You're the CEO. What do the next 5 years look like?

[loonatic.1689]

I've had several speculation discussions with folks I have gamed with over the years. I find that most discussion is often negative rather than affirmative, ie, more people are willing to speak against content they DONT want rather than content they DO want.

So here's an exercise for all of us. What do the next 5 years look like ideally, for you specifically? This new mini expansion cycle makes it quite easy to formulate a plan. If you're feeling extra creative, you can even go further than 5 and discuss interim patches. I've got several ideas that I've discussed with my friends, which I'll come back with and reply to this topic when I have a little bit more time on my hands. I want to give people a chance to put their ideas out first so as not to skew the conversation by unloading my preconceived ideas at the beginning. 

Here's the format I'd be using:

Intro - Explain what you like and what you don't like, how long you've been playing, and how you came upon your general direction. 

Year 1 - 2024, 2nd mini expac

Year 2 - etc etc etc

3, 4, 5, and closing statement if you feel it necessary. 

(Don't feel like you have to stick to any guidelines, I'm just curious where peoples' minds are at, and would love to discuss further from a point of "yes and" rather than "no".)

Assuming you don't want to present your own ideas, what do you speculate Anet will be doing? Someone internally must have a 5 year vision. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by loonatic.1689

[Blude.6812]

Lots to like! Been playing since day1.

 

I would like to back to play as you want philosophy, and everything can be earned or collected in a players preferred game mode and not forced to play a different mode of play that you don't want to play or like ( eg PvE, WvW , strikes etc). Been playing since GW 1. 

and fix the RNG for outlier account.

[Einsof.1457]

I'd get the company to focus on fun and challenge above all else and stop catering towards toxic casuals who are driving the core playerbase away. 

Edited October 10, 2023 by Einsof.1457

[Linken.6345]

I would probabely drive the game into the ground since I have no knowlage about what to do.

[starlinvf.1358]

If we’re being real?

27% Year over year growth. 

And when that doesn’t work?  Dump shares and step down to pursue more personal life stuff. 

[MalekithDG.6124]

Depends on the amount of money they gave to me to work with. I guess with moderate amount of money...

