What More Does Anet Need?

[Adry.7512]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but currently GW2 has a very healthy online playerbase. So please Explain to me what else does ArenaNet require??? Word of mouth was provided, consistent players are provided....now all that’s left is for them to deliver. Or am I wrong? The only unpopulated aspect of the game is SPVP and that’s not our fault as we all know. So please explain to me what else Arenanet need from us? Patience??? There have been games that have crashed miserably resulting in some of these games having to be sold due simply to a bad launch. Taking events such as those into consideration, we are very loyal to Arenanet. So please explain why they cant come up with a consistent marketing and content delivery plan?? I don’t understand. This is a veteran company that should not be experiencing these issue. Everything on the players side has been fulfilled. But yet they use the funds from us to hire loads of individuals, most of which were apparently working on a completely different game, while the main money maker of the company was left as secondary. Then to state that they are now not even going to deliver on these games that caused GW2 to be left as secondary in comparison.

 

First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

 

Now I am not bashing Arenanet, nor am I stating any negative opinions about them. I am stating current facts. On a personal opinion I do enjoy living world updates and have enjoyed the mechanics and classes expansions bring. But my opinion does not erase these facts. When will Arenanet figure out a plan to dish out products and properly market their game? If a game requires constant updates to flourish, then the game doesn’t stand on its own. Therefore, promising living story every two months, an expansion once a year, festival content, PvP updates, wvw updates, and everything else in between required more costs than expected? Maybe this is why the content couldn’t explore the lore it required? Because maybe it exceeded ArenaNet’s budget?

 

Look, once again I am not bashing the company but this is something that as a consumer we don’t deserve. This is a veteran company and hence I expect more from them than this. I feel disrespected as a fan and a continued supporter of the game. I just hope they can deliver good lore content and that sagas live up to their expectations.

[MetalGirl.2370]

"Please correct me if I am wrong, but currently GW2 has a very healthy online playerbase."

 

Yeah, you're wrong.

[MokahTGS.7850]

Please define "healthy" as it applies to ANet/NCSofts bottom line. They apparently think expansions cost too much so they don't do them any more. If people keep buying gem store skins that will only reinforce their current stance. Demand an expansion with both word and wallet and you might see one.

[Blackarps.1974]

Outside of daily resets or weekly WvW resets, it seems pretty rough in regards to player count. Even with megaservers, I see people running around but its not like it used to be. This game is losing people at an alarming rate and those who disagree are just in denial or don't play enough to see the reality of the situation.

[Adry.7512]

You guys do know they have around 100k online most of the time right??

[SLOTH.5231]

Put us all in one server and be done with it.

[Pifil.5193]

> @"Adry.7512" said:

> You guys do know they have around 100k online most of the time right??

 

How do you know that?

[WhatLiesBeneath.9018]

> @"Blackarps.1974" said:

> Outside of daily resets or weekly WvW resets, it seems pretty rough in regards to player count. Even with megaservers, I see people running around but its not like it used to be. This game is losing people at an alarming rate and those who disagree are just in denial or don't play enough to see the reality of the situation.

 

Just stop lying. There are people everywere, both in low-mid and high level zones.

Been levling a new character and been doing high end stuff this week so just stop with these lies.

[Donari.5237]

I quibble with the statement in the OP that this is all facts, not opinion. Even the parts that tend more towards factual statements cast them in an unfavorable light, showing a definite judgment as to the implications. And maybe there are indeed negative implications to some of them but this is not an objective approach.

 

The first complaint seems to be about something now in the past (the diversion of resources to other projects that then had to be abandoned in the restructuring) as if it is a current ongoing issue. Then there seems to be an issue with the alleged lack of a consistent plan for marketing and delivery. I'll agree the marketing seems a bit random, but I certainly see nothing to indicate a lack of a plan for delivery of content. They just aren't telling us the plan, which is very different from not having one. Is it a good plan? A bad plan? We the players can only assess this in hindsight.

 

The WvW overhaul has been long in the works, true, but they *told* us it would be when they first announced it, they *told* us it was a rough draft and asked for our feedback and concerns over the initial iterative thoughts, they said at the live presentation that it is still on the way, not abandoned.

