Will Anet's Handling Of GW1 Dissuade You From GW2?

See, that's the problem. I'm not hardcore and I'm not softcore... at least when it comes to MMOs - single-player games, I'm pretty hardcore, playing games like Ninja Gaiden 2 and the likes of it.

But it seems like there is about 20% of people like me in the community, 5% are the PvPers from way back who still remember the minion factories and IWAY (the original one), and 75% are new people that only scream GIMME GIMME PVE PVE GIMME.

And no, you were not hallucinating. A.Net just sensed where the cash is (dunno how, what with the Factions tournament and so on) and invested in casual PvE players. Those that liked PvP either are bored now, retired or just quit the game.

Blaaaa... and even more blaaaaa

I said I don't remember how much I paid for EOTN, I don't remember because I don't care. I went to the game store and simply bought it
Only because you live in Poland (PLN, right?) and almost every game over there is overpriced doesn't mean EOTN's price was over the top

FYI...... I'm perfectly aware of internet infrastructure in Poland so be kind and don't give me cr*p about GW lag
... Tak jak wspomnialem wczesniej gralem w UT przez dlugie lata i granie na niemieckich/holenderskich/angielskich serwerach w CB bylo absolutnym koszmarem...

Have you played EVE so you know why they are doing the maintenance every 24hrs? Or you are just giving ideas out of nowhere?

What shall I mention.. ? Give me another non-WoW-MMORPG which can be compared with GW

You have people running to Droknars at a low level to get max armor then demanding others to party them in Droknars so they can level up. All these happened even before NF/heroes.

I can understand the need to get max armor, but demanding to be partied with at level 5, in a level 20 area, is just stupid.

And that is bad if you compare it to other MMOs who have better maintainance. Personally, I dont even mind a $15/month subscription if I can get the service quality that I want because it is quality that I am concerned about. Real content update is sorely lacking and has been this way in GW1 for a very long time now.

Somehow I doubt GW2 would be better maintained since after GW2 comes out for a while, they would be busy working on GW2.1 and then the next chapter and then the next....

People say, "oh ANet is just busy working on GW2 so I can understand why GW1 is poorly maintained". But if you think about it, that same excuse can be applied at ALL TIMES, since ANet would ALWAYS be working on a new chapter to keep their revenue flowing. In a transaction business model that they are now, when would they ever stop working on a new chapter to provide better maintainance for the current chapter? When would they ever feel a need to stop the flow of their business revenue while paying off salaries and overheads to keep the current game running?

I'll definitely buy (pre-order) GW2. However, if there was 1 thing I would want changed, it would be Anet's elitizing-agenda with Guildwars. They expect you to find a group and just have fun. Real truth is, finding good groups with good communication is not easy. 99% of the time, after a run, or wipe, 1 or more members leave making the party fall apart. In ToA, it is virtually impossible to find a group which actually uses team work.

Most of us has guilds, but most of us don't have guilds that run UW often. If anyone says "then find a new guild" or "then learn to play", may I say shut up. It's no help and won't work (same with IRL with those average-joes who just say "live with it").

In Tyria, Cantha and Elona, almost all, if dare I not say ALL, mission outposts are empty. For many "new" players, this can be extremely frustrating. Even I, who has played for years, often resort to wiki. While wiki helps a bit, it's still a lot of trouble fighting with broken Hero AI.

That's about it.

Nope. It sure won't.
I will continue to enjoy the rich graphics, (MORE so by looking at the GW2 trailers!)- character building, (Charr with a rack..rawr!),
and re-learning a new game, that will hopefully meet my every expectation.
I PLAY the game...I don't follow marketing shares, nor get butt hurt if my 'favorite' skill gets nerfed.(I miss you Splinter Weapon)
GW1 has it's issues, granted.
But it has no bearing on me wanting to play the next generation of GW.
~Trub.

the handling of GW1 is miles better than most other games out there. so no, the support given to GW1 is more than adequate in my opinion, and most certainly won't dissuade me from getting GW2 when it comes out.

the only wish i have GW2 is that anet hire some better people to manage the pvp aspects. i like linsey murdock well enough, and i commend her on the live team's efforts, but they frankly don't know the pvp game well enough to make good decisions on how to balance it.

