Guild Wars 2

Always remember the silent majority Anet, many of us are enjoying your game.

To some of the forum posters here in sPvP:
Have you guys played LoL recently? That community is/was just toxic….lets not become like that. If you don’t like Gw2 right now, then go elsewhere. You already bought the game, so just come back in a few months when they have more features that you do like.

My advice: Have a beer, chill out, and kill kittens.

If I were a developer, I would be very grateful that there are still players posting in my forums because their feedback is very valuable. Rather than scratching my head wondering why is in my games succeeding I can go to the forums and find the answers. I don’t think I believe in the silent majority excuse. If the developers fix the problems that are dressed on these forms, the silent majority will have more fun in the game as well. The silent majority simply does not care enough about the game to go on the forums and complain. The game and not be as fun as what it could be if many of these form issues were addressed, but the silent majority is willing to put up with it and continue playing without making much fuss over it.

I remember when I first started playing World of Warcraft battlegrounds I had many issues that I felt were unfair and not fun such as when the roads were very overpowered and could stung locked me and kill me. But I never said one thing on the forums because back then I was just not that sort of person and I didn’t really care enough about the game to warrant creating a form account and posting.

Amen.

I’m beginning to notice how much people complain about a game that’s actually really fantastic. The forums really taint it. I think I’m going to post here less, or at least take people less to heart. This game really is fantastic and no matter what some forum posters say, Anet really does care about all aspects of the game.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We do care about PvP. A lot more than you know actually.

Thanks for the ideas/suggestions/ constructive feedback! It means a lot that you guys are so passionate and fired up about the game – it means that you care and want it to succeed!

We know we care, that’s why we’re here! The problem is we can’t tell you care about pvp, even if more then we think you do. It just doesn’t show.

WaffylesYay.9735:

Always remember the silent majority Anet, many of us are enjoying your game.

To some of the forum posters here in sPvP:
Have you guys played LoL recently? That community is/was just toxic….lets not become like that. If you don’t like Gw2 right now, then go elsewhere. You already bought the game, so just come back in a few months when they have more features that you do like.

My advice: Have a beer, chill out, and kill kittens.

POST OF THE MONTH

JonathanSharp.7094:

We do care about PvP. A lot more than you know actually.

Thanks for the ideas/suggestions/ constructive feedback! It means a lot that you guys are so passionate and fired up about the game – it means that you care and want it to succeed!

Brb I enjoy the game as well.
Since that is established.
Send a couple new maps my way home boy, I know you got em, and you know I want em. Oh and when you get the chance, write it on a piece of paper for the boys downstairs to fix Needle trap, tripwire, corrosive traps and scorpion wire. Thanks brah, I know you wouldn’t let a brother down.
Don’t listen to these player haters, I can tell you’re a smooth criminal like MJ and can deliver the goods like a mobster. Get to work playa.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We do care about PvP. A lot more than you know actually.

Thanks for the ideas/suggestions/ constructive feedback! It means a lot that you guys are so passionate and fired up about the game – it means that you care and want it to succeed!

I am passioned and I do want it to succeed but your words do not match your actions.
If you cared so much for pvp as you claim, matchmaking would have been in a lot time ago before so many ppl left.

Forcing ppl to play on a map that mostly everyone skips just because you believe it as tournament potential doesn’t make it better. Did you even care to ask your players what they thought about this map ?! I’m sure it was fun to create it but I’m sorry to say that it is not fun to play in.

These are just a few things that makes me doubt that you guys like pvp as much as you claim.

Pls prove me wrong…. Sincerely!

Volrath.1473:

JonathanSharp.7094:

We do care about PvP. A lot more than you know actually.

Thanks for the ideas/suggestions/ constructive feedback! It means a lot that you guys are so passionate and fired up about the game – it means that you care and want it to succeed!

I am passioned and I do want it to succeed but your words do not match your actions.
If you cared so much for pvp as you claim, matchmaking would have been in a lot time ago before so many ppl left.

