Guild Wars 2

I just came back after a decently long break.

When I left I was on an American server, WvWvW battles non stop, yo ucouldn’t throw a stick without hitting a fight.

I came back….I have bee nmoved to a French server since apparently my other server got shut down (what I was told) and there is pretty much NO WvWvW going on no matter what time I attempt…

This game had so much potential, but after reading the reports about the % sales being down and % of population leaving, it really does make me sad because this dev team had my full support and then after launch it was like we got a whole new team that just didn’t listen…

Sorry if it comes across as me dissing the devs or GW2 because I am not, I am just sad at the lost potential…

The population is dropping fast. It is/was the devs job to retain players and bring new ones in. They should start by adding meaningful content instead of devoting everything to their rng, asian, f2p-esque cash shop.
Obviously there is much more, but tired of typing with one hand.
These are not the same GW1 devs you are looking for. /waves hand

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

Oh look a “doomed” thread! It’s been so long, we missed you. /hugs

On a positive note:
Gem store profits are steady and strong, servers were recently upped to fit more people, Anet hiring, and huge turnout at the current LS events. But continue, didn’t mean to interrupt the silliness.

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

So you don’t have proof? You just guesstimating the amount you think they have -.-?

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

So you don’t have proof? You just guesstimating the amount you think they have -.-?

You didn’t ask for proof and I never said it was a guess.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArenaNet

Took me about 3 secs to google arenanet and click on the link. If it was something difficult to find, or something absurd, I could understand asking for proof. Something this basic you should search yourself and not be lazy.
I truly don’t mean this in a rude way. Read it while smiling.

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

So you don’t have proof? You just guesstimating the amount you think they have -.-?

Lol it has been said by devs about 300 times :P

NOt singel server was shut down mainly cuz we are on one huge server whit difrent partisions and u just talking stupid things as transferd to french server WTF is that

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

If you found your account suddenly on a French server, you should contact Customer Support because your account has most likely been compromised. You should also immediately change the passwords to your game account and the email associated with it. No servers have been shut down, whatsoever; in fact, not long ago the server population caps were increased.

Quote from Colin Johanson: ‘Due to a number of servers approaching full with a recent influx of new players from the sale on Gw2 that just ended, the server capacity was recently increased for a number of servers yes.’

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/ColinJohanson-2394/showposts

support.guildwars2.com
‘Ask a Question’

Good luck. =)

Geotherma.2395:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

So you don’t have proof? You just guesstimating the amount you think they have -.-?

Lol it has been said by devs about 300 times :P

Hey the dude said they had 300 workers then comes up with something else instead of saying yes they do. Now he comes up with another guesstimating number of 100 workers. The dude just rambling random stuff like the OP just to get facebook likes….go figure.

You sure you weren’t hacked? I haven’t heard of any servers being deleted.

Brutalistik.6473:

Geotherma.2395:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

So you don’t have proof? You just guesstimating the amount you think they have -.-?

Lol it has been said by devs about 300 times :P

Hey the dude said they had 300 workers then comes up with something else instead of saying yes they do. Now he comes up with another guesstimating number of 100 workers. The dude just rambling random stuff like the OP just to get facebook likes….go figure.

Josh foreman said it, I tried finding the post but clicking it is messed up. It is 300 though, 300+.

Brutalistik.6473:

Geotherma.2395:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

So you don’t have proof? You just guesstimating the amount you think they have -.-?

Lol it has been said by devs about 300 times :P

Hey the dude said they had 300 workers then comes up with something else instead of saying yes they do. Now he comes up with another guesstimating number of 100 workers. The dude just rambling random stuff like the OP just to get facebook likes….go figure.

I posted the proof you were requesting. The 100 number thing wasn’t related to the amount of employees anet has…wasn’t even the same post.
You might have missed the link saying 300+, so i’ll post again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArenaNet

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Please show where tan NCsoft employee has said that. And so help me, if you say you ‘heard it on the internet’… I will not be responsible for for the consequences.

Conncept.7638:

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Please show where they’ve said that. And so help if you say you ‘heard it on the internet’… I will not be responsible for my actions.

