Guild Wars 2

Hey Guys,

I Guild Wars 2 dying?

There is barely anyone playing PVE from what i am observing… Bosses, major events and other interactive mechanisms are basically empty, played GW2 for 3-4 hrs today, have only seen less than 10ppl around PVE. Is it because i am in a low lvl area? or is GW2 dying??

PS im lvl 24 in lvl 1-30 areas.

It has never been the same since i left GW2 a few months ago… So little ppl playing? There isn’t much fun now T_T where are all of the players???

lol, are you being sarcastic? i hope you are…

Am i the only one experiencing this because i am low lvl??

Force.8632:

lol, are you being sarcastic? i hope you are…

Am i the only one experiencing this because i am low lvl??

He’s on a tier 1 server, hence ignorant of state of the other servers.
The rest are kinda dying, so you might need to guest to a tier 1 server to see players (google them since I don’t know which ones are tier 1 off the top of my head).
Also, considering maps overflow at 100 players, overflowing isn’t really that impressive…

Force.8632:

Hey Guys,

I Guild Wars 2 dying?

I wouldn’t have a clue, no numbers have been released. But from what I can see it isn’t, large numbers in WvW and PvE. Even in some of the most remote places in Tyria I still seem to bump into people.

If they could create a more interesting LS maybe they would bring in even more players, but for now we have to deal with Scarlet. Maybe the next LS arc will be something more epic and they can release some advertising around that.

I spend most my time in various PVE areas of different levels, and the population feels about the same as it was when I started. Far Shiverpeaks is by no means a top server, but we do teq regularily and the temples gets cleared.

However, right now there are a lot of reasons for low population:

- I noticed that when you start out, some areas have a lot less people than others. For example, even when I level a charr, I tend to go to Kryta to do hearts and map exploration. Some zones just have a better feel than others.

- Also, a lot of people level the early levels through the personal story, where each event locks you in an instance so you don’t interact with the world. My current thief (she’s lvl 24 too) has probably spent most her time within instances, only being in the world to run to the next area or do the odd event and heart.

- Another thing is that by now a lot of people have started power leveling, especially at the low levels since one of the birthday gifts (you get them when your character turns one year) is a scroll that immediately gets you to lvl 20. So the early areas gets even less populated.

- Yet another thing is the living story, at the start of each update a lot of people is doing that rather than their normal playing, thus ends up concentrated in specific areas. Right now that is in Harathi hinterlands among others. This dies off once people have completed the achievements, starting again once the next update happens.

- So far there have been no server closures or merges, which would be an indication that at least the population is somewhat healthy on most servers, but if you feel that your server is empty, you might want to guest at another one and see how things are there. That does not cost money, and is very easily done. Your xp and living story will be exactly the same, the server only matters in WvW.

Sounds server related. I’m on a medium server and all zones have people in them, bosses and Orr Temples are regularly done. It’s harder atm due to the spread – Kessex/WVW/newish dungeon/Halloween. Plenty to keep people busy in areas you might otherwise not be visiting.

Might be worth looking at what server you are on and guesting to higher population ones

D.O.A. 0 subs on launch.

In seriousness the game wont die until well after all the ascended and legendaries are out OR another good game comes around.

Neither of which are happening soon.

Brutal Arts.6307:

D.O.A. 0 subs on launch.

In seriousness the game wont die until well after all the ascended and legendaries are out OR another good game comes around.

Neither of which are happening soon.

If Anet continues their stream of poor content updates with their bi-weekly living story updates, the latter is going to happen a lot sooner than you realize.

I’m not on a tier 1 server, but I’m constantly encountering people in PVE.
Now in Lion’s Arch I’ve seen quite a number of folks ask for help in WvW, but I guess we are a mostly PVE server at this point.

I was in Kaineng. I hardly see anyone pve or even doing wvw. Kind of sad that wvw is always open. I use it to freely travel to Lion’s Arch. Even in Lion’s Arch there isn’t that many people running around.