Forcing ppl to play on a map that mostly everyone skips just because you believe it as tournament potential doesn’t make it better. Did you even care to ask your players what they thought about this map ?! I’m sure it was fun to create it but I’m sorry to say that it is not fun to play in.

These are just a few things that makes me doubt that you guys like pvp as much as you claim.

Pls prove me wrong…. Sincerely!

The map is great because it doesn’t promote zerging like the others and buff bonuses are an excellent idea, there are several builds that each class could use there, from assaulter to nuker to pure roamer

This game has great core mechanics, but it is missing so many features that it is nearly unplayable. The fun wears down after a few dozen hours because these basic features (solo queue, ladder, voice chat, etc) are simply not there.

@Arheundel.6451

There are a few long posts in this forum on other threads about this, I will not repost just look around.
Few hints.
- underwater combat is still very unbalanced.
- thieves and elementalists will never die wile figting abouve the water wells.
- professions with knock back utilities have great advantage on this map.

To name the most obvious ones.

Ps I play a thief as main.

WaffylesYay,

Is it because you enjoy mindlessly zerging around in hot-join? Some players do enjoy being rewarded for play which does not result in wins for their teams. And ArenaNet presumably encourages this, considering their point system remains unchanged to any degree.

It’s not very many, though, judging from the number of people participating in sPvP.

Personally, I’m bored as [kitten] of it. Tournaments can be fun, but who wants to play competitively all the time? There is no casual play in this game. It’s competitive or complete garbage. And when talking competitively, there are some balance and mechanics issues that could use some attention.

But if you enjoy rolling around randomly in hot join without regard for winning a match, sure. There’s certainly some of you guys having fun with that. But there’s a lot of people who don’t enjoy that.

Virgil Kemp.7056:

WaffylesYay,

Is it because you enjoy mindlessly zerging around in hot-join? Some players do enjoy being rewarded for play which does not result in wins for their teams. And ArenaNet presumably encourages this, considering their point system remains unchanged to any degree.

It’s not very many, though, judging from the number of people participating in sPvP.

Personally, I’m bored as [kitten] of it. Tournaments can be fun, but who wants to play competitively all the time? There is no casual play in this game. It’s competitive or complete garbage. And when talking competitively, there are some balance and mechanics issues that could use some attention.

But if you enjoy rolling around randomly in hot join without regard for winning a match, sure. There’s certainly some of you guys having fun with that. But there’s a lot of people who don’t enjoy that.

Pugging free tourneys is currently the closest thing to casual PvP we have. Hotjoin is casual but I wouldn’t call it PvP. In free tourneys, you’re likely to get a decent match every other queue or so on weeknights. Weekends it’s a different story—the ticket farming is strong those days.

JonathanSharp.7094:

We do care about PvP. A lot more than you know actually.

Thanks for the ideas/suggestions/ constructive feedback! It means a lot that you guys are so passionate and fired up about the game – it means that you care and want it to succeed!

I just want to see some love given to condition warriors ;P and that’s about it.

Volrath.1473:

@Arheundel.6451

There are a few long posts in this forum on other threads about this, I will not repost just look around.
Few hints.
- underwater combat is still very unbalanced.
- thieves and elementalists will never die wile figting abouve the water wells.
- professions with knock back utilities have great advantage on this map.

To name the most obvious ones.

Ps I play a thief as main.

- You can dodge knockback animation, more like you can anticipate them…no I’m no crazy, furthermore there is push and fear that can force an opponent down, it’s all part of the strategy
- Underwater combat is balanced enough for me, many 1-2-3 burst combos are not possible and there is loads of manouevres to do( up/down left/right), I really enjoy underwate combat, very challenging against some professions ( ranger pet bug will be fixed soon or later)
-What? thieves and eles won’t die above water wells? didn’t occur to me

I don’t think everyone realizes how hard developer work is, everyone is expecting them to design all kinds of new stuff from scratch while making changes to stuff that’s already in the game. Have you ever programmed for a Triple A title? No, just be patient.

Edit: I forgot to say thank you for todays changes, I definitely like the fast queues and spiked pvp interest the patch has brought. Keep up the good work!

