Discussion Thread: ArenaNet News of 21 February 2019 [Merged]

[SkyShroud.2865]

Anet had publishing rights given to them, by NCSoft in 2015. That is to say NCSoft gave them more freedom.

So, what did anet do with that publishing rights from 2015 to now? They transferred part of their resources for unrelated projects, not just one project mind you.

It has been obvious that gw2 is getting contents slower and slower over the years, the initial 2 or 3 years were awesome but now, is meh. A lot of vets know this clearly, we all know anet is doing something else, just don't know what. This is also why some old players are increasingly frustrated and been vocal about it while many quit.

I am sure NCSoft just happen to investigate it, after noticing revenues and profits don't match up over the years.

[ParaNoidAndroid.1406]

NCSoft must have looked at the bleeding cash statements of the side-projects, and said "bye-bye". I hope they take this time to actively develop GW2 itself.And I hope to god that Mike O'Brien can withstand this crisis, and not fall for NCS's try to make GW2 into BnS.

[perilisk.1874]

@"Amineo.8951" said:Everything would've been easier if they just communicated with us, I'm sorry for the people who lost their job but ArenaNet is really at fault there, they shouldn't have used GW2 ressources for projects that would eventually fail, that's shady and almost "stealing" here, especially for people who gave them money through the cash shop thinking of supporting GW2.

Payments for products fund the creation of new products. This is perfectly normal. You aren't purchasing shares of GW2 with your gems, and no one ever promised you that they were being put into some sort of trust to operate the game. Eventually, running GW2 is going to be unsustainable. Maybe not for several years, but it will happen. Either Arenanet will have developed a successful new product by then, or they will shut down along with the game.

[Castigator.3470]

If the name list on reddit is even remotely accurate, then I wonder if NC-Soft isn't just purposefully trying to kill the studio (not the first time). In moments like these I wonder if we should create a foundation with the purpose of protecting studios from greedy publishers. Could the fans raise the money to acquire Arenanet from NC-Soft?

[Avelione.6075]

I do not give a fuck that overtime is a part of the business! It's dehumanizing and demoralizing for the working teams! :/

[Omnicron.2467]

I have seen this before, the big company wants to handle forum communication themselves rather than having people passionate about the game and the community interact on the forums. Forums become more toxic becasue outside mods do not understand the game, players get more frustrated and the game starts dying. That is what I have seen before, and the departure of Gaile Gray communicates to me that they do not care about the community or their clients, they just want us to shut up and give them money. It makes me super sad :( :( :(

[Tiviana.2650]

@psyt.9415 said:

@"Tiviana.2650" said:This is good, read the comments from Anet staff. And oo is that a blizzard recruiter in there? Maybe blizzard will snag them up and get some new blood to flood the system.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-family-philip-holt/?published=t

Hope they all find a place.

Kind of Strange Blizz/ Activision did their own mass layoffs recently. It would be weird for them to turn around and hire someone else right away, although I hope they do.

@psyt.9415 said:

@"Tiviana.2650" said:This is good, read the comments from Anet staff. And oo is that a blizzard recruiter in there? Maybe blizzard will snag them up and get some new blood to flood the system.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-family-philip-holt/?published=t

Hope they all find a place.

Kind of Strange Blizz/ Activision did their own mass layoffs recently. It would be weird for them to turn around and hire someone else right away, although I hope they do.

Well to be fair i think activision let off people that were not developers, they are actually recruiting devs.

[Sylvari.2953]

@Azure The Heartless.3261 said:

@"Mea.5491" said:I'm having flashbacks from 2017 when my secondary MMO Marvel Heroes was shut down. First they had layoffs, lack of communication except for "everything is ok", no plans and lack of new content. I did not expect this to happen to GW2 because it's considered among the "top 4 MMOs" in several MMO communities. I'm confused and I don't know what to think anymore. :( One thing is for sure, if GW2 dies, I'll quit gaming for good, I can't get into other MMOs anymore and I hate single player games.

I would like to echo your frustrations at least partly.

With games moving into lootbox cities, battle royales that are also lootbox cities, large promises destroyed by marketing, and "Mobile Gaming" spheres, It seems like a good portion of the light is gone from the game types I like

I totally agree. I'm not interested in this BR stuff and PvP-only MMOs and mobile games are horrible. They can't even fit more than 3-5 skills on the screen, everything is automatic, repetitive not to mention how uncomfortable it is to play on such a small screen! I just don't understand why and how this thing earns tons of money, absolutely unbelieveable. Maybe I'm too old for video games at 34 but I don't see the point of mobile gaming, yuck.

[Deimos.4263]

We have no real say here. The only way the community can fix this is by voting with their wallets until better decisions are made.