1. Close this kryptis arc up with the next expansion (if its not yet closed by the end of SOTO) and from that point open up a new Arc but without new maps. Instead the new story arc will be about internal issues rising within pact and certain base maps will see improvements. Nothing crazy, there wont be graphic overhaul or lots of new places and whatnot, thats not the point, but there will be new meta's (instanced and overworld) that will be accessed within those maps. New maps will still come but not with every expansion for god sake to make the budget more gamemode friendly. Openworld cannibalizes on various modes.
2. "Instanced meta's"  I mentioned above will be returning back to roots, yes, more dungeons. Certain parts of the story will be told via dungeons, 1 dungeon per expansion. Base dungeons will be easy to do with CM mode coming in later updates much like Strikes today.
3. Either strikes or Fractals will be abandoned. I see Fractals boasting more (casual) players than strikes so... It was never sustainable that this game had so many PVE modes which will bound to make certain playerbases sad since they had to be abandoned. Either fractals or Strikes should have never happened. Raids were the harder content so strikes meant to serve as a stepping stone make sense. Fractals on the other hand kinda made to succeed dungeons but they told no stories. They were without any soul, while I appreciate the little snippets of historical events like PoF Fractal and etc. the whole "Asura math" theming never appealed to me. The newer fractals like Silent Surf, Sunqua Peak, Shattered Observatory, Nighmare are literally strikes. Well... They fall into between dungeons and strikes. They are not single boss fights so they are not Strikes but they are not as short/easy as Fractals either. This game is very inconsistent and incoherent with its PVE content.
4. Raids will also see some love and they will be used as a conclusion to expansion stories now. 1 new raid every expansion. Emboldened mode effect now will be available to EVERY SINGLE RAID at all times. This will make entry to raids very easy. There wont be any need for strikes now therefore strikes are abandoned for the sake of Fractals. Rewards will stay the same. Easier content but same rewards. For hardcore players CM modes will satisfy them.
5. 1 or 2 dudes will be given to WvW and PvP collectively for monthly balancing. They will also be told to experiment. This experiments will include number changes to outright changes to mechanics. No single class will rule more than 1 month. Everyone get to see the sun every now and then. Balance by no means will be perfect but perfect balance will not be aimed and neither it is possible to have such a state anyway, realistically speaking. There will still be no consistent content updates to WvW or PvP since I am operating on relatively tight budget. But I will try to make 1 huge content update every 2 years. This could range between a new map for WvW to how sieges work and reward structure.
6. For the game's health concentration, boon duration from everything and healing power stats are now deleted. Healing formula now will take power and condi power into account. Quickness and Alacrity no longer be buffs that will be "given". Not every class will have access to them either. Boons also overall will be scarce between all game modes.
7. Celestial gear is changed so that total of the stats it gives will be the same as total of 4 stat combos. Thats 376 / 9 on chest piece.
8. Core specs now given love with locking especs to certain weapons. For example... Daredevil is meant to be a frontline bruiser with sustain. Daredevil can only use Sword, Dagger, Staff and upcoming Axe now but its traitline is now makes sure they survive the frontline encounters. (Just an example, every class will be impacted majorly, but I also hate thiefs 🙂). This is meant so that E-Specs are a CHOICE not the optimal way to play the game. Weapon locks are up to debate, I just gave an example.
9. Every class will only have 2 dodges, this is a general rule no single design can change that. Lot of the defensive options will be butchered so that players will last less amount of time but spawn faster and rejoin the fights faster in WVW because:
10. WVW is now have waypoints on towers. You cant "lock" them either, keep included. Good luck. Your gameplay is now heavily spiced and now keeps and whatnot will change hands more easily and fights be more heated. Here is the thing though, you cannot use the same waypoint back to back. 2 minute cooldown on every WP outside of the base and keep.
11. WVW also will have T1-3 Rifts spawning randomly. Team with most damage to last boss reaps the rewards. SM Castle, Keeps, Towers and Camps now all give rewards based on the objective with each tick via a floaty chest. For example in that chest you will find 3 leather of any type for each camp your team has, random 2x T1-6 trophy for every tower, 1 T6/ambergris/deldrimor/elonian/spiritwood etc. for each keep you have. This includes side maps like alpine borderlands and whatnot. That will encourage players to spread across and not sit in SM castle. With this reward change I expect to be casual PVE'rs coming in just to stay afk and collect rewards. You only get the rewards at max participation and people will also gonna get weekly banned from wvw(not less not more) if they are found out.
12. Server transfers only possible at the first week of the linking.
13. Tickets are given more freely now. Go and craft your lg gear newbies!
14. Mystic Forge now have recipes. Impossible to "missclick" now.

 

These are my vision of the game. Im ready to be trashed by whole forum now. Bring it on. I would have introduced more things but these are enough for the next 5 years without community putting my head on a pike. Gotta make sure they swallow the changes slowly 😉

EDIT: All the confuse emoters are thief players knowing full well whats coming to them.

Edited October 11, 2023 by MalekithDG.6124

[Maria Murtor.7253]

Spending a whole development cycle to create the perfect recipe for potato salad and the epic questline to unlock it.

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

Warrior buffs.

Wing 8.

Alliances.

Fighting the gods in the mists.

[Balsa.3951]

invest in  a new game. using ai for content creation.

milk gw2 as long as possible.

keep ppl till my new game is done with minimal effort. Bring all players from gw2 over by promising a cool looking armor skin and a Horse.

build the first AI based game company, to build systems for other game companies.

....but in reality take the money and run

Edited October 10, 2023 by Balsa.3951

[Lucius.2140]

BACKGROUND:

I have played nearly since launch, with breaks around 2016 since i started my proffesional carrier.

I enjoy gw2 combat, setting and design, as well as several maps, mainly charr and norn. I dislike the small content releases, grinding and the lack of instanced group content focus.

