Guild Wars 2

I do wish that, the devs could see the conversations going on right now in other mediums, such as facebook groups ect.

Over the past few days I have seen some interesting thoughts posted and they have ranged across the board in regards to the patch and how people, Veteran players of WvW and new WvW players alike feel about this competitive expansion so far.

I had quite the chuckle today when a person posted a rant about how his perfect (snort) WvW was being marred by people that aren’t even WvW players who just think they are.

I have also read blogs from unknown people that link into groups about how thier raiding group can’t get into a borderlands together and how this queue is so unfair and all these PvEers need to go back to PvE. (not realizing some of these people come from PvP as well but hey…)

On a side note in both cases most people did not agree with the above posts and have been excited about the influx of people to play this game mode with.

However, this got me thinking and it brings me to the literal and non-literal meaning of what makes up a WvW player. For reference a WvW player is anyone that sets foot into WvW and hits something with a stick, or picks up supply, or dies in a zerg, or escorts a yak ect..

By Veteran WvWer standers, a WvW player is someone that has devoted years to this game eats breathes and sleeps WvW and never (they want you to believe this part but most WvWers begrudgingly will set foot in PvE or often go to PvP when things are dead) sets foot in any other game modes. In fact, their character was concieved in EBG and they are the son ofthe champion residing in Stonemist castle. (mind you we all come from somewhere and you can’t enter WvW anymore at level 1)

Neither is really wrong, the acceptance of my literal response to the question above, is the most beneficial to the game mode, assuming that the moment a person enters WvW they are there to support have fun and learn to WvW would bring the best outcome to this game mode.

Yet you cannot get past my second assertation of what Veteran WvWers believe WvW to be, and part of this rests on the shoulders of Anet for letting the game mode dwindle without much incentivizing for years. I know they have been working to improve things, but that was largely for the players they had. Without much interest in developing new players. Their endgame became about mostly PvE updates dwindling down the very important aspect of competitive. I could go on about competitive and how its the only true endgame because it needs less upkeep due to healthy communities and the constant changing flow of actually fighting other players over npcs. (but I will stop there)

This patch is largely a step in the right direction, and as a person who has played both WvW and PvP equally, I can tell you that PvP has made some huge mistakes in thier treament of new PvP candidates and shunned them away by demanding nerfs to the reward system, (imagine being able to get ascended armor in PvP how dare they!).

There is a balance here in all this, and truly I ask that you think kindly on those entering WvW right now and instead of looking at your own team players as intruders to your turf, look at them as potential friends to our madness…

Challenge Anet to fix the queueing problem with a solid relink that still relinks lower servers together (so they continue to run strong) and the higher servers unlinked.

Or in a revolutionary moment all together figure out a way to keep it like this always (reduce the number of servers or start a three sided system based on guilds/alliances) but making it so a group of friends can run together across a borderlands without sitting in a queue.

ah good question in the past I would have said that are the players who defend and scout all day long but those have become rarer with the time as it was more frustrating overall I guess
cant count how many times there was drama when the “progressiv” wvw guilds did not respond for help calls to defend something cause they were meeting at southcamp to fight each other and not care so much about that there are towers and keeps on the map
overtime this changed the overall mindset into yeah who cares if something cant be defended we will just get it back later it does not matter especially since HoT introduced shield generators which makes defending extra hard
I am really curious on how long it will take to turn wvw into another edge of the mists karma train or should I say pip train :-p

Regular WvW player since launch. And nowadays WvW is all I do. Period. Every day.

I cant say that I care much for the rewards. I think I got 7 sets of ascended armors and asc weapons for all chars to go with them. As do a lot of us. Almost everything crafted (I never get good loot so I make my own things, easy solution). What else do I need?

I got no need for a WvW backpiece or flashy armor with the exact same stats that I already got several sets of. I just want fun fights on the borderlands.

This might shock some but a lot of us already got all the equipement we need and thousands of gold in the bank never being used on anything else than food or siege. Or maybe a nice new skin once in a while to fresh things up a bit.

We just want a good balance between classes and a healthy population. Then leave everything else to us players.

