Guild Wars 2

I’d like to start off by saying that I really do enjoy this game, I appreciate all the hard work and creative genius it takes to keep the game going, and I really want it to continue to be a game I can look forward to playing. That being said, after about 1000 hours of game-play, I have started to run low on things I need/want to do. Lately it’s been the monotony of grinding for legendary components punctuated sporadically with dungeon runs for tokens I have no need for, because all 4 of my level 80 characters have everything they need. When I originally heard about GW2, it sounded very similar to a much older MMO game that I had played several years back, the endgame for which revolved around a Guild vs Guild system. I know some games have implemented GvG systems previously and failed, and I know that Arena Net is more intent on breaking the mold than conforming to past methodology, but speaking from personal experience, it was a lot easier to get excited for a victory when it was your guild that was dominating, rather than a server full of faceless binary entities. I feel that a GvG system would fill a nich that is not currently filled by either S-PvP, or WvWvW.
The GvG system in place in the old MMO I’m referencing, engaged the community, and was both a source of periodic intense competition, and one of learning, strategic teamwork and fun. Any and all of the guilds on a server were permitted to participate, the objective wast so capture and defend a fortified structure, not dissimilar from Stonemist, but with a more maze-like design. There where around 4-6 “castles” for lack of a better word on each GvG map. There were 4 maps, but only one map was open at a time. The GvG events ran at set times, usually 2 times a week for a period of about 1-2 hrs (for the sake of GW2 a 3-4 hr window may be more realistic). Guilds in control of a castle could upgrade it’s defenses, hire NPC guards (that did moderate dmg and CC), and at the end of the session, the guilds who were currently in control of the castles were locked in as the owners until that map came back up in the rotation. In between GvG sessions, members of a guild that had access to a castle, could access a dungeon/map that was unique to each GvG map, but shared by all the castles, AND was an active pvp zone (like WvWvW). in these “dungeons” (they weren’t instanced) were higher level mobs that dropped loot unique to that dungeon, and that wasn’t accessible any other way. The dungeon was also housed the equivalent of a world boss, which guilds would fight each other for the rights to it’s loot. Castles would also generate a daily loot chest accessible only to the guild leader, that mostly spawned upgrade items such as runes, sigils, crafting mats etc, but also had a chance to spawn very low drop rate components for what was the equivalent of legendary gear.
This system filled the bill for the intense coordinated pvp that many crave, while not requiring vast sessions of grinding making very little headway as is often the case in WvW. I can’t say for sure, but I think if the castles are semi instanced, that it would be pretty reasonable to say culling could be eliminated, affording more consistent game-play while better engaging the player, by bringing the conflict closer to home, giving them more political efficacy in the sense that “Yeah.. if I don’t go on my guardian to help my guild hold X position, we’ll get over run and loose Y” I think many players feel that WvW is too large scale, and that without mass voip it’s impossible to coordinate properly to take objectives. This solution may solve that issue, and I believe that it is more in keeping with the “Come and Go” atmosphere that has been setup in GW2.
This is my personal opinion, if anyone has constructive input please feel free to comment. I obviously do not expect Anet to coppy another MMO’s endgame, but I think the model is really engaging, and I felt that the reward mechanic was appealing, and not imbalanced. I don’t think it would be hard to expound on this frame work to produce a similar but much more engaging version that would fit better into GW2.

1000h of enjoyment for 60$
Hail Anet
Agreed on the GvG though, i believe there does have to be some sort of battle between guilds on one server.The most obvious answer is to integrate GvG into WvW.Guilds from one server are fighting with other servers all the week and fight against each over one or two times per week, as in GvG from GW1 or War for Emperium from RO.
And because we already have WvW open world we can enhance the strategic part of the experience by adding sophisticated resource management.

WoE from RO was exactly what I was talking about but I feel like not very many people would get the reference, and I didn’t want to name drop.

