Mike Z on pcgamesn.com: Expansions not ruled out

[Astralporing.1957]

@"Hyper Cutter.9376" said:"We want Anet to communicate with us""why is Anet communicating with us, something must be wrong"Oh, but they aren't communicating. They are making some vague statements to the press, but to their community, and about the key questions of that community, they are silent. As always.And all they do is keep saying "we really should communicate more", which is something i heard them saying since 2013. Nothing ever materialized from that kind of speaking, though.

@Blocki.4931 said:That's what YOU read into it. That's not what was said. It wasn't 100% confirmed they would ever release elite specs as part of an LS release before, now we know it might happen.We knew it might happen before, we know it might happen now. It wasn't 100% confirmed before, it isn't 100% confirmed (or even 1% confirmed) now. If anything, it's even less certain now than before.

Yeah, they might do elite specs. They might release an expac too. Or gw3.Doesn't mean they will.

[Dante.1508]

@"Hyper Cutter.9376" said:"We want Anet to communicate with us""why is Anet communicating with us, something must be wrong"True but you missed the line where > "Silence for years" in between those two lines.. Also saying you are committed and then going dark afterwards kind of makes the whole sentence pointless imo..

[Rasimir.6239]

@Acheron.4731 said:I know Obtena is gonna tell me that new elite specs, mounts, or mechanics are possible with the saga platform but they have literally said they are not even working on any of that right now.Actually what they said was that those will not be within the scope of episodes 1&2 (nor the prologue), but won't talk about what is being worked on beyond episode 2. That is very different from saying they are not working on them. I doubt new systems and mechanics are developed within just the timespan of a couple of episodes. It would be much more realistic to have them working on long-term projects like new mounts, elite specs, mechanics, whatever now to have them ready for release with later episodes.

Expansions take a lot of time for several reasons. One of the reasons is that they usually contain new features like new classes/specs, new mechanics and such that take a long time to develop. For a while now ANet has been confident (and told us) that going forward they will be able to deliver such development-intensive additions to the game through living world. In fact they even did release a bunch of stuff during season 4 that could well fall into that camp from a technical/dev work requirement point of view, like mounts, involved collections with full armor set rewards (like elegy/requiem). Even Sun's refuge, regardless if it gave you a lot to do or not, is from a technical point of view a new and most likely technically involved system the game didn't have before.

Will I be satisfied by everything that's to come? I don't know. I know I didn't like every new thing they put out in the past. The roller beetle for example is something I could've done without, I neither liked the aquisition much (unlike the Skyscale, which was a lot more to my taste), nor do I enjoy using the mount. But that's not the point. The point is that ANet has announced that going forward they fully intend to bring in technically complex content. To me that implies that they are already working on several such projects, since they wouldn't be able to pull them off if they hadn't even started yet. Claiming they aren't working on anything like that is so highly unlikely I'll just call it false.

[Acheron.4731]

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@"Acheron.4731" said:I know Obtena is gonna tell me that new elite specs, mounts, or mechanics are possible with the saga platform but they have literally said they are not even working on any of that right now.Actually what they said was that those will not be within the scope of episodes 1&2 (nor the prologue), but won't talk about what is being worked on beyond episode 2. That is very different from saying they are not working on them. I doubt new systems and mechanics are developed within just the timespan of a couple of episodes. It would be much more realistic to have them working on long-term projects like new mounts, elite specs, mechanics, whatever now to have them ready for release with later episodes.

Expansions take a lot of time for several reasons. One of the reasons is that they usually contain new features like new classes/specs, new mechanics and such that take a long time to develop. For a while now ANet has been confident (and told us) that going forward they will be able to deliver such development-intensive additions to the game through living world. In fact they even did release a bunch of stuff during season 4 that could well fall into that camp from a technical/dev work requirement point of view, like mounts, involved collections with full armor set rewards (like elegy/requiem). Even Sun's refuge, regardless if it gave you a lot to do or not, is from a technical point of view a new and most likely technically involved system the game didn't have before.

Will I be satisfied by everything that's to come? I don't know. I know I didn't like every new thing they put out in the past. The roller beetle for example is something I could've done without, I neither liked the aquisition much (unlike the Skyscale, which was a lot more to my taste), nor do I enjoy using the mount. But that's not the point. The point is that ANet has announced that going forward they fully intend to bring in technically complex content. To me that implies that they are already working on several such projects, since they wouldn't be able to pull them off if they hadn't even started yet. Claiming they aren't working on anything like that is so highly unlikely I'll just call it false.

