Guild Wars 2

Iv’e been playing WvW for a while now on Ring of Fire server and I have some concerns about the longevity of the game as well as some other parts of the game which make me cringe just a tad.

WvW Rewards
Iv’e seen this talked about a few times, even before I started playing GW2 I was wondering why there arn’t any rewards and/or reward system in place.

You got to ask yourself, why do I want to help ferry supplies or spend my gold for upgrades? To win? Why do we need to win? To have fun? Fun factor wears out on everything one may enjoy.
What driving force is there to make you stay and deffend a siege engine and not gain anything for it?
The answer: For the reward at the end of it all.

Only problem is, there is no reward. I could not give a monkies testicals (and im sure many others would agree) about braggin rights. I mean, your going to tell all your friends that your server is ranked number one on a computer game? yeah I didn’t think so….

Also just to clarify two things:
World wide buffs is not a reward., they are nice but not what one would consider an endgame reward, you get nothing from it once the game has ended and a victor has been decided.
The other thing, taking objectives is a reward, but not the right kind. Yes you get karma and gold, but its also very comman, any shmuck can run with a zerg and grind that. It also doesn’t reward players who try to win in a more sutle way: Like defending a siege engine, ferrying supplies from a camp to a keep for repairs, etc.

While I agree you should be playing just for fun, and it is fun. But there is no incentive for me to make a sacrifice every so often. Why do I want to run to a camp to grab supplies to fix this wall thats being attacked? ill loose karma and gold that way, and thats not fun.

Getting rewards is fun: This is the one thing which makes people stick to a game once the “oohhh thats cool” has worn out. Developers know this, its why WoW is so popular, and while I dislike the way its done in that game, there is no denying it. Getting shinies is what its all about.

The reward(s) can be just cosmetic (if added correctly) in a nicely coloured chest at the end of each round to winners. Of course the differnce of the reward you get from your fellow players could be determained by a number of factors for example:
-How many WvW’s you have taken part in.
-How long you take part in them for.
-How many objectives you take, how many players you kill/revive.
-How much gold you spend on upgrades/siege.
-How much damage/healing you do with and without siege.
If the reward is just cosmetic then casual players shouldnt feel any “squeeze” on gear difference.

Moving on…..

Orb of Power
I found this to be probably the second most alarming feature about WvW. While I agree with many when it comes to adding that depth of struggle for survival kind of thing. But for me it is done just a little bit to much.

Just imagine for a moument: Three equal teams (in a perfect world) each with their orbs gaining 5% hp + 50 stats for everyplayer. While if one team manages to get themselves two orbs not only does that improve that team to 10% hp + 100 stats it decreases the other team to Zero, meaning it’s now 15% + 150 difference.
While then it would be apparent that the two weaker teams should “team up” against the stronger, that doesn’t happan always. Part of it is down to orginization from two sides that cannot comminicate through “normal” means. The difference on a three orb server against a zero orb server needs to be:
A: Toned down.
B: made apparent that the 2 orb team is a more apealing target.

My suggestion would be to reduce the effectiveness of the second and third orbs owned by a server and make objectives/players worth more to take/kill for each additional orb.

Squad Leaders
This is the one thing which kind of made me cringe. Farm gold to become a leader, eventualy everyone will be squad leader (ok, maybe not everyone) But it also implies that money = can now lead properly. Its just a little bit……. wrong. It should not be this way in my opinion.

The way I think this should be done is: during the course of a WvW round, each player can be voted for to be next round’s sqaud leader and then the top six (number just for example) will be elected to squad leaders.

This allows for players to judge who is the best for their server, it also encourages good behavior. The only downsides I can see to this are:
A: Large guilds voting for their own member(s).
B: To many cheifs, not enough indians (but that kind of happends anyway).

Ok thats it for now, there are a few other concerns on my mind, but ill leave it at that.

for rewards would also like to point out the way loot bags are spawned should be reworked in several ways
-more rewarding to players who move in tight grps 1-3players to take supply camps, cut off enemy reinforcements etc.(currently loot bags spawn more often if enemy is damaged from more sources,1being you). I don’t like going by myself killing 20 players and get possibly1 loot bag then losing and the repair bill costing me more than I earned
-increase radius of contribution to capturing points especially keeps/towers what i mean is if someone is not directly attacking the gate or killing people practically right inside the tower/keep they wont get a very good medal reward if one at all and obviously there are often more important rolls that dont involve smashing your face on the gate especially if there are no players even inside like say you want to keep players form getting inside? come on now
-option to autoloot on desapwn of loot bags
-option to autoloot on spawn of loot bags

Agreed, the keep/tower capture is a little bitkitten atm, if your not stood in that circle you dont seem to get credit despite any effort you have put in.

Also the looting is a little bit anoying, I understand that they moved the bags to spawn at your feet, but when your moving around alot, often you can miss them and sometimes die before you even loot.

I agree there needs to be a reward of some kind for winning World vs World rounds. Even if it is only a 4 or 5 day buff for the server or soemthing.

I don’t necessarily agree with the need for a reward. You get badges (although fairly inconsistently) that allows you to purchase gear. That’s roughly as rewarding as every other activity in game.

But I agree with the overall sense of “meaninglessness” in WvW.

Capturing an objective, even Stormmist, doesn’t feel hugely meaningful because you know that the whole map will change as soon as you log out.

Hell, I’ve gone afk for 10 minutes and by the time I go back 3 bases had changed hands again.

The general “speed” of WvW brings other problems with it.

Who would invest money into upgrading supply camps, if 2-3 people will easily dispatch a camp in a matter of minutes. Capping stuff is just way too easy/quick, meaning any investment you make is effectively wasted 99% of the time.

Then there’s no structure. Camps and keeps get capped “behind you lines” every minute, because roaming is very free (which in general, is a good thing). But WvW needs structure.

You need to limit the amount of options a fraction has at any given moment to roughly 3. Otherwise defending will rarely occur. It’s just way too easy for multiple zergs to run circles around the maps capping various keeps and camps…only to lose them again minutes later.

I guess some people will argue against it as they might enjoy the fast yet pointless pace of WvW. But I hope and believe ANet hat a more strategic play-style in mind when conceptualizing the game.