Anet has clearly shown that they want dynamic and competitive PvP. I really don’t want to have a “The end is nigh!” attitude but, as far as PvP is concerned, things are dire.
Until probably a month ago, I was crazy excited about GW2 becoming an Esport or at least a game with a great competitive scene. Unfortunately, I’m still left waiting…
I joined a Guild of some of the old school HoH and GvG elites (Rank 15+, Number 2 in GVG), we were biting at the chops to pwn n00bs. That excitement lasted about two weeks. Since then, 70% of the guild has quit, the rest has moved onto PvE. It took me a while to figure out why my passion for PvP wasn’t there. I thought we just needed ranks and tournaments to give the motivation, I was wrong.
Unfortunately, Spectator mode, ranking systems, and monthly/yearly tournaments won’t be enough. I’m sure you have noticed Heart of the Mists has become a ghost town. 70% of the hot join servers are empty. There is a tiny amount of players actually interested in the paid tournaments. I’m a MOD on Powerr’s twitch channel, he’s currently number 2 in the US for qualifier points. In his matches, they really only play maybe 4-5 different teams. Most days only one to two paid tournaments are going, resulting in almost a 45 minute wait. Do you think Anet added a brand new feature that less that 100 people wanted to play? It is quite clear that player’s interest in PvP has dropped significantly.
sPvP and tPvP are not cutting it.
A game type where capturing/hold points is just not interesting enough by itself. The victory conditions create games where there is no room for strategy. There isn’t enough tactical decisions to make that persist throughout the game. Yeah, you can say “Hey you two go Keep.” But, the repercussions of that choice are fleeting and often unimportant. Capturing Points and killing enemy players ends up just being a head-count, were you try to locate enemies and find group fights or 1v1s are are to your advantage. Strategy is only important in the immediate term, you want to find the enemies position and kill them when you have an advantage.
Games are often decided based on the first few deaths. If 3 of your 5 team members die in the first encounter, from there, a good team will just beat you in the ‘head count’. Killing you individually and out numbering you, all while those Capture points count up the score.
Now, things like tactics, scouting, and player position aren’t bad, they are only bad when that’s all there is.
sPvP and tPvP is still fun. I prefer the Quick-Joins because it reminds me of GW: Alliance Battles. It was a place were you could test out builds and casually dick around with friends. But, it’s not enough to keep me interested for very long. Competitive teams need more to chew on.
Guild Wars 2 needs GvG!
If Guild Wars 2 wants to become an eSport, it needs to learn from the success of others. For example, MOBAs have a key element that many competitive PvPers want and that is: Resource Management. Elements of WvW could be easily implemented to add resource management. This give teams the ability to make interesting decisions that effect the course of the game.
I really don’t think GvG would be that difficult to develop. You really just need to combine elements of sPvP and WvW and apply them to a 8vs8 or 5vs5 map. Important elements would be things like: NPCs, Gates, Siege Equipment, Supply, Capture points, Mini-bosses, portals, and of course a Guild Lord.
I could go on and on about what I’d like to see in GvG and feel free to post things you want to see.
But, the main goal of this post was to get Anet to realize PvP is dying not because of the lack of features, it’s because the gametype is boring, rigid, and lacks true strategic options. If Anet thinks a game type that lasts 5-10 minutes revolving around 3 capture points is somehow going to become an eSport, they need to wake up.
(edited by Flagship.4627)