But the last thing we need, is something that make every pve player that never play WvW regularly to flood all borderlands for months. Some of us work all day and usually come home to play around prime time. And then stay up late playing.

Luckily I got a life so I will do something else, I wont be affected much by this. I got other games to play if I want and friends and family to hang out with. But I got no time for queing for 2 hours after coming home from work. So I am very much excluded atm. Nice, after putting down so many thousands of hours.

Magnuzone.8395:

Regular WvW player since launch. And nowadays WvW is all I do. Period. Every day.

I cant say that I care much for the rewards. I think I got 7 sets of ascended armors and asc weapons for all chars to go with them. As do a lot of us. Almost everything crafted (I never get good loot so I make my own things, easy solution). What else do I need?

I got no need for a WvW backpiece or flashy armor with the exact same stats that I already got several sets of. I just want fun fights on the borderlands.

This might shock some but a lot of us already got all the equipement we need and thousands of gold in the bank never being used on anything else than food or siege. Or maybe a nice new skin once in a while to fresh things up a bit.

We just want a good balance between classes and a healthy population. Then leave everything else to us players.

But the last thing we need, is something that make every pve player that never play WvW regularly to flood all borderlands for months. Some of us work all day and usually come home to play around prime time. And then stay up late playing.

Luckily I got a life so I will do something else, I wont be affected much by this. I got other games to play if I want and friends and family to hang out with. But I got no time for queing for 2 hours after coming home from work. So I am very much excluded atm. Nice, after putting down so many thousands of hours.

Excellent post, and I agree with most of it.

Fwiw, I only think it will take a week or two for the queues to drop down to where the wait isn’t much more than 5-15 minutes. I am spending the next couple weeks, gamewise, with some other games I have neglected for awhile…..it is actually kind of a fun break, imo.

Someone who plays wvw regularly, possibly as his/her main game mode.
Like, just because I randomly do fractals I don’t became a “fractal player”. I spend 95% of my game time in WvW.

Magnuzone.8395:

Regular WvW player since launch. And nowadays WvW is all I do. Period. Every day.

I cant say that I care much for the rewards. I think I got 7 sets of ascended armors and asc weapons for all chars to go with them. As do a lot of us. Almost everything crafted (I never get good loot so I make my own things, easy solution). What else do I need?

I got no need for a WvW backpiece or flashy armor with the exact same stats that I already got several sets of. I just want fun fights on the borderlands.

This might shock some but a lot of us already got all the equipement we need and thousands of gold in the bank never being used on anything else than food or siege. Or maybe a nice new skin once in a while to fresh things up a bit.

We just want a good balance between classes and a healthy population. Then leave everything else to us players.

But the last thing we need, is something that make every pve player that never play WvW regularly to flood all borderlands for months. Some of us work all day and usually come home to play around prime time. And then stay up late playing.

Luckily I got a life so I will do something else, I wont be affected much by this. I got other games to play if I want and friends and family to hang out with. But I got no time for queing for 2 hours after coming home from work. So I am very much excluded atm. Nice, after putting down so many thousands of hours.

Fantastic post, could not have said this better myself. WvW is all I do too. I log in, press B and select a border and off I go.. well used to. Now its more like Log in, press B, facepalm. Once I get into the borders after an hour in queue I’m met with messages in team chat “omg where are my rewards!! hurr durr !!”

Just like you I have had my ascended sets crafted, years ago, and am in no need for shiny new skins. All I care about is the GAMEPLAY, which was not improved at all in this patch. This patch did absolutley NOTHING for veteran WvW players. Just another carrot on a stick to get more people into WvW, mission accomplished Anet.
The rewards from WvW were already too much with the reward tracks.. frigging loot boxes, loot bags, loot pouches, loot chests coming from all directions popping up on the screen. If you ask me, and alot of my WvW buddys you could remove ALL rewards from WvW and actually work on improving the quality (yes quality not quantity Anet) of the gameplay.

Start with improving the lag issues, now that is something that would attract new players and keep the old ones from leaving. Peace.

Edit: Current situation now is that reward seeking vultures that only care about how their characters look and not the game mode/gameplay are keeping WvW veterans out of their game due to queues. It’s messed up.