Ninja Gaiden 2 is a good game, with extremely good graphic. Do you ever upload your scores on live?

I know I remember that it was expensive for it's content. Polish games overpriced? Did you check the ratio? The only time 130 PLN was more than 50 USD was the summer a year ago, when 50 USD = 100 PLN. Right now 1 USD = 2.9 PLN, so our games are a lot cheaper.

That's why I said that playing games was NEVER hard for me. I always have better net speed than most of the people I know. 8Mb right now. TF2, Quake Wars, CSS, Diablo 2. Never more than 100ms, yet there are times where I have 300-600ms here.

Probably to refresh everything and so on. Like they did with my favorite Neverwinter Nights servers every now and then.

GW is hardly an MMO, but Perfect World is decent for a F2P, if I'm to believe. Also Ragnarok Online's PvP is great. Not 1 vs 1, of course, but sieges. Same with L2's sieges.
No, it's my sister's Xbox. She and her husband bought it, forgot that they have 1 free month of online, then didn't want to pay for it. They don't play online anyway.

As a free to play, yes Perfect World is a pretty decent game but cannot be placed into a comparison with GW really. Having played both PW-MY (Malaysia) and PWI (International), it looks and plays very well (though the PK system is shot to pieces, grind is beyond grind and if you think lag is bad in GW, try this game lol).

Also, for those of you quoting that GW2 was not announced prior to GW:EN, GW2 was announced Mar 2007 (GW:EN came out late 2007).

Totally depends on how their servers/sites are setup/configured. Maintenance can be done daily on individual servers (automatically) while still maintaining the game (as you are alluding to). There is no need for someone to hand hold this process, only to be onhand/call for fix on fail. But that doesn't mean that a "site" set of servers has to be dropped, each "node" can be taken offline, maintained and brought back up again.

Which is how I would assume GW is done currently. The only time they have really taken the entire system down is for a number of critical security patches (be it Operating System or SQL Server), which had to be applied to the entire system.


Back to topic!

For what I have paid (8 games over 2 accounts, char slots and a couple of extra storage slots), this game has been unbelieveable value for money. And the technologies behind Guild Wars have given me something that has been stable for almost 100% of this time (yes, lag is a pain but anything played over the net will always be prone to this).
The game update mechanism is by far the most competant I have seen in a game (having just installed MW2 via Steam, this gave me a painful reminder!) and putting aside balances, skill changes and the likes - we have gotten a very, very stable and efficient product.

For what they have given me personally over this period, nothing will stop me from buying GW2 at all (well, maybe the missus but that's another story )

Yes games in Poland are overpriced
I'm pretty familiar with Polish gaming market as I used to write stuff for your biggest game magazine (no need to mention the title, you know which one it is), I also had close relations with CD Project and Cenega
The only time games in Poland are cheaper is when they are localized for this specific market (read: When they translate the whole game so nobody else can play it). That's how it used to be and I don't think much changed
Even now, after almost 5 years, Prophecies are still cheaper (about 20%) at my place than the cheapest online retailer in Poland

I encourage you to play CSS on American server based at Texas (USA) and tell me what's the ping ok? Then we can compare both games and their network efficiency

I'm not interested in a non-RPG online games
L2? Oh please don't tell me you have Lineage 2 in mind. The one that doesn't have centralized community and most of the people play on illegal servers because they don't want to pay monthly fees. The one that... oh I could go on that one for some time. But you surely talk about different game right?

No, GW's whiny prudish cack waiving showboating over controlling holier than thou player base will though, and the fact that anet seems to listen to the player base rather than just making the game good the way they want to doesn't help either.

In short: no one really knows what they want, or the negative impacts of what it could bring, stop listening to us anet, that'll make the game better.

I'll be getting it for sure, based on the lore alone, since I am very into deep RPing in games. And the fact that it looks like it will be enjoyable (to me at least). As for people claiming its a WoW clone now, we'll have to wait and see, it's impossible to determine that based on the information that has been released thus far.

