I'm not against having episodic content, per se. I'm against having it be in place of permanent content. Whether ArenaNet wants to admit it or not, we need more than 8 dungeons. We need more than fractals. We need 12, 16 man dungeon/raids. Just something. And it's not there. It saddens that they release such good content, like the Super Adventure Box, and then just take it away. What's the point in that?
It is nice to see them breathing some life into lower level zones. However, some of the mid 30 - 40 zones could use some love. Those are some awesome zones, like Timberline Falls. It's nice that they're adding content to Southsun Cove, but it's not enough. This game is horribly shallow compared to more traditional MMOs.
The game needs more of the following:
1. Dungeons. One for each zone, telling the overall story for that zone. Well, each zone besides Arah.
2. More skills. It's a common complaint that you get all your skills early on. I don't feel like my character grows any. So many mechanics are orphaned in this game. The personal story, the personality measurements, the journal - it's all done or pointless.
3. Mini-games in each city. I want a reason to go the pubs in each city. Fable had a great thing going with their mini games. I'm sure the talent ArenaNet has could think of something more than crab toss, especially after how awesome SAB was.
The thing about this game is that is so young yet. So much is yet to come, but I don't feel ArenaNet has decided on their direction yet. That worries me. It's evident they're having an identity crisis right now, and the game will suffer as a result.
Originally posted by IPolygon I still haven't heard a valid reason why living story cannot be incorporated into the persistent world we got.
I think a valid reason would be that the threat is taken care of and has been brought to completion.
I love that it is there then gone. It creates good memories. For those that missed it, never fear, for new stuff is coming down the pipe. News flash: you don't have to experience every part of a game to enjoy it! I'm only at 55% map completion and that doesn't stop me from liking what I have gotten to experience.
I think they'll find this sort of approach isn't sustainable. Unless they have some kind of in-house dungeon generator thing going on, it's usually not worth putting effort into parts of a game that few people will get to experience, either because they weren't around at the time, or weren't the right level, or were out of town, or whatever.
WoW went through this a bit with their raids. They were spending 90% of their development time on creating new raids, yet only about 10% of the playerbase ever set foot in anything past Molten Core (the entry level raid). Eventually, this transitioned into the 10 and 20 man raid options, first in ZG during Vanilla, then in Kara during TBC. Long story short: they realized that it's more effective to work on stuff that will get used.
I don't see why they can't have both. The way they did Southsun Cove is the way they should do most of these update; a big onetime event that adds something to the game permanently. Then keep their holiday themed events. Adding a dungeon for 2 weeks is a waste of time since it can never be that great, because there is no reason to put a lot of work into something that is disappearing.
The world does not feel dynamic and ever changing since if I miss 2 weeks, I miss the event and the game is the same as the way it was before. If most of it stays, but I miss the big boss battle, like the giant Karka, then it fulfills both types of players.
The last 3 months had around 2.5 Million boxes in it.
The game made another $35M and most of it had to come from the CS unless they sold another 500k-1M boxes.
What they need to add to the cash shop is stuff that players with multiple characters would want and not stuff that caters for the people with a single character.
And in my personal opinion they really need to get expansions rolling.
The investor call before this one (2 months after GW2 Launched I think) NCSoft was predicting 'robust CS sale which will continue into the next quarter and continue to grow in revenue'.
Well, GW2 revenue tanked HARD; 48% to 21% is not stellar.
GW2 made millions and was a very profitable game. But according to this call, it isn't 'profitable enough'.
No, that isn't a 'GW2 is dying LOL!!1111' statement, but it is acknowledging that 'hey, stuff might change soon'.
Pretty confident we'll see something at E3 or one of those 'cons' shortly after E3 about GW2 expansion pack.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
The last 3 months had around 2.5 Million boxes in it.
The game made another $35M and most of it had to come from the CS unless they sold another 500k-1M boxes.
What they need to add to the cash shop is stuff that players with multiple characters would want and not stuff that caters for the people with a single character.
And in my personal opinion they really need to get expansions rolling.
The investor call before this one (2 months after GW2 Launched I think) NCSoft was predicting 'robust CS sale which will continue into the next quarter and continue to grow in revenue'.
Well, GW2 revenue tanked HARD; 48% to 21% is not stellar.
GW2 made millions and was a very profitable game. But according to this call, it isn't 'profitable enough'.
No, that isn't a 'GW2 is dying LOL!!1111' statement, but it is acknowledging that 'hey, stuff might change soon'.
Pretty confident we'll see something at E3 or one of those 'cons' shortly after E3 about GW2 expansion pack.
The last investor call was in February. There was one before in November.
I've listened to the last call and this call and in both they expected lower revenue from GW2 as less boxes would be moved, especially since 4Q12 had the lionshare of the sales of 3Q12 as well. 48% to 21% is simply the contribution of GW2 to the total revenue of NCSoft.
Again nowhere they said it wasn't profitable enough.
NCSoft both in last call and this call talked about an expansion and release in China - in last call they said they expected an expansion to be released in 2013, now they didn't give any time window.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Ithink it's great to have evolving storylines and content that supports it for a limited time. The world changes and moves on. I find it way more interesting than a static world.
