Discussion Thread: ArenaNet News of 21 February 2019 [Merged]

[Dami.5046]

Gw2 won't be affected.

Who the hell were they trying to kid?

As long as Gw still stands I will log in, but as far as NCsoft games are concerned, I am done.

[derd.6413]

> @"Kam.4092" said:

> Blaming everything on NCSoft is dumb. This wouldn’t have happened if Anet did a better job at managing GW2 and their side projects. I get wanting to point fingers at the parent company, but this is irrational thinking.

 

it makes sense if you consider that anet isn't the only studio under NCsoft affected by the layoffs.

[Dami.5046]

> @"Blood Red Arachnid.2493" said:

> My sister thinks all of this is to prepare the company to be bought out. What a lot of companies will do is trim the excess to make it more attractive to buyers.

 

I can well believe it, or give the game to a publisher like NC did to Aion, blaming lack of players.

 

[Iozeph.5617]

> @"Jura.2170" said:

> Sorry for asking a silly question, but how is Star Citizen able to raise millions to develop itself, while Arenanet can't?

>

> Is the market for space mmos that much bigger?

>

> If Anet had spent money on improving the game like [QoL](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/53097/suggestions-qol-quality-of-life-ideas "QoL"), making it faster, keeping the guild halls team and improving them, and even improving festivals and adding new ones, surely they would have made more money?

 

Because Chris Roberts and the rest of RSI are charlatans who've been leading a lot of whales all over the world down the garden path, paying for nonexistent ships for nearly a decade because they're just that rich and twice as stupid. There's mismanagement(Possibly within Anet). That's one level. Then there's Roberts, the Uwe boll of the gaming industry(and I have to sort of apologise to Boll for dragging him into it because at least Boll makes and delivers profitable films and on schedule, even if they are DTV rubbish.)

 

In spite of the recent developments ANet has a looooong way to go before they've kicked the fail drive up to RSI levels.

[Kraggy.4169]

> @"phokus.8934" said:

> > @"Owon Dyah.3905" said:

> > i know of mmo made by 10 ppl....

> > I really wonder what the hell 400 ppl do on a single game...

> >

> > I'm not worried about game's future, i'm more worried will those laid off guys get new job somewhere else.

> They didn’t have 400 people working on GW2. A majority of them were moved to other projects in ANet leaving GW2. Now that those projects were forcibly stopped and canceled, we can only hope that ANet completely focuses on GW2.

>

 

People need to understand one simple thing . .NCSOFT, like Activision have decided PC gaming is 'dead', their future is mobile gaming with its player-hostile 'moneitzation' .. just LOOK at the financial results from NCSOFT, Activision and EA, they all show MASSIVE profits from mobile alongside declining PC/console revenues.

 

Sadly we have to face it, PC gamers are so 'last century' as far as the games publishers of today are concerned and dev. studios like ANet, Blizzard, etc. are being told to go down that route of go out of business. :(

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Yamazuki.6073" said:

> > @"Arannya.8324" said:

> > > @"Balsa.3951" said:

> >

> > > And some costumer invested a lot of their money in the game and planing to invest more in the future. It would have been an professional move to not delay content.

> >

> > You have not invested a dime in new content. Zero. You are required to buy 1 expansion pack every 2-3 years, besides that it's all FREE content updates. Self-entitled brats are spoiling the fun for everyone. 100+ people lost their jobs today, some being with the community for more than a decade and it's still ME ME ME. Makes me sick.

> >

> >

> >

> >

>

> Letting an industry walk all over you is just as bad as being a self-entitled brat. What they asked for wasn't absurd or out of line either, talk about over reactions.

 

ANET cannot be held accountable for what you feel the industry does as a whole only what their own business does within it and delaying the launch of a mount into WvW by a few days while they try to deal with the heavy loss of staff, restructuring, refocusing and changes in priority is not something I and likely many others feel is ANET walking all over us , but I guess there are some who just prefer to see anything as an excuse to go into full self entitled rant mode ….

[metalhev.6872]

NCSoft probably shat on them because ANet has gone full cashcow mode.

Seriously, even since the beginning of the game, I've been an on and off player. Before HoT we had no massive costume tab, no glider skins and no mount skins.

Now I stay away a few months, and all I see are a billion new retardedly expensive glider/mount skins.

 

I'm not joking, compare the rate they release mount skins to the rate they release new armor sets. There's barely any growth in free content compared to the gigantic growth in cash shop content.

[Jura.2170]

> @"metalhev.6872" said:

> There's barely any growth in free content

 

What do you think of the new maps like Jahai and Thunderhead?

