Guild Wars 2

Is it just me? Even at “prime” – the evening it seems there are less and less players. Wanted to do various meta events at the hot maps, but this and the past evenings the maps were pretty much empty. One commander here and there to organize single events, but not really a “meta” going on. That’s pretty sad…

Is it just me ?

A lot of players are probably trying out the new maps that have been added lately. I see players everywhere I go, from PVP lobby to WvW. Every hour of the day too.

I would not say “less and less” is an accurate assumption.

I know I’m in the new maps getting what is required for the ascended backpieces for my alts, and the mini pets too.

well its just my impression – at least for the hot maps for example. Cant talk a lot about WvW cause im no WvW player.

I didnt say the game is dying, just thinking the amount of active players declined.

Points to Bloodstone Fen, and Ember Bay.

Depends on what people consider the normal range for healthy active players.

Was told by one of those players “in the know” (whatever that means) that the weekly active players is just under 100k.

Does that mean the glass is half empty or half full if accurate?

New Living World came out so more players have returned

After i finished my HoT masteries months ago i haven’t been back to any of those maps outside of AB for profit making i don’t see them as having a ton of replay ability. Have been enjoying bloodstone fen and now ember bay which is where i think you will find most people in open world pve these days.

I think the population remains stable and healthy it would also be higher than during that content drought earlier in the year. But the HoT maps i can see becoming increasing ghost towns especially as it looks like we will be getting a new map with each living story chapter. Might be worth Anet looking into ways to make the non AB maps more accessible or worthwhile.

Plenty of people wherever I go. As it always has been and as it always will be, more people are spending time in areas with newer content. HoT is a year old this month; it’s “old” by gaming standards.

No it’s not you OP there are less players. I see way less groups being organized in lfg for meta events. I see way less fractal groups and raids being organized during prime time.

Spvp is also taking a hit as I encounter the same people over and over again in matches.

wvw is also fairly deserted on my server blackgate. If you play on off hours almost every map shows that we are outnumbered. This was never the case about 1 year ago.

also top tier items on the TP are taking a hit such as legendaries and other expensive items indicating there is less demand – probably from less people playing. At least I know I’m not selling anything and I flip mostly these items.

probabily due to wow legion coming out. Or possibly that people don’t like MMO’s anymore I dunno.

Ember Bay is a loot pinata that is insanely easy compared to HoT maps. It really needs attention. Getting golds for every event that finishes in about 2 seconds that are constantly respawning on really short cooldowns is out of control.

There’s still a lot of players. The only thing is that they’re now spread out more. Not to mention that many have been playing since launch and have done practically everything that they want. Some play the new content and then take a break from the game until more is released.

I’d say the player base is more scattered than anything. Quite a few in Ember Bay given how quick most events are completed. Most are probably working on farming for the new ascended gear which probably accounts for seeing fewer people everywhere else. I have noticed that there seems to be fewer Teq reset instances up and they also seem to fill up slower than before.
I couldn’t tell you about the WvW population other than it is the typical coverage wars. Being on a “slave” server and being kicked around every couple of months; it is hard to get a feel for who has what kind of overall population as far as servers go.

I would say, Auric Basin and Tangled depth maps are just too big, confusing, full of mobs that can actually kill you but drops bleh item/exp for ppl to hang out, compared to say Ember Bay which is a great map, easy to kill mobs, t6 drops every now and then plus its populated.

foxcat.4096:

After i finished my HoT masteries months ago i haven’t been back to any of those maps outside of AB for profit making i don’t see them as having a ton of replay ability. Have been enjoying bloodstone fen and now ember bay which is where i think you will find most people in open world pve these days.

^^ This right here. ^^

Did the LS and masteries (the ones I wanted and that translate onto other maps – all the gliding ones, for instance). Then I did enough HoT farming to get enough of the various map currencies to get some items I wanted, and haven’t been back since…say 3-4 months ago was my last HoT visit.

Same with Bloodfen – did the masteries and achievements, got the item (back piece) I wanted, and haven’t been back.

Ember Bay – LS, map completion, masteries, etc. Done now.

Jaina Ashlynn.1043:

Most are probably working on farming for the new ascended gear which probably accounts for seeing fewer people everywhere else.

What new ascended gear. Been looking and haven’t seen anything about ascended gear from Ember Bay currencies. Am I missing something?

misterman.1530:

Jaina Ashlynn.1043:

Most are probably working on farming for the new ascended gear which probably accounts for seeing fewer people everywhere else.

What new ascended gear. Been looking and haven’t seen anything about ascended gear from Ember Bay currencies. Am I missing something?

