Guild Wars 2

Here are my issues with GW2 and why I will not recommend the game to friends.

• Story (quality of writing)- The game has incredibly rich lore that creates incredible potential. Unfortunately that potential is lost on a series of half-baked to downright embarrassing script. As someone who greatly enjoyed the story elements of all previous GW games I can say with confidence the story lines I’ve experienced in GW2 have been horrible. Garbage is an appropriate word. In GW1 we had the searing event. It was traumatic. I was expecting the grove to be destroyed or some real darkness to be felt in the world leading up to the end. If you are proud of what you created in terms of story you are delusional. Bad writing. Bad delivery. Incoherent. Of no worth whatsoever to the player at the end. Garbage.

• Lack of monolithic path- The story just creates fragmentation not coherence and does not aid in the feeling of a living world as it appears was intended. The battle of Fort Trinity came close to striking some emotions but ultimately it feel short. The final battle with Zhitan was boring, repetitive and when he died I felt nothing. It was the end of one of the many small story archs it wasn’t epic. Considering the hype and expectations generated from it, I would go so far as to call the end of the game a catastrophic failure in game design. Easily the worst ending of any of the GW games, perhaps one of the worst endings of any game.

• Bugs- You delivered your product half-baked. Even for your new content (e.g. Lost Shores this past weekend) players were dealing with some pretty nasty bugs. It’s seems your game engine’s foundation is cracked and you are unable to fix it. You do realize your quality being kitten is kind of a big deal right or are you all still running around the office giving each other high fives for delivering the “best MMORPG ever”? Delusion and Pretension can be very strong indeed.

• Manifesto amended- You guys had a very clear vision that you spoke about with such confidence. The recent revisions to end-game approach completely change the long term game for everyone. It’s clear you are now uncertain about your own manifesto. How is it invalid for a player to view this as anything other than admittance of your own failure?

• Unbalanced play prevails- Go try to play a few rounds in sPvP and you’ll see three months post release a few professions still dominate the meta game. You do realize without balance between your professions your game is just a glorified button masher. I don’t understand how this can not be viewed as critical important, yet it is not high priority.

• Dynamic events = follow the zerg and wait for reward. The only strategy needed here is to make sure and not miss the chest at the end and to try and find your character in mob. While in the zerg you can do whatever you want. Want to just run around in circles? Ok. No one will notice. You need to hit something so you can get some contribution calculated in, but what you contribute doesn’t matter.

• Solo friendly design = anti-social design- In GW2 most players will be stripped of identity. No one groups in the open world because you have no incentives. In dungeons your characters fills no specific role he or she might be identified and respected for. Team strategy is illusive when it does rear its head the player gets a glimpse of all GW2 could have been and it is a very sad moment indeed…. The only real identity to be had in the game can be bought for 100g (WvW Commander status). This is so sad.

Those are the problems with your game. Your previous GW series lacked most of these issues making them very strong for long term play. There is enough wrong here to make it so the game is short lived.

Times change which in turn causes games to change.

SamTheGuardian.2938:

Here are my issues with GW2 and why I will not recommend the game to friends.

1 Story (quality of writing) -snip-

2 Lack of monolithic path -snip-

3 Bugs -snip

4 Manifesto amended -snip-

5 Unbalanced play prevails -snip-

6 Dynamic events -snip-

7 Solo friendly design -snip-

1) I found the story writing to be very uneven. Some parts were quite good; I enjoyed the Claw Island missions, and some of the longer stories that happened later in the progression. The death of Forgal Kernson was a pivotal moment, one I enjoyed tremendously.

2) Didn’t bother me as much as it did you. That said, some of the stories could have used additional touches. When you help the Grawl and they promise to help versus the dragon, you never see them later.

3) Got me there, there have been plenty of bugs, but there are plenty in every game. I remember a different fantasy game that I came back to for a 2 week free trail a year later, and my character was still stuck with a bugged mission that hindered progress. ANet has been squashing bugs, a lot.

4) I also find this disturbing.

5) PvP always has imbalance, sometime for years. GW1 did a better job of fixing things than most, but it took time.

6) I find the most enjoyable DE’s to be the ones I complete with the bare minimum of people needed to get it done. Following the zerg is not a fun experience for me.

7) I don’t know about you, but I can determine if someone is good to have in a dungeon party by their play. I don’t need them to have a distinct role to see that they are doing what their class allows in a way that contributes. As to solo-play… the days of MMO’s that force teaming in the open world are done. GW2 is no different in that regard, However, the most fun I’ve had in open world has been with a small group, taking on everything and anything that we could.

