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

[derd.6413]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:

@hugo.4705 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:Production is too slow, better lay of some workers so we produce even less and people spend even less money on our company

the lay offs are because of an unannounced project being cancelled, gw2 is mostly unaffected by itFor all we know, one of those unannounced projects might have been the next expac. At this moment i'd really want to hear Anet's official confirmation that there

will

be a next expac, and that they aren't going back to ls-only release mode.If that's not true, i'd really want to hear it now as well, but a silence on this issue i'll also consider a kind of answer confirming that the game did get into a lower investment life support mode.

Yeah just thinking the same, but their special statement made me lost:"We will release expansion level living story episodes" just whut.Btw was in their very long video saying lws5 will follow lws4

Expansion level living stories?Sounds very vague. Like, more content filled maps, elite specs along the way, and enticing masteries?As for the actual content, who is going to pay for it? Is anet going to produce a small expansion and give it for free?I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for season 5, i doubt many people will mind.I'm just worried about anets financial status. I don't want them to go bankrupt. I love tyria too much

Since ArenaNet is being merged with other Ncsoft departments I don't think we can speak in terms of them going bankrupt. I do think it means that ArenaNet will no longer be its own unit dedicated to their products. In fact I believe that it's already longer that they've supported other Ncsoft projects but now it's going to be more of a name than an actual company if you will and GW2 will be just one of the things they'll be doing. You could say that they are being re-organized or restructured because otherwise they would become financially unviable. All in all I'm sure GW2 will go on as long as people spend money on it. What I'm not sure about is if their business model will include box sales anymore as a priority going forward. That would indeed mean an end to expansions and content being delivered via LS updates instead. I doubt that it will be a comparable amount of content but it's probably the best they can do going forward. If that's true then it will also mean that the gem store will become more important as it will be the sole priority for revenue, the current expansions being what they are. Time will tell I'm sure and I don't know if I'm right about all of this but it is a plausible scenario and that's why it is a concern for me.

just wondering: why would NCsoft stop with xpacs given how successful they were?Well I wondered that as well, but if they did that well, why aren't we getting one this year but another LS season taking us well into 2020 instead. I think that the simple reality is that Ncsoft had other priorities that they needed ArenaNet for and this caused delays for their plans for a next expansion. The question will be that after the merge and job cuts if expansions are still viable for this new set up. That's why I wonder if we'll actually get another expansion.

i don't share that sentiment, i always thought they "delayed" the xpac because both pof and hot were both rushed in certain aspects.

[Kam.4092]

@Randulf.7614 said:I think it’s rather unfair to ask us to be kept in the loop when people’s jobs are on the line and they are waiting for communication

I don’t really consider it much of our business either.

Having been through this myself multiple times. I know how disrespectful and upsetting it can be having it discussed by all and sundry with wild speculation all over the place, especially when employees aren’t fully in the loop.

I’m not asking to be informed on every little thing. I’d just like some form of little insight into the road map past LS5, or at least things being worked on during LS5. It doesn’t need to be a long post, it could be just a sentence. Like talking about a new feature, like the new gathering node we’ll be seeing in the next episode, or a project like build templates, or a new emote even. It can be anything small or big. We haven’t gotten much feelings of hype for a while due to getting no information. Knowing what comes next is a big part of an MMO. We had this feeling before in GW2, and I’d like it returned. We get a trailer near releases, and that’s it. Players have asked for this sort of thing for months.

I appreciate your comment though. It gives a good alternative view point, and I understand it. Layoffs suck, I can see why asking for this sounds inappropriate, but it’s a better time to ask things during times like this, when your player base is waning.

[Randulf.7614]

@Kam.4092 said:

@Randulf.7614 said:I think it’s rather unfair to ask us to be kept in the loop when people’s jobs are on the line and they are waiting for communication

I don’t really consider it much of our business either.

Having been through this myself multiple times. I know how disrespectful and upsetting it can be having it discussed by all and sundry with wild speculation all over the place, especially when employees aren’t fully in the loop.

