User talk:NuclearVII/Essays/Questions and no answers

I realise some of my quesions may be... overreaching, but I would like some imput - from anyone. If somebody wishes to post this up on Izzy or regina's page, they may do so. -- NUKLEAR IIV 16:56, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

I'm obviously not Isaiah or Arena Net, but here are some of my guesses...

1: Isaiah isn't exactly alone...But I'm not sure that's good or bad. He's listed as a Designer on the GW's credits, and he has recently mentioned how he does work on more than game balance. Considering the "carefree" structure of Arena Net, I would not be surprised if Isaiah is simply the main skill balancer, with everyone and everything giving opinions once in a while. I would not be surprised if some of the worse ideas balance-wise came from some of those "everyone". Isaiah explained more or less how he works here - read that, I think you'll find it interesting.

2: About NF - no idea. About the Domain of Anguish...One tester mentioned how yes, they did test the area before it was released, and how yes, they told the developer team they were not having fun, but the area was released as it was anyway. Caveat lector, but...

3: Often Isaiah has mentioned that he does not like making big changes, as in those he would lose control of which change has caused which effect. With small, controled changes, it would be easier to see what's exactly the impact of each decision, and to avoid big metagame swings.

4: I think this question is the same as 7. Isaiah apparently thinks some builds we call gimmicks are fun...And I happen to agree with him, as long as those gimmicks aren't overpowered. If players thought "Hey, let's screw around HA a bit with IWAY, we'll have fun and maybe we'll get some wins" between "serious" matches using proper builds, I think the game would only win. The problem, IMO, comes when players think "Ok, let's go win Halls for another 15 matches, get your IWAY builds ready" - and players think that when one gimmick build is overpowered.

11 and 12: I really, really doubt Isaiah has any input at all in those decisions (the number of skills to be added, which professions will be added, etc). It feels like the Marketing team met with part of the Developer team and both decided what would be "cool" - and then they gave those ideas to Isaiah and told him to balance the result. That's the only explanation I have for assassins, ritualists, 25 new skills per profession per chapter, etc...

13: I think they're working on it. The update today is likely going to push the split more.

And the Arena Net stuff...

2: Because Guild Wars is the kind of game Arena Net's employers would have fun playing as.

3: Because they didn't agree with design decisions WoW was based on, so they decided to implement their own ideas by themselves.

4: (I'm assuming you are talking about GW2?) Those changes have been made because that's what players have been asking for.

7: (This one isn't a guess - someone who works there said this a while ago, but unfortunately I can't find the link) Arena Net is considered big for a gaming studio that's working on a single game, with 110+ employers.

9: Because Arena Net has to do their best in order to make GW2 the best game as possible. That means using all (or almost all) resources available for GW2.

11: They don't know.

Extremely carebear answers as my guesses here. This isn't a matter of being an Arena Net fan, though - I think they really believe on the above. I really, really think they're so naive to not realize the impact of their decisions on the long run, to realize that something they (and the players) think is really cool may simply not work in game, that the playerbase lacks cohesion to have impact over core design decisions (level cap, etc) and etc. I imagine that design meetings at Arena Net are basically a matter of "Hey guys, I just got this really cool idea, I think we could try to do X!", to be enthusiastically replied with "Let's do it!" ignoring what the impact of that feature would be on the long run. Most of GW's problems, IMO, are a matter of lack of long time planning (and the few problems outside that are caused more by the horrible community the game has than by anything else, IMO). Erasculio 17:55, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Answer to question 17, Duplicates were made for people who bought Factions that did not own Prophecies. This way they could still access some of the more popular Prophecies skills. The duplicate system was disregarded with the release of the "Core Skills" for all campaigns and that is why no duplicates are found in Nightfall. Malchior Devenholm 15:57, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I was a new player back when Factions was released, but wasn't the core skills system released along with the duplicate skills? I specifically remember wanting to get Shock on my (Canthan) warrior before I had Proph, and wishing it were core. I also seem to remember ANet saying that they added them for strategical benefits (which, more than anything, has turned out to mean "gimmicks"). -- Armond Warblade 17:47, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Armond is right. I was around back then, too, and the system of core skills had already been created (and the skills considered to be "core" announced to us) before we learned what the Factions skills were. Erasculio 21:44, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Here's what I think.

Questions to Izzy:

9. According to this post by Linsey Murdock, Guild Wars has no feature allowing GMs or devs to remove fame.

10. IIRC Izzy generally makes the final call on all balance issues. I'm sure the founders or high-ranking NCSoft management could theoretically overrule him.

11. I believe the PC Gamer article which announced Guild Wars 2 explained this well. Throughout the developement of Guild Wars, a number of decisions were made which seemed like good ideas at the time, but had unintended cumulative effects which did not become apparent until far later, culminating in the decision to cancel Utopia and start developing Guild Wars 2.

13. PvE and PvP gameplay have been diverging since the beginning, and as they have drifted apart, it has become increasingly difficult to balance skills for both formats. The split is being used for balance purposes, but they're not doing everything at once.

20. Based on his full name (Stephen Isaiah Cartwright), I assume that English is his first language. I vaguely recall something about dyslexia, but I can't find the post in question.

