I don't like how Anet is spending their resources.

[Gehenna.3625]

> @"Sephylon.4938" said:

> > @"Gehenna.3625" said:

> > > @"DeanBB.4268" said:

> > > I agree. Anet is putting too much effort into Raids, WvW, and PvP.

> > >

> > > Dungeons? Really? Why do people keep bringing them up? They've been dead for years. Move on to Fractals. Fractals are dungeons.

> >

> > Since I never got into them. What sort of rewards do fractals offer that I can't get elsewhere? Maybe I'll finally see a reason to do them. So far it just seems a place where you grind higher infusions for the sake of grinding even higher infusions. At least some of the original dungeons had some cool skins to collect.

>

> Fractal weapon skins, gold fractal weapon skins, ad infinitum, fractal related titles, stat infusions with ar. Cobalt weapons (though they're just the blue ascended weapon skins you can choose any stat on)

 

Alright, I'll have a look at these fractal skins and see if I like any of them. Who knows...

[Danikat.8537]

> @"ProverbsofHell.2307" said:

> > @"Danikat.8537" said:

> > > @"kappa.2036" said:

> > > Instead of a living story every 3-4 months, I would rather see more improvements on the class balance, more dungeons, fractals, raids, pvp gamemodes, wvw arenas!

> > > What we have now is a small content that requires A LOT of work for anet developers, when in reality, players just finish the story it in 2 hours, visit the new pve map, do some achievements and go back to their regular things.

> > > Living stories are great, don't get me wrong, but i think they are spending too much for giving us a content for free, when instead we need repeatable pve-pvp-wvw game-modes.

> > > As a pvp/wvw player, i just feel abandoned.

> > >

> > > My suggestions: Lesser living stories, more pve-pvp-wvw-balance updates.

> >

> > For me it's the exact opposite - very occasionally something will attract me to playing WvW or Fractals or Raids and I'll do that for a little bit until that one goal is done, then go back to what I do normally - which is playing the story and exploring the PvE maps.

>

> Sorry but how are you not done with that already? Story and exploration is a done-and-dusted affair.

>

 

It's a combination of things. Firstly I only get to play about 2 hours a day on average. Secondly and more importantly I play slowly. When I'm doing the story I listen to all the dialogue (and often have to stop to re-read stuff that was said during combat because I didn't catch it all), I speak to all the NPCs to see what additional dialogue they have. When I'm doing a collection I like to figure it out myself as much as possible and only use a guide if I'm really stuck. Same with exploring the map - it took me about 5 minutes to get from the surface of the water to the bottom of that cavern in Kourna because I was exploring each 'level' as I went down...and it took me about 30 seconds to get back out because I was being chased by a legendary drake.

[Nopesarenotforme.5190]

> @"TheNecrosanct.4028" said:

> > @"Nopesarenotforme.5190" said:

> > > @"narwhalsbend.7059" said:

> > > You just want more attention to your gameplay choices. Others have different priorities.

> >

> > And so do you, if Anet focuses all of their resources on a feature that doesn't satisfy everyone, it shouldn't be top priority.

>

> So they should only prioritize features that satisfy everyone. Okay. Can you name a few of those features? And explain why you think everyone would be satisfied with it (and how you got that information)?

>

>

 

Again, there isn't a feature that will satisfy everyone but its more logical to split the resources equally or to focus on a different feature every time an update comes out. So we will have diversity somehow and everyone will be happy, . Features - fractals, raids, PvP, WvW, world bosses, metas, balance, rework.

I got that information through the fact that not everyone gets satisfaction from the 1 feature that is being majorly focused on, aka LWS.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

> @"Nopesarenotforme.5190" said:

> > @"TheNecrosanct.4028" said:

> >

> > So they should only prioritize features that satisfy everyone. Okay. Can you name a few of those features? And explain why you think everyone would be satisfied with it (and how you got that information)?

>

> Again, there isn't a feature that will satisfy everyone but its more logical to split the resources equally or to focus on a different feature every time an update comes out. So we will have diversity somehow and everyone will be happy, . Features - fractals, raids, PvP, WvW, world bosses, metas, balance, rework.

> I got that information through the fact that not everyone gets satisfaction from the 1 feature that is being majorly focused on, aka LWS.

 

Well, first of all, when a new chapter of the Living World comes out, there's always other stuff included in those patches. Skill balancing often gets its own update, just like PvP and WvW sometimes get their own update. Patches also often combine things, like a new Raid wing release with a story patch, or a new Fractal, creating diversity of content within a single patch. If you look at the history of all the major patches that have been released (the wiki is able to give you an easy overview of all those), you'd notice that the picture you paint isn't exactly a correct one. Or at the very least it's a subjective one, since I do not see this pattern you are describing. And not all patches need to be interesting to everyone. Whenever a big PvP or WvW patch is introduced, I generally don't care about it. But you won't hear me saying they're ignoring my preferred content, because they need to cater to everyone in the player base. And that can't always be done in one patch.

