Guild Wars 2

This game has so much untapped potential. It’s an odd case, because there is a lot of content, yet at the same time it feels as though the game feels somewhat ‘empty’ during day-to-day play.

Ultimately, you want to retain players. In order to retain players you need to release permanent new content that will keep end-gamers satisfied. This means giving the Living Story updates a break. Yes the content is great quality and enjoyable, but it is fleeting; once you’ve played through, that’s it – next. There are numerous players I’ve seen who are fed up of the amount of effort going into the Living Story when so many other areas of the game are left neglected.

We need bare-bones hard content. Content that will permanently change gameplay.

Here’s some examples of what I mean.

- Significant additions to WvW content. WvW is one of the main end-game outlets for players. We’ve been playing virtually the same WvW content for 2 years, with minor tweaks here and there. It’s just too empty and not engaging enough. We also need more content that will suit smaller player roaming groups and solo roamers that will allow them to contribute to the WvW battle without having to be part of a mindless zerg.

- Access to a new (existing) weapon for all professions: for over 2 years there have been no additions to weapon access. Just one new weapon would open a whole host of new content for each profession: new builds, new playstyles, new metas, new niches in group-play where previously there was none (e.g. give the staff to the ranger and bam instant potential for support shaman). The amount of potential content that giving access to just one more weapon would add is huge.

- Traits: A focus on buffing the weak rather than nerfing the strong. Balance is a very tricky issue, but it would be nice to see a season of buffs to the weakest traits and skills of every profession. Yes, nerfing will be needed in the most extreme circumstances, but the focus shouldn’t be on the negatives each patch. The whole playerbase is crying out for trait improvements. (As I only play Ranger I can only give an example from our trait line – why are trapper traits in Skirmishing?)

Naturally I understand that implementing access to a new weapon for each profession (for example) is no easy task. There are multiple balance issues, graphical and design issues that will take time to iron out. If the time and effort put into the Living Story could be re-directed to something like this temporarily, it would produce updates that would be far more welcome and appreciated. We need solid, permanent new content.