Super Adventure Box - Closure Needed

I know last year Rubi came out and said that W3 and W4 aren't happening. I accept the fact that my love of SAB is niche and Anet does not want to put the resources into developing W3 and W4. That said, I think closure is needed and, after all these years, Princess Miya needs to be rescued.

What about just giving us the boss fights for Kaiser Snake, Crimson Assassin, and (or at least) Lord Vanquish? In homage to Mario 3, add in some "warp whistle" songs that let the player skip directly to those bosses by playing the right set of notes on the Wooden Whistle.

Why do they even have a festivals team if the festivals are pretty much the same every year?I love all the festivals (especialls Queens Gauntlet, hope someones working on that...) but if they just stay pretty much the same every year then that takes away a lot of hte fun I have in this game. I haven't quite finished all achievements for SAB last year so I still have something todo at the moment but if they don't add anything new (W3) next year then I'll be really disappointed. Not as disappointed as I am every single august when there's no Queens Gauntlet though.

So yeah, I agree, it would be nice to have a clear statement. And it'd be great if the festivals could get back a little excitement. They used to be something to look forward to. Now it's just something like this: "You think they'll release W3 this Year" followed by: "Well, they didn't, back to grinding the last few achievements..." And I'm not going to write down my disappointment when I can't play Queens Gauntlet on my birthday in August.

The closure needed is to make it available year around. I mean, the prospect of the event returning is really only exciting if there is a promise of at least something new, innit?

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:Why do they even have a festivals team if the festivals are pretty much the same every year?

They don't have a team dedicated to festivals. They have a current activities team, which is a few devs that handle the small stuff like current events, legendaries and festivals. Back when SAB was originally made, back when festivals actually saw major changes, it was all done as a part of the living world. Once that stopped, festivals became simple filler. It's unlikely that the festivals will ever see any major changes, since it would essentially mean sacrificing one of the other teams, and the resources needed will always be better spent elsewhere.

The bad guy won.

The princess is dead.

! Body is 10 characters too short.

I think the sad truth is, that we got our closure right there. It won't happen. ANet has many of these open ends, unfinished things from years back, that will probably never get looked into as much as the players might like the devs to.SAB was a joke and ppl liked it. Back then, there wasn't much to get excited about and the event was different enough to find its followers. Enough to bring it back at some point, but not enough to flesh it out or fix what's broken or start anew. The SAB has gone down the path of Queen's Jubilee, Zephirite Festival, Mini Games, the personal story, LS1, Costume Brawl etc.I see how having returning festivals on automaitc is convenient and I prefer a solid repeatable patch over a glitchy brand new one. But it makes things stale. Halloween, Wintersday and Lunar New Year seem to be on track. Although for both events, the lore seems to have stopped. Tixx will brobaly never visit another major city again and we will never find out something new about the realm of the mad king. The SAB is different in that, by chosing to be an homage to 8 Bit J'n'R, it tells a simple story and focuses on the jumping and running. The problem is that we only got half of the story before it got shut down and the rest of the content has most likely fallen off the table.

@Healix.5819 said:

@"TwilightSoul.9048" said:Why do they even have a festivals team if the festivals are pretty much the same every year?

Oh, that explains it... Then why don't they add a team responsible for Seasonal Activities like SAB, Queens Gauntlet/Jubilee, Mad King, Wintersday, Lunar New Year, Zephyr Sanctum? - And possibly even new festivities that aren't seasonal but more random maybe. For example we could have some reoccuring cultural festivity involving a different race every year (that way Charr, Norn and Sylvari can have some sort of festivity as well). I'm sure it'd be easy to cook up some cool new festivities AND milk the community at the same time with some sweet new festival related skins. I mean, every festival has some fans, some more than others but they all drag some group of players back into the game even because they wanna see what's new - I can't imagine having a team working full time on Festivals and festival related cash shop stuff wouldn't be worth it... I'd seriously kill (Queens Gauntlet Bosses) to get my hands on a "The Concealing Dark" Title and a Blazing Light mini! And if we could get Watchwork Mount Skins during Queens Gauntlet as a Seasonal Mount Pack I'd be willing to toss a few coins at the BTC ;)

Anyway, an offical statement would be very much appreciated, if we won't see a new World in SAB next year then I'm not sure why I would spend much time in SAB next year. I'm almost done with all Achievements so I'd just play around a little because I actually like SAB but without any goals it gets pretty boring rather quickly. Same with Wintersday but atleast there we got a new Aura this year so I actually had something to work for since I'm interested in everything that makes my Character look cooler! (I'm sorry, I know it's a terrible pun)

The short answer is that they went from a no-expansion model to an expansion model. This means that their resources are committed to producing expansions now with a small team dedicated to building the living world stuff that leads into the next expansion. Anything that isn't an expansion or designed to push you towards an expansion is not going to get any serious development time, so unless it can be cranked out with a skeleton crew on a short leash, it isn't going to happen.

