Guild Wars 2

There are still quite a few things that have me worried about HoT, but I expect most of them to be dismissed later on as we get more information. One I do not expect to be come a non-issue is that of power creep and content relevancy.

“But way!” you may say “there is no vertical progression, so there can’t be a power creep!”

But something a lot of people in the MMO community tends to forget is that power creep comes in many forms. Guild Wars 1 had no vertical progression at all – no raised level cap, no larger skill bars or higher attribute cap, no better gear stats, etc. But it still suffered from power creep. Even if you ignore the addition of heroes, Prophecies content became far easier than Nightfall, Eye of the North, and Beyond content. This “ease of old content” took many forms: available skills and professions for players (both with stronger skills and stronger combinations of skills), and enemies being more complex (compare the enemies of Prophecies to that of Nightfall, or those of Nightfall to those of Beyond) are just two major cases. Naturally, improved henchmen builds and the addition of heroes (and later the extended number of heroes a single player can bring to a party) all attributed to this as well. Now, even if you go full henchmen, Prophecies is far easier than what it was in 2005 or even 2006.

With Heart of Thorns, we see specializations, masteries, new dynamic event systems, and so forth. With Season 2 we’ve began to see some power creep in the new maps. Silverwastes is far more profitable of a map than Orr, Frostgorge, or Southsun. The events in Silverwastes and Dry Top are more complex and challenging – for the most part – than events in Orr. As time goes on, the systems will advance more and more, enemies will become more complex. Older content will become more and more irrelevant – both because it becomes easier, and because it becomes less profitable. New maps means new rewards that the old maps can’t offer, and will often include some of the old rewards as well (such as T6 materials).

Even restricting masteries – all or some – to the new areas will not prevent it. Merely slow it, but likely not by much as the major issue comes from specializations and the complexity of event and enemies.

This issue happens to coincide with the problem of downscaling – as new content is made, it will be mostly (if not solely) for level 80 characters. Thus low level areas become less relevant as well. Downscaling only does so much currently, resulting in low level areas exceedingly simple for high level players as it is. Add in power creep? And it becomes even easier – something downscaling is meant to avoid.

TL;DR: I fear that, just like with Guild Wars 1, this expansion will create a power creep that makes old content irrelevant.

The question thus becomes: How do we prevent this?

Well, in my opinion, the “best” solution would be to rework the older content so that it can remain challenging even with the new progressions of the players, so that the old content remains as complex as the new content. Basically, do to the vanilla content what was done to Tequatl. Not every single bit, perhaps, but the majority of it.

But the issue in this comes in that as more content is designed to be more complex and more horizontal progression for players is made, more content needs to be revamped. And if you get too zealous in revamping, then those who don’t have access to the progression may not be able to beat the old content. Thus it really isn’t the best option.

I’ve said my 2 cents. I’m sad I don’t really have a plausible answer other than “ignore it” (a bad answer, if you ask me, but one Anet’s known for as GW1 shows). Thus I open the floor to others. What do you all think of this?

I’m curious, what’s so bad about old content becoming less relevant? Why is this something everyone, Anet included, is so concerned about?

I’ve never quite understood that.

I don’t want to visit the same places, see the same things, fight the same fights, and especially hear the same voices, over and over. I want new sights, new sounds, new challenges- and freaking new voices. The next time I level another character I’ll enjoy the nostalgia of the old stuff in a way I otherwise wouldn’t because it hasn’t been relevant to me for a while.

Hell, I’m already just about sick to death of fractals and I haven’t even played them enough that I don’t sometimes have to ask a question. I feel like I’m back raiding in WoW, only without the other 24 people to keep me entertained every night.

So, what’s the big deal about trying to keep old content relevant beyond leveling and very early endgame progression? I just don’t see the problem- it becomes irrelevant to me simply because it’s no longer as interesting. I hope I don’t get forced to do less interesting things to continue amassing wealth and power.

to be honest, the only solution is to rework old content, like you said, but that’s not a good solution.

that takes dev time and resources away from new experiences just to keep the old ones relevant.

there’s not much that can be done, short of “stop doing new things and just keep refining the old things”, and we saw just how “well” received that approach was in the first few years of GW2.

