Certified Gameaholic
Maguuma dead?
I never look for the others, but there’s always quite a few Tarir taxis when the challenges start up. It can be pretty easy to miss them among all the other posts though.
[PORT] Tyrian Mystical Tours – Making jumping optional since 1329 AE
TD happens all the time and usually about 30 minutes before it starts.
Always something happening in my experience. I always check the lfg though. Might do a solo boss or gather for a few minutes but not long until something opens up. Have yo rely on taxis though.
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
It’s not you. The maps are empty because they are not fun.
Except I often get into full maps so there are a lot of people who do find them enjoyable.
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
It’s not you. The maps are empty because they are not fun.
Yes I’ll be sure to take some screen shots of the empty maps and post them here.; Honestly why say something like this? We get full DS and full Tarir constantly. There are always people in VB and even the hardest meta, TD, is done many times a day but a whole lot of people.
Not sure why you can’t find a full map. I get them all the time.
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
It’s not you. The maps are empty because they are not fun.
Yes I’ll be sure to take some screen shots of the empty maps and post them here.; Honestly why say something like this? We get full DS and full Tarir constantly. There are always people in VB and even the hardest meta, TD, is done many times a day but a whole lot of people.
Not sure why you can’t find a full map. I get them all the time.
Then Anet must have been wrong also, when they said that the reason the Maps are empty is because Megaserver is not working correctly.
OP: I stand corrected. It is you after all. L2P. Don’t expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter.
dunno man , are you looking at the right time ? do you got a timer? because its useless to look for a taxi when ds started an hour ago , or then tarir just ende half an hour ago.
for ds i also set a timer and i start looking for taxis 10min before the new maps are created, for td i only use community ts, so there is always a set time of the day we do it and for tarir its enough if you look for a taxi while the challanges are up
if you just want to do some events just tag up and you will quickly have 10~ ppl follow you, i always do that in tarir when im bored and want 200% participation for the meta
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
It’s not you. The maps are empty because they are not fun.
Yes I’ll be sure to take some screen shots of the empty maps and post them here.; Honestly why say something like this? We get full DS and full Tarir constantly. There are always people in VB and even the hardest meta, TD, is done many times a day but a whole lot of people.
Not sure why you can’t find a full map. I get them all the time.
Then Anet must have been wrong also, when they said that the reason the Maps are empty is because Megaserver is not working correctly.
OP: I stand corrected. It is you after all. L2P. Don’t expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter.
See when you lead a statement saying the maps are empty followed by the words “they are empty because they’re not fun”, you’re not saying there’s a problem with the megaserver. You’re saying no one is playing them.
But the FACT is, there are full maps, even multiple full maps for every meta event. Yes, you sometimes have to use the LFG tool to get to those maps, but that doesn’t mean they’re not there.
So your implication is that no one is playing the content because it’s not fun. That doesn’t mean someone doesn’t occassioanally end up in maps where the meta isn’t being done. But even those maps aren’t empty.
I was with a guy in VB a few weeks ago, and he said to me, I can’t believe this map is so dead. So I popped a commander tag, and in literally 5 minutes we had a fair sized group of people running around.
It’s not about the maps being dead even when the mega server wasn’t working. It’s just about them not being full.
I’d like to see a quote from Anet saying the maps are empty. I’ll wait here.
Right now I see taxis in the LFG for T4 VB and T4 TD. There’s even a map right now trying to ferry people to do DS.
So with all the information given, can we resume that the casual entering of a HoT map yields subpar results most of the time?^^
So with all the information given, can we resume that the casual entering of a HoT map yields subpar results most of the time?^^
Yes. That’s one thing that I hope Anet resolves soon. It would be nice to not have to rely on the LFG to get a map going.
Right now I see taxis in the LFG for T4 VB and T4 TD. There’s even a map right now trying to ferry people to do DS.
But Anet did not design the HoT maps with the intent that they could only be optimized by the process of ferrying in people. If they did, they should be fired.
They designed the expansion (and sold it to their investors) on the assumption that the new maps would be so wildly successful, that they would need to ADD servers to handle the massive influx of new players clamoring to play the game. I have no doubt that they planned for additional, new servers if needed (they weren’t, by the way). To believe otherwise is not to know how the business world works.
Anet admits that the maps are empty, because the Megaserver is not working.
The fact that the Megaserver is needed to fill maps is an admission that they are not being played.
