April Update: the Long Term

So, we've had about three months to play the April (mostly PvE) update. I know we had a variety of reactions when it came out, in those heady few weeks when we capped all the pets for the menagerie, or sprinted to get the heavy pack or other Z-coin rewards, or finally rejoined the PuGs that the z-quests generated.

If you need a comprehensive review of what you got: http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Game_updates/2009_April

If you need the short review:
1. Zaishen quests, bounties, and battles rewarding z-coins
2. Zaishen menagerie
3. Makeover and Extreme Makeover Credits for purchase
4. Name changes for purchase
5. Free in-game storage tab, with the option to buy more tabs
6. Nicholas the Traveler and his gifts
7. Account-wide Hall of Monuments setting
8. Cheap 5-slot equipment pack, with the option to earn others

So, in your opinion, humble or not, has the update "worked" over the long run? Feel free to define "worked" however you like-- worked for you? Worked for the good of the game? Has it renewed interest in areas that were dead, and altered player behavior on a large scale? Have the the Z-battles led more people into PvP arenas at all? Are the rewards worth it?

I think it ressurrected PuGging for a larger segment of the game community--people had common goals, again, and were looking for like-minded people to join into parties. Nicholas gave people reasons to map and explore outside of just the titles, and the rewards for the coins are things for which we've long asked for.

I also think that there's a broader impact: the movement of people to chase Z-coins in PvE has reduced SOME of the redundant farm runs that people do. This is entirely unscientific, but the kind of repetitive action that is farming may have been channeled by some into doing z-bounties and missions over and over and over. That removes, temporarily, those people from farms and zones, and seems to have slowed some of the free fall in prices of things--fewer farmers, fewer things.

Thoughts?

And, whether you regard this update as successful or not: How might the April update be a model for future content updates? (i.e. instead of our usual wishful thinking, can we extrapolate from one update what the future holds?)

for me personal, it started off fun, but after a while it got old. I got one 20 slot bag and I'm at the point where i would love to have more but it gets boring doing the same thing over and over again. I love the character make over. But i still don't understand some of the things.

In the long run, I guess I've enjoyed the update. I actually bought an Extreme Makeover (I hated that I made my sin female....and then beat every game and bought so much armor :/), I've enjoyed the menagerie for the most part, and the zquests have been ok....although I'm still not a huge fan of how they work.

It's all been fine......I just wish we'd get another skill update. I miss PvP.

The two things I still don't understand what the point of them were to begin with.

Sure, a place to put all those pets. Sure, some people don't like what their characters look like and/or they needed some kind of minor (or major) change made.

I just don't get it. What large amount of the community demanded this?

the novelty usually lasts as long as reading the update notes

I found PUGing to be quite enjoyable for Zquests, which allowed me to progress through Guardian, but Zquests have a very short focus for missions, so the most difficult ones should be played right away and not kept.

I'm slowly getting to 25% of the huge equipment pack, because I'd rather have it even if I don't need it. The free storage pane is very enjoyable and used on my 2nd account for storing collectables (something I've been doing long before the April update) which may be used by Nicholas, which I enjoy quite a lot every week. It's free sweet&party points and it gave me an EL cottontail which'll pay for obs armor.

Overall, a great experience, even if I only used part of the update (I always wanted to tame the spider so menagerie may help!). I feel there's a bit more life in-game. People rarely comment on the positive, so silence around these things is not an indication that no one appreciate them.

Subjectively, I'd give the update an 8/10 and many kudos/zoins to Linsey, Joe and the rest of the devs who helped.

There were a large amount of threads even here requesting almost exactly those two things before they were done.

Anet (and community leaders in general....that is, if you can define Anet as community leaders) listens to the loudest complaints. They're not always the most populous or the most intelligent, but they are always the loudest.

In the long run, the April update didn't do much for me.

Zaishen Menagerie was fun, in a Gotta Catch 'm All sense, but in the end, pets are still useless. So never returned there after a week of collecting pets.

I did complete Zaishen quests or Missions for Zcoins to get me halfway to a Heavy backpack. However, I realised I don't need it, because I have been playing for 4 years without them and was able to manage armor and weapon storage well enough. So that leaves completing them for 'fun', but after doing a bunch of the missions once again (most of them I've already completed 10+ times), I really can't be bothered to do them anymore.

