An idea for increasing player numbers and lowering the barrier to entry for new people.

I realize this may not be the greatest time to make a suggestion. But please realize I really love this game series and want it to succeed. So I put forward this idea with the best of intentions and don't mean to offend anyone.

So, over the years occasionally when I've talked to people who might be interested in Guild Wars 2, occasionally these people might be interested in the game but once they discover the sheer amount of content locked away by the gem store of past living world content they are decidedly less so. What I would like to suggest is it might make sense to release season 2 of the living world to the free to play crowd in order to advertise Heart of Thorns. On top of that, it might make sense to bundle season 3 with Heart of Thorns and Season 4 & 5 with Path of Fire. I realize these living world seasons probably bring in what to us players is an unknown amount of income from the gem store, but I feel there might be merit in bundling them with the existing content to entice new people into the game and get older players who may not have played the content interested in coming back to experience it and maybe picking up an expansion they might not have at the same time. It may also make sense if this were to happen to include it in the game's advertisements and I believe it will generate more goodwill and interest from the gaming community at large.

I would also perhaps suggest taking a page from Electronic Arts with how they handled the marketing strategy for Apex Legends. I believe what they did was hold of on marketing until just before the release at which point, they blitzed the market and convinced numerous highly influential twitch streamers with hundreds of thousands of followers to play the game around the same time, which I believe helped create a buzz for it and get it off to a good start. For reference, I am including a link to an article on Apex Legend's marketing strategy. https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/apex-legends-is-one-of-the-best-orchestrated-game-launches-we-have-ever-seen/

I would like to conclude by saying I really love this series and have been playing it since Guild Wars Factions, I really hope the devs at Arena Net, both past and present find success in their endeavors. This game series has been a part of my life for a long time, and I would love to play it into the future for as long as Arena Net is willing to produce, maintain and release new content for it.

I do not think GW2 had a bad launch. If anything, the game has too little content for an MMO. Taking a look at the competition out there like ESO and FF or even WOW, these games release tons of content regularly. There is always something new or different to do. For e.g. a DLC in ESO gives you the main quest, tons of side quests, multiple public dungeons, world bosses, etc. The amount of content is staggering. I have spent over 200 hours in a single zone alone in ESO(Morrowind). 200 hours!!!. Compare this to the 2-10 hours of content we get from the living world expansions. I do not know the reasons for the layoffs and I can only guess. But what I do know is that GW2 is falling behind the competition. Farming gold in order to buy items on the gem store is not a good motivation for playing a game but that is what GW2 has become.

Taking any advice from EA is a nauseating prospect.

I think gw2 would been good not to abandon guilds. Guild missions seemed a nice concept and inviting for community building I wonder why they stopped developing that further

Lots of people who play World of Warcraft are unhappy with the latest expansion and are looking for other games to play. Just last night, I came across a video on YouTube of some wow veteran trying gw2 for the first time.

So I think Anet could do a marketing campaign where they poke fun at Blizzard, sort of like the Apple/Samsung ads.

They could be like “Unlike other games, there’s no pointless gear grind in gw2...”

@Seraphus.3061 said:Lots of people who play World of Warcraft are unhappy with the latest expansion and are looking for other games to play. Just last night, I came across a video on YouTube of some wow veteran trying gw2 for the first time.

So I think Anet could do a marketing campaign where they poke fun at Blizzard, sort of like the Apple/Samsung ads.

They could be like “Unlike other games, there’s no pointless gear grind in gw2...”

The storm with what blizzard will hit back...

@"Seraphus.3061" said:Lots of people who play World of Warcraft are unhappy with the latest expansion and are looking for other games to play. Just last night, I came across a video on YouTube of some wow veteran trying gw2 for the first time.

So I think Anet could do a marketing campaign where they poke fun at Blizzard, sort of like the Apple/Samsung ads.

They could be like “Unlike other games, there’s no pointless gear grind in gw2...”

They could do that, but that would attract people attracted to that kind of thing, aka kittenholes. As someone who lived through the whole "Sega does what Nintendon't" era, I can safely say that it doesn't work.

LW2 drove more people away that it will attract, really.GW2 is the only game that give full journey to cap level for free if this is not enough to like the game, I don't know what is.

@Tazer.2157 said:I do not think GW2 had a bad launch. If anything, the game has too little content for an MMO. Taking a look at the competition out there like ESO and FF or even WOW, these games release tons of content regularly. There is always something new or different to do. For e.g. a DLC in ESO gives you the main quest, tons of side quests, multiple public dungeons, world bosses, etc. The amount of content is staggering. I have spent over 200 hours in a single zone alone in ESO(Morrowind). 200 hours!!!. Compare this to the 2-10 hours of content we get from the living world expansions. I do not know the reasons for the layoffs and I can only guess. But what I do know is that GW2 is falling behind the competition. Farming gold in order to buy items on the gem store is not a good motivation for playing a game but that is what GW2 has become.

