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    Home Unlabelled Guild Wars 2 Found this cute Easter Egg in Crystal Oasis.

    Guild Wars 2 Found this cute Easter Egg in Crystal Oasis.

    November 29, 2019

    Guild Wars 2 Found this cute Easter Egg in Crystal Oasis.

    Found this cute Easter Egg in Crystal Oasis.

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:06 AM PST

    This is fine.

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 03:39 AM PST

    Not sure if this is low effort or not, but I asked my friend Nioartes to make a gingerbread charr and this is what he came up with.

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 07:27 PM PST

    I'm ready for wintersday

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 04:17 PM PST

    What turnover did to my software project.

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 08:08 PM PST

    I'm a software engineer with 15 years of experience. I've worked for four different companies during my career (actually six due to some acquisitions) and have been on a number of different projects that vary in size. Some projects required a lot of travel, were in really interesting domains, and dealt with massive half-billion dollar systems. My current project is less glamorous and less impressive - I'm working on a college management system that handles things like class management, student rosters and transcripts, funding approvals, dorm room assignments, applications and acceptance systems, and other financial systems; everything else you'd expect to run a university is rolled into my current system. My project is considerably smaller than ArenaNet as a whole, but organizationally, we have what I'd expect to be a similar structure with different roles:

    • An upper management hierarchy
    • A Program Manager
    • A Project Manager
    • Business Analysts (x3)
    • Software Engineer Leads/Project Leads (x3 - this is where I am)
    • Mid-to-Senior Software Engineers/Developers (x12)
    • Testers (x3)
    • A UI/UX Designer
    • Database Team (1 Lead, 4 Developers/Analysts)
    • External System Interface Team (x2)
    • Help Desk (x4)
    • Infrastructure and Security (x6)
    • A dozen external stakeholder groups (about 5x in size) which interface with Leads and Business Analysts

    I and two others have our own development teams that focus on smaller projects. My role is to align all the smaller projects into one large, all-encompassing solution. I'm sorta the default architect in some ways. Now I understand that my project isn't the same as a video game and no one is buying my in-game skins (I don't have those, actually), so our priority decisions are based solely on what our stakeholders and 140,000 users worldwide need rather than profit. Still, you can see we have a lot of different people with different skillsets. It's not truly analogous to ArenaNet, but it's still a software company with teams and the same problems. My current project has been plagued with turnover. Here are some reasons why:

    1. Management can sometimes be a little heavy-handed and difficult to work with. This is true in any environment where the management actually cares. Sometimes my project has experienced periods where it felt like upper-management tried to micromanage our processes and designs. Before I took over my own team we had another senior engineer that was a complete asshole. People would play Rock-Paper-Scissors just to see who had to talk to him. Management for the longest time put up with his shit because he was one of the main visionaries of the team. Because management refused to act and mismanaged the situation we had an awful turnover on the project. We eventually moved him off to a side project by himself which isolated him from the rest of the team.
    2. Compensation is a big issue for my project. While everyone is paid competitively for the area, we're about 30 miles outside a major metropolitan area in the USA. The candidate pool for our area is also shared with this nearby city. Unfortunately, the jobs near the city also pay a bit more. The people who live nearer the city could travel to my location for a bit less pay for a significantly easier commute or they could travel a bit closer to the city to make more money. Then with Microsoft, Amazon, Google and dozens of other large companies in the area, as well as offices for nearly every major bank in the US being an hour drive away from my office... it's just a highly competitive area. While my company offers great benefits other companies are willing to give more PTO, pay higher percentages of insurance coverage, more education assistance, remote work options, and other perks. Money makes the world go round.
    3. Boredom is a big factor for my project. Like I said -- we're doing university management systems with some light analytics on the side. The domain is boring. We're not fiddling with search algorithms. We're not managing the logistics of the largest shipping operation on Earth. We're not making cools games, making self-driving cars, launching stuff into space or allowing people to bomb people from half-way around the world. The project is boring. Sometimes people need change when they do the same thing for so long... and I get that. Like I mentioned, I've jumped between companies and projects before -- specifically because I was bored.
    4. Growth Potential is one of those things that often require someone to move out. People who want growth (which then leads to new challenges and often higher compensation) sometimes have to leave a project to find that. Not everyone can be in a leadership position and if someone wants a leadership role, they need to wait for one to open up. That means waiting around for a new project to present itself (which doesn't always happen) or waiting for the spot above them to open up (which means your supervisor moves). But this requires competition in the group which can lead to interpersonal conflict.

    Other issues that can lead to developers leaving: Relocation, Family Issues, Commutes, Interpersonal Conflict, Lack of Purpose and I'm sure we can think of many more.

    So, what happened to my project when key players left?

    Virtually nothing.

