A little angry for my investment

So, finally, Anet had to announce it. They had to tell us that most of the people fired were working on different projects and that the rest of those teams came back to GW2. During the last year I have invested a lot of cash for gems. It was a monthly sum, like paying a subscription, just to support the game and the team. And now, I found out that most of the cash from GW2 was invested into a mobile project that absolutly failed and it ended up being canceled (because firing 50% of the ppl working on it and moving the rest back to gw2 = cancel the project).

Now I understand why they prefered to release 2 LW seasons one after another. Was not because an original way of updating or because of the story....no....it was because they prefered to not develop a new expansion and to focus on swaping to mobile market for more cash. If it would have been succesful, they would have just keep gw2 as a backup game and focus on the big cash-cows on mobile. I knew GW2 will not last, I mean, let's be serious, the amount of content is not even comparable to the one before, the episodes are short, you just finish everything in 1-2 weeks and go on waiting 3 more months, the SAB is fun but it is just an unifinished experiment, it looks the same since 3 years ago, and finally , 2018 was the first year when we finally saw something new during wintersday festival, a short-10 mins raid. I am 98% a PVE player, this is why I said nothing about WvW/PvP.

But it was ok, I was enjoying the game and I rly didn't care too much about the low amount of content or about the low replayability rate of the old maps/expansions, I kept supporting the game. Just to wake up one day and learn that most of my support was invested into a trashy failed mobile game. Yes, I hate mobile games, they have toxic community, they are extremly P2W and they don't even try to hide it. I will tell you what I am gonna do and I advise the others to do the same. I will not spend any cash on any amount of gems until I will be sure about what Anet or NcSoft plan to do with this game. I want to see the new season (to make sure the story will go on and will not have a shitty quickened end) and I want to see hits about the new expansion. Then I will be sure that Anet plans to go on with GW2. Sorry, but at this point things look very confusing, I don't want GW2 to die, together with my support, on a NcSoft pike like other games.

i love how everybody has this insider information except me.

i am talking about the gimping gw2 development for their mobile game part.

@"derd.6413" said:i love how everybody has this insider information except me

Here, this might help: (WP is worth believing, the man is full devoted to GW2)

There are speculations for years, a lot of people with inside infos said that Anet worked on mobile. And they are worth believing. Have you seen the new NcSoft projects?Aion Mobile, Blade and Soul 2, Blade and Sould Mobile, Lineage mobile. They are moving all their mmos on mobile. Expect a mobile GW soon.

The title of this thread is a bit misleading. That players spent whatever amount of cash does not make that an investment unless one is a shareholder in the company. GW2 is a game and as such is only worth entertainment value. There is no profit for return on any perceived investment.

I do understand the frustrations that many have voiced when it was learned what the studio was doing with their capital; however, the players are not stockholders in the company so they have no voice in determining how their money spent for the game is used by Anet (wisely or not).

@Daniel.5428 said:

@"derd.6413" said:i love how everybody has this insider information except me

i was more talking about the gimping gw2 development for their mobile game part.

I wonder...how much was invested those 5 years the Devs spent on creating Guild Wars 2?

Buying a produce or service is not the same as investing in a company and you should never expect to get anything back from it except the product or service you purchased.

You can choose to imagine yourself an investor and tell yourself you're doing it to support the company, but it's important to remember that distinction exists only in your own mind - for situations exactly like this. A real investor would have been told up-front what their money would be used for, and may even have been given some say in the decision. They should also have been made aware that any new game is a risk and most never make it to release, although aspects of the design may be re-used later on.

It's also much more unusual for a studio to be working on just 1 game - especially one that's already released - than to have seperate teams working on different game, some of which will never see the light of day. I'm sure games developers (and people creating other types of products) would love to be able to know before they even start on a project that it will work and the end result will be worth making and selling, but that's just not how the world works. You have to do some work, even if it's just market research, to even know if it's worth thinking about taking it any further.

I also invested thousands of gems during the same time and all I got back for my investment was outfits, weapon skins, dyeable mount skins, black lion keys, armor skins, backpacks, account wide inventory slots, bank slots, character slots, toys, Passkeys, mini pets, chairs, permanent harvesting tools with fun animations, and gliders.

I was robbed

/sob

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:I was robbed

/sob

Well, if they come tommorow and tell you they will stop releasing content and they will put GW2 in a maintenance state or something like "Guys, GW3 is here...and it's on mobile!" then you were robbed. It's normal for a game to die at one point. But let it die because of old age, not because of greedy management.

I still don't get what's so wrong on making another game(s). It's better for any company to have more steeds in their stable, is it not? After all, it could one day become the income source making it possible for GW2 to go on.

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I wonder...how much was invested those 5 years the Devs spent on creating Guild Wars 2?

The cash from GW1 was probably invested, but the difference is that GW2 came out as a cool project and brought back 10 times more. But leeching your main project that everyone loves to create some cash-grabbing, maybe lasting maybe not, mobile games is not the same thing as remaking your succesful project into something greater.

@anninke.7469 said:I still don't get what's so wrong on making another game(s). It's better for any company to have more steeds in their stable, is it not? After all, it could one day become the income source making it possible for GW2 to go on.