BonzerSkate.6275:

I don’t think everyone realizes how hard developer work is, everyone is expecting them to design all kinds of new stuff from scratch while making changes to stuff that’s already in the game. Have you ever programmed for a Triple A title? No, just be patient.

Edit: I forgot to say thank you for todays changes, I definitely like the fast queues and spiked pvp interest the patch has brought. Keep up the good work!

Do you not see the updates pve gets? That’s where all their attention goes

^ Pvp is getting attention in febr/march. They’ve been saying that since december.

This was a small patch pvp-wise. But they fixed some bugs so that’s a good thing. And they’re testing stuff out. (WTB future plans with current paid system)

Virgil Kemp.7056:

WaffylesYay,

Is it because you enjoy mindlessly zerging around in hot-join? Some players do enjoy being rewarded for play which does not result in wins for their teams. And ArenaNet presumably encourages this, considering their point system remains unchanged to any degree.

It’s not very many, though, judging from the number of people participating in sPvP.

Personally, I’m bored as [kitten] of it. Tournaments can be fun, but who wants to play competitively all the time? There is no casual play in this game. It’s competitive or complete garbage. And when talking competitively, there are some balance and mechanics issues that could use some attention.

But if you enjoy rolling around randomly in hot join without regard for winning a match, sure. There’s certainly some of you guys having fun with that. But there’s a lot of people who don’t enjoy that.

Hot-join is the casual aspect of sPvP right now. Some parts of WvW can be casual pvp as well (on some servers).

I am a generally competitive player and I spend a good amount of time in free tournies and some paids. I almost always go in with a premade team of like-minded folks who play to win. That is the competitive nature of sPvP. I enjoy super-competitive tournies and the more casual hot-join at this time.

Honestly, the balance in this game is pretty good imho. Sure tweaks etc are needed but the core gameplay is there and functional. I am not in the super elite in sPvP and I am reminded frequently about how much I do not know about different class combos as I frequently get my kitten handed to me.

So, I think many cries about “bad balance” can be taken with a grain of salt. sPvP does not have an “easymode”. Progression and success is very difficult and you need to work for it.

(yes I know there are some balance tweaks need to be made but I don’t think any class is broken etc.)

WaffylesYay.9735:

Virgil Kemp.7056:

WaffylesYay,

Is it because you enjoy mindlessly zerging around in hot-join? Some players do enjoy being rewarded for play which does not result in wins for their teams. And ArenaNet presumably encourages this, considering their point system remains unchanged to any degree.

It’s not very many, though, judging from the number of people participating in sPvP.

Personally, I’m bored as [kitten] of it. Tournaments can be fun, but who wants to play competitively all the time? There is no casual play in this game. It’s competitive or complete garbage. And when talking competitively, there are some balance and mechanics issues that could use some attention.

But if you enjoy rolling around randomly in hot join without regard for winning a match, sure. There’s certainly some of you guys having fun with that. But there’s a lot of people who don’t enjoy that.

Hot-join is the casual aspect of sPvP right now. Some parts of WvW can be casual pvp as well (on some servers).

I am a generally competitive player and I spend a good amount of time in free tournies and some paids. I almost always go in with a premade team of like-minded folks who play to win. That is the competitive nature of sPvP. I enjoy super-competitive tournies and the more casual hot-join at this time.

Honestly, the balance in this game is pretty good imho. Sure tweaks etc are needed but the core gameplay is there and functional. I am not in the super elite in sPvP and I am reminded frequently about how much I do not know about different class combos as I frequently get my kitten handed to me.

So, I think many cries about “bad balance” can be taken with a grain of salt. sPvP does not have an “easymode”. Progression and success is very difficult and you need to work for it.

(yes I know there are some balance tweaks need to be made but I don’t think any class is broken etc.)

Thanks for the balance-statement! (no sarcasm here)

JonathanSharp.7094:

We do care about PvP. A lot more than you know actually.

Thanks for the ideas/suggestions/ constructive feedback! It means a lot that you guys are so passionate and fired up about the game – it means that you care and want it to succeed!

