Almost done, yet so much work to do.. With Arenanet listening to people all around the globe and improving the game even more, its obvious to me that this game wil not release pre summer 2012.
Not a big problem, and Arenanet can afford it with all the money they made from the pre purchases, there is no reason to rush. Pre-purchasing was an excellent idea, because in Arenanet we can trust. Have they told how many copies they pre-sold? If they only sold as few as 200k Digital copies, it will have made them well over 10M, which is enough to pay the bills.
With this attitude, GW2 might be up to sell WoW numbers of copies. Its a game aimed at a huge group of gamers, it has a lot of refreshing game feutures and Arenanet has the dedication to make it as good as possible.
Yes, its allmost done, but it will probably not release before early 4th quarter 2012, just in time to get enough possitive player attention to make a huge christmass sale on top of the initial sales.
OP, you are making one huge mistake: AN has not yet completed the transaction i.e. delivered the game ppl have pre-ordered so the only money they can consider secure in their hand is the interest from the money they have so far received.
And frankly, if you think that 10 Mio will be enough to not just cover the bills that have stacked up till now but also the ones that are still left to come (especially for marketing), well, you don't have a clue!
Further, I don't really see in which way a pre-paid model should create an attitude that will make GW2 sell numbers equal to WoW?
Don't get me wrong, I don't give a flying ferret's floating fart about how good or bad WoW does, just as I don't give the same about how well GW2 will sell.
To me GW2 will be nothing but a McDonald's of the MMO genre: it will offer a wide range of 'dishes (read: features) but not pretty much none of them new and probably all already done much better.
So, if you want cheap with a lot to offer (with potentially cheap quality), yeah, GW2 is just the thing for you... *shrug*
On a side note: looking into your crystal ball to venture a guess at the path ahead for GW2, I think you may have failed to take a look into the rearview mirror: remember the disaster BW faced when they released SWTOR just in time for Xmas last year? I think most (smart) MMO game publishers will now try to land their game outside that hot zone...
I think that you actually need to educate yourself before posting nonsense on the internet. That's just my opinion though.
Says a person who is unable to provide "education" in order to show/explain where people are -supposedly - wrong... well done... or did you really just feel like posting something?
I'm not here to provide you with education. This isn't school, son. When you make a claim in real life, it's a good idea to actually know what you're talking about. Otherwise it just makes people laugh at you.
Almost done, yet so much work to do.. With Arenanet listening to people all around the globe and improving the game even more, its obvious to me that this game wil not release pre summer 2012.
Not a big problem, and Arenanet can afford it with all the money they made from the pre purchases, there is no reason to rush. Pre-purchasing was an excellent idea, because in Arenanet we can trust. Have they told how many copies they pre-sold? If they only sold as few as 200k Digital copies, it will have made them well over 10M, which is enough to pay the bills.
With this attitude, GW2 might be up to sell WoW numbers of copies. Its a game aimed at a huge group of gamers, it has a lot of refreshing game feutures and Arenanet has the dedication to make it as good as possible.
Yes, its allmost done, but it will probably not release before early 4th quarter 2012, just in time to get enough possitive player attention to make a huge christmass sale on top of the initial sales.
OP, you are making one huge mistake: AN has not yet completed the transaction i.e. delivered the game ppl have pre-ordered so the only money they can consider secure in their hand is the interest from the money they have so far received.
And frankly, if you think that 10 Mio will be enough to not just cover the bills that have stacked up till now but also the ones that are still left to come (especially for marketing), well, you don't have a clue!
Further, I don't really see in which way a pre-paid model should create an attitude that will make GW2 sell numbers equal to WoW?
Don't get me wrong, I don't give a flying ferret's floating fart about how good or bad WoW does, just as I don't give the same about how well GW2 will sell.
To me GW2 will be nothing but a McDonald's of the MMO genre: it will offer a wide range of 'dishes (read: features) but not pretty much none of them new and probably all already done much better.
