 |
|
Mar 27, 2007, 07:07 PM // 19:07
|
#1 |
|
Academy Page
Join Date: Oct 2006
|
Why I think that this is the perfect time for GW2
First let me start by saying that when I say that this is the perfect time for GW2, I mean for it's planning and development. It obviously won't be released for at least 2 years.
I have heard a lot of people saying that it is too soon for GW2, that Anet should keep GW1 going, that they feel betrayed by having GW2 being planned and developed already, that they feel like there is no reason to keep playing thier toons in GW1, and various other complaints that generaly say that this is the wrong time for GW2. But I for one think this is the perfect time. Here are the reasons I think so: The community: The community right now is still going strong. Any info that gets released spreads like wildfire. There are even people who frequent the fansites, and don't even play GW much anymore. If they waited until GW1 was really winding down, the community would not be able to spread the word nearly as far, and the buzz would be less than it otherwise would be. The other thing about the community is that letting them know now that GW2 is on the horizon allows the community to give the devs input into the game. This gives the devs a great source of ideas and a great way to know what the main fanbase will be interested in for the game, and with enough time to actually include it. It will give us a mature game at launch: GW1 was a new type of game when it was launched. Anet took a bunch of risks when it came to GW1. The business model, the game style, the community relations - there were so many things that they were doing differently, that GW was a big risk overall. It payed off in spades, and over roughly the past 2 and a half years (counting early beta) a more mature game has developed. The community has grown with it, as has the business model, and the company Anet as a whole. So, as things like the attribute system (anyone remeber refund points?) evolved, Anet learned a lot about how the game should work. Later additions like NPCs in the GH, Observer Mode, and Templates added to a much richer game. Those kinds of things that have been added over the past 2 years can be part of the game at launch for GW2, and the lessons Anet learned can be incorporated into the game from day 1. They will be able to include things that would be too dificult or too bulky in the current engine: There are certain things that the community has been begging for since release, and in some cases even since Beta. Player-to-player trade improvements, more character creation options (facial, etc...), and the z-axis fix (to fix the problem where someone under a bridge can "run in to" someone on top of the bridge) are just a few examples. I am convinced that at least some things that the community has asked for push the limits of the game engine to the point that they needed to essentially re-write huge areas of the engine itself, causing a dilemna for an established game. With a new game, you can start with a new engine, and new flexibility to make changes over the next several years to make a much better game. So these things that the community has been calling for can be integrated into GW2, where putting them into GW1 would be extremely difficult and impractical at best, if not next to impossible. One good example of this is the addition of persistable areas in GW2. I suspect that, despite the fact that a lot of fans have asked for this, that it would be next to impossible to work into the current engine. And changing the engine inside GW1 itself would be impractical at best. The game will have strong ties to GW1: As some of the information about GWEN and GW2 has been filtering out, one of the things that has caught my attention are the ties between GW1 and GW2. The hall of monuments, and the things that you can unlock for your GW2 characters via GW1 is a huge level of interaction with the GW2 game even before it is released. Personally I think that is a great gesture to the community, and to thier fans. The ability to unlock exclusive things in GW2 via GW1 gives GW1 players a special place in the new game. If they waited another year or 2 before starting development, they may not be able to pull as many people into GW2, and the hall of monuments wouldn't have nearly as much meaning. Some people have complained about GW1 going away, but with the strong ties to GW1, think of GW2 as a new campaign with a really big upgrade. Yes, you can't port all your toons, but you can use the Hall of Monuments to reserve thier names, get special gear, and keep thier legend alive. Infrastructure: In Anet's (current) unique engine, thier infrastructure is completely scalable. The infrastructure can literally grow dynamically as needed, and a shrinking base would be easy to scale back as well. While the server setup for GW2 may be different, especially with persistance and larger areas with players in them, I suspect that they will keep the scaleablity, and a similar enough engine that it can share some of the same infrastructure. By planning and developing GW2 while GW1 is still going very strong, they will be able to take advantage of the existing servers, connections, etc..., and once GW2 is released, as GW1 winds down, the unoccupied servers can be re-tooled for use with GW2 as it expands, and it saves on the infrastructure cost for GW2. That allows Anet to spend more money on developers and other things to make an even better game. Fixing some mis-steps: In the PCGamer article, they said that the game started to feel "bloated" to them. That is a direct result of the way that they planned and executed the system of "campaigns". Stand-alone games with add-ons to the existing game, adding professions and skills every time gets exponentially more difficult with each one. That plus the time frame for finishing development between one and the other made for a complete madhouse for development, and made for less original content than most fans would have liked. The problem is that if all Anet did was to take a different direction, and go with expansions on a better time frame, they still have a mostly bloated game to deal with. Rather than continuing to keep going down that same track, starting from scratch makes for a much, much better game. It allows consolidation for things like the different armor systems (Prophecies, Factions, and Nightfall all do armor a little different), and weapons systems (i.e. inscriptions). Other things like unlock packs, expansion character slots, and other things that became available through the GW store well after launch can be integrated from the start, and prevent things like people having to buy seperate storage accounts, and prevent the people that said things like "What, you mean I bought that seperate account for nothing!" or "You mean I have to buy Factions for BOTH my accounts??!?" (Last, but not least) Growth: In GW1, with Anet shifting away from campaigns to go with expansions, growing the fan base would be a tough nut too crack. While still possible, it would be hard. With going to a new game, you can structure for grwoth in different ways. For example; if your business model is to use expansions, you have to find a way to bring new players into the mix with each expansion. With GW1, the fact that they would have to choose between 3 different base games to get the expansion is daunting for a new player. But if you plan to do expansions from the start as with GW2, they will have 1 base game to buy, and you can plan special promotions with each expansion to get new players into the mix. Plus they can plan the game for growth down a new path, whereas with GW2, they ould have to be adapting to the new growth plan. All in all, I think this is the perfect time to start talking about (and starting development of) GW2, and I think it's release will be timely. |
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 07:27 PM // 19:27
|
#2 |
|
Academy Page
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Philippines
Guild: Maguuma Assassins [MagA]
|
That was a long read.
Luckily I listened to the new guildcast at the same time, thus saving me precious minutes of my life. You hit good points. I'm slowly being coaxed into believing it was a good strategy on Anet's part. |
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 07:35 PM // 19:35
|
#3 | |
|
Lion's Arch Merchant
Join Date: Jul 2005
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 07:53 PM // 19:53
|
#4 | |
|
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: Aug 2006
|
Quote:
I could ask the same of PvPer's. It seems kinda boring to just keep fighting random people on the same maps over and over without going anywhere and no storyline. Just my opinion. |
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 07:57 PM // 19:57
|
#5 |
|
Academy Page
Join Date: Oct 2006
|
The very fact that you are here, and that you read this proves that the community is still here and strong. Like I said above, there are people that don't even play GW anymore, but still frequent the boards. imho, Anet had to strike while the iron was hot so to speak, and get GW2 going before loosing those people that are drifting away from GW.
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 08:16 PM // 20:16
|
#6 | |
|
Desert Nomad
Join Date: Apr 2006
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 09:06 PM // 21:06
|
#7 |
|
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: Mar 2007
|
Anet really botched the announcement and pissed a lot of people off. Most companies would have done thusly:
(1) Annonce GW:EN (2) Release GW:EN (3) Announce "Early development Has begun on guild wars 2" (4) Time Passes (5) Announce GW2 as the next game, release window, release details on the game and specifics on the beta (6) Have GW2 beta, announce release window (7) Release GW 2. Everything that we know to today in outside of the timeframe of the above is a negative for Anet. * Today we know that the all future campaigns were cancelled (this was on the cover of the mag). It sucks for Guild Wars 1 players that a game that we thought had a future (anet would market new campaigns to new players) does not have a future. It sucks for guild Wars one players to know that the attention Guild wars one deserves may be shifted onto other projects, and it breeds distrust. Want an Auction House: sorry, anet is workking on guild wars 2... Want HA fixes: sorry, anet is working on guild wars 2. And why did anet have to announce no more expansions period? I'm sure that anet would release more expansions if market conditions dictate that.... It just didnt need to be announced period. Games like Everquest got expansions after their sequel was released. GW could unexpectedly become a megahit in china or something warranting additional content. GW still has an expansion to hype now. I just dont uderstand why they would do this now. * Today we have an approximate release date, which will only piss us off should anet fail to make that. * Today we have a list of features which already disappoint some as being too-similar to features of existing games, and will dissapoinmt