The problem with “old content” becoming irrelevant is basically defined by power creep.

And the inherent problem with power creep is it’s unfriendly to new players – notoriously unfriendly. Oh you hit level cap, but you’re useless until you get ____ which you have to go through 2+ expansions of content for.

That kind of thing.

Ezekiel.1985:

The problem with “old content” becoming irrelevant is basically defined by power creep.

And the inherent problem with power creep is it’s unfriendly to new players – notoriously unfriendly. Oh you hit level cap, but you’re useless until you get ____ which you have to go through 2+ expansions of content for.

That kind of thing.

Gotta agree here. As a player of many games, PowerCreep makes it extremely difficult to enter into new games, or new aspects of old ones. Think about PvP in any MMO except for this one? Your only option is be stomped on until you get enough power to compete.

I don’t know how HoT will affect it, but its an important topic to keep on the list of ‘Worries’.

Myxam.2790:

Ezekiel.1985:

The problem with “old content” becoming irrelevant is basically defined by power creep.

And the inherent problem with power creep is it’s unfriendly to new players – notoriously unfriendly. Oh you hit level cap, but you’re useless until you get ____ which you have to go through 2+ expansions of content for.

That kind of thing.

I don’t know how HoT will affect it, but its an important topic to keep on the list of ‘Worries’.

No its not. I was going to post in this thread earlier but decided against it, now this has changed my mind. Whatever people may think about the changes Anet have made to their game over the course of the last two and a bit years, the power creep has been negligible. Considering how much of a grip the devs seem to have on this aspect, one that has affected a lot of games, I can’t see them letting go of this. Obviously it may pan out differently but I don’t think so.

Silalus.8760:

I’m curious, what’s so bad about old content becoming less relevant? Why is this something everyone, Anet included, is so concerned about?

I’ve never quite understood that.

The short answer to this is comes in two forms. First, to put it simply: “population”.

Take a look at Dry Top and Silverwastes. They’re already seeing a population decline despite being the newest maps. Once people have the rewards from the maps, having done most of the content (if not all), they lose interest and they go somewhere else. This, in eventuality, results in dozens of maps losing population. This was the reason why megaservers were made a thing – because the mid-level maps became desolated.

This in turn makes any group content difficult to complete – which is why world bosses got placed on a timer that encourages zergs.

Even if GW2 remains highly popular, as time goes on, old zones will inevitably become unpopulated, leaving those who want something out of them… having troubles with the group content, or finding an empty world, which isn’t very constructive for a MMO.

On top of this, the second issue is exactly what Ezekiel said:

Ezekiel.1985:

The problem with “old content” becoming irrelevant is basically defined by power creep.

And the inherent problem with power creep is it’s unfriendly to new players – notoriously unfriendly. Oh you hit level cap, but you’re useless until you get ____ which you have to go through 2+ expansions of content for.

If masteries and specialities are – in any way shape or form – available outside of HoT content then they instantly become a potential (if not outright) demand for new players to need to “be good”. It won’t be an immediate effect, probably won’t have an affect until the second expansion in fact, but it will hold an effect over time and over new content.

Silalus.8760:

I don’t want to visit the same places, see the same things, fight the same fights, and especially hear the same voices, over and over. I want new sights, new sounds, new challenges- and freaking new voices. The next time I level another character I’ll enjoy the nostalgia of the old stuff in a way I otherwise wouldn’t because it hasn’t been relevant to me for a while.

-snip-

So, what’s the big deal about trying to keep old content relevant beyond leveling and very early endgame progression? I just don’t see the problem- it becomes irrelevant to me simply because it’s no longer as interesting. I hope I don’t get forced to do less interesting things to continue amassing wealth and power.

The hope would be that the “same old places” become a new experience. And there wouldn’t be anyone forcing you to go to these areas – just that if you go to them, they have something interesting to do. That they aren’t exceedingly simple and easy. That, if you chose to go to old game content, they’re just as challenging as doing the newer content.

zenleto.6179:

Whatever people may think about the changes Anet have made to their game over the course of the last two and a bit years, the power creep has been negligible. Considering how much of a grip the devs seem to have on this aspect, one that has affected a lot of games, I can’t see them letting go of this. Obviously it may pan out differently but I don’t think so.