I’m not asking to be informed on every little thing. I’d just like some form of little insight into the road map past LS5. We haven’t gotten much feelings of hype for a while due to getting no information. Knowing what comes next is a big part of an MMO. We had this feeling before in GW2, and I’d like it returned. We get a trailer near releases, and that’s it. Players have asked for this sort of thing for months.

We have asked for it for years. And yes it is important and essential in this day and age for player retention. Now is very much not the time though to be asking

[Gehenna.3625]

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:

@hugo.4705 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:Production is too slow, better lay of some workers so we produce even less and people spend even less money on our company

the lay offs are because of an unannounced project being cancelled, gw2 is mostly unaffected by itFor all we know, one of those unannounced projects might have been the next expac. At this moment i'd really want to hear Anet's official confirmation that there

will

be a next expac, and that they aren't going back to ls-only release mode.If that's not true, i'd really want to hear it now as well, but a silence on this issue i'll also consider a kind of answer confirming that the game did get into a lower investment life support mode.

Yeah just thinking the same, but their special statement made me lost:"We will release expansion level living story episodes" just whut.Btw was in their very long video saying lws5 will follow lws4

Expansion level living stories?Sounds very vague. Like, more content filled maps, elite specs along the way, and enticing masteries?As for the actual content, who is going to pay for it? Is anet going to produce a small expansion and give it for free?I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for season 5, i doubt many people will mind.I'm just worried about anets financial status. I don't want them to go bankrupt. I love tyria too much

Since ArenaNet is being merged with other Ncsoft departments I don't think we can speak in terms of them going bankrupt. I do think it means that ArenaNet will no longer be its own unit dedicated to their products. In fact I believe that it's already longer that they've supported other Ncsoft projects but now it's going to be more of a name than an actual company if you will and GW2 will be just one of the things they'll be doing. You could say that they are being re-organized or restructured because otherwise they would become financially unviable. All in all I'm sure GW2 will go on as long as people spend money on it. What I'm not sure about is if their business model will include box sales anymore as a priority going forward. That would indeed mean an end to expansions and content being delivered via LS updates instead. I doubt that it will be a comparable amount of content but it's probably the best they can do going forward. If that's true then it will also mean that the gem store will become more important as it will be the sole priority for revenue, the current expansions being what they are. Time will tell I'm sure and I don't know if I'm right about all of this but it is a plausible scenario and that's why it is a concern for me.

just wondering: why would NCsoft stop with xpacs given how successful they were?Well I wondered that as well, but if they did that well, why aren't we getting one this year but another LS season taking us well into 2020 instead. I think that the simple reality is that Ncsoft had other priorities that they needed ArenaNet for and this caused delays for their plans for a next expansion. The question will be that after the merge and job cuts if expansions are still viable for this new set up. That's why I wonder if we'll actually get another expansion.

i don't share that sentiment, i always thought they "delayed" the xpac because both pof and hot were both rushed in certain aspects.And why would you think that? If you say that the expacs were successful and are important to their revenue, then clearly delaying an expac by at least a year is not a good idea.

[Adenin.5973]

@"Danikat.8537" said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases, which if we assume the absolute bare minimum of 2 months per episode gives us another 12 months of content. In other words they've confirmed their plans for the next year or more.

According to various rumours and articles I've seen most of the layoffs will be related to one or more un-related projects. Which as I understand it isn't that unusual in the games industry. Developers usually have more than 1 game they're working on and you have to do some work on it before you can decide if it's worth taking through to release or not. If not that project is gone and those people need new jobs. Sometimes that will be within the same company, sometimes not. It sucks, but it's not unusual.

Well this indeed tells us a lot. Them saying "we'll still get season 5" is raising all red flags for me. Because it means that they can't confirm anything beyond that currently.

If they had an expac in the works it would by now be feature and content locked. They would now be around 60-70% done with it. There would be no way they would scrap so much time and work for a very certain profit they can expect from it. And devs + management at Anet would exactly know that too.

Them not announcing at this point that there will at least be one more expac which would absolutely keep players calm, is pretty much proof for me that there is no such thing in the works. them only confirming that LS5 is still coming, something we all knew already for a fact, means nothing more than that they have no idea what's happening to GW2 in the future and that beyond LS there are nmo major content releases planned for the game in the near future.

