Guild Wars 2

Marthkus.4615:

OMNIBUS.2913:

people run the same 3 fast fractals over and over making it extremely repetitive and boring.

Have you considered not running the same 3 fractals? Oh wait no that’s ridiculous. Have to grind content as fast as possible. Fast > Fun

ANET probably has to address this issue before adding new fractals no one will bother playing. Soon you’ll be attuned to the first fractal you roll and HAVE to do it, or every reroll increases the difficulty level without increasing rewards.

No, I just stopped running fractals. Can’t blame people for taking the easiest route when there is no benefit to running longer ones. Even if they were different rolled fractals u have to go through like before it would still be boring. There are still no new fractals and it’s not like I haven’t been through all the old ones millions of times. But I do think the new dailies for fractal was a mistake the way the implemented it.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I
The only thing that matters is: are you having fun? If you’re not, then what difference could it possible make if there are 5 million people playing? If you are having fun, why would you care if there are “only” 100,000 playing?

The amount of people are a direct relation to “Fun” in WvW/PvP.

The less peole there are to bloody the axe with, the less fun the game becomes overall, from that perspective.

Marthkus.4615:

IMHO: Season 1 temp content was a bad idea.

Changing the world slowly is cool like blowing up lions arch, but having a whole plot arch be temp was dumb. It was cool for players at the time, but terrible on the longterm, as anyone could have guessed.

Season 2 is just a way to prevent players from coming back by locking the interconnecting plot arch between Zhaitan and Mordremoth behind micro transactions. Still not as kitteneason 1 for long term game health.

Yes. If they should have just released 12 (or so) new PvE maps (based on the core game) and a continuation of the personal story line at about the 1 1/2" year mark, with more expansions to follow.

Changing the game to a platform-format took it in the wrong direction.

Edit: and killing Lions Arch for as long as they did was a huge mistake. That used to be a central meeting place to advertise your guild, recruit others, etc.

Soon.5240:

Marthkus.4615:

IMHO: Season 1 temp content was a bad idea.

Changing the world slowly is cool like blowing up lions arch, but having a whole plot arch be temp was dumb. It was cool for players at the time, but terrible on the longterm, as anyone could have guessed.

Season 2 is just a way to prevent players from coming back by locking the interconnecting plot arch between Zhaitan and Mordremoth behind micro transactions. Still not as kitteneason 1 for long term game health.

Yes. If they should have just released 12 (or so) new PvE maps (based on the core game) and a continuation of the personal story line at about the 1 1/2" year mark, with more expansions to follow.

Changing the game to a platform-format took it in the wrong direction.

Edit: and killing Lions Arch for as long as they did was a huge mistake. That used to be a central meeting place to advertise your guild, recruit others, etc.

If they had done 12 maps like the core maps then we’d still be in the same situation we are now.

GW2 had platforming since release. Jumping puzzles required it as well as many many vistas. The new maps don’t require any more platforming than the old one. The only difference being that some HoT maps have multiple layers as opposed to just one.

Soon.5240:

Marthkus.4615:

IMHO: Season 1 temp content was a bad idea.

Changing the world slowly is cool like blowing up lions arch, but having a whole plot arch be temp was dumb. It was cool for players at the time, but terrible on the longterm, as anyone could have guessed.

Season 2 is just a way to prevent players from coming back by locking the interconnecting plot arch between Zhaitan and Mordremoth behind micro transactions. Still not as kitteneason 1 for long term game health.

Yes. If they should have just released 12 (or so) new PvE maps (based on the core game) and a continuation of the personal story line at about the 1 1/2" year mark, with more expansions to follow.

Changing the game to a platform-format took it in the wrong direction.

Edit: and killing Lions Arch for as long as they did was a huge mistake. That used to be a central meeting place to advertise your guild, recruit others, etc.

If they’d released 12 new maps like the original, I’d have been bored with them already. I’d go through them a couple of times and I’d be done.

Anyway they didn’t change the game into a platformer. There’s no more platforming in HoT than there was in the original game.

I’ll agree with you on the LA thing, they left it down for too long. I think they wanted to spread people out for server reasons, but I think the game was better when it had a more central hub.

Mario style mini-games that are required for mastery points. It sure seems that platforming has become more emphasized in HoT. If there isn’t more platforming there certainly is more Nintendo in this expac.

I agree that the 12 maps like the original would have been better. I spent two weeks in HoT maps and found there was nothing making me come back. They are beautiful but they just don’t have any lasting charm for me. I may be biased as the Sylvari in general and the jungle have never interested me even in the vanilla game. I prefer the flat maps to 3 tiered maps though.

Vayne.8563:

Anyway they didn’t change the game into a platformer. There’s no more platforming in HoT than there was in the original game.

Whole HoT is one big jumping platformer. On timer. There is nothing worse then platformers on timer.

Adventures are not even comparable to old Tyria JP. Only thing those JP gave was some AP and they were always there, always available and you could take your time while doing them. I did a lot of them using engi Jump Shot while following guide from web. I used mesmer portal on few timed JP. Took me pretty long time but I did them.

I will never even finish most HoT adventures. I don’t mean “earn gold” for actual MPs and finishing countless collections, but I mean just get to the finish. They are not available when I want to play them. They ALL have timers. Yeah, I got few gold from those stupid ones you walk in first time wihtout even knowing whats happening and get Gold chest.

FogLeg.9354:

Vayne.8563:

Anyway they didn’t change the game into a platformer. There’s no more platforming in HoT than there was in the original game.

Whole HoT is one big jumping platformer. On timer. There is nothing worse then platformers on timer.

Adventures are not even comparable to old Tyria JP. Only thing those JP gave was some AP and they were always there, always available and you could take your time while doing them. I did a lot of them using engi Jump Shot while following guide from web. I used mesmer portal on few timed JP. Took me pretty long time but I did them.

I will never even finish most HoT adventures. I don’t mean “earn gold” for actual MPs and finishing countless collections, but I mean just get to the finish. They are not available when I want to play them. They ALL have timers. Yeah, I got few gold from those stupid ones you walk in first time wihtout even knowing whats happening and get Gold chest.

I have a whole lot of people in my guild who can’t do jumping puzzles that get along just fine in HoT. My experience is that they need about as much help getting around HoT as they did around core Tyria.

Since jumping mushrooms take you where you need to go they’re more like a teleport than something out of a platforming game. Gliding isn’t jumping either.

Vayne.8563:

If they’d released 12 new maps like the original, I’d have been bored with them already. I’d go through them a couple of times and I’d be done.

How are these maps different in that respect?

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

If they’d released 12 new maps like the original, I’d have been bored with them already. I’d go through them a couple of times and I’d be done.

How are these maps different in that respect?

There’s a complexity to them. For example, I love going up to the canopy to get around in VB without ever touching the ground. Figuring out which updrafts I need to take. Or how to get to the canopy without updrafts.

More than that the difficulty means they’re not braindead easy for me. I can die if I don’t pay attention. That’s not always or even usually the case in core Tyria. In fact, the increase in difficulty means I can still after a couple of months find better ways to do things, which in core Tyria isn’t really necessary.

I mean to me, it doesn’t matter if I take 1 second or 1.5 to kill something. I have to change up what I do to survive in the new maps.

I find that refreshing.

Honestly, I stayed around because I really loved Mesmer and WvW. WvW in barren and Mesmer/ chronomancer was nerfed extremely hard. There is very little left for me to enjoy in the game anymore. I’ve played Mesmer since before the glamour nerf, I’ve played through nerfs before, but I’m tired of this cycle of finding something I enjoy in Mesmer, just to have it nerfed into oblivion. It feels like Anet gives me toys just to smash it with a hammer, over and over again. So I decided to break the cycle and leave till Anet gets their kitten together.

Vayne.8563:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

If they’d released 12 new maps like the original, I’d have been bored with them already. I’d go through them a couple of times and I’d be done.

How are these maps different in that respect?

There’s a complexity to them. For example, I love going up to the canopy to get around in VB without ever touching the ground. Figuring out which updrafts I need to take. Or how to get to the canopy without updrafts.

More than that the difficulty means they’re not braindead easy for me. I can die if I don’t pay attention. That’s not always or even usually the case in core Tyria. In fact, the increase in difficulty means I can still after a couple of months find better ways to do things, which in core Tyria isn’t really necessary.

I mean to me, it doesn’t matter if I take 1 second or 1.5 to kill something. I have to change up what I do to survive in the new maps.

I find that refreshing.

I can’t say I recognize any of that. What complexity there is to the maps stems from needing to learn their layouts. After going over them once, they become as trivial to navigate as core maps. To me at least. I have no trouble navigating TD and I can map it in under an hour not counting Hero Challenges. Maybe I’m an exception. I’ve always had a keen awareness of direction and spatial relationships. In any case, I find the emphasis on transit boring and pointless. No map requires more than 2 hours to complete, barring some things that might be unavailable at certain times. Unsurprisingly, because map completion doesn’t require combat apart from 4 or 5 hero challenges per map. It’s all just travel and travel is trivial, even on HoT maps. Perhaps even moreso than core maps because of all the shortcuts one can take.

As to the fights: I kill what I can kill easily and skip what takes more time. Taking time on harder kills isn’t worth it anyway. Not from a game-mechanics point of view, nor from a roleplaying point of view. I have no motivation to kill something like, say, a arrowhead veteran.

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

Manasa Devi.7958:

Vayne.8563:

If they’d released 12 new maps like the original, I’d have been bored with them already. I’d go through them a couple of times and I’d be done.

How are these maps different in that respect?

There’s a complexity to them. For example, I love going up to the canopy to get around in VB without ever touching the ground. Figuring out which updrafts I need to take. Or how to get to the canopy without updrafts.

More than that the difficulty means they’re not braindead easy for me. I can die if I don’t pay attention. That’s not always or even usually the case in core Tyria. In fact, the increase in difficulty means I can still after a couple of months find better ways to do things, which in core Tyria isn’t really necessary.

I mean to me, it doesn’t matter if I take 1 second or 1.5 to kill something. I have to change up what I do to survive in the new maps.

I find that refreshing.

I can’t say I recognize any of that. What complexity there is to the maps stems from needing to learn their layouts. After going over them once, they become as trivial to navigate as core maps. To me at least. I have no trouble navigating TD and I can map it in under an hour not counting Hero Challenges. Maybe I’m an exception. I’ve always had a keen awareness of direction and spatial relationships. In any case, I find the emphasis on transit boring and pointless. No map requires more than 2 hours to complete, barring some things that might be unavailable at certain times. Unsurprisingly, because map completion doesn’t require combat apart from 4 or 5 hero challenges per map. It’s all just travel and travel is trivial, even on HoT maps. Perhaps even moreso than core maps because of all the shortcuts one can take.

As to the fights: I kill what I can kill easily and skip what takes more time. Taking time on harder kills isn’t worth it anyway. Not from a game-mechanics point of view, nor from a roleplaying point of view. I have no motivation to kill something like, say, a arrowhead veteran.

I understand how you feel. It’s just how I feel. I know at least a few other people who feel the way I do, so I assume there’s more of us out there. I assume there many who feel the way you do to. That’s the trouble sometimes.

You can’t make a game that will please everyone.

kdaddy.5431:

Before HOT came out i was always around the 850-950 on the leader board when it came to achievement points. I havent done many of the PvE achievement points and the new event stuff. Ive tried to join raids but every group i join fails and its a big blame game. I didnt enjoy the new WvW and PvP has been stale.

There is alot of people defending HOT and i agree that the PvE areas are amazing but for someone who plays all of the game and mostly sticks to PvP and WvW this expansion didnt do much for me. I for the last 2-3 weeks have been only doing dailies and started to play other games. Yet i am now at 756 on the AP leader board. Which means that the 200+ people who were always in front of me quit playing the game.

People will probably sit here and say ohhh we dont need them this game is great. Others will say whats not to like we got raids, PvP, WvW, updated bosses, this game is great.

I sit here in the middle since i love core GW2. Before HOT came out there were only a few things i didnt like and i loved the rest of it. Ive played alot hours with the new HOT and i just want to state like in my other posts that i didnt enjoy it but i didnt hate it. I hate the story of HOT, love the PvE area and gliders, i wished we had mounts, i wanted more PvP maps, fractals are what they are, WvW was destroyed, Guild halls look amazing but simply put they are huge toilets for mats and no one goes there.

Its just hard that this game was a game for a good 1-2 years when it came out that my guild loved this game and came on daily. Now with little patch updates, no new content, frustrating parts of the game such as bugs and unfulfilling story content and the biggest seperation of a player base that was already dwindling. Im just wondering if anyone else is noticing that the game seems to have less and less people playing it? And if you guys are just wondering if Anet is working on making the game fun again and not just for PvE players.

Cant rly rally on AP, i gave up on it since months before HoT cuz it doesnt impact on my gaming and i dont like most of daylis they offers :/

I mostly camp fractals and craft cuz nothing else to do and nothing of what i do has a place in that daylis board soo i dont force myself into activity i dislike for 10 AP

I miss old time when daylis was a monthly thing you could spend ur time on it then no need to worry till the next month

Based on the volume of certain markets, I would agree that there’s been a decrease in play time of veteran players.

rogerwilko.6895:

My guild is dead.
I’ve been watching https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/community/lookingfor for a suitable guild but not much happening in EU. Mostly new/small guilds or a couple of big ‘elite’ ones.

I still log in from time to time for the chest and from time to time for Teq, but that’s it.

The money and time was mostly well spend for the past 3 years, but times have changed, it’s 2016, and AN seams too slow to adapt (it’s not interested in pleasing too many players, IMO; they have a decent thing going on, small investment and decent $ output).

I’m one of those ‘old’ casuals who would rather read a book than Waste (yes waste) half an hour to one hour in search of a suitable DS meta organized map. The new zones are not ‘fun’, the dungeons are dead, and I was looking to have 1-2 hours of Fun when I can.
Currently GW2 is not that.

To the ones who say it only takes them a couple of minutes to find a suitable DS / AB meta map: I don’t believe you.

To the ones asking about GW2 alternatives, mines are:
– http://www.goodreads.com/
– a game called Destiny (raids & dungeons & Fun )

yours truly, a filthy casual.

You’re joking right? Google “GW2 HoT Timer.” I prejoin each meta about 10-15 minutes prior… Also Destiny? Really? You’re discredited get outta here. That game was truly awful.

I don’t really understand the hardcore hype. I got HoT around a week ago. Literally destroyed the campaign in all zerk gear without dying once, and got the hang of pretty much every meta and how everything works. SPvP is in its off-season, PvE has never been better, and WvW is still glorious on the tier 1 circuit.

You guys play this game wrong.

Sinzaku.2980:

kdaddy.5431:

Before HOT came out i was always around the 850-950 on the leader board when it came to achievement points. I havent done many of the PvE achievement points and the new event stuff. Ive tried to join raids but every group i join fails and its a big blame game. I didnt enjoy the new WvW and PvP has been stale.

There is alot of people defending HOT and i agree that the PvE areas are amazing but for someone who plays all of the game and mostly sticks to PvP and WvW this expansion didnt do much for me. I for the last 2-3 weeks have been only doing dailies and started to play other games. Yet i am now at 756 on the AP leader board. Which means that the 200+ people who were always in front of me quit playing the game.

People will probably sit here and say ohhh we dont need them this game is great. Others will say whats not to like we got raids, PvP, WvW, updated bosses, this game is great.

I sit here in the middle since i love core GW2. Before HOT came out there were only a few things i didnt like and i loved the rest of it. Ive played alot hours with the new HOT and i just want to state like in my other posts that i didnt enjoy it but i didnt hate it. I hate the story of HOT, love the PvE area and gliders, i wished we had mounts, i wanted more PvP maps, fractals are what they are, WvW was destroyed, Guild halls look amazing but simply put they are huge toilets for mats and no one goes there.

Its just hard that this game was a game for a good 1-2 years when it came out that my guild loved this game and came on daily. Now with little patch updates, no new content, frustrating parts of the game such as bugs and unfulfilling story content and the biggest seperation of a player base that was already dwindling. Im just wondering if anyone else is noticing that the game seems to have less and less people playing it? And if you guys are just wondering if Anet is working on making the game fun again and not just for PvE players.

Cant rly rally on AP, i gave up on it since months before HoT cuz it doesnt impact on my gaming and i dont like most of daylis they offers :/

I mostly camp fractals and craft cuz nothing else to do and nothing of what i do has a place in that daylis board soo i dont force myself into activity i dislike for 10 AP

I miss old time when daylis was a monthly thing you could spend ur time on it then no need to worry till the next month

Ohh it was just weird to me that i was always around 850 in ap for the last year or so and now getting into the top 700. I mean it takes me 5 minutes since i grab what ever PvP daily winner is go into a game and win and then head out.

Yeah i miss having stuff to work towards like weeklys and monthlys. The problem was that alot of us were finishing the monthlys in 4 days.

I just wanted to bring some attention to this because it doesnt help with a overall population issue with the game but im just trying to address a situation with veteran players in the game.

For a MMO to me veteran players are the lifeforce of the game. Elite level PvP players give players new to the game and coming up are excited to see so called players. For instance when i started seeing Ostrich Eggs in PvP matches for solo and team que i was like this is awesome.

In WvW when certain commanders could take towers and keeps and we were vastly out numbered i was like i will follow this guy any day. This goes the same for PvE maps that take coordination for a understand of the map i do not know.

When im in TS with some of my guild mates, we run into PvP players who tell people how to rotate and we are like thats wrong, no you cant grab beast there, nope thats a bunker and should left a bunker to fight it instead of trying to 2 vs 1 it with stillness and trang up, etc etc. We can see it across the game where the commanders taggin up are inexperienced and the mentors who tag are kind of a joke.

I wasnt trying to say that because of MY AP points the game is dying but instead saying the veteran players of the game are not playing anymore. Lord helseth posted a PvP video of him trolling because the players in his PvP match were no where near his level and was sitting back wondering how much a waste of time it was for him to be playing these people.

Pointing out that with HOT expansion that there is still nothing for veteran players to do to me shows they failed in the design of end game content for the serious players of the game.

lmao, you want to make dailies into weeklies or monthlies? some people truly post for the benefit of the game huh, lmaooo

id imagine some people did stop playing but i’ve also seen many new players come into the game. it probably balances out, might even be more people what with the free to play accounts

Roxanne.6140:

lmao, you want to make dailies into weeklies or monthlies? some people truly post for the benefit of the game huh, lmaooo

you do know we use to have dailies, weeklys and monthly right?

kdaddy.5431:

Roxanne.6140:

lmao, you want to make dailies into weeklies or monthlies? some people truly post for the benefit of the game huh, lmaooo

you do know we use to have dailies, weeklys and monthly right?

and i miss those

I haven’t logged in for a few months, I thought HoT would be weeks of unexplored content only to find out it was something you could do in just a day.
That’s it for me.

Why are we using leaderboards as an example of looking at player population? Surely that doesn’t prove anything considering:

1) The majority of veteran players fall under the “90%” zone.
2) A rise in new players won’t show because they start off with 0AP.

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

gennyt.3428:

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Guild Wars has never done an expansion that was an entire continent.

Ayrilana.1396:

gennyt.3428:

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Guild Wars has never done an expansion that was an entire continent.

Picking a really tiny nit here. Can we please drop the stupid excuse of stand-alone game v. expansion. Bringing it up serves no purpose beyond obfuscation and a silly attempt to “win” the internet.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

gennyt.3428:

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Guild Wars has never done an expansion that was an entire continent.

Picking a really tiny nit here. Can we please drop the stupid excuse of stand-alone game v. expansion. Bringing it up serves no purpose beyond obfuscation and a silly attempt to “win” the internet.

I agree. I remember when Factions came out and it was an entire continent. But it has 13 story missions, 11 of which you had to complete and about 200 quests all up. I think HOT and Factions aren’t that far out as far as size of the expansion goes when it comes to playable content.

I also remember that Factions was heavily pathed, had no Z axis and was far more linear, but then, we all have different memories.

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

gennyt.3428:

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Guild Wars has never done an expansion that was an entire continent.

Picking a really tiny nit here. Can we please drop the stupid excuse of stand-alone game v. expansion. Bringing it up serves no purpose beyond obfuscation and a silly attempt to “win” the internet.

I know. I only bring it up because there are those whose position regarding that changes depending on whether it would support their argument or not. If standalone and expansion being the same thing supports their argument, then they treat them as the same. If not, they treat them as being different.

Vayne.8563:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

gennyt.3428:

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Guild Wars has never done an expansion that was an entire continent.

Picking a really tiny nit here. Can we please drop the stupid excuse of stand-alone game v. expansion. Bringing it up serves no purpose beyond obfuscation and a silly attempt to “win” the internet.

I agree. I remember when Factions came out and it was an entire continent. But it has 13 story missions, 11 of which you had to complete and about 200 quests all up. I think HOT and Factions aren’t that far out as far as size of the expansion goes when it comes to playable content.

I also remember that Factions was heavily pathed, had no Z axis and was far more linear, but then, we all have different memories.

Also agreed. Factions has its flaws (when I go back to GW1 now I certainly miss the ability to jump over a log and go where I want) and a lot of people seem to not have liked the aesthetics of the city. I certainly preferred Prophecies over factions (but liked Factions more than either Nightfall or EotN). But four new guild halls, two new professions, A lot of new skills (and more repeats of existing skills than I think was appropriate to be honest), three new PvP modes, something like 8 or 10? armor sets for each of 8 professions, and I don’t even know how many new weapon skins.

Ashen.2907:

Vayne.8563:

IndigoSundown.5419:

Ayrilana.1396:

gennyt.3428:

Remember when GW expansions were whole continents?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Guild Wars has never done an expansion that was an entire continent.

Picking a really tiny nit here. Can we please drop the stupid excuse of stand-alone game v. expansion. Bringing it up serves no purpose beyond obfuscation and a silly attempt to “win” the internet.

I agree. I remember when Factions came out and it was an entire continent. But it has 13 story missions, 11 of which you had to complete and about 200 quests all up. I think HOT and Factions aren’t that far out as far as size of the expansion goes when it comes to playable content.

I also remember that Factions was heavily pathed, had no Z axis and was far more linear, but then, we all have different memories.

Also agreed. Factions has its flaws (when I go back to GW1 now I certainly miss the ability to jump over a log and go where I want) and a lot of people seem to not have liked the aesthetics of the city. I certainly preferred Prophecies over factions (but liked Factions more than either Nightfall or EotN). But four new guild halls, two new professions, A lot of new skills (and more repeats of existing skills than I think was appropriate to be honest), three new PvP modes, something like 8 or 10? armor sets for each of 8 professions, and I don’t even know how many new weapon skins.

But skins aren’t content to me. I don’t play skins. Skins are rewards to me. Yes, it’s nice they’re there, but it won’t make my game play better per se.

The amount of playable content in Factions was pretty large anyway…except that it was linear play. I once completed all four guild wars games in a single week with a friend. The content in the story in all four games is not as much as people think. They remember what they remember, but after the leveling, its’ all pretty fast.

The bottom line is you had 2 elite dungeons which I did once each, and PvP which I barely did at all. For PvE content, it was pretty thin on the ground on Factions.

Not to mention it was a different time, and a much simpler game to program for. It’s always easy when you know an instance can only hold 8 people no more.

I noticed a drop in players, too. But… probably not where you guys have. I’m an avid forumer. I pay attention to the speed at which topics and threads move, and for awhile now the forum has been going at a snails pace. It is the slowest that I’ve ever seen it, really.

Although I do have a theory about this. It isn’t so much a “HoT is bad” as much as it is a “HoT wasn’t good enough” theory. Here’s how it goes: the thing with advertising and hyping up an expansion pack is that it can be theoretically anything. It can be the worst thing to happen ever in the history of gaming, but in general people like to speculate about how awesome everything will become. Because of this, the era before the release of an expansion pack is one of the busiest times for an MMO. It is full of people speculating and preparing for stuff that might be fun, as well as those players who are getting a last hurrah out of a game that they will fear to change.

But, once an expansion pack is released, then the infinite possibilities built up by expectations all come crashing down into a singular reality. In this moment, you will loose players based not only on how good the expansion pack is, but how high their expectations were. It doesn’t matter if something is only a minor nuisance. If it isn’t awesome, its the worst thing since EA. So after the pre-pack surge, you’ll get a pack surge when people actually buy it, then you’ll get a dramatic fall off afterward.

DeWolfe.2174:

Based on the volume of certain markets, I would agree that there’s been a decrease in play time of veteran players.

Of course they stopped playing. They might (or might not) come back when the new raid wing is out. For a few weeks. Then leave again. I’m afking in our GH while playing other games. I make metrics happy and reply in guild chat with a delay of up to 10 minutes.

Works perfectly.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I noticed a drop in players, too. But… probably not where you guys have. I’m an avid forumer. I pay attention to the speed at which topics and threads move, and for awhile now the forum has been going at a snails pace. It is the slowest that I’ve ever seen it, really.

Although I do have a theory about this. It isn’t so much a “HoT is bad” as much as it is a “HoT wasn’t good enough” theory. Here’s how it goes: the thing with advertising and hyping up an expansion pack is that it can be theoretically anything. It can be the worst thing to happen ever in the history of gaming, but in general people like to speculate about how awesome everything will become. Because of this, the era before the release of an expansion pack is one of the busiest times for an MMO. It is full of people speculating and preparing for stuff that might be fun, as well as those players who are getting a last hurrah out of a game that they will fear to change.

But, once an expansion pack is released, then the infinite possibilities built up by expectations all come crashing down into a singular reality. In this moment, you will loose players based not only on how good the expansion pack is, but how high their expectations were. It doesn’t matter if something is only a minor nuisance. If it isn’t awesome, its the worst thing since EA. So after the pre-pack surge, you’ll get a pack surge when people actually buy it, then you’ll get a dramatic fall off afterward.

I’ve also noticed a downturn in forum use. I’ve seen similar downturns before. It seems to happen in gaps between releases. Right now, there’s almost nothing being hyped. There’s not a lot on the radar. HOT is old news, and the topics on it are repetitive as heck. The forums will pick up a bit when (if) the next “big” content release is announced.

That said, forum activity in this downturn seems more sluggish than the last one, which is more sluggish than the prior one. It’s probably a reflection of the game aging.

I’m not surprised there’s a downturn on the forums. Some long time players have left the game, and the new free to play players who replaced those players can’t post here. Reddit, on the other hand, has about the same number of people viewing reddit as it always did.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I noticed a drop in players, too. But… probably not where you guys have. I’m an avid forumer. I pay attention to the speed at which topics and threads move, and for awhile now the forum has been going at a snails pace. It is the slowest that I’ve ever seen it, really.

Although I do have a theory about this. It isn’t so much a “HoT is bad” as much as it is a “HoT wasn’t good enough” theory. Here’s how it goes: the thing with advertising and hyping up an expansion pack is that it can be theoretically anything. It can be the worst thing to happen ever in the history of gaming, but in general people like to speculate about how awesome everything will become. Because of this, the era before the release of an expansion pack is one of the busiest times for an MMO. It is full of people speculating and preparing for stuff that might be fun, as well as those players who are getting a last hurrah out of a game that they will fear to change.

But, once an expansion pack is released, then the infinite possibilities built up by expectations all come crashing down into a singular reality. In this moment, you will loose players based not only on how good the expansion pack is, but how high their expectations were. It doesn’t matter if something is only a minor nuisance. If it isn’t awesome, its the worst thing since EA. So after the pre-pack surge, you’ll get a pack surge when people actually buy it, then you’ll get a dramatic fall off afterward.

I try not to follow hype. Im talking actual in game content. If i suggest a game to my friends or talk about it on FB it has to be good.

What happened for me was GW2 the core game was awesome. The story had cheesy voice acting but it was believable and had depth. The PvE content was awesome from jumping puzzles, vistas, World Bosses and chain events that effect the area. PvP was top notch and IMO the best PvP of any MMO.

GW2 HOT is exactly what you said, It isnt bad but it just not as good and didnt add much to the core game. We got new elite specs which have gotten mixed reviews from people across the board but as someone who mostly PvP it really pigeon toed everything.

I wont go into a full review of the game but simply put nothing got better. No one is saying HOT is bad, its just isnt something you say to your friends you have to play this game because your not missing anything if you dont.

kdaddy.5431:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

I noticed a drop in players, too. But… probably not where you guys have. I’m an avid forumer. I pay attention to the speed at which topics and threads move, and for awhile now the forum has been going at a snails pace. It is the slowest that I’ve ever seen it, really.

Although I do have a theory about this. It isn’t so much a “HoT is bad” as much as it is a “HoT wasn’t good enough” theory. Here’s how it goes: the thing with advertising and hyping up an expansion pack is that it can be theoretically anything. It can be the worst thing to happen ever in the history of gaming, but in general people like to speculate about how awesome everything will become. Because of this, the era before the release of an expansion pack is one of the busiest times for an MMO. It is full of people speculating and preparing for stuff that might be fun, as well as those players who are getting a last hurrah out of a game that they will fear to change.

But, once an expansion pack is released, then the infinite possibilities built up by expectations all come crashing down into a singular reality. In this moment, you will loose players based not only on how good the expansion pack is, but how high their expectations were. It doesn’t matter if something is only a minor nuisance. If it isn’t awesome, its the worst thing since EA. So after the pre-pack surge, you’ll get a pack surge when people actually buy it, then you’ll get a dramatic fall off afterward.

I try not to follow hype. Im talking actual in game content. If i suggest a game to my friends or talk about it on FB it has to be good.

What happened for me was GW2 the core game was awesome. The story had cheesy voice acting but it was believable and had depth. The PvE content was awesome from jumping puzzles, vistas, World Bosses and chain events that effect the area. PvP was top notch and IMO the best PvP of any MMO.

GW2 HOT is exactly what you said, It isnt bad but it just not as good and didnt add much to the core game. We got new elite specs which have gotten mixed reviews from people across the board but as someone who mostly PvP it really pigeon toed everything.

I wont go into a full review of the game but simply put nothing got better. No one is saying HOT is bad, its just isnt something you say to your friends you have to play this game because your not missing anything if you dont.

WOW perfect description, I (my opinion only) could not agree with you more… Awesome post and description.

People are finding other, more fun, things to do.