But the developers will get it, i mean it is their job to know about game trends)

I like the idea but I don’t expect Anet to do anything with it immediately if at all. If it did happen, I’d assume it would come right before player housing(which may never come).

I guess my main beef is that as it stands, neither the WvW option nor the S-PvP option really appeal to me as time expenditures. WvW is too time intensive and has very little tangible reward, and S-PvP is too detached from the rest of the game. The PvE content is great… for what it is, but I’m like 3 exp paths away from my dungeon master, and I don’t want to finish it because then I know I will have nothing to do. I guess if 1000 hrs is what I get for a $60 game I can’t really say I didn’t get my money’s worth, but I’d rather keep playing GW2. I don’t like game hopping, especially in MMO’s, so I guess I’m just trying to help Anet help me like the game more. I could honestly do without a lot of the fluff events, like Wintersday, if it meant that the devs were gonna release some solid endgame content 1 or 2 months down the road. I’ve heard that February is gonna have some PvP/WvW balancing and patches so maybe that will fix some of my concerns, but I just thought that given some of the similarities between RO and GW2 in that there’s not really any gear progression, and they’re not gonna release patches raising the level cap like WoW does, that a similar PvP system could keep the game alive. I know from personal experience that the GvG competition in RO’s WoE kept that game alive waaaay longer than it would have otherwise lived, purely because the anticipation of the next staged fight kept the whole guild on it’s toes tweaking and perfecting their play-styles, gear and stat distributions, very similar to what I see already in GW2. And I mean if for no other reason, than the name of the franchise…. it’s not called World Wars 2 after all… that might be a little bit misleading…=o

Can’t say this enough. GW2 isn’t designed with an endgame.
It’s made to be enjoyed even if you’re not level80. My sympathies if you’re stuck in a mindset of level80 being some shining beacon to a greener pasture.

What really needs to be fixed is everything that causes people to zerg towards on area or another.

PvE example:
Reward-rates causing most players to gain a mentality of efficiency. “If I’m not at Cursed Shores / an easy Dungeon path / Fractals, I’m wasting my time”.

Katanasama.9702:

I guess my main beef is that as it stands, neither the WvW option nor the S-PvP option really appeal to me as time expenditures. WvW is too time intensive and has very little tangible reward, and S-PvP is too detached from the rest of the game.

So, basically, you want what everyone else wants:

• WvW improved
• sPvP more accessible

The solutions have been plainly suggested numerous times already.

WvW

• Remove the AoE cap, increase the availability of siege weapons.
  That way, people will stop zerging, start fearing trebs / catapults / etc, and start fighting back in a more siege-like manner.
  And I think most can agree that Trebs being only capable of hitting 5 players is utter BS.

After that, the way they can improve rewards or time-contribution is immense.

sPvP

• Get Spectator Mode live
  So, people can start enjoying sPvP matches as the eSport it is so very well designed to be! Then it will feel less far away from WvW or PvE.

I agree that ALL those fixes would make the respective PvP modes much improved, but I still don’t feel like it would address the middle ground that an additional GvG system would. To break it down further, s-PvP is could be called a small, and GvG could be called a medium, and WvW could be called a large. I know many players love spending half a day conquering tower after tower in WvW, and yet others like the small 5-10 man S-PvP system where you get tight coordination. Personally I like my PvP in doses, so like say 2-3 hrs of good hard competition twice a week, leaves time for work, and dungeons and other stuff. Also I feel like a GvG system would be much more compelling for the sheer reason that players often find it a lot easier to have guild pride, than server pride, and would therefore be more likely to participate regularly, thereby keeping players that might otherwise loose touch with the game engrossed in the guild dynamic. Additionally, I know many players don’t like PvP because they’re not very confident and don’t want to mess up in an environment that would adversely affect large numbers of people. I think that if a GvG system were implemented it would give newer players a place to get a handle on basic PvP concepts without feeling like a burden to their WvW team, or getting yelled at by the die-hards in s-PvP. I think the result would actually be better WvW competition, and more s-PvP interest than is currently in place.