Guild Wars 2

Ever since this dungeon was added it seems like NO ONE has bothered with doing anything out in the world, unless it involves on of these four things.
1. Dragon events.
2. Waiting for party members outside dungeon entrances.
3. Gathering mats, Ori farming.
4. Progressing map completion on new accounts.

Anet really needs to do something to incentive players to actually get out into the world that took them years to make, instead of just running some dungeon that only took a couple months at the most.

Note: I do know there are actually people going out and doing stuff but it seems REALLY few and far in between.

“seems like” this is your subjective observation and opinion on a mater that is infinitely more complex than you make it out to be. There’s nothing objectively quantitative here to substantiate your claim, so I’d dismiss the assumption as “it’s just you”. You could at least offer a reason as to WHY you blame FotM for this and not the multitude of other variables that could play into your observation.

Actually he’s perfectly right, so your twist of words attempting to down him are pointless But if you want a realistic example, open your map and tell me how many non contested waypoint you see Hey, it’s just the easiest example

That’s what happens when you put all the best rewards in one place. What did you expect? The developers obviously knew what they were doing…. obviously….

Megido.5061:

“seems like” this is your subjective observation and opinion on a mater that is infinitely more complex than you make it out to be.

Not really, fractal design rewards grinding (RNG based ring drop). So it is more rewarding to do fractals than say the “outside world”. I have full exotics, and I am only missing one path of Arah for DM title (which is currently very wonky due to sparks not willing to work). I have ascended back, + two non-preinfused rings. So why exactly would I do anything other than Fractals? It is also the “new thing” so people will do it more.

Megido.5061:

There’s nothing objectively quantitative here to substantiate your claim, so I’d dismiss the assumption as “it’s just you”.

Sooooo

Where do you base evidence to counter his argument? It goes both ways ya know.

Megido.5061:

You could at least offer a reason as to WHY you blame FotM for this and not the multitude of other variables that could play into your observation.

It isn’t because of fractals themselves, it is because of the way Ascended is handled. If you can’t see this I bet you think that they “level” system they have now is a 100% great idea and doesn’t have any effect on the dungeon community as well…

It’s not JUST FotM, but it’s a large part of it.

The best gear you can acquire right now is Ascended gear, and there’s only one source from which to acquire it. It also threatens to nullify/outdate whatever exotics you can get from dungeons or crafting, since Anet has been quite hazy about how they intend to handle it.

FotM is also very profitable to run with its comparatively high drop rate for rares and exotics vs. open world drops and otherdungeon rewards, as well as Cores/Lodestones.

FotM allows you to buy exotic back pieces and 20 slot bags.

FotM lets you farm towards your legendary while keeping on top of karma farming by allowing you to substitute karma with relics for obsidian shards.

High levels of FotM is probably the only real area of really difficult PvE available for those into challenging content.

Due to separated levels, FotM LFG messages pretty much overtake everything else ever in LA chat, making it that much more annoying to get actual LFG/M messages for other dungeons out.

In all honesty, it is somewhat stupid to NOT be running FotM if you’re playing right now. That said, I rarely run FotM, but the effects it has had on the game is extremely obvious and not at all complex. I would not say that FotM is killing GW2, but the effect is definitely not a very good one and there are some big changes needed sometime soon. For it to have been implemented in its current form shows extreme shortsightedness from Anet, honestly.

The game is not dead, so FotM can hardly have killed it. There are a million stories in the big city. For every one that relates to FotM there may very well be many that do not relate to it. Just one: my former guild had 60 active players in early October; it has 3 now. The ones who left did so before FotM was introduced. FotM did not entice any of those players back to the game.

45 guildies at start….i’m the only one now in the guild :/……now, i just connected for dragons (i love to have blue and green stuff on a legendary dragon) or to farm a bit but not sure i’ll stay in gw2 more than 8 years like gw1…it’s a fact

I agree that fractals have killed the PvE in guild wars too and some of the WvW. I really hope Anet pays attention to this b/c this is hurting the game imo.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Actually he’s perfectly right, so your twist of words attempting to down him are pointless But if you want a realistic example, open your map and tell me how many non contested waypoint you see Hey, it’s just the easiest example

If you open your map in LA in overflow, than yes, a lot of them will be contested. But that’s because the map will show you overflow version of other areas which don’t mirror actual situation.