MANAGEMENT PLAN: 

If i had the reigns my first point to wonder is if the miniexpansion cycle is the best we can get to and of the customers and if not i will do my best to show that the game can have bigger projects than that. With a bigger budget they could very much been producing a much larger expansion, so if its profitable, then i will aim towards that.

Supposing i can make gw2 players spend 50 dollars per expansion and no more and that gems always cover the fixed cost of mantaining the game. This mean that i could produce around twice the actual miniexpansion content (released and not).

However i will invest in AI and i'm expecting a 25% increase in productivity at the minimum.

In other words: 2,5 weapons per class, 10 mastery lines, 5 strikes with CM, 2,5 fractals., 2,5 small map hubs, 2.5x story arcs and 7,5 maps (5 at release, 2,5 to follow).

STATEMENTS:

1: Release cycle will mantain is time schedule but will change in content according towards if possible:

Q1:  expansion realese: 5 maps with 5 strikes, 2 dungeons with 3 explorables modes + 1 story mode each (instead of 2 hub maps and some of the content in story chapters), less mastery lines and one weapon per specialization or upgraded skills/side specializations. Main story with PoF/EoD level of content a prologue and an epilogue (if necesary). New masteries.

Q2: 1 map, all the CMS if possible 1 dungeon with 1 explorable and 1 story mode (instead of a hub map and some of the extra increase in story chapters). Bigger story chapter. Possibly a new mastery.

Q3: More weapon/upgraded skills/ side specialization. If possible half a map and 1 raid (instead of two fractals). Bigger story arc.

Q4: 1 map, bigger story arc, more weapon/upgraded skills/side specializations, if possible 1 dungeon with 1 explorable and 1 story mode.

2: Fractals are secondary i want players to focus on the expansion so i will prefer to have people going to dungeons and raids in them instead of the more alien fractals.

3:  Fractals: evolving difficulty mini dungeon/dungeon mode that awards players infusions and ascended rings mainly.

Should have around 25 of them before considering the fractal cycle closed (if focused after it will be around adding more layer of difficulty, tunning and adding rewards and perhaps adding a tutorial).

4: Dungeons are for trinkets and armor ascended gear and also skins. They train people in boss level fights and dungeon mechanics, but with less people  (easy to get).

Strikes train people in big boss fights with mechanics - you can go 5-10 not just 10, emphasis on this.

Raids are the BIG thing, group coordinations, boss skills and mechanics in them and the raid itself.

Both dungeons and raids use checkpoints. Rewards are per run and per week, meaning you get more returns running different dungeons/strikes/raids than farming just one, but can farm them. 

Raids are releasing in Q3 to make time for players to beat them in difficult mode.

5: Developement process for bosses/encounters: 3 layers minimum: basic attacks: designed to do damage and need to kite, tank, evade a little.

Bosses skills and mechanics: designed to make the fight dynamic: dodge, heal, aegis, jump, tank, etc.

Pressure skills: designed to make players die, made mistakes and lose per expending resources wrong or overextending the fight.

Pressure skills are for challenge modes, some could be mantained in some cases (hard fights), bosses skills and mechanics could be reduced in number, spam release and punishment level to make for easy mode.

Having easy, normal and hard mode is mandatory for any instanced group content.

Story mode is mandatory for the game story, this way im introducint people to this content.

6: Player progression: masteries that make sense, faction reputation instead of some mastries, masteries cost that make sense.

Equipment: i could add armor upgrades: like pelts for armor that reduce ice damage, have extra effects, etc.

Specializations: elite specs will increase by two (only none structured PvP and WvW, to easy balance). They will be added to core (200 skill points each), one changing the proffesion mechanic, other adding up to it (like druid does to main ranger). Their equipment will not be by trait but additionally and their traitline could be optional if the elite spec is equipped. Are designed around progression after level cap.

Skills mastery: add extra skill uses like holding "2 botton" instead of realesing: change the skill use, they do more options but not meningfull buffs, you beccome stronger by playing better with them. The skill mastery can be changed, morphing the skill, from one mastery to other. A mastery apply per skill, so theres tons to add.