This is what people did not understood. Is not about them makig another games. Is about them taking money from their main project to create some little strange mobile games that, at one point, they just abandon.....aw, plus the firing of people who were working on the franchise since first GW

@Daniel.5428 said:

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:I was robbed

/sob

In that case I was also robbed after I spent a substantial sums on Guild Wars 1 and then they made guild wars 2, and all of the stuff I bought in Guild Wars 1 went bye bye as the game was put into maintenance state and I had to move on to this game.

When you go to the store and buy groceries the cashier you pay isn't the sole receiver of that money - It will go towards overheads, restocking shelves, and development, be it stores opened or products. Does that stop you from buying your daily sandwich and orange juice? No it doesn't.I'm pretty certain that a good wedge of money from the first game helped to the develop the second? I never gave it a second thought.It is no wonder in my eyes that with the age of GW now that Anet looked at different platforms/ different games and considering as many have written NCsoft have decided Mobile is the way forward.If their new product had launched and been successful would that been ok even although they used Gw2's capital to fund it?
We only pay for let's say to think of a better word a 'license' to play, you don't own your account or any extra's you decided to buy. For us players it entertainment purposes only.nor do we have any say what they do with any monies earned.

@Dami.5046 said:When you go to the store and buy groceries the cashier you pay isn't the sole receiver of that money - It will go towards overheads, restocking shelves, and development, be it stores opened or products. Does that stop you from buying your daily sandwich and orange juice? No it doesn't.I'm pretty certain that a good wedge of money from the first game helped to the develop the second? I never gave it a second thought.It is no wonder in my eyes that with the age of GW now that Anet looked at different platforms/ different games and considering as many have written NCsoft have decided Mobile is the way forward.If their new product had launched and been successful would that been ok even although they used Gw2's capital to fund it?

We only pay for let's say to think of a better word a 'license' to play, you don't own your account or any extra's you decided to buy. For us players it entertainment purposes only.nor do we have any say what they do with any monies earned.

Exactly and it was likely other ncsoft games had money taken from them to fund gw2.

We do not get to dictate where and how our money gets spent since we get an instant return for it and we are not investing in that way. I get why people are annoyed, but it is a little misguided and naive. Most companies do this and projects are often cancelled publicly or privately.

Banging on about it he,ps no one, especially as the company already suffered losing valuable colleagues

@Daniel.5428 said:

@"Just a flesh wound.3589" said:I was robbed

/sob

like GW1?

Letting a game die of old age is effectively stop making content for it.

@Danikat.8537 said:Buying a produce or service is not the same as investing in a company and you should never expect to get anything back from it except the product or service you purchased.

You can choose to imagine yourself an investor and tell yourself you're doing it to support the company, but it's important to remember that distinction exists only in your own mind - for situations exactly like this. A real investor would have been told up-front what their money would be used for, and may even have been given some say in the decision. They should also have been made aware that any new game is a risk and most never make it to release, although aspects of the design may be re-used later on.

It's also much more unusual for a studio to be working on just 1 game - especially one that's already released - than to have seperate teams working on different game, some of which will never see the light of day. I'm sure games developers (and people creating other types of products) would love to be able to know before they even start on a project that it will work and the end result will be worth making and selling, but that's just not how the world works. You have to do some work, even if it's just market research, to even know if it's worth thinking about taking it any further.

and that is the problem: THEY DIDNT GET, WHAT THEY PAID FOR, people paid for THIS game, not some project, that they would have to pay for AGAIN, if they wanted to play it....jeeezand buying a product IS investing in the company...ever heard of a company WITHOUT CUSTOMERS?

@FrizzFreston.5290 said:Letting a game die of old age is effectively stop making content for it.

I disagree. Look at Ragnarok online, LOTRO etc. At least 10 years behind them and still played by a substantial number of persons. There is a different about the game is too old for the modern tech, we have to move on and the game will die cuz we decided is better for us to develop mobile crates simulators.

@"derd.6413" said:i love how everybody has this insider information except me

https://www.youtube.com/user/WoodenPotatoes/videos...for instance.

@Randulf.7614 said:

@Dami.5046 said:When you go to the store and buy groceries the cashier you pay isn't the sole receiver of that money - It will go towards overheads, restocking shelves, and development, be it stores opened or products. Does that stop you from buying your daily sandwich and orange juice? No it doesn't.I'm pretty certain that a good wedge of money from the first game helped to the develop the second? I never gave it a second thought.It is no wonder in my eyes that with the age of GW now that Anet looked at different platforms/ different games and considering as many have written NCsoft have decided Mobile is the way forward.If their new product had launched and been successful would that been ok even although they used Gw2's capital to fund it?

We only pay for let's say to think of a better word a 'license' to play, you don't own your account or any extra's you decided to buy. For us players it entertainment purposes only.nor do we have any say what they do with any monies earned.

