1. They dropped form 36 million dollars to 25.94 million dollars earned in a quarter. That's a 20% drop in cash shop + box sales.
2. It is a B2P game...you do not have to use the gem store to play.
3. It has not been released in China.
So here's my issue. I think that you are trying to say that a 20% monetary decline in gem sales equates to fewer players in the game.
That inherently does not make any sense to me.
If you are stating that 20% monetary decline does not signify a SALES growth, that's obvious. Money is money.
However, a 20% decline does not mean the player base is 20% less active.
+ Cash shop items may not be as appealing as q1
+ Fewer people may be electing to purchase gems, choosing to instead purchase with gold
+ There may indeed be fewer people playing (from personal experience, i'm not seeing this)
+ Combination of these factors and more
None of this effects in game experience.
What will most likely happen is NCSoft will see what has sold well over the past year, what has sold poorly, and what GW2 can do to become more profitable.
But in no way, shape, or form is GW2, or it's gameplay, in any imminent danger. The game has had a pretty decent year and has more to come.
OFF TOPIC: How freakin' epic is lineage 1? Idk how the hell a game from 1998 continues to do so amazingly. Wonder what they're doing...
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
1. They dropped form 36 million dollars to 25.94 million dollars earned in a quarter. That's a 20% drop in cash shop + box sales.
2. It is a B2P game...you do not have to use the gem store to play.
3. It has not been released in China.
So here's my issue. I think that you are trying to say that a 20% monetary decline in gem sales equates to fewer players in the game.
That inherently does not make any sense to me.
If you are stating that 20% monetary decline does not signify a SALES growth, that's obvious. Money is money.
However, a 20% decline does not mean the player base is 20% less active.
+ Cash shop items may not be as appealing as q1
+ Fewer people may be electing to purchase gems, choosing to instead purchase with gold
+ There may indeed be fewer people playing (from personal experience, i'm not seeing this)
+ Combination of these factors and more
None of this effects in game experience.
What will most likely happen is NCSoft will see what has sold well over the past year, what has sold poorly, and what GW2 can do to become more profitable.
But in no way, shape, or form is GW2, or it's gameplay, in any imminent danger. The game has had a pretty decent year and has more to come.
OFF TOPIC: How freakin' epic is lineage 1? Idk how the hell a game from 1998 continues to do so amazingly. Wonder what they're doing...
1. Yes
2. Their business model involves having an effective cash shop, or they have no long term sustainability.
3. Yes
Them having less of a demand from one quarter to the next, with such a huge loss 20% is a lot, does affect in game experience, why do you think they have things like course corrections for the game?
No one said the game is going to shut down any time soon, all i am saying is that the game is not prospering like people would like to believe, if it was their sales wouldn't have dropped so much, and they wouldn't have felt the need to change the direction of the game.
Having a decent year is subjective, we don't know how much profit gw2 by itself made, if ncsoft thought the year was decent they probably wouldn't have forced such a drastic change in philosophy for the game though.
"Full" means nothing. ANET could set 300 concurrent players = Full and call it a day. I didn't believe it when SWTOR and Rift did it, I don't believe it when WoW does it.
I play on a server that is labeled "Medium" in WoW and I barely see any 90s on either faction. I played on a "Very High" server in SWTOR and the population was dead. I have characters on a "High" server in GW2 and rarely see anyone in the main city (HoD).
Look at the sales report, NCSoft released today, based on that GW2 is dropping steadily. In fact, today's Q2 '13 report showed a 20%+ drop in sales from the previous quarter. And 80% drop in sales from the quarter before that.
The game is not gaining people as much as it is losing, which means a net loss. It isn't 5 or 10% its 20%+. The game is declining not growing like the devs want you to believe.
When fans of the game try to tell people the game is not dying, you know there is a problem.
Interesting that you couldn't even name the "main city" in GW2, but that's another story. I found the earnings report you were mentioning, thanks for that, I didn't know it was out. This statement stands out: "Revenues grew on the back of historical high L1 and stable GW2".
