Where did everybody go?

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Posted by: carson yuen.6739

carson yuen.6739

Dis-illusionment has set in. This was not supposed to be WoW but it kind of is with a few added extra bugs for flavor. Rendering is an atrocity. You have OP classes, gear (karma) grinds, grinds for matts. I had hoped for WvW to be more epic. With mass transfers server pride is a joke. Realms go up and down so fast with mass transfers of guilds that there are very few grudge matches. Even if there were you have no idea who you are fighting because names are not displayed. And the bots. THE BOTS! I see more bots than I do actual players. Hacking. I honestly think if they are going to let bots and hackers run rampant I won’t be playing much longer. They destroy the game economy and allow cheaters to prosper. But hey, they are following in some giant sized footsteps left by WoW, Aion, Rift, SWtoR, etc. You think they would learn. Only game I have ever played with no hackers is World of Tanks. They are ruthless with bots and being as it is not a client side game there are no hackers. And in all reality I would rather play a lesser game with no bots and hackers than the best game in the world if it is over run with such.

This. The game is more WoW than Guild Wars, except instead of stat grinding you have grinding for cosmetics and for gold. Honestly, just because they said they would remove treadmill (which we have no way of knowing it’s true until the first expansion, when they will or won’t increase the level cap) doesn’t mean the grinding is gone. The grind is still very much there and even worse than in other games.

The grind cosmetics you can choose not to do, true enough, but the grind for gold is compulsory, given how much in this game costs gold. If Guild Wars did one thing right it was that you didn’t have to grind for gold. You could have 0 gold and you wouldn’t feel as if your character ruined, because there were no repair costs and travelling fees.

You’d think a sequel would be better than the original. I guess it was unrealistic to expect that from a game built with the cash shop in mind. What better way to encourage people to buy gems and trade them for gold other than keeping them poor?

and posting the same kitten over and over again is fun huh?

seriously you are abnormally obsessive about this grind issue that anything you reply, relate or unrelate to the grinding issue, would go back to how grindy gw2 is. Hell, people could ask how’s the weather outside right now, and you will manage to find a way to talk about the grind in gw2.

o yes, the game has probably the least amount of grind in mmorpgs I’ve seen. All the stuffs they made you grind for are cosmetic only, and you DONT have to grind in order to be function like other mmorpgs.

this kind of obsession is really unhealthy for you in both your game life and real life man.

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Posted by: Gauradan.8361

Gauradan.8361

and posting the same kitten over and over again is fun huh?

seriously you are abnormally obsessive about this grind issue that anything you reply, relate or unrelate to the grinding issue, would go back to how grindy gw2 is. Hell, people could ask how’s the weather outside right now, and you will manage to find a way to talk about the grind in gw2.

o yes, the game has probably the least amount of grind in mmorpgs I’ve seen. All the stuffs they made you grind for are cosmetic only, and you DONT have to grind in order to be function like other mmorpgs.

this kind of obsession is really unhealthy for you in both your game life and real life man.

Really? This is the best argument you could come up with? My having an obsession?

The least amount of grind? What a joke. You need gold for travelling, you need gold for gathering, you need gold for repairs, you need gold for WvW. Oh, did I mention gold is a pain to get because the economy was destroyed by bots, which ArenaNet was too slow in taking action against?

I understand loving the game, but defending it just for the sake of it, when it’s obvious there are grinds in Guild Wars 2 just as much as in any other MMOs, is laughable. Sure, you’ll say: you don’t have to grind for gold nor for cosmetics. But if you don’t grind, what else is there to do? Sit in Lion’s Arch all day? The problem isn’t necessarily in the fact that there are grinds, but that there’s nothing else to do after you’ve done 100% map completion which doesn’t require grinding.

Aed f’haeil moen Hirjeth taenverde.

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Posted by: carson yuen.6739

carson yuen.6739

Really? This is the best argument you could come up with? My having an obsession?

The least amount of grind? What a joke. You need gold for travelling, you need gold for gathering, you need gold for repairs, you need gold for WvW. Oh, did I mention gold is a pain to get because the economy was destroyed by bots, which ArenaNet was too slow in taking action against?

