Found the internet!Did ArenaNet abandon Fractals?
Hi, new player here.
It seems that Fractals are basically GW2's main instanced PvE content (like WoW/FFXIV dungeons), but I wonder why (according to the wiki) ArenaNet only release about 1 Fractal per year? Also it seems that Raids are abandoned in favour of Strikes (which seem like FFXIV Trials).
Why do ArenaNet develop a form of content and then stop to make something entirely different? I think it's confusing that there are so many PvE game modes, but each game mode only has a few instances available.
If you are a player at endgame, doesn't it get very repetitive to run the same few Fractals every day? At least in FFXIV, you have a myriad of dungeons available with the roulette system.
For me, instanced PvE is something I want to do daily in MMOs. While I enjoy levelling and getting 100% zone completion, I am afraid that I will quit once I reach level 80 because there is not enough instanced PvE content for me. Any thoughts from more experienced players?
For anyone interested in this topic, Deeg has an interview with the developer Cameron Rich which covers the development of fractals 98/99/100. It seems like he was a main driving force for the development of these fractals but also covered other areas such as Season 4 story instances and the Drakkar fight. Right now they seem to be putting a lot of focus into making the strikes for EoD (which do seem to have a lot of potential in my opinion). Hopefully we'll get new fractals in the future, but I don't think there's a dedicated team on them.
They had a dedicated team during S3, but with S4 their raid and fractal team merged into one, and they were also put in charge of strikes. So with IBS' big selling point beint strikes, the team focused on them. They made the one fractal after, but then got put onto EoD strikes.
Once EoD and its strikes with raid difficulty CMs come out, I imagine we'll get more fractals again.
Raids and Strikes might end up being merged into a single content form if the CM Strikes do well enough, though. But since CM Strikes are pretty much just raids by a different name (or at least that's their goal), there's no reason for them not to be.
When do people get tired of this excuse?
They are always busy working on "something" that's why the game doesn't get a proper amount of repeatable content, ever.
As far as a LFG revamp... for Fractals you'd pick the fractal you want to play, see a list of all groups that are playing that fractal that have their team open for new players, and a nice big button that will take you straight to wherever the team is. Let's reduce the clicks and make it more efficient.
Years ago, Anet said they were spreading themselves too thin by trying to develop dungeons with branching paths, so they released fractals.
After that, they said they were spreading themselves too thin with trying to develop fractals that didn't feel too samey, so they released raids.
Following this, they said that they were spreading themselves too thin by having a team specifically focused on releasing new raid content and so now Strikes are the new thing.
Only Anet knows what to spread themselves out to next. It's a reoccurring theme of bad team management, and it's sad to see because dungeons and raids were top quality when they were released. Strikes* just feel like the bare-minimum of it all just to save themselves time and money from having to develop anything meaningful at all.
From what we can tell, the encounter design team keeps getting pulled in multiple different directions and being reformed depending on the whims of the studio heads.
They used to bounce between raids and fractals, then the team was mostly moved onto living world stuff as they quietly abandoned raids and released a couple of (bad) fractals.
The team was reformed sometime between S4 and Icebrood Saga and started working on Strike Missions pretty much exclusively, though they did manage to fit in a single CM fractal.
They've claimed that they don't want to work on raids again until there's a proper "ramp" of difficulty between, which is what Strikes are supposed to be. But they also said this of fractal CMs so I wouldn't hold your breath.
Since the expansion was announced, it seems like the encounter team has been wholly working on a set of new Strikes (with CMs) and also helping with enemy design in general for the expansion. Personally, I think there's a decent chance that they'll start working on a new fractal once the expansion is out.
Development situation is kinda in distress due to EoD actually being and "unplanned" expansion forced by NCsoft...we had an endgame drought till now and will have more for a bit after EoD hits...probably something like some months. (beside all the new strike missions etc added with EoD ofc !)
So yeah, it's not abandoned, but the need of pushing out an xpac kinda fucked up everything...just deal with it for a bit while you enjoy the other content and "pick up" what you missed till now...which is gonna take a lot, lol.
Hoping that they can pick up the pace after their sort this mess and begin to follow a proper schedule. Honestly what i'm more hyped about the expansion isn't the xpac itself, but actually hoping to see the changes in mangement after it's release (some can already be felt now, like more communication, listening to feedback, actual marketing etc)
Regarding instanced PvE content.... yeah, it's like you said. Every once in a while ArenaNet will have some idea of what they want to do with instanced content, develop a couple of instances, and then never touch it again.
The main focus in GW2 is really the open world.
While the open world is downright abandoned in FFXIV once you finish the MSQ (using as an example since you used it and I play it as well), the open world is pretty much the entire game in GW2.
It's a different experience - you'll find people doing events on both old and newer maps all the time.
The open world in FFXIV is abandoned even before you finish the MSQ. I have no reason to do the side quests (their rewards are insulting) or fight any mobs except for in the very few purple circles.
No-one does FATEs (meta events) unless there's a seasonal event attached to them and most of them are a waste of time to solo.
There's Bozja and Eureka. Everything else outside of instances is dead.
GW2 isn't the only MMO that abandoned an entire form of content.
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