A Message from Andrew Gray
Fire Attunement.9835
ArenaNet ArenaNet ›
Hey everybody, my name is Andrew Gray. I took over as Content Design Lead a few months back and I want to talk a bit about last year, this year, and what's on the horizon for Guild Wars 2.
First, 2019 was hard. I've been with ArenaNet since 2004 and I can say without question that 2019 was the studio's most challenging. Many of the people who left in 2019 were not involved in the day-to-day development of Guild Wars 2, that much is true--but they were our friends, colleagues, and in some cases literally family. All the teams were affected by saying goodbye to so many colleagues. I'm proud of what we were able to ship under the circumstances, but we also understand the legacy we are trying to carry forward with Guild Wars 2; rather than slip into a status quo, we are all determined to create an even better game moving forward.
We've got our footing and we have exciting plans for the future of GW2. I can't talk about what I'm most excited for yet, but I can tell you 2020 is laying the groundwork for an exciting future. Here are some of the highlights:
Living World
- Between episodes two and three, we already mentioned we'll be releasing a special new type of content called Visions of the Past; we'll have more details on that at PAX East.
- I can't go into a ton of details on episodes three and four because, you know, spoilers and all, but I can tell you the map is meta-focused with a push-and-pull feel similar to WvW in a PvE setting. We want maps this season to bring something to them that makes them a permanent part of your play experience. That's why the culmination of Bjora Marches is a world boss and we're striving for high replayability for the episodes three and four map. We want it to be a unique, fun, and rewarding experience that will be part of your daily/weekly play cycle.
- After episode four, again I'm going to be somewhat vague here, but we want to revisit some of the types of content we pioneered in the past. We learned a lot with Living World Season One and one thing it did very well was to bring the community into the story, and make their actions drive the plot forward. The Nightmare Tower, the election between Evon Gnashblade and Ellen Kiel – these things are memorable experiences because the community's combined efforts had an impact on the world. As you may have noticed, we've been testing tech with things like the boss rush event, that we hope to leverage later on in The Icebrood Saga to create a unique, community experience. But, learning lessons from Season 1, the bulk of this content will be built in a way that it is still playable after the Icebrood Saga comes to a close.
- Generally, as a team, we are placing a greater emphasis on repeatable content (open world events, world bosses, WvW, and yes, even Fractals (hint hint)). We want to make the types of content that have a lasting, positive impact on the game, so expect that design approach to focus on that more going forward.
On the topic of Fractals…
- Reports of their death have been greatly exaggerated, though I apologize that our silence on the topic raised that concern.
- I am personally committed to Fractals and see them as an area that deserves more focus and attention going forward. I'm happy to announce that Cameron Rich, who worked on Fractals during Season Three, will be taking the reins on a new Fractal as he rolls off his current duties. This Fractal will feature a challenge mode. Beyond that, I'm working with the Systems Design team on more plans to keep Fractals fresh and exciting. I'm excited and when everything is ready to share, we'll have more details.
Raids
- Raids are a trickier beast. They're a unique experience and community that we want to find better ways to support, the biggest challenge in creating more is the small audience they attract. We gathered data to determine why, and the most common answer was that there is a giant leap in difficulty between raids and other endgame content, and there isn't anything to help players work their way up.
- Our intention was for Strike Missions to be that intermediary step into 10-person content. As we've mentioned before and you've likely noticed, strike missions are getting harder. Once a full suite of strike missions is complete there should be a graceful ramp up to the existing raid content rather than the imposing leap that previously existed, and our hope is once that ramp is in place, the number of players participating in raids will go up. In addition to that, we're striving to make improvements to Strike Missions themselves to make grouping easier, and to improve the rewards. We hope this will help introduce more people to 10-person content, which will in turn increase the number of people interested in Raids.
- Regardless of if that succeeds or not, we understand the importance of balancing our efforts between accessible content with broad appeal, and content that appeals to the more hard core audience, and recognize that we need to do a better job of supporting the latter.
I'm excited for what's coming next. There's going to be more news coming out throughout this year that will make it pretty kitten clear why, but in the meantime, we're incredibly grateful for all your constructive feedback and continued support of the game.
Comments
Communication!
I nearly fell out of my chair reading this!!!
Not sure I entirely agree with the direction you are going in, but 100% love the fact you have decided to talk to us in some detailed summaries after so long a drought. I just hope you bring depth as well as replayability. The Saga has been significantly below par for your established capabilities so far imo (Drakkar and the map designs are examples of this) and really needs an injection of something in the next episodes to make it special, with a much needed emphasis on quality to give the replayability you are striving for
Whatever is coming and recent criticisms aside, please keep the communication coming - this is a welcome start!
What sleep is here? What dreams there are in the unctuous coiling of the snakes mortal shuffling. weapon in my hand. My hand the arcing deathblow at the end of all things. The horror. The horror. I embrace it. . .