I understand loving the game, but defending it just for the sake of it, when it’s obvious there are grinds in Guild Wars 2 just as much as in any other MMOs, is laughable. Sure, you’ll say: you don’t have to grind for gold nor for cosmetics. But if you don’t grind, what else is there to do? Sit in Lion’s Arch all day? The problem isn’t necessarily in the fact that there are grinds, but that there’s nothing else to do after you’ve done 100% map completion which doesn’t require grinding.

care to tell me how you need to grind for gold for:

1. traveling

2. gathering? gathering those 4s per 100 gathering tools?

3. repairing

4. wvw

all these things you list aren’t costy. For traveling, unless you are way point jumping like a mad man, you would able to easily cover the cost of gold from events and random drops. Repairing is the same thing. If you are dying so much that you actually need to grind to make the 5s from repairing, which btw, is like the gold reward of one big event in Orr, then you should rethink the way you play this game.

WvW could be costy if you want to upgrade, but if you have half a brain you should still be able to cover those costs without grind.

And gathering? Did you actually tell people that you need to grind for gold for gathering??

if you want to break down grinding the way you do, then EVERY games out there are grind. Why can’t the developer let you play the last level in those rpgs out there? why do you have to grind 100 different courses in super mario to beat the game? Why can’t you start as a level 99 in final fantasy?

everything in video games is about grind, the difference is whether you need to grind to function or not. Well judging from the list you listed… you shouldn’t even be playing a video game.

seriously? gathering is a gold grind?

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Posted by: Yumiko Ishida.3769

Yumiko Ishida.3769

@carson

im in my high 60s (lvl 67 to be exact) and i don’t see ANYONE in the zone i’m working on right now. i have the whole place to myself. its actually VERY difficult to get through the higher lvl zones by yourself too, every step of the way you gotta fight something. there’s a bunch of people parked at Lions arch but the map chat is dead, maybe this only happens when im on but alls i see is people spamming for groups.

its quite sad really :/ even when i do see people roaming about their soloing and paying no attention to anyone else. its like people are racing to complete a zone and don’t really give a dam about anything else. really ruins it for me cos i barely ever run dungeons, alls i’ve been doing when i log on is go through each zone.

This is my main and only complaint about GW 2! I can never get help ever and if I do, it will take 3 hours waiting dead someplace for it to come.

Yumiko Emi Ishida 80 Ele, Hikari Kyoko Ishida 80 Guard TC-NA. Active RPer of NA megaserver.

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Posted by: FluffyDoe.7539

FluffyDoe.7539

Instead of repeatedly saying “they need to make the old zones relevant to higher lvels.”, perhaps people should actually suggest ways they could go about doing so. I don’t think it’s really that easy. They can’t really add higher level mobs to those zones…that would be problematic for people trying to level if they were just doing their thing and suddenly mob many levels above the intended level for said zone. They could add higher level drops across all mobs in all zones, but then you might run into the issue, again, of the gear and materials that leveling people need not dropping because the loot table would be too broad.

So what do you suggest they do to make you want to go back, if not of your own volition (to help random newbies/alts or whatever, explore…other nonselfish reasons…yeah, I went there, since everyone seems to think everything they do needs to benefit themselves…).

Otherwise, yeah, due to natural progression, these places are going to be kind of dead once people outlevel them…that’s just the way it is.

Well, half of the map in the game haven’t been opened up yet. Maybe introduce something called a “conquer quest” in which the quest journey starts at the interior of each low level maps and progresses outwards. So some sort of ‘open world dungeon’, with pre-quests starting at the ‘starters zones’ (ie. it’s a good place to make up a storyline anyways… some boy who was captured, a man recruiting for troops to invade a settlement, etc.). In these zones, a party will be lead to secret hideouts and areas on the map which extends to the outer settlements.

Sounds interesting in theory, but once people finish said starter quests for the chains, we’re back to the problem of having no reason to go back.