Here’s a vendor with Ascended gear in Ember Bay: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Scholar_Surra

Nefarius.9702:

Is it just me? Even at “prime” – the evening it seems there are less and less players. Wanted to do various meta events at the hot maps, but this and the past evenings the maps were pretty much empty. One commander here and there to organize single events, but not really a “meta” going on. That’s pretty sad…

Is it just me ?

u gotta know that every hour 80% of the whole community is in AB doing multiloot because free gold.

The population is not declining, the majority is just doing profitable content, e.g. raids/fractals, Meta’s with high yield, or enjoying the new content or doing stories.
Of course older current events and routine events that have been around for 4 years are gonna see a decline in numbers. But I assure you, the total player base is hardly decreasing at all. Ever since anet remodelled their agenda it’s actually been going pretty good.

No that’s not true. I see people everywhere.

I mean really, try to get into an AB “Multi-map” squad at AB meta time. Those squads can fill up so kitten fast. And I have to agree with alot of other posts in here. Players have been moving on to do the new content and maps. And I’m pretty sure as soon as the Halloween stuff starts, LA is going to be packed with people doing the Halloween events which will still keep alot of other maps empty (except maybe AB meta…pending on how profitable farming the Halloween events can be/what new “items” we might be able to earn like the Nightfury skin last year).

HoT used to be more active in maps because it was the “new thing”. It was the only “new” thing for awhile with so much to do in terms of events/rewards. But now that players have finished those and got what they need, they don’t have much reason to go back anymore except the few people who either A) still enjoy doing those metas, or still need to earn/gain rewards from those events/metas.

HoT brought us four new maps that are now approaching 1 year old. The new maps Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay are babies compared to that. People are still enjoying the new maps. Why are people trying to judge the population of the game as a whole based on what’s going on in any given map?

Yes less people are doing HoT metas. That’s because players that used to be spread out in four maps are now spread out into six. That’s going to generally mean less players per map.

Use the LFG tool, get to a populated server, and you get still get the metas. The hardest ones to get are TD and VB, but I still get them pretty often.

However, most of my time is spent in Ember Bay, building up more karma for my next lot of legendaries. Plenty of people in both Bloodstone Fen and Ember Bay whenever I’m there.

I wouldn’t judge the population of the game by the population of any zone or even any set of zones.

The world is getting bigger, so the players are more spread out.

I’ve had no issue getting maps to fill up in each of the HoT zones so I can’t say I’ve experienced the same thing.

For my money (metaphorically, of course), GW2 is as vital as ever. If you want to experience the most vital parts of the game, find a good guild, fill your friends list up with trusted companions inside and outside of your guild, and don’t be afraid to try new things you never thought you would or could.

Never done a dungeon? Try one.

Never played WvW? Get in there and go for it. You don’t have to zerg.

Haven’t seen any of the Living Story Yet? There’s no time like the present.

SaltAndLight.4652:

The world is getting bigger, so the players are more spread out.

this ^

One thing that ANet was reportedly worried about at launch was spreading out the player base by making more maps so that the game world was empty even though there were a lot of players. Even after they put in Megaservers they didn’t put in substantive new maps for a long time. Possibly they’ve decided that it was more important to have new maps than crowded maps because now they starting to push them out. And with the expected result of some maps emptying out. As more maps get added expect more threads about how the world seems empty now.

SaltAndLight.4652:

The world is getting bigger, so the players are more spread out.

very plausible statement here.

Didn’t realize when I created this topic that some time has passed since HoT was released and at some times the maps are empty (more or less) cause new maps were added and many people already mastered most of the achievements / challenges HoT offers .

Guess I got a somewhat wrong impression cause im grinding hot maps atm to get my machined weapons done – ember bay seems always filled up tho (for example)

I really really hope the game will survive for a really long time. Its been over a decade since I put my passion into GW, and it’d be sad if this great game would be dying .

Nefarius.9702:

SaltAndLight.4652:

The world is getting bigger, so the players are more spread out.

very plausible statement here.

Didn’t realize when I created this topic that some time has passed since HoT was released and at some times the maps are empty (more or less) cause new maps were added and many people already mastered most of the achievements / challenges HoT offers .

Guess I got a somewhat wrong impression cause im grinding hot maps atm to get my machined weapons done – ember bay seems always filled up tho (for example)

I really really hope the game will survive for a really long time. Its been over a decade since I put my passion into GW, and it’d be sad if this great game would be dying .

Well I know it’s only annecdotal by my guild is growing and quite a few people who had left before HoT, returned after HoT launched and are still here.

@OP: GW2 players are like Skritt. They always follow the latest shiny. If you don’t see them where there used to be shinies, they are where the newest, shiniest shinies are to be found.

I never ran into a lack of population and I play at random times throughout the day. In fact, every few days I get the message that minis have been hidden due to rising population which I always notice because I use my little forest grub companion to illuminate dark places.