IndigoSundown.5419:

1) I found the story writing to be very uneven. Some parts were quite good; I enjoyed the Claw Island missions, and some of the longer stories that happened later in the progression. The death of Forgal Kernson was a pivotal moment, one I enjoyed tremendously.

Did you find yourself really caring when Zhitan died? Did you even care a little bit? I did not. Trying to look through my characters eyes and find some reason to really care there wasn’t any. Sure some bad things happened in the world but there was no build up.

2) Didn’t bother me as much as it did you. That said, some of the stories could have used additional touches. When you help the Grawl and they promise to help versus the dragon, you never see them later.

For me it was like reading a very, very bad set of fantasy short stories that are loosely connected in that my character stars in them.

3) Got me there, there have been plenty of bugs, but there are plenty in every game. I remember a different fantasy game that I came back to for a 2 week free trail a year later, and my character was still stuck with a bugged mission that hindered progress. ANet has been squashing bugs, a lot.

.

Let’s be honest, a certain amount of bugs can be expected…. Entire zones were bugged two weeks post launch. The game shipped unfinished. Moving forward. The launch was big and they had some problems. I have a hard time forgiving entire zones being blocked, but it’s in the distant past now. The Lost Shores release is in the not so distant past. Instead of having hundreds of events, with The Lost Shores that had a very small set and unfortunately they couldn’t even get that right. Their quality control is subpar even by MMORPG standards.

4) I also find this disturbing.

[/quote]

I find it an act of desperation. People have been leaving in droves, they have the data they know this. I would welcome data to disprove. One only has to run through empty zones to know.

5) PvP always has imbalance, sometime for years. GW1 did a better job of fixing things than most, but it took time.

You are being way too kind. Only three professions are of any value at all to sPvP. They didn’t even try. If they did try then they decided to accept, sweep under the rug and move forward. sPvP is light years away from being an esport at this point.

6) I find the most enjoyable DE’s to be the ones I complete with the bare minimum of people needed to get it done. Following the zerg is not a fun experience for me.

I agree. There is absolutely an optimal team size at which these events are a lot of fun. There is a range 4-6 players for most events. How many events have I been able to enjoy with an optimal number of players? Perhaps a handful. As with my best moments in dungeons I see those times as glimpses as to what the designers intended the entire experience to be like. Sadly they added no play mechanic for zerg control. Instancing for some events is one path I can think of.

7) I don’t know about you, but I can determine if someone is good to have in a dungeon party by their play. I don’t need them to have a distinct role to see that they are doing what their class allows in a way that contributes. As to solo-play… the days of MMO’s that force teaming in the open world are done. GW2 is no different in that regard, However, the most fun I’ve had in open world has been with a small group, taking on everything and anything that we could.

No. It’s very difficult. You can judge someones contribution in dungeons only based on your expectation of how they would play their profession. Since each profession provides the player with an array of choices for play style (e.g. Guardian support or Guardian DPS) this just creates invalid judgements and often unwarranted arguments when people are paying attention. The call the game a disaster might not be an understatement.

Of course it got 90% composite review from metacritic. Critics tend to give nice reviews when treated nicely by the game publisher. The reality is the content the critics were given access to and the environment in which they were playing it in did warrant those high rating at the time. Things change. They did not get a chance to get to the content >55. They did not see how thrown together the second half of the game was or could have anticipated the negative changes in the months following launch.

OP, i think you have a problem.

with the game, but also with yourself.

every few days you post these long complaints.
i mean, yeah, its ok to give your opinion…
but look at all your post so far!!! the time you re loosing complaining is ridiculous..

i doubt these forums need someone like you.
its ok to complain here and there, but in your case its like a zombies relentlesness.

your loosing everyones time, including yours.
do something more productive please.

or are you getting paid by anets competitors ???

Avatar.1923:

OP, i think you have a problem.

with the game, but also with yourself.

every few days you post these long complaints.
i mean, yeah, its ok to give your opinion…
but look at all your post so far!!! the time you re loosing complaining is ridiculous..

i doubt these forums need someone like you.
its ok to complain here and there, but in your case its like a zombies relentlesness.

your loosing everyones time, including yours.
do something more productive please.

or are you getting paid by anets competitors ???