Honestly, I don’t think this is anything ANet can actually do anything about, since it’s pretty much working as intended. People either need to go back just because, to help friends or explore, or more need to start rolling and leveling alts. Like I said, it’s natural that these places become less populated as players naturally progress. I just don’t think it’s plausible to make the whole world relevant to everyone at all times, at least not as far as keeping people in lowbie areas long-term goes.

Yah, I guess you’re right if you think of it realistically. I think that’s why in MMOs like DragoNest & Vindictus, they just straight up make dungeons for players to do, only the problem with that is they take away the open-world exploration & interaction experiences from the game.

I would have liked it better if Anet had just went with either the RPG experience or the MOBA experience….. instead of trying to do a bit of both but having them conflict with there being levels but not really mean much. I can absolutely see myself play GW2 without levels if they had other ways of leading players from map to map. Players just want to have fun doing DEs & Hearts & SP, but if you put in other rewards other than “cosmetics” then it sort of motivates players to do it for levels… in which is the wrong way to play out events ie. by grinding them since we’ve all seen what happens to players who rushes to hit 80.

(edited by FluffyDoe.7539)

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Posted by: Gauradan.8361

Gauradan.8361

care to tell me how you need to grind for gold for:

1. traveling

2. gathering? gathering those 4s per 100 gathering tools?

3. repairing

4. wvw

all these things you list aren’t costy. For traveling, unless you are way point jumping like a mad man, you would able to easily cover the cost of gold from events and random drops. Repairing is the same thing. If you are dying so much that you actually need to grind to make the 5s from repairing, which btw, is like the gold reward of one big event in Orr, then you should rethink the way you play this game.

WvW could be costy if you want to upgrade, but if you have half a brain you should still be able to cover those costs without grind.

And gathering? Did you actually tell people that you need to grind for gold for gathering??

if you want to break down grinding the way you do, then EVERY games out there are grind. Why can’t the developer let you play the last level in those rpgs out there? why do you have to grind 100 different courses in super mario to beat the game? Why can’t you start as a level 99 in final fantasy?

everything in video games is about grind, the difference is whether you need to grind to function or not. Well judging from the list you listed… you shouldn’t even be playing a video game.

seriously? gathering is a gold grind?

Seriously, drop the hyperbole. I just pointed out that gathering, unlike other, according to some, “grindier” MMOs, has a cost to it. Yes, it’s a gold sink. Repairs, waypoints, trading post fees are all goldsinks, all of them too high compared to what you can earn.

The game throws gold at you up until level 80 and then it simply becomes a pain to acquire. If you didn’t waste it and didn’t craft, you’d probably have some 20-30 gold by level 80. You’ll spend most, if not all on exotics. Then you’ll be left poor, with no way other than the mindless farming of getting it back, farming which I personally hoped to get away from in Guild Wars 2.

Honestly, it feels as if you’re defending grinding just because it’s Guild Wars 2. Everyone, before release, was excited about finally getting away from the stupid MMO grinds here; now, when the game is released and the game proved to be no less grindy than the rest, the attitude has switched to: “don’t like grinding? stop playing video games”.

Aed f’haeil moen Hirjeth taenverde.

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Posted by: Baldavier.4132

Baldavier.4132

I like the idea of underflow, unless it makes it packed out constantly, all the time for everybody. I have seen members of my guild disappearing, but they are both people who have put >500hrs and <50 (possibly). If Anet feel like it’s their job to address this then that’s cool. Someone said the world was too big for it to feel like it’s always populated, and i fear that may be true. I really want to see the crystal desert and ring of fire islands again, but don’t want to see the current map area fall to emptyness.. :| hmm

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Posted by: sixfeetunder.6508

sixfeetunder.6508

Typical result of having to many servers.

More players are finaly 80 and are focusing on that toon. Im on my 3rd 80 as i do enjoy leveling toons. For me its the best way to learn a class.

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Posted by: Anne Bathory.8150

Anne Bathory.8150

I keep wanting to move to a more populated server but the idea of losing all of my guild upgrades a second time absolutely horrifies me. So I spend almost all of my time soloing and wishing that I could find people to do story mode dungeons with. My wish never comes true.