This 100% signed
Oh and fixed for you

You know what Anet is at the end of the day... The Peter Molyneux of MMO's. Their games aren't bad. There's a lot going for them. But promises will be broken. A lot. And you attach the internet to their games, which is inevitable, and a every broken promise becomes a mountain of outrage. So I wish they could just keep their creativity, but break less promises, and then things would be better between them and the fanbase, less flames on Guru between people criticizing and defending as well. Now they claim GW2 will be less complicated, and thus less complicated to balance you would think. But... the irony could be coming of more broken promises. So who knows. Anet is the company I always want to see do better, because they're like 80% of the way there of being revolutionary and superior to anything else, but then they stopped all the sudden, like the Halloween Quest. So only time will tell. If I do play GW2 though, I think I'll care less in general. Been too exhausting and pointless all the scraps people got into over GW1.

I am not sure. It all depends on my situation at that point. Let's be honest, $50 - $75 isn't going to kill anyone's budget, but, if I don't have the time to devote to playing the game, I probably won't get it. Here's hoping that I do have the time (I like to play seriously otherwise it isn't worth my time) so that I can see what ANet has been putting their efforts into.

- Well, 400ms ping, rubberbanding and disconnections are pretty bad, but at least they added the reconnect feature. The thing is, good features don't make the game good. The game is only as good as the worst mistake it has. For instance, why bother doing the advertised big number of dungeons if their layout and rewards offer little variation? I'd rather settle with one well-made dungeon per tileset. Think about it, this game has almost no depth.

- I still don't understand this argument. Perhaps 80% of the games released are nothing worth bothering. Each individual chooses what is best for him. I'll have to choose between Diablo III and Guild Wars II - I don't have time for both. I picked the original Guild Wars because it was the best option at that time, but now it looks like just another free-to-play MMO-grinder.

Well, I personally think Anet did a great job with GW1. I'll absolutely be buying GW2.

I will buy GW2, most likely the CE. I don't see any problem with how ArenaNet handles GW1. I am constantly surprised with new content and fixes on a four-year-old game. That they actually assigned a dedicated group to a game on which they were no longer focused, amazed me from the first announcement.

That the GW1 team gives us quick responses to most problems (Zaishen quest reward collection and no-hero guildhalls) shows me that GW is not a forgotten product. I am confident of the same level of support with GW2.

From the way you phrased it, the game that you buy from them, would ALWAYS be the game that "they are no longer focused" on because they would ALWAYS be working on the NEXT version to keep their revenue flowing.

This means the quality of support for GW2, would be the SAME as what you currently get for GW1, AFTER GW2 is released. They would be working on GW3 or GW2.1, after GW2, and so on.

Remember that their revenue model is transaction based, not subscription based.

If they added more content, I wouldn't mind a subscription.

One ought to remember that it's only free because its instanced.

Same here. But they have already said, they are not going to ask for a subscription, so I suppose we can expect the SAME level of support for GW2, as we are currently getting for GW1, after GW2 is released.

No, you can expect the same level of support for GW2, as we got when GW1 was released, after GW2 is released.

GW1 is NOT a single release. It is made up of a number of chapters and releases.

I prefer to use the most recent level of support that we get for GW1 as a more accurate depiction of how they would allocate their resources between supporting "current" and "future" games.

Actually you can EXPECT it but doesn't mean you will get less or more. Expectations are just that not fact.

Actually you should just ignore Hissy as he is just a FIT! bahahahaha wasn't that funny? )

Of course I'll be getting GW2. Has ANets handling of the game impacted my descision? Yes, that's why I will be getting it. ANet is one of the most community driven game companies I've come across and I am thoroughly looking forward to news about the development and release of GW2.
I have just recently returned to GW after a short stint in WoW, and while there is things I love about WoW, GW always was and will be my first priority.
Bring on GW2!
ps.- sorry if my post was filled with too much fanboism but I guess I'm just that kinda guy :P

Yes, it's made up of a number of chapters and releases....not completely different games. The only fair comparison for the amount of support we would be getting is back when they were churning out new chapters, not when they had 90% of the company working on a brand new game. The amount of work it takes to make a new chapter is far less than the amount it takes to build a new game.

