do you think factions is a let down?

from my own experiences,
people are more team orientated in Factions than in Prophecies
- despite the longer time to get to 20 in the 1st game

Prophecies PVE teams have a tendency to split up alot (and wipe)

Picked up wow just to pass the time as i waited for factions to come out.

Played them both at the same time for maybe a month.

Bought factions, was so excited.

What a let down.

Now i play wow full time.

By guys

I gotta say that I did like factions in the begining. Now after getting 10 chars through the game and earning my r5. The only thing that I do ig is long on around 5pm est to work on my r6 and run the deep. For me personally factions will have to recieve some major upgrades before I go on to ch3. As i read the threads on the guru and gwonline forums I find that most ppl were dissapointed than not. And as the poster on page four said earlier, time will tell.

Next two months will more updates come, then u shall see ???!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by muelon Now i play wow full time. By guys

isnt it amazibg they have to come back and tell us that.

good bye-good riddence

I love GWs. I of course don't dedicate my life to it either. It's a hobby and a damn good one.

Do you have any hard data to back this up, or is it just wishful thinking?

All of Tyria and HA has been vastly underpopulated compared to months ago. The number of people playing in Tyria and HA has decreased dramatically.

I find it very hard to believe that Factions is out-selling Chapter 1. But feel free to prove it is with hard data.

Even if it is, that doesn't mean anything in terms of future installments. You have to buy a game to decide if you like it or not. I bought two copies of Factions. Preordered both. I won't be preordering chapter 3. I'll wait and see, if I'm even interested in GW at that point.

That's exactly what I'm doing (including the work part). Bought Oblivion the day of its release but couldn't get into it because I was still hooked on GW. Oblivion sat neglected on my hard drive until the thought of logging in and doing another quest so I could get my 10K faction made me want to kill myself. So now I'm happily adventuring through Cyrodiil, with a couple of other games waiting in line. As you said, the good thing about GW is that you can pick it up anytime. I still play occasionally, but about 10% of what I used to, and always in Tyria.

I haven't seen any comments from factions-only people. I wonder what their opinion is. I can't help think our view is jaded (no pun intended) by comparing Prophs and Factions.

Guild Wars was a radically different game to what we (or at least I) were used to. Factions, whilst a standalone game, still uses the same mechanics as Prophs - so I guess we're just lacking that buzz we got the first time round.

Factions has been topping the charts in US and UK for best selling PC for past few weeks but I don't know how that compares to the 1st game

I havent seen any quotes for number of Factions copies sold

Prophecies sold 250,000 in the 1st *week*
and 1 million copies in less than 5 months

http://www.arena.net/games/index.html
http://www.xgpgaming.com/news/news.php?id=1698

heres a quote from Jeff Strain
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/toppers/?id=12786

Well, of course it started out "stronger" than Guild Wars. GW already had a following and those playing GW wanted the expansion... excuse me, "stand alone add on".

I was one of Factions biggest critics even before it's release. Most of my conserns held true; yet some are being fixed (with the ever "soon"); while others I just ignore. Yet, Factions has become a serious bore and grind.

Grinding for points; not fun. Fed-Ed quests; not fun. PvP; not fun (for me). Leaves elite caps and titles to really go for, and one can only do that so often before losing ones mind.

Did it let me down? In some ways no, in some yes. Will I get Chapter 3? Probably. It's from the team that worked on Chapter 1, so I am in high hopes it will be better than Factions.

Just my two cents.

I don't have hard numbers to back me up yet, other than the quote they brought up from Jeff. But it's most definitely not just wishful thinking either. I suppose I shouldn't expect you to take my word for it, but I live in Bellevue and know quite a few people who work for ArenaNet. I obviously can't go into any kind of detail to protect the innocent, but I've heard plenty of stories about the internal numbers. From Jeff's quote it sounds like we'll just have to wait until they decide to release the numbers to the public.

So no hard numbers yet, but I'm quite certain. Factions is doing well. I won't be offended if you don't believe some random guy on a forum and wait for the real numbers, but I would recommend at least not proclaiming failure until then.

the thing is, factions was bought from almost every prophecies player, as they expected it to be a nice new world that would present the same lvl of excitement as good old tyria did.

the real benchmark would be the sales on ch3... I for one plan on waiting at least 2 weeks before i buy that, if i even buy it (waiting on unreal tournament 2007)

in my opinion, anet needs to ditch the "6 months development cycle" if they want to actually have increasing sales once again

6 months omg.. theres not a single software development company that has similar plans.. take a look at say epic, they charge the same for a game that takes about 2-2.5 years of developing

it is 1 year not 6 months if you bothered to look .

ok you got me there with the 6 months, and yes, ty for writing in bold as im blind and dumb

any amount of time is no excuse for crappy coding, but nvm

This made me smile. There are a lot of things ArenaNet has done that no other software company has tried. For example, can you name a comparable online game with no monthly fees? For that matter, can you name a truely comparable online game?