How about caring and answering the negative feedback instead of commenting threads that dont help us.

WaffylesYay.9735:

If you don’t like Gw2 right now, then go elsewhere.

There is no comment more toxic than this one. Discouraging the community from giving the devs feedback and telling them to just leave the game is just about the worst thing you could do to it.

@ Vigil Kemp,

I am going to defend my bro Waffles here, why becuase when he is on he rolls with me period. I do not mindlessly zerg, all we do is Free’s or now Paids and only go into the hotjoin servers to test out builds and 1v1. Last night we had a 70% win to lose ratio in paids, did one free and took the tourny. One of our losses was to Team Arenanet & PZ. I am not going to complain about loosing to them except cough “Matchmaking”.

I would like to say that our guild on this subject is equally divided. Heck one of our guildies defectivex was forum banned for going overboard on his opionon. Yet another one Waffles saying have a beer and mellow. Both points have merit.

Make free’s solo random queus only
Make paids no longer paid but require a full team before entering 1Tv1T like GvG
Make both of the above have match making and ladder stats

Thats it, the sad thing is I know programmers that could do this in about 1 month prob a few lingering bugs that would get worked out in a couple weeks. So I really want to beleive you about caring, but ug help us help you lol.

Let QP’s and Daily / monthly tournies be worried about later just get this in now. That can come with obs and private servers and jazz later.

To end on a positive note. I love the 1v1 paid map right now. I feel its the most balanced stand up fight map there is. No NPC’s no GL no Treb. My worry is whats going to happen in a week to 1Tv1T.

AAAAAHHHHHH The Sky is Fallliiinnngg. Carry on nothing to see here, hey is that beer you got there?

To be honest, I see some who post more on the forums than spend time in the actual game. Personally I think the forum junkies are just another aspect of the game. lol

/sarcasm on

There should be Dailies for this!

20 forum posts. +20
10 responses quoting another post. +20
15 Likes given. +20
3 Topics started. +20
1 post in 5 different forums. +20

= 1 Laurel win!

/sarcasm off

Seriously though, it IS true that most seem to enjoy this game very much and anything they have to grumble about is said between themselves and not posted here or even complained about in /m chat. ((ME included for the most part))

The old saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” became a saying because of the truth behind it. Sad to say it is not always a good thing, as the squeakers are just given that grease to shut them up and for no other good reason. (And certainly NOT because they speak for the rest of the players.)

Of course now is the “silent majority” the other dudes that were not happy with pvp are long gone or about to quit. This team vs team just shows the failure of a system that was bad since day 1 and now with the low pop they have to do this to keep happy the few ppl that enjoy this awful mode.
This game is just what could have been or great potential.
I dont know enjoy figthing the same ppl over and over, pug wars my god.

butch.8136:

^ Pvp is getting attention in febr/march. They’ve been saying that since december.

People keep saying this, but it remains completely, horribly moronic.

You CANNOT take 7 months to FINALLY introduce some sweeping changes to the game. It’s too late! It’s already too late, and taking even MORE time is just adding insult to injury.

The PvP side of the game receives so little support it’s absolutely laughable. Any other PvP game, especially the MOBAs, have been receiving several times as much support and actually seeing changes that shake up the meta in some way. Here? Nothing. Nothing at all.

It’s pathetic.

Zyrusticae.7245:

butch.8136:

^ Pvp is getting attention in febr/march. They’ve been saying that since december.

People keep saying this, but it remains completely, horribly moronic.

You CANNOT take 7 months to FINALLY introduce some sweeping changes to the game. It’s too late! It’s already too late, and taking even MORE time is just adding insult to injury.

The PvP side of the game receives so little support it’s absolutely laughable. Any other PvP game, especially the MOBAs, have been receiving several times as much support and actually seeing changes that shake up the meta in some way. Here? Nothing. Nothing at all.

It’s pathetic.