Judging by the number of people who say truly uninspired things like "layoffs happen it's not the end of the world" or "not supporting them now will only kill the game faster", it seems that collectively we'd rather watch this ship sink slowly than even try to turn it.

I can't speak for everyone, but my gem store dollars aren't something to be taken for granted. If NCSoft wants them they'll turn the boat. I doubt they will, but we'll see.

[zinkz.7045]

@Inoki.6048 said:Gaming is big business, and as such - like any other business - it's about big money.

I wouldn't call gaming big business, I mean in actual big business you have single companies that have a higher revenue than the entire global games industry,

[Psycoprophet.8107]

Funds derived from gw2 would surely need to be used to fund new projects,that normal growth. But not if doing so negatively effects the development and growth of the revenue producing game itself,as much as a large risk new projects are to do so is a very big risk. There’s more chance the projects will fail than flourish and ur left with a mmo that’s on maintenance mode producing less and less revenue each year from loss of playerbase and support due to lack of developmental support the game had been effected by. If arenanet was at a financial and structural position to start new projects without effecting gw development than that woulda been ideal.

[DeadMeat.8724]

@Tiviana.2650 said:

@alcopaul.2156 said:

@"Paolino.8320" said:The gaming industry makes me sad. ANet employees deserve more than this.

Read the full article here:

https://kotaku.com/guild-wars-2-developer-arenanet-plans-for-mass-layoffs-1832799804

mobile gaming has become a very big market. and almost all people in the world are carrying mobile phones anywhere.

it's almost certain that desktop gaming is becoming legacy gaming already (you have to be confined in a room and have a dedicated internet connection). but you have to think that full gaming experience from a desktop is very far from a mobile phone.

We have been saying this since blizzcon and the announcement of Diablo mobile. Rock solid pc gamers dont want to hear it, but this looks like the beginning of the end for pc. I am mad and sad about it, but nothing can really be done about it. You cant change the new generations coming up, and they are into tiny tech and mobile. Its the end of an era, blizzard laid off a bunch a few weeks back and they make a fortune still, so what does that bode for companies not as big?

Technology is advancing faster than ever, and big ole desktop rigs and laptops are becoming dinosaurs, people have busy lives they want to be able to do what they need to do on the go.

I agree, but I am the old dog that doesn't want to learn new tricks. I may play Sudoku or Solitaire type games on my phone. I don't want, nor feel i have the ability, to play any sort of RPG/action games on a phone. It may be though that for PC games to survive they need their own dedicated revenue stream beyond 'hoping' people buy stuff, but actually have to subscribe. The gem store path and gold->gem->gold conversion ANet put in place pleases a lot of people but as gaming evolves can that type of revenue stream keep any game alive for more than a short while anymore? I never played WoW other than a free starter account for a little bit, but also didn't want to commit to it partly because of the subscription fee, but in the future that may be the only way to go. I don't know.

The gaming world has changed a lot over the last 30 years and will probably change a lot over the next 10 years (especially if any reasonable VR takes hold; imagine if we get a holodeck equivalent). The absolute worst thing in my opinion is pay to win becoming universal. Gaming would be dead to me then. I'd try and go back and get old single-player games running again.

For MMO's, other than Diablo 2/3 (which got very old, very fast) and playing a free starter account on Wow to about level 9 where i thought i would kill myself, Guild Wars 1 and 2 has been the only other MMO I have played so far, and so far I am more than satisfied with it, and feel no need to go out and look for other MMO's (at this time).

[NyhilistTheBoring.2674]

The Cynic in me would say "After 18+ years..." I wouldn't want to deal with this head on.Gaile is a "Friend" of the "Playerbase" / "Community"She's never communicated the idea that she enjoys not having answers. If this is not a situation that answers would be conducive based on what they are? Would you want to have to lie? To use your Good Name as a panacea to the ailing minds of the players?But that's the cynic in me.

Give it time. Someone in the "Team" is going to need to step up. Take on the mantle. But hopefully not try to "fill her shoes" - that would be career suicide. They'll need to just come in and be their own person. Communicate and charm us and help us feel like we have a bridge between that which is "The Us" and the monolithic idea of "ANet" which becomes "The Them"

"They" need to sell us "Hope" right now. Establish a new "Frontside" face of the company. They gave us that tidbit with the "Season 4 into Season 5" and the promise of "regularly scheduled updates"The wakeup call that "We're still here."