Side specialization: affects skills second use , are like incomplete specialization.

Example of the two latter ones: master skills: by holding yourthird skill botton your guardian greatsword is involved in fire justice magic and doing a big swing towards your enemy: this is a burst skill that adds damage but doesnt give mobility, jump and have a bigger cold down. Is designed for bursts, not normal dps or movement.

Side specialization: Vengance: your mastery skill change, now you will reduce the burst skill damage but add an extra damage effect depending of your health. This makes it more situational and you can go on and off of this with an F skills. You will learn the modifications one by one and the side specialization at least per quest.

7: I will move some resources from their anology content released towards other, specially from hub maps and extra story arcs. They should go towards perfectioning the game:

Adding elite specializations for core players, creating strikes from all content, reworking dungeons (fast), fixing rewards and completing the LS1, perhaps even fixing plot cuts.

EXPANSIONS:

Expansion 1: End the Kryptis overarching arc, going towards they realm, i will exchange the 2 fractals for a RAID against Eparch.

Expansion 2 and later will focus in what does exist, example: elder dragons minions that survive are mainly higher on magic and more intelligent and powerfull, now they reagroup in factions and this allows to have new Svanir leaders and such that make as antagonist to explore zones that were corrupted by dragon magic.

Ancient and pre ancient races zones and secrets. Civilizations before the maddening of the elder dragons. 

This allows to revisit game regions and use not closed plots and alredy made resources in  a meaningfull way.

Expansion 2: Song of the Shiverspeak, lead the exploration of the ancient norn holds and the kodan sanctuaries. Discover the secrets of Jormag throne and nest.

Etc.

Edit: Forgot: story wise the pact was reduced to the minimum thanks to the dragons and the void and now is also divided in several fronts, making it a usefull force to guard locations (to a degree) and nearly nothing more. Thanks god now is all on the players hands!

Edited October 11, 2023 by Lucius.2140

[Vayne.8563]

1 hour ago, Balsa.3951 said:

invest in  a new game. using ai for content creation.

milk gw2 as long as possible.

keep ppl till my new game is done with minimal effort. Bring all players from gw2 over by promising a cool looking armor skin and a Horse.

build the first AI based game company, to build systems for other game companies.

....but in reality take the money and run

You really shouldn't be answering the OP if you're already a CEO. It's hardly fair! lol

[TheQuickFox.3826]

I would hire a community manager and a support agent with the tasks to be present at the forums, listen to community feedback, participate in discussions, forward game bugs/issues to the devs and pick up support tickets for support.

[loonatic.1689]

Background - I've got about 13,000 hours in. I started around HoT but didn't get through the story for several years, and only engaged with party / squad content at the start of IBS. I mostly played by myself in the open world or PvPing. After strike missions I went through commanding all types of content including CM strikes /raids and WvW. I think 5 years is a generous lifecycle for the remainder of this game's development before maintenance mode. There could be some addition to systems, but mostly will be focusing on refining the systems that currently exist by fitting them into a narrative experience with each expansion cycle. 

Year 2024: Isles of Janthir expansion ie mist convergence expansion. We resolve the mystery of the eye of janthir and the isles. This results in a massive mist explosion that creates mist pockets all over the world. This feature can allow them to continue using this rift hunting feature and expanding it to mist exploration. The mist exploration can then tie into their game types such as fractals, raids, strikes, dungeons, minigames, and whatever other game mode that exists. They can utilize the entire year to take large parts of existing story and boss content and weave them to "mist fracture" locations into the open world. 

In simpler terms. This is the reuse of assets expansion. They can add as much new stuff as they think is acceptable. They did 2 strikes, 1 fractal for this expansion. Perhaps for the next expansion they can have 4 of each with cms that are brand new, and then take existing boss fights and story instances and turn them into fractals/strikes/raids and put a portal or "mist fracture" into the open world / hub over subsequent quarterlies. 