I could definitely be mistaken, as it was heard on the internet. I thought people were saying something about the NCsoft quarterly report stating sales were down. I would like to retract my statement about sales being down because I have no proof other than rumors.
It’s kind of a moot point anyways. Are we talking about box sales? Of course those dropped. It is only normal for the sales to make a decline after launch. Or are we talking about gem store sales? I have no idea here. I would think these rng boxes are loading their pockets though.

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Please show where they’ve said that. And so help if you say you ‘heard it on the internet’… I will not be responsible for my actions.

I could definitely be mistaken, as it was heard on the internet. I thought people were saying something about the NCsoft quarterly report stating sales were down. I would like to retract my statement about sales being down because I have no proof other than rumors.

Unless I’m mistaken their last quarterly report showed GW2 as being their highest profiting venture to date, with no signs of slowing down. Let me see if I can find it.

EDIT

Okay, found it. It does show that sales of GW2 are down 32% from the end of last year, however profits are not, and GW2 is still one of the highest earners in the MMO market to date. However, several of NCSofts other properties have had decreased earnings, which would explain a perceived drop. And possibly why they’ve degraded to such underhanded sales tactics in the gems store. Have to milk their top earner.

Granted, I kind of wish they had dropped, because that would mean people aren’t falling for ANets completely unethical gambling market, then maybe ANet would be forced to drop this casino crap. But such is not the case, and the gemstore seems to be supporting GW2s earnings very well. Apparently the average gamer is as big a sucker as NCSoft has always claimed.

http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/22910/ncsoft-quarterly-report-shows-guild-wars-2-sales-drop-but-profits-climb

Here is what was said in February: We created more capacity a little while ago guesting went up live to allow more chances for people to move around their home worlds if they wished to do so. In game population wise, you’ll be excited to know login numbers and peak concurrency numbers have been slowly going up or staying consistent depending on the day going on 6 weeks in a row now. We’re very excited to see that =)

And here is what was said in April: Due to a number of servers approaching full with a recent influx of new players from the sale on Gw2 that just ended, the server capacity was recently increased for a number of servers yes.

Per Colin Johanson https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/showposts/ColinJohanson-2394/1

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/members/showposts/ColinJohanson-2394/2

Sorry about the partial double post. =)

Conncept.7638:

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Please show where they’ve said that. And so help if you say you ‘heard it on the internet’… I will not be responsible for my actions.

I could definitely be mistaken, as it was heard on the internet. I thought people were saying something about the NCsoft quarterly report stating sales were down. I would like to retract my statement about sales being down because I have no proof other than rumors.

Unless I’m mistaken their last quarterly report showed GW2 as being their highest profiting venture to date, with no signs of slowing down. Let me see if I can find it.

I am as clueless as could be when it comes to financial reports. Will need a translator to translate the one translating for me to understand.

I would like to point out that when I say the population has decreased, it is my anecdotal evidence from the amount of people I saw a few months ago in zones compared to the amount of people I’ve seen when I’ve logged in the last couple weeks. I’ve heard it’s because of everyone bouncing server to server for the chest events, but couldn’t say for sure.
I’ve tried many times to play more, I just get turned off by the lack of people talking in map chat and the lack of people around. Feels like a single player game with a bad story. If I want a single player game with a story I’d play a bioware game.

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Please show where they’ve said that. And so help if you say you ‘heard it on the internet’… I will not be responsible for my actions.

I could definitely be mistaken, as it was heard on the internet. I thought people were saying something about the NCsoft quarterly report stating sales were down. I would like to retract my statement about sales being down because I have no proof other than rumors.
It’s kind of a moot point anyways. Are we talking about box sales? Of course those dropped. It is only normal for the sales to make a decline after launch. Or are we talking about gem store sales? I have no idea here. I would think these rng boxes are loading their pockets though.

I’m not sure how anyone missed the sales reports, since there were several threads in the forums about them.

A couple pertinent links:
http://www.vgchartz.com/game/37350/guild-wars-2/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/05/13/ncsoft-q1-guild-wars-2-sales-flatten-but-profits-up/
http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/05/12/ncsoft-sales-down-from-last-quarter-up-from-last-year/

Make of it what you will.

Also, servers capacity has nothing to do with players currently on server. Server capacity is tracked by the number of accounts created and kept on that server. Pointing out increased server loads has no direct link to players actually playing the game.

Wait, whats this about a server being shutdown?

Penguin.5197:

Wait, whats this about a server being shutdown?