The new maps are not being played because they are not fun.
Q.E.D.
The maps are fun. What most people seem to have an issue with is the length of the meta events.
Honestly some of them can be tunned a great bit better. TD/AB/DS have a too much bloat time on either sides of the meta completion (1st half) and the start of the “assualt/defend” phases.
Tuning them down to 30 minutes to progress the meta and 10-15minute fight times for the attack/defend phases with 15 minute reset / explore phase would suit them far better and removes a good 1hour of wasted time from all the maps listed.
Right now I see taxis in the LFG for T4 VB and T4 TD. There’s even a map right now trying to ferry people to do DS.
But Anet did not design the HoT maps with the intent that they could only be optimized by the process of ferrying in people. If they did, they should be fired.
They designed the expansion (and sold it to their investors) on the assumption that the new maps would be so wildly successful, that they would need to ADD servers to handle the massive influx of new players clamoring to play the game. I have no doubt that they planned for additional, new servers if needed (they weren’t, by the way). To believe otherwise is not to know how the business world works.
Anet admits that the maps are empty, because the Megaserver is not working.
The fact that the Megaserver is needed to fill maps is an admission that they are not being played.
The new maps are not being played because they are not fun.
Q.E.D.
I don’t remember Anet stating specifically why they designed a map a certain way. We can only give our best guess. Anet’s intent for people to ferry others to active maps could be their intent or it could not be. Having the expansion designed so that they would have to add server to handle the influx could be their intent or it could not be. There’s really no evidence that I have seen so far to suggest either other than the blog post where they mentioned a setting that was creating some issues.
Anet never admitted that maps are empty because the megaserver was not working. Do you have a link for that? What do you consider not working? Megaservers, which we have all played on for at least a couple years, is required for all PvE maps in the game and not just HoT. Since megaservers are as a result needed to play the core Tyria maps maps too, does that means these maps are not being played?
You and an unknown percentage of others may not be playing the expansion maps because you find them to be no fun. However, you do not speak for everyone else. The fact that there are often many filled maps throughout the days highlights that there are people who enjoy playing on the expansion maps. So your statement that the is false or at least to the extent that you appear to be implying.
But how fix that problem? A meta event with a fixed time table is exactly that, a meta event with a fixed time table. Maybe they can screw a little bit around with the distribution of players or something, but that is either not very easy or does not sit high on the priorities.
Megaservers, which we have all played on for at least a couple years, is required for all PvE maps in the game and not just HoT.
As you probably know, the Megaserver was not present on day-one. It was added when it became apparent that people were leaving the game and the PvE maps were woefully under-populated. I mean, you could run around for an hour and encounter just a hand full of people. It was depressing. And, while the core maps don’t require a great number of people for them to function, it was like eating in an empty restaurant. No matter how good the food is, it’s was conspicuous that you were eating alone….
To be fair, WvW is what drives the need for Megaserver. Because people are allied with their home world – as it relates to WvW – Anet had to do something to keep the game alive. Megaserver, in lieu of consolidating servers, was the compromise. Consolidating servers would have sent the wrong message to the gaming community.
I’ve been playing since the head start period, and I remember how at the beginning we would be sent to Overflow Servers, and people were concerned that their gameplay was not “contributing” to their Living World server (mine was Ferguson’s Crossing).
I suspect that Anet will soon divorce WvW from servers, which will simplify how Megaserver works. This is probably why we haven’t seen the changes that they mentioned. The “changes” to Megaserver will be some form of server consolidation relative to WvW.
Once that is done, they will be able to milk the dwindling player base for quite some time – because it will not be so apparent that the number of players is dropping off (which it is).
HoT has not been a “success” – nor is Anet stupid. They needed to find a way out of the Living World promise that they made to the community. The HoT maps were relatively cheap to make (in comparison to the core maps) and a vehicle to transition the game to an inexpensive-to-maintain model. If they lose players, okay. Because the game has gotten very much cheaper to keep alive too.
So with all the information given, can we resume that the casual entering of a HoT map yields subpar results most of the time?^^
Actually I wouldn’t say most of the time. See, that’s the misnomer. Anyone who wants to organize a map and ferry people in can. I’m not one of the people who enjoy doing that but about half the time I end up on those maps anyway.
So yeah, I wouldn’t say most of the time you get subpar results. Of course, it also depends on WHY you are there.
