Guild Wars 2

Few days ago I visited Harathi Hinterlands, and it was kinda empty, I barely found one person to help me out with Gargantula event, so I have to wonder, are certain zones dying out?

I haven’t visited Harathi Hinterlands in a while, so I decided to go there to get my daily, and I was shocked to see it was empty, so I have to ask myself, where is everybody?

Are there any other “dead” zones in the game, and do you have any suggestions how to repopulate these zones again?

My opinion is that most zones that are secluded (not connected with 2 or more other zones), or located on far corner on the map end up being ignored by players. My guess is that people just don’t want to waste silver on waypoints, so maybe we should have some Asura gates that teleport us to those distant zones for free, like the gate in Fields of Ruin. In addition, more different events might bring back some spark to the zones (and I don’t mean Living Story events).

What do you think?

Just add some events with bonus chests and the areas will be burting with people again. Lots of people are just bouncing between the events that give an easy bonus chest (fire elemental – jungle wurm – shadow behemoth – golem mark II – shatterer – tequatl – claw of jormag and from time to time fire shaman)

I hate that zone, not sure why. Probably cause the atmosphere is really depressing and the color of the sky is very sleepy.

People usually help out with the meta event in the northeast. Perhaps you played during off-peak hours.

I’ve levelled a few characters through there and I’ve never seen anyone do Gargantula (including myself). Never even tried it. There usually are a few people working on the big event chain through the camps though. And there is a big daily chest at the end of that.

Might just be your time zone.

And I agree there should be one or two more Asura gates around. The one to Fields of Ruin is nice to have.

The main source for everyone trying to keep track of the events is seriously not right. All the timers seem to be off.

Id like to see events that stretch across the map more and really lift a d affect the zone rather than a small bit. Give each zone more identity, some like frostgorge have it, but the middle zones (except maelsyrom) lack any real soul.

Also, cross zone metas where an event chain takes you across kryta or shiverpeaks. The living story has made a good start, this could be the next level for it.

What server and times were you playing? Off peak hours on lower pop servers have pretty dead mid level zones. On servers like JQ and TC most zones are quite populated especially during NA prime time.

i heard they hit “the wall” and left to become forum ninjas.
will probably back by the time a huge expansion is patched.

Mist “mid level” zones are totally dead. It’s pretty much like that in every MMO if there is no special event or reason to go there.

Why go back to a zone you have 100%ed if there is no purpose?

Harathi Hinterlands is sometimes quiet at the IoJ.
I don’t mind fighting Centaurs, but usually I get my fill of cracking their skulls at Queensdale really.
I think the Guild Treks and other guild missions are fun ways for the zones to get some extra attention, but for individuals there should be a scavenger hunt akin to the refugees lost items in F&F that could count as a Daily. Reward the player with some silver or karma, that way at least the WP cost was covered.

It’s funny because Ulgoth is one of the daily bonus events and people hit him up pretty frequently. I see 20-30 people when I hit that event without batting an eye. However, the rest of the zone is certainly depopulated most of the time. It’s one of my absolute least favorite zones (centaurs… centaurs everywhere).

It would be kind of cool if every Meta Event chain in the game actually spawned the daily bonus; easily curtailed by giving accounts a max of 20 (the current limit you can obtain). The big world events would still be popular, but lesser-known metas would be done more regularly and it’d allow people to do their favorite chains rather than the ones on “the list.” Granted I have no clue if Gargantula would apply, I’ve never done it myself. :P

locoman.1974:

Just add some events with bonus chests and the areas will be burting with people again. Lots of people are just bouncing between the events that give an easy bonus chest (fire elemental – jungle wurm – shadow behemoth – golem mark II – shatterer – tequatl – claw of jormag and from time to time fire shaman)

This. Nobody “plays” the zones any more, they just hop between events that reward chests. I am working on my 4th 80, and have never been happier that my primary focus is WvW, since the rest is dead.

