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Every game mode should be given equal attention/resources


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I think that every game mode (PvE, PvP, WvW) should be given equal attention and resources when it comes to development.They are all unique and a cut above all the other competitors out in the market.If they were all given equal opportunity to develop, we can draw in and retain large amount of players across the three game modes.Also this large group will be more likely to spread and do the modes outside their favorite mode.For example, a PvP main is likely to do WvW or PvE occasionally and vice versa.Focusing too much on PvE may cause the PvP and WvW population to bleed out.So I'm really glad to see that recent emphasis has been rather balanced with WvW and PvP getting some pretty nice updates too.

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IIRC even at the game's height of popularity the side content never had anywhere near a majority of players darkening their towels. Splitting off the dev's resources and manpower from the game's main selling points to please a crowd much louder than they are numerous is a big "Nah, son."

That having been said, the side content should have something new added every development cycle. It's only reasonable. Like how McDonald's keeps the Fillet-o-fish on their menu: Someone will want to eat it.

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Had to choose the only option that wasn't wrong.

Focussing on one game mode to the exclusion of all others does not make sense when some require limited upkeep. But providing equal resources to all of them is also a waste if the audience just doesn't exist.

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People keep saying to dedicate the most attention to the gamemode with the highest population, but what if the lack of attention is the reason for the other modes' lower population? If PvE got as much attention as PvP and WvW currently do, PvE probably wouldn't be doing too great population-wise either.

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This suggestion is not realistic, because the truth is that not all game modes even require the same amount of resources to maintain. PvE always needs more resources, because players are going up against scripted encounters. So you need variety to keep people interested. PvP and WvW can inherently have variety of play styles and skill levels that you are going up against. PvP and WvW mainly need balance shifts and new elite specs to remain intersting. New maps can help, but you do not want to introduce too many because conquest is pretty similar no matter what map you are playing it in, same with WvW objectives. Making too many maps is pointless. New game modes are also good, but you don't want to split the playerbase too much. They are tying mini-seasons with new game modes now which is good, but you still can't add too many.

Basically, if you divided resources equally, many of those resources would end up being wasted. PvP and WvW do need a bit more attention but not as much as you may think. They can really make these game modes great with very little additional investment, and that is why they are essential to have.

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@Opal.9324 said:People keep saying to dedicate the most attention to the gamemode with the highest population, but what if the lack of attention is the reason for the other modes' lower population? If PvE got as much attention as PvP and WvW currently do, PvE probably wouldn't be doing too great population-wise either.

In pretty much all MMOs, the vast majority of the population are PvE players. That’s not to say that the lack of what players deem is enough attention hasn’t hurt the other game modes.

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You can't split resources equally and it still be equitable in GW2. PvE needs a larger team to create and code frequent content patches. PvP and WvW do need some love, but the draw of those game modes is the other players. Anet's job is to facilitate that interaction, not create interaction from the ground up.

I'd also like to point out that PvE isn't a monolith. You have raids, dungeons, strikes, leveling, map completion, stories, and more. There was a time where most PvE resources went into raids which the minority of players participate in. For non-raiders, that time sucked. Sure on paper it may have looked like PvE was getting the majority of resources but the truth is raids got most of said resources so non-raiding PvE players and PvP players saw roughly the same number of updates. All while being told PvE got all the love and why were PvE players complaining about not getting updates when they got a whole new raid wing.

Really, you'd need to break it down to something like:

  • Raids and strikes
  • Living World and other stories
  • Open world
  • PvP
  • WvW
  • Inventory and wardrobe related
  • Skins and outfits

Even then, there'd be a lot of overlap, with people switching between them as needed. Artists especially.

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Have to agree that resources should go where the population is.

As much as that sucks for some game modes, at the end of the day if not many people are playing it or interested in it then it's just a waste giving so many resources to it.

That said though I am hoping WvW at least gets a new map with the next expansion, been too long since there was a new one.

