mindcircus.1506

New World launched in an incomplete buggy and completely exploitable state. Are "expectations" to blame for it's speedy fall from grace? Or can we lay blame on developers who released game where I could render myself invulnerable by running in windowed and giving the window's top bar focus? or where I could obscure another players UI by sending them common HTML code? Lost Art released with a character progression path that didn't include the necessary ingame drops to push forward without whaling to the tune of thousands of dollars. Are expectations to blame for it's speedy decline? Or can we blame AGS for unabashedly milking players, cutting off people who didn't swipe from content, and putting BDO to shame for P2W? At what point do the developers become accountable for their product? The fall from grace of both titles you mentioned have very little to do with rats abandoning ship, and more to do with a single company releasing substandard and exploitative games and laughing all the way to the bank as they did it.

This is not what the Welcome document says. The document is pretty clear. Anyone who takes the rules at face value and chooses to abide by them or form impressions based on them is not wrong. If indeed it is not the case, then the document is incorrect not the player,

To even be T1 in this community you need to run a Snowcrows build. This is the second bullet point of the Welcome Document. 1. Be on EU 2. Run a Snowcrows build. I don't want to take anything away from TCI or what they are doing I have a ton of respect for anyone who takes of their time to organize and co-ordinate for other people. But the requirement to run a Snowcrows build is very clearly defined on the Welcome Document. Not running a Meta build does indeed prohibit participation in TCI activities. The document is very clear. There is no "if, then, else". This is not a criticism. It's their house, their rules. I get the function of it. To say "not even that" is false. The official document makes it clear.

Let's be clear that this does NOT bar him from the content. Only for training with TCI.

Why would they need to post their build and logs? It's the second bullet point on their welcome document. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SLvufFxt8oWovBdDKTdqoy9zSZSsqw7HYlAPV2CwP7s/edit Please bring a character with a meta gear and build. Check https://snowcrows.com for builds

Actually I just checked their discord to fact check and it's worse than that. They are saying Snowcrows builds just to join training. Ugh.

These "GAME WILL FAIL ON STEAM BECAUSE MY PERSONAL PET PEEVE IS NOT ADDRESSED" threads are never going to get old.

Do you really think it's harder to find new events in New Keining than it is in Doman of Vabbi?

People who float that kind of rhetoric usually gloss over the fact that if you want to see REAL toxicity in GW2: -Cap Amber before Red -Open doors "out of order" in the Mad King's Labyrinth -One Burn south at Octovine I've seen sweaty tryingharding elitism in every part of this game but every time I have seen someone truly losing their minds with racist epithets, screaming and toxic babyrage it's been in open world when some troglodyte faced the prospect of two less green unidentified gear bags an hour.

Interesting how many people on both sides of this issue feel the need to present their personal feelings/reasons as everyone's feelings/reasons.

You're right. They should call something new. Like ummmm.... how about a "Saga"

Again I will ask.... Why didn't they just say "We are currently working on the next season of Living World"? If indeed that is what they are doing. What else could it "possibly be?" Anything. It could be a low quality release like Grothmar. It could be little more than a festival style map with a story instance it could be a lot of things. It could indeed be a continuation of Living World. They have not said. Here is why you need to put a critical eye to what Anet is saying and not make assumptions: Prior to the expac the company told us that 2 new stat combinations were coming to the game. In the patch notes they said: "This attribute combination is now available on all Legendary Items and select sources in End Of Dragons content" What is missing there? On May 25th 2019, the company said that available stat combinations were dependant on owned expansions. However this changed with End of Dragons. You cannot choose Ritualist or Dragon's stats from existing stat selectable offerings earned previously in PvE. In short, they changed the rules. And rather than say "we changed the rules" and explain why, and apologize to those of us who spent large amounts of time farming up spare trinkets they left it purposefully vague wondering it was a bug.... Until you go back and read those patch notes again and realize this is EXACTLY what they were doing. There are a few examples just like the above. I am excited about the prospect of content. I would absolutely LOVE them to say "we are currently working on the next season of Living World." I don't just like Living World and the format and formula, it was a big part of what kept me hooked on this game for several years. I think it was the best kitten update model in any MMO I have ever played. It kept me meaningfully engaged for months after every release completing the maps doing collections, running the story on alts with friends.... If they had gone onto their blog post and said "We are abandoning this content delivery model" there would have been a pretty big outcry and I would have been one of those people crying out. So they left it vague.... knowing full well how negative the reaction would be. ESPECIALLY considering the fact that a significant portion of the Living World fans also feel burned by content gating in EoD. Unfortunately, you need to read between the lines with Anet these days. If they are "Hinting" at something by not using their usual labels it means something has changed. Unfortunately they have not been forthright with us on these kinds of changes recently. If they didn't say "New Living World Content", then it's safe to assume you are not getting it and the replacement will fit the vague promise of the blog post but not live up to expectations previously set.

They gave a vague promise of a new map and new story. This is not an announcement of Living World at all. It sure isn't, as the OP I was responding to a "season". If it were indeed LW, they would have said LW. But they didn't. So if indeed it is, as you claim, the same thing, then why didn't they just say that?