No GW2 lack of good pve end game killed GW2, frac just a poor attempt to fix this.

Whats really killing the game are people complaining about everything clases being OP, ascended never droping, being so hard to get precursor etc… and Anet actualy trying to help them lazy people that want everything in a matter of days

Tho its true that gw2 lacks in the end game department guild vs guild would be nice
And back to the end game probly wont happen since it would seem they want to make ascended and leyendary stuff easier to get which will result in people getting bored faster and or quitting the game

haviz.1340:

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Actually he’s perfectly right, so your twist of words attempting to down him are pointless But if you want a realistic example, open your map and tell me how many non contested waypoint you see Hey, it’s just the easiest example

If you open your map in LA in overflow, than yes, a lot of them will be contested. But that’s because the map will show you overflow version of other areas which don’t mirror actual situation.

Curious, i tried again on main server, jade quarry, same map and same contested area. One less, at least on the overflow where i was, coe was open by someone who did the DE lol

i seriously doubt it. i may look like this since players split in groups. at the beginning we all were levelling. now some are levelling alts, some playing dungeons and some like me trying to get 100% on the map

Seems to have pretty much killed the normal pve side of things.

Lower level area’s are like tumbleweed, and nobody wants to do any other dungeons now.

I don’t know where ArenaNet intend to go with this.

Fractals didn’t kill GW2, the population was already on steady decline before it was introduced. Fractals didn’t drive that many people away, those people probably would have left anyway, fractals just failed at drawing people back to the game.

The whole reason fractals was made was to entice an audience to keep playing the game, or even come back to the game. The problem is, this audience doesn’t exist. You can’t make more people play the game if the people you’re aiming the content at don’t exist in the first place.

They might as well have implemented a new dungeon that was specifically aimed to make aliens from deep space play the game, and it would have the same effect.

The only people who are still enjoying the game don’t even care about ascended gear or beating level 999 of fractals, they just want to mess around and do whatever they feel like.

No, but between it and the LS event (and all the issues associated with them ontop of the older issues still not addressed), Anet really didn’t do much to inspire confidence in the playerbase.

I don’t think FotM has killed the rest of the game, yes there are fewer people doing regular dungeons, and Orr does seem to be less populated these days but a good chunk of the Orr population was made up of players farming karma for legendaries – at some point they weren’t gonna need anymore karma. Orr has always suffered from the same problem, it would seem you either love it or hate it, not a lot of middle ground. If the ones that hate it are there out of necessity then once they have what they want they will stop going there.
The biggest problem is that, as people have already said, FotM offers good rewards and is the only place for ascended gear so the old dungeons have a lot fewer players wanting to do them, on top of that the players that do want to do them are spread out over all servers, making gw2lfg the only effective way to make groups at certain times of the day.

IMO we need a decent lfg tool (maybe in the form of a bulletin board in LA or something, and FotM needs a staging area like Heart of the Mists or like Halls had in GW1, so that the LA channel isn’t swamped with people lfg for FotM and it doesn’t take forever to load into the map. And on the flip side, players looking for Fractals are in a channel with only likeminded players making it easier for them to get the group level they want (Or maybe even a bulletin board in that staging area too)

Fractals pretty much halved the amount of people who wvw in tier 1 USA bracket now. So yes, fractals have ruined the game.

Dredlockrasta.8269:

Fractals pretty much halved the amount of people who wvw in tier 1 USA bracket now. So yes, fractals have ruined the game.

you can add tier 2 as well, there are more people on SoR doing FOTM than doing WvW…

rchu.8945:

Dredlockrasta.8269:

Fractals pretty much halved the amount of people who wvw in tier 1 USA bracket now. So yes, fractals have ruined the game.

you can add tier 2 as well, there are more people on SoR doing FOTM than doing WvW…

Hey don’t worry though, they will look at wvw in February! That is also when I’m guessing we will see ascended quality gear in wvw as well. Lol by that time there will probably be more tumbleweeds in wvw than players.

I don’t think they’ve “killed” the game. They have just been implemented in a strange way that it focuses attention to them. They are in LA so all chat in the central hub of the game now relates to them. They offer a disjointed leveling system so people have to work harder finding a relevant group thus increasing the chatter. They offer the BIS gear with a random drop rate so many people will run them repeatedly. Even if they are not actually drawing any more people than the initial dungeons were they will definitely appear to for anyone who steps foot into LA.