Now, it's already been demonstrated that we can see the numbers growing in the game. Server cap increases, servers continuing to fill after increase, etc., so no, the game is not declining based on actual evidence.
Lion's Arch. But it doesn't matter what city it is the point remains.
I am looking at the numbers and not PR speak that says "stable". You can see a 20% drop from the previous quarter and a 80% drop from the quarter before that. Actual sales numbers. Lineage 1 grew significantly from the previous quarter and is pretty much carring NCSoft on its back.
Nothing has been "demonstrated". Servers = full means nothing. Developers manipulate that data and can present it how they please. It happens with all MMO developers. I would like to see actual "evidence" like the sales report and not dev speak.
LOL - there are several main cities in GW2, not just one.
It doesn't matter what main city it is, the point remains.
Well, it kind of does, seeing as typically Lion's Arch is the main hub, but the Living Story is almost completely centering around DR right now. Why would you see people in LA?
2. Their business model involves having an effective cash shop, or they have no long term sustainability.
3. Yes
Them having less of a demand from one quarter to the next, with such a huge loss 20% is a lot, does affect in game experience, why do you think they have things like course corrections for the game?
No one said the game is going to shut down any time soon, all i am saying is that the game is not prospering like people would like to believe, if it was their sales wouldn't have dropped so much, and they wouldn't have felt the need to change the direction of the game.
Having a decent year is subjective, we don't know how much profit gw2 by itself made, if ncsoft thought the year was decent they probably wouldn't have forced such a drastic change in philosophy for the game though.
What direction did they change really? From nearly day one they were doing monthly updates and then started to do bi-weekly updates...I don't see this big change of direction that you continue to mention as proof of the game declining.
It's not like they have added a healing class or decided to expand the skillbar to include all of your skills at once. The direction of the game didn't change, they just decided to pump out content faster.
2. Their business model involves having an effective cash shop, or they have no long term sustainability.
3. Yes
Them having less of a demand from one quarter to the next, with such a huge loss 20% is a lot, does affect in game experience, why do you think they have things like course corrections for the game?
No one said the game is going to shut down any time soon, all i am saying is that the game is not prospering like people would like to believe, if it was their sales wouldn't have dropped so much, and they wouldn't have felt the need to change the direction of the game.
Having a decent year is subjective, we don't know how much profit gw2 by itself made, if ncsoft thought the year was decent they probably wouldn't have forced such a drastic change in philosophy for the game though.
What direction did they change really? From nearly day one they were doing monthly updates and then started to do bi-weekly updates...I don't see this big change of direction that you continue to mention as proof of the game declining.
It's not like they have added a healing class or decided to expand the skillbar to include all of your skills at once. The direction of the game didn't change, they just decided to pump out content faster.
Anet are the ones who stated it was a course correction.... Maybe you should ask them. The direction did change from what was stated at launch. They originally were going to focus on add DE's and such.
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?
2. Their business model involves having an effective cash shop, or they have no long term sustainability.
3. Yes
Them having less of a demand from one quarter to the next, with such a huge loss 20% is a lot, does affect in game experience, why do you think they have things like course corrections for the game?
No one said the game is going to shut down any time soon, all i am saying is that the game is not prospering like people would like to believe, if it was their sales wouldn't have dropped so much, and they wouldn't have felt the need to change the direction of the game.
Having a decent year is subjective, we don't know how much profit gw2 by itself made, if ncsoft thought the year was decent they probably wouldn't have forced such a drastic change in philosophy for the game though.
What direction did they change really? From nearly day one they were doing monthly updates and then started to do bi-weekly updates...I don't see this big change of direction that you continue to mention as proof of the game declining.
It's not like they have added a healing class or decided to expand the skillbar to include all of your skills at once. The direction of the game didn't change, they just decided to pump out content faster.
Anet are the ones who stated it was a course correction.... Maybe you should ask them. The direction did change from what was stated at launch. They originally were going to focus on add DE's and such.
