More people who buy GW2, more potential revenue from the gem store, and more resources allocated to the future development of GW. Thus we have to conclude that more people is good for the game. Though, having lots of ppl in your game also create negative circumstances.
Looking at the massive success of games like LoL and DOTA2 (which now, in its beta form has over a quarter of a million people playing at the same time) it seems that these games win as e-sport games for their accessibility.
Some people feel that sPvP in GW2 has missed the ball, and even with all these new additions, the party is over. It’s done. It’s chance to become big is almost impossible, even if they fixed whatever is wrong with it. It’s a shame because there is so much potential there, and GW2 hits a gameplay style between action games and MOBA games and MMORPGs, and it’s entertaining to watch.
sPvP is currently stale. It’s also separated from the main open world game.
If ArenaNet used the sPvP to lure in lots of potential players to promote their sport by offering access to sPvP for free (with sneaky possibility for buying the full game digitally if they like it) wouldn’t it push in a lot of new breath into the game?
Nobody says that sPvP needs to be Starcraft2 or DOTA2 level of e-sport, but I think many of us would have loved to have seen it.
Benefits;
-entry point for playing with friends who wont commit to buying a game; lets face it, lots of us have friends who play games like DOTA2 and LoL because they are free, and thus gamers end up playing the games that their non-gamer friends play. Not exclusively but it happens often. This would allow non-gamers who wont initially , take the plunge.
increased revenue for ArenaNet and a new income of players into populating the sPvP and possible also the open world; Having access to 1-2 character slots and sPvP, a person who enjoys the game might upgrade digitally to the full game, and take their pvp character they have potentially played for hundreds of hours into the real world, and/or use the gem store to buy vanity stuff inside sPvP or more character slots, and other things.
increased spectatatorial audience; GW2 is a massive world, with lots of servers. within each server is WvWvW, personal story, tons of dungeons and overflow servers. This spread up a massive population thin. one of those places that are spread thin are sPvP. Nobody can become famous, notorious or renowned in sPvP because there is not a following, watching, commenting, promoting, discussing and feeling it.
We all remember the insane numbers LoL had for people who was watching its championships. Being able to have a following, creates purpose and initiative and makes it more fun. If its the players world, they want to make their mark.
The ugly;
- more stress on the servers
- if. IF, this would become popular and draw lots of new people in, which it might not – many MMOs go free-2-play and fewer and fewer people seem to care. GW2s sPvP would have to be of significantly high quality, and it would need to have a level of long term value that makes such a commitment worth it.