We will keep saying it till feb/march are over. If you dont want to wait nobodys keeping you here. But they cant just rush out buggy content. should they have done it earlier? probalby .
Are there major pressing issues? definately.
ARe ppl getting impatient and leaving? sure.
Yet, they gave us a timeframe, and thats what they are working towards, the only thing worse than getting no content is broken half working buggy content. If , by the end of febuarary nothing major happens in spvp alot of ppl who are waiting on the timeframe given by them will vote with there feet.

But they cant wave a wand and make it happen today when they already announced a timeframe.

gwawer.9805:

If I were a developer, I would be very grateful that there are still players posting in my forums because their feedback is very valuable. Rather than scratching my head wondering why is in my games succeeding I can go to the forums and find the answers. I don’t think I believe in the silent majority excuse. If the developers fix the problems that are dressed on these forms, the silent majority will have more fun in the game as well. The silent majority simply does not care enough about the game to go on the forums and complain. The game and not be as fun as what it could be if many of these form issues were addressed, but the silent majority is willing to put up with it and continue playing without making much fuss over it.

I remember when I first started playing World of Warcraft battlegrounds I had many issues that I felt were unfair and not fun such as when the roads were very overpowered and could stung locked me and kill me. But I never said one thing on the forums because back then I was just not that sort of person and I didn’t really care enough about the game to warrant creating a form account and posting.

The silent majority may not be posting but they are reading.

ninja edit: Which is why they are called a silent majority. Just my opinion, applies to many user-driven sites/forums as well.

Zyrusticae.7245:

butch.8136:

^ Pvp is getting attention in febr/march. They’ve been saying that since december.

People keep saying this, but it remains completely, horribly moronic.

You CANNOT take 7 months to FINALLY introduce some sweeping changes to the game. It’s too late! It’s already too late, and taking even MORE time is just adding insult to injury.

The PvP side of the game receives so little support it’s absolutely laughable. Any other PvP game, especially the MOBAs, have been receiving several times as much support and actually seeing changes that shake up the meta in some way. Here? Nothing. Nothing at all.

It’s pathetic.

We can whine about it all we want. It’s just the fact. I would love to have seen these things at launch or very soon after but it’s not. They’ve set the deadline to febr/march since december (i think), so we can only wait.

PvP in every game is always going to have a lot of toxic chatter. Go play SW:TOR PvP, then WOW, then come back to GW. The one thing your’ll notice is how DIFFERENT they feel, way more different then the PVE game in each. As such, everyone thinks it would be better if it was more like (or less like) some other game. Everyone has an option.

The best way to keep the community from getting toxic is to keep them engaged, but for some reason this rarely happens. I’m new to GW2 so I don’t know about your devs, but the posts in PVE threads vs. post in PVP threads for pretty much every game I’ve played is comically slanted in PVEs favor. SW:TOR for example had 107 dev posts about PVE in one month and 2 in PVP. When people feel no one is listening to them and no one cares, they tend to get ugly.

Personally, I think the PVP in GW2 is pretty much average. There are a lot of class balance issues and it’s basically just a zerg rush from point to point, but there is fun to be had. I would be great to see a dev post “well it feels like a zerg rush because we wanted a team based game” or “it shouldn’t be zerg like, here is what we are doing to stop it” would be fanatic. 99% of the people on the PVP treads just want to hear that as well. If you make a post like that in PVE there is a good chance someone will reply, but in PVP … less so.

Who said anything about sweeping changes in feb/march?
They said a pvp patch is comming they never said seeping! Not to mention the company policy of changing/balancing little by little, no drastic changes will ever happen. If it takes them 7-8 month to change a little how long will we have to wait until the pvp aspect of the game is enjoyable? I’m afraid that when that finally happens there wont be many ppl to play with.

Volrath.1473:

Who said anything about sweeping changes in feb/march?
They said a pvp patch is comming they never said seeping! Not to mention the company policy of changing/balancing little by little, no drastic changes will ever happen. If it takes them 7-8 month to change a little how long will we have to wait until the pvp aspect of the game is enjoyable? I’m afraid that when that finally happens there wont be many ppl to play with.