[Randulf.7614]

@Adenin.5973 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases, which if we assume the absolute bare minimum of 2 months per episode gives us another 12 months of content. In other words they've confirmed their plans for the next year or more.

According to various rumours and articles I've seen most of the layoffs will be related to one or more un-related projects. Which as I understand it isn't that unusual in the games industry. Developers usually have more than 1 game they're working on and you have to do some work on it before you can decide if it's worth taking through to release or not. If not that project is gone and those people need new jobs. Sometimes that will be within the same company, sometimes not. It sucks, but it's not unusual.

Well this indeed tells us a lot. Them saying "we'll still get season 5" is raising all red flags for me. Because it means that they can't confirm anything beyond that currently.

If they had an expac in the works it would by now be feature and content locked. They would now be around 60-70% done with it. There would be no way they would scrap so much time and work for a very certain profit they can expect from it. And devs + management at Anet would exactly know that too.

Them not announcing at this point that there will at least be one more expac which would absolutely keep players calm, is pretty much proof for me that there is no such thing in the works. them only confirming that LS5 is still coming, something we all knew already for a fact, means nothing more than that they have no idea what's happening to GW2 in the future and that beyond LS there are nmo major content releases planned for the game in the near future.

Them not announcing beyond s5 is entirely the same comm strategy anet have used for years. If anything they are communicating further ahead than usual.

Basically it means nothing and certainly does not in any fathomable way mean a cancelled expac

[FrizzFreston.5290]

@derd.6413 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:This only happened yesterday. According to various reports and stuff I read on Twitter from Anet staff Mike O'Brien went into a meeting in the morning where he was told by NCSoft they'll need to lay off staff, he did a brief initial announcement to Anet (email I'm guessing), someone leaked the news and it was all over the internet even before Anet had meetings to explain what's happening.

As far as I've seen they don't know exactly what's happening yet. They may not even have decided which departments will be affected - they may have just been told "you need to cut your operating budget to $X", realised that will mean losing staff and now they're trying to figure out who will go.

For what it's worth my employer is going through a similar situation. It was announced before Christmas that we'd be losing staff, but it was only at the end of January that we found out the departments affected and then the individual jobs. We still don't know for sure what's going to happen because we're in a consultation period over the new structure so some decisions might be changed but we're not expecting the changes to actually happen until the summer. Now some of that is due to UK labour laws - we have no such thing as 'at will' employment here, you can't just call someone into the office and tell them they don't have a job any more. To make them redundant you need to follow a specific procedure to record that that the job isn't needed any more so they can't take you to court for unfair dismissal (note: not an employment lawyer, may not be the correct term) and many people will have a statutory notice period of 2 months or more.

But some of it is also because large scale redundancies are a huge change and it takes time to get a plan in place so everything doesn't fall apart when those people leave. Even if they're doing "fluff" jobs or whatever you want to call them it's still highly unlikely they can just stop everything they're doing with no impact. It may not be immediate or obvious, but in some ways that makes it even more important that someone considers how not doing that job will affect things.

we (kind) do know who gets affected since it's been confirmed that it's due to the cancellation of an unannounced project.

Unannounced project isnt the same as staff, obviously.

[Gehenna.3625]

@Danikat.8537 said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

[derd.6413]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:

@hugo.4705 said:

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Ayakaru.6583 said:Production is too slow, better lay of some workers so we produce even less and people spend even less money on our company

the lay offs are because of an unannounced project being cancelled, gw2 is mostly unaffected by itFor all we know, one of those unannounced projects might have been the next expac. At this moment i'd really want to hear Anet's official confirmation that there

will

be a next expac, and that they aren't going back to ls-only release mode.If that's not true, i'd really want to hear it now as well, but a silence on this issue i'll also consider a kind of answer confirming that the game did get into a lower investment life support mode.

