Is ArenaNet okay?

I've been growing quite concerned about the state of the game recently - since NF came out. First the bonus pack didn't give a 24 hour head start (unlike the Factions Bonus pack) but it did give a character slot. Then the game launches and the merchant prices and commodity availability seem unnaturally stable. A line in the Scribes scroll sounds like a plea to the GW community to buy NF. The Sunspear title is immediately capped at lvl8. The NF elite mission isn't pushed to production. The vaunted new pvp system isn't pushed. And now by all appearances, the Prima guide to NF seems cancelled - in fact, if you had it on order, your order is cancelled and there is no longer indication that one is even in the works or pending release. Even the job listings on ArenaNet remain unchanged - and with 10+ years of experience in IT, I can tell you that when you see the same job listing sitting there, that means the job doesn't exist.

Did NF fail to yield an influx of new players? Is the title not selling? In fact, it seems as if NF must be selling at least to existing players because both Tyria and Cantha are empty. Ironically, I can't find any location in Elona with sufficient enough people to explain the absenses.

I've been hearing a lot of buzz about this recently in my Alliances newsletters and site. What's going on?

Prima Guides were always pointless because the game is constantly being updated. Why print something that's not going to be correct within a month?

I don't see anything in your post that is even relatively decent in expecting Anet to be anything but "okay."

GIGO starting from the source you seem to be relying on.

They're in missions with Heroes rather than waiting for PuGs to form.

Dunno how many newbies NF has attracted. Despite Anet's effort in making these "standalones", seems the majority are still those from prophecies.

I don't follow your logic here.. so Anet does it for Factions.. and that's once... then Anet doesn't hold it for Nightfall and you can conclude something from that?

You're either being too paranoid, or thinking way too much into it. Must Anet do the same things for every campaign? It was only a day. Either way, how could Anet make dramatic changes in only a day?

Another attack on anet. Nightfall is the best one so far, Prima guide as mentioned above would be useless anyways. Beh besides the other stuff not added would give me something to look forward to between my c3-4 wait

In tersm of PvE, Nightfall has introduced some incredible new elements to the game. I'm sorry if it didn't live up to your expectations, but it exceeded mine, and then some. Try focusing on the positive aspects of the game new game man - the updates and such will come in good time.

Seening the OP points, i can see where the concerns seems to be steming from. TBH i was very surprised that Anet didnt come up with a CGI cinematic other than those ingame ones which many speculated it was to be outsourced and would be released perhaps a week prior release, but i suppose we are too busy with the game atm to notice. So far Nightfall is the only title to break the tradition of CGI intro for "MMO" titles under the NCsoft family...

Though it may seem insignificant, CGIs intro serves to create hype and unrealistic opinions about the game and make sales, look at factions for example. Other things like poorer than expected ratings from some reviewers might have pushed other potential players away as some were saying that the Hero mechanism made the game "too Hard" for example. Not forgeting the widespread QQing across forums boards to Heros making GW a single player game with an online chat or fighting AI in PvP. Though i dont agree with all of these things, i can easily see how a potential new player may feel towards the game seening these comments.

To give Anet some credit for the incomplete sections of the game, the Nightfall team have probably tried to accomplish too much with limited time on their hands to meet release dates and hence lead to some of the problems oringially discussed by the OP. But imo currently it isnt widely recieved negatively since the community understands the depth of design and high quality content, storyline and cutscence improvements involved with Nightfall and am still enjoying the content possibly for a long time to come.

As for prima guides, guildwiki >> prima.

As always dont pay too much attention to the doomsayers. Players come and go from game to game all the time and its nothing new. And until Anet comes out and say that they are gonna be shutting down servers, i will still be playing it until something else comes along.

Yet, with all that you've said, you carry no concrete evidence, no articles, no statistics of any kind. What time of day do you notice the absense of players? What districts? I, for one, have not noticed any lack of players in another I've tried to do since the release of Nightfall. You say that you your alliance talks about this? What is their proof? Are they just blindly following the word of mouth? So far your basis is pure speculation and assumption. Claims like this sholdn't be posted without proper evidence. It just causes issues...

Anet is well enough to do a Chapter 4.

Nor do you have any evidence to the contrary It's all speculation.

Note: I know nothing of Prima guides. Have never bothered with guides.

Aren't they maybe waiting for the big release? Aren't they maybe waiting till all the information is set so they don't have a horribly outdated guide quite short after the release of a game?

qft. srsly.

If you go by your friendlist perhaps they are not as well as you think. I have filled and emptied mine 3 times with people leaving game. IF they continue to base ideas (nerfs) purely on the fan bois .. this game will go the way of the dinosaur.