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
2. Their business model involves having an effective cash shop, or they have no long term sustainability.
3. Yes
Them having less of a demand from one quarter to the next, with such a huge loss 20% is a lot, does affect in game experience, why do you think they have things like course corrections for the game?
No one said the game is going to shut down any time soon, all i am saying is that the game is not prospering like people would like to believe, if it was their sales wouldn't have dropped so much, and they wouldn't have felt the need to change the direction of the game.
Having a decent year is subjective, we don't know how much profit gw2 by itself made, if ncsoft thought the year was decent they probably wouldn't have forced such a drastic change in philosophy for the game though.
What direction did they change really? From nearly day one they were doing monthly updates and then started to do bi-weekly updates...I don't see this big change of direction that you continue to mention as proof of the game declining.
It's not like they have added a healing class or decided to expand the skillbar to include all of your skills at once. The direction of the game didn't change, they just decided to pump out content faster.
Anet are the ones who stated it was a course correction.... Maybe you should ask them. The direction did change from what was stated at launch. They originally were going to focus on add DE's and such.
Things generally have a context. People that have ulterior motives like to quote stuff out of context.
Restructuring the approach to permanent and temporary content
Johanson stressed that while ArenaNet will continue to incorporate temporary events into its living story, future updates will leave behind much more in the way of permanent world changes and meaningful content when each narrative arc ends. Calling this new approach a "course correction," he explained that having four rotating living world teams will allow far more time, planning, and polish to go into each update, resulting in much bigger patches; the Flame & Frost story arc was given as an example of past content that didn't quite live up to its full potential due to the limitations of having just one team to handle every update. Beyond the living story, players will also see new events, new zones to explore, and updates to existing areas.
This is generally called "Listening to the playerbase" and is something that is praised.
So what do some people that dislike the game do?
They pretend that something good, listening to the player base and implementing what was requested by the player base, is somehow bad.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
Haha. It seems folks are grabbing at anything to try and persuade us fans the game is not good, and has no future. I remember so many posters here prior to launch explaining and giving examples on how the game wasn't going to last more than 4 months. More than a year later and the servers are filled with players and the game is doing super.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
1. They dropped form 36 million dollars to 25.94 million dollars earned in a quarter. That's a 20% drop in cash shop + box sales.
2. It is a B2P game...you do not have to use the gem store to play.
3. It has not been released in China.
So here's my issue. I think that you are trying to say that a 20% monetary decline in gem sales equates to fewer players in the game.
That inherently does not make any sense to me.
If you are stating that 20% monetary decline does not signify a SALES growth, that's obvious. Money is money.
However, a 20% decline does not mean the player base is 20% less active.
+ Cash shop items may not be as appealing as q1
+ Fewer people may be electing to purchase gems, choosing to instead purchase with gold
+ There may indeed be fewer people playing (from personal experience, i'm not seeing this)
+ Combination of these factors and more
None of this effects in game experience.
What will most likely happen is NCSoft will see what has sold well over the past year, what has sold poorly, and what GW2 can do to become more profitable.
But in no way, shape, or form is GW2, or it's gameplay, in any imminent danger. The game has had a pretty decent year and has more to come.
OFF TOPIC: How freakin' epic is lineage 1? Idk how the hell a game from 1998 continues to do so amazingly. Wonder what they're doing...
I am a part of that revenue decline I suppose because over the course of a year I have bought gems to support Anet, and spent those gems on things I haven't really needed like the digital upgrade and some fluff like inventory unlocks. I don't play as much as I used to due to it being the last semester of college and me wanting to graduate with honors so I am focusing on that more than games. I have pretty much bought anything I need from the shop and plan on buying others as they come along, but as of now, there is nothing they are selling that I have been compelled to purchase. This does not equate to loss of revenue because me and my lady quit, only that we have purchased all the fluff we need until something we see worth buying. You sir are using a logical explanation to someone who clearly only has one-way discussions. The guy has been bashing on the game pretty hard so I'd suggest saving responses for those that are actually wanting them rather than someone who clearly has all the answers.
the latest edition of ascended gear treadmill will likely drive some people off. everyone was told exotics were king, aside from legendary weapons, and now its time sink crafting to 500, time and gold sink ascended armor and weapons... all the while the nerfs on needed T6 mats remain in place and the prices are up up up.