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I don't understand the point of this thread.PvE needs voice acting, scripted storyline, scripted enemies, environment artists, enemy/monster design, etc. Unless something is outright broken, skill balance rarely comes into the picture. There's some shakeups to the underused weapons and skills/traits but that is planned.Unless it is a boring strike mission with a ring in the middle you need map artists for it too. Fire and steel is a large improvement in that respect.

PvP is about skill balance and bugfixing, new maps are rarely added. WvW is more about skill balance and bugfixing unless they make a new map (navigational disaster until ramps and laser event was removed) or something like warclaw (a disaster up until it was fixed multiple times).

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Let me start by saying that I prefer to play a complete MMORPG. A game that offers countless content pieces over multiple main modes. Some of these individual pieces might not speak to me personally but I still like to see them being made avaible to those who might enjoy them. This certainly means I do not support the abandonment of everything that could be considered niche content.

And to answer the actual question, team sizes should be adaquate. Niche content should have their dedicated niche teams. I do not see any need to throw a huge team at the PvP mode. I would greatly prefer to have a small or medium number of devs in charge of raids, PvP or WvW. People who consider themselves a part of these communities. Those with deeper knowledge than most and who make sure to balance and continue said content pieces around the wishes and ideas of their actual target audiences.

Most of the issues we have had over the years have been caused by them either changing this niche (and often hardcore) content to speak to a much wider (and often more casual) crowd or by introducing special rewards to make these casual players play said content.These changes came with them throwing much larger teams and a lot more resources at the content pieces in question. Heavy investments which simply would not pay off in the end. Pretty much why they had to give up on a lot of content over the years. Stuff isn't being outright deleted or disabled but almost entire modes have been set on maintenance mode for years. Something that didn't need to happen if they just accepted the fact that some content is never going to speak to a big crowd, if they just left niche teams in charge. And if they continued with smaller patches on a decent schedule to keep the actual target audience busy.

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@aspirine.6852 said:

@Super Hayes.6890 said:Resources should be based on game mode population. Put the effort where the most revenue will be generated so the game lives longer. To be fair, cut back too far on the game modes that don't make the most money and they will die faster.

In that case pvp would need to die right away.

Not need to but I can see why it feels that way. I personally haven't been back to that mode for a few years. I still find it odd that in a player versus player focused mode there is no one on one option. Correct me if that is wrong and please point me to it.

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@Super Hayes.6890 said:Resources should be based on game mode population. Put the effort where the most revenue will be generated so the game lives longer. To be fair, cut back too far on the game modes that don't make the most money and they will die faster.

This is a MMO...not a single player RPG with multyplayer attached, if people just want to kill some AI mob all day can choose to do so in PvE in a MMO or go their way and play Final Fantasy 7 or similar

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@EremiteAngel.9765 said:I think that every game mode (PvE, PvP, WvW) should be given equal attention and resources when it comes to development.They are all unique and a cut above all the other competitors out in the market.If they were all given equal opportunity to develop, we can draw in and retain large amount of players across the three game modes.Also this large group will be more likely to spread and do the modes outside their favorite mode.For example, a PvP main is likely to do WvW or PvE occasionally and vice versa.Focusing too much on PvE may cause the PvP and WvW population to bleed out.So I'm really glad to see that recent emphasis has been rather balanced with WvW and PvP getting some pretty nice updates too.

I think the poll needs a 4th option. That is, it needs one that relates to total player hours in each game mode. It seems like one might be inclined to suggest that dev time for game modes should be influenced by how many players and play time each game mode sees presently and how much it has seen total since release. Without taking this into consideration it doesn't seem like a useful or helpful poll.

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I think dev time needs to spent on all game modes. The balance of how much ideally should be guided by how much it "improves the game" the best way I can think of off hand would be how many players use each mode, for how long, and if those numbers have gone down considerably for any specific mode. If it has gone down it may benefit from some extra dev time, it said dev time could restore or improve the popularity of said mode with its player base. That said, this is obviously easier said than done. Many people start and stop playing for reasons unrelated to issues dev time can address. What I mean is, I would guess its not always easy to determine why players leave one mode over another, or why they stop playing as much.

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