Zaishen Bounties can be fun, but I don't need the reward (Zcoins, Xp, Faction points), so I've given up on them, only doing the ones that are really 'hard', like Rotwing. The glitch of the Zquests repeating didn't help much too.

Nicholas was fun in the beginning, but of late it's too much of a chore to farm a certain item every week. For me, only in hope of getting a miniature. And as I have no need for all other stuff, those are just given away to guildies.

Never did anything with accountwide HoM, or makeovers.

So all-in-all, the update was new, fun and exciting, for a month or so. After that, it was basically back to farming again, be it called Nicholas or Zquests. New stuff got old fast

1. Good way to pug and have fun in random areas.
2. My main is an Ele, so /ignore
3. Toyed around with face and hair change in preview, decided it was not worth the money really and that I am too used to how my character looks.
4. My name is fine, thank you.
5. Got the free one, do not care about the others, especially since extra characters do have more slots.
6. It's bit boring farming the things he wants each week. Haven't had luck in his lottery. A lot of effort for not a whole lot in return.
7. Still not knowing what it really does for GW2, we can't really tell if that move has improved things.
8. You get it, you fill it, then you are as far as before and yearn for even more storage. Make a list of all of your GW possessions from memory. Throw away what you can't remember.

1. Zaishen quests, bounties, and battles rewarding z-coins
Fun for a while, gave guilds something to do

2. Zaishen menagerie
Good. Wanted this since day 1.

3. Makeover and Extreme Makeover Credits for purchase
Not my thing.

4. Name changes for purchase
Probably paid off.

5. Free in-game storage tab, with the option to buy more tabs
So wonderful it should have been there years ago.

6. Nicholas the Traveler and his gifts
My very favorite. Don't even care what I get.

7. Account-wide Hall of Monuments setting
When there is solid release date for GW2 I'll probably care.

8. Cheap 5-slot equipment pack, with the option to earn others
Nice. 5 slots worked fine for me.

The thrill of the april update laste a few hours. It did not "work" when work is defined as making me want to play. Otherwise Nick theres not much that i do. Z-quest and all the other things with "z-coins" are terrible mainly because of the rewards and how OVER priced they are. I mean come on... They should have been tradable so i diddnt have to buy my heavy equip pack from others at outrages prices.

In this update the makeovers were introducd as well as a name change. If those diddnt cost money that would of been the best update ever, but as you see i would rather keep my crap name than pay for it to be changed.

Got boring after a month. Got my 15 slot pack, because the heavy one is too much work... I've been able to manage armor and weps so far, so I mean, yeah it would help but do I really need it? No.

I liked it, gave me easy farming money depending on traveler since I have stacks of random collectibles from over the years on alts, hope one week is mursaat tokens :P

Menagerie is neat...I guess...will become more useful when different pets have different abilities, or pets become useful minus activating RaO

Pugging for zquest became fun...but useless overall.

I think it was a very worthy content update to the old game.

There have been requests for something like the Menagerie here on Guru since 2005. A lot of people have been looking forward to this, and I forget where it was mentioned, but Regina said they are looking to make improvements to pets to make them more viable.

This was a fantastic update, I'd give 9/10 to the dev team. The only thing I object to is the cost of most of the ZCoin items. That should really be re-figured, but otherwise, a job well done, and great ideas.

I'm not playing anymore, but it's good to hear people liked it mostly.

Wondering what will be the next one in August.

1. Zaishen quests, bounties, and battles rewarding z-coins
-I feel like they should've lowered the costs and made the PvE quests once per account per day. That's not really important though, what is important is the way it's brought the entire game together and focused the population to make Pugging an option. This update is making me question 7-Heroes because it actually is possible to find players now.
2. Zaishen menagerie
-I dig it, don't think it was worth the time but it's a cool place.
6. Nicholas the Traveler and his gifts
-Same as Zaishen
7. Account-wide Hall of Monuments setting
-I forgot they even did this, I need to think about it
8. Cheap 5-slot equipment pack, with the option to earn others
-Good stuff

It has been a common request in one form or another for as long as I have been on guru.

I basically only do bounties, and the only PvP ones I grab are RA, FA, and AB because I don't really play the game anymore. So I just stock up on the zquests that I can do for the couple hours or so a day I hop on because I am really bored.

So the update didn't really do anything to make me want to play the game more. It just gives me bigger rewards for the stuff I already do. Basically, game is pretty much dead and the update did nothing to revive it.

