I’m really quite saddened by the way that the guild missions worked out. There have been many good posts analyzing the problem, and so I won’t try to rehash those. I’ll just post how I feel.
I feel like I’ve been set at a disadvantage. There are other players who will have more than I have, but not through regular gameplay. Just because they chose to be part of a larger guild.
There will always be players that have better items than I do, or more things from the Gem Store, or just get lucky on a drop. But those are as the result of playing more, having more skill, more money or being in the right place at the right time.
With this update, my guild will have a near-zero chance of ever running a guild mission unless we all focus solely on the most efficient ways to get influence. Players in a larger guild don’t have to do that – they easily get the influence simply by being a part of a larger group. We have to put more effort in the game just to maybe – maybe – get the same rewards.
I’ve been in the same guild for years, in WoW since 2006. It’s a small group of friends who don’t always have time to play, but who want to get together every once in a while to have fun. For other rewards, like Fractals and ascended items, we are definitely behind the curve. But we can do them, and we can get them eventually.
With guild missions we won’t. Anet has now put me in a hard place. I can stick with my friends who I’ve played with for years, or join a larger guild in order to actually enjoy the content released in this patch. In a game that puts so much focus on players helping other players and still being rewarded – everyone can ‘tag’ a mob for loot, join in an event and still get credit, rez each other and such. But for this update, I’m essentially being forced to turn my back on my friends and my guild if I want to take part.
All my guild members were really looking forward to this, and now we are crestfallen. In all honesty, the 3rd choice of playing another game together just became much more appealing. Maybe their developers wouldn’t so intentionally alienate small guilds.