When he said "We are not even talking about that right now"He meant internally as a team...not to the mediaMy problem is they already had that time to be working on an expansion and they squandered it. Now they are looking for compassion.I am sure the community is more that willing to give that too,,,but they should be more honest and forthcoming not just running PR campaigns.

[Rasimir.6239]

@"Acheron.4731" said:When he said "We are not even talking about that right now"He meant internally as a team...not to the mediaHe did? Do you have a link to where he said that? It's certainly not what I read in the articles linked earlier in this thread.

[Tyncale.1629]

@"Hashberry.4510" said:Welp, if stretching cooking out is expansion level content, I would say they are done. They can't add power; the QoL for exponentially more effort is just too thin.

Yes, that part worried me too, and he is in fact stating things that are untrue, like "adding another Mount" usually being exclusive to boxed content. The Mount feature itself sure was boxed Expansion content (and great too), but since then 3 mounts have been added as unboxed content. That sets expectations. The fact that he now tries to label that content as "boxed" seems to mean they simply do not have enough real "meat" lined up for a real expansion.

I guess an Elite Spec would fall under boxed content, but I feel they are still grasping at straws with that. Elite specs also typically came with the opportunity to earn those Hero Points for them, i.e. new lands to explore. I am wondering how they will tackle that if they ever decide to release a new Elite spec with a LW episode.

To me, the whole interview felt as "propping up" the little content they are planning to make it seem more then it is: half of which I am not even interested in. Wth are Swiss tournaments? Never mind, not interested in PvP or WvW.

NB: as to the Cooking Mastery: while it was a nice 2 days worth of content, I think that that they could have done so much more to Cooking/Food then just adding another boring tier of "slightly more powerful food". Crafting in general could use a huge overhaul, but reading the interview, no way we will ever see that kind of changes in the game.

[Vayne.8563]

@otto.5684 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@otto.5684 said:The issue now is GW2 LACKS CONTENTSpeaking for me, and the small circle of friends that I play online with, we still have a lot of things left to do, so in our perception there is more than enough content. I have seen others on these very forums saying similar things.

Only Anet has the true metrics on how many players are online and what they're doing. Just because you may have run out of things that you enjoy doing does not necessarily mean that the game lacks content.

This reminds me of SWTOR. GW2 is doing literally the same exact step. SWTOR lost roughly 90% of its player base over the last 2 years.

I still log into SWTOR every once in a while, but the real kicker, the last time I paid money there was maybe 2.5 years ago. Assuming content rate stays the same, I will still log on to GW2 down the road, but spending any money is way out of the picture.

And you say that the community is happy? Go check the reveal feedback forum. I read a good portion of it, and it is overwhelmingly negative. You know why? Beside the unnecessary hype, 2 years after last expansion far more content is expected than another story season spread over probably 18 month. But Anet has nothing else. This game is going to bleed active players, and thus revenue. What Anet is doing has been tried before and failed.

See, the problem here, from my point of view, is your definition of the community. I have a guild of about 350 people more or less, when you factor out alt accounts. Of those 350 people I know of no one that's particularly unhappy and no one that has nothing to do. I think there are two people in my guild who post regularly on the forums.

The forums represent only a small percentage of the playerbase of the most vested players, ie the players most likely to have done everything in the game, and even all of those players aren't disappointed. There's no reason to post in a rage storm because you'll just get shouted down. You see the rage and you walk away, or most people will. I'm one of the exceptions, but it's true.

In fact, most of the guys in my guild who once posted on the forums don't post on the forums any more, mostly because of the negativity here. They simply stopped and walked away....from the forums not the game.

Saying that most people that posted on the forums were unhappy is certainly true. Saying that represents "the community" is, in my opinion, not a reflection of reality.

[Acheron.4731]

@Rasimir.6239 said:

@"Acheron.4731" said:When he said "We are not even talking about that right now"He meant internally as a team...not to the mediaHe did? Do you have a link to where he said that? It's certainly not what I read in the articles linked earlier in this thread.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/guild-wars-2/pvp-raids-world-restructuring

Early messaging around the Icebrood Saga mentioned “expansion-tier features.” What do you see as those features?

MZ: If you look at the history of what we’ve been doing, cooking 500 was another one of these things. Obviously, built-in gear templates are one of those things that we would want to consider in there. We’re taking on bigger projects, to be able to release those when they’re ready, as opposed to holding all back and then doing it as one boxed product. That’s the difference in the methodology.

