Guild Wars 2

Hi,

So I was thinking…by the time the two upcoming patches hit, the game will have been out for a solid 5-6 months which is normally, in my eyes, a tipping point for an MMO. Will it succeed? Will it falter? Is it fixing or has it fixed the glaring issues that plague the game? Is it expanding on its strengths?

Recently, Colin Johansen was kind of enough to comment on a thread about the upcoming patches, stating that the January update will be smaller and setting the stage for the larger update in February. These updates will have a focus on getting people back into the world of Tyria and making the already existing world a stronger world. There will be no new zones to explore, no new professions, etc. Basically, what I gathered from it was that we were going to have reason to go back into the world, the lower level zones, and enjoy the game they have built for us, while still feel rewarded for our time, while still giving us almost an expansions worth of updates and content without calling it an expansion. Arenanet has not yet released any information on how they plan to do this. I think this also will go hand in hand with acquiring ascended gear. Im assuming they will introduce a method or impliment fractal relics into the reward for completing lower level dynamic events. Maybe they will be introducing a Kharma sink, finally…but that still would not get people back into the world. People will ride the kharma train in Orr, since it gives the most kharma. What do you think?

I think this is a big issue since every other thread on these forums is someone complaining about empty zones(even though most of the time I do not see empty zones). What ever the case, Im excited to see that they have plans in the next two months to fix this problem, because the core of the game revolves around the world being a living, breathing world with lots of people in every zone to do the events. Thats the whole point.

So I ask, do you think these updates are a “make or break” for GW2? Do you think it will bring new players back to the game? Will it help the mid-level zones that suffer from lack of activity? Can you speculate what Arenanet’s solutions will be? Is it enough? If they falter here, do you think the game is going to plummet down hill?

Imo Guild Wars 2 is great mmo game with some little issues. Nothing game breaking. Problem is that it’s different compared to other mmo games that basically force you to keep playing. In GW2 you play when you can, no matter if you take one week break or not. Am not saying it’s wrong, but that’s the reason why servers will never be full for long time.

True, but that’s not what even Colin was talking about. He was focusing on the big issue of getting people out of the lobby (Lions arch) and into the game world, giving us reasons to do so. Making the existing game stronger. I dont think he was talking about keeping people occupied for X amount of time.

the first month of updates seem to only be fractal bug fixes, the other 2 months are content for WvW and Spvp. I doubt that these things alone would bring more players. However if you look at how much the game has to start with new players are incoming anyways. I wouldn’t say that it’s a “make or break” because you essentially are commenting on bug fixes and PvP maps. And no, I don’t think that the game will plummet any time soon.

Those two patches are indeed make or break for me.

If they stick to their GW1 ideas, I’ll stay and buy expansions, etc.
If they abandon their GW1 ideas, I’ll just pack my things and leave.

Hey, by the time second Patch rolls out, I’ll have played for 400 hours(or so). It’s definitely not a bad Dollar spent/time spent ratio. On the contrary, it is splendid!

So ANet-“Nothing ventured, nothing gained” eh?

Mirta.5029:

the first month of updates seem to only be fractal bug fixes, the other 2 months are content for WvW and Spvp. I doubt that these things alone would bring more players. However if you look at how much the game has to start with new players are incoming anyways. I wouldn’t say that it’s a “make or break” because you essentially are commenting on bug fixes and PvP maps. And no, I don’t think that the game will plummet any time soon.

Guess you didnt see Colin’s post. The updats are to strengthen the existing world of Tyria. I dont think he mentioned anything about WvW.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/January-updates-Any-sources/first

Quote from colin johansen:
Hey guys,

Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that you’ll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.

More details and specifics to come in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that helps provide some more insight into what to expect at a very high level.

So I stand corrected he did mention WvW, but I think its all encompassing: Reasons to go to any part of the game, whether it is PVE, WvW, or sPvP. Yes, they are fixing fractals levels and the disconnect issue, but thats been the only mention of fractal bug fixes.

Link your source where the other 2 months are for wvw and spvp because I dont think that is simply the case. I think they are going to address everything they can in Feb, including PvE not just PVP. From his quote, from a PVE standpoint, I really feel they are going to try to get us back into all of the zones of the game.

Gorwe.9672:

Those two patches are indeed make or break for me.

