Why Have We Been Forsaken!

In an interview with Jeff Strain, he said they had 45 million for GW2. Sorry to burst that smarmy remark.

Sorry, but I think this statement alone kills your whole argument.

For me I can't think of a single game that I have paid so little for and been able to play for over 2,000 hours. I think that the fact you have put this much time into it show they have put out a quality product, to be able to hold your interest for such a long time.

I have gotten more then my moneys worth out of the game and still continue to play to this day.

It is really getting quite boring reading all these QQ threads saying "Damn ANet I need to change my hair style.", "We need an AH", blah blah blah.

If you spent over 2,000 hours of you life playing this game then I can't see you having anything to complain about.

But, hey that’s just me.

Krat

2,000 hours? Must have SOME level of enjoyment for you.

They're not abandoning their community, they're not dumb enough to do that. They're counting on a large number of sales from their existing player base. There's still the regular bug fixes, special events, new items, etc.


Your analogy fails. With GW, auction house & hair stylists aren't on the menu - never have been. You did get what you paid for when you bought the game.

Insignias for armor, so you're armor choices aren't limited by energy/armor/health mods. Several new armor sets in GW:EN, and White & brown dyes with a armor dying preview screen.

(can't comment on the PvP stuff)

Party search is an inelegant approach to the problem, but it IS an improvement. As for the auction house, they've said from early on that they just can't do it.

They have incorporated many suggestions form these forums and made many positive changes that they came up with on their own.

Yes, they've shifted their focus to GW2, but they haven't abandoned GW1 in any way. And I don't see anything wrong with taking care of business now while working on the business of the future, which is exactly what they're doing.

...I, I think I love you. Will you bear my children? *Miroku voice*

But in all honesty, I agree with you 100%. People need to realize how hard Anet has worked, and thank them for it.

(Yes, I made a typo. Lets all point and laugh. :P)

You are a sick and twisted individual. Or perhaps you mean "bear."

No, I won't thank them. They made an amazing game (I have played 3000+ hours), but saying they worked "hard" over the course of the past few years is saying I worked hard over the past few years (Bullcrap, seeing I played a game instead)...

Ever since prophecies, it went downhill, everyone can see that. As stated before, GWEN=slapsomeoldskinstogetherandaddsomethingeveryo newants (HoM)...

No, I'm NOT asking/begging for more content, because I know I've payed for what I have now. But where would Microsoft be if they "just" allowed you to buy Windows (OS), and then you could simply f*ck off, no Service Packs, no this, no that...
No, in overal, MS stayed friendly AND active towards their "player"-base, and now they are still the largest OS around. Sure, also have alot of people "bashing" MS for not having enough security, bottle-necking a few companies (With IE as their "set" Internet Client) BUT this doesn't change the fact that they KEPT trying to satisfy over a 100 million customers every day...

No, I won't buy GW2. Simply because I know it will be a MMORPG again. Anet can NOT handle the pressure/devotion needed to maintain a MMORPG. The intire GW-franchise should have been a RPG all along (Like Oblivion).
Once again, Prophecies (Faction-NF-Gwen in descending orders aswell) was an amazing game, but it went downhill (With GWEN being: meh). I still praise Anet for succesfully consuming over 3000 hours, of which I have no regret, of time playing/farming/PvP'ing/...
Yet I do feel this was it. If feel that the last 2 years it was ME making the effort of making the game fun. (Let's the say ATLEAST half the time I invested in GW) I had to make my own challenges (Get FoW, try and do a farm under XX seconds, get Champion title, etc...) with Anet giving me the ammount of content. This is not intirely as it should have been, imo. Because ALOT of people right now have the feeling the last few years, they played to play. Simply to feed their addiction, because they have nothing better to do, or due to lack of another game. (Starting with WoW so late is the same as with GW, you missed the train, no point in starting with those games now)

As a final note:
I can only hope Anet puts more devotion into GW2.
Person: "Anet, we don't absolutely NEED Character Customization, but it would be NICE to have it, for free"
Anet: "Here you go, CC, exactly what was needed for you to enjoy the game more"
... (Replace Character Customization by anything you want)
But I won't be there to see it for 2 reasons:
-> Life is taking over, getting 19 pretty soon, going out way more, work, etc...
-> GW experience, just HOW long will it take for Anet to hide behind the next excuse? "We're working on GW3, we CAN'T give you Character Customization!"