Well in all honesty you don’t have to read all of his posts. If he’s posting too much, the moderators will take care of it. It’s really not your place to judge if someone is posting too much.

really just trying to help him.

such negativity isnt healthy.

unless there is a motive, but then i guess ill never know what it is.
its professional secret

Avatar.1923:

really just trying to help him.

such negativity isnt healthy.

unless there is a motive, but then i guess ill never know what it is.
its professional secret

Right, because complaining on a game’s forums means one is unhealthy.

Avatar.1923:

this discussion wont go anywhere anyway.

Probably

Avatar.1923:

OP, i think you have a problem.
….
or are you getting paid by anets competitors ???

To answer your question- No. I am not being paid by anyone. I Just had very high hopes for this game that didn’t materialize. Not hearing any real good arguments to my points. Eventually I will move on. Perhaps today is the day to do that.

People express disappointment in a variety of ways. My post here have been a bit redundant in part of disbelief at the degree of their failure to deliver what was promised.

Also, I’m bearing in mind ArenaNet is in the Pacific Northwest. If you’ve ever lived there you know it’s the land where protest actually make a difference.

Avatar.1923:

OP, i think you have a problem.
….
or are you getting paid by anets competitors ???

To answer your question- No. I am not being paid by anyone. I Just had very high hopes for this game that didn’t materialize. Not hearing any real good arguments to my points. Eventually I will move on. Perhaps today is the day to do that.

People express disappointment in a variety of ways. My post here have been a bit redundant in part due to disbelief at the degree of their failure to deliver what was promised.

Regarding people seeing some of my past post is insane, etc.. Bear in mind ArenaNet is in the Pacific Northwest. If you’ve ever lived there you know it’s the land where protest can actually make a difference. Where people tend to burn objects for symbolism. It’s just a language I expect them to understand.

I had high hopes for this game….I am disappointed.

well Sam, you sure are on a crusade.
if you feel its worth your time,
either cause youre getting paid, or out of hope and love.

then so be it.

He is posting with such ferocity because he, like many of us, care a lot about Guild Wars. Many of us thoroughly enjoyed GW1, and are very disappointed to see GW2 spiralling in the wrong direction. If you haven’t played GW1 then you don’t understand how rich the lore and storyline was. In comparison, GW2 is what the op said, garbage.

well… garbage it is.
i dont think it can be saved…

not in the near future at least.
and now, anet are in NcSoft grasp.

you might as well pray really hard…

Maybe it’s time to let go Sam. I mean this in the best way possible. The game fell short in some/many aspects, depends on your preferences, and most of it can’t be changed, it’s a take it or leave it. No point in list them over and over. The manifesto-amended, maybe a little hope this week, but that’s it. Wait for the closure, refund if you can, move on.

SamTheGuardian.2938:

Did you find yourself really caring when Zhaitan died? Did you even care a little bit? I did not …

The Lost Shores release is in the not so distant past. Instead of having hundreds of events, with The Lost Shores that had a very small set and unfortunately they couldn’t even get that right. Their quality control is subpar even by MMORPG standards…

I agree. There is absolutely an optimal team size at which these events are a lot of fun. There is a range 4-6 players for most events. How many events have I been able to enjoy with an optimal number of players? Perhaps a handful. As with my best moments in dungeons I see those times as glimpses as to what the designers intended the entire experience to be like. Sadly they added no play mechanic for zerg control. Instancing for some events is one path I can think of…

No. It’s very difficult. You can judge someones contribution in dungeons only based on your expectation of how they would play their profession. Since each profession provides the player with an array of choices for play style (e.g. Guardian support or Guardian DPS) this just creates invalid judgements and often unwarranted arguments when people are paying attention. The call the game a disaster might not be an understatement.

I did care some when Zhaitan died, although the fight itself was not all that interesting. However, that is not a writing issue, rather an encounter design one. While the story was not something I would pay to read as a book, I found it about normal for an MMO (i.e., not as good as I’d expect from a SPRPG.

I did some of the Lost Shores events, one of them bugged out with Ellen Kiel just stopping in the middle of nowhere. The bigger issue I had with QC in the event was the invisible mobs and skills not activating, or taking 20 seconds to activate in the LA battle. If the server wasn’t up to it, they should not have attempted it.

I find myself in optimal-sized events rather more often than that. It may be the zones I’m in, the server I’m on and/or the times I play making the difference.

