Jump to content
  • Sign Up

Mike Z on pcgamesn.com: Expansions not ruled out


zealex.9410

Recommended Posts

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:THANK YOU!!!

This is literally all I wanted to hear from the live event lolI knew season 5 was coming, but I really wanted to know that expansions were not being killed off and the game was going to rely entierly on living world going forward.

I don't expect Anet to announce expansions when they're not even in the works and they're not ready to move onto one but just knowing that they are open to making more of them for Gw2 is a massive piece of mind that will keep me personally as dedicated a player as I have been for years.

I like the living world and I enjoy the living world, but I do not believe the living world is capable of sustaining the game indefinitely.Expansions are essential to the future of this game imo and that is a belief that isn't going to change, so this confirmation is something i've been wanting to hear for a good while now ^^

Hmmm what exactly was confirmed, cos I never read any such thing tbh.

That expansions are still on the table as future content for the game and that Anet is aware that many of us still want expansions for this game and are more than willing to pay for them should they make them.That's all ^^ and all I really wanted to hear at the event :)

Your reading way too much into that.. it was clearly a politicians statement.. neither deny or confirm means nothing.It's just a non answer, as others have said already.

Many said the same thing before the first expansion was announced though. I said I thought they were working on an expansion, Anet said nothing about it, and many many months later, they finally announced it, after people were saying that Anet was ambiguous, or would have said something if that was the case.

Anet isn't going to reveal this information before it's ready. Here's a possibility. Some people are in favor of making an expansion some aren't and there's an internal conflict, so they aren't going to say anything. We just don't have the information. But this is not the first time the bulk of the forum has said something that turned out to not be true.

Sometimes it's not often the table means it's not off the table. It could just be a political answer. It could also be a genuine one. How you take it depends on how jaded you are.

Except ANET have said.. they aren't ... they are committed to LW for the foreseeable future... but of course things can and often do change, but as of right now no expacs is incoming and if they start now it will be at least 2 yrs but likely more as they are already full steam ahead bringing the first SAGA to our screens, which is going to be resource intensive for the 4 teams for the next 12 months at the very least.

@Teratus.2859 said:THANK YOU!!!

This is literally all I wanted to hear from the live event lolI knew season 5 was coming, but I really wanted to know that expansions were not being killed off and the game was going to rely entierly on living world going forward.

I don't expect Anet to announce expansions when they're not even in the works and they're not ready to move onto one but just knowing that they are open to making more of them for Gw2 is a massive piece of mind that will keep me personally as dedicated a player as I have been for years.

I like the living world and I enjoy the living world, but I do not believe the living world is capable of sustaining the game indefinitely.Expansions are essential to the future of this game imo and that is a belief that isn't going to change, so this confirmation is something i've been wanting to hear for a good while now ^^

Hmmm what exactly was confirmed, cos I never read any such thing tbh.

That expansions are still on the table as future content for the game and that Anet is aware that many of us still want expansions for this game and are more than willing to pay for them should they make them.That's all ^^ and all I really wanted to hear at the event :)

Your reading way too much into that.. it was clearly a politicians statement.. neither deny or confirm means nothing.It's just a non answer, as others have said already.

Many said the same thing before the first expansion was announced though. I said I thought they were working on an expansion, Anet said nothing about it, and many many months later, they finally announced it, after people were saying that Anet was ambiguous, or would have said something if that was the case.

Anet isn't going to reveal this information before it's ready. Here's a possibility. Some people are in favor of making an expansion some aren't and there's an internal conflict, so they aren't going to say anything. We just don't have the information. But this is not the first time the bulk of the forum has said something that turned out to not be true.

Sometimes it's not often the table means it's not off the table. It could just be a political answer. It could also be a genuine one. How you take it depends on how jaded you are.

Except ANET have said.. they aren't ... they are committed to LW for the foreseeable future... but of course things can and often do change, but as of right now no expacs is incoming and if they start now it will be at least 2 yrs but likely more as they are already full steam ahead bringing the first SAGA to our screens, which is going to be resource intensive for the 4 teams for the next 12 months at the very least.

But they've also said the same thing in the past, and we got an expansion. I don't see the difference. They will probably do an expansion of there's enough pressure from either the audience or NcSoft. That's my take on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 242
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:THANK YOU!!!

This is literally all I wanted to hear from the live event lolI knew season 5 was coming, but I really wanted to know that expansions were not being killed off and the game was going to rely entierly on living world going forward.

I don't expect Anet to announce expansions when they're not even in the works and they're not ready to move onto one but just knowing that they are open to making more of them for Gw2 is a massive piece of mind that will keep me personally as dedicated a player as I have been for years.