They aren’t sub par results for me, because I’m sometimes interested in stuff other than the meta. For example when I do map completion or hunt for fallen masks, or I’m farming mats, I don’t care if the meta is going on. So no, I wouldn’t say this at all.
Well, ok. If you go into the map of HoT to collect mats or masks, you can basically do nothing wrong. If you are not willing to do the job of the megaserver or Anet as a whole, you can be easily swept on an empty map?
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
I’ve never had trouble getting into an organized map.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
As you probably know, the Megaserver was not present on day-one. It was added when it became apparent that people were leaving the game and the PvE maps were woefully under-populated.
As you probably know, the Megaserver where enabled from the start , but they werent automatic .
You had to right click on your friend party icon and ‘’tranfer to their overflow-district’’ (which there was huge bug that didnt alow you to transer (it was the Overflow cap that didnt allow you)
Funny …. because 8 months later WoW and any other MMO start using this tecnology …. i mean GW2 is trully is pioneer is most cases , in the 2013-2015 era
Edit: The events in the new maps have 2 hour cd . Most cases ppl dont stay there but follow the zerg in the other maps and come here when the events starts .
Or go in ‘’ HAPPY DAYS-wbguwbfjwghwefhw !!!!’’- (…holiday season… events) or any other events that offers more rewards
Edit : I would love me too to see the quote from the Arenanet , that the map failed .
While Silverwaste offers the most money = so more ppl wants to join there (and we have more LFG tabs) :P
(edited by Killthehealersffs.8940)
Lulwut? I do metas regularly everyday with plenty of peps. Look for taxis at appropriate times.
http://dulfy.net/2015/11/09/gw2-hot-maps-timer-famme/
Tempest & Druid
Wat r u, casul?
Wat r u, casul?
Well, ok. If you go into the map of HoT to collect mats or masks, you can basically do nothing wrong. If you are not willing to do the job of the megaserver or Anet as a whole, you can be easily swept on an empty map?
Of course you can be swept into an empty map. Logically speaking, maps fill up fast. So as they fill up and new ones start, it’s logical some maps will be empty.
As for doing the job of the megaserver, if there’s dozens of people in a map, it only takes one or two to do that and a lot of people dont’ seem to mind, which is why maps I’m on often end up filling up.
You’re a glass is half empty kind of guy aren’t you?
Learn to taxi until megaservers are fixed.
Problem solved.
Move on to next easily player fixed problem we could wildly complain about.
Maguuma.
You are usually into new map.
LFG may be empty because of the events are 2 hour cycle.
Otherwise, having at least 1 full map within 20+ server is mathematically guaranteed
[VcY] Velocity – Gargamell
I am not even very much interested in the meta events for myself, I was just curious how taxiing could be seen as a vertiable solution by Anet and the players.
And in this case, I am more a kind of where is the glass? guy^^
No it’s not dead, the problem is the maps are on 2 hour timers, so if you miss the star of the maps, you end up in empty one’s as everyone taxis in to full ones then go do something else when the taxis dry up.
For me this is the biggest problem with HoT. If you miss the start of a maps meta, chances are you are not going to have fun on that map, as no one sticks around. And the turn around on the maps are so long that new populated maps do not pop up unless its close to the map restart time.
Cupule this with the mega servers not working correctly with the HoT maps, and it makes it seem worse than it is.
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As you probably know, the Megaserver was not present on day-one. It was added when it became apparent that people were leaving the game and the PvE maps were woefully under-populated. I mean, you could run around for an hour and encounter just a hand full of people. It was depressing. And, while the core maps don’t require a great number of people for them to function, it was like eating in an empty restaurant. No matter how good the food is, it’s was conspicuous that you were eating alone….
Yes and no. Megaservers are essentially overflow maps. All they did was remove maps dedicated to specific servers and remained open all of the time. As I mentioned in my post, megaservers were added well before HoT so your statement about them being added because HoT maps are not being played is false.
They were added because people were leaving the game? Do you have a source for this? They changed to the megaserver system because the previous one artificially limited the players you would encounter. Those on low populated servers would not see as many people as those on highly populated servers.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/
To be fair, WvW is what drives the need for Megaserver. Because people are allied with their home world – as it relates to WvW – Anet had to do something to keep the game alive. Megaserver, in lieu of consolidating servers, was the compromise. Consolidating servers would have sent the wrong message to the gaming community.
