Guild Wars 2

I did a recent paper/ project on this game. My focus was on why people stop playing or quit beyond they just got sick of the game or wanted to play something else. In essence I was looking for other reasons. I found it interesting as I discussed with many GW2 players, 1167 total over the last four months, the same theme continued to come up. Most people quit due to content difficulty or too many unusual things to do. (FYI almost all their comments are in regards to pve after the original story.) Examples – Many people mentioned HOT was too difficult to complete and they never finished it. (Several different missions mentioned) Another example was season 2, the Mystery Cave Mission. Many people mentioned it was too difficult to complete and/or took too long due to complete something in battle and having it cancelled out, so in a sense voiding your previous action.

I thought I would get the info for the project and be done with it. However so many people mentioned the same things over and over again, I am curious if others on here feel the same way. I know the forums represent a small percentage of the actual game players and usually the more involved players are on the forums. I also understand a wide variety of variables factor into many things for each player, but from a general sense, do you feel the same way, disagree, agree to an extent ect.?

Not sure, as I haven’t ‘stopped playing or quit’.

But, I will say that content that I find too difficult, or am not interested in, I don’t usually do (at the time). I have found that some content I will do much, much later, as I have either improved my skills, or something else has changed.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Heart of Thorns was a sea change in difficulty and overall pace. I know people don’t like hearing that, but it’s true. Compared to the Core Game world, it was jarring to casual players. The fact ArenaNet said HoT would have more challenging content also cannot be denied.

Beforehand, it was play at your own pace. With Heart of Thorns, it became zerg or be left behind. It didn’t help that certain content was impossible until a certain criteria was met.

But this topic is pretty much a dead horse at this point.

Might be best to Google it and read the many, many, many threads about it.

“Zerg or be left behind”? What? Unless you’re referring to the main map metas (Octovine, Gerent, Dragon’s Stand, and partially VB night) it never was such a thing. That said, it did make teamwork significantly more rewarding, and required active participation in the maps. The only people who had to ‘zerg’ were the braindead players who only knew how to zerg the Queensdale Champ/EotM karma trains anyway.

Minor essay, TL,DR: I mostly agree with Arden*’s first post* above.
I think part of the problem is what came before. I wasn’t around at launch, but I’ve been told that Mobs in Orr used to be (correct me if I’m wrong) much more difficult, where a lot of people had trouble surviving in pvt, but were nerfed. In terms of openworld PvE silverwastes and dry top are harder than other content, but the large meta-events mean individual effort can be lost in the zerg. Then HoT dropped and was considerably harder than any prior openworld content. A lot of the more casual playerbase probably entered VB and felt like they hit a wall, so gave up.

To clarify, there isn’t anything wrong with that. To a lot of people (myself included) the higher difficulty of HoT was a breath of fresh air. It felt good to run around with other players and walk carefully into new events, ready to suck pavement if we made too many mistakes. But not everyone wants to read Tolstoy, and not everyone wants their video games to be IWBTG (pardon the hyperbole). Fortunately this is an MMO, but little of the earlier game teaches people to group up when having trouble, since so much is so easy to do solo. Dungeons are optional, except for story Arah (which I think they changed to be solo?, assuming personal story difficulty is also part of the reason they left), as are fractals, pvp, and wvw. All other content in the openworld that isn’t raw zerged (i.e. world bosses excepting TT and release Teq) can be done fairly easily solo and loot is instanced, so the game cultivated a fluid mindset for interaction: go do your thing, coming across other players is nice but only necessary for large events, and even then they’ll usually flow in naturally. HoT didn’t require zergs for non map-metas; all other things could be done with a party. But since nobody was used to asking to party up they were caught with their pants down and felt weird, which I think was to be expected. E.g. there was a thread someone posted that they waited for hours at one of the ruined airship hero points in VB and nobody came to help. Most people responded saying they got 5+ people to help within 5 minutes of asking in map chat. For many people HoT required a discrete behavioral change from lone ranger to asking for help, and simple as it may seem that’s jarring after 3 years of the same.
I can’t speak for anyone but myself though, anything beyond my experience is just speculation.

edit-clarifying “above”

Yes… yes i do have an opinion. Thanks for asking!!

Ardenwolfe.8590:

Yes, the meta events and the need to complete events to unlock the portions of the map in Dragonstand for example.

And let’s not be so quick to call the ‘zerg’ braindead please. Given that when anyone says, “The map is dead!” on these forums, and then someone else says, “Use LFG to find a full map.” They’re not saying it so one can find a small group to do a lot of nothing.

They mean find a huge group (zerg) to complete certain metas and events.

Let’s not get cute.

You can get to everything except the blighting towers and dragon’s domain in DS, but the entire map is just for the meta-event so of course there’s some places locked off until event progression. What Sarth’s saying seems to be that while zergs are needed for meta events, a lot of the complaints were about the maps in general (i.e. hero points and exploring), and in my experience that was a major source. You don’t need the meta-events for anything beyond loot and some achievements, except in DS where there’s some map portions locked off, so ‘zerg or be left behind’ is absolutely hyperbolic, unless you’re referring to how casual players viewed the situation. Sarth didn’t call zergs braindead, they called the players that needed zergs to do anything non-meta event braindead. While that may be rude, it is my experience that a majority of the playerbase isn’t very good at the game. Which is not a problem until complaints pile up and things are made too easy.
Don’t get snarky until you comprehend the post you’re disagreeing with.

