AMA Going on now.

[zito]

As an MMO, you are trying to please a huge player base. Some play a few hours a month while others stop playing to sleep for a few hours every day. Reward rates seem to be balanced for those who play constantly. This disparagy causes casual players to play a very different game from the hardcore. What are some ideas to keep the player base from fracturing?

This is an extremely interesting question and as you know the path down the road for a solution is highly complex. In fact myself and Mo were discussing this this morning. So please forgive me if my answer is somewhat lite or comes across as deflective but i would prefer the surroundings of a pub or meeting room to really get into this one.
However:
I think online worlds are amazing in that they house different societies or player types if you like. I think it is only natural for players to gravitate to those who they feel are like minded, and i think it is also only natural and in some ways quite healthy to have a macro society or community that doesn't always agree with one another. I think that diversity is exciting but it can also fragment so a method in which different groups of players work with others in synergy each enjoying their own diverse game play that is rewarding because of the game play is certainly a step in the right direction. Reading this statement you will no doubt be thinking that the FotM doesn't utilize this philosophy and you would be correct. Moving forward progression and rewards will be inter woven appropriately into the core systems and social aspects of the game, allowing the diverse societies or player types to work together by playing the content that they love.
So in short something that is universally enjoyable as a progression system or a reward should be as accessible as possible and cater to the different ways our players consume the game but in a manner in which the Community of the world as a whole is contributing to each others overall experience.
If you would like to talk further then pm me and we can discuss in game.
chris

WOOOOOSSSSSHHHHH

wow

[Valeron]

They answered 5 questions in an hour and ten minutes.

Really....

There has to be some gestapo dude looking over his shoulder reading the questions first, saying yay or nay to what the developer can answer.

[Durzlla]

Some can use some major adjustments. The giant one is great. I like the underwater one to an extent (jellyfish needs a flipin buff and I swear to god if they just increase his damage ima shoot my computer). Swamp should be a little more forgiving that the team won't come to the conclusion of "lets skip this" before we even start and conditions need to work on the snowstorm first boss.

I personally LOVE the swamp one, then again i seem to be the only one capable of avoiding traps and as such am the one to take the furthest wisp... I agree 100% with the snow one, i've never done the underwater, but Anet said once he gets agony he becomes and absolute monster, and because of this they want to buff his pre agony versions to make the difficulty stay closer together, i haven't done the siege on Ascalon one either, but all of the others i thought were REALLY fun, and don't dislike any of them, however some are liked a lot more then others, and there are some that are really really easy... Like pretty much all of Cat-a-Sum and then the dredge one was pretty easy as well, the others i've done seemed balanced pretty well in difficulty.

[zito]

I personally LOVE the swamp one, then again i seem to be the only one capable of avoiding traps and as such am the one to take the furthest wisp... I agree 100% with the snow one, i've never done the underwater, but Anet said once he gets agony he becomes and absolute monster, and because of this they want to buff his pre agony versions to make the difficulty stay closer together, i haven't done the siege on Ascalon one either, but all of the others i thought were REALLY fun, and don't dislike any of them, however some are liked a lot more then others, and there are some that are really really easy... Like pretty much all of Cat-a-Sum and then the dredge one was pretty easy as well, the others i've done seemed balanced pretty well in difficulty.

ascalon was boring.

Break down door and deal with the huge fps lag of 200 npcs. Go through a straightforward random maze. Fight the boss where he doesn't do anything before his big attacks making him impossible to avoid besides being lucky. If he does do something he is too small and all the particle effects make it impossible to see.

---------- Post added 2012-11-26 at 09:23 PM ----------

Hi Horde,
I totally get what you are saying and we are working very hard on not only addressing the bugs in the game, but building on new areas and trying to ensure that new content is as bug free as possible. This is very big ticket item for all of us, so in the same way as the work we did on bots you can expect to see big improvements soon.
Chris

New content is bug free because there is no content on the new content area.

---------- Post added 2012-11-26 at 09:24 PM ----------

Hi Tyrjala,
Thanks for taking the time to post your question. Both personal story and home instances are ares that i wish we had spent more time on already in terms of content since release. However we will be building on them as we move forward and would love to hear more of your thoughts in regard to the direction you would like to see them move in. In short you can expect to see big things.
Chris

/10characters

[Durzlla]

@Zito, HEY!! don't make fun of southsun!! That's my favorite zone atm... Then again i just enjoy killing Karka and going on a safari there... It has content, it's just a lot of people aren't there currently, so a lot of the crazy as hell chains don't start going.... Like the worm event... where if he kills the golem the worms go crazy and start kiling everything including Karka because burrowing worms don't give a shit what you do to try and stop them they kill what they want!

And that personal story question makes me happy, i've been wanting to make a new character for the whole going through the story sort of thing because i'm one of those very story driven players...

[Valeron]

I find the reef drakes a bigger pain than Karka, at least the normal karka. Veteran karka suck.

But yeah, I like the island. I hope they do develop it more.

[Durzlla]

I find the reef drakes a bigger pain than Karka, at least the normal karka. Veteran karka suck.

But yeah, I like the island. I hope they do develop it more.

lol i said i enjoy FIGHTING the karka more, the Reef drakes completely man handle me and make me cry... which is why i made sure to tame one and name him bubbles! and together we put the karka menace into graves!!

