Guild Wars 2

In two weeks, it will have been four years since the last new guild mission was added to the game.

I know at this point, I should probably just accept that they are dead content as far as the developers are concerned, but I still really want to hold out hope for them. Organizing, leading and participating in guild missions have been, by a wide margin, the most enjoyable part of the GW2 experience for me in the past 4 years. Every Monday night, dozens of my fellow guildees and I still get together and do every PVE mission on the list.

But it isnt because we necessarily enjoy the actual content anymore. Most of us could do Langmar Estate blindfolded – and we have done even the hardest challenges (Save our Supplies, Crab Toss) with as few as 7 people. They grew stale 2+ years ago. It is only the social aspects (and potential guild-related rewards/decorations/etc) that keep us doing them.

We either need new missions – or we need some idea of how guilds and guild activities fit into the future plans for the game.

So (and I know people will cite the tired old excuse that Anet doesnt answer these kinds of questions) – Anet needs to let us know – are missions still supported content and, if so, how do they fit into the game development. Are they an expansion only feature? Are they something developers are expected to just remember and work on from time to time? Is there a team – or even an individual – anywhere in the company responsible for their development?

Any feedback at all is welcome at this point. We need to hear from them.

Why not start a new thread and just ask the question: what’s going on with guilds, ANet? Are we going to see new g-mish? What sort of g-mish would others like to see? Extend the current ones? New types?

You’ve confused “dead” and “unsupported” with “stale.” We don’t need new missions; we want them. We don’t need to hear from them. You do your own cause a disservice by “demanding” ANet do something — ANet isn’t our servant; they are a business and have all sorts of concerns besides guilds.

And frankly, I don’t really care if ANet says anything at all — they used to talk about fractals a lot and it wasn’t until recently we saw what they could deliver. I love the new fractals and I love the direction of the team. That doesn’t mean I forget that it was a long time between Thaumanova and Chaos (never mind the long-requested revamps to swamp, among other fractals). In other words: better that ANet says nothing until they are ready to deliver something.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Why not start a new thread and just ask the question: what’s going on with guilds, ANet? Are we going to see new g-mish? What sort of g-mish would others like to see? Extend the current ones? New types?

You’ve confused “dead” and “unsupported” with “stale.” We don’t need new missions; we want them. We don’t need to hear from them. You do your own cause a disservice by “demanding” ANet do something — ANet isn’t our servant; they are a business and have all sorts of concerns besides guilds.

And frankly, I don’t really care if ANet says anything at all — they used to talk about fractals a lot and it wasn’t until recently we saw what they could deliver. I love the new fractals and I love the direction of the team. That doesn’t mean I forget that it was a long time between Thaumanova and Chaos (never mind the long-requested revamps to swamp, among other fractals). In other words: better that ANet says nothing until they are ready to deliver something.

Im not demanding anything. Just asking the question and pointing out why it is important to some of us.

Blaeys.3102:

Im not demanding anything. Just asking the question and pointing out why it is important to some of us.

You aren’t just asking a question when you write, “we need.”

AFAIK needs are tied to things and people. They aren’t floating in the nothing. I need air to survive, and I need company to not feel alone. I also need money to buy groceries, and I need a little plastic shovel to clean my cat’s litterbox.

I could question the “we” in Blaeys declaration. But IMO, the “need” requires more elaboration to criticize. IMO Blaeys need for more information about the oficial standing Anet has about Guild Missions is legitimate. He needs it to quiet an uncertainity that bothers him(her?). I need it too: I need to know if Anet will ever work on Guild Missions again, to feel better, to placate the doubt. Does all this banter about the use of words has any real value? IMO, no, it doesn’t. Blaeys still needs to know.

And do so I. We (more than one people) still need (to feel better and to make choices in our guilds) to know what Anet is going to do about the very stale condition of Guild Missions. Do anyone here have an opinion on the topic?

