Losing my friends

Hello guys. As we probably know, Anet was never the company to give numbers on the players. And still you can't always mask degrading numbers in community. With the F2P system being implemented, a lot of players joined the game but not all of them stick around like the ones who are here since GW1 or even since the beginning of GW2. I was looking in my guild yesterday and I was shocked to count at least 18 people who played GW1 and who did not logged in in the last 10 months or more. I know that all of us have jobs, families etc, but GW2 is a casual game and you usually don't give up on it because of time, especially when you used to log in every day. How is your situation in the groups, how many vets gave up and how many new players sticked around? (log in every 2-3 days).

To be easier to follow it, I created the next pattern (the numbers below are the situation in my guild) ; Vet - player who played before game went F2P ; New player - joined after F2P

Vets who stopped playing: around 18Vets who join only to do new episodes: 5New players who log in periodically: 3New players who do new episodes: 6

Of all the friends i had made over these years, only like... 10% of them play, and thats the newer players which i've met (in last 1-2 years).

i've got no friends so i wouldn't know.but this sounds normal to me

I’m the last standing from the guilds I joined. It happens as sad as it is - people move on, either in life or to WoW

@"Daniel.5428" said:

To be easier to follow it, I created the next pattern (the numbers below are the situation in my guild) ; Vet - player who played before game went F2P ; New player - joined after F2P

You do realize that it's more than 3.5 years ago that the game whent f2p? (August 2015)And at that point, the game was 3 years old. So GW2 has been f2p longer than it wasn't!It seems like a really strange cutoff for "veterans"...

That isn't necessarily a useful information to tally, considering people reasons for leaving at not specifically tied to the game. If Anet had failed to address their demands, then sure, if not, then there is no actual issue. People play their fill. It's a game they bought (for some) and have Simply shifted their interests elsewhere. Nowadays people have more games than they have time to play, when you've had your fill of a game, or another game gives Something you're after at that specific moment, you put the game aside, and go for the new thing. It doesn't translate a problem at all, because there is a cycle of new players replacing the old. When new players stop showing up Then you can tally the number and diagnose. Doing so now would be equivalent of running a treadmill trying to reach the end of the mat

@Randulf.7614 said:people move on, either in life or to WoW

I had a chuckle when I read that, I feel bad now.

People come and go, take breaks, etc. It's not gw specific. I take regular breaks from every game, just came back after two years of not playing gw2. I have to say the game is still good and feels quite fresh but the community has turned into this melodramatic child yelling "dead game" on every corner over meaningless things that were happening years ago as well.

I don't really want to know the reason or at least i'm trying to ignore it and keep playing because i simply enjoy the game although the fact that over 4 years of my time i have more than a hundred friend in my list but til now, every single time i login everything is just grey, occasionally there are few online but what more painful is i know exactly that im not on their friend list because they are just good commanders, farming train drivers i added. I also helped, trained some new comers, they bought the game but for the past 3 weeks i haven't seen even one playing at all.

I'm just another guy who keep pretending everything is normal and keep playing, i can't quit, i don't know why, it just can't.

@Naxos.2503 said:That isn't necessarily a useful information to tally, considering people reasons for leaving at not specifically tied to the game. If Anet had failed to address their demands, then sure, if not, then there is no actual issue. People play their fill. It's a game they bought (for some) and have Simply shifted their interests elsewhere. Nowadays people have more games than they have time to play, when you've had your fill of a game, or another game gives Something you're after at that specific moment, you put the game aside, and go for the new thing. It doesn't translate a problem at all, because there is a cycle of new players replacing the old. When new players stop showing up Then you can tally the number and diagnose. Doing so now would be equivalent of running a treadmill trying to reach the end of the mat

@Randulf.7614 said:people move on, either in life or to WoW

yeah. life and/or WoW usually suck.

@Daniel.5428 said:How is your situation in the groups, how many vets gave up and how many new players sticked around? (log in every 2-3 days).Judging from my family of four:

3 accounts pre HoT are active several times a week1 account post HoT pre PoF is active sporadically (because there's so much more to do all day for a young lady than just play online games religiously ;) )2 accounts post HoT are active several times a week

Looks like my selection is a lot more positive for the game than yours ;) .