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Posted by: Terkov.4138

Terkov.4138

I’m playing on Gunnars Hold, and I can’t say it’s empty here. Ofc, when one week ago I was on Desolation for a moment (or rather 7 days -.-), there were a lot more players.

I play only 1 toon, don’t like alts. Sometimes I run on lower level zones (for achievs or crafting mats) and I meet other players. Not as much as in first days, but still enough to never solo any event.

Is this game boring? For me not. I like it more than GW1 (played 4 years) and WoW (played 3 years). I guess I’ll get bored after some time, but please, don’t tell me I have nothing to do. If you don’t know what to do, then it’s only your problem.

Is there farming? Yes, there is. Was it in GW1? Yep, there was, a lot of it! (I guess you heard of term “grind wars”). Do you have to farm? No, you don’t. We don’t know about gear progression yet, so for now it’s safe to say, there is no need to farm. Money for WvW? Don’t make me laugh, I buy sieges and upgrades, and I still earn more in WvW than I spend.

Still, I have to agree it can be issue on lower populated servers or in less active hours. Soloing temple events in Orr surely is a pain lol

To haters who will call me fanboy now: that, you think something, doesn’t mean it’s true, and everyone who things other is lying.

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Posted by: Josher.9612

Josher.9612

If there was a monthly fee, no one would play. Sorry, not no one, but people would be quitting in massive droves right now. Think about that really hard and ask why. I am seeing people leveling up my second character, but its not the same at all. People are less chatty and more just doing their own thing. They’re skipping events, because they know the rewards are mostly useless except for karma, which they can farm a lot faster in Orr. The first 30-40 levels the first couple of weeks was REALLY cool, but then people started out-leveling me and I was alone for a zone or 2. Then came Orr…yikes!!!

I certainly would’ve quit at about the 1 1/2 month mark, probably not even bothering to get my 2nd toon past lvl 20 or so. I’m leveling up another just because I can, not because its ANYWHERE near as fun as my 1st. And seeing the zones I missed with a new character is more interesting than steamrolling it all on my 80 with Exotics. Besides, going back to easily destroy other zones without any sort of character growth is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNG! Why do any hearts when the rewards are useless? They’re not challenging or any different than what I did in the other zones. 100% map completion also means nothing because as I’ve found the 1st time around, the rewards are boring as well. Transmutation stones for gear I’m going to out-level in another couple of hours? Why? Coin? Yaaawn. Gear I can’t even use? What does a Necro need with heavy armor or a sword? It should be tuned to your class at least.

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Posted by: bojangles.6912

bojangles.6912

Most people moved on after hitting 80, if you haven’t reached 80 yet then it’s deffinetly worth dooing that, but after reaching 80 there is absolutly nothing fun/rewarding in this game to do, spvp is broken at the core, WvW suffers from some very bad design-decitions (nightcapping,commanders,balancing,…) that result in frustation and the dungeon stuff is just too grindy.
Off course the fanboys will tell you otherwise but looking at your friendlist/going to the mists will tell you the truth about the state of the game.

^ sums it up pretty much

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Posted by: bojangles.6912

bojangles.6912

If there was a monthly fee, no one would play. Sorry, not no one, but people would be quitting in massive droves right now. Think about that really hard and ask why. I am seeing people leveling up my second character, but its not the same at all. People are less chatty and more just doing their own thing. They’re skipping events, because they know the rewards are mostly useless except for karma, which they can farm a lot faster in Orr. The first 30-40 levels the first couple of weeks was REALLY cool, but then people started out-leveling me and I was alone for a zone or 2. Then came Orr…yikes!!!

I certainly would’ve quit at about the 1 1/2 month mark, probably not even bothering to get my 2nd toon past lvl 20 or so. I’m leveling up another just because I can, not because its ANYWHERE near as fun as my 1st. And seeing the zones I missed with a new character is more interesting than steamrolling it all on my 80 with Exotics. Besides, going back to easily destroy other zones without any sort of character growth is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNG! Why do any hearts when the rewards are useless? They’re not challenging or any different than what I did in the other zones. 100% map completion also means nothing because as I’ve found the 1st time around, the rewards are boring as well. Transmutation stones for gear I’m going to out-level in another couple of hours? Why? Coin? Yaaawn. Gear I can’t even use? What does a Necro need with heavy armor or a sword? It should be tuned to your class at least.