Ardid.7203:

AFAIK needs are tied to things and people. They aren’t floating in the nothing. I need air to survive, and I need company to not feel alone. I also need money to buy groceries, and I need a little plastic shovel to clean my cat’s litterbox.

I could question the “we” in Blaeys declaration. But IMO, the “need” requires more elaboration to criticize. IMO Blaeys need for more information about the oficial standing Anet has about Guild Missions is legitimate. He needs it to quiet an uncertainity that bothers him(her?). I need it too: I need to know if Anet will ever work on Guild Missions again, to feel better, to placate the doubt. Does all this banter about the use of words has any real value? IMO, no, it doesn’t. Blaeys still needs to know.

And do so I. We (more than one people) still need (to feel better and to make choices in our guilds) to know what Anet is going to do about the very stale condition of Guild Missions. Do anyone here have an opinion on the topic?

Pretty much this.

If you take everything people say or write literally then you will have a hard time communicating with human beings.

I agree I could have worded the OP a little softer and that “need” denotes absolutes when that is obviously not the case – but as others have said, my meaning was pretty clear.

Truth is, this is a hot button for me (and some others I know). The last guild missions added to the game were almost 4 years ago. Just before HOT, I asked if new PVE guild missions would be included in the expansion and this is the response they gave -

https://youtu.be/W1WBYEfJVb4?t=337

Since then, I and many others have broached the topic again. I have asked the question directly during every AMA on Reddit and was part of a very popular thread (in terms of both replies and upvotes) there with other players.

But despite that, there has only been one mention of guild missions by Anet in the past 2 years – a brief mention on reddit about how they would like to do more (about 8 months ago, I believe).

The topic has fallen off the radar – and Anet has either let them slip through the cracks because there is no “team” associated with them (which is my guess) or is deliberately avoiding the topic because they have stretched their resources so thin and missions, unfortunately, didnt make the cut between what is important and what isn’t.

After all of the posts and discussions – with almost no feedback or mention from Anet – I grew a little frustrated, which came through in the the language of my original post here.

I just really want to know if missions are still a part of this game. I know a lot of people (most of my guild among them) who love the concept but are growing bored with the ones we have been doing almost every week (and we’ve only missed 2 weeks since they first came out) for more than four years now.

I don’t think that is an unfair request.

Blaeys, Guild Missions are not raids, so ANeT no longer cares about them. They’ve hooked their cart to a small percentage of the player base and have alienated the vast majority in doing so.

The two most popular events in my guild’s history (based on attendance) have been a mission night and the night we captured our guild hall.

It really feels like there is almost no ongoing support for organized guild activities anymore, whether it be missions, world vs world or otherwise. And while guilds can create their own events in open world (which my guild does ever Sunday night), more is needed to keep these core game communities engaged and entertained.

After all, my guess is that social interaction with friends and guildees is probably the single biggest thing keeping a lot of players in GW2.

Based on the comment that you mentioned, I got the feeling that there wasn’t ongoing development for Guild missions.

It could be something that comes with the expansion, I hope, but that will be a wait and see scenario.

If it doesn’t come with expansion, my thought would be that there will not be on-going development until they say otherwise.

I understand the whole “dont talk too much about what were doing” concept, but I think, after almost four years (2 weeks from today will mark 4 years since the last new guild mission was added), it isn’t irrational to expect them to at least let us know if they still see missions as a part of the game at all anymore.

Blaeys.3102:

I understand the whole “dont talk too much about what were doing” concept, but I think, after almost four years (2 weeks from today will mark 4 years since the last new guild mission was added), it isn’t irrational to expect them to at least let us know if they still see missions as a part of the game at all anymore.

I don’t believe it is irrational for players to want Anet to let them know something. Anet also doesn’t have to do anything more than they already have. People aren’t going to like it, but that wasn’t the point. At the same time, those players, have to be able to start drawing conclusions based on information to be had at that time, and based on the last thing mentioned, they either don’t have time or have a priority on it. I have faith that if that changes, they will let us know. If they didn’t, and that was a feature set I was really sold on, I would be looking for another game at this point.

