And as for the GW2 comments... I would say the majority of their updates are hotfixes... That being said they drop a serious patch monthly. Like actually,
every single month they drop a huge update — it's really incredible for such a small team.
Well I'm using Blizzard's definition of a hotfix, because ANet don't seem to use the term at all:
A hotfix is a change made to the game deemed critical enough that it cannot be held off until a regular content patch. Hotfixes require only a server-side change with no download and can be implemented with no downtime or with a short restart of the realms. Because there is no download component to a hotfix, there are no downloadable patch notes. Instead, Blizzard announces hotfix information through the forums, the in-game message of the day, and in the Server Alert window on the login screen.
According to that, none of the updates I listed could be considered hotfixes, because:
- They all required patching of the game client, not just the server.
- Many weren't critical, and could have been put off until a later date, or if there was something critical that needed fixing, the patch for it also fixed non-critical problems too (hence the download).
In addition to the ability changes in the named updates, there are at least as many other patches that changed ability effects or values. That's the kind of thing that requires a small client update for things like the tooltips.
The difference is, ANet are much more willing to patch the game promptly once they've solved a (non-critical) problem, instead of just sitting on lots of fixes until they've finished the next content update, like Blizzard.
td;dr ANet's Soon™ is very different from Blizzard's Soon™.
And no, there's no twinking... but that's because everyone is equal in gear and battles are won by skill (granted, some classes are 'better' than others, but it's relatively balanced [except for warriors in PvP
])
There could be twinking, just no-one bothers to constantly re-equip their levelling characters with full sets of rare equipment and upgrades, because there's no way to avoid out-levelling your gear. And even though the players with thousands of gold can afford to do keep re-equipping, the difference in stats between levelling blues and even a full set of exotic/ascended gear, is nothing compared to the difference between greens and blues in WoW, so the advantage would be a lot smaller (GW2's gear scaling goes white-blue-green-yellow(rare)-orange(exotic, 60+)-pink(ascended, 80). Lengendary weapons have equal stats to exotics, but have fancy visual effects. eg. the short-bow shoots white horses that leave rainbow trails in the air).
Except for the number of skills and abilities you've unlocked (in WvW your last 4 out of 10 ability slots unlock at levels 5, 10, 20 and 30), level doesn't come into the equation at all, because in PvP (and all dungeon PvE) everyone is scaled to level 80. All the stats on your gear are scaled up
correctly. This means a skilled level 10 in blues, with a good build and skill, will faceroll level 80s in perfect gear, who have marginally lower skill, or an off build.
I have no need for twinking when I can level in PvP and actually enjoy it, without having to gear up constantly as I level to avoid being at a huge disadvantage. 'Twinking' has 2 meanings. Only a small minority twink to avoid being at a disadvantage, and to play fair, objective games. The majority do it to gain an unfair advantage, to win despite lack of skill, and to play against others in an utterly unsporting manner.
Blizzard not caring about their game or their players is only half the reason I quit WoW. The other reason is the number of complete douchebags who play the game. WoW has: Twinking; badly designed PvP maps; imbalanced classes, gear and levels; an LFG system that allows anyone to join dungeon after dungeon and AFK for ages or repeatedly pull mobs and get people killed; competition over world resources and kills. The way WoW has been designed allows it's players to be completely inconsiderate towards each other without consequences, and Bliz don't care because everyone pays the same.
I'd rather play a game where the devs see some players taking advantage of a problem in game design, that negatively affects other players, and they actually make the effort to fix it, and promptly, as opposed to never. In the long run, doing that makes a huge difference to the kind of players who play the game. Between WoW and GW2 the difference between the player communities is like night and day. You hardly ever get through a 10 minute WSG game with 10 people on your team, without someone bitching about someone else (and it gets worse as the team sizes increase). In GW2 I can play a WvW game with 100 players on my team, for 6 hours straight, and I've hardly ever seen anyone bitching. Instead people communicate, and they give help whether it's asked for or not.