So, if you want cheap with a lot to offer (with potentially cheap quality), yeah, GW2 is just the thing for you... *shrug*
On a side note: looking into your crystal ball to venture a guess at the path ahead for GW2, I think you may have failed to take a look into the rearview mirror: remember the disaster BW faced when they released SWTOR just in time for Xmas last year? I think most (smart) MMO game publishers will now try to land their game outside that hot zone...
I think that you actually need to educate yourself before posting nonsense on the internet. That's just my opinion though.
Says a person who is unable to provide "education" in order to show/explain where people are -supposedly - wrong... well done... or did you really just feel like posting something?
The internetz can "educate" you. I would recommend starting at www.google.com because he was right, your comments read like you have no idea what GW2 is like. You do realize that tons of people have actually played it now and would completely disagree with you, right?
The way I see it is if it's major things that need to be fixed/tweak, then by all means they can take their time. I wouldn't mind a Q4 release at all. However, if it's minor things that can be patched along the way, then I'd rather they release the game as soon as they're able.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed: And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!" ~Lord George Gordon Byron
I rather wait a bit longer and get a full product I can enjoy right away than having to play a subpar game for 6 months, while waiting for the devs to add all of the promised content and fix all of the bugs.
I do want to play though.
What content seems to be missing/promised but not there?
Also, what major bugs are there? There's only a few minor bugs that I've noticed all weekend, and those are no more than those that have been in current MMORPG's that have been out for years on end.
The game was so much more complete in it's current state over the BWE than Rift or SW:TOR were at their launch. I'm saying, this game is ready to launch. Hell, this game is far better than Blizzard's crap product of Diablo 3.
I rather wait a bit longer and get a full product I can enjoy right away than having to play a subpar game for 6 months, while waiting for the devs to add all of the promised content and fix all of the bugs.
I do want to play though.
What content seems to be missing/promised but not there?
Also, what major bugs are there? There's only a few minor bugs that I've noticed all weekend, and those are no more than those that have been in current MMORPG's that have been out for years on end.
The game was so much more complete in it's current state over the BWE than Rift or SW:TOR were at their launch. I'm saying, this game is ready to launch. Hell, this game is far better than Blizzard's crap product of Diablo 3.
The asura and sylvari zones for one. How about all of the zones after level 30? I'm not saying that they aren't there but we didn't have access to them during the BWE so I can't say whether they are fully implemented or not.
I originally thought a June / July release date too, but honestly they need to do a lot of work before release so my prediction got moved down to at least August / September. This isn't a bad thing though, personally in the few minutes I played TSW I think it's in worse shape than GW2 and it's getting a release next month. Amongst things they have to fix in beta:
WvWvW rewards, as mentioned they plan to change it so you don't have to score the killing blow to get EXP and loot credit.
Class balance. I know some will disagree here, but most of the HARDCORE players I talked to agree that certain classes are just better than others right now.
Traits, weapon sets, and utility balance. Some traits and utilities just aren't as good as other traits and utilities. Some number tweaks can easily fix this, but it will take quite a bit of testing to make them feel right.
Event scaling in particular for melee (champion MOBs too easily one shot melee at the moment).
Issues with certain hardware. Known issues with 470 and 460 GTX cards right now for example. I know, because I suffered through it in beta, but they are aware of it and will probably have it fixed soon.
Some account management and website issues to iron out. You can't currently unlink an account if you linked it to the wrong NCSoft account, which apparently a lot of people are having issues with.
Some NPCs in personal story are missing their VA.
Many emotes in game are obviously valid commands but don't work (EX: /dance, /violin)
Possible better "tutorials" and explanations of what to do. This was one of the most popular feedback issues brought up on the forums. Players who haven't been following how the game works are often at lose at how things work in the game especially in areas like WvWvW.