I’m pretty sure that is not true. Otherwise you would have seen it being used for some agenda on the forums in one way or another. In addition, there are no other accounts of this happening anywhere, either on the forums or the internet at large.

Fernling.1729:

I would like to point out that when I say the population has decreased, it is my anecdotal evidence from the amount of people I saw a few months ago in zones compared to the amount of people I’ve seen when I’ve logged in the last couple weeks. I’ve heard it’s because of everyone bouncing server to server for the chest events, but couldn’t say for sure.
I’ve tried many times to play more, I just get turned off by the lack of people talking in map chat and the lack of people around. Feels like a single player game with a bad story. If I want a single player game with a story I’d play a bioware game.

I can see our point in this…When the game first came out I remember wait times etc…now I fully expected those to taper off, but then I started seeing less and less people….Then I took my long break and when I came back it has been a ghost town….everywhere I go.

I talked to my friends who were on larger server and they signed on and told me theirs was a ghost town to, and not just from their own viewing…they asked their server as did I, and the community spoke out saying it was the same in a lot of places…

Penguin.5197:

Wait, whats this about a server being shutdown?

Nah, I don’t think they are going to shut any servers down. They haven’t even hinted towards it.

The most recent figures and NCsoft dude’s announcement for “monitoring” the right time for an expansion release has all the correct implications of a decreasing population. If you can’t figure it out yourself by deducing the implication from the data that is given, and can only cry for evidence to be spoonfed to you while not even knowing how to use Google, then your cries for denial are much more doomed than anyone making the claim that the population is (probably) decreasing.

If the population wasn’t decreasing, the devs would continue working on polishing the game instead of the next hyped expansion. And NCsoft certainly wouldn’t enter the “monitoring” stage as was already announced.

Now, how much brains does it take to understand population decrease =/= the game dying

Fernling.1729:

I could definitely be mistaken, as it was heard on the internet.

And every thing on the Internet is true. I know because I heard it on the Internet

Fernling.1729:

Penguin.5197:

Wait, whats this about a server being shutdown?

Nah, I don’t think they are going to shut any servers down. They haven’t even hinted towards it.

Yeah the more and more I talk to people it sounds like there may have been a mix up…my account was never compromised according to the support yet some how I ended up on a French server.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Fernling.1729:

I could definitely be mistaken, as it was heard on the internet.

And every thing on the Internet is true. I know because I heard it on the Internet

Contrary to what you think, a lot of things on the internet are true…

But go ahead I guess, find any way you can to attack someone…

Fernling.1729:

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

300 employees doesn’t equal 300 devs, though. There’s a Q&A department which just tests stuff. There people who answer phones. There’s people who do admin stuff. There’s marketing people. And of course artists and programmers. The programmers would be spread out. I seriously doubt the guys working on SPvP work on WvW and neither probably works on PvE.

So yeah, a lot of people, but it’s not surprising that progress is made incrimentally.

Vayne.8563:

Fernling.1729:

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

300 employees doesn’t equal 300 devs, though. There’s a Q&A department which just tests stuff. There people who answer phones. There’s people who do admin stuff. There’s marketing people. And of course artists and programmers. The programmers would be spread out. I seriously doubt the guys working on SPvP work on WvW and neither probably works on PvE.

So yeah, a lot of people, but it’s not surprising that progress is made incrimentally.

I do understand that, but it still seems like things are happening slowly. I’m mainly looking at you living story.

Trion is said to have about 200 employees, have you checked their patch notes on rift? They are also maintaining more than one mmo. They were recently hit with layoffs, so we will have to see how that affects them.

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

then how is it that 21% of their 2013 1Q profit came from GW 2? How come they also said that they’re doing good enough to not need an expansion just yet and who is buying so much gems that they’re able to keep the game highly profitable even with the sales going down?

Also to the OP, what server was shut down exactly? Can you give us a server name, something to check your info? Because the last time I checked ALL USA servers were high pop. Having in mind that Europe actually does have low and medium pop first one to suffer server merging would be Europe.

Fernling.1729:

Vayne.8563:

Fernling.1729:

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

300 employees doesn’t equal 300 devs, though. There’s a Q&A department which just tests stuff. There people who answer phones. There’s people who do admin stuff. There’s marketing people. And of course artists and programmers. The programmers would be spread out. I seriously doubt the guys working on SPvP work on WvW and neither probably works on PvE.