Originally posted by Leiloni It's not fun to miss out on content so I think this idea of temporary content is ridiculous. I wasn't home during the Halloween events so I missed out on a lot of cool stuff and that was the first time that happened to me and I realized this was a regular thing for them. That was the beginning of the end for me with GW2.
That is the point. They are "forcing" people to log in so the don't miss this "limited time deal". They probably see low concurrent numbers and are doing their best to revive the game. If this content was there forever people, especially people on the fence would be less likely to log in.
This is a smart marketing tactic by Arenanet honestly. This is why retailers and others have the "limited time sale", "going soon" deals. Anet is desperate for players to log in. And honestly it is in the best interest of the game and the players. Unless players are so pissed, it might backfire.
Comments
I'm not against having episodic content, per se. I'm against having it be in place of permanent content. Whether ArenaNet wants to admit it or not, we need more than 8 dungeons. We need more than fractals. We need 12, 16 man dungeon/raids. Just something. And it's not there. It saddens that they release such good content, like the Super Adventure Box, and then just take it away. What's the point in that?
It is nice to see them breathing some life into lower level zones. However, some of the mid 30 - 40 zones could use some love. Those are some awesome zones, like Timberline Falls. It's nice that they're adding content to Southsun Cove, but it's not enough. This game is horribly shallow compared to more traditional MMOs.
The game needs more of the following:
1. Dungeons. One for each zone, telling the overall story for that zone. Well, each zone besides Arah.
2. More skills. It's a common complaint that you get all your skills early on. I don't feel like my character grows any. So many mechanics are orphaned in this game. The personal story, the personality measurements, the journal - it's all done or pointless.
3. Mini-games in each city. I want a reason to go the pubs in each city. Fable had a great thing going with their mini games. I'm sure the talent ArenaNet has could think of something more than crab toss, especially after how awesome SAB was.
The thing about this game is that is so young yet. So much is yet to come, but I don't feel ArenaNet has decided on their direction yet. That worries me. It's evident they're having an identity crisis right now, and the game will suffer as a result.
I think a valid reason would be that the threat is taken care of and has been brought to completion.
I love that it is there then gone. It creates good memories. For those that missed it, never fear, for new stuff is coming down the pipe. News flash: you don't have to experience every part of a game to enjoy it! I'm only at 55% map completion and that doesn't stop me from liking what I have gotten to experience.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I think they'll find this sort of approach isn't sustainable. Unless they have some kind of in-house dungeon generator thing going on, it's usually not worth putting effort into parts of a game that few people will get to experience, either because they weren't around at the time, or weren't the right level, or were out of town, or whatever.
WoW went through this a bit with their raids. They were spending 90% of their development time on creating new raids, yet only about 10% of the playerbase ever set foot in anything past Molten Core (the entry level raid). Eventually, this transitioned into the 10 and 20 man raid options, first in ZG during Vanilla, then in Kara during TBC. Long story short: they realized that it's more effective to work on stuff that will get used.
You make me like charity
I don't see why they can't have both. The way they did Southsun Cove is the way they should do most of these update; a big onetime event that adds something to the game permanently. Then keep their holiday themed events. Adding a dungeon for 2 weeks is a waste of time since it can never be that great, because there is no reason to put a lot of work into something that is disappearing.
The world does not feel dynamic and ever changing since if I miss 2 weeks, I miss the event and the game is the same as the way it was before. If most of it stays, but I miss the big boss battle, like the giant Karka, then it fulfills both types of players.
The investor call before this one (2 months after GW2 Launched I think) NCSoft was predicting 'robust CS sale which will continue into the next quarter and continue to grow in revenue'.
Well, GW2 revenue tanked HARD; 48% to 21% is not stellar.
GW2 made millions and was a very profitable game. But according to this call, it isn't 'profitable enough'.
No, that isn't a 'GW2 is dying LOL!!1111' statement, but it is acknowledging that 'hey, stuff might change soon'.
Pretty confident we'll see something at E3 or one of those 'cons' shortly after E3 about GW2 expansion pack.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
The last investor call was in February. There was one before in November.
I've listened to the last call and this call and in both they expected lower revenue from GW2 as less boxes would be moved, especially since 4Q12 had the lionshare of the sales of 3Q12 as well. 48% to 21% is simply the contribution of GW2 to the total revenue of NCSoft.
Again nowhere they said it wasn't profitable enough.
NCSoft both in last call and this call talked about an expansion and release in China - in last call they said they expected an expansion to be released in 2013, now they didn't give any time window.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I don´t mind the temporary content but I think they should put a little more work with making the first expansion and some less on this at the moment.
The game really needs some more content and particularly more skills, guildhalls and guild Vs guild PvP.
After that they can put as much work in temp content as they like, besides all seasonal content will be back again next year.
That is the point. They are "forcing" people to log in so the don't miss this "limited time deal". They probably see low concurrent numbers and are doing their best to revive the game. If this content was there forever people, especially people on the fence would be less likely to log in.
This is a smart marketing tactic by Arenanet honestly. This is why retailers and others have the "limited time sale", "going soon" deals. Anet is desperate for players to log in. And honestly it is in the best interest of the game and the players. Unless players are so pissed, it might backfire.