/agree 110%

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Posted by: Shinky.1492

Shinky.1492

play during primetime and don’t expect people to be doing the exact same thing you are at the moment you log on

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Posted by: Wreckdum.8367

Wreckdum.8367

My friends list of 30+ has a regular 5 people online every day.

Some people are not easily entertained and need more content.

Rex Smashington – 80 Norn Warrior <Tyrians United Retard Division> Yak’s Bend
“That big kitten Norn with The Juggernaut”

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Posted by: The Moment Ends.1635

The Moment Ends.1635

Im on tarnished coast and see people everywhere i go. My guild usually has like 50 on at once. Hell i was on at 7 am yeaterday and saw tons of people. I swear people in this forum make stuff up.

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Posted by: Shayde.2564

Shayde.2564

The problem is unrewarding experience in low-mid zones and lack of unique and attractive content on capitals.

The game should scale his dificulty by maps, thats clear, a 1-15 map should be easier than a 80 map. But the rewards should scale up based on your level. If you are 80 in a level 1-15 map you shoul recieve a full 80 rewards items, time to time you recive some high items so you at least can savage something, but mostly you see level 1-30 crap. Going back to starter zones isn`t worth it!

Capitals are great, they all have their unique style which is awesome, but they don`t have anything special (besides some minigames) that could move people to them, that`s called “influential zone” in demographics, and in the map as it is now, the only influential focus of the game are Lion`s Arch and Orr, with a minor population on Frostgeorge.

To fix this you need to divert atention from LA to other cities, making those cities to have something UNIQUE that LA do not have and players NEED, and viceversa of course.

Travel to LA is free from anywhere, it’ll always have a higher population than other cities.

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Posted by: Makade.8042

Makade.8042

So let me break this down. You came to the forum to rage on Arenanet about their recent Ascended gear decision and had planned on threatening them with the prospect of player attrition. However, upon further reflection, you realized that the post would probably just get deleted anyway, so being the creative person you are, you whipped up this thread to accomplish the same goal but under the radar. Sound about right?

(edited by Makade.8042)

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Posted by: Isslair.4908

Isslair.4908

What bothers me alot is not only low population but the silence.
I see some people in all zones, even a lot of players in LA but it is always silence in map chat.
Beside the occassional “LFG” no one is typing. I really feel like I’m playing with bots.
Most MMO’s I’ve played were much more sociable with random people floding in chat constantly. But in GW2 there is only silence.

EU Aurora Glade

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Posted by: Nicolatte.5360

Nicolatte.5360

I still think (and always have) that the res-point travel charge is totally counter-productive as it prevents people casually bouncing around a map, so they stick to one area. This reduces traffic through more isolated towns or areas even more.

I know in large towns you get the Asura gates, but this is a minimal nod toward free travel.

This is the best response I’ve seen on a thread like this. It hits at the heart of why people aren’t doing what I feel GW2 meant them to do: go from event to event regularly. I don’t mind spending the money, but I know a lot of people really don’t take well to travel/repairs taking such a significant hunk out of their gold.

In terms of the OP: I personally see people, and coming from Henge that says a lot. We’re still suffering so much from the mass exodus after Titan’s Alliance broke up/switched servers. I see it as… the world is very big and with sPVP and WvW as well, that’s a lot of maps to spread out players on. Then you have the fact that a ton will be in towns crafting/chatting/shopping/brief afking. The servers say FULL almost at all hours except very early in the morning. In a weird way I don’t think people are playing as AGGRESSIVELY as when game was released. No rush to 80, no determination to do every event…

I do agree that MAP chat is pretty quiet. It’s something I’ve always found a little strange and has been there since the start of the game. And I used to use it a little, but now I don’t bother either mostly because well… no one else is. It’s a conundrum. lol I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

I do hope they expand their servers if possible, and if necessary, combine two servers. I don’t like the thought of people feeling lonely in the game.

