tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post7673213012052937975..comments2024-03-28T10:18:05.213+00:00Comments on Inventory Full: Hard Choices : GW2, Daybreak GamesBhagpusshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-82609778753145606622016-03-28T16:03:56.863+01:002016-03-28T16:03:56.863+01:00That's very much how I see it. I've always...That's very much how I see it. I've always put the fault line at the first, big post-launch event, the Karka Invasion. My feeling is that that represented the direction the game was intended to take - genuinely "dynamic" one-off events that, because they *were* one-offs, could also have very significant rewards attached (in the case of Karka, a good chance of a precursor and a guaranteed 20-slot bag). <br /><br />Sadly, as happened a few years earlier when Rift tried the same thing, ANet discovered that MMO fans get out the tar and feathers if they are told other people might get something they can't have. One-off, "be there or miss out" events, always cause a massive backlash from everyone who, for whatever reason, can't make the date. Personally I love them and I'd be ecstatic to miss 9 out of 10 just for the chance to "be there" for the tenth, but that seems to be very much a minority opinion.<br /><br />Ever since then they have indeed appeared to be trying to give players what they say they want, not what the developers want to give them. Unfortunately players have no clue what they want and rarely want what they asked for when they get it so that approach has largely been a disaster. I really hope we are finally going to get so actual leadership, where the devs make the game they want to make and then get Marketing to sell that game to people who want to play it. I'm not holding my breath.<br /><br />I also very much agree that what we need now is an intelligent blend of what worked in Season 1 and 2 (big events like Marionette and zone invasions and lots of small gobbets of lore all, plus coherent Achievement paths and some decent, replayable instanced content). If they get that right it should help retention enormously.<br /><br />I'm also with you on HoT. I like it a lot but it is indeed very one-note. If you don't like those long event chains there's not much else there and there clearly needs to be. They had better get that right for the second expansion or they could be in real trouble. Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-43603678426992251522016-03-28T15:22:58.671+01:002016-03-28T15:22:58.671+01:00Do you know how players complain devs rarely liste...Do you know how players complain devs rarely listen to the players?<br />Arenanet might listen a bit too much.<br /><br />I could bet you that when GW2 released the plan was to go with expansions while adding some stuff here and there to the online game.<br /><br />But the cash shop numbers were just too good. The cash shop was generating more money than their GW1 expansions.<br /><br />I'm getting ahead of myself though. Arenanet was simply not prepared for Gw2 to have 2 million plus players at release. Maybe they shouldn't have because the decline of the player base after the first month caused Arenanet to panic and to try to cater to those leaving players.<br /><br />Lets face it, those players that left in the first couple of months were not the target audience of Gw2.<br /><br />Living Story season 1 worked in an epic scale. Living Story season 2 left some interest content (with nice challances ans of course 2 zones) but it didn't replace season 1.<br /><br />It needs to be a mix of season1 and season 2.<br /><br />Hot is good but only catered for 1 type of play (which was basically only represented by Dry top and Silverwastes since Orr never worked as intended).<br /><br /><br />Luis Sousahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14285335572297296899noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-21555601161670512902016-03-28T15:01:30.330+01:002016-03-28T15:01:30.330+01:00I'd love to, if only I had the time - the eter...I'd love to, if only I had the time - the eternal complaint of the blogger who also wants to play the games he blogs about. The problem we all have, writing and talking about EQNext, is that none of us ever saw it. It never got even as far as one of those "Early Access Alpha" builds such as Landmark enjoyed when there was barely anything there at all and certainly nothing that could be called a game. <br /><br />Moreover, there was never any genuine "in game" video of EQNext, even in a rough state like the footage we've seen of Camelot Unchained or Pantheon. All we ever got to see were a very few marketing videos and some concept art. <br /><br />On that basis it's impossible to parse a statement like "it was cancelled because it wasn't fun". All we can do is read the runes. The game was in development for, what, six years? Maybe longer. It was scrapped and re-started under new design briefs at least three times, maybe four, or was it five? Virtually all of the key personalities and individuals driving the project were released, sacked or forced to leave by outside circumstances.<br /><br />Whatever EQNext was going to be or could have been, as an MMO that didn't seem likely even to go into public alpha before 2017, what chance was there that, if it finally reached release status sometime in 2018 or 2019, it would have a hope of finding a place in the market? The world changes fast, especially where technology is involved. What seemed like the bleeding edge back when EQNext was setting the blogosphere on fire three years ago would most likely have landed like a clump of wet cardboard when it finally limped out the door five years on.<br /><br />But, as I say, we really can't know. My guess is that, rather than simply being out of its time and "not fun" EQNext simply didn't work. Landmark doesn't work, not really, not well. It's getting closer but it's still awkward and clunky. Over the years a lot of video games have been released that didn't really work all that well so perhaps we should be glad that someone had the good sense and the good grace not to follow those unhappy examples.<br /><br />As for ArenaNet and their seeming inability to make up their minds about, well, just about anything at all, again we end up on speculation street. I would just say, though, that having worked for a number of medium and large corporations over the years, it's quite surprising just how much the ideas and opinions of one or two key individuals can affect the direction of the whole business. cf WildStar. cf Firefall. <br /><br />The next six to twelve months of GW2's development should tell us a lot about the last four years, I think.Bhagpusshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03499162165023939880noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1510920011443550663.post-65587550503812021272016-03-28T12:13:10.932+01:002016-03-28T12:13:10.932+01:00You have intimated problems in this discussion, bu...You have intimated problems in this discussion, but have largely left them unelaborated. I am curious. Can you please consider following this article with another which details what you had in mind with these issues, especially in regard to 'popping the hatch... and blinking at the harsh light of external reality". It would be interesting to read your insights on the systemic nature of these problems in the MMO landscape. Appreciate your thoughts.kryldahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17154863438592424072noreply@blogger.com