Still untested by the general public: The majority of each personal story, Asura and Sylvari + their starting areas, every non-PvP area post 25, and every dungeon except Fort Rhand and Ascalon Catacombs. That's a lot of stuff that could probably use a few more eyes.
Balancing MOB types (they acknowledged they will be doing this and some were too easy while others were too difficult).
Overflow server issues and seperation of guilds and friends.
Variety of other things I may have missed they said they are looking over. Some are relatively minor and probably don't need to be fixed in the release build at least.
I originally thought a June / July release date too, but honestly they need to do a lot of work before release so my prediction got moved down to at least August / September. This isn't a bad thing though, personally in the few minutes I played TSW I think it's in worse shape than GW2 and it's getting a release next month. Amongst things they have to fix in beta:
WvWvW rewards, as mentioned they plan to change it so you don't have to score the killing blow to get EXP and loot credit.
Class balance. I know some will disagree here, but most of the HARDCORE players I talked to agree that certain classes are just better than others right now.
Traits, weapon sets, and utility balance. Some traits and utilities just aren't as good as other traits and utilities. Some number tweaks can easily fix this, but it will take quite a bit of testing to make them feel right.
Event scaling in particular for melee (champion MOBs too easily one shot melee at the moment).
Issues with certain hardware. Known issues with 470 and 460 GTX cards right now for example. I know, because I suffered through it in beta, but they are aware of it and will probably have it fixed soon.
Some account management and website issues to iron out. You can't currently unlink an account if you linked it to the wrong NCSoft account, which apparently a lot of people are having issues with.
Some NPCs in personal story are missing their VA.
Many emotes in game are obviously valid commands but don't work (EX: /dance, /violin)
Possible better "tutorials" and explanations of what to do. This was one of the most popular feedback issues brought up on the forums. Players who haven't been following how the game works are often at lose at how things work in the game especially in areas like WvWvW.
Still untested by the general public: The majority of each personal story, Asura and Sylvari + their starting areas, every non-PvP area post 25, and every dungeon except Fort Rhand and Ascalon Catacombs. That's a lot of stuff that could probably use a few more eyes.
Balancing MOB types (they acknowledged they will be doing this and some were too easy while others were too difficult).
Overflow server issues and seperation of guilds and friends.
Variety of other things I may have missed they said they are looking over. Some are relatively minor and probably don't need to be fixed in the release build at least.
Excellent observations. Really is nice to see someone that enjoyed the game yet can still be objective about things.
/salute
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
August is typically considered the worst month to release a new product. So my guess would be not August. And with September comes new school year and new season of TV shows to compete with. So if they do not release it before those months I would imagine they would hold it till Oct. Games are not always released the day they are done, similar to movies. Think about when big historical releases typically happen. And just so you all know I'd rather be wrong about this.
They have stated that release would be determined by how the beta weekends go. The less bugs that prevail at each Beta will bring us closer to a release date. Going to be interesting to see how much work they have done since the last BWE when comparing it to the next BWE, I think then we can get a more realistic idea on how close to a release date we can expect.
GW2 DE are localized, exactley like warahmmer, also in Rift and war you dont need a party in a PQ or Rift is all about your contribution, but even that, in warhammer you have the ¨open party feature¨ wich was pretty good, easy and fast to find groups even in RvR, in gw2 at some point is like you are playing with a lots of Npcs, people dont even need to talk. Gw2 DE are just and improved version of Warhammer online Pqs, you even have the same contribution system, and stages, also is an static event like the Pqs on warhammer.
GW2 Dynamic Events are not all localized. Some events move across the map and some event chains can start at one end of the zone and end up at the opposite end of the zone. Some occur on a fairly regular schedule, but many, or even most, occur more sporadically, are tied to the outcomes of other events or may have triggers with in the environment.
Most do not occur in "stages" as WAR PQs would define the term and they don't feel or play like WAR PQs or Rift's Rifts.
