Guild Wars 2

I’ve been playing this game since the first month of release. However, like many, a bit after the release of HoT my time started dropping drastically. I had hoped that with the new living story it would reignite my interest. Sadly, it really hasn’t done much.

First, there were many aspects that were good. The new pvp map is good, the QoL changes is good, WvW changes are good, etc.

However, from what I’m seeing on population counters (like reddit), our numbers haven’t changed much. We jumped up drastically on patch day, but now we’re back to normal. It hasn’t even been a week. Why is this?

Well, I think its a case of where we (as a community) and Anet are misinterpreting success of previous patches. See, in theory this patch sounds like it would be good. You’re using/expanding on methods/designs of content that you already have a lot of experience in. It is polished. However, this hasn’t led to Gw2’s success. Before HoT I was really confident that Gw2 could easily rise to WoWisc numbers. Sadly, we seem to have plateaued at our success. I think the next possible answer we need to investigate to reignite Gw2’s success train is the word New.

When season 1 and 2 of the living story is when I saw, as a player, the most growth in the game. Statistically I’m not sure since I don’t have access to it. But I saw the most new players, a lot of people being constantly active, etc. Why is this? It is because Season 1 and 2 were completely new experiences in the game. It was like nothing we had experienced before. Because of this, veteran and new players alike were basically going into this content like they were playing Gw2 for the first time. It was great. Season 1 was comprised of a lot of feature patches and experiments for the living story. Each chapter was something new. Again, nothing we had experienced. Season 2 took the lessons you learned in season 1 and expanded upon them. Polish them. Added to them. The increase in polish/quality was so drastic it was again…a new experience for any player.

Then HoT released. Take what you learned in vanilla, season 1, season 2; polish it, release it with a new theme/skin, boom success. Sadly, it didn’t work out. As many know, numbers dropped much faster then they should have. Why? People were bored. We had seen all of this stuff before. The scavenger hunts, the collections, the events, etc. We had been doing this stuff for 3 years at this point. Many of us did it a few times and were bored already. It felt too similar. Adventures? Not really new. Many of them felt like mini games we’ve played before or dynamic event designs. New specializations? No they weren’t. Many of them felt incredibly similar to class specs that were in the game since vanilla. Nothing felt new. It felt like old content with a new skin + gliding. While this isn’t the only problem with HoT, I think this was a major contributing factor.

Now the living story season 3 has released. A living story that is supposed to last us months. It doesn’t look like it has lasted a week. The subreddit alone has already seen drastic drop in numbers. I don’t think we got above 1,000 current users. On a Saturday during patch week. I’m running around Bloodstone Fen and it just feels void of players. So many times I’m come upon an event that doesn’t seem like anyone is doing it. Maybe 3-4. The content itself? Reskins just like HoT. We have a scavenger. We have the achievements. We have two new resources to grind out. A new mastery to destroy the pacing of the story. Events feel so similar. Stack and smack this champion/boss, kill these enemies in this area, etc. It feels…old. I was thinking of getting the back, but then I saw that I need 200 of one resources and 5,000 of the other. The ways to get these resources are the same ways I’ve been grinding resources for 3 years. I have absolutely no interest in doing that again.

The story itself was good. The aesthetics look good. It is just the designs themselves that are old.

If you want to see the same amount of growth and success that we saw in season 1 and 2, you have to give new. New experiences. I think that’s the key. I wasn’t sure if it was and I wanted to see how the living story episode turned out. Seeing such a massive difference in population in my immediate perception area from season 2 episode 1 and season 3, I feel more confident this is a solution we need to start looking into. I know this isn’t the first issue. The core components that originally attracted the playerbase, Anet has been moving more and more away from. I see many people complaining about this already (like making things less and less soloable). But that’s a discussion for another thread.

Do you have anything in mind? In my opinion maps like Dragons Stand and Tangled Depths were pretty new concepts, and raids have taken the community by storm. To me, HoT didn’t feel like reskinned content but I definitely wish there was more in terms of content in general, mostly in terms of actual maps though. Luckily we get new ones with the LS now, along with more story. However I can’t think of a entirely “New” concept to be added, so I’m interested.

Although I’ve been playing since launch, GW2 is my first MMO so maybe I have less ideas for new content as opposed to people who have been playing MMOs for much longer.

Arvizal.8436:

Do you have anything in mind? In my opinion maps like Dragons Stand and Tangled Depths were pretty new concepts, and raids have taken the community by storm. To me, HoT didn’t feel like reskinned content but I definitely wish there was more in terms of content in general, mostly in terms of actual maps though. Luckily we get new ones with the LS now, along with more story. However I can’t think of a entirely “New” concept to be added, so I’m interested.

Although I’ve been playing since launch, GW2 is my first MMO so maybe I have less ideas for new content as opposed to people who have been playing MMOs for much longer.

The thing about HoT, for me, is that a lot of its content is derived from the living story season 2. Many of the map wide events have designs that are very similar to what we saw in Season 1 or 2. I’d have to say that AB is probably the most unique. But the rest of the maps were pretty similar. VB is a typical do events at X locations then go up and kill Y boss. It was nothing spectacular. TD and DS were both lane based boss fights. Which many of us experienced before with Vinewrath and Marionette. I think the issue was that because the designs were pretty similar at the core + a reward scheme that we’ve seen before; it didn’t hold our interest long enough that the grind required.

