[Merged] Feedback about today's Icebrood Saga announcement

[Tiviana.2650]

@Stephane Lo Presti.7258 said:Since a lot of threads are popping up on the same topic, I'm going to consolidate all these threads here. Please give your feedback respectful, including not being aggressive to other players posting theirs. Thanks for your understanding!

I think peoples emotions are riding high right now, and some nerves are being rattled. Outside of threats and such thats to be expected, people are emotionally invested in the game and their characters.

On a darker note, was that a baby charr that got burned to death in that prologue cut scene? Because that shows this is going pretty dark in the story. I mean that was really cool even though it was grim, and i appreciate the change in tone, makes me want to grab my sword and fight the dragons and SoS and the rest.

[omgdracula.6345]

Anet did not hype this announcement up like it was going to be huge. They had an event yea, but shit my friends who are film makers have premieres for their small films and we know its not some huge thing.

The email sent out literally stated that it would be about the next living story season and what to expect.

If you thought there would be an expansion announcement that is only your own fault, if you set up your own expectations and you are let down again that is on you.

[Tiviana.2650]

@omgdracula.6345 said:Anet did not hype this announcement up like it was going to be huge. They had an event yea, but kitten my friends who are film makers have premieres for their small films and we know its not some huge thing.

The email sent out literally stated that it would be about the next living story season and what to expect.

If you thought there would be an expansion announcement that is only your own fault, if you set up your own expectations and you are let down again that is on you.

I think its clear thats not how most people saw it, yes we knew it was primarily about S5. But then it was left to build up that they would say something like...oh and after S5 we are getting the expansion that it leads into.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

There was hype? I mustn't have been paying attention.

[GreyFox.8046]

Hello, Arena Net.

Firstly I would like to say beforehand that I am a casual player, who's been playing on and off since launch, give or take. I wanted to share my own perspective on the state of the game, in hopes that I might add insight like everyone else.Why do I play GW2? Honestly, visually and mechanically, it is very pleasing. I love the story, the characters, the world.Why do I return? For more story updates, LW, events, and so on.What do I seek in game? Challenges, be it solo or group. My favorite thing is obtaining skins, and playing that fashion war 2.What issues do I see with the game? A lack of rewards. Yes their rewards, but the majority of my time is spent doing events, world bosses, etc and their is no incentive, yet I do it for the experience with other players. But how do I think you can improve this? Simply put, give us rewards worth grinding for, and wanting to go out there. No more piles and piles of useless bag space, I'm talking event specific currency that rewards skins, for example, lots of them, and MOUNTS oh dear, the mount skins are so beautiful yet they are locked behind a store. I get it, the game's free to play, but "buying" a mount skin instead of "earning" one behind a drop or achievement isn't the same, frankly.

So in my eyes, as a player who isn't that hardcore, and just wants to enjoy my time, most of the "cool" things are locked behind the Gem store, sure one can argue that it is obtainable via exchange of currency, but it isn't the same as earning something of brag rights.

The wardrobe, why are we locked behind paid charges, or rather rare drops of charges but mostly bought. I can't imagine a game that has currency for a wardrobe system, its ruins the experimentation and fun of fashion which as you know is the essence of MMO's to many people, look for "GAMETITLE Fashion" you'll find so much. Yet I am spending my time worrying that I don't have enough transmutation charges to do my work.

Core Tyria needs a revamp, like I suggested earlier with event currency or drops that are WORTH doing and not mundane useless junk to the average joe, it can bring SO MUCH people together to old content.

I know this doesn't have much to do with what was announced, but please take this into consideration for the future. Bottom line, ANET needs to stop focusing 100% on the GEM store and add incentive to play the game and earn skins or whatnot.

[serialkicker.5274]

@"omgdracula.6345" said:Anet did not hype this announcement up like it was going to be huge. They had an event yea, but kitten my friends who are film makers have premieres for their small films and we know its not some huge thing.

The email sent out literally stated that it would be about the next living story season and what to expect.

If you thought there would be an expansion announcement that is only your own fault, if you set up your own expectations and you are let down again that is on you.