Ultimately - whats the point? The game was fun, has become a bore, and the new grind breaks all the remaining manifesto items. Nothing sets this apart from gear grinds in other games like WOW now, and with TESO around the corner...
I find myself less interested in logging in daily. Last update to living story was epic fail - zergs going after chaos NPCs but not caring to finish the event with wins - it became just another farm - for champion chests. Reason being - you might actually get a few T6 mats or lodestones that way (versus the rest of the world where the drops are nerfed to the ground).
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
I left GW2 couple of months after launch, since I didn't find the game interesting. Now I'm back, kind of getting into it again, and I'm really surprised that the server (Gandara EU) is packed with people. Lion's Arch is crowded, WvW is crowded and I'm getting into overflow on regular basis.
There might be some servers with lower population, but you can always use guesting feature and if I understood correctly, new LFG tool will be cross server enabled.
I don't know much about numbers but I do know some. I know two cummunities that together had easily way over 150 people buying game at release and playing. After a few months there were maybe 5-10 people still regularly logging, so I do find these growing claims a bit weird. Although some do check it from time to time since it's free.
Originally posted by StarI I don't know much about numbers but I do know some. I know two cummunities that together had easily way over 150 people buying game at release and playing. After a few months there were maybe 5-10 people still regularly logging, so I do find these growing claims a bit weird. Although some do check it from time to time since it's free.
And what is 150 people in 3 million?
Specially communities, that move from game to game together.
But when you are in the thick of it, like the pics show, it is easy to believe the population is growing.
Is all the game like this?
Of course not, but you have several heavy population spots, some less populated and some scarcely populated.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Originally posted by StarI I don't know much about numbers but I do know some. I know two cummunities that together had easily way over 150 people buying game at release and playing. After a few months there were maybe 5-10 people still regularly logging, so I do find these growing claims a bit weird. Although some do check it from time to time since it's free.
People keep saying things like this as if it represents the sum total of people playing the game. Technically, there is the potential that those 150 players stopped playing while everyone else continued. Now obviously that's not true, but stating that a claim is ridiculous simply because a certain group of people YOU know stopped playing is about as ridiculous as the claim that 150 people quitting means the game isn't growing.
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
Haha. It seems folks are grabbing at anything to try and persuade us fans the game is not good, and has no future. I remember so many posters here prior to launch explaining and giving examples on how the game wasn't going to last more than 4 months. More than a year later and the servers are filled with players and the game is doing super.
And the company is hiring, and no servers have been shut down. But yeah, the game is doomed.
I'm sure that if I posted half the misinformation some post here to bash the game on e.g. another game's forums, I'd be banned in no time.
They also lay off people all the time without anyone knowing. They didn't mention Hrouda which is a pretty important developer until someone found out. Flannum has not been heard from, for over a year. And these are the higher ups including Leads Developers. Imagine the smaller guy.
I also like when people post WvW pictures to show how packed GW2 is. If WvW reached capacity, I mean all their 51 servers WvW maps were completely full at the same time, it would have about 15k - 18k players, that is it. It is a well known fact that ANet changes the capacity of what the WvW maps can handle, and I am sure they do the same with servers too.
I do think now the flaws and internal structure of Anet and the general bad management of the game is revealing itself. Give it a couple of months and we can all see it.
And the company is hiring, and no servers have been shut down. But yeah, the game is doomed.
I'm sure that if I posted half the misinformation some post here to bash the game on e.g. another game's forums, I'd be banned in no time.
They also lay off people all the time without anyone knowing. They didn't mention Hrouda which is a pretty important developer until someone found out. Flannum has not been heard from, for over a year. And these are the higher ups including Leads Developers. Imagine the smaller guy.
A fairly recent picture of employees in their parking lot showed hundreds of employees.
I mean, maybe you're arguing for some sort of turnover thing, but if you're trying to argue that they don't have lots of employees and more than they had before, then you're wrong.