Power creep hasn’t been implemented in the past 2 years. What have we gotten for player progression?

Ascended gear, which barely adds anything on top of Exotic gear sans Agony Resistence. 2 new healing skills. And 5 new traits. This is hardly a power creep, especially compared to all the new masteries and specializations we’ll be getting.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

zenleto.6179:

Whatever people may think about the changes Anet have made to their game over the course of the last two and a bit years, the power creep has been negligible. Considering how much of a grip the devs seem to have on this aspect, one that has affected a lot of games, I can’t see them letting go of this. Obviously it may pan out differently but I don’t think so.

Power creep hasn’t been implemented in the past 2 years. What have we gotten for player progression?

Ascended gear, which barely adds anything on top of Exotic gear sans Agony Resistence. 2 new healing skills. And 5 new traits. This is hardly a power creep, especially compared to all the new masteries and specializations we’ll be getting.

Correct. Negligible.

So are you wanting power creep? Its not how I read your post.

They have said they would touch up old content and while that might not change it greatly, look at the things they have already touched up such as tequatl and various events that have either been added or improved (kessix hills). They havent forgot or made irrelevant old content, but not every zone has things players do en mass. As well I dont think non-expansion players will be completely excluded from all new content, certain things will still be available. (Clearly not the maps or new story though.).

Based on whats been discussed so far, while the new stuff will of course attract more people, the old things wont be irrelevant. People will still champ train, still fight all the world bosses, still go after lucrative event chains and farming zones, but yes a large amount will likely spend free time/game time in the new zone. That will always be the case though, new will always be better even if all old content got a face lift.

zenleto.6179:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

zenleto.6179:

Whatever people may think about the changes Anet have made to their game over the course of the last two and a bit years, the power creep has been negligible. Considering how much of a grip the devs seem to have on this aspect, one that has affected a lot of games, I can’t see them letting go of this. Obviously it may pan out differently but I don’t think so.

Power creep hasn’t been implemented in the past 2 years. What have we gotten for player progression?

Ascended gear, which barely adds anything on top of Exotic gear sans Agony Resistence. 2 new healing skills. And 5 new traits. This is hardly a power creep, especially compared to all the new masteries and specializations we’ll be getting.

Correct. Negligible.

So are you wanting power creep? Its not how I read your post.

With the additions of HoT, and possibly future expansions, it poses a threat, and PowerCreep is already an issue in the game.

For anyone wanting to join in Fractals, its Tough Luck For You Bucko on the server I play on. No one is interested in climbing or helping others to climb the ranks to the higher end content, making people who have very little Agony Resistance (or none, in most cases) have little to no chance of joining in on this content. So, rather than try and consume this content they go farm Silverwastes.

The singular instance of Vertical Progression in this game is by and far the worst I’ve seen in any game I’ve played.

So, yes, Powercreep is a MAJOR CONCERN.

That’s more Power Creeps than power creep. For the broad base of the game there hasn’t been very much power creep at all.

This concerns me a bit as well, now that you mention it. Power Creep was one of the more significant problems in GW1, so they have a long-proven record of handling it poorly.
Some of the reworked profession primary attributes in particular inexplicably had the full-on God Mode switch flipped on them, making some professions blatantly stronger than others (some were so freakin’ strong they had to tack on a “PvE-only” restriction).

I have no idea what power creep is. Made it hard to make sense of your first post so I stopped reading a few sentences in.

Valid points, OP, and I think it is an unavoidable process, unless some work will be put into keeping the old areas on par with new ones. Without the overhaul, the old areas will fall into obscurity sooner or later.

Good catch Konig, I didn’t even think about power creep, but that could easily become an issue. I’m glad I noticed this post. I do have to say, I’m not worried about it being able to get as bad as it was in gw1, but it could still get out of hand. I wonder if they do touch up previous areas so they’re adjusted to what expansions brought, if they’d still be fair to those without said expansions.