others when the actual game delivers different with this expectation. (Recall descriptions of Alliance battles versus the actual product). With 2 years of development left, these can change or be refined so why announce them now as final. There are both too many generalities and specifics regarding Guild wars 2. Anet should have decided how core mechanics leveling work and only then released details. * The announced features that we do know make it clear that GW2 is more than just a graphical upgrade of Guild wars 1. It's a different game. But with new features, and no-ability to transfer characters over... there's little additional reason for either guild wars 1 players to (1) keep playing now, or (2) even buy the game without looking at the game on it's own merits. Sure, Anet's delivered a good game and good level of service with updates and weekends but the track record isnt perfect (trade spam), and sucess at one type of game doesnt portend sucess at another type of game. * The hype machine for Guild wars 2 has started... but we cant buy the game now or anytime soon. It's too early to build hype for this game. It's frustrating acutally, and by the time the game comes out, some other game (Diablo 3, starcraft 2, MMORPGS from Marvel and DC comics... whatever) will be the "fresher" hype. * The release of GW:EN information at the same time as guild wars 2 information just confuses a lot of people. The relase of GW:EN and guild Wars 2 on physical hard-print magazines with small readerbases that guild wars players dont actually read lead to a lot of basless rumors and misconceptions as third-hand detials were passed. As for the OP, the perfect time for anet to release Guild Wars 2 will be when the community thinks guild wars 1 is stale. We now know that anet thinks that the community will decide Guild wars 1 will be stale in 2 years. Do you agree or disagree with this judgment? |
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 09:32 PM // 21:32
|
#8 | ||||||
|
Grotto Attendant
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Kyhlo
Profession: W/
|
Quote:
If Anet simply said, "Well, no more Chapters, but we do have an expansion coming out at the end of the year", can you imagine the outrage? Then, on top of that slight, AFTER we buy an expansion, they tell us, "Well, hope you had fun in the last Guild Wars expansion. We're starting Guild Wars 2 now!" OMG. I can't even imagine what the forums would be like! While I suspect some people will support Anet no matter what, even I would find that news.... disturbing to say the least. I'd feel like I was conned into buying a final expansion for an old game. No, this really was the best course for a very difficult announcement. Quote:
Quote:
Better for consumers to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed with expectations (as the currant situation shows all too clearly!) Quote:
This is a win/win for Anet and us. Quote:
Quote:
Last edited by Mordakai; Mar 27, 2007 at 09:36 PM // 21:36.. |
||||||
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 09:33 PM // 21:33
|
#9 |
|
Hall Hero
Join Date: Aug 2005
Profession: E/
|
^ To this guy, a.net and galie has already said they will keep teams to run and maintain and update GW1. Maybe there won't be an auction house or anything DRASTIC, but I expect holiday events and skill balances to continue.
But yeah, I do agree it was kinda stupid announcing GW:EN and GW 2 at the same time. Some people will not want to buy GW:EN because they know with GW 2 it will be outdated. It also kinda creates a lot of confusion on these boards ("Omg Gwen is in GW 2," "Gwen is in GW:EN, not GW 2," "no you idiot GW:EN isn't GW 2 its Chapter 4," "Hall of Monuments nnoooooobbbb") <-- and other such confusing stuff on these forums |
|
|
|
|
Mar 27, 2007, 09:33 PM // 21:33
|
#10 | ||||||
|
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: CA
Guild: Frogs in Winter [FiW]
|
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Edit: Looks like Mordakai types faster than I do... Last edited by Ritual del Fuego; Mar 27, 2007 at 09:36 PM // 21:36.. |
||||||
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 12:48 AM // 00:48
|
#11 |
|
Forge Runner
Join Date: Mar 2007
Guild: Astral Revenants
Profession: P/W
|
If you announced GW2 at the same time as GW:EN is released you'd steal a lot of it's thunder. Alot of the features of GW:EN are tied in part to GW2. It helps get people excited and buy GW:EN.
If they announced it after GW:EN was released, people would be in game going, WTF is this Hall of Monuments business? There are pros and cons to each scenario. I think ANet chose wisely. |
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 01:41 AM // 01:41
|
#12 |
|
Forge Runner
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: America. How about you, commie?
Guild: Fellows of Mythgar [FOM]
Profession: R/Mo
|
Do you want GW2 to come out very soon but be extremely buggy and not much more than GW1 with jumping?
...or do you want to wait a while so that GW2 becomes the greatest game ever since the original? Guild Wars is still real active, and with large updates, holidays, and GW:EN on the horizon, most people will have something to keep them busy until GW2 is released in a few years. |
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 01:50 AM // 01:50
|
#13 |
|
Krytan Explorer
Join Date: May 2006
Guild: The Illini Tribe
Profession: N/Mo
|
To those complaining about how Anet made the announcement, you seem to wish Anet had lied about their plans and deliberately deceived the community to avoid an immature reaction.