Personally I would love to see more people out and about in the world but looking at Cursed Shore before this patch made me realize they really don’t (for now at least) have a solid enough system in place to motivate people to be spending the level cap doing events. FoTM is primarily designed to keep people busy and focused on something. It is being very effective in this role. Let’s hope it gives the developers the distraction they need to focus on what they need to so that the next major content patch like this does not feel like it turns the game on its head like this one did.

Very few people are actually still doing fractals, it can take hours or even days to get a group together for most levels. The people who fractals was meant to keep busy just aren’t here. The people who are here mostly got bored after a week and went somewhere else. The few people who are still doing this dungeon don’t even care about progressing in it or care about ascended items, they would have enjoyed an extra path in AC just as much.

Cerise.9045:

Very few people are actually still doing fractals, it can take hours or even days to get a group together for most levels. The people who fractals was meant to keep busy just aren’t here. The people who are here mostly got bored after a week and went somewhere else. The few people who are still doing this dungeon don’t even care about progressing in it or care about ascended items, they would have enjoyed an extra path in AC just as much.

with gw2lfg.com I have no problem creating a group of any lvl within 5 minutes. I am lvl21 fractal and run all kinds of lvls to help guildies and we fill in holes with PUGs from gw2lfg. Never had to wait much, most daily groups fill up with less than a minute.

If you are just sitting there spamming one overflow in /map, then I can see your side of things.

Ever since fractals came into play, I’d say about 90% of the chatter in towns is looking for groups for fractals. The amount of people you’d see out in the world is greatly diminished.

What ArenaNet should do is make world events/dynamic chains longer and their rewards, just as profitable as the dungeons. Or at least yield rewards needed for other things which are not going to be obtained in dungeons.

Give players a reason to farm anything other than fractals, because right now, that is the way to go. Either by getting specific mats, or getting others and selling them only to buy others you need. Either way its better.

Megido.5061:

“seems like” this is your subjective observation and opinion on a mater that is infinitely more complex than you make it out to be. There’s nothing objectively quantitative here to substantiate your claim, so I’d dismiss the assumption as “it’s just you”. You could at least offer a reason as to WHY you blame FotM for this and not the multitude of other variables that could play into your observation.

QFT

What do you expect at about this time after release?

People have done a couple 80 characters, mapping is getting old for some who started on release, and dungeons are getting to the point of being predictable because people are grinding through them every day to get that cool helm or pair of leet pants.

Sounds like it’s all right on schedule.

Does nobody notice that the map of Tyria is only like 50% open?

Stop playing 8 hours a day and maybe you’re time-line and the devs would get closer and the game would be more fun.

Go outside for a minute and stop eating all those cupcakes. When you do that let me know how… because I can’t seem to figure it out either. : )

Kazak.8459:

Cerise.9045:

Very few people are actually still doing fractals, it can take hours or even days to get a group together for most levels. The people who fractals was meant to keep busy just aren’t here. The people who are here mostly got bored after a week and went somewhere else. The few people who are still doing this dungeon don’t even care about progressing in it or care about ascended items, they would have enjoyed an extra path in AC just as much.

with gw2lfg.com I have no problem creating a group of any lvl within 5 minutes. I am lvl21 fractal and run all kinds of lvls to help guildies and we fill in holes with PUGs from gw2lfg. Never had to wait much, most daily groups fill up with less than a minute.

If you are just sitting there spamming one overflow in /map, then I can see your side of things.

Sadly this is completely untrue, you can repost on gw2lfg for 5+ hours, both at high levels and low levels, and still not get a group.

I added over a 100 people to my friends list during the first week of fractals being out after pugging with them, and less than 10 of them still come online.

not only fractals degraded this game to fractal wars 2 but it also seperated u from ur regular group runs, 1 day unable to play and ur screwed and have to catch up with horrible pugs run

Empressium.5482:

not only fractals degraded this game to fractal wars 2 but it also seperated u from ur regular group runs, 1 day unable to play and ur screwed and have to catch up with horrible pugs run

Ohhh man yes. Worst design ever. It literally fractured my friends list as everyone is off on their own little number. Don’t get my started on the idea recruiting new players and having them at fractal level 4 or something. It is just insane, making Planes of Power backflagging look like the best keying system in the world.

