Do you trust the developers/publishers with PvE content?

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

 

Probably should watch this first. Totally optional.

[STIHL.2489]

I did 200% till they put out HoT.

 

I even bought the expansion for a few other people, because I loved this game and knew Anet was gonna kill it!

 

Ohh.. they killed it alright...

[Ayakaru.6583]

they write good stories, but rush the execution.

Balthazar felt completely rushed. He would be a good villain, but we only knew him for one chapter, after which we immediately hunt him down. there was never really a fear for apocalypse. Even if he killed Kralkatorrik, there was a risk of magical apocalypse, but no guarantee.

At least with Abaddon his character was clear, and the threat was real. Abadfon was foreshadowed properly, and we can see all the chaos the absent god caused. All the while Balthazar couldn't dominate something right in front of him

[reikken.4961]

I did till they put in mounts

 

Don't get me wrong. They do some things very right, but they also do a lot of things wrong. It's hit or miss. much less reliable.

[Loosifah.4738]

They've had the occasional miss-step; but overall; yes.

[Menadena.7482]

I had a blast at first and then things went a bit downhill.

 

"Guess what? We listened to you and we will have an expansion!"

(content drought while hyping the expansion)

(expansion that did not live up to the hype)

(another content drought)

 

"We have the same celebration! (as last year)"

(This has happened for every major celebration since around S2.)

 

"Here is our second expansion!"

(ho-hum maps with limited replayability)

 

"Look at all the new maps!"

(which you do not have access to unless you complete the initial instance, own the expansion, own the dlc for the map, and even then most can not be reached via a portal from the neighboring map)

 

At this point I just expect they will mess things up. Sure, it is fun to see what they do mess up, but that is what I expect now.

[STIHL.2489]

Here is the Thing.

 

This game does not feel like it has a plan. It does not feel like they had a 5 year plan, or a 10 year plan for the game itself, while they had one for the story.. it's like they knew where they wanted the story to go, and unfold, which is what makes it seem coherent for the most part.

 

But the rest of the game, does not feel that way.

 

**To give an example:** They added in Gliding. The HoT maps are designed with Gliding in Mind, but it's clear as day that the Core maps were not, there was no foresight that gliding was ever going to be a part of the game. Same with Mounts, Same with Ascended Gear, same with Fractals, Same with Raids, Same with Masteries.

 

It feels like they are just making it up as they go along, and... even when they bang out some good ideas.. that still does not build faith that they know where they are going or what they are doing. It feels like.. the game is moving forward by the seat of it's pants and the "good stuff" was more luck then by design.

[PyrateSilly.4710]

I still trust them with the game.... If I did not then I would not play. I would just go and play something else. You, nor they, would ever realize it as I would just not play anymore. Why some keep playing when all I hear is how much they hate the game .... baffles my mind as to why. I would never play a game I didn't like.

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

> @PyrateSilly.4710 said:

> I still trust them with the game.... If I did not then I would not play. I would just go and play something else. You, nor they, would ever realize it as I would just not play anymore. Why some keep playing when all I hear is how much they hate the game .... baffles my mind as to why. I would never play a game I didn't like.

 

GW2 shipped as more or less 2-3 games. I'd play a different aspect of GW2 if the others failed to entertain me. Or, as you say, play another game.

 

I wonder if I should start a poll about Roleplaying in Gw2...huh.

[STIHL.2489]

> @PyrateSilly.4710 said:

> I still trust them with the game.... If I did not then I would not play. I would just go and play something else. You, nor they, would ever realize it as I would just not play anymore. Why some keep playing when all I hear is how much they hate the game .... baffles my mind as to why. I would never play a game I didn't like.

 

Some people want to love a game, because they really like parts of it..and really.. really.. want a game to right for them.. as opposed to just jumping ship the first time something they don't like happens.

[Rauderi.8706]

> @STIHL.2489 said:

> This game does not feel like it has a plan.

 

It really didn't. An MMO shouldn't be created via "agile programming".

And it really shows in the writing. Season 3 was a mess of unstrung story bits with almost no connection.

