Guild Wars 2

Just to be clear, I am a total GW fanboy, that being GW1 and GW2. So this post isn’t about me wanting to move on or quit. This post is about the current GW2 business model which I am finding hard to fathom.

A business model with gamers (users/customers) is there to achieve two things, firstly get new gamers in and secondly to retain gamers.
The business model is not pay to play, it’s based on micro transactions, which is, selling gems to buy in game content thus making the money needed.

I can understand the pull for new gamers, it must be hell of exciting getting a copy of GW2, having all of these races and classes and going for it.

What I cannot understand is how the business model caters for the long serving (3k + hours) customers. The acknowledgement that content now needs to remain (story book) is there for replay-ability but is it also there to keep us long serving 14 lvl 80 character gamers happy so we can redo it 14 times?

Maybe I am old school and I need to change my thinking, meaning that this game is purely for the casual, and another MMO is something I should play while waiting for bi-weekly (fortnightly) releases. Ironic as I am playing Wildstar which costs me £8.99 a month which is a lot less than what I used to spend on GW2.

I used to spend money on gems. That has stopped unfortunately. There is only so many armour’s, drums, mining picks, fluffy pets you can buy before it becomes a bit tired. And yes I spent money on gems because I would like to contribute to the development and progression of the game. As well as look good.

So right now I am slightly disillusioned. I think it would be unfair on me to say that every month we will only get 8-10 hours of content. I would be a bit flummoxed if that was the case.

But not adding new races/classes or new weapons to different classes to me is a mega miss from a business perspective. Imagine the money you would make out of customers by releasing more character types and character progression. The money that I would spend in the gem store!

Like I mentioned above, I am not going to disappear, but I will be spending a lot less time in game. Maybe log in every two weeks, unlock the story, sign off and then in 6 months log in and do it all at once. It might seem bigger and a bit more rewarding doing it that way.

So casual gamers, I get you. New players I get you too. Long term hard core players, am I making any sense? Or am I, just as the title says, disillusioned and I need to get back in my box?

BumbleBee

A few thoughts on this…

First, I totally agree with you on the content delivery of this game. I was a huge Guild Wars fanboy, whose heart was broken when they announced it would stop. I had hoped to see more lands in the game, more stories. Guild Wars 2 was announced and its initial release was ground breaking for me. It resolved the frustrations of the first game and renewed my hope to experience more of Tyria. Then ArenaNet announced no expansions and here we are today. This game is no where near what I’d it be like at the 2 year mark.

I don’t get the business model and I get the feeling NC Soft and Daewoo may feel the same way. They’re selling fluff, not content. I guess that may change when they start Living Story episodes. It’s not like people don’t want to buy an expansion, yet they won’t sell stuff like that.

To your point about Wildstar – it’s a better game in most respects. If you’re looking for a more traditional (see, complete) MMO, that’s a better bet. I played it for the first month but computer couldn’t handle it at more than 25 fps, so I quit. Really saddens me, because the game was fun as heck. Guild Wars 2 shines in its pick-up and play mentality but Wildstar’s first patch added more content in one month than Guild Wars 2 has in two years. Is it the business model? Who can say?

I completely agree with your opinion. I have a feeling they gave up on the game. Last patch was so disappointing and the game became boring after repeating the same thing over and over. Sadly, a lot of players decided to start playing other games while waiting for the developers to finally “do something” about the content in GW2. I believe we all expected more from them.

If they’ve given up on this game already, it must be because there are newer games they’re putting their money and time into. The LS updates are very tiny, and right now I’m just trying to figure out how to buy the 10 new cooking recipes without spending hours grinding a small amount of content.

BumbleBee, I think you’ve “verbalized” what I’ve been feeling. I don’t dislike GW2. In fact, I have loved it. I’ve played nearly 2000 hours, so make of that what you will. I love my 3 characters. But, maybe I just need a break or something. My ladies look exactly how I like them. There is nothing more for me to “shop for”, and at the heart of it, that’s what this game is about. Shopping on the TP or the BL store.

I was into WvW for a while because it provided some interesting times, but that has gotten stale also.

I anxiously awaited the new map/LS but am severely disappointed with both so far. I personally hate jumping. So I finally get to replay content… but I don’t even want to do it once, let alone 3 times.

I detest the new trait system. The megaserver made Orr more enjoyable but utterly destroyed the sense of community I had with my server. Even if I wanted to torture myself to make a new alt, I know it would take me forever to grind out enough gold to make it how I want it since the developers have nixed every way of making gold except TP flipping, which I find worse than a job. And I’m like you. I have probably spent close to $1000 on gems because I wanted to keep this game alive and fun. But then, lack of responsiveness from ANet on glaring issues (trait system, WvW, to name but 2) has left me feeling like they “talk” alot but don’t “walk” much. Seems like even when they give you one thing that’s “ok”, they take away 5 things that were really good, then slam the door in your face or close the window on you.