I like the living world and I enjoy the living world, but I do not believe the living world is capable of sustaining the game indefinitely.Expansions are essential to the future of this game imo and that is a belief that isn't going to change, so this confirmation is something i've been wanting to hear for a good while now ^^

Hmmm what exactly was confirmed, cos I never read any such thing tbh.

That expansions are still on the table as future content for the game and that Anet is aware that many of us still want expansions for this game and are more than willing to pay for them should they make them.That's all ^^ and all I really wanted to hear at the event :)

Your reading way too much into that.. it was clearly a politicians statement.. neither deny or confirm means nothing.It's just a non answer, as others have said already.

Many said the same thing before the first expansion was announced though. I said I thought they were working on an expansion, Anet said nothing about it, and many many months later, they finally announced it, after people were saying that Anet was ambiguous, or would have said something if that was the case.

Anet isn't going to reveal this information before it's ready. Here's a possibility. Some people are in favor of making an expansion some aren't and there's an internal conflict, so they aren't going to say anything. We just don't have the information. But this is not the first time the bulk of the forum has said something that turned out to not be true.

Sometimes it's not often the table means it's not off the table. It could just be a political answer. It could also be a genuine one. How you take it depends on how jaded you are.

They announced pof was in development just fine.

Nothing to do with what I said. They had a long term plan at that time and mentioned POF in an AMA that they were already working on it. Clearly they're not working on an expansion right now. Which doesn't mean an expansion isn't coming. The problem is you don't have enough data points to draw a conclusion. We've had two expansions and one of them was announced just fine. The other wasn't announced through months and months of doubts and demands. So saying Anet is saying this politically an opinion and it's okay to have an opinion. But it's just as possible the guy is saying we really don't know what we're doing after Season 5. That is, we don't know how many people will be playing the game in 2 years. What our income will be. What our situation will be. It's not even like Anet has the final say, since they're owned by NcSoft. In the past, NcSoft has said there'll be an expansion even when Anet said there wouldn't. Given that, why would you say there definitely will or won't be one.

The further out in the future something is, the harder it is to guarantee. I'd be more suspicious of he said, oh we'll definitely have an expansion at some point.

I mean Sony announced they were coming out with Everquest Next, and then the SOE sold out to Daybreak Entertainment and the product was scrapped.. Blizzard said they were working on Titan and that project was scrapped. Anet was working on side projects and we know at least two of those were scrapped. Why would anyone make a definitive statement? Why would you take a definitive statement as more honest than someone saying it's a possibility?

A company the size of ANET absolutely should have some kind of long term plan for itself especially when it has to report into a higher power and eve more so as GW2 is currently the only thing keeping them relevant.If they are relying on short term forecasting to carry them then they are already exposed and I would be ever so slightly concerned because that doesn't allow for much creativity and organic growth of the product or the business month to month or year to year, which would likely lead to maintenance mode sooner than we think.Are we at that stage.... no I dont think so but we do know it has been a tough year or so for them and the NCSoft portfolio as a whole.ANET are in an unenviable situation of having to rely on a single ageing product right now so to some extent I can understand them having to downgrade some things in order to maintain longer term objectives for the business in general. But if that means all we can really expect looking forward now is LW updates I do think it might struggle to keep large chunks of the playerbase suitably entertained for long enough periods of time through the update cycles, but time will tell I guess.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Vayne.8563 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:THANK YOU!!!

This is literally all I wanted to hear from the live event lolI knew season 5 was coming, but I really wanted to know that expansions were not being killed off and the game was going to rely entierly on living world going forward.

I don't expect Anet to announce expansions when they're not even in the works and they're not ready to move onto one but just knowing that they are open to making more of them for Gw2 is a massive piece of mind that will keep me personally as dedicated a player as I have been for years.

I like the living world and I enjoy the living world, but I do not believe the living world is capable of sustaining the game indefinitely.Expansions are essential to the future of this game imo and that is a belief that isn't going to change, so this confirmation is something i've been wanting to hear for a good while now ^^

Hmmm what exactly was confirmed, cos I never read any such thing tbh.

That expansions are still on the table as future content for the game and that Anet is aware that many of us still want expansions for this game and are more than willing to pay for them should they make them.That's all ^^ and all I really wanted to hear at the event :)

Your reading way too much into that.. it was clearly a politicians statement.. neither deny or confirm means nothing.It's just a non answer, as others have said already.

Many said the same thing before the first expansion was announced though. I said I thought they were working on an expansion, Anet said nothing about it, and many many months later, they finally announced it, after people were saying that Anet was ambiguous, or would have said something if that was the case.