On dungeon evaluation… well, it probably helps that I’ve gotten all 8 classes to level 20 at least, and will have a 3rd 80 sometime this week. In cases where I don’t understand class mechanics that well, I judge by other things: success w/out need for zerg; does the person position properly for ability use; do they dodge out of the area when a friendly AoE is put on them (so many wasted Marks of Blood); do they focus on a dying target and rally if downed and in an AoE that contra-indicates revival by others; do they just stand in melee (I cannot count how many times I’ve revived Guardians who do just that, and given the comments about the class’s resilience, I know that is poor play even if I have not yet figured out how to optimize the class).

My primary issues with the game are whatever internal-to-NCSoft dynamics caused the game to launch before it was ready, and the current change in focus. While I enjoy the game and will keep playing for a time, I’m done paying unless I see something that indicates they are not going to cater only to the locusts going forward.

Story (quality of writing)

Some of it is good, some of it is bad and its better than what you usually get in an MMO. Its just not very constant and I think you’re being a bit harsh. I don’t even remember much from GW prophecies and from what I do remember it was pretty terrible. Factions was better though and EotN and Nightfall had some characters I liked.

Lack of monolithic path

I don’t mind it so much. I’m fine with the story essentially being segmented. I do remember seeing some of my choices in Orr (for instance I rand in the skritt who I had helped again on one of the quests). Would have been nice it there were a few more obvious effects but I wasn’t really expecting there to be. The problem I had with Zhaitan is though he looks awesome it wasn’t a very good fight. It would have been strange had you managed to defeat Zhaitan completely on foot I suppose with how powerful he is meant to be but I think it would have been better if you weakened him with canons until he fell to ground and then finished him off. I don’t suppose I really “cared” when he died but then I rarely do in games. I don’t think I’m going to care when any of the dragons die because so far they seem more like a force. I can’t really hate them, they don’t have enough of a personality for that. Everyone partying at the end was nice at least and the music was great.

Bugs
They really do need to get the bugs sorted. It one of things that has been killing this game for me. Having the events broken everywhere and waiting for a week or them to fix Arah only to be repeatedly disconnected while trying to do it is not fun and it is really annoying than having to respec because one of the traits you picked is actually broken. I feel like the games still in Beta. However I very much doubt they are “running around the office giving each other high fives for delivering the best MMORPG ever”. They are likely aware of the problems and trying to fix them. I wouldn’t want to be the staff working on the game right now. I doubt they are having much fun.

Manifesto amended
Yep, I’m still waiting to see how this turns out but right now I not really happy with how things are going and question whether putting up with the bugs and balancing is worth it. If they going to be like other MMO’s I might as well play a more polished one. I think I’ll finish some of the things i was doing and I’m not going to get refund but I doubt I will be buying future content if they keep this up.

Unbalanced play prevails
Yep, not much else to say.

Dynamic events = follow the zerg and wait for reward.
Yep, in some of the smaller groups its not so bad and you do actually need to work together but with the large zergs in Orr its terrible which is one of the reason i don’t spend much time there. Since rewards are based on actually doing damage it makes it feel like your kittening yourself by doing support or CC at all rather than spamming AOE attacks.

Solo friendly design = anti-social design
I may not properly group in open world but I find myself running around in small groups working together all the time. Finding a team where everyone is on the same page and using strategy is a problem in all online games though the way guild wars 2 has done this seems to have made it worse since everyone tends to focus on DPS but then at least I don’t have to wait 2 hours for a healer to show up. This is where being in a guild helps. You can still tell who is being good or not by how they play.

Harbard.5738:

Maybe it’s time to let go Sam. I mean this in the best way possible. The game fell short in some/many aspects, depends on your preferences, and most of it can’t be changed, it’s a take it or leave it. No point in list them over and over. The manifesto-amended, maybe a little hope this week, but that’s it. Wait for the closure, refund if you can, move on.

Any suggestions? I have high hopes for Elder Scrolls on-line, but it’s got some time before release.

Demented Sheep.1642:

Solo friendly design = anti-social design
I may not properly group in open world but I find myself running around in small groups working together all the time. Finding a team where everyone is on the same page and using strategy is a problem in all online games though the way guild wars 2 has done this seems to have made it worse since everyone tends to focus on DPS but then at least I don’t have to wait 2 hours for a healer to show up. This is where being in a guild helps. You can still tell who is being good or not by how they play.