But on a more serious note: This game has been going for more than six years. It's just natural that people come and go. Sticking with the same game for years on end isn't everybody's thing. Some get bored, some come to not agree with how the game evolves, some just find that life stears them in a different direction. I do find however that there seem to be plenty of new people coming to the game all the time.

Maybe you'd have a better time if you went out into the maps and started meeting new people rather than brooding on the fact that some of your old friends just don't find the game as entertaining any more than they used to?

The problem is that people 'leaving' isn't a good metric for this business model because there isn't a monthly sub. From a revenue perspective, a player that leaves looks just like a player that doesn't spend on gems.

@Obtena.7952 said:The problem is that people 'leaving' isn't a good metric for this business model because there isn't a monthly sub. From a revenue perspective, a player that leaves looks just like a player that doesn't spend on gems.

Pretty much, although they will have metrics for logins and average playtime and so forth which will be more useful than any leaver stats

Ironically both my guild and friend list were more active before the game went f2p. These days they are their lowest. It is something I have experienced in every MMO I have played though, at least over the last decade. The genre is far past its glory days.

Your personal anecdotal evidence is not significant and no conclusions can be drawn from it.

For instance, in my guild I've seen dozens of new players join in the past several months, and only seen one or two existing players stop coming around much. Nobody has quit the game to my knowledge and I still see the people I always did in chat/discord.

The fact is that you simply aren't in a position to assess this based on 32 people you know.

So make new friends. You can do that, you know.

I'm sorry some of your friends don't play GW2 as often. That makes it harder to have fun, for a variety of reasons. However, it's not indicative of the game's population generally.

Most guilds do not survive long. Even those that do eventually come to an end. It's the nature of human relationships. If you're looking for metrics to assess numbers, there are much, much better proxies.

• Number of Reddit subscribers and/or posters
• Number of people with APIs on GW2 Efficiency who are completing the story (can be seen in the achievements summary)
• Number of people who post to the weekly Q&A on Reddit.

All of those show healthy numbers, if somewhat lower between expacs and between major patches, as would be expected. Like any endeavor, populations ebb & flow, generally with a trend towards declining. Games are especially vulnerable to this.

Its normal for people to leave an MMO over the long-term.. lives are short, and not to be wasted.

I think one of the biggest problems is that, even though the end-game content is still quite good, the core game is now severely dated, and doesn't hold new players long enough to build up the userbase to what it once was. Don't get me wrong, Central Tyria is beautiful, but the starter maps and the early Personal Story especially are a very poor experience compared to something like Living World Season 4.

It was very fun and exciting back in the day but now the technology used in those areas shows its age severely.

At this point I think the core game really needs a remaster. Nothing extreme, just a polishing wave especially over the starter maps, and I don't mean like that joke of an "New Player Experience" they did before that treats newbies like they're incapable of thought. Reduce powercreep, fix some buggy events, fix alot of the soupy, overstretched textures, fix up the outdated shaders, etc.

Ideally move the PS to a LS type design and reintroduce a compact, LS2-like version of of LS1 but that's unlikely to ever happen.

Also fix a certain infamous fight..

I was unable to follow the point. What is this anecdotal piece of information supposed to tell us about the game?

I am a guild leader. From my experience people mostly come and go. Many take breaks and return later. Only few disappear permanently. Some people take very longer breaks, over a year or so.

Keep in mind, this is no different than any other MMORPG. I've got loads of time in WoW, FFXIV, TERA, Wildstar etc. etc. and they all have a similar pattern. People get burnt out or bored and move on, it happens.

GW2 is doing decently strong for a game of its age and monetary system.

