LW Episode 3 Release and Future Releases

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

> @"zealex.9410" said:

> Im genually curious how much quality maters when u end up having mini content droughts inbetween every episode.

>

> Idk about you but 3+ months is just too much. A new fractal every 6 months is insane imo, You could release raids, fractals and Lw seperately to combat that feel of "nothing to do" but anet is hell-bent at releasing months worth of content all at once.

 

ANet is a small company compared to Blizzard and Zenimax, that said (even if I can be a ESO fan at times) ANet releases more Open World real estate/Open World content that is repeatable than Zenimax does considering that Map Sizes, while Zenimax focuses more on Storylines and Voice Acting. Either way ANet puts out very respectable content on a regular basis compared to a bigger company like Zenimax (with a warchest of 1 Billion dollars by the way since that Facebook settlement regarding the Occulus Rift so there's really no excuse for quarterly patches on their part). So really cut them some slack, they seem to be well organized at this point (we even have as many raid wings at this point as ESO's Trials, they release maybe 4 5 mans a year while ANet releases roughly 3 I think it's all comparable).

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Cyrin.1035" said:

> > A message from Mike Zadorojny:

> >

> > Hi everyone,

> >

> > The Living World Team currently is hard at work preparing Episode 3 of Living World Season 4. We’re excited about how it’s shaping up, but wanted to give you a heads up that the release date will be a little outside our normal release cadence.

> >

> > Our key focus while creating the Living World experience is the quality bar we’ve set for ourselves for each episode. With the amount of gameplay and breadth of content in Living World, we noticed that we had an opportunity to make some adjustments to how we approach developing each episode that will help us hit our quality standards more consistently. This logistical change has had some short-term “cost” in time, but will provide benefits to all Living World episodes moving forward.

> >

> > We’ll be announcing Episode 3 as the date gets closer, and everyone on the team is looking forward to playing this new content with you!

>

> Anet Devs, you could release an episode every two months, every month, or every week and you will always have dedicated fans anxious for the next one. Personally, all I want is for you to create content to the best of your ability within the reasonable amount of time that you need.

>

> I was disappointed with the last LW episode because to me it seemed very rushed and bloated beyond necessity. Too much time and development work may have been spent on specific parts of that episode causing other areas to lack and overall the whole episode was disconnected. It was stretched thin to make the episode feel longer and this made much of the content feel empty and redundant.

>

> I can only request and suggest, that you focus on quality over quantity. Put in fewer storylines and elements, yet make the ones you choose layered, detailed, original, surprising, and design the mechanics to be more creative and exciting. Not just a "one and done" type of episode. Only then can a LW episode consistently meet the release cadence you set for yourself and have the quality that players hope for and that you expect to achieve.

>

>

 

First off you appear to be in the minority when it comes to the Episode 2 of LWS4, the vast majority of the player base seemed to love it, and furthermore, did you read the message from Mike Z? I quote: "> > Our key focus while creating the Living World experience is the quality bar we’ve set for ourselves for each episode. With the amount of gameplay and breadth of content in Living World, we noticed that we had an opportunity to make some adjustments to how we approach developing each episode that will help us hit our quality standards more consistently. This logistical change has had some short-term “cost” in time, but will provide benefits to all Living World episodes moving forward. Just what part of quality did you mess there, they are striving for exactly what you're asking for, quality over quantity it would seem...so I'm not really sure the point of your post?

[zealex.9410]

> @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > Im genually curious how much quality maters when u end up having mini content droughts inbetween every episode.

> >

> > Idk about you but 3+ months is just too much. A new fractal every 6 months is insane imo, You could release raids, fractals and Lw seperately to combat that feel of "nothing to do" but anet is hell-bent at releasing months worth of content all at once.

>

> ANet is a small company compared to Blizzard and Zenimax, that said (even if I can be a ESO fan at times) ANet releases more Open World real estate/Open World content that is repeatable than Zenimax does considering that Map Sizes, while Zenimax focuses more on Storylines and Voice Acting. Either way ANet puts out very respectable content on a regular basis compared to a bigger company like Zenimax (with a warchest of 1 Billion dollars by the way since that Facebook settlement regarding the Occulus Rift so there's really no excuse for quarterly patches on their part). So really cut them some slack, they seem to be well organized at this point (we even have as many raid wings at this point as ESO's Trials, they release maybe 4 5 mans a year while ANet releases roughly 3 I think it's all comparable).

 

Anet isnt small its a company if 400 ppl. Sure not all are devs but still.

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

> @"zealex.9410" said:

> > @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> > > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > > Im genually curious how much quality maters when u end up having mini content droughts inbetween every episode.

