Guild Wars 2

Custom arenas were announced on the pvp blogpost that was published on October 8, 2012: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/structured-pvp-iceberg/

IMO they were a really nice idea. The perfect solution to GW2 pvp:

• Players can compete in some sort of amateur leagues. Some websites were already interested in hosting them. Even myself wanted to make it happen. Players will “do the job”, you only have to give them the tools. It’s a good start for a game that wants a competitive scene.

• Allow guilds to train and fight each other. That’s crucial if the game is aiming for competitive pvp. Right now if new players/guilds wants to learn how to play properly he just can’t. Paid tournaments for newbies mean being crushed by a guild or being humilliated by a rank 50 pug team that knows every competitive build & metagame. Free tournaments become pug stomping (you will learn nothing from it) or being farmed by a guild that is low on tickets.

• The so expected duels. People wants to duel. Any mmo without this option feels uncomplete. As simple as that.

• Provide some income to the company via server renting. That’s an obvious point. Matchmaking or CTF (for example) won’t give money and with no money income there isn’t any reason to keep updating the pvp.

As you can see im a big fan of it.
However they were pushed back. why? The blog post I linked gave the impression they were almost ready but 5 months later we dont know anything else about them. They have appeared in other dev posts or pvp blogs, but no new information was given. Many of us have created & disbanded guilds to prepare for this, others have been saving gems for months and others even hosted websites to support this. I think players that have been around since game release do deserve an update on this topic. Some questions that pop in my head are:

1) Why were they pushed back?
2) What’s the current development state?
3) After the matchmaking/ranking is released, is it 1st priority?
4) Could you give any new info about prices, rules, #players, customizing…?

Even a negative would be something.
Thanks for reading.

I agree we should get more information about this from the devs. My bet is that it’ll be the big feature for March’s update, maybe because they didn’t get in time to implement it this month. That, or they decided to priotize fair matchmaking over custom arenas, which is acceptable too, imo.

agreed with the op. especially in the duel (open world pve or anywhere) and custom arenas part.

Perhaps with the shrinking player base they worried that many of the current players would retreat into custom arenas with their friends, and hotjoin would be empty for people who play at odd times and cannot join an organized group.

Maybe they dedicated everything to fully unbugging the professions /dreaming.

Dude this game is still in Beta. They haven’t finished sorting out the queue formats, the ladder and progression, let alone the rewards. Custom servers are a nice feature to add to a game that’s already fully fleshed out and thriving – i.e not a tiny facet of a game that is still no where near completion and is still leaking players like a busted water main.

Let them finish making PvP playable and enjoyable to more than just us masochists still hanging around (ANet owes us a big ‘Thank You’ IMO for helping them finish their game) and then Custom Arenas will make sense.

Yeah well it cant be that difficult, just add a way to challenge other party’s. -kuruppt

hackks.3687:

Dude this game is still in Beta. They haven’t finished sorting out the queue formats, the ladder and progression, let alone the rewards. Custom servers are a nice feature to add to a game that’s already fully fleshed out and thriving – i.e not a tiny facet of a game that is still no where near completion and is still leaking players like a busted water main.

Let them finish making PvP playable and enjoyable to more than just us masochists still hanging around (ANet owes us a big ‘Thank You’ IMO for helping them finish their game) and then Custom Arenas will make sense.

I could provide you a thousand links that say they will not release the game until it is finished, “when it’s ready”. Sorry, but this is the game and it shows us what to expect in 6 months time.

looks like some people read only half the information and then they QQ

they already said they move rating to the top tier of their priority list, custom arenas dropped lower obviously we dont have many features which are important, not only custom arenas

I hope Custom Arenas is on the top priority spots after next patch. It will help with a lot of stuff having them finally ingame. Especially for the income for Arenanet which can be used for further, faster development. ( In case they use it for hiring more people )

incoming STEALTH CUSTOM SERVERS on the 26th.

faeral.7120:

incoming STEALTH CUSTOM SERVERS on the 26th.

Dont play with my feelings

What happened to them? Same thing that happened to the precursor scavenger hunt.

They announce it.
Everyone shuts up for a bit.
We see nothing.

^It works well, huh?

I actually have to agree that I personally would give rating and maybe a ladder the top-priority right now. Observer mode would be nice too. IMO the custom arenas are a “nice addition” but since they were announced as kind of a “paid” feature, I’m really not so sure if they could revive the competetive scene. I’d rather give that price to the ladder.

So, yeah, I’m okay with them delaying the custom arenas.

They also put out that show match at Gamescon in August 2011 (~18 months ago) which I assume required some sort of private server functionality – http://youtu.be/lUB677OVIus

This was used to market the game to PvPers and the fact that it is still not in, nor have any details been talked about recently is very concerning.

My speculation is that adding private servers would kill the other modes since the 2 teams that still play would never queue again.

I also suspect that Anet does not actually want people hosting tournaments and leagues since the problems with the mode would become very evident and potentially embarrassing.

The most obvious problem is the lack of a spectator mode which make it pretty much impossible to broadcast matches from different player perspectives.

There would also be gameplay issues like the narrow meta which results in every game being a near mirror-match of the same classes and builds which is boring.

The lack of stats tracking would also make it fairly difficult for a commentator or viewer to understand anything that is happening in detail.

Have to agree with OP.
Something AN – and experienced PvPer – tend to forget/miss out…
… Custom Servers with “mindless modes” (DM,CTF,LMS) help newbs to get into sPvP in the first place
From a newb/noobie perspective its horrible to get into “complex” game modes without losing fun/getting overwhelmed. While experienced players get annoyed by players who dont focus on the modes target but the fighting mostly.
Newbies to pvp/a game…:

1. …tend to search/go for fights/kills
Mostly to learn their class and compete their skills/have fun (…bashing around…)

2. …have to learn the map(s) layout and meta
And like to focus on only a few maps to get attuned with… and despise too fast / much rotation or too short timers… or Pros getting annoyed by a newbs lack of map knowledge.

4. …often DO NOT care much about META
Conquested points or other additional targets are more of a hindrance for a “learning player” (see 1. & 2.)

5. …often DO NOT like K/D-ratio or ranks
Or other such “permanent stats” while still being at “noobie stage”, while some “pros” have tendencies to search noobs as easy kills to better ranks/progression stuff…

6. …often like to STAY on a server
To meet up with friends and/or players of similiar skill AND LIKE to stay there as long as possible & fun.

…after getting more attuned to class, maps & meta… the (not that new anymore) player tend to look for more complexity, competition, stats/ranks/ladders…and most of the above listed points change / dont hold true anymore…
THATS WHY… you NEED BOTH. Custom servers as some sort of entry level / for gateing newbs over time into the more complex stuff. Resulting in more competition => esport…

i.e. HalfLife2 had mostly DM servers at release and most player had their focus on 1-2 maps only (out of 3-5..not sure). Today its the complete opposite…mostly TDM servers and a lot of maps in use by players setting up the servers…
…and a lot players who “transitioned” into the more complex, balanced & esporty Counter Strike.

If we had them people would totally make their own leagues… Its the one thing that could save pvp not a new MAP!