Guild Wars 2

It’s simple.

The veterans, with thousands of hours on their accounts, are your good will ambassadors. If we are happy with the game, we will spread joy to the new players, and we’ll continue to stick around in game.

You know what else we do?

We help the new players learn the game in a way that is much more rewarding than a more spoon fed leveling process.

Challenge is an important part of the reward process.

Meeting people is what an MMO is all about.

I am absolutely certain that the time I spend sharing tips and tricks, in a friendly and supportive way, is golden for retention.

Now, that said, I do like hunting for traits, it makes the process more interesting and doesn’t align with “spoon feeding”

Still love the game… thanks for all the efforts you are putting in. I know you mean well.

I think the reaction of the community is a vast over-reaction to this, because most updates, almost all of them, are for veteran players. Of the annoucements for this patch, disappointing or no, only one day of them is for new players.

And I think I’ll benefit too when leveling alts, because some of us veterans are altoholics too.

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

You know what else we do?

We help the new players learn the game in a way that is much more rewarding than a more spoon fed leveling process.

When I started, I chose thief and kept dying all over the place. Then two players helped me understand the profession a little better. After a week of guidance, I was able to do whatever I wanted on it.

So yeah, I agree it is a good idea to try and keep vets aswell. You make the focus of updates towards vets and keep them happy, they stay and pump more money into the game while teaching players who have a hard time playing it.

Wait, I don’t get what your point was? Are we referring to spoon collecting here? Or was that just a poor choice of words?

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

It’s simple.

The veterans, with thousands of hours on their accounts, are your good will ambassadors. If we are happy with the game, we will spread joy to the new players, and we’ll continue to stick around in game.

You know what else we do?

We help the new players learn the game in a way that is much more rewarding than a more spoon fed leveling process.

Challenge is an important part of the reward process.

Meeting people is what an MMO is all about.

I am absolutely certain that the time I spend sharing tips and tricks, in a friendly and supportive way, is golden for retention.

Now, that said, I do like hunting for traits, it makes the process more interesting and doesn’t align with “spoon feeding”

Still love the game… thanks for all the efforts you are putting in. I know you mean well.

yep, lfg only exp 80 with full exo

If Guild Wars 2 ever stops trying to attract new players, the number of players is only likely to go down. An environment of only “veterans” can get stale very quickly.

Gw2 is great at attracting new players but terrible at keeping them.

New players pay the bills – that is important for ANY game. If you think not, then why is WoW touting one month free (even though this is the norm for a sub game) of play before their new patch comes live.

Game companies NEED new players.

Improvements for “veteran” players are important because they’re good for everyone. A new player will feel QoL updates aimed at veteran players regardless, because the people that have been playing for two years now have been asking for things that will benefit the game AS A WHOLE.

Also, I really don’t know why people think these changes are meant to “attract” new players? GW2 had one of the best leveling experiences in any mmo, and Anet has only made it worse with their updates and revamps. Someone said gw2 pulls in new players just fine, but can’t keep them, and these changes for sure won’t help that.

JohnnySupernova.9182:

Improvements for “veteran” players are important because they’re good for everyone. A new player will feel QoL updates aimed at veteran players regardless, because the people that have been playing for two years now have been asking for things that will benefit the game AS A WHOLE.

Also, I really don’t know why people think these changes are meant to “attract” new players? GW2 had one of the best leveling experiences in any mmo, and Anet has only made it worse with their updates and revamps. Someone said gw2 pulls in new players just fine, but can’t keep them, and these changes for sure won’t help that.

As A.Net said in a reddit post, they want things similar for vets and new players. It makes it easier to put in new items, content, etc. if they don’t have to deal with 2 distinct systems.

Allisa Wonderland.8192:

You know what else we do?

We help the new players learn the game in a way that is much more rewarding than a more spoon fed leveling process.