    Our ability to produce was slowed a bit as we had fewer personnel to help. My company is always looking for potential candidates, and that was true even for past projects that were fully staffed. Whenever someone comes to the team there is a period of lower productivity as that person gets their bearing and as the team assists that person with their start. The visionaries were still there, though. Management, the infrastructure, the working groups, and stakeholder groups, documentation... that's all there. When key personnel left no one said, "Well, this is it, boys. We're going down." We just kept doing what we did best and that was making a good product for our customers. And when the visionaries left we had people rise up to take that place -- to either continue the vision or come up with a new future for our product. I've had team leads move out, project managers get re-assigned, and companies get purchased by another company which changed the entire upper-management chain. None of that ever caused any company to shut down a profitable operation. We did a good job and kept our funding strong. One thing I learned through it all -- everyone is expendable and everyone is replaceable. There isn't a single person on this planet who is so important to any mid-size or larger company where they couldn't be replaced. Everyone is replaceable.

    While the immediate pain of losing a team member sucks (because of the reduced output or knowledge loss), we always hired a replacement. We'd pull someone into the project that had a brand new perspective on our processes, our codebase, our customer, and product. New perspectives are often a good thing. I can think of a few guys who came in and brought some new ideas which helped us service our customers in a faster or more efficient way.

    The reason I thought I'd share this is to remind everyone that as key people leave ArenaNet there are still hundreds that remain. We don't know the reason everyone leaves -- we can only speculate on those who left after the layoffs -- but they had their reasons. Could it be for management? Sure, that's a possibility. People could be leaving for one of the reasons I mentioned before... or for reasons I didn't consider. If someone leaves ArenaNet there is still knowledge left in the minds of those that stay behind. For every lead designer or programmer that leaves, someone will eventually move in to fill that position, potentially offering a new perspective and renewed focus on something you really care about. The next narrative writer might find a way to weave Malyck back into the story, or the next programmer might be passionate about improving UIs, or maybe the next person worked on a PvP-focused game and has ways to improve GW2's systems for little cost. Is ArenaNet really going under? Doubtful since their financials seem steady enough. And the maintenance mode claim? I've been through corporate acquisitions, project refocusing and looming contract losses to know that companies generally enjoy staying in business, so I doubt maintenance mode is actually on the horizon. Arenanet exists to make money and I speculate that they know the Living World updates are what keeps a majority of the players engaged. If the franchise is still profitable and if a majority of the player base still enjoys the content (which, contrary to what this subreddit would say, I think that is the case), then I imagine they would still keep making their game as long as they can.

    I guess I've seen enough professionals leave projects that seeing people leave ArenaNet doesn't really concern me. I've personally lived through this stuff dozens of times before. I'm sure others have had similar experiences or rather places where high-turnover actually caused a company or product to fail... but for those who don't work in the software world, or for those who are seriously concerned without any first-hand experience... I thought I would share mine. Maybe it helps and maybe it doesn't. I don't know. This stuff happens, though. People want to keep their jobs. People want to keep making a good product that people enjoy using. Outside of this subreddit, I bet the game and company will be just fine. :)

    ​

    Edit: No idea why this was tagged as Question. My bad.

    submitted by /u/Chickenooble
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    Amnoon is quite the gorgeous sight.

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 09:06 AM PST

    This is what Bjora Marches looked like in 2007 - Eye of the North

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 03:06 PM PST

    Single player content is still content

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 11:27 AM PST

    Dear ANET Your true end game is WvW

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 05:12 AM PST

    I hope that the people who are vehemently against making this mode great have left anet. This IS your end game. It can be repeated again and again while also fun.

    PVEstory is not the end game, most people do it just to get it done and over with, grind out the next shiny or so. Most do not go, 'hell yea, ima replay that story over and over again because i love it to bits'.

    The mileage that you get by putting in the work on repeatable modes like wvw/pvp, is a lot more than one time plays like pve/story. Put leagues or tourneys again in wvw, make people care about it. drive the crowds back in. reopen EOTM, maybe replace EOTM as one of the BL maps so that each BL map is unique.

    submitted by /u/buzzlightyear77777
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    Pvp is still full of bots,even in ranked

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 12:19 AM PST

    Just had a revenant walking to far point every time after he respawns. Thought about streaming this game, guess not since it won't be interesting to my viewers and may actually drive people off from the game and stream if they see it.