Year 2025: Another narrative experience like SotO. Couple of new maps, new combat features, new strikes, new fractal(s). With the magic in the world stabilized, our new allies invite us to their home to the southwest. We go into the ocean to Largos Atlantis home of the largos (and play as largos ie refitted humans with blue wings). We can keep footing on underwater light, as even though IM personally a big underwater fan I know a lot of the fanbase is not. The water theme can continue to be aesthetic and thematic, perhaps used a lot in exploration type content. If they did what they did with Soto in terms of characters and maps and environments, I have no doubts that a largos expansion would also be great. Without new race or classes, they can commit to more maps and expand the fractal/strike count. 

Year 2026: Housing and lounging feature pack. big dollar making, customizing, repackaging and selling. Give the people what they want. Make a lot of money doing it. Make casual wear for real gems; jeans, hoodies, beanies.  Make housing instances for gems, make decorations for gems, sell guild halls for gems. Outsource the labor. Use existing maps and hubs. Allow me to buy an instance version of the sunspear's refuge and customize it like a guild hall and invite my friends for beetle races. or PVP. Make it cost gems atop the feature pack. 

Year 2027: You guessed it, WVW Alliances! and PVP updates. I tried to give this one as much time as possible. More reusing, adding few. Create one or two brand new maps that are open world as well as WvW. Ie, You access a story version in the open world, but can also access a different WvW instance through the mists portal. I don't quite know what some good ideas would be, for exisiting open world locations as WvW maps. Maybe drizzlewood since its already designed that way. Allow the combat mounts to be used, and let us battle each other across the Wolf's Crossing Bridge with siege turtles and fireballing skyscales. A handful of new pvp maps along with repurposed maps. 

Year 2028: The great climax of GW2. Some big ticket lore item set up for a decade, could be entirely narrative/story. Maybe one big HTCM esque battle. Raid wing 8. And then you announce your undisclosed project. 

And that about does it. You can put it on maintenance mode, and give us a new update / map / instance when you can. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by loonatic.1689

[Panda.1967]

I started playing with GW1, a day or two after it launched… been playing the game off and on ever since… I preordered GW2 and all of its expansions and have been playing it since Alpha… I’ve taken a few breaks over the years, some long some short…

the first thing I would do is address a few design flaws and balance mistakes with a few classes… for example, Memsers will have clones nolonger shatter when the target they were summoned on dies, but instead will persist until you exit combat if you don’t shatter them first. I’d also do a major rework to Engineer Turrets, Elementalist Conjures, and Guardian Spirit Weapons… these three skill types have been in a bad spot since the game launched and have all been the victims of absolutely terrible reworks and unnecessary nerfs…

For Turrets I would ensure that they scale damage with your stats, as well as change their flip skill to their respective Overloads with Detonate as a combo skill usable while Overload is on cooldown. I’d also have each turret skill reevaluated and adjusted to make them more useful.

Conjures would have their durations removed when used by the Elementalist but instead have charges returned, however charges will only be expended when using skills 2-5 and will recharge 1 every couple seconds much like Firebrand Tome pages… I will make sure they have a reasonable amount of charges so that it doesn’t feel restrictive, the goal is to give the elementalist more use out of them. However, when used by anyone else they will function as they do now, flat 30sec duration.

I’m not quite sure just yet what to do with Spirit Weapons… I just know they need a major rework…

I’d also put a focus on updating other core skills and weapons to bring them up to par with what we see from especs.

Edited October 11, 2023 by Panda.1967
Typos

[loonatic.1689]

21 hours ago, MalekithDG.6124 said:

[...]

These are my vision of the game. Im ready to be trashed by whole forum now. Bring it on. I would have introduced more things but these are enough for the next 5 years without community putting my head on a pike. Gotta make sure they swallow the changes slowly 😉

EDIT: All the confuse emoters are thief players knowing full well whats coming to them.

I wouldn't worry about the downvotes. There's plenty of other topics for them to enjoy if they don't like what's discussed here. and I'm literally asking for your personal opinion. If there were other suggestions that were nipped too early in the bud, I'd love to hear them. 