My 2 cents,

Peace

Thanks for the laugh. I didn't notice that post you quoted till now.
Protect the babies!

You get what you pay for.

It's early in the morning and my math is shaky, but say you bought all the campaigns and the expansion (when they were new at full price) which would be around $180ish USD. At 2000 hours clocked, that's 83 and a third FULL days. Be a little more realistic and spread this out over 5 hours a day instead of 24 hours non-stop gaming and you get 500 days (hardcore gamer) , about a year and a half, play less often and it's closer to 2 years.

A year and a half+ of entertainment for a paltry $180 is pretty damn good. That's less than if you went and saw a movie once a week. Less than some people pay for car insurance.

You get the idea. Now, with this money, Anet pays for support personel, CRMs, skill balancers, all the weekend warrior events and GW2's production.

Yeah. Reread sentence #1.

No, I'm not brownnosing, as there are stuff I wish would be implimented or looked after more than it is, but I like to think I'm being a little more realistic. Online game companies do not follow the customer is always right model.

With up to 2 more years of development to go (you honestly believe an IT project of GW2's scope is coming in less than 3 years?!?!) and a crooked Tourney system what do expect.

Theres no money for content silly... its for peoples pockets... and the closer you are to the Towers, the better your chances. Now move along nothing to see

ummmm they are working on this stuff for you its called GW2

imagine if they implement all the cool stuff we want now then what would we have to look forward to in gw2 besides the playable races?

i agree that pvp could use some changing but outside of that save it for gw2 imo

You, and so many of the other whiners have your head so far up yourself that it makes me howl with laughter.

I would love to hear your opinion once you get a real job in a real company that makes real products and learn how the real world works.

You're the same as the OP. More than 3000 hrs of game play for how much?

Let's do the math. Assuming you have all 3 major chapters + BMP ...
= $50 + $50 + $50 + $45 <- Presume we're working $US here.
= $195 for 3000 hrs
= 6.5c per hr

Name me any single other long term ongoing entertainment activity you can enjoy for 6.5c per hr.

You and the OP typify the whining, ungrateful, selfish pack that seems to make up so much of this forum.

Bravo to Arenanet for their exceptional products and services.

-JC

they DID add new weapons recently, didn't they?

That's not entirely true. The engine origionaly didn't have code for Rune Traders, but they were implimented. The Dye systems and Armor systems have changed dramaticly as well.

If they had the time and resources, they could make any of those things, though the more they change, the harder it becomes to make additional changes. However, your next comment explains better why they don't have the time and resources.
Exactly. GW2 will have many more features built in that we have been demanding, improvements that A.net feels will be better for the game and community, and hopefully slightly more flexible code to allow for tweaks and changes as the community discovers it needs/wants.

I find it entertaining when people say "A-Net doesn't care about GW anymore". They still maintain the servers, offer regular balance tweaks, events, and live support people. If you had bought this as a stand alone game, the updates would have stopped a long time ago. It is not a subscription service, but it still is selling well enough to put money in the coffers, and that continued revenue stream means they need to pay some attention to it.

Now, if something broke and they failed to fix it (RA suddently didn't work, Map Travel to Ascelon didn't function properly, players couldn't leave Pre-Searing), THEN it would be an issue of them abandoning the game. However, if I do recall, the most recient big error (The PvP break with armor on April 1), they did indeed fix halfway though the day.