    The worst part about those bots isn't the fact that they are botting, but their names indicate that they are a bot. For example, the bot's name in my game is literally Kappa, some other common names are a random mixture of letters.

    submitted by /u/giveme80gold
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    GW1 Sales on Steam and the different Versions

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 05:40 PM PST

    So i saw that there are some black friday Sales going on in Steam at the moment. Now I am currently reinstalling GW2 and I am also interested in GW1 since i heard a lot of good things about it. What exactly awaits me with GW1 tho? I heard its pretty different than the second part and also what are the differences between Guild Wars Trilogy/Eye of the North/GOTY-Edition/Factions/Nightfall? Should I get all of them since they are all on Sale right now or should i just buy one by one starting with trilogy or GOTY maybe?

    Thanks in advance Guys!

    submitted by /u/PeterOlem
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    Perspective of the state of the game as a new player.

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 04:52 PM PST

    My post was originally titled: "new player here, is it really that bad?" But somehow it got auto-removed. Here goes:

    Hey all. I just started playing GW2 recently and so far I'm enjoying myself. I bought the game around launch, but never gave it a thorough chance until WoW classic burned the hell out of me. I hit 80 fairly quickly (natural play-through) and bought both expansions. However, the way of some of you guys talk in this sub makes me question... is it even worth sticking around? I understand you guys have been with the game for such a long time and there's bound to be directional frustrations, but are things REALLY that bad? I mean, had the game just come out today with all the content available right now, would it still be as controversial as it is currently? Just trying to get some perspective here.

    submitted by /u/D4GR
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    Barn Owl wtfckery re-shoot. Sorry for the previous upload :D

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 05:03 PM PST

    When does gem store resets?

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 05:58 AM PST

    I am asking because I don't see any new sales on mine. Yes I need to buy character slot and I need it discounted.

    submitted by /u/Kajmil
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    Worst traits and skills per class

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 12:58 PM PST

    I feel that with the upcoming balance patch there are some things left out. Personally, I think that the Guardian changes which touch upon the Valor line should also look at Strength of the Fallen as I think it is the worst trait Guardians have.

    What about your classes? Which skills or traits you think are worst in your class and require immediate changes?

    submitted by /u/skelk_lurker
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    Action Camera Thief

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 01:06 AM PST

    Hi Guys,

    I am playing a thief as my main but I am also using action camera (in camera settings you toggle it and the screen will automatically follow your movements like in an fps game). For me this camera is what makes the combat much more fun and I dont want to get rid of it. That being said I can see the obvious drawbacks like easily loosing track of other people in fights if the kite behind you, shortbow 5 not working while jumping for extra distance etc. The difference for other classes doesnt feel so big but with thief I can really feel it.

    Do you guys have any tips how to make up for it so that I can do pvp better? Or are there any settings that maybe complement the use of action camera? I thought this could be an interesting discussion for other classes as well.

    submitted by /u/Ekkorei
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    Questión FPS problems: My laptop or i'm doing things wrong?

    Posted: 28 Nov 2019 08:35 PM PST

    Greetings,

    I am a GW2 player who came back after a long time and I am experiencing some problems with the fps in the game (Usually have around 30-40 fps ingame, but when i'm fighting they could drop to 5-10)

    I do not know if anyone could advise me or if the problem is that my laptop does not comply with what is necessary to play it decently.

    I've and laptop with:- I5 8300H 2.3 GHZ- 8 GB of RAM- Nvidia GTX 1060 6gb (drivers per day)- Windows 10 (drivers per day)

    I have tried some tips on this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/8gctrf/full_guide_maximizing_your_fps_and_game/ and although they remain more stable, the droughts still occur. Thanks for reading and any comments will be welcome :)

    Edit: I just set the maxium cpu to 90% and looks that can handle with around 20fps SW. (Max temp 76°C

    submitted by /u/sxz033
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    I have a confession to make; I have never killed Zhaitan or Mordremoth

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 06:54 AM PST

    Not through lack of trying... I have had this game since it came out. I must have tried to kill Zhaitan about twenty times, but then people start dying and they just bail. They don't even wait fro someone to res them. I have never finished ANY dungeon because of that.

    And then there's Mordremoth... There are six phases, and if you die in any of them you have to start over in phase one. Adding to that, the instance is difficult to get to so you really have to go through the previous mission first.

    The wiki recommends you bring a group of people for the mission. I've gone to map asking for help on the mssion and gotten nowhere.

    It was really annoying going through LS3, PoF and LS 4 stories which kept mentioning that I 'killed' both dragons.

    Fortunately it looks like they learned their lesson with PoF and LS4 where you can win the boss battles solo, so I have killed both Balthazar and Kralkatorrik. I'm really hoping the Icebrood Saga is the same.

    Sigh.

    submitted by /u/ltccone
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    Any news on mounts.

    Posted: 29 Nov 2019 05:51 AM PST

    wondering if there has been news regarding mounts.

    personally I want some kind of underwater mount. perhaps a crocodile since they can go on both land and underwater.

    Just saying.

    submitted by /u/ImTheMate88
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