Guild Wars 2

While I don’t share all of the negative feelings that some max level players have been expressing regarding lack of endgame, my hope is that ArenaNet will not ignore these type of post. Yes, they’ve sold over 2-million copies. Yes, their composite metacritic score is > 90. Yes, their hype machine has probably left them all feeling as if they have created the greatest game ever made.

One small problem: they haven’t. Not yet. It’s the continued support of the community that will keep the game fresh. Players who cap and finish everything (and yes, many have finished all hearts and all PS chapters, all dungeons story mode). They need a reason to keep playing. They need a reason to sign-in and not be bored. Right now, regardless of how much you may love the design of GW2 the truth is there just isn’t much other than “it’s fun I’m going to play for fun”.

By design (and what has become of the design, post launch through nerfs) it’s lost something. We still have a lot of bugged dynamic events. We have this issue of server populations now being spread out and a lot of events in zones can’t be tackled because not enough players are around, we have personal story chapters that are still bugged. We have few incentives to play personal story chapters with others so we end up replaying events (boring for most of them, honestly- hard truth guys) or crafting or trying dungeons, but post dungeon nerf that’s no longer endgame content either.

We have a situation where the game developer has metrics to go by that could give them a very false impression of what the game has really become in the last week. If they form a opinion that these complaints are just coming from a few and that the masses are very happy the game could go the way of SWTOR faster than SWTOR went down hill.

The reason the good MMOs fail is because they loose players between major content updates. When you have a lot of players finishing everything (or finishing enough to stratify them) within a few weeks and they aren’t coming back often that’s the beginning of the end. Kid gloves off, we’re definately seeing that now with this game

I have 10-12 level 80’s in one guild I’m in, perhaps 3 of them have been playing regularly in the past four days. In another we have almost 20 level 80’s and 5-6 are signing in and offering to do dungeons, etc with others. The post level cap reward system needs major retooling that extends to WvW and Dungeons. Just very disappointed.

I thought perhaps joining another group of friends who are just getting into the game on a different server would be good but that server is full and guesting isn’t in yet. So that’s another problem.

The game is a real mess, but the critics have overlooked a lot of that. Not a healthy place to be at. It’s a place where the game developer could easily ignore all the real problems and choose to believe they’ve done a fantastic job and people need to pipe down.

Really 2 million??

Wow thats like almost the population of sheeps in new zealand, but yeah I agree.

The main problem why they’re feeling bored like theres nothing to do when theres tons to do according to some people is because, doing something in GW2 costs money.

With the exorbitant cost of waypointing and repair bills if you get into a bad exp dungeon group.

Im scared of completing my map now lol
Im actually having to bring my speed of playing down real slow.

Personally I have yet to see it affect in game that much, yes the general chatter has slowed down later at night in LA. But so far it still feels pretty populated. I was able to get groups for 3 separate dungeons yesterday.

You drew similarities between the decline of SWTOR, and i was there. This is so far not the case. I remember looking for groups in the fleet and my text echoing back at me. I think there needs a bit more time to see how many people are enjoying what’s here, and those that complain for the sake of complaining.

My main gripe with SWTOR was the way the devs treat the community. Being lied to and ignoring problems, while simultaneously adressing and answering ‘fun, easy’ stuff.

I dont see that here. Anet calling people out on Reddit and posting actual chat logs, uncensored, was pure magic.

I have faith in the people behind the game and I have faith in the game itself

Rizzy.8293:

Really 2 million??

Wow thats like almost the population of sheeps in new zealand, but yeah I agree.

The main problem why they’re feeling bored like theres nothing to do when theres tons to do according to some people is because, doing something in GW2 costs money.

With the exorbitant cost of waypointing and repair bills if you get into a bad exp dungeon group.

Im scared of completing my map now lol
Im actually having to bring my speed of playing down real slow.