So your concern is that the content is powercreeping? But not the player.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Well, in my opinion, the “best” solution would be to rework the older content so that it can remain challenging even with the new progressions of the players, so that the old content remains as complex as the new content. Basically, do to the vanilla content what was done to Tequatl. Not every single bit, perhaps, but the majority of it.

You do realize, that what you are proposing actually promotes power creep? It works both ways, not only by characters becoming stronger, but by content getting more difficult to match it. By making content more difficult, you practically guarantee, that the next time it will be characters that will receive the buff. And then the spiral starts turning.

Also, i know you might not want to believe it, but it doesn’t seem like the majority of the players actually want challenging content. It’s the reason why Dry Top and Silverwastes emptied very fast once LS ended and are populated only by dedicated farmers – other players don’t consider them fun.

TL/DR: by asking for more difficult new content, or revamping old content to be more difficult, you are promoting power creep. Stop doing that.

And about HoT: seems that at least the masteries in Heart of Maguuma zones will have only local effects – meaning, they won’t affect core areas at all. If they keep up that design, and repeat it in future expansions, they may actually avoid the problem you are talking about completely.

I’m far more worried about the thousands of game breaking bugs HoT will introduce.

Konig Des Todes.2086:

This in turn makes any group content difficult to complete – which is why world bosses got placed on a timer that encourages zergs.

This reason is a pretty bad reason. I’d like to point out that the world bosses became less relevant just because of the god awful time table. Any sense of relevancy for the world bosses was destroyed. And now they merely serve as a rare farm train. No one is sticking within an area where a boss spawns.

While a good thing would be to make those encounters more relevant by putting them off the timetable and making their encounters a map wide meta event. Making the whole map or parts of it, a mission to spawn the dragon. Personally I would be very much for that. And it doesn’t even need to be harder.

Either way saying that less population means group content is more difficult/ or more challenging, is also a reason that it becomes more relevant to work together. Of course there needs to be some sort of balance, because too little people is equally as bad as too many people. But I found it striking to say that they need to be on a timer otherwise they become irrelevant, because I really doubt that was a reason.

I rather would say that the encounters were puton a table because otherwise it would be really hard to find the shatterer ever with the many switching map instances.

So the solution would be to turn every map akin to silverwastes. (event wise, not nescesarilly reward wise)

If any, it all depends on how it all balanced.

I am all for reworking old content, however it would be bad if it happens on the cost of getting the areas unplayable for new players.

What they can do is introduce new events and rewards in old areas. For example creating zones in them, which are more suited for stronger players, while most of the map is playable normaly.

What makes the new maps so desireable, are mostly the unique rewards you are able to earn there.
The old maps are missing this. If there are unique rewards, they are usually easy to get. You mostly get them through Karma or in very rare cases through simple NPC interaction (like the headband skin in one of the charr areas).

If you finished exploring the map, you usually have no real reason to get there anymore (casual players) since you have done everything there already.
JPs, World Bosses and Collections might be a reason to go there, but these are small events on big maps.

Masteries, depending on how they are implimented could actually help things out.
Looking at the description of the Language Mastery , I was reminded on how faction points worked in EotN.
If we could get mastery points, by doing race specific events and unlock rewards, it would drive people back into these areas. (for example)
This could be expaned into zone specific. or area specific ones.

One of the cool rewards in EotN for example were cultural armor that you could unlock.
Now I wouldn`t say to make the cultural available for all races, but how about an inspired one.
So far we could substitude them with some dungeon armor (TA armor, CoE Armor, etc. ) but never all races.

However, thats only an example of what they could do

Well to be really honest the new content in GW1 made the game more fun. The new areas were way more fun to vanquish than poor old prophecies. I must have vanquished nightfall/cantha more than a few times in total. And only one time prophecies because of the vanquishing title. I dont mind the power creep, and I dont mind the old content being kinda obsolete if this means the new content will be superior. Like it was in gw1, by far.

Reowrking the content isn’t the answer to this problem (although some content like bosses DO need a rework). Plenty of people either struggle with the core content or like it just as it is and new players wont care if vets can faceroll lower content. It barely impacts them, esp with the removal of champ trains in low lvl zones.