First they have to soothe us. Then they have to let us grieve for the names we won't see on the forums. The Para-social relationships we have with the Identities presented is what is causing this period of 'grief,' thus it becomes the personal truth of those we are seeing leaving. It becomes a new type of grief.We will not know that they "don't care about us" until time passes. When the mourning is over, when the Para-social binding can be renewed, if there are "Front Facing" community members available then you will see the care. If they came to us asap? It would be denigrating to those who are in mourning.Just ask yourself this, if someone stepped up from ANet that you had never seen before, right now, and said they were the New Gaile, would you accept that? Crystal Pepsi Grey, if you will.

Give those who had the Para-Social relationship, yourself included, time to process this. Then check back and see if someone from ANet can be coaxed out to liaison with us. To AMA with us on Reddit. To boop the snoots of those who need a snoot boop. To be the one who says the "Kudos! Thumbs Up! Way to Solo No-Hud Fractal X on CM with only one weapon while listening to Slovakian Death Metal and you don't even like Death Metal!" (Not meant to denigrate but point out the difficulty of the deed done from a "Casual" Perspective. I don't have emotional inflection emoji)

Good luck to you and your heart. Soothe yourself and mend well.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@JustTrogdor.7892 said:The best thing players can do to help is play the game as they normally would. If something is in the gem store you actually want buy it as you normally would.

Good advice.

[Khisanth.2948]

Eh ... we haven't had much communication from ANet for quite a long while anyway

Some of the forum moderation seems to be done by bots.

[Lonecap.4105]

@"NyhilistTheBoring.2674" said:The Cynic in me would say "After 18+ years..." I wouldn't want to deal with this head on.Gaile is a "Friend" of the "Playerbase" / "Community"She's never communicated the idea that she enjoys not having answers. If this is not a situation that answers would be conducive based on what they are? Would you want to have to lie? To use your Good Name as a panacea to the ailing minds of the players?But that's the cynic in me.

Give it time. Someone in the "Team" is going to need to step up. Take on the mantle. But hopefully not try to "fill her shoes" - that would be career suicide. They'll need to just come in and be their own person. Communicate and charm us and help us feel like we have a bridge between that which is "The Us" and the monolithic idea of "ANet" which becomes "The Them"

"They" need to sell us "Hope" right now. Establish a new "Frontside" face of the company. They gave us that tidbit with the "Season 4 into Season 5" and the promise of "regularly scheduled updates"The wakeup call that "We're still here."

First they have to soothe us. Then they have to let us grieve for the names we won't see on the forums. The Para-social relationships we have with the Identities presented is what is causing this period of 'grief,' thus it becomes the personal truth of those we are seeing leaving. It becomes a new type of grief.We will not know that they "don't care about us" until time passes. When the mourning is over, when the Para-social binding can be renewed, if there are "Front Facing" community members available then you will see the care. If they came to us asap? It would be denigrating to those who are in mourning.Just ask yourself this, if someone stepped up from ANet that you had never seen before, right now, and said they were the New Gaile, would you accept that? Crystal Pepsi Grey, if you will.

Give those who had the Para-Social relationship, yourself included, time to process this. Then check back and see if someone from ANet can be coaxed out to liaison with us. To AMA with us on Reddit. To boop the snoots of those who need a snoot boop. To be the one who says the "Kudos! Thumbs Up! Way to Solo No-Hud Fractal X on CM with only one weapon while listening to Slovakian Death Metal and you don't even like Death Metal!" (Not meant to denigrate but point out the difficulty of the deed done from a "Casual" Perspective. I don't have emotional inflection emoji)

Good luck to you and your heart. Soothe yourself and mend well.

This post read like a scientology lecture.

[Bast.7253]

And again, you don’t know that Gaile didn’t volunteer to leave room for some of the new blood.

[psyt.9415]

I'm not against mobile provided they can provide the same monetization structure and experience. So far it hasn't between attainable on either count.

[wetwillyhip.7254]

@"Arkham Creed.7358" said:When I first heard that Arena Net was planning layoffs, I tried to take it in stride, but seeing now that it is hitting people who have been with the company for nearly two decades I am starting to feel a sense of dread. Of course my heart goes out to everyone affected by this, and I hope that they all land on their feet and find some new place to work promptly, but on a personal note I now fear for the future of this game. I've been a long time supporter of Arena Net, and while I can be critical at times, overly so sometimes, I've been happily playing Guild Wars since the original days. And some of my best memories of gaming are me and my wife adventuring together back when we were dating. Even now as we play other RPGs, including table-top, our characters and experiences are informed by moments, designs, and terms gleamed from these wonderful games. I don't know what my wife will do if the word "mesmer" suddenly looses such a huge piece of its context.

Arena Net; I know you're going through troubles right now, and I know you've far more to worry about than some rando whining on your forums, but I want you to know that we're here rooting for you. We've been here for years, and we hope to be here for years to come. I hope we might get a little information soon to ease these fears, but I understand you've more important things right now. So until then I have just one thing to say. Good luck, everyone. Thanks for the memories.

