Game population by the numbers.

[Shelia]

Ahem, the development team for AOC was, prior to launch, quite big (actually bigger than ArenaNet). Marketing is handled by the marketing department, networking is handled by the networking department. Everyone else was doing their job.

Just because the team was "big" or "impressive" doesn't mean jack. If you can't utilize it, nothing's gonna happen (which is why the game failed...all bark, no bite).

A lot of the problems that happened during the launch of AOC weren't really visible during the beta.

Yes... Which is why you do an open beta. Most, if not all developers know that an open beta is critical for stress-testing as well as marketing potential. There is almost no excuse for all the issues AoC had upon launch.

Just to get a taste for what I experienced (not my video, unfortunately...hahaha) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyCm8...eature=related

Also, if you'll notice... there's practically endless videos for AoC glitches.

NCsoft provides the funding and investment as a publisher (and due to that they take most of the strategic marketing decisions). Being a separate entity doesn't change this very clear fact. This means that as soon as NCsoft and the investors decide that the game needs to start generating revenue. The game WILL be released, regardless of what ArenaNet thinks of it.

Yes, I understand this... but just because they fund ArenaNet doesn't mean they'll have an impact on what ANet develops content or story-wise. In a way, ArenaNet is the art student, NCsoft is the scholarship (or rich parent).

It's not random that basically every MMORPG that saw the light in the past few years was rushed. Developers find themselves having to push the boundaries more than before to try and compete with what's already in the market (and that already provides polish and content in abundant quantities) and they simply cannot keep up with all they promised and planned to implement before publishers tell them "ok, let's draw the line, i want to see some money back six months from now".

You seem a little optimistic, bud. I'm pretty sure the reason why so many MMOs were rushed while being developed was because everybody wants a slice of the corporate pie after they saw what Blizzard accomplished with WoW. They figure if they can crap out a half-decent product with minimal effort and time that they'll make some profit off of it. Very few MMOs these days are about customer satisfaction and bringing a masterpiece to life. I'm sure some companies were rushed due to your reasonings, but not many. It all comes down to money with most companies.

Unfortunately "should have been covered" is a nice thing, but it can'ìt and won't always happen. Many bugs don't surface until release (because of the difference in server stress for instance), many others simply have to be prioritized, as the time and resources are limited.

Like I said... Stress testing the game is critical for development. The fact that they didn't do that before with AoC is pretty foolish. If they did stress test... how could they not have seen these obvious bugs before?

While SE didn't have the separation between publisher and developer, the mechanics are pretty much the same. Marketing decisions such as release dates, funding, resources and timings are taken by the executives of the company, that are a very separate entity from the development team.
Just as with a publisher, when the executives tell the team "it's time", it's time, and it's not unlikely that if the development team tells them "we're not ready", the executives will just tell them "then make it ready".

I really don't think this was the case. Again, it's money. SE could've afforded to go under development for a little while longer, especially with the feedback they were getting. Any smart corporation would have said "Look, guys, we're getting negative feedback from the beta testers. Maybe we should fix something?" but they didn't.

NCsoft didn't allow that.
There's no reason to believe that there's no risk that NCSoft would have the same effect on GW2 as they did in Tabula Rasa.

No, I believe you are mistaken... Richard Gariott's ideas were a little far-fetched to begin with. It wasn't solely NCsoft's doing. I feel like NCsoft would learn by now considering they bombed almost all their published MMOs aside from City of Heroes and Guild Wars... although the developers are more to thank for their games survival than anything.

Tabula Rasa wasn't developed by NCsoft, but by Garriot's own Destination Games that had a publishing deal with NC, exactly like ArenaNet.
Ambition is exactly what I'm talking about when I say "bite more than they can chew". Don't think that ArenaNet is magically immune from it. They have to, as much as everyone else in the market, enter an extremely stagnant and fossilized market, and to do so they need (and have) ambitious plans.

I never said they were immune to it. Besides, they have a little bit of an edge considering they're doing all of these fantastic ideas... but with slightly lower graphics settings for a newer gen MMO. They aren't going full-throttle with both graphics and dynamics, and they're aware of what they're capable of. The game will still be beautiful, just slightly less of a poly-count than say FFXIV or the new Star Wars MMO.

That's what tends to happen when you go to a forum dedicated to a game to advocate competing games. That's another lesson to learn

I wasn't advocating anything, hun. I just said I'll probably drop FFXIV for GW2 if SE doesn't get their act together.

You replied with a (inaccurate, might I add) smug remark, not me~

Me:

"To be entirely honest, unless SE gets their butts in gear I'm going to completely drop XIV for Guild Wars 2 once it's released."

You:

I'm actually quite amused about people continually flaunting Guild Wars 2. Nothing solid is known about the game, and people are basing their perspectives about it's quality at release on blind faith alone. And considering NCsoft's track record, that's quite a leap of faith.

You can't expect someone to not react to that. :3c