Impact of GW Transactions – Improved service, quality, content and updates?

Hi Folks

The macro transaction costumes were introduced and people were delighted to support Anet in funding the development of GW2, updates for GW, customer service, 'content' and overall quality of the game.

Here is the debate:

Do people think overall improvements have been made to GW specifically in regards to updates, the problem of bots and service?

Have you seen an improvement in service, updates and GW management?

Discuss!

Silver

You ask if people have seen any improvements... but at the same time you tell us that expecting improvements were a "false assumption" (in other words, there are none).

Are you really expecting a discussion, or is this just a glorified whine about microtransactions?

If it was a whine I would just be blunt. I want to know if people think if their expectations are being met or not, it is simple.

Silver

No.

12 chars

In the poor American economy I think that all the money that Arena Net can get will help them with the development of GW2, which makes sure it comes out rather than getting shelved like alot of anticipated MMO/Counsel games that were SUPPOSED to be getting released. It helps secure GW2 from comming out, but in regards to GW1, no.

There is not a single build that many new/mediocre players can play and spike or win big in any facet of PvP in, and dont get me started on PvE. 'LOL its a regular class and not an A/E get the **** outta here noob!'

Guild Wars is severly lacking in teamplay ability, at all. People go to the internet to have fun. Getting on vent with a group of people and spending the day yelling some random persons name for everyone to hit the 1 button on to kill them is not teamplay or fun. Its quite boring and with the recent lagpikes its becomming even more of a pain.

IMHO - I think that the GW Transactions will help improve the speed at which GW2 is made, but I dont believe it is doing anything for GW1. Botters run rampant, and the only thing A-Net does to change that is change 1 line of code so that the bot doesn't work with it. Its 2010, people aren't computer illiterate and will find it immediatly, fix the coding on their bot, and continue botting. What needs to be improved is A-nets communication with the playerbase about what is to be done about the insanely assanine amount of bots and client side changes to give someone an advantage in the game. That is where the playerbase is going. I know of around 250 active players on during peak times. The rest of the people running the same path and doing the same thing and not talking? Those are bots, not people. I dont remember the last time I could find a team for PvE without my SF assasin or rit. Even my Warrior can't find a team because Guild Wars doesn't need tanks(not that Warriors are actually viable for tanking LOL) or pressure.

You asked if it fixed it, I said GW2 may work better. GW1 is showing no improvement, just more veteran friendly nerfs and newbie hate/inability to make teamplay a large component of the game. Dont say GvG or HA is a large teamplay component of the game. Most of the guilds/teams in there are using bots and/or spend a ridicolous amount of time on the game, usually both. What happened to TA or AB or RA for players that just want to play the game rather than get owned by a set of scripts?

I doubt you're going to see any difference anytime soon. Content and update speed is determined by the number of designers and programmers on the Live team. If they took all the cash from the costumes and used it to hire new programmers, then they would need time to find a experienced programmers, train them on how GW is designed and coded, and bring them up to speed on current projects. Since the costumes are barely a month old, it's doubtful that any results would be seen yet.

Use the same logic for QA personnel, support services, etc.

However, it's more likely that the income from these microtransactions is being used to fund GW2 development. With so few copies being sold, I'm sure Anet wants to get GW2 finished so they can get it out the door, so it's a safe bet that most of their income is going to get GW2 fine-tuned.

Obviously, since the majority of people were moved to work GW2 service/updates has been reduced. One cannot expect quality service/updates to increase or maintain previous levels established during the early years of GW, when only 4-5 people are working on GW.

As for Bots...if you have studied the problem and the programs involved you may come to the conclusion that with the current game it is not going to be fixed. I do not expect it to. IMO Rebuilding GW to combat bots is not worth the money and time. I just hope all the "elite" retards do not F&%# up GW2 like they have with GW. Their hobby/interest in API's has destroyed GW

I've taken a look and if they changed a couple lines of code instead of one it would help keep the idiots away. Would it stop bots? Nah. Would it keep over 3/4th the playerbase from using them? Yea. I dont want bots running rampant all over the game, a couple '1337' hackers using them isn't as big a deal as a public bot for the whole population. I completely agree with you though. Nerds with freetime and knowledge do seem to destroy everything, including Hiroshima during WW2.

I admit to not having the time to search further just now, but whilst these thoughts may well have been at the forefront of the mind of the purchaser, who is to say that Anet would put that money towards those aims? It may just have been a profit booster to just pay the Xmas bonus (if there was one!). Game box sales are mostly likely at their lowest ever, so the existing customer base is far easier to market to.

Therefore, I can't answer the OP because I don't know if that was the original intent of the funds.

Of course it had impact


Car of anet employess before micros


Car of anet employess after micros


NCsofts CEOs after microtransactions.

Think is was just to fill Anet's bank-account, like a business is supposed to do.
I like the costumes a lot, where are the Canthan New Year ones Anet!!!???

I bought only Bonus Mission Pack that is worth any single $.
Costumes etc are a waste of money

might be slight off-topic, but I've only seen buggers about those costumes. Now, what's the point in all this whining are guys who said they're not gonna buy em, cause Anet is doing a stupidity with the costumes and stuff? Those costumes DON'T help you with anything, they give NO bonus towards the game. What's the point in whining about them? This is the thing I never understood.