Personally I don’t see it as an issue – the game started off at the right level, but didn’t naturally evolve much in difficulty until Orr and Southson. It is only now they are starting to get the balance right for open world difficulty imo. But, to step up another gear and provide more exciting fights, a power creep is necessary. If not, the division will be worse as skilled players become the only ones left in the high end game and GW2 is very much an MMO for the non-skilled of us (me included).

If the problem is really to be solved, its with the downscaling technology. Scaling players down more appropriately will give the relevance and balance across the entire playerbase.

Randulf.7614:

~Snip~

If the problem is really to be solved, its with the downscaling technology. Scaling players down more appropriately will give the relevance and balance across the entire playerbase.

This is the preferable solution, currently you’re downscaled to what is essentially one lvl above the area’s level rating for a"new" player. In order to compensate for the full traits and higher armor/weapon components that you bring with you as a higher level to a lower level the proper way to do this would be to make your high level character one level below the nominal level. I’ll give an example, you take a lvl 80 into a lvl 35 area, the bar says you are lvl 35, but look at your Hero panel, the numbers say you’re at lvl 36, because at lvl 36 you’re an effective lvl 37 with full traits and armor/weapon bonuses. Honesty you should be at lvl 34 you’d be closer to the actual level of the content…and for those that say my math might be off…you need to go back to the original way downscaling was done and compare it to the current version, just keep in mind that this is only an example.

Zaklex.6308:

This is the preferable solution, currently you’re downscaled to what is essentially one lvl above the area’s level rating for a"new" player.

This is the easiest solution that doesn’t expend as much resources as others, I’m not so sure it is the preferable one.

I would prefer that they move to a model of using expansions as the “main” story driver. They will introduce new zones and complete narratives that move the single player, instanced plot along. The Living Story will become a vehicle that periodically updates the older content, progressing their stories while simultaneously removing the ease of the encounters.

I think it’s silly to ask why we should care about the old zones considering the vast amount of story content there that remains in stasis. The Humans still have skirmishes with centaurs in their lands, the Charr and Humans are still in peace delegations in the Fields of Ruins, etc. These old zones can have their stories updated and their content improved with the Living Story updates.

Though what you said is kinda true, I’ve felt I should point out the LS for this. They added stuff to old content through it. LS1 and LS2 both added to them though we could argue if that was enough or not they were there and kept it somewhat new and fresh. For example Tower of Nightmares added to Kessex Hill and neaby areas new events to participate in, LS2 added new events and some minor updates to older maps too. Even if they were few, you can see the change in form of new heart goals, battered outposts and landscape changes. Even if most of them were removed some are still there and I think LS could change that slowly or an overall revamp zone by zone can do that if they feel it necessary.
Just my 2 cents. I hope you get what I wanted to say.

The old content is irrelevant because it’s been done and overdone so much people have grown weary of it.

If they want to make it relevant they can easily just make it profitable – that will bring the people right back.
But if you want it to be reworked – I doubt that’s a solution.

I doubt I’d want to spend more time in a reworked more challenging Orr – why would I do it?
I’ve done that map so much that if I ever see it again it’ll be too soon.

Same goes for at least 50% of the old game.

It’s not just the content becoming too easy or not rewarding enough – it’s people avoiding it like the devil once they have an alternative. Because there’s only so many times you can do the same thing over and over again.

At first I wasnt worried, but after reading the most recent blog post, I think this is something they need to be very careful about.

The idea of masteries making it easier to take down bosses concerns me just a little.

Hopefully, this will never be through something as basic as “do more damage,” but rather through encouraging strategic placement of players in fights (similar to the wvw lines).

For examples -

• give us a mastery that causes the bombs we run to Claw of Jormag’s ice wall to do more damage or

• a mastery that allows us to drop bigger poison cleanse circles when using the turrets on Tequatl.

I really hope they dont use the mastery system to allow straight power creep (do x% more damage to Svanir, for example) into the game. Just as bad would be the inverse (take X% less damage from Svanir). Feeling challenged (at least a little) in all zones is one of my favorite things about GW2.