Even though formal grouping was never required of me for Dynamic Events, it never felt like I was playing with NPCs. Once you make the transition away from viewing other players as competition or annoyances and start to understand the the game is extremely friendly to cooperation, people start to organically work together in pretty complex and dynamic ways, with out the need for a single word being spoken. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were tapping into something primal, from the period of our evolution where we hunted together with out language. If you've ever seen footage of a large pack of wolves hinting together, it's a similar vibe. Pretty amazing experience for a video game!
Most events are anything but static. You really should play the game before continuing on with such misinformation. To write GW2 off as "nothing new" and the game's content as nothing more than a slightly improved PQ would be to do yourself, as an MMO fan, a massive dis-service.
As far as a release window, I still think it's late June, early July. The first WBE didn't identify any game breaking issues. There are thngs that absolutely need to be fixed and the game clearly needs a lot more GPU optimization, but there was nothing that I would expect to take more than a month or two, tops, to fix. Aside from the few obvious issues, the first WBE was very stable, the servers performed pretty well and the game was extremely polished.
For most of 2010 and much of 2011, they were fairly open about their release strategy. The gap between the first Public Beta and the release was intended to be shorter than for GW1, unless some major, unforseen issues were to pop up. They have stated that they will withold the majority of the game from the Public Tests, in order to keep as much of the game completely new and fresh for launch. They also said that Open Beta would be for a game very close to release quality, to ensure the best possible first experience for Public Beta testers and that the outcome of Public Beta testing would determine the final release date.
I have a fairly strong hope that the next BWE will be the final "dress rehersal" before announcing a release date, once again assuming that no major issues surface. If all look go for launch, I think there is a good shot for a final BWE two weekends before launch, which will greatly expand participation and will include a lot of people beyond those who have pre-purchased, as a final massive stress test and as a marketing "try before you buy" event for those still not commited to buy the game.
Could the time line be longer? Sure, if there is still a lot of work to be done on the zones that have not and likely will not be part of the BWEs. However, given the strategy they were fairly open about last year, I really think that it's likely that the first BWE wasn't scheduled until internal development and testing had reached the point where a release with in three months was considered likely.
It's possible we could even have the release date announced a week before BWE2, in order to really ramp up pre-purchases in advance of the next BWE. In any event, for late June/Early July to be possible, we will probably need to see a release date with in two weeks after the end of BWE2.
Almost done, yet so much work to do.. With Arenanet listening to people all around the globe and improving the game even more, its obvious to me that this game wil not release pre summer 2012.
Not a big problem, and Arenanet can afford it with all the money they made from the pre purchases, there is no reason to rush. Pre-purchasing was an excellent idea, because in Arenanet we can trust. Have they told how many copies they pre-sold? If they only sold as few as 200k Digital copies, it will have made them well over 10M, which is enough to pay the bills.
With this attitude, GW2 might be up to sell WoW numbers of copies. Its a game aimed at a huge group of gamers, it has a lot of refreshing game feutures and Arenanet has the dedication to make it as good as possible.
Yes, its allmost done, but it will probably not release before early 4th quarter 2012, just in time to get enough possitive player attention to make a huge christmass sale on top of the initial sales.
OP, you are making one huge mistake: AN has not yet completed the transaction i.e. delivered the game ppl have pre-ordered so the only money they can consider secure in their hand is the interest from the money they have so far received.
And frankly, if you think that 10 Mio will be enough to not just cover the bills that have stacked up till now but also the ones that are still left to come (especially for marketing), well, you don't have a clue!
Further, I don't really see in which way a pre-paid model should create an attitude that will make GW2 sell numbers equal to WoW?
Don't get me wrong, I don't give a flying ferret's floating fart about how good or bad WoW does, just as I don't give the same about how well GW2 will sell.
To me GW2 will be nothing but a McDonald's of the MMO genre: it will offer a wide range of 'dishes (read: features) but not pretty much none of them new and probably all already done much better.