@"TwilightSoul.9048" said:Why do they even have a festivals team if the festivals are pretty much the same every year?I love all the festivals (especialls Queens Gauntlet, hope someones working on that...) but if they just stay pretty much the same every year then that takes away a lot of hte fun I have in this game. I haven't quite finished all achievements for SAB last year so I still have something todo at the moment but if they don't add anything new (W3) next year then I'll be really disappointed. Not as disappointed as I am every single august when there's no Queens Gauntlet though.

So yeah, I agree, it would be nice to have a clear statement. And it'd be great if the festivals could get back a little excitement. They used to be something to look forward to. Now it's just something like this: "You think they'll release W3 this Year" followed by: "Well, they didn't, back to grinding the last few achievements..." And I'm not going to write down my disappointment when I can't play Queens Gauntlet on my birthday in August.

It's the same with most MMO's. Very few ever make any major changes to their festivals because they are set up, then put on loop, with a few different rewards each year.

I do think we will see Gauntlet return at some point though - they have expressed a desire to bring it back

No, people hope and dream for World three, then when it doesn't happen they get mad. They ignore the FACT that anet said W3 & W4 weren't happening. Players should look at it this way don't expect W3&4 to happen but be uber excited if it did happen, don't expect that though. Don't pray for it, don't dream about it. Expect it to be the same next year. kinda like how i've learned nothing new is happening with guild decorations cause they failed horribly and gave up on it. Getting anything is a bonus like a few crappy new decs(halloween) or nostaglia achievements. :D

It does seem like Anet is poor. Unwilling to do much of anything new with old content(there are plenty of ways to make money but they are just going with 1 strategy instead of several at a time). The number of people for the Chairs team and the resulting new content from that is unbalanced imo. So we can sit. Should of happened at launch. from my memory of that behind the scenes video 10-20 people? small crew but i would of though 3-4 people(like the current events team) were responsible for the lil bit of content that provided. Way too many resources and hours went into chairs, but i want to see that kind of dedication in other areas.

The above comments about random festivals or more festivals are definently a way to make money off the cash shop. Tie them into something like mount adoption liscenses way of generating credit cards being used. Providing something substantial people want while not being a huge drain on resources or up keep for anet. They should have a team dedicated to this. Tieing in old world places with new content. I know it's not their model, but their model needs to evolve. They need to get back to the emersive, expansive potential the game had at launch and not this one off stuff.

With little to no progress being made on most of the other content, we can only hope most of their focus is on the GW 2: Wrath of Bubbles expansion. Something big and relevant needs to be the cause of this drought and I feel Mike Z has much in store for GW 2.

People do make mistakes and sometimes it is better to stop right where you are instead of trying to finish anything. It may not look perfect from the point of view for other people, you can always see how things went back then, and at what point you decided to give up. If it is visible and even functional, you have a constant reminder to do better next time. But you can also see the unfinished-work as a sketch-book. Interesting and even crazy stuff you tried out.

A lot of stuff in this game has been discontinued by now. Many of these still remain invisible for the majority of the players. The SAB is a thing we can see and we are aware of. When some content was developed and passed the testing, it should be possible to play it - even if it was discontinued. The developers and programmers have put a lot of work and inspiration into these projects. That shall not be wasted.

We've got a lot of exciting and funny areas in the game, which maybe have their origin in canceled content. Cerebro & the lost JP in Caledon Forest, Hidden Area in Bloodstone Fen, various portals, Polymock Arenas, mega-cave in Blazeridge Steppes, blue man in dry-top, isolated mountain in Fireheart Rise, secret fairy area in Bloodtide Coast, ... just to list a few of them. We do not know about the fate of each area for sure, but there has not been any kind of activity for a long time. Yet it is still fun discover and explore them.

So I rather have some discontinued content, which might look half finished, that is entertaining and fun to play. Than ignoring its very existance for the purpose of a clean game. It is sad that SAB just ended somewhere in the middle, but as far as we can play, it is a lot of fun ^^.

