Guild Wars 2: Should We Be Worried About The Future? (2023 Roadmap)
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2024
- So I'm very late to the party (as usual) but here's my thoughts on the 2023 Studio Update where ArenaNet laid out their plans for the future of Guild Wars 2 content. Living World is dead? Expansions are the future? Hmmm...
MightyTeapot: • TeaTime: Let's Talk LF...
WoodenPotatoes: • Guild Wars 2 Expansion...
00:00 - Intro
01:20 - The Story
03:30 - The Content
05:20 - Elite Specs?
08:31 - The Business Side
10:28 - Concluding Thoughts
#guildwars2 #mmorpg #steam - Ігри
Enjoy your content and perspectives, especially on teatime! Bonus meme: I'm pretty sure the blog said only 2 strikes (not 3) and 1 fractal per cycle, if that changes your opinion at all
Oh hmmm, you’re right - must’ve misread
That still brings us to 4 Strikes every two years which is the norm, but a bonus 2 Fractals? A little scant but tbh can’t really comment until we know what else specifically these quarterly updates bring!
@@BloomHD agreed completely! Mostly just hoping they manage a 1 year cycle
And all of those are getting CMs, for what that's worth.
For the Elite Spec part, I think I might know why they didn't cover them in the Blog Post.
You'll notice that the only content that was actually covered in the blog post was the "RECURRING" content, aka what we're gonna get with every new expansion release along with its updates, all the while remaining very vague about stuff like the "New Systems" that every expansion is gonna bring.
So it's safe to assume that Elite Specs are simply not part of said "Recurring" content.
But what if... Elite Spec are actually being kept as one of the potential "Flagship Feature"" for an expansion?
Basically, Elite Spec would STILL be released, but NOT with every expansion, instead they would likely be released every few expansions as part of the aforementioned "New System" aka the "Flagship Feature"
New class, which probably isn't happening, but new weapon(s) would be nice. Not concerned about adding more elite specs, three is plenty for each class. I can only imagine trying to balance some of those, there's already enough patches as it is. As long as ANET keeps releasing content, we'll be fine. The game isn't going anywhere for awhile, if some are bored, take a break.
I want new weapon types. Greataxe, Fist weapons, Halberds, Flails, etc...
I definitely think Greataxe should be the next weapon if they ever make a new one.
Because almost EVERY weapons have a 1 handed and 2 handed version of itself, except for Axes... only 1 handed, even though we SEE some character wielding such axes, they just behave like Hammers
I'm down for some kind of fist weapon or a brawler class
Really want the 1 handed spear, like paragons in guild wars 1. Sooo badly.
A few things to note here.
1. It's only two strikes as far as we know, but generally speaking the whole blogpost was annoyingly vague on the details and in urgent need of a follow-up.
2. We have not heard any explanation why they could do LWS3 into PoF into S04, but they can't do it now. The split back then was announced to be 120 people for living world and 70 for the next expansion. After PoF those expansion people were simply assigned to non-GW2 projects. So what is stopping them from doing a similar split exactly? My guess is that, as they alluded, all their resources went into releasing those Living World episodes and they couldn't focus on PvP, WvW, QoL changes and features as much as they wanted to. So are we OK with getting noticeably less content in return for more QoL stuff? I totally am, but I would understand if someone isn't. That said, 2 strikes and a single fractal a year is laughably little, they should be delivering double that amount.
3. Come on man, it's exactly the Icebrood Saga, just rebranded. Branding is important, especially from an outside perspective the whole Saga thing was difficult to market or understand, but from the perspective of veteran players, it's exactly that. The reason we never saw those expansion level features was that they hard pivoted to EoD, but Almorra for example was very clearly a Willbender in IBS. Who knows how many other EoD features were meant to come out with IBS
Overall, none of this means anything to me, beyond shifting away from an obtuse business model that negatively targeted new players to one that is infinitely more marketable, and where instead vets have to keep ponying up money, as they freaking should. We have to wait and see what they do, there are so far way too many unknowns.