I think you have some good ideas. I'm sure they are moving away from this wizard tower kryptis lore with the end of Nayos / 3rd map. Some of the simpler QOL ones I can even see making it into the game, especially something like mystic forge crafting improvements. Boon system rework, celestial gear, and class experimentation is interesting as well. They seemed to have committed to the alac/quick system rather than limit it, by creating interplay between especs and opening up almost all options on all classes. To revert this change would take quite a shift of balance. Although theoretically I agree with you. I feel boons should have been nerfed and simplified long ago. Combining protection and resolution, quickness and alac, and removing the ability to upkeep boons for 100% of the time are some things that come to mind. 

Spicing up the WvW environment is cool as well. The chaos of a rift boss in the midst of a WvW environment where we are also competing for DPS sounds quite insane. Is there an example of this type of thing in another game? If it wasn't for the performance issues in and around the world spire, a "mist" map of amnytas with 2 world spires, rifts, WvW, and skyscales, sounds like a WvW environment I want to be a part of. Like a World Versus World Versus Zombies. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by loonatic.1689

[Remus Darkblight.1673]

8 hours ago, starlinvf.1358 said:

If we’re being real?

27% Year over year growth. 

And when that doesn’t work?  Dump shares and step down to pursue more personal life stuff. 

Most realistic response in the thread, not even joking.

[Sovarica.4368]

Some ideas

Player housing instanced with monetized gem store items > Make an expansion bringing back all of the villains like Joko and Scarlet and Balthazar for blast of nostalgia which will probably create a buzz for people who quit the game > Use Ai to speed up the process of skins and maps and new cosmetic faces > Make short 2 man party content like mini dungeons in the style of SAB > 1v1 arena for pvpers > Make a new festivals to keep people busy

[Bladestrom.6425]

10 minutes ago, Sovarica.4368 said:

Some ideas

Player housing instanced with monetized gem store items > Make an expansion bringing back all of the villains like Joko and Scarlet and Balthazar for blast of nostalgia which will probably create a buzz for people who quit the game > Use Ai to speed up the process of skins and maps and new cosmetic faces > Make short 2 man party content like mini dungeons in the style of SAB > 1v1 arena for pvpers > Make a new festivals to keep people busy

all good ideas, like em

[WastedYears.8934]

Guildwars 3 come out on mobile with cash shop.

Gotta milk the masses!!

Once sales drop we move on to Guildwar 4

[Vayne.8563]

11 hours ago, MalekithDG.6124 said:

Depends on the amount of money they gave to me to work with. I guess with moderate amount of money...

