Faline.8795

No one in their right mind would ask for a WoW clone. If they wanted a WoW clone, just go play WoW. On the other hand, just because WoW does something doesn't mean it should be rejected. Some ideas are good. Obviously, what GW2 is doing isn't drawing enough people (and thus enough revenue). Of course, they haven't shut down the servers, and they haven't gone into maintenance mode. But if it was making good money, we'd see a lot more content, more expansions, etc. If we're satisfied with the status quo, then okay. But I suspect that we're not. So it's helpful to look at why people aren't playing. (And thus not spending money.) Those were my reasons. Others have other reasons. But if we were to take the position that we like GW2 as it is, then nothing will change and GW2 will continue down the path it is on. It isn't going to get better, it won't make more money. GW2 needs to change, at least somewhat, or eventually go the way of all flesh. Sooner rather than later.

This is my opinion and probably doesn't reflect what other people think. This is just me. I've had Guild Wars since...I don't know. Not terribly long after it came out. Yet I rarely play it. Beautiful graphics, love that there is tons of voice acting in there. Makes the world seem more alive. But it can't capture me. No world chat. Makes the game very lonely. Map chat is too limited. I know, I know. "Get into a guild." Some people don't like guilds. No random matchmaking. The most popular games, World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV have random matchmaking for their dungeons. It's wildly popular. Sure, Guild Wars 2 has a group finder, but it involves finding a group, applying, and maybe getting accepted or rejected. A lot of people don't like that. Letting the game make the groups takes that pressure away. No appreciable end game. Conquering the next raid or dungeon or working toward that cool looking weapon isn't enough of a draw. GW2's bread and butter is avoiding the power chase. Okay, fine. But what they do have doesn't work for enough people. Gamers want to chase something. What? I don't know. But what GW2 isn't it. Lack of enthusiasm from the developers. Maybe I should rephrase that. At least, public enthusiasm. Communication from the GW2 people is rare. I would like to hear a lot more, a lot more frequently. More communication tells me that they still have faith in the game. Silence is what you get from a corpse. It does seem they are working on that, lately. Let's see if it sticks. Not enough new content. Have to keep rolling it out. Updates are too far between. That, as well, bespeaks a game that isn't doing well, perception-wise. Reality doesn't matter. Only perception. I know, for some of that, people will say "Want chat? Get a guild. Want groups? Get a guild!" That doesn't work well, especially in today's environment. Players today, a large number of them, don't want to be tied down. They want to play and then go back to their life. The next argument is, "If you want to play solo, don't play an MMO". Problem is, that outlook will eventually kill GW2. Because that isn't where the marker is heading. Solo is where it is at. Yes, wandering the world and coming on a group to slay a boss is great. But overall, people want to do what they want to do when they want to do it. Not wait for some group to get together and eventually do it. That is where the market is heading, and we can either adapt to it or cross our arms, pout, and watch GW2 flounder. GW2, for it's part, is very solo-friendly. Except for raids and dungeons (and some world bosses), there really isn't anything you can't do by yourself. But there are things that GW2 can do to help the solo player. The aforementioned random group maker. The world chat. End game, I don't know. If not a gear chase, then what? Anyway, that's my opinion. ymmv

It's the opposite, NCSoft is making profit in the West so why would they stop their projects that are making profit? How do you know that? How do you know that they aren't breaking even or even posting a loss? How do you know that, too? Well, yes and no. You do bring up very valid points, but there are answers to your questions. First, killing a game sends a bad message. Keeping a title around will draw people to other titles. So there is reason to keep a low-performing title around. As I said in a previous post, there are such things as "loss leaders." But also there comes a point where resources are best used elsewhere. Since you brought up World of Warcraft, there is always a healthy worry over there about how much longer Blizz is going to put up with WoW, giving how much it costs to develop new stuff. But if we really went the route of "any profit is good profit," Wildstar would still be around. Someone, somewhere, has drawn a line in the accounting sand. I know it sounds like it, but I am not trying to be doom and gloom. And I find it interesting that WoW seems to have a large chorus of people who are continually talking about its demise, while both GW2 and FF14 are the opposite. People want WoW to crash and burn while people want GW2 to continue and grow. Talk about different audiences! I'm just questioning an economic reality.

Given how Blade & Soul, Aion and Lineage II combined make less money than Guild Wars 2 in the NA and EU, shutting down Guild Wars 2 would mean NCsoft no longer has any meaningful games in those regions. Removing Guild Wars 2 would mean shutting down NCsoft West completely. I don't really know how much regional presence makes that much of a difference. Is NCSoft willing to give up profit just to have a virtual presence in the West? Is anyone who makes the decision really asking, "Am we willing to give up a million dollars in profit just to say we have a Western game?" There are such things as loss leaders. If running only a minorly profitable game gets you to look at other games from NCSoft, that could be a viable reason to keep a minorly profitable game going. Yeah, sure, putting out more content would certainly get more people involved, and more money into the game. But that brings us back to the original question: Why spend money for 25 cents profit per dollar when you can spend money on 75 cents profit per dollar. Sure, we don't know GW2's cost/revenue ratio. I don't know the other games, but certainly it's higher than a mobile game.

You are absolutely right about that. We can however hypothesize. We do know that MMOs have a heavy outlay for design. These things aren't cheap to make. Now, if we weren't getting any more content, that would be one thing. But of course, no one wants maintenance mode.

With the recent quarterly report coming out naming GW2 as second-to-last in income revenue, would they be asking if the money being put into GW2 be better spent on another title that costs less and makes more money? If they spent $1 on GW2 and made $1.20, but on some other title they can spend $1 and make $1.75, wouldn't that $1 be better spent elsewhere? This is one of the reasons I just can't see an expac announcement coming, but who knows? They haven't shut down Aion yet, so there's that.

So I boosted a toon. I filled the XP bar and I keep getting this message "Your current ability is fully trained and ready to master!" I see that it won't unlock until I do either "Torn from the Sky" (whatever that is) or "Sparking the Flame" (from Path of Fire). So am I supposed to skip all the Living Stories before that and jump directly to it? Or am I supposed to go through it all in order and live with that obnoxious message all the time (and lose out on all the xp I'm not getting credit for since my xp bar is full)?

I boosted a character and I have finished my first full bar of experience points. It keeps prompting me about Masteries, but says I have to finish a storyline that is way down the line for me. If I continue to do quests and stuff, what happens to all that experience? Is it lost?

And that is why you have the option to turn it off.

Why not both? World Chat and Custom Chat channels?

I forgot I had posted this. I still would like to see a world chat. As I run along, questing, it's fun to watch conversations in the chat tab. I stay on WoW a lot longer than I would normally just because the chat is fun sometimes. And for those who don't want it, you have the ability to turn it off. All in all, since it is optional, would it really be so bad to have it?

To me, that was part of the charm of World Chat. Really no different than a Discord chat or Guild Chat or anything else like that. It's like being in the game world at a pub chatting with your blokes. Yes, you get some trolls, but overall I always felt it made everything more alive.

World Chat is the one thing that is missing from GW2 that I wish it had. Guilds don't count because those are limited to guild members. To me (and I accept that this is only my personal opinion), World Chat makes the game seem more alive to me. World Chat is what kept me with World of Warcraft for so long. (It sure wasn't the crayon graphics!) Yes, map chat is there. But what if something is happening on a different map, like a boss I wanted. Wouldn't know without World Chat. I know a lot of people don't like the concept of World Chat. If there was a toggle to opt out of World Chat, would that make it more palatable?