A Response to Backlash against Devs in Guild Wars 2

Recently, Guild Wars series developers Arenanet have come under increasing fire from disillusioned players who believe that the company is losing its way in terms of producing new content. These current and some now former players contend that Arenanet has consistently under-delivered on their promises. It's an ugly list for those keeping track. Redditor DustyDemonNinja's observations about the HoT expansion summarize many of the issues concisely, but there are certainly many more as well.

Additionally, it appears that Arenanet may be undergoing some internal turmoil and restructuring as well (particularly the departure of Game Director Colin Johanson) in order to focus more on deliverable content as discussed here.


In one of their first communications with the community following Colin's departure, CEO and acting-Game Director Mike O'Brien dropped a bomb: going forward, no more of the promised new legendary weapons which were supposed to be delivered with Heart of Thorns, the game's first expansion, would be released.

This went over terribly. The recriminations from vocal community members were fast and brutal. However, as the dust settled, community members either accepted the loss of new legendary weapons or moved on to other games. The main criticisms no longer focused on lack of delivery of the weapons, but more on the lack of new content delivery for the foreseeable future.

From the preceding TenTonHammer link:

Despite the player base clawing for content (and more than happy to overlook ArenaNet’s stumbles) I’m still baffled by just how slow they are.

I’ll be the first to admit that providing enough content for any MMO audience is impossible, but crippling new systems you do deliver certainly isn’t the way to go about it (Scribing costs, anyone?). Achievement’s aren’t content. New item collections aren’t content. Redesigning existing content, isn’t “new” content. Heck, even bringing Super Adventure Box back isn’t new content (despite its popularity).

Perhaps the most bizarre thing about the state of Guild Wars 2 at the moment is that the mind boggles just as to how, a team of ArenaNet’s size, is struggling to deliver new content at a reasonable pace. I don’t have unrealistic expectations, nor do I lack the understanding for game development (yes it’s time consuming). My issue is that I suspect much of ArenaNet’s resources are not only allocated to the next expansion pack but also the Living World story. Considering the drain and the fact that it barely provides a few hours of entertainment, it begs the question as to whether or not there’s even value in it.

Arenanet has tried to smooth over these concerns, at least temporarily, with the long-awaited return of Super Adventure Box (itself not without previous controversy), but it is questionable

Even in my own personal experience, however, fellow veteran friends and guild-mates have been either playing other things or going on indefinite hiatus.

This brings us to the point then: Guild Wars 2 is still a completely awesome, fun, engaging and content-rich game!

Keep in mind that I know I do not speak for everyone here, but be aware that as a 30+ gamer with highly limited time for playing, Guild Wars 2 presents an insane amount of varied, fun content that has not and likely will not be duplicated by any other current or near-future game. People play Guild Wars 2 for thousands of hours. Thousands! How much does it cost to acquire the base game and HoT today? Well, the base game is free to play and Heart of Thorns is $50 USD.

In other words, the pure entertainment value of this game is off the charts. Yes, there are people who have played many thousands of hours who are burnt out and feel finished with "real" content and don't feel like grinding for achievement points, but let's put this in context for a minute: $50 for thousands of hours of entertainment. At most, players since launch and who have bought HoT  have shelled out $130 USD (ignoring the gems from HoT Ultimate Edition). If you have played 1000 hours, to be wildly conservative for most veteran players, you have paid $0.13 per hour of entertainment. That number goes down with the number of hours you've played additionally. I challenge you to find another product that can entertain you for this long for this price. Mike O'Brien, Colin Johanson and their team have delivered an incredible product. Mike O'Brien's response to all the criticism is even better: we're sorry for not sating your desire for more content and we'll do better in future.

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the game because, unlike the people who rushed to grind out all the HoT content, I am not finished yet. My limited gaming time may in fact be a blessing in disguise. See you all in-game!