So yeah, a lot of people, but it’s not surprising that progress is made incrimentally.

I do understand that, but it still seems like things are happening slowly. I’m mainly looking at you living story.

Trion is said to have about 200 employees, have you checked their patch notes on rift? They are also maintaining more than one mmo. They were recently hit with layoffs, so we will have to see how that affects them.

I played Rift for a while when it launched. Several months in fact. Let me tell you about how Rift works.

Rift, when I was there, made ZILLIONS of changes all the time. Multiple times a week. Do you have any idea how many times I logged and had to respec because they completely changed my skill and skill tree. At one point it was twice, three times a week.

They try stuff that doesn’t work and then they make more changes that don’t work and they finally may make a couple of changes that do work, but they’re not going free to play because the world is full of people playing that game.

Rift has some of the worst updates I’ve ever seen for a game. They had to do a full apology for their first big world event. As bad as the karka event was, the Rift world event was far worse.

Rift makes a lot of changes, and that’s part of the problem. They were new to the MMO space and they were trying to find their way. And in making all those changes, there was never any chance of balancing anything.

Slow, steady change is the very best way to update an MMO.

Vayne.8563:

Fernling.1729:

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

300 employees doesn’t equal 300 devs, though. There’s a Q&A department which just tests stuff. There people who answer phones. There’s people who do admin stuff. There’s marketing people. And of course artists and programmers. The programmers would be spread out. I seriously doubt the guys working on SPvP work on WvW and neither probably works on PvE.

So yeah, a lot of people, but it’s not surprising that progress is made incrimentally.

I remember back before I took a break, that there was a red post that stated there was either 2 or 3 people working on PvP in the game.

This had caused a pretty big uproar in the forums and people were referencing it for like a month.

Fernling.1729:

Vayne.8563:

Fernling.1729:

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

300 employees doesn’t equal 300 devs, though. There’s a Q&A department which just tests stuff. There people who answer phones. There’s people who do admin stuff. There’s marketing people. And of course artists and programmers. The programmers would be spread out. I seriously doubt the guys working on SPvP work on WvW and neither probably works on PvE.

So yeah, a lot of people, but it’s not surprising that progress is made incrimentally.

I do understand that, but it still seems like things are happening slowly. I’m mainly looking at you living story.

Trion is said to have about 200 employees, have you checked their patch notes on rift? They are also maintaining more than one mmo. They were recently hit with layoffs, so we will have to see how that affects them.

Trion has to have way more than 200 employees. As a comparison, Blizzard has 4,700 employees.

Vayne.8563:

Fernling.1729:

Vayne.8563:

Fernling.1729:

I really don’t understand how we could have so little done to the game with such a large team. Anet has been very quiet about their plans, which makes me think we are going to see(hopefully soon) a blog post that will blow us away. Maybe they have 100 people working on a project that’s been going on since before release.

300 employees doesn’t equal 300 devs, though. There’s a Q&A department which just tests stuff. There people who answer phones. There’s people who do admin stuff. There’s marketing people. And of course artists and programmers. The programmers would be spread out. I seriously doubt the guys working on SPvP work on WvW and neither probably works on PvE.

So yeah, a lot of people, but it’s not surprising that progress is made incrimentally.

I do understand that, but it still seems like things are happening slowly. I’m mainly looking at you living story.

Trion is said to have about 200 employees, have you checked their patch notes on rift? They are also maintaining more than one mmo. They were recently hit with layoffs, so we will have to see how that affects them.

I played Rift for a while when it launched. Several months in fact. Let me tell you about how Rift works.

Rift, when I was there, made ZILLIONS of changes all the time. Multiple times a week. Do you have any idea how many times I logged and had to respec because they completely changed my skill and skill tree. At one point it was twice, three times a week.

They try stuff that doesn’t work and then they make more changes that don’t work and they finally may make a couple of changes that do work, but they’re not going free to play because the world is full of people playing that game.

Rift has some of the worst updates I’ve ever seen for a game. They had to do a full apology for their first big world event. As bad as the karka event was, the Rift world event was far worse.

Rift makes a lot of changes, and that’s part of the problem. They were new to the MMO space and they were trying to find their way. And in making all those changes, there was never any chance of balancing anything.