Questions to ArenaNet:

1. It worked for Blizzard, and if it was failing, for GW1 they wouldn't do it for GW2.

10. Linsey Murdock's the only person confirmed to still be on GW1 full-time, accorging to some of the posts on her talk page, others work on it when they're not busy with GW2.

11. Based on GW1, I assume it will last until there is a similar Utopia-style crisis, which will probably take longer than it did for GW1 due to learning from past mistakes. Based on other MMORPGs, 4~6 years.

13. Hopefully all of the good suggestions and none of the crap. XD

-- Gordon Ecker 01:36, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

I can answer this #6 to Izzy: Shatter Delusions currently only removes a Mesmer hex, but I do believe there was talks of changing it to any type of Hex but doing less damage, which would make his thing make sense. The update for it probably was canned. EDIT: Also yes, Izzy's language is English, he just had dyslexia, I think. Plus when he is talking to fans he is usually in a rush cause he is doing it during work. Also ArenaNet has 140+ employees. DarkNecrid 20:55, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

blargh

Asking about people's pay isn't the best way to go around. I also doubt they'd somehow tell you about any non-gw-related ideas, while keeping silent on all other fronts. It took me a grand total of 3 seconds to find out arenanet has (had?) around 140 employees (according to some "the making of nightfall" thing anyway). As far as stuff like moving on to GW2, isn't that normal? I love how you're already asking about GW3 when we've hardly seen anything about GW2. –Ichigo724 18:51, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Most if not all of these questions are very personal and very rude. Really Nuclear... are you trying to be an ass or something? Because I got an impression like that. Yeah, I know it's on the border of a PA, but I couldn't express it otherwise. Even professional journalist don't ask questions like that. I bet that even Izzy's friends don't ask anything like that. Who are you to ask such questions, demand answers and even set the rules? Think about yourself man...

Also, if it's money your interested in, you might just do what other people do, and look at NcSofts Q2 financial reports. If I remember correctly, GW is making money around the level of City of Heroes, and a lot more then Tabula Rasa. Can't top Lineage, but what do you expect from Korea? :P — Poki#3 22:11, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Why are these questions even being asked? If you can make a better game, go get the necessary skills you need to create it and stop harassing the developers. --72.138.13.180 22:34, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

I was about to say the same thing that Poki just did. Also, several questions have already been answered. For example, the developers switched to GW2 because they felt they couldn't use the GW1 engine to add what they wanted. Starting all over gives them more freedom to add new things (like for example, a Z-axis) and removed the need to add new tutorials for each new feature they were gonna add. 87.210.150.58 07:56, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

He isnt trying to harass izzy or anet, he wants answers. Who gives a fuck if the questions are rough, many people want to ask about this, including me.Oni 14:48, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

Maybe they just don't want to tell you. And asking it in a rough way isn't the best way to get them to answer. You catch more flies with honey then you do with vinegar. 87.210.150.58 19:35, 16 August 2008 (UTC)

I feel compelled to link this, but at the same time, I have to agree that phrasing your questions in such a leading manner (essentially accusing, rather than asking) isn't a good way to convince someone to provide answers to your questions. If you want to rant, for heavens sake just post a rant, don't go to the trouble of dressing it up as "questions" when everyone can see they're just one person's bias expressed in a different form. We have enough of that with RL political mudslinging as it is. (Aiiane - talk - contribs) 07:10, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

best way to get answers is through gaile if you'd ask it in a different way --AnorithTalk 10:03, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

So what if most of the questions are statements in a different form? It's his perogative not yours. He likely knows he won't get any of these answered here which adds to his already obvious frustration to do with the questions and thus uses it as a form of venting. It's his choice to do so, not yours Aiiane. Agreed with Anorith, Gaile was amazing and still is at communicating with the players, she made honest mistakes but went above and beyond her requirements or reasonable expectations. She always put so much effort into dealing with hostile people while still answering their questions. Compared to Regina who is still doing her job properly, you see how truly lucky we were to have Gaile in the first place.122.104.161.96 04:12, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

How much do you really know about how things worked when Gaile had her old job? -- Armond Warblade 11:27, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

I just had +10 respect for Izzy. -- NUKLEAR IIV 08:21, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

I had a bit of a "o.O" moment here, too, when I saw he actually replied. What is Byob?Erasculio 14:08, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Warriors are balanced? No condition or hex removal, inadequate healing, exploitable tactics, no means of casting... o.O I'll stick with my Necro. -- Spawn ‎ Legacy 18:46, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

"Thumper builds are a neat way for someone else to deal damage other then a warrior, I don't think gimmicks are bad, I think hard to deal with gimmicks are bad. Izzy" -10 respect here :( 91.156.71.235 02:47, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

He's right, gimmicks are fine, but as long as they're weak. Remember 7 man iway, minion factory, eoe bomb? Those were gimmicks, but it took you one skill or one simple action to counter, which made them ok. The gimmicks out now are "hard to deal with," but izzy just doesn't think they are, and that's why they never get fixed. I think if he played the game more than 5 minutes a week, he might have a clue about what to change. ~Shard 03:03, 5 September 2008 (UTC)