I really hate “chest farming” and switching from one boss to another, because the zones are dying, as the zerg switches from one boss to another. As for the centaurs, they can be bit depressing, especially if they occupy entire map.

zenleto.6179:

I’ve levelled a few characters through there and I’ve never seen anyone do Gargantula (including myself). Never even tried it. There usually are a few people working on the big event chain through the camps though. And there is a big daily chest at the end of that.

Might just be your time zone.

And I agree there should be one or two more Asura gates around. The one to Fields of Ruin is nice to have.

I’d say that’s because Gargantula was bugged since launch, and as far as I know it still is. I tried it a couple of months ago, the dumb spider reset constantly just like it did when I first tried him not long after launch. You literally couldn’t kill it. I swore to never waste my time on it again.

It is a depressing place simply because there seems to be so little space and comfort from the great win before the same thing starts over. I know the zone is mainly about the centaur war but repetitive depression still has a negative effect on the human [actual player] psyche. In MMORPG terms not enough reward [feel good] to counter the I’m constantly beating my head against a brick wall feeling.

All zones but under lev15 or those with metas are dead. fact some don’t want to accept.

Draknar.5748:

zenleto.6179:

I’ve levelled a few characters through there and I’ve never seen anyone do Gargantula (including myself). Never even tried it. There usually are a few people working on the big event chain through the camps though. And there is a big daily chest at the end of that.

Might just be your time zone.

And I agree there should be one or two more Asura gates around. The one to Fields of Ruin is nice to have.

I’d say that’s because Gargantula was bugged since launch, and as far as I know it still is. I tried it a couple of months ago, the dumb spider reset constantly just like it did when I first tried him not long after launch. You literally couldn’t kill it. I swore to never waste my time on it again.

I never had problems with Gargantula, it resets 2 or 3 times, and I always thought it was its own unique thing. To be honest, that’s the thing I like most about it, the fact that it has those “reset phases”.

I never voluntarily got to Harathi Hinterlands. Maybe it is because I have never been into war games.

Mid level zones are less populated, which is to be expected, but this A-Net’s fault to a degree. They should have been focusing on new content within these zones, but instead they release southsun cove, which makes no sense. Why focus on a living story & a new zone, when they could’ve been adding new dynamic events or meta-events to existing ones.

No reason to go there.

Laurel and guild commendation systems discourage alt play. Better karma from higher zones, better loot from dungeons.

Mentalhead.5721:

where is everybody?

Well I don`t know, but they are not in Orr!

Mentalhead.5721:

Are there any other “dead” zones in the game, and do you have any suggestions how to repopulate these zones again?

i think most zones that are not nearby events that has big chests rewards will have lower population count.

suggestions, have more events provide “big chests” with rewards and there should be more people there.

does not need to be “confirmed rare” just a big chest with blues greens and a chance for rares / exotics will do. no need to limit it to just one day one chest also.

My opinion is that most zones that are secluded (not connected with 2 or more other zones), or located on far corner on the map end up being ignored by players. My guess is that people just don’t want to waste silver on waypoints, so maybe we should have some Asura gates that teleport us to those distant zones for free, like the gate in Fields of Ruin. In addition, more different events might bring back some spark to the zones (and I don’t mean Living Story events).

What do you think?

i think the same. i do not spend on waypoints unless i am in a hurry.

more big asuran gates to more secluded places would be nice.

Draknar.5748:

zenleto.6179:

I’ve levelled a few characters through there and I’ve never seen anyone do Gargantula (including myself). Never even tried it. There usually are a few people working on the big event chain through the camps though. And there is a big daily chest at the end of that.

Might just be your time zone.

And I agree there should be one or two more Asura gates around. The one to Fields of Ruin is nice to have.

I’d say that’s because Gargantula was bugged since launch, and as far as I know it still is. I tried it a couple of months ago, the dumb spider reset constantly just like it did when I first tried him not long after launch. You literally couldn’t kill it. I swore to never waste my time on it again.

