@ op
I agree pretty much everything - except price. I know it seemed expensive at the time but from the advertising blurb and the obvious quality improvements witnessed in various trailers, GW2 did seem like a massive step forward so the pricing was probably justifiable in that respect. I'm of the belief that if you are going to get a triple A experience out of a triple A game then what you paid for it shouldn't be an issue. After all, if GW2 would have been the outstanding experience that PopCap implied it was going to be then I don't honestly believe anyone on these forums would be talking about what they paid for it - irrespective of other issues. No, price is kind of biased towards personal experience.
The one aspect of particular importance mentioned was that of community input.
What the community wants and what the developers seem to think we want are two entirely different things nowadays. How a franchise evolves is entirely at the discretion of the developers and although we think we have power to make influential decisions we don't - we're just the people who buy the product, have a little moan that it's not very good and buy the next release (albeit in slightly smaller numbers) hoping that it is better than the previous incarnation. That's how the industry works.
Or is it?
Codemasters spent years completely disregarding the community over development of their Grid and Dirt franchise - instead attempting to making a niche product more appealing to a casual audience. A decision that subsequently resulted in five consecutive years of negative profit. Of course, it's just pure coincidence that community feedback during development of Dirt Rally resulted in the company making it's first profit in several years, isn't it ?
CM insisted that the decline was for other reasons...Well make up your own mind on that one.
Core design (remember them?) spent an eternity living off Tomb Raider - spending half their existence making crappy games and the other half using revenue from those crappy games to fund an ever declining. ever more expensive Tomb Raider franchise to the point that people just stopped buying everything Core related full stop.
Instances that affected a franchise in the only way a community can realistically voice their opinions - by simply not buying the product. If PopCap are happy with the way they perceive community concerns / feedback and possible implications of just 'doing their own thing' then so be it, at the end of the day I am quite comfortable with that. As developers you are quite within your rights to move forward in any way you care to choose (you're the one's making the big investments - not us) and likewise, as a paying customer I can analyse my experience of any game and plan any future entertainment related purchases accordingly - it's not a big deal.
This whole "I bought the game and therefore i am entitled to have all characters unlocked" doesn't make any sense. The Legendaries are not a necessity. They are not required to achieve anything or add anything. They don't make you a good player. They are just a bonus. Just think about it as something that will be unlocked over time.
The pricing is also something that is reasonable. We just have to look at other games and how they release additional maps, characters, clothing, weapons; with the price tag attached. 60 or even 70 i spent on GW2 are maybe too much if you only want to spent 10 hours with it. But for the amount of playtime so many have, it's completely worth it. The only problem i see there is the shady Preorder Bonus that can also be received by buying the Deluxe Edition. But again, every publisher does that.
The whole package that is GW2 offers enough to deserve a recommendation. The only major issues it had was the first broken Content Update that managed to crash the game across all platforms after installation and forced many players, myself included, to wait for a fix. Accompanied by a bug that forced so many players to play the intro over and over. Which just shows that Popcaps major issue is QA. And the huge balance issues inside the game just demonstrate that once more.
In the end it isn't the cosmetics, Legendaries or the crashes that made me stop playing, but the sheer lack of balance. Running statistics and throwing in your own opinions as developer isn't enough when you have a competitive multiplayer game were humans show their lowest traits to succeed in a low risk high reward fashion.
Not to forget that teamplay isn't rewarded enough, despite being a team based game. And all of that could have been avoided if the developers would have tested it properly.
And that is what worries me. As the GW franchise seems to become more and more casual friendly. With lots of colorful chaos, disregarding strategy altogether. Easy to access but no way to master it.
@Screion wrote:This whole "I bought the game and therefore i am entitled to have all characters unlocked" doesn't make any sense. The Legendaries are not a necessity. They are not required to achieve anything or add anything. They don't make you a good player. They are just a bonus. Just think about it as something that will be unlocked over time.
What you and other people don't see to understand is that you can literally not unlock any legendary item if you're not lucky enough. Plus they are going to add more and more drops with each big update. Nothing about being entitled but don't lack characters behind rng. Nobody has ever liked it and the fact you people keep acting as if it's ok is just nasty. Grow a pair.
The lack of balance made most of the people stop playing to be honest.
This upcoming patch may address some but I'm not sure why buffing the Mech helps balance anything, just looking at all these patch notes and when the game was released really does make you wonder why developers release a game that is so broken to begin with. Players have moved on now, and at least for me there is still very little incentive to come back. Real gamers like balanced games.