Anet isn't going to reveal this information before it's ready. Here's a possibility. Some people are in favor of making an expansion some aren't and there's an internal conflict, so they aren't going to say anything. We just don't have the information. But this is not the first time the bulk of the forum has said something that turned out to not be true.

Sometimes it's not often the table means it's not off the table. It could just be a political answer. It could also be a genuine one. How you take it depends on how jaded you are.

Except ANET have said.. they aren't ... they are committed to LW for the foreseeable future... but of course things can and often do change, but as of right now no expacs is incoming and if they start now it will be at least 2 yrs but likely more as they are already full steam ahead bringing the first SAGA to our screens, which is going to be resource intensive for the 4 teams for the next 12 months at the very least.

@Teratus.2859 said:THANK YOU!!!

This is literally all I wanted to hear from the live event lolI knew season 5 was coming, but I really wanted to know that expansions were not being killed off and the game was going to rely entierly on living world going forward.

I don't expect Anet to announce expansions when they're not even in the works and they're not ready to move onto one but just knowing that they are open to making more of them for Gw2 is a massive piece of mind that will keep me personally as dedicated a player as I have been for years.

I like the living world and I enjoy the living world, but I do not believe the living world is capable of sustaining the game indefinitely.Expansions are essential to the future of this game imo and that is a belief that isn't going to change, so this confirmation is something i've been wanting to hear for a good while now ^^

Hmmm what exactly was confirmed, cos I never read any such thing tbh.

That expansions are still on the table as future content for the game and that Anet is aware that many of us still want expansions for this game and are more than willing to pay for them should they make them.That's all ^^ and all I really wanted to hear at the event :)

Your reading way too much into that.. it was clearly a politicians statement.. neither deny or confirm means nothing.It's just a non answer, as others have said already.

Many said the same thing before the first expansion was announced though. I said I thought they were working on an expansion, Anet said nothing about it, and many many months later, they finally announced it, after people were saying that Anet was ambiguous, or would have said something if that was the case.

Anet isn't going to reveal this information before it's ready. Here's a possibility. Some people are in favor of making an expansion some aren't and there's an internal conflict, so they aren't going to say anything. We just don't have the information. But this is not the first time the bulk of the forum has said something that turned out to not be true.

Sometimes it's not often the table means it's not off the table. It could just be a political answer. It could also be a genuine one. How you take it depends on how jaded you are.

Except ANET have said.. they aren't ... they are committed to LW for the foreseeable future... but of course things can and often do change, but as of right now no expacs is incoming and if they start now it will be at least 2 yrs but likely more as they are already full steam ahead bringing the first SAGA to our screens, which is going to be resource intensive for the 4 teams for the next 12 months at the very least.

But they've also said the same thing in the past, and we got an expansion. I don't see the difference. They will probably do an expansion of there's enough pressure from either the audience or NcSoft. That's my take on it.

That pressure is irrelevant if the kind of resources required for an expac are not there no matter what we might want,but sure things can definitely change if NCSoft believe it prudent to open the coffers, but even if they did, how long do you think it is going to be until a return on their outlay can be realised and more immediately do ANET have the internal resource and capabilities to be able to deliver it or will they go back out to the market and raise headcount once more.It is not so simple as to saying pressure from us or NCSoft will mean expansion will come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:But it's just as possible the guy is saying we really don't know what we're doing after Season 5

Isn't that the worst case scenario? That ArenaNet has no long term plan and no idea what they'll do in the future?

"It's not off the table" can be interpreted in many ways, one of them being "We'd love to, but we don't know whether it will be possible," for It might be that NCsoft will allow them to increase their human resources again if The Icebrood Saga is doing well. If that happens, they might have the resources for an expansion. But they don't know that at this point in time, so saying anymore than what they have might be unwise. Or they could have other plans, like making sagas the new format for story content. I don't blame them in either case for being unspecific about it at this point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@"Cyninja.2954" said:I think they (Arenanet) simply do not have the resources (or are not given the resources from NCSoft) at this point in time to devote time on making an expansion alongside Living World Saga 5.

Considering
, and how those huge spikes in earnings came after expansions, feels a bit short-sighted to not make resource-generating expansions due to a lack of resources.

While I agree, we need to put these numbers and timeline in perspective. Remember that lay-offs happened and projects were cancelled. Supposedly GW2 unrelated projects. That happens all the time in the industry and one can not blame a developer for working on new IPs or future projects to assure the prosperity of the studio.

We also know that at some earlier point in time, the developers were not even sure there was going to be anything past Living World Season 4. Hence the epic but also conclusive Season 4 finale.