 

I am puzzled by your suggestion that it is a bad thing for a game to need updates to flourish (I may have misread). This is an MMORPG, a genre that is all about constant updating of game play and story. I'll agree that ANet tends to be pretty light on presentation of lore and drops a lot of threads to the cutting room floor that imo the game would have done better to retain (hi, Malyck's Tree). They do seem to be trying to improve that. Will they ever get to ESO levels of complexity of story? Probably not, but they do a lot of other things better (very subjective opinion, speaking only for myself and what I enjoy there) so I can just do RP with my guild to explore the implications of the world-shaking events of the canon story.

 

All of this is not to disagree with you as such. You have opinions, I have differing ones, and nothing makes one of us more right than the other. But do try to take a step back and consider whether you are indeed stating any pure facts in your OP.

[Trinnitty.8256]

They need in game rewards besides the gem store with content. Right now it feels like not much in game can be earned unless you find the best gold per hour activity and trade it for gems to get something nice. Besides the winning the lottery crap drop rate like infusions.

[Adry.7512]

> @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > You guys do know they have around 100k online most of the time right??

>

> How do you know that?

 

Go to the options tab.....those every changing numbers at the bottom right are online players lol.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"Adry.7512" said:

> > @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > > You guys do know they have around 100k online most of the time right??

> >

> > How do you know that?

>

> Go to the options tab.....those every changing numbers at the bottom right are online players lol.

 

What? FPS? Ping?

 

Or are you looking at the Build number on the bottom left??

[Xstein.2187]

> @"Adry.7512" said:

 

>

> First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

 

Did it ever occur to you that since Anet has lied to us in the past by saying the lay offs wouldn't effect the game when people who worked on the living story and gw2 are now indeed gone, that at that same moment they lied, they may have also been lying about something else as well. . . . . . like the cancelled project being another gw2 expansion instead of a completely separate project?

 

While just saying facts and nothing else may appear all fine and dandy, sometimes when the pieces fall together ever so nicely, it becomes very difficult to just turn a blind eye and pretend Anet is always upfront with us and everything is fine and dandy.

 

[Pifil.5193]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > > @"Pifil.5193" said:

> > > > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > > > You guys do know they have around 100k online most of the time right??

> > >

> > > How do you know that?

> >

> > Go to the options tab.....those every changing numbers at the bottom right are online players lol.

>

> What? FPS? Ping?

>

> Or are you looking at the Build number on the bottom left??

 

Yeah, what Inculpatus Cedo said, you're confusing things here, I assume you're looking at the gw2 build number and don't have a FPS or ping of 100k. Currently Gw2: 99,050.

 

(BTW you know it's the build number because the same number is shown on the launcher underneath the Play button as "Build: 99050").

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > @"Adry.7512" said:

>

> >

> > First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

>

> Did it ever occur to you that since Anet has lied to us in the past by saying the lay offs wouldn't effect the game when people who worked on the living story and gw2 are now indeed gone, that at that same moment they lied, they may have also been lying about something else as well. . . . . . like the cancelled project being another gw2 expansion instead of a completely separate project?

>

> While just saying facts and nothing else may appear all fine and dandy, sometimes when the pieces fall together ever so nicely, it becomes very difficult to just turn a blind eye and pretend Anet is always upfront with us and everything is fine and dandy.

>

 

Or, instead of saying ArenaNet lied about anything...why not say NCSoft lied, since it was NCSoft that instigated the shut down of the other game(S) in development(plural for a reason, all we know is that it was more than 1, could've been 2 or even 5, the only people that actually know are ArenaNet and NCSoft). Also, a lot of the long time GW developers laid off actually volunteered to take severance so that newer people could keep their jobs. Third, when Mike Z took over as game director he explicitly stated they weren't working on an expansion and that one wasn't in the planning stages, not once did he say an expansion was off the table though.