[Gehenna.3625]

> @"Jura.2170" said:

> > @"metalhev.6872" said:

> > There's barely any growth in free content

>

> What do you think of the new maps like Jahai and Thunderhead?

 

Nice maps with no reason to go there. That aside I think people are starting to feel the lack of an upcoming expansion now that we also know it'll be a year at least before we get another one (if at all). LS chapters can be nice but don't compare to expansions of course.

[Sqwyt.5731]

Though not official; I think for now the best summary is on reddit:

[metalhev.6872]

> @"Jura.2170" said:

> > @"metalhev.6872" said:

> > There's barely any growth in free content

>

> What do you think of the new maps like Jahai and Thunderhead?

 

Beautiful empty wastelands.

Compare to verdant brink, with a kittenload of events, tons of stuff to do, verticality, etc.

Even the old maps are much more interesting, more fun to run around from one event to the other.

It's clear cut they're putting much more development time on the cash shop imo. I mean, I played the POF story as soon as it came out, then stopped for a few months, and there was already a WHOLE page of mount skins. And maybe 2 new armor sets? Whoop dee doo.

[Aerlen.5326]

I'm really not sure what to say here but I'll try to form a coherent reply.

 

Since November of 2012, people have told me "GW2 is dying". I wasn't even a month in game when I heard it and it came up after every change hit both the game world and Arenanet. New nerf? Game dying. Staff member left? Game dying. New expansion? Game dying. Mounts? Game dying. Issues still not patched? Game dying. Delay in content? Game dying. New MMO coming out? Game dying. It's become like the boy who cried wolf to me, I've heard "RIP GW2" and "Because of ___, I'm uninstalling and never coming back" so many times over the last 6 1/2 years that if I'd charged $5 every time it got dropped, I could buy NCSoft by now. Heck, I've even said it a few times and gotten roped in, so I'm quite jaded to "the sky is falling" panics.

 

There's a feeling of tragedy to this one though because we lost important people that the community had a connection to. I argued with some of them over the years because that's how passionate I can get about this game and wanting it to be an experience I love. It's always harder when a layoff hits names you know and when it's so many at once. I'm not heartless... but I really think looking at this with emotion instead of facts is going to lead to more "the sky is falling" panic. I'm not saying I agree with the people who were laid off/voluntarily left losing their jobs either but I'm trying to be logical.

 

Arenanet needed restructuring. Too many irons in the fire is never a good thing. A lot of us have been saying for months we felt updates, content, and attention to GW2 was being spread too thin. It's unfortunate the axe had to be dropped to force a change and a refocus. I'm pretty sure none of us wanted that. Whatever these side projects were, they were bleeding funds and a company can't operate that way. Likely a lot of younger, not as experienced employees were set to be cut. We know some voluntarily chose to leave to save the jobs of others - including a few veterans. We know some may have been working on that side project. From reading the forums, I've seen consistent unhappiness with LW content and story and I do have to wonder if some of that factored in to decisions to voluntarily leave or to be one of those laid off. A lot of you absolutely hated the direction LW was going in and were very vocal about that and other issues - maybe NCSoft heard you and decided it was time to refocus the entire branch working on GW2, prune the leaching side projects, and get the game running to standard again. The old team wasn't cutting it, many of you said as much too.

 

Please also keep in mind this game is coming up on year 7. It's rare the exact same core team continues to develop a singular title for that long. The fact we had Gaile for as long as we did was pure devotion on her part. In the view of a company, if something is stagnating then it may be time for new blood to take over and for veterans to move on. There are really only two outcomes from this: The game gets a new focus and new energy is brought into it that extends it's life and brings more profit along with new and better content and the attention it deserves, which is usually the entire reason for a restructure, OR the shake up and restructuring falls on it's face due to lack of talented devs remaining and player apathy and the game goes into maintenance mode like GW1. People flailing and waving their arms, talking about how they're quitting are practically guaranteeing scenario 2. Like I said, there is a feeling of horrible loss and uncertainty here but if you give up now, you're helping to ready that coffin nail. I'm not saying go spend $$$ on Gems. I'm saying be concerned and sad but don't give up on the game you love. There's a lot of conflicting information, try to sit back and be patient.

 

That and pay me $5 every time you said the game was dying so I can go buy NCSoft.

[Yamazuki.6073]

> @"Kraggy.4169" said:

> > @"phokus.8934" said:

> > > @"Owon Dyah.3905" said:

> > > i know of mmo made by 10 ppl....

> > > I really wonder what the hell 400 ppl do on a single game...

> > >

> > > I'm not worried about game's future, i'm more worried will those laid off guys get new job somewhere else.

