A New Beginning For The Dev Team's Priorities.

[Altonese.6542]

End of Dragons represents, in the story of Guild Wars, the end of the Dragon Cycle which dominated the world from 1325 AE to 1335 AE. At the end, without spoiler, it's clear that Tyria is now looking ahead to a new future. Who knows where that could go?

That's not what this thread is about though. No, it's about Anet, not Dragon's Watch. End of Dragons release is a great time for Anet to let the world's story settle. Yeah, I'm advocating for Anet to -not- get to work on Season 6. Not yet.

This is an opportunity for Anet, without the demand of knowing where a story must end, at least main story anyway - Focus on -bugs-, and -features-, and -WvW-.

Put the story aside. Start working on Feature Packs ala 2014. (Except for the New Player Experience, eww.) Bugs. It's been four years since I noticed that /kneeling makes my character walk on lean until I equip/unequip my helmet.

Get DX11 support out of beta, pin down and work hard on class balancing, and for the love of the Lord on high, if WvW is a cornerstone, its time to corner that stone and give it a glow up. A new map, balancing, alliances, etc. Go to PvP, work on that. Game, game, game. Not story.

The story will be fine without you for a time, ArenaNet, and we the players will be fine without living world - Especially if instead of that, we're getting an increased quality of life, new features, and new life breathed in to game modes.

Give us a swimsuit outfit.

Here's a ready response to some replies I'm expecting.

No they should only do story.
Go read a book.

They can work on multiple things duh.
Can they? Sure. Should they? Nah.

ArenaNet is the one who knows what to do, not you.
Firstly, just incorrect considering I'm literally the best player at this game. Secondly, while yes, ArenaNet has more information and stats than we ever will, they're still people. A group of people, and groups of people can lose their way, or make mistakes. They still haven't added a Swimsuit outfit and Southsun came out years ago. That's not some master plan of 4D Chess. That's just a team of people,  whom, while doing their best, are making a mistake/doing something wrong.

TLDR
Season 6 can and should wait. Time to lift up the game itself in some spring cleaning. Get it on Steam, get the bugs worked out, get the balance going, get us our swimsuit outfit.

[Gibson.4036]

While I think it would be great for them to concentrate on some of these things for a while, how do you monetize a big feature pack?

Well, with the exception of the swimsuits. 😄

[AliamRationem.5172]

I think we can all agree on the swimsuit, but what is all this extremist nonsense about skipping the story?

[Altonese.6542]

2 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

While I think it would be great for them to concentrate on some of these things for a while, how do you monetize a big feature pack?

Well, with the exception of the swimsuits. 😄

They were writing cheques through Champions at the end of Icebrood Saga. That's McDonalds still being able to pay their employees with burgers made of goat fur. Anet can do it.

[jcH.7109]

I kinda agree with your post OP, but I feel that Anet will never, ever, EVER do that, even if it would mean the health of the game would improve. Their priority is to instantly make money, rather than invest money and time to polish the game (which would be the better option over the long term)

[Altonese.6542]

Just now, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I think we can all agree on the swimsuit, but what is all this extremist nonsense about skipping the story?

Not really skipping. Just, push it back. Make story the lesser priority.

[Altonese.6542]

1 minute ago, jcH.7109 said:

I kinda agree with your post OP, but I feel that Anet will never, ever, EVER do that, even if it would mean the health of the game would improve. Their priority is to instantly make money, rather than invest money and time to polish the game (which would be the better option over the long term)

This kind of falls in to the part where I say that ArenaNet aren't some mystically wise group of sages as some people on the forums seem to think. They can have good intentions, and still make mistakes. Doing what you described is a mistake, as you also pointed out.

[Gibson.4036]

I also have the fantasy they'd go back to areas of EoD that seem to have run out of developer time and fill them out. But that seems unlikely as well.

[Ashantara.8731]

3 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I also have the fantasy they'd go back to areas of EoD that seem to have run out of developer time and fill them out. But that seems unlikely as well.

We can dream. 😉

@OP: I agree, it would be great so see improvements like a full UI overhaul, a new WvW map with new mechanics (Siege Turtle?), polishing of old maps, DX11 out of beta, bug fixes, etc. This seems like a good time for it.

[Raizel.8175]

I agree that there are several issues Arena Net should tackle first. WvW restructuring was announced years ago and should get finalized soon. sPvP could also use some love and especially some new modes besides Conquest.

[LSD.4673]

Even at time in the past when Anet had comparable, or otherwise bigger dev teams than the likes of WoW, they've consistently and repeatedly failed to deliver and totally mismanaged the allocation of resources. Nowadays there's been plenty of layoffs, re-allocated devs to make-believe non-GW2 related tasks, not to mention NCSoft's lack of faith in GW2 -- despite its relatively good earnings.

 

For years its been one thing or another. The last major balance patch was what, 2 years ago? It was received horribly and hasn't been revisited since.

WvW has a big update "in the works" which has been "in the works" for years. The most that has materialised was an extremely janky beta a few months back which has left the current game in a state where the playerbase has haemorrhaged beyond belief and the matchups make 0 sense. Before that, who can tell me when the last WvW update was...? Even the regular, often unannounced +WXP events aren't bringing anyone in.

Fractals haven't been touched in 18 months, new "strikes" are locked behind an underwhelming expansion, PvP is bot infested and largely laughed at by its old playerbase, and you can't visit a PvE map or meta without running into crowds of bots and AFKs.

 

The only explanation is that the game is on life support. The big revenue brought in over covid justified to NCSoft an expansion, but judging by the complete lack of marketing hype and a sponsorship deal with...Nick Jay's?...i doubt that'll change the game's fortunes.