[mauried.5608]

I agree with the OP on this one , but not for reasons of the content.

Making new content is the hardest most time consuming part of making a MMO, so if new content is to be added, which is a good thing, it needs to be content that players will do many times, and not just once per character, which is usually the case for the Living stories.

 

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

I'm one of those people who do the LW chapters and all its achievements in a couple days because I grind the ever living out of it. I think its fine since most players don't play more than a few hours a day. The content fills the time between the months of each chapter. Its not resources wasted.

 

However the whole stealth section and the upgrading turrets of the last chapter is a waste since I don't see them letting us use those outside the LW map. That IS a waste of time and resources. Let us at least use the turrets anywhere we want.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

> @"mauried.5608" said:

> I agree with the OP on this one , but not for reasons of the content.

> Making new content is the hardest most time consuming part of making a MMO, so if new content is to be added, which is a good thing, it needs to be content that players will do many times, and not just once per character, which is usually the case for the Living stories.

>

 

And what are your suggestions for the continuing story of GW2 then? Because if we posit that Living Story updates aren't enough of a priority (whether because of lack of replayability, low interest or any other reason) we need another way to continue the story. Keeping it tied to expansions only wouldn't be a good plan because there's too much time between expansions.

[starlinvf.1358]

> @"FrizzFreston.5290" said:

> I never understood this focus on balance. What does balance matter if theres no (new) content to play.

>

 

Theres actually a massive amount of implications that come out of balance and class performance, that reaches into every aspect of the game. Especially with in a player base thats prone to shunning that isn't in the top 20% in terms of "theoretical" performance. Balance is still important, but there is a fundamental misunderstanding by players and their self-centered view points. Theres also a fundamental mislabeling of the word "content", but thats a rabbit hole for another thread.

 

But if we set aside the perception problems created by players, balance and baseline performance is key to functioning in any given content. Because you can have endless content in end less variety, but still have a crappy experience if the classes themselves can't function or aren't fun to play within them. With competitive modes the definition changes to that of a comparative system, and used to measure relative class performance based on a series of variables. But this doesn't mean that all classes perform at the same level; and is ideally more focused on a puzzle of soft counters.

 

But the reason they struggle so much in all modes is largely attributed to model of power scaling they use, and the absolutely massive weight of damage within this model. Out stat and damage system only makes sense from a PvE perspective, but skill system is functionally balanced around PvP combat. These 2 modes have diametrically opposed value systems, and this disconnect culminates in WvW due to its high cap, open world layout.

 

Now even if we just ignore all the PvP concerns, and focus exclusively on PvE, we run into the problem of class viability. A class that can do a lot of damage theoretically is basically worthless if it doesn't have a method of survival. Since PvE is almost entirely centered on trading damage, maximizing the efficiency of a short fight has become the defacto standard of play for all open world builds. Despite the fact that our skills are built around 1v1 type combat, the secondary functions (control effects) of skills often go wasted on Mobs, due how little impact it has on their behavior. Since you can't effectively suppress most mobs (or most aren't worth suppressing), killing them quickly is just more efficient, and typically a lot easier. The faster they die, the less mechanics one has to deal with.

 

Thus I see a huge problem with not just Class balance, but encounter design and its balancing strategies as well.

[Rhyse.8179]

> @"FrizzFreston.5290" said:

> I never understood this focus on balance. What does balance matter if theres no (new) content to play.

>

>

 

Balance IS content.

 

Imagine the following. Say you play X class. You've been doing it for weeks, and would like to try something fresh. So you hop over to Y class and give it a try. It turns out that Class Y is really fun - a whole new style of play then you are used to. Does the game allow you to use this opportunity?

 

In a balanced game, class Y is competitive, and it can keep your interest for several more weeks. You have more content, or at least, more ways to experience it.

 

In an unbalanced game, class Y is defective. None of your friends will let you play their reindeer games unless you bring Class X. Forced to play Class X even though it's not fun anymore, you get bored and stop playing. You are deprived of the experience of playing content as Class Y, and Anet is deprived of your business.

 

To be fair, if you play Open World this doesn't matter. But if you raid, or 10x if you PvP, this problem will define absolutely everything about how you play the game.

[ReaverKane.7598]

> @"kappa.2036" said:

> Instead of a living story every 3-4 months, I would rather see more improvements on the class balance, more dungeons, fractals, raids, pvp gamemodes, wvw arenas!

