There are, however, four problems with this change, all of which I’ll go into in detail as best I can. They are as follows:
- A massive hit to Economic Action (or Economic Movement, if you prefer that term)
- A not-inconsiderable hit to getting new players/alts to higher levels quickly and easily (no one wants to stay in the starter zones for an eternity, and the trains were a fine way of getting you up to level 30 fast)
- A detrimental effect on the game’s presentation to new players (difficulty, opportunity, necessity of teamwork, etc.)
- A clear and fundamental shift from what Guild Wars 2 prided itself on offering apart from other MMORPGs: a cross-world experience for all players, young and old, that would be made available and enjoyable to players regardless of their in-game level.
I just wanted to add some counter points to your perceived problems with the removal of the queensdale train.
1.) What you call “economic movement” most others would call inflation. Having this train easily accessible to all player new or old severely devalued a single gold coin’s economic value and therefore devalued all other flat rate rewards in the game because they do not scale with inflation and required more effort than this train. The devs are trying to make it to where playing a variety of challenging of content is a more effective way of making gold than running in a circle in a zone for several hours.
Inflation is a problem considered by the developers. It is why some things have gotten so expensive and they are adding things like the cost of gold to start the boss blitz to try to suck some of the gold out of the market. Ending this train slows the production of gold therefore slows the rate of inflation.
2.) The leveling experience for a brand new player is harmed when a train like this exists in the starter area. A leveling experience should include critical thinking and the learning of how to play ones class to overcome challenges. Otherwise a new player can get to level 80 in one zone and never experience any of the lower level maps or content as intended, hindering the learning experience.
The queens-dale train does not offer a learning experience. It only consists of running on a set path killing the same enemies, not invoking any critical thinking or reason to learn your traits or improve your combat ability and knowledge. This by itself can be harmful to the player and the community when a player that has gotten to 1-80 on a queen-dale train moves directly to end-game content where the learning curve would be to steep to make up for everything this player should have learned about their class during a normal leveling process.
3.) I don’t see how removing champions or this train has a detrimental effect on the games presentation if new players don’t even know it existed. All the normal opportunities before this train exists. The path that players are intended to take through the world are still there. And the necessity of teamwork is anything but diminished as it becomes more necessary for the player to acquire help and advice to get through the worlds intended path of leveling and progression.
The queensdale train offered nothing in terms of difficulty or teamwork. It was simple as following the path and tagging bosses. No coordination required. Nothing was learned during this train. It was very little effort with a high yield exp reward, this did not belong in a starter area.
No longer should it be rewarding to be silent, follow a zerg, and spam 1. The best way to earn rewards should be to socialize, learn, and coordinate to overcome challenges.
4.) A clear fundamental shift from what? I don’t see how removing this train prevents players from playing with each-other. High level players are still able to play with their low level friends, and of course the game is going to have some sort of level progression, unless you are suggestion we remove level progression from the game entirely.
Director – Xunlai Heroic Service Agents [XHSA] | Yak’s Bend
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