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New interview with mike Z (german)


zealex.9410

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@Ayrilana.1396 said:It all depends on the amount of content we get. I don’t want to get less content for the sake of content being released more frequently.

When S3 ended we waited what was a normal amount of time between releases and then got a full expansion. Then we waited a normal amount of time and got a very strong S4 Ep1.

Now we've had 3 of the last 4 S4 episodes released later than we had previously waited. Then what seems on the surface like a Festival map, then waiting two more months for Ep1.

We are already getting less content less frequently.

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Here's a full summary:

  • He says they have learnt important lessons from previous LW seasons, Season 1 was especially an inspiration, as well as Season 2 in regard of how they will expand existing maps (he refers to new maps only, as far as I can tell), only that those updates will be more significant/bigger than they were in the past.
  • The story will be more "focused" in the future (whatever that means).
  • Marjory and Kasmeer will be back. Especially Majory's return as a necromancer will be fitting for the Cthuluesque tone of the new story.
  • In general, there will be more rotation regarding your heroic companions.
  • Episodes will be delivered more frequently than the previous 2-3 months cycle (the next episode is listed for November)
  • The new world bosses will be more challenging than the ones we know (the Shatterer in Jahai was a good "intermediate stage" between previous and future world bosses).
  • Drakkar won't be in the map from the start but added later on.
  • Strike missions will be instanced content that you can either enter alone (where you will be thrown together with random players) or in a full group of 10 people.
  • New fractals and raids are still in the works (with the latter getting repeatable challenge modes).

That's it.

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@"Menadena.7482" said:So far from monthly. They are giving us something new about every 2 months. Maybe.

At most.

So far, it looks like a saga will have less than a full map per release (episodes had one map per release), won't have a new legendary per release (episodes always had one), and, based on the German interview in the OP, they will try to release a new episode every 3 to 4 months.

As far as we know, the move from episodes to a saga has been a lose-lose situation for the players.

EDIT: Summoning the power of Google Translate...

"Actually, we want to be faster now than in the last season. Our current priority is that we try to have something exciting in the game every month.

For this we have the living world, but also festivals that take place regularly. In addition, there are those, as we call them internally, bonus events in which you should defeat, for example, World Boss."

So, yeah. Old festivals and repeated events. Welcome to the future of GW2.

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@mindcircus.1506 said:

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:It all depends on the amount of content we get. I don’t want to get less content for the sake of content being released more frequently.

When S3 ended we waited what was a normal amount of time between releases and then got a full expansion. Then we waited a normal amount of time and got a very strong S4 Ep1.

Now we've had 3 of the last 4 S4 episodes released later than we had previously waited. Then what seems on the surface like a Festival map, then waiting two more months for Ep1.

We are already getting less content less frequently.

The releases have been relatively consistent within the time-frame/cadence they've given. Let's not kid ourselves... the only thing that LS4E1 had over the other episodes was that it was one of the best gold farms for while. I don't recall how comparable DF is to what it used to be.

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@Erasculio.2914 said:

@"Menadena.7482" said:So far from monthly. They are giving us something new about every 2 months. Maybe.

At most.

So far, it looks like a saga will have less than a full map per release (episodes had one map per release), won't have a new legendary per release (episodes always had one), and, based on the German interview in the OP, they will
try
to release a new episode every 3 to 4 months.

As far as we know, the move from episodes to a saga has been a lose-lose situation for the players.

EDIT: Summoning the power of Google Translate...

"Actually, we want to be faster now than in the last season. Our current priority is that we try to have something exciting in the game every month.

For this we have the living world, but also festivals that take place regularly. In addition, there are those, as we call them internally, bonus events in which you should defeat, for example, World Boss."

So, yeah. Old festivals and repeated events. Welcome to the future of GW2.

Yeah, this doesn't sound good. What they are currently doing now is not working and they have at least another year of that planned...not too exciting.

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@"Ashantara.8731" said:Here's a full summary:

  • He says they have learnt important lessons from previous LW seasons, Season 1 was especially an inspiration, as well as Season 2 in regard of how they will expand existing maps (he refers to new maps only, as far as I can tell), only that those updates will be more significant/bigger than they were in the past.
  • The story will be more "focused" in the future (whatever that means).
  • Marjory and Kasmeer will be back. Especially Majory's return as a necromancer will be fitting for the Cthuluesque tone of the new story.
  • In general, there will be more rotation regarding your heroic companions.
  • Episodes will be delivered more frequently than the previous 2-3 months cycle (the next episode is listed for November)
  • The new world bosses will be more challenging than the ones we know (the Shatterer in Jahai was a good "intermediate stage" between previous and future world bosses).
  • Drakkar won't be in the map from the start but added later on.
  • Strike missions will be instanced content that you can either enter alone (where you will be thrown together with random players) or in a full group of 10 people.
  • New fractals and raids are still in the works (with the latter getting repeatable challenge modes).

