As we’re mulling over our own impressions of Guild Wars 2’s latest content release, Whisper in the Dark, the players who’ve likely already finished it up are back to Reddit, poring over the news that’s emerged in its wake. One such chunk of news came from German website Buffed.de, which appears to have gotten a fresh answer out of ArenaNet on the subject of raids, fractals, and legendaries. And hair. There’s a reason they call it Fashion Wars, after all.
“We also had to ask the developers while playing the new assault missions: What about the established content such as raids, fractals, and legendary weapons? The latter have had two complete sets (except underwater weapons) since the introduction of Exordium. But the response turned out sobering: Nothing is off the table, but in the next episodes of the Eisbrut [Icebrood] saga, we can not expect it. Even new hairstyles will not exist – a feature that many actually wanted. The reason for the lack of new hair? This feature has never been prioritized in the development of new content, and probably not in the near future.”
Reddit is… not taking the confirmation well; amusingly some folks seem madder about the hairstyles than about the raids and fractals, though that’s less about vanity and more about prioritization. Players have been estimating that means we’re potentially six months or more away from these types of content, and it’s already been a year since the last fractal (the last raid dropped in June).
However, it’s also been clear that ArenaNet aims to try new types of group content with its “saga” system, including the new strike missions. That doesn’t allay some players’ disgruntlement over the lack of things they’d consider “expansion-level features,” though.
Guild Wars 2 and ArenaNet haven’t had the best year following heavy layoffs and reorganization, the loss of multiple additional devs (including studio head Mike O’Brien), and multiple dust-ups over pacing and monetization, in spite of assurances for the game’s future. Here’s to hoping the studio’s back on track with its community soon.