Nicolatte – Ranger, Nicolyte – Elementalist
Henge of Denravi since day 1

(edited by Nicolatte.5360)

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Posted by: Rukia.4802

Rukia.4802

It’s all quite obvious, not enough rewards. Why do you think everyone farms plaxi in Orr and doesn’t do a single different event in the game? I have solo’d multiple boss mobs and you know what I get at the end for my decent time investment, the same reward I would have gotten with 20 other people lol…

If lower level events would actually scale to high level 80 event rewards (if you are 80) then more people would be scattered all over the world.

“I find this rain quite pleasant, it feels as though raindrops are blessing our victory”

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Posted by: bojangles.6912

bojangles.6912

Im on tarnished coast and see people everywhere i go. My guild usually has like 50 on at once. Hell i was on at 7 am yeaterday and saw tons of people. I swear people in this forum make stuff up.

Ohhhhh just because you do and the server your on dictates it all for the other servers huh? I see now. I guess all of us are blind and making it up. Yeah that’s it. And I guess people saying their friends list of 30+ now only has 5 people logging on are lying too huh?

You do know there are more than 1 server right? Also I seriously doubt you have 50 guildees on at a time. If you do I will bet it rarely happens and it lasted maybe 10 mins if it even did happen.

So yeah don’t be upset because a lot of the servers are dead. They need a merger so that way they can seem a little more active.

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Posted by: Isslair.4908

Isslair.4908

If lower level events would actually scale to high level 80 event rewards (if you are 80) then more people would be scattered all over the world.

There would still be some zone with easiest\most profitable\most popular events where everybody would stay.

EU Aurora Glade

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Posted by: Rukia.4802

Rukia.4802

If lower level events would actually scale to high level 80 event rewards (if you are 80) then more people would be scattered all over the world.

There would still be some zone with easiest\most profitable\most popular events where everybody would stay.

Sure but they could also scale rewards better for bosses, like the earlier mentioned fire elemental in metrica. People would be doing it if it yielded a nice big reward, I mean it is a boss right? Bosses should reward better than just a regular event does.

Chests never give you anything decent really so that’s kind of moot. They could also upgrade those rewards. I have honestly never done the elemental in metrica because the area is always dead when I go there, and I haven’t bothered asking anyone in guild to group with me and do it… it’s just one event.

“I find this rain quite pleasant, it feels as though raindrops are blessing our victory”

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Posted by: Kurieg.4158

Kurieg.4158

I found about 30 “everybodies”, Ato. They just took a keep I and 10 or so other “everybodies” tried to defend.

Crafty [CR]
Yak’s Bend
Ir Regardless – Engineer

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Posted by: PinCushion.7390

PinCushion.7390

It’s all quite obvious, not enough rewards. Why do you think everyone farms plaxi in Orr and doesn’t do a single different event in the game? I have solo’d multiple boss mobs and you know what I get at the end for my decent time investment, the same reward I would have gotten with 20 other people lol…

If lower level events would actually scale to high level 80 event rewards (if you are 80) then more people would be scattered all over the world.

Everyone?

Everyone farms Orr events?

Why? Why in the world would you do this? After hitting 80 I can’t NOT make money. I go explore, gather a bit, do some DEs, and make money. I go WvW, hit a couple of gather nodes, die a few times, get a few kills….AND STILL SOMEHOW MAKE MONEY! Why in the world would someone do something as boring as grinding repetitive content just to make money slightly faster?

I got my first 80 decked out in all exotics without grinding. I got my second 80 decked out in all rares, and am on the way to all exotics without grinding. I’ve dabbled in dungeons and already have enough tokens for half a set of dungeon gear. I’m going to have these characters for years. Why grind if it’s so boring? Just do fun stuff and the game gives you money! Waypoints? I barely notice! One waypoint trip is basically 1 or 2 gather nodes.

And to answer the OP, people have scaled back their playtime because loads of people played the daylights out of the game after release. Some are gone for good. Some are just not on as often, or at different times. Some are on alts, or WvW, or sPvP. Basically, people are far more spread out than they were at release so the world seems empty.

