[Suggestions] Daily Rewards Revamp

[Suggestions] Daily Rewards Revamp

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

TL;DR: Skip to the numbered lists.

The 2 biggest complaints about GW2 that I hear the most often are, ’I’m never on when other people are’ and, ‘I don’t know what to do now’. This suggestion attempts to be a partial solution to both with a primary focus on the first complaint. For the record, these complaints can be easily resolved by players coordinating better and setting personal goals. That said I believe that any action taken by Anet to make these easier would be beneficial to the game.

I understand Anet’s desire to incentivize players to play on a daily basis, which is why we have dailies. However, I think the current way of rewarding players for these dailies is hurting GW2 rather than helping it in it’s current state. I’ll explain.

First I want to clarify what I mean by dailies here. When I say dailies I mean all activities in GW2 that have a reward buff for a certain amount of time which is reset on a daily basis. That means Fractals, Dungeons, World Bosses, time gated crafted items, as well as these dailies. Pretty much everything under the Daily Reset category here aside from gathering and vendors. I say reward buff rather than diminishing returns because that’s more accurate in describing what it is. Diminishing returns is about a decrease in incremental rewards for increasing effort/resources put into an activity. That isn’t what is happening here.

In my experience, many players play GW2 simply for the daily rewards and log off after their dailies are complete. The busiest time of day for GW2 is reset, once dailies are finished groups become far more scarce. Why does this happen? In short, it’s because the rewards for content drop dramatically. Players feel less incentivized to continue to play, simply because they are done gaining rewards they feel are worth their time. This makes it incredibly difficult for players to coordinate playing group content outside of daily reset hours. As a result they are left feeling 2 things, ’I’m never on when other people are’ and, ‘I don’t know what to do now’.

I see a large but simple solution to this problem: revamp the daily rewards system. I’ll break this down into 5 steps.

1. Remove all current daily rewards that can be translated into currencies.
2. Create a new currency given for completing daily rewards.
3. Amount given of said currency would scale with the difficulty and time investment of the daily.
4. Create a new rewards shop with rewards that can only be purchased with this currency.
5. Ensure that these rewards cannot be translated into other currencies. (Ex: skins & mini’s).

What are the potential benefits of this?

1. It keeps players incentivized to play on a daily basis.
2. It keeps players incentivized to play content after their daily is complete as it remains as rewarding as before in terms of non-daily currency (ex: gold).
3. With players continuing to play after their dailies are complete, it gives players who haven’t completed dailies yet an easier time coordinating to find groups to play with.
4. Since players remain online and groups remain readily available other players don’t feel like they have nothing to do and no one to play with.
5. It removes a little RNG from the daily rewards system as players are guaranteed a certain amount of currency for completing a daily and can choose which rewards they want to purchase.

What potential problems does this have?

1. The basic rewards of various activities may also have to be revamped since dailies would no longer be as profitable.
2. The problem may persist as players may still only play for their daily currency reward.
3. Players may not be incentivized enough to play on a daily basis and general player activity may drop as a result.

Personally, I see potential problem 1 as somewhat likely, 2 as less likely, and 3 as unlikely. I also see the potential benefits of this suggestion as highly likely.

One final note: this isn’t a complete solution to the issues of player availability and rewards. Some will still feel that they never can find people to play with. Many will still feel that there is nothing to do in the endgame. This also isn’t a solution that will help interval activities (like level 80 map events). But, I do think this will be a much needed push in the right direction.

So what do you think? Are the initial problems I pointed out accurate? Did I miss any potential benefits or problems? Are these the droids we’re looking for?

Link to Reddit discussion.

(edited by ZacHank.1358)

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Posted by: Doam.8305

Doam.8305

You think that all these people logging in at reset for daily rewards can be moved around to help with population.

However all those people logging in just for daily will probably not loggin at all if the rewards are removed. Dailies make the a game a routine and those people will only be active for those rewards but will truly start playign again when there is new content. When we get a new map then the people play normally and after thats faded they return to rewards.

Gw2 is fairly active during down times and drought due to those rewards and nerfing them would just make the game a bone dry landscape and even fewer people would return to check out the new maps.

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

You think that all these people logging in at reset for daily rewards can be moved around to help with population.

However all those people logging in just for daily will probably not loggin at all if the rewards are removed. Dailies make the a game a routine and those people will only be active for those rewards but will truly start playign again when there is new content. When we get a new map then the people play normally and after thats faded they return to rewards.

Gw2 is fairly active during down times and drought due to those rewards and nerfing them would just make the game a bone dry landscape and even fewer people would return to check out the new maps.

So this is not a solution to content drought. New content will still be necessary to keep player interest of course.