I think the new Ai drove people away. Farming was a good way of passing time in the game once you beat it.

ANET is fine, their player base ATM isn't.

I have never seen a company work as hard as they do to put themselves out of business. Any company that does not work just as hard to retain REPEAT customers as they do new customers will not weather the storm for long. They seem to be more worried about the damn chinese farmer making a buck off their product than keeping their paying customers happy. If they spent half as much time on issues the repeat customers bring up as they do their jihad against the chinese farmer gw would be a thousand times better.

I love when people who arent satisfied with something automatically thinks everyone else isnt happy either and that there's some giant conspiracy to keep them down.

I like it when you feel the need to comment everytime somebody posts something you don't like.

of course, after posting this i'm not much better.

gg

Not at all, just some of us are not blind I love you anet people. In the 18 months I have been playing I have seen so many people leave over Anet BS updates going after the chinese farmers .. it isn't funny anymore. You are welcome to keep your head in the sand but all is not well in gw land.

I do belive that gw may be in a very fragile state at the moment.

Alota player are on the edge of being done with the series alltogether

And also many players have stopped playing and are wating for news of anykinda changes to the game that may respark the intrest they had.

And finally a lot of players are getting bored with nightfall due to many unresolved problems. so its reflecting badly on other chapters aswell.

Your concerns are very valid.. and yes there is still plenty of players still in the game. But the numbers are as you stated seeming to go down.

sadly not many are willing to admit to what you have just stated.

And sid.... nice post buddy.. keep up the good work.

Heh. A few people make outrageous speculations in this thread and then those same people start crying when I call them on it. Funny.

I'm still playing and having somewhat fun and have been playing since release, but the Crusade against pro farmers/bots is really annoying. It kinda sucks being casualties of their war. They really must've been done over during their Diablo days because that seems to be the number one agenda. I have also had to clean out my contact list quite a few times as there seems to be many of them leaving, but I don't really care for a crowded game anyway. I certainly am glad there's no Queue to get in like some other games I've tried. I'll probably continue playing in some form or fashion until they take their servers down. Whether I buy every chapter or not may be a different story...

the bad thing about ANet's on-going war is that I don't really sell to other players a whole lot anymore. I just try to get drops to collect for my toons or sell to the merchant. so in that case I imagine ANet hurts my ability to collect items more than the bots/farmers.

It's mainly true. I have lot's of friends that just stopped playing because of the nerfs and constant changes, and also because there wasn't so much to do. I really don't understand why Anet make so many changes out there, but ok, I believe they have a good reason, and that reason isn't the chinese farmers I think.

and I think a lot of us were happy to see them go...


as long as A.net can keep the franchise going...meaning they have enough of a profit margin...I hope more people leave, maybe we'll finally see that lag issue fixed

I am still enjoying the game for what its worth... in fact I am having so much fun I haven't even finished it yet. I am really enjoying the scenery this time around so I want to stretch out my play time. With heroes not everything is a rush anymore cause you dont need todo 4 mission during peak times cause you know you won't be able to later cause theres no one around.

I stated this concern elsewhere (with regards to the realm of Torment and monster AI being ahead of henchie AI), so I'll make myself brief.

I do think the game is shooting itself in the foot. The increase in monster AI now is cool and what not, but honestly, annoying. Having to run around (if you're a caster) cause a Hekey Stoneaxe is chopping you down with Dismember and Agonizing Chop is not funny. I can't speak for others, but as a PvE oriented person, I do NOT enjoy playing "RA-style" in PvE. If I want melee guys to harrass me and chase me around, I'll go to the Battle Isles.

If you're in an 8 man party with other people, this is not much of an issue (cause you can kite and others will keep firing just fine), but if you're with heroes, it is a problem. I have seen it frustrate a lot of people I know. It's not easy to sense if you're playing with a warrior, a Dervish, a Paragon or a ranger, cause of the increased armor level. But 60 AL casters feel it badly.

I am sure a bunch of people will post how they LOVE the new AI and the challenge and the thrill of PvP-like play, however, I honestly feel it's a tad above the average player's abilities and a tad below their expectations for fun.

I also agree that it's annoying to know that they are making most of these "upgrades" to AI not to make the game more fun or exciting, but to counter bots and farmers. A guildie of mine was commenting last night as we were farming greens how unfair it was that it took like 8-10 tries to get a boss to drop his green. The logic of "If you work hard you MIGHT get a reward" is very unfair. And the reason is, they are worried that if the boss/monster drops good loot every time and someone somewhere figures out how to farm him quick, they can break the economy. So, instead of trying to detect and prevent this, they make EVERYONE else work 10 times as hard to get their prizes. Simply unfair.

