Like many people in Guild Wars, I enjoy dungeon game-play and have found it difficult recently not to make the assumption that Arenanet would rather we didn’t. On the off-chance that this is not the case, and Arenanet are, in fact, intending to continue to support dungeons, I have a suggestion to help revitalize the scene and to give players more reasons to play the instances without needing to increase liquid rewards.
I got the idea from Guild Wars 1 of all places. Some of you more veteran players may remember armor sets that used to be commonly known as “15k” or “elite” armor but I believe the correct term was “prestige”. Essentially, they were more elaborately designed versions of standard armor sets which were thematically similar to their standard counterparts but more expensive and hence harder and more prestigious to acquire.
So without further ado…
My suggestion is to extend the existing dungeon collections to provide a way for players to acquire newly designed and more elaborate yet thematically consistent (with the relevant dungeon lore) armor sets. For example, upon completion of an existing dungeon collection, a player could unlock an elite collection that will reward armor (and potentially weapon) skins for considerable quantities of dungeon tokens.
This will give players who have already completed the existing dungeon collections for, frankly, menial rewards, a reason to start running the instances again while simultaneously giving everybody else a meaningful and prestigious target to aim for.
(I’m going to take this opportunity to add that people are going to be disappointed if Arenanet does choose to run with this idea and makes people pay gold in addition to dungeon tokens in order to unlock the aforementioned skins. Given the now lower liquid rewards received from dungeons, people are likely to react badly to having to give up their hard-earned gold in addition to the tokens that will undoubtedly take a considerable time investment to unlock.)
In addition to giving players back an incentive to run dungeons, this will give Arenanet a fantastic opportunity to answer another commonly cited request made by players. That is to say, to make more non-gemstore armor sets available.
In conclusion, I think that dungeons are in desperate need of a second look and potentially a total overhaul. They are a staple and popular part of this game and they deserve some attention. I am not naive enough to miss the fact that the implementation of this suggestion will be costly for Arenanet and will bare no direct fruit. It will however help to keep players interested, motivated and ultimately, playing. This, in turn, will contribute towards higher future cash flow and a more sustainable future for the game.
If you agree with me or have any suggestions based on my own, please take this opportunity to voice your opinions/concerns and maybe the idea will reach the relevant decisions makers.
Thank you for reading.
TL;DR Elite dungeon collections that reward elite versions of dungeon armor/weapons for dungeon tokens could provide an incentive for players to return to the scene en masse.