> > >

> > > Idk about you but 3+ months is just too much. A new fractal every 6 months is insane imo, You could release raids, fractals and Lw seperately to combat that feel of "nothing to do" but anet is hell-bent at releasing months worth of content all at once.

> >

> > ANet is a small company compared to Blizzard and Zenimax, that said (even if I can be a ESO fan at times) ANet releases more Open World real estate/Open World content that is repeatable than Zenimax does considering that Map Sizes, while Zenimax focuses more on Storylines and Voice Acting. Either way ANet puts out very respectable content on a regular basis compared to a bigger company like Zenimax (with a warchest of 1 Billion dollars by the way since that Facebook settlement regarding the Occulus Rift so there's really no excuse for quarterly patches on their part). So really cut them some slack, they seem to be well organized at this point (we even have as many raid wings at this point as ESO's Trials, they release maybe 4 5 mans a year while ANet releases roughly 3 I think it's all comparable).

>

> Anet isnt small its a company if 400 ppl. Sure not all are devs but still.

 

Remember long ago in math class when they talked about proportion problems?

 

400 employees compared to what?

 

Did you really pay attention when you quoted my post and replied?

 

Those are rhetorical questions, I think I might already know the answer.

[Cyrin.1035]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > @"Cyrin.1035" said:

> > > A message from Mike Zadorojny:

> > >

> > > Hi everyone,

> > >

> > > The Living World Team currently is hard at work preparing Episode 3 of Living World Season 4. We’re excited about how it’s shaping up, but wanted to give you a heads up that the release date will be a little outside our normal release cadence.

> > >

> > > Our key focus while creating the Living World experience is the quality bar we’ve set for ourselves for each episode. With the amount of gameplay and breadth of content in Living World, we noticed that we had an opportunity to make some adjustments to how we approach developing each episode that will help us hit our quality standards more consistently. This logistical change has had some short-term “cost” in time, but will provide benefits to all Living World episodes moving forward.

> > >

> > > We’ll be announcing Episode 3 as the date gets closer, and everyone on the team is looking forward to playing this new content with you!

> >

> > Anet Devs, you could release an episode every two months, every month, or every week and you will always have dedicated fans anxious for the next one. Personally, all I want is for you to create content to the best of your ability within the reasonable amount of time that you need.

> >

> > I was disappointed with the last LW episode because to me it seemed very rushed and bloated beyond necessity. Too much time and development work may have been spent on specific parts of that episode causing other areas to lack and overall the whole episode was disconnected. It was stretched thin to make the episode feel longer and this made much of the content feel empty and redundant.

> >

> > I can only request and suggest, that you focus on quality over quantity. Put in fewer storylines and elements, yet make the ones you choose layered, detailed, original, surprising, and design the mechanics to be more creative and exciting. Not just a "one and done" type of episode. Only then can a LW episode consistently meet the release cadence you set for yourself and have the quality that players hope for and that you expect to achieve.

> >

> >

>

> First off you appear to be in the minority when it comes to the Episode 2 of LWS4, the vast majority of the player base seemed to love it, and furthermore, did you read the message from Mike Z? I quote: "> > Our key focus while creating the Living World experience is the quality bar we’ve set for ourselves for each episode. With the amount of gameplay and breadth of content in Living World, we noticed that we had an opportunity to make some adjustments to how we approach developing each episode that will help us hit our quality standards more consistently. This logistical change has had some short-term “cost” in time, but will provide benefits to all Living World episodes moving forward. Just what part of quality did you mess there, they are striving for exactly what you're asking for, quality over quantity it would seem...so I'm not really sure the point of your post?

 

 

My post wasn't created to express the opinion of the “vast majority”, Zak. It's about my own. LW 4 episode 2 was predictable, repetitive, forced, cringy, and a decline in quality overall. If you think it's great, then I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

Are they planning to create a refined 4th episode? Or are they changing something else that doesn't need to be changed in order to meet their intended release cadence while still producing lower-quality bloated episodes? We won't know until 2-3 or more months from now. Better to give feedback, suggestions, and share thoughts on it now instead of later.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Maybe...who knows?...with a new Game Director, new procedures and logistics, etc. have been put in play. Mike Z. might have some different ideas he wants to try, so that might slow things down for a bit while everyone learns the new development 'mechanics'.

 

Just a thought.

[GreyWolf.8670]

Something seemed a bit off in that announcement to me. Honestly, I hope they actually are doing some restructuring. I've had zero interest in returning to the LS zones after finishing the story. Like the PoF main areas there's just not just much there I found interesting to do.

