Developers can learn from ArenaNet learning from their players.
2012 was difficult year for the MMOs, with over-hyped and under delivering Star Wars: The Old Republic being the latest addition to a growing list of games to drop the subscription and go free-to-play. But Guild Wars 2, released in August, has amassed an impressive collection of awards and rapidly growing login numbers, even into the first quarter of 2013.
Guild Wars 2 is free to play and supports itself with microtransactions for items of convenience and cosmetic enhancements (pets, costumes, boosts). I will freely admit that since release I have spent more on pretty things and convenience than I would have done on a subscription fee. So what are ArenaNet doing right where so many other titles have crumbled? Quite simply, the players own the game that they have bought. The developers listen.
Naturally, upon release, the game had its share of bugs and was never going to have the scope of the Blizzard behemoth with eight years of refinement and expansions under its belt. But we persevered. The developers regularly engaged with the community about the fixes and adjustments that were required, the fixes were implemented and the adjustments made. ArenaNet humbly acknowledged its own mistakes, where they had been made. Being a long-time Guild Wars 1 player I had no doubts that ArenaNet would continue to release and implement content on a regular basis; what astonished me was the rate at which this happened. October saw a massive Halloween festival that went way above and beyond the scope of anything I had seen before in Tyria, with spooky decorations flying up all over the cities, kids in costumes, new quests, items, impossibly complicated puzzles and monsters.
The very next month our peaceful November at the beach was interrupted by an invasion of crazy-ass sea monsters called Karka, which really dampened our day. We geared up and headed out to the brand new island in search of vengeance, glory and phat lewt.
These events did not come without their own share of new problems both technically and in gameplay (mostly based around time limits and difficulty level). Mistakes were not repeated. The brief 4-day participation period for Halloween became a three weeks event on Wintersday to give players the freedom to choose which parts of the festival they wanted to participate in during December. We were able to get the achievements, titles and unique weapon skins on our own schedule. One-time events were done away with, eliminating the dreaded lag-fest zerg-party and associated disconnects. Furthermore, the over complex and infuriatingly complicated puzzles were mellowed out and developed with multiple tracks of varying difficulty – with the same reward.
The upcoming January patch preceeds the long awaited culling fix, changes to the dungeons, expansion and new additions to the open world and PVP arenas, both team based and World vs World. Rather than this “new content” running the risk of introducing more grind to an already grindy genre, the announced changes to Fractals dungeons will remove some barriers to participation – level requirements.
The dialogue between ArenaNet and players reveals a strong level of devotion and investment on both sides that within a few years will have created a world that will far surpass its predecessors in terms of community cohesion, scope and accessibility. And if it still isn’t what you want from a game? Check back in a few months. The evolution is rapid and doesn’t cost the players a penny.
I can poach livestock, that’s all I really need out of my games…
[''Size of that cock...'' SiTye]
Elizabeth Talketh