Things that we wouldn’t rule out – but that we’re not talking about today – would be like another mount, another elite specialisation, those types of things.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@otto.5684 said:The issue now is GW2 LACKS CONTENTSpeaking for me, and the small circle of friends that I play online with, we still have a lot of things left to do, so in our perception there is more than enough content. I have seen others on these very forums saying similar things.

Only Anet has the true metrics on how many players are online and what they're doing. Just because you may have run out of things that you enjoy doing does not necessarily mean that the game lacks content.

This reminds me of SWTOR. GW2 is doing literally the same exact step. SWTOR lost roughly 90% of its player base over the last 2 years.

I still log into SWTOR every once in a while, but the real kicker, the last time I paid money there was maybe 2.5 years ago. Assuming content rate stays the same, I will still log on to GW2 down the road, but spending any money is way out of the picture.

And you say that the community is happy? Go check the reveal feedback forum. I read a good portion of it, and it is overwhelmingly negative. You know why? Beside the unnecessary hype, 2 years after last expansion far more content is expected than another story season spread over probably 18 month. But Anet has nothing else. This game is going to bleed active players, and thus revenue. What Anet is doing has been tried before and failed.

See, the problem here, from my point of view, is your definition of the community. I have a guild of about 350 people more or less, when you factor out alt accounts. Of those 350 people I know of no one that's particularly unhappy and no one that has nothing to do. I think there are two people in my guild who post regularly on the forums.

The forums represent only a small percentage of the playerbase of the most vested players, ie the players most likely to have done everything in the game, and even all of those players aren't disappointed. There's no reason to post in a rage storm because you'll just get shouted down. You see the rage and you walk away, or most people will. I'm one of the exceptions, but it's true.

In fact, most of the guys in my guild who once posted on the forums don't post on the forums any more, mostly because of the negativity here. They simply stopped and walked away....from the forums not the game.

Saying that most people that posted on the forums were unhappy is certainly true. Saying that represents "the community" is, in my opinion, not a reflection of reality.

I'd still say both forums and reddit are an adequate sample for the playerbase's pulse. Not perfect but adequate. We've seen reddit "outrages" make giants like EA backtrack. If the sample was insignificant, that wouldn't be the case.

And regarding this last reveal, we even saw anet partners voicing their concern. The same people who usually support dev decisions against those "rage storms".

All of these together do point to a volatile climate right now, even if we can't have the opinion of the entire community.

[Tyncale.1629]

Another thing that worried me is when he talked about the Riding on Aurene's back as a new and innovative system that could possibly lead to more gameplay like that. I thought that particular sequence was awkward and boring, and reminded me of very cheap games that I played many years ago.

It felt like more grasping at straws when he mentioned that. Nope, the interview definitely did nothing to hype me over what is coming. :(

[Vayne.8563]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@otto.5684 said:The issue now is GW2 LACKS CONTENTSpeaking for me, and the small circle of friends that I play online with, we still have a lot of things left to do, so in our perception there is more than enough content. I have seen others on these very forums saying similar things.

Only Anet has the true metrics on how many players are online and what they're doing. Just because you may have run out of things that you enjoy doing does not necessarily mean that the game lacks content.

This reminds me of SWTOR. GW2 is doing literally the same exact step. SWTOR lost roughly 90% of its player base over the last 2 years.

I still log into SWTOR every once in a while, but the real kicker, the last time I paid money there was maybe 2.5 years ago. Assuming content rate stays the same, I will still log on to GW2 down the road, but spending any money is way out of the picture.

And you say that the community is happy? Go check the reveal feedback forum. I read a good portion of it, and it is overwhelmingly negative. You know why? Beside the unnecessary hype, 2 years after last expansion far more content is expected than another story season spread over probably 18 month. But Anet has nothing else. This game is going to bleed active players, and thus revenue. What Anet is doing has been tried before and failed.

See, the problem here, from my point of view, is your definition of the community. I have a guild of about 350 people more or less, when you factor out alt accounts. Of those 350 people I know of no one that's particularly unhappy and no one that has nothing to do. I think there are two people in my guild who post regularly on the forums.

The forums represent only a small percentage of the playerbase of the most vested players, ie the players most likely to have done everything in the game, and even all of those players aren't disappointed. There's no reason to post in a rage storm because you'll just get shouted down. You see the rage and you walk away, or most people will. I'm one of the exceptions, but it's true.