Doesn't have to be expansion announcement, but people were surely expecting this to not be just another LW, but rather something meatier. Like they said, "expansion like content". We wanted to hear about those things, about things that might spice up the game, make some refreshing changes. We all know a lot people are lately not feeling very positive about the game or were interested in some info to see what future of the game has for them. That is completely reasonable.So, now they made it a live event to announce what we already knew is coming for a while now, since they confirmed it - LW5. Uhm... So, what was the point to make it into a live event? Obviously, people were expecting more.

[Archwizard.1603]

Anet said both LS5 and build templates were coming down the line but no where did they suggest that an expansion was coming right now. Sure maybe after the next season there could be an expac but they been stating for months now that Season 5 was their next priority so nothing new here.Just find it funny how much expectations have snowballed out of control.

[Tarlonniel.6534]

I wasn't expecting the focus on charr, which is disappointing for me personally, because they're... not my favorites. I'm glad we'll be hearing more about the Spirits of the Wild, though, and possibly spending a good chunk of time with the kodan.

I'll just have to do my usual trick and whenver charr - or Braham - come on screen, turn off my speakers and wait until they go away again :p

[Ravezaar.4951]

here is my feedback: you made uninstall ez

[Ashen.2907]

@omgdracula.6345 said:Anet did not hype this announcement up like it was going to be huge. They had an event yea, but kitten my friends who are film makers have premieres for their small films and we know its not some huge thing.

The email sent out literally stated that it would be about the next living story season and what to expect.

If you thought there would be an expansion announcement that is only your own fault, if you set up your own expectations and you are let down again that is on you.

Exactly. Particularly as ANet specifically stated that there was NOT an expansion in the offing at this time.

[Tiviana.2650]

@"GreyFox.8046" said:Hello, Arena Net.

Firstly I would like to say beforehand that I am a casual player, who's been playing on and off since launch, give or take. I wanted to share my own perspective on the state of the game, in hopes that I might add insight like everyone else.Why do I play GW2? Honestly, visually and mechanically, it is very pleasing. I love the story, the characters, the world.Why do I return? For more story updates, LW, events, and so on.What do I seek in game? Challenges, be it solo or group. My favorite thing is obtaining skins, and playing that fashion war 2.What issues do I see with the game? A lack of rewards. Yes their rewards, but the majority of my time is spent doing events, world bosses, etc and their is no incentive, yet I do it for the experience with other players. But how do I think you can improve this? Simply put, give us rewards worth grinding for, and wanting to go out there. No more piles and piles of useless bag space, I'm talking event specific currency that rewards skins, for example, lots of them, and MOUNTS oh dear, the mount skins are so beautiful yet they are locked behind a store. I get it, the game's free to play, but "buying" a mount skin instead of "earning" one behind a drop or achievement isn't the same, frankly.

So in my eyes, as a player who isn't that hardcore, and just wants to enjoy my time, most of the "cool" things are locked behind the Gem store, sure one can argue that it is obtainable via exchange of currency, but it isn't the same as earning something of brag rights.

The wardrobe, why are we locked behind paid charges, or rather rare drops of charges but mostly bought. I can't imagine a game that has currency for a wardrobe system, its ruins the experimentation and fun of fashion which as you know is the essence of MMO's to many people, look for "GAMETITLE Fashion" you'll find so much. Yet I am spending my time worrying that I don't have enough transmutation charges to do my work.

Core Tyria needs a revamp, like I suggested earlier with event currency or drops that are WORTH doing and not mundane useless junk to the average joe, it can bring SO MUCH people together to old content.

I know this doesn't have much to do with what was announced, but please take this into consideration for the future. Bottom line, ANET needs to stop focusing 100% on the GEM store and add incentive to play the game and earn skins or whatnot.

I wish they would remove charging for changing your wardrobe also. I think its an antiquated idea

[magnusthorek.8027]

This is a filthy copy-and-paste, but whatever XD

HoT as "freebie" striked hard on me. For those who bought HoT on launch or a bit later, fine, they've been enjoying the content for quite some time already, but as for me, playing for roughly 6 months and still unable to even finish HoT storyline because there's content before it that I still don't own, paying like 100 bucks per expansion because of outrageous currencies exchange it was... wow.