So, if you want cheap with a lot to offer (with potentially cheap quality), yeah, GW2 is just the thing for you... *shrug*
On a side note: looking into your crystal ball to venture a guess at the path ahead for GW2, I think you may have failed to take a look into the rearview mirror: remember the disaster BW faced when they released SWTOR just in time for Xmas last year? I think most (smart) MMO game publishers will now try to land their game outside that hot zone...
I think that you actually need to educate yourself before posting nonsense on the internet. That's just my opinion though.
Says a person who is unable to provide "education" in order to show/explain where people are -supposedly - wrong... well done... or did you really just feel like posting something?
I'm not here to provide you with education. This isn't school, son. When you make a claim in real life, it's a good idea to actually know what you're talking about. Otherwise it just makes people laugh at you.
Wow, thank you... grandpa. (By the way, you can take off that fake beard... though, that "I know best, despite having no clue" attitude, yeah, maybe you should entertain us with some when "I was your age..." stories)
Fact is, YOU are making the claim that I am wrong. And then decline to put any substance to your claim. Fantastic... oh well, I assume that shrivelled old brain of yours can't compute that?
But I'm sure that even in your best days there was the concept of "school of life"? Try to remember... no? Well, then I hate to break it to ya: Doesn't matter where, school or out in the "real world", if you make a claim, you better be ready to put something behind it, whether it's a simple theory you have or actual facts, otherwise, well, you are just confirm the lesson taught by the school of life, that some people should be limited in their use of both mouth and fingers to get food into their system but not actually speaking out (be that via voice or type).
On that note: I wish you'd make me laugh... but sadly you are just a fart in the wind... oh, just noticed that I can hardly smell you anymore, must have been me fanning up some hot air... hm... *takes another sniff* yeah... gone...
Well, they can still add tons of stuff after the game's release, if it's not critical or game-breaking. Some people call that support. Even though there have been lots and lots of suggestions and feedback, the biggest concern for a lot of people - heck I'd even argue for the vast majority of people- was performance and lag issues during the first BWE.
A lot of the guesses here just confuse me. What in your previous mmo experience gave you any idea that it could possibly release more than 6 months from taking full price of the game and dropping the nda and starting beta weekends? Really, where are you getting the idea that anything even remotely similar has happened, would be tolerable to the purchasers, or would make sense on a release timetable?
I would be shocked if it was more than 3 months away. Not hyperbole. Shocked.
A lot of the guesses here just confuse me. What in your previous mmo experience gave you any idea that it could possibly release more than 6 months from taking full price of the game and dropping the nda and starting beta weekends? Really, where are you getting the idea that anything even remotely similar has happened, would be tolerable to the purchasers, or would make sense on a release timetable?
I would be shocked if it was more than 3 months away. Not hyperbole. Shocked.
A lot of the guesses here just confuse me. What in your previous mmo experience gave you any idea that it could possibly release more than 6 months from taking full price of the game and dropping the nda and starting beta weekends? Really, where are you getting the idea that anything even remotely similar has happened, would be tolerable to the purchasers, or would make sense on a release timetable?
I would be shocked if it was more than 3 months away. Not hyperbole. Shocked.
Aw come on, ANET fans will bend over and take whatever is handed to them, they're so looking forward to this title that the Dev's can literally do no wrong.
But I agree with your assessment, following standard patterns they only way I can see them going much past 3 months is if there is something really broken, and that doesn't seem to be the case coming out of the first beta.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
A lot of the guesses here just confuse me. What in your previous mmo experience gave you any idea that it could possibly release more than 6 months from taking full price of the game and dropping the nda and starting beta weekends? Really, where are you getting the idea that anything even remotely similar has happened, would be tolerable to the purchasers, or would make sense on a release timetable?
I would be shocked if it was more than 3 months away. Not hyperbole. Shocked.
