I can't help but wonder..

[Einlanzer.1627]

If this event was forced by NCSoft. It would make sense. Anet seemed to be at least a little uncomfortable with it from their stage presence. It's pretty common for large, international parent organizations to impose their will and cause a lot of problems because they're much more out of touch with their markets than the smaller companies they own are. It actually happens in my organization quite a bit.

 

It's almost never worth letting yourself get bought. It's easy for me to imagine that GW2 would be a much healthier game today if Anet had stayed autonomous.

[Scratchpaw.1069]

I’m 100% sure some d***head at NCSoft’s marketing departement thought this was an amazing idea because it was textbook “how to build hype” (they probably googled it too) and everyone at Anet (who actually know what lives among their playerbase) was probably like, nope, this is not what our players want and need right now. They probably didn’t have much say in this and looking at their awkward stage performance, they knew the backlash would be insane.

[Ashen.2907]

> @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> If this event was forced by NCSoft. It would make sense. Anet seemed to be at least a little uncomfortable with it from their stage presence. It's pretty common for large, international parent organizations to impose their will and cause a lot of problems because they're much more out of touch with their markets than the smaller companies they own are. It actually happens in my organization quite a bit.

>

> It's almost never worth letting yourself get bought. It's easy for me to imagine that GW2 would be a much healthier game today if Anet had stayed autonomous.

 

Hasnt ANet been fully owned by NCSoft since before GW1?

[Trise.2865]

Probably. Though, It also smells heavily of "I feel like putting on a show, so I will!", which is more common among artists than one might think.

[SexyMofo.8923]

I doubt it was forced. The event was on their turf. They better show up.

[Kurrilino.2706]

What Event are talkin about ?

[Dami.5046]

Putting this here.

People think Mike Z was nervous but to me he looked like it was trying not to cry. I'm not sure if that was frustration, or what but I did feel for him.

I certainly got the idea he didn't want to be there, just as I thought the same when I saw the 7 year stream. In fact I think the soul has been leached out of that studio.

I don't think they will ever get over those layoffs and it really really shows.

 

 

[Tiviana.2650]

Maybe ncsoft should let go of the reigns, i get the distinct feeling that even though anet has its own internal problems, ncsoft is pulling the strings. I think management needs to be looked at, and that pushing eastern game tactics to a western mmo audience is fail.

[PseudoNewb.5468]

Anet needs to market their product... when they have a product to market. I feel like they are doing a better job at trying to let the world know they still exist. Before they didn't seem to care if people knew about the game. But now... they don't have anything more to show when they say "Hi , we exist...".

 

Maybe we expected too much from a live event, because they don't usually do that. And the problem is that this even seems exceptionally special because they are abnormal. They had a live even with HoT skipped it for PoF, we simply don't know what to expect from an event like this.

[Einlanzer.1627]

> @"gateless gate.8406" said:

> Please spare us the "it's the evil publisher, not the developers." So, so sick of hearing that myth.

>

> There are serious personnel/management problems within ANet. Anyone who paid attention during the layoff period, has watched how the company responds to things/makes decisions, has seen statements from ex-employees (on Twitter and elsewhere), or has taken a look at their Glassdoor reviews can see that.

>

> The entire reason the game is in this state is because ANet, not NCSoft, chose to divert funds/personnel away from a future GW2 expansion. As far as I know, the management responsible for that catastrophic decision are still in charge of ANet. If you're wondering why ANet make bad or out-of-touch decisions, it's because the bad decision makers were never fired.

 

Both things can be true. I fully agree there are problems internal to Anet, but it's hard to imagine that Anet thought this was a good idea.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

I don't see why people feel the need to make the distinction anymore. After the recent merger and the publishing rights reverting to NCwest that is.

[Einlanzer.1627]

> @"AlexxxDelta.1806" said:

> I don't see why people feel the need to make the distinction anymore. After the recent merger and the publishing rights reverting to NCwest that is.

 

This is a fair point. It probably isn't a useful exercise to differentiate at this point.

[jbondo.9817]

> @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> If this event was forced by NCSoft. It would make sense. Anet seemed to be at least a little uncomfortable with it from their stage presence. It's pretty common for large, international parent organizations to impose their will and cause a lot of problems because they're much more out of touch with their markets than the smaller companies they own are. It actually happens in my organization quite a bit.

>

> It's almost never worth letting yourself get bought. It's easy for me to imagine that GW2 would be a much healthier game today if Anet had stayed autonomous.

 

I'm starting to believe that the initial layoffs this year came from lack of production of content and lack of community growth in GW2. They couldn't produce or profit, so NCsoft felt it was okay to cut a large amount of them to merge with another company (can't remember the name). As much as they want to hype up what we've gotten this year, it really hasn't been engaging and certain modes in this game have been left dormant for almost 7 years (I'm talking about dungeons right here), after the layoffs I'm sure NCsoft has been down A-net's throat asking for them to deliver. I don't believe A-net was ready to accommodate to this, and I think the dev's have probably been running around the office for the last couple of months trying to piece together some content to sell to the consumers, so they don't lose their jobs. These funkopops, yoga pants, etc all feel like desperate cash grabs.

