Guild Wars 2

Currently you only need 49 Mastery points to get Everything in the Tyria tacks.

My wife and I have been running around doing much of the game.
I have been playing since the beginning (and did play GW1)
She has been playing for about a year and has really enjoyed her time.

We have gotten to the point were we would like to have the ability to work on content that requires more than just the two of use without resorting to PUGs. Namely Dungeons/Fractals, and sPvP (though GMs and coordinated world boss events.) We have a good foundation of the basics but need a supportive group to learn the more nuanced aspects of the game (like doing dungeons well and not dieing so often in PvP)

We play weekend days and weekday evening Eastern US timezone.

Looking for NOT 100% Rep. We have our own private guild and a few small social connections that we will want to play from time to time.

-Gustavef

As a “gateway/area intro” story, I think its difficulty was ok. It is more to show the story of the area and to provide context for (spoiler)

evilunderling.9265:

Gustavef.6730:

It is not being afraid. It is business. Why make content that only 10 to 25% of the user base can play if it does not generate any new revenue? With out having a monthly fee, the whole “I will leave this game” is a hollow threat to ANet.

As there are full-fledged MMOs that could have been pitched successfully on the basis of a potential audience 10 to 25% of the size of this game’s, I’ll assume you’re missing some decimal points.

I freely admit my numbers were SWAGs. But there exists some number N% that provides a beneficial RoI.

Aside from that, there are three problems with your claim:

1. Those 2% of players are also going to be doing things like creating guides, streaming their work, maintaining community resources like wikis and guides, and so on. These are beneficial to the game as a whole and also help to attract new players, which means the business case for raids is better than you think.
2. Raids don’t have to be a “no casuals” club of elitism that excludes virtually the whole player base.
3. IIRC, statistics like 2% refer to the proportion of the player base that clears the top raid available before it ceases to be current (this is roughly the correct figure for FFXIV, at least). The proportion of the player base that will attempt the raids and thus benefit from their inclusion is far higher.

I do not disagree with any of those points. Instanced Raids can be made that would be beneficial to the community. Given the current acceptance/implementation of Instanced content in GW2, I not holding my breath for them here for a while.

The “new revenue” is a generalized concept. With the resources that is available to ANet how much should be dedicated to items that have limited to no Return on Investment.

Anet could make Large Group Instances (10 to 40 player) but unless a significant number of the player base is able to enjoy it, then it is a losing position. (I am speculating on the threshold of significant is at least 33%) If the instance is too challenging, fewer players take part, then you don’t meet the desired threshold for acceptable return. If you make it less challenging then you have people complain that it is too easy, but you have more players taking part of it.

Anet originally gave us Dungeons and then added Fractals as instanced group content. However, they have seem to abandoned development in that area of game play. I don’t see them jumping to create large group instanced content till they revitalize single group instances. They are still developing single player instances (aka personal story lines) and they even got a way to monetize LS2.

In the near term, I don’t expect to see instanced Raids in GW2. That does not mean I would object to seeing them. This is purely from the business of idea of “do what you are good at.” Enough people enjoy how they are doing World Bosses. Not enough people enjoy doing instanced group content. I don’t think adding instanced raids will generate “enough” player interest considering their current implementation of instanced group content.

Personally, I found dungeons as something I did once for the story and experience and then had little desire to run though them again. Only when I was working on my legendary gift did I do the daily runs. But I am not in a dungeon running guild and relied mostly on PUGs.

It is not being afraid. It is business. Why make content that only 10 to 25% of the user base can play if it does not generate any new revenue? With out having a monthly fee, the whole “I will leave this game” is a hollow threat to ANet.

The world event/boss system is a very viable model for GW2.

Instanced Content (Dungeons and Raids) is a tricky beast. It is static which means after some time there exists the “one true way” to do the instance. And you get a division of people who must do the the “one true way” and people who just want to have a chance at the challenge. How “challenging” do you make the content? If it is something that only a minority of people can solve then it can be a waste of resources that could have created content/enjoyment for more people.

With GW in particular, no one form of content can generate gear that is more powerful than any other form of content. You can create cosmetic rewards, but not mechanical rewards. So what would be the point of 20-40 person instanced raid? How would it be different than the meta-events of silverwastes that ends up with raid-boss type encounter? You need to get the 20-40 people committed to the task where as open world raids can have people flow in and out if needed.

It is solo-able in that I don’t need to wait in the LFG queue to do something. Most events require multiple people to complete, but I don’t need to group with them. We complete the event and then move as each of us feel like.

In silverwastes I would bounce between two fortresses doing the events at both and moving doylaks and what ever my pop up. I consider this solo play since I am not beholden to coordinate with a group. However, unless there is a critical mass of people in the various areas, some events will fail.

Only when you get placed on a completely new instance is it very hard to get things started. But once you get through one cycle then the map is always doable. I expect the same with the Verdant Green.

Are the masteries supposed to be account bound or character bound?

I am still waiting for even a response. But I still do not have any resolution to my ticket:

120825-023027

Updated

08/25/2012