In fact, most of the guys in my guild who once posted on the forums don't post on the forums any more, mostly because of the negativity here. They simply stopped and walked away....from the forums not the game.

Saying that most people that posted on the forums were unhappy is certainly true. Saying that represents "the community" is, in my opinion, not a reflection of reality.

I'd still say both forums and reddit are an adequate sample for the playerbase's pulse. Not perfect but adequate. We've seen reddit "outrages" make giants like EA backtrack. If the sample was insignificant, that wouldn't be the case.

And regarding this last reveal, we even saw anet partners voicing their concern. The same people who usually support dev decisions against those "rage storms".

All of these together do point to a volatile climate right now, even if we can't have the opinion of the entire community.

I disagree. I've seen more than one kittenstorm on here that amounted to less than nothing. You can believe if you wish that it was a big deal. We won't know for a couple of months, but I strongly suspect the reaction was a storm in a teacup. Unlike other past dramas, no one is much talking about it any more.

[Acheron.4731]

If NA wvw is a sample for the game...this game is in trouble, lol

[Randulf.7614]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@otto.5684 said:The issue now is GW2 LACKS CONTENTSpeaking for me, and the small circle of friends that I play online with, we still have a lot of things left to do, so in our perception there is more than enough content. I have seen others on these very forums saying similar things.

Only Anet has the true metrics on how many players are online and what they're doing. Just because you may have run out of things that you enjoy doing does not necessarily mean that the game lacks content.

This reminds me of SWTOR. GW2 is doing literally the same exact step. SWTOR lost roughly 90% of its player base over the last 2 years.

I still log into SWTOR every once in a while, but the real kicker, the last time I paid money there was maybe 2.5 years ago. Assuming content rate stays the same, I will still log on to GW2 down the road, but spending any money is way out of the picture.

And you say that the community is happy? Go check the reveal feedback forum. I read a good portion of it, and it is overwhelmingly negative. You know why? Beside the unnecessary hype, 2 years after last expansion far more content is expected than another story season spread over probably 18 month. But Anet has nothing else. This game is going to bleed active players, and thus revenue. What Anet is doing has been tried before and failed.

See, the problem here, from my point of view, is your definition of the community. I have a guild of about 350 people more or less, when you factor out alt accounts. Of those 350 people I know of no one that's particularly unhappy and no one that has nothing to do. I think there are two people in my guild who post regularly on the forums.

The forums represent only a small percentage of the playerbase of the most vested players, ie the players most likely to have done everything in the game, and even all of those players aren't disappointed. There's no reason to post in a rage storm because you'll just get shouted down. You see the rage and you walk away, or most people will. I'm one of the exceptions, but it's true.

In fact, most of the guys in my guild who once posted on the forums don't post on the forums any more, mostly because of the negativity here. They simply stopped and walked away....from the forums not the game.

Saying that most people that posted on the forums were unhappy is certainly true. Saying that represents "the community" is, in my opinion, not a reflection of reality.

I'd still say both forums and reddit are an adequate sample for the playerbase's pulse. Not perfect but adequate. We've seen reddit "outrages" make giants like EA backtrack. If the sample was insignificant, that wouldn't be the case.

And regarding this last reveal, we even saw anet partners voicing their concern. The same people who usually support dev decisions against those "rage storms".

All of these together do point to a volatile climate right now, even if we can't have the opinion of the entire community.

I agree in part. Theres certainly a connection between what is said here and feelings in game. I see it chats all time and across other media forms. That isnt to say there is t a lot of positivity out there because there is, but those dismiss the storms do so out of ignorance. And Anet by and large ignore the negative instead of managing it (sadly pretty much standard these modern days in so many places)

Having said that, im not entirely convinced the announcement did any real damage - for me it was just another example of being out of touch with their community outside of those who religiously support it. But I said it would be a weekend wonder and it was.

Ls5 will be the yardstick that things will be judged by. Anet will never improve or care about communication nor will they understand how to do it either. They judge everything on metrics, so if ls5 brings in reduced metrics, that will be their wake up call. I found ls4 a misstep in so many fronts and the general critique has been hugely mixed, with special widespread condemnation for the handling of jokos death and some other bits. But the metrics seem to support logins and spending so living world continues unashamedly.

[Goettel.4389]

Won't lie, I'd love a new expansion, not in the least to get away from the desert.

