is somehow affiliated to ANet? After all, [this](http://archive.is/m4YET "this") was leaked a couple of months before PoF came out, and I too wonder how they got this data (data mining?), for it was all accurate.

Interesting if ANet really did that. It's not unknown. I've seen other companies do that. John Nathan-Turner, who was the producer of Doctor Who in the 80's, often leaked stuff to generate interest.

So I hit level 45 in Harathi Hinterlands and the little "go here next" arrow in the upper right corner disappeared. So I'm kind of lost as to what to do next.

I know I can always go explore, but the maps are so big I'm just feeling kind of lost.

Where do I go next?

> @"Randulf.7614" said:

> In principle, bring able communicate events worldwide is a fine, the issue is that world chat would not be used for that and calls would be drowned out by a selection of players who would do nothing but sit in the channel spouting nonsense, trolling, spoilering, arguing etc etc

To me, that was part of the charm of World Chat. Really no different than a Discord chat or Guild Chat or anything else like that.

It's like being in the game world at a pub chatting with your blokes. Yes, you get some trolls, but overall I always felt it made everything more alive.

World Chat is the one thing that is missing from GW2 that I wish it had.

Guilds don't count because those are limited to guild members.

To me (and I accept that this is only my personal opinion), World Chat makes the game seem more alive to me. World Chat is what kept me with World of Warcraft for so long. (It sure wasn't the crayon graphics!)

Yes, map chat is there. But what if something is happening on a different map, like a boss I wanted. Wouldn't know without World Chat.

I know a lot of people don't like the concept of World Chat.

If there was a toggle to opt out of World Chat, would that make it more palatable?

> @"Brother.1504" said:

> > @"Faline.8795" said:

> > I finally broke down and bought both expacs since they were on sale.

> >

> > But didn't Path of Fire just come out? And they are already discounting it?

>

> More money in mount skin sales then expansion costs.

True, but you don't discount something that is selling well.

Somewhere, someone made the calculation that offering a discount (albeit only a week) would drive up sales more than keeping the price the same.

More worrisome would be PoF going on permanent discount. My (uneducated) guess would be it is a promotion to get the Bless people to pull the trigger and buy the whole game. Worked on me, though I am not a Bless refugee. I'm a WoW escapee.

I finally broke down and bought both expacs since they were on sale.

But didn't Path of Fire just come out? And they are already discounting it?