They have a LOT of employees, and they've been getting more. That's just simply a fact. I'm not going to argue whether or not that's a sign of success, but I will say they have what.... 300? 400? Employees. I forget. One of those two numbers. Either way a lot of people. They're certainly not shrinking so far as amount of employees go.
They also lay off people all the time without anyone knowing. They didn't mention Hrouda which is a pretty important developer until someone found out. Flannum has not been heard from, for over a year. And these are the higher ups including Leads Developers. Imagine the smaller guy.
I also like when people post WvW pictures to show how packed GW2 is. If WvW reached capacity, I mean all their 51 servers WvW maps were completely full at the same time, it would have about 15k - 18k players, that is it. It is a well known fact that ANet changes the capacity of what the WvW maps can handle, and I am sure they do the same with servers too.
I do think now the flaws and internal structure of Anet and the general bad management of the game is revealing itself. Give it a couple of months and we can all see it.
When did Hrouda became a very important designer?
He worked in Anet for 3 years, so 2010-2013. GW1 last expansion was 2007. GW2 released in 2012, so when he arrived at Anet, GW2 had 3 years of development.
Eric Flannum is the Lead Game Designer. What can he be doing that doesn't evolve chatting?
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
They also lay off people all the time without anyone knowing. They didn't mention Hrouda which is a pretty important developer until someone found out. Flannum has not been heard from, for over a year. And these are the higher ups including Leads Developers. Imagine the smaller guy.
I also like when people post WvW pictures to show how packed GW2 is. If WvW reached capacity, I mean all their 51 servers WvW maps were completely full at the same time, it would have about 15k - 18k players, that is it. It is a well known fact that ANet changes the capacity of what the WvW maps can handle, and I am sure they do the same with servers too.
I do think now the flaws and internal structure of Anet and the general bad management of the game is revealing itself. Give it a couple of months and we can all see it.
When did Hrouda became a very important designer?
He worked in Anet for 3 years, so 2010-2013. GW1 last expansion was 2007. GW2 released in 2012, so when he arrived at Anet, GW2 had 3 years of development.
Eric Flannum is the Lead Game Designer. What can he be doing that doesn't evolve chatting?
Supposedly Eric Flannum doesn't work on GW2 anymore, it was posted on Reddit today or yesterday. Seems like a pretty major development not to communicate to the players of the game, that the lead game designer isn't work on the game anymore.
But there are other examples, like Habib Loew, the guy responsible for removing the culling among other things. He isn't there anymore either, but I bet he wasn't "important" either even though he was there since 2007. But I am done arguing about this. People can believe what they want to. You can't hide the truth forever.
Comments
http://www.ncsoft.net/global/ir/earnings.aspx
Ok...let me explain this:
1. They dropped form 36 million dollars to 25.94 million dollars earned in a quarter. That's a 20% drop in cash shop + box sales.
2. It is a B2P game...you do not have to use the gem store to play.
3. It has not been released in China.
So here's my issue. I think that you are trying to say that a 20% monetary decline in gem sales equates to fewer players in the game.
That inherently does not make any sense to me.
If you are stating that 20% monetary decline does not signify a SALES growth, that's obvious. Money is money.
However, a 20% decline does not mean the player base is 20% less active.
+ Cash shop items may not be as appealing as q1
+ Fewer people may be electing to purchase gems, choosing to instead purchase with gold
+ There may indeed be fewer people playing (from personal experience, i'm not seeing this)
+ Combination of these factors and more
None of this effects in game experience.
What will most likely happen is NCSoft will see what has sold well over the past year, what has sold poorly, and what GW2 can do to become more profitable.
But in no way, shape, or form is GW2, or it's gameplay, in any imminent danger. The game has had a pretty decent year and has more to come.
OFF TOPIC: How freakin' epic is lineage 1? Idk how the hell a game from 1998 continues to do so amazingly. Wonder what they're doing...