The character writing is growing irritating. You can't please everyone: some love/hate Taimi, same for Canach, but it feels like the character writing is more addicted to pithy/snide quotes from CW shows instead of waiting for the right time to lay down that one-liner. Not to tip spoilers, but it also seems *really* human-centric. And none of the characters seem to experience *joy*.

But what's really noticeable is how the story looks in the long view, and it's a mess. A mess of tropes and needling dialog.

An MMO story should be set for *years* ahead of what it intends to commit.

 

And then there's the accretion.

Players pine for more dungeons, but it's not like the old ones were going to be maintained unless they break.

Underwater combat left in the lurch.

Crafting done on such an old MMO design that it *can't* be overlaid in favor of better systems, and it takes even more work to come up with a few new prefixes than to let players choose their own stats.

New movement methods are fantastic, but that doesn't excuse how many areas weren't equipped for them and needed to be blocked off with Invisible Walls.

 

As much as I love the trading post as an economic hub, the economy itself is rooted in RNG scarcity instead of finding appropriate in-game sinks so materials have value. :-1:

And yet, much love to the eventual revisions in QoL. :+1:

 

And combat.

Such a potentially robust combat system.

Laid to waste by encounter designs that focus on AoE spam, 5-second stun spam, one-hit KOs, and other obnoxious 'mechanics'.

Huge condition list that is half-worthless on bosses because Defiance doesn't work quite right. Defiance takes a huge hammer to CC where some additional subtlety is needed.

Condition/stun spam will remain a problem without additional systems to act as stopgaps.

This is probably the area that tends to make me regret the game the most, even beyond the chunks of groan-worthy writing.

 

And while a HUGE list of problems, I still love this game for some reason.

Its subtle personality (yes, even in spite of sparklegriffons and WoW shoulders and cotton-candy pink Norn), flowing combat, and passionate developers still keep me coming back, even if I'm wary of what disappointment I might run into next.

[ReaverKane.7598]

Poll's Kinda Generic.

Overall yeah, i think they can handle pve well...

But the game isn't just pve, and they don't handle all aspects of pve equally well.

The story, for example, to me it's been quite amazing, and i've enjoyed it thoroughly! But some people dislike a lot of it. But overall i think we can say the story has been entertaining, and while it has, sometimes, disappointed some of the player's expectations, it has been consistently the most positive aspect of GW2.

 

Overall the environs have also been great. Map building has been quite good and with a few exceptions (looking at you TD) have been positively welcomed.

 

Ok, instead of running myself into a wall of text, best sum this up...

 

Generally pve is well built, well thought up. But there's a lot of inconsistencies.

For example, reward-wise. A lot of the time, rewards are meagre and drive people away from the content.

The best example of this is Dungeons and Luminates Collections. Because pve is so unrewarding, a lot of people resort to pvp reward tracks to finish these items.

Another example is Bounties. Except for achievements, and because rewards aren't as good as they could be, or as immediate as they could be, people drift away from the content. As they do from Adventures (a gold chest isn't much better than a bronze one).

 

All in all, PvE is the most entertaining part of the game, especially the story, but at the same time it's lacking for its tendency to drift towards grind. Rewards need to be more consistent around the game, and less grind-intensive. I mean... Colin Johansen said it all. Grind isn't fun.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

> @STIHL.2489 said:

> I did 200% till they put out HoT.

>

> I even bought the expansion for a few other people, because I loved this game and knew Anet was gonna kill it!

>

> Ohh.. they killed it alright...

 

I did 200% after they released HoT and then comes PoF to derail my train...

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

Since I don't get a choice in who develops the game, my choices are:

* Look at the franchise's record to determine if I think ANet can produce a game that's fun for me in the long run.

 

And that's it. It's relevant whether I "trust" ANet. It's largely irrelevant whether they say anything at all on any topic It's nice when they ask for our opinion and it's not when they give us a heads-up before making sweeping changes. But that's all it is: nice; there's no contractual obligation for them to keep us informed.

 

Or put another way: I certainly believe that ANet has a better handle on how to make a good game than any of us do.

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

> @"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

> Or put another way: I certainly believe that ANet has a better handle on how to make a good game than any of us do.

 

Mmhm, yep. ANET would have a better opportunity since they are the originators of the game. Beats giving it away for another company (or us) to take over.