I must say I really miss the Cooperative Missions that drove the GW1 story line. I understand these games are very different. I even like the concept of Personal Story. How hard would it have been to sprinkle cooperative events into the world. Although we’re not all happy with the re-visioning or end-game, I think most agree the new Fractal Dungeon shards are a lot of fun. Sprinkled between all Personal Story chapters should have been Cooperative Missions in GW2. Repeatable content designed for five man teams. Not as difficult as dungeons, but repeatable and lasting 15-30 minutes. If the game had this it would fix the issue of not having enough team-oriented content. People would flock to these too.

Personal Story chapters are done alone for the most part (as designed) dynamic events and hearts and done out of group. Outside of group you really aren’t paying much attention to the other players (in a zerg you can’t). It’s really a lone-gun type of game with little to no focus on team play except in dungeons. The problem there is it’s an MMORPG….

I’ve already expressed how I feel about dungeons.

SamTheGuardian.2938:

Did you find yourself really caring when Zhitan died? Did you even care a little bit? I did not.

I actually felt sorry for the poor dragon, just hugging his huge pillar and staring at those cannons. The only thing that was missing was work in progress in the upper right corner of the screen.

The rest of the story was also awful and the characters were just… Meh. Hell, even Little Thom, Alesia or Dunham were more memorable than all of the characters of Guild Wars 2 put together.

I’m not even going to start talking about the zerging, button-mashing, bugs or not sticking to their manifesto. It just reminds me of all those The game will be out when it’s ready! and Guild Wars 2 takes everything you love about Guild Wars 1… which, in turn, remind me of how great this game could’ve been and of all the broken promises.

In comparison to Guild Wars, this game really is garbage. And it makes me really sad to say that, considering how much fun I’ve had playing the original game.

Bella.3502:

…
I actually felt sorry for the poor dragon, just hugging his huge pillar and staring at those cannons. The only thing that was missing was work in progress in the upper right corner of the screen.

ROFLMO. Yes! I remember thinking something similar. Why does he deserve to die? What an epic failure in terms of story delivery through gameplay. But they did fool the critics into giving them a high rating didn’t they? That should go down in text books for how to market an MMORPG.

The rest of the story was also awful and the characters were just… Meh. Hell, even Little Thom, Alesia or Dunham were more memorable than all of the characters of Guild Wars 2 put together.

I’m not even going to start talking about the zerging, button-mashing, bugs or not sticking to their manifesto. It just reminds me of all those The game will be out when it’s ready! and Guild Wars 2 takes everything you love about Guild Wars 1… which, in turn, remind me of how great this game could’ve been and of all the broken promises.

In comparison to Guild Wars, this game really is garbage. And it makes me really sad to say that, considering how much fun I’ve had playing the original game.

Yep. It all just feels like a half-baked beta. Your first 40-60 hours of game play you will probably not notice this, but as you get deeper in you realize why they were hiding the second half of the game. So bad it’s almost… Had they had another six to nine months on it perhaps it would have been a much stronger game. Of course the problem ArenaNet faced was competition. Tera beat them to market as far as having an action MMORPG (with Patrick Wyatt, former cofounder of ANet at the helm that had to be tough). Although Tera does some things right that GW2 doesn’t unfortunately Tera is a grind-fest. New games are in the pipeline though. Blizzard’s new MMORPG and of course Elder Scrolls on-line. I suppose they had their reasons for rushing to market.

The bottom line is GW1 was a thinking mans on-line game. I don’t care if you want to classify it as an MMORPG or not, the bottom line is it was a mind stimulating game. The skill system became difficult for them to manage, we all get that. Meta builds rose up. Natural selection takes its course, but those builds came from the community. I always wondered if the game designers secretly held grudges on the community players outsmarting them with certain build combinations.

It’s as if ArenaNet choose to make a Guild Wars meets God of War kind of hybrid thing. It would have worked had they had more time perhaps… Incredibly weak story combined with bugs destroy what if polished could have been the greatest game ever made. Some of the things I’ve said in other threads may sound very harsh, the reality they strung us along for years and did not deliver what they promised.

SamTheGuardian.2938:

Demented Sheep.1642:

Solo friendly design = anti-social design
I may not properly group in open world but I find myself running around in small groups working together all the time. Finding a team where everyone is on the same page and using strategy is a problem in all online games though the way guild wars 2 has done this seems to have made it worse since everyone tends to focus on DPS but then at least I don’t have to wait 2 hours for a healer to show up. This is where being in a guild helps. You can still tell who is being good or not by how they play.

