I've seen few MMO(and their expansions) launches and GW2 had best one. It had it's share of bugs and issues but the main deal was there - you could easily buy game, add code, log in, create character, select server and play.
FF XIV had a re-launch lately and still managed to make it a mess.
Originally posted by Destai The problem with the game isn't the technical issues. It's their utter defiance towards adding new content that actually stays in the game. A year later we still have nothing worth playing past the vanilla content.
I'm sorry, but what?
I don't think what he said was that complicated to understand. ANet really hasn't added any "lasting" content. Most of it has been temporary, which for a lot of players is a big turnoff. Also their living story is repetitive and boring. It's no wonder people love the Adventure Box! It's a change of pace from what's usually added for updates in GW2.
Again, what?
Edited - Oh okay was waiting for some truth to be said, thanks Scalpess, I wasn't sure if we where all talking about the same game maybe it was a confusion between Guild Wars 1 and 2 and they where talking about 1, but then I saw the SAB mention which confused me even more.
It is true. They really haven´t added any "real" lasting content (yet)!
It was all temporary event (now living story) stuff! Most of it rehashed/reskinned from previous events... turning it into a bit of repetitive grind.
It´s basically similar to what TRION did in the first year With RIFT! They were able to push out a New event nearly every month! But it was basically just rehashed/reskinned stuff from the previous event.
It´s the only way they can push out frequent content updates like that.
Releasing "unique" content every month is a hell lot harder and much more time consuming and expensive to do.
The only Dev doing it so far is Funcom With The Secret World and you can see they cannot manage to stick to monthly issue updates anymore (altho that is mostly due to the extensive lay offs they suffered in the past year ).
I don't think GW2 is 'the best game ever' but you have to credit ANet for adding in huge amount of content for free and they are constantly fixing the game.
Some of the fixes should have been in from the start (Auction House I'm looking at you!!) but they are getting there.
Now if they can just somehow get decent writers to write a story that makes sense or is actually interesting....
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Originally posted by Destai The problem with the game isn't the technical issues. It's their utter defiance towards adding new content that actually stays in the game. A year later we still have nothing worth playing past the vanilla content.
I'm sorry, but what?
I don't think what he said was that complicated to understand. ANet really hasn't added any "lasting" content. Most of it has been temporary, which for a lot of players is a big turnoff. Also their living story is repetitive and boring. It's no wonder people love the Adventure Box! It's a change of pace from what's usually added for updates in GW2.
Fractals
Southsun Shore
40+ dynamic events
An overhaul of AC
Scarlet's invasions
New sPvP maps
Weapon and armor skins and maybe some other stuff I forgot
Sure, a large part of the content was temporary, but do "we still have nothing worth playing past the vanilla content"? No, we have a lot. Besides, outside of Southsun, the new content is as good as or better than vanilla content.
All of the content you mentioned came before February. Scarlet's invasions aren't new, they're just dynamic events with a name.
I'm no Guild Wars 2 hater by any means but you have to admit they've added almost no content to the game since the February guild mission patch. They've added Achievement rewards, WvW ranks, and Ascended gear but none of these are actual content. They are rewards for completing already existing content.
All I see is ArenaNet constantly throwing shinies at people to get them to continue to keep playing, I suppose that's alright for some individuals but I'd like something a bit more substantial. A 45 minute dungeon with 2 difficult encounters and a 5 minute solo encounter just isn't cutting it for me given they've had 6 months.
Originally posted by Destai The problem with the game isn't the technical issues. It's their utter defiance towards adding new content that actually stays in the game. A year later we still have nothing worth playing past the vanilla content.
I'm sorry, but what?
I don't think what he said was that complicated to understand. ANet really hasn't added any "lasting" content. Most of it has been temporary, which for a lot of players is a big turnoff. Also their living story is repetitive and boring. It's no wonder people love the Adventure Box! It's a change of pace from what's usually added for updates in GW2.
Fractals
Southsun Shore
40+ dynamic events
An overhaul of AC
Scarlet's invasions
New sPvP maps
Weapon and armor skins and maybe some other stuff I forgot
Sure, a large part of the content was temporary, but do "we still have nothing worth playing past the vanilla content"? No, we have a lot. Besides, outside of Southsun, the new content is as good as or better than vanilla content.