Could have... some sort of arrangement for that, I don't know, I don't want to push anything, but...

[Tiviana.2650]

I knew it was going to be icebrood jormag stuff, so that wasnt a surprise. The surprise was that they didnt announce much more than a LWS.

[coso.9173]

People really need to chill. It's a videogame. I like the game and I wish they had shown more about what's coming, but saying it's the biggest letdown they've ever seen, that they promised at leat and expansion announcement, or other things I've read is a big much. Vote with your wallet. Don't like the game? Don't play it. Enjoy it and liked the announcement? Support the company.

[ScyeRynn.4218]

Another fail to add to the LONG list. This is embarrassing. Who is responsible for this? Mike Z? Mike O? Lindsey M? NCSoft? Who is driving this once glorious train into the ground? I cringe at the thought of everything that comes next.

[Trianox.3486]

Seeing close to 30,000 online viewers was good.

Still a bit sad as I though they would hint a bit more about their timeline.It feels like they organized the event to mark the shift to the Saga approach (which might be of bigger importance in their thinking than in ours), and remind people that GW2 wasn't dead.

That being said, the hype was too high for what was announced, altho I'm happy with the new content: races lore were requested a lot, Swiss, build template, strike mission, etc. I'm quite happy with that.

[realviizz.4982]

@Kallist.5917 said:I have a Guildie who JUST bought the expansions 2 nights ago. Tell me. Are they Entitled to be upset that Anet gave no hint to this change? Are they entitled to be upset that they just dropped $120 on content that is now set to be free very soon?No idea if anyone replied to you since i'm way too lazy to read through 7 pages, but your friend is entitled to contact support and get a refund for the HoT expansion if he bought it within the last 60 days.That was said in an announcement post on the homepage.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

I was looking for a short & detailed summary of the Announcement. There are a few summaries, but non was really helpful. So I grabbed a pen, a paper and watched the video carefully myself. I have put a sources spoiler below, with the original video and all time-stamps I used for this small summary.

[General]

• build-templates in the near future
• Guildwars 2 remains without monthly subscriptions
• Path of Fire now contains Heart of Thorns for free
• People who own only Path of Fire will receive Heart of Thorns for free
• People who owned Heart of Thorns before that change, will receive a Heart of Thorns Veteran Pack. This will include a new unique glider, title and a gemstore skin voucher.

[Living Story]

• The Icebrood Saga (= LS Season 5)
• 17th September Prologue: Bound by Blood, Charr Homelands - Grothmore Valley, all high legions + flame-legion,
• Episode 1 & Episode 2 in the Far Shiverpeaks, with a shared growing map
• New hostile enemy: Bone Skinner
• New Worldboss: Drakkar

[Masteries]

• Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire will be useful
• New Mastery System: Spirits of the Wild (Episode 1 & 2)

[strike Missions]

• Group size: 10 people; Challenging Boss Encounters; Introductory to Raid content, but less stressful for players; Public mode = join with random people

[PvP]

• Swiss Style Tournaments public testing will start in a few weeks
• New Armor Set
• Mini Seasons between Conquest Seasons

[WvW]

• World-Restructuring is the next main focus (in the coming months)
• more balances and automation

---

Sources

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/474437879

Time Stamps:1:03:42 [PvP]Swiss Style TournamentsPublic-Testing in a few weeks

1:04:10 [WvW]World-Restructuring as next main focus, more balances and automation

1:04:40 [General]Characterbuild and Build-Templates in the near future

1:05:20 [General]GW2 remains NON subscription based

1:06:15 [Trailer] (2 min)Living World Season 5 - The Icebrood SagaWhat you see: Charr, Centaurs, Kodan, Underwater Wreckage, Sons of Svanir (male antagonist voice), War

1:08:55 [Living Story]Focus on Charr and Norn, Backstories of important characters, detailed focus on the Icebrood

1:09:10 [Living Story]Icebrood Saga (= LS5) starts at 17th of September with a Prologue Episode which is FREE for everyone who owns Path of Fire

1:09:55 [General]Heart of Thorns is now free when purchasing Path of Fire = easier access to the game

1:10:40 [General]Heart of Thorns Veterans Pack for people who own Heart of Thorns already. Including a Glider, Title and Gemstore Skin Voucher.