Yeah? That would explain the lack of /map calls for it. Provided I really am thinking of the correct event, I usually run off while the NPC is calling for help for the captain. Puny Human vs Gargantula! There is only one winner.

Well Harathi is a strange zone in that it has a really cool meta event chain and an awesome jump puzzle but the zone itself is depressing as hell.

I don’t enjoy going there.
After the first time on my main I swore that I would never go there again if I could help it.
Since then I have been back periodically on different characters but always I remember why I hated it so- by the time you finish that map you never want to see a centaur again.
You can’t really blame people for avoiding it imo.

Gagantula I have never had a problem with and I have done it several times- the health reset comes from the baby spiders that she consumes- so as soon as they spawn just kill them and her heath won’t completely reset, then burst her down.

Most other zones I have been to lately have had a pretty decent population.

The zones 15-70 with no world event are sparsely populated, this is because the majority of people are 80th level, so doing 80th level activities…if they want to chill out or play with friends they just go to a starter zone…why travel further…it costs more for no real benefit?

Only people levelling alts or new players go to those zones now really…

The only hope for them is the living story passes through those zones at some point in the future, breathing new life into them…

Alot more people went to Wayfarer Hills/Diessa Platea because of the living story and Southsun Cove will get a large increase after the next update hopefully…

Personally, I would have done it differently and tried to give each zone in the game 1 unique feature to attract players there…then once every zone had 1 unique feature that I was happy with, I would have aimed at 2 etc and thus built the zones up…

Harathi’s a pretty bland zone— dirt, wooden palisades, and centaurs by the dozen. It doesn’t shock me that nobody goes there (outside of Ulgoth.) The event chains aren’t bad, though.

You can’t get help with Gargantula is because the event resets very quickly, it’s harder than is worth it, and people tend to think it’s bugged. For the record, it’s not bugged. Its health resets at each quarter-mark when it eats its young. Get it down to 75%, it resets to 100%. Then again at 50%, then again at 25%.

Whenever I’m in that zone, I ignore calls for help for Gargantula, mostly because I probably already just helped somebody beat it. It just comes up a lot and is a big pain.

Meglobob.8620:

Personally, I would have done it differently and tried to give each zone in the game 1 unique feature to attract players there…then once every zone had 1 unique feature that I was happy with, I would have aimed at 2 etc and thus built the zones up…

Yeah wouldn’t have been a bad to do it. I’ve been thinking that eventually we’ll get maybe 2 or 3 Living Stories on the go at the same time. That would really make some of the poor old forgotten maps a bit of life.

@ Morrigan. That was my feeling about Harathi the first time I went there as well. Took me a while to want to go back but I’ve decided the camp chain is one of the best things in the game (my opinion of course). Its pretty nonstop and I always need a decent break after.

I agree some of the mid-level areas can feel empty – I think some just have a more pleasant ambience than others and feel more inviting to spend time when doing the dailies. Apart from boss chests, there are particular areas where there are rapidly cycling events for daily completion, or veterans, or kill variety hot spots etc. These all tend to make particular areas busier at the expense of others.

Some good ideas have been suggested already, but I would suggest a weekly bonus system that draws people to a particular zone. Something like the old ‘Nicholas the Traveller’ from GW1, where the NPC in question would appear in a random place anywhere in the world each week offering gifts in exchange for particular trophies that could be farmed from the nearby mobs. The gifts contained mostly fun items such as tonics and fireworks but the rare chance of some unique skins (such as the vampiric dragon sword). I’m not suggesting they clone this idea exactly as GW2 is a new game, but the concept is sound and it could be a fun way of drawing players to the zones without introducing yet another currency.

I also think when culling ends in PVe, we’ll see more people. As it stands now, you can be relatively close to people and not see them at all.

I tend to avoid Harathi Hinterlands when levelling alts. The meta event is fun if there are people around(I spent a lot of time doing it on my first character), but when 90% of the enemies are centaurs… it gets a bit dull.