 

As for the OP's comment about Marketing, marketing has never been a strong point of NCSoft/ArenaNet, it's word of mouth and the people that played the original GW that were the intended market, plus what others like to call "casuals" which really could be anyone that might like to try the game. Lore has been present since the first game and was continued in GW2, if that person doesn't know the lore that is not ArenaNets fault, that's the players fault for not paying attention...Tyria is full of lore, you just have to pay attention, talk to everyone, read everything(I'm talking about in-game) and listen to the ambient conversations...it's all there for the understanding.

[Xstein.2187]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > > @"Adry.7512" said:

> >

> > >

> > > First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

> >

> > Did it ever occur to you that since Anet has lied to us in the past by saying the lay offs wouldn't effect the game when people who worked on the living story and gw2 are now indeed gone, that at that same moment they lied, they may have also been lying about something else as well. . . . . . like the cancelled project being another gw2 expansion instead of a completely separate project?

> >

> > While just saying facts and nothing else may appear all fine and dandy, sometimes when the pieces fall together ever so nicely, it becomes very difficult to just turn a blind eye and pretend Anet is always upfront with us and everything is fine and dandy.

> >

>

> Or, instead of saying ArenaNet lied about anything...why not say NCSoft lied, since it was NCSoft that instigated the shut down of the other game(S) in development(plural for a reason, all we know is that it was more than 1, could've been 2 or even 5, the only people that actually know are ArenaNet and NCSoft). Also, a lot of the long time GW developers laid off actually volunteered to take severance so that newer people could keep their jobs. Third, when Mike Z took over as game director he explicitly stated they weren't working on an expansion and that one wasn't in the planning stages, not once did he say an expansion was off the table though.

>

 

1. ??? Instigating the shutdown of a game isn't lying. That obviously doesn't mean I agree with their decision, but it isn't lying. As far as I know, they did exactly what they said they would do, cut costs.

 

2. In relation to the question, it also doesn't matter if people volunteered or not. Effecting the game is effecting the game. Even if your employees are volunteering, don't say it isn't going to effect the game when it is. If they were more upfront earlier, people probably wouldn't be as skeptical now.

 

3. I don't remember anything about Mike Z saying that they weren't working on an expansion when he took over.

 

I found an article about him saying that there wouldn't be an expansion any time soon at the beginning of July, but I never found anything saying they weren't working on an expansion.

[Gop.8713]

What anet needs most is to establish a viable business model that does not include $$ from expansions while also not altering their policy of limiting gem store offerings to cosmetic and convenience items. I'm guessing they are pretty confident that they have a working model or they would not have chosen this path but I'd also say they are early enough along in this model that it could still surprise them and fail . . .

 

EDIT: It would also be nice if they just said 'There won't be any more expansions' since that would stop the speculation, but I can see why they wouldn't want to do that.

[Linken.6345]

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"Adry.7512" said:

> >Word of mouth was provided

> Where?

> Was it from Teapot dumping on this game for 4 months solid until he took his ball and ran home when he realized he couldn't wag the dog for more raids?

> Was it the way members of this community went looking to that clod Jim Stirling to bury the game when they didn't like mount skin pricing?

> Maybe it was all the positive word of mouth Jawgeous gave it?

> Maybe it's the stream of ignorant senseless articles on MassivelyOP?

> Could have been the 300 people typing "F" when they didn't like the recent LW announcement...

> or you're talking about all the great word of mouth the game got from Brazil.

> Maybe you're referring to the fact that 3 out of 4 members of the creative partner program have essentially stopped making content for this game and are just soaking up the free gems.

>

> I've never seen a community in all my life so willing to throw it's developers under the bus.

>

> While I largely agree with much of that you said regarding content delivery and feel that something is indeed wrong at Anet, let's not pat our backs as a community for spreading the word of mouth.

> Our most vocal members have run this game through the mud time and time again.

 

Man I must be a bad player, I only know of 1 person you spoke of the other two are ayinmaiden and woodenpotatoes

[Zaklex.6308]

> @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > > @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > > > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > >

> > > >

> > > > First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

> > >

> > > Did it ever occur to you that since Anet has lied to us in the past by saying the lay offs wouldn't effect the game when people who worked on the living story and gw2 are now indeed gone, that at that same moment they lied, they may have also been lying about something else as well. . . . . . like the cancelled project being another gw2 expansion instead of a completely separate project?

