SUGGESTION: how to give incentive for endgame content.
So I started up guildwars2 again after a year’s break+- and within the first hour I did nothing but just get the view of the new stuff (which took approximately 30-40min). Then I ran in a circle for 10-20 mins trying to figure out what I wanted to do. It durned on me that there was really nothing to do.
It wasn’t because there was no content to do, or the content was bad.
(ignoring the issue’s that is with some content, because that is not the focus of this thread).
There is plenty of dungeons that could be fun to run.
Lots of living story stuff.
Lots of worldmap event stuff.
Even fractale stuff.
Properly some other stuff not at the top of my head.
Therefore, it is not that there was not anything to do, but that there was absolutely no incentive to do it.
I tried to find incentive to do something.
but frankly the only things I can get is legendary weapons at this point, think there is new armours as well though (got exortic) but it seemed like a crazy hassle just to get into what I need to do to get legendries (assuming armours as well but haven’t checked because I gave up). the extreme grind for gold to buy it, or doing a gameplay of gathering (which is a gamaplay I don’t enjoy) is nothing that I find incentivising and it doesn’t give me a “clear goal path or reason to do stuff”.
When ingame currency becomes the major endgame thing you need, it loses its meaning and it is never an incentive (even less so when ingame currency can be bought with rl cash).
Now I am setting there thinking what could be done to change this? Meaning what incentives could be given to make people have a reason to run dungeons etc?
The first thing that hit me was the rewards:
Endgame is at this point all about legendries and runes; so for rewards I would suggest using these: since they are often so big/expensive that it can’t be single rewards they need to be purchased by currencies.
So which currencies should it be bought with?
Since gold is already a currency allowing you to buy it we will look at other aspects:
With the focus on “let people have FUN while feeling they are working towards WORTHY rewards”
With this in mind I would say that “ALL content should give rewards towards this” but not as an “extra reward” because then it is just a counter as you play rather then a reward system.
Instead, I would suggest a npc trader that allowed you to trade your different currencies for a “Special Reward currency”:
The ratio shouldn’t be a 1:1 ratio, and it shouldn’t be the same ratio for every currency type; each currency type should have it’s own ratio depending on the time to get acquire it.
The currencies that should be tradable into “Special Reward currency” would be:
1: all the dungeon currencies.
2: all the trophies from farming in the fields.
3: all the event special currency drop stuff.
4: fractal currency.
5: pvp currency.
If I missed any do tell ^^
(all of which should be account or character bound, to avoid screwing with the current legendries sold and gained via crafting)
“Special Reward currency”:
should be used to get any rune or legendary item you would like, maybe even some cosmetic stuff.
Essentially it would be your “endgame goals” which would be available here.
In this manner, no matter what you enjoyed to do in the game you would be able to turn the rewards for your playtime into a reward currency you can easily monitor the progression off and which would be a progression towards Worthy rewards that you would like as an endgame player.
It would also mean that if you are a casual, returning player, or simply don’t like to bother researching all the stuff of “where/how/etc” to get what you want, you have a VERY clear and easy to understand goal.
Meaning you log in and go “what would I like to do today” instead of “what do I want to get of rewards, and what how do I get it”.
So you are following the rules of HAVE FUN and Gain Worthy rewards incentivising you to keep doing what you find fun. Instead of the arbitrary hassle, it is to have to follow a specific “recipe” towards an obscure goal.
And of couse one of the most important things about this whole suggestion is: it will have NO direct negative effect on people that prefer getting their stuff with the current system.
So Thoughts? ^^
edit:
another thought is to allow people to upgrade their gear as they go along, but that is for another thread (would give incentive to get different gear tier, instead of going streight for top tier when available)
(edited by Erebus.7568)
