Guild Wars 2

With the changes to NPE and WvW tournament achievements I have to wonder why they are trying to make things easier. It did not seem all that hard before. After all it was a casual MMO, now it seems even more casual.

If you trust that Anet knows what they are doing (just for a moment – some of you), one could assume that based on some statistics (China maybe??) that they needed to increase new player retention. Because with all these changes for NPE seems to focus on keeping new players around. Supposedly these new changes were implemented with the thought that new players would enjoy them and make them stay around a bit more. At least that the thought the way I understand it.

So now with that trial accounts are becoming a real things. That makes sense to emphasize NPE with the expected increase of that player base. Of course, I cannot imagine why there would be such an influx of new players just because they have a trial account, but I’m not an expert with these things. Who knows, maybe trial accounts will bring the largest amount of new players to this game has ever seen at one time. They’ll enjoy their NPE so much that they’ll stick around and bring all their friends. Hmmmm. . maybe? maybe not?

Logically then at some point in the future they will have to worry about all these new players that do stick around and hopefully release something to keep them around. Seems to me (and maybe I’m wrong) that a lot of people leave after they feel they’ve done all they can and are bored. The feeling of no end game content, I suppose.

Now we have a new WvW tournament, and only 4, four, FOUR achievements to get meta reward. It seems so easy because each of those only take 5 event to get that one achievement. Now it is a lot nicer than the massive AP list we had before, but doesn’t it seem that they let the pendulum swing too far the other way in making things easier. Afterall I got my round 1 AP in under 15 min. Now I have to wait for round 2.

What I don’t get is why the sudden change to make things easier. I have to wonder if they are seriously worried about losing players and they’ve put veteran retention on the back burner and trying to breathe new life into this game. I wonder just how big of a problem there is to justify these changes. I think any game developer knows, you can’t make everyone happy. So it seems like to me they’re listening to a particular group and trying to make them happy by making things easier and more causal.

I mean how much easier can you get???

TL;DR: Things seem too easy and I have to wonder if they’re unusually worried about player numbers and their turning their focus to appease that crowd. The problem is you can’t make everyone happy and in trying so, you risk upsetting the players on the other side of that fence.

As experienced MMO players or have at least two characters here after playing this game for some time, of course it seems to easy to us. But we aren’t the ones the NPE is aimed at. And once they get the suppression fixed for vet players, it won’t seem bad, just different. I’m actually looking forward to starting characters in other professions so I can get a grasp on the differences quicker by being exposed to the various skills slowly.

As for WvW, I like the weekly rewards because this way I can commit only playing during one of the weeks as oppose to the entire tournament. WvW is enjoyable but it’s not my first choice in gameplay modes and not something I want to do every night for a month. And achievements I can actually achieve without being a devoted WvW player. For players who binged on WvW, they feel it’s stale now. But for someone like me who is 95%/5% PvE/WvW, please give me a reason to play WvW. I don’t mind getting owned, just make it a little more rewarding for the casual WvW player.

You mention trial accounts—Have they announced some kind of free trial to the game that I haven’t heard about?

I wouldn’t say that the game as a whole is being made easier, just the beginning, which is where they were finding problems with new player retention.

The change to the WvW tournament achievements seems unrelated to me, considering they consider WvW complicated enough that you have to be a certain level before it appears on the game menu. (Even though it remains accessible via Lion’s Arch.)

While I know not everyone is happy with the new early game, I’d be wary about extending that “fear of the game being watered down” to every change or new thing that seems simpler than you expected. Watch out for the Fear Goggles.

Jessica Boettiger

For the fall tournament, participating players will earn a weekly achievement based on completing a small number of events in World vs. World. This differs a bit from previous tournament achievements in which players were required to complete several of each event, such as capturing keeps and supply camps. We wanted to experiment with a simplified version of the achievements to encourage players to focus more on playing WvW, rather than checking off an objective checklist. Siege objectives, defend your land, and you’ll be rewarded!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-world-vs-world-fall-tournament-2014/

I didnt read the whole wall of text XD. But i agree with ur initial point they did make it way to ez. I was excited to have achievements like last time which werent too hard(although some slightly less grind this time), but not total handout rewards either. I did the 5 events last night for this week in like 20 mins and now i wont b wvw’ing until next week lol.

I would imagine we’ll be seeing a two week free trial before Thanksgiving. Stoke the box sales for the holiday.

Redenaz.8631:

You mention trial accounts—Have they announced some kind of free trial to the game that I haven’t heard about?

I wouldn’t say that the game as a whole is being made easier, just the beginning, which is where they were finding problems with new player retention.

The change to the WvW tournament achievements seems unrelated to me, considering they consider WvW complicated enough that you have to be a certain level before it appears on the game menu. (Even though it remains accessible via Lion’s Arch.)

While I know not everyone is happy with the new early game, I’d be wary about extending that “fear of the game being watered down” to every change or new thing that seems simpler than you expected. Watch out for the Fear Goggles.

Jessica Boettiger

For the fall tournament, participating players will earn a weekly achievement based on completing a small number of events in World vs. World. This differs a bit from previous tournament achievements in which players were required to complete several of each event, such as capturing keeps and supply camps. We wanted to experiment with a simplified version of the achievements to encourage players to focus more on playing WvW, rather than checking off an objective checklist. Siege objectives, defend your land, and you’ll be rewarded!

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/announcing-the-world-vs-world-fall-tournament-2014/

Regarding trial accounts I saw this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2g6std/gw2_china_72_h_trial_accounts_officially_launched/

and this:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2g5aix/psa_you_can_register_trial_account_to_play_for/

Snazzy. The last time they did a free trial, it was right after launch, and in the middle of the Southsun Cover introduction, so it was a bit of a mess. Another trial seems like a good thing to me, now that things have settled down more.

As a player of the game for 2 years, of course its too easy for me now. However some of the changes might have been most welcome when I first started. Some people pick up on new, unknown things quicker than others. But you cant necessarily assume that everyone will do it just as easily. I do not have any issue with the new patch aside from some bugs or unforeseen side effects that were unintended. I believe they will tune this new experience a bit more and it will be great. A few months from now we will all be able to look back on it and see if it was a good or a bad idea. Give it some time.

It makes me laugh. People complained last session that they couldn’t get on to there borderlands because of the PvE players. Now the achievements can be done in minuets and reduce the PvE players taking stops from WvW players, yet people still complain. I’m happy with how easy they are. I can just play and not chase a “to do” list.