> > >

> > > While just saying facts and nothing else may appear all fine and dandy, sometimes when the pieces fall together ever so nicely, it becomes very difficult to just turn a blind eye and pretend Anet is always upfront with us and everything is fine and dandy.

> > >

> >

> > Or, instead of saying ArenaNet lied about anything...why not say NCSoft lied, since it was NCSoft that instigated the shut down of the other game(S) in development(plural for a reason, all we know is that it was more than 1, could've been 2 or even 5, the only people that actually know are ArenaNet and NCSoft). Also, a lot of the long time GW developers laid off actually volunteered to take severance so that newer people could keep their jobs. Third, when Mike Z took over as game director he explicitly stated they weren't working on an expansion and that one wasn't in the planning stages, not once did he say an expansion was off the table though.

> >

>

> 1. ??? Instigating the shutdown of a game isn't lying. That obviously doesn't mean I agree with their decision, but it isn't lying. As far as I know, they did exactly what they said they would do, cut costs.

>

> 2. In relation to the question, it also doesn't matter if people volunteered or not. Effecting the game is effecting the game. Even if your employees are volunteering, don't say it isn't going to effect the game when it is. If they were more upfront earlier, people probably wouldn't be as skeptical now.

>

> 3. I don't remember anything about Mike Z saying that they weren't working on an expansion when he took over.

>

> I found an article about him saying that there wouldn't be an expansion any time soon at the beginning of July, but I never found anything saying they weren't working on an expansion.

 

1. Let me repeat myself...you're saying ArenaNet lied, it's not a lie when you are directed by the company that owns you 100% to do something, and that would be NCSoft, NCSoft told ArenaNet to shutter the other projects because they were taking to long and costing money with nothing to show for it. That was spelled out enough times in enough news stories at the time.

 

2. It actually does matter if people volunteer or not, it's either because they wanted new life brought into the game and they felt that newer people would do that or they already had better offers on the table that should they ever leave ArenaNet it was available...or you know, it's time to move on and see what else you can do with your talent.

 

3. Knowing what we know of how the studio was set up, there weren't available people to be working on an expansion, and that wasn't the direction they were heading in at the time...it was moving towards the LW as the method of releasing new content. You would have to go back to November/December of 2017 when Mike Z was announced as Game Director to find that information...he's been in charge for almost 2 years now, since just after PoF released, which is when they would have started working on the next expansion...had they decided to do another one, which under his direction was tabled.

 

[Xstein.2187]

> @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > > > @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > > > > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > > >

> > > > >

> > > > > First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

> > > >

> > > > Did it ever occur to you that since Anet has lied to us in the past by saying the lay offs wouldn't effect the game when people who worked on the living story and gw2 are now indeed gone, that at that same moment they lied, they may have also been lying about something else as well. . . . . . like the cancelled project being another gw2 expansion instead of a completely separate project?

> > > >

> > > > While just saying facts and nothing else may appear all fine and dandy, sometimes when the pieces fall together ever so nicely, it becomes very difficult to just turn a blind eye and pretend Anet is always upfront with us and everything is fine and dandy.

> > > >

> > >

> > > Or, instead of saying ArenaNet lied about anything...why not say NCSoft lied, since it was NCSoft that instigated the shut down of the other game(S) in development(plural for a reason, all we know is that it was more than 1, could've been 2 or even 5, the only people that actually know are ArenaNet and NCSoft). Also, a lot of the long time GW developers laid off actually volunteered to take severance so that newer people could keep their jobs. Third, when Mike Z took over as game director he explicitly stated they weren't working on an expansion and that one wasn't in the planning stages, not once did he say an expansion was off the table though.

> > >

> >

> > 1. ??? Instigating the shutdown of a game isn't lying. That obviously doesn't mean I agree with their decision, but it isn't lying. As far as I know, they did exactly what they said they would do, cut costs.