I think I do, but then again, im a white male, so I might not have an opinion.

Any time my motivation for GW2 has been on the ropes, it’s generally from having end-game objectives that require going to one of two areas: Tangled Depths and Dragon Stand.

For the most part, I hate Tangled Depths. Not because it’s “difficult.” Because it conveys exploration information for kitten. The minimap isn’t just useless, it actively deceives attempts to navigate the zone. If anything, TD could have been a great map to test out a new cartography UI tool. I’d be thrilled for that, and it would have made all the difference.

Dragon Stand is a clusterbomb of taxis and clock-watching. A bit strenuous after you get in, again not for difficulty, but for time. Typically an hour or more, especially during the Blighting Trees or waiting for other lanes to finish their tasks. So it’s not hard, just unapproachable.

But there’s a lot of HoT that leans on those two maps, so when I have to focus on them for objectives, I end up getting very frustrated and logging out to do something more satisfying.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

The moment you say ‘except’, your counterpoint loses all merit. That said, please don’t tell me what I do and do not comprehend. Especially if you lack the ability to use the tab button.

Yes, players make up the zerg. Calling those players ‘brain-dead’, directly or indirectly, is not helpful to this discussion. The fact you feel the need to defend anyone using that rhetoric is telling in and of itself.

Now, kindly keep your opinions about my personality to yourself. It’s not appreciated nor cogent to this topic.

Because one exception exists, encompassing less than half of one of four maps, the statement “zerg or be left behind” is valid? I disagree. It isn’t a defense of the rhetoric, it’s a defense of the underlying point: there are players who aren’t good at this game. That’s fine, but due to the nature of the prior game given the choices of get better, ask for help, or quit quite a few chose quit.

Part of understanding an argument is understanding the mind of origin, and attitude plays a good part. “Let’s not get cute” is snarky, and you rather skirted the main point that your statement is too absolute and minorly applicable, as the examples you provided aren’t examples but rather the only instances.

the problem is not the hot maps being impossible to do with out a zerg the problem is the flaws the lvling process has. Most events in low lvl(startng) maps are soloable and thats a good thing if they were a bit more challenging that would also be good it would teach ppl core mechanics and their own classes better, making them better at the game. The game also tries to appeal with the format that you should feel good to see more ppl and that you should tag along to overcome challenges. Big meta maps are a great place for that (considering that the ps and the lvlng zones would be challenging enough to teach you the basics of your class)as long as they introduce the idea of forming big groups to take down even tougher foes(and as long as everyone is doing their job and not kittening up it should go smoothly).Now the metas could be more challenging but not i terms of dmg that mobs deal or hp bars but in simple mechanics every player should know aka cc/interupt dodge but since the lvling in this game is so braindead easy we can all see how well this is going in hot maps.

psychosiz.7109:

Most people quit due to content difficulty

My opinion is that as a Knight Necro I never get downed or die in HoT maps / story, thank you very much. LOL at people wearing full dps meta gear and complaining about “too difficult” content. Full dps gear can be nice if you can handle it, but 9 out of 10 people can’t. Just go to Dragon’s Stand. You will see 5+ people getting downed every second. It’s ridiculous yet they refuse to wear defensive stats. -shakes head-

Hey all,

Thanks for the responses. They were very helpful for the most part and gave some different insights than the responses I received from others!

I just think people got into the mind set of joining in on the fullest map or don’t bother. It started at the get go with HoT.

And from what I understand a small group of people wanted HoT to be more challenging and put in complaints or suggestions and because the majority was already satisfied they didn’t speak up so it seemed like the few where the many.

Also what didn’t help was parts of the game being left neglected (wvw then the content drought in general) so people got bored and left, pvp was having the league but that has not exactly been sucessful.

The new LS was quite good, though short so they seem to be still capable of making good stuff.

Mea.5491:

psychosiz.7109:

Most people quit due to content difficulty

My opinion is that as a Knight Necro I never get downed or die in HoT maps / story, thank you very much. LOL at people wearing full dps meta gear and complaining about “too difficult” content. Full dps gear can be nice if you can handle it, but 9 out of 10 people can’t. Just go to Dragon’s Stand. You will see 5+ people getting downed every second. It’s ridiculous yet they refuse to wear defensive stats. -shakes head-

Yup…I see this all the time. I was a knight necro for a long time until recently switching to a Valk Shroud build. Really just needed a change up but its funny to watch the DPS crowd go down all the time.

Mea.5491:

psychosiz.7109:

Most people quit due to content difficulty

My opinion is that as a Knight Necro I never get downed or die in HoT maps / story, thank you very much. LOL at people wearing full dps meta gear and complaining about “too difficult” content. Full dps gear can be nice if you can handle it, but 9 out of 10 people can’t. Just go to Dragon’s Stand. You will see 5+ people getting downed every second. It’s ridiculous yet they refuse to wear defensive stats. -shakes head-

Eh… In Dragon’s Stand, I find I still get downed frequently by the sheer amount of area denial even in full Wanderer+Minstrel gear on my guardian.