I'm sorry if you felt i was banging on about it.There is a saying in a program in the UK called the apprentice, which is told often to the candidates 'Follow the money'Wherever we like it or not, this game will come to a hopefully natural close, and therefore it made sense for the company to start looking at different ways to make their customers happy and keep their products up to date. And therefore keep their business a float.For the record when I give the game money I am supporting the Company, Arenanet, and not just GW2.For me that's the difference.

Getting real tired of these posts. We get it, some people are annoyed. Stop flooding the general discussion section with this shit. It’s everywhere. If you need to vent, make a blog. Repeating what everyone else says will not get you different replies than the others. GW2 isn’t dying, and this is just utter nonsense now.

Also you all keep saying you won’t spend gems, but the second you see a new and shiny outfit, glider, or whatever, you’ll instantly buy it due to craving something. You won’t be able to boycott spending at all, and will just go back to your spending ways. It’s what every gem store buyer does. It’s not a bad thing, but don’t say you’re going to do something that you won’t. It wouldn’t even hurt them either if you stopped buying gems. They have enough buyers to support the game, and most simply don’t care. Most know the game isn’t dying, and currently it’s just a bunch of overreacting. NCSoft has other MMO games that release less content than GW2, and they still stay up. GW2 is more than sustainable by itself. What NCSoft was annoyed at is that Anet was dumping money into projects that weren’t ready to launch, and create money. It’s understamdable why this happened, and it’s common. Projects get canceled, and layoffs happen. It’s not the end. People have been saying WoW is dying for 10 years, and look where it is.

I don’t know why I even bothering replying to these threads, but I guess it’s because even though I’ve been hard on Anet for years, I can’t be mad at them for trying to make new games. I want this company to succeed that has made two games that have been a huge part of my life for 14+ years. I’m just giving them a chance now. I wish more would see it this way.

@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"derd.6413" said:i love how everybody has this insider information except me

not that info

@Daniel.5428 said:

@FrizzFreston.5290 said:Letting a game die of old age is effectively stop making content for it.

Those examples is where they didnt stop stop making content for it. AND they made mobile games. And they didnt die out. Youre not making a good point.

All these 'side investment' worries are entirely baseless.

@battledrone.8315 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:Buying a produce or service is not the same as investing in a company and you should never expect to get anything back from it except the product or service you purchased.

You can choose to imagine yourself an investor and tell yourself you're doing it to support the company, but it's important to remember that distinction exists only in your own mind - for situations exactly like this. A real investor would have been told up-front what their money would be used for, and may even have been given some say in the decision. They should also have been made aware that any new game is a risk and most never make it to release, although aspects of the design may be re-used later on.

It's also much more unusual for a studio to be working on just 1 game - especially one that's already released - than to have seperate teams working on different game, some of which will never see the light of day. I'm sure games developers (and people creating other types of products) would love to be able to know before they even start on a project that it will work and the end result will be worth making and selling, but that's just not how the world works. You have to do some work, even if it's just market research, to even know if it's worth thinking about taking it any further.

If anyone has purchased a copy of GW2 and not received it, or bought gems which never appeared on their account that's a matter for Support to fix, because they absolutely should get that. But equally they should not expect to get anything else, including new releases which they have not paid for.

What Anet chooses to do with their money once that transaction is complete is entirely seperate and not something a customer should ever expect to have a say in. Seriously this is not new, or unique to Anet. No business is required to consult with previous or regular customers before making decisions on which products to develop next and it almost goes without saying that the money for those new products will come from the profits of previous ones because there is no where else it could come from. Except actual investors - people who give them money specifically to develop that product.

There is absolutely nothing in the User Agreement (which is the legal contract between us as players and Arenanet, which we all accepted when we started playing the game) to say they have to release new content for GW2 or anything about what they'll do with the profits from it. In fact it explicitly states that we are only being licenced to access the game and we do not at any point own any part of it, including our accounts and the items on them, that the game is supplied "as is" and Anet are not even required to fix any bugs (let alone develop new content), and that it is entirely up to Anet to decide how long that service remains available. It does also say they may choose to develop additional content or updates to existing content, and that they may charge extra for them. But it doesn't say they will, only that they are allowed to do so.

If you're not happy with that then you're free (according to the same User Agreement) to stop playing GW2 and to look for a game which does guarantee regular updates and new releases and that it will stay online for however long you consider acceptable, but I'll be extremely surprised if you can find one.

@battledrone.8315 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:Buying a produce or service is not the same as investing in a company and you should never expect to get anything back from it except the product or service you purchased.

You can choose to imagine yourself an investor and tell yourself you're doing it to support the company, but it's important to remember that distinction exists only in your own mind - for situations exactly like this. A real investor would have been told up-front what their money would be used for, and may even have been given some say in the decision. They should also have been made aware that any new game is a risk and most never make it to release, although aspects of the design may be re-used later on.

It's also much more unusual for a studio to be working on just 1 game - especially one that's already released - than to have seperate teams working on different game, some of which will never see the light of day. I'm sure games developers (and people creating other types of products) would love to be able to know before they even start on a project that it will work and the end result will be worth making and selling, but that's just not how the world works. You have to do some work, even if it's just market research, to even know if it's worth thinking about taking it any further.

They paid for items in this game. Not for the game I general.