If they stick to their GW1 ideas, I’ll stay and buy expansions, etc.
If they abandon their GW1 ideas, I’ll just pack my things and leave.

Hey, by the time second Patch rolls out, I’ll have played for 400 hours(or so). It’s definitely not a bad Dollar spent/time spent ratio. On the contrary, it is splendid!

So ANet-“Nothing ventured, nothing gained” eh?

Why would them abandoning GW1 ideas make or break the game for you? This is not Gw1. And they said that the way Gw1 was structured influenced their decisions, and that the way GW2 is structured now they have more freedom to go about and do many different things. It is also why the game was released with 80 levels, not 20. I would not expect many GW1 things in an entirely different game. You’ll be disappointe.d

For me it only breaks the game if they…Well, if the patches break the game or change it to a grindmill with elitist people discriminating against those not perfectly geared up.

I am really hoping for a world revamp, Its depressing seeing all these awesome looking zones and dungeons wasting a way with everyone just sitting in Lion’s Arch waiting for their Fractal groups, and or Wv3 queues, only other place I see a lot of player’s is in Cursed shore, pent/shelt events.

Just finished leveling my 4th 80 and what a lonely journey it was, with the exception of the occasional AC/CM run, Wv3, or story quest through LA It was a long solo run, when I got to Cursed Shore it felt like my character finally joined society, and for the first time on that character the map chat lit up and was finally able to play my new toon with many other people. I really feel bad for many of the new players out there because this as the game stands now is most likely the journey they have ahead of them.

its Jan/Feb/march actualy and the first bit is small and at the end of Jan from what we understand

Im almost done leveling my 5th to 80, and I had a different experience than you Deadcell. I see enough people in most of the mid level zones..most of the human zones rather…such as Gandarren fields, Bloodtide coast, etc.

I do agree they need to bring us back to these zones, even at 80. I do agree that the game, at 80, is a lobby game. Sit in LA for a fractal group, or dungeon group, and on your way.

Just to push the conversation along, how would you get level 80s into zones like Timerberlane falls(however you spell it), or Iron Marches?…places they do not see a lot of folks. What incentive would you give to level 80s to head back to these zones, and not only do renown hearts but participate in Dynamic Events and explore?

It’s possible that it will make or break it for people who are currently on the fence between staying or quitting.

However after reading Colin’s response about the content updates I believe the right choice is being made. Fixing bugs, adding quality of life features, balancing classes, and tweaking the current game world are all vital for the success of a young MMO.

I got into the game a bit late and really started leveling my first character (Norn Guardian!) during the Xmas holidays and I have to say my experience has been very close to Deadcell’s; most of the areas are rather empty and the chat remains dead for hours on end (Desolation server).

Not only does this make it feel like you’re playing a single-player game, it also makes some of the events really annoying or exceedingly difficult, when there’s no one else around. This problem is made ever worse by the ridiculously fast respawn rates some areas seem to have.

I mean I’ve enjoyed the game for the most part, I even like the event system as a concept, but there’s no getting around the fact that it relies heavily on having highly populated low level areas. In any case, I doubt January patch will be a make or break for me, since I’m not even at 80 with my first character, so there’s still plenty of stuff for me to see.

Adding brand new stuff would have been a terrible mistake, i’m pretty happy with the direction anet seem to want to take – I just want january to hurry up :P

WvW is a part of the existing world and needs a lot of work, same with sPvP which is skeletal – feature wise.

For me, I am not really on the fence of staying or leaving. I am enjoying the game, I think it has fantastic potential, even if I was on that negative band wagon for the Nov 15 patch.

However, since they are targetting some major issues soon, how they handle these issues and their solutions is a big concern for me and may or may not make me rethink if I should take a break from the game or not. Not quit, but break from the game for several months until more and more is sorted. I guess Im really interested in HOW they handle these issues. Excited that they ARE, but now very curious HOW.

How will they get me back to the mid level zones? What will make me want to complete these dynamic events with a low lvl 40 character along side me? Will they simply add fractal relics to the reward system for the level 80s that complete these low level events? At least its a start, but hardly enough to keep me going.