That is when I decided to change server. I buy some gem and transfer to Blackgate. There is so many people in Lion’s Arch. There is always player in PvE (I see them running around a lot mostly in the low level human area…somekind of boss train all day long). Each map have people in it, however, still not what it was during the early few months of the game’s release, but that is to be excepted.

The sad thing is getting into WvW is always 6+ hours long in waiting:(. That is the downside of the high end server. If you want to PvE, just guest to tier 1 server. If you want to WvW, you lose either way (it is an either desert world in the mist or wait forever and never get in to the mist).

Force.8632:

Hey Guys,

I Guild Wars 2 dying?

There is barely anyone playing PVE from what i am observing… Bosses, major events and other interactive mechanisms are basically empty, played GW2 for 3-4 hrs today, have only seen less than 10ppl around PVE. Is it because i am in a low lvl area? or is GW2 dying??

PS im lvl 24 in lvl 1-30 areas.

It has never been the same since i left GW2 a few months ago… So little ppl playing? There isn’t much fun now T_T where are all of the players???

that depends on which server you are, and most players are in wvw

Most of the player population right now has school. You should switch to a higher population server. I personally like the living world content so do many other players. I dont’ think gw2 is dying by any means.

I would also say that the times you’re playing could be a contributing factor to your perception of server population.

I’m on Fort Aspenwood and live on the Pacific Coast. I’ve been in several guilds and do PvP/WvW as well as dungeons and meta events. If I choose to play anywhere from 2 PM to 7 PM PST I’ll always find a healthy amount of people in map chat, the LFG tool is active, and my guildies are available for events and what not.

If I play between 7 PM and 2 AM PST server pop drops dramatically the night gets. There are 3-0 guildies online, some metas find less than 20 people trying to participate, and the server seems low pop to even dead. Even in WvW, which is has been a great time frame for me (past midnight) to sneak in and do some WvW map completion with out the hastle of actually WvW’ing (pre season). Nobody is there.

It seems for all intensive purposes I’m on a server that will see the most traffic during East Coast prime times which would be 5PM to 10PM. If I was only a night owl I would think my server is dead or that the game is dying but I’ve seen it at all hours of the day and have found there is a lot going on when I’m not paying attention. Maybe it’s the same with you.

People are transferring to tier 1 servers for the league rewards. Simple as that.
They should remove the transfer to populated servers and make it available to empty servers only.

Yes, it is dying. Scarlet is killing it. She’s behind everything.

Jeff.4680:

Yes, it is dying. Scarlet is killing it. She’s behind everything.

Not true, the game is very busy and active with players.

I hate Scarlet as much as you, but she is not killing the game. The two week schedule may be damaging the player base slightly due to lackluster and poorly conceived content, but I doubt it is in a major way.

We need a true expansion, with elder dragons and such.

GW2 is gaining popularity, so yea, no death in tyria.

When every one stops playing the game then we can say its dieing people said the same thing about aion and its still alive and kicking.

Of course it’s dying. Every MMO is dying, just ask their forums.

I HATE posts like this so MUCH.

Uvatha.5476:

It seems for all intensive purposes….

I believe the correct phrase is “for all intents and purposes”.

“For all intensive purposes” is an eggcorn of the above.

Brutal Arts.6307:

D.O.A. 0 subs on launch.

In seriousness the game wont die until well after all the ascended and legendaries are out OR another good game comes around.

Neither of which are happening soon.

“another good game comes around.”

Many many eager eyes are on NCsoft other title, sub, dueling, open world pvp, trinity, combat mounts (fly/ground), housing, and not gem store focused. Player loss and competition in the market is always good for MMO’s.

I hope not, I don’t want them to take the gw1 servers down.

Yes,Guild Wars 2 is dying…admit it!

Force.8632:

Hey Guys,

I Guild Wars 2 dying?

No, it is not.
Despite what the naysayers would like everyone to believe.

Wouldn’t say its dieing but in a way it is. The real death will come when the new MMO’s come out (wildstar online for me) and everyone shifts over there to check them out. Then you will see Guildwars 2 die or at least get visably crippled.

