Chapter 4 a Factions repeat?

Strongly disagree on this point. This is just a cagey play on semantics in my view.

HA, RA and TA surely were Chapter-specific to Chapter 1 when they were created. Somehow the devs later got the idea of "Let's just keep copy and pasting the same exact content from Chapter 1 into all our future games." That does not make it reasonable grounds to consider HA, RA and TA to not be Chapter 1 content. HA, RA, and TA are Chapter 1 content regardless of how many future games they get copy and pasted into.

True dat, T-Bot.

I wasn't a fan of Factions but I'm glad I bought it. I do enjoy the Deep just not the fact that its alliance controlled. Also the new skills and even the AB's are kinda neat. Dunno I like pve so I was just disappointed with the 13 missions and weak storyline.

Hmmmm...odd...then how come there are some people that posted on this very thread that said they would buy another factions type game? I know I definitly would, and I'm definitly not alone.

Accually, I would prefer a more factions-style game that a prophecies-style one. Factions had a lot more content that prophecies IMO. I don't really count anything that is for below lvl 20's so thats what, 3 or 4 missions in prophecies?Oh ya, and since pugs suck so much and henchies are just as bad, I've never beat any fire islands missions, so that brings it down to about 2 missions for me. Factions, on the other hand, was just about all lvl 20 stuff. (thankfully )

And why are some people saying that the gates are such a problem in factions? I don't think I've ever really found any problem with them, and I do like to explore....

Where did you get that from? If it's from a site, can you post a link please?

And also,

I think Anet should stop with the new areas and classes, they should instead tie up some old lose ends.

I don't see the reason behind speculation... nightfall isn't even out yet.

I highly highly doubt, though neither I nor you have anything to back this up, that at any time during development Anet thought "well this random arena and this team arena are only going to be for this chapter and we'll make other stuff for the new chapters".

Nightfall may not be out, but they have been working on chapter 4 for many months already.

No, NCSoft and ANet will not repeat the Factions errors in design and implementation. They need good reviews from the pro sites to keep the series rolling and keep sales up. The pro sites were not enthusiastic about Factions and that hurt them in the pocketbook.

one mistake *i* wouldnt make in making a game is to continue making old game weapons/armour/items obsolete by adding new ones.
it gives players a sense of value to the older areas and thus a better community in some way :S.

I liked Prophecies and very much liked the Nightfall beta preview last week. Factions was/is terrible imo.

If Ch 4 is anything like Factions, I wont be buying it. this leads to a potential problem where I will have become bored with replaying the older chapters enough that by the time Ch 5 comes along I wont be bothered to buy it either because I will be playing other games instead.

hmmm looks like from now til release of Nightfall, we will be seening discussion of the following:

"Wow Nightfall da Bomb cant wait"

"Factions<<<GWP<<<<Nighfall"

"I love Factions and i dont care what you think"

The fact that we are going back and fore about how factions suck/dont suck and our fears about the team responsible for factions goes to show that we are really strongly opinonated and divided about this and going out of our way to say that Factions suck or not just goes to show that we really dont have much else to discuss about faction's content and sadly that speaks for itself.

GWP went for a whole year and the forums were always buzzing with activity about that latest happenings while after factions was released, the forums became populated with Faction love/hate threads shows that something is wrong with it without a doubt.

Personally i think trying to Merge PvErs with PvPers is not a good idea and factions proves this i hope for future chapters to come.

Yes i agree on that point, liking or disliking factions is completelly subjective.
But Anet will want to look at the statistics, and im sure the majority will prefer a completely inovative game regarding chapter 4, not a return to factions.

Am i right? please do say so if you disagree.
Il apreciate it.

hahahaha it's trooooooooo

Anet is fine tuning and changing their game based on player reactions and feedback ( I dare you to disagree with that).

With that in mind, feedback to Nightfall will indicate which way the next chapter will focus on.

I think Nightfall will do extremely well and so the next chapter will take the Nightfall "feel" and expand on that.

Personally i hope the next game is both PvE and PvP heavy.

I disagree with that!!

*gets slaped*

jk ^_^

Its good that theyre taking the average players opinion into consideration, but if they are also happy making games the way they want to, then let them.
I remember for example when people were all worried(around the first preview event if i recall) about there only being african characters available in Nightfall(you racist bastards!).
I read somewhere that guild wars developers loved implementing different cultures and locations into the game.
So if they are happy making the game the way they want it to be (fulfilling their dreams), let them.
If you complain about not wanting to play a character with african characteristics youre just a racist bastard and you just eat your own pile of crap.

Huh?I loved kaineng!

The shooters on the roofs,things coming from every corner and out of nowhere,enemies that EXPLODE when you get killed,ambushes..Whoah!

It realy proved a challenge and was KICKASS to go through,sure i had times when i thought *DAMNIT F*** F*** F**CKIDY F*** But i still enjoyed it!It was quite a challenge and you never know when danger might strike..its hard,and exectly how i want it..i like some challenge^^

I thought Nightfall is more concentrated on PvE along with a bit of PvP?

feedback to Nightfall will help Chapter 5 development

Chapter 4 is already being worked on

While this is true, the extent of what the final focus of the game will be can still be fine tuned even after the majority of the game is made.

Factions could easily have been less PVP focused just by changing a few mechanics around.....

Guild Wars Chapter 5 has been in development and i imagine what they are working on is the "core" of the game:

ie:
PVE Maps
PVE Monsters
Guild Halls
PvP Maps
Weapon Skins
Armor Skins
Skills
Quests
Missions
Storyline
Voice work
Soundtrack
Folly

Now ALL the chapters SHARE these.