1:11:15 [General]People who own Path of Fire but not Heart of Thorns will receive Heart of Thorns for FREE

1:15:40 [Living World]Prologue: Bound by BloodAll Legion-Rally on charr homelands, all three high legions + flame.

1:23:30 [Living World]Charr homelands - Grothmore Valley

1:23:45 [Living World]Episode 1 & Episode 2 - Far Shiverpeaks

1:24:00 [Masteries]Old Masteries continue to be useful

1:24:15 [Masteries]New Mastery-Line starting in Episode 1, connected with Episode 2 (evolving/growing): Spirits of the WildExample: Raven Spirit to unlock secrets

1:26:30 [Living World]Episode 1 & Episode 2 - Dynamic Growth of the map through the Episodes

1:27:00 [New Content]Strike MissionsGroup size: 10 peopleChallenging Boss EncountersIntroductory to Raid content, but less stressful for playersPublic mode: join with random people

1:28:20 [Living World]Episode 1 - New Hostile Enemy: Boneskinner

1:29:20 [Living Story ]Episode 2: New Worldboss Drakkar

1:30:10 [PvP]New Armor Set coming soon (1:30:21 = preview picture)

10:30:35 [PvP]Mini Seasons between Conquest Seasons

10:30:45 [WvW]World-Restructuring in the coming months

 

---

Commentary: I am quite surprised in a positive way. There was a lot more information than I expected. The Living Story looks nice, the trailer appears to be created in a different style again. I'm quite excited about the Strike Missions, which appear to be easy raids with less restrictions and hopefully less trouble inside the community.

The increase of accessibility is an interesting move. On the one hand, they give away a lot of stuff. On the other hand, they aim to bind a lot of new players to the game. So they might continue with their current gemstore-strategy and probably increase the supply of goods and QOL additions. As they stick to the no-monthly-subscriptions strategy, that means they earn enough money to stay alive. Let us hope the concept for LS5 works out. I'm looking forward to welcome new players to the game, as well as returners. What I have seen of the map already looks just awesome.

First thought about the Boneskinner: Smokescale 2.0 ^^. The Mastery concept looks promising, I really enjoyed using all those features in Dragonfall. Build templates and WvW Reconstruction take a little more time, what we already knew.

Looking forward to the 17th of September.

[hugo.4705]

Just reposting here, one of the greatest part of the announcement: The trailer.That animated-concept art is beautiful, art between in game graphics and drawing, like a comic. One of the best trailers gave more chills than a bug in the system. Showing charrs, norns, but aldo core enemies like centaurs.

Don't get me wrong, the rest was bad and not theater worthy. Fanbyfan, some other goodies about always the same thing, aurene and printed overused artworks on mugs, t shirt, pads, anything...

That giant choya disguise was priceless.

[Mareinia.3870]

I was eager to await the announcement like a lot of other people, and I'll have to say - while it is not what I expected it at the same time makes me glad that they are releasing content.

And while I know a lot of people are whining about there not BEING content I think folks need to understand - that for a game that is free to play (minus expansions) the quality of the artwork the story and the work that goes into the game from the company side is quite a lot. Even if they are at times poor at communicating these things...

My hope was that an expansion would be released, however this "Saga" setup has permitted the now 4 teams to make work on multiple projects and release more regular intervals of content rather than waiting extremely long times between drops.

People are being greedy, just because it's not an expansion doesn't mean it's not content. They even mentioned that the PvP/WvW side of things will have updates in the upcoming months.

Not to mention based on this information they are adding:

• New zones, plus revitalizing others that have not been touched since Vanilla
• New Mob Models and NPCs
• New Costumes, and Armor
• Miniature Raids, while not as intense as the current wings allow people to initiate group content for map bosses.
• Voice Acting
• Jumping Puzzles
• Vistas

There is a lot the developers are doing, and while it may not tickle your particular fancy, and you are still upset about this - then perhaps you need to sit back and determine what you want out of a game and either be constructive or go elsewhere instead of being miserable about it.