> >

> > 2. In relation to the question, it also doesn't matter if people volunteered or not. Effecting the game is effecting the game. Even if your employees are volunteering, don't say it isn't going to effect the game when it is. If they were more upfront earlier, people probably wouldn't be as skeptical now.

> >

> > 3. I don't remember anything about Mike Z saying that they weren't working on an expansion when he took over.

> >

> > I found an article about him saying that there wouldn't be an expansion any time soon at the beginning of July, but I never found anything saying they weren't working on an expansion.

>

> 1. Let me repeat myself...you're saying ArenaNet lied, it's not a lie when you are directed by the company that owns you 100% to do something, and that would be NCSoft, NCSoft told ArenaNet to shutter the other projects because they were taking to long and costing money with nothing to show for it. That was spelled out enough times in enough news stories at the time.

>

> 2. It actually does matter if people volunteer or not, it's either because they wanted new life brought into the game and they felt that newer people would do that or they already had better offers on the table that should they ever leave ArenaNet it was available...or you know, it's time to move on and see what else you can do with your talent.

>

> 3. Knowing what we know of how the studio was set up, there weren't available people to be working on an expansion, and that wasn't the direction they were heading in at the time...it was moving towards the LW as the method of releasing new content. You would have to go back to November/December of 2017 when Mike Z was announced as Game Director to find that information...he's been in charge for almost 2 years now, since just after PoF released, which is when they would have started working on the next expansion...had they decided to do another one, which under his direction was tabled.

>

 

1. What are you talking about? The only part I said they were being disingenuous about was in them saying how the lay offs would affect gw2 at the time that the lay offs took place. NcSoft caning Anet's project has nothing to do with them saying that.

2. Once again, what are you talking about? I never disagreed that those employees weren't doing a good thing by volunteering for other or that the game would be better if they didn't volunteer. All I said was that the lay offs negatively effected gw2, plain and simple. Just because some employees volunteered, does not mean that the lay offs did not negatively effect gw2.

3. Once again, I can't find anything about Mike Z. saying they weren't working on an expansion when he took over like you say. I do not believe you and do not remember seeing anything like that. All you have to do is find or link when he said that and I will believe you. However, until that time . . . . .

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

> @"mindcircus.1506" said:

> > @"Adry.7512" said:

> >Word of mouth was provided

> Where?

> Was it from Teapot dumping on this game for 4 months solid until he took his ball and ran home when he realized he couldn't wag the dog for more raids?

> Was it the way members of this community went looking to that clod Jim Stirling to bury the game when they didn't like mount skin pricing?

> Maybe it was all the positive word of mouth Jawgeous gave it?

> Maybe it's the stream of ignorant senseless articles on MassivelyOP?

> Could have been the 300 people typing "F" when they didn't like the recent LW announcement...

> or you're talking about all the great word of mouth the game got from Brazil.

> Maybe you're referring to the fact that 3 out of 4 members of the creative partner program have essentially stopped making content for this game and are just soaking up the free gems.

>

> I've never seen a community in all my life so willing to throw it's developers under the bus.

>

> While I largely agree with much of that you said regarding content delivery and feel that something is indeed wrong at Anet, let's not pat our backs as a community for spreading the word of mouth.

> Our most vocal members have run this game through the mud time and time again.

 

All of what you wrote point at the same thing though. Isn't it weird that a game of GW2's scope, one of the most acclaimed MMOs ever on launch, is struggling with content creator/media exposure? Because it really shouldn't be having any trouble. Not only it does, but we are at a point where well known creators or even Anet partners are expressing dissatisfaction and worry about the state of the game. This is not a common occurrence, usually these types are the first to defend, or as the buzzword is, "shill" a game. Same applies for media outlets like Massively.

 

So how did we get here?

Could it be that content creators need a steady stream of "watchable" game content at a known cadence to be able to do what they do?

Could it be that media outlets need new big-time features and content packs (like xpacs) to generate clicks, in order to bother with featuring a game?And in the absence of click-worthy content, controversy fills the void.

Could it be that a studio was so starved for money that chose to release their new shiny gambleboxes during the peak of hurricane "Battlefront"? Even a 5yo would expect the media reaction that followed.

