Guild Wars 2

I would like to toss out a few ideas that I think might improve WvW. I played the game for quite a while before really digging into WvW, but I have come to enjoy it quite a bit. I do think there are a few things that might increase player investment and draw new players into it.
The first thing that I think might make a positive impact, especially for new players, is the ability to see who is tagged up in WvW when you open the WvW panel. For smaller servers this would allow players to know where they could go to make immediate contributions. I realize experienced players do not need a zerg to do great things for their servers, but new players often do not realize this. On larger servers, it would tell players where certain commanders are, allowing them to join with the group that best serves their playing style or personality. Imagine pulling up the WvW panel and immediately knowing that for your server commander X is attacking a rival’s garri, commander Y is defending SMC, and commander Z is roaming in another rival’s BL. If you combine this with the idea of task specific commander tags (as mentioned in Able Sentry’s post) , it really starts to create an informed WvW player base.
Another thing I think would really help is tying WvW to the guild hall in a way that is rewarding for the players. Imagine if instead of a “stealth fountain” (an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen), there were portals to the claiming guild’s guild hall when SMC was fully upgraded. Within their guild hall, there could be an area cordoned off for visiting players from their server. In the WvW visitor area, there could be a number of WvW specific services available to players in the server. Maybe which services they have access to can be determined by their progress through a guild hall ability point line. What that would mean is there would be a real tactical advantage to a fully upgraded SMC. What’s more, that tactical advantage would be a result of A: holding SMC, B: a guild upgrading their guild hall, and C: a player wisely using their WvW points. All three of those things are things players are supposed to aspire to.
My final idea might be a little bit of a stretch, but I think it has merit. I started as a PvE focused player, and it took time for me to come around to WvW. I suspect there are a lot of players who aren’t giving it the chance they should. Recruiting has become a bit more difficult with the megaservers. I think “Mist Heroes” might be a solution to these issues. “Mist Heroes” (completely an arbitrary term on my part) would be NPCs specific to each server to replace Siegerazer in functionality and also serve as the “mascot” for the server. They would be available in LA for players to interact with, and serve as an advertising function for each server’s WvW efforts. They would each have a backstory associated with GW2 lore, increasing investment from PvE focused players who enjoy the lore (myself included). They would replace Siegerazer in functionality, and would set up shop upstairs above the lord’s room in SMC when SMC is fully upgraded, where they could congratulate players on a job well done and maybe even offer a couple of vendor items (rare food such as dragon bash foods or some such thing). None of this would change the way WvW is played, so hardcore WvW players would scarcely notice the difference, aside from the tragic loss of siegerazer (maybe one server can keep him as a Mist Hero). If you really wanted to walk this road all the way to crazyville, each could wield a unique weapon that might be available later as a legendary. Maybe that’s a lot to ask. Most of that would be very easy to implement and only increase visibility of WvW to a bulk of GW2 players.
I appreciate people reading this post. I know it was long, but I hope there are some interesting ideas here. I hope we as players can influence this game for the best.

-Fates

ps. Able Sentry’s post, since I reference it a few times:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/WvW-Points-beyond-1390/first#post5584919

I love the idea of server mascots~

Dibs on the Quaggan

If the servers were to get mascots shouldn’t they be related to the server itself ? (i.e the servers name)

I am the server mascot

Per the OP, I like the idea of a window showing who’s tagged up before you zone into a map. You don’t even need to know what they’re attacking, just a “who’s online” list — which technically you can do by adding your favourite commander to your friend’s list I guess….

I’d be invested in WvW if there was any actual return to the time invested in it. However, as a 24 hr, 7 day a week game, there’s just not much motivation to contribute towards anything.

I mean, if I log in to WvW, what’s the point? Unless you’re a commander, your contribution is next to meaningless, even if you’re the most skilled person on the field. And even if you’re a commander and manage to capture every keep you go up against, it still doesn’t matter much unless you pump in some serious hours into the game.