What about Orr? Even though its one of the zones that has the most people most of the time, I still feel it is empty with a lot of points always contested. How will they get us out of LA and into Orr again? Kharma farming is only fun for a while, and there is no sink for it unless you want the kharma sets. They need to make us want to accumulate kharma again to spend it on something else. I had suggested spending Kharma on a “skin store” where all of the skins you character has obtained, goes into this storage. To use the skin costs kharma.

For me, putting band aid fixes in this large problem might lead me to breaking for a while and going back to other games, or trying out new ones. But Im sure at some point I’d be back.

Still a great game.

Judging by the plethora of similar posts I’ve seen since even the beginning of the game, every day has been a tipping point where the fate of ANet hangs in the balance as an angry mob readies their torches and pitchforks and prepares to storm the barricades in order to fufill their self-righteous goals.

It never happens.

Yea it’s pretty much make or break time for me.

After the Karka debacle, and the huge amount of trust that ANet has lost from their playerbase due to both the Ascended Gear thing and the way we’re being funneled into grind or Trading post, it’s definitely time to see if they start charting a course back to their Manifesto.

If the level cap raises, or we get gear higher than ascended, or we keep having to “pay to win” then this is not the game for me.

Moreover communication from ANet needs to be more frequent, more responsive to the players, have less marketing spin, and not on websites that most people dont subscribe to (i.e. Reddit).

Yes I believe it is make or break time for sure, based on the many mmos we’ve seen break in the past. Basically, Anet just keeps things way too close to the chest in this stage of the mmo’s lifecycle. The amount of time since the game has been released vs the lack of information we have received regarding the game direction is not acceptable.

I would anticipate that Anet has until the end of February to have the game in a state to retain players. Unfortunately, I can’t see this happening due to their lack of communication on game development, let alone actually delivering updates and game features in a timely manner.

It’s sad, GW1 rocked from the start, GW2 does not even come close.

Omen.1879:

It’s sad, GW1 rocked from the start, GW2 does not even come close.

It’s funny. I see a lot people saying this, but to me I recall the first year of Guild Wars 1 being filled with maybe as much negativity as this game. That game went on to have 6 more years of success.

Geren.1945:

I got into the game a bit late and really started leveling my first character (Norn Guardian!) during the Xmas holidays and I have to say my experience has been very close to Deadcell’s; most of the areas are rather empty and the chat remains dead for hours on end (Desolation server).

Not only does this make it feel like you’re playing a single-player game, it also makes some of the events really annoying or exceedingly difficult, when there’s no one else around. This problem is made ever worse by the ridiculously fast respawn rates some areas seem to have.

I mean I’ve enjoyed the game for the most part, I even like the event system as a concept, but there’s no getting around the fact that it relies heavily on having highly populated low level areas. In any case, I doubt January patch will be a make or break for me, since I’m not even at 80 with my first character, so there’s still plenty of stuff for me to see.

Transfer to another server. It’s free. Seriously. I trip over people on my server. I’m talking upwards of 20+ people at some events.

I’m mostly interested in class balancing. I know Anet has stated they are taking a ‘slow and steady’ approach to class changed.

Normally that is correct, however when you have a few classes severely lacking versus other classes that just lack polish, this design method is a slowly building rage train. Broken classes see minor tweak after minor tweak for months while their trait lines and build prospects are in complete shambles.

If the classes in question don’t see some serious improvements over the next few patches, I don’t think I will bother.

This is no doubt make or break for the game but in a different way IMO. Anet has made their money already with 2 million copies sold. What they want (again IMO) more than that is to be THE standard E-sport game. They need to make the current populace happy in order to attract more new players so they can achieve their overall goal of being the most popular game in E-sport. If they don’t make the current populace happy the game will continue to lose players and will not advance as an E-sport. If that doesn’t happen we’ll either be paying a sub or not playing at all.

You’re right, CesMode, that it is definitely how they fix, update, and balance the current world that matters. A quick addition however regarding this bit:

cesmode.4257:

Kharma farming is only fun for a while, and there is no sink for it unless you want the kharma sets. They need to make us want to accumulate kharma again to spend it on something else.

Kharma is required in large amounts to purchase Obsidian Shards for anyone creating a legendary from scratch. Other than this though, you’re correct.

These updates can do 1 of 2 things to break this game for me:

The first is adding more ascended gear and expecting me to run through fractals to get it.

