Developer Appreciation Thread (:

/signed


1973 hours over 12 months

and eager for every skill rebalance every time

I remember the day my Air warrior became useless. Because they nerfed chain lighting. I deleted him because he had no chance anymore. Although sometimes I wish I didn't because he'd of gotten a mini pet.. lol.

None the less. Anet isn't doing bad for what they have progressed. I can say as in any game. The original finshed beta version is always the best. Yeah sure some skills aren't quite balanced but that was the initial intention. Then people put their foot in the door and the fun starts to decline. Picking at a scab and destroying what was fun unto just another game. Fairness and balance... doesn't have to be in EVERY game. Whiney people. It's always the same group too.

/undecided

I disagree with much of what was stated here. Yes, some of the changes have been done due to players complaining about things, but he who whines loudest, doesn't always get what they want, just look at the UAS button. 14 months later, it still hasn't reappeared and there was some serious crying over that one. If ANet changes a skill and you disagree with the change, put forth a valid arguement why the change wasn't warrented and not 'that change is the suxors because it broke my build'. Many changes have been for balance, more have been to entice players to use skills that aren't seeing any use and still more are for reasons unknown to us. the first two probably make up around 90% while the last is maybe 10%.

/highfive to the entire ANet team, I'm enjoying Ch2 and look forward to 3

Love the game! keep it up, and ill preorder ch3 as soon as its available
/signed, awesome job all

/signed
I might not agree with everything ANet does, but in still a high quality, fun game.

(Now, if we just had a trading system...)

/signed

GW is a top quality product. You have made a product I love to play.
I've been happy with most of the changes you have done.

Keep up the work and look forward to new campaign(s).

although as previously stated there still is room for improvement...

/signed

ANet has explicitly stated that its developer team has been split in order to allow chapters to come out faster, but I believe everyone will agree that even within each chapter, there seem to be different developer teams working on different game areas. While in Prophecies this was much more pronounced, in Factions the changes are much more subtle due to a closely tied storyline. Still, some parts stand out to me personally as being above the rest.

Having completed all the quests in Factions, I have to say that I enjoyed Luxon content the most. The Luxon quests weren't as flooded with "survivalist cynicism" as the Kurzick ones tended to be with "gloomy resolve." While maintaining the general feel for the Luxon concent, the NPC speech was filled with humor, and the quests ended up being more engaging than the Kurzick ones were - at least to me personally.

What I liked the most were the quests after Gyala Hatchery, in particular "The Zenos Squad" and "Message in a Bottle."

"The Zenos Squad" was particularly engaging, so much so that I ended up ignoring the 'FedEx' mechanic imposed on it by the general design of Factions quests. Instead of just wanting to get the quest done, I wanted to find out how the story would progress. As a writer myself, I can only applaud the quest's designers for inserting an excellent, engaging and autonomous story into the greater world of Factions. I only wish more quests would work the same way.

Granted, "The Beak of Darkness" on the Kurzick side attempted a similar level of story-building and humor, but it was marred greatly by the 'FedEx' nature of it, where you had to switch zones repeatedly in order to get the next part of the story, which let to some discontinuity and lessened the overall effect of the quest.

I found "Message in a Bottle" and its followup quest to be immensely entertaining. The NPC speech was hilarious, but at the same time left me wanting to read the whole text rather than quickly accept the quest and move on to complete it. Further, the story made me want to clear all the monsters around each bottle so I could read its text undisturbed, and I am glad to say I was not disappointed.

In closing, I'd like to use this opportunity to applaud the Luxon part of the Factions development team for bringing such excellent things to Guild Wars as a "Letter to Mom" quest item. You've restored my faith in this game. I can only hope that, since you'll be sitting out Chapter 3, you get to have as much impact as possible on Guild Wars when Chapter 4 rolls around.

I agree as well, the Luxon quests were very fun, I even did the same oneson multiple characters which was soemthing I didn't always do in Prophecies. Although I also noticed my fair share or bugs or glitches with the quets, which leaves me a wee bit skeptical as to if Anet has the resources to split their development team in order to create new games while unbug and fix problems in their old ones.

Too all the people who 'hate' Guild Wars:

Appreciate the devs! If it weren't for them, you'd have nothing to complain / whine / b**** about.

Yay devs! ^^



EDIT: Removed quotes and response to deleted posts. -Swampgirl

/signed

Thank you A-net. For all it's flaws, I have enjoyed Guild Wars greatly.

qft...

imo, only thing that deserved to be nerfed is old NR and ability to make multiple copies of ranger spirits.


anyway, yea /signed. definitely a.net is doing a great job.

No-brainer.

/signed.

The dev team do not make changes based on popular demand in the way described, believe me. While popular demand can be a good pointer towards a possible problem area, there's a lot more data goes into making decisions.

Nerfs typically aim towards adjusting the effectiveness of a build without completely eliminating it. It might take a while to find the new 'best way' of achieving the goals of the build, but the build is rarely destroyed (eg - Air spike has been nerfed but still exists, Minion Masters still exist, ranger spike still exists, IWAY still exists in a less extreme form etc - all builds that have been nerfed in the past).

Anyway, any fair assessment of the balancing efforts being made by the team should not focus on nerfs alone. Nerfs are remembered, no one denies that players feel them harder on a personal level due to attachment to their particular character/build. However, if you go back through patch notes since release you'll find that there are a lot more buffs being made than nerfs as a long-term trend. A good number of players will tell you that some well-remembered nerfs were actually buffs once everything settled down.

Anyway, point being that popular demand can influence the team to take a look at what's going on, however any decisions are thoroughly researched through several data sources before changes are made.

Edit: I should also say that the devs really appreciate your appreciation of the game and their efforts. I've just got back from a trip over there, and they're working really hard to bring you the best possible gaming experience.

Maybe if the specific reasons behind the changes were explained more people wouldnt made such wild asumptions?

A more appropriate title for this thread would be "Yet another rant about negative players in the community thinly veiled as an appreciating Anet thread."

Seriously, I'd love to see an appreciation thread where the original poster doesn't spend most of the post complaining about people he doesn't like, and instead spends it on actually complimenting Anet. Viciously attacking detractors is a pretty funny method of appreciation. Or a great way to get away with a diatribe filled rant thread.

I paid for Guild Wars, I got Guild Wars. I appreciate the time it took for me to make the money that went to Guild Wars. Anet developers were payed to make this game, they did... so what is the bonus they put in?
Unless Anet was working extra hours for free, all of their work has been accounted for in their paychecks.

props to them for providing yet another way for me to spend my time running! after a good 8-12 miler in the morning, a shower, and breakfast, i then get to spend my time doing chest runs! its great to run when you dont have to be worried about ankle biting dogs, unobservant drivers, or hostile prepubescent children....wait i take back the prepubescent children....guild wars still has that...but the rest goes...

/signed!

/notsigned

Once A-Net stop messing up PvE with nerfs based on keeping crap PvP players happy, I might appreciate them a bit more.