> > They didn’t have 400 people working on GW2. A majority of them were moved to other projects in ANet leaving GW2. Now that those projects were forcibly stopped and canceled, we can only hope that ANet completely focuses on GW2.

> >

>

> People need to understand one simple thing . .NCSOFT, like Activision have decided PC gaming is 'dead', their future is mobile gaming with its player-hostile 'moneitzation' .. just LOOK at the financial results from NCSOFT, Activision and EA, they all show MASSIVE profits from mobile alongside declining PC/console revenues.

>

> Sadly we have to face it, PC gamers are so 'last century' as far as the games publishers of today are concerned and dev. studios like ANet, Blizzard, etc. are being told to go down that route of go out of business. :(

 

NCsofts mobile actually declined the last year, and most of their mobile comes from regions like Korea. Even Blizzards joke of a mobile game is targeted for China.

 

Most studios are focusing on mobile due to most relevant studios being from Korea or China. Western studios don't make MMORPGs because if it can't be #1 then no point in trying to compete with WoW; better to just chase after each trend as they appear while working on the yearly releases.

[kurfu.5623]

[Obtena.7952]

> @"Pretty Pixie.8603" said:

> > @"Obtena.7952" said:

>

> > That means so little to be honest. That's probably part of the problem ... what people? how many? It's a profitable endeavour? I mean, they have made a few chairs so yeah, people must be buying them at a well enough clip, but if chairs is the BEST thing Anet had going for GS goodies ... I'm not shocked of the recent developments.

>

> That's a strange argument; Anet identifies a market that is not pay to win or a hated loot box, and that's a bad thing? Should you leave one financial opportunity because there are others, when this one is profitable? Take advantage of one opportunity doesn't exclude taking advantage of others per se.

>

>

 

I didn't say it was bad. I said it's probably not the best thing they could do.

[Ashantara.8731]

> @"Arkham Creed.7358" said:

> When I first heard that Arena Net was planning layoffs, I tried to take it in stride, but seeing now that it is hitting people who have been with the company for nearly two decades I am starting to feel a sense of dread.

 

And rightfully so. This is not good for the employees left to work on the game, because it will mean more pressure, and not good for the game's loyal playerbase I am sure. Only time will tell what exactly it will mean for the game as a whole.

[Aerlen.5326]

So many people own those chairs that isn't even funny, people wanted those chairs. They were obviously a good choice and I see DR full of them all the time. Everyone and their brother bought the outfit with the fox ears too. I also see no shortage of the mount skins that folks went crying to Jim Sterling about. That whole fiasco hurt the game and for what end? Did it stop Mount Adoption Licenses at all? No. Because people bought them. The stuff is selling, players like their toys. I greatly prefer that to them relying on Black Lion Keys which are essentially lootboxes.

 

 

 

 

[Adenin.5973]

> @"Zaoda.1653" said:

> I heard 100 staff laid off? Not sure if numbers are correct but if so, isn't that about a quarter of the staff? That's pretty concerning for the game's future.

>

> I was thinking about upgrading my computer to better handle the graphics and ram required for GW2, but hearing this news, I think I just saved myself $4,000.

>

> It's really sad news, and it's never easy to find a new job in such a short time frame. Hope those laid off are able to find new work.

 

Don't. I have an GTX1080TI, I7 8700k @4.7GHz, SSD Samsung EVO960 and the game still struggles to run at 50fps in LA for example, even with toned down settings for player count and detail on 1440p. Still getting loading and popup issues when loading into a new map etc. Game is just not optimized.

 

That's no major improvement to my previous setup with a 780TI and an I7 3770k @3.7 GHz with an SSD (Can't remember exact specifications), granted I had it back then at 1080p, but still .

[Adenin.5973]

> @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > @"Blocki.4931" said:

> > > @"Obtena.7952" said:

> > > I have no doubt the game will continue to exist; the content we have will always be here in some way. I do anticipate that at some level, we will finally see some pay-to-win things; abilities to fast track long/hard to get items, like +5/+9 infusions, legendary anythings, etc ...

> > >

> > > Honestly, if I were NCSoft, I would 'pushing' for a more revenue driven model ... milking the current players by giving them things they want via some purchase. They don't care a flip about anything but the bottom line. It's a shame Anet were tied to them. I think you will see that be a common theme in the evolution of the industry. Games showing long teeth will get their legs knocked out from beneath them and the focus will be to entice veteran players to patronize the games more, even at the expense of the games themselves .. I think SWTOR went that way long ago and it persists because they sell things people want to buy. That doesn't necessary mean we won't see new content, etc ... because that is what will keep us around to spend that money.

> > >

> > > I mean ... Anet selling chairs ... THOSE are the kind of decision that would make a parent company pull the rug out. To what end do chairs give players any value? Even if they are for some future housing ... they put the cart in front of the horse.

