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[Column] Guild Wars 2: How Can ArenaNet Get Ex-Players Back Into The Game?
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
There are two types of MMO fans that companies make significant efforts to satisfy. Obviously, players who are currently active in the game get attention, while people who have never tried the game are the main targets of advertising and promotional campaigns.
Read more of Jason Winter's Guild Wars 2: How Can ArenaNet Get Ex-Players Back Into The Game?
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Comments
Have MMORPG over hype it even further? Actually nah that won't work anymore, why do they care about getting players to return anyway they already have our money. No one is really interested in their bland "content" updates.
Now would be the time to get a full blown expansion out that adds more customization options, new classes which would really pull players back. and my personal preference would be some sort of guild vs guild PVP that isn't just a slight variance of the forms of PVP already in game.
Actually, ignoring isn't quite the proper description for what they are doing. That would imply they've read and listened, and choose to not respond. Chris Whiteside and his team have completely left the room.
There's really nothing they can do other than change their content model, which I believe will never happen. I played GW2 for two months after release and LOVED it. The combat is fun, the zones full of stuff to do. No quest markers. Just show up and have fun. Then I got to 80 (twice) and realized it was Fractals OVER and OVER again.
This made me realize two things. I really missed PvE end game / raid content. I missed party defined roles (tank, support, dps, healing). All of the content end game was a cluster Fu@#. Everyone running around doing damage, avoiding red circles, and rezzing party members. Every single fight was dodge red circles, dps, and rez. That's it.
With that said, I definetely got my money's worth with GW2 for two months. Money well spent, but there is nothing there to keep me hooked. I'm not particularly good at pvp nor do I enjoy it that much. It's not really a good pve game and the 2 week content patches weren't very fun or interesting.
This is all my opinion. I'm sure there are people who love GW2 because it's a very well made game, but its design is not the type I like so I moved on. Havn't felt any desire to come back.
They could do that with some content but the problem is that a lot of the first season where for large groups of players and not something 1 player or even a group could do. In that case they would have to do some kind of rotations and only have one of those open up at a single time to focus all players on a single "past" event and even then things like the Huge Karka queen would be very hard.
Nah, I think the best thing would be to get us a new campaign like Cantha in a paid expansion. There the content would all be open for all players while they still could run the living story in Tyria. Factions and Nightfall did both bring in new players and brought back old to the first game so the concept works and they get in some money while we get new stuff to do.
iam a perfect example of your titled!
i recently jumped ship from Wildstar due to their lack of solo endgame content and horrid rating pvp system.
and decided to check out GW2 after a year or so...
and behold the season 2 world story feels alot like the personal story. all there to complete without waiting weeks for updates. that alone got my attention and got nostalgic why i really liked the game.
so if they released an official expansion with a new zone and a solid story for existing level cap characters i think it would get old players back ingame, like myself.
This.
Also one thing I hated was the WvW tournament style crap. I want a persistent world where I fight against an enemy, not some e-sports week long match no one cares about.
Long story short... Progression! I understand that GW2 doesn't want to be an end game centric MMO but let's face it, players eventually end up at end game and rerolling new characters is only fun so many times. It's inevitable that at some point players are sitting at max level looking for something to do. If their current game can't meet their needs they will move on and more than likely never look back.
I am not suggesting instanced raiding or anything like that but I am convinced for any MMO to have true staying power there has to be some sort of character progression. It doesn't have to be a gear treadmill but it's essential to have your character grow stronger and stronger the longer you play. For a good portion of gamers cosmetic variety doesn't quench their thirst for progression.
Give people a reason to log onto your game ANet and they will!
P.S. - This is the issue with the B2P model. Game is highly marketed, lots of money dumped into production and release, games sells millions the first month, then people get to end game and realize that they just played a single player mediocre RPG online.
GW2 can't really get that many players back since the many people who bought it, bought the hype and not the game. I feel that the game has found it's audience and they can't really get 2.5 millions to start again who didn't like it.
Sure there are many how has grown tierd of lack of an expansion and that could be the only thing that I see making a bigger crowd to come back. But I feel that the game has found it's niche, people who play it love it and they continue to play it.
And sure while they did sell 3.5 millions and "only" 500000-1000000 still play it, I feel that this number is great, more then great. The game is 2 years old now and they have placed themselves as a top mmo in the western world.
World of warcraft have more then 100 millions acounts created and "only" 6.8 millions play it but I still think that Blizzard is happy with this number and they don't really need a "save wow" thread either.
Many of the things I read in this thread like the lack of trinity and other stuff that people miss in this game is also the reason that the game has 500000-1000000 active players.
If they would give in to they non gw2 fans and make it a end game raiding content with lots and lots of gear progression and given us the trinity with tanks and healers and stuff then most of these gamers would quit gw2, and I don't think there would be more players on the servers after that.
However if they want to maintain there player base then they should release an expansion with more classes, weaponskills and stuff gw2 players want. They should also tweek and make the game better like I think they are doing with the wardrobe and season 2 of living world and other small stuff to get us hooked.
But the core has to remain the same otherwise the game would fail big time. Think of it like this, what if we were to take all features from gw2 and apply them to wow, action combat, no gear progression and so on, wow would loose everyone same applys to gw2.
How can ArenaNet get ex-players to look at the game again?
Gee, well, they could start by picking up game development where they completely dropped it over a year ago. They lost countless players to their complete game and community neglect, and then to make it worse, merged the servers into one 'mega' server where you don't care who you meet since they are gone in the next map/relog.
Seriously though, my main issue with this company is their abandonment of the WvW game mode and community. Yet recently they still had the nerve to ask for video submissions to promote their game (they can't be bothered to record their own WvW video's apparently). If you care to read more of this, simply head over to the official GW2 WvW forum section... That is if they don't completely delete that forum section soon to hide the toxicity they themselves created.
/rant
This game is probably the biggest disappointment of mmo releases, for me. I was expecting a game much more closely related to GW1 with a new 3rd person perspective and some new mechanics.
To me Guild Wars primary hook was the ability to create a character of mixed classes and varied abilities. All of the choices were not optimal but they were varied and fun. With GW2 there simply feels as if there is a limited way to differentiate one necro from another. The common argument is that GW1 had to many abilities that made it impossible to balance. In my experience GW2 isnt balanced any better.
I think that's what a lot of us expected from the PvE side of this game. We got brief 5 minute single player missions instead.
The Orr zones, particularly the Straits of Devastation multi-way mega-chain, really raised expectations in terms of where the PvE in the game was heading. They utterly failed to deliver on that post-launch.
now: GW2 (11 80s).
Dark Souls 2.
future: Mount&Blade 2 BannerLord.
"Bro, do your even fractal?"
Recommends: Guild Wars 2, Dark Souls, Mount&Blade: Warband, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.
Mystery Bounty
The limited time content model turned me off on the game. If I've been out of game for a year, can I go back and do the living story? I think they are moving to allow it, but this goes against how I can play the game. It is way easier to pay money for an expansion than to log in at a set time to play the content.
Most of the time, missing a month or two involves just playing catch up. With GW2, you've just plain missed the content. No reruns, no redos.
I was so hyped for this game......
Finaly no more healers or tanks needed !
Everything you did with randoms you earned credit for !
Big sieges and pvp maps !
And then after 2 weeks......it became the most boring mmo i ever played
No healers = zerg
No groups needed just zerg
Follow the diamond with zerg
Unless they drasticly change this i wont ever touch it again, but i know lots of people who are having a blast so i gues its just not a game for me