ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2

[Deekkru.5128]

Great communication, and so many exciting things to look forward to!!! It's been a rough few years for everyone, and I think we've all seen the toll that life + reorganization took on GW2's development, but I feel more and more hopeful when I see what a fantastic job the current team has done turning things around. 10/10 on the progress so far, and I look forward to seeing where this game will go!

 

Also, as someone who played prior to LS1, but missed the actual storyline and returned to find LA ravaged, I'm so thankful to finally be able to experience what happened!

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

2 minutes ago, Deekkru.5128 said:

Great communication, and so many exciting things to look forward to!!!

It really feels like that this "Great Communication" only applies to actual "Hyping" factors (so far, yet having to be proven wrong)
Anything else (especially about acknowledging bugs and issues) is really subpar, TOO SLOW and NOT CONSTANT enough.

[RyuDragnier.9476]

5 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

Recycled content isn’t new content. 

It is for anybody who never got to experience Season 1, which was around 8-10 years ago, btw.

[KurokouNekoki.7891]

2 minutes ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

It is for anybody who never got to experience Season 1, which was around 8-10 years ago, btw.

They should have "brought" kept it 8-10 years ago.
I don't know why people are so excited about it, in a way because that honestly should have never left the game to begin with...

Edited March 22, 2022 by KurokouNekoki.7891

[Seth Moonshadow.2710]

I would have been ecstatic about this news where it not for the knowledge that from EoD moving forward Guild Wars 2 is for the elites. I'm sure THIS version of LWS will be much like the EoD release and therefor not for PvE / casuals this time around. Good things it's free still hopefully?

[mythical.6315]

2 minutes ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

It is for anybody who never got to experience Season 1, which was around 8-10 years ago, btw.

There’s a difference between new content and content that’s new to some players. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by mythical.6315

[LokiSaint.3457]

if you don't balance thief and stealth mechanic, what's the point really 

[NorthernRedStar.3054]

You guys HAVE been listening! Looking forward to this summer!
 

Quote

There’s a difference between new content and content that’s new to some players. 

There's new content included in the mix as well, read more carefully.

Edited March 22, 2022 by NorthernRedStar.3054

[yoni.7015]

Just now, Seth Moonshadow.2710 said:

I would have been ecstatic about this news where it not for the knowledge that from EoD moving forward Guild Wars 2 is for the elites. I'm sure THIS version of LWS will be much like the EoD release and therefor not for PvE / casuals this time around. Good things it's free still hopefully?

That’s nonsense. 99% of the game is still for PVE and casuals. The strike missions challenge modes will be the only content for “the elites”. 
 

back to topic: great news! Can’t wait for the new versions of the legendaries. 

[RyuDragnier.9476]

2 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

There’s a difference between new content and content that’s new to some players. 

Some players? If anybody joined at Season 2, HoT or later, they NEVER experienced it. That's a rather big chunk of players, 8 years worth. Those of us who experienced it are a minority, like it or not.

[LokiSaint.3457]

26 minutes ago, Batel.9206 said:

On one hand, yay! I love this game, and I'm glad to see it go on. WHOOOOOOO YAY for Season One returning!!!!

On the other hand, considering that you've deleted all negative feedback (on these forums at least) about the dialogue/story in EoD, that doesn't give me a lot of hope for future stories. Please take this to heart, ArenaNet: the people giving you this negative feedback don't want the game to fail, nor do they hate the game - or you. They just want a story that doesn't shove modern politics (from EITHER side of the spectrum!) in their faces, dragging them right out of the beautifully constructed fantasy world and back into the annoying drudgery of real life. Please, please throttle back on it. If you're truly reading feedback, please listen to it.

 

...and maybe continue to listen to feedback like "please give us a way to turn down/off visual effects" like people have been begging for years? 😅

What "modern politics" are you referring to? 

[Deekkru.5128]

4 minutes ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

It is for anybody who never got to experience Season 1, which was around 8-10 years ago, btw.

Agreed! It would've been best for them to just make LS1 a replayable story from the beginning, but they're working hard to fix past mistakes, and this was a huge one. They've mentioned plenty of new content upcoming as well, but having this old content back is so important and will be a new experience for many many players 🙂

[Witch of Doom.5739]

Hooray for LWS1 !!  Thanks for the news!  For the new expansion I hope for something like "Depths of Tyria" -- something brand new.  Let's go underwater and make that kind of combat relevant again.  Expansion of skiffs and fishing.  Huge enclosed underwater cities, explorable caverns.  More Kodan and Quaggan.  Player housing.  TYVM

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Witch of Doom.5739
to stay on topic

[mythical.6315]

Just now, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

Some players? If anybody joined at Season 2, HoT or later, they NEVER experienced it. That's a rather big chunk of players, 8 years worth. Those of us who experienced it are a minority, like it or not.

You have a source?  

[RyuDragnier.9476]

1 minute ago, mythical.6315 said:

You have a source?  

You mean the fact that the Attack on Lion's Arch: Aftermath hit on March 18, 2014? Over 8 years ago?

