In the MMORPG Guild Wars 2, there are often discussions about the difficulty of new content. The developers have acknowledged this problem but admit that the players are simply better than they are.
What happened? On Tuesday, September 17, the Prologue to Living World Season 5 was released in Guild Wars 2. This introduced the first strike mission meant to prepare players for raid content.
However, many criticize the strike mission for being not only easy but far too easy to complete. The boss fight with 10 players takes hardly longer than 3 minutes for many spontaneous groups.
While the rewards in the form of a new shoulder skin and a chair are good, players do not see it as a genuine introduction to raid content.
What do the developers say about it? PCGamesN had the chance to talk with Lead Designer Heather Conover about the episode. They discussed the difficulty of the boss fights.
The developer says:
One of the hardest tasks in balancing PvE content is assessing the difficulty in relation to the skill of our players. Our players are generally better at the game than we are.
We aim to provide a certain variety of difficulties in the content we publish. And we anticipate adjustments to the difficulty based on player data and feedback.
At the same time, Senior Designer Justin Reilly describes the new strike missions as “not easy.” You need a good squad to defeat the boss and obtain the best rewards. Many players do not share this opinion.
Hardcore players in GW2 have been dissatisfied for a while
What are players dissatisfied with? Even before Heather Conover’s statement, players speculated about why the last raids were all coolly designed but far too easy.
They suspected that the capabilities of players might exceed the expectations and skills of the developers. Heather Conover’s statement supports this assumption.
When raids were introduced in November 2015 in Guild Wars 2, there was approximately a new raid every 4 months. However, this cycle only applied to the first 4 raids. After that, the intervals have noticeably increased.
A mixture of new story and long-term plans
What does the interview reveal? In addition to the strike missions and players’ skills, the story of the new update was also in the spotlight.
This was created, as Narrative Designer Novera King revealed, from both long-term planning and spontaneous ideas.
The developers already knew that the Charr should be in the spotlight in the future. However, it was only with the requiem to Rytlock shortly before the final episode of Season 4 that they decided to dive deeper into his story.
Expansions in the future of Guild Wars 2? This interview also discussed the topic of paid expansions for GW2. This was brought back into play through an interview in early September.
Heather Conover said that many decisions for the future depend on the success of the Icebrood Saga. They will review their data and make a decision intended to ensure that Guild Wars 2 remains a successful game.
Currently, four development teams are working on new content for GW2. We reveal what that content is here:
Hardcore players have long been wishing for a new, big challenge and hope for repeatable challenge modes that could make bosses more difficult.
What else bothers the players? Besides the difficulty of the raids, many hardcore players are also dissatisfied with the release cycle. They are currently waiting for more than 9 months for a new challenge.
When raids were introduced in November 2015 in Guild Wars 2, there was approximately a new raid every 4 months. However, this cycle only applied to the first 4 raids. After that, the intervals have noticeably increased.
A mixture of new story and long-term plans
What does the interview reveal? In addition to the strike missions and players’ skills, the story of the new update was also in the spotlight.
This was created, as Narrative Designer Novera King revealed, from both long-term planning and spontaneous ideas.
The developers already knew that the Charr should be in the spotlight in the future. However, it was only with the requiem to Rytlock shortly before the final episode of Season 4 that they decided to dive deeper into his story.
Expansions in the future of Guild Wars 2? This interview also discussed the topic of paid expansions for GW2. This was brought back into play through an interview in early September.
Heather Conover said that many decisions for the future depend on the success of the Icebrood Saga. They will review their data and make a decision intended to ensure that Guild Wars 2 remains a successful game.
Currently, four development teams are working on new content for GW2. We reveal what that content is here:
