Guild Wars 2

Imagine if in (American) football, right before a new professional season begins, the NFL announces a new type of play that teams can run on defense. This play is devastating to the opposing team’s offense, offers almost no hope of a counterattack, and is completely legal and within the rules of football. This new type of play is so powerful, that all teams immediately start running it at the beginning of the season.

Predictably, the new play completely destroys spectator enjoyment of football. Game-ending scores plummet to levels of hockey or soccer. Wins or losses boil down to whichever team makes a mistake running the new play first. Many more matches end in ties than ever before. Referees are helpless to stop the situation, because the play is perfectly legal and within the rules of football.

How does the NFL react to this situation that it created? Sit back and do nothing for the entire season? Maybe change the rules to stop this phenomenon after the season ends?

No. Hell no. If the NFL did nothing, fans would give up on football in droves. The league and franchises would lose hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions). Football’s reputation would take an irreparable nosedive. Franchisees would abandon the league and take their money-printing empires elsewhere.

If this situation somehow occurred, the NFL would rectify it immediately. Instant, immediate rule changes would put a stop to this fun-destroying phenomenon posthaste. The damage control would be legendary.

Now, take that analogy, and compare it to what is occurring right now in Guild Wars 2, after the HoT expansion has just dropped and a new sPvP league season has begun.

The “NFL” (ArenaNet), instead of immediately changing the rules and salvaging the remainder of the season, officially announces that rule changes won’t occur until the season is almost over or after the season ends. In fact, they’re going to throw even more money at the teams that decide to run this new, devastating play, to encourage them to run it even more frequently and persuade others to adopt this style of play.

This is the type of counterintuitive, counterproductive decision-making that ArenaNet is engaging in. They’re lucky they have the PvE game to prop up Guild Wars 2, because otherwise, the combination of HoT and this league season would torpedo the franchise harder than the Lusitania.

I also blame the so-called “pro” players for not protesting during an official stream, not even on interviews!

Ara.4569:

I also blame the so-called “pro” players for not protesting during an official stream, not even on interviews!

These ’’pros’’ are paid by them, the real pros are doing Solo-Q without being cheap.

Ara.4569:

I also blame the so-called “pro” players for not protesting during an official stream, not even on interviews!

Actually they do, in their own streams

Ara.4569:

I also blame the so-called “pro” players for not protesting during an official stream, not even on interviews!

Er they have.

Ara.4569:

I also blame the so-called “pro” players for not protesting during an official stream, not even on interviews!

Not fair. Most of them have said negative comments. A sampling of things they’ve said in their own streams

Chaith/Five Gauge The Abjured “… don’t blame us for this ridiculous meta”

Phantaram The Abjured “.. I don’t know where to begin with the list of things that need to be fix… We just work with what we got”

Lord Helseth The Civilized Gentlemen “This [League system] is garbage”

I could go on.

The Football analogy from the OP is valid. You could make others. The bottom line is the players in this game respect and love the PvP side of the game. I’m not sure that the game studio behind cares about it nearly as much.

Read again.

Amineo.8951:

These ’’pros’’ are paid by them, the real pros are doing Solo-Q without being cheap.

Now that Stronghold is back we can do a lot of sidestepping of these ‘toxic’ builds.

I had a bunker Tempest chase me for an entire game tickling me and we won ezpz