I'm sure with the knowledge of hindsight, resources would have been spent differently and very likely on an expansion. Unfortunately they didn't so in a sense now there is some catch-up to be done. If any expansion were to be made or planned or developed or w/e, it would have been started this year (or maybe even now) putting it at least 1 year away (if it's a smaller expansion like say PoF) or 2 years away if it is larger like HoT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The problem is when they want to deliver it with the end of season 5 / next year around this time they need to start with it now!A sentence like 'So it’s not like we’re ruling it out' sound like we start with it maybe someday don't fit with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If they do make an expansion I hope they revisit Cantha and bring all the competitiveness that came with it:

  • Alliance Battles (this was 12v12 in GW1)
  • actual GvG (sPvP-like 8v8 with stronghold-like mechanics) , possibly 10-20 depending on map size with spectate mode unlike EOTM map
  • Fort Aspenwood / Jade Quarry competitive mission
  • Heroes Ascent (Hall of Heroes , 8v8) with spectate after match ends

These game modes had a lot of replay value , more so than say FoW once you had the armor or UW (other than the spider). DoA was more or less for tormented weapons.

Unranked arena & automated tournament sort of functions as team arena , ranked solo-queue is more or less random arena.

We already have holiday arenas and automated tournament team arena.

As far as PvE , Cantha had a massive amount of area whether it is Shing Jea Island , Kaineng (the slums, Undercity, and the palace), Echovald Forest, or the Jade Sea. Race-wise the tengu and naga could be brought back.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-Cantha-Thread-Merged/page/2#post1385108(the city would probably not return)

We have reached Elona thus far and the next living story is probably fleshing out some area of the Shiverpeaks. Short of adding in fractal levels that are missing there has to be a (lore-abiding) map area unless it is instanced content.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:

@Teratus.2859 said:THANK YOU!!!

This is literally all I wanted to hear from the live event lolI knew season 5 was coming, but I really wanted to know that expansions were not being killed off and the game was going to rely entierly on living world going forward.

I don't expect Anet to announce expansions when they're not even in the works and they're not ready to move onto one but just knowing that they are open to making more of them for Gw2 is a massive piece of mind that will keep me personally as dedicated a player as I have been for years.

I like the living world and I enjoy the living world, but I do not believe the living world is capable of sustaining the game indefinitely.Expansions are essential to the future of this game imo and that is a belief that isn't going to change, so this confirmation is something i've been wanting to hear for a good while now ^^

Hmmm what exactly was confirmed, cos I never read any such thing tbh.

That expansions are still on the table as future content for the game and that Anet is aware that many of us still want expansions for this game and are more than willing to pay for them should they make them.That's all ^^ and all I really wanted to hear at the event :)

Your reading way too much into that.. it was clearly a politicians statement.. neither deny or confirm means nothing.It's just a non answer, as others have said already.

Many said the same thing before the first expansion was announced though. I said I thought they were working on an expansion, Anet said nothing about it, and many many months later, they finally announced it, after people were saying that Anet was ambiguous, or would have said something if that was the case.

Anet isn't going to reveal this information before it's ready. Here's a possibility. Some people are in favor of making an expansion some aren't and there's an internal conflict, so they aren't going to say anything. We just don't have the information. But this is not the first time the bulk of the forum has said something that turned out to not be true.

Sometimes it's not often the table means it's not off the table. It could just be a political answer. It could also be a genuine one. How you take it depends on how jaded you are.

They announced pof was in development just fine.

Nothing to do with what I said. They had a long term plan at that time and mentioned POF in an AMA that they were already working on it. Clearly they're not working on an expansion right now. Which doesn't mean an expansion isn't coming. The problem is you don't have enough data points to draw a conclusion. We've had two expansions and one of them was announced just fine. The other wasn't announced through months and months of doubts and demands. So saying Anet is saying this politically an opinion and it's okay to have an opinion. But it's just as possible the guy is saying we really don't know what we're doing after Season 5. That is, we don't know how many people will be playing the game in 2 years. What our income will be. What our situation will be. It's not even like Anet has the final say, since they're owned by NcSoft. In the past, NcSoft has said there'll be an expansion even when Anet said there wouldn't. Given that, why would you say there definitely will or won't be one.

The further out in the future something is, the harder it is to guarantee. I'd be more suspicious of he said, oh we'll definitely have an expansion at some point.

I mean Sony announced they were coming out with Everquest Next, and then the SOE sold out to Daybreak Entertainment and the product was scrapped.. Blizzard said they were working on Titan and that project was scrapped. Anet was working on side projects and we know at least two of those were scrapped. Why would anyone make a definitive statement? Why would you take a definitive statement as more honest than someone saying it's a possibility?