[AlexxxDelta.1806]

@Vayne.8563 said:

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@otto.5684 said:The issue now is GW2 LACKS CONTENTSpeaking for me, and the small circle of friends that I play online with, we still have a lot of things left to do, so in our perception there is more than enough content. I have seen others on these very forums saying similar things.

Only Anet has the true metrics on how many players are online and what they're doing. Just because you may have run out of things that you enjoy doing does not necessarily mean that the game lacks content.

This reminds me of SWTOR. GW2 is doing literally the same exact step. SWTOR lost roughly 90% of its player base over the last 2 years.

I still log into SWTOR every once in a while, but the real kicker, the last time I paid money there was maybe 2.5 years ago. Assuming content rate stays the same, I will still log on to GW2 down the road, but spending any money is way out of the picture.

And you say that the community is happy? Go check the reveal feedback forum. I read a good portion of it, and it is overwhelmingly negative. You know why? Beside the unnecessary hype, 2 years after last expansion far more content is expected than another story season spread over probably 18 month. But Anet has nothing else. This game is going to bleed active players, and thus revenue. What Anet is doing has been tried before and failed.

See, the problem here, from my point of view, is your definition of the community. I have a guild of about 350 people more or less, when you factor out alt accounts. Of those 350 people I know of no one that's particularly unhappy and no one that has nothing to do. I think there are two people in my guild who post regularly on the forums.

The forums represent only a small percentage of the playerbase of the most vested players, ie the players most likely to have done everything in the game, and even all of those players aren't disappointed. There's no reason to post in a rage storm because you'll just get shouted down. You see the rage and you walk away, or most people will. I'm one of the exceptions, but it's true.

In fact, most of the guys in my guild who once posted on the forums don't post on the forums any more, mostly because of the negativity here. They simply stopped and walked away....from the forums not the game.

Saying that most people that posted on the forums were unhappy is certainly true. Saying that represents "the community" is, in my opinion, not a reflection of reality.

I'd still say both forums and reddit are an adequate sample for the playerbase's pulse. Not perfect but adequate. We've seen reddit "outrages" make giants like EA backtrack. If the sample was insignificant, that wouldn't be the case.

And regarding this last reveal, we even saw anet partners voicing their concern. The same people who usually support dev decisions against those "rage storms".

All of these together do point to a volatile climate right now, even if we can't have the opinion of the entire community.

I disagree. I've seen more than one kittenstorm on here that amounted to less than nothing. You can believe if you wish that it was a big deal. We won't know for a couple of months, but I strongly suspect the reaction was a storm in a teacup. Unlike other past dramas, no one is much talking about it any more.

I have and some have been short-lived overreactions. But to me this one has been the culmination of things boiling for some time now.

Notice how this negative reaction to the current direction announcement comes from different places? Some didn't like that no expansion is in the works. Others are fine with that but didn't consider any of the planned stuff to be expansion-level. And others didn't like the focus on PvE and wanted more for the PvP modes.

The negative feedback to the current situation comes from so many different directions that I can't believe it's just a small group pouting a bit. And for that reason I think this saga is critical to the game's future. It will either extend it or shorten it.

[Astralporing.1957]

@"Vayne.8563" said:I disagree. I've seen more than one kittenstorm on here that amounted to less than nothing. You can believe if you wish that it was a big deal. We won't know for a couple of months, but I strongly suspect the reaction was a storm in a teacup. Unlike other past dramas, no one is much talking about it any more.If by "amounted to less than nothing" you mean Anet's reaction, then you're completely right - they rarely react, and most of those kittenstorms didn't visibly impact game development. Most of them however resulted in players leaving the game. And if you see the storm calm down faster than they used to, that's because there's less and less players that care, and they are much faster to just give up on hoping anything's going to change for the better. The fire in people is simply dying out.

[Vayne.8563]

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@AlexxxDelta.1806 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:

@otto.5684 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:

@otto.5684 said:The issue now is GW2 LACKS CONTENTSpeaking for me, and the small circle of friends that I play online with, we still have a lot of things left to do, so in our perception there is more than enough content. I have seen others on these very forums saying similar things.

Only Anet has the true metrics on how many players are online and what they're doing. Just because you may have run out of things that you enjoy doing does not necessarily mean that the game lacks content.

This reminds me of SWTOR. GW2 is doing literally the same exact step. SWTOR lost roughly 90% of its player base over the last 2 years.