All Factions alliances are having problems. A large part of their membership went away. Who wants to farm faction, when they can go to NF and do new things. That's the basis of their doom & gloom outlook.

Yes, LA & KC have less districts currently. The game population is now spread over three chapters, but pre-searing and Shing Jea island are not unpopulated.

Yes, Nightfall was released without the elite mission. So was Prophecies. Updates is the sub-title for GW. Something new to do later in the game life.

People look at Nightfall, compare it to Factions (which the majority of posters consider to be too small) and worry about Nightfall being incomplete. I wonder what they will say after the release of the next chapter.

Well i guess going by friendlist, i guess mine indicates i know people who like this game.

Ive seen friends leave thanks to faction and COME BACK thanks to Nightfall.

Ive also seen friends decline thanks to REAL life, like: Grad school, getting called to Iraq, new job, depression, etc.

So....i dont really see what kind of basis that kind of evidence proves one way or another.

even if all speculaction (and yes it is speculation) about "ANET on the rocks" is true

it was already stated that they've been working on Chapter 4 for 6+ months

E3 2006, May 2006
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/s...670/gameID/243


Nightfall has been available for less than 1 month (since 10/27)

no one on these forums has seen Nightfall sales figures to make a comment
-- unless you want to count the 4 days of October


for Factions, ANET didnt announce sales *success* until 2 months later
http://www.guildwars.com/press/relea...2006-06-19.php

meh...

Not sure why we all worry so much. Sure Guild Wars has issues, but then again what game doesn't have missing features and issues?

Besides it just means we have hero PvP and the new Elite Mission to look forward to in the near future

I'll be here still playing Chapter 4 and beyond, I love Guild Wars, whenever I get bored, I found something new to do... like another character for example

I think people who get bored are the ones who play the game too much and burn out the game too quickly.

Try slowing down and no rushing so much, you may think the game more enjoyable.

My only concern is really the elite mission. If they're still working on it then it's going to be tight for that team to start working on chapter 5.

I don't really mind the "new" AI myself. I only thing I hate is enemies regularly interrupting 1/4 sec cast spells. Personally I'm happy if in future they strip back the missions and quests so I can roll multiple characters through each chapter without getting too bored, and they have more time on other things.

Yeah people are leaving but there are a lot of young people still at school playing, and personally I'm glad they stop playing so they can concentrate on school work and more useful things (hopefully).

I think Anet will have to come up with something truely special in chapter four to keep players interested, but i still think NF is awesome. It has enough content to keep me occupied for three years. Too bad the next episode will be out in five months. (probably)

ANET does have at least 3 teams

its possible the "Live Team" is working on the upcoming Elite mission
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/toppers/?id=12786

Someone asked the OP for proof? Okay.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6153106.html
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6161358.html

Read between the lines with me.

GWNF was released when it was to boost fourth quarter earning for parent company NCSoft. Unfinished, buggy and with poorly thought-out anti-farm code, the boost this chapter gives to NCSoft is enough to put it back in the black for the year. This lack of regard for game quality and nigh-abuse of its player base is a disturbing trend for NCSoft

Are your fears warranted? Probably. NCSoft looks to be cutting still more dead weight in the wake of AutoAssault. With GW off the Top ten NPD best sellers and down in revenue from 25% (couldn’t find link but I believe that was back in January this year) to 14 percent this year, the franchise is becoming expendable.

Add to that, the—shall we say—controversial changes to the games dynamic between PvP and PvE, lackluster response here on the boards and outright bad rap the game is getting over its crusade against farmers…Anet may very well be in trouble; not just GW.

What remains is a logical conjecture based on normal business/customer relations. When players are badmouthing the game on the scale GW is getting then you can bet they are telling others. Word of mouth is deadly in the VG industry; a large percentage of games sales can be attributed to word of mouth “dude; you gotta try this its leet” kinda stuff. The general rule is that when ten people like something, only one of them will tell others. When ten people hate something, nine of those people will scream their heads off.

So while many people may say “then the people who actually like this are probably not tin the minority” I have to remind you: the potential new players reading this won’t care what the silent masses think. They’ll take one look at boards like this and run back to WoW.