[zito]

@Zito, HEY!! don't make fun of southsun!! That's my favorite zone atm... Then again i just enjoy killing Karka and going on a safari there... It has content, it's just a lot of people aren't there currently, so a lot of the crazy as hell chains don't start going.... Like the worm event... where if he kills the golem the worms go crazy and start kiling everything including Karka because burrowing worms don't give a shit what you do to try and stop them they kill what they want!

And that personal story question makes me happy, i've been wanting to make a new character for the whole going through the story sort of thing because i'm one of those very story driven players...

Theres 7 events. 3 of which I believe are just retaking a camp. 1 is escorting a guy with bombs to destory the nests which is just killing a bunch of karka. 1 is gathering eggs (boring) and another is a giant shark like every other zone has and I never see the worm event spawn.

Most of the entire zone is covered in useless mobs the only challenge is the champion karka guarding the rich vein of obsidian. And sorry but veteran and champion karka are an exact copy of Teras spiders BAMS. Except they don't lay eggs.

There is some content but not enough to justify this zone. It's great for people who like to grind mobs forever. But that's a small playerbase and not what GW2 content was advertised.

---------- Post added 2012-11-26 at 09:41 PM ----------

Hi Samurai,
I am going to take a quick break then answer one of your questions at a time then go pick another and come back to this list. Time permitting i will try to get as many done as possible.
Chris

You are taking a break?

You answered 7 questions...

wtf

[Valeron]

I count 20 questions he responded to. A lot of it was fluff yeah but still technically more than 7.

[zito]

I count 20 questions he responded to. A lot of it was fluff yeah but still technically more than 7.

I didn't count the times he just said "I'm answering people who post one question at a time" nor do I count him saying I'm taking a break.

But if I did. 20 questions... 2 hours... justifys a lot right?

[Valeron]

hey just saying

I still say there is a proof reader before he reads the question

anyway, if he does answer all of Samurai's questions, or even a majority of them, it should be worth it. I hope anyhow.

[nightshark]

All of the answers are very safe and vague.

Pretty much - nothing to see here ><

Hope the top post gets some detailed answers.

[zito]

Asuras rejoice!

As an Asura I feel that the weapon sizing is underwhelming, are there plans to look at this? Thank you!

There are certainly plans to have a look at that now and discuss it internally. Thanks for your feedback Shimp.
Chris

[Durzlla]

Theres 7 events. 3 of which I believe are just retaking a camp. 1 is escorting a guy with bombs to destory the nests which is just killing a bunch of karka. 1 is gathering eggs (boring) and another is a giant shark like every other zone has and I never see the worm event spawn.

Most of the entire zone is covered in useless mobs the only challenge is the champion karka guarding the rich vein of obsidian. And sorry but veteran and champion karka are an exact copy of Teras spiders BAMS. Except they don't lay eggs.

There is some content but not enough to justify this zone. It's great for people who like to grind mobs forever. But that's a small playerbase and not what GW2 content was advertised.

---------- Post added 2012-11-26 at 09:41 PM ----------



You are taking a break?

You answered 7 questions...

wtf

Yeah there's more then those Zito... There's also the consortium chain, there's the worm chain (5 total, gathering parts for golem, repairing golem, fighting giant worm, retreating from worms if golem dies, recontaining the worms), they're at their own PoI, there's also a Drake Broodmother event, which has to be completed to tame the drake, there's 2? Maybe 3, events where you take camps (all the camp taking ones have the same events which is why in only counting it as 3) and there was another one dealing with drakes, but I haven't done it, only seen it in the distance.

[Zilong]

Im waiting for a bored and kind soul to compress the info and put it pretty somewhere Let me know guys! lol

[Deleted]

"We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward" - Pure gold!

Also it seems that ANet are using some political tactics, like the ones politicians use to raise taxes.
They did this with tokens and they'll do it again with mats required for ascended, it will still be a huge grind but people won't care anymore because it was worse before.

[The Darkitecht]

"We do intent to focus on horizontal but we will have vertical progression moving forward" - Pure gold!

you forgot to mention the part that by vertical progress he meant Fine->masterwork->rare->exotic->ascended/legendary, not continuing the trend beyond ascended.

yes they're going to continue that trend, but as any individual could have assumed weeks ago, it's stopping with ascended.

[Deleted]

you forgot to mention the part that by vertical progress he meant Fine->masterwork->rare->exotic->ascended/legendary, not continuing the trend beyond ascended.

yes they're going to continue that trend, but as any individual could have assumed weeks ago, it's stopping with ascended.

They'll not add other tiers, right.
But they'll add, overtime, more stats to the existing tiers, so different names, same stuff.

[Durzlla]

They'll not add other tiers, right.
But they'll add, overtime, more stats to the existing tiers, so different names, same stuff.

Exactly, I'm imagining it'll be like what they did with the Apothecary Gear, where it brought in a stat comp we didn't have, I wonder if we will ever get a Vitality/Toughness/Healingpower (not in that order) gear set...

[Ravenblade]

I believe now that they were always intending having a vertical progression but at a slow and subtle rate. The introduction of Ascended gear caused a spike which would not have been there if it were already in the game. Now they can go back to slow and subtle. Yes, there was an end in sight before and it was achievable and I think that's their long-term plan. The problem is that bridging of gaps right now is supposed to be long-term 'work' aka grind. I think it would have been more fun if you had to do a lot of scavenger hunts to gather parts over time rather than outright grinding for tokens and mats and what have you. I believe they haven't really used much of their potential by resorting to standard solutions which are giving you some awkward dejavu's instead.