"As you read these words, a release is seven days or less away or has just happened within the last seven days those are now the only two states youll find the world of Tyria."...Guild Wars 2
1. Yes
2. Their business model involves having an effective cash shop, or they have no long term sustainability.
3. Yes
Them having less of a demand from one quarter to the next, with such a huge loss 20% is a lot, does affect in game experience, why do you think they have things like course corrections for the game?
No one said the game is going to shut down any time soon, all i am saying is that the game is not prospering like people would like to believe, if it was their sales wouldn't have dropped so much, and they wouldn't have felt the need to change the direction of the game.
Having a decent year is subjective, we don't know how much profit gw2 by itself made, if ncsoft thought the year was decent they probably wouldn't have forced such a drastic change in philosophy for the game though.
Well, it kind of does, seeing as typically Lion's Arch is the main hub, but the Living Story is almost completely centering around DR right now. Why would you see people in LA?
What direction did they change really? From nearly day one they were doing monthly updates and then started to do bi-weekly updates...I don't see this big change of direction that you continue to mention as proof of the game declining.
It's not like they have added a healing class or decided to expand the skillbar to include all of your skills at once. The direction of the game didn't change, they just decided to pump out content faster.
Anet are the ones who stated it was a course correction.... Maybe you should ask them. The direction did change from what was stated at launch. They originally were going to focus on add DE's and such.
James T. Kirk: All she's got isn't good enough! What else ya got?
It will be interesting which choices they make in the next few months... apparently one of their more well known content designers was asked to part ways with the company recently.
Things generally have a context. People that have ulterior motives like to quote stuff out of context.
From http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/18/guild-wars-2s-colin-johanson-outlines-big-plans-and-course-cor/
Restructuring the approach to permanent and temporary content
Johanson stressed that while ArenaNet will continue to incorporate temporary events into its living story, future updates will leave behind much more in the way of permanent world changes and meaningful content when each narrative arc ends. Calling this new approach a "course correction," he explained that having four rotating living world teams will allow far more time, planning, and polish to go into each update, resulting in much bigger patches; the Flame & Frost story arc was given as an example of past content that didn't quite live up to its full potential due to the limitations of having just one team to handle every update. Beyond the living story, players will also see new events, new zones to explore, and updates to existing areas.
This is generally called "Listening to the playerbase" and is something that is praised.
So what do some people that dislike the game do?
They pretend that something good, listening to the player base and implementing what was requested by the player base, is somehow bad.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
So well known he didn't even have a page in the official GW1 wiki, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Main_Page .
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Haha. It seems folks are grabbing at anything to try and persuade us fans the game is not good, and has no future. I remember so many posters here prior to launch explaining and giving examples on how the game wasn't going to last more than 4 months. More than a year later and the servers are filled with players and the game is doing super.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/members/Robert-Hrouda-1327/showposts
Seems like he was a pretty important person in their content design team.
It also seems like he is one of the more transparent people that worked at anet that tried to keep in touch with the community.
He was part of the dungeon design team
generally considered the worst part of the game
so take your own conclusions from that
I am a part of that revenue decline I suppose because over the course of a year I have bought gems to support Anet, and spent those gems on things I haven't really needed like the digital upgrade and some fluff like inventory unlocks. I don't play as much as I used to due to it being the last semester of college and me wanting to graduate with honors so I am focusing on that more than games. I have pretty much bought anything I need from the shop and plan on buying others as they come along, but as of now, there is nothing they are selling that I have been compelled to purchase. This does not equate to loss of revenue because me and my lady quit, only that we have purchased all the fluff we need until something we see worth buying. You sir are using a logical explanation to someone who clearly only has one-way discussions. The guy has been bashing on the game pretty hard so I'd suggest saving responses for those that are actually wanting them rather than someone who clearly has all the answers.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
the latest edition of ascended gear treadmill will likely drive some people off. everyone was told exotics were king, aside from legendary weapons, and now its time sink crafting to 500, time and gold sink ascended armor and weapons... all the while the nerfs on needed T6 mats remain in place and the prices are up up up.