I must say I really miss the Cooperative Missions that drove the GW1 story line. I understand these games are very different. I even like the concept of Personal Story. How hard would it have been to sprinkle cooperative events into the world. Although we’re not all happy with the re-visioning or end-game, I think most agree the new Fractal Dungeon shards are a lot of fun. Sprinkled between all Personal Story chapters should have been Cooperative Missions in GW2. Repeatable content designed for five man teams. Not as difficult as dungeons, but repeatable and lasting 15-30 minutes. If the game had this it would fix the issue of not having enough team-oriented content. People would flock to these too.

Personal Story chapters are done alone for the most part (as designed) dynamic events and hearts and done out of group. Outside of group you really aren’t paying much attention to the other players (in a zerg you can’t). It’s really a lone-gun type of game with little to no focus on team play except in dungeons. The problem there is it’s an MMORPG….

I’ve already expressed how I feel about dungeons.

You can already invite people into your personal story to do it with friends if you choose but they don’t really encourage this.
They may well tie the personal quest to group content in the future. The quest to kill Zhaitan for instance is in a dungeon which you do with other players and is repeatable and while the others aren’t necessary they are plot related. I don’t really see much of a difference between the dungeons and the missions of GW1 aside from maybe difficulty.
Tho they would probably need to make a version scaled for single player as well if they did this otherwise you will be getting stuck if others aren’t also doing the mission since you can’t make up for it with hero’s and henchman in GW2.
Perhaps they should make it that payers who are being buffed or healed by you tag enemies for you to incentives co-op and actually paying attention to your teammates a bit more (unless they already do this and I just haven’t noticed). I don’t know that there is much A-net can do about a lack of true co-op in since its mostly and issue with the players though less Zergs would help.

You can already invite people into your personal story to do it with friends if you choose but they don’t really encourage this.
They may well tie the personal quest to group content in the future. The quest to kill Zhaitan for instance is in a dungeon which you do with other players and is repeatable and while the others aren’t necessary they are plot related. I don’t really see much of a difference between the dungeons and the missions of GW1 aside from maybe difficulty.
Tho they would probably need to make a version scaled for single player as well if they did this otherwise you will be getting stuck if others aren’t also doing the mission since you can’t make up for it with hero’s and henchman in GW2.
Perhaps they should make it that payers who are being buffed or healed by you tag enemies for you to incentives co-op and actually paying attention to your teammates a bit more (unless they already do this and I just haven’t noticed). I don’t know that there is much A-net can do about a lack of true co-op in since its mostly and issue with the players though less Zergs would help.

There a few design issues that hinder team play that probably where not encountered during their internal testing during development. During beta players where so thrilled just to be able to get in there wasn’t a lot of criticism surfacing. Also I think a lot of people assumed the zerg issue during beta was something that would be worked out.

Team strategy can not be achieved in a zerg, there’s just too much going on to get a grip on it even if you are in a five man team. So any content that can be zerg rushed is going to be the button masher-friendly beast that it is. No it’s not fun. Although it’s not grind you could make an argument that it’s wore in a way.

People begin to strategize play when they are in small to mid-sized teams. They need to be able to see clearly and fill a dedicated role in the team (although the dedicated role does not need to be tied to profession and could change half way through the content). It’s a shame the only content with teams > 5 occurs in PvP.

Personal Story chapters are non-repeatable (that’s one big problem with them, I have several of mine I’d love to redo). There is no reason we shouldn’t be able to go back and replay chapters in our personal story. I don’t respect this design decision at all. Don’t give the reward at the end, but allow the content to be played through.

The new fractal dungeon shards are designed to be 15-20 minutes each. They are repeatable. We need more content like this in the open world.

Dynamic events can be retooled slightly so that level 80 players that are teamed up can enter an instance of the event. The instance can have a cap on the number of players allowed in and overflows could exist so that enough instances exist for everyone). This would be a major under taking for the programmers, but could solve the no-team strategy in open world problem we’re seeing.

Lastly, they need to get rid of the kitten way point cost. This is a horrible money sink that is hindering players from grouping and helping others. It becomes a tax on those who want to way point over to help others. It was a horrible design decision. I suspect they won’t change it because it’s deeply rooted in their philosophy on driving customers to the cash shop in some way (although the direct connection I struggle to find, there is no other explanation for what they would implement this )