Has to be November possibly Christmas. No way it will release in June as others might hoped with TSW launching. That means Tera and TSW are out, and if they hold off GW2 launch until December most players of those two games (imho) will have become somewhat detached and looking for a change. Sales of the pre-purchase went very well and I'm sure shareholders are now content that they will be compensated...no hurry another words.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Anet yet has to implement PvP live streaming feature (which I believe was part of GW2) since they promised something like that for the E-sport crowds.
Other than that I cant really think anything that needs mechanically fixing, the game is so polished as it is that I would release it with no worries after fixing the CPU issue that was present in last BWE. That and the grouping/overflow problem. Once those 2 issues are fixed, the game is ready.
I'm hoping for a June/July release. Gives me plenty of time to get 30/50 for HoM, playing the first Guild Wars. Got to level 20 and almost done with Factions primary quests this weekend.
These boards are going to be awesome if they wait that long to launch.
Doubt it though. I do agree with your assessment with June just not because of TSW. I simply think they'll still be fine tuning the game then. September/October seems about right to me.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Anet yet has to implement PvP live streaming feature (which I believe was part of GW2) since they promised something like that for the E-sport crowds.
Other than that I cant really think anything that needs mechanically fixing, the game is so polished as it is that I would release it with no worries after fixing the CPU issue that was present in last BWE. That and the grouping/overflow problem. Once those 2 issues are fixed, the game is ready.
You can stream games already. How do you think did djWHEAT do the live commentary the first time PvP was available on game trading shows. They don't have a full fledged spectator mode and they won't have it until some time after release.
Comments
I'm not here to provide you with education. This isn't school, son. When you make a claim in real life, it's a good idea to actually know what you're talking about. Otherwise it just makes people laugh at you.
The internetz can "educate" you. I would recommend starting at www.google.com because he was right, your comments read like you have no idea what GW2 is like. You do realize that tons of people have actually played it now and would completely disagree with you, right?
The way I see it is if it's major things that need to be fixed/tweak, then by all means they can take their time. I wouldn't mind a Q4 release at all. However, if it's minor things that can be patched along the way, then I'd rather they release the game as soon as they're able.
"For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!"
~Lord George Gordon Byron
What content seems to be missing/promised but not there?
Also, what major bugs are there? There's only a few minor bugs that I've noticed all weekend, and those are no more than those that have been in current MMORPG's that have been out for years on end.
The game was so much more complete in it's current state over the BWE than Rift or SW:TOR were at their launch. I'm saying, this game is ready to launch. Hell, this game is far better than Blizzard's crap product of Diablo 3.
The asura and sylvari zones for one. How about all of the zones after level 30? I'm not saying that they aren't there but we didn't have access to them during the BWE so I can't say whether they are fully implemented or not.
When it comes out I'll play it. Until then I will enjoy looking forward too it.
Thats all there is too it for me. I know they're working. Im happy with it.
I originally thought a June / July release date too, but honestly they need to do a lot of work before release so my prediction got moved down to at least August / September. This isn't a bad thing though, personally in the few minutes I played TSW I think it's in worse shape than GW2 and it's getting a release next month. Amongst things they have to fix in beta:
WvWvW rewards, as mentioned they plan to change it so you don't have to score the killing blow to get EXP and loot credit.
Class balance. I know some will disagree here, but most of the HARDCORE players I talked to agree that certain classes are just better than others right now.
Traits, weapon sets, and utility balance. Some traits and utilities just aren't as good as other traits and utilities. Some number tweaks can easily fix this, but it will take quite a bit of testing to make them feel right.
Event scaling in particular for melee (champion MOBs too easily one shot melee at the moment).
Issues with certain hardware. Known issues with 470 and 460 GTX cards right now for example. I know, because I suffered through it in beta, but they are aware of it and will probably have it fixed soon.
Some account management and website issues to iron out. You can't currently unlink an account if you linked it to the wrong NCSoft account, which apparently a lot of people are having issues with.
Some NPCs in personal story are missing their VA.