GW2 is a completely different business model. I really wish people would stop comparing it to sub-based games.

Speaking as a new player who played wow for ...9 years on and off, and LOTRO for 2 yearsThe starting experience for new players is excellent, you go straight into the action - divines reach/lions arch are impressive too.The game needs marketing, and news of an expansion to assuage players fears that they are investing in a game with a short future in my opinion

@"trev.1045" said:Speaking as a new player who played wow for ...9 years on and off, and LOTRO for 2 yearsThe starting experience for new players is excellent, you go straight into the action - divines reach/lions arch are impressive too.The game needs marketing, and news of an expansion to assuage players fears that they are investing in a game with a short future in my opinion

that first "mini boss" needs to go IMO, it ruins the pacing of the first part entirelyit may have worked better on the launch surge, but now its just patheticgoing from MONSTER SLAYER to feeding cattle...yay?

gw2 is mentioned in every successful mmorpg topic, in any serious mmorpg topic... basically its one for big 4 in mmo world.GW2 does not need adds. It needs balance and sense of progression.

It has many ppl struggling to get along with it and that's the thing they need to focus on. Marketing is not what this game needs.

GW2 is a very specific kind of game. I dont think it can grow much further no matter what you do. Its an MMORPG without lots of core RPG elements. People arent interested in GW2 because it doesnt offer almost any kind of vertical progression - which is the biggest selling point of most RPGs. The game has a huge focus on accessibility and not enough on community. It turns away hardcore players. Its a niche market.

Make core and all expansion to free to play and milk the gem store with p2w item , all those rich kid will come and flourish the game which will grow the company which means more money get from transaction and more content since they have the money then they can hire more person to focus on their IP

@GrimReaper.3865 said:Make core and all expansion to free to play and milk the gem store with p2w item , all those rich kid will come and flourish the game which will grow the company which means more money get from transaction and more content since they have the money then they can hire more person to focus on their IP

could you not

I also think that ANet could change something with LW, especially after recent pressures from NCSoft.Living World episodes don't offer a lot of new content, but they are polished and tidy work. And they are offered for free to the active players. I fear that NCSoft could push now ArenaNet to create new expansions more often, since revenue definitely spikes when a new expansion is released. This might lower the quality and give us too many new maps, to spread even more the playerbase.

While veterans look forward to playing a new LW episode, new players can be overwhelmed by the amount of b2p content. The price is worth imo, the problem is that they have to pay it all at once, if they don't like the idea to have an incomplete game.I would gladly pay every new LW episode from now on, and not with gold to gem conversion, but with real money, like for the expansions. We are talking about 200 gems currently (that's just 2,5 $/€ every 3-4 months). New players ought to pay with real money in any case, since they usually don't have enough gold when they start to play, and veterans could very well support the game.

On the other hand, I would reduce the price of old LW bundles. LW2 in particular could be almost halved, since it doesn't introduce new maps and it could be useful for new players to catch up core masteries faster. I would still keep them separate from expansions though.

@Urud.4925 said:I also think that ANet could change something with LW, especially after recent pressures from NCSoft.Living World episodes don't offer a lot of new content, but they are polished and tidy work. And they are offered for free to the active players. I fear that NCSoft could push now ArenaNet to create new expansions more often, since revenue definitely spikes when a new expansion is released. This might lower the quality and give us too many new maps, to spread even more the playerbase.

While veterans look forward to playing a new LW episode, new players can be overwhelmed by the amount of b2p content. The price is worth imo, the problem is that they have to pay it all at once, if they don't like the idea to have an incomplete game.I would gladly pay every new LW episode from now on, and not with gold to gem conversion, but with real money, like for the expansions. We are talking about 200 gems currently (that's just 2,5 $/€ every 3-4 months). New players ought to pay with real money in any case, since they usually don't have enough gold when they start to play, and veterans could very well support the game.

On the other hand, I would reduce the price of old LW bundles. LW2 in particular could be almost halved, since it doesn't introduce new maps and it could be useful for new players to catch up core masteries faster. I would still keep them separate from expansions though.

I was searching reddit yesterday for newbie tips etc, and saw quite a few newbies put out that upon buying the expansions they discovered they need to buy LS separately.It also surprised me when i looked at what needed to be purchased

I get that the base game is free, and no sub makes it brill value but as you say it is the perception that it all needs to be paid up front.

