Thoughts about GW3 [Merged]

[Batalix.2873]

On 6/22/2024 at 8:45 PM, Ghostkat.9580 said:

Exactly. Though remember, this is a player base that is notoriously anti-subscription... even though it would be the best and fastest way for said player base to get all the features they ask for (but don't seem to want to pay for, and forget cost ANet money to develop and maintain). In spite of their claims that it would "kill the game," I maintain that the number of players who are more than willing to pay a sub as an alternative to predatory microtransaction practices is a lot higher than most people on the forums or Reddit would have you believe, and the game would be a lot better off even if there was only an optional sub with purely cosmetic incentives as well as LW access. I'd imagine things like personal housing would've not only happened much sooner, but the housing customization options would be considerably more robust than what we're getting. People forget, it costs ANet money to host the instanced content, and occasional one-time purchases don't sustain a company over longer periods of time if they have to foot the bill for ongoing server support and additional updates.

While I definitely think ANet listening to its players is good... to a point... I also think they need to do what's in the best economic interests for the highest quality they can deliver. Though EoD was in some ways lower in overall quality even in spite of being a fully-priced game, due to it being a rush job. It's super clear ANet waited to see what FFXIV was going to unveil at their Fan Festival event, but when they didn't show off their job actions, ANet was screwed and had to come up with SOMETHING. We know their game designers spend more time on their socials talking about FFXIV moreso than they do their own game, so that says something. The bigger issue is they've lost a lot of the people who knew what they were doing, because they can't afford pay rates that are competitive compared to other studios in the same general area. Whether or not you're content with the product (and I'm FAR more content with the state of SotO than EoD, even though I think the third map we got is pretty bad compared to the first two), the reality is that ANet needs to both grab a larger number of players and sustain at least a million in order to sustain a workforce. They can't do that, so they need to rethink their monetization. It seems this is an attempt to try and do that without charging a sub, at the cost of content, which is easier for the smaller team they have. To me, it would make sense to grow the team, but they need money for that. And the REAL problem to me is that they keep trying to cater to the existing super-loyal players (many of whom don't play other games) but don't know how to competently attract players from other games like FFXIV. The player base needs to grow substantially, and we're not seeing enough in that department.

1. The free-to-play model is GW2's niche. There are a lot more players than you would think who simply can't afford subscriptions that keep the metas and PvP and WvW populated, and that is a demographic FFXIV and WoW can't touch. Furthermore, the ability to log in anytime without needing to sub or resub does a lot to attract casuals and counterbalance attrition rates.

2. GW2 is likely not going to have the playerbase size of FFXIV or WoW. It does not have the brand goodwill of gaming's biggest franchise and biggest studio, respectively. Its character avatar options are not as broad, and not as sexy as FFXIV's nor hyperstylized as WoW's, with only a single generic sex bimbo race and several variations on beasty-gremlin, so there is generally lower compatibility of self-insertion/vicarious fantasy unless players are into these weird, hyper-specific races that don't include catgirls or elves or orcs. And even though its graphics charmingly evoke the PS2 golden era, consumers on the whole tend to gravitate toward the new and shiny, so it will always be slowly rolling down that hill of obsolescence. GW2 becoming a major player at this point is a bit of a pipe dream; barring some major screw-up by Square or Blizzard it is never going to be part of the two-horse race.

[Ziggityzog.7389]

Don't know if the idea has been put out there yet or not but here's my take for Gw3.

 

Gw1 Remastered on unreal engine with a similar mission setup what not and make it open world plus... jumping!

The pvp system in gw1 was beyond it's time and just think of Hall Of Heroes on unreal engine. We could go back to dual classes and a 10 skill open skill bar. The alliance battles and owning a city in Cantha and that meant beating others in the PVPE maps