As always enjoyed the video though, keep em coming! And get Shill Up to finally try the freaking thing.
Cheers Luthi - all good points! Yeah 2 Strikes per year definitely feels quite sparse, I agree, but holding my tongue until the next ‘expac’ to see how hard this really impacts our experience. I think 4 Strikes + 2 Fractals per year as you suggest would be unreasonable tbh - I get that GW2’s competitors do more, but they’re working with bigger teams, bigger budgets and (perhaps importantly) content that can be ‘cycled’ out - they don’t have to deal with the endgame bloat that GW2 does. I haven’t seen any indication that Anet could tackle an instanced PvE cadence like that - even when Raids were regularly released, the rest of the game suffered.
Still not sure I’m on board with the IBS stance tbh - a completely new leadership team landing on the exact same model as the previous? While on the surface it can definitely be construed that way (and further clarification is much needed as you say) I get the sense that internally there’s a different philosophy at play. Where IBS never ‘got to’ the ‘expac features’, I do believe we’ll see more of those things front-loaded with these ‘mini-expansions’ and just expanded upon with the updates. All speculation really but I guess we’ll see where it leads :)
I really do hope we get more content, especially story content. We went through a 308 day new story content drought between the end of IBS and the launch of EoD. Not to mention how dreadfully disappointing the 10 year in the making Decade celebration was. I was expecting story content, a map and more, instead we got a "Hey go do repeat content and here's some skins" .... like wow ! That took them 10 years ? LW3, PoF and LW4 were the high point of GW2. Saddens me terribly how much the staff, budget and dev cuts after that hit EoD (4 maps to PoF's 5), it felt more like WoW's Cataclysm, where the devs spent a lot of time on remaking the world for new players (in GW2's case LW1) and gave us half an expansion at launch. As for that new story content, 308 day drought before EoD hit, a WHOLE YEAR of no new story content after EoD hit.... thats awful, that's never happened before in the history of GW2. After all that work and effort into enticing new players with their Steam launch, that will all go to waste once they find out (especially players from WoW and FFXIV !!!) that regular new story content is not a thing over here at GW2. So yeah, I really do hope we have that on a regular basis with their new road map.
As for elite specs, totally agree, we have enough already 27 !!! Elites a just a change in game mechanics to me, not real content. Its maps, stories, fractals, strikes, raids, masteries (because you have to spend time earning them) and achievements, especially collection achievements (and felt short changed on those with EoD too), that keep players in the game not changes to mechanics (talking about PvE, not PvP or WvW). Would like to see some new player races but ONLY if they're inserted with story content not just dumped into game with no backstory.
Lastly, being an explorer type player very disappointed with just one or two maps :-( New maps are what I so looked forward to with Living Worlds.
7:15, that would actually be super cool. I can imagine it replacing your secondary weapon and you can now just main 1 weapon if you wanted to. Like for me, being a Necro with a greatsword fulltime would be neat.
I hope they plan to update the player model polygons for smoother edges.
Not a huge change but it would help areas like asura ears looking less jagged and more smooth.
That way the model still looks the same, just less 2010. I'd ask for HD textures but some worry that it would be too drastic and I understand.
Another welcome change are novelties like heart effects or size changes being active why on mount or reactivating when going off them, if you activated it before mounting. A small QoL change, especially for RP.
I find it weird that nobody seems to be talking about the better alternative to Elite specs for these kind of content drops: new classes.
If you think about it, the big issue with introducing specs is the fact that there are 9 classes, and therefore 9 elite specs that have to be rolled out.
That's obviously out of the question for yearly xpacs, that much has been said. The best way to continue down that particular road might be releasing them in sets of 3s, meaning all 9 classes would get an elite spec every 3-5 years (which is basically what we've been at until now)
My idea is this: release a new class + 1 spec initially, and then another 2 specs over 1 or 2 xpacs.