Anet is really having trouble trying to keep its player base happy, tho to be far I’v yet to see an MMO manage to do that. The biggest problem is the ammount of issues that players have had since day 1 that have yet to be even addressed thats pushing alot of people away.

Guildwars 2 is amazing game in itself but if alot of people have the same issues I do it be that guildwars 2 doesn’t have anything to keep us attached to the game and our eyes wonder to the next new shiny thing that comes out. Even if I left to play another MMO I’d still play guildwars 2 but it be very casual.

ShinjoNaomi.1896:

Force.8632:

Hey Guys,

I Guild Wars 2 dying?

No, it is not.
Despite what the naysayers would like everyone to believe.

^^^Yep. I constantly see folks, regardless of what map I am on (some more populated than others though), Lion’s Arch is always active, etc. The only areas that seem to be “dead” (at least on my server) are the racial home cities. Why that is, I don’t know.

But to answer the OP, no, Guild Wars 2 is definitely not dying.

Depends what server you are in. Vabbi has 0% population in pve zones, but most people play WvW or dungeons, and although we have a lot less population than other servers, we’re still having a blast (small scale fights). So no, as for WvW I don’t think hardcore players there will stop. Nothing has changed since launch, so we don’t expect much.

It is not dying. All those places are empty because people is somewhere else.

People is currently gathered mostly in the champion trains and instances, trying to earn enough to pay for anything.

There’s offshoot events in 5 maps, people people go mostly to Kesseks. All “defeat veteran/champion” events may get one infected with the toxin buff, but people go to the ones in Kessex.

There’s champions on all areas, but everyone is in either Queensdale or Frostgorge, because everyone’s there and things way easier there more people is there, and it’s way faster than bothering to find more champions.

This is because unlike other guaranteed rewards like mining nodes, dungeons, puzzles, etc, champions give continuous drops in the same spot. Just one zerg can continuosly kill 4 champions over and over endlessly and get quite some gold per hour.
This leaves other areas empty and players have a harder time doing group events in other maps.

You have to find other node. You have to do other puzzle. You have to do other paths. You have to do other fractal level range. You have to defeat other world boss. The same one over and over won’t work. Otherwise people would just stick to one and do it over and over. It’s just common sense.

As with any other guaranteed reward, part of the solution is adding flags so doing the same thing over and over not completely unprofitable, but way less profitable as doing other similar things of the same type somewhere else.
Give champions a flag, and once a player have defeated one enough times, they will only drop the normal drops any monster may drop, and no more bags. You can still get exp, karma and gold if there’s an event, but if you want more bags, you go find more champions.

It’ll be even better if they got less ‘uses’ the easier they are. Starting area champion? Way easy. 1 time a day. Higher level area? 2-3 times a day. Dragon domain area like orr crawling with minions? Considerably harder than others. 4-5 times a day per champion.

That way, some guy in Brisban Wildlands will have more chances to find help against Robbari, the Hylek priestess or the Demagogue, or against the ghosts in Barradin’s Vault in Ashford, or against the champions in Caledon, or the many other centaur champions in Harathi that get ignored so often, and the many others all over the world, instead sticking to one spot.

If Anet doesn’t release soon an expansion or something similar.
( New areas, New skills, etc) YES, this game is going to die.

You do not see people near you because they are either in Queensdale, Spvp, or WvW. Sorry to say that but it is the true true. It doesn’t mean the game is dieing. The top 3 servers in WvW have queues in every Borderlands most parts of the day.

Anet just underestimated the influence farmers have on other players. A player who would have rather enjoyed the content the game has to offer is now told to go to Queensdale to farm champs. It is very sad.

Chewablesleeptablet.3185:

Anet just underestimated the influence farmers have on other players. A player who would have rather enjoyed the content the game has to offer is now told to go to Queensdale to farm champs. It is very sad.

I agree. They should never have made the economy open with variable prices…. that was their most stupid decision ever, since it creates huge differences in the player base. Farmers farm tooooooooooons of gold, making gold totally worthless and most drops extremely cheap. Things that don’t drop or rarely drop or can’t be found as a drop therefore have become incredibly expensive. Players who don’t farm are forced to farm if they want those latter things.