If we aren't getting the other worlds (which I wasn't aware of) please just leave it going year round.

For what it's worth, the OP was motivated by the fact that my kids love SAB and really want to save Princess Miya. It's like a story without an end and it really bothers them. I'm not beyond taking them to PAX and having the anet employees explain to crying children why Princess Miya will never be rescued.

Personally, I'd love it if anet just spun out SAB as a separate franchise and sold it as a stand-alone platformer on GOG/steam for $25.

The cake is a lie!

@Mckeone.9804 said:

Personally, I'd love it if anet just spun out SAB as a separate franchise and sold it as a stand-alone platformer on GOG/steam for $25.

Actually, this is a solid idea. Yes, an expansion or payable, downloadable content might be the solution. Sadly, that other thread may prove otherwise given it's 30 - 70 overall ratio, but I do think it's a worthy suggestion for those that want closure.

@Ardenwolfe.8590 said:

@Mckeone.9804 said:

Personally, I'd love it if anet just spun out SAB as a separate franchise and sold it as a stand-alone platformer on GOG/steam for $25.

Well, it's an MMO first and foremost, so I can understand why my love of SAB isn't more mainstream (similar to the distaste many seem to have for jumping puzzles). But SAB seems like the type of thing that if you exposed to the general video gaming population, you would get great traction. Especially since I bet Josh Foreman has all the design concepts for W3/W4 in his head...

fake edit: Josh Foreman I love your work don't ever stop putting this stuff in GW2

@Healix.5819 said:

@TwilightSoul.9048 said:Why do they even have a festivals team if the festivals are pretty much the same every year?

Almost got it right but not quite...SAB was the brainchild of one particular dev that basically did the entire thing on his own time...did not take away from development resources but did take away from his free time, that's one of the reasons why you won't see W3 or W4, it took up to much of his free time to develope.

@"Zaklex.6308" said:Almost got it right but not quite...SAB was the brainchild of one particular dev that basically did the entire thing on his own time...did not take away from development resources but did take away from his free time, that's one of the reasons why you won't see W3 or W4, it took up to much of his free time to develope.

SAB was the project of Josh Foreman, and it would have started out as an idea in his free time, but when he brought the idea to MO and got the okay to build it, he had a small team to actually do it. After the unexpected success of world 1, he was dedicated to it and world 2 was quickly released. World 2 however was longer, more difficult and introduced tribulation mode, which combined with the introduction of the infinite coin saw major complaints, and thus the results were very poor. He had a difficult time with this, especially since a lot of it was due to the coin, but he still talked about wanting to develop W3, which of course never happened. Fun fact, he was suspended from the forums during this, after telling people what they didn't want to hear. ArenaNet eventually changed how they operated, and the freedom to do small projects like this was lost. For a little behind the scenes, see his blog 1, 2, 3.

I very much remember that drama on the old forums. It's the reason why there's hesitation on any developers' part to come here and voice anything. It can really come back to bite you later. It's also the reason I seriously doubt there'll even be a World 4 or any further progression on Super Adventure Box . . . unfortunately, for those interested.

@Cyrin.1035 said:With little to no progress being made on most of the other content, we can only hope most of their focus is on the GW 2: Wrath of Bubbles expansion. Something big and relevant needs to be the cause of this drought and I feel Mike Z has much in store for GW 2.

What drought are you talking about, LW Episodes may have slightly longer intervals but the content is supposedly beefier, plus now they have to design these new maps to make good use of the mounts?

There's not going to be any major development. That much is absolutely certain. I just hope that one day they throw us a little bone like a boss fight that can at least bring some closure to it.

@Oldirtbeard.9834 said:

@"Cyrin.1035" said:With little to no progress being made on most of the other content, we can only hope most of their focus is on the GW 2: Wrath of Bubbles expansion. Something big and relevant needs to be the cause of this drought and I feel Mike Z has much in store for GW 2.

"beefier" does not equate to quality and is not a good excuse for a longer interval. 3 months for a bloated snoozefest with weak storytelling is not going to hold me over personally till the next episode. I'd rather have a smaller map done well regardless of how long or short it takes to come. If all this wait is just for a bigger map for mounts to run around in, we have plenty of those. I want GW 2 to get back to what it used to be about... the story.

And of course, in terms of SAB, they need to finish the story they started. Fans like the OP and myself have waited long enough.