While a new class might be more work than an elite spec, it certainly can't be more work than having to conceptualize and design 9 specs for existing classes, so at least on paper it should be more doable, plus it means anet would essentially have things potentially covered for the next decade and beyond.
1 class per armor type, and 3 specs per class, coming out on a 3-5 year cycle.
It's most likely wishful thinking, but I think it could be done, would be easier to balance, and would satisfy the people who look forward to new specs coming out.
Besides, anet still have plenty of good class concepts lying around from GW1.
New classes without any elite specs? What would classes alow them to do that specs don't?
It’s a good idea - I’ve never really considered it because I really LIKE the way that GW2 *expands* on your class’s toolkit with expacs rather than asking you to (for a lack of a better term) ditch it for the new shiny toy. Avoids the need to re-level, re-purchase bag slots, re-do map completion, etc. I don’t hate the idea though - they’re in a weird place as elite specs have become the expectation now, curious to see what they land on.
@@BloomHD I definitely understand your perspective, though I'm an altoholic myself, but this strict adherence to horizontal progression, with nothing ever being replaced by something new, is what got us to where we are now.
Same collection of weapons, same classes (Revenant being the one exception) and nowhere to really go mechanically outside of specs.
At least nothing that could be as impactful. I really don't think masteries will ever be a substitute for new specs or weapon types.
I think comparing it to D2 is a lot more accurate than to ESO and I think that’s a good thing. D2 has a good content cycle going, big hype for the expansion and then it’s drops back down to baseline and then gets more hype for new dungeons or the next expansion. Having that on a yearly basis instead of the like 3-4 years of GW2 will be a lot healthier for the game imo
Also if they kept adding elite specs it would be a nightmare to balance…
@@LuminusZebra Problem is MMOs need large scale, full sized expansions with meaningful new additions to actual build up hype and introduce new players. The former model essentially involved yearly (with the exception of some hiatus's) updates with new maps, story and content followed by an actual expansion every 3 or 4 years with substantial new additions. To me this new model just sounds like re-branding living world seasons as expansions and calling it a day, which sounds like we will never be getting any of the real big additions to the game we got as a part of proper expansions which would be like if we had only got living world seasons since launch, which would have meant no Mastery System, no Gliding, no Elite Specializations, no Mounts, no Fishing, no Skiffs, no Jade Bots etc.
MMO's live or die by the addition of substantial and meaningful new content, new story, maps and meta events just will not cut it. These new "expansions" need to each release with something that gets people hyped and changes up the gameplay to some extent, otherwise people wont care about them and they wont bring in new players.
D2 also has a horrible model that involves permanently deleting old content making the game extremely inaccessible to new players and is an extremely dickish thing to do to established players, and it should in no way be held up as being good for that.
I'd like one more set of elite specs. As engi main I'm not a big fan of mech and I'd love a competitive condi build that isn't reliant on idiotic AI and kits. What seems more likely IMO is us getting new basic weapons which would be awesome.
YES! Adding new weapons to core classes would be exciting without creating a whole new elite spec
As a gamedev myself I will be honest the update only outlines the very first step of the new road and what that entails every cycle of updates but it doesnt say that is limited to it or that it will expands this is an usual safe way to communicate already stablished features and workflow that doesnt compromise the teams in development most other content is not directly planned for this iteration and with good reason specializations are part of expansion beggi nada ngs and EoD already has them this new cycle begins with the second half of EoD, meaning this is not a new expansion bit rather an addition to EoD, the first total expansion in this format will probably be ready for next year to announce meaning the features that will bring are still in development and are obviously bot going to be disclosed early, I would say patience is better than speculation this is a new process for the teams as well as players and adjustments have to be made that is why they started with additional content and not a new expansion per se
BOY. Hey Bloom what's good? Yeah I think this is in the right direction. I still have yet to complete the EoD campaign to not complete all of my story stuff.