Right now, GW is on cruise control. Minor updates, tweeks, and fixes mostly. I've seen rumors of the Trading House in the code, but don't expect any large scale changes beyond new drops, skill balances, and the occasional bug fix. Honestly, mostly things that require little technical support, and potently involve the artists who aren't needed for GW2 quite yet. If something major comes up, perhaps they get something for GW2 they can easily impliment and test in GW, or some intern figures out the key to unlocking something major in his spare time, then great, that's a bonus.

If this were a game like Halo, Madden, or even Oblivion, players wouldn't be screaming for "new features". And how many of those games do you get 2000 hours of play from? I've been a GW addict since January, so I'm fairly new, but I've found a fun game, that has been a value for my money even after buying 3 expansions (the first one was a gift). If I were to grow tired of GW, I'd move on to something else, not demand that they changed and fixed it.

This is a game that's almost 3 years old, and you can only squeeze so much out of it at this point from a DEV perspective.

GW isn't an IT project in any traditional sense of the word...

Apparently 2000(!) hours of playtime doesn't equal in a successful product indeed.

And the money for all these shiny projects stems from where? You?

All this whining (Anet doesn't care, Anet has abandoned us, Anet has your money already..., but it's so easy, just use Sardelac, haha, no other inspiration needed!) proves that most here are either very young/naive or have never worked outside "lawn mowing", "selling ice-cream" or being a paperboy if they worked at all (some students here are amazing too).

And here we have another dead horse beater, when will they ever learn it's not going to do anygood or change anything as long as GW2 is in development and I highly doubt really after then as they will be wanting to keep improving GW2 then not this old and retired game.

In answer to this I would ask: If you aren't keeping me happy in your 1st store, why should I shop later on in your 2nd store? I know Anet ain't gonna do anything, but, this would still be my question to them if I could have direct questioning to someone of importance.

Ok, but read my intire post next time... I'm not whining, I know I got more than I payed for...
I never claimed it wasn't cheap entertainment, because it is, and quote mysemf: "I praise Anet for making such a terrific game"...

This doesn't mean Anet couldn't have done more... In the "actual" world, as you like to call it, most people ARE like sheep (As are you apparently) and they only see what the major companies wants them to see. What you don't (Want to) see however, how LITTLE effort Anet actually put into their last games... (Factions-NF-GWEN, once again in descending order)

I DON'T want more content (Ok, mayby for PvP, I would LOVE to see HA active again, but that's more player-base related I gues), I just hate to see people "eating" all this bullcrap Gaile, and the other Pr-related people fed us the past years.

PR: "Anet is working REALLY HARD on this issue, but they are VERY busy with GW2"

No, Anet WORKED really hard on Prophecies, and from there on they enjoyed our money and went on vacation, ALOT... I can't blame 'em, I would do it myself IF I had the money, yet there is no point in ackowledging something such as: "Anet works really hard to keep us satisfied", cuz let me tell you: ALL these "events", skill updates, bug fixes, ... well most can be done (Seeing we get 1 update a week) in a day... (Also, I hope you realize EVERY event is a copy/paste of last year's, with a new bell and whistle on some walls)
BMP did in fact have some new skins (Even map-wise), but nonethless, you don't have to look far to see WHY this might be so: We are once again paying for it. (+BMP is VERY limited, complete this in less than 3-4 hours)

Wasn't this the que to lock this thread? Kthxbai.

Most people still are missing the point that the whole reason they are making a second is to fix all the problems that plague 1.

if they simply wanted to milk you for money they would be churning out expansions every 6 months like planned, instead of taking a risk and spending a huge amount of money to make an entirely new game.

it still amuses me to see people say they could just do this or that to fix the game as if game development is as easy as pushing a magic fix button.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. I just didn't feel like getting into specifics. Though I do remember it being stated somewhere that the Hairdresser and Auction House would not be implemented in GW1 because the engine would not allow for it. However, it could be just a simple way of saying "We can technically do it, but it would require so much work and fooling around with the engine that it's not even worth it."

Okay, I'm not sure where you get off from telling people what they need to think and that their opinions are stupid and worthless. You can't possibly just lump everyone into your herd of sheep that eat up everything the PR spits out.