1. Close this kryptis arc up with the next expansion (if its not yet closed by the end of SOTO) and from that point open up a new Arc but without new maps. Instead the new story arc will be about internal issues rising within pact and certain base maps will see improvements. Nothing crazy, there wont be graphic overhaul or lots of new places and whatnot, thats not the point, but there will be new meta's (instanced and overworld) that will be accessed within those maps. New maps will still come but not with every expansion for god sake to make the budget more gamemode friendly. Openworld cannibalizes on various modes.
2. "Instanced meta's"  I mentioned above will be returning back to roots, yes, more dungeons. Certain parts of the story will be told via dungeons, 1 dungeon per expansion. Base dungeons will be easy to do with CM mode coming in later updates much like Strikes today.
3. Either strikes or Fractals will be abandoned. I see Fractals boasting more (casual) players than strikes so... It was never sustainable that this game had so many PVE modes which will bound to make certain playerbases sad since they had to be abandoned. Either fractals or Strikes should have never happened. Raids were the harder content so strikes meant to serve as a stepping stone make sense. Fractals on the other hand kinda made to succeed dungeons but they told no stories. They were without any soul, while I appreciate the little snippets of historical events like PoF Fractal and etc. the whole "Asura math" theming never appealed to me. The newer fractals like Silent Surf, Sunqua Peak, Shattered Observatory, Nighmare are literally strikes. Well... They fall into between dungeons and strikes. They are not single boss fights so they are not Strikes but they are not as short/easy as Fractals either. This game is very inconsistent and incoherent with its PVE content.
4. Raids will also see some love and they will be used as a conclusion to expansion stories now. 1 new raid every expansion. Emboldened mode effect now will be available to EVERY SINGLE RAID at all times. This will make entry to raids very easy. There wont be any need for strikes now therefore strikes are abandoned for the sake of Fractals. Rewards will stay the same. Easier content but same rewards. For hardcore players CM modes will satisfy them.
5. 1 or 2 dudes will be given to WvW and PvP collectively for monthly balancing. They will also be told to experiment. This experiments will include number changes to outright changes to mechanics. No single class will rule more than 1 month. Everyone get to see the sun every now and then. Balance by no means will be perfect but perfect balance will not be aimed and neither it is possible to have such a state anyway, realistically speaking. There will still be no consistent content updates to WvW or PvP since I am operating on relatively tight budget. But I will try to make 1 huge content update every 2 years. This could range between a new map for WvW to how sieges work and reward structure.
6. For the game's health concentration, boon duration from everything and healing power stats are now deleted. Healing formula now will take power and condi power into account. Quickness and Alacrity no longer be buffs that will be "given". Not every class will have access to them either. Boons also overall will be scarce between all game modes.
7. Celestial gear is changed so that total of the stats it gives will be the same as total of 4 stat combos. Thats 376 / 9 on chest piece.
8. Core specs now given love with locking especs to certain weapons. For example... Daredevil is meant to be a frontline bruiser with sustain. Daredevil can only use Sword, Dagger, Staff and upcoming Axe now but its traitline is now makes sure they survive the frontline encounters. (Just an example, every class will be impacted majorly, but I also hate thiefs 🙂). This is meant so that E-Specs are a CHOICE not the optimal way to play the game. Weapon locks are up to debate, I just gave an example.
9. Every class will only have 2 dodges, this is a general rule no single design can change that. Lot of the defensive options will be butchered so that players will last less amount of time but spawn faster and rejoin the fights faster in WVW because:
10. WVW is now have waypoints on towers. You cant "lock" them either, keep included. Good luck. Your gameplay is now heavily spiced and now keeps and whatnot will change hands more easily and fights be more heated. Here is the thing though, you cannot use the same waypoint back to back. 2 minute cooldown on every WP outside of the base and keep.
11. WVW also will have T1-3 Rifts spawning randomly. Team with most damage to last boss reaps the rewards. SM Castle, Keeps, Towers and Camps now all give rewards based on the objective with each tick via a floaty chest. For example in that chest you will find 3 leather of any type for each camp your team has, random 2x T1-6 trophy for every tower, 1 T6/ambergris/deldrimor/elonian/spiritwood etc. for each keep you have. This includes side maps like alpine borderlands and whatnot. That will encourage players to spread across and not sit in SM castle. With this reward change I expect to be casual PVE'rs coming in just to stay afk and collect rewards. You only get the rewards at max participation and people will also gonna get weekly banned from wvw(not less not more) if they are found out.
12. Server transfers only possible at the first week of the linking.
13. Tickets are given more freely now. Go and craft your lg gear newbies!
14. Mystic Forge now have recipes. Impossible to "missclick" now.

 

These are my vision of the game. Im ready to be trashed by whole forum now. Bring it on. I would have introduced more things but these are enough for the next 5 years without community putting my head on a pike. Gotta make sure they swallow the changes slowly 😉

EDIT: All the confuse emoters are thief players knowing full well whats coming to them.

Making the raid the final event in the story is awful and probably why you got so many confused votes. They tried making the end of the personal story a dungeon and ended up having to make it soloable. Forcing people to raid to finish a story is why I left Rift. It's why many people won't play MMOs. The fact that some players think that raids should be forced content to finish story which is mostly consider casual content is part of the problem here.

If they did this, you'd lose a lot more people than you'd attract.