Think dungeon finders hurt community? Guild Wars 2 topped it.

Cerise.9045:

The only people who are still enjoying the game don’t even care about ascended gear or beating level 999 of fractals, they just want to mess around and do whatever they feel like.

Damn, this strikes

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Actually he’s perfectly right, so your twist of words attempting to down him are pointless But if you want a realistic example, open your map and tell me how many non contested waypoint you see Hey, it’s just the easiest example

Not a single contested waypoint in Cursed Shore yesterday at about 10pm CET. The ‘reset’ that came with the new version helped a lot.

You’re welcome.

Ouroboros.5076:

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Actually he’s perfectly right, so your twist of words attempting to down him are pointless But if you want a realistic example, open your map and tell me how many non contested waypoint you see Hey, it’s just the easiest example

Not a single contested waypoint in Cursed Shore yesterday at about 10pm CET. The ‘reset’ that came with the new version helped a lot.

You’re welcome.

Really. And all temple done too? This is your 24/7 status? cough such a rare server, must be an elite, we should all move on your server quickly cough

Actually I don’t think fractals killed GW2 at all. It actually makes more ways to get shards for legendary weapon which is a plus in my book. As for ascended gear, I am not too fone of GW2 developers going regular MMO route.

I don’t think fractals have killed the game, but fractal rewards are a little imbalanced compared to everything else. Not to mention fractals are generally easier than having to manage temple events. They have little down time compared to dragon events and you can get money and better drops than from regular dungeons(generally it’s faster unless you know really short paths(but too many paths runs into DR)) or WvW.
So in other words everything else in the world needs to give rewards on par or better(vs the opportunity cost) with fractals.

fractals have killed the game for me:
1. RNG stupid drop system implemented
2. ONLY location to get best in slot gear
3. require a massive time investment into only one content source

The only thing that has honestly improved is the lower number of bots since the release of fractals. They otherwise seem to be killing the crap out of this game to me.

Lucas Ashrock.8675:

Actually he’s perfectly right, so your twist of words attempting to down him are pointless But if you want a realistic example, open your map and tell me how many non contested waypoint you see Hey, it’s just the easiest example

That doesn’t tell anyone anything, I am on JQ and can easily say that most everything in Iron marches, timberline falls, harathi hinterland, malchors leap, the list goes on and on and on. all of these maps and more say constantly contested now that the game has settled and the majority of players only stay in the profitable zones.
So again looking at the map for contested waypoints is useless, and the first responder is absolutely correct in everything he said, just because you don’t agree doesn’t make it incorrect.

In my opinion FoTM and End Game is what is “killing” Guild Wars 2.
This dungeon has caused so many of the players do nothing but FotM.
And in my opinion End game being nothing but Contested way points and Risen was a HUGE let down.

As omgwtflolbbl.7142 said in an earlier post above, "In all honesty, it is somewhat stupid to NOT be running FotM if you’re playing right now. " That right there is the issue because we all intellectually know this. That’s why it lessens all other activities in the game. Especially if we don’t like Fractals. Yet, love WvW and PvE….

The problem isn’t Fractals itself, from the beginning, it’s been as issue of control. An MMORPG needs to be as customizable as possible. This game has such great customizing capability yet, someone high up has made this game cookie cutter. You can only wear what they want you to wear. Use what gear they’ve deemed appropriate for you to use. And especially, behave as they want you to behave. They do this by rewarding only certain area’s. Treating everything else like it’s second class.

I’d bet whomever is in charge of design, this overlord if you will, is an adrenaline junkie that loves dungeons and jumping puzzles. That’s why such focus and reward is placed upon them. THAT person needs to wake up or go before this game can start reclaiming an audience. For open game play will always bring more joy and entertainment than feeling gated and controlled imho.

The funniest part out of all of this is, this control is supposed to be about making money. BUT, there is no way to even pay them for the things we want outside of the cookie cutter. It’s so short sighted I can’t even begin to describe it.

Ive done maybe 6 fractals. First 80 character has about 55% map completion and the second 80 character has about 25% map completion. So in my case fractals has nothing to do with it.