That's it.

Nice summary, still going to wait for a full translation into "English"/American English or the same answers from an interview with another source that's in "English". That ways I can read between the lines, which I just love to do for speculation purposes(as in inferring what wasn't said, which is most likely wrong but amusing to do anyways).

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@"Zaklex.6308" said:Nice summary, still going to wait for a full translation into "English"/American English or the same answers from an interview with another source that's in "English". That ways I can read between the lines, which I just love to do for speculation purposes(as in inferring what wasn't said, which is most likely wrong but amusing to do anyways).

I've listed exactly what had been said. There is nothing left for "reading between the lines", really. The interview was super short.

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@videoboy.4162 said:

@"mindcircus.1506" said:I looked this over and thought to myself....If Mike O had said even half of this stuff I would have been over the moon and bought into every last word.But Mike Z has proven time and time again that he starts a hype train with buzzwords like "expansion-level" only to underwhelm. We're now at the point where even filler content designed to keep us busy between releases is busted beyond fixing.We're waiting longer between releases than we have since the beginning of S3 and he's let us know that the map variety and cadence of delivery that some of us really enjoyed as central to our experience in this game is no longer "on the table".And he's managed to use community memes to sell it to a large part of the fanbase.

What would have been a time for me to get very excited about this game is now generating skepticism.I'm very much "wait and see" about S5. Mike Z's hype pieces are a big reason why.

He says this is their goal for S5:

"Actually, we want to be faster now than in the last season. Our current priority is that we try to have something exciting in the game every month. For this we have the living world, but also festivals that take place regularly. In addition, there are those, as we call them internally, bonus events in which you should defeat, for example, World Boss."

Even if some of it is just filler, it still sounds better than S3 lol

Define se3, the only drawbacks of se3 were that it was tied to hot and we didnt get mounts and also didnt get armors like in se4.

Pace wise i much more prefered se3 in less amount of months it got out more content.

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@Erasculio.2914 said:

@"Menadena.7482" said:So far from monthly. They are giving us something new about every 2 months. Maybe.

At most.

So far, it looks like a saga will have less than a full map per release (episodes had one map per release), won't have a new legendary per release (episodes always had one), and, based on the German interview in the OP, they will
try
to release a new episode every 3 to 4 months.

As far as we know, the move from episodes to a saga has been a lose-lose situation for the players.

EDIT: Summoning the power of Google Translate...

"Actually, we want to be faster now than in the last season. Our current priority is that we try to have something exciting in the game every month.

For this we have the living world, but also festivals that take place regularly. In addition, there are those, as we call them internally, bonus events in which you should defeat, for example, World Boss."

So, yeah. Old festivals and repeated events. Welcome to the future of GW2.

3 to 4 months was the pace of se4 so by default they wojt go for that pace.

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@zealex.9410 said:

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I was pretty sure Mike Z. said Strike Missions could be played with less than 10 people (in that article).

I believe it was mentioned that good enough players can lowman it but im not sure if that meant it scales or not.

That wasn't mentioned. It was only said that you could enter solo (in which case you'd be thrown together with random players) or enter as a full team of 10. Whether it will be possible to enter with less than 10 people remains to be seen.

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Here's the whole thing in Google Translate: Take it as you may.

Our author Alexander Leitsch had the chance to interview Guild Wars 2 Game Director Mike Zadorojny. This revealed some details about Living World Season 5 and the regularity of the updates.

What is the interview about? On August 30, the MMORPG announced the new Icebrood Saga. These are a series of story updates that expand the game and narrate the story of Norn, a vicious cult, and the Ice Dragon Jormag.

Game Director Mike Zadorojny has answered a few questions for me.Guild Wars 2 Quiz: How fit are you for Icebrood Saga?Lessons from the previous seasons of the Living World

What will the Icebrood saga do differently? First, Mike and I talked about lessons learned from the previous four seasons of the Living World.

