Guild Wars 2

SPvP and WvW both have strengths and weaknesses that appeal to non-competitive players (note that I’m not using the term “casual”, because there are a lot of people who play this game for many hours every day but don’t play PvP competitively). I think there is room for a third mode that combines the strengths of both modes.

It will be easier to begin with a discussion about why (I have zero evidence to back this up but believe it to be true) the majority of the player base prefers WvW to PvP. The largest strength of WvW is that you play in big teams. People like to find safety in the masses. Why is that? There are two major reasons:
1) Large battles are more forgiving of mistakes. It’s okay to slip up here and there without costing your team the victory. There’s less pressure.
2) With a high number of people on each team, statistically speaking you’ll have a more balanced distribution of skill levels between the two teams.

In general, we could summarize the strength of WvW as: this is a mode that allows people to learn at their own pace and still win some of the time. SPvP, on the other hand, not only punishes people harshly for their mistakes but draws out these mistakes more often because of a higher chance of skill imbalance. Newcomers can expect to lose many many times before they gain their first victory. It can be very discouraging.

Nevertheless, SPvP has its own strengths:
1) It’s goal oriented. Smaller maps and discrete rounds naturally drive the player towards the goal. It’s much more intuitive what you’re supposed to be doing in PvP vs what you’re supposed to be doing in WvW.
2) Fights are almost always a legitimate means to an end. What I mean by this is better explained by the weakness I see in WvW – very frequently fighting the enemy out in the open in WvW is an incorrect decision given the goals of WvW. People want to fight each other on the open battleground! In SPvP there’s no walls or gates protecting a point – the primary form of taking it is killing whoever’s guarding it in open combat.

I believe there is a strong argument for combining the strengths of both modes of play. A mid-sized map that encourages open terrain fighting in large groups – a la TF2. There’s a reason I’ve played over 1000 hours of TF2 (if Steam is to be believed). I had fun when I was a newcomer and I still have fun as an experienced player. I’m encouraged to learn at my own pace, I can still win if I make some mistakes (not too many), and I’m encouraged to go out there and FIGHT.

Provide people with an mode that incentivizes them to fight openly in large groups and I believe people of all skill levels will flock to it.

I completely agree.

I hate WvW because it’s so huge and you feel like your contribution doesn’t matter. I do like the siege element though, but it’s annoying and shallow to just mindlessly zerg and get zerged.

I like sPvP because it feels more skill based than the PvP in WvW.

Maybe if they had a mode much like AB in GW1 with 15-20 vs. 15-20…with one main fort and other points where you could designate cappers, players in charge of siege, and players in charge of offensive / defensive pushes…i think it’d be a lot more fun and deep to play with others on vent in this format. It would be significantly smaller than WvW though in hopes that it encourages people to be in almost-constant battle. The team sizes would also encourage a more cooperative aspect for those player who want raid-like pvp…i dunno. Just an idea. I really loved AB in GW1, but i realize a lot of the enjoyment i had from pvp in GW1 was dependent on the class paradigms. In my opinion, combat in this game will never go the next level without a healer class. There’s just very little depth in the gameplay that doesn’t deteriorate to zerg / whack a mole. At least with a monk you had to backline, deal with pressure, make quick decisions, etc.

I just find the combat in this game incredibly boring.

There’s still a backline in this game. Rangers with bows, Staff Eles and Necros, a lot of the 900-1200 range classes make great dps and support backlines. The problem I see is more of the midline. It’s only purpose at this point is for the frontline people to back off a bit and wait for some skills to come off cooldown.