Hi,
I just wanted to leave some feedback on a game I used to really enjoy, to some devs that care about their game.
History: My guild and I (about 10 people) left/deleted GW2 about 6 months ago now, just after the February/March updates. We left in response to updates to the daily quest system, an overhaul to A.C. that we didn’t deem necessary, but by far and large because we decided we didn’t like the direction the game was moving in: specifically, emphasis on temporary content.
I understand that temporary content gives an illusion of an ever-changing world and that element is cool, but I would like to attempt to outline the negative points of temporary content, specifically how it potentially excludes the playerbase from content.
Specifically, temporary content forces a player to play during a intended period of time; I can understand the draw of constantly having events like this, so as to keep the playerbase invested, but this is a double edged sword as well: for those who wish to take a break (either voluntarily or involuntarily) these players might miss out on the content entirely. This effect then snowballs to the point that, well, a player may feel that s/he has missed so much content that s/he may as well not bother playing at all. It creates a sort of wall, keeping old players from returning with the constant reminder that they’ve missed either minor or significant events that will never happen again.
This wouldn’t bother me so much if there was more of a reason for it, you know, past just giving the illusion of ‘a living world.’ Mostly, I don’t see the point of it. I’m assuming a large amount of effort and resources are poured into these updates that will only exist for two weeks, so it just seems wasteful.
One could argue that it’s just events, or items, or story or achievements that one is missing out on and who cares, that isn’t keeping you from playing the game but then.. well, alright, but then why play at all? There are plenty of games that do not punish the playerbase by permanently with holding the vast majority of their updates from those that decide to pursue other venues during those specific time frames.
Anyway, enough ranting, because rather than focus on the negative I’d like to focus on a solution: phasing. Other MMOs utilize a system where only select players can see active content, due to certain qualifications, and after fulfilling said objectives this content would become invisible to those players. This seems like a very viable middle ground between creating a living breathing world without excluding any player based on a time frame. By implementing such a system the world of GW2 could become a mix of the original Guild Wars — with zones that feel specific to a player — while maintaining an MMO atmosphere. This would enable the world to grow and evolve at the player’s pace rather than the world’s, enabling players to experience events that they might have missed otherwise, such as the frost and flame (that was around when I left so it’s the only one I know by name).
Alongside this it would be nice if dailies and monthlies could be accomplished at a later date, rather than having to do them within the 24 hour/month time period. Yeah, it kind of ruins the name ‘dailies’ but a system where you could choose any set of dailies/monthlies you missed would also allow a player more freedom in their play style. I consider this minor in comparison to the remainder of my post and only suggest it because I recall dailies becoming a chore just before I left. When I started they were nice as they could be completed anywhere, since they were non specific, but an update some time later forced one to travel to certain areas or do very specific pieces of content in order to complete a daily requirement and… well, at least for me, I had been going for 100% achievements at that point and that it just stopped being fun, spending an hour or three on dailies alone, you know? Not as bad as wanting to get back into GW2 every now and then but remembering that of about 6 months of updates, I would experience next to nothing of that, but still.
tl;dr: temporary content sucks and there isn’t a reason for it. I think the game would benefit a great deal from either not implementing temporary content (living world) or by introducing some sort of system (like phasing) that would allow players to experience this content on their own terms.
To anyone I may have angered: Hey, this game ended up not being for me and that’s fine. I’m sure you guys are really enjoying it for it’s unique-ness and that I’m just kittenting all over that. Sorry! I just think it could be even better and I wanted to say why.