I may be misinterpreting the posts, but that strikes me as sad. I would rather be treated like and adult and been given the straight story on the assumption that I could handle it. Personally, I'm looking forward to GW2. Understanding that GW:EN is the bridge to that game and the only way I can buff my "decendants" and start off a brand new, potentially great game that's forever free with pets, titles, and selected equipment is all information I'd rather have sooner than later. |
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 02:11 AM // 02:11
|
#14 | |
|
Frost Gate Guardian
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Las Vegas
Profession: N/
|
Quote:
Anet's announcement with both GW:EN and GW 2 is perfectly executed since The Hall of Monuments, the storyline conclusion of GW 1 and the storyline transition from GW1 to GW2 will all be in GW:EN, then I think both games are worth buying |
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 02:14 AM // 02:14
|
#15 |
|
Wilds Pathfinder
Join Date: Jul 2005
|
Yeah its perfect since the game won't actually be out until next year.
Now GW has a good community, lots of players who were new to the MMO thing ready to upgrade, good lore and history (background for the new game) and a stop to the whole campeign deal before it got TOO repetitive. All around.. great! |
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 02:18 AM // 02:18
|
#16 |
|
Pre-Searing Cadet
Join Date: Mar 2007
Guild: Shadow Knights [SK]
|
A-Net has had an almost constant ear towards the Community at-large.
While certain things most certainly attribute to a 'dropping off' of specific individuals (skill adjustments, quote-unquote Nerfs, certain Chapter decisions((I'm still not settled on how I feel about Factions)), 'smart' AoE-dodging AI, and other balance testing typical for a game of this type), they haven't once taken the stance that 'what we say, goes.' While I will state that we are playing A-Net's game, A-Net has always listened to us. They may not have always done what we wanted them to do, but the singular reason for that is because they are thinking of GW as a whole, rather than catering to each and every individual desire of the community. This is not a bad thing. As far as GW2 is concerned, I believe they've made the best decision they could have. Considering that it could be so unbelievably worse (I'm looking at YOU, Star Wars), I fail to see how people could even begin to nitpick about the direction that A-Net is taking regarding the future of our beloved hobby/obsession. :) People really are just nitpicking. While we have a good amount of information about the future of Guild Wars already, we don't have as much concrete evidence as a lot of people would like to have. Fine. Wait a month or two. Hell, wait a week. The way I see it, A-Net is showing us what they currently have in store for us. And hey, it'll be free! How can anyone possibly complain about one of the best MMO's ever made getting a potentially greater sequel... that's still going to be free?!? The answer to that is simple. People love to complain, and they are never, ever happy. Well, I could care less. Keep up the great work, A-Net. I'm already waiting with baited breath for the release of my next favorite online game. The sheer fact that I'll actually be able to make a consistent Family out of the Skycleaver name is enough for me. :) |
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 02:49 AM // 02:49
|
#17 |
|
Wilds Pathfinder
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Nottingham, England
Guild: The Venerable Truth [TvT] The Venerable Alliance [TvH] [TvL]
Profession: R/
|
They are very much blackmailing myself and others into buying GW:EN... By not having character transfer and having this hall system you are forced to buy an expansion for a product they view as outdated.
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 02:51 AM // 02:51
|
#18 |
|
Forge Runner
Join Date: Mar 2007
Guild: Astral Revenants
Profession: P/W
|
GW is not outdated, it'll keep running. You are in no way obliged to buy GW:EN. Continue nit picking if you want.
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 02:54 AM // 02:54
|
#19 | |
|
Wilds Pathfinder
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Nottingham, England
Guild: The Venerable Truth [TvT] The Venerable Alliance [TvH] [TvL]
Profession: R/
|
Quote:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mar 28, 2007, 10:31 AM // 10:31
|
#20 | ||
|
Krytan Explorer
Join Date: May 2006
Guild: The Illini Tribe
Profession: N/Mo
|
Quote:
Quote:
/sigh The reality is that there is a designed incentive to keep playing if you love GuildWars and have confidence in Anet's future. If you don't, you can still play for fun (and for free). If there is no fun in the game left for you, you can always come on game forums and whine like little girls. See, you have lots of choices. |
||
|
|
|
 |
|
«
Previous Thread
|
Next Thread
»
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
Linear Mode
|
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 07:46 PM // 19:46.
jQuery(document).ready(checkAds()); function checkAds(){if (document.getElementById('adsense')!=undefined){document.write("_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Adblock', 'Unblocked', 'false',,true]);");}else{document.write("