If you did find enjoyment out of it I'm happy for you though. Glad to see some people can still consistently have fun in this game.

1. Fun at first, and gave the community aspect of the game a much needed shot in the arm. BUt now that the honeymoon is over, I only do the ones that help to advance titles I happen to be working on. I don't think the Z_challenge got many PvEers into th PvP side of things, as it doesn't address the reasons why so many PvE folks don't do PvP.
2. "Zoo" is easier to spell. It's not something I'm actively working on, since I rarely play my Ranger and leveling up different species of pets isn't something to engage my enthusiasm
3. & 4. - No opinion
5. Happy to see this added, since they've added so many other things that take up space - cons, sweets/party/drunkard stuff, tomes, etc.
6. Another bit of fun that has helped improve the community aspect. It's kinda nice to see farming PUGs forming and solo farmers sharing their builds. It's also given my guildies/allies another reason to get together and have a bit of fun.
7. For those who wanted this, it's a good thing. It's kinda nice to have the option to show all of the titles one has earned on all their characters in one spot- where Survivor and LDoA CAN live together in peace and harmony.
8. Another nice addition to help with storage issues. I only needed one of the big bags to keep armor for my main, but it'll be nice to get them on other characters for future use (I swear my Ranger wants every kind of bow out there!)

Although once i had gotten a 15 slot bag i stopped doing the z-quests i still think it was a very worthy update , i look forwards to Mondays when i can get my prezzies from Nicholas (even though 99% of what he has given me has been junk) and i keep meaning to go catch 1 of every pet in game for my menagerie and im sure one day i will , i just really wish the makeovers were free, every other online mmo type game i have ever played has offered this so why has Guild wars got to charge in real money?Hopefully once noone is buying them anymore they will bring it out as an in game option (although im not holding my breath).So yeah , i was pleased by the April update, hopefully the next one will be even better. :P

My thoughts exactly.

It was nice to see more people in PvP arenas. That only lasted about a week or so before they all got fed up with anything that wasn't FA/AB/JQ/RA.

The Bounty/Mission was another attempt at getting us to play the old content but acting like it was new content, this didn't work for me when they tried it the first time (Hard Mode).

I like the Zquests. Partly because my monks inventory was getting cluttered with all those shields and elite armor sets that I really wanted that Heavy Equipment Pack. The extra storage was excellent and necessary for all the types of consumables being added to the game.

Having the Zquests was a great idea I think. I've been able to complete the majority of the HM missions and bonuses with added benefits, my EotN titles have increased greatly because of the rewards and I'm making some money.

All in all, it helps it be complete again, there are people in the mission areas again, boss killing groups, pvp areas I'm sure are getting populated again (TA was dying or already dead) and farming teams (for Nicholas). Even if it's just a method to herd the masses to certain areas, it's interesting to see people playing together again.

The gifts are cool although it took away from the monthly zkey tonics. The rock candies are cool and the summoning stones I think are well worth a charr hide.

The menagerie is cool, but I never really got into pets and rangers so whatever to that. People on the forums I saw always cried about hair stylists and the like, but I wish they would take the npc down from her pedestal or at least move her back so I can autorun from my box to the merchant.

I love them the most when they offer like 100 coins for something that takes some 10ish minutes (or less!). Otherwise I don't bother.
I use heroes.

Still haven't visited it on ANY of my guys.

I use it when I am bored to change the sex of my guys or to give them haircuts.
I haven't bough a single credit.
I delete guys if I want a change.

As above.
Delete over remake.

Got my free tab.
Did not and will not be getting additional room.

I did it every week. Mostly because my guildy farmed the mats needed.
This week getting the mats was completely up to me. I vanquished the area where they drop, got 2, put them in storage.
Will not be picking up the present. Can't even be bothered to buy the mats.
Unless the mats will be easy to get - I don't think I'll be getting the gifts anylonger.

The what did what?
I don't do HoM.

I deleted and gave away a bunch of stuff I didn't need and made room for new crap I don't need that way. I'll be buying Packs with my Zcoins - ONCE I do enough quests to be able to do so.




The spirit buff did more for me than April's update.