The only way how ANet can keep up the old content relevent, is by not forgetting, that the old content exists and through upgrading all the old content with all the new features also too, that got implemented with newer patches.

Example: Silverwastes and Dry Top.
Two maps, which implemented to GW2 some very new and interestign general gameplay features, which are thigns, which should get implemented into the WHOLE game and not exist only in like 2 out of 20+ maps.
Its a waste of tiem, money and ressources to make new gameplay systems to improve a game, when these thigns get then in the end developed only for like 10% of the overall content of the game! Thats the huge problem of Guild Wars 2 but also in general with mostly every single MMORPG I’ve seen in the past, that Developers of MMO’s simply forget to upgrade the old content of the game steadily too and keep it actually contemporary also too compared to the newest contents of the game.

DT and SW introduced for example Mini Chest Rewards for fulfilling Dynamic Events, what gives players the feeling, that doign events in those maps is more rewarding, because you receive everytime something when you do an event sucesssfully.

DT and SW brought back basically Trading Vendors back, that we knew from GW1, NPCs ,which trade with us various kinds of rewards for our trophies that we collect in a place. Thats something, that should exist for ALL MAPs.

DT introduced a new type of Achievements, so called Region Achievements.
Thats also a concept, that must get upgraded to all of the Maps of this game and not stay something, that got introduced only to work then only for the newest maps…
——

NAet redesigned Tequatl….
Its about time that they do redesign more of the bosses in the same way, like Tequatl and give all World Bosses like Tequatl they own Boss achievements and better unique rewards, like Tequatls Sunless Weapons or the Triple Wurms Armor Parts. many more bosses in this game need some truly unique rewards, that players shoudl be able to play for, but not based on 100% RNG luck, but with the help of a monster hunter token system to be able to get what you want, if you just kill those bosses often enough over time, if you simply have no luck with your boss loot drops.

ANet has to redesign more of the Dungeon paths finally and maybe add also some new dungeons in some of the older maps

The game has more than enough potential to kep the old content interestign, if ANet simpyl keeps the old content also up to date and upgrades it also with all of the game improvements from newer maps and game mechanics.

WHat anet should doo also somewhen is to continously add like every two weeks with the patches new dynamic events everywhere in the game, expanding the dynamic event system is very important, to keep all of the older maps fresh and exitign to play to search for new implemented things.
The concept of the living story partwise does this, by letting massive things happen at places, that result in changes of the maps, like for exampel the tower of nightmares in Kessex Hilils, the Marionette battle and the Scarlet Invasions, Flames & Frost as also the attack in LA which resulted in its destruction.
Alot more of this has to happen constantly to keep the game existing.
If the dynamic events stay too stagnant, the game becomes boring, if you see always in like every 5 minutes over and over agai nthe same meaningless events happening, which aren othign else than self repeating quests where the player simply doesn’t need to search for NPCs with a ! over the head, because they simply start from alone when certain conditions for them are being met to activate automatically.

We know Arena Net is working on the AI. And according to the synopsis for their lecture on the devs convention it seems it will be modular and easy to implement. This means they might easily just revamp the Ai for the whole game, not just HoT. Making old zones more challenging. With it they can trickle new events, and improve rewards for old events. To keep us interested. In fact i really hope they do.

I am not at all worried about OP’s concern.

He’s right that there will be power creep (new weapons, traits), but there won’t be enough new content (we’ll be lucky to get 4 new maps) to invalidate old content, based on sheer numbers alone.

So anet will realize this and tweak downscaling or use living story to tweak DE’s and done.

nekretaal.6485:

I am not at all worried about OP’s concern.

He’s right that there will be power creep (new weapons, traits), but there won’t be enough new content (we’ll be lucky to get 4 new maps) to invalidate old content, based on sheer numbers alone.

So anet will realize this and tweak downscaling or use living story to tweak DE’s and done.

Downscaling has been an issue since release, and they haven’t fixed it yet.

zenleto.6179:

Konig Des Todes.2086:

Power creep hasn’t been implemented in the past 2 years. What have we gotten for player progression?