Anyway, I can’t say I’m quitting either, but I sure don’t feel like logging in anymore. Even the dailies aren’t enough incentive. This game is beautiful. But after so much time and not much real interesting stuff added, it’s simply just too boring. This is my first MMORPG, so I’m not sure how long it should hold my attention. I’m sure I have gotten my money’s worth though.

Sorry for the wall of text. TL;DR version: I feel like the OP.

As a newer player, I have to say I came from WoW, I heard that GW2 was the THING to play, but seems I missed the boat, this new trait system for a start is ludicrous….

Also being a Mesmer main, I have to say glaring issues with skills that do not work, I do not know how long I may stay, love the game, but when they wont fix simple issues that I have seen people reporting since release, and ignore a 30+ page thread on feedback about traits that they asked for….

I dunno ……….

I’d like to see your opinions a couple of thousand hours in to Wildstar.

No one said no new races or professions won’t be coming. They’ll come when it makes sense to come. First you have to fix the core game.

This is far more ambitious than Guild Wars 1 ,and it launched too early. It’s only now getting to the point where new content can really be delivered. Where they can focus on it.

Give it some time. I have a feeling you’ll be surprised.

Well in the short time I have been playing, I have been very surprised!

Great game BUT traits that you cant unlock when you need them without spending a fortune in SP and Gold that new players dont have or getting slaughtered over and over again trying to go to high lvl areas to unlock a lvl 30’s trait.

OR POI in WvW that you never gonna get as your world never holds it !

Surprised that a majority of skills on a mesmer do not function as they should.

Surprised that after 2 yrs (almost) that the same weapons etc are still the only option apart from Legendaries that people have to grind and grind more than red snapper and poo quests in WoW in " Guild Wars where you never have to grind"

Surprised that they nerf a major amount of ways to gain gold, basically handicapping newer players whom now cant go do dungeons as people expect ’ Speed run full zerker ONLY lvl 80" (which again traits screws new people too )

BumbleBee i feel you maybe slightly disillusioned if you think the gem store money would be supporting gw2, it’s more like the money funded wildstar development.

Maybe im wrong, who knows.

I would say that this game was designed for a casual playerbase and attracts those kinds of players. I understand the hardcore lifestyle as I was a world first chasing WoW raider well into Cataclysm. I switched from WoW to GW2 specifically to get away from the “need” to put in massive hours just to keep up. I am very glad that exotics are still very relevant and I am still using the same gear as 2 years ago.

Personally my playtime now amounts to about 4 hours a week, (2 hours weekly wvw reset, 2 hours bi weekly wvw raid on Wednesdays, and 1 hour weekly for guild missions). At my current pace, it will take me just about 2 weeks to finish the LS story instances once, with out replays to do achieves. By that time the next chapter will launch. So you can see at that pace I will never run out of content to finish. Even if i was apure pve player, at 4 hours a week, i would barely finish all the instance and zone achievements in 2 weeks.

3000 hours is a lot of time put in. the game is 677 days old and 3000 hours equates to 4.4 hours every day for the past 2 years. That is serious dedication to a game with out real progression.

The problem is there is no ‘end goal’ (excluding legendary weapons for obvious reasons *cough*RNG*cough*). What happens when you hit 80 and get geared? Your path splits into WvW/World Bosses/Dungeons/PvP. You can do these for an eternity, but what do you gain in the end really? It’s just aimless running about until eventually you realize the carrot on the end of the stick fell off months ago. And now it’s back on with the re-emergence of the Living Story. But honestly, how long can they keep this going for?

Unfortunately (in this case) I have a very high boredom threshold and rarely suffer ‘burnout’ in MMOs, so I can play through the same content endlessly. But for the majority and for the long term activity of the game, I don’t think small patches with tiny content will suffice for much longer.

Would not be be so bad if they added more skins etc to collect IN GAME maybe ??

and stopped charging those Transmutation stones to do it ?

especially for skins off the Gem store, talk about double dipping, they should be like the ones you get from the AP chests

Long-term player here—I’ve completed most, but not all of the below.
.

Collecting desired equipment/weapons for looks
Personal story
Exploring all map areas
Dungeons/Fractals
WvW
PvP
Build experimentation/perfection

.
If you have completed all of this, and/are bored with the content that can not be completed per se’, (i.e. WvW/PvP) then frankly speaking there are only two remaining options;

1) Enjoy the social interactions; guilds, helping new players etc.
2) Don’t play until new content that interests you is released.

It really is that simple. And there is nothing wrong with that.