There is nothing "doomer" or untrue in the post you are telling me to quit the game over. 1.EoD broke no records. 2.There has been no announcement of any new Living World. 3. We have indeed been promised(and therefore we expected) more frequent Balance. This did not happen. If you think it's a good idea to let untrue statements about the health and future of this game go without a single voice reminding people about reality, data, and Arenanet's track record, then you have no idea what happens around here when hype bubbles burst. Because the absolute first thing that happens is all those people who get excited over fanfic misinterpretations of reality are the absolute first people on these forums to scream bloody murder when their unsubstantiated dreams are not made reality. Think of the player who reads a post, and without looking at it carefully expects a new season of Living World. Picture their reaction when it does not happen.

What record did it break? All that was said is it outsold PoF. PoF didnt exactly light the gaming world on fire or set any records. It sold less copies than Heart of Thorns. The developers said nothing about a new season of LW. Only a vague promise of a new map at some point in the future. We most certainly were expecting them. We were promised them and never got them.

Crafting armor and weapons is easier than "most" collections. A notable exception here would be the Desert Elite Spec Weapon collections and the aforementioned Caladbolg. Both of which can pretty much be earned in an afternoon (provided you have, in the case of the Caladbolg ,already finished the HoT story). The specialization collections for HoT and EoD elite spec weapons are more involved and generally leave you better off crafting in terms of time spent. If you are finding yourself broke, take a look at doing some more high value activities or fill your downtime with mindless gathering of useful mats such as Iron, Platinum,Hard/soft/seasoned/elder wood ect..

I also come from the future: People are saying -That there needs to be an option for Legendary Armour that is earnable by means other than raiding -That they should not be forced to WvW in order to get a Gift of Battle -That Elementalist is awful and dies constantly -The new xpac is too hardcote and they are leaving the game along with all their friends, guildmates, casual aquaintences, investment counsellors and pet chinchillas -That all the problems with WvW will be fixed as soon as Alliances Launch.

City of Heroes was not "doing well".... not by a long shot. City of Heroes was gradually dying. It's revenue was dropping every quarter. While it was still earning a profit, the game was gradually heading to a place where it would not. Nothing stopped the slow decline in revenue, not the Going Rogue expac, not the Free 2 play conversion, not predatory lootboxes, not selling BiS enhancements on the cash shop. The game was not growing despite many attempts to inject life into it. It was milking it's loyal customers with more and more cash shop items, and eventually even the most ardent fans (myself included) were reaching a tipping point. Without attracting new players and having exhausted the monetization of their existing fan base things were looking very bad. At which point parent company NCSoft seeded Paragon studios with a bunch of cash and ordered the studio to begin work on a City of Heroes 2. In a podcast several years after the shutdown, one of the developers admitted, that while the studio did indeed receive the cash, they did not use it to start developing a sequel and instead were working, in secret on a completely different game. It didn't take long before NCSoft found out and canned the game and studio. Casting NCSoft as a corproate bully that shut down a beloved game doesn't address Paragon Studio's fraud. This is a studio that after the news of the shutdown became clear, knowingly transferred it's server code and it's client database (including payment info, CC Numbers, home addresses) to a well known community member in order to facilitate establishing a private server. It's a fun narrative to paint NCSoft as some kind of evil company that shut down a beloved game despite it still being popular. It's a narrative I have myself been guilty of signal boosting in the past. It is however not nearly that simple. A little digging shows a much more complicated story that is not a good look for the former developers.

Covid 19 is why revenue decreased in q4 2019? Is Covid 19 the reason Mike Z was sent packing after leading the company down this road too? Despite this being months before the first recorded case outside China?

https://massivelyop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/screenshot_002490.jpg The graph showing GW2's worst quarter in the history of the game, following the end of LWs4 to the beginning of Icebrood Saga. A period in which the studio released only easy OW content such as festivals, community events like Boss Rush/Fractal Rush and Grothmar Valley (A map with less threatening ambient combat than Queensdale). This is the period that shows revenue for the game all the way up to and including the Prologue of Icebrood. The graph is derived from data from NCSoft's public financial reports. The players doubling is from the blog post today. It's simple cause and effect. While a certain portion of the playerbase was happily being catered to, they were unable (due to size) or unwilling (due to perceived value) to actively support the product. The data is there. You just need to be able to accept reality.

The game focuses solely on chill open world content for 8 months and has it's worst quarter ever in terms of revenue. The game shifts course and double's it's player count and revenue goes up. The only people saying "confirmation bias" at that point are the people who are too high on copium to admit that their attempt to wag the dog has already proven to lead to the death of the game.

The addition of the LW1 content in "Visions of the Past" should signal to you that there will be no polish on this stuff and that they are unafraid to restore substandard content wholesale without any meaningful iteration. ...and a certain subsection of this community will respond with "please. Sir, may I have another?"

And the babyrage would still be there.

Do you think for a moment this would stop the complaint threads? Because I guarantee the posts would just become: GIFT OF BATTLE TOO EXPENSVIVE!! Why does Anet hate it's players who are all paying customers and ALL casuals????? 500 Gold on the TP for a Gift of Battle?? Are you KIDDING ME ARENANET??? I have a familay and a job and now I am FORCED to grind gold just so I can get a legendary because I hate any form of PVP and the people who play it???? WHAT HAPPENED TO "PLAY HOW YOU WANT"???

If you look at the post count by the people starting the threads you will see the answer. Most of these are newer/returning players who don't understand just how often this topic has been discussed over the years and are perfectly happy as presenting opinions that state "What I don't like=Bad design". The moment you see a post talk about a QoL/Cosmetic reward and how players are "forced" to do something that offers zero statistical advantage, you know it's just the same tired false rhetoric.