Fractals (first glimpse at the future), Southsun Cove and many of the events were released in the first few months meaning they were held back from release so not produced in the year since release. An overhaul of a dungeon is not new content its repairing broken content. New sPvP maps but no new modes of play. Adding weapons and armour skins to a game with a lack of weapon and armour diversity, yep awesome stuff Arenanet.
A game with a fantastic world is now reduced to instanced rehashed "living story" where you just click stuff to fill up achievements, grind bosses for gold because of the DR all around the world itself, endure amateur hour stories with equally bad voice acting and new awesome time gated gear and crafting systems. While they pretend they are working on what to do with the future of the game as revenue drops and they try to maneuver players into the cash shop. Maybe they need a new manifesto? what a waste of a beautiful world full of exploration and possibilities, but hey its B2P after all, though they gave you a wallet for all the pointless currencies, woohoo!
To me Arenanet misjudged the market and are now scrambling to get to players to log in and spend money as the manifesto dream lies shattered on the ground.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
Originally posted by Destai The problem with the game isn't the technical issues. It's their utter defiance towards adding new content that actually stays in the game. A year later we still have nothing worth playing past the vanilla content.
I'm sorry, but what?
I don't think what he said was that complicated to understand. ANet really hasn't added any "lasting" content. Most of it has been temporary, which for a lot of players is a big turnoff. Also their living story is repetitive and boring. It's no wonder people love the Adventure Box! It's a change of pace from what's usually added for updates in GW2.
Again, what?
Edited - Oh okay was waiting for some truth to be said, thanks Scalpess, I wasn't sure if we where all talking about the same game maybe it was a confusion between Guild Wars 1 and 2 and they where talking about 1, but then I saw the SAB mention which confused me even more.
Hey, sorry for not getting back to this sooner. I should have been more detailed, but I was at work and couldn't devote much to the topic at hand. For that I apologize. My point was that the technical issues pale in comparison to the lack of content. They're certainly being addressed sooner and communicated by ArenaNet in a better fashion. I'd hope a year later they'd have added more content. They've added some quality of life features and adding a few more later this year. Some of those features should have been in at launch.
I understand that many people are miffed at the troubles of the FF-XIV launch, but those are short terms as so many technical issues are in these games. The real problem this game, and others, face is content.
You know, I wasn't gonna respond at first cause I was like "Okay now these people are just discrediting A-Nets hard work on releasing content so they can feel better about not liking the game." Yet I figured "Aww what they heck let me state some obvious stuff alongside some true stuff."(Dang it why I use the word stuff.)
So a few months ago, I sat down and thought to myself "Why in the world is content being released whether it's temporary or permanent never enough for people(I can't say some or many)?" After looking at other MMos content release, which go irrelevant right after the next released, I then realized that content isn't even the issue with a lot of MMOs, it's just what is content to people, not only that but see it's also obvious that A-NETs plan was to expand on the core game rather than the actual map itself.
That means it is not even the real problem these games face, it's more so the people, you have people that want quality, people that want quantity, then people that want both. However it's all subjective to them, see many that play GW2 have gotten a lot of content especially if played weekly, but as they see that content that's to be played and mean something, you then have people who will for their own reason not count that content being used in game as content because, it is temp or some other reason. ha ha come to think of it it's also a problem as to why certain payment models will never work for the long run these days.
TL:DR maybe more understandable version any way - What I'm getting at is MMOs but for the sake of it, GW2 has released a lot, the only thing is which is obvious, unfortunately, it was stuff not released for you and others(can't say some or many) again unfortunately, but eh that's life, can't go everybody's way.
That being said, mate.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
They need to fix the terrible skill lag in WvW ASAP. They have competitive WvW leagues starting next month and currently big sieges are an unplayable mess.
Should this feature article have been entitled “Ass-Kissing for Ad-Dollars?” Sure GW2 is a good game and unlike most releases in the past few years is still going places. The problem is you note minor launch issues and pat them on the back for staying busy while making no real point to the greater market as a whole leaving the article to read like something an industry shill would write.
I agree A-net is a great company and they are doing great in their game, but still something is missing for me. I hear about these updates and they sound cool, yet they fail to keep my interest. After playing ff11 for 2 years and Wow for 3-4 years, I was really looking forward to playing GW2 for a long time. But the super adventure box is the last thing I remember actually having a blast with in GW2. Everything else just makes me yawn.. I'll keep logging in once in a while and hope something caches my interest. GW2 is a great game, its just missing that magic touch that I can't explain..