Yes. For the same reasons as to why they added the megaservers, a similar system should be added for WvW. WvW has had the same population issues as PvE since launch and unlike PvE, this actually matters quite a bit.
Do you have a source showing that Anet changed to megaservers to keep the game alive? Do you have a source indicating that the game was at a risk of dying?
I suspect that Anet will soon divorce WvW from servers, which will simplify how Megaserver works. This is probably why we haven’t seen the changes that they mentioned. The “changes” to Megaserver will be some form of server consolidation relative to WvW.
I hope that they go that route too. It was something that I suggested years ago as it was the only way I saw to handle the population imbalance between servers. There isn’t any server consolidation going on. They’ve given no indication that they’ve removed any actually servers or plan to. They’re just being utilized more efficiently.
Once that is done, they will be able to milk the dwindling player base for quite some time – because it will not be so apparent that the number of players is dropping off (which it is).
For WvW, I’m sure it is but that’s because of population imbalances and that nothing has really changed in the since launch other than a new map and changing the orb system for ruins system.
HoT has not been a “success” – nor is Anet stupid. They needed to find a way out of the Living World promise that they made to the community. The HoT maps were relatively cheap to make (in comparison to the core maps) and a vehicle to transition the game to an inexpensive-to-maintain model. If they lose players, okay. Because the game has gotten very much cheaper to keep alive too.
Do you have any sources showing that HoT has not been a success? I only ask because nothing has been released as of yet to indicate whether it has or hasn’t except for what Anet has stated. You’re stating it as a fact so you should provide them. Unless you want to clarify it as your opinion.
They needed to find a way out of the Living Story World promise? Do you have a source for this as well? The living story will continue as Anet has stated already that it would. We may or may not see the biweekly updates. It’s probably more difficult to keep that pace with how they had to structure season two compared to season one which was primarily open world.
Do you have any sources that the HoT maps were cheaper to make compared to the core maps? HoT maps are just more densely packed than the typical flat map. They also have an overarching story that encompasses the entire map’s events where everyone works together.
Do you have any sources to your claim that it was to transition the game to an inexpensive to maintain model?
(edited by Ayrilana.1396)
It’s mathematically inevitable that random maps in Magus Falls are going to ‘feel empty’:
- You can’t randomly pop into a full or nearly full map, unless partied up with someone who is already there.
- People keen on doing the meta are going to map out instances that lack a coordinated effort, leaving their former instance less populated.
- As additional maps fill up, new instances will be created, which will, of course, be empty.
It’s an unfortunate side effect of megaservers that we players have to proactively use the LFG tool to find organized instances. Still, the current situation is much better than when instances were tied to specific worlds: unless you were on a generally successful world, it was nearly impossible to get into a ‘good’ map.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Honest Questions:
Was the GW1 district system a “megaserver”?
Is the megaserver the same district system and only hides the full count of districts/players?
We had full districts in GW1 we cant enter (“select another – its full”) and could select a low number to get a nearly full district or a high number for a nearly empty district.
Where is the problem, anet?
Don’t fight the other ants
Fight the queens
Fight the queens
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
It’s not you. The maps are empty because they are not fun.
Yes I’ll be sure to take some screen shots of the empty maps and post them here.; Honestly why say something like this? We get full DS and full Tarir constantly. There are always people in VB and even the hardest meta, TD, is done many times a day but a whole lot of people.
Not sure why you can’t find a full map. I get them all the time.
Then Anet must have been wrong also, when they said that the reason the Maps are empty is because Megaserver is not working correctly.
OP: I stand corrected. It is you after all. L2P. Don’t expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter.
It’s not a “L2P” thing. Silver platter? What? I said there’s never any LFGs for Maguuma. Did you even read my original statement? I’ve looked many times during different times all throughout the day and I see maybe 1 listing among 20 others for raids, fractals, some other random pve content
Certified Gameaholic
not sure if we are on the same realm… but I’m pretty sure at least VB is really lively, even TDs are quite active now.
If ya no longer see me after this post,
it means THEY got me for " neg criticism in clever disguise".
Know that it has been fun and I love ya all.
it means THEY got me for " neg criticism in clever disguise".
Know that it has been fun and I love ya all.