The second is more nerfs affecting PvE to try and appease the PvP whiners who quite frankly just don’t want to learn how to play the game.

I think it will brake it!
The game to my taste is terrible after playing Gw1.

The best things are combat animations, and the idea of combat, but not the implementation.

Anet had awesome ideas, but implemented them careless. Or maybe to carefull?

There are barely any weapons to use (means skills to) I am sure they planned a whole lot other weapons to.
(There are many hints of land spears, but they are not peresent.)

And not only this but many other things destroy the character costumization.
Like the walled in classes, that can only dps in instances, and accidentally support, with half useless heals or boons. All dephends on dodge and how you kite, whits is dissapointing and 1 dimension.
AKA combat is boring, it was on lv 4, and it is still on lv 80 fully traited to a “role” that does not even exist, since no classes are viable as a certaint combat role. They are to motch dps only, to be viable as any other role.

I have insane ammounts of problems with classes and they are currently the furthest aim for Anet. I can barely force myself to play a class for more then a week. I keep rerolling or switch character.
The ones i would like, are not implemented as i would like them. The ones i dont are not bad, but are unfun since they are underpowered, or all others play the same class to.
There is no room for personal costumization, expsecially in gameplay of the character. All the characters just dodge and nuke and kite.

And so on and on…and Anet bothers abaut…? What exacly? Getting players back to world? What does that even mean? Who cares where others are? I can Ts them all the time or chat wit them, and go togather if i want to.
Because of bad game system the game is alredy destroying teamplay, and prefers solo ramboing araund the map till you hit 80 and then keep spamming instances, at best pvp.
And all those places are group only…

Lets not mention the COMBAT ONLY game. There are basically no noncombat things to do. All centers araund combat. There are no guild halls, no guild wars at all -_- WTF. No personal house, no decent pets (you can tame or obtain or need to level or bother with atleast).
WvWvW is stupid because of the insanely big map.
Allyance battles ware 10 times better, and more thrilling. I would surely remake the wvwvw maps to be 2/10 th size and the map would progress each week, depheding on winner. And in the end of the month or half year the best could siege the worst capitol for 1-2 weeks.

So yes, i do think this will be bad. Unless there are extreme ammounts of fanboys, and blind fanatics, that still fall to Anets propaganda.

I am on the on the fence too. The main problem is NOT that GW2 lack of endgame. It is GW2 has bad endgame, which is poorly designed instance grind. And we have a divided player base too. Players like Anet’s idea are not happy because the endgame is all about instance grinding. People like traditional MMORPG or WoW(which define the “tradition” of MMORPG) are not happy too because the instance grinding is poorly designed. To make the situation even worse, Anet seems like lost. No one could tell what GW2 will be.

First, I do think the ROI on my $60 for the game has been worth it. compared to how little you get for $60 in so many other games with ridiculously short gaming hours to completion, GW2 has been phenomenal in it’s return for me.

HOwever, I have reached a point where I don’t really play any more. I’m tired of the LA lobby, the empty zones, the lack of LFG. Outside of peak WvW times, and the camping in LA, the world is dead.

The introduction of FoTM was great in that I finally felt there was people in the game again. And the same with the launch of Lost Shores. It seemed as if the Massive was back in the MMO aspect of the game.

But most days, it’s a dead zone. I get tired of waiting and waiting for a group, then get capped for using /M to recruit.

I also joined a guild with a large population. But there’s no loyalty, and it’s mostly about running for mats for legendaries…something I just have no interest in.

In GW1, I found my interest renewed with the release of subsequent expansions. New areas to explore, new monsters, new mileu.

I will keep waiting and watching from the sidelines. I don’t know how ANET gets the campers out of LA or out of FoTM and populates the rest of the world with humans instead of bots.

Like a poster says above, some of the areas are just so incredibly dynamic and full of potential. But they’re dead lands. Such a shame.

I think I got a good ROI. No issue there.

For me, Ive always had the plan of “level as many as I can, then choose a few to focus on”. I think Ive stomached as much leveling as I could, with an upcoming 80 mesmer(almost 73 right now). I have a two full exotic sets on my thief, with 3 piece ascended. Necromancer has nearly a full exotic set. I’ll work on either my mesmer, guardian, or warrior as a 3rd toon…then kind of relax with the game for a while. Play some WvW, play a few dungeons, run a few fractals. Go to Lost Shores and try to solo some of those vets just for fun.