Best launch I've been a part of personally, though I haven't been a part of many, but the biggest bug being the trading post not working, that was fixed in a few weeks and things have only gotten better since. The game isn't for everyone, but the dedication of the proud parents is not to be ignored.
WOW - people complaing about the story - at least the story is continuous. Not like TSW, which is a patchwork of non-connected stories. Or my favorite, Rift, which had 2 factions then complicated the matter by allowing the 2 factions to mix into 3 other factions, which broke the story in half.
The game story, albeit not the best, is at least follows and makes sense.
I loved GW2, amazing game and reinforces why I will not pay a sub ever again.. on the flip side, as much as I loved the game... the culling issue took WAY TOO LONG to fix and drove me off the game.. left a permenant bad taste in my mouth that the game was largely marketed on WvWvW and it took THAT LONG to fix.. Havn't touched it in 6 months and i have around 400 hours played in its first 6 months with several lvl 80.. I know its fixed, since theres no-sub i can return whenever i want, but probably wont.. and yes, as much as i LOVE the storyline and the 'living' story... it just isnt diverse enough across races and IS repeatitive..... but I still feel as if I got my $60 worth for sure... just wish Elder Scolls was going to be F2P...well it will be eventually, its not gonna last on sub :P
No doubt GW2 had a wonderful launch. One of the best I had to play.
But the part where you say they did a good job resolving bugs and fixing glitch, I strongly disagree.
I undestand it's a big game and it's complex to resolve something, but some issues lasted for so long I'm still not sure how it happened :
Necromancer Minions in WvW : Their AI have been bugged for at least 8 month. Then I stopped playing and I have no idea if it got resolved. We made so many psot about it with video evidence, and they never did anything about it.
Necro downed state had minimal HP : When in downed state, necromancer only took 1-2 sec to die from attacks. There was video evidance and explanation on the forum, on each sub forum I dare say. Took 2 month to respond then 1 month to repair.
So many skills/traits that didn't work at all. On every class I played, their would be skills/traits not working. They were still there 8 month after. Ex : Engineer scope which should give 10% more crit when standing still never working.
And when they did repair a glitch or change a skill/trait? It didn't even work. Nearly each patch, they would make a change and it wouldn't work as intended. They would change engineer turret, yet they would forget to changed the traited turret so if you took the trait, you owuld have the old turret. It happened nearly everytime. They didn't take time to test their change.
Those are only few example that I remember. GW2 is one of the best game dev in my opinion, but their bug fix/glitch repair was lacking.
Comments
FF XIV had a re-launch lately and still managed to make it a mess.
It is true. They really haven´t added any "real" lasting content (yet)!
It was all temporary event (now living story) stuff! Most of it rehashed/reskinned from previous events... turning it into a bit of repetitive grind.
It´s basically similar to what TRION did in the first year With RIFT! They were able to push out a New event nearly every month! But it was basically just rehashed/reskinned stuff from the previous event.
It´s the only way they can push out frequent content updates like that.
Releasing "unique" content every month is a hell lot harder and much more time consuming and expensive to do.
The only Dev doing it so far is Funcom With The Secret World and you can see they cannot manage to stick to monthly issue updates anymore (altho that is mostly due to the extensive lay offs they suffered in the past year
).
Uh, all the things I listed in my previous post are permanent.
I'm surprised OP didn't mention Arah gate being bugged for weeks, dare I say a month?
There was also a specific skill point I and many people had to switch servers to complete it then go back to our previous server.
----
I'm no longer playing the game because to be brutally honest fractals destroyed the game.
I'm sorry but it's true.
I don't think GW2 is 'the best game ever' but you have to credit ANet for adding in huge amount of content for free and they are constantly fixing the game.
Some of the fixes should have been in from the start (Auction House I'm looking at you!!) but they are getting there.
Now if they can just somehow get decent writers to write a story that makes sense or is actually interesting....
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
All of the content you mentioned came before February. Scarlet's invasions aren't new, they're just dynamic events with a name.
I'm no Guild Wars 2 hater by any means but you have to admit they've added almost no content to the game since the February guild mission patch. They've added Achievement rewards, WvW ranks, and Ascended gear but none of these are actual content. They are rewards for completing already existing content.
All I see is ArenaNet constantly throwing shinies at people to get them to continue to keep playing, I suppose that's alright for some individuals but I'd like something a bit more substantial. A 45 minute dungeon with 2 difficult encounters and a 5 minute solo encounter just isn't cutting it for me given they've had 6 months.