[Menadena.7482]

Do we get an excuse for being outside the schedule for every episode now? *sigh*

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

> @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > > @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> > > > @"zealex.9410" said:

> > > > Im genually curious how much quality maters when u end up having mini content droughts inbetween every episode.

> > > >

> > > > Idk about you but 3+ months is just too much. A new fractal every 6 months is insane imo, You could release raids, fractals and Lw seperately to combat that feel of "nothing to do" but anet is hell-bent at releasing months worth of content all at once.

> > >

> > > ANet is a small company compared to Blizzard and Zenimax, that said (even if I can be a ESO fan at times) ANet releases more Open World real estate/Open World content that is repeatable than Zenimax does considering that Map Sizes, while Zenimax focuses more on Storylines and Voice Acting. Either way ANet puts out very respectable content on a regular basis compared to a bigger company like Zenimax (with a warchest of 1 Billion dollars by the way since that Facebook settlement regarding the Occulus Rift so there's really no excuse for quarterly patches on their part). So really cut them some slack, they seem to be well organized at this point (we even have as many raid wings at this point as ESO's Trials, they release maybe 4 5 mans a year while ANet releases roughly 3 I think it's all comparable).

> >

> > Anet isnt small its a company if 400 ppl. Sure not all are devs but still.

>

> Remember long ago in math class when they talked about proportion problems?

>

> 400 employees compared to what?

>

> Did you really pay attention when you quoted my post and replied?

>

> Those are rhetorical questions, I think I might already know the answer.

 

I'm sorry I was a real jerk there.

[Pifil.5193]

More concerning to me is the fact that in LS3 the 2-3 month schedule tended towards 2 months. LS4 has so far tended towards exceeding the three month schedule. Now, Ep2 came after the holidays so that's fair enough, but it's looking like Ep3 will be something like 3 and a half months after the _intended_ release of Ep2. I hope that they can deliver Ep4 2 months after Ep3 drops.

[Edelweiss.4261]

I feel like I'd be much more concerned with this if I was paying for a subscription or if they had set actual dates for release. The only thing I've seen is a general time period that they try to reach replete with qualifying statements. Hardly what I'd call a schedule. Communication is always nice and appreciated, but I don't see the need for the pitchfork emporium as of yet.

[Fenom.9457]

> @"TexZero.7910" said:

> We aren't waiting for "quality" we're waiting for PR.

>

> Awfully suspect timing, Anet at E3....You do the math.

 

 

Did they actually confirm it?

[Fenom.9457]

> @"Pifil.5193" said:

> More concerning to me is the fact that in LS3 the 2-3 month schedule tended towards 2 months. LS4 has so far tended towards exceeding the three month schedule. Now, Ep2 came after the holidays so that's fair enough, but it's looking like Ep3 will be something like 3 and a half months after the _intended_ release of Ep2. I hope that they can deliver Ep4 2 months after Ep3 drops.

 

 

They pretty much have to or else people will begin seriously losing faith. How many times can the same thing happen before people expect less?

[Pifil.5193]

schedule

ˈʃɛdjuːl,ˈskɛdjuːl/Submit

noun

1.

a plan for carrying out a process or procedure, giving lists of intended events and times.

"we have drawn up an engineering schedule"

 

A schedule is not a promise or a guarantee. It's a statement of intent.

[Brimstone.3807]

> @"GreyWolf.8670" said:

> Something seemed a bit off in that announcement to me. Honestly, I hope they actually are doing some restructuring. I've had zero interest in returning to the LS zones after finishing the story. Like the PoF main areas there's just not just much there I found interesting to do.

 

Couldn't agree more on PoF and LS4. One and Done.

[Healix.5819]

> @"Pifil.5193" said:

> More concerning to me is the fact that in LS3 the 2-3 month schedule tended towards 2 months. LS4 has so far tended towards exceeding the three month schedule. Now, Ep2 came after the holidays so that's fair enough, but it's looking like Ep3 will be something like 3 and a half months after the _intended_ release of Ep2. I hope that they can deliver Ep4 2 months after Ep3 drops.

 

Season 3 averaged 2.5 months between episodes and started 9 months after HoT, whereas season 4 started 2 months after PoF. Unless they push out the next expansion in under 1.5 years (PoF took 1.92 years), expect 3 months to be the norm for season 4, because that's what's needed to fill the gap between PoF and the next expansion. The alternative is having more episodes, but that also increases the costs. The fourth episode at least will likely release on schedule, a little early even, since PAX begins 80 days after E3.

