Some maps are starting to be empty (your suggestions)

Helloo. I'm a bit scared that on the long run, we'll end up having desertic maps, with too few players (to go straight to the point).

Now preamble (so you can skip it): I really like the way GW2 is built, for my play style. I've tried so many MMOs that require a continuous grinding and farming of your gear every 4-5 months, and if you decide to take a break, you feel completely lost when you come back, overwhelmed by pages of patch notes and unspoken news/tips. The idea to have our level and (most important) gear set once and for all, it's a important bonus for all the casual players, that won't have to throw away their efforts after months/years. And I'm too old now to spend 6 hours per day on an MMO. So I like that GW2 offers something different from the majority of the other MMOs (and I really like that it encourages the exploration of the beautiful landscapes over mindless dailies and farming).Obviously, to keep the players busy, the devs must provide new contents here and there. And I like that these contents are not "new gear with more powerful stats", "new equip-able items", etc... but new part of the story, new skills and maps.

End of the preamble: The problem is that by continuing to add new maps, the playerbase will be more and more scattered through the lands, leaving almost empty some maps. When I started to play, I was excited to group up with some players to escort a caravan in one of the lower maps. Now there's barely someone there, and new players might find the game a bit empty on their first impression. Moreover, many achievements in HoT require a group and it's not always easy to find enough people to complete them. Yesterday I spent 20 minutes in Dragon's Stand for example, and I only found 1 single player (and the map was even among the dailies...). I'm not saying that the game is dead. Not at all. But the whole map is so huge.

Suggestion part! So, what about adding some perks for playing together on the same area? For example adding a weekly bonus in form of additional drop rate, every week on a different map. We already have the dailies, but they can be completed in several ways and last only 1 day per map. There's no time to complete several achievements for the new players, as veteran usually stay there for 4 events only. Maybe an additional 5% drop rate could help? Or putting some chests here and there? I wouldn't introduce other weeklies because 1 daily/weekly is already enough, we should have as much free time as possible to wander around. Just some small bonus that encourages players to stay there, without forcing them.I'd like to read also your suggestions, if you also think that this could be a problem, when future expansions will add even more areas.

All i wanted in the beginning was new maps every couple of months. I was excited. then i found out that wasn't the case :( Then Hot came out and no where near the number or original vanilla maps :( :( LS3 was good news as we got a new map every couple of months- i liked this but felt like they were trying to make up for not having this at launch.

Expecting there to be lots of people on in old maps a couple weeks after a launch of new xpac is a mistake. I think the problem you had with DS was that you were not in a "META map", in that case DS is usually always pretty empty. You have to use LFG 20-30mins b4 the meta begins to get into a map with lots of people. If you wait to the last minute, the map might be full and you will be in a map by yourself and a handful of other people.

Deserted maps, nice pun for crystal oasis

@Samnang.1879 said:Deserted maps, nice pun for crystal oasis

its clear as a gem that these maps are deserted

new maps are needed no doubt , but the most important thing is the content of this maps need to LAST or be refreshing enough that u can keep the playerbase busy until u can add more content (on those maps or new maps)

LS3 was good tons of new maps !

I've always felt there needs to be less servers per map. I sometimes get placed into a map which a few minutes later says it's empty and needs to close. If there are less servers then the maps will be more full. But not so few servers that there is a queue for them.

My suggestion is to keep calm, do what you enjoy in game, and don't push your opinions and play styles onto others.

Rename Guild Wars 2 into something else.Maybe Dragon's Watch.Also spend some of that gem store income into advertising the game. Online ads works wonders on sheeple.

The contents of the map are not the problem. The problem is the lack of players.

Most of the people I recommend GW2 to, seem to think they need to play GW1 first. Or they instinctively don't like games with names that end with a number. Because of the bad rep those sorts of games tends to get.

