Bringing Colin back was the smartest decision by ANET in years

[fenriswolfman.5486]

I cant even remember how many times core systems were reworked/removed/abandoned. That was a lot of wasted time and effort. Just the character leveling/advancement system was redone at least 3 times. His direction of the game was all over the place.

From living world to seasons. From dungeons to fractals. From horizontal progression to a new level of gear to grind. Casual open world content to punishing open world content. Raiding. Esports. Guild missions. Masteries to grind in what was supposed to be a grind free game.

The new subspecs were a joke at first. By the time you had unlocked enough of the spec for it to be functional you would have finished all of the new content. They did alter this before very long. Nothing ever came of guildhalls or GvG. Legendary releases slowed to a crawl.

Im sure I am missing far more. But that was off the top of my head.

Edited July 4, 2021 by fenriswolfman.5486

[Astralporing.1957]

There were a lot of bad things that happened/were going when Colin was still game director, and many ideas that appeared then i'd rather didn't. Still, I'd be far from attributing successes (and failures) of a whole big company to a single man. I bet most of those were a result of designs a lot of people were part of.

 

Basically, if something is going to change in this game (for better or worse), i doubt it's going to be just "because Colin". It will be because something changed at a higher management levels.

 

Although i do see how hyping the return of Colin, the very icon of GW2 hype, might seem appropriate. Just remember, that gw2 hype generally tended to overhype stuff.

[dace.8019]

I'm really willing to let time be the judge on whether Colin "No Brakes" Johansson returning will be good or not for GW2, but after his last project failed spectacularly I'm not expecting great things. Prepared to be pleasantly surprised though. That last game's problems may have been more generally down to the Amazon studio than him.

Edited July 4, 2021 by dace.8019

[Tyriam.5370]

On 7/3/2021 at 4:00 AM, ScyeRynn.4218 said:

Lol who told you that? He was director for months and part of the "creative" vision behind that mess.

IBS was not a mess it had to end quickly. Start of IBS is awesome

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

At least, there seemed to be a lot more communication when Colin was around, so, hopefully, there's that to look forward to.

 

Remember, Colin has been instrumental since Prophesies; which means he was a part of Factions, which was a bit more competitive-leaning as expansion/Campaigns go. 

 

Also, Mike O'Brien was Studio Head during the time Colin was Game Director.  If everything bad was Colin's fault, and not Mike O.'s, then why will it be Colin's (as co-Studio Head) fault and not the new Game Director's? 

[Faridah.8431]

On 7/2/2021 at 7:07 PM, ScyeRynn.4218 said:

Finally this game will have an ACTUAL vision and proper direction compared to the last few years.

 

And working with your playerbase instead of in secret?

 

Hmm... kind of sounds like what should have been in place all this time 🤔

 

Nice to see you on the right track for once in a long time. Now this game has some real hope for its future👍

https://i.imgur.com/Idd8bvN.jpg

 

Do people forget all the negative aspects of GW2 during his tenure as game director? LWS1, multiple lengthy content droughts, scope of HoT, etc.

 

Anyway, it's one man and all we've seen so far is a letter. Proof will be in the pudding. I'm cautiously optimistic, but we need to wait and see.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Faridah.8431