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Posted by: Kasei.8726

Kasei.8726

I was excited when I read awhile back that players would be able to play anywhere in Tyria at max level and still receive rewards. This is true to an extent, but it isn’t enough to pull people away from orr.

Gear and traits make so much of a difference in power, that being downleveled in lower level zones still don’t make fights much of a challenge. Max level characters should be downleveled further so the fights are more difficult, and the rewards should match the effort put in; level 80 loot should be rewarded.

I love the events in certain zones, but it’s not worth traveling over there to play them when no one else around for little reward. Orr is my least favorite zone, but it’s the most profitable. So even when I go exploring, it’s hard not to go back when you need to make some coin.

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Posted by: Marvyra.1729

Marvyra.1729

Wondering that as well, but yeah, games do decay over time, sadly. Running around not seeing anyone in level 60+ zones isn’t really enjoyable, some of those events are quite difficult to solo. :L

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Posted by: Voqar.2349

Voqar.2349

The biggest flaw I’ve seen in MMOs recently is that they do exactly what most players want. A quick finish. I mean, how long did it take for people to make it to 80? A month or less? Of course people leave when they have nothing to do once they’ve reached cap and have done all the dungeons to get their armor.

Not all people. I feel like leveing in GW2 is far too quick and it’s super easy to gear up to full exotics once you’re 80. You can be “done” with a character very quickly if you push and even if you don’t push, if you play a character it will level fast unless you just park in LA and chat.

I tell my friends about dinosaur times when I played EQLive and it took months to hit cap and just hitting 20 was a big deal (at release, people would grats you in public chat, you’d contact a GM to get a last name, it was a big deal to just hit 20 with a 50 cap).

The trend in MMORPGs is to make them more casual friendly and more solo friendly but really, these games are about grouping and about long term gameplay, and that is not a casual thing. The casual/solo emphasis just ends up hurting these games and making them into too much of a single player experience for many players – where they play for a few weeks/months and are done, just like they do with single player games.

For a game like this where there is so little to actually earn, the leveling and ease of gearing up is just too fast. I like the idea of no gear tiers and no gear treadmill but people need something to work towards and the hell grind for legendaries isn’t something the average person is going to want to do (I refuse to even consider it since it’s a ridiculous grind and feels more like an exercise in tolerance than anything skill based or earning-oriented).

I think there are other issues too. For ex, I brought several friends to GW2 and we are all long time dungeon crushing raiders who love to group and do instances just to do stuff together. Problem is between the difficulty of instances (and we love hard modes and challenges), the downed states, the lack of roles, the chaos, the feeling of being 5 sololists in the same spot – the quality and style of grouping just doesn’t work for a lot of people I know. It’s not fun for them and I’m not even sure that I like it. There’s nothing rewarding about beating instances via attrition and when you see that big sparkly chest and it drops vendor trash blues just like any other mobe it’s a big fat MEH.

Anyways. My server feels a lot more dead. I play alts of all levels, have 3 80’s. I only really see people in Orr on gathering runs or at karma grind spots like Plinx. When playing alts in low/mid zones I just don’t see many people. I’m sure some are in WvW, yapping in LA, and whatnot, but overall I’d say pops have to be down.

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Posted by: Ivonbeton.6814

Ivonbeton.6814

I’m still seeing a lot of people on my server. Doing events, even organizing WvW zergs with +100 people at 1 am. When the Mad King event started, there were atleast 10 LA overflows. It does seem like people are sort of laying low atm, but I think a lot of them are just waiting for the patch to spend their time on.

I do agree that leveling is too fast and PvE lacks rewards and a challenge. Would be great if you could do some good old hard mode or something challenging with a group of friends. One major issue, which imo also killed WoW, is fast traveling. It just doesn’t work for an open world. You get less involved because you go from point A to B without even being confronted with anything in between. If you would have to travel atleast a tiny bit (with horses orso), the world would feel more alive and many people would be attracted to world events when they pass by. Ofcourse traveling across the entire map is too much, but maybe fast traveling ONLY to big cities would have been a better idea. It might be too late to change this now, but this has killed the immersion in so many games and a lot of people don’t seem to realize it.