Personally, I like the model. It's bold and different, and I'll be getting what in my mind is easily $50 worth of content every 6 months. If you don't like the model, feel free to skip every other chapter or so and only get the one you like best once per year. Or find another company making a game using a development model you like. You can keep playing the existing parts of Guild Wars that you like (Prophecies apperently?) indefinitely without being charged a penny, so no harm done. You'll still even get any engine upgrades they make whenever they get around to finishing them.

And it's true that chapter 3 sales will tell us a lot more than chapter 2 sales. But of course, even if a particular chapter doesn't do quite as well, they only have to sell half as many copies twice a year to make the same amount of money as the current number of sales on a yearly release schedule. Only time will tell of course, but I strongly suspect that chapter 3 will do quite well. If it really bombs and they start selling less than half because a truly significant number of people consider the product of 1 year of content creation to be less than $50 worth, then they will probably start doing some serious reconsidering, but given how well Factions is doing I really doubt they have any reason to start reconsidering until then.

it is just that the one year has been posted so many times it get a bit..............

Limit yourself to companies that develop online games. Lots of software companies, including those that develop single-player games, don't charge fees beyond the purchase price. So there are many, many gaming companies out there that have survived by putting out a game every year, two years, three years, or more, with nothing in between that they can charge for. It may be a new model for online games, but it's old news everywhere else.

If Anet continuously added new content despite not having a monthly fee, that would be quite remarkable. But as we've seen, not having a monthly fee means that updates generally consist of bug fixes and skill balances. And we're often told when we want something, "Hey, there's no monthly fee, you know." Implication: Live with it. So Anet isn't pulling something spectacular off that other companies can't do--they just have a different model than other online games, along with the implications of that.

Yup. That was pretty much my point actually. There are lots of individual facets of what they do that have parallels in other complanies, but as a whole they are using a model I have never seen before. A model that puts a game online with no subscription cost. Parallel to Battle.Net? Yeah, except that instead of just matchmaking, everything is on the servers. Of course bug fixes and balance updates are free. That concept has been common for a while now, though it hasn't always been univeral. I'm old enough to remember when the only bug fixes in a lot of software came from buying the upgrade to the next version number.

The concept that you only pay for "content" and that content doesn't include engine upgrades is an interesting one. And of course add to that the concept that all content is episodic and optional, and can't give you an advantage over anyone who didn't buy that particular episode of content. Not necessarily unique, but fairly rare. I havn't seen any other persistant online games without subscription fees try it this way, and I'll be interested to see how it works out for them. I predict success, but as mentioned already only time will tell.

as for a comparable online game, WoW comes to mind, even tho I cant really say other than having a very vague sells/players count info. Diablo used to be/still is free too

my point is, if some of the next chapters dont "do that well" itll be clear that very little of the customers would be ready to trust Anet again, hence, all the chapters will suffer from bad sales

time will tell, I for one quit arguing about this ^_^

now when will ut2007 actually come out ^_^

First off I agree with the posters on the graphics are top notch!
When they finally got all the voice acting in I was happy.... Till I heard the voices.... *giggles* Some of them... just... wow... -_- (and not in a good way)

The quest... I complete 5 only to get 30more! OMG THEY ARE NEVER ENDING!
This is the worst part of it. Less story more quests!

In Tyria I couldn't wait to hit the roads on my quests and most of the quests weren't just all rewards (with the exception of Piken - but then Piken had a bit of story line with their quests as well).
The quests in Tyria usually led to the next mission which then gave CUT SCENES! Love the movies

Watching the Factions cut scenes I feel like I am being made stupid. Over and over it seems its a repeat of everything that we just did in the last mission.... AND COME ON!!! ARBORSTONE! Mhenlo or our team couldn't climb over the shoulder high rock pile!?!?!?! You have got to be kidding me! I about fell in the floor with that one...

The psychic.... "You will do this and this will happen"... and Shiro "NO NO NO IT WONT" ...
Yes it will dude and yes you will!, she is PSYCHIC!.... *rolls eyes* She forsaw and we had to watch her not only tell us what was coming but then watch it happen just to verify that she was the real deal.... I am sorry but... lame! It makes me laugh till I cry bitter tears.

This game held so much promise and then it just went splat! Unlike some of you, I actually liked the ABs the way they werein the preview, so I have no interest whatsoever now. *sighs* I still haven't finished Factions cause personally I feel no drive to, I know how it ends, I mean don't we all?

there were no surprises in this at all! It was laid out in it's entirety from the start (or at least pretty darned near the start) and it's just boring me now.

I love the scenery but for me it lacks content and by content I mean intriguing story line!



~This post is based off my own personal opinions and not those of others, and nowhere in this post did I promise excellent grammar or spelling~

yah you help some very annoying NPC's kill some poor misunderstood fellow, who tried to save the empire xx years ago, but somehow ends up consuming life on the whole continent of Cantha and in order to punish his crime is made " Envoy" and has control over anything living or ead
nice plot , no ? oO


edited some grammar i know see, kinda distracted in here by eviances avatar ;P

lol!!!