I hope with these changes that I really feel the desire to head back to mid level areas. Otherwise all of the above of what I just said, will get stale after a few weeks and I think I’ll probably log in less and less. The only other thing left to do would be to start going after a legendary. I’ll leave that for absolutely last.

I think that if I didn’t feel the desire to head to these lower level zones, and logged in less and less, I might check out some other games in the mean time which is perfectly fine IMO. Tera is going F2p, and that is a great combat game. I might finally try to go knock off Diablo inferno..sitting on his doorstep. Just cant beat him haha! Maybe a little bit of Mass Effect 3…Maybe return to GW2 after a few more months.

Heres to hoping that this patch saves the day for this great game!

cesmode.4257:

So I ask, do you think these updates are a “make or break” for GW2? Do you think it will bring new players back to the game? Will it help the mid-level zones that suffer from lack of activity? Can you speculate what Arenanet’s solutions will be? Is it enough? If they falter here, do you think the game is going to plummet down hill?

IMO

cesmode.4257:

So I ask, do you think these updates are a “make or break” for GW2?

Neither really

cesmode.4257:

Do you think it will bring new players back to the game?

More than likely I would say

cesmode.4257:

Will it help the mid-level zones that suffer from lack of activity?

Yes but I also don’t think this is a big issue

cesmode.4257:

Can you speculate what Arenanet’s solutions will be? Is it enough? If they falter here, do you think the game is going to plummet down hill?

Not sure what their gonna do but maybe something along the lines of new events/quests which give good/unique rewards, treasure hunts, new mini stories to make things more interesting and maybe just improving overall mobs, events and hearts. I’m expecting something that will suprise me though!
Oh and no, the game wont plummet downhill.

I like to speculate but this thread may a tad dramatic with the “Will GW2 fail?!?” stuff

Seeing as I’ve played 700+ hours since head start, I’ll probably be around.

They have already come out and said the January patch will be minimal and the February patch will focus on PVP, so I’m not expecting huge changes.

As far as “make or break,” I’m extremely happy with the game as it currently stands. That doesnt mean I’m not looking forward to what they have in store for us over the next few months.

Long term, I can only see one thing hurting the game for me – and that is fewer people playing across all the different zones. Even with the populations we had at launch, with all there is to do in this game, its really easy for people to become spread out and cause certain elements to feel “dead.” As new things to do are added, it will compound this – they will be a victim of their own success, so to speak. This seems like a very easy issue to fix though – through server merges, unrestricted guesting or implementation of some kind of “underflow” servers. I’m really hoping that one (or all) of those are on the table in the first half of 2013.

As long as they are fixing things and not ignoring them for content, then I will be happy.

I have barely scratched the surface of this game and I enjoy it quite a bit so I imagine I will stick around for a while.

The beauty of the game is you can take a break and play other games and come back to it later and see if it’s indeed better than it was before or more in line with what you had hoped it would be. No monthly gives you lots of flexibility with your play time.

Hi all!

First of all i must admit i am still struggling to pick a class since beta, (ofc i have lots of lv 80s) and its is the fault of the game and class design, and as long as that exists, i wont be satisfied fully, but putting that aside i try to use a NPOV.

Second i am worried abaut the upcoming small and big patches in Jan and Feb. I am personally alredy starting to fall out from the game. I was and am still a big Gw1 fan, and i still miss a LOT of things that ware awesome in gw1, and are not implemented in Gw2 for no reson.
Like guild halls, or Guild wars ( quite sad there are no guild wars in Guild Wars2…you have to admit that.). Or nonwater spears, that ware planned anyway, and ware in Gw1. And so on.
The problem with that is, not that they are not implemented, but i dont see real resons not to be implemented.
Excluding from the time to implement them. And there is the point of my anger! If its only time you need, atleast give us a headsup, you are planning that, just dont have time for it. Or there will be MANY players that will feel upset or dissapointed and take back the trust they had in the game.

And that applyes exspecially since you sead : you will “Take everything you love abaut guild wars 1”…..and you did not -_-, the game feels like less then the 1 actually in many points.
Trough i admit it does excell in many points, but thats exacly the reson the game should have more….i dont know…many things actually.
It is like “it has potetial, but something is missing”.

