Guild Wars 2

The patch really boosted the population and was a great success in that respect! Many will claim, however, that it will die off again quickly due to several ongoing issues. There are 5 fairly simple ways to ensure those people are proven wrong!

1. Recognition – Add title and AP progression beyond R80. Ensure that the end to progression is not in sight. A WvW-like rank progression system would be perfectly adequate. Make ranks visible at least in HotM, and give players an option whether or not they want their rank shown after matches.

2. In-game tutorial – Even if it’s as simple as taking the online existing guides and loading the dialogue into an NPC that has a big “Newbs start here!” sign over his head, it needs to exist.

3. Build saving – Now that we have a new build interface and aren’t going to change it anytime soon, let’s add a “saved builds” option in the PvP build menu. One click to swap builds. This option could exist in PvE possibly as well, but not in WvW (wouldn’t want someone seeing your build, getting OOC, and coming back 10 seconds later with a hard counter)

4. Dead Horse #1 – Leaderboards and MMR – Reduce starting player MMR by 75% and reduce post-match MMR change by at least 50%. No more taking a hundred+ games for the system to start to get an idea how good someone is, and no more swinging up and down 200+ ladder ranks per match. Top leaderboard spots will now require a lot of games played to earn.

5. Dead Horse #2 – Maps – One of the biggest if not the single biggest gripe of the community is playing on Skyhammer in solo queue. While the population is high, queues are very short, and it’s the perfect time to allow solo queue players to “thumbs down” one map before they queue. They could not possibly get the map they vetoed. This system has been used and very welcome in other online PvP games. Later, once you’ve seen 50% of the population veto’ing Skyhammer, try removing the glass panels and see if Spirit Watch doesn’t rival it in vetoes. Then consider making the orb a little less points or a little harder to run and see if Khylo doesn’t rival it. Keep balancing the maps, always, aiming for an equal number of vetoes on all maps, and then you can remove the veto system.

All of those ideas sound great, I hope you don’t mind if a add a 6th.

6. More Reward tracks – The unification of PvE and PvP, as well as the new reward tracks are probably the main source for the increase in the player base. However, you should not forget, that the reward tracks actually cut down the total amount of obtainable skins via sPvP. In addition you might consider to “uneven” the progress within the dungeon track.
You should also actually consider making sth. like a “Legendary track”. With the changes in the rank system, there’s a lack in long term goals. A Legendary track might be the answer. I haven’t said anything, yet, on the length of the track. Give it 100-200 Tiers or sth. like that. If you win 10 teamQ matches a day, it will still take you 100 days to get the weapon.

all those things are nice to keep the hardcore side of the game.

To keep the casual aka non hardcore side arguably the most important population, all you need are good sPvP exclusive rewards from exclusive skins like armor and backs to significantly better loot. Pretty much waht EverthingEnds said.

All the things you listed don’t really appeal to the average player more so than exclusive kitten. Makes 2 sets of costume (not armor since armor requires 3 sets L, M & H of armor be made vs costumes that only require 1) one for simply playing the game and winning 200+ matches and a nice title, and an exclusive ladder costumes for climbing to the top 100 with progressively better rewards for the closer you are to #1.

Yes to all! Great ideas! Anet, I hope you are reading this thread!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give us a Legendary Track for sPvP/tPvP! I can PvP all day everyday, but dungeons and fractals just get boring after the twentieth time! PvP is dynamic, and maybe the Legendary Track can be more about specific PvP oriented achievements, like going 20 and 0 in a single match. And you would have to complete 100 different achievements or something like that…anything to break the monotony of WvW karma trains, champion runs, dungeon runs and fractal runs.