Now in terms of ideas, it would have be something completely new. In terms of actual content designs, it is tough. I think it would be easier to first list out things that I feel are old. Stack and smack bosses, scavenger hunts, resource gathering grind, lane based boss fights, kill X amount of enemies to fill up the bar, secure area events, anything similar to the mini games, etc.

A good example of something that was completely new to PvE was the first time we went into the Silverwastes. It was basically WvW, but in PvE form. We hadn’t seen this and it was a success. I had a blast in there. The first time seeing those airships come down and perform a bombardment was an awesome feeling. But doing another map that is similar wouldn’t have nearly the same effect on the community kitten did.

I think one possible avenue is looking into vehicles and how vehicles can play a bigger (and more entertaining) part of the game. Such as having a huge fight with Airships above a map. Like a dragon champion invades or something and players drive those huge Airships (and the canons in them) to fight the dragon champion. Something like that perhaps?

It’s tough because it seems like Anet has done all that they can with this game in terms of what we have on us now. They’d have to invent some new stuff to shake things up and open up avenues for new content designs. On that, I have no idea. The gliding system I think is a good example of this. It offered a new way to design raids and such. We’ve seen them take advantage of that, but there needs to be multiple new systems like that in an expansion release. To completely revolutionize the way content is looked at.

In mmorpgs, characters are ‘collectors’, ‘carriers’, ‘compounders’, ‘contributors’ and ‘conquerors’.

When making new content one should acknowledge that this is what characters are, and offer that which keeps such entities engaged.

I’m in a hurry right now, so I’ll throw at a quick and dirty example of new content.

1. Grubs are taking over the world! Find matriarch grubs scattered across the land and kill them for ‘gunk’.
2. Bring the gunk to areas with special mushrooms, and use the gunk on the mushroom to make it grow.
3. Use the grown mushrooms to access new areas with special flowers that can be picked.
4. Combine the picked flowers with gunk to grow ‘flower parasol’ items.
5. Flower parasol items bestow characters with different abilities depending on the colour of the parasol.
6. Find the different ways of changing their colours!
7. Red parasols can allow gliding. Green parasols shield small animals from acid rain. Blue parasols are edible and taste like candy.
8. Be celebrated by all children and small animals for helping to bring about a world free of grubs and safe for picnics.

Redfeather.6401:

In mmorpgs, characters are ‘collectors’, ‘carriers’, ‘compounders’, ‘contributors’ and ‘conquerors’.

When making new content one should acknowledge that this is what characters are, and offer that which keeps such entities engaged.

I’m in a hurry right now, so I’ll throw at a quick and dirty example of new content.

1. Grubs are taking over the world! Find matriarch grubs scattered across the land and kill them for ‘gunk’.
2. Bring the gunk to areas with special mushrooms, and use the gunk on the mushroom to make it grow.
3. Use the grown mushrooms to access new areas with special flowers that can be picked.
4. Combine the picked flowers with gunk to grow ‘flower parasol’ items.
5. Flower parasol items bestow characters with different abilities depending on the colour of the parasol.
6. Find the different ways of changing their colours!
7. Red parasols can allow gliding. Green parasols shield small animals from acid rain. Blue parasols are edible and taste like candy.
8. Be celebrated by all children and small animals for helping to bring about a world free of grubs and safe for picnics.

Unfortunately, Anet has pretty much abandoned the RPG elements of an MMORPG in favor or mini games and lather, rinse repeat meta-maps.

Soon.5240:

Redfeather.6401:

In mmorpgs, characters are ‘collectors’, ‘carriers’, ‘compounders’, ‘contributors’ and ‘conquerors’.

When making new content one should acknowledge that this is what characters are, and offer that which keeps such entities engaged.

I’m in a hurry right now, so I’ll throw at a quick and dirty example of new content.

1. Grubs are taking over the world! Find matriarch grubs scattered across the land and kill them for ‘gunk’.
2. Bring the gunk to areas with special mushrooms, and use the gunk on the mushroom to make it grow.
3. Use the grown mushrooms to access new areas with special flowers that can be picked.
4. Combine the picked flowers with gunk to grow ‘flower parasol’ items.
5. Flower parasol items bestow characters with different abilities depending on the colour of the parasol.
6. Find the different ways of changing their colours!
7. Red parasols can allow gliding. Green parasols shield small animals from acid rain. Blue parasols are edible and taste like candy.
8. Be celebrated by all children and small animals for helping to bring about a world free of grubs and safe for picnics.

Unfortunately, Anet has pretty much abandoned the RPG elements of an MMORPG in favor or mini games and lather, rinse repeat meta-maps.

There is so much shallow content that ultimately hinges on farming for longevity. I just logged, played for half an hour, and quit in frustration because of how shallow this game feels. I don’t get it. How can game developers rely so much on farming to keep players engaged. It’s freaking mind boggling. This game is nearly 4 years old and relies so much on farming at this point. It should have tons of engaging content.

BTW, most of my frustrating comes from falling in love with Guild Wars 1, and GW2 just feeling like it’s slipping into mediocrity. I spent so much time playing GW1 and every hour was engaging.

This sequel isn’t hitting the same chord as the original game. And I spend most of my time playing Path of Exile, wondering why GW2 is going the direction it is when a game like PoE is just getting better and better at engaging its players and doing it all in far less time with far less staff.