I only started playing several months before Nightfall came out, and I only started reading all the "bullcrap" that Gaile and the PR staff have been trying to feed the poor unsuspecting populace about 6 months ago. Before that, I really enjoyed both Prophesies and Nightfall for what they were. In fact, I loved and still love both games equally. How could I be a sheep if I was not aware of the herd? You should just accept that people have different opinions from yourself and stop blaming it on sheep mentality.

In any case, it seems that Anet didn't recreate Prophesies for you, so you rage-quit. But what would happen if they did do that? Prophesies II, Prophesies III, and Prophesies Ia... You would be sitting at your computer and QQing about the lack of innovation and change, and that poor you is bored out your mind playing with the same stuff over and over again. Try and remember that neither Anet not NCSoft work to please you alone. They work to please millions of people. And if you don't fit into those millions of people? Well, c'est la vie. Live with it and find another game to play.

Actually it's not millions, they've just sold millions of different copies of the game to more than likely the same 750,000 users. There's hardly a million players though. Because so many people have duel or even triplicate accounts. But, I agree with the rest of your post. <grin>

Oblivioin $24.95 and all it's expansions costs less lots more content superb drop rates
Neverwinter Nights Platinum $29.95 over 3000+ mod adventures never play them all in a lifetime. Online multiplayer play plus pvp, superb drop rates
Diablo 2 $29.95 (lot less now probably $4.99) still very popular and going strong after all these years much much longer than GW. Online multiplayer play plus pvp, superb drop rates and unique armor and weapons
Morrowind Game of the Year Edition $7.99 even more content at the moment than Oblivion and this comes with both the expansions and thousands of mods as well lifetime entertainment never do or see it all. Superb drop rates.

So lets see I named four didnt I? <grin>

No offense sir but if youve played 2000 hours you and are now "starting to get worried" about GW then obviously you thought it was a good game before. The fact that A-Net has not catered to every suggestion or demand fromt he player base does not change the fact that GW was and is a great game (people wouldn't play for 2000+ hours if it wasnt)

Actually, I said that they "work to please millions of people," not whether or not they were successful in pleasing said millions.

So you think the average GW player has bought around 7 chapters (presumably 2 accounts, 4 and 3)? Something like that may be true among forum goers (though even here I suspect the average is lower), but regular players won't have more then one account.

I think it's fair to say that they've had at least 1.5 million unique players at this point (though not all of them currently in game).

LOL i do feel like that some times and it is frustrating. but just face it this game is dyeing, gwen was a disappointment, and no bitching or moaning is going to make them try and fix gw1. i agree there is a lot of stuff they could do to gw1 to make it even more awesome but they are focused on gw2 which if they do the same thing that they did with gw1 it wont be a game i would be willing to buy.

Well common sense just says it's safer to say a million people bought 1 copy of each chapter/expansion than it is to say a million people bought prophecies, a different million people bought Factions, another million different people bought Nightfall and then another million different people bought Gwen to reach the 4 million sales landmark.

Of course we know there are a number of people out there that did buy more than one set of these chapters/expansions in the 2 sets and 3 sets catagoires. So, that's why I believe it's safer to say there's about 750,000 players at this point than there are 1-1/2 million.

I bet if they broke down the numbers it would be.
Prophecies most common chapter owned.
Nightfall second most common.
Factions and Eye of the North close behind.
Not everyone owns every chapter. Some people only have Nightfall and Eye of the North for example.

that has nothing to do with the engine. an engine is the underlying technology of a game for developers to use to work on the game. I just LOVE how people take random terms and talk like they know what it means

there was already traders in game, its not really hard to program an npc based off of that, and just substitutue what it will trade.

Some of us would quite happily pay for an auction house.

Apart from that, I don't really have much of an issue with how GW is run anymore. Not saying it's right, but I just don't care enough anymore.

Heck yeah I'd pay for an auction house system. But, not $40. I don't mind paying for content as long as it isn't outrageous.

Well you can't leave out those players that have come and gone since Prophecies and other chapters that no longer play in that equation as well of the 4 million copies sold.