Every time I read one of these posts, it always make me really wish guild mission support was still a thing. I was happy when they were added to the game - and disheartened as they were left to the side of the road as the years passed.
Beyond that, this looks very promising. Keep the focus on open world and group activities - that will be the saving grace of this game.
Of course, no new WvW information. Haven't even heard of Alliances since they announced it 2 years ago.
[KEK] Ziggy
Zero WvW highlights for the exciting future. Noted.
this showed be a good direction, Bjora Marches, inst more just a "more LS map". also it add more deep, i wish u guys continue honing this direction.
main pvp: Khel the Undead(power reaper).
Thanks for taking time to be transparent and post an update for us, I hope you continue to do so.
And WvW?
"Similar to WvW"...
NICE!
Replay-ability is a major thing. I enjoy the story but I usually just play it on one character and thats it. Seeing a new fractal, raid, or change to pvp which affects the repeatable content thrills me so much more. Please keep up this open communication, it is great for the community!
Nice! I love the update on WvW.. wait, what?!
Fantastic news, love the communication from you guys as of late
Ahhhh, I can only hope this will be the first of many posts with such transparent communication! Either way, very happy to see this!
Looking forward to those Fractal changes, if anything. Just hearing them mentioned after so long brings a spark of joy, haha.
I
m sorry but your "idea" about strike missions making more people get interested in raids is just absurd.....people dont play raids because they are really hard (nothing wrong with this) but the GW2 reward system sucked from day one (so investing a lot of time and hard work to get nothing in return is not much of an incentive) ! Also not even mentioning WvW is really sad.Very good PR speak - I won't lie. However, nothing solid - vague promises again. WvW alliances anyone?
Long time no hear. Keep us posted. We like our devs close to us... speaking of devs. Will I be able to achiev the achievment of killing (downing ingame) a dev anywhere near? (I'm in Europe) >_>
We like you.
Taking the words of Randulf in the first post I add: "take a time to breathe in and sink in" Look out your windows and look at the worst game in history in metacritic by USER score standards.
Feel us. Don't trick us.
Thats why we always appreciate the comunication. Maybe you guys should spend more time playing your own game with the comunity.
Keep it coming. We surely are looking forward for the updates.
Personally I'd really like information about whether new elite specializations are at all on the map, for me hearing that there was gonna be another season of living story instead of an expansion was a disappointment, simply because it meant no new elite specializations as those as add a lot to the game imo.
Ögonen omges av vita och svarta penseldrag som gör att de ser större ut än vad de egentligen är. Baksidan av lodjurets öron kantas av svart päls som slutar i den karaktäristiska tofsen högst upp på örat. Lodjurets svans är kortare än de flesta andra kattdjurs.
@Fire Attunement.9835 said:
If you want more people in raids get rid of LI and KP linking - make them go straight into your wallet as a currency, without the ability to link. I know that people will ask for titles, legendary armor or collection items, but it'll be a first step in the right direction. Implementing raid-finder system should be the next step i think. And also you should take a closer look how things done in other MMORPGS - particularly in FFXIV, players should get punished for leaving their group with a lockout from instances for a certain time.
WvW content though? Better rewards? Any actual development?
>
A quick note on this: we have a weekly Let's Play WvW livestream every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8). Our devs alternate between NA and EU worlds each week, so you have a regular shot at it! You can watch live on twitch.tv/guildwars2
Would have loved to see a mention on new elite specs..
I am happy to see such a post, yet I gotta add more to your plate:
Guilds should interface with more content in this game. Their systems have so much room to be more robust and it's one of the big targets to strengthen communities and bring in more players. There are many ways for them to be brought to the forefront. The game already favors solo play, so that needn't be changed, but please take additional steps to interface Guilds and their systems into more of the Guild Wars experience.
On the other hand... While people have been frothing at the mouth to see a 'communication' post like this, I'm certain a lot of the more cynical players (even myself) would be happier when the items above get shipped. I know 2019 was rough, and I know the community at large knows this too, but it's time to get serious.
Best of luck, I hope to see some great things soon.
Potential requires action in order to be realized.
I'd love to start raiding but It's too difficult for new raiders to join raids as groups want proof of experience with a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because they want a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because groups want proof of experience with a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because groups want proof of experience with a currency we are unable to get because we can't get into a raid group because... you see the problem?.
I know that some people this applies to won’t see this or care about this, but all the people complaining about the fact there was nothing said about WvW need to pay attention to what was in this post. If you read through this post everything is for PvE content so why should there be stuff for PvP when it’s clear the focus of this post was on up coming PvE content.
Hey Gray, first of all thanks for the feedback and letting us know what's up.
I have 2 questions:
Can you tell us how much of a Dragon Stand and less than a Drakkar meta is gonna be the map?