It’s not a “L2P” thing. Silver platter? What? I said there’s never any LFGs for Maguuma. Did you even read my original statement? I’ve looked many times during different times all throughout the day and I see maybe 1 listing among 20 others for raids, fractals, some other random pve content
Circuit,
If you read my (and the other) previous posts, you will see that I was being sarcastic to those who blame persons (such as yourself) who find themselves on empty HoT maps.
The common response to posts such as yours it that if you are frustrated on the HoT maps, then it is your fault — because you are not spending time trying to ferry in players, etc.
The HoT maps are woefully under-played relative to how they were designed. This is because they have little to attract people back. They are one-and-done.
….so your statement about them being added because HoT maps are not being played is false.
Never said they were added at the time of HoT. Megaserver predates HoT. Can’t see how you could even begin to construe that I believe that from my post — unless of course you are reading things heavily filtered/biased.
….so your statement about them being added because HoT maps are not being played is false.
Never said they were added at the time of HoT. Megaserver predates HoT. Can’t see how you could even begin to construe that I believe that from my post — unless of course you are reading things heavily filtered/biased.
I’m not sure where I was going with that so you can ignore it. I’ll strike it out in my above post. Feel free to address the rest of the post though.
They needed to find a way out of the Living Story promise?
Again, you’re reading into my post what is not there. I said LIVING WORLD, not Living Story.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/
Excerpted from Link:
“The living world of Guild Wars 2 is filled with thousands of dynamic events that constantly change based on the actions of players like you. You never know what you’ll discover when you log in!”
“Dynamic events change and evolve in response to how you interact with them, leaving lasting effects in the game world.”
“We created dynamic events to encourage casual group play and cooperation between players. They are designed to scale in difficulty depending on how many players interact with them.”
The Seasons 1 & 2 (DT and SW maps in particular) and the HoT maps and Adventures are amusement parks, with platform gaming elements. LS1 represented the first step away from the design of dynamic, living world game play as “promised” in the above link.
Rather than designing another 24 + core PvE maps (with actual RPG/Lore driven dynamic events) the game will continue to be a series of instanced “single meta event” maps, similar to the holiday events. In this sense, the game is now on a cheaper footing. We will never see an expansion of the core PvE game play.
And unfortunately for those coming to HoT maps late (lol, withing 2/3 months of their release!) the number of people playing the maps has dropped off.
They needed to find a way out of the Living Story promise?
Again, you’re reading into my post what is not there. I said LIVING WORLD, not Living Story.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/dynamic-events/
Excerpted from Link:
“The living world of Guild Wars 2 is filled with thousands of dynamic events that constantly change based on the actions of players like you. You never know what you’ll discover when you log in!”
“Dynamic events change and evolve in response to how you interact with them, leaving lasting effects in the game world.”
“We created dynamic events to encourage casual group play and cooperation between players. They are designed to scale in difficulty depending on how many players interact with them.”
The Seasons 1 & 2 (DT and SW maps in particular) and the HoT maps and Adventures are amusement parks, with platform gaming elements. LS1 represented the first step away from the design of dynamic, living world game play as “promised” in the above link.
Rather than designing another 24 + core PvE maps (with actual RPG/Lore driven dynamic events) the game will continue to be a series of instanced “single meta event” maps, similar to the holiday events. In this sense, the game is now on a cheaper footing. We will never see an expansion of the core PvE game play.
And unfortunately for those coming to HoT maps late (lol, withing 2/3 months of their release!) the number of people playing the maps has dropped off.
Ok. Substitute “World” where I said “Story”. Where’s your source?
You make a lot of claims yet don’t present anything to back them up. Unless you want to come right out and say that they are all your opinions.
(edited by Ayrilana.1396)
Every map I go into there’s never anyone around. I look on the LFG and it’s filled with all raid requests and a couple SW. Is it me or is no one ever doing the metas anymore in the HoT maps? I never see VB, AB, TD etc anymore.
It’s not you. The maps are empty because they are not fun.
Yes I’ll be sure to take some screen shots of the empty maps and post them here.; Honestly why say something like this? We get full DS and full Tarir constantly. There are always people in VB and even the hardest meta, TD, is done many times a day but a whole lot of people.
Not sure why you can’t find a full map. I get them all the time.
Then Anet must have been wrong also, when they said that the reason the Maps are empty is because Megaserver is not working correctly.
OP: I stand corrected. It is you after all. L2P. Don’t expect everything to be handed to you on a silver platter.