Good points above, but I have a question: is there any way for a player to see how many people are ‘active’ on the server at any given time? Also, it would be handy to have an addition to the friends/blocked lists to see when the friend or blocked person (and I include those who have made accounts just to ’’spam’’ me) was last active on their account. Say for example that a person on your friends list showed as playing over a year ago, you could (if you were so inclined) clean out the ‘’inactive accounts’’ from said respective lists.

Only ANet has the statistics on how many are active at any given time on any given map. They do not release that information and in the 10+ years of the Guild Wars universe have they ever released that, I don’t think they will start now. A few times in the past they have given out some numbers on how many boxes they have sold but nothing about how many are playing at any given time.

Schools back, more maps, and a lot more other games are out. If your a true gamer, you should never be afraid to admit that you play other games. If I’m not playing GW2, I’m most likely playing a shooter.

PyrateSilly.4710:

Only ANet has the statistics on how many are active at any given time on any given map. They do not release that information and in the 10+ years of the Guild Wars universe have they ever released that, I don’t think they will start now. A few times in the past they have given out some numbers on how many boxes they have sold but nothing about how many are playing at any given time.

Except once, in the Infographic released about a year after launch, which stated 460K+ concurrent players.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/guild-wars-2-the-first-year/

I think it’s an excellent opportunity for them to nerf everything on those HoT maps, get rid of the adventures and move all the mastery points to just next to the way points. That might just about tempt me back onto those awful maps, at least until I get all those precious mastery points ;p

Those maps were never popular. Plenty of players went there but that does not mean that they liked them.

(Vayne – you’re on!)

It’s more active than it was pre-HoT. I’ve been here since Beta before vanilla. So it’s still quite healthy imho. Being F2P for vanilla certainly helps.

These same conversations existed about Orr and other zones prior to HoT. Soon there’ll be another expansion announcement which will generate a lot of additional excitement.

also school started and those who are in school have after school activities, jobs etc- and dont have the time or they are too tired.

DoctorDing.5890:

I think it’s an excellent opportunity for them to nerf everything on those HoT maps, get rid of the adventures and move all the mastery points to just next to the way points. That might just about tempt me back onto those awful maps, at least until I get all those precious mastery points ;p

Those maps were never popular. Plenty of players went there but that does not mean that they liked them.

(Vayne – you’re on!)

Some people that expressed their view about HoT being 4 awesome maps in these very forums would like to disagree with you…..Oh guess what here I am!!! Sorry I am not called Vayne but at that point (after one year of hot approximatively) I guess it’s pretty much vain to try to reason with you. shrug

I play any time from 8am to 11pm, depending on what I have going on in the day. I’m definitely finding the HoT maps keep filling up, over and over, typically for the metas, and you have to get there at the very least 10 minutes before. I was in Tangled Depths half an hour early, and at 15 minutes to go, at least one other map was full (and my map was subsequently filled too).

If it’s not for the metas, I see HP run groups or event + meta groups. Something worth advertising for in LFG if you feel lonely or need to get stuff done.

I also see enough people in the core open world - as an altoholic, I make chars on the fly for transmute runs, etc., and I’m never alone in the tutorial instances or the baby maps.

I don’t see as many in Ember Bay or Bloodstone Fen, but admittedly I don’t spend as much time there myself, and when I do, I see I’m not exactly alone, but nothing will beat the first week of release for numbers and it wouldn’t be reasonable to expect it to.

This means, from my perspective at least, the population looks rather rosy of cheek for a four year old game. It’s doing just fine.

DoctorDing.5890:

I think it’s an excellent opportunity for them to nerf everything on those HoT maps, get rid of the adventures and move all the mastery points to just next to the way points. That might just about tempt me back onto those awful maps, at least until I get all those precious mastery points ;p

Those maps were never popular. Plenty of players went there but that does not mean that they liked them.

(Vayne – you’re on!)

I like Verdant Brink well enough, adore AB and am in love with DS, and have a grudging respect and admiration for Tangled Depths. I spent the day today pootling inbetween the lot of them, and although my eyes are now dryer than the dust in Dry Top, I had a lot of fun – even in kittening Tangled Depths.

I hated the lot of them when they were first out because I had issues. XD

Then I went back and found I actually had fun, and enjoyed looking for masteries everywhere. I’ve even managed Gold in some of the adventures, some of which I thought I’d never enjoy – and ones like the haywire golem of punchy madness can be quite stress-relieving if you’re not chasing results. I’m even in excess of the green masteries, awaiting new content (although I don’t raid, so something could be said about what’s happening to my XP if I really must pick holes in it all). All I have to do is pick up a couple of the red core masteries (literally, 2), and I’ve finished that side of it too. I shall be dragging my kitten to fractals for those, I think. I can arguably say I don’t tend to enjoy fractals (except for the other week when me and Hubby duoed for a laugh – and actually managed), but I feel the result will be worth it, and maybe I’ll learn something worthwhile on the way.