Guild Wars 2

There has been some really interesting choices by ANET lately with effectively what they want their players to be doing. As far as I can tell they want their players to..

1) Do jumping Puzzles
2) Gathering
3) PvP in broken bunker meta (pvp being the best location for saltiness because it highlights bad game design and lack of balance)

I find this kinda lame considering the only reason I chose to play this game was to play WvW and avoided the top two completely. It just seems like out of all the things this game does well, Anet is choosing to highlight its poor designs by encouraging players to play in the worst current game modes. I don’t believe many people chose this specific game for the top 3 things. Esports and pvp is out of ANET’s league due to their slow response times and pretty much just their game design… and who wants to just do jumping puzzles and gather all the time?

Guild Wars 2 will never succeed as an esport and unless they actually start caring and do proper balance it’s salty players will ensure it stays that way.

I agree, basically.

WvW is, or could be, one of the most engaging things, in the game and also, feels like a relatively original concept.

…and yet, it feels neglected.

Apparently they are working on WvW stuff, though, so I guess we will have to wait and see.

It’s not terribly original, Tiga. You might want to google Daoc RvR. WvW is a lot like the lower level battlegrounds in Daoc in feel and less like the end game Frontier which was a vast open map.

WvW isn’t original, but all and all, with gw2’s superior combat system and group dynamics, it could be so great. IMO, ANET’s primary focus should be rewarding and helping GvG and WvW as its esport well before 5v5 domination. Not to mention, THIS IS GUILD WARS!!! Does anet want guilds to be only 5 members?

Now that would be original!

WvW is just a far superior game type for ANET because guilds can come up with more than 1 strategy. Even if builds are unbalanced and broken, if they nerf Hammer Rev 2 and remove venom wells, guilds have flexibility to play multiple kinds of ways. Whereas pvp is pretty much who uses more cheese (and ANET cannot fix things quick enough), WvW and 15v15 gives enough room for different viable comps. Multiple games have a 5v5 game type. What other MMO has army versus army where you play as 1 person in the army?

Not to mention, all the time and effort generating the new pve maps is going to result in one thing… a re-playability crisis. WvW remains the best game type in gw2 for re-playability. When you play against people (and its not in a 5v5 format again, that is out of ANET’s league) each encounter feels different.

It continues to blow my mind that ANET neglects WvW. It is the only reason 3/4ths of its player base plays this game. Players might dip in pve or pvp but they are just waiting to play wvw again. Not to mention, WvW is a gold sink for a lot of people and more and more people are hating the idea of buying gems and supporting this company.

zenleto.6179:

It’s not terribly original, Tiga. You might want to google Daoc RvR. WvW is a lot like the lower level battlegrounds in Daoc in feel and less like the end game Frontier which was a vast open map.

Oh, well, fair enough.

It felt fairly original, to me (with player commanders etc.), but I haven’t played the game you mention.

Dano.5298:

WvW isn’t original, but all and all, with gw2’s superior combat system and group dynamics, it could be so great. IMO, ANET’s primary focus should be rewarding and helping GvG and WvW as its esport well before 5v5 domination. Not to mention, THIS IS GUILD WARS!!! Does anet want guilds to be only 5 members?

Now that would be original!

WvW is just a far superior game type for ANET because guilds can come up with more than 1 strategy. Even if builds are unbalanced and broken, if they nerf Hammer Rev 2 and remove venom wells, guilds have flexibility to play multiple kinds of ways. Whereas pvp is pretty much who uses more cheese (and ANET cannot fix things quick enough), WvW and 15v15 gives enough room for different viable comps. Multiple games have a 5v5 game type. What other MMO has army versus army where you play as 1 person in the army?

Not to mention, all the time and effort generating the new pve maps is going to result in one thing… a re-playability crisis. WvW remains the best game type in gw2 for re-playability. When you play against people (and its not in a 5v5 format again, that is out of ANET’s league) each encounter feels different.

It continues to blow my mind that ANET neglects WvW. It is the only reason 3/4ths of its player base plays this game. Players might dip in pve or pvp but they are just waiting to play wvw again. Not to mention, WvW is a gold sink for a lot of people and more and more people are hating the idea of buying gems and supporting this company.

As someone who has dabbled repeatedly in WvW, I’m not fully up on all the issues. I can say that the most important factor in my own ambivalence is match-up imbalances. I’ve been on both ends, winning and losing due to gross numbers differences. I remember many times being penned into the starter area in EB because there were 3-6 of us and a group of 20-30 camped on the doorstep. Since that seemed to be a recurring point in the WvW forums in the past, I suspect I’m not alone.

I have to wonder if ANet even has a clue on how to fix those imbalances. I wonder if the EotM matching system was an experiment. If so, it seems to have had limited if any success. How would one generate more even match-ups without limiting or removing player ability to transfer servers?

I even wonder if the new maps, which seem to have somewhat more PvE elements than the old borderlands, were an attempt to entice PvE players into WvW, just as they did by limiting choices for PvE dailies a year or so ago.

IndigoSundown.5419:

As someone who has dabbled repeatedly in WvW, I’m not fully up on all the issues. I can say that the most important factor in my own ambivalence is match-up imbalances. I’ve been on both ends, winning and losing due to gross numbers differences. I remember many times being penned into the starter area in EB because there were 3-6 of us and a group of 20-30 camped on the doorstep. Since that seemed to be a recurring point in the WvW forums in the past, I suspect I’m not alone.

On a former-T1 server, until the collective ghost just gave up. Server was sick of a certain other server’s 24-hour coverage (and allegations of paying for transfers to the top server), and having that coverage be the only thing that matters in WvW.

Two main problems in WvW, for me.
1) All the gibbityflabbering walking. It’s so boring to get anywhere and join a fight.
2) It’s too easy to keep land after it’s been claimed, because nothing challenges for it except other players.

1. would at least help even out server size disparities. If a strike team of 3-4 could set off an event that would force 8-10 to show up and defend, it promotes activity on both sides and allows a comeback mechanic for smaller, well-played groups.

(Then again, I haven’t stepped into WvW since I started doing PvP dailies so.. :P)

Balance will never be achieved and is largely subjective. Also keep in mind the devs have stated they’ll sometimes do PVP “balancing” purely to change the meta and keep players on their toes

Phy.2913:

Balance will never be achieved and is largely subjective. Also keep in mind the devs have stated they’ll sometimes do PVP “balancing” purely to change the meta and keep players on their toes

Ele and mesmer will always be meta because they have strong advantages that aren’t tied to raw numbers.