 

 

E3 may be a little too early (unless they do it like ESO), but it's getting close to the time for them to announce another expansion, which they should do with episode 4 or 5, rather than repeating PoF and not advertising it. It's somewhat unlikely, but they may not even want to show the trailer until E3 because it's the midpoint of the season and may hint about the next expansion, which they'd later reveal at PAX in 3 months. This is of course assuming they stick to smaller $30 expansions every 1-2 years, rather than the standard $50 expansion every 2-3.

 

[Plautze.6290]

Just do your thing, ANet. I got your back!

[hugo.4705]

Will arrive when he can. I'm not impatient, if they are developping complex mechanics like the portal lab and magneton, it requires a serious amount of work without telling if they are preparing a great meta-event or fractals. Apart if the episode take one year to make, I will not worry.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

If it's E3 related I wouldn't be surprised. Though I don't think they would name a specific reason here just to obfuscate the real reasons.

Even though they would never tell us directly if they had a big reveal, I don't think they're lying specifically. Though it might be related to eachother.

 

A logistical change so that they maybe can release stuff more consistently while meeting a consistent quality bar seems to fit with the announcing of larger features that will help them hit that quality bar presumably.

 

But really, we will see.

[Pifil.5193]

> @"Healix.5819" said:

> > @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > More concerning to me is the fact that in LS3 the 2-3 month schedule tended towards 2 months. LS4 has so far tended towards exceeding the three month schedule. Now, Ep2 came after the holidays so that's fair enough, but it's looking like Ep3 will be something like 3 and a half months after the _intended_ release of Ep2. I hope that they can deliver Ep4 2 months after Ep3 drops.

>

> Season 3 averaged 2.5 months between episodes and started 9 months after HoT, whereas season 4 started 2 months after PoF. Unless they push out the next expansion in under 1.5 years (PoF took 1.92 years), expect 3 months to be the norm for season 4, because that's what's needed to fill the gap between PoF and the next expansion. The alternative is having more episodes, but that also increases the costs. The fourth episode at least will likely release on schedule, a little early even, since PAX begins 80 days after E3.

 

Assuming that there'll be the same number of episodes in LS4 as LS3, then yes.

 

Maybe that's the case but we've only had 2 seasons in this format; LS2 which had 8 episodes and LS3 which had 6 so I'm not convinced that we can safely assume that just yet. For all we know they plan on 7, 8, 9 or more episodes for this season's arc.

 

Having a rigid 6 episodes per expansion would also give a pretty obvious "countdown" to the next expansion, that'd be pretty good, mind you.

[Emprer.7256]

I don't mind the wait... I mean I do but if prolonged release means better quality I'm okay with that. What drives me nuts is the lack of headsup for when it's approximately going to release. I need that to keep motivated lol

[Mister Asdasd.6194]

Yes,yes everyone keeps repeating how they want quality over quantity and they keep saying they want more time for a better experience but with episode 2 they took more time and the game was still ridled with bugs, game not responding errors while loading sandswept isles, events for completing the ascended backpiece were bugged,even an event from crystal oasis was bugged that had nothing to do with the new map, the map was lackluster in general and we still had hotfix patches every few hours

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

>

> ANet is a small company compared to Blizzard and Zenimax, that said (even if I can be a ESO fan at times) ANet releases more Open World real estate/Open World content that is repeatable than Zenimax does considering that Map Sizes, while Zenimax focuses more on Storylines and Voice Acting. Either way ANet puts out very respectable content on a regular basis compared to a bigger company like Zenimax (with a warchest of 1 Billion dollars by the way since that Facebook settlement regarding the Occulus Rift so there's really no excuse for quarterly patches on their part). So really cut them some slack, they seem to be well organized at this point (we even have as many raid wings at this point as ESO's Trials, they release maybe 4 5 mans a year while ANet releases roughly 3 I think it's all comparable).

 

Not making to much of a big deal out of this, but Zenimax/Bethesda already had a few billion dollars in the bank from the sales of the various incarnations of Fallout 4 and Skyrim, plus they haven't received any of that money from Facebook as I do believe the judgement was appealed(at least as far as the amount owed, it would most likely be reduced by a higher court as being excessive). However, trying to compare ArenaNet to anyone else is really futile, they don't work like other companies do, so to expect them to produce the same content at the same rate is fantasy.

 

[Cerioth.7062]

Quality over quantity any time. I am happy to wait.

[Menadena.7482]

> @"Cerioth.7062" said:

> Quality over quantity any time. I am happy to wait.

 

It is not about either. It is scheduled vs unscheduled. Yes, things happen all the time, we all make mistakes. So we get the slip up now and then however this is becoming a habit. This is, what, the 3rd not on schedule in the recent few episodes?