@ANet: If you want financial success to improve, give the players what they have been asking for

[Akais.7192]

I've been a player since beta, love the game, want to see it continue and not be another game I love shut down by NCSoft.

These are the things I see as barriers to revenue.The game, currently, is not approachable to returning, new, or casual players regardless of the play type.Returning, New, and Casual Players generally spend more money than Vets that have played consistently.

WvWWvW without a Warclaw is fairly futile. New players don't get them but do get to be exposed to all the players that already have them on day one in WvW.Put simply, WvW needs to be segmented by skill level and accomplishment.PVPPvP tokens for casual players have almost no value.Funnily enough, both are (on paper) more rewarding than PvE for the dedicated player even if it is generally less balanced.That said, PvP will help retain a subset of vets...Not necessarily generate revenue.

PVEThe current story instance for Dungeons all have empty LFG's and Devs need to devise ways to resolve this (FFXIV did this by incentivising vet players for queueing for old content).Different Maps metas need to be adjusted to account for the speed of travel attainable by vet players and those metas also need to be incentivised for repeat play for all player types.Opening up the game base + expansions costs money... Only for those players to find that the different LW stories also costs money separately.A way needs to be made for players to earn the story as opposed to merely being required to purchase it to get access to assorted stuff.There are entirely too many map currencies and the things available from them differ wildly in value to the player. (For example, Why should Ley Stone armor cost so much more than Bladed and be all but worthless to the player purchasing it?) Something that allows the exchange of map currencies needs to be added.

The EconomyIt's all jacked up on Mountain Dew these days....Gems cost too much.Things costing gems generally cost too much.The exchange is a hot mess which, in turn, causes gold to have little to no value in the TP even though it is still work to earn.Resource Scarcity and Item rarity are both manufactured to be higher than they reasonably should be.The best way to ensure players don't want to spend money on a game is to make them feel it's their only option to begin with in the first place.The BLC... You are more likely to get a metabolic primer you don't need and a dye you already have than something you actually might have wanted to begin with.It's too random, the nice items too rare, with choice non-existentBlack lion tickets, and stubs appear to have become incredibly rare and we've seen prices from the statuette store go up for anything periodically featured over time.

[kharmin.7683]

Gems cost too much? Egad.

[Dante.1763]

@kharmin.7683 said:Gems cost too much? Egad.

Strange..considering theyve cost the same since release? or is he talking about gold to gems?

[Gehenna.3625]

@lothefallen.7081 said:-Cantha expansionThis could work, even if it's just because it would mean an expansion, which I think this game needs.-Playable Tengu raceCouldn't care less about this. I don't think this will increase revenue and adding a new race, means a new starter area that takes a lot to create and a lot of people won't care about from my perspective.-New elite specsThis is not a bad idea but it's hit and miss on those. A lot of the current elite specs need to be fixed to actually be elite to begin with.-Demonetize build templatesSure, taking something out of the gem store will make this game a lot more money... I agree with the point as such but it doesn't really support the financial side. So it fails as an argument here.-Overhaul core dungeon explorable paths with strike mission mechanics and add incentives for vets to help new players learn how to play properly with achievements and rewardsNobody does these anymore really from what I can tell. At least not many people. This is something you would want, I get that, but it's another point that doesn't explain how it would make the game more profitable.

Bottom line is that this game needs to have an appeal to new players, returning players and keep people playing on. Fixing certain elements of the game won't do that for most people. A new expansion would bring old players back and will give the game a reason for new players to try it out, cause it's something new and not from years ago.

What I think will help beyond that is to take a lot of the tedium out of the game. It's too much fast repetition of the same content and for rewards that aren't really exciting unless you are really lucky. You get tons of loot that is essentially meaningless and therefore loses the excitement of it. Every time my character is excited about loot, I'm not.

There are a number of things that ArenaNet can do to revitalize the game, but aside from another expansion, your ideas are mostly a personal wishlist and not something that will bring them more money and customers.

[Zok.4956]

@lothefallen.7081 said:@ANet: If you want financial success to improve, give the players what they have been asking for

Be careful what you wish for.Players asked for gear templates and Anet delivered something else and just labeled it templates.

[Akais.7192]

@Dante.1763 said:

@kharmin.7683 said:Gems cost too much? Egad.