Yep. Level 76.8. My climb from level 70 to here has been a heart breaking experience. Most of those levels have been earned not playing with others (because of WP cost and no one wants to go back into the horrible bugged 60-70 zones). It’s been a lonely grind. It’s also been a very long grind I might ad. Since I do enjoy playing with others very much I’ve tried going back into the lower level zones. I’ve spent 8 hours or so just helping out with others personal stories, my reward for tall that? Very little XP and a little bit more karma. Part of me wants to go hostile and say the game for me has turned to garbage at 70 and that I no longer care about the story. Those are true feelings, but they are coming with a place inside that also loves this game very much and has hope it will get better.

I play MMOs to play with other people. If I want to play on my home server in the higher level zones where my character should be to be progressing I simply can not do that right now because of a scattered world population. Empty events either don’t trigger to start or if they do you must run quickly or you’ll find yourself mobbed and in need of armor repair (loosing 3-4 silver at higher level).

WP cost keep guild and map chat silent went I ask for help.

The game is broken in these aspects and if not correct these are things that will destroy it because it goes from being the most amazing thing you’ve ever played to one of the most miserable level grinds you’ve ever had. That is my experience and I’m not angry about it, I’m sad because of it. This is not a game I want to talk bad about

I leveled the 70s with crafting. The “zerg” of the playerbase isn’t in those zones yet for the most part, and the 80s aren’t there either because of the cost (all in Cursed Shore or Lion’s Arch pretty much).

knightblaster.8027:

I leveled the 70s with crafting. The “zerg” of the playerbase isn’t in those zones yet for the most part, and the 80s aren’t there either because of the cost (all in Cursed Shore or Lion’s Arch pretty much).

Exactly. Crafting is an option, but crafting is expensive and grindy (level 400 in cooking here). Essentially the higher end zones of the game provide a lonely, grindy play experience that is much different from the amazing lower level content that scored them well with all the high reviews.

SamTheGuardian.2938:

knightblaster.8027:

I leveled the 70s with crafting. The “zerg” of the playerbase isn’t in those zones yet for the most part, and the 80s aren’t there either because of the cost (all in Cursed Shore or Lion’s Arch pretty much).

Exactly. Crafting is an option, but crafting is expensive and grindy (level 400 in cooking here). Essentially the higher end zones of the game provide a lonely, grindy play experience that is much different from the amazing lower level content that scored them well with all the high reviews.

I agree on the high level zones, other than Cursed Shore (which is grindy, but has a lot of people there). The other zones from ~60 on were more or less empty. Most people are just not there yet.

I think a game design point can be made as well. Public quests/dynamic events work well when there are high populations. That tends to be the case with launch situations. But after the high concurrency period dies down, they are less viable as a core game mechanic, I think. That’s the case at any level at off hours, and certainly at any hours at the high levels (other than the one level 80 only zone). It also can be an issue with the midlevels where the zerg is right now, because it is no longer peak concurrency season, and even the zerg has much reduced playtime now than when it was all new and shiny at the end of August.

It’s just too easy. Sure, prices are high, but the game itself is just too easy. They knew it. People were hitting flying through levels and content during beta, but nope, they put everything into making your first weeks experience in the game amazing, and then apparently decided that making people poor and items expensive would somehow give people something to do after that.

We had something AWESOME to do… DE’s, hearts, crafting and completion. If you want to keep people entertained, they need more than one weeks worth from a game, particularly an MMO. People would have happily spent four times the amount of time it took to get from 1-80 and complete the zones, maybe more, if they had been incentivized properly and pace made reasonable before it was too late and half the players were 80 and frustrated. Just food for thought. I think it would have been a much better experience if everyone but a few people were still breaking 40, and I think the flow was designed with that pace in mind.

It’s just such a pretty game, it’s a shame that it’s made so you can race through it, because it’s really, really hard for a gamer to, “go slow.” Part of the challenge is meeting or exceeding the pace set by the game, particularly in a fast-paced game! I never played GW1, so I can’t relate to the mindset of, “just ramble around and don’t do anything or you’ll run out of things to do,” that is constantly espoused. Also, being a TF2 competitive player, this MMO-style WvW and PvP just seems silly and console-oriented, so PvE is my main concern.