Third. Currently i feel like a mess with classes.
They are walled into 3-4 viable builds.
They lack combat customization.
All classes feel like : all you doo is dps, and kite for your life meantime .(dodge,snare,cc,kite)Makes combat boring.
Many classes lack balance. (yes trough you can win with any class, but there is a point where you must admit, what your character is capable off. )
Some adventages are more like disadventage (necro’s staff 1)

Trough there is no trinity, there is still a need for only 3-4 classes mostly. Rest are just fill in. And lfg is worse then any other game right now. I am lfg like 1-2 hours somethimes, even trough you removed a decently fun aspect of the game to avoid that?
Not only you took the trinity, but instead of giving all classes all roles, you destroyed all roles to.
Instead of playing a Healer if i want to, or a Tank with Ele or Engineer i cant do any of them. Yes i can be hybrid and “support” or “bunker” but classes are just way to all araund to able to fill a decent role. And that is another reson combat feels boring.

I do agree, the time of trinity is over, and there should be no system that forces the player to pick a tank or healer, or make any role a “must have”. But i do not agree, that there should be no roles. Or atleast an option to freely pick up a role if i want to play it by my OWN CHOICE!

These threads fail…

It is not a make or break situation. Some people may leave. But it is highly doubtful that suddenly the populations of servers will dwindle down to nothingness. Some people leave games when they don’t get their way immediately or there are bugs, others play through bugs and are more patient.

Usually games lose players over time. And my guess is the volume of players in GW2 will last for a couple years.

Some people who leave will comeback to check things out.

For me the game alredy faild there, but i still have hopes, that in the future they realize this, and do something abaut it, even if it needs a fairly big redesign in many points.
Actually the current combat system could stay the same, it works decently without any “must have role” but can still benefit from dedicated players that pick up a role.
(And dont even bother saying : ppl will make you play that role then.
They alredy do -_- so there is no point in not detailing roles then.)

I must also admit, that it was stated that Gw2 will have balancing, and strenghtening the current state, instead of expanding it.
Does that mean …what?
-Balance of classes is fine, trough i can hardly imagine it without serious redesign of some classes.
-Also lets mention some terrible effects (like necros Death Shroud and Necrotic Grasp, or Scepter attacks). Will they be remade? To something more sightfull? Even Heroes 6 had a lot cooler, and sight to see effects for Necromancers -_-.
Many skills feel like rushed, and have no indepth mood, or atmosphere. As does moch of the game.
-Getting back player to maps? Without the redesign or add of the maps? Interesting.
-Strenghtening current state of game means no new weapons to fill up classes to complete state? No new skills? No new kits or abilityes? No new or redesigned class mechanics?
-It means no new pvp maps and types? No Guild halls or GvG? No personal housing? No fornitures to be crafted or obtained? No items to place in house? No chance to place your house items as you like?
-It means no new monsters? Or monster skills? No redesign of current ones to be more challanging? Or some to be actually dooable at all on solo?

There are many question i would love to be anwsered.-_-
But mostly i would like to know why are MAPS the most content in this game?
I know they DO MATTER A LOT, since they are the scene of the plots and combat and everything, but they dont feel filled.
I miss so many skills, weapons, “class aspects” and so on. Minor details, that make the game feel half finsihed even trough it is comepletely playable.
I am sure they are afraid to admit, the game got cut. To a short version of the planned content. And i am getting more and more afraid it will stay that way for to long. So long it wont matter, when it actually gets that thing it needs.
I think more content( even if slight) would be seriously needed.

I am sure i am valid at many points, trough this ALL is my personal opinion, you must keep that in sight.

Oh my, some posts (few) in this thread were too funny.
The majority was good and I was even impressed with the contente of posts, but then I hit two that really…

Some people just don’t know what to play if the game isn’t saying on their faces what do to. GW2 has quite the semi-sandbox potential, the endgame is everywhere and you can do whatever you want.
The community even helped a lot, as in making gw2lfg.com.
There’s tons and tons of content everywhere, you just have to take your time and go around the world to find them. It’s there, just look for it. There’s also content that we know of and don’t have to keep searching because they are more straightforward in the sense that they are there, such as dungeons.