It’s not a “L2P” thing. Silver platter? What? I said there’s never any LFGs for Maguuma. Did you even read my original statement? I’ve looked many times during different times all throughout the day and I see maybe 1 listing among 20 others for raids, fractals, some other random pve content
It is a learn to play thing. Open up gw2timer.com and see what events are active when you’re looking. You have to start looking before those events come up. That’s how people get onto those maps. You can’t do an event that’s in the middle on full maps, because you weren’t there for the start of it.
There’s no reason to advertise a dragon stand map late, because it won’t fill up and you need the time to finish the event anyway.
The meta events are all on timers. Randomly looking at LFG shows a need to learn to understand the game better. It’s like going to a movie and hoping you get there at the beginning, instead of looking up online when it starts.
Now, for some people having that schedule is problematic, which is a valid complaint. Randomly trying to find groups instead of getting into the zone early and setting up though is very much not understanding how the system works.
If you don’t like that system, that’s fair enough however.
It is a learn to play thing. Open up gw2timer.com and see what events are active when you’re looking. You have to start looking before those events come up. That’s how people get onto those maps. You can’t do an event that’s in the middle on full maps, because you weren’t there for the start of it.
Problem # 1: At no point should people be forced to look outside the game for answers.
There’s no reason to advertise a dragon stand map late, because it won’t fill up and you need the time to finish the event anyway.
The meta events are all on timers. Randomly looking at LFG shows a need to learn to understand the game better. It’s like going to a movie and hoping you get there at the beginning, instead of looking up online when it starts.
Problem #2: No, it’s like getting home from a long day of work and plopping in a DVD to watch your favorite movie only to find out that, for some godawful reason, you can only start the movie in the middle at that specific time and you need to have 17 people over to hold in various buttons on your DVD player at the same time or you can’t watch the movie.
Now, for some people having that schedule is problematic, which is a valid complaint. Randomly trying to find groups instead of getting into the zone early and setting up though is very much not understanding how the system works.
If you don’t like that system, that’s fair enough however.
First fair thing you’ve said, and it shows the beginnings of understanding that people can’t schedule their game playing. Juggling work, familial commitments, and every other aspect of regular life leaves many of us on a tight time constraint. I was fortunate that, finally, I was able to get onto an organized DS map – totally by accident and totally within the time I had scheduled to play the game. It was like winning the lottery. Other than that one time, all I ever see is a bunch of people standing around at the Pact WP.
It is a learn to play thing. Open up gw2timer.com and see what events are active when you’re looking. You have to start looking before those events come up. That’s how people get onto those maps. You can’t do an event that’s in the middle on full maps, because you weren’t there for the start of it.
Problem # 1: At no point should people be forced to look outside the game for answers.
There’s no reason to advertise a dragon stand map late, because it won’t fill up and you need the time to finish the event anyway.
The meta events are all on timers. Randomly looking at LFG shows a need to learn to understand the game better. It’s like going to a movie and hoping you get there at the beginning, instead of looking up online when it starts.
Problem #2: No, it’s like getting home from a long day of work and plopping in a DVD to watch your favorite movie only to find out that, for some godawful reason, you can only start the movie in the middle at that specific time and you need to have 17 people over to hold in various buttons on your DVD player at the same time or you can’t watch the movie.
Now, for some people having that schedule is problematic, which is a valid complaint. Randomly trying to find groups instead of getting into the zone early and setting up though is very much not understanding how the system works.
If you don’t like that system, that’s fair enough however.
First fair thing you’ve said, and it shows the beginnings of understanding that people can’t schedule their game playing. Juggling work, familial commitments, and every other aspect of regular life leaves many of us on a tight time constraint. I was fortunate that, finally, I was able to get onto an organized DS map – totally by accident and totally within the time I had scheduled to play the game. It was like winning the lottery. Other than that one time, all I ever see is a bunch of people standing around at the Pact WP.
At no time we should be forced to look outside the game for answers is an opinion, not a fact. However, you can ask people inside the game, or even make your own observations about when stuff starts and write it down if you want. It’s simply easier to go outside the game. That’s why a /wiki command in the game exists.
And yes, people can’t schedule their lives around a game and it’s one of the major issues with doing the hardest content in HoT.
Fortunately I do a lot of stuff with my guild who’s on at all sorts of hours.