Are we supposed to get a strike before the new expansion? I don’t seem to recall that being the case in the studio update, only one fractal and 1 big map divided in two updates
Bloom is the best ❤ great vid man!!
Slightly lower, I doubt they will be that much cheaper. Elite specs are definitely a big deal but if they keep adding weapons and utilities I could get by without new trait lines as honestly those have the biggest oomph. Still don't have a light armour class with longbow or shortbow. Would be nice to see longbow on ele and shortbow on mesmer still.
Who doesn't like listening to Bloom? Good stuff!
Nice video! Curious what class you're playing in the B roll footage there. There's a lot i havent touched so i tend to forget what the skills look like :D. Regarding content, i still need to find motivation to work through the age of dragons campaign. The canta maps have been neat though.
Spellbreaker with Hammer (Warrior)
This is the type of game where they don't need people to just play every day all day and keep up a sub... If people take breaks it doesn't really hurt them at all. Instead, they need to make stuff people want to buy as a one-off. Most veterans already bought all the convenience items, so they need vets to buy content. They also need to attract more attention to get new players... which primarily comes from releasing more content and the advertising/social media/word of mouth that results. This plan accomplishes both.
Regarding elite specs or any other specific feature... I'm sure they have some plans one way or the other but ultimately everything they have planned or not planned is subject to change based on how well things are going. Maybe right now they have no plans for elite specs, but if they release an expansion without them and it goes poorly for them, they are likely to adjust.
More Bloom content yesssss
this expansion release type actually destroyed eso and now they're turning back to make bigger expansions . i hope arenanet saw zos' mistakes and won't repeat them
I think I prefer a cagey/vague post. The details of what content we are getting is the point of having the expansion announcement/reveal. And personally I don't want every expansion to be 100% the exact same, with the exact same content, otherwise it will be very predictible and less exciting.
I'd really dig the racial trait lines but I highly doubt they're gonna go that way. It makes balancing way harder for them cause now every possible build has 5 new variants, and I remember, back in the olden days when gw2 was being revealed bit by bit that they said that they specifically didn't do any mechanics or stats tied to races (apart from those three skills) because they didn't want one to become the meta, but rather that people could play the character they wanted and be just as good as any other player of that profession. Which I like gameplay wise, but character wise I sometimes think it would be cool to customize more.
(also except for the eod ones it's been years anet please give us new faces and hairstyles I know you'd make bank T-T)
I'm a skeptic when it comes to the yearly expansion thing, especially after looking at WoW.
I don't think they will or should go forward with abandoning the concept of elite specs. It was a system that was meant to only get going once it reaches multiple elite options per class.
Dumping it and going with some other convoluted system would be such a classic arenanet way of reinventing their own wheels. And without meaningful additions like elite specs, PvP and WvW players may just stop buying expansions unless those add some tacked on powercreep.
Way better idea in my eyes is keeping the elite specialization system, but instead of having to deliver a whole batch of 9 elite specs, give us 2 or 3 elite specs per expansion - but make them creative and feel polished (maybe even tie into expansion lore/characters).
Let's be honest, some of the elite specs we've gotten recently were misses or half done. A lot of reused animations, some uninspired traits (harbinger) some half baked concepts (untamed). I think giving the design team more freedom in when they deliver new elite specializations would result in far better outcome - even without yearly expansion plan.
Everything else, I'm happy about.
Bloom gimmie that GW2 content, I need it sir
More Bloom content when more GW2 content 👀
If they don’t do something like elite specs then I have no reason to pay it. New talent lines, abilities are the reason why I play.
I will worry about the future if after SOTO we have a 10 month dry spell waiting for the next expansion.
Pvp update - willbender specifically pls! Been seeing a lot more in pvp, which is a good thing.
It can't be less content than no releases over 4 years. Let's be real. I'll take a bunch of mini content more consistently.