And even if you do move the needle towards victory, it just feels utterly anticlimactic. For a game that lasts as long as WvW does, there’s really very little feeling of meaning behind the end of a game. It just feels like an endless slog.

Now, if WvW was a regular occurring game that lasted for several hours at a time, I could see getting invested. However, I doubt that will ever happen and until then, there’s no closure and very little incentive to participate.

Fates Intertwined.3148:

snip

Had my favourite commander on my FL and jumped into wvw every time I saw he was on.
If there already had been a commander and he wasn’t tagged up but following, I followed him while he was following the commander – you might think that makes no sense but it does as my usual favourite commanders and me think alike, so we push together and retreat together.
If you have any questions regarding wvw you can always ask in map chat – I asked tons of stupid questions when I was new.
I never really needed a guild, so not so sure how to get a wvw guild but I guess for that you can ask in mapchat once again.
I don’t want to be redirected into some guild hall, I want to play wvw.

One thing that I think would improve investment is if there was a reason to play wvw. Sure with the new legendary weapons they are trying to make people play more than one gamemode but a lot just to to EoTM to get their badges of Honor. PVP gets finishers and gear, something that actually shows they play it and that they invested time. Dungeons and Fractals and even silverwastes give attainable titles and of course gold and gear. WvW doesn’t really give that. There are no special wvw finishers or gear you can only get in wvw that shows you are a person who mains wvw. Sure there are your wvw ranks but none of your allies can even see that title, just your “enemies”. I think in order for people who don’t main wvw to get more invested, they would have to be able to get something from it that is worth their time. People grind pvp for new finshers and gear, people run dungeons and fractals and silverwastes for titles and loot. WvW doesn’t even have many attainable titles(though rumor has that’s changing), the loot that is obtained is not especially valuable and you lose more gold than making it. Until there is actually something a player can benefit from other than playing the game I think the investment level will stay low.

coolcat.4638:

One thing that I think would improve investment is if there was a reason to play wvw. Sure with the new legendary weapons they are trying to make people play more than one gamemode but a lot just to to EoTM to get their badges of Honor. PVP gets finishers and gear, something that actually shows they play it and that they invested time. Dungeons and Fractals and even silverwastes give attainable titles and of course gold and gear. WvW doesn’t really give that. There are no special wvw finishers or gear you can only get in wvw that shows you are a person who mains wvw. Sure there are your wvw ranks but none of your allies can even see that title, just your “enemies”. I think in order for people who don’t main wvw to get more invested, they would have to be able to get something from it that is worth their time. People grind pvp for new finshers and gear, people run dungeons and fractals and silverwastes for titles and loot. WvW doesn’t even have many attainable titles(though rumor has that’s changing), the loot that is obtained is not especially valuable and you lose more gold than making it. Until there is actually something a player can benefit from other than playing the game I think the investment level will stay low.

WvW offers nothing other than fun (but costs gold to play for gear, consumables, repairs, etc.). No achievements, no competitive gold income, no titles, it is no way to gear a character, comes with the ugliest weapon set, gives no progress to legendaries. The expansion blog posts are a lil’ depressing ’cause raids and yet more masteries are just gonna be more reasons for people to not play WvW.

Unlike any other game mode, getting people to show up regularly is such a big deal in WvW. For PvP, if there are 10 people playing you got a full room. For PvE, you just switch to another instance. For WvW, you show up in EB with an enemy upgraded keep in front of your spawn.

Thinking about WvW is so infuriating!

Love WvW, and spend the vast majority of my time there EXCEPT when I have to PvE to get money, mats, etc.

The population issues aside if they would just give more players a reason to get into WvW then the mode would flourish. I generally make 2-10 gold a night when raiding without selling anything except the junk and sigils/runes(yellow). That’s spread out over 4-6 hours usually, and sometimes more depending on other factors. How much gold do Silverwaste farmers make in 4-6 hours?

I don’t care about being game-wealthy, but I do care about acknowledgement for my time and effort ingame. Yes, most of the time I feel the fun is a good trade off, but it won’t be for many players. Give us something similar to PvP reward tracks, and call it a day.