It must sound cringeworthy when people on your community forum try to talk shop. I can’t pretend to appreciate the many factors that go into these decisions, as I’m sure we as outsiders aren’t privy to most of them. All the same here’s my bit.
There are 2 things I’d like to see, as will be elaborated on below.
- Elite specs in sPvP made accessible to the F2P community.
- A ‘light’ version of the client stripped down just to the sPvP element.
Let’s look at how you’re attracting exclusivly ‘competitive’ players to spvp
The download is free. Presumably players are then expected to play ‘classic’ specs, and if they like the game enough they will purchase the expansion. Arenanet have been very vocal about their confidence, both in the b2p model and in their wider game, in this being an effective route to market.
In competitive sPvP however it isn’t possible to have fun on classic specs, chiefly due to balance
That’s an immediate turn off to these kind of players. As far as balance is concerned, this feeling in unequivocal across the board, so there’s no need to discuss it further here.
It’s a pretty glaring problem. It also puts you in a dilemma; will improving the initial player experience by rebalancing elite specs deincentivise their purchase of HoT? Let’s face it – even now most of it’s content lies outside of the Mists, no matter how tantelising Mr. Tibbles may appear to some.
There is only one clear way to break this dilemma, and that is for Conquest sPvP to fully embrace a f2p model.
- Competitive games do f2p better than everything else
- The infrastructure is now fully in place – it just needs to be signed off
- Marketing could do a lot with this news also
The second suggestion would be to allow the download of a stripped down version of the Client.
- This allows players quicker access to sPvP exclusively should they decide to try it out.
- It also makes it clear that sPvP is a game in its own right prior to download.
Thought I’d get this all in before the post-balance ‘dark’ period for devs on the forums.
Phaatonn, London UK