The real question is...How many of those veteran employees like Gaile, Josh Foreman, etc got laid off or CHOSE TO LEAVE? I've been in a company where layoffs plummets team morale and other coworkers started to leave due to the nature and reaction to the layoffs and disagreement with top business decisions made. It can be a VERY contagious unstoppable force once there's momentum. (like a guild having a mass fallout of members leaving - no one wants to be around anymore)

[Blude.6812]

If it such a concern and so important to the OP, maybe get the name right.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

Keep breathing, keep playing. Say something nice to the ArenaNet employees in these difficult times.

[psyt.9415]

@Neural.1824 said:

@Tiviana.2650 said:Its not Anet , its NCsoft pulling plugs, get it right. When the kitten hits the fan know where to point the finger, squarely at NCsoft.

The question is this: After what happened to Paragon, and with this happening to Arenanet (and let's be real, there's no facts/proof, but Arenanet could very well get the same treatment as Paragon sometime soon), what are the chances that people will finally be fed up enough to not purchase any more NCSoft products?

I remember reading some where that Paragon was working on side projects as well ironically and NCSoft actually wanted them to work on a sequel to which they refused so NCSoft pulled the plug. I keep reading that NCSoft is the devil but maybe its just convenient to blame them because they aren't able to defend themselves. I wouldnt be surprised with how obsessed A Net was with making this game an esport if it wasn't Anets own upper management funnelling resources to a moba and a mobile game and NCSoft were the ones to finally slap their hand. Hard to say when you never get the full story.

[wetwillyhip.7254]

@Vayne.8563 said:Star Wars ToR laid off 30% of their staff six months after the game launched. TSW laid off half their stuff. 25% of the staff, if you're trying to reorganize the company seems like a small percentage.

The company started with about 300 during development. It's up to almost 400 now. Laying off 100 people will bring the game to original launch levels. Some of those people were working on other projects as well, so I'm no t sure why everyone is running around yelling the sky is falling.

Agreed Vayne. I think the true point here is the sheer amount of shock and sadness the 100 layoffs bring with many long time staff veterans. I think no one anticipated or expected people like Gaile or Josh Foreman to be let go. I think GW2 will be fine as you've said, they're back down to still a healthy 300 employees. If the numbers got down to 100 then I would warrant the worry.

[Lord of the Fire.6870]

@Obtena.7952 said:I have no doubt the game will continue to exist; the content we have will always be here in some way. I do anticipate that at some level, we will finally see some pay-to-win things; abilities to fast track long/hard to get items, like +5/+9 infusions, legendary anythings, etc ...

Honestly, if I were NCSoft, I would 'pushing' for a more revenue driven model ... milking the current players by giving them things they want via some purchase. They don't care a flip about anything but the bottom line. It's a shame Anet were tied to them. I think you will see that be a common theme in the evolution of the industry. Games showing long teeth will get their legs knocked out from beneath them and the focus will be to entice veteran players to patronize the games more, even at the expense of the games themselves .. I think SWTOR went that way long ago and it persists because they sell things people want to buy. That doesn't necessary mean we won't see new content, etc ... because that is what will keep us around to spend that money.

I mean ... Anet selling chairs ... THOSE are the kind of decision that would make a parent company pull the rug out. To what end do chairs give players any value? Even if they are for some future housing ... they put the cart in front of the horse.

The problem is there are many players who play GW2 because of its monetization model there are too many burned players by the pay2win or pay2progress behind lootboxes model. That so many employees who I would thought of irreplaceable(at least not in a short time) got fired is a human tragedy which I hope for them is short but the question is then were you want to go with the game ? You need developers to produce new content or the player/payers numbers will fall.

I think its already a huge hit that we won't have a new add-on this year . The last half year was already hmm full of questionable decisions. The last balancing patch for chrono was at least strange, the new fractal isn't a fractal anymore I would call it a 5 man mini raid with dungeon elements, the new instabilities out of balance reported over and over no change and the one who should fix it is also fired. (The direction seem to be make content harder but the result is more annoying) Wvw when you look closely besides the glider and the new incoming mount we got only balancing patches for years I'm not sure but the one single developer who worked on it I believe I saw his name also on the list

[Tiviana.2650]

@psyt.9415 said:I'm not against mobile provided they can provide the same monetization structure and experience. So far it hasn't between attainable on either count.

The big companies look at the bottom line, mobile makes more money for less cost to develop. Someone showed that Lineage mobile made more on release than the entire history of GW2 , so naturally the suits want to go where the money is. Hopefully this will make them focus more on making gw2 better.