Drastic changes usually make things worse than better. incremental changes is the way to accurately hone in on balance.

i agree man i think this game is a lot of fun i played diablo 3 and just watched the whole forums troll the game from the get go and look where that game is now. Everybody needs to relax and be patient their is so much in the game pve/pvp your crazy if you think they would have pvp figured out at this point.

Relax and keep playing and help the lower rankings figure out what the hell their doing, add them and play with them in tournaments and it will spread.

BE PATIENT

Good change Arenanet!

Won 5 out of 7 paid matches today, while i have never been able to win a paid tournament before so it’s good to finally see some QP’s! :p i’m not a hardcore spvp player so facing less “pro” teams was very nice as well. We still faced plenty of R35+ groups but many of those were on the same level as us which made for great matches! And despite the fact that matchmaking is not in yet, the matches felt a lot more balanced alrdy than either free tournaments or the old paid tournaments.

It’s also great to see that the queue was extremely short! On top of that, i felt that the new map worked pretty well for tournament play. Someone suggested keeping this tournament system and rotating maps. I would love this!

As for the rewards. Awesome to get so many paid exclusive items on one day but it felt a bit too easy? Even if you lost, you would recieve a paid chest with all kinds of new items. I don’t mind it, but for the cost of 1 tournament ticket, a lot of people don’t mind losing to get the gear i think. But yeah, only lost 1 tournament ticket today because i also recieved 1 from the daily.! =D

So yeah, really loving the new system! Keep it up! Matchmaking, custom servers, better balance and observer mode will motivate me even more to spend time in this game format! We just have to wait.. Just 1 or 2 more months!

Right?

NevirSayDie.6235:

Pugging free tourneys is currently the closest thing to casual PvP we have…. In free tourneys, you’re likely to get a decent match every other queue or so on weeknights.

I should probably do that more often for casual play. My problem is that I hate solo queuing because it’s just not competitive, and it’s usually crickets when looking for more PUG teammates.

I’ve put together some PUG groups from guild members, friends, and random people. I’ve had fun doing frees with PUGs. But I generally find it’s more trouble than it’s worth. It just takes too long because not enough people are PvPing.

BonzerSkate.6275:

I don’t think everyone realizes how hard developer work is, everyone is expecting them to design all kinds of new stuff from scratch while making changes to stuff that’s already in the game. Have you ever programmed for a Triple A title? No, just be patient.

I think the problem is that the sPvP in GW2 just isn’t Triple A:

One game mode 5 months after release.

Buggy hot join join/full error 5 months after release.

A tournament competitive structure which was obviously terrible finally maybe starting to get fixed 5 months after release.

A point system which rewards bad gameplay resulting in losses more than good gameplay—which goes a long way to make hot join gameplay the complete rubbish that it is—unchanged 5 months after release.

@O S I A S

If he wasn’t referring to hot join, then I was just poking a little fun. Obviously, frees/paids are functional with some actual competition and team-oriented gameplay.

I was venting about about the complete rubbish that the game’s casual spvp is. tPvP’s problems are obviously significantly different from sPvP’s hot join rubbish, but his OP wasn’t specific so I had some fun.

The beer reference suggested to me he meant non-competitive play. Though I am not objecting to a couple for tournament play. For some people it reduces hesitation and speeds up reaction time!

I really hate the idea of frees, or any rated play, involving solo queues. It’s a matter of mathematics and calculating player ratings with random teams and a potentially large player base. For random teams, every additional player on a team means more games necessary to produce an accurate rating.

Add in an influx of new players (who often aren’t started with a 0 rating, messing things up even more), and you have a constant source of people with inappropriate ratings inappropriately affecting other players’ ratings.

The fact is, ELO/TSR ratings for 5v5 games with random teams like DOTA are mostly there just to make ignorant kids (and adults with the math educations of kids :P) happy to have a number to manipulate/be proud of.

This is obviously just for random teams. And some of your other ideas—and there are many more—have a lot of merit. There’s certainly a lot of things that could be done.

The fact that the current tournament system was ever programmed and implemented is a negative sign, however, considering that it’s literally as if they thought up the worst possible system then spend time and money putting it into the game.