Nerfing daily rewards may not have the effect you think if general rewards for content are buffed. But even if it isn’t buffed, I still don’t think it would have the effect you think it would. Content is still rewarding even without dailies (which I think explains activity post dailies). But with this suggestion implemented there would be no perception that content is less rewarding after dailies are completed.

I think what you say is contradictory. If you honestly believe that nerfing daily rewards would drastically decrease player involvement and keep them from returning then how can you hold that the exact same scenario (current post-daily rewards) contains fairly high activity? That is why I noted that I believe this potential problem is unlikely. As to routine, that would remain as dailies would still exist just with a different rewards system. This is how I see it at least. Thoughts on that?

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Posted by: Sartharina.3542

Sartharina.3542

Dailies get people to log in regularly, and keeps the game at the forefront of their attention. then they do other stuff.

The big reason to do the dailies, though, is the +10 AP. The currency reward is just a way to keep gold going to players who don’t feel like playing the TP.

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

I’m not sure I understand the pay-off of this suggestion. If post-Daily activity has “fairly high activity” (in your words) already, what would the purpose be of creating yet another currency (which is an oft-seen concern), and Reward table that would cost Dev resources?

Maybe I just don’t understand the suggestion…

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

Dailies get people to log in regularly, and keeps the game at the forefront of their attention. then they do other stuff.

The big reason to do the dailies, though, is the +10 AP. The currency reward is just a way to keep gold going to players who don’t feel like playing the TP.

I think that push to log in regularly would remain as dailies would still exist just under a different reward system. Also the +10 AP would also remain as that doesn’t translate into currencies as I’ve specified.

So I still can’t really empathize with your concerns here as they seem to be addressed already.

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

I’m not sure I understand the pay-off of this suggestion. If post-Daily activity has “fairly high activity” (in your words) already, what would the purpose be of creating yet another currency (which is an oft-seen concern), and Reward table that would cost Dev resources?

Maybe I just don’t understand the suggestion…

First I’d appreciate it you expanded on the oft-seen concern of adding another currency. I haven’t heard of that personally.

So when I said ‘fairly high activity’ I mostly mean that the game can’t be considered dead after dailies. I think there are 2 reasons for this. 1st there are a lot of dailies to do, so while 1 may be finished there are plenty of others to do. 2nd, is that many players do continue to play after they’ve completed the dailies they want to.

That said, there is a noticeable drop off in player activity after dailies are completed. The people I’ve talked to claim that this is because those activities become far less rewarding and so they stop playing those activities. I’ve heard this a lot so I’m sure you are familiar with this notion. These reasons, I think, leads to it being more difficult than it should be to organize groups and to players feeling like post-daily content is less rewarding than it should be.

This suggestion attempts to resolve those issues by allowing content to be equally profitable post-dailies.

(edited by ZacHank.1358)

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

I’ve never heard that particular concern (that content after completing Dailies became less rewarding). I don’t know why content would become more, or less, profitable because of Dailies. Events reward the same, before and after Dailies. Many players (that have capped their Daily APs) eschew Dailies in favor of other content, so they post.

I would imagine a Google search would reveal, at least some of, the threads about ‘too many currencies’. If this new currency was Wallet-bound only, I suppose there would not be much concern. /shrug

Regardless, good luck on your suggestion.

(edited by Inculpatus cedo.9234)

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

I’ve never heard that particular concern (that content after completing Dailies became less rewarding). I don’t know why content would become more, or less, profitable because of Dailies. Events reward the same, before and after Dailies. Many players (that have capped their Daily APs) eschew Dailies in favor of other content, so they post.

I would imagine a Google search would reveal, at least some of, the threads about ‘too many currencies’. If this new currency was Wallet-bound only, I suppose there would not be much concern. /shrug

Regardless, good luck on your suggestion.

Many events don’t fall in the dailies category which is why their rewards stay the same. Other dailies (like Fractals for instance) give great rewards for about an hours worth of content. Once you’ve completed all your recommended daily fractals the rewards fall dramatically. The same is true for world bosses, dungeons, and other dailies. I’m a part of a guild that does these activities regularly so we notice this a lot.

As to the too many currencies, I was thinking it would be wallet-bound only. I can imagine there would be an issue if there were yet another inventory slot taken up by this currency, but that isn’t what I’m suggesting here.

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Well, things like World Bosses, Dungeons, and Fractals rarely show up in the regular Dailies. I think most players do the fastest Dailies available, and move on to other content, or are finished for the day.

Fractal Dailies are a separate category. Are you suggesting a revamp for Fractal Dailies? If so, that would be something different, and might attract more response in the Dungeon/Fractal/Raid sub-forum.

Good luck.

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

Well, things like World Bosses, Dungeons, and Fractals rarely show up in the regular Dailies. I think most players do the fastest Dailies available, and move on to other content, or are finished for the day.

