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.