Before Guild Wars 2 Releases on Steam.... Hear me out.

[Halandir.3609]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

No, but I understand how businesses work.  With many of the requests that filter through the forum, I don't believe that a lot of other people have a realistic idea of how and why companies make decisions.  /shrug

 

I doubt a single (major) investor looks at individual game forums. However, as for NCSOFT's YoY value I bet that, with your understanding of how businesses work, you will be rooting for every fresh idea and possible change to all NCSoft titles, including GW2 considering the yoy performance? (Yeah, check the 1 year graph, day graph is, in this case, irrelevant)

https://www.google.com/search?q=ncsoft+stock+price&oq=nc+soft+stock

 

But hey - It's all L2 :-)

 

[Ashen.2907]

2 hours ago, Dante.1508 said:

Are you by chance a shareholder. You act like one.

Wanting the shareholders to be happy is wanting the game to succeed and grow. 

[Ashen.2907]

9 minutes ago, Halandir.3609 said:

 

I doubt a single (major) investor looks at individual game forums. However, as for NCSOFT's YoY value I bet that, with your understanding of how businesses work, you will be rooting for every fresh idea and possible change to all NCSoft titles, including GW2 considering the yoy performance? (Yeah, check the 1 year graph, day graph is, in this case, irrelevant)

https://www.google.com/search?q=ncsoft+stock+price&oq=nc+soft+stock

 

But hey - It's all L2 🙂

 

Why on earth would anyone root for all changes and fresh ideas rather than rooting only for those that seem to potentially benefit the game?

There have been ideas expressed to shut the game down. Suggestions to make everything free. Ideas to hire literally thousands of developers (at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in increased payroll), and so on.

One should NEVER just root for changes and ideas for the sake of doing so.

[Halandir.3609]

5 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Why on earth would anyone root for all changes and fresh ideas rather than rooting only for those that seem to potentially benefit the game?

There have been ideas expressed to shut the game down. Suggestions to make everything free. Ideas to hire literally thousands of developers (at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in increased payroll), and so on.

One should NEVER just root for changes and ideas for the sake of doing so.

 

Who decides what potetially benefits the game? (hint: forum posters are not the answer) Management of course, acting as responsible proxies for the investors.
As weird as it may seem: Rooting for changes and any new ideas (doing something different/outside the box) is often the first chosen strategy of any underperforming business. I am sure NCSoft is 100% different though 🙂

 

 

[Ashen.2907]

2 minutes ago, Halandir.3609 said:

 

Who decides what potetially benefits the game? (hint: forum posters are not the answer) Management of course, acting as responsible proxies for the investors.
As weird as it may seem: Rooting for changes and any new ideas (doing something different/outside the box) is often the first chosen strategy of any underperforming business. I am sure NCSoft is 100% different though 🙂

 

 

There is a huge difference between thinking outside of the box, looking for good ideas, and just rooting for random ideas because they are suggested. You alluded to this fact with your, "responsible proxies," comment. Not all ideas, changes, or suggestions would be responsible to pursue.

Again, as an example, can you suggest how increasing payroll costs by a quarter billion to a billion dollars per year would benefit the company?  

Can you suggest how the company would benefit from choosing to no longer accept payment for any aspect of its service/products?

Both of those are changes that have been suggested. Should we root for them?

I am not suggesting that changes are not in order. Anet has stated that they are making changes. I have made my own suggestions based on what has worked in my industry (while being clear that I understand that different industries mean different variables to consider). Changes are coming. Some are already here. What I am responding to is the suggestion that EVERY suggested change must be rooted for.  

 

[Halandir.3609]

4 minutes ago, Ashen.2907 said:

 

Again, as an example, can you suggest how increasing payroll costs by a quarter billion to a billion dollars per year would benefit the company?  

Can you suggest how the company would benefit from choosing to no longer accept payment for any aspect of its service/products?

 

It's not that hard really, depending on context. If your employees cost 1 million but they generate a 2 mill return and your business is on the verge of losing these employees to a competitor - Throwing another half mill their way is the only sensible thing to do!

 

If your workforce is generating a 1:2 return but: Equally qualified people can't be hired (same price) and the workforce has the potential to generate a 1:5 return if moved from project A to project B? Either shut down A or be honest and tell the clients that A will be available with a skeleton crew and no/limited support. Sorry, I feel like an idiot typing this - This is SO basic 😕

 

 

[Voltage.8027]

At the very minimum, they need to do one of two things: bundle in living world season 2 with HoT and other living worlds with their appropriate expansion have it as a toggable option on the purchase menu to buy the connected lw season and put a pop-up text box somewhere that says "Living world season 2 is necessary to understand the story between ls1 and hot, would you like to purchase this as well?" before the player can complete their expansion purchase. How it is right now is unclear to the new player and many will feel cheated or confused if they buy the expansion and not have the story leading up to it unlocked. It should be made as clear as possible, there is no downside to doing this and will result in more happy players. For me, I didn't know lws2 was necessary to understand the story so I only bought HoT, and the story wasn't enjoyable because I didn't know anything going on. And I didn't know I needed lws2 until I finished the HoT story, so the experience was kind of ruined.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Voltage.8027

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

42 minutes ago, Voltage.8027 said:

At the very minimum, they need to do one of two things: bundle in living world season 2 with HoT and other living worlds with their appropriate expansion have it as a toggable option on the purchase menu to buy the connected lw season and put a pop-up text box somewhere that says "Living world season 2 is necessary to understand the story between ls1 and hot, would you like to purchase this as well?" before the player can complete their expansion purchase. How it is right now is unclear to the new player and many will feel cheated or confused if they buy the expansion and not have the story leading up to it unlocked. It should be made as clear as possible, there is no downside to doing this and will result in more happy players. For me, I didn't know lws2 was necessary to understand the story so I only bought HoT, and the story wasn't enjoyable because I didn't know anything going on. And I didn't know I needed lws2 until I finished the HoT story, so the experience was kind of ruined.

And where will they purchase Heart of Thorns?  It's no longer a stand-alone expansion.  What you mean to say is...have them purchase Living World Seasons 2 and 3 with Path of Fire.  Which would cost $65, or maybe $60? at a bundle discounted price. 

[battledrone.8315]

8 hours ago, Ashen.2907 said:

Wanting the shareholders to be happy is wanting the game to succeed and grow. 

just like blizzard did it? and just like  every EA owned franchise?

shareholders want money. the same money, that is needed to grow the game.

the shareholders are happy with games like FIFA and COD, games that they can milk every year with minimal effort and risk

[Quench.7091]

Season 2 is a cliffhanger to Heart of Thorns, so I do think they should consider leveraging that. They put those cliffhangers in to hook existing players into the next expansion. Cliffhangers cannot work if players are encouraged to skip over them.

Edit: To clarify, Mordremoth is supposed to be a mystery figure until HoT. It is difficult to see this once a player attempts season 2 after completing HoT.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Quench.7091