Honestly, no one “needs” anything from a game. It is a game. You all and many more like you would like to know, but you don’t need.

I also would like to know about guild missions. I would like something fresh and fun. I remember when they first came out how much fun it was trying to do some of them until we got the hang of it. But they haven’t abandon guilds either.

They have been putting items in for the guild halls and more functionality to the guild panels with HoT and the items there. We should get at least one new guild hall with the expansion, and one could assume (I hate using that word) that some new guild stuff will come with it. Now will it be missions, who knows at this point. But I do understand the silence on anything they are developing. I have seen these forums go plain stupid when ANET says something about what they are developing or have said something and then changed it in their process.

I need to….ehem

Anyway, there haven’t been any new guild contents added for years, anet once said they will focus more on guild which why the existence of guild hall but is that all there is to it? If that is all, it is pretty insulting.

I agree, when we got the missions they said they created in a way that they could easily extend on it, so far for that. We got one more addition and then they seem to forget all about it. Even with HoT at the very least I expected to have some of the old mission being put in the new maps. But none of that.

And not only should they make more of the existing missions, they should add new type of missions.

I will not say Guilds did get no love, with HoT they got the Guild Halls what was great, but if it comes to activities to do with the guild things are not so good. It looks like Anet is more focused on getting random people playing in open maps.
Back in the day you would do guild-missions or for a PvX guild go into WvW as a guild-activity (we did both a lot). Mega-Servers basically killed WvW as guild-activity for PvX guilds.
With the release of HoT capturing the Guild Hall finally was a new real activity do to with the guild. Our guild did it twice (once for every guild hall). Building the hall was not really an activity you did together, but you would still follow the progress together, and came together when the building where constructed. But once all buildings where done that was also gone.

Guilds did get the ability to start world-bosses and it is fun to do that a few times, but it was already old content and while you can start it as guild, it is not so much a guild-event (was not closed off and does not fit any size guild). Not to mention that doing it from the world-spawn was usually easier.

Considering I was mostly active with these sort of things (as Guild Leader) once there was less of this to do, and people got less interested in Guild Missions there was also less incentive for me to be active.

Guilds are now mostly used to organize raids. However, if it comes to activities, things to do together with the guild, guilds are in a bad state now.

But for the sake of all leader and officers out there (and the members obviously), yeah add more activities for guilds. This open world group content did not work out so move back to activities for guilds if you want people to play together.

Guild missions seem to have been abandoned by ArenaNet. When HoT was being discussed we asked if there would new guild missions alongside the guild hall and were told not at launch but maybe later (might have been on reddit, can’t really remember where). Call me cynical but I don’t think they had any intention of adding any more missions.

Pifil.5193:

Guild missions seem to have been abandoned by ArenaNet. When HoT was being discussed we asked if there would new guild missions alongside the guild hall and were told not at launch but maybe later (might have been on reddit, can’t really remember where). Call me cynical but I don’t think they had any intention of adding any more missions.

Like I said earlier, if it isn’t something aimed at the 5% of elitists(i.e. Raids), they don’t care about it. They seemed more concerned about keeping a small faction happy. If you look at a recent screen capture of a LFG Raids list you can tell what kind of culture it has created. They list the number of Legendary Insights they require you to have to join their little band. Elitists for Elitists and by Elitists. Unless you want to pay a hefty sum of gold of course. What’s the going rate to have them carry you these days? 30-100 gold? So to get the number of successful raids you would have to pay out 4500-15,000 gold? Is that what ANet’s ultimate vision was all about? Just remember the lower 95% don’t count anymore, since they don’t listen to our voices.

Devata.6589:

I agree, when we got the missions they said they created in a way that they could easily extend on it, so far for that. We got one more addition and then they seem to forget all about it. Even with HoT at the very least I expected to have some of the old mission being put in the new maps. But none of that.