Anyways, I’m still enjoying trying and mastering different classes, but it’s high time that this game got some more worthwile challenges and some diversified playing styles. It still has this amazing potential and people are sticking around because of it, but it really needs an update or population will actually decline.

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Posted by: Kasei.8726

Kasei.8726

Anet

The amount of loot that drops for downscaled players has been increased. You should now be able to receive level-equivalent loot until you are fighting at a downscaled level that is less than 2/3 of your actual level. You should also receive loot a greater percentage of the time as well as receiving a greater percentage of experience, gold, and karma. For level 80 characters, this means level 55+ areas will be able to drop level 80 gear and give about 75% or so of the other rewards. Previously, these areas would give level 77 gear at best and closer to 60% or so of your rewards.

Hey they did it, yippee hurray!

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Posted by: Ryltair.2857

Ryltair.2857

Not gonna read all the crying, but I can say that Piken Square is quite full. I always run into people and never have to do group events on my own. The Trading Post is also a vicious fighting pit with hundreds of thousands of items being traded daily.

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Posted by: The Moment Ends.1635

The Moment Ends.1635

Im on tarnished coast and see people everywhere i go. My guild usually has like 50 on at once. Hell i was on at 7 am yeaterday and saw tons of people. I swear people in this forum make stuff up.

Ohhhhh just because you do and the server your on dictates it all for the other servers huh? I see now. I guess all of us are blind and making it up. Yeah that’s it. And I guess people saying their friends list of 30+ now only has 5 people logging on are lying too huh?

You do know there are more than 1 server right? Also I seriously doubt you have 50 guildees on at a time. If you do I will bet it rarely happens and it lasted maybe 10 mins if it even did happen.

So yeah don’t be upset because a lot of the servers are dead. They need a merger so that way they can seem a little more active.

And likewise, just because your server is terrible doesn’t mean they all are.

And yes my guild has that many people on a lot of the time.

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Posted by: Ivonbeton.6814

Ivonbeton.6814

Not gonna read all the crying, but I can say that Piken Square is quite full. I always run into people and never have to do group events on my own. The Trading Post is also a vicious fighting pit with hundreds of thousands of items being traded daily.

I haven’t seen a lot of crying. As I said, my server is rather full aswell, but I still agree the game needs some changes. I think the Lost Shores is coming right on time, no matter what the content brings.

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Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

Everyone left for Orr. Because it’s the only area that gives them rewards that match their levels.

The level scaling thing really didn’t help at all – instead of helping make it more attractive for higher level players to revisit lower areas, it just hurts everyone trying to get through those areas so they can finish them and never travel there again.

I’m trying to go through worlds just because I want to see everything the game has, but I may never manage it thanks to the level scaling system dragging me back down to levels where garden-variety enemies can kill me in 3-4 hits. Ask for a group to travel with? Hahahahahahah! Good one. They’re all on Orr remember? Because that’s where all the high level rewards are.

There is absolutely zero reason to go back to a lower-level zone once you’ve found everything in it unless it has a dungeon you want to run or a story quest. This game has failed absolutely miserably at creating a community because what’s in it for a higher level character? What’s their incentive to help someone else instead of sticking to their own thing? Nothing.

User will be infracted for this post.

(edited by Shooopa.5632)

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Posted by: elsbeth.3567

elsbeth.3567

I play on Tarnished Coast and while there naturally has been spread and drop-off since launch, everyplace I go has a decent population. And I go everyplace, working on a second toon and running my main around on world completion and taking pics for a website.

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Posted by: Shooopa.5632

Shooopa.5632

I play on Tarnished Coast and while there naturally has been spread and drop-off since launch, everyplace I go has a decent population. And I go everyplace, working on a second toon and running my main around on world completion and taking pics for a website.

I’m on Jade Quarry. It’s supposedly a full server and yet I still see no one anywhere on the PvE zones.

So far I’ve changed servers three times because of the lack of other human players. To say I’m not happy with how this game has been turning out a few months after release is an understatement.

User will be infracted for this post.