Slow, steady change is the very best way to update an MMO.

I remember that first event.

The reason there was a big stink over it, was because they also made that event weekend Free to Play but didn’t give login priority to paying members.

This resulted in people who were paying missing the event completely while the free to play people enjoyed it.

Rift was very much praised (on my server and forums) for the fast updates and balance changes…yeah there were some people yelling STOP FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY STOP!….

But the majority of the players liked how fast out of control builds, bugs and exploits were addressed.

In my opinion Rift fell short in the end game, I remember capping my level and going “What now?” followed by a resounding “nothing”…the pvp matches were all vs premades with no separate queue and the raids were just a little boring.

The Rifts themselves turned out to be a gimmick (Like some people call DE’s in GW2) and quickly lost their attraction in the later game.

But Rift like GW2 also did a lot of good things, its just in that situation the bad strongly outweighed the good.

Vayne.8563:

They try stuff that doesn’t work and then they make more changes that don’t work and they finally may make a couple of changes that do work, but they’re not going free to play because the world is full of people playing that game.

What are you talking about? Rift is going F2P in June.

AlietteFaye.7316:

Vayne.8563:

They try stuff that doesn’t work and then they make more changes that don’t work and they finally may make a couple of changes that do work, but they’re not going free to play because the world is full of people playing that game.

What are you talking about? Rift is going F2P in June.

That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying they’re not going free to play because so many people are paying subscriptions. They’re going free to play because people are leaving the game. It’s the usual reason games that have subs go free to play.

AlietteFaye.7316:

Vayne.8563:

They try stuff that doesn’t work and then they make more changes that don’t work and they finally may make a couple of changes that do work, but they’re not going free to play because the world is full of people playing that game.

What are you talking about? Rift is going F2P in June.

what he said with that sentence was “Even though Rift did do some changes that did work, it’s obvious that there weren’t enough good changes, because it’s being forced to go F2P because of the lack of players”.

Vayne.8563:

AlietteFaye.7316:

Vayne.8563:

They try stuff that doesn’t work and then they make more changes that don’t work and they finally may make a couple of changes that do work, but they’re not going free to play because the world is full of people playing that game.

What are you talking about? Rift is going F2P in June.

That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m saying they’re not going free to play because so many people are paying subscriptions. They’re going free to play because people are leaving the game. It’s the usual reason games that have subs go free to play.

Thanks for the clarification.

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Well this comment, sorry to say it, but it’s just plain stupid.

Guild Wars 2 is not a hurrdurr limitless grind mmorpg, therefore it has it’s lifetime in playing hours (for the average player). I’ve played around 500 hours, i havent logged in some months now, yet i’m checking every month update and i’m expecting the expansion/campaing to buy it. I’m REALLY satisfied with what i’ve played, but i’ve done pretty much all i can. And that’s okay man. I’ll log when i see some interest content i want, level a new character from scratch, and spend another two hundred hours.

And all that for 60 bucks huh, that’s sure the most time i spent on a game with so little money.

People stop playing because they’ve had all the fun and did all they could with the game. And those are things that i’m pretty sure the company knows.

The sells decay because it’s PRETTY obvious that sales go down after some months of the game release. It happens to ALL games (although here some dude will probably come saying “hey hurrr this game didnt for the first 30 years durr”).

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Fernling.1729:

Brutalistik.6473:

Since GW1 is going to be on automation soon. Does that mean they’ll focus more on GW2 if that was there distraction?

They aren’t really changing much with GW1, it has been mostly on “automation” for quite some time. If they can’t do better than what they are doing now with 300+ employees, adding a few more employees will do nothing but add more chatter to their lunch room.

They have 300+ employees o.O???

The last I heard. They’ve been hiring for a straight year or so now too, so no telling how many more they have picked up.

This is proof enough that the game and the company is doing very well.

As soon as we hear rumours of layoffs (like EVERY other game developer atm) then ill believe the doomsday threads.
Anet have been hiring strongly for a while. Unless they aim to become bankrupt that’s definite proof of financial success.

The fact is you cant even collect data to prove anything anyhow, considering the business model itll take about a year to figure out what players have completely stopped playing AND it doesnt mean those players will never play again.
If populations dwindle and become low for at least a 6 month period, then please by all means cry doomsday.