 

In these last 7 years I think they lost dev's that they couldn't afford to lose and we're just now seeing the backlash. One that comes to mind that kept our PvP scene pretty interesting was Grouch, and I'm pretty sure he left after the embarrassing PvP opening of HoT, that was left unfixed for months. I'm not sure if this dev team is lazy, but I don't think they are matching with NCsofts demands. I think NCsoft is at the point and we'll see it after Living Saga Season 5 if they want to revamp the GW2 team entirely, or if they want to put this game on maintenance mode, and start working on a new project. If they go the new project route, I have very little hope that it'll be related to the GW franchise.

[Einlanzer.1627]

> @"jbondo.9817" said:

> > @"Einlanzer.1627" said:

> > If this event was forced by NCSoft. It would make sense. Anet seemed to be at least a little uncomfortable with it from their stage presence. It's pretty common for large, international parent organizations to impose their will and cause a lot of problems because they're much more out of touch with their markets than the smaller companies they own are. It actually happens in my organization quite a bit.

> >

> > It's almost never worth letting yourself get bought. It's easy for me to imagine that GW2 would be a much healthier game today if Anet had stayed autonomous.

>

> I'm starting to believe that the initial layoffs this year came from lack of production of content and lack of community growth in GW2. They couldn't produce or profit, so NCsoft felt it was okay to cut a large amount of them to merge with another company (can't remember the name). As much as they want to hype up what we've gotten this year, it really hasn't been engaging and certain modes in this game have been left dormant for almost 7 years (I'm talking about dungeons right here), after the layoffs I'm sure NCsoft has been down A-net's throat asking for them to deliver. I don't believe A-net was ready to accommodate to this, and I think the dev's have probably been running around the office for the last couple of months trying to piece together some content to sell to the consumers, so they don't lose their jobs. These funkopops, yoga pants, etc all feel like desperate cash grabs.

>

> In these last 7 years I think they lost dev's that they couldn't afford to lose and we're just now seeing the backlash. One that comes to mind that kept our PvP scene pretty interesting was Grouch, and I'm pretty sure he left after the embarrassing PvP opening of HoT, that was left unfixed for months. I'm not sure if this dev team is lazy, but I don't think they are matching with NCsofts demands. I think NCsoft is at the point and we'll see it after Living Saga Season 5 if they want to revamp the GW2 team entirely, or if they want to put this game on maintenance mode, and start working on a new project. If they go the new project route, I have very little hope that it'll be related to the GW franchise.

 

yeah, this is a pretty insightful analysis of what may very well be happening. It does seem to me that their team just can't handle it. It's frankly been embarrassing from day one how slow they are to turn out new content. This usually speaks to more of a management problem, though - issues with how the teams are organized and lead.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

A new release every two weeks is slow? Have you forgotten Season One?

[Inoki.6048]

> @"Tiviana.2650" said:

> Maybe ncsoft should let go of the reigns, i get the distinct feeling that even though anet has its own internal problems, ncsoft is pulling the strings. I think management needs to be looked at.

 

I keep saying this for years. Actually, the first time I saw the NC logo on their page I felt dread. I knew back then already, that nothing good can come from this.

 

The easiest thing anyone who hasn't done so yet can do is a little research on other NCSoft titles and why they ended up as they have. After that, everyone will be certain about what, more specifically who the real issue is.

[EmmetOtter.8542]

**If anything Anet underhyped the announcement.**

 

They announced it a couple of times using existing social media channels (like this website and twitter) that they already had a very established presence on. They used a bunch of Anet employees to talk about it at the event. That's a **bare minimum** effort.

* No ads for it on websites oriented towards gamers.

* No big bucks thrown at streamers to talk up the event.

* No random celebrities or rock bands entertained the crowd.

* Fireworks? No

* Employed cosplayers in staged events in big cities in the weeks leading up to the event? No

* Billboards? No

* Links to travel partners to plan your visit? No

 

That's stuff other companies have done and Anet didn't do. Anet rented a medium sized venue and used 45min of a planned 1 hour twitch/youtube stream to talk about it. With the exception of the announcer, who may or may not have been on lithium, the anet employees were surprisingly low key. Happy and a little excited but not sickly sweet, syrupy, too-many-red bulls excited.

 

A few websites reported about the announcement after the fact but that's to be expected; GW2 isn't the 900 lb gorilla of MMO's but its still in the top 5 or 10 depending on who's doing the counting.

 

The bare kitty minimum was done.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

I consider it more likely that the impetus to present came from a desire within the studio to be able to say _something_ in the face of rising discontent over perceived silence than that NCSoft would micromanage a content announcement. Game creation and public (video or in person) presentation do not presume the same skill set. Any observed discomfort need not be explained by anything other than stage fright.

[Excursion.9752]

Something made their lips tight. I know Anets notorious for not sharing what's cooking in the back but common. An event is where you are supposed to do that sort of thing. Make people want to play the game. Make people want to come back. Make people look forward to what is to come. Needless to say this had to go through some vetting before it hit the stage. Someone said "yeah lets go with vague and shallow". NCSoft most definitely had to put their stamp of approval on it. I know if I was them I would have wanted to see the layout of the event before it went live.

 

I'm not angry or bitter in saying this but it was the worst stage show ever when it comes to reveals. I say that having seen a bunch of Ubisoft and EA event shows from E3 and those were god awful. In the end someone is pumping the breaks on the Hype Train and NCSoft you would think, would be the conductor.