Yeah just thinking the same, but their special statement made me lost:"We will release expansion level living story episodes" just whut.Btw was in their very long video saying lws5 will follow lws4

Expansion level living stories?Sounds very vague. Like, more content filled maps, elite specs along the way, and enticing masteries?As for the actual content, who is going to pay for it? Is anet going to produce a small expansion and give it for free?I wouldn't mind paying a small fee for season 5, i doubt many people will mind.I'm just worried about anets financial status. I don't want them to go bankrupt. I love tyria too much

Since ArenaNet is being merged with other Ncsoft departments I don't think we can speak in terms of them going bankrupt. I do think it means that ArenaNet will no longer be its own unit dedicated to their products. In fact I believe that it's already longer that they've supported other Ncsoft projects but now it's going to be more of a name than an actual company if you will and GW2 will be just one of the things they'll be doing. You could say that they are being re-organized or restructured because otherwise they would become financially unviable. All in all I'm sure GW2 will go on as long as people spend money on it. What I'm not sure about is if their business model will include box sales anymore as a priority going forward. That would indeed mean an end to expansions and content being delivered via LS updates instead. I doubt that it will be a comparable amount of content but it's probably the best they can do going forward. If that's true then it will also mean that the gem store will become more important as it will be the sole priority for revenue, the current expansions being what they are. Time will tell I'm sure and I don't know if I'm right about all of this but it is a plausible scenario and that's why it is a concern for me.

just wondering: why would NCsoft stop with xpacs given how successful they were?Well I wondered that as well, but if they did that well, why aren't we getting one this year but another LS season taking us well into 2020 instead. I think that the simple reality is that Ncsoft had other priorities that they needed ArenaNet for and this caused delays for their plans for a next expansion. The question will be that after the merge and job cuts if expansions are still viable for this new set up. That's why I wonder if we'll actually get another expansion.

i don't share that sentiment, i always thought they "delayed" the xpac because both pof and hot were both rushed in certain aspects.And why would you think that? If you say that the expacs were successful and are important to their revenue, then clearly delaying an expac by at least a year is not a good idea.

there's a couple of possible reasons reasons: the current model while successful could be unsustainable and they need to address that, they need more more time to balance especs or core classes (old and new ones) maybe they want the xpac team to redo some old content next xpac or maybe they just want to ride the mount skins gravy train for a bit longer.

who knows, not anybody talking on the forums, that's for sure.

[derd.6413]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

seasons tend to be 6 episodes plus the final episode f the current season6+1=7

3 more episodes suggests season 5 is 2 episodes long

[Laila Lightness.8742]

Raids and fractals will be gone for those teams is expendable this is a open world pve mmorpg most ppl will not bother with those 2 modes anyway thats future i predict in best case worst case ncsoft does what they do best cancel the game

[Gehenna.3625]

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

seasons tend to be 6 episodes plus the final episode f the current season6+1=7

3 more episodes suggests season 5 is 2 episodes longDoesn't mean they will do so again. I might remind you that if they would've stuck to their usual patterns we would've gotten an expansion this year after LS4. That didn't happen either. So there's no telling how long LS5 will be. What I do know is that the longer it is, the longer we have to wait for the next expansion, provided there will be one.

[Trise.2865]

@"Kam.4092" said:I know myself, and many of your players are worried, and want you to succeed. We’ve been left in the dark for a while now, and it hurts. I’ve played GW1 since its launch, and GW2 since launch. These two games have been a part of my life for over 14 years. I grew up with them. I’ve met countless friends, and we still chat from GW1. They mean a lot to me,and I don’t want to see it end.

Is it possible for a more in depth statement from you in the near future? It would help. :/

Take a good look at Guild Wars "classic". Its growth cycle is well passed, its profitability "tail" is all but gone... but it's still there. The game is still running and fully available to everyone that loved it. The game is well supported, believe it or not, and even just recently had a major update.

Guild Wars isn't going anywhere, and neither is GW2.

[derd.6413]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

seasons tend to be 6 episodes plus the final episode f the current season6+1=7

3 more episodes suggests season 5 is 2 episodes longDoesn't mean they will do so again. I might remind you that if they would've stuck to their usual patterns we would've gotten an expansion this year after LS4. That didn't happen either. So there's no telling how long LS5 will be. What I do know is that the longer it is, the longer we have to wait for the next expansion, provided there will be one.

they might change the length of season 5.but even so, a 2 episode season? that's a tad bit absurd.

also anet never established a pattern with seasons and xpacs.