The metas for the maps drive the population in the maps. For the most part, if there is no current meta chain active on the map, it will be dead. ghost town. Once the chain is active, or close to completion, masses of people will “taxi” in via the LFG tool and the meta gets completed for the rewards, rinse and repeat ghost town etc.
Its truly bad game design for a dynamic game world that relies on spontaneity and scaling to be successful. You have people having to abuse an interface feature to put themselves into an experience that feels epic, yet still breaking immersion and making maps feel insignificant save for the paltry rewards at the end. They’re like open-world WoW raids that are 40-man autoattack festivals. It’s not fun, not rewarding (both tangibly and satisfactorily) and plain dumb.
I am seeing quite a few folks on every map.
Do not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good.
Do you have a source showing that Anet changed to megaservers to keep the game alive? Do you have a source indicating that the game was at a risk of dying?
It was obvious to anyone who had more than 5 friends, either fellow guildmates or server friends, who played or still play the game. But, if it’s quantifiable proof you want, just ask anyone in a very large guild who hasn’t gotten around to purging the rolls of inactive players. I’ve been in two guilds on two different servers, each well over 200 people, where less than a third of the guild players log on on a regular basis. My previous guild had over a hundred players who haven’t logged in in over 6 months and only 10% of players playing with any frequency. So yes, large swaths of players are leaving. The favored destination is Archage for reasons I will never comprehend.
Do you have a source showing that Anet changed to megaservers to keep the game alive? Do you have a source indicating that the game was at a risk of dying?
It was obvious to anyone who had more than 5 friends, either fellow guildmates or server friends, who played or still play the game. But, if it’s quantifiable proof you want, just ask anyone in a very large guild who hasn’t gotten around to purging the rolls of inactive players. I’ve been in two guilds on two different servers, each well over 200 people, where less than a third of the guild players log on on a regular basis. My previous guild had over a hundred players who haven’t logged in in over 6 months and only 10% of players playing with any frequency. So yes, large swaths of players are leaving. The favored destination is Archage for reasons I will never comprehend.
Yes people do leave the game or take extended breaks. You also forget that people also start playing the game who happen to be new. You also cannot base the game population on what you see from guild memberships that you personally see. What you’re seeing there is hardly anywhere close to counting as quantifiable.
So I ask again:
Do you have a source showing that Anet changed to megaservers to keep the game alive? Do you have a source indicating that the game was at a risk of dying?
Do you have a source showing that Anet changed to megaservers to keep the game alive? Do you have a source indicating that the game was at a risk of dying?
It was obvious to anyone who had more than 5 friends, either fellow guildmates or server friends, who played or still play the game. But, if it’s quantifiable proof you want, just ask anyone in a very large guild who hasn’t gotten around to purging the rolls of inactive players. I’ve been in two guilds on two different servers, each well over 200 people, where less than a third of the guild players log on on a regular basis. My previous guild had over a hundred players who haven’t logged in in over 6 months and only 10% of players playing with any frequency. So yes, large swaths of players are leaving. The favored destination is Archage for reasons I will never comprehend.
Yes people do leave the game or take extended breaks. You also forget that people also start playing the game who happen to be new. You also cannot base the game population on what you see from guild memberships that you personally see. What you’re seeing there is hardly anywhere close to counting as quantifiable.
So I ask again:
Do you have a source showing that Anet changed to megaservers to keep the game alive? Do you have a source indicating that the game was at a risk of dying?
At the risk of having my comment deleted and this thread closed (or outright deleted) as I’m sure Anet doesn’t like too detailed an answer regarding declining player populations, I’ll answer your question.
I absolutely can base player population based on an n>200 assuming a random distribution of players. I have been playing this game since the Betas (and I even played GW1 a lot before this game). At launch, I was on ET. Within a year and a half, I could go to Cursed Shore and not run into another player for HOURS. If I wanted to do anything group oriented in PvE, I would have to guest either on Blackgate or JQ. At that time though, lions arch still had a very large presence, but they were all WvW players. All this was pre mega server. Today, ET can’t even muster more than 20 people on EB on a rally night. Look at the official leaderboards (it’s so dead it doesn’t even have a score).
Mega servers were nice in that it largely solved the PvE guesting problem, but it nicely hid the declining participation of PvE maps. Now, the only way to gauge a server’s population, albeit indirectly, is to look at WvW. It of course doesn’t attest to the PvE only crowd if there is such a thing. Once they do a mega server style fix on WvW, as the rumor mill says, you’ll have absolutely no way of knowing just how populated the game is. You could literally be playing with the last 1,000 people and you’d never know.