I've spent more time, and had more fun, with GW than with any other game I've ever played. Hell, they could have stopped doing anything after the release of GW:EN and I'd still end up probably buying GW2, because the core of the game is crafted so well. The primary things they did wrong with GW - skill bloat, power creep, introducing professions that were OP-ed as all hell - really haven't detracted from me still enjoying the game for what it is these past few years, and I have high hopes that, given a blank slate, they won't repeat those mistakes.

Ironically, Anet's handling of GW1 might send me to GW2 that much sooner, depending on how the early signs of GW2 turn out (ie, is there actual balance?) and whether or not Anet continues to dodge the large problems facing GW1.

personally i think anets done a good job. The only thing im hoping for is that they pull a bungie with halo 3. Bungie has done a great job keeping it preserved and unloading new stuff to make people keep coming back and have fun. Anet seems to be doing this as well, and with the release of GW2 i think they'll do this...but if they dont, im gonna be one sad cookie . basically im just hoping that the GW players and meta who arent lucky enough or decide not to get GW2 still feel the love and fun like before GW2 came out.
And as for GW2, theres a LOT of changes being made so it seems right now; this could mean having an entire renewed playerbase and everything...the changes seem to gear it more like the huge MMORPG today, WoW. Higher levels, jumping and all, free to roam/ no portals for cities, and free PvPing randomly is in the gauntlet if i remember right. This will either be a good or bad move in the end, and i question this. Guild Wars seems to be losing some of its edge if it goes for that, but its my personal opinion. I just gotta trust Anet to take ass and kick names when it comes down to it !!!

As with most games i buy, im gonna wait for my gameinformer issue for the month to come around when the games released to see if its worth it. theres every chance that from right now, they can make or break the game.

Right now, there are 2 setbacks for me for buying this game:

1. GW losing creativity and seeming like a normal MMORPG game.

2. The release date.

Anets perfect right now to me. I already stated why number 1, so number 2 is troubling to me. Theres been rumours and it seems likely it wont be released until mid to late 2011...i hope ive been hearing wrong, because im not sure if ill wait that long. many players could lose interest, and when the game finally DOES come out they will be expecting a game thats perfect in every way possible and there will be no room for errors. Lets hope we see earlier release times!

and so concludes my rant .

Then have you ever thought why they would have 90% of the company working on GW2? Doesn't that show how much priority the "new" game/chapter has over supporting the "old" game/chapter? Why? Because the new game/chapter brings in more new revenue than merely supporting the old one since games get old fast. Would ANet change this priority after GW2 is released?

Probably not! After GW2 there would be GW2.1 or whatever and that has the same priority over GW2 as GW2 has over GW1. It doesn't matter if GW2 needs more effort or not, because that IS the priority decision the company makes when it allocates resources. If GW2.1 doesn't need much work then it is off to allocate the resources towards GW2.2 or GW3 planning to get those done sooner. In any case, the newer games/chapters always takes a 90% priority over the "current" one. Keeping the revenue stream flowing is top priority from a company's standpoint.

I am a little disappointed. For at least a couple of years I felt ANET could do no wrong. They released an awesome game in a practically bug-free state. One that you could buy for $50 and play endlessly online without a subscription. They were very active with updates and balances.

Maybe they spoiled us in those early days. I feel like they've been doing little but breaking promises in the past year or more. The game is still awesome, no doubt, but the support and work being done on the game is just a shadow of what it once was.

I'll probably buy GW2 regardless just out of a misguided sense of loyalty to the franchise. If this same trend continues into GW2's lifespan then GW3 (or whatever future ANET game) will be far less likely.

Although things arent running well in the game..and many things have gone down hill,Ill still be buying GW2 to atleast try it out..

GW is the most ive ever enjoyed/played a game..4 years later and im still playing the damn game..thats good value IMO.

That was because NWN's net engine was crap and the server tended to become sloppy over time :P

But DUDE, you I also loved NWN. We must be soul mates.

GW1's most recent level of support is what, 2 or 3 people in the Live Team?
And you seriously think that's how much support GW2 will have at startup? You think the moment GW2 is launched they will immediately move all but 3 staff onto working on GW3 or whatever?

You surely can't be THAT dumb.