Ultimately - whats the point? The game was fun, has become a bore, and the new grind breaks all the remaining manifesto items. Nothing sets this apart from gear grinds in other games like WOW now, and with TESO around the corner...
I find myself less interested in logging in daily. Last update to living story was epic fail - zergs going after chaos NPCs but not caring to finish the event with wins - it became just another farm - for champion chests. Reason being - you might actually get a few T6 mats or lodestones that way (versus the rest of the world where the drops are nerfed to the ground).
Pretty dull stuff really.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Game_credits
ArenaNet
Art Leads
Art
Audio
Design Leads
Design
Editing
Localization Leads
Localization
Production
Programming Leads
Programming
Quality Assurance Leads
Quality Assurance
Business & Publishing Leads
Business & Publishing
Customer Support Lead
Customer Support
Information Technology Lead
Information Technology
Interns
Former Employees
Directors
Art Leads
Art
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Design Lead
Design
Editing & Localization
Localization
Production Leads
Production
Programming Leads
Programming
Quality Assurance Lead
Quality Assurance
Business & Publishing
Information Technology
Interns
Compared to some of the other people that left Arenanet, like Kekai Kotaki, Robert Hrouda is a very small fish
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I left GW2 couple of months after launch, since I didn't find the game interesting. Now I'm back, kind of getting into it again, and I'm really surprised that the server (Gandara EU) is packed with people. Lion's Arch is crowded, WvW is crowded and I'm getting into overflow on regular basis.
There might be some servers with lower population, but you can always use guesting feature and if I understood correctly, new LFG tool will be cross server enabled.
And what is 150 people in 3 million?
Specially communities, that move from game to game together.
But when you are in the thick of it, like the pics show, it is easy to believe the population is growing.
Is all the game like this?
Of course not, but you have several heavy population spots, some less populated and some scarcely populated.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
People keep saying things like this as if it represents the sum total of people playing the game. Technically, there is the potential that those 150 players stopped playing while everyone else continued. Now obviously that's not true, but stating that a claim is ridiculous simply because a certain group of people YOU know stopped playing is about as ridiculous as the claim that 150 people quitting means the game isn't growing.
They also lay off people all the time without anyone knowing. They didn't mention Hrouda which is a pretty important developer until someone found out. Flannum has not been heard from, for over a year. And these are the higher ups including Leads Developers. Imagine the smaller guy.
I also like when people post WvW pictures to show how packed GW2 is. If WvW reached capacity, I mean all their 51 servers WvW maps were completely full at the same time, it would have about 15k - 18k players, that is it. It is a well known fact that ANet changes the capacity of what the WvW maps can handle, and I am sure they do the same with servers too.
I do think now the flaws and internal structure of Anet and the general bad management of the game is revealing itself. Give it a couple of months and we can all see it.
A fairly recent picture of employees in their parking lot showed hundreds of employees.
I mean, maybe you're arguing for some sort of turnover thing, but if you're trying to argue that they don't have lots of employees and more than they had before, then you're wrong.
They have a LOT of employees, and they've been getting more. That's just simply a fact. I'm not going to argue whether or not that's a sign of success, but I will say they have what.... 300? 400? Employees. I forget. One of those two numbers. Either way a lot of people. They're certainly not shrinking so far as amount of employees go.
When did Hrouda became a very important designer?
He worked in Anet for 3 years, so 2010-2013. GW1 last expansion was 2007. GW2 released in 2012, so when he arrived at Anet, GW2 had 3 years of development.
Eric Flannum is the Lead Game Designer. What can he be doing that doesn't evolve chatting?
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Supposedly Eric Flannum doesn't work on GW2 anymore, it was posted on Reddit today or yesterday. Seems like a pretty major development not to communicate to the players of the game, that the lead game designer isn't work on the game anymore.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1maeln/what_happened_to_lead_game_designer_eric_flannum/cc7ds74
But there are other examples, like Habib Loew, the guy responsible for removing the culling among other things. He isn't there anymore either, but I bet he wasn't "important" either even though he was there since 2007. But I am done arguing about this. People can believe what they want to. You can't hide the truth forever.