A company the size of ANET absolutely should have some kind of long term plan for itself especially when it has to report into a higher power and eve more so as GW2 is currently the only thing keeping them relevant.If they are relying on short term forecasting to carry them then they are already exposed and I would be ever so slightly concerned because that doesn't allow for much creativity and organic growth of the product or the business month to month or year to year, which would likely lead to maintenance mode sooner than we think.Are we at that stage.... no I dont think so but we do know it has been a tough year or so for them and the NCSoft portfolio as a whole.ANET are in an unenviable situation of having to rely on a single ageing product right now so to some extent I can understand them having to downgrade some things in order to maintain longer term objectives for the business in general. But if that means all we can really expect looking forward now is LW updates I do think it might struggle to keep large chunks of the playerbase suitably entertained for long enough periods of time through the update cycles, but time will tell I guess.

Those who plan everything always think that way. Those who don't think differently. My experience with projects that left themselves open for more flexibility is pretty extensive. What you're saying doesn't match with my experience. We'll just have to leave it there. You're not going to believe me, and I'm not going to change my mind on this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well a month short 24yrs running my own projects management consultancy across a variety of industry tells me that being overly reliant on short term plans can often lead to a stagnation of growth either in product, business or worse.. both.That said, no one is saying ANET cant be flexible, of course they should be, in fact I even said it would be of no surprise they might of had to downgrade some things in order to ensure that longer term objectives can still be met, which is my thought in their move away from expacs over the last few years... they will of already seen the signs in their forecasting, hence maybe these "other projects" had begun materialising to try and move away from being overly reliant on a single ageing product.Then again perhaps we forget, ANET are not the only interested party in all this and likely have to bend the knee when seeking to fund any such short, mid or long term plan for the game and the studio in general, made all the more relevant knowing that the whole of NCSofts ageing portfolio is seeing signs of slow down of revenue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just take it as a no. Even if they were it would be years away. So there’s not really a point in demanding a yes or no. And I think if they had anything planned beyond quality of life improvements and strike missions in terms of features they would have mentioned something by now. The wvw alliance is probably a year away at least. I would be surprised to see anymore fractals or raids to be honest. Maybe they shifted the few people working on those to strike missions. Though that would seem a bit overkill if they only have one strike mission per episode. Maybe part strike missions and part world bosses? So everything open world. To be fair, strike missions could also be dungeon-esque instead of a queable wambam boss fight and done.

Though it would be nice if they had spent any of the 5 pages they spent on merchandise in this latest magazine to talk about like... actual rewards and incentive to do these missions. Is this merchandise what they’re relying on to keep afloat or something? They’ve never pushed it this hard, but the fact that they’re pushing it harder than actual in game content concerns me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:But if that means all we can really expect looking forward now is LW updates I do think it might struggle to keep large chunks of the playerbase.

Hence why I personally feel a lot more at ease with the confirmation that future expansions are still on the table.Without that, I'd be just as uncomfortable and worried about the future of the game as you seem to be.

Having that confirmation that Anet know there is a massive demand for more paid expansion content makes a lot of difference to me, even when there isn't any known plans to produce it atm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"Infusion.7149" said:If they do make an expansion I hope they revisit Cantha and bring all the competitiveness that came with it:

  • Alliance Battles (this was 12v12 in GW1)
  • actual GvG (sPvP-like 8v8 with stronghold-like mechanics) , possibly 10-20 depending on map size with spectate mode unlike EOTM map
  • Fort Aspenwood / Jade Quarry competitive mission
  • Heroes Ascent (Hall of Heroes , 8v8) with spectate after match ends

These game modes had a lot of replay value , more so than say FoW once you had the armor or UW (other than the spider). DoA was more or less for tormented weapons.

Unranked arena & automated tournament sort of functions as team arena , ranked solo-queue is more or less random arena.

We already have holiday arenas and automated tournament team arena.

As far as PvE , Cantha had a massive amount of area whether it is Shing Jea Island , Kaineng (the slums, Undercity, and the palace), Echovald Forest, or the Jade Sea. Race-wise the tengu and naga could be brought back.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/The-Cantha-Thread-Merged/page/2#post1385108(the city would probably not return)

We have reached Elona thus far and the next living story is probably fleshing out some area of the Shiverpeaks. Short of adding in fractal levels that are missing there has to be a (lore-abiding) map area unless it is instanced content.