Use your brains, if I am ANet and my users tell me that dedicating just 2 or 3 staff is enough support for the game, like most of you guys are, then of course, I would only make sure there are always 2 or 3 staff to support the current game.

And dedicate the rest of the staff in churning out the next revenue earning chapter. Afterall, the more resources that I throw into developing the next chapter, the better they would be and the more customers they would draw. Why dedicate more resources into supporting the current game if customers are already saying that they are happy with the current level of support and therefore, would still purchase their next game right? The idea is to put your resources in the areas that would earn you the best returns, logic 101.

Ask yourself this question, can ANet produce another "Sorrow Furnace type" free content update for GW1? Of course they can, but why would they, when they can just put that effort into the next chapter and make you pay for it instead. Their latest major updates show that ANet is getting better in tying their efforts to revenue returns compared to Prophecies timeframe when they were still a new company trying to establish themselves.

Doesn't matter. I was rarely impressed with GW1 support when the entire company was working on it.

That is a fact, not a maybe. "We want this!" Anet adds "this". "We don`t like that!" Anet changes or removes "that".. People at Anet really do care about it`s players wishes and caprices. If anyone doubts this i suggest them to play, say, LOTRO for a month or two, just to see how turbine`s staff treats their players. For a monthly fee. So stop bshtng, you are all going to buy GW2. And you know it.

Then explain to me this - why is it often cheaper for me to buy in Poland than to buy at Steam or Direct2drive?

Answer - because only some games are cheaper at those online shops than here. For instance, Mass Effect was about 45 EUR for over a year, while in Polish shops it was for 60 PLN, boxed edition. Basically anything from Steam is more expensive than in our shops. The only time I bought a game from D2D because it was 30 PLN cheaper was when I was buying Warhammer Online - 50 USD was 100 PLN at the time.

Where do I look at the prices? Empik.pl has a lot of good offers.

Why should I? There are European servers in Guild Wars, there are European servers in CSS and TF2 as well. You might as well tell me to play on Russian servers.

...Which have pretty decent ping.

Private servers are popular because they are better. I predict the same thing will happen with Aion if they don't straighten up and clean the mess. High rates mean you don't have to grind your ass 10 hours a day for a year to get to the PvP action with sieges. Also usually there are GMs to eliminate bots (trust me, it's a lot harder to bot on privates than on officials), fix the bugs and add special content.

Simple - they listen to everyone. You can't do that. "90% of everything is crap" and this applies to people as well. If you address your first game to PvPers, you either stick with it and cater to PvP modes, or you release PvE-focused game and cater to PvEers. You can't have a cake and eat a cake in this business.

If it comes out when there are no other good games (like Assassin's Creed 2 for PC, Mass Effect) around, I might, if I'm sure there's a good PvP mode.

If it comes near or after Diablo 3, probably not.

Well, some servers had over 96/128 players and filled in 70-80% in the good old days.

...If it happens, it happens.

Considering the level of support and content we have gotten despite the fact that GW was never intended to reach such a milestone I'd be happy to buy the sequel so long as they don't lose their roots along the way and can better accommodate us within their world. That means I don't want my character's power represented almost solely by the items I'm wearing which is found in damn near every MMO on the planet. Max stats are a blessing. You can wear what you like the looks of and be happy knowing that your items aren't what carry you to victory. I much prefer admiring the art of an item instead of the numbers.

People complain. People whine. Some is justified but much is simple idiocy worded well enough that other idiots follow it. So it turns out that GW really isn't such a broken game after all.

I do not understand people who do not play the game anymore but just come to the fansite to vocalize their past frustrations. Why they do their best just to spoil others experience?

Anyway I will not get GW2 only partially due to GW1. The reason is that GW1 took too much of my time and I would like to do something more that play games. I am also afraid from what I understood from GW2 that it is not the game for me - everything I liked in gw1 is missing in gw2 and several things I do not like will be there.

In a very clever, polite way you've insulted everyone on this world who has different taste or opinions that you do.

You are one of the many reasons game sequels won't be better than first games - blind fanboy that praises everything.

FYI - GW2 will have a lot, lot, LOT more levels. I think it's pretty far away from GW1's level 20. Also, they haven't said much about the PvP, also the main reason I still have GW installed.