What makes Factions PVP-centric are things found only on it like: Alliance Battles, The whole faction points in general, and things of that nature that make it "lean" towards PVP.

Nightfall has Heros and a more robust storyline and leans more towards PVE.

So as i said, depending on how well Nightfall is received, the "unique" attributes of the next chapter wil be based on that, even after all that content has already been made.

I think it was to be expected that factions wasnt going to be as good as prophecies or NF simply beacause the Factions team was "new" while the prophecies one had a whole year to learn from their mistakes in prophecies, added the sorrow furnace pack (that drew ideas from NF) and obvuisly NF is better than Factions because of experiende. factions team has learned from their mistakes just as their counterpart did in prophecies, Im confident they will pull out a good product in chapter 4. Its all about experience and getting the hang of it.

On the other hand, it was nice having a variety of henchmen for a change...

Well, since I posted immediately afterwards that I love Factions, I hope everyone took that in the spirit of gentle satire in which I intended it.

Honestly, I think people lose track of how many of the things they complain about in Factions are carried over from Prophecies.

Too much time in Kaineng? You spent just as much time in (a) post-searing Ascalon and (b) the Shiverpeaks, both of which are just as ugly and repetitive. Heck, I /ragequit the game in disgust for three days when my first character got past Glint, only to be dumped back in the freakin' mountains!

Bad voice acting? I take my headphones off whenever Danika talks, and I make fun of Shiro's surly muttering, but ultimately it's Evennia who makes me want to stab her to death with a spork.

Lously plot? I find it incriedible that anyone can argue that the Prophecies plot isn't worse. They're both banal and uninteresting, but at least the Factions one is properly structured and has a sense of pacing! I think it comes down to the fact that you can more easily ignore Prophecies' plot - reduce it maybe to "OK, so we're fighting these guys now" - so you can shove it out of your conscious mind and so not resent it as much.

PvP Focus? You can argue the semantics of whether the "core" PvP counts as being part of Prophecies or not, but the fact remains that more modes of PvP were introduced in the original campaign. What Factions added was a tendency towards PvP-PvE integration, which I personally enjoyed immensely (since I like dabbling in both but am not ready to take the plunge into hardcore stuff).

Badly designed monster mechanics? I've already hinted that I consider the putrid soul explosions to be a huge design mistake, particularly in that they wrecked the Assassin's reputation prematurely. However, there's similar design problems in Prophecies - it's just that the effects are a bit more subtle. Examples include Giant Stomps, mobs consisting exclusively of Mesmers (that one's quite a big deal if you played a caster as your first toon), bosses being virtually immune to hex or condition-dependent characters, and large areas of the game with massive resistances to a particular element (Shiverpeaks, RoF Islands).

...Oh, and the abundance of Afflicted is directly comparable to all those Devourers.

In conclusion? Nostalgia. It's been long enough since most of us played Prophecies for the first time that we've forgotten a lot of the petty annoyances.

(note that I think that all of the above are legitimate complaints about Factions. Virtually all the others are what I'm thinking of as "swings and roundabouts" issues, where one segment of the playbase misses out but it benefits another - e.g. locked gates, lack of skill rewards. I just happen to be in the segment that benefits from most of them!)

You can have variety without having to have a different selection of eight henchmen in every single city. If its variety they were after, why not just have a solid selection of the same 12 or so henchmen in every city? Instead its warp to this town, select a few henchmen, do a quest or something, warp to a different town, have to come up with a completely different team, etc. Then there were the selections themselves. Hell, a couple of the cities only had one monk henchie to pick (sure, there would be a ritualist available, but they made such lousy monk substitutes).

Anyways, nothing to really argue about, its all in the past now (thank god). I am eagerly awaiting the introduction of heroes, although I can't believe it took them until chapter 3 to introduce something similar to this.

I agree that Prophecies isn't without its faults but I still enjoy playing that more than I do Factions (currently have 2 characters in Ascalon), I for one Hope that in a future chapter we go back to Cantha and burn it all to the ground lol.

Prophecies = fun , Factions = work

Currently I only own Factions and think its great. So maybe I don't know what I'm missing, but do have Nightfall pre-ordered. I don't plan on getting the original.

Its just my opinion, but one thing I think they should do, is combine the older "expansions" into one package, and keep the latest one seperate.

Eventually I think they would have to do that as I doubt stores will devote all the shelf space needed for each seperate "expansion". It also will help to reduce having lower populations on older expansions.

I can foresee this happening by Chapter 4 release.

Gamestop already has a deal if you by Prophecy, you can get Factions for $30 (I think?). Granted, that's still a lot, but it's cheaper than $50!

I agree with much of what you say, but I personally loved the Shiverpeaks, esp. after the desert.

Post-searing Ascalon is ugly, but luckily, it doesn't take long to get out of there (or the Shiverpeaks, for that matter). You have to remember, even though the areas in Prophecy are bigger, you can just do the missions and move throughout the map relatively quickly.

However, my biggest complaint in Factions is the circular nature of the Missions and plot-line. You go to the same cities three times in some cases - as part of the main plot-line!

Say what you will about Southern and Northern Shiverpeaks looking similar, at least you don't go to the exact same city twice!

You spend at least 2/3 of the game in the city part of Factions... that would be like spending 2/3 of Prophecy in post-searing Ascalon! Ugh. Oh, and you can also run through Prophecy, you can't run in Factions, making the city that much more unbearable.

You can't say something is a pattern after only seeing 2 games by one of the teams and 1 game from another of the teams.
Patterns just can't be found that way from a mathematic perspective without a larger sampling.

Factions was easier, Chapter 4 in outer space.