Hi Arenanet if you’re listening….
I think the difficulty in the dungoens is fantastic and can only look forward to the challenge mode. Bring it on!
However, there’s a real problem. GW2 prevents proper “Team” gaming, contrary to its primary intention of “community”. This really isnt just a whinge, it’s a hard fought but reluctantly accepted disappointment having invested so much time and effort into the game and the run up to it. More alarmingly its very bad portents for the future and sadly (very sadly) it looks like you’ve missed the fundamentals of what keeps major MMOs going. And woe, I actually dont think there is anything you can do about it – the failings are fundamental and structural. As follows:
No large-team, end-game content.
The capacity to play and run with a team of 10-25 people through strategic team instances is probably the most compelling and stimulating gaming that 80% of MMO players live for. Its the major factor that keeps people playing and keeps them teamed and focussed together. In GW2 large team instances are absent. They do not exist and there are no plans for it – quite the opposite.
No large team access to WvW.
The party size entry to WvW is limited to 5. The only way around this is to pay 100G for a Guild to enter as a team. This amount of Gold is unthinkable for many months to come. Instead we are restricted to 5 people in party at a time (assuming you can get a spot in WvW anyway with the excessivly long queues)
Tournament events with restricted entry.
There is the option for structured PVP and even 8 v 8 teams. However, a special ticket is required to enter and if willing particpants dont have the ticket you cant get into the event. It’s hard to see why on every level GW2 is trying to prevent, limit, restrict or even eliminate large team/party gaming
Multiple Guild membership.
The glue that holds other games together is a combination of adherents. Large team instances to stimulate plus Guild community, friendship, loyalty and bonding. With the capacity for players to jump from Guild to Guild at the flcik of a switch the opportunity to build a proper game sustaining environment is seriously inhibited and perhaps permanently damaged.
Many other games have tried to lead the way in a new modern era of MMO. All have failed to make a major impact becuase of some of the reasons above. GW2 has all of the shortcomings above – depsite having been by far the most promising, the most stimulating and the perhaps the last opportunity in along line of attempts. It’s hard to see how the community and the gaming stimulus can be maintained in this fashion. If GW2 fails this wil be the one that hurts most of all. Why oh why did GW2 miss the basic but critical fundamentals of what keeps a major MMO going. How is it possible to miss ALL of them?
I will press on in the hope that something appears somewhere, sometime to bring people together but I have a sinking feeling already that this can only end one way. It may be back to WOW MOP in weeks time (please no!) which even though it looks like the Flinstones, has all the elements required to keep people playing and teamed together. In the meantime I’ll eandeavour to find ways to sustain the hopes, aspirations and disappointments of our 75+ Guild members so far. At the moment there is little they can do to play together, except huddle all over the place in small fractured teams of 5, in short-term unstimulating activity. It doesnt bode well.
Please, please, please I hope that your listening Arena, though I doubt there is much you can do now. I guess we wont get any feedback anyway since even crtitical and frustrating support calls only ever get an unhelpful auto-reply. However, I did see the News on the log-in page explaining that the end-game content is in fact before our very eyes, its just that we’re too daft to see it
This announcement only shows by its existence the amount of negative feedback surrounding the end-game content that there must have been already – and most people dont even realise yet!
I remain scratching my head and wondering how on earch, with the one shot golden opportunity you had you could have missed the very core componenets for sustainable and stimulating long-term MMO. In the end its not my opinion that counts, its everyones. However, sadly I believe that what’s obvious to the gamer (myslef included) has just not been seen at all by Arenanet. I’m dumbfounded!
If only there was a way you could sort it out.
Thanks for trying though.
Cheers
Simon