Regarding the April 9 Game Update

Isn't it funny how when people disagree with something anet does they start yelling like they own the company?

no they start yelling like they even have a clue what their talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmQRSGwB6VQ

"Everyone who I beat, just isn't as good as me. Anybody who kills me is cheating."

yeah that too.

I mean come on how dare you not have time to update the skills.... /endsarcasm

Large updates like the one later this month takes a LARGE amount of man-hours, And a lot of people don't understand that.

A'Net is so evil how dare you constantly lie to us!

On a serious note it's good to know you guys are taking your time with it and not rushing out a shit update.

Props.

Hmm i just have a question when does anet decide that a skill needs nerfing for example Shadow Form?

It's because they care and they don't want to see the game that they enjoy being destroyed (even further).

How hard can it be to nerf "Jesus Beam" and skills like that? Seriously, one guy can do it in a flash, then the programmer implement in a matter of seconds. Now, if anyone is going to tell me that it's hard he obviously never programmed a game in his life.

BTW, it's about time necros get to see some action in GvG (and other forms of PvP as well), don't nerf them.

Haha, don't bullshit us. There is no testing going on, you just are too lazy to get off your asses and modify some values in the database. Even though you have the correct answers to approaching a balanced game right in front of you, none of you even try to come close to achieving it.

You don't test your skills. See: all game balance after Factions, Signet of Ghostly Might, Cultist's Fervor, Shadow Walk, Xinrae's Weapon and the 300 other things you have managed to screw up time and again. It's sad how your customers are your alpha testers. Point and simple: I'm sure you just don't care.

Come on, what's the worst that could happen? You introduce a new bug? It's not like the rest of the game isn't just one big bug.

You can apologize all you want, but don't spew bullshit like this.

No skill updates at all. Ugh. Thanks for making sure this big update is *cough*thoroughly tested*cough*.

seriously i guess we're never going to get a preview of what is going to be in the april update.... what's the point of doing a preview the same month it comes out... doesn't really keep us excited does it? well done on "being more open with us and making us feel like we're connected to what you're doing..." I feel frustrated and that time and time again, you guys said you were going to release a preview or information on what the update is ABOUT soon soon... but all i hear is "we're busy we're busy"... you put all this hype into this update being great and huge... what should our expectations be if we don't even know what things might be implemented....? and now we have no skill updates, the day just before the thursday update is supposed to come out... thanks for the late notice.. my rage fest is finished.

No, they've never said the update was going to be huge, or great. They said they were working on some things. They haven't really hyped it either, that's people like you reading way too much into it, and hyping it yourselves.

No balance update...


Instead the resources get used for something I really couldn't care about.
(I could create another 4 mules and I only have the standard 8 slots...)


I'm dissapointed.

lawl....wow...ok....no skill updates?....ur not touching spawning power?
OK THEN!!

Back to WoW!

mmm, i cant wait to get easter eggs

well i'd rather you guys spend more time on it, than just try and rush through.


Best of luck

I recall a news article in July of 2006. The Schaumburg Flyers (minor league) allowed Fans to pick everything about the second half of the team's season, from lineups, to base assignments, etc.

The news articles leading up to it thought it was the best thing since sliced bread (mostly.) After all, Fans get so passionate about the game. And many think themselves an armchair game designer... Ahem, minor league baseball coach. What could go wrong?

While much of what happened escapes me now, almost three years later, the points that did stick with me are when they had the Pitcher moved to a base, the short stop (?) catching, and the coach practically in tears while fans were pissed both at each other (the system was voting, much like a reality show, as that was the intent) and the players for losing ("How could you fools blow it? I designed you so wonderfully!")

Moral of the story. The Mob is not always right. We are players, they are designers for a reason. If it should be different, it would be. Update your resumes and get searching!

Again, thank you to the folks at ANet for continuing to work on a game for me to which they've not received any additional income since Eye of the North.

actually if you read regina and lindsey's journal pages, they talk about the excitement that is going around the office for the update and saying to us that they are putting in so much work and both think we will like it. have you checked out the wiki talk pages for both of them? I see it on discussion topics regarding the April update.

This is, however, tempered by Linsey pointing out that she gets excited about it because, well, it's a big part of her life and she has a lot invested in it, and reminding us that this means that just because she gets excited about it doesn't mean it's actually going to be the best thing that happened to the game.

If the \quote "big update" \endquote is actually something decisive, then skill balances would probably occupy less of a priority than that, and I wouldn't mind this.

Unfortunately, for the past year, skill balances and new builds to try are about the only thing that has made me open GW again. So hopefully the \quote "big update" \endquote will have a similar effect.

People talk about balance mostly when they think about tweaking the game a certain way. But there’s a very important definition of balance that refers to something else.

Balance works with resources as well as it does with tweaking things around. The decision to dedicate 100% of resources purely to a single task has to be about the least efficient way to do something for a human being. Obstacles can pop up at any point obstructing the path to an inflexible goal. When these obstacles come up, the decision to go for 100% makes something out to be a pure gamble.

Creativity and inspiration are very important concepts when it comes to utilizing human talent. These two things are fickle and unpredictable; these are very difficult things to micromanage. Human beings are not robots; robots are able to stay on one task all of the time. A person has far less control over when the mind wanders and becomes more productive on a different task than was intended. The decision to spend no time at all on something over the course of a month ends up denying a person from a whole month’s chance of finding a possible source of inspiration. To mention things like high stress and huge workload; inspiration is capable of defeating stress. To neglect a source of inspiration is to increase the odds that stress makes a workload less manageable.

I hope A-Net will reconsider this all or nothing approach to decision making. As far as no changes at all go: Two is twice as good as one. Eleven is only 10% better than ten. You can’t multiply the number zero by anything in order to get an increase in the number. As you further increase effort to produce another thing, you no longer get the same percentage increase in payoff. Small gestures add up. Grand gestures create a heightened expectation and serve as a dangerous contrast with small gestures. Make too many grand gestures, and spoil the enjoyment of the smaller ones.

When people talk about fixing problems, my solution is almost always the same: balance them and balance yourself. All or nothing is not balanced; it’s highs and lows and instability. People are going to notice a zero on this month’s skill balance sheet, because people remember the lows as potently as they remember the highs.

True... I agree with this.

When you look forward to this huge/large/great/imba/whatever update. Don't expect too much, then the dissapointment won't be too great.