> What we have now is a small content that requires A LOT of work for anet developers, when in reality, players just finish the story it in 2 hours, visit the new pve map, do some achievements and go back to their regular things.

> Living stories are great, don't get me wrong, but i think they are spending too much for giving us a content for free, when instead we need repeatable pve-pvp-wvw game-modes.

> As a pvp/wvw player, i just feel abandoned.

>

> My suggestions: Lesser living stories, more pve-pvp-wvw-balance updates.

>

Different teams for different tasks... While i can second that i'd rather see them break the formula of the living world episodes and instead of a new map see the story go back to core maps and see those getting a rework of sorts, or if nothing else, some of the new systems added with reworked repeatable hearts, metas, bounties, or even just new events.

 

Other than that, your post assumes Arena Net has like 10 people and they're all working on the same content at once, which isn't even close to reality. They have several different teams, that i know of there's 3 for living world, a larger group working on the next expansion. There used to be one for wvw, one for balance and one for PvP, but those were consolidated along with minor teams into a larger group called the systems team.

There's also a current events that does a lot of different things, from the current event achievement stuff that fills the gaps between living world to some of the festival stuff, and i believe even legendary weapons, at least at some point.

Finally there's the Raid/Fractal team that handles the instanced content releases.

I think that's all of them.

 

Anyway that's to say that the living world doesn't impede on work being done towards PvP modes.

Also i'd like to add, that the majority of people don't participate in PvP modes, so doing what you suggest would be the actual waste of resources.

 

[EnderzShadow.2506]

> @"Gehenna.3625" said:

> As long as pvp/pve and wvw use the same skill and gear sets balance will never be achieved.

 

But you do realize they split abilities between modes, right?

And in PvP there are no food buffs.

The buffs one would get in WvW are different from PvE

All types of armor/stats and Runes are not available in PvP

 

 

[Arzurag.7506]

> @"EnderzShadow.2506" said:

> > @"Gehenna.3625" said:

> > As long as pvp/pve and wvw use the same skill and gear sets balance will never be achieved.

>

> But you do realize they split abilities between modes, right?

> And in PvP there are no food buffs.

> The buffs one would get in WvW are different from PvE

> All types of armor/stats and Runes are not available in PvP

>

>

 

I think he knows that by now.^^

[Kurrilino.2706]

I agree that Anet mishandles spending their resources and that living story isn't enough.

 

So i demand the complete cancellation of all PvP related content.

This will free some desperately needed resources to create more interesting content and more quantity to create a better PvE experience.

And no, this is no sarcasm answer to the OP.

 

 

 

[Jumpin Lumpix.6108]

I wish they would add more cosmetic options more than anything else. The entire end game is cosmetics. Every single end game reward for every game mode is something cosmetic. Yet we still don't have -

Dyeable weapons

Dyeable backpieces

Footfalls wardrobe

multiple Footfalls at once mix and match

weapon particle effects that are swappable in wardrobe

Cosmetic aura wardrobe

way more legendaries then we should have at this point - What happened to "An entirely new set of legendaries by early spring of 2013?"

 

I'd pay $50-$100 for an expansion that added nothing but these features; I could care less about new maps or living world or pvp or wvw and YES i play all game modes profusely.

 

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

Silverwastes and Istan were introduced via LS. Maps like these have been more active and more "replayable" than anything in PvP, raids or WvW. Not to mention other popular maps introduced with xpacs like AB or DS or World bosses.

 

On the other hand we have content OP would like Anet to prioritize. Raids, despite initial heavy push from Anet, never caught on, partially because they appeal to a small minority. A piece of content designed to be niche and exclusive should never take priority.

 

WvW, a fun idea that is plagued from the same issues every competitive mode has. It was in such a state, in terms of player numbers, that Anet decided it needed some PvE "blood transfusion" with the mount. And yet its hardcore playerbase made sure the majority of PvE players would never step foot in it again with "get off my lawn" type of behavior.

 

Do I even need to mention PvP? Even a daily glance on these moderated forums gives an idea about the kind of environment one should expect in-game. Yet another mode with declining numbers.

 

Fractals and dungeons are the only types of content mentioned that have shown they can retain decent player numbers in the past. But still lower than casual pve.

 

GW2 is a theme park MMOrpg so it makes sense to have a bunch of different modes for people to play around. But it is pretty clear OW pve and story is the type of content the majority of players are engaging in. And as a business, catering to the majority should always take priority. If anything I would argue they need more focus, not less.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Kurrilino.2706" said:

> I agree that Anet mishandles spending their resources and that living story isn't enough.

>

> So i demand the complete cancellation of all PvP related content.