 

The only reasonable explanation is that NCSoft has stripped the dev team down and taken a bunch away for other projects (like the mobile rumours of years ago). How else do you explain the trickle of updates? The glaring issues with the expansion? The still unpatched bugs brought about with it? 

 

Basically: let's not hold our breath.

[Anonynja.3172]

I agree. Get around to the massive backlog. EoD is a nice QoL expac and surely some things were rushed, like designing the e-specs. I'd be so happy to see old bugs fixed, e-specs given the attention they deserve, nice QoL features added like titles getting their own Hero tab, LFG panel redone, fishing getting its own UI to store bait/lures, etc. 

[Slade.2341]

Well I'm going to say this and this is not directly on topic but I don't understand what your priorities are? In the story you completely and totally destroyed kurzick and luxon. Which a lot of us gw1 players were waiting for the war to come back . But now you're going to screw over PVP and WVW. I really don't understand it you're going to kitten on the mechanic that you gave to the new revenant class that allowed it to survive actually be survivable through condi when it has no condi clear! And warrior has no condi clear, I understand warrior had that in that great mechanic they made condi almost unable to touch it for a very long time because there have been no other skills they gave condi clear.In addition we understand guardian every single member of Internet apparently has a hard-on for but most of us don't, guardian is every condi clear in imaginable it takes a kitten it clears condies at the same time a necromancer takes a kitten and gives everyone condi and every STD it has. I'm serious people need to say something these classes are the ones you're probably trying to sell off to us so more people buy your content so you can make money can you please do yourself a favor before a bunch of us get together and stop playing guild wars 2 because of how upset we are, and give these two classes more condi clear if you're going to do what you just did. Even though I do not play catalyst I do not touch elementalist what you do the elementalist was still stupid, the only class that really needs a Nerf and always has is guardian, a guardian is anet  secret lover, I mean was someone over there A 55monk and wishes for the olds days or some kitten! Please do the community a favor and give rev and war more condi clear are you going to be seeing more posts like this into the point where other people just stop playing again and you lose money from your cash shop!

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Slade.2341
Correcting of spelling

[Nightgunner.2896]

The people who make the story aren't the same people that make armor skins or work on the engine or do profession balancing or manage live operations.

You wouldn't hire the author of your favorite fantasy novel to paint your house, no matter how much you wanted your house to be painted.

[Opopanax.1803]

8 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I think we can all agree on the swimsuit, but what is all this extremist nonsense about skipping the story?

I would take a postponed story for 3 months to get a really good balance and old skill update...  I'd probably do that 3x in a row... that's how bad balance is right now...

[Altonese.6542]

9 hours ago, Nightgunner.2896 said:

The people who make the story aren't the same people that make armor skins or work on the engine or do profession balancing or manage live operations.

You wouldn't hire the author of your favorite fantasy novel to paint your house, no matter how much you wanted your house to be painted.

The story team worked immensely hard on End of Dragons. So, easy solution, paid vacation. Get 'em out of the office, get them to the beach in Rio, and plug away at the game's technical side.

[patton the great.7126]

I dunno about you guys, but I want instanced player Capes to go along with our already meaningful Capes and skiffs!

[anninke.7469]

8 minutes ago, Altonese.6542 said:

The story team worked immensely hard on End of Dragons. So, easy solution, paid vacation. Get 'em out of the office, get them to the beach in Rio, and plug away at the game's technical side.

And they could gather heaps of swimsuit inspiration for their fashion-making colleagues. Just sayin'...

[kharmin.7683]

18 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

I think we can all agree on the swimsuit

Nope.

16 minutes ago, patton the great.7126 said:

I dunno about you guys, but I want instanced player Capes to go along with our already meaningful Capes and skiffs!

That's getting old.  You're spamming multiple threads with these comments.  Enough already.

[Goettel.4389]

They're fortunate to have you here. Really.

[Altonese.6542]

38 minutes ago, patton the great.7126 said:

I dunno about you guys, but I want instanced player Capes to go along with our already meaningful Capes and skiffs!

What are you talking about. Skiffs are fun, so is fishing, and capes are great. All they need to add is a swimsuit and we're golden. GW2 could be a role-player's paradise. There's absolutely no sarcasm either, I'm an avid RPer. Swimsuits, player-apartments (End of Dragons, you showed us an apartment complex, come on.) Would be amazing features alongside WvW improvements/features and bug fixes.

[captrowdy.9561]

Y’all forget who really owns this game. They do this to make money. 

[Ainsle.3906]

Agree on the bathing suit! Now that we have fishing and skiffs, it’s needed. I have that horrid bikini and sunglasses as one of my builds 😁and that is the only thing I wear when on my skiff fishing. It only makes sense. I do like the new fishing gear but an option for different bathing suits would be awesome!

[patton the great.7126]

4 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Nope.

That's getting old.  You're spamming multiple threads with these comments.  Enough already.

Excuse me Mr grumpy pants. I'm not sure what you mean. I feel compelled to express my joy at skiffs, Capes, and FISHING. Please get over yourself and support our devs. I will not stand for your negative views towards my joy at the lack of wvw updates!

[kharmin.7683]

22 minutes ago, patton the great.7126 said:

Excuse me Mr grumpy pants. I'm not sure what you mean. I feel compelled to express my joy at skiffs, Capes, and FISHING. Please get over yourself and support our devs. I will not stand for your negative views towards my joy at the lack of wvw updates!

If you want to make the point, then please feel free to start your own thread.  No need to drop it in several other threads where it really doesn't pertain to the topic of those threads.