Guild Wars 2

Hiya.
So I may be in the minority on this, but I really feel that as wvw has changed overtime, that my worth as a single player has really gone down the drain.
I really miss how useful one person could really be for a server if they were dedicated enough and how much more we would communicate with eachother.

A couple examples (from my own experience)

• Being able to personally purchase upgrades (in a specific order) when nobody was around to do it themselves and how we would communicate in chat a lot to make sure everything was always upgrading. It gave a feeling of satisfaction when a small group (usually random players) could spend time working together to upgrade and protect their borderlands. I made a lot of friends this way because we would communicate so much so we knew what everyone was working on in the map. That satisfaction when two of you finally get that last camp fully upgraded so that annoying enemy roamer can no longer flip your camp before you can get there to protect it was amazing!

• Personal guild claiming. I used to spend tons of time and money upgrading my personal guild so that I could buff the heck out of our keeps when none of the larger guilds were around to do it themselves. Being able to +5 a keep (along with the other buffs) when we are under attack by a zerg and need to build siege fast was such a great feeling. I used to command in our old borderlands sometimes when there was nobody else around to do so. In our small groups there was always at least one of us who could +5 a camp or fully buff a tower whenever we needed to as we did our rounds. It resulted in a lot of “thank you” or “hey could someone +5 that camp so we can quickly get siege up to take that tower” or even “Darn, I used up all my siege. Let me just grab some guild catas from my personal guild”.

Alot of guilds and commanders see PUGs as just mindless lemmings but they were the ones who used to make sure everything was upgraded and protected while those guilds were out attacking the other servers or doing guild missions.

What was lost

1. Communication – Because of automatic upgrades and keep/tower/camp buffs that are now locked behind the new guild system that you can’t do alone; most communication now is usually done only when there is a commander giving orders or within a guild group. Everyone else kind of just roams around and takes back the occasional camp or two when they can be bothered to.

1. Morale – Because of that lack of communication and feeling of usefulness (due to automatic upgrades and buffs locked behind the new guild system), many solo players don’t even bother to do much if there is not a commander tag on the map. That whole “There is no commander tag on atm so we should just work together to upgrade and buff our property” scenario does not happen much now.

tl;dr
The old WvW system required much more player input (purchasing upgrades and guild claiming that could be done by anyone) and that is what encouraged players to communicate more and get more involved with their server imo. Without any of that, all of those solo or new players who come to wvw feel much less useful and end up not really being motivated to do much unless a commander is around.

We will always have tons and tons of guildless or solo roaming players so I think it is important to give them tons of ways to be able to contribute besides just following the commander and repairing gates.

This is just my personal feelings on the lower tier server I am on.

I feel exactly the same…
About the communication you can add the new sentry.
Before when I was defending camp / protecting keep I was always saying on /map that I see a small ennemy group, where they are moving. Or the roaming guy always give information for other players.
But now with the new sentry no one speak on the map… You just follow the red dot… No more communication between the players.

I have stop playing gw2 for month now… Sometimes I jump in eotm for 1H but I don’t do anything more now… I was used to play for hours on my BL, scouting hills, protecting our supply camp..

Thx anet…

The potential for communication is still there; it just comes in other forms. I think the positives of automatic upgrades far outweigh what may have been lost.

That said, I still wish people would communicate more…A sentry dot isn’t something I can run across the map for, but if someone lets me know that there’s more to the story, I can respond appropriately.

Ya you are both right in the sense that we have lost alot when it comes to communication since the sentries now show the dots.

It could be 3 roamers or 3 golems but nowadays the motivation to actually find out is not there.

Communication between all the players is what makes everyone feel like they are playing an important role, and in doing so, they are more motivated to be involved and speak to others. I think we just need more wvw features that require us to actually talk to eachother more. If everything is automatic then there is less desire to work together.

Edit: I do agree that there are many positives with the automatic upgrades. I just really miss being a part of the effort that went into making sure everything was upgrading and talking to others to in order to do so.