Mentalhead.5721:

Few days ago I visited Harathi Hinterlands, and it was kinda empty, I barely found one person to help me out with Gargantula event, so I have to wonder, are certain zones dying out?

It’s because you were south in that map, go to the northern part and Harathi is a map that is full of people, both the big Centaur event chain and Kol chain get attention.

So now when I see a champion in a remote location of a zone, and nobody is around to help me, I should go on the forums and post that the end is coming and zones are empty?

Take 20 or 30 steps in any direction and stop you may see 10 or 15 people materialize. – Welcome to Culling Wars.

Alot of mid range zones are less populated. Anet have done a very good job at getting people back in early zones and staying out in late ones, just the middle lot to sort out now.

Heres hoping some new meta events and dungeons based out of less populated zones are coming. IT sounds to me like the living story will be travelling worldwide and when it hits a certain map it will revamp it. Or at least, thats what should happen.

Im Mudbone.1437:

Take 20 or 30 steps in any direction and stop you may see 10 or 15 people materialize. – Welcome to Culling Wars.

And this! Unfortunately true. But something i hope will be sorted by the end of may.

nexxe.7081:

Mid level zones are less populated, which is to be expected, but this A-Net’s fault to a degree. They should have been focusing on new content within these zones, but instead they release southsun cove, which makes no sense. Why focus on a living story & a new zone, when they could’ve been adding new dynamic events or meta-events to existing ones.

I somewhat agree with you, but I have to point out that Southsun is one of the worst zones since November, so I’m really hoping for a huge overhaul. I just hope we’ll see some content for the mid zones in the future.

nexxe.7081:

Mid level zones are less populated, which is to be expected, but this A-Net’s fault to a degree. They should have been focusing on new content within these zones, but instead they release southsun cove, which makes no sense. Why focus on a living story & a new zone, when they could’ve been adding new dynamic events or meta-events to existing ones.

I think the living story is going to be doing just that.

Its an effecient strategy if you think about it. gives developers the platform to introduce zone ovehauls on, in a way that benefits the lore and story of the game… Not even mentioning the marketing potential (living, breathing world).

I believe we will see southsun overhauled via this next story arc and we will continue to visit worse zones in the game and improving them. I mean, can anyone but me see why we saw the living story in those specific zones in F+F?? After all, wayfarer and disseu were two of the least populated newbie zones in the game.

@Parlourbeatflex

I really hope that Living Story will change something, but I’m also hoping to see some permanent changes (two points of interest and no new permanent events) isn’t that much to be honest

I haven’t logged on the last few days, the last patch broke a lot of stuff in WvW to the point where the gameplay is no longer as fun.

Instead I’m playing Skyrim or reading a book in my free time. This from a player with 2x 80s in full exotic/ascended and a legendary.

On TC, the only zones that are busy are Lions Arch, Divinitys Reach, and the maps with bosses like Shadow Behemoth. Everywhere else you might find 10 people.

I have yet to do the Living Story. It just doesn’t interest me. In fact, the periscopes have made me skip going to areas such as the shiverpeaks. If anything, Flame & Frost has made certain zones more likely to be avoided.

Big maps nearly the biggest in gaming history i think dagger fall has the biggest but it was a lot of eminently spaces or copying. Your not going to run into ppl unless you want to. If your aim is to play with ppl get a guild you will find some one to play with all the time. There also WvW there should be some one there always unless your on a very low end server.

Mentalhead.5721:

@Parlourbeatflex

I really hope that Living Story will change something, but I’m also hoping to see some permanent changes (two points of interest and no new permanent events) isn’t that much to be honest

Yea i hope so too. I was one of many that expressed concern about the influx of temp content…. lets hope they have listened to the community about this and start overhauling content with the LS as a platform to do so.