1. They were fun for a short while, for the zcoins to get one 20 slot equipment pack and to finish my Legendary Guardian. Now not so much. I'm still sorta grinding for another 4 gold zcoins so I can unlock the Moss Spider which is the last pet I need to fill out my Zaishen Menagerie. Once that's done, it'll just be the same ol' grind again.

2. Nice as I play a Ranger primary. Even though Beastmaster is laughably useless the ability to unlock and display all pets is sorta cute.

3 & 4 IDC.

5. More storage is always nice however making it a pay feature ain't as nice. I realize that server space is not free to expand and maintain for ANet, but it's still a minor annoyance that they did this 4 years into the game.

6. Nick is a fun NPC to farm, and it holds out the miniscule chance to get a decent rare drop.

7. A good thing...will become more relevant if and when GW2 is released.

8. As I said above more storage is a good thing but the grind price to acquire the 20 slot packs needs to be adjusted downward a tad.

Bottom line for me is: good effort on ANet's part to keep up (and reinvigorate) PvE, but the excitement was short-lived as far as I'm concerned.

Z-Quests are kinda sorta interesting, but Nicholas seems to be the only real thing that I keep coming back to. Still never got pugs to do them - people/connections are too unreliable. I hope in the next update they find a way to replace leavers/laggers with henchmen of the same class at least. But, yeah, free-ish title points are nice.

Equipment bags still cost too much coin.

Makeovers are rediculously priced.

Menagarie wasn't really my thing, considering pets suck in PvE since you cant exploit their corpses.

It got me playing again for a couple of weeks. I got about 20 silvers then I got bored again.

I'm really glad about the character name change option. I deleted so many characters over the years just because i grew to hate the names. I'm really paticular about my character names so this was great, i only wish they added it about 100 characters ago x|

I like the makeover too, male mesmer was a bad idea.

Still havent visited the menagerie...no plans too either, i don't iway or OP beastlamer builds.

The z quest are cool, especially if you are working on gwamm you can get some free coins along the way. Too bad i was already done with titles when z quest first came along, but the pvp quest have nice rewards so im happy.

The free storage tab was is the sexiext addition to GW. LORD KNOWS I NEEDED IT

Gifts are great! Undoubtly my favourite addiction. It gives me something to do weekly, it's like playing the lottery ...very addictive.

Acc wide HoM... hmm although i dont know what benefit it'll have im still happy they added this feature. My mind can lay to rest now that it's possible to display survivor and ldoa monuments at the same time.

Before the update, I was becoming burned out from GW. After the update, it gave me what I thought would be a good reason to play parts of the game I felt I would enjoy. Since shortly after then, I've become totally burned out from playing GW. Hasn't been positive to me.

It's not like the additions weren't improvements though. I just feel like they were improvements that would better effect someone playing the game for the first time or two, instead of someone who's already beaten all the missions, or killed all the bosses, etc. Besides the Z-Quest system, the name changes, equipment packs, extra storage, and Menagerie were all things that I had played with just fine with for over three years, so I couldn't be bothered to care about those either.

GREATLY AGREE 8/10 imo. i really enjoy playing with other people who WANT to play the game again and who for a majority are experienced players. it is nice when you get a monk that knows how to heal and a tank that knows how to tank LOL.

And i really enjoy to play with others in this game as it was never meant to be a solo player game.

i do think in the longrun it kinda sucks for those who farm for ales in pre to make money LOL. but then again its been great for my titles so ty anet .

I played the game again for a week maybe at most. It's like when HM came out... all they did was adjust old content, and while that might take them a lot of effort, players would be better served with new content.

1. Nice, some extra cash and more noobs are always welcome in HA/GVG. The PvE quests are fun to do with guildies and friends, especially missions you haven't done for a very long time. Everybody is running some random but fun build, like sin/mesmer with Fragility and Black Mantle Thurst/Temple Strike/Twisting fangs.

2. Lol, who cares. I don't.

3&4. I thought about my character names and faces/bodies when I created them. I don't need any make-overs.

5. Mules enough.

6. This one was a shot in the rose! Guessing and searching every week for the good old Yak and then collecting his stuff is great fun.

7. Nice, I guess.

8. I got the 15 one already, but I guess this is good.

Well the update got me back playing for a bit

1. Zaishen quests, bounties, and battles rewarding z-coins
Excellent, got my virtually dead guild more interested in playing again , everyones now doing triple Guardian and dungeon clearing

2. Zaishen menagerie
Primary Ranger and play alot of beastmaster so its now great i can mix and match my pet to the specific type and evolution that i like.