Many emotes in game are obviously valid commands but don't work (EX: /dance, /violin)
Possible better "tutorials" and explanations of what to do. This was one of the most popular feedback issues brought up on the forums. Players who haven't been following how the game works are often at lose at how things work in the game especially in areas like WvWvW.
Still untested by the general public: The majority of each personal story, Asura and Sylvari + their starting areas, every non-PvP area post 25, and every dungeon except Fort Rhand and Ascalon Catacombs. That's a lot of stuff that could probably use a few more eyes.
Balancing MOB types (they acknowledged they will be doing this and some were too easy while others were too difficult).
Overflow server issues and seperation of guilds and friends.
Variety of other things I may have missed they said they are looking over. Some are relatively minor and probably don't need to be fixed in the release build at least.
Excellent observations. Really is nice to see someone that enjoyed the game yet can still be objective about things.
/salute
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
August is typically considered the worst month to release a new product. So my guess would be not August. And with September comes new school year and new season of TV shows to compete with. So if they do not release it before those months I would imagine they would hold it till Oct. Games are not always released the day they are done, similar to movies. Think about when big historical releases typically happen. And just so you all know I'd rather be wrong about this.
They have stated that release would be determined by how the beta weekends go. The less bugs that prevail at each Beta will bring us closer to a release date. Going to be interesting to see how much work they have done since the last BWE when comparing it to the next BWE, I think then we can get a more realistic idea on how close to a release date we can expect.
GW2 Dynamic Events are not all localized. Some events move across the map and some event chains can start at one end of the zone and end up at the opposite end of the zone. Some occur on a fairly regular schedule, but many, or even most, occur more sporadically, are tied to the outcomes of other events or may have triggers with in the environment.
Most do not occur in "stages" as WAR PQs would define the term and they don't feel or play like WAR PQs or Rift's Rifts.
Even though formal grouping was never required of me for Dynamic Events, it never felt like I was playing with NPCs. Once you make the transition away from viewing other players as competition or annoyances and start to understand the the game is extremely friendly to cooperation, people start to organically work together in pretty complex and dynamic ways, with out the need for a single word being spoken. I couldn't shake the feeling that we were tapping into something primal, from the period of our evolution where we hunted together with out language. If you've ever seen footage of a large pack of wolves hinting together, it's a similar vibe. Pretty amazing experience for a video game!
Most events are anything but static. You really should play the game before continuing on with such misinformation. To write GW2 off as "nothing new" and the game's content as nothing more than a slightly improved PQ would be to do yourself, as an MMO fan, a massive dis-service.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
As far as a release window, I still think it's late June, early July. The first WBE didn't identify any game breaking issues. There are thngs that absolutely need to be fixed and the game clearly needs a lot more GPU optimization, but there was nothing that I would expect to take more than a month or two, tops, to fix. Aside from the few obvious issues, the first WBE was very stable, the servers performed pretty well and the game was extremely polished.
For most of 2010 and much of 2011, they were fairly open about their release strategy. The gap between the first Public Beta and the release was intended to be shorter than for GW1, unless some major, unforseen issues were to pop up. They have stated that they will withold the majority of the game from the Public Tests, in order to keep as much of the game completely new and fresh for launch. They also said that Open Beta would be for a game very close to release quality, to ensure the best possible first experience for Public Beta testers and that the outcome of Public Beta testing would determine the final release date.
I have a fairly strong hope that the next BWE will be the final "dress rehersal" before announcing a release date, once again assuming that no major issues surface. If all look go for launch, I think there is a good shot for a final BWE two weekends before launch, which will greatly expand participation and will include a lot of people beyond those who have pre-purchased, as a final massive stress test and as a marketing "try before you buy" event for those still not commited to buy the game.
Could the time line be longer? Sure, if there is still a lot of work to be done on the zones that have not and likely will not be part of the BWEs. However, given the strategy they were fairly open about last year, I really think that it's likely that the first BWE wasn't scheduled until internal development and testing had reached the point where a release with in three months was considered likely.