Working with the most recently announced milestone (5 million sales, though it would be more now) and the number of expansions (4), we get (5m/4) 1.25m unique players.

Using that as a base figure, it's a matter of opinion from there since ANet doesn't release specific details and probably doesn't even have all the specifics we would need. If you think most people buy all chapters, and many of them buy a second account (with multiple chapters, or many extra accounts), it will be lower. If you think more people don't buy all the chapters then buy extra accounts, the number will be higher.

My take is, there will be a fairly good sized chunk of players who bought one chapter, and either wandered on to other things before factions was released, or didn't like what they saw enough to buy more. There will be a small fraction with 2 or 3 chapters, who for whatever reason don't have the others (maybe they're new and working through them as they go). Lots of people will have all 4 chapters, for the "whole game." Then some small fraction will have extra accounts for storage, or also from back in prophecies.

Also, many people who have extra accounts got them from friends who have moved on. My opinion is that it's fair to include these friends as "unique players" since they did play the game.

PS. I noticed in one of your other replies that you're using 4million "total sales." Might want to update that figure.

You still are leaving out the factor of the people that bought and have left the game Moria. You're basing your figures that everyone who has bought the game still plays the game. I am not and thus my figures would be more accurate by that addition to the equaiton. Even hypothetically. <grin>

Also at any rate the conversation started and about when the poster said million(s) of players in the plural of more than a million and my point even if you are correct with 1-1/2 million or 1.25 million it still does not equal the plural of million(S). <grin>

I know quite well what an Engine is.

You can still add stuff to an Engine later (See mechanics for new classes, PvE skills, etc). It just takes a lot more work than it would be worth (which is what I said.

750k still playing is probably not too far off. Your original statement: "they've just sold millions of different copies of the game to more than likely the same 750,000 users," sounds like "total users ever," so that's the number I was guesstimating at.

Agreed "millions" (implying at least 2) is almost certainly too high, but I threw my 2 cents in because I thought your 750k was too low.

Are you serious? Seven years, thats the time it took for the jump from XP to Vista and Service Pack 3 for XP still isn't officially out. And how freaking long did it take before XP even became stable after SP2 was released? And now this Vista crap that MS is trying to shove down everyone's throat so that we can all work with a slower, resource heavy and crash prone OS. MS is not friendly and the only activity you see is bug fix after bug fix at a release rate of when they feel like it. They are the juggernaut because there are few alternates. Linux? Apple? They are all late-comers after MS already bullied their way to the top.

Not true of the mmo world. 2,000+ hours, 3,000+ hours, you and others have been playing for that long and now you are busting at the seems to say that you are abandoned, that Anet doesn't listen, that their efforts are crap? If thats how you felt, what has kept you or everyone else playing GW?

Show me a game that doesn't have some one qq'ing about lack of content the day after release.

Bah, more overly dramatic nonsense. The restaurant thing is a rubbish example too. GW still delivers your cheeseburger in that it runs fine, people are playing it and it's doing what it said on the back of the box basically.
You're moaning things haven't been upgraded, the restaurant thing implies GW isn't meeting it's basic service level.
You ordered 1 cheeseburger and are now moaing that 2 didn't arrive, you sir, are are a greedy chubosaurus.

People like you have been saying the game is dying since Prophecies days. And your prophecy has always failed miserably.

Instead of saying crap like "the game is dying", just speak for yourself. You can't tell what a million other people are thinking.

Players have wanted:

-Better trading system: done
-Easier access to max weapons: done
-Insignia's on every armor: done
-Ability to play single-player: done
-Increased storage: done
-More grind: done :P
-Unique boss skills: done

-Auction house: isn't going to happen in GW1

i haven't said guild was is dyeing since prophecies. i have asked anet to make easy implementable changes for quite some time. when the game started to dye was when anets insta response became "Sorry were working on GW2"

since when did players want more grind?! i never have, guild wars from the start was supost to be about skill and not grind.