[Gehenna.3625]

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

seasons tend to be 6 episodes plus the final episode f the current season6+1=7

3 more episodes suggests season 5 is 2 episodes longDoesn't mean they will do so again. I might remind you that if they would've stuck to their usual patterns we would've gotten an expansion this year after LS4. That didn't happen either. So there's no telling how long LS5 will be. What I do know is that the longer it is, the longer we have to wait for the next expansion, provided there will be one.

they might change the length of season 5.but even so, a 2 episode season? that's a tad bit absurd.

also anet never established a pattern with seasons and xpacs.LS1 is gone. It was a different situation altogether and no longer is part of the game. Season 2 lead to HoT, Season 3 lead to PoF. Not so strange to think that Season 4 would lead to the next expansion, except it won't as we know. And yet that's what people were expecting initially.

Now a season of 2 episodes would be strange, but then I never mention the number 2 so not sure why you use that number. But bottom line is that you cannot say what the minimum would be. So far LS2, 3 and 4 had 8, 6 and then 5 chapters. I don't see where you got your ideas.

[derd.6413]

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

seasons tend to be 6 episodes plus the final episode f the current season6+1=7

3 more episodes suggests season 5 is 2 episodes longDoesn't mean they will do so again. I might remind you that if they would've stuck to their usual patterns we would've gotten an expansion this year after LS4. That didn't happen either. So there's no telling how long LS5 will be. What I do know is that the longer it is, the longer we have to wait for the next expansion, provided there will be one.

they might change the length of season 5.but even so, a 2 episode season? that's a tad bit absurd.

also anet never established a pattern with seasons and xpacs.LS1 is gone. It was a different situation altogether and no longer is part of the game. Season 2 lead to HoT, Season 3 lead to PoF. Not so strange to think that Season 4 would lead to the next expansion, except it won't as we know. And yet that's what people were expecting initially.

Now a season of 2 episodes would be strange, but then I never mention the number 2 so not sure why you use that number. But bottom line is that you cannot say what the minimum would be. So far LS2, 3 and 4 had 8, 6 and then 5 chapters. I don't see where you got your ideas.

release> bit of a drought > season 1 > season 2 >1 year of nothing > hot > post-hot mess > season 3 > pof > season 4

also you said

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

3-1(one more episode of season 4 has been confirmed)=2

[Danikat.8537]

@"Randulf.7614" said:I think it’s rather unfair to ask us to be kept in the loop when people’s jobs are on the line and they are waiting for communication

I don’t really consider it much of our business either.

Having been through this myself multiple times. I know how disrespectful and upsetting it can be having it discussed by all and sundry with wild speculation all over the place, especially when employees aren’t fully in the loop.

I'm just glad my employers have never had this level of scrutiny from customers when something like this happens. The news is out there (especially since for the last decade or so I've been working for charities so our finances legally have to be public) and we do get comments and feedback, including great long lectures on what we "must" do if we expect that one person to remain interested, but nothing on this scale.

[Randulf.7614]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@"Randulf.7614" said:I think it’s rather unfair to ask us to be kept in the loop when people’s jobs are on the line and they are waiting for communication

I don’t really consider it much of our business either.

Having been through this myself multiple times. I know how disrespectful and upsetting it can be having it discussed by all and sundry with wild speculation all over the place, especially when employees aren’t fully in the loop.

I'm just glad my employers have never had this level of scrutiny from customers when something like this happens. The news is out there (especially since for the last decade or so I've been working for charities so our finances legally have to be public) and we do get comments and feedback, including great long lectures on what we "must" do if we expect that one person to remain interested, but nothing on this scale.

I’ve had it on a large scale, ie nationwide long established companies. It’s not fun seeing the speculation in newspapers and customers saying “well if u did this or did that..”

[Avelione.6075]

@"crosknight.3041" said:Jim Sterling was right, publishers are about that short gain.while anet has stumbled with some of it's monitization looking at the lootbox kitten it has mostly been great and should be a good example of a live service.