This. This. A thousand times this. Cantha can offer SO much. They can change the buildings - the Festival of the four winds looks like how some areas of cantha could now look for starters and that's perfectly fine because it gets published!Cantha is the Empire of the Dragon - how a game based solely on dragons can't think to go back is beyond me. The whole area was full of dragons on the jade sea and the actually story was based on Shiro, not a dragon. ( although of course we had help from kunny).It's a shame that they decided on other things, than give us Cantha and then maybe do something surprising for the people who want somewhere different, and tbh with all the arguments with people saying they don't want Cantha because they want something new, nothing like that has been said about the areas we are going to now -It's frustrating.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Vayne.8563 said:But they've also said the same thing in the past, and we got an expansion. I don't see the difference.They stopped saying anything of that sort long before they announced HoT. Their last statements about how LS is going to give us everything we'd want from expac were from the very beginning of LS2.

Yes, it is possible they will change their mind, but from the moment it happens (which won't be tomorrow - i'd expect at least 2-3 chapters of LS5, if not until the whole Icebrood Saga is out, before they might even consider changing the current release schedule) it would still take 2 years before we might possibly get an expac. So, we should not expect one for at least 3-4 years. And in 4 years from now, anyone that might want that expac will be long gone.

Seriously, you were saying almost the same things shortly after layoffs. In that half a year, we've got even further away from expac than we were then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"cptaylor.2670" said:Just take it as a no. Even if they were it would be years away. So there’s not really a point in demanding a yes or no. And I think if they had anything planned beyond quality of life improvements and strike missions in terms of features they would have mentioned something by now. The wvw alliance is probably a year away at least. I would be surprised to see anymore fractals or raids to be honest. Maybe they shifted the few people working on those to strike missions. Though that would seem a bit overkill if they only have one strike mission per episode. Maybe part strike missions and part world bosses? So everything open world. To be fair, strike missions could also be dungeon-esque instead of a queable wambam boss fight and done.

Though it would be nice if they had spent any of the 5 pages they spent on merchandise in this latest magazine to talk about like... actual rewards and incentive to do these missions. Is this merchandise what they’re relying on to keep afloat or something? They’ve never pushed it this hard, but the fact that they’re pushing it harder than actual in game content concerns me.

This is exactly my point.. the comic mag style release on paper looks nice and would of been a far better way to intro the new "SAGA" than the merch show, which as you point out takes up lots more room than actual detail and what detail there is just doesn't really tell us much... hopefully that will change as the SAGA unfolds.TBH for me the warning signs appeared when we started getting these weird data mongering promo's with that so local coffee shop and the beetle comp that no one ever got announced as winning... hmmm. Then we began to get content requiring us to relentlessly farm a rune that was chosen for its starved supply and miniscule Mystic toilet RNG odds, whilst knowingly allowing the item to inflated to silly season proportions in an effort to temp us to buy gems and convert or alternatively take as much wealth away within the game in as short a time as possible for future gemspike effects as they roll out new ways to do the same thing, (ding - change to salvaging, nerf farm map activity and adding more weapon / trinket skins requiring more farming or buying off TP)All culminating in what amounts to be a new merch push as of last week.. btw I also hope I read way to much into the little nudge about "what we have gotten for free up to this point" maybe being a sign that ICB might just be the end of that business plan and they begin to push future LS with that elusive expansion type content into paid DLC.. if it is I hope to god it will be worthy of it.This is why I am hoping ANET are not in the situation now of having to rely on those short term up ticks to fund only piece meal content releases cos in my experience it only takes one bad release or a sudden global downturn in consumer spending out of their control to push further critical decisions upon the studio.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@"Menadena.7482" said:Now we are getting more LW, just under another name. Granted the company has suffered a self-inflicted wound but it is like they learned nothing. Their big announcement did not even say they hoped to get back to expansions.Why should they? Honestly, the same people that don't tire to tell us "LS episodes only have 2 hours of content" were screaming and throwing tantrums that PoF wasn't a proper expansion and only had "2 days of content" tops and was "just a glorified DLC" and I don't know what else.

Meanwhile a lot of people appreciate the continuous stream of content we get through living world. Season 4 has easily giving us an expansion worth of content (minus elite specs, although we did get some pretty extensive class overhauls/reworks during the time) in about the timeframe of an expansion cycle. From the comments I've seen from ANet employees over the last months and years it seems to me that the episodic structure of living world also meshes a lot better with their development process. Why should they "hope to get back to expansions" when living world works for them and seemingly for a good number of players, too?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@"Menadena.7482" said:Now we are getting more LW, just under another name. Granted the company has suffered a self-inflicted wound but it is like they learned nothing. Their big announcement did not even say they hoped to get back to expansions.Why should they? Honestly, the same people that don't tire to tell us "LS episodes only have 2 hours of content" were screaming and throwing tantrums that PoF wasn't a proper expansion and only had "2 days of content" tops and was "just a glorified DLC" and I don't know what else.