No. The exact opposite. The fact that Lum hasn't been disciplined for insulting his customers and NCSoft continues to ignore/lie about account security/botting is some of the worst management decisions of any company I've ever seen. Stuff is way worse now then it was 3 years ago.

not right at this very moment or from last month. but i hope they do COME and come soon.

on a side note a lot of ppl must of bought that 9.99 costume. see so many ppl with it on.

The only thing I've noticed was that they're taking longer and longer to respond to support tickets.

But, I may be a half-biased opinion.. I've never had an issue with Guild Wars or any of their support. When I was falsely perma-banned they got it cleared up quickly. Not a hint of an apology, but I have my account back safe and sound -- Didn't need one.

But, I guess I could jump on the bandwagon and agree that the updates have really been slacking. XTH has been completely ignored, the updates have been lacking in pizazz (Decent update is what, 7-8 months late?).

There have been things that have NEEDED to be done for many years now, but Anet just pushes out more useless, trivial things in the middle of problems as long as it makes $$$$$$$ and thats how it will always be for any company.

If there are no nerfs, how can they be "veteran Friendly"?

I think the main reason people are complaining about them is that anet spent time on making costumes and making sure the system will work with costumes -- instead of working on skill updates, support tickets, other content etc etc

I have seen no improvements to GW that I feel were the results of adding any kind of microtransactions, aside from the benefits of the microtransactions themselves.

First, the question doesn't make much sense. The micro-transactions have been a rather recent introduction and it takes time to hire and train staff, implement new systems, etc. If we were to see improvements, they may be a while off.

Second, any money that pours into GW at this time wont be used for GW. They're done with it. If you haven't noticed from the lack of security, bots filling up PvP (even entire bot teams in HA yesterday), the XTH being broken for 8 months, the ridiculously late skill balance, etc, etc they are leaving GW1 to rot and moving on to GW2.

Thirdly, they did hire a new guy. However, ever since he started working on the skill balance we've only had one skill update........

So, basically, no....

^

This


Also that they said that armor issues (clipping etc.) were not a priority...but lets add costumes & charge people for it instead of fixing stuff we already implemented.


Ive had an issues with EOTN gloves since they were added. I cant wear my Dragon Mask with any set of EOTN gloves without that stupid black spike appearing above my head....yeah lets not waste our time to fix this & make something we can charge for instead.....

I'm not quite sure, honestly. It's possible that they used some of the costume micro money to pay for the recent security updates, and tweaking the client for the -character command line arguments. I'm not sure if the Live team tweaks the actual code/client, and I'm sure as hell not an expert, but I'd imagine it needed some type of extra brainpower, be it internal or external.

I doubt NCSoft is giving them an increase in their budget for these little "features" hell their GSU post was a total joke. Yes the game is still selling copies, you see new players all the time, but it's not nearly as popular, you have to make that extra dollar any way you can.

I doubt I'd get an answer, but does the money for storage tabs, slots, unlock packs, BMP go directly to Anet or NCSoft? If it does go to NCSoft first?, I wouldn't be surprised if Anet's return percentage is low if that's the case.

As for management, and service I have not seen a difference, then again, the GM's, CM's are probably terribly burned out. Having to deal with the Guild Wars playerbase and NCSoft as a career I await the day someone at Anet snaps from the stress and ends up in the loony bin. The "Farwell to Gaile" event's login announcement, I thought for a split second she might have been fired for bitch slapping a member of NCSoft.

I'm rambling, but I do hope Anet receives funds to be able to pay experienced and knowledgeable people to change current flaws and problems with Guild Wars, and recognize why they are problems and keep them from being implemented in Guild Wars 2, and as of right now, this only way to do it.

They're just milking the dying game. That can't mean anything good for us.
Improvements?
Nowai.
Rather the opposite.
Remember how they were promising us NEW content for Wintersday? We got nothing, only further delayed meaningful updates, and all new content was just those goddamn costumes!

OK, true statement so far...

This is where you go wrong. While players may have wanted to funnel their money into those things, all it will do is pay for the art work and development work that already went into providing the costumes. Anet never said that it was to help pay for GW2 development! Or improved customer service! Or new content!

Players' desires for the funding will in no way influence where they will actually spend that money.

I don't think that it made one bit of difference. And it shouldn't.

Should they ever, ya know, actually fund those efforts, only then would I expect to see an improvement. And even then, it would take some time to see significant effects. (It takes time to change the course of the Titanic... Err, Hindenburg,... Ummm... Big, Unmovable Object! )

Micros are a way to turn a product into a store that sells more stuff. It's nothing to do with ongoing maintenance or the developers in my opinion... it's just putting money into the publisher's pocket. Ask the artists who worked on the costumes if they get a bonus. So don't think you're supporting Anet people directly with this stuff, it's just an industry wide scam.

Do you even have to ask? This is Anet and NCSoft we're talking about here.

ROFL, Guild Wars Cell Phone Antenna!!!