Ascended gear, which barely adds anything on top of Exotic gear sans Agony Resistence. 2 new healing skills. And 5 new traits. This is hardly a power creep, especially compared to all the new masteries and specializations we’ll be getting.

Correct. Negligible.

So are you wanting power creep? Its not how I read your post.

zenleto.6179:

That’s more Power Creeps than power creep. For the broad base of the game there hasn’t been very much power creep at all.

Currently negligible. And only so because there is so little progression added. But with HoT, chances are it won’t be – as we’ll be getting a lot of progression added. I do not want a power creep, and am worried such will be added.

The issue of power creep being a “problem” I suppose is subjective, but that it exists is very much objective. And the way to prevent it is best done per-emptively, rather than waiting for it to occur.

Mo Mo.1947:

I have no idea what power creep is. Made it hard to make sense of your first post so I stopped reading a few sentences in.

If you only read a few sentences in, then you didn’t really read to the point where power creep is described.

Basically, power creep is the result of making old content easier with the addition of new content designs and player progressions (either vertical or horizontal progression).

Low level areas are easy? That there is power creep. It’s an inevitable aspect of games that involve improving your character – and having harder enemies to combat this. But when it comes to low level areas, that’s not seen as a big deal – it’s expected to be easier. But, for example, Orr should be no easier than Silverwastes. Though ArenaNet preaches differently, by proclaiming “everything is end game” – thus returning to Queensdale should not be superbly easy. Just as returning to Orr shouldn’t be.

Then there’s also the matter of profitability and complexity of mechanics – a power creep of the content, rather than the player.

Terrahero.9358:

So your concern is that the content is powercreeping? But not the player.

In a way, both are. But with horizontal progression, the players’ power creep is less prevalent – albeit not removed entirely.

Astralporing.1957:

You do realize, that what you are proposing actually promotes power creep? It works both ways, not only by characters becoming stronger, but by content getting more difficult to match it. By making content more difficult, you practically guarantee, that the next time it will be characters that will receive the buff. And then the spiral starts turning.

Also, i know you might not want to believe it, but it doesn’t seem like the majority of the players actually want challenging content. It’s the reason why Dry Top and Silverwastes emptied very fast once LS ended and are populated only by dedicated farmers – other players don’t consider them fun.

TL/DR: by asking for more difficult new content, or revamping old content to be more difficult, you are promoting power creep. Stop doing that.

And about HoT: seems that at least the masteries in Heart of Maguuma zones will have only local effects – meaning, they won’t affect core areas at all. If they keep up that design, and repeat it in future expansions, they may actually avoid the problem you are talking about completely.

I’m not asking for difficult new content.

ArenaNet has already stated that HoT will include harder and more difficult challenges. ArenaNet has already stated that HoT will include more complex mechanics. I am not asking for this, I am stating that Power Creep is coming. My statement was directed to make old content like new content. Thus there won’t be as much of a noticeable difference.

A clarification: when I said “rework old content” I meant more of a… facelift, I suppose one can say.

Not to go through and alter every single little thing to make them HoT-level challenge, but instead to simply create a better scaling of progression while ensuring that downscaled players aren’t too overpowered, and to improve the desire to return to old places (unique rewards, etc.). Nothing that would be mandatory or would harm new players, but something that would make old players not go “I will only spend my time in HoT because that’s where the profit/challenge is!”

FrizzFreston.5290:

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Jaken.6801:

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Orpheal.8263:

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You three basically said what I was thinking in more specifics.

It is of my opinion that if they take what was effectively HoT’s prototypes in Dry Top and Silverwastes (event reward, cycling phases) to the old maps, made all world bosses like Tequatl (with varying degrees of difficulty) but remove (or alter) the timer, make masteries for the original content that gives benefits like the examples of their lore masteries (or the EotN faction points – which is exactly what I was thinking about when I read the Mastery article yesterday!), and finally fix the downscaling to make it more appropriate for high level characters to be in low level areas, then this may be all that’s needed.

Basically:

• Fix downscaling
• Do to the other maps what you did to Dry Top and Silverwastes (of varying difficulties)
• Do to the other world bosses what you did to Tequatl (of varying difficulties)