Im going to go out on a limb and trust that F+F was a learning curve like southsun orginally was. Wintersday was definately an improvement over the original southsun event, but southsun provided some wicked ideas aswell, such as the landgrab and discovery aspect of it.
This is why i believe they have switched to a living story, now its just ironing out the kinks.

But hey i love the game, have since day 1. Thats what im trying to fool my brain in believing anyway.

I don’t see too many in Harathi here either, but the ones I do are usually doing the camps/Ulgoth. It’s too bad too, cause you can get quite a bit of karma and money from the events, and Ulgoth has a chance to drop yellows. Easier to farm Maw/Shatterer/Golem though….

As a new player with a lvl 12 warrior – Not seeing anyone or any chat is depressing. But the thing I HATE is there is content I will never get to do because there isn’t even 2 people to help me. I played when the game first came out and got a toon to 25 and loved every second because there was a ton of people around. But RL dragged me away. I will keep playing but only because of the environment. GW 2 has the best world environment of any mmo and prob any video game I have played. Just a shame there is alot of it I will never be able to do because no one is around to help.

danintexas.1062:

As a new player with a lvl 12 warrior – Not seeing anyone or any chat is depressing. But the thing I HATE is there is content I will never get to do because there isn’t even 2 people to help me. I played when the game first came out and got a toon to 25 and loved every second because there was a ton of people around. But RL dragged me away. I will keep playing but only because of the environment. GW 2 has the best world environment of any mmo and prob any video game I have played. Just a shame there is alot of it I will never be able to do because no one is around to help.

Ask/talk in map chat you will be surprised.
heck the other day we were singing Beatles lyrics in map chat
Usually there are plenty of people but unless there is a world boss to advertise they are pretty quiet, it does not mean they are not there.
I have yet to find an empty map and I have been playing since betas.
Edit: you might be having the horrible server blues, in which case i would advise shopping around since you can guest for free, transfer if you must

Mentalhead.5721:

Draknar.5748:

zenleto.6179:

I’ve levelled a few characters through there and I’ve never seen anyone do Gargantula (including myself). Never even tried it. There usually are a few people working on the big event chain through the camps though. And there is a big daily chest at the end of that.

Might just be your time zone.

And I agree there should be one or two more Asura gates around. The one to Fields of Ruin is nice to have.

I’d say that’s because Gargantula was bugged since launch, and as far as I know it still is. I tried it a couple of months ago, the dumb spider reset constantly just like it did when I first tried him not long after launch. You literally couldn’t kill it. I swore to never waste my time on it again.

I never had problems with Gargantula, it resets 2 or 3 times, and I always thought it was its own unique thing. To be honest, that’s the thing I like most about it, the fact that it has those “reset phases”.

Sometimes being unique is not a good thing. Especially when your uniqueness has a strong resemblance to bugs in other parts of the game!

danintexas.1062:

As a new player with a lvl 12 warrior – Not seeing anyone or any chat is depressing. But the thing I HATE is there is content I will never get to do because there isn’t even 2 people to help me. I played when the game first came out and got a toon to 25 and loved every second because there was a ton of people around. But RL dragged me away. I will keep playing but only because of the environment. GW 2 has the best world environment of any mmo and prob any video game I have played. Just a shame there is alot of it I will never be able to do because no one is around to help.

Same here, it’s so quiet sometimes, it gets kinda sad. If you’re lucky, someone might inform you if there’s an event going around. Maybe a global channel could fix this, but I fear that addition of global channel would just increase world bosses spam, and LFG spam

1.“It’s not empty, it’s culling!”—yet I can see plenty of people standing around waiting for a world boss to spawn??

2. “People chat all the time in map chat, you just have to say something first!!”— Oh, I keep forgetting it’s my fault.

3.“If you want to play with people you have to be in a guild!!”—My fault again, I’m such a loser.

4. “Change servers!! It’s your fault for being on the wrong one!!”—odd, I would think it’s the dev’s prerogative to balance server population, not mine.