3. Makeover and Extreme Makeover Credits for purchase
Never liked my faction rangers looks but damned if i was repeating early prophecies to get the exact look i wanted (should never have deleted my original ranger ). Bought the makeover pack right away and now my char is perfect

4. Name changes for purchase
No interest in this but i know people asked for it for a while

5. Free in-game storage tab, with the option to buy more tabs
Got my free and bought the rest. I do have spare space on mules but It was more for the convenience and organisation factor fo the extra tabs that i bought them. I am a bit OCD when it comes to organising stuff correctly

6. Nicholas the Traveler and his gifts
Do this every week, originally i planned to sell them but i just open them instead in the hope of something cool

7. Account-wide Hall of Monuments setting
Meh, my main is my title char so it doesnt make much difference to me

8. Cheap 5-slot equipment pack, with the option to earn others
Fine with this , got my main a large pack and sold a heavy and will continue to sell heavies as i get them.

All in all it was a very good update i think.

It gave me a damned good reason to do a great big show to cover it so I loved it

It all depends on how you define the mission of a "good update".

Did it improve the experience of the casual or newer player of GW? Almost certainly.

Did it include anything to bring the seasoned veteran back, expand the audience or generate marketing buzz? Not really.

My sense is that the Live Team acquitted itself well given the resources they have been provided. Any criticism of the update should probably be directed to management and marketing.

1. Largely, I've basically just been doing this with one character (who is now just a handful of missions away from Legendary Guardian). The problem with the quests is that, with their semi-random nature combined with books, you need to fill up a lot of inventory space to get the most benefit from your time - so instead I'm basically just using them to push one character through to Legendary Guardian. Might do so with another once she gets there. On the other hand, the extra PUG availability due to zquests is very useful for this, especially since my current guild is basically dead for all intents and purposes

Bounties have been interesting - a bit of a fallback to the old days of going out to hunt a specific boss, but now it's for the bounty rather than for skillcapping (although sometimes it can be both). Due to time constraints, though, it tends to be the easy ones that get hit multiple times. I've been thinking about using the battles as an incentive to start some PvPing, but the time constraints kick in there as well.

2. Something that's been asked for for a while - it's nice to be able to switch pets for whatever reason (to change damage type if for no other reason) without knowing that if you want to switch back you'll be in for another 15 level training slog. Been slowly populating it with level 20s by bringing pets whenever I thought I could afford to (devourer or wurm runs are especially good for this)

3. There are times when I wish I'd made one character or another a different gender (usually coming about due to how an armour that wasn't around when I made the character looks on that character's gender versus the opposite gender), but I'd probably not use it even if it was free. For a four year old character, giving them a sex-change operation simply because I think it would improve the look of some set of armour or another would just feel like a betrayal.

4. I made sure to give my characters names I was happy with in the first place.

5. Very necessary (see above comment on tomes, not to mention other inventory-stuffers). Won't be buying any extra panels, though.

6. I tend to packrat collectibles, so most of these have simply been a manner of rocking up with the desired item. With my inventory still under pressure and plenty of other summoning stones and consumables to work through, though, I haven't actually opened any presents yet.

7. Quite overdue, but also, understandably, not really a priority. Nice to see all those minis lined up without having to cycle them through one character, though...

8. I'd be happier if they were upgradeable. As is, I've only recently got my first Heavy, on the basis that I don't want to throw resources at an item that has planned-in obsolescence.

On the whole, I think Martin pretty much hit it. The update had its flaws, but the Live Team did a good job with what they had.

1- I needed masters on some mission on my Sin. Anyway, being a Sin won't get you on many PUGs (unless it requires a perma). Got 2 heavy bags and halfway to the third. But it's getting old already. (hope they do the same for vanq.)

2. humm...my main is a ranger and still I dont care.

3 and 4. Don't know / don't care

5. Nice option (nice free tab)

6. Every Monday's fix

7. Still can't understand the difference for single-char

8. See 1

I took a 3 month break from Guild Wars while waiting on April update. Once the update was released I tried it for a few days then went back on break. I am just burnt out. Without new content I don't see myself coming back any time soon.

I can not find another game that has the appeal of Guild Wars. Tried World of Warcraft, Runes of Magic, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings, and Never Winter Nights 2.