> This will free some desperately needed resources to create more interesting content and more quantity to create a better PvE experience.

> And no, this is no sarcasm answer to the OP.

 

Heh heh, I wouldn't mind. Remove cheater & toxicity haven in order to deliver an overall better gaming experience with more worthwhile content. :+1:

[finkle.9513]

I keep saying the same thing... I would rather improve what we have. Tie in the world, rework world bosses and give them a reason to do them, sort out a reason for us to go back to more than half of the maps that people dont visit after story is done...

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

> @"Rhyse.8179" said:

> > @"FrizzFreston.5290" said:

> > I never understood this focus on balance. What does balance matter if theres no (new) content to play.

> >

> >

>

> Balance IS content.

>

> Imagine the following. Say you play X class. You've been doing it for weeks, and would like to try something fresh. So you hop over to Y class and give it a try. It turns out that Class Y is really fun - a whole new style of play then you are used to. Does the game allow you to use this opportunity?

>

> In a balanced game, class Y is competitive, and it can keep your interest for several more weeks. You have more content, or at least, more ways to experience it.

>

> In an unbalanced game, class Y is defective. None of your friends will let you play their reindeer games unless you bring Class X. Forced to play Class X even though it's not fun anymore, you get bored and stop playing. You are deprived of the experience of playing content as Class Y, and Anet is deprived of your business.

>

> To be fair, if you play Open World this doesn't matter. But if you raid, or 10x if you PvP, this problem will define absolutely everything about how you play the game.

 

Find me a PvP community in a MMOrpg, that doesn't have complaints about "balance" and doesn't consider certain classes/builds OP. People fail to grasp, for some reason, that no game that isn't PvP-exclusive (and even that is debatable) will ever be balanced. That's even more true for MMOrgps with their complex skill trees/mechanics. No spamming threads about "balance" and "X class is broken" will ever change this simple reality of gaming.

[Shiyo.3578]

I agree 100% with the OP. Story is so much time/money/effort, you have to pay for cutscenes, voice actors, writers, etc. Then for what? 2 hours of content? What a waste oftime and money.

 

Story based gameplay belongs in single player games. MMO's should have multiplayer content with high to near infinite replay value.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> Story based gameplay belongs in single player games. MMO's should have multiplayer content with high to near infinite replay value.

 

Says who? Who's that supreme gaming authority dictating that? The only ones who **can** do that are the devs making games for a living. You know, the ones who have full access to all the detailed stats and telemetry showing what players like and what they don't while playing their games. And judging from the way they design their MMOs in recent years, they seem to disagree with your statement.

 

"_And solo players are tragically underserved in most MMOs – something like **65%** of players tend to play largely **solo** (Massively Single-player, as it were_)."

 

I had to pull that quote from a second hand source since the Wildstar forums are no more. But this comes from a Wildstar dev at the time who also happened to be part of the original WoW team at Blizzard. And since that's from back in 2014, I'd wager that percentage might be even higher now, especially in a game like GW2. You don't even need devs to tell you that, every major MMOrpg over the past decade has turned itself more casual and solo-friendly. There is a reason for that.

[Shiyo.3578]

I say so, because this games single player content is 1/10th as good as a single player RPG or even a nintendo game like mario. I play this game for MMO content, as do the vast majority.

[GDchiaScrub.3241]

I don't know how they spend their money. I guess you can assume indirectly by content delivered, but I wish they spent it all on me.

 

D:

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> I say so, because this games single player content is 1/10th as good as a single player RPG or even a nintendo game like mario. I play this game for MMO content, as do the vast majority.

 

Ah, so you are that supreme gaming authority, it all makes sense now. And you claim Anet is making a mistake by focusing on LS content all these years because they are ignoring you and your game preferences that also happen to be in the vast majority. Do you have a source showing that's what most of the players want? And if that's the case are Anet insane for not appealing to the vast majority all these years and making money from it? They have all the metrics that you don't after all.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

> @"Shiyo.3578" said:

> I say so, because this games single player content is 1/10th as good as a single player RPG or even a nintendo game like mario. I play this game for MMO content, as do the vast majority.

 

Why would you play an MMO, that specifically told players they are trying to redefine what MMO means. (Regardless of whether they did or didn't) That players themselves state is very casual and singleplayer friendly.

[Klipso.8653]

It's been repeated by players since before HoT that WvW is the real endgame. It has perpetual replayability, and is the last thing in game where guilds actually matter.

 

3-4 story episodes PER YEAR, that are over in 30 minutes is not how you keep players interested. Just go back and look at how few people are even playing the older LS maps.

 

WvW should be the focus if they plan to bring players back, or catch the interest of new players.