A better idea for this game would have been to make gold accountbount, and fix the prices for every item, so it wouldn’t have become one giant farm.

Fenrir.6183:

People are transferring to tier 1 servers for the league rewards. Simple as that.
They should remove the transfer to populated servers and make it available to empty servers only.

This is it.

The combination of Tequatl’s 80 person minimum requirement and the WvW league rewards is causing players on the medium and below populated servers to leave in droves for the highly populated servers.

It’s not dying.

For every MMO, people start saying that it’s dying about a week after launch, and continue until it actually dies. For GW1, that was 8 years later (when GW2 launched), and to be honest it still isn’t totally dead.

Everything that is born or created starts dying from the very first moment of existence, as it gets closer to its unevitable end.

Therefore, GW2 is dying. Just very slowly so to say.

nekretaal.6485:

Fenrir.6183:

People are transferring to tier 1 servers for the league rewards. Simple as that.
They should remove the transfer to populated servers and make it available to empty servers only.

This is it.

The combination of Tequatl’s 80 person minimum requirement and the WvW league rewards is causing players on the medium and below populated servers to leave in droves for the highly populated servers.

That would spread out all the players evenly across all servers, and it would show how truly low the population actually is. Most likely, if Anet did decide to spread out all players evenly across all servers, you would see a massive drop in server populations and you would rarely see a single player in like…. 10 hours of playing.

If they however, decide to spread out players evenly across all servers, and THEN merge a lot of the servers, that would solve the population issue.

Yet another “GW2 dying?” thread that only serves to make people who say yes and people who say no argue with one another.

GW2 is not dying. Yes, it has some problems (some bigger than others) and yes there are people leaving. There are also people coming in, and there are also a lot of things GW2 has going for it. It may not be as healthy as it was in the beginning, but that is normal growing pains that every MMO ever released has ever had.

There are indeed empty zones. There are low servers. It happens with any game. Aion went from roughly 30 servers at launch to 3 before it went F2P. Rift went through a massive population exodus in the first 6 months it was out until they added new zones and things for max characters to do. Yes, even WoW goes through the ebb and flow of population.

Right now, there is so much (temporary) content that people are concentrated there, and the rest of the world is relatively ignored. When the LS is dungeon or instance based, people who don’t dungeon crawl will be back out in the zones doing “stuff.”

Only you can decide if you’re happy. If you’re not, check out the other servers, see what else is going on, and if you’re still not satisfied, then go on to something that makes you happy.

Apologies if I sound tired, but this is like the 53,627,816th thread about this since launch. (hyperbole for the win)

No but it isn’t doing great either.

I like how a second question mark is added to the thread title for the extra dramatic effect

Dying? Far from.

The content is coming out fast, sure, but it ’s too little and mainly temporary. People like the game, but with nothing to do, they take breaks.

As said, the Living Story is fine, to some degree, but it’s not fine if ArenaNet believes that the Living Story can replace big patches or expansions.

There’s no way the game will stay populated next year with the coming MMOs if they don’t announce something big soon.

I wouldn’t doubt some server merges in the not too distant future.
Gotta guest to get an event done, or even join in on a champ train =(

Force.8632:

Hey Guys,

I Guild Wars 2 dying?

There is barely anyone playing PVE from what i am observing… Bosses, major events and other interactive mechanisms are basically empty, played GW2 for 3-4 hrs today, have only seen less than 10ppl around PVE. Is it because i am in a low lvl area? or is GW2 dying??

PS im lvl 24 in lvl 1-30 areas.

It has never been the same since i left GW2 a few months ago… So little ppl playing? There isn’t much fun now T_T where are all of the players???

Anet guards their numbers well, but the game is probably doing alright. My server, The Tarnished Coast, is always busy – but the same can’t be said for some servers.

Anyhow, as many of you know, Blizzard just announced their next expansion which might soak up a lot of WoW refugees who came here disenchanted with Mists of Pandaria. Furthermore, both Wildstar and EQ Next are in the offing and that may siphon people from GW2 as well.