Ideally, yeah, it’s nice when players help other players and build a personal connection. But there are also players who used to tell newbies that the best thing they could be doing was the champ train in Queensdale, or jump straight into the WvW zerg, not because they thought it was fun, but because it was efficient. Veteran players can be useful, but they can be off-putting, too.

/reminder

@Redenaz:
Also, don’t forget that a specific subset of supposedly veteran players also believes it is perfectly okay to haze new players, and to heavily intimidate them into staying out of their dungeon parties.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@Redenaz:
Also, don’t forget that a specific subset of supposedly veteran players also believes it is perfectly okay to haze new players, and to heavily intimidate them into staying out of their dungeon parties.

Which has only been exacerbated by the new trait system which mostly just changed badly traited new players into untraited new players.

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@Redenaz:
Also, don’t forget that a specific subset of supposedly veteran players also believes it is perfectly okay to haze new players, and to heavily intimidate them into staying out of their dungeon parties.

All the more reason to have a neutral system like the game itself to teach players the basics and go from there.
Which honestly GW2 lacked in certain spots.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Which has only been exacerbated by the new trait system which mostly just changed badly traited new players into untraited new players.

And may soon be joined by untraited under-statted new players.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Jornophelanthas.1475:

@Redenaz:
Also, don’t forget that a specific subset of supposedly veteran players also believes it is perfectly okay to haze new players, and to heavily intimidate them into staying out of their dungeon parties.

Which has only been exacerbated by the new trait system which mostly just changed badly traited new players into untraited new players.

I agree that the trait unlocking system needs to be looked at again, although its general idea is nice in theory. But discussing that in detail would be off-topic for this discussion.

The real problem is almost no traits feel worth all that effort, most do very little, and work passively and practically invisibly as you play. If traits were actually made interesting and compelling additions to a build, they would be worth scouring the world for.

sazberryftw.3809:

Wait, I don’t get what your point was? Are we referring to spoon collecting here? Or was that just a poor choice of words?

I wasn’t specifically referring to the spoons. Perhaps it was an accidentally apt choice of words? I don’t mind spoon hunting, as long as it isn’t spoon fed.

Dusty Moon.4382:

New players pay the bills – that is important for ANY game. If you think not, then why is WoW touting one month free (even though this is the norm for a sub game) of play before their new patch comes live.

Game companies NEED new players.

I agree that games, especially MMOs, need a constant influx of new players. These players don’t join because of the new features, they join because they hear about how good the game is – from people who play it all the time.

I don’t know the metrics, but from my own player-of-one records, my real dollar spending in the game is far in excess of the original box cost, and on a monthly basis. So, essentially, keeping me playing is like signing me up as a new customer every month.

sazberryftw.3809:

Wait, I don’t get what your point was? Are we referring to spoon collecting here? Or was that just a poor choice of words?

Spoon feeding is where you don’t have to know what you’re doing to get something.

Imagine if you went into a dungeon and there were arrows on the ground pointing you where to go, as soon as you got to a fight, everything slowed down until you used a skill, sped up until the skill was done casting, then slowed down again so you wouldn’t die. If you got hurt badly, the game would slow even more giving you time to dodge and heal.

That’s an example of spoon feeding.

Another such example is giving someone enough items to level up with after gaining a level without teaching them how to actually play.

I guess I’ll say this again, even though this has been my mentality about GW2 since the beginning:

The tutorial ends when you reach level 80. That’s when you start playing GW2, even though there’s no end game other than self-improvement.

I know what spoon feeding is lol.

I just didn’t get the OPs point from their post. I get it now though, they’re saying the new levelling system means newbies won’t ask veterans questions? Meh, they still will. The new system isn’t that much of a hand hold. This game needed more guidance.

sazberryftw.3809:

I know what spoon feeding is lol.

I just didn’t get the OPs point from their post. I get it now though, they’re saying the new levelling system means newbies won’t ask veterans questions? Meh, they still will. The new system isn’t that much of a hand hold. This game needed more guidance.

I think it was that the new system forces players to have their hands held by a UI instead of by improving the game for us veterans so we can hold new peoples hands.