 

A very practical mindset for the relatively immediate situation(s) at hand. To put the poll in a different way, do the changes since inception affect your outlook on the companies involved going into the future (i.e. consumer confidence)? Which is more about longevity and the future of course.

 

[Torolan.5816]

I am really often not ok with how the commander behaves. He(male for the sake of simplicity) is so inconsistent and forgiving to some powerful potential adversaries and wildcard people that I am very astounded in hindsight how Trahearne could agree to let him lead an army. The swerves in ls3 are of an almost comical nature, with the worst offender being the last one where you help an old woman with not one but two superpowerful artifacts in her possession/reach get her revenge on a guy who could have very well just have been a legend after the main protagonist showed his true colors just for the heck of it if you are not a human. Pretty sure that nobody would have given a flying skritt about said guy if he had just remained in the state he was.

 

The price you pay for united and unopposing players is very high in regard to the story. If you asked 100 GW2 players, I am pretty sure the at least 25% would be Separatists or admirers of Joko because both parties have reasons that makes them relatable in one way or another. I feel especially the draw towards the separatists for many GW1 players, foefire ghosts are kind of your people after all.

 

Contrary to many people, I am not opposed to QoL items like mounts in regular maps. Making the wallbreaker vista for example gets very old very quick and is easy with a mount.

[Blaeys.3102]

When it comes to open world content, such as maps, dynamic events, collections, jumping puzzles, etc, no one does it better than ArenaNet. That we get a new high quality map with well thought out content every 3-4 months is impressive and really makes the game something special, imo.

[STIHL.2489]

> @Rauderi.8706 said:

> And while a HUGE list of problems, I still love this game for some reason.

> Its subtle personality (yes, even in spite of sparklegriffons and WoW shoulders and cotton-candy pink Norn), flowing combat, and passionate developers still keep me coming back, even if I'm wary of what disappointment I might run into next.

 

I know exactly what you mean.

 

[STIHL.2489]

> @ZeftheWicked.3076 said:

> > @STIHL.2489 said:

> > I did 200% till they put out HoT.

> >

> > I even bought the expansion for a few other people, because I loved this game and knew Anet was gonna kill it!

> >

> > Ohh.. they killed it alright...

>

> I did 200% after they released HoT and then comes PoF to derail my train...

 

You poor thing.. how did you ever stomach Core ?

[vesica tempestas.1563]

> @Rauderi.8706 said:

> > @STIHL.2489 said:

> > This game does not feel like it has a plan.

>

> It really didn't. An MMO shouldn't be created via "agile programming".

> And it really shows in the writing. Season 3 was a mess of unstrung story bits with almost no connection.

> The character writing is growing irritating. You can't please everyone: some love/hate Taimi, same for Canach, but it feels like the character writing is more addicted to pithy/snide quotes from CW shows instead of waiting for the right time to lay down that one-liner. Not to tip spoilers, but it also seems *really* human-centric. And none of the characters seem to experience *joy*.

> But what's really noticeable is how the story looks in the long view, and it's a mess. A mess of tropes and needling dialog.

> An MMO story should be set for *years* ahead of what it intends to commit.

>

> And then there's the accretion.

> Players pine for more dungeons, but it's not like the old ones were going to be maintained unless they break.

> Underwater combat left in the lurch.

> Crafting done on such an old MMO design that it *can't* be overlaid in favor of better systems, and it takes even more work to come up with a few new prefixes than to let players choose their own stats.

> New movement methods are fantastic, but that doesn't excuse how many areas weren't equipped for them and needed to be blocked off with Invisible Walls.

>

> As much as I love the trading post as an economic hub, the economy itself is rooted in RNG scarcity instead of finding appropriate in-game sinks so materials have value. :-1:

> And yet, much love to the eventual revisions in QoL. :+1:

>

> And combat.

> Such a potentially robust combat system.

> Laid to waste by encounter designs that focus on AoE spam, 5-second stun spam, one-hit KOs, and other obnoxious 'mechanics'.

> Huge condition list that is half-worthless on bosses because Defiance doesn't work quite right. Defiance takes a huge hammer to CC where some additional subtlety is needed.

> Condition/stun spam will remain a problem without additional systems to act as stopgaps.