[Panda.1967]

6 hours ago, Sovarica.4368 said:

Make an expansion bringing back all of the villains like Joko and Scarlet and Balthazar for blast of nostalgia which will probably create a buzz for people who quit the game

Terrifyingly… SotO may have actually already brought one of them back… Balthazar… in the first zone on the Elona fractal island we see the Throne of Balthazar… and its empty… and the concept behind that fractal was what if Balthazar won… if we’re lucky the empty throne simply means he wasn’t there when that part of the fractal materialized in the real world… otherwise he’s escaped somewhere and may turn up again in the future…

[Lucius.2140]

4 hours ago, WastedYears.8934 said:

Guildwars 3 come out on mobile with cash shop.

Gotta milk the masses!!

Once sales drop we move on to Guildwar 4

The cash shop is alredy in 2.

[Ashantara.8731]

18 hours ago, loonatic.1689 said:

Intro - Explain what you like and what you don't like, how long you've been playing, and how you came upon your general direction. 

Year 1 - 2024, 2nd mini expac

Year 2 - etc etc etc

3, 4, 5, and closing statement if you feel it necessary.

I have played since GW1 in 2005.

What I like? - Being informed.
What I want? - To learn about that new ANet project that has resources for GW2 spread thin.

I hope that future mini-expansions won't be so annoying in terms of distributing features across four releases.
I hope that the quality of story will be as good as SotO has been so far.

[loonatic.1689]

17 hours ago, starlinvf.1358 said:

If we’re being real?

27% Year over year growth. 

And when that doesn’t work?  Dump shares and step down to pursue more personal life stuff. 

Interesting you should mention that. Fiscal responsibility is huge.  

"Asia and North America & Europe regions witnessed growth in revenue up by 40% and 44% YoY, respectively. Annual overseas and royalty sales marked the highest record ever, with a growth of 29% YoY, accounting for 37% of total sales." (Reported Feb 2023)

https://kr.ncsoft.com/en/pr/newsDetail/5341.do

This is for NCsoft and not gw2 specifically, but I'd say they were hitting these margins. Should I assume your take then is to just keep doing what they are doing until it fails? I could easily see them do 5 mini expansions like SotO without hurting their bottom line. I could even see these doing really well if they can continue to weave engaging narratives like they are currently in SotO. My only complaint is for more repeatable content, and I think they can easily repurpose existing dead content and not require heavy dev time to do so. Balthazar fight, Zhaitan fight, bunch of other great instances in story long forgotten. Braham's spirit of the wilds journey, fights with Taimi's golem, etc etc. 

But I do think they could do much more. Especially with housing. I can't tell you how much I personally would engage with it, but it's absolutely frightening how big and real the ERP/Ebrothel/Housing economy is in Final Fantasy 14. Feel free to go in on a deep dive and see peoples' self reported earnings, it might blow your mind. 

On the other hand... I think WvW alliances is going to hurt their bottom line, and investing in PvP is similarly not going to yield much in terms of revenue. Everything in PvP is essentially unlocked from the get-go. These are more a gesture of good will and integration of systems and following through on promises rather than features I think would benefit Anet economically. If someone can explain to me how WvW Alliances or PvP would bring in new revenue, I'm all ears. 

Edited October 11, 2023 by loonatic.1689

[MalekithDG.6124]

5 hours ago, Vayne.8563 said:

Making the raid the final event in the story is awful and probably why you got so many confused votes. They tried making the end of the personal story a dungeon and ended up having to make it soloable. Forcing people to raid to finish a story is why I left Rift. It's why many people won't play MMOs. The fact that some players think that raids should be forced content to finish story which is mostly consider casual content is part of the problem here.

If they did this, you'd lose a lot more people than you'd attract.

You are right, I actually thought of casuals briefly but couldnt figure out where to fit raids then decided to go with original plan. A single raid could be a treat served somewhere during expansions thats about some side story going on to not interfere with the main story for casuals then.

I dont particularly care about confuse emoters on this topic. I was mostly joking on referencing them. Everyone's opinion is as good and valid as any since we are talking about a hypothetical scenario.