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A Message from Andrew Gray


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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.

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@Fire Attunement.9835 said: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.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.
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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....

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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.

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In regards to using Strikes as stepping stone to Raids:

  • Have you guys considered adding a currency/token system for Strikes to help gear players up for raids? Both Fractals and Raids have RNG gear acquisition from completion and guaranteed tokens which can be used to acquire more gear as well. Strikes don't exactly pay out much for rewards in terms of raw gold or gear (aside from very rare cosmetic exotic rarity drops).
  • How will Strikes funnel players into raids in general? There doesn't seem to be any connection between the two or a call to action to enter the raids in general until a new wing comes out and players receive an in-game mail. What serves as the call to action?
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@jasonorme.5014 said: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?.

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.

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@Fire Attunement.9835 said:

  • 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.

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.

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Raids are a trickier beast. <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".

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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.

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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).

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@"Alex Dimitri.9128" said:Im 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.

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.

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@"Fire Attunement.9835" said:

  • 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.

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.

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