You add a number next to a title when you want to promote something that's predecessor was wildly successful or when you want people who like the new thing to checkout the old thing. GW1 was not wildly successful (maybe for Anet it was). In my eyes and the eyes of many other people at the time, GW1 barely classified as an MMO because when you were playing it you could only play with your party. So max 8 people in your game. Sometimes you would group up with 2 or 3 parties. Still not massive enough to classify the game as MMO compared to the large open world asian MMOs games that were out at the time.

By trying to ride GW1's success into GW2, anet shot themselves in the foot. It works for single player games, it doesn't work for MMOs. FFXIV can get away with it because of the cult following from the wildly successful single player games. Also because people remember it as Realm Reborn not just ff14. Realm Reborn: epic sounding name that inspires awe. Not guild wars a boring name that you would know about unless you know the lores of the first game. Guild Wars 2 would have been a good name if the main game mode and focus of the game was WvWvW not PvE.

Anyway, if you can't tell, I hate the name.

I never would have bought the game if Angry Joe, Wooden Potatoes & Cynical Brit hype up the game to be WoW killer before launch; just because I had no interest in GW1.

GW2 has the best game engine of all MMORPG currently available. It just needs a solid front image to get back into the millions.

I never had an issue on empty maps unless some boss or meta is going on and needing to do them.But almost everything else? I don't see the problem. I don't need to see a person every few steps I take... especially in the lower level areas when I'm trying to complete hearts.

The Living Story content needs to introduce some larger meta-events or world bosses to the existing maps. Breathe new life into them, I say!

Make the rewards not suck...this isn't hard.

Maps that lack adequate numbers of players to run a meta is nothing new. It happens every time there's a major expansion as the higher level players go to the new maps. After time, from my observations, players move back to the older maps (like DS, VB, AB, TD). If you're in a map looking for a meta group, try LFG... that's what it's for. I've never had problems finding a DS meta map using the LFG. I also allow for the time of day, as that also impacts player numbers.

Add Amalgamated Gemstones to the longer metas and some trader boxes spawn on completion (this keeps keys worth it thus events worth it).

It's not a major problem yet but starting rock address it now will help it from becoming a big problem in the first place. Also advertising is good. I see a large number of GW2 ads, vanilla and hot, and now pof. This is cool for me, but I'd actually rather not see it. They're advertising to someone who already plays the game fanatically! I'm not sure how they decide who up advertise to but I think they may wanna take a look at it

Well, for the moment I'm not particularly struggling in finding people for HPs or bigger events. Sometimes I have to wait a couple of days to complete an achievement in HoT and I completed the Triple Wurms after 2 months of daily attempts. But I'm not in a rush, there are still many things to do for me, that the wait is acceptable. I'd like to see more players on Central Tyria though. This would probably attract more new players to keep playing and maybe buy the expansions.

I didn't think about the channels. Being on the wrong map (especially for the Triple Wurms) has been a problem. I wish they can do something about it. In other MMOs it's usually possible for the players to switch channel, without being forced to log out/in continuously, hoping to be put in the right one. Maybe they could allow us to see all the channels, so we could keep trying to access those channels, or be sure that we are in the wrong map and there's no need to wait further for the meta event.

But yeah, like Fenom said, it's not a major problem now, especially considering that PoF just came out. I was thinking on the long run, if they keep adding new maps. It could be a bigger issue in the future.

move along, nothing to see here

I never mentioned the new maps though. In fact, I didn't even buy PoF yet. I was mainly referring to HoT and Central Tyria.

Um.. oops..

@Urud.4925 said:I never mentioned the new maps though. In fact, I didn't even buy PoF yet. I was mainly referring to HoT and Central Tyria.

Honestly even after PoF release HoT maps are packed with people doing events and hero challenges. Also, core tyria maps are still lively during world boss events.I don't see any problem with HoT or core tyria in terms of population, it looks as if nothing changed when PoF was launched. That's because the big events in core tyria and HoT are all on set timers which allow players to go there at the appropriate time, group with others, and get the rewards.

For the time being PoF doesn't appear to drain enough players away, or rather as time passes more and more players are returning to core/hot after finishing their PoF achievements and story. PoF maps need help and extra incentive to play there, core/hot is mostly fine