> This is probably the area that tends to make me regret the game the most, even beyond the chunks of groan-worthy writing.

>

> And while a HUGE list of problems, I still love this game for some reason.

> Its subtle personality (yes, even in spite of sparklegriffons and WoW shoulders and cotton-candy pink Norn), flowing combat, and passionate developers still keep me coming back, even if I'm wary of what disappointment I might run into next.

 

thres no such thing as agile programming :)

 

that aside, the only thing that should be planned far in advance is the story line, everything else should be developed to meet current and emerging needs, with just enough lead time that htey can actually build it in time for the target release.

[Ahlen.7591]

> @STIHL.2489 said:

> I did 200% till they put out HoT.

>

> I even bought the expansion for a few other people, because I loved this game and knew Anet was gonna kill it!

>

> Ohh.. they killed it alright...

 

I did till they put out PoF.

I even bought the expansion for a friend, because I wanted to play with them

But it was super boring and we quit until LS4 ep 1 came out and saved it a bit.

[Sarrs.4831]

I think they've done very well with PvE content.

 

I don't actually do much PvE content but I think they've done well with it.

[Tails.9372]

I trust them with the PvP reward system but not with the PvP content. Furthermore, I trust them with the PvE content but not with the PvE reward system.

[maddoctor.2738]

I absolutely loved the game until the first Queen's Jubilee (August 2013) up to that point they released a healthy amount of content for all players, but it was rather instanced focused, lots of good story telling inside dungeons, with challenging and exciting new events, together with some open world events that could be great but they were dismissed by the atrocious culling. The game was new and exciting, we, the players, as well as the developers, found something unique and as we both got more accustomed to the game, we, the players, found more interesting ways to defeat the content, while the developers found new ways to challenge us. The best time to be a Guild Wars 2 player. I invited lots of friends to play at that time, and had some of my favorite moments in the game.

 

After Queen's Jubilee, the Champion loot bag patch and the addition of Ascended Weapons, the game put more emphasis on blobs and farming / grinding. Brainless farming became more profitable, but there were still amazing events added, both instanced and in the open world. So it was still good, a proper mix of content to satisfy both the instanced content crowd, the challenging world boss crowd, and of course the now emerging brainless farming crowd. It was more than common to start gaming the system, gathering enough players at events to cause Champions to appear, to get more loot. From a fun game it turned into a "How do I get the most loot?". Still, it wasn't all bad, there were enough good releases during that time.

 

Then once Scarlet died, the game took a massive downturn. Season 2 story was fine for me, the instances were exciting and some of the achievements hard enough to require multiple plays. But what we got in the open world was simple farm / grind maps. I always wondered how could a company that gave us the original game and Season 1, give us something pointless like Season 2. I took my first break during that time as the only new thing players could do is follow a tag and spam auto attacks to get loot. The well documented era of "Play while watching Netflix on your second monitor". It didn't help that we got 10 months break after that, so I stopped playing for longer periods of time. Most of the people I knew stopped playing around here. It was boring, farm/grind - filled period.

 

I started loving the game again when Heart of Thorns was released. There was a long period after Heart of Thorns release that had no meaningful releases, outside Raids, and that hurt the game. Once I was done with Raids and the Heart of Thorns content there was little more to do for a while.

 

Fortunately once Season 3 started, it never stopped kicking. The story was a bit of a mess, but the maps were of high quality, released frequent enough, both instanced content and open world content, in general the game returned back to the initial era of awesomeness. Path of Fire kept things going, and the first episode of Season 4 is a direct update over Season 3, they promised more cohesive story, the thing that was missing in Season 3, and I can't wait if they keep it up.

 

tl;dr The game went like this: Awesome -> Good -> Average -> Awesome (with sort period of average) -> Awesome

[Wandering Mist.2973]

Well, let me put it this way. I trust Anet a lot more than I trust most other games developers, but I will agree with the assessment that they appear to not have a long term plan for this game and are pretty much just working on the fly. Remember though that this is their first proper mmorpg (gw1 wasn't really an mmorpg) so I'd say that they are doing alright. Could they do better? Of course but at least they haven't done an Activision or an EA or an Ubisoft just yet.