I’d replied to a thread that I suppose got censored before my reply got in… so.. umm, for the 2 people reading that thread, here’s my reply.
(The OP had claimed Anet may as well just delete spvp)
Umm – they already have.. They just haven’t explicitly said so, because that would be a bad business move.
Let’s examine the situation a bit more, using a few assumptions:
1) PVP has not performed well as a game mode in retaining players, or getting new players interested.
2) PVP does not generate as much revenue from the gemstore when compared to the PVE or WVW side of the game. This is likely partially due to simply the low population, as finishers and skins work for both game modes, but there are plenty of pve/wvw-centric items, such as gathering tools, boosts, perma-salvage, and other convenience items.
3) PVP lacks a competitive element which limits the current pvp population, and any potential viewership or following.
4) PVP is not the reason most players continue to enjoy GW2.
PVP is performing poorly as a sub-mode of the game. The other 2 modes are performing relatively well in that PVE has a diverse population, and while it may not cater well to the “hardcore” crowd or the raiding crowd, it does cater well to the casual crowd, the exploration based crowd, among other demographics. In short, PVE is doing alright, as is WvW (if we are to believe the posts – yet more uncertainties).
So what would you do if part of your product’s sub-population is doing poorly, not delivering, and requires a substantial investment of time and resources to adjust? Furthermore, any adjustments at this point most likely are too late for the current population, and as such would have to be rather phenomenal to attract a large enough new crowd to justify the investment.
Well – a very compelling option, from a business perspective, would be to cut the losses, and double down efforts on the parts of the product that are performing well. This is where money spent will garner a decent return. But, to straight out cancel or discontinue an element of the game would send a very negative message to shareholders and the gaming community (read: the target market). This in turn could have a negative effect on the population of the game that is currently performing well. So, instead of straight cancelling it, you slowly cull it. Discontinue any substantial projects, or simply assign a skeleton crew to them. This allows you to continue to honestly claim that pvp exists and is a feature, but does not require any real investment.
This focus would allow the game to grow where it does perform well (pve/wvw), and in terms of mmorpgs, fulfills two major gaming populations (the casual pve crowd and the rvr crowd). Any further losses of the pvp crowd are likely to be minimal, and some will crossover into wvw/pve anyhow.
Let’s also examine their revenue model to see why this makes more sense. B2P + gemstore. So, they do not lose a lot if someone who does not spend a lot at the gemstore leaves the game. They lose in the sense that that one player may no longer encourage friends to join them (buying the game), but that would only happen if the game was good enough to recommend, and pvp currently is not. We have already assumed (perhaps incorrectly, but let’s go with it) that pvpers do not spend substantial amounts at the gemstore, so losing a pvp-centric player is not really a terrible loss.
In short, economically, using the assumptions listed, it would make a lot of sense to discontinue focus on pvp, and instead redirect any resources and investments towards pve (and some wvw).
Now you may say, “Wait! They announced details of the soon patch, and there are balance things potentially going on! New traits even!” Well, new traits affect pve, and they were quite smart in the way they are implementing them as they cater to what is arguably one of the stronger elements of the game: Exploration. The new traits (and a rework of the existing trait acquisition) are offered as a reward for the different type of pve and exploration (map/dungeon/etc). Yes, you can simply buy them, but regardless, the exploration option excites a large part of their core playerbase.
TL:DR – Carry on then.