In my opinion Dragon Stand was a master peace of a map, a really good way to group up "casuals" and "hardcore" players with mechanics, dps, events etc, a whole map organized together the right way. I see that you guys have been trying to do the same specially now with Drakkar, but _pumping up the health bar of a monster is not the correct _way to do so.
As a returning player from a 2 year hiatus I love this, back when you guys released W1, 2 and 3 it could only be adapted by "elitists" which is why the buying of kills market got so popular. But the new fight colors don't help at all to identify key stuff. With the whisper of Jormag , taking out the bugs, the amount of visuals make it hard to identify even key mechanics like the chain, so please have that in mind for future fights, and don't get me wrong the cluster of stuff happening with Mathias is amazing, we can call it chaotic good, but the colors on the floor and whats happening and environment elements are just on point. The whisper of jormag has a shad of blue on top of a blue with more blue and white stuff happening around which makes it kind of harder than it should to identify key stuffs.
as Mike O'Brien said: "if you are into wvw, typically, you are really into pve", so the wvw element they are adding to new map is for wvwers
That's great to hear a news about State of the Game!
I would like to share some memories, as I play Guild Wars since 2005 - still remember the best Quality of Life impovements in the game industry - double the fun - Lockpicks mechanic, lucky/unlucky system, intoducing Vanquisher/Guardian titles. Generally - It was Hard Mode.
Yes, I remember, that it was all about instances, closed, with hero/hench, read thousands of posts about pros/cons and possiblilities of introducing it to Guild Wars 2.
But, to the point.
People love achievements, loot, increasing progress (had those crazy 42 PvE maxed titles in Guild Wars 1). Most of the hardest ones were account bound - it took time. There is repeatable content, achievements across the Account, achievements by Season, the exact type - THOUSANDS !
Guild Wars 2 is a great game, but it lacks of LIFETIME achievement connected to whole game. People love this little-little achievements just from playing the game. I remember it keeps me playing at the beginning - 2012/2013 to get this weapon/creature slaying achievements - for example.
So... What about little things, that made Guild Wars repeatable across the maps, everywhere (buyable expensive keys and introducing of lucky/unlucky system) - via Chests located across the world. Increasing Luck etc.
I'm afraid it's not that simple. The gap exists not because there's no middle content (although there isn't one, which is bad - and strikes do not bridge that gap, for a multitude of reasons, one of them due to them being a 10-man content). It exists, because the game system magnifies even tiny differences in gear, build and skill. The game as it is cannot realistically help players bridge that gap. All it can do (and what you're doing with strikes) is to try to incentivize players to get better. Problem is, the players need to learn how to get better on their own - and those players that know how to do that (and have a mindset that is required to follow through with that learning, which most players do not have) are improving already, without the need for strikes. For everyone else, it will just be more and more aggravating, as they will just see more and more content placed in front of them, but just outside their reach.
The whole point of a social game is to play with the people you want to play with, not be forced to play with the people you don't.
Just want to poke my head in and exclaim that I hugely appreciate this form of communication.
I though, regrettably, also want to point out that it would be great with this form of communication on the build templates as well.
Could the strike missions be taped together into a raid, with upscaled mechanics and better rewards?
How about putting EoTM as one of the competitive WvW maps? Don't replace what we already have, just add this so there is one more map to cut down on queues.. and EoTM can get love once again. I assume the problem here is that you'll have to run through it with a fine tooth comb to avoid any breaking areas with the Warclaw?
Anything WvW that isn't "we're going to nerf the warclaw more" because I'm just not feeling that. What was the point of it in the first place if you're just going to make it the same as walking. Alas, I digress.
Any WvW please....
I'm a mainly PvP player, I don't play PvE at all, but this is great news!
Also, this kind of communication (admitting shortcomings and pushing forward) makes me and probably many other players want to play all 3 game modes.
Hopefully, the studio brings new content (instead of just talking) but it seems like Anet has been getting itself together lately with the big patch on competitive modes and fixing copy paste weapon skins from LNY.
Siren E-Spec for Mesmer
I think the only thing that will fix the issue with raids, is difficulty tiers with scaling rewards.
That way players can familiarise themselves with the content, and then increase the challenge when they feel more confident.
In regards to using Strikes as stepping stone to Raids:
No, I don't see the problem. You can go ahead and acquire KP and LI like the rest of us did. Join groups that are learning or training new people, or make your own groups. But if active players haven't tried raiding in all these years, they just dont care about the game mode and they never will, the LI/KP excuse is just an excuse.
First thing I did when I opened this thread was Ctrl+F for alliances. Nothing. Ctrl+F WvW. One comparison and this quote. And that's it? Seriously? 2 years since alliances were announced, this is where we're at now? Thanks.
