Guild Wars 2

I have come back to play GuildWars2 after 2 years of not playing

I was before purely a SPvP and really did love the PVP combat, so I thought that I would come back and give it another try. First of all I log into the mists and find the the new PVP build page, this is a great Idea makes it really easy to do your builds however you can still not save your builds!? Then i go and want to change weapons and realize I had to go and buy a weapon, why is it not listed like all the amulets? After that I remembered all the armor that I had earned previously only to find out to change the “skins” i needed Transmutation Stones. I then go in to play some games and find servers just farming xp… (Easy was to fix this would be just a flat win a loose xp bonus…) Then I decide I would play some ranked games as this is what I came back for, so I go on play some games only to find out that the ladder is disabled… (For what I am guessing is until the new expansion when they release the new system)

How are you going to keep my interest? This is the exact same problem the first wave of PvP players left as you are playing for no reason, no progression just random games. Also after about 10 games I look in my inventory and it is just jam packed with random boxes. I open these all up to find a load of mats a bad armor, please can someone tell me as a pure PvP player why the hell I would want all this? I just seems like a pain in the kitten to have to sort though after every game.

I was really looking forward to getting back into this game but after 2 days of playing I am already loosing interest as what is there to play for? You could tell me to wait for the expansion but if the game does not hold my interest until then I am likely going to get back into another game and leave GuildWars 2 behind.

It seems after two years this game has not sorted any problems within SPVP and this is really disappointing as the combat has the potential to be something really special and all you need is a working ranking system for solo and teams…

Sorry for the whining but I thought that i would share my experience as an old time player.

No, people left previously because ANET lacks a balance team. It takes them forever to fix obviously broken specs.

This is part true, I did not want to comment on game balance as I have not played enough as of yet to know what the balance is exactly like . However even if the game was perfectly balanced what would keep me playing? Being as competitive as I am I need something to strive for and I just do not have that at this moment.

I guess you could play a game because its fun. If you play for 2 days and get bored probably best to just uninstall the game.

rubberducky.3856:

I guess you could play a game because its fun. If you play for 2 days and get bored probably best to just uninstall the game.

Fun is subjective, and as the OP stated in his post, three years after launch the game still lacks the competitive carrot he finds fun and engaging. Competitive-mindset players need leaderboards with visible MMR and leagues with different skill brackets that are tied to PvP-exclusive rewards. The more ambitious ones also need money on top of that to feel sufficiently engaged and incentivized. The existing sPvP model supports the casual segment of the population (= the PvE chest farmers) and the already-established top echelon of PvPers in ESL-worthy teams. Between these two polar opposites there is a huge gap of competitive players that have no place in the game right now, since they have nothing to aspire to. That’s where the churn happens and where Anet is passing out on extra revenue.

I’ll give a concrete example of the above from the EU scene: On EU, there’s a group of fro… French players that only come around for the WTS qualifiers. You might see them logging on now and again and pugging during off-season, but they only get serious when the incentives are right. Skill-wise they are right up there with 55, Logo and TCG, and the scene would be a richer place if they participated regularly. They don’t, since they don’t see the point.

Another good example is Lowell from long-since-buried Eclypsia Supersquad and former TCG/Curse. He has tried to get back into GW2 for a couple of times, but there’s no way for him to do that currently. Either you discover the special pleasure of opening PvE chests all day or you try to force your way into an established ESL team with fixed rosters. Neither option is really feasible.

My advice to the OP is to play something else and come back when the expansion hits and leagues are operational. Before that you’ll just get bored. I truly hope that the upcoming PvP infrastructure is able to engage players like you, because that’s exactly what the scene needs in order to grow and become healthier.

Great post Aereniel, however I would just like to say that “wait till the expansion” should not even be needed. They have a working ladder which all they need to do is restart… (and I know the ladder might be shot but at least it’s something. The problem also is that this game with the ladder would keep me intrested until the expansion, meaning I would buy it, but as it stands I will probably get into a different game in this time waiting and will not be buying the expantion due to that.

Welcome back!

It won’t ever get any better
It may get worse…

Old timer, meet someone who only started playing PvP after a year…

Truth be told, this is the reason I stopped playing PvP. Though some throw it at balancing, it is only part of the true frustration, namely that there is no reason to play (and win).
There is none, not that bunch of silver you get which you could have gotten elsewhere. A lack of a proper competitive infrastructure is what has held and is holding the game back. What is worse, people leaving leads only to this said infrastructure to cripple further and further, since you cannot quite make a competitive infrastructure with the same people.
Hower, like you, I like this game. I guess it is no different from many, but dedication to the game and sympathy only goes so far. It is a P2P game, so there is no reason to be wanting to stick around, aside from the time spent in the game. However, I am personally in conflict considering that this game can and has offered a lot of fun – and with the expansion comming, I am more than willing to see how much it is worth.

The question is to whether leagues and their respective rewards are enough to rekindle the flame. I am personally very sceptical about the competitive system, but if it does work out, then we are in for a spectacular moment in the GW2 history – so like people have said, stick around and see

We’re only going to see change once they introduce leagues and teamq once the expac hits, but we still haven’t heard the details on a proper split queue or if leagues actually represent skill (punish losses enough/fair matches) so it could be a total flop.

I play for fun, not for carrots.

uhohhotdog.3598:

I play for fun, not for carrots.

i do too. but after mmr hits you with 4+ awful matches (cause u are above 50% winrate, must knock u back down a peg!) which is ~1 hour of my time gone to nothing but frustration, i gave up on un/ranked.