MASS LAYOFFS SHOULD NOT BE NORMAL! from the kotaku article linked arlier

"Songyee Yoon, the CEO of Korean publisher NCSoft West, which owns ArenaNet, e-mailed employees this afternoon with the news. “Our live game business revenue is declining as our franchises age, delays in development on PC and mobile have created further drains against our revenue projects, while our operating costs in the west have increased,” she wrote."

maybe instead of firing a bunch of people the CEO should take a pay cut like nintendo is known to do when they are having financial failures.

it's like every few months we hear about mass layoffs in the game industry, and again it should not be normal.

AMEN to that! And choyas should chase anyone who is about short term profit like a starved vampire (sucking things dry until the blood won't flow, duh! :( ), ignoring long-term, balanced development!

[Turkeyspit.3965]

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

Actually based on the limited information from the article, layoffs makes perfect sense. To TLDR it, sales are down, costs are rising, and they need to tighten belts until they can bring new product to market and get revenues up again. Situation normal.

What should really irk people is when a company posts a profit, sometimes a very significant one, yet still issues layoffs to reduce costs in order to increase dividends to shareholders, people completely removed from the company that demand an extra $0.03 per share.

[AshkyLicious.4729]

@Mikali.9651 said:Not surprised at all. 400 employees is a large number to sustain, and most of those employees didn't give any money worth back. Anet was working on a number of other projects/games, while also taking people that worked on GW2 to work on those other projects.

Thus, GW2 actually had fewer people working on it and it showed in the released content. With shorter content came less income because people just got bored, or like me, refused to give any money until actual content is released. Anet needed money to develop those other projects, so they pushed for even more gem store content. But it backfired.Even though they got enough income to sustain and develop GW2, they didn't as whole for all the projects they worked on. I am sure I would not be so wrong if I say that at least 200 of employees worked on other projects. On projects that didn't give any money back, it was all just wasted money in the end.

Then big daddy NCSoft step up, and rightfully so, they said Anet to cut the kitten, and to focus on what is released. GW2 still gets more than enough profit, but it is overshadowed by the expenses of all other projects. Remove other projects, remove 30% of people that worked on it, and suddenly you have more than enough profit to really sustain and develop current games (GW and GW2) you have, while maybe even work on one other project that actually has some future (instead of 2+).

If anything, this is a reality check for Anet. You can't work on multiple projects at the same time if that means you will lessen the development of your current games that gives you profit - which they did do. You cannot continue to be the company that gives promises - both for us for GW2, and NCSoft for other projects while breaking them left and right. Big daddy NCSoft will not accept cancellation of multiple projects and constant start on new projects. Start using the money in a way it should be - to produce the result.

NCSoft is NOT an evil company here. They are right. It is very simple. Use the money to produce results. No more slacking and wasting a huge amount of money without any RoI.

Now that Anet will reduce the number of employees that worked on other projects, they will actually have far more income to work with for GW2. GW2 employees are not affected by this layoffs, at least not in a large number. Probably some of those employees will come back to work once again on GW2. Maybe we will finally get more than 1-2 developers to work on WvW and more than 1 to work on the Alliance system. Maybe we will get 1-2 more to work on PvP, same with raids.

I can only see the positives for this layoffs in terms of how it affects GW2. It does suck for those other people cuz they will lose a job. But I am here for Guild Wars, and my game suffered for far too long. Focus on what you have already Anet. I am sure that 1 more project to work on would not be the problem, even for NCSoft, but to work on more without realizing them, yeah, I would make the same move as NCSoft.

Thank you NCSoft for giving Anet the reality check.

Agree with you to 250%. In my eyes Arenanet have themselves to blame for this happening to their company. I do feel sorry for all the people who will loose their jobs because of this. That’s unfair, since the real issue is anets managment which made all the poor decisions that lead up to this.

People should stop blaming Ncsoft for this, and try to realize that this can help GW2 so much in terms of updates and content.

In the end arenanet neglected GW2 which in a way means they neglected us players/customers to focus on things that we never paid for. All of us who plays this game is here for GW2, and anet needed to realize this way back. Hopefully Ncsoft has made them understand the situation.

