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Report from the 2018 Cologne Meet & Greet


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tl;dr
  • GuildWars2 Game Director, Mike Zadorojny is good at keeping secrets
  • Build templates are still on the table. ... it's ... possible that if something went wrong, our characters might get broken. Plus interface issues.
  • Next Living Story — expected to be on time. Devs generally have 18 months of plot planned (in detail) in advance.
  • Legendary Ring and New Raid Wing — soon™
  • Kourna Meta/Moon Fortress — devs ran out of time. MikeZ wants to see changes, but focus is on future content.
  • Jumping Puzzles are even more time consuming with mounts, so harder to do well. There will be more.
  • Zojja/Felicia Day — more stories to tell, but Day's schedule doesn't mesh well with ANet's. They don't want to recast
  • Mounts — made to allow us to have different experiences on the maps and they have different uses. They are ok with mounts sometimes allow maps to be 'broken'
  • Underwater Mounts — I think OP is saying it's possible, but not a priority (but: metaphor is layered to obscurity so they might have meant it's off the table)
  • Mobile Developers — company is always looking forward, but no comment regarding specifics.
  • GW3 — nope, "a lot stuff" left for GW2 still
  • Fan Art/Cos-play/Fanfict — devs love it
Verbatim Text

! > I just came back from this year's Community Meet & Greet held in Cologne, Germany. I've been attending these events for 6 years now and my first one was in Brighton, UK before the release of the base game. I'd like to use this opportunity to thank ArenaNet​ for inviting me again, cause I love those events. It's a great opportunity to talk to the devs and other community members who are passionate about Guild Wars 2.! >! > The event was held in the same place as usual, but there were much more people invited this year. I think there were around 200 community members present. Like usual, we had something to eat and drink before the raffle. For the first time I got lucky and won something and what a score that was! I got my own #GW2 toaster now! :) After the raffle I used the opportunity to talk with #GuildWars2 Game Director, Mike Zadorojny and I asked him all the inconvenient questions. Unfortunately, he's really good at keeping secrets (like Abaddon), but I hope you will still find some of the information below interesting.! >! > Build templates are still on the table (it's a big table). Implementing them is not so easy, cause they are tied to our characters' code and it's totally possible that if something went wrong, our characters might get broken. There are also some interface issues present.! >! > When asked about the legendary ring and a new raid wing, Mike Z replied: "SOON".! >! > We've established that underwater mounts are under the table. This is because this particular table is underwater and it's obviously a Quaggan table (ignore my logic, pls :).! >! > Jumping puzzles have been missing from the game recently, cause they are very time consuming to make and that got even harder with the mounts that often allow us to complete them easier than intended. We haven't seen the last of them yet, though!! >! > Mike Z still wants to see some changes done to the Gandaran meta-event, but ArenaNet is currently more focused on future content. The devs simply ran out of time and couldn't make the entire Moon Fortress playable.! >! > I asked why ArenaNet is hiring developers with mobile experience and whether Polymock or a companion app are in the works. The response I got is that they are always looking to the future for what's next for them as a company and it would be unreasonable not to think about future projects (not necessarily related to mobiles). When asked about Guild Wars 3 and other IPs, Mike Z said that he still has a lot of stuff to do with GW2 ahead of him.! >! > There are still some stories that ArenaNet wants to tell about Zojja. She isn't back due to problems with her voice actor's schedule and the way the devs are planning their work. I asked whether they have considered re-casting the actor for that role, but Mike Z said it would be unfair.! >! > The next living story should not be delayed. If it will be, this will not be because of the recent tech changes. It can only happen if it's not polished enough. Hopefully that won't be the case and we should be back on track with the LS schedule. The planning for the story is always pretty advanced and the devs have around 18 months of plot planned ahead.! >! > The developers love our fan art and they encourage writing fan fiction and doing cosplay. As Mike said, he loves the community and that's what ArenaNet is all about - building communities, not just games. There are a lot of unfinished story elements and scattered lore tidbits to give us a chance to fill them up with our imagination.! >! > Mike O'Brien is now fully concentrated on running the company and Mike Z is entirely responsible for the content and direction of the game.! >! > Mounts were made to allow us to have different experiences on the maps and they have different uses. The devs are aware that sometimes they will allow us to break the map or the game itself in different ways, but they are fine with that.! >! > Mike Z plays other MMOs as well. He used to be a hardcore raider in Final Fantasy XIV and went back to play World of WarCraft when Legion was released.! >! > That's it! I also made some photos from the event which I hope you'll enjoy. Thanks again to ArenaNet, Commander Z who patiently answered my questions and to all of the wonderful community members that I had the pleasure of talking to.

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@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:

  • Mounts — made to allow us to have different experiences on the maps and they have different uses. They are ok with mounts sometimes allow maps to be 'broken'

Good to know. It's amazing how much mounts have increased the number of bug reports I send which include some variation of "I know it's my fault I'm trapped in this hole, because I shouldn't have been able to reach the cliff above it but I was on my springer/griffon trying to see if I could reach [whatever] and..."

I don't even report all the weirdness that can happen with mounts and old maps, because I seem to remember Anet saying it would lead to you getting places you shouldn't and that's basically your problem, but when I get stuck somewhere I can't get out of at all (even with the springer/griffon) or under/outside the map I report it just in case they do think it's an issue and they can throw an invisible wall in somewhere to stop it.

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@Linken.6345 said:If they have 18 months of story planned how hard is it to get a voice actor in afew months before said story is to release to say the lines?

As I understand it, they only setup recording sessions 1-2x/year. So even though, in theory, Debi Derryberry can record her lines in August and Felicia Day in September, they need it to happen around the same time. The writing has to be ready by a certain date, the casting has to be arranged, the studio time needs to be reserved, and then there's post-processing and editing and so on that happens. Plus, I imagine sometimes they need someone to fix or adjust a section.

In other words, having 18 months of story setup in advance doesn't allow them to get a voice actor whenever, it's the other way around: in order to get the VA, they have to have things planned out far enough in advance to schedule everything else that also has to happen.

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It worries me they released Kourna unfinished yet are focusing on moving ahead. That says we could and prob will see a repeat of this should deadlines overrun again. I'd much rather see a delay than an unfinished release. An unfinished release should never, ever be an option.

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@Randulf.7614 said:It worries me they released Kourna unfinished yet are focusing on moving ahead. That says we could and prob will see a repeat of this should deadlines overrun again. I'd much rather see a delay than an unfinished release. An unfinished release should never, ever be an option.

Well community pressure is such that if Anet missed a deadline it's like the end of the world, so yeah. There is that. Check out reddit next time something starts to approach a deadline.

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@Vayne.8563 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:It worries me they released Kourna unfinished yet are focusing on moving ahead. That says we could and prob will see a repeat of this should deadlines overrun again. I'd much rather see a delay than an unfinished release. An unfinished release should never, ever be an option.

Well community pressure is such that if Anet missed a deadline it's like the end of the world, so yeah. There is that. Check out reddit next time something starts to approach a deadline.

member when that one studio delayed their launch by a month, and got several death threats within a day? I member.

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