HoT was a complete disaster by many of our standards and, IMHO, the cost of HoT was not worth the content Anet delivered on the Launch of HoT.

They are focusing to much on Esports (Class nerf/balancing), and the Gemstore(Gliders? Not one is obtainable in game normally).

Where is LS3?
Where are the rest of the legendaries?
Where are the rest of the Raids? (what about the Raid balancing??!!)
Where is the rest of what HoT promised us?

Anet has let many of us down (myself included) and that’s a line of trust that is going to be very hard to buy back from us. Similar stuff happened back when SOE was in control of Everquest and many players left and never came back(My self included too). The ONLY thing that GW2 has going for it is the no subscription aspect, as once you buy it you are ‘stuck’ with it. So there is no ‘quiting’ persay.

But I will probably never buy another expansion. Especially if its like another HoT delivery.

sirsquishy.8531:

HoT was a complete disaster by many of our standards and, IMHO, the cost of HoT was not worth the content Anet delivered on the Launch of HoT.
.

I do want to point out that this is an opinion as many others felt otherwise.

As far as population numbers go, this happens after every expansion around this time regardless as to whether it were successful or not.

Ayrilana.1396:

sirsquishy.8531:

HoT was a complete disaster by many of our standards and, IMHO, the cost of HoT was not worth the content Anet delivered on the Launch of HoT.
.

I do want to point out that this is an opinion as many others felt otherwise.

As far as population numbers go, this happens after every expansion around this time regardless as to whether it were successful or not.

yup its an opinion, but one I stand by.

There is something wrong when i’ve spent almost 3 years enjoying “old” tyria content before getting bored and enjoying 4 weeks of HoT before getting bored AND i didn’t rush anything…

I was there and did whatever there was to do and i won’t force myself to grind 100 times the same event to get some map-dosh to buy some useless stuff just to show-off.
I haven’t done this in GW2 Tyria and won’t do it in GW2 HoT – therefore there is nothing for me left in HoT i guess, this explains why i only login 2-3 times per week to…

I don’t know why im still logging in… Maybe hoping in vain that something will be added…

There are probably many people doing same thing as me until they realize its time to let go and move to something new.

(SAB(( )

Frediosz.2718:

There is something wrong when i’ve spent almost 3 years enjoying “old” tyria content before getting bored and enjoying 4 weeks of HoT before getting bored AND i didn’t rush anything…

I was there and did whatever there was to do and i won’t force myself to grind 100 times the same event to get some map-dosh to buy some useless stuff just to show-off.
I haven’t done this in GW2 Tyria and won’t do it in GW2 HoT – therefore there is nothing for me left in HoT i guess, this explains why i only login 2-3 times per week to…

I don’t know why im still logging in… Maybe hoping in vain that something will be added…

There are probably many people doing same thing as me until they realize its time to let go and move to something new.

(SAB(( )

You couldn’t have said it better. I am in the same boat. 3 years in old content, bored rarely. HoT comes around and bored after 2 months? And the kicker is, I’m also now starting to get bored of the core game now too…maybe that’s just my disappointment from HoT.

If this game was a subscription based game, I would have canceled my Sub 3-4 weeks ago…just sayin….

Last time I went to AB for the meta event, the octovine phase was started, but no one was at the gates. Do people just do the pylon events and just leave? Seen this several times. I want to move on with things on HoT, but the population is so scarce that I can’t get anything done. Would be nice if things were a bit more soloable.

Asumita.2174:

Last time I went to AB for the meta event, the octovine phase was started, but no one was at the gates. Do people just do the pylon events and just leave? Seen this several times. I want to move on with things on HoT, but the population is so scarce that I can’t get anything done. Would be nice if things were a bit more soloable.

Using lfg. I was on a T4 hot map just yesterday. People do it all the time. But they don’t do it on every map, in the same way some Silverwastes maps are chest farm maps and some are doing the meta.

GreyWolf.8670:

I haven’t logged in for weeks now and honestly this is the first time I’ve even looked at the forum in about a week, too. If ArenaNet doesn’t bother to address players’ issues soon I’ll just stop checking here, too.

No, I’m not going to Reddit or Twitter.

same here. the main reason i used to play gw2 was wvw, but i didnt mind an occasional pve farm frenzy to actually makes gold for wvw or get a skin. well anet destroyed wvw beyond repair and many many many of us left and yes many of us pve’d to get mats and gold for wvw competitive play. gg anet ….btw we told u desert bl would be terrible …but u never cared.