I say do what you did before raids were introduced. Dungeons have story mode and you run paths for harder content. Fractals have levels with increased damage with AR and mechanics. To be honest, everyone I know that did the raids have left the game because of burning out doing the raids. The guild I joined as fallen to about 70 active players when it originally had over 500 active players across 5 guilds. Add Hero Challenges to raids where the harder the challenge the greater the reward, then add a story mode for those who simply play the game for the "Living Story".
Care to give some information about WVW Alliance?
Any chance of addressing the quality of life gap between power and condition builds in pve? It is frustrating wanting to play certain weapons that require a condition build knowing that I will not be as optimal as a power build with weapons I dislike.
If you wanted to make a gradual introduction to raids wouldn't have been simpler to just add an easy mod option which just reduces boss HP and damage output while keeping all the mechanics intact and reduce the rewards accordingly? People get to experience the content while learning the basics until they get comfortable enough to do it for real.
Also, pleasing more experienced raiders could be as simple as making the rewards for CM worth repeating CM for. Many of people have resorted to buying their CM and getting blacklisted because finding anyone wanting to do them after they get their title is near impossible because it isn't worth their time.
I just want to say Thank You for all the hard work all of you at Arenanet have done. Looking forward to what's coming in 2020.
I think 2020 will be a good year for Guild Wars 2.
This is legitimately a roadmap post for the future. And I totally get that you can't spoil certain stuff on the horizon, so I'm trying to temper my expectations.
I'm actually really glad that you're sort of doubling down on hardcore content. Or at least developing the game to try to expand it. Raids were one of the best things to happen to GW2, not just because the content was challenging but because it created communities and theorycrafting that had never before been necessary, refreshing the playerbase's interest.
I am cautiously optimistic, unfortunately because raids have really fallen off since HoT. I hope you can knock it out of the park.
Thanks Andrew!
My outlying concerns that make me "cautiously" optimistic:
1) The game needs a new round of elite specs. They refresh all game modes. IMO they are the smartest "groundwork" the game has ever laid, but they've been squandered with only two being added this far into the game's life. Comparing to how aggressively GW1 added skills and whole classes, this is really sad to see. The professions and their current elite specs are stagnating. These are not being talked about which tells me you have no plans to ever add any more, and that the combat system will continue to stagnate.
2) I hope the data you collect for raids is contextualized by the fact that rewards are on weekly lockouts, rather than daily like your points of comparison (open world metas, fractals). I absolutely guarantee that if raid rewards were daily, boss attempts would be way higher, the LFG would be populated all the time, and players would form communities around raids more frequently. As others have mentioned, everyone who is committed to raids gets their clears after reset and then goes dark for the rest of the week. There is currently zero crosstalk between the experienced and the new within the mode because of this, aside from training guilds which you will rarely find in-game.
If the data is not presented within this context, I'm afraid you might have created a chicken-and-egg scenario. Weekly lockouts mean less engagement. Less engagement means raids are cut. Raids being cut means players perceive the mode as unsupported and unworthy of investment. Fewer raiders draws resentment from the hardcore community, who move on to competitors who have the conviction to provide content they can aspire to (FFXIV).
I mean, I don't play raids because they're hard, and I'm "people." I don't have the time to devote to mastering them or gearing up for them. So what you mean is that you have issue with the reward system.
where the like button at
But again, there is no improvement on the guild side.
Exciting, the amount of communication there is, but your silence on Alliances is deafening. The death of Fractals may have been greatly exaggerated, but what about Alliances? Two updates in two years isn't a good look.
This part I'm a bit confused with, can't really put all Raid encounters in the same basket, just like you can't put all Fractals, or Strike Missions together.
There are Raid bosses that are easier than some Fractal bosses, and if we add CM Fractals -a LOT- of the Raid bosses are easier. Even Whisper of Jormag is harder than let's say Cairn or Mursaat Overseer. What you could've done is "mark" Raid bosses or entire Wings with their difficulty, to tell players which ones to try first, like what you are trying to do with Strikes now. Give them some progression, as Raids are all over the place. Making the bosses in a wing progressively harder would also help, they are a bit of a mess with easy encounters after hard encounters and so on. But probably nothing can be done to fix all those issues, it's a shame though. I guess Strikes is the future.
I am not exactly on board with the direction regarding 10-man content, especially when it's becoming a prerequisite for getting an episode's meta achievement like this time, but I appreciate the communication.
S1 needs to return too eventually, as it ramped up difficulty between Personal Story and the following S2 and HoT.
Too often players feel the jump in difficulty from Personal story to S2 and HoT because of this missing rampup stage.
☆ SUGGEST-A-TRON
The main problem with idea of Strikes as a lure for raids is that even if those people get good there step by step, they can't access raids because the "friendly" community there will not allow them because they don't have killproofs, even if they can do dps and mechanics on par with everyone else. That is the main reason why the audience is so small. All those killproof currencies should have been abolished as step one, so people actually determined how players are good not before the fight, but during it.