Fractals (first glimpse at the future), Southsun Cove and many of the events were released in the first few months meaning they were held back from release so not produced in the year since release. An overhaul of a dungeon is not new content its repairing broken content. New sPvP maps but no new modes of play. Adding weapons and armour skins to a game with a lack of weapon and armour diversity, yep awesome stuff Arenanet.
A game with a fantastic world is now reduced to instanced rehashed "living story" where you just click stuff to fill up achievements, grind bosses for gold because of the DR all around the world itself, endure amateur hour stories with equally bad voice acting and new awesome time gated gear and crafting systems. While they pretend they are working on what to do with the future of the game as revenue drops and they try to maneuver players into the cash shop. Maybe they need a new manifesto? what a waste of a beautiful world full of exploration and possibilities, but hey its B2P after all, though they gave you a wallet for all the pointless currencies, woohoo!
To me Arenanet misjudged the market and are now scrambling to get to players to log in and spend money as the manifesto dream lies shattered on the ground.
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
feel they have a strong passion for their game
They are very involved in making their game perfectly and I love them for that..
You know, I wasn't gonna respond at first cause I was like "Okay now these people are just discrediting A-Nets hard work on releasing content so they can feel better about not liking the game." Yet I figured "Aww what they heck let me state some obvious stuff alongside some true stuff."(Dang it why I use the word stuff.)
So a few months ago, I sat down and thought to myself "Why in the world is content being released whether it's temporary or permanent never enough for people(I can't say some or many)?" After looking at other MMos content release, which go irrelevant right after the next released, I then realized that content isn't even the issue with a lot of MMOs, it's just what is content to people, not only that but see it's also obvious that A-NETs plan was to expand on the core game rather than the actual map itself.
That means it is not even the real problem these games face, it's more so the people, you have people that want quality, people that want quantity, then people that want both. However it's all subjective to them, see many that play GW2 have gotten a lot of content especially if played weekly, but as they see that content that's to be played and mean something, you then have people who will for their own reason not count that content being used in game as content because, it is temp or some other reason. ha ha come to think of it it's also a problem as to why certain payment models will never work for the long run these days.
TL:DR maybe more understandable version any way - What I'm getting at is MMOs but for the sake of it, GW2 has released a lot, the only thing is which is obvious, unfortunately, it was stuff not released for you and others(can't say some or many) again unfortunately, but eh that's life, can't go everybody's way.
That being said,
mate.
I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.
I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.
P2P LOGIC = If it's P2P it means longevity, overall better game, and THE BEST SUPPORT EVER!!!!!(Which has been rinsed and repeated about a thousand times)
Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.
They need to fix the terrible skill lag in WvW ASAP. They have competitive WvW leagues starting next month and currently big sieges are an unplayable mess.
Other than that I'm pretty happy with the game.
Should this feature article have been entitled “Ass-Kissing for Ad-Dollars?” Sure GW2 is a good game and unlike most releases in the past few years is still going places. The problem is you note minor launch issues and pat them on the back for staying busy while making no real point to the greater market as a whole leaving the article to read like something an industry shill would write.
No doubt GW2 had a wonderful launch. One of the best I had to play.
But the part where you say they did a good job resolving bugs and fixing glitch, I strongly disagree.
I undestand it's a big game and it's complex to resolve something, but some issues lasted for so long I'm still not sure how it happened :
Necromancer Minions in WvW : Their AI have been bugged for at least 8 month. Then I stopped playing and I have no idea if it got resolved. We made so many psot about it with video evidence, and they never did anything about it.
Necro downed state had minimal HP : When in downed state, necromancer only took 1-2 sec to die from attacks. There was video evidance and explanation on the forum, on each sub forum I dare say. Took 2 month to respond then 1 month to repair.
So many skills/traits that didn't work at all. On every class I played, their would be skills/traits not working. They were still there 8 month after. Ex : Engineer scope which should give 10% more crit when standing still never working.
And when they did repair a glitch or change a skill/trait? It didn't even work. Nearly each patch, they would make a change and it wouldn't work as intended. They would change engineer turret, yet they would forget to changed the traited turret so if you took the trait, you owuld have the old turret. It happened nearly everytime. They didn't take time to test their change.
Those are only few example that I remember. GW2 is one of the best game dev in my opinion, but their bug fix/glitch repair was lacking.