Well, this time it is. But not because I’m a jaded veteran!
On a more serious note: SotO is about to be the first major release after the NCSoft coup of Anet’s leadership, and all signs and patterns point at a major disappointment.
Here are a few examples of said signs:
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Pre coup: Wedding Attire, 1000 gems, elaborate designs, different per race and gender.
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Post coup: Leather Straps, 800 gems, literal leather straps, minor differences if any at all
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Pre coup: /rockout, /shiver, /shiverplus and more as ingame rewards
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Post coup: /sipscoffee for a 20-30€ merch collab, /serve for 400 gems, /magicjuggle as part of a pack for a 2000 gem deluxe upgrade
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Pre coup: big expansions with industry defining features (PoF mounts) and/or complete reworks of the entire fucking game (HoT systems) for like 30€, Living World for free* and paid for by the cash shop
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Post coup: Half an expansion for 25€, freemium-design fishing as an expansion feature, no more Living World, cash shop as free extra money
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Pre coup: big Living World maps with their own reward structure, masteries, not rarely major releases like Rewinder, Beetle, Skyscale, mount mastery skills that completely change the dynamic, and so on, and so forth
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Post coup: half a map, the Strike version of the endboss fight of the flushed second half of the map ham-handedly turned into a Fractal.
So this is a pattern the MMO industry has shown for decades now. These are the signs of a MMO in its twilight years. No, not dead, not even specifically dying. But less content of lower quality for higher prices, and without the care and love that comes with a product with a vision. Instead it’s just work now anymore. Shit like action cam, dolphins, SAB? Gone.
So what does that mean for SotO?
That it will be utterly underwhelming. There will be two maps like announced, one will be the not-Dalaran, one will be a rehash of existing assets. That’s it.
Anet will concentrate on Skyscale because it’s cheaper to consolidate all mounts into one instead of giving every mount its own use and abilities. Classes will homogenise because it’s easier and cheaper to balance. Specializations will be replaced with weapons because it’s easier and cheaper to create.
Easier and cheaper. Lesser.
It’s important to understand the nuance between easier, cheaper & lesser and dying, bad & dead. GW2 is not dying, will not become bad and certainly is not dead.
But this is the end of an era, and there will be no return. There almost never has been.
Bonus info: NCsoft is known to nuke perfectly viable MMOs for not making enough money. (CoH. Never forget. Forever fuck NCSoft.)
My prediction is that like Blizzard is dead and is now ActiBlizz and no matter how disgusting it becomes people won’t be able to look past the logo, Anet has been couped and is now NCNet and no matter how far down this new beginning leads down the road, people won’t be able to look past the logo.
Five days until Anet will prove me wrong and blow us away with their magic they never lost.
I dunno where you are getting this coup narrative, but the NCSoft layoffs of arenanet happened in 2019, long before EoD and the current leadership is Colin Johanson and Josh Davis, long time employees from gw1 days.
As for your “coup” examples, let’s break them down.
The wedding outfit is literally the only outfit that does this. You are also comparing a one of kinda outfit to pieces are armor, something the community wanted.
Emotes? Really?
Are you saying not relying on the cash shop, a near constantly criticized system, …is bad? I too want a big expansion that touches on everything, but HoT was widely criticized for its unliked WvW map, unliked PvP mode, and guild halls are currently forgotten content. At least now Anet has made plans to look back at older systems and refresh or improve them, just that it won’t be done in one big chunk, which seeing how HoT ended up…may be for the best.
I won’t really defend Gayala or Silent Surf but that strikes me as current leadership shifting from a supposed Season 6, straight to expansion instead. A similar messy shift from Living World only back to expansions that occurred halfway through Icebrood.
To be fair, I liked the Expansion to Living World Season to Expansion pipeline, but hey times change.
Ah the old class homogenization. Do mesmers steal? Do guardians burst? Do thieves have a pet? Anet has always been about playing whatever class and being able to play the way you want. This is still in line with that goal. If I wanna bring quickness to a group, I have way more options per class than I ever have.
Despite my arguments against your points…I still expect many people to be disappointed and are rightfully concerned, as this new expansion will be slow going. We won’t get all the cool stuff on day 1. It’s a change of pace that people are not used to. But I expect people to look back when it’s all said and done and generally like it overall.