I’ll have to spend some time on temple this week. Unfortunately, I haven’t been on much for weeks and don’t have a team handy anymore. But it is certainly a positive sign that they’re thinking about getting away from the horrible tournament system (as a basis for pvp, rather than ratings—there’s nothing wrong with occasional tournaments) which never should have been implemented.

I didn’t mean any offense to Waffles; I was poking fun in asking what he was referring to. My complaints stated here were all about casual sPvP being complete rubbish. I found his response to be very appropriate and even bit insightful. I’ll listen to the crickets and put together more PUG teams, if I have the time to wait for players.

Bella.6432:

The old saying, “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” became a saying because of the truth behind it. Sad to say it is not always a good thing, as the squeakers are just given that grease to shut them up and for no other good reason. (And certainly NOT because they speak for the rest of the players.

But what of their constructive criticism do you disagree with? It’s all well and good to contest that complaints are legitimate and representative of many players, but you’re being a bit vague here.

The fact that sPvP activity is so abysmal for the sequel to a game which had so much PvP enthusiasm suggests that at least some of the squeaks you’re hearing represent the displeasure of many players who’ve just stopped playing, at least for the time being. Whether or not they come back (and many of us keep playing) depends on the changes that happen in the coming months.

I’ve very rarely posted on these forums since some feedback during the beta weekends. I really enjoy the game’s mechanics. I think it has a lot of potential. But I think that most of that potential in regard to sPvP is wasted with one game mode, an unrefined point system for casual play, and a tournament system of competitive play which never should have made it past the idea phase.

These things have led to the terribly limited population which makes free tournaments (or, ideally, will make PUG 1v1s w/rating in the future) too time-consuming for many people to bother putting together.

A game needs a thriving casual base for competitive play to thrive. WoW arena became such a tiny minority activity because there was no place for casuals in it. GW2 sPvP has become such a tiny minority activity because there’s just so little for casuals to do in it—one game mode, where you’re rewarded the most for bad play. As is obvious from the server lists, there just aren’t that many players into it.

I’m focusing so much on casual play because it’s the player base from which players learn the game (or, in this case, don’t), shape up a little and get interested in competitive play. Without a player base, the community’s tiny, and it’s a novelty game that’s harder and more time-consuming to get into. (and less enjoyable)

Zyrusticae.7245:

You CANNOT take 7 months to FINALLY introduce some sweeping changes to the game. It’s too late! It’s already too late, and taking even MORE time is just adding insult to injury.

The PvP side of the game receives so little support it’s absolutely laughable. Any other PvP game, especially the MOBAs, have been receiving several times as much support and actually seeing changes that shake up the meta in some way. Here? Nothing. Nothing at all.

I think here you’ve summed up the worst part. I think most of us are here because we love the game’s mechanics and think it has a ton of potential for sPvP. But there’s just been so many errors in development and implementation which haven’t gotten any attention whatsoever in 5+ months.

With a target date of 7 months for changes we all wanted at release (and still having very little idea what nearly any of those changes will be), does anyone have confidence that sPvP is a priority? I find it funny to even ask that question, given the delay in sPvP development.

butch.8136:

We can whine about it all we want. It’s just the fact. I would love to have seen these things at launch or very soon after but it’s not. They’ve set the deadline to febr/march since december (i think), so we can only wait.

It’s certainly a legitimate point that we have a target date, and whining is unproductive. It’s a wait-and-see period now, after the past 5 month wait period.

I think the problem with this is what it still means for the community to have waited so long. Even if the update is significant and shows very good progress (which hopefully will be followed up with before another 7 months), there’s the matter of the number of players. Just because the game (no sub) is easier to come back to doesn’t mean players are necessarily more likely to return.

Time is of the essence. Though, of course, this doesn’t make whining productive, none of us want to be a member of a community of a couple hundred, if that, playing sPvP (hot join doesn’t count). Even if things get fixed, that’s just kind of embarrassing. We want a better and larger community than that, and that requires attention.