The problem with most of these changes isn’t that they were catering to old players. Arenanet looks to be trying to branch out and find new players. This are having an adverse effect on the core player base (ie: the change to HA was certainly not condoned by the HA players. One need only go to ID1 to see that. And before anyone pulls out the Heroway killed HA card, I stopped playing pre-Nightfall. Numbers were dropping in peek hours a month in advance of the mess you live in now) who is starting to feel slighted.

They’ve offended many of their loyal customers in their search for new markets. As those new markets have yet to materialize all they are left with is the regular loyal customer base buying Ch3 (with fewer than bought CH2 I believe we will see when the quarterly earnings are officially out). Many players adopt a wait and see attitude toward games like this. If an expansion (whatever Anet wants to call these, they are expansions imo) has bad word of mouth in the first month (as NF is getting in spades) those players who waited will probably decide not to buy. Since the content for the first two chapters is not enough to keep most players interested in the game for yet another 6 month cycle, it is doubtful they will be around for CH4.

Fewer players=less revenue from the game=less money for devs and mintainence to fix bugs and add content. So to those of you happy me and my money left: LMAO nublets.

I'll believe that when I see the numbers for November

4 days of October Nightfall sales means *nothing* for a BestSeller list tracking a MONTH

Factions made the #1 spot for May (not April when it was released)
http://www.guildwars.com/press/relea...2006-06-19.php

you can expect the same for Nightfall being in the Top 10 for November


anyone remember all the *bad talk* on the Forums with Factions and PvP and short story and blah blah blah ?

Nightfall has been received (on the forums) much more favorably

You mean I'm the only one who is having even more fun playing GW than when my oldest son first introduced me to Prophecies a couple months after it came out? Wow.

It's really a matter of perspective, isn't it.

AI problems? Yeah. So? We've been dealing with Alesia the tank-wanna-be for over a year and Stefan her lover boy whom she'll save long before she'll throw a measly Orison your way. If we can manage to deal with her stupidity, why can't we deal with the monsters running for the hills? (or, conversely, not in some cases) If you're not bright enough to break off your attack when the foe kites off to the wild blue yonder, whose fault is that? Hmmmm? Interrupts are irritating, but isn't that the whole point? They are.....interrupts.

And since when are the Sunspear points capped at level 8? If you interpret this to mean at rank 8, then why is my ranger still accumulating points for the lvl 9 title?

Every time someone thinks their favorite skill is changed, they immediately start screaming "nerf!". Grow up, people! So now you can't be the uber <fill-in-the-blank> with your omg-powerful <whatever> skill that annihilated the foe in two hits. So? You going to tell me you can't find another skillset to manipulate to be as good if not better? If not, that reflects on your lack as a good player, not on Anet's perceived mission to ruin all the Smiters or AoE casters (or whatever).

Do I have concerns about Anet? Yes. I worry that all the whiners and bitchers will eventually cause the very problems they are whining about to come about. When these individuals are on their non-stop whinging mode, all they see (or talk about) is the negatives they perceive as the doom of the game. Seldom do they ever seem to mention any positives. Anyone ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? Keep complaining, show no appreciation of any work done by the devs - work, I may add that they provide each and every day for no fee other than the original outlay for the game and the hope that someone will appreciate it enough to mentnion it and to recommend it to their friends - and eventually someone will throw up their hands and wonder why the hell they're even bothering!

Here's something I never thought I'd say myself: If you have so many gripes about the 'direction of GW', GO PLAY WoW.

Hey Minus Sign...you are calling a small article about 70 people getting the axe in Austin, TX back in JUNE as proof? It's a little nothing article that has absolutely nothing to do with Anet as they are out of Washington. At least the other article was at least dated for this month.

Those two articles do not equal proof of anything. If that second article proves anything, it's that there are other games that will see the axe long before Guild Wars. Also, remember, the game isn't even out a full month yet, give them some time.

I agree with FalconDance. I'm still having just as much fun playing now as I did back in the beginning with Prophecies. The only nerf I ever really got upset about was the first AOE nerf, but then I realized that one thing gets nerfed there is always something else on the horizon.

Anet is fine, by seeing busy forum activities and the fact that people like Minus Sign still hang out in this forum looking for a chance to come back to this game (how else can you explain presence of ppl like him here? ) So not all is bad for Anet, they just need to expand the game's scope to include more things for people to do, and create some grand-scale activities to bring players together to form a sense of community. Nowadays players got so spread with so many goals, and it's no wonder some people start feeling lonely. Many older players left but still come back from time to time to check on Anet's next move. Come on, Anet, give us a grand-scale WAR that can bring people together to play side-by-side, and please make people care about the outcome too, not like that pathetic 2-way tug war in Factions.