5. “You’re not where the chests are spawning, get with the program bro!!”—Again, my fault for wanting to play the game and expecting rewards to be spread evenly across the entire map.

My opinion: Maybe it’s time to stop blaming the players and start looking in the direction where the faults actually lie.

killcannon.2576:

1.“It’s not empty, it’s culling!”—yet I can see plenty of people standing around waiting for a world boss to spawn??

2. “People chat all the time in map chat, you just have to say something first!!”— Oh, I keep forgetting it’s my fault.

3.“If you want to play with people you have to be in a guild!!”—My fault again, I’m such a loser.

4. “Change servers!! It’s your fault for being on the wrong one!!”—odd, I would think it’s the dev’s prerogative to balance server population, not mine.

5. “You’re not where the chests are spawning, get with the program bro!!”—Again, my fault for wanting to play the game and expecting rewards to be spread evenly across the entire map.

My opinion: Maybe it’s time to stop blaming the players and start looking in the direction where the faults actually lie.

1. culling is an actual excuse in cities – I’ve seen whole groups of people disappear if I’m not close enough.
2. Not your fault, but it’s a great way to check if the map you’re on has some people on it
3. Not your fault, but it does help
4. In an ideal world, yes, but if people feel lonely they do tend to guest on a more popular server.
5. Leveling areas will be emptier than areas with map events. That doesn’t mean that something is wrong though – some quests are easier to do when there’s only a few people there, instead of a whole mob.

Mirta.5029:

killcannon.2576:

1.“It’s not empty, it’s culling!”—yet I can see plenty of people standing around waiting for a world boss to spawn??

2. “People chat all the time in map chat, you just have to say something first!!”— Oh, I keep forgetting it’s my fault.

3.“If you want to play with people you have to be in a guild!!”—My fault again, I’m such a loser.

4. “Change servers!! It’s your fault for being on the wrong one!!”—odd, I would think it’s the dev’s prerogative to balance server population, not mine.

5. “You’re not where the chests are spawning, get with the program bro!!”—Again, my fault for wanting to play the game and expecting rewards to be spread evenly across the entire map.

My opinion: Maybe it’s time to stop blaming the players and start looking in the direction where the faults actually lie.

1. culling is an actual excuse in cities – I’ve seen whole groups of people disappear if I’m not close enough.
2. Not your fault, but it’s a great way to check if the map you’re on has some people on it
3. Not your fault, but it does help
4. In an ideal world, yes, but if people feel lonely they do tend to guest on a more popular server.
5. Leveling areas will be emptier than areas with map events. That doesn’t mean that something is wrong though – some quests are easier to do when there’s only a few people there, instead of a whole mob.

In my opinion, most of the “world is empty” problems can be fixed, and in about the same time it took to put out the 5 or 6 hours of Living Story content we just had. Put a chest event in each area, link the chest events to area spanning meta’s, tie rewards in to the amount of time completing the meta or how many events completed out of the meta, have an enjoyable finale to the meta. And also have vets and champions give effort based rewards.

I know that some people will say they only play for fun and not rewards, and I think that this idea would satisfy both camps. It’s more fun to see people out populating the world, running events, talking in map chat relaying info on events, and generally feeling like they are actually part of the world. And I know that some will say they already feel like that because of such and such reason, be it guild or whatever. I just don’t think that feeling should be relegated to people who have checked off all the right boxes.

It does mean something is wrong in game if people are mostly only doing certain things. There’s something wrong when people bunch up to farm the tunnel, or the WEB’s, or CoF. And it’s not only because of greed. Money helps you get legendaries. Legendaries and other top tier rewards are a quantitative process, meaning if Subject A does enough of Activity B they can reach their goal. In simpler terms, if I can farm whatever to get whatever then why shouldn’t I? The normal defense here is “Because it’s not fun”. For some, being or having the best is fun. Being the best is what two out of three game modes are all about here. I don’t follow this philosophy, but gaming has always played to these desires.