Skada.1362:

Start with improving the lag issues, now that is something that would attract new players and keep the old ones from leaving. Peace.

Couldn’t agree more with this statement. The lag has been much worse since the update went live. (and yea, I realize that it is mainly from increased numbers out there)

I’ve been WvWing from day 1, I love all the aspects of the game, I do 1 per day. 1 day WvW, next day PvP, and then PvE. That’s how I play GW2,

Very nicely written Nightshade. I wish there were more like-minded people around these days, as what I’ve been witnessing lately in /t chat got to the point of disgust. Unfortunately it is common human behavior and I guess people just have to identify themselves with something to feel their “Self” and they obviously need to create the chasm between “me” and “them”, “you” and “I”, play the game of praising and blaming, them being right and others being wrong. How ever you want to describe all that, it’s a rather complex topic.

I do consider myself a WvW player, but that is only to state the fact that WvW is all I play in this game, whereas some people I’ve seen in /t chat made an actual identity for themselves out of it and they conceptualized others in their minds from the fact that those people are PvE players, which was enough for them to start disrespectful flame wars. Rather sad.

Bottom line, I’m very happy to see more players in WvW, no matter what game mode they come from. It’s just a shame that Anet failed to prepare the grounds for the huge influx of players, because in doing that, they would make this whole update much more enjoyable for us all and they would increase the chances of more new players sticking around for longer.

To me, a WvW’er (WvW player) is someone who spends most of their online time in WvW. Someone who isn’t there to afk or win trading (or whatever its called) but to either :
a.) Offense: Flip camps/towers/keeps (help with PPT)
b.) Defense: defend camps/towers/keeps (Also PPT assistance)
c.) Hunter: Those who seek out and win fights (Helps with PPK)
d.) Assistant: Those who follow the tags and help in any way they can (Can be either PPK or PPT)

Its hard to state a number of hours played in WvW as most people have different real life things they need to do that will restrict the amount of time they can play. Myself, I can usually get away with ~15-20 hours/week on average and at least 98% of that is WvW (not ktraining either). By some peoples elitist standards my rank (~500) isn’t nearly enough to be called a WvW’er, however I dedicate a vast majority of my time and resources to help my server gain points by PPKs and flipping camps and towers (and sometimes keeps) with a couple of my guildies.

We never join a squad, although I may pugmand from time to time, but have no problem flipping a nearby camp for them if they are going for a keep, or joining them for a ZvZ fight (I love my PPK’s lol).

There is also a fine line between WvW’er and true WvW’er. True WvW’er are less toxic (IE throwing siege or jumping on a dead body or whispering salty whispers…ya know…PvP kind of attitude) and are willing to help those with very low ranks, or even when fighting someone with a really low rank (like newbie kind of low) and finishing them off in hopes they stay in WvW and maybe get more people to stay, possibly making a new friend and sending legit helpful whispers. (this section is more optional to the OP’s initial question but thought I would add it for good measure)

TL;DR I guess its how much of your GW2 play time is focused in WvW as well as how much you contribute to your server/score (even if you run yaks all day everyday and flip camps that helps more than you think.) Attitude while in WvW also plays a small part as well.

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

To me, a WvW’er (WvW player) is someone who spends most of their online time in WvW.

Could also be someone who post longwinded rants on WvW in the WvW forum. PPT, PPK and PPP working as one.

Dawdler.8521:

Bigpapasmurf.5623:

To me, a WvW’er (WvW player) is someone who spends most of their online time in WvW.

Could also be someone who post longwinded rants on WvW in the WvW forum. PPT, PPK and PPP working as one.

Dont know if it was a poke at me, but:

1.) What is PPP exactly?
2.) Working as one?
3.) If it was a poke at me, I don’t “rant” that often. Try posting something constructive to the topic. If it wasn’t a poke then I apologize for the assumption.

Its a player that has seen his favorite gamemode being brought down to shame patch after patch. Its a player that reads each patch notes with a botle of liqour near him because he knows everything he asked for has been ignored and quite possibly the oposite has been made.