So no, I don’t have access to the data logs showing me shifts in player populations. I have only about 2.5 years of near constant observation and educated guesses that have been more right than wrong. I suspect though that nothing I say and nothing you see in game I will change your stance. But to agree with you on one point, the game isn’t going to financially die anytime soon. HoT infused them with much needed cash and if they were smart, they’d begin working on the next expansion yesterday and then release one every year until you run out of dragons. At that point they would have had a 7-8 year run, which is a pretty good lifespan for an MMO. Then they can sweep this whole thing under the rug and make GW3.
I absolutely can base player population based on an n>200 assuming a random distribution of players. I have been playing this game since the Betas (and I even played GW1 a lot before this game). At launch, I was on ET. Within a year and a half, I could go to Cursed Shore and not run into another player for HOURS. If I wanted to do anything group oriented in PvE, I would have to guest either on Blackgate or JQ.
I played on EB, Maguuma, and FA before settling on BG. On all of those servers, I always saw people in Orr near launch. You know why? It consisted of the more popular maps to farm prior to when they nerfed it much later. I also highly doubt it was hours unless you happened to end up on an overflow or playing during odd hours of the day.
ET, from what I remember, was also a low populated server. The megaservers actually helped players like you who were based on those servers. All players in the game were then pooled together on fewer maps. Those that liked to play with other players were overjoyed while those that preferred solitude when playing were not. That’s also outside of some of the other issues that came with megaservers.
I suggest reading the following blog:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/
At that time though, lions arch still had a very large presence, but they were all WvW players. All this was pre mega server. Today, ET can’t even muster more than 20 people on EB on a rally night. Look at the official leaderboards (it’s so dead it doesn’t even have a score).
WvW numbers have been dwindling for quite some time. There’s also an expansion that was released which many people are still playing. WvW was also not affected by the megaservers nor does it have anything to do with the Maguuma maps. It’s also not a good indicator as to whether the game population is dwindling or not.
Mega servers were nice in that it largely solved the PvE guesting problem, but it nicely hid the declining participation of PvE maps. Now, the only way to gauge a server’s population, albeit indirectly, is to look at WvW. It of course doesn’t attest to the PvE only crowd if there is such a thing. Once they do a mega server style fix on WvW, as the rumor mill says, you’ll have absolutely no way of knowing just how populated the game is. You could literally be playing with the last 1,000 people and you’d never know.
We never had a good way to determine how populated the server were. All it showed was the number of players who called that server their home. There were no confirmed reports from what I have seen, and based on what other forums posters commented about, that indicated that it was based on player activity.
So no, I don’t have access to the data logs showing me shifts in player populations. I have only about 2.5 years of near constant observation and educated guesses that have been more right than wrong. I suspect though that nothing I say and nothing you see in game I will change your stance. But to agree with you on one point, the game isn’t going to financially die anytime soon. HoT infused them with much needed cash and if they were smart, they’d begin working on the next expansion yesterday and then release one every year until you run out of dragons. At that point they would have had a 7-8 year run, which is a pretty good lifespan for an MMO. Then they can sweep this whole thing under the rug and make GW3.
Observations and educated guesses are more prone to biases (in all forms) than quantitative data. Unfortunately, that’s all we can really do most of the time as we don’t have access to that data.
The only map I’ve found difficulty finding a Meta group through LFG is Verdant Brink because of all the dead weight hanging out near the raid portal; but still 3 Meta maps to choose from is better than what we had which was the Silver Wastes merry go round.
On a side note are any old world metas being done still, in Orr for example; never see anything in LFG for that?
The only map I’ve found difficulty finding a Meta group through LFG is Verdant Brink because of all the dead weight hanging out near the raid portal; but still 3 Meta maps to choose from is better than what we had which was the Silver Wastes merry go round.
On a side note are any old world metas being done still, in Orr for example; never see anything in LFG for that?
Those maps are still being done but you’ll pretty much have to be there on the map farming with the zerg.
Maguuma is dead because there nothing to do and the event rewards well they just suck. I log into Destiny and Wow and completely skip over this game. Maybe if it was worth Logging in and staying people might actually do that but with the rng god and playing for two years with no precursor drop people got better things to do then waste the years away.