I come from playing World of Warcraft and other MMO's, and while other systems have subscriptions and "scheduled" expansions ever 2 years (WoW specifically) it doesn't make their content any better however to be on a strict schedule. And I'll use Blizzard games as just an example - as in recent years they have re-used content and just given it a fancy new look with no actual change aka: Legion > BFA, no new skills, talents it caps out at 100 for talent "choices" and mechanics are pretty standard in 85% of all content. They usually have a "patch day" on a 77 day cycle, sometimes involving major content sometimes giving people nothing at all. I played the game for 12 years, the game has seen a lot of rough times and recently with the Classic Hype, it's ironic that people clamor about there being no content in GW2 when they would happily go back to content 15 years old. But hey, I'm not here to justify other people's reasoning, just saying it's how it is.

The best part of GW2 is that it is a beautiful game, that is free to play. Take the highs with the lows, and as I said before - if you don't like it - you have options use em.

[shadowpass.4236]

Sorry but Anet is mistaken if they think players will continue to play the game without any meaningful content updates.

It's been two years since PoF came out and PvP and WvW have had NOTHING new to work with. Now, I can't speak for PvE, but it sounds like Raids/FotM have also been largely ignored.

Out of most of the hardcore PvPers I know, all of them thought today's announcement was a complete let-down and discords are currently being blown up with pictures of people uninstalling, bandwagons to different games, and expressions of disappointment and lack of motivation to continue playing GW2.

• For PvP, we've received two new 2v2 maps with no ques behind them and no additional support. What are we supposed to do with them? Que custom arenas for the next 2 years? Play the same Conquest mode we've been playing since release, with the exact same specs we've been playing for the past 2 years?
• For WvW, they've been playing the same gamemode since release. Nothing new there and I doubt world restructuring is going to do much to bring people back/encourage them to stay.
• For PvE, I hear a lot of the hardcore raiders/FotM players are also unhappy with the lack of new content.

So what does that leave? Oh, the people who play for two hours every week, finish the content in a month, and move on to a different game until 12 months later when another Living World season comes out. Like, there are so many people who play games to compete or PvP who literally couldn't care less to mind-numbingly drag themselves through slow-paced (in comparison to PvP) story missions they care nothing about. All of the PvPers I know just torture themselves for the new skins or mount but they always, always complain about the process and how painstaking it is to be forced to play a gamemode they don't want to play for a reward that has been inconsiderately locked behind same same type of content over and over again.

I started playing GW1 when I was 8 years old and GW2 when I was 12. I'm 20 now and, as much as I love this game, I just don't see a reason to continue playing. Currently, I only log on if a good friend of mine wants to play with me and it shouldn't be like that.

[Acheron.4731]

LOL, wowzersThis is too funny.They could have replaced the whole event with a sentence on their homepage where they put :The ArenaNet Streaming Schedule for the Week of...That way people could have just ignored it.

[Paradoxoglanis.1904]

People need to face the fact that gw2 is just a casual cash shop game now. There has been no focus on competitive/organized pvp/wvw/pve content for years.

[kokonut.7683]

@Stephane Lo Presti.7258 said:Please give your feedback

Does it matter if you guys don't care to listen?One look at reddit should tell you guys how badly the event went, no amount of feedback can help if all you do it compliment and convince each other that you're doing great work.

[otto.5684]

@omgdracula.6345 said:Anet did not hype this announcement up like it was going to be huge. They had an event yea, but kitten my friends who are film makers have premieres for their small films and we know its not some huge thing.

The email sent out literally stated that it would be about the next living story season and what to expect.

If you thought there would be an expansion announcement that is only your own fault, if you set up your own expectations and you are let down again that is on you.

Dude, they put a fucking timer and schedule 45 minutes and issued announcements for the announcement. That is not trying to build hype? Fyi, this is almost identical to PoF announcement release in terms of size and setup... so that was what the player base expected.

Maybe if the had fucking nothing, they can just put a blog post and a 2 min trailer for LWS5? Anet definitely more than deserve the negative feedback, not only cuz they made a huge deal out of nothing, but also, cuz the last expansion was 2 years ago and they are telling us that the incoming content for the next ~2 years will be minuscule at best.