[Gehenna.3625]

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@Gehenna.3625 said:

@"Danikat.8537" said:Saying we'll still get Season 5 after Season 4 actually tells us a lot. It means their plan hasn't changed as a result of this decision, and we're going to get at least 7 more living story releases,

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

seasons tend to be 6 episodes plus the final episode f the current season6+1=7

3 more episodes suggests season 5 is 2 episodes longDoesn't mean they will do so again. I might remind you that if they would've stuck to their usual patterns we would've gotten an expansion this year after LS4. That didn't happen either. So there's no telling how long LS5 will be. What I do know is that the longer it is, the longer we have to wait for the next expansion, provided there will be one.

they might change the length of season 5.but even so, a 2 episode season? that's a tad bit absurd.

also anet never established a pattern with seasons and xpacs.LS1 is gone. It was a different situation altogether and no longer is part of the game. Season 2 lead to HoT, Season 3 lead to PoF. Not so strange to think that Season 4 would lead to the next expansion, except it won't as we know. And yet that's what people were expecting initially.

Now a season of 2 episodes would be strange, but then I never mention the number 2 so not sure why you use that number. But bottom line is that you cannot say what the minimum would be. So far LS2, 3 and 4 had 8, 6 and then 5 chapters. I don't see where you got your ideas.

release> bit of a drought > season 1 > season 2 >1 year of nothing > hot > post-hot mess > season 3 > pof > season 4

also you said

Why at least 7? Why not at least 3 or 4?

3-1(one more episode of season 4 has been confirmed)=2I guess I missed the announcement that another season 4 episode was coming, but your "formula" still doesn't make sense. How does your formula explain going from 8 to 6 episodes from season 2 to 3? If you say that LS5 will have 7 episodes because LS4 will have 6, then clearly by that same reasoning season 3 should've had 9 episodes and not 6...

[Asum.4960]

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@derd.6413 said:

@"Ayakaru.6583" said:Production is too slow, better lay of some workers so we produce even less and people spend even less money on our company

the lay offs are because of an unannounced project being cancelled, gw2 is mostly unaffected by itFor all we know, one of those unannounced projects might have been the next expac. At this moment i'd really want to hear Anet's official confirmation that there

will

be a next expac, and that they aren't going back to ls-only release mode.If that's not true, i'd really want to hear it now as well, but a silence on this issue i'll also consider a kind of answer confirming that the game did get into a lower investment life support mode.

A cancelled expansion would contradict the full statement, as in "..Guild Wars 2 game services will not be affected, nor is any upcoming game content canceled."

I agree though, that now more than ever ArenaNet needs to communicate and come out with a rough roadmap, not even with dates necessarily, but if LW S5 isn't the end, the community needs to know. Otherwise people will assume the worst, leading to a spending and player drain.

It's frustrating to see a great game, which easily has legs for 2 more expansions, just kind of drift around without any hype, because there's almost a complete lack of communication about it's future.

[Zaklex.6308]

Nothing to worry about, nothing to see...just continue playing the game and enjoy it. See the following, this is all you really need to know: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/69249/update-from-arenanet

[Teratus.2859]

This is why i'm heavily in support of paid expansion content..The living world is great and I've enjoyed it over the years but no matter how good and epic it gets.. it just cannot compare to paid expansions.

I'm more than content to continue paying for ultimate edition expansions.. I'm a collectors owner and for both expansions I paid for Ultimate and I don't even want to know how much i've put into the gem store on top of all that.I admit I am a little disappointed that the living world will contine into another season rather than an a paid expansion but I guess there's good reason for it.I just hope the next expansion will be big enough to warrant a bigger price point than PoF did.. that expansion was extremely cheap imo.. almost in the same price range as a premium mount skin which is absolutely ridiculous.

On the issue of subs though.. optional one is fine so long as it takes nothing away from the core game and only gives those who want to pay it some extra bonuses like free skins or something..

As for Mandatory subs.. I don't care how much time and money I have invested in this game.. I'll sell my account and abandon this franchise forever the very second they add one to Gw2.. that's a promise.I have nothing but hate for mandatory subfees and I will never support them or any game that uses them, no company has the right to take games I've paid for away from me if I stop giving them money.. that's not a justifyable business practice, It's financial coercion/consumer abuse and I refuse to support it.