The worst thing for me in the "plausibility" area is all the escort quests and missions, and the fact that your monk can rez everybody in the party, your rangers can rez their pets, but nobody can rez freaking Mhenlo and Togo? That's so laughable that it just makes the whole thing a farce. An okay farce to play through once, but still a farce.

For online games, yes, and it does attract those who don't want to pay a monthly fee. Heck, that's the whole reason I bought GW. And I was in line at an EBGames a few weeks ago. The woman in front of me was buying a game for her son. He wanted WoW, but when she heard it had a monthly fee, she said, "No way." The sales guy told her about GW, and that's what she bought for him. So the no monthly fee does attract people. The problem is that if people don't get the same quality as they would from a subscription-based game, they'll leave. Not having to pay a monthly fee won't be enough to keep them. The players like that woman's son will stick around, but only because they have to. Others will leave. So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how chapter 3 does.

The locked gates certainly don't help either. If there is anything worse than having to play through Factions, it is having to play through the stupid storyline 6 times just so I can get my PvE characters PvP ready.

Wow, way to go making your customers more sick of your mediocre content.

Oh, by the way to those of you who pointed to how Factions is having "top sales right now in the US" and blah blah blah, think again, many of us bought it because we erm, actually trusted that razortongue of a Gaile Gray?

"Auction houses coming soon"
"Trade improvement coming soon"
"PvEvP... it is awesome"

Wow, let's just say from now on I will never take that *****'s word based on trust anymore.

In fact I am happy that Factions has record sales right now, so that more people can see through this facade and realise how Anet has been playing fast and loose with them! Like the old saying goes.. fool me once, shame on me... what Anet should be worried about is the next bit that follows...

Actually, it's more like "Fool me once, shame on YOU. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Wow, let's just say, since you don't know how such a common saying goes, you probably don't remember what it was that Gaile Gray said either. So, from now on, please post a link to the quotes that you are referring to. I'm not saying Gaile never promised an auction, but I certainly won't take what you claim as a quote to be accurate. Is there a quote to link to here ?

I think Factions is a let-down.

That is, Factions is a good reason to let down your hair and PARTY!!! Nice game, great new skills, beautiful scenery (Kaening City Slums excluded), new weapons, armor, elite missions... like Ronald McDonald, I'm lovin' it.

Answering the OP question in title:

YES: Fed Ed questing rush to lvl 20, Smaller zones forcing locked gates system, some quest and missions feels like punishment, unbalanced bosses, more importantly turning game into GRIND WARS.

NO: like the new armours and stats flexiblity, like the new collectors and greens, like some of new skills.

before reading your post i was gon to type in exactly the same thing.

ya, AB are kool, but apart from this, i feel like all i got for my 50$ is a white tiger and a new warrior face+ armor set...

Excellent post. I agree with everything here. Well done.

OMG I MIGHT JUST DIE!!!!!! TWO PEOPLE IN A ROW LIKED MY POST WOOOOOT!!!!! (not sarcastic here at all, lol YAYS!)


Oh and on topic I saw armor mentioned.... Meh.... I like the new stats but most of the new skins to me just seem to be lacking or are cheap reskins of the old. A few are very original but still not all that to look at.

<----- My ranger will stick with her leafy slutty look >_>

I also agree with all of this. its just i did beat factions 2 times now, and i never beat all of kurzicks side missions yet, i am kurzick atm.. though it just plays no purpose. i wish that wasn't so.

well you still gotta take some bad with the good. but i hope the dev team thats working on 3 is the one we all apparently love lol ... i hope they get it right this time!!!! Even so, overall factions is STILL gw, it hasnt strayed.

I got hit with the Shiro cutscene fighting the assassin ghost last night.. how crap was that??? the prohecies cutscenes have been way better so far

Yeah, in fact there is.

I can probably dig up a link for the first 2 claims right away, but I won't even waste that effort. It is quite obvious where you are coming from when your only argument is the fact that I mistyped a quote. Either way I am not remotely worried in what you think.

And perhaps Triple Chop.

Agreed.

Especially the grind wars bit. Somewhat glad that they finally decided to drop the armor look <-> stats linkage (some argument they made about the need for rapid identification in PvP.. indeed!)

Actually this is Razortongue

do you actually mean "silver tongued"?

I dont understand how you can keep posting when you are obviously so bitter about the subject. I can understand you wanting to express your discontent at the game, but that post makes you come off as a asshole and doesnt help in making you sound any more persuasive.

ANET should stop using this phrase
- soon seems to mean 9 months to 2 years when talking about the free game engine updates

I'm tellin' ya, the two parts that had me rolling were the whole plague shell-shocked soldier screaming "It's madness, I tell you......MADNESS!!!" and the guard who says "...but....but...only you are allowed in the temple..." and then the echo in Shiro's head stutters too *laugh* My whole party was cracking up at the tiny pile of rubble separating us from Mhenlo as well...

I like Oblivion. It's always nice to switch to a game you can both pause and just walk away from whenever you feel like. A change of speed after a full year of Guild Wars is just what the doctor ordered