GW2 will probably exist amongst all this as a small niche game, kinda like it does now. Nothing wrong with that, really. A game need not boast millions upon millions of players to be good.

GW2 will never be the top dog MMO, but that doesn’t mean it’s unhealthy or dead. Nevertheless, GW2’s endgame, however that is manifest, is not robust (and probably never will be), and the game alienates many players who opt for traditional tank/healing roles. The trinity may be old, but I don’t believe an MMORPG that lacks it will ever reign supreme in the market — it’s tried and true. Yes, yes, yes — you have tanks and healers in GW2, you can stretch the term to fit, but it’s a soft trinity.

In the end, GW2 will likely be around for years to come.

EDIT: What Farzo said.

An empty pve zone means that everyone has already completed the content on that map and has moved on. Doesn’t mean the game is dying…

Go to WvW, sPvP, Queensdale, Frostgorge, dungeons or any chest events and you’ll find all the players.

Given the string of terrible updates of late, yes, the game is absolutely dying. Especially when combined with how many pve zones are nearly ghost towns…about the only zones I ever see people in on a regular basis are ones with a champ farm and in the area of a world boss whenever its up.

I wouldn’t say it’s dying, not by a long shot. However, as many people have stated, ANet needs to announce a big update soon to try to keep players as other MMOs come out. Maybe a LS where we can kill Scarlet, and to get the full meta, we have to do it 4 times.

But seriously, if another elder dragon isn’t announced, or the opening of Crystal Desert, or Cantha/Elona, there will be an exodus from all servers.

This game is in dire need of a content add that only a paid expansion could add. I would be perfectly happy to pay for an expansion if it were to add significant content.

You can call it hyperbole or anecdotal evidence; I simply look at my gaming peer group. We are on a crowded server. Out of the 10 of us that joined the game together I am the only one remaining and we tend to move as a group.

Why have they moved on?

1. Living world content is not sufficient to keep their interest. The time period is too short for the more casual players to pursue the rewards or it is too simplistic for the hard core players to perceive it as a challenge. Much of it has been a thinly veiled rehash of previous content today it’s a super adventure box sitting in an open field; tomorrow it’s a picnic basket sitting in an open field; oh look a portal with monkeys throwing digital fruit; oh look a portal with npc holograms.. yeah -2 for originality there folks.
2. There is no sense of progression. While many do not like the “gear grind” without it; there is no sense that we are improving our characters for continued play. I’ve killed Zhaitan on numerous characters; Orr remains unchanged. The world has basically stagnated and my story which was irritating at best because I was a passenger in someone else’s triumphant ride to glory. You can hear people already; but there are just tons to do; world completion, crafting, blah blah blah. People want to kill crap, take their stuff and grow in power. Level 1-80 for most MMOs was the training period where you learn the inside out of your character to apply in some form of endgame where you have achieved mastery. Here you know basically everything you need to know by 40 and the challenges just gets mundane. I am going against someone who threatens the existance of the planet in his summoning ritual; and we speed run it in 8 min.
3. There is no real aesthetics to to pursue since you get whatever gear you want by the time you hit 80 whether crafting or pvp. The only gear that may keep you around are legendary’s or ascended. Legendary weapons are only epic in the grind required to get them. Gear in this game is like “Whose Line Is It Anyway.” Half of it looks like crap and the points doesn’t matter. Gear matters so little; we tend to run nekkid in WvW and do just fine.
4. WvW only sustains you for so long before it simply becomes another hamster wheel that has no impact on the rest of the world. Playing in WvW is like watching “Pinky and the Brain” What are we going to do tonight Brain? The same thing we do every night Pinky; take SMC, again and again and again.
5. My buddy stillh hates his pets on his ranger and is ridiculed in WvW because we have yet to address class imbalances.

So right now; my peers are playing BETAs for other games soon or just over the horizon for release. Other’s have returned to old standby’s.. but if you keep telling y ourself the “game is just fine” the servers are just as busy but people are just doing instances. You should hang out with the SWTOR folks because you are starting to sound just like them.

^nailed it…….