The Eisbrut saga is supposed to do some things differently in terms of innovations and design. This was especially oriented to the first seasons:

Do not expect a new map every time you update. We will also work with and extend existing maps. It's much the same as in Season 2, just a little bigger and bigger than the two cards from that time.We start with a new big map and can then implement things that we have not done yet.

According to Mike, the first season was also a great inspiration, because it was a lot of fun for the developers and kept the players active at the bar.

What's changing in storytelling? Also, in the way stories are told, Guild Wars 2 has been evolving over the years. Mike gave a very concrete example:

In Season 2 we had Belinda, which we introduced and killed shortly thereafter. We had something similar with Blish in Season 4, but the character was much more advanced.The outcry: "You only created this character to kill it then" was much smaller here than it was then.

He also proudly says that the way the story is told has changed for the better. She would be much more focused now than in the beginning.That's why getting into the MMORPG Guild Wars 2 is especially worthwhile

What about our hero group in the story? If you are also fans of the characters Marjory and Kasmeer like me, you can look forward to their return. After the two have completely disappeared after Path of Fire, they will now return in the Icebrood saga.

Mike describes the story of the new Icebrood saga as darker and more in a Cthulhu style. Therefore, it is fitting that especially Marjory as a necromancer has a performance again.

Overall, there should be more frequent rotations in our hero group. So the players will not interact with too many characters at a time and yet the group should endure.Every month an exciting event

How regularly do episodes of the Living World 5 appear? Of course, I wanted to know from Mike how often we can expect new episodes.

From the last seasons we were used to a rhythm of 2-3 months, but the developers would now like to undercut:

Actually, we want to be faster now than in the last season. Our current priority is that we try to have something exciting in the game every month.For this we have the living world, but also festivals that take place regularly. In addition, there are those, as we call them internally, bonus events in which you should defeat, for example, World Boss.

Based on Mike's description, the update calendar for 2019 might look something like this:

September - PrologueOctober - HalloweenNovember - Episode 1December - Christmas

The calendar is then supplemented by the bonus events, which have been held regularly lately. Currently one is running specifically for returnees and newcomers.

Northern Shiverpeaks and new challenges

Where is the first thing in the Eisbrut saga? On the 17th of September, the prologue "Bound by Blood" comes into play, which already brings some innovations.

But really, it starts with the first episode of the Living World Season 5. It should appear in any case later this year. The first area will be the Northern Shiverpeaks.

Mike describes this as a particularly beautiful place:

You can look forward to some incredibly beautiful vistas. The Art team has been working hard and getting a lot of inspiration from the Guild Wars 1 charts.

Picture from the Thunderhead Summit

Are there new world bosses? The new world boss Drakkar was already announced at the event and Mike could tell me a little about it. He should be more demanding than the last published world bosses:

The smasher in Jahai was a good intermediate step, but he was not as demanding as the three-headed jungle worm. The new world boss is getting big and is supposed to bring the players together.However, it will not be on the new map from the beginning, but will be added later.

From the announcement we already know that Drakkar is being considered for the second episode.guild wars 2 drakkar conceptConcept Art to Drakkar

How do the attack missions work? In addition to the world bosses, we also talked about the new assault missions. There are 10 players against a boss, who should be demanding.

Mike describes this new challenge as follows:

Assault missions are instantiated content, but can be entered in two ways. If you just want to fight, you can enter the location and you will randomly get mixed up with other players, similar to the Riftstalker events.Path number 2 is a separate entrance for your group. There you can then collect and defeat the boss, even in smaller groups than intended.

This is how the sprinkler events work, where you can also earn new weapons.

New fractals and raids continue to be worked on, as Mike confirmed on demand.

We also talked about repeatable challenge modes in the raids. These would be discussed internally, but still there is no new info.

ArenaNet is currently very satisfied with the development of the Living World. Nevertheless, paid extensions are not excluded for the future, as revealed in another interview

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"Actually, we want to be faster now than in the last season. Our current priority is that we try to have something exciting in the game every month.

For this we have the living world, but also festivals (WHAT??? :s ) that take place regularly. In addition, there are those, as we call them internally, bonus events in which you should defeat, for example, World Boss. (IT CAN'T BE !!!!!) "


TIME TO PANIC

Maybe they could repeat each festival twice a year, so that alone would make 12 """exciting""" content updates per year

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@Ashantara.8731 said:

@"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:I was pretty sure Mike Z. said Strike Missions could be played with less than 10 people (in that article).

I believe it was mentioned that good enough players can lowman it but im not sure if that meant it scales or not.