Meanwhile a lot of people appreciate the continuous stream of content we get through living world. Season 4 has easily giving us an expansion worth of content (minus elite specs, although we did get some pretty extensive class overhauls/reworks during the time) in about the timeframe of an expansion cycle. From the comments I've seen from ANet employees over the last months and years it seems to me that the episodic structure of living world also meshes a lot better with their development process. Why should they "hope to get back to expansions" when living world works for them and seemingly for a vast number of players, too?

I don't know If I would say VAST number of players.It works for many?I think the vast number wanted more than just living world....again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Acheron.4731 said:

@"Menadena.7482" said:Now we are getting more LW, just under another name. Granted the company has suffered a self-inflicted wound but it is like they learned nothing. Their big announcement did not even say they hoped to get back to expansions.Why should they? Honestly, the same people that don't tire to tell us "LS episodes only have 2 hours of content" were screaming and throwing tantrums that PoF wasn't a proper expansion and only had "2 days of content" tops and was "just a glorified DLC" and I don't know what else.

Meanwhile a lot of people appreciate the continuous stream of content we get through living world. Season 4 has easily giving us an expansion worth of content (minus elite specs, although we did get some pretty extensive class overhauls/reworks during the time) in about the timeframe of an expansion cycle. From the comments I've seen from ANet employees over the last months and years it seems to me that the episodic structure of living world also meshes a lot better with their development process. Why should they "hope to get back to expansions" when living world works for them and seemingly for a vast number of players, too?

I don't know If I would say VAST number of players.It works for many?I think the vast number wanted more than just living world....again.I'm really not sure about that, especially since I remember quite a few of the most vocal "PoF is not enough to be called an expansion" posters being in fact the same that complain about the scope of living world episodes, too. But then it's really hard to judge, especially since people content with what they get are less likely to post, and only a fraction of the playerbase posts on the forums/reddit/wherever anyway.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm glad they are aware that the community is definitely looking forward to an expansion. I would truly love to see Cantha in an upcoming expansion. From what I understand they're working with 4 content teams now. I definitely hope The Icebrood Saga will help the devs set up a good workflow so that they can try new things, experiment a bit and build a strong foundation which they can use for an upcoming expansion.

Even though I haven't played the game in years, returned just before PoF and still play casually... Guild Wars 2 is still my favorite game to play online. Will be keeping an eye on the developments and my fingers crossed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Erasculio.2914 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:But it's just as possible the guy is saying we really don't know what we're doing after Season 5

Isn't that the worst case scenario? That ArenaNet has no long term plan and no idea what they'll do in the future?

If they're so uncertain of what will happen the day after tomorrow (because two years is next to nothing in game development time), how could they expect us to invest our time in their game? How reliable are they going to be?You can't plan creativity, but 7 years of GW2 have shown that ANet is able to continuously come up with something good (at least in my opinion) through their creative development process. Personally I prefer for them to have the creative freedom if they keep coming up with new and interesting things for me to play with. Not every person is the "plan ahead" type, some people simply work better by spontaneously and flexibly adjusting to ideas and situations as they come up.

I'm sure ANet does have at least a rough a plan of what they want to do long term, but they are also willing to adjust said plan on the fly if something doesn't work out the way they thought it would, and are willing to adjust plans if a better idea comes along.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@"Menadena.7482" said:Now we are getting more LW, just under another name. Granted the company has suffered a self-inflicted wound but it is like they learned nothing. Their big announcement did not even say they hoped to get back to expansions.Why should they? Honestly, the same people that don't tire to tell us "LS episodes only have 2 hours of content" were screaming and throwing tantrums that PoF wasn't a proper expansion and only had "2 days of content" tops and was "just a glorified DLC" and I don't know what else.

Meanwhile a lot of people appreciate the continuous stream of content we get through living world. Season 4 has easily giving us an expansion worth of content (minus elite specs, although we did get some pretty extensive class overhauls/reworks during the time) in about the timeframe of an expansion cycle. From the comments I've seen from ANet employees over the last months and years it seems to me that the episodic structure of living world also meshes a lot better with their development process. Why should they "hope to get back to expansions" when living world works for them and seemingly for a vast number of players, too?

I don't know If I would say VAST number of players.It works for many?I think the vast number wanted more than just living world....again.I'm really not sure about that, especially since I remember quite a few of the most vocal "PoF is not enough to be called an expansion" posters being in fact the same that complain about the scope of living world episodes, too. But then it's really hard to judge, especially since people content with what they get are less likely to post, and only a fraction of the playerbase posts on the forums/reddit/wherever anyway.

