The preview for the next monthly patch is up. There are a bunch of much-needed “beta†additions to PvP, a few additions to the WvW progression, and some additions to guild missions including a quaggan guild rush. All of these things will permanently raise the stock of Guild Wars 2.
With the exception of possibly the WvW progression, these are very noticeable, permanent additions to Guild Wars 2. I expect a year from now guilds will still be able to turn in to quaggan and race around Frostgorge Sound. I hope that spectator mode and custom arenas in sPvP will turn the tide for the PvP community. Did I miss something?
Molten Weapon Facilities, a new Living Story dungeon. The Guild Wars 2 Flame & Frost Retribution page talks about fighting alongside Rox and Braham against the combined forces of the dredge and Flame Legion with an epic boss battle. Sounds like a great reason to log in, right?
Except that apparently with the press previews, Molten Weapon Facilities is not permanent. It is limited to be available only a set amount of time.
At first glance I can see how this can be rage worthy on a few fronts. There are complaints about personal time (“I’m going to Basque country for the month, how dare they!â€) and waste of developer time (“Why would they create a dungeon that future generations won’t even see?!â€). People even take shots at the end game, again.
I stepped back for a moment, and the entire picture came crashing together. This is how it’s always been in Guild Wars 2. Just about every month there has been a limited event. People having Mad King books, bags made out of an ancient karka, Wintersday weapons, and soon-to-be-off-sale Super Adventure Box weaponry all know this.
ArenaNet has always said that because of their business model they have to work hard to keep players coming back. What is a better motivation for players than the fact that they might miss something? This limited design permeates into many areas of Guild Wars 2. There’s been a lot of limited content. Limited gem store sales definitely keep the lights on. And, limited rewards are a great motivator. Right now every non-legendary greatsword seems to be the Super Adventure Box greatsword, but give it a few months and people will be wondering how to obtain it. Next year the 5 guardians or so still wearing it will carry that limited prestige.
I’ll bookend this post to reiterate that all is not limited. For example, the Molten Weapon Facilities dungeon was actually built by a Living Story team. It was not built by the dungeon team who are “currently working on other content in the gameâ€. The dungeon team is likely working on permanent content, such as their re-polishing of Ascalon Catacombs. The guild content team, the WvW team, and probably many others are all adding permanent content. The water level is always rising.
Still, the limited experiences in Guild Wars 2 are what truly sets it apart from other MMOs. I don’t see many MMOs with the gall to remove notable content that has cost precious dev time. Each month seems to make Guild Wars 2 different. Be a part of it, or not; just expect it to be limited.
–Ravious
I’m totally happy with limited duration content. Be there on the day or miss out works for me.
What I’m less happy with is the content we’re getting. A day’s worth of activity, at best, stretchedto a month sums up the first two instalments of F&F. Now a dungeon, no interest to me. Bug fixes, revamps, stuff that should just be background brought into the foreground.
The WvW ranking system and rewards are risible. Spvp might as well be a separate game. I’m still playing for the wonderful world they made but other than the karka misstep that’s the same world it was in beta.
People get mad when the limited content when it was there for some hours or one day. People said “make that limited content stay for one month”. Now the limited content is for one month and the same people that asked for it is mad…
We really evolved from monkeys.
I think you’ll probably find that different people are complaining about each of those things.
If I only played one MMORPG, this kind of content would be awesome. My pace of consuming content is so slow, though, that I’ll barely get a glimpse before it’s gone.
That directly cancels out the benefit of the pay-to-play model for someone like me.
I know that this type of content is not the only content, but it might actually be a net subtraction in my case.
F&F was finally cool at the last update. In general, though, it *feels* like there hasn’t been anything significant added to the game since launch though. The fact that I *know* several things HAVE been added (completely unrelated to what I got the game for in the first place) just makes it sadder (to me). GW2’s probably trying to be too many games at once, so all of them end up really watered down.
While I’ll admit this is the first step in the right direction the development team has had since launch. I still think they are missing the point.
1) Why not give us statistical breakdowns of power in/out, damage in/out, healing in/out — %crit, etc. after a five man instance (example: Cathedral of Flames dungeon). Sure, e-peen will be flexed but true players of Guild Wars will enjoy a breakdown on how their glass cannon flavor of the month loadout/build.
In addition, give players a better means at acquiring somewhere reliable/correct data to help theory craft new build/skill synergies/design.
2) Fractals! They are amazing..but why not add another fractal map or give some sort of incentive for higher level fractal members to assist in users lower in difficulty.
3) Keg Sliding — It’s there..use it. Remember costume brawl and more importantly snowball areana/automated tournaments in the original? Well, people ate that shit up. The format isn’t even bad, make it so we could create teams, give proper incentives for doing well. Host tournaments / take a few days and balance it. Throwing the keg all the way into outerspace never does get old.
4) Realize no matter what you do to sPvP you MUST FOCUS on cooldown tinkering/introduce new PvP only skills that negate, buff/debuff cooldown time, and having a real meta game is impossible when the whole idea to counter is based on cooldowns — not player skill.
I realize this was a lot of babble and never in the right place. But I was bored, and the game makes me sad…but for some damn reason, I remain optimistic.
The Beersmith – NA (Blackgate)
Tinfoil Hat Conspiracy [LiES]
http://www.tinfoil-hat.org
I actually really like the limited content thing, and if it helps ArenaNet’s business model, more power to them. I like the sense of history it gives the game. I have friends who only started playing this year and yeah, it’s annoying for them that they can’t craft ice cream without buying ingredients because they weren’t here for Wintersday – but I love explaining things that happened in the past. Miss one event, you’ll be here for a different one. I think the Living Story team should definitely be working on things which come and pass as the story moves.