And not only should they make more of the existing missions, they should add new type of missions.

I will not say Guilds did get no love, with HoT they got the Guild Halls what was great, but if it comes to activities to do with the guild things are not so good. It looks like Anet is more focused on getting random people playing in open maps.
Back in the day you would do guild-missions or for a PvX guild go into WvW as a guild-activity (we did both a lot). Mega-Servers basically killed WvW as guild-activity for PvX guilds.
With the release of HoT capturing the Guild Hall finally was a new real activity do to with the guild. Our guild did it twice (once for every guild hall). Building the hall was not really an activity you did together, but you would still follow the progress together, and came together when the building where constructed. But once all buildings where done that was also gone.

Guilds did get the ability to start world-bosses and it is fun to do that a few times, but it was already old content and while you can start it as guild, it is not so much a guild-event (was not closed off and does not fit any size guild). Not to mention that doing it from the world-spawn was usually easier.

Considering I was mostly active with these sort of things (as Guild Leader) once there was less of this to do, and people got less interested in Guild Missions there was also less incentive for me to be active.

Guilds are now mostly used to organize raids. However, if it comes to activities, things to do together with the guild, guilds are in a bad state now.

But for the sake of all leader and officers out there (and the members obviously), yeah add more activities for guilds. This open world group content did not work out so move back to activities for guilds if you want people to play together.

One thing I expected them to do post HOT was implement guild missions inside the guild hall . We had the well designed guild hall capture event that showed us the potential that exists there.

At this point, though, I am just looking for a scrap from the table – just a nod yes or no that they are still a part of the game moving forward in any way whatsoever. Like many, my guild keeps me logging into the game on days I probably wouldn’t otherwise. I just want to know how important guilds – and the things they can potentially do together – are in future development plans.

After almost 4 years, I think that is fair request to make.

Well, it really did seem like they just introduced missions, gated some items behind it, and then called it a day.

Nothing has changed since, it would seem.

The issue with guild missions is that they have become quite stale. Even treks with their dozens of locations are “been there/seen that/got the t-shirt”. Easy bounty is ALWAYS Trillia, Brekkabek or Poobadoo. Did the RNG get stuck? I thought easy meant one bounty and a lot of time.

A refresh would be nice. A reason to get together to do them shouldn’t just be personal reward.

Behellagh.1468:

The issue with guild missions is that they have become quite stale. Even treks with their dozens of locations are “been there/seen that/got the t-shirt”. Easy bounty is ALWAYS Trillia, Brekkabek or Poobadoo. Did the RNG get stuck? I thought easy meant one bounty and a lot of time.

A refresh would be nice. A reason to get together to do them shouldn’t just be personal reward.

Easy bounties pull from a set group of potential targets – I think to make it easier for 4-5 player groups (in terms of both finding and killing).

Guild missions have definitely grown stale (again – almost 4 years of the EXACT SAME ONES will do that). Add to that the fact that rushes (races) have been bugged for more than six months now.

I think that is part of why it is so hard to have this conversation on the forums. Many players – even those still doing guild missions – have more or less given up on any kind of meaningful response on this issue at this point.

Guild missions have so much potential. Guild puzzles held on the old dungeon maps (which is likely possible given how CM was used in the story a few months ago). Guild bounties on the HOT and new LS maps (hunting down a rogue wyvern or white mantle), guild challenges in the towns at Lake Doric (or even in part of Dragon Stand), races (rushes) using gliding skills in Bloodstone Fen (or the old maps, for that matter). And much much more. There are some really interesting possibilities.

It actually hurts a little to think of what they could have done here and haven’t.

But again, the point of this thread is much simpler than that. I just want to know if Anet even remembers missions at this point – are they something we can look forward to, or are they just something they have abandoned.

(after almost 4 years, I think that is a VERY fair question to ask)

As of today (May 28), it has been exactly four years since the last new guild mission was added to the game.