First off, let me state that I love this game, but I am also not afraid to be critical of it. Let’s face it: Guild Wars 2 is dying already.
- Activity is nowhere near what it used to be. Guilds (besides very large guilds of 475+) are slowly collapsing from inactivity. I understand that the intent is that dying or small guilds can merge with others for those who want to successfully do guild missions and other events, like dungeons or fractals, but here’s the thing: guilds are very unlikely to merge because there is no built-in mechanic for this. In order for guilds to merge, one guild literally has to give up all of their progress, influence, merits, unlocks, their guild name, and hard work for nothing. If there was an option for guilds to merge, while actually merging unlocks, influence, deciding between one of the names, etc., this would be much easier for guilds to do, if that’s really what Anet is after.
- Dungeons are failing miserably. If by “making AC more fun” they really meant “force people to not play AC, unless you want to join a level 80 group that goes for the best group composition”, then they’ve done a fantastic job. I remember when there used to be LOADS of people outside of the dungeon along with guild banner buffs. I did an AC run with guildies the other day, and when we finished the dungeon, there was not a single person outside of our party by the entryway. Really shows how they’ve killed AC…..now people only run CoF p1 (Mostly “full zerker, 4W1M or GTFO” groups) or FotM, which even those get dull after a while.
- Final personal storyKilling Zhaitan...well, let's just say we can tell you were in a rush to finish the end of the story and leave it at that. If you were hoping to get players to feel very disappointed after climaxing through the rest of the game, you've done a great job.
- Living Story… It’s a great idea, but I’m going to be honest with you, Anet…it sucks. There’s very little content involved in the living story, and what is there is utterly boring. The sooner you realize this, the better.
- PvP…I believe Anet is focusing way too hard on PvP right now, especially when even that is dying. Yes, I understand some things need urgent nerfs and such, but don’t neglect other aspects of your game then. Also, don’t make PvE players suffer from PvP nerfs. I’m glad you’re finally realizing that there needs to be a split between balancing PvE, WvW, and PvP.
- User-friendliness: This is a very broad topic, so I won’t cover much, but things like key-bindings and guild interface needs a lot of improvement still. I mean honestly, if I accidentally have a typo in my guild’s message of the day, why do I have to completely retype the whole thing without at least being able to copy/paste my old one?
- Many other things as well…I found this video, despite it’s awful cheesiness, to point out actually great points and I really believe you should listen to them, Anet.
Wake up Anet, your game is starting to die. It’s a great game and it’s a lot of fun, but people are just plain running out of things to do and reasons to keep them involved of the game. I know a lot of my guild will be moving to ES:O when that comes out…can’t say for sure whether I will as well or not, but if you want to keep people in your game, you need to start listening to them and giving your players what they actually want.
Guild Wars 1 was great…I don’t see why so many of the good things from GW1 are missing from this game.
Edit: What I mean by “dying” simply this: Activity is decreasing. I don’t think really anyone can argue with that.
(edited by The Eternal Grace.3157)