Sirevanac.3178:

Fernling.1729:

Conncept.7638:

Not sure about Europe specifically, but there are no such reports (nor any evidence whatsoever) that sales are down globally or anywhere in America. Sorry you’re on a bad server, stop blowing it out of proportion though.

NCsoft already said that sales are down. 3 million copies were sold. If those 3 million people still played, the game would be heavily populated. The problem is that people in that 3 million are dropping off left and right.

Well this comment, sorry to say it, but it’s just plain stupid.

Guild Wars 2 is not a hurrdurr limitless grind mmorpg, therefore it has it’s lifetime in playing hours (for the average player). I’ve played around 500 hours, i havent logged in some months now, yet i’m checking every month update and i’m expecting the expansion/campaing to buy it. I’m REALLY satisfied with what i’ve played, but i’ve done pretty much all i can. And that’s okay man. I’ll log when i see some interest content i want, level a new character from scratch, and spend another two hundred hours.

And all that for 60 bucks huh, that’s sure the most time i spent on a game with so little money.

People stop playing because they’ve had all the fun and did all they could with the game. And those are things that i’m pretty sure the company knows.

The sells decay because it’s PRETTY obvious that sales go down after some months of the game release. It happens to ALL games (although here some dude will probably come saying “hey hurrr this game didnt for the first 30 years durr”).

I love the eloquence of your “hurrs” and “durrs”, it really speaks to me on a spiritual level.

So, why is population important in a MMO? Why is it important that even if people “have had all the fun they can get out of the game”, that they still login?

When a new player picks up this game as an MMO, there are some things that are naturally expected. One of these things is that the world is populated in such a way as to not make them feel as if they are playing a single player game. An MMO with no population is essentially just a badly made rpg. So losing vet players to disinterest directly affects any new players experience. If a new player loses interest quickly due to the fact of certain zones being lightly populated, then that new player no longer plays, and exacerbates the population loss problem. It also pretty much guarantees that any word of mouth from that new player will be negative, and most MMO’s sell by word of mouth, not advertising.

In the long run, some vet players will naturally leave the game for other games, and some will leave due to burnout or from disagreeing to the direction of the game. When these players are not replaced with an equal or greater amount of new players, the game starts a slow spiral into depopulation from naturally occurring player churn. And no amount of expansions, free content, or happy thoughts will change it.

All MMO’s face this problem, but GW2 faces it on an especially grand scale due to their design decisions. GW2 was designed with the journey in mind over the destination. There is no end game content here as in other MMO’s, most of the content is designed into the leveling process. There are reasons to forgive dead areas and leveling zones in other MMO’s because their focus is at the end of the game, the leveling doesn’t really matter. In GW2, there is nothing waiting for you at the end, there is no dungeon progression, there are no structured raids, there is no heavy gear treadmill. All you have is farming, some non structured guild content, and all the leveling areas which are really worthless to a max leveled player.

So, you have a journey focused MMO, with no one playing the journey because it isn’t worth it, with Devs throwing content and making design decisions that take even greater focus off the journey, new players wondering where all the players are as they level, and players reaching 80 and realizing that 90% of the content is in things they just did and no longer have a reason to go back to.

It’s all fine and good if you enjoy WvW, but how long will people just sit back and eat the zerg vs zerg?

Chris.7653:

I just came back after a decently long break.

When I left I was on an American server, WvWvW battles non stop, yo ucouldn’t throw a stick without hitting a fight.

I came back….I have bee nmoved to a French server since apparently my other server got shut down (what I was told) and there is pretty much NO WvWvW going on no matter what time I attempt…

This game had so much potential, but after reading the reports about the % sales being down and % of population leaving, it really does make me sad because this dev team had my full support and then after launch it was like we got a whole new team that just didn’t listen…

Sorry if it comes across as me dissing the devs or GW2 because I am not, I am just sad at the lost potential…

I am not going to comment on your statement about sales and what not.
It does sound like your account was compromised since no servers have shut down and even if they have it would make no sense to move you from a NA to EU server.
I’d suggest contacting support.

Where do these people come back from ? Servers shutting down ? Is this a new joke ? The population is fluctuating like usual , people taking some time off , people comming back , others grinding 24/7.