[mythical.6315]

1 minute ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

You mean the fact that the Attack on Lion's Arch: Aftermath hit on March 18, 2014? Over 8 years ago?

That’s not a source to back up your claim in regards to the percentage of players who have and haven’t played the original season 1. 
 

Regardless, delving further into that would be off topic. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by mythical.6315

[RyuDragnier.9476]

1 minute ago, mythical.6315 said:

That’s not a source to back up your claim in regards to the percentage of players who have and haven’t played the original season 1. 

Quoting the Update article (which you didn't read btw) here.

Quote

This long-term focus is paying off—we’re seeing incredible growth in the community. In fact, the number of active Guild Wars 2 players has more than doubled over the last three years. This growth has helped Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons outsell our previous expansion, Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire. Not bad for a game getting ready to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

 

[mythical.6315]

11 minutes ago, RyuDragnier.9476 said:

Quoting the Update article (which you didn't read btw) here.

 

Active players doesn’t mean brand new players. People stop playing and come back all the time. We also do not know what their definition of active players is. 
 

I don’t want to drag this out further as I was just voicing my disappointment that we won’t be getting new content until much later in the year. 
 

New content is brand new content to the game. It’s not content that’s new to a portion of the players just like how the Return to Living World all last year was not new content. Some of it certainly may have been new to a portion of players but it wasn’t new to the game. Recycling the LS1 content into episodes isn’t new content and neither is adding CMs which someone else brought up. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by mythical.6315

[Seth Moonshadow.2710]

Just now, yoni.7015 said:

That’s nonsense. 99% of the game is still for PVE and casuals. The strike missions challenge modes will be the only content for “the elites”.

Then you haven't looked at post that states what I said. Look here . When taken as speaking to the "elite" community this reads very much like a "You have done much and we are getting the rest of the player base up to your speed so hang tight" NOT like PvE is open world and for the casual gamer. No unless I'm missing something this reads like the game is going to be brought up to EoD standards and if you can't see a difference between the game preEoD and all of EoD then your missing what's really happening.

 

"Closing thoughts:
It's natural to make assumptions about what is common or normal based on our own habits and capabilities and extrapolate that out to the rest of the player community, but most Guild Wars 2 players have few methods for working directly on their legendary goals. Much of it is earned from the 7 clovers a month from the final login track reward!

 The feeling of working hard for something and finding out it’s going to be easily accessible to others in the future can feel bad, and that feeling is real and valid. But you’ve made a ton of tangible progress in fractal Challenge Modes and other people having access to that in the future doesn’t take away from everything you’ve accomplished.

 I hope this gives some more insight into how we think about reward design and clarifies some of the changes coming in Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons ."

[Kaliwenda.3428]

This is great news, thank you!

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

March 1st: Tearfully beat down [REDACTED]

April: Smash the [Redacted!] Bash the [Redacted!}

Aurene must be so uncomfortable. 

@ Colin Johanson and the dev team.

I wish I could grab you all and look you dead in the eyes to say that you have an -immensely- good foundation on which to build out an MMO here, as long as you all use it and treat it with respect. That player growth was not a fluke.  10th anniversary or not. Games can stand the test of time if they've been built with care and regard for the people who play them. 

Hopefully the PvP sphere sees some attention as well. The combat system is too good to not be giving that a cursory eye. 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Azure The Heartless.3261

[LucianDK.8615]

Did people notice this bit?

The Future, Confirmed

One last update before we go: we’re happy to confirm that there will be a fourth expansion for Guild Wars 2! We mean it when we say we’re focused on the long-term. This is a very early confirmation (the earliest we’ve ever done this, in fact), so don’t expect news anytime soon. Expansions take a very long time to develop. Plus, there’s plenty of cool things to look forward to between now and then.

 

That should silence the doomsayers claiming this is the 'last' expansion.

[Danikat.8537]

15 minutes ago, KurokouNekoki.7891 said:

They should have "brought" kept it 8-10 years ago.
I don't know why people are so excited about it, in a way because that honestly should have never left the game to begin with...

Have you ever heard the saying "the best time to fix this was when it happened, the second best time is now"?

Season 1 should never have left, but it did and now they're finally fixing it and making it possible to play through the entire story. I think that's something to be happy about if you're at all interested in the story or any of the areas (including at least 2 dungeons), items etc  that disappeared with it.

 

[Goettel.4389]

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-future-of-guild-wars-2-arenanet-announces-return-of-season-1-and-teases-next-expansion/

[RyuDragnier.9476]

1 minute ago, Danikat.8537 said:

Have you ever heard the saying "the best time to fix this was when it happened, the second best time is now"?

Season 1 should never have left, but it did and now they're finally fixing it and making it possible to play through the entire story. I think that's something to be happy about if you're at all interested in the story or any of the areas (including at least 2 dungeons), items etc  that disappeared with it.

 

Luckily it sounds like some of those will return as strikes. Oh I'm going to love hearing "Cannonballs, my one WEAKNESS!" again. Memories...