That wasn't mentioned. It was only said that you could enter solo (in which case you'd be thrown together with random players) or enter as a full team of 10. Whether it will be possible to enter with less than 10 people remains to be seen.According to the interview it's a seperate entrance for
your party
, so definitely not only solo. They use the german word "Gruppe" which translates to party but may very well mean squad in this context. Expect to be able to enter strike missions with a raid squad of any size. No mention of scaling, which would really defeat the purpose, so I don't expect any scaling, just the chance to low-man if you don't want to pug.
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@Blocki.4931 said:They quite literally list festivals and other events as something during the months without episode release. Still, they tell us that releases WILL be faster this season

As a German native speaker: This is an example of the author, not an answer from Mike Z. Also, some more details: they took a lot of inspiration from guild wars 1 shiverpeaks, art team did a great job (well they do always, imo), the new stuff will be a mixture of season 1 and season 2, meaning; they will expand maps over time and they will add events to old maps like in season 1. Strike missions can be low manned, also there are two versions: enter it from a certain area in the game or use an LFR. It is not mentioned if these are different difficulties.

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@ProtoGunner.4953 said:

@"Blocki.4931" said:They quite literally list festivals and other events as something during the months without episode release. Still, they tell us that releases WILL be faster this season

As a German native speaker: This is an example of the author, not an answer from Mike Z. Also, some more details: they took a lot of inspiration from guild wars 1 shiverpeaks, art team did a great job (well they do always, imo), the new stuff will be a mixture of season 1 and season 2, meaning; they will expand maps over time and they will add events to old maps like in season 1. Strike missions can be low manned, also there are two versions: enter it from a certain area in the game or use an LFR. It is not mentioned if these are different difficulties.

His quote literally says they want to be faster, same quote that the title is based on.

"Eigentlich möchten wir nun schneller sein, als in der letzten Staffel. Unsere aktuelle Priorität ist, dass wir versuchen, jeden Monat etwas Aufregendes im Spiel zu haben.Dafür haben wir die Lebendige Welt, aber auch Festivals, die regelmäßig stattfinden. Zusätzlich gibt es noch die, wie wir sie intern nennen, Bonus-Events, in denen ihr zum Beispiel Weltboss besiegen sollt."

Okay, they WANT to be faster, but considering all we know so far and the fact they've started doing it with the last episode already with the staggered release of the raid a few weeks after the main patch, we can be pretty much sure that will be the case. Even still, an event or festival every month between releases doesn't sound bad either for as long as they can keep that up.

What I'm worried about is another S1 scenario where they just burn out completely because they can't keep those weekly releases up, but I'm certain they can figure it out nowadays.

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@Blocki.4931 said:

@Blocki.4931 said:They quite literally list festivals and other events as something during the months without episode release. Still, they tell us that releases WILL be faster this season

As a German native speaker: This is an example of the author, not an answer from Mike Z. Also, some more details: they took a lot of inspiration from guild wars 1 shiverpeaks, art team did a great job (well they do always, imo), the new stuff will be a mixture of season 1 and season 2, meaning; they will expand maps over time and they will add events to old maps like in season 1. Strike missions can be low manned, also there are two versions: enter it from a certain area in the game or use an LFR. It is not mentioned if these are different difficulties.

His quote literally says they want to be faster, same quote that the title is based on.
"Eigentlich möchten wir nun schneller sein, als in der letzten Staffel. Unsere aktuelle Priorität ist, dass wir versuchen, jeden Monat etwas Aufregendes im Spiel zu haben.Dafür haben wir die Lebendige Welt, aber auch Festivals, die regelmäßig stattfinden. Zusätzlich gibt es noch die, wie wir sie intern nennen, Bonus-Events, in denen ihr zum Beispiel Weltboss besiegen sollt."

Okay, they WANT to be faster, but considering all we know so far and the fact they've started doing it with the last episode already with the staggered release of the raid a few weeks after the main patch, we can be pretty much sure that will be the case. Even still, an event or festival every month between releases doesn't sound bad either for as long as they can keep that up.

What I'm worried about is another S1 scenario where they just burn out completely because they can't keep those weekly releases up, but I'm certain they can figure it out nowadays.

Yes, I just stated that the listing was an example but it is likely. That said: they should have more resources since they weren't working on an expansion. Or are they? That's what I don't like, no one knows what will happen, though I read somewhere that expansions were still a thing. Maybe they just need more time since they fired 40% of their staff.

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