I still log into SWTOR every once in a while, but the real kicker, the last time I paid money there was maybe 2.5 years ago. Assuming content rate stays the same, I will still log on to GW2 down the road, but spending any money is way out of the picture.

And you say that the community is happy? Go check the reveal feedback forum. I read a good portion of it, and it is overwhelmingly negative. You know why? Beside the unnecessary hype, 2 years after last expansion far more content is expected than another story season spread over probably 18 month. But Anet has nothing else. This game is going to bleed active players, and thus revenue. What Anet is doing has been tried before and failed.

See, the problem here, from my point of view, is your definition of the community. I have a guild of about 350 people more or less, when you factor out alt accounts. Of those 350 people I know of no one that's particularly unhappy and no one that has nothing to do. I think there are two people in my guild who post regularly on the forums.

The forums represent only a small percentage of the playerbase of the most vested players, ie the players most likely to have done everything in the game, and even all of those players aren't disappointed. There's no reason to post in a rage storm because you'll just get shouted down. You see the rage and you walk away, or most people will. I'm one of the exceptions, but it's true.

In fact, most of the guys in my guild who once posted on the forums don't post on the forums any more, mostly because of the negativity here. They simply stopped and walked away....from the forums not the game.

Saying that most people that posted on the forums were unhappy is certainly true. Saying that represents "the community" is, in my opinion, not a reflection of reality.

I'd still say both forums and reddit are an adequate sample for the playerbase's pulse. Not perfect but adequate. We've seen reddit "outrages" make giants like EA backtrack. If the sample was insignificant, that wouldn't be the case.

And regarding this last reveal, we even saw anet partners voicing their concern. The same people who usually support dev decisions against those "rage storms".

All of these together do point to a volatile climate right now, even if we can't have the opinion of the entire community.

I disagree. I've seen more than one kittenstorm on here that amounted to less than nothing. You can believe if you wish that it was a big deal. We won't know for a couple of months, but I strongly suspect the reaction was a storm in a teacup. Unlike other past dramas, no one is much talking about it any more.

I have and some have been short-lived overreactions. But to me this one has been the culmination of things boiling for some time now.

Notice how this negative reaction to the current direction announcement comes from different places? Some didn't like that no expansion is in the works. Others are fine with that but didn't consider any of the planned stuff to be expansion-level. And others didn't like the focus on PvE and wanted more for the PvP modes.

The negative feedback to the current situation comes from so many different directions that I can't believe it's just a small group pouting a bit. And for that reason I think this saga is critical to the game's future. It will either extend it or shorten it.

We only heard about the planned stuff for 2 episodes...take the first 2 episodes of Season 4. They offered very little and Palawadan was still massively popular. The mounts didn't come in till after that. People have no patience. Anet announced a first look the next season not a reveal of everything that would be coming. People were angry because they expected more, and that's only partly Anet's fault. I knew what to expect. I'm sure not everyone hyped themselves to oblivion. People went into this saying Anet will now give me a roadmap. What from their announcement suggested that?

[Vayne.8563]

@Astralporing.1957 said:

@"Vayne.8563" said:I disagree. I've seen more than one kittenstorm on here that amounted to less than nothing. You can believe if you wish that it was a big deal. We won't know for a couple of months, but I strongly suspect the reaction was a storm in a teacup. Unlike other past dramas, no one is much talking about it any more.If by "amounted to less than nothing" you mean Anet's reaction, then you're completely right - they rarely react, and most of those kittenstorms didn't visibly impact game development. Most of them however resulted in

players leaving the game

. And if you see the storm calm down faster than they used to, that's because there's less and less players that care, and they are much faster to just give up on hoping anything's going to change for the better. The fire in people is simply dying out.

I'm sorry how do you know how many people are playing. People say stuff like it's fact. We have old people leaving and new people coming. That has ALWAYS been the case. Four months after launch we had a huge exodus, probably the biggest this game has ever seen. It was a combination of reacting to ascended gear being announced and people complaining about nothing to do at end game. We had a huge exodus after HOT. This is how games work these days if you haven't noticed. Most people don't leave forever and those that do tend to get replaced by some new guy who stays. This game seems to have a stable population to me. Only people who are unhappy are insisting that population is dwindling. We just have no way of knowing how many people are not staying in WvW anymore or PvP and moving to PvE, but even so, the PvE population is pretty healthy. If you think otherwise, you can believe that. It doesn't make it true.