Strange..considering theyve cost the same since release? or is he talking about gold to gems?

More like gem value of what can be purchased compared to purchase price of the gems themselves.For example: BLC keys are not currently worth purchasing given how high the chance for trash items are as opposed to a BLC from 3 or 4 years ago.I referenced the exchange itself on an entirely different line as they aren't the same.

[Solvar.7953]

The gold to gem exchange rate is determined by how many folks want to buy gems and how many want to sell them. It is high because lots of players want to buy gems instead of spending actual money to get whatever item (since most are gem store exclusives), and there are just not a lot of people selling gems.And I can see the later point - what is really the point of selling gems? What do you really need money for in the game, except to maybe make a legendary (or buy some really high priced item off the trading post). You can probably outfit a character in a full set of exotics for very little gold, depending on which stat combo you are going for.

[maddoctor.2738]

@Zaklex.6308 said:

@"maddoctor.2738" said:Fix the performance of the game. It's silly that an external tool can make such a big difference but the actual engine developers cannot do anything. Ditch Windows XP, it's 2020. When I see "Windows® XP Service Pack 3 or better" in the minimum requirements I have to think that's the reason you aren't updating your god kitten engine to later standards. Remove Windows XP from requirements (and Vista), so the Core game/ Heart of Thorns have the same requirements as Path of Fire.

Overhaul the core game and Heart of Thorns with the graphical improvements that started in Path of Fire. Players see promos of the exciting new content of the latest area, only to see the dull and uninspired initial areas of the game. Go to Elona and check the night sky. Compare with Core Tyria. How difficult would changing the skybox be? Also, since the rest of the effects are post process it should be a painless experience to enable them. Shader Model 3.0 is ages old. Upgrade it to newer/faster/better versions

All of the above is a lot easier said than done, this game is still based on the original GW1 engine, you're talking about taking apart spaghetti code and trying to update it by inserting new elements. A lot of the changes made for PoF aren't internal to the engine, they're done by other means and if they tried to update the game as you suggest I wouldn't expect ANY new content for at least 12 months if not longer, as it would take them that long to implement. It's not worth it investment wise and development wise.

I don't understand arguments like this "we won't get content for 12 months". That's assuming that the same developers that create anything else in the game will do the changes to the engine. They have an engine team at Arenanet, responsible for many things over the years, from the karka shaders back during Southsun, the Wyvern flame attacks at the release of HOT and the graphical updates that came with POF. This engine team, developers that are being paid to work on the engine, could update the engine to be more modern without any impact to the rest of the game. They aren't creating events, they aren't writers, they aren't voice actors, they aren't gameplay programmers, they aren't artists. They are -engine developers- it's their job to make changes to the engine.

[Naxos.2503]

I agree with most of what OP is stating. Personally I was spending a Lot more on the game when it was a labour of love, rather than the current milking machine it is. Significant milestones were attained by the devs and should be mentionned still : The strike missions come to mind. We cant say they didn't try. Build templates are a travesty, but it still is technically, an answer to what we asked for.

Tengus are a bad idea. Dont get me wrong, I like having more race choices, I just find it far more efficient to have combat tonics more easily dispensed : NOT as a random, low chance drop from a JP Anet. Seriously.

Expansions/Elite Specs is what a lot of players still hope for. Selling Elite Specs as is on the gem store would give rise to more P2W even if expansions are technically the same. The difference is the goal of an expansion is not quite the same as the goal of individual Elite specs. People want Expansions for one simple fact : People want to explore their content -immersed-. You dont have the time to be immersed if the content ends within 2 hours of normal playing. Obviously full exploration takes longer, but that gets into grinding. That's not immersive.

For a game that supposedly put guilds forward, there is a clear lack of guild emphasis in the game since Heart of Thorns' release. I must profess not understanding why. The current guild system allow you to have 5 guilds on your characters, because they're tied to your account. While it sounds good, it has issues of it's own : 1) Ghost members : Guild members will instinctively go for the largest most established guild possible, making their non-representing presence in smaller guilds deceptively pointless. 2) The guild hall lacks functionality : There is little to no practical reason to build it up, despite it being particularly hard to build it up for a smaller less established guild.Even if you have a player who join 5 equally sized guilds, only 1 of them will actually benefit from that presence, what's