Fractal Dailies are a separate category. Are you suggesting a revamp for Fractal Dailies? If so, that would be something different, and might attract more response in the Dungeon/Fractal/Raid sub-forum.

Good luck.

Thanks!

Perhaps Dailies is a poor choice of words, but this suggestion isn’t just limited to Fractals or dungeons. When I say dailies I mean all activities in GW2 that have a reward buff for a certain amount of time which is reset on a daily basis. That means Fractals, Dungeons, World Bosses, time gated crafted items, as well as these dailies. Pretty much everything under the Daily Reset category here aside from gathering and vendors.

I say reward buff rather than diminishing returns because that’s more accurate in describing what it is. Diminishing returns is about a decrease in incremental rewards for increasing effort/resources put into an activity. That isn’t what is happening here.

So I’m not entirely sure what to call all of these. In my mind all of these are “Dailies” while the +10 AP dailies fall under the “Daily Achievements”.

(edited by ZacHank.1358)

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Posted by: Rauderi.8706

Rauderi.8706

Laudable attempt, but I’m not sure it addresses the core problem that you identified:

The busiest time of day for GW2 is reset, once dailies are finished groups become far more scarce.

Of course, some of the issue isn’t just that reset is the time to show up. Most of the game is on rails, including the core of HoT. Verdant Brink’s only worthwhile time is only 20 minutes at night. Auric Basin’s money shot clogs about 30 minutes or so out of a two hour period. Don’t even think about Dragon Stand unless you’re in the One Sacred Map.

Many of the Lv80 maps aren’t much of a go-and-play experience, or they demand being around at specific times, so that Auric Basin meta might be interfering with a Lake Doric leather “farm” run.

It really makes me miss Silverwastes, but that got exploited for chest farms or map hopping.

Many alts; handle it!
“I’m finding companies should sell access to forums,
it seems many like them better than the games they comment on.” -Horrorscope.7632

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

Laudable attempt, but I’m not sure it addresses the core problem that you identified:

The busiest time of day for GW2 is reset, once dailies are finished groups become far more scarce.

Of course, some of the issue isn’t just that reset is the time to show up. Most of the game is on rails, including the core of HoT. Verdant Brink’s only worthwhile time is only 20 minutes at night. Auric Basin’s money shot clogs about 30 minutes or so out of a two hour period. Don’t even think about Dragon Stand unless you’re in the One Sacred Map.

Many of the Lv80 maps aren’t much of a go-and-play experience, or they demand being around at specific times, so that Auric Basin meta might be interfering with a Lake Doric leather “farm” run.

It really makes me miss Silverwastes, but that got exploited for chest farms or map hopping.

Yeah this suggestion definitely doesn’t solve that issue of activities that are only worth playing at very specific intervals.

I do, however, think it does help with the activities effected by a daily reward buff (as described in my latest response to Inculpatus cedo). So, at least for these activities which is a lot of content, I think it does address that core issue.

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

Edited OP to add some clarity.

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

Laudable attempt, but I’m not sure it addresses the core problem that you identified:

The busiest time of day for GW2 is reset, once dailies are finished groups become far more scarce.

Of course, some of the issue isn’t just that reset is the time to show up. Most of the game is on rails, including the core of HoT. Verdant Brink’s only worthwhile time is only 20 minutes at night. Auric Basin’s money shot clogs about 30 minutes or so out of a two hour period. Don’t even think about Dragon Stand unless you’re in the One Sacred Map.

Many of the Lv80 maps aren’t much of a go-and-play experience, or they demand being around at specific times, so that Auric Basin meta might be interfering with a Lake Doric leather “farm” run.

It really makes me miss Silverwastes, but that got exploited for chest farms or map hopping.

Yeah this suggestion definitely doesn’t solve that issue of activities that are only worth playing at very specific intervals.

I do, however, think it does help with the activities effected by a daily reward buff (as described in my latest response to Inculpatus cedo). So, at least for these activities which is a lot of content, I think it does address that core issue.

This game only supports one style of game play and that is the casual mode of gameplay, it’s unfortunate, but that is the route they’ve chosen to go, I hope that their gemstore exclusive minipets from Wintersday season 1 were worth keeping exclusive. Halloween season 1 or the works, such brilliant minds we have to work with here. Why make money when you could just not?

I’m not sure how your comment is relevant here. Would you mind expounding a bit?

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Whelp, that makes a big difference to what you are referring. Thanks for the clarification.

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Posted by: azizul.8469

azizul.8469

current dailies are fine

Cutie Phantasmer/Farinas [HAX] – CD Casual
Archeage = Farmville with PK

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

Whelp, that makes a big difference to what you are referring. Thanks for the clarification.

For sure, thanks for pointing it out.

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Posted by: ZacHank.1358

ZacHank.1358

current dailies are fine

Could you expand a bit on why you think that?