Guild Wars 2

I usually flee the forum, yet I feel concerned since I like this game and its gameplay, and the situation is quite serious.

Why is the status quite ‘special’ this time (cause everyone always complaining but well ^^) :
> pro pvp players activity has dropped drastically. The number of pro teams is low, and among their players, few are still active. Current top 10 shows it.
> many good players ’activity is dropping, and even some whole teams are disbanding. Those are either pretty old teams made out of WvW experience, old pvp teams, or even some that did appear at Groucharoo event.
> casual activity in pvp that grew up last season decreases a bit, yet it does not create any core pvp activity.
Well, getting off that much of the top ladder basically leads to a no competitive playing PvP model…

What is really killing in current status of pvp :
> PvP is 5v5 only. So how could 2 people queue only make sense ? NO MATCHMAKING SYSTEM can ensure people’s skill balancing is regularly “simply fair” in such matches based on 2v2 (except if it grew up a 2 years long elo system over thousands of people…or allow 15 minuts long queues). So, ok, allowing a queue system based on 2 ppl queue, or 1 ppl, or whatever, fair enough… BUT Team Arena must be the leading system and its existence is MANDATORY for a competitive context intent.
> PvP must be attractive for its rewards at top lvl (esl discussions ?), its activity at regular player level, its diversity for casual players. I cannot tell much about esl rewarding case (though I heard several disappointments around it). But casual players only have a ranked system where they are mixed with ‘anyone’, and an unranked system that is the same without title nor reard. And worse is for regular good leveled players who must stick to the 2v2 system, with no extra activity. Why no regular teams ? why no regular encounter system ? why no tournament activity support ? I know community must be active on it, but not on its own !!

All this is all the more troubling that :
- 5v5 system existed, and conventional ranking as well. Why did anyone decide to create from scratch leadorbard system which has been investigated by sports, other games ?? And why did anyone think that 2 people grouping in a 5v5 system could be a leading (and single) competitive team(5v5)play activity ?
- guild mission system exist, yet it is only a ‘go to pvp and do a match’, while it could be a ‘team A vs team B schedule a time before this date, your arena will be 22, the 3 rounds will start at xx pm’.
- guild teams exist, but they are just a guild artefact, while there can exist teams for tournaments (groucharoo reached 32 !!!)
- the dota like play map… is fun, I mean : why not. But that was clearly not the priority. Some huge games encountered huge successes with basically 6 or 8 maps during 8 years !!! just their system was great…
- guildwars has many specificities keeping ppl active on it and not elsewhere : Lore, classes, graphics… Yet the very unique point is its gameplay and dynamism. The mobility, activity, reactivity, observation, are requiring and enjoyable. Making the game opened to all is ok, but if one wants a competitive system out of it, which seems to be the case, then this competitive system will necessarily be difficult and requiring. PvP structure must stick to the game it is applied to.

So I get the feeling this system is going nowhere, and regret it, that’s why my question is : Anet, where do you want to go !!!

quite some truths said here…

and yeah, the fun out of pvp is within close and interesting games (wording corrected since someone pointed out it was not at its best, and forgot the content of the msg…), which implies the game
A : does move a bit (not a 1st phase, their ele stood 3 mins on mid : 2nd phase, he got wiped and his team never could contest it again to the eng for 4 mins….), game remains dynamic,
B : game allows some different and interacting gameplays (spiker classes got nearly all erased, guard mesmer and revnant barely survive as real spikers provided they go zerker…),
C : game sets up ppl with similar levels against each others…
D : renewal content

A : the bunker trend nearly replaced the celestial trend of last year. I won’t push saying it is cancer or must disappear, but it anyway puts a huge shadow on other gameplays. To me that is the result of some ‘absolute like’ skills as the SF and protector spirit that anet chased and tuned several times on gw1. (blocking 100% of 50k spikes for 3 seconds is sort of absolute, especially if you can chain it 6 times every 30 seconds…. being invincible as war without being uncapped is sort of unfair too !!! and there are various other cases like that)
=> add a limit to the number of blocks (same for reflects ?) of every skills, might it be 10 or 20 or even 30, but something // limit carefully the duration of every invincible effect // make sure no class can refill its full hp 3 times in the same 5 seconds of fight….

B : in 5v5, there are some roles per class, and the interest of team vs team is teamplay (or create a free for all arena with no objective match, or create a full single player pug list but this second option would screw queue time). so balancing the classes inside imports.
=> taking into account the amulets and statistics used could be key. so that if you put 2 clerics, 1 berserker and 1 viper players in a game, you do not set the 2 clerics together ^^’ (this would go with the no relog suggestion made above which I btw approve in such a case (while atm, it s sometimes mandatory to relog in order to correct team misabalances) and this would also go with a class stacking limitation (at least a limitation at 2 classes per team, plz)). Such a system would ensure a first part of teambalancing I believe.

C : Level matching is obviously complicated, but anet is not first at making it… In any discipline, your level raises when you win vs stronger, and lowers when you loose vs weaker. And this makes you encounter more stronger ppl and more weaker ppl… Good. Then what about your allies ? Well, the same truth should apply to them… Good… Then why the * could there be a relationship in any sort between the people of a same team ? That part is just non sense. The level attributed to one person is an estimation that should move by itself, and not something that you estimate fitting to another estimation… because this is just pure nonsense…
If the numbers I give are levels, what would you prefer between : 1440 1450 1460 Versus 1540 1550 1560 … OR … 1440 1540 1550 Versus 1450 1460 1560 ???? First solution is ‘normally’ a no game, while second version may be a challenge to the guy at 1560, but it’s not as if he would see is ranking being lowered too much in case of his loss…
So yeah, of course, with this, some people may be challenged at some games more, some people people may try to carry some friends, and unfair team premade would imply to interpret in another way the low ranks of the premade… but, hello world : that’s real life !
And what about the divisions ranking ? Well, to me it looks mostly like a fun artefact around the main system, and should not have much of an impact on pvp and fun of pvp… To prevent ppl blocked because at their top lvl, effort versus stronger should be recognized as well, as effort as the strong one making the weakers one evolve.
=> Anyway please, stop reinventing the wheel : go back to standards way of ranking people…

D : pvp content did not evolve much, and stronghold mode came in… but that did not fill pvp players will…
Stronghold mode is nothing forced, and a bit different to conventional pvp, so.. why not… some ppl seem to like it so ok… However, this created other queues and did not really add anything to the pvp play mode since it’s more a dota-pvp play mode.
So let’s focus back to pvp mode : I heard many suggestions of simple evolutions to enlarge pvp options on pvp play mode :
=> diversity of objectives : why could foefire not have beasts and nifhlel lords ? in a random manner ??.
=> various teamming modes : teamplay is different with unknown and known players. the 5v5 experience is different enough to 1+2+1+1 vs 3+1+1 experience.. why not having a ranked teammatching and ranked random matching (as it is atm ?) ? this would most likely not impact much queues considering how this is taken into account in current mm… I also mentioned briefly a free for all possibility but this may impact the queing system so that’s probably not a great option, but…maybe ?
=> why only 5v5 modes ? that would ofc require more work but some 10v10 fun (that would be more for fun and less ‘official’) would be welcome, even if not as well balanced and followed, and even on some pve existing maps. (why not the ascalonian fractal level as pvp 10vs10 for instance ?)
=> another point, even though this one probably represents way more job… new maps ? that would be some graal

Ok, I am done with this long talk, good luck with it, may it be of any use.