So what happens if you don’t have all the current elite specs “unlocked”? Do we lose access to them or does everything remain as is, just no more future elite specs. For instance, if my engineer hasn’t started working on mechanist yet, will I still be able to do that in the future or is it, get it now or lose it forever?
There's no reason to assume anything like that would be lost or locked, play at your own place and enjoy the game.
I cant even understand what made you think this
@@franciscooliveira8939 I guess you haven’t played other games where a “ new vision of the future of the game” was introduced and it changed everything from lowering level caps to completely overhauling talents and builds. I have, and more than one where my exact question about unlocked elite specs, happened. So now you know.
People being using the argument "well this is living world but paid" seriously baffles me. Like yeah the content in a full season (like 3 and 4) are absolutely worth paying for it. The fact that veterans (only veterans mind you) had it for free when it should be paid DLC was an insane privilege that no other company would (or should) do.
So playing after level 80 and trading gold for gems is considered being veteran now?
@@ok_listen Veterans as being there when the living world came out years ago and got it for free. Not even sure what your point is. Very few new players will farm gold for it and even though very doable it is a non-trivial process for a new player to get to the point of farming enough gold to get the gems to unlock everything. It is not for free for a new player. You either pay in money or effort.
@@mormegil231 My point is that they still can be obtained for free by farming gold and converting, so your point is invalid.
@@ok_listen Apparently you are not even reading what i am saying so i am not going to argue the obvious. Have a nice day.
In WoW or FFXIV you buy an expansion then get follow up content for free while having to pay a subscription at the same time to play them. To me the Living Worlds were the equivalent of paying a subscription. Bonus, in GW2 if you were there at the launch of any of the Living World chapters you got them for free. I returned to GW2 in 2018 after throwing in the towel on FFXIV (their endless gear grind treadmill wore me down, slaved for months on getting best in slot then new content dropped and WHAM ! All your gear is obsolete, start all over again, have fun ! Using gear as incentive to play just doesn't appeal to me) and bought HoT, PoF then had to pay for LW2 and LW3, and possibly Chapter 1 of LW4 (A Bug in the System had launched just before returning) that didn't worry me at all.
I just want longbow ele to be a thing, dont care how they deliver it. We NEED a good range weapon for elementalist!
And they make it a melee weapon
They need rework that outdated UI and make enemy health bars bigger
Be nice if they fix support and make them rewarding to play and not alacrity bots.
Much better update roadmap. Fck new elite specs without real content. Hyped for more strikes and fractal
Shill Up is working you too hard 😂
Ok so more strikes and crap but what about the people who enjoy the game WITHOUT those items. Looks like those players with be pushed out for the other ones with strikes. Not the first time anet has prioritized them over the people that actually made the game what it is.
Also looks like they will be charging more overall for these “expansions” and add ons in the long run, and too much time on crap weapon skins and ugly mounts. I love this game, been playing since day 1, GW1 thru now. We shall see.
I’d rather pay an extra 20 bucks a year and have the servers stay up, yep.
instead of a new elite spec... why not a new character with 2 elite spec. then next expan would add another elite spec for it. instead of doing 9 new specs 1 for each char this would be a great addition to the game
can they just make guild wars 3 already....
Why does everyone want a roadmap? just do something else until the next content release
seems like 20 bucks a year for mini expac is ultra cheap.. destiny gets 100 bucks a year, selling themselves short big time
People who complain about the lack of content in living world have not learned anything since core game came out. Everything is in the achievements. Every lw chapter so far has been really worth the money, especially the higher-end you are. I am very excited
Disagree. It's been 10 years. They just don't know how to balance.
Living world is not dead, you will just be paying for it now.
No new specs or class additions is a deal breaker for me personally.
Guild wars 2, Has nothing to do with The original Guild wars, Its overhyped and full of bullshit mini games and pink and glitter filled garbage.
i got a troll from 2012 on the phone and he wants his opinion back.