 

See a pattern here? Cause and effect.

[Tsakhi.8124]

Let them do their jobs. Have empathy, if you have a problem or idea, you should put it in detail; I have seen some of the player's ideas brought into fruition. One must remember, we are thousands, but they are a few. I imagine reading some of these posts makes them anxious, because I just have a feeling that there are a _lot_ of deadlines to meet.

[MisterDapper.5984]

If you want a proper response, it would be on the gw2 subreddit. It's mostly an echo chamber here.

[Acheron.4731]

> @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > @"Zaklex.6308" said:

> > > @"Xstein.2187" said:

> > > > @"Adry.7512" said:

> > >

> > > >

> > > > First of all, what company uses an Unperfected game as a way to fund not one, but two games? All that while GW2 requires some serious content updates, such as fixing a dead SPVP or the fact that WVW was promised an overhaul over a year or two ago. Or the fact that every competitor has player housing, fishing, etc etc while we don’t. All of this just to dish out living world and expansions that unfortunately don’t deliver quality lore at all due to the fact that Instead it delivers on a story with no history or backstory to it, leaving us with only further questions.

> > >

> > > Did it ever occur to you that since Anet has lied to us in the past by saying the lay offs wouldn't effect the game when people who worked on the living story and gw2 are now indeed gone, that at that same moment they lied, they may have also been lying about something else as well. . . . . . like the cancelled project being another gw2 expansion instead of a completely separate project?

> > >

> > > While just saying facts and nothing else may appear all fine and dandy, sometimes when the pieces fall together ever so nicely, it becomes very difficult to just turn a blind eye and pretend Anet is always upfront with us and everything is fine and dandy.

> > >

> >

> > Or, instead of saying ArenaNet lied about anything...why not say NCSoft lied, since it was NCSoft that instigated the shut down of the other game(S) in development(plural for a reason, all we know is that it was more than 1, could've been 2 or even 5, the only people that actually know are ArenaNet and NCSoft). Also, a lot of the long time GW developers laid off actually volunteered to take severance so that newer people could keep their jobs. Third, when Mike Z took over as game director he explicitly stated they weren't working on an expansion and that one wasn't in the planning stages, not once did he say an expansion was off the table though.

> >

>

> 1. ??? Instigating the shutdown of a game isn't lying. That obviously doesn't mean I agree with their decision, but it isn't lying. As far as I know, they did exactly what they said they would do, cut costs.

>

> 2. In relation to the question, it also doesn't matter if people volunteered or not. Effecting the game is effecting the game. Even if your employees are volunteering, don't say it isn't going to effect the game when it is. If they were more upfront earlier, people probably wouldn't be as skeptical now.

>

> 3. I don't remember anything about Mike Z saying that they weren't working on an expansion when he took over.

>

> I found an article about him saying that there wouldn't be an expansion any time soon at the beginning of July, but I never found anything saying they weren't working on an expansion.

 

The PR representative during a Mike Z interview after last week's fiasco said they knew many players were looking for an expansion, thus, it is not 'not ruled out or off the table'....which in layman's terms means, we are not working on it now.

So, what a large portion of the community was looking for may not show up for another 18 mos at earliest?

This kinda ties into what the OP is stating. Things seemed to have slowed down to a crawl production-wise EVEN WHILE still ignoring pvp and wvw during that entire time.

I honestly don't what is going on there either, but assume it is worse than what is being lead-on.

[Erasculio.2914]

> @"Acheron.4731" said:

> This kinda ties into what the OP is stating. Things seemed to have slowed down to a crawl production-wise EVEN WHILE still ignoring pvp and wvw during that entire time.

> I honestly don't what is going on there either, but assume it is worse than what is being lead-on.

 

Feels like they're preparing for maintenance mode.

 

More automated festivals that just repeat year after year...The small events such as the World Boss week or the Meta Events week... Tackling the next Elder Dragon instead of taking a breath to focus on something else... Smaller releases from now on...

 

All of those feel similar to what ArenaNet was doing with the original Guild Wars immediately before sending it into maintenance mode.