Before people jump me, I am not saying `we should have easy content only’, nor am I saying that the event is too challenging for me. The failures are human, not technical.
Scarlet’s Invasions should have demonstrated two very clear things to the designers:
1) Players do not cooperate,
2) Players get abusive when they are expected to cooperate.
Now, we have an event that requires 100+ players to coordinate seamlessly and operate under incredible unity. Sure, this can be done. WvW does that all the time, which is almost certainly why BG were the first server to succeed. PvE, on the other hand, does not feature any cooperation. In fact, the number of times I have had a half-dozen mobs trained into me and the player abandoned me to their gentle caresses shows how much the average PvE player cares about others. Spend even five minutes in Queensdale and you will be sick of the arguments on which order to kill the Champions in!
Sure enough, we have problems aplenty. The six (critical) turrets can (and often will be) manned by trolls/griefers, AFK players, or simply people who do not understand their role in the event. The event area itself is filled with AFK or dead players who contribute nothing. We then also have a lvl63(?) encounter that seems to be balanced for full-exotic geared lvl80s, though we can easily have full-Fine geared lvl50s `taking up space’. In fact, I have seen a lvl10 naked character there, so go figure!
This, inevitably, causes frustration. Frustrated players begin taking it out on other players. Casuals need to quit the game, because they are holding the group behind. Anyone who does not have multiple sets of exotic gear to swap between (for different roles) needs to leave, because they are holding everyone back. Anyone who lacks extensive Dungeon and/or WvW experience is a problem. Anyone playing a Necro, Thief, Ranger or Engineer is wasting space. Too many players in the zerg, because they are all morons. Too many players defending turrets, because they are stupid. Everything is the fault of anyone other than the frustrated player.
That there is the key issue. What causes frustration? Having an issue you do not have the resources to resolve. Why can these players not overcome the challenge? Because they have to rely on other players, who are obviously going to be inferior to them. They lash out, people get upset, players quit. Clearly, a massive failure by ANet who should be using Living Story to foster interest in the game, not lead it to be associated with harassment.
What is the solution? No idea. I have no clue how you are supposed to make a massive world event like this work without making it pointlessly simple. You are trying to balance for uncoordinated, random players of widely varied skill and resource limits. The current event excludes all but the most elite players (and even they are struggling); the original version was boring even to the most casual player. This kind of effort in a game is also unsustainable. A week or two of attempting to gather and coordinate 100+ players? Maybe. A month? Doubtful. I cannot see anyone bothering with Tequatl by Christmas. Nothing was learned by the failings in Scarlet’s Invasions leading to a far larger failure.