Yep, I also read some thread here on the forum of players complaining that after buying the 2 expansions, they realised that they should also buy Living World. I said keep them separated to keep the price lower and let us decide whether or not is worth to pay for LW. ANet could add a discounted bundle if you buy LW together with the exp for example, like LW at half of the price. But I can't say "include LW in the exp and keep the same price", that would be too much. At least for now.

We should find a balance between charging new players for old content and give b2p content for free. For now, I think ANET could discount LW2 (to like 100 gems per episode) and LW3 (to 150) and charge the new ones for everyone. And I'm not saying this because I still have to buy them.

@Tazer.2157 said:I do not think GW2 had a bad launch. If anything, the game has too little content for an MMO. Taking a look at the competition out there like ESO and FF or even WOW, these games release tons of content regularly. There is always something new or different to do. For e.g. a DLC in ESO gives you the main quest, tons of side quests, multiple public dungeons, world bosses, etc. The amount of content is staggering. I have spent over 200 hours in a single zone alone in ESO(Morrowind). 200 hours!!!. Compare this to the 2-10 hours of content we get from the living world expansions. I do not know the reasons for the layoffs and I can only guess. But what I do know is that GW2 is falling behind the competition. Farming gold in order to buy items on the gem store is not a good motivation for playing a game but that is what GW2 has become.

but wait a second, what if i say gw2 isnt my game because

has no FFA open world pvphas no real grind on a spot (anet nerfs it after x amount of time or kills)has no real grind in general lvling to easy, so is gear. (yes i used to play korean mmo's where full drop like weapon/armor had 1/100000 chance)has no real healer/buffing characters.

go on its not just PvE stuff that people are looking for, i for one couldnt careless if they dont release new content for years straight.i just play gw2 now cus it requires absolutely nothing from you, can logout for 1 year come back switch some runes and im good to go in WvW again sPvP is even better managed.games just get old, people dont wanna join old games they want the newest stuff on market even too the market is dead when it comes to mmo's.

@reddie.5861 said:

@"Tazer.2157" said:I do not think GW2 had a bad launch. If anything, the game has too little content for an MMO. Taking a look at the competition out there like ESO and FF or even WOW, these games release tons of content regularly. There is always something new or different to do. For e.g. a DLC in ESO gives you the main quest, tons of side quests, multiple public dungeons, world bosses, etc. The amount of content is staggering. I have spent over 200 hours in a single zone alone in ESO(Morrowind). 200 hours!!!. Compare this to the 2-10 hours of content we get from the living world expansions. I do not know the reasons for the layoffs and I can only guess. But what I do know is that GW2 is falling behind the competition. Farming gold in order to buy items on the gem store is not a good motivation for playing a game but that is what GW2 has become.

Then Guild Wars 2 isn't "your game". You can play those games that provide those things as much as you want. We'll be here when you get back.

I never understood how people got the idea that they'll only ever be able to play one game.

Lower the barrier for new players? Insta-80 isn't good enough? Egad.

@kharmin.7683 said:Lower the barrier for new players? Insta-80 isn't good enough? Egad.

I agree with you, the barrier for new player is already good enough. With buying the expansion you get insta 80 and exotic gear ready for use to hunt, if not satisfied then you can immidiately do VB night meta (zerker gear) and then start some fractal then progress through ascended.

I dont like that they locked long live the lich behind the gem store when all the rest of the series is available. Its like you are doing the story and boom have to stop and go around long live the lich. I just dont think stories should be locked like that.

@"Seraphus.3061" said:Lots of people who play World of Warcraft are unhappy with the latest expansion and are looking for other games to play. Just last night, I came across a video on YouTube of some wow veteran trying gw2 for the first time.

So I think Anet could do a marketing campaign where they poke fun at Blizzard, sort of like the Apple/Samsung ads.

They could be like “Unlike other games, there’s no pointless gear grind in gw2...”

There is no sense in marketing campaign if they can't keep people interested. And with their bad decisions in the past (relocating half a team to "some unannounced projects", leaving GW2's issues unresolved for years, and its fans hungry for content and leaving due to sheer boredom), GW2 is not at very good spot either atm. Whether they'll manage to crawl out of this dump, or not, is totally different question.

@GrimReaper.3865 said:Make core and all expansion to free to play and milk the gem store with p2w item , all those rich kid will come and flourish the game which will grow the company which means more money get from transaction and more content since they have the money then they can hire more person to focus on their IP

Actually, just adding more vanity and customization items to gem store would be enough. The problem is there almost are no new entries worth mentioning in it. People have been asking for more hairstyles and ways to customize their characters for years (what would surely made Total Makeover Kit more popular item), but Anet turned a blind eye on those requests. Or the kitten build template tool. They could even issue the later as a paid upgrade you buy for gems, for christ's sake, at least. It's that attitude which prevents them from profiting more.