1. Who here, still come to forums but play the game much less?
I rarely visited the forums previously, now I checking it several times a day… awaiting word from A-net. In the mean time, I’ve logged on a total of 3 times and didn’t stay very long…
2. When did you start playing less?
Let me put it this way… I started playing GW2 at the end of Aug, and I’ve only missed doing my daily achievements 4 times… and since the final event of Lost Shore… I done none.
3. Why / What caused the decline in time spent?
Honestly, it’s not just one single thing.
Ascended Gear – I’m not terribly impressed with the difficulty in getting then… I could live with it, under the assumption that they would eventually (hopefully) implement more paths to get them. I don’t agree that this immediately equals Grindfeast++, but I am concerned it’s the whole frog in a pot of slowly warming water situation.
Fractals – I actually love the dungeons… but detest the fact they’re gated… since I only do dungeons sporadically. I’m also not liking what it seems to be doing to the population of other locations in the game(ie. the lack of) . Again… if it were just this, I’d be annoyed but I’d shrug it off and adapt.
The One Time Event – The event was buggy as kitten, but I’m actually one of the people who actually enjoyed what I managed to catch of the final event. Karka roll attack is actually my favorite enemy attack ever (I lol’d at the massacre on the bridge building event in phase 2… I mean… they all saw the roll attack earlier, shouldn’t they have predicted that one would roll down the bridge?). That said… I had to leave the final event before it finished as it was 8:20am and I had to get to work… When I found out what I missed out on though…
I can understand one-time event. I’ve encountered them on other MMOs in the past. The set items and a high chance of very good loot? That by itself is not terrible… but the fact that they were available to such a limited time that pretty much excluded a good chunk of Asia/Oceania? What gives? At the response of much of the community? “Tough luck”? “You should have skipped work”? “Sleep is for the weak!”? “It’s your own fault your priority is taking care of your kid… what do you mean aren’t you happy?!”?
Community – One of the worse things is the split these things have caused in the community. There are those on BOTH sides that I feel have just gone nasty. Becoming more an more unsympathetic to each other. “Ban everyone who looted the chest multiple times!” “It’s all in your mind! Your concerns as invalid!” “GTFO back to WoW!”. No matter who’s right or wrong, the situation is becoming toxic… And A-Net response… “Here’s a survey” and “Oh yes! Btw there’s a SALE coming up!”
If it were just any one of these things, then I wouldn’t have been impressed… but I would have dealt with it.
All these things combined though. I got angry. I calmed down… now… I just can’t bring myself to enjoy the game. So until something changes… I doubt I’ll be playing much GW2.