Then how are you seemingly able to make such assertations...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Bloodstealer.5978 said:

@"Menadena.7482" said:Now we are getting more LW, just under another name. Granted the company has suffered a self-inflicted wound but it is like they learned nothing. Their big announcement did not even say they hoped to get back to expansions.Why should they? Honestly, the same people that don't tire to tell us "LS episodes only have 2 hours of content" were screaming and throwing tantrums that PoF wasn't a proper expansion and only had "2 days of content" tops and was "just a glorified DLC" and I don't know what else.

Meanwhile a lot of people appreciate the continuous stream of content we get through living world. Season 4 has easily giving us an expansion worth of content (minus elite specs, although we did get some pretty extensive class overhauls/reworks during the time) in about the timeframe of an expansion cycle. From the comments I've seen from ANet employees over the last months and years it seems to me that the episodic structure of living world also meshes a lot better with their development process. Why should they "hope to get back to expansions" when living world works for them and seemingly for a vast number of players, too?

I don't know If I would say VAST number of players.It works for many?I think the vast number wanted more than just living world....again.I'm really not sure about that, especially since I remember quite a few of the most vocal "PoF is not enough to be called an expansion" posters being in fact the same that complain about the scope of living world episodes, too. But then it's really hard to judge, especially since people content with what they get are less likely to post, and only a fraction of the playerbase posts on the forums/reddit/wherever anyway.

Then how are you seemingly able to make such assertations...Bad phrasing because I was in a hurry when I originally posted? ;) Let me change "vast" to "good", it probably conveyes better what I wanted to say anyway.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:But it's just as possible the guy is saying we really don't know what we're doing after Season 5

Isn't that the worst case scenario? That ArenaNet has no long term plan and no idea what they'll do in the future?

If they're so uncertain of what will happen the day after tomorrow (because two years is next to nothing in game development time), how could they expect us to invest our time in their game? How reliable are they going to be?You can't plan creativity, but 7 years of GW2 have shown that ANet is able to continuously come up with something good (at least in my opinion) through their creative development process. Personally I prefer for them to have the creative freedom if they keep coming up with new and interesting things for me to play with. Not every person is the "plan ahead" type, some people simply work better by spontaneously and flexibly adjusting to ideas and situations as they come up.

I'm sure ANet does have at least a rough a plan of what they
want
to do long term, but they are also willing to adjust said plan on the fly if something doesn't work out the way they thought it would, and are willing to adjust plans if a better idea comes along.

Creativity comes in many guises.. but the simple fact remains, no matter how creative you are or how long it may take to push that creativity to the forefront, the business has to have the resources to be able to see such creativity realised, whether that be here and now or in the future. If it is the latter, like an expac would have to ultimately be, then they have to have a roadmap to get there and along that road it has to generate the necessary revenue or bend the knee. So for the moment all we have is LW to get us their and lets all hope they can pull off some expansion like content suprises that will keep wowing us enough to temp us to continue bashing away at our keyboards long enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:But they've also said the same thing in the past, and we got an expansion. I don't see the difference.They stopped saying anything of that sort long before they announced HoT. Their last statements about how LS is going to give us everything we'd want from expac were from the very beginning of LS2.

Yes, it is possible they will change their mind, but from the moment it happens (which won't be tomorrow - i'd expect at least 2-3 chapters of LS5, if not until the whole Icebrood Saga is out, before they might even consider changing the current release schedule) it would still take 2 years before we might possibly get an expac. So, we should not expect one for at least 3-4 years. And in 4 years from now, anyone that might want that expac will be long gone.

Seriously, you were saying almost the same things shortly after layoffs. In that half a year, we've got
even further away
from expac than we were then.

Yep, I was saying the same thing six months ago. Imagine that, six whole months. See everyone is like this stuff has to happen now, but I was never a happen now type of guy. I was saying there would be an expansion before the first expansion years before it came out. Because that stuff does take a long time. But then I'm in it for the long haul. I didn't put a time limit on it. Did you expect there would be lay offs, the company would reoganize in a week and have an expansion in a month?

We don't know what's going on behind the scenes and we never had. When Anet made the NPE, everyone thought it was about the game releasing in China. Only in hindsight did we learn that it was going free to play, no doubt the real reason for the NPE. Anet knew that, we didn't. The problem is, we've never really had enough information to predict what was going to happen. It gives you the kind of illusion of control.

I've lost track of how many games give you all this info up front and it turns out gradually not to be true over time. This is better in some ways and worse in others. Anet isn't telling us what's going on long term, because long term plans are harder to keep. The further out the plans, the harder it is to predict if you can fulfill them.

I heard some plans about EQ Landmark and EQ Next. Even prepurchased EQ Landmark. Let me tell you how that worked out for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...