@Daniel.5428 said:Hello guys. As we probably know, Anet was never the company to give numbers on the players. And still you can't always mask degrading numbers in community. With the F2P system being implemented, a lot of players joined the game but not all of them stick around like the ones who are here since GW1 or even since the beginning of GW2. I was looking in my guild yesterday and I was shocked to count at least 18 people who played GW1 and who did not logged in in the last 10 months or more. I know that all of us have jobs, families etc, but GW2 is a casual game and you usually don't give up on it because of time, especially when you used to log in every day. How is your situation in the groups, how many vets gave up and how many new players sticked around? (log in every 2-3 days).

To be easier to follow it, I created the next pattern (the numbers below are the situation in my guild) ; Vet - player who played before game went F2P ; New player - joined after F2P

Vets who stopped playing: around 18Vets who join only to do new episodes: 5New players who log in periodically: 3New players who do new episodes: 6

...you do realize this game has always been F2P, right? Maybe you're referring to trial accounts as F2P, which is not at all the same thing.

@tinymurder.5791 said:...you do realize this game has always been F2P, right? Maybe you're referring to trial accounts as F2P, which is not at all the same thing.

No this game has not always been F2P, it began as B2P. My bank account is testament when the game came out. It transitioned to F2P.

@Lost Dragons Tail.3760 said:

@tinymurder.5791 said:...you do realize this game has always been F2P, right? Maybe you're referring to trial accounts as F2P, which is not at all the same thing.

Indeed. I remember when the sale for a registration code here on the site dropped to $10. I bought 6 and gave 5 away to friends so technically, I still have one floating around. This was before f2p.

@Biff.5312 said:Your personal anecdotal evidence is not significant and no conclusions can be drawn from it.

For instance, in my guild I've seen dozens of new players join in the past several months, and only seen one or two existing players stop coming around much. Nobody has quit the game to my knowledge and I still see the people I always did in chat/discord.

The fact is that you simply aren't in a position to assess this based on 32 people you know.

30 people is considered enough to be statistically relevant. It won't necessarily paint 100% of the picture, but 30 is enough to start showing trends. That's basic stats.

When I came back from my break, my entire guild was completely dead because they all lost interest and left. I had to join a new one.

Given the recent Istan nerfs, I'm just going back to GW1 full time. Farming there isn't a sin. So you can count me among those leaving.

@Daniel.5428 said:Hello guys. As we probably know, Anet was never the company to give numbers on the players. And still you can't always mask degrading numbers in community. With the F2P system being implemented, a lot of players joined the game but not all of them stick around like the ones who are here since GW1 or even since the beginning of GW2. I was looking in my guild yesterday and I was shocked to count at least 18 people who played GW1 and who did not logged in in the last 10 months or more. I know that all of us have jobs, families etc, but GW2 is a casual game and you usually don't give up on it because of time, especially when you used to log in every day. How is your situation in the groups, how many vets gave up and how many new players sticked around? (log in every 2-3 days).

To be easier to follow it, I created the next pattern (the numbers below are the situation in my guild) ; Vet - player who played before game went F2P ; New player - joined after F2P

Vets who stopped playing: around 18Vets who join only to do new episodes: 5New players who log in periodically: 3New players who do new episodes: 6

Welcome to my club...My Guild went from ~100 to ~0 during season 1 because of burnout. By the time the Back to school SAB hit, there were 10 of us still active. Which prompted me to also go into hiatus, and most of my guild mates also ended up leaving and the few that stayed moved to other guilds, of course (around 3 people).I came back with a few other guys, and recruited some more, and we had around 15 very active players (i have a very exclusive recruitment) by the time season 2 ended.With HoT we had a few more people coming in, but one month into HoT most people had already quit again (PvP was a side-focus of the guild, and balance was just inexistent, and because of their adherence to schedule, it took them months to fix that).Before PoF hit, we were doing Raids and had 7 players that would be playing regularly and a few more that would pop in sporadically for one raid or another. The rest of the people we were getting from an allied small guild and a few PUG players.PoF was a major disappointment to a lot of them as well, and now, that i know of, there's 1 guy that plays daily, who joined another guild, and me doing living world, and waiting a few weeks till the Warclaw hysteria dwindles so i can do that too.