> >

> > People WANTED CHAIRS

>

> That means so little to be honest. That's probably part of the problem ... what people? how many? It's a profitable endeavour? I mean, they have made a few chairs so yeah, people must be buying them at a well enough clip, but if chairs is the BEST thing Anet had going for GS goodies ... I'm not shocked of the recent developments.

 

Yes so true. When I heard they got in chairs, I was like "WTF is wrong with this game?". Went on reddit and to the forums and saw nothing but cheering ppl on there, so I left the game alone for another few months until I got another 2 hrs of story content

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Jura.2170" said:

> Sorry for asking a silly question, but how is Star Citizen able to raise millions to develop itself, while Arenanet can't?

>

> Is the market for space mmos that much bigger?

>

> If Anet had spent money on improving the game like [QoL](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/53097/suggestions-qol-quality-of-life-ideas "QoL"), making it faster, keeping the guild halls team and improving them, and even improving festivals and adding new ones, surely they would have made more money?

 

Was it because GW2 (ANET) was not making money or more about how money within ANET/NC Soft was being spent or was it due to economic pressures on the business that you can't really account for 100% of the time.

No one except those in the know can answer that, but it does appear GW2 was profitable at least in the sense of the word, but maybe not in the way NC Soft required it to be.

To blame any one entity in this is just silly season stuff. Both parties have a hand in the financials and how best to utilise the money and resources.

Heck you could even make a case that it's us players also at fault for not spending more.

New projects cost money but in order to sustain products and expand the business portfolio so as to not become overly reliant on ageing products money has to be spent and risk taken as to whether those projects pay off. If nothing had been done it is more than likely this situation would of arisen anyway because you cannot expect an ageing product to sustain the business and everything that depends the business, for ever.

As for GW2, yeah sure there are aspects that could be improved and have been improved, but no matter what improvements are made, changes incorporated, there will always be those that don't like it, accuse the company of not caring, not listening but at the end of the day GW2 still draws us back each day, each month , each year to play it. Could more of been done, yeah sure but that costs money with equally the same risk as trying out new ideas for new projects.

At the end of the day it's not for us to reason why, that is for NC Soft and ANET to work out and focus on repairing. If they can't then I guess all good things come to an end.. lets hope they can.

[FrizzFreston.5290]

Some devs volunteered, if not all, which is why its those that have been setting and steering the major direction that are going.

 

Clearly ArenaNet is restructuring away from that direction.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

I'm worried also. I feel quite sad. NCSoft is dealing serious damage here.

 

I feel sorry for all the good people who lose their jobs and incomes.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

> @"Kal Spiro.9745" said:

> > @"Tiviana.2650" said:

> > > @"Neural.1824" said:

> > > > @"Tiviana.2650" said:

> > > > Its not Anet , its NCsoft pulling plugs, get it right. When the kitten hits the fan know where to point the finger, squarely at NCsoft.

> > >

> > > The question is this: After what happened to Paragon, and with this happening to Arenanet (and let's be real, there's no facts/proof, but Arenanet could very well get the same treatment as Paragon sometime soon), what are the chances that people will finally be fed up enough to not purchase any more NCSoft products?

> > >

> >

> > I wont thats for sure, just like i told bioware to take a flying leap.

>

> Why would you tell BioWare to take a leap, they're in the same boat under EA.

 

Because I guess that's the level of that person's understanding and as such bases their decision making without any quantifiable facts but lots of emotion..

[Gehenna.3625]

> @"Zaoda.1653" said:

> I heard 100 staff laid off? Not sure if numbers are correct but if so, isn't that about a quarter of the staff? That's pretty concerning for the game's future.

Yes about a quarter of the staff have been laid off.

> I was thinking about upgrading my computer to better handle the graphics and ram required for GW2, but hearing this news, I think I just saved myself $4,000.

4000 dollars for a computer? For GW2? Surely you must be mad? You don't need anywhere near that amount.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

> @"Ulyssean.1709" said:

> Why is it NCsofts fault?

 

Fault, fault... Things are always a bit more complicated. In the end, it was NCSOFTs decision to do this to a profitable studio. Because GW2 is still in the top 5 of most popular MMOs and because it was financially healthy, it did not have to be.

 

On the other hand, we cannot deny that GW2 has been declining a bit over the years, that no new expansion has been announced (yet) while LW only costs them money and that it remains the question for how long ArenaNet would continue to make profits with their 400 employees in a declining playerbase. It can be that NCSoft is just being greedy but it can also be that they rightfully intercept in a company that otherwise would start losing money over time.

 

Only time will tell.