It's possible we could even have the release date announced a week before BWE2, in order to really ramp up pre-purchases in advance of the next BWE. In any event, for late June/Early July to be possible, we will probably need to see a release date with in two weeks after the end of BWE2.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Wow, thank you... grandpa. (By the way, you can take off that fake beard... though, that "I know best, despite having no clue" attitude, yeah, maybe you should entertain us with some when "I was your age..." stories)
Fact is, YOU are making the claim that I am wrong. And then decline to put any substance to your claim. Fantastic... oh well, I assume that shrivelled old brain of yours can't compute that?
But I'm sure that even in your best days there was the concept of "school of life"? Try to remember... no? Well, then I hate to break it to ya: Doesn't matter where, school or out in the "real world", if you make a claim, you better be ready to put something behind it, whether it's a simple theory you have or actual facts, otherwise, well, you are just confirm the lesson taught by the school of life, that some people should be limited in their use of both mouth and fingers to get food into their system but not actually speaking out (be that via voice or type).
On that note: I wish you'd make me laugh... but sadly you are just a fart in the wind... oh, just noticed that I can hardly smell you anymore, must have been me fanning up some hot air... hm... *takes another sniff* yeah... gone...
Well, they can still add tons of stuff after the game's release, if it's not critical or game-breaking. Some people call that support. Even though there have been lots and lots of suggestions and feedback, the biggest concern for a lot of people - heck I'd even argue for the vast majority of people- was performance and lag issues during the first BWE.
A lot of the guesses here just confuse me. What in your previous mmo experience gave you any idea that it could possibly release more than 6 months from taking full price of the game and dropping the nda and starting beta weekends? Really, where are you getting the idea that anything even remotely similar has happened, would be tolerable to the purchasers, or would make sense on a release timetable?
I would be shocked if it was more than 3 months away. Not hyperbole. Shocked.
this pretty much
Aw come on, ANET fans will bend over and take whatever is handed to them, they're so looking forward to this title that the Dev's can literally do no wrong.
But I agree with your assessment, following standard patterns they only way I can see them going much past 3 months is if there is something really broken, and that doesn't seem to be the case coming out of the first beta.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Has to be November possibly Christmas. No way it will release in June as others might hoped with TSW launching. That means Tera and TSW are out, and if they hold off GW2 launch until December most players of those two games (imho) will have become somewhat detached and looking for a change. Sales of the pre-purchase went very well and I'm sure shareholders are now content that they will be compensated...no hurry another words.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Another month or two at most.
June release.
I think we'll get one more BWE in May, than a release date announcement shortly after.
Mid-late June release.
GW2 is one of the most hotly anticipated PC games of 2012 so far, 1/10 people may have heard of TSW in comparison.
Where as 8/10 or 9/10 people who are into PC gaming have probably heard of GW2.
No competition.
Anet yet has to implement PvP live streaming feature (which I believe was part of GW2) since they promised something like that for the E-sport crowds.
Other than that I cant really think anything that needs mechanically fixing, the game is so polished as it is that I would release it with no worries after fixing the CPU issue that was present in last BWE. That and the grouping/overflow problem. Once those 2 issues are fixed, the game is ready.
I'm hoping for a June/July release. Gives me plenty of time to get 30/50 for HoM, playing the first Guild Wars. Got to level 20 and almost done with Factions primary quests this weekend.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
These boards are going to be awesome if they wait that long to launch.
Doubt it though. I do agree with your assessment with June just not because of TSW. I simply think they'll still be fine tuning the game then. September/October seems about right to me.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Didn't they once say that Gw2 will be launched closer to beta testing than an average mmo?
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You can stream games already. How do you think did djWHEAT do the live commentary the first time PvP was available on game trading shows. They don't have a full fledged spectator mode and they won't have it until some time after release.
I dont know but i hope u are right xD