Honestly, I still can’t believe how many people are angry at ascended gear, for god’s sake, it’s the same thing, THE SAME THING as exotics, no kitten stats difference. Agony is just present in FotM and from 10 onwards. There are only rings and backpack of ascended quality, even Fractal Weapons are exotic and it’s cosmetic (they are harder to get and RNG only, that I disagree, but we’ll see).
Seriously, people freak out for NOTHING.

Now more to the topic in this thread, I keep seeing people “make it or break it”, but honestly? I don’t think the game would hold them much longer anyway, they probably came here with the wrong mindset and expectations.
It’s GREAT that they are planning os just improving everything we have and make it work even better so people realise how much the game offers.

I’m excited to see everything that’s coming, and atleast we do know one thing, almost 100% sure abou,t, new WvW set of maps and I called it! Then Colin pretty much confirmed it.

ColinJohanson.2394:

It’s worth noting, while they said we’re not working on new versions of the home maps currently, they didn’t say anything about new maps in general…..

Also I’ll throw out that the work our WvW guys are doing on culling and progression systems are extremely large, these are feature systems unto themselves. For example a lot of the culling work requires re-building almost entirely the way our game compiles, loads, and handles assets in general. For many companies, this task could literally years, we’re trying to pull it off in a matter of months, these guys are rock stars.

I know some of you got the impression there isn’t much development going on here, but I was to clarify you couldn’t be more wrong. There is a boat load of very serious WvW being done, much of it they discussed in this interview. Major features require many month long projects, our hope is you’ll start seeing the major fruits of those labors starting in our February update.

You’ll hear more details from our WvW team once stuff gets closer to finalized and tested, but we think you’re going to be thrilled with the stuff that’s coming. As an old DAoC fan, I’m freaking stoked about what these guys are doing.

cesmode.4257:

Recently, Colin Johansen was kind of enough to comment on a thread about the upcoming patches, stating that the January update will be smaller and setting the stage for the larger update in February. These updates will have a focus on getting people back into the world of Tyria and making the already existing world a stronger world. There will be no new zones to explore, no new professions, etc. Basically, what I gathered from it was that we were going to have reason to go back into the world, the lower level zones, and enjoy the game they have built for us, while still feel rewarded for our time,

The “make or break” point already came and went for me with The Lost Shores; didn’t even bother checking out Wintersday, but if they succeed at making the existing game world worth going back to, I’ll come back for it.

I don’t think the Jan-March patches will rake in hoards of new players; rather, it will keep players who are playing atm and possibly players who have taken breaks.

We will have to wait for a true expansion to come for an influx of brand new players. If the patches do what they’re supposed to, then they should prevent THOSE players from leaving either.

This is, of course, assuming the patches do what they are supposed to.

WvW needs lots of love — which they have stated is going to happen. It just all depends on what they add. It’s been the most neglected aspect of the game, which is sad considering it’s the best feature (IMO).

Rhysati.4932:

Geren.1945:

I got into the game a bit late and really started leveling my first character (Norn Guardian!) during the Xmas holidays and I have to say my experience has been very close to Deadcell’s; most of the areas are rather empty and the chat remains dead for hours on end (Desolation server).

Not only does this make it feel like you’re playing a single-player game, it also makes some of the events really annoying or exceedingly difficult, when there’s no one else around. This problem is made ever worse by the ridiculously fast respawn rates some areas seem to have.

I mean I’ve enjoyed the game for the most part, I even like the event system as a concept, but there’s no getting around the fact that it relies heavily on having highly populated low level areas. In any case, I doubt January patch will be a make or break for me, since I’m not even at 80 with my first character, so there’s still plenty of stuff for me to see.

Transfer to another server. It’s free. Seriously. I trip over people on my server. I’m talking upwards of 20+ people at some events.

Well seeing how all of my friends and my guild are on my current server, a transfer is not really an ideal solution.

However, I did just think of a easy solution, which could be implemented with minimum hassle since all the mechanics are there already: reverse the overflow mechanic for empty low level areas!

In other words, if the game detects that the shard a player is playing on has, say less than 10 people around in that specific area, all those people are given the option to go to the overflow. That way you could gather all the individually small populations in to a single larger population. Then just keep track on how many people there are on the overflow and if the amount of people from a specific shard gets sufficiently high, offer to send them all back to their own shard. Alternatively they could just give players the option to manually go to the overflow when they choose.

Anet, make it so!

If the january update is like the Karka-event, then that’s it for me. Not fun with one-time events that lag like hell, a new map with pretty much nothing to do, and then you forget about it. IMO they need to implement some more endgame content, or just some more content overall.

i hope it fails and some court rules that they are forced to reimburse players.

I can’t tell you in words how much ripped off i feel for spending 150 euros on this game.

Worst of all it’s the fact that i have been buying random kitten out of the TP to try to fill the hole but instead i keep increasing it.

I haven’t played in a while and i probably won’t play it anytime soon, i’ll login when the new updates comes and i’ll check it out, but i’ve actually started playing other games and i’ve had more fun with Tomb Raider 1 than the whole GW2 experience.

Sad but true as hell.

I do not like the direction this game is heading and I’m just waiting for the jan-march patches. What would really kill this game for me is if they bring out new dungeons with Jp like some of the fractals. I really don’t like JP and avoid doing fractals because of that.

I dont think anything will break the game for me. I really like it. Sure, its in a primative state. But i see this game only improving over the next few years. I cant wait to see what Anet does this year! Especially with making the core game stronger i would love to revisit previous areas given there was some cool new events, things to see, bosses, ect.

For me there are 2 things that i really hope and care about

1) WvW love
2) No new content/areas until they give us reasons to go back and explore the beautiful and empty world.

They already said that this was high on their priority list so my hopes are high as well.

What would break the game for me would be more ridiculous ideas like fractals where most of the community sits in one place to do the same boring dungeon over and over and over and over and over again.

Right now the game won’t break, the influx of new players is really huge. There is not much good competition. It feels to me that there is low customer retention, many people stopped in the first weeks.

Break points for me would probably be: more 3 hour+ dungeons with unique superior rewards that requires grinding, no real improvement of WvW & lack of goals, no improvement of things to do for guilds.

I am still an optimist and I expect to be surprised in a good way. I fear however too much focus on sPvP minigames and push for paid tournaments (eSport) and just some minor map (WvW & PvE) additions.

cesmode.4257:

People will ride the kharma train in Orr, since it gives the most kharma. What do you think?

No if they implement something that makes doing different events more profitable then doing the same thing over and over again.

cesmode.4257:

So I ask, do you think these updates are a “make or break” for GW2? Do you think it will bring new players back to the game? Will it help the mid-level zones that suffer from lack of activity? Can you speculate what Arenanet’s solutions will be? Is it enough? If they falter here, do you think the game is going to plummet down hill?

Their updates are probably target toward fixing all that.

There is no subscription fee so people who really enjoyed the game will probably come back if they have a reasons to play. And those updates will be just that for a lot of them.

Also I really hope AN will do something toward educating people how to play the game to have fun. Just point them in the right direction and make it easier to understand the game better in all aspects.

I wanted to pop in and correct some people that think the jan/feb patches are all about WvW…ive read that response a few times in this thread and it simply isn’t true. They have plans to address WvW in Jan/Feb but also addressing the rest of the game(PvE)…making Tyria a stronger world with reason to go back to all of the areas of the game, not just sit in LA or farm Orr/Lost Shores.

So, they are focusing on all aspects of the game, not just WvW. If thats what you were hoping for, you will be disappointed.

I do think the jan/fed/march updates will make or break the game. But what I really am worried about is, everyone who is on the fence (im quitting for a year) is pinning their hopes on this January patch, what they forget is, how the time constraints of this patch will affect it. Don’t quote me on this but it is very, very likey we WILL NOT get anything big and something in comparison to Fractals size, something that is repetitive to keep the playings until they figure out what to do.

It seems like lately A-Net have no idea what they are doing with their game, they don’t know whether they want a casual experience or a hardcore experience, they want e-sport but are pushing it out the door before it’s even ready and will likely never happen, they are pushing quick monthly updates that are shallow, buggy and poorly designed keeping playing interests for all of a week.

So personally I really don’t think these updates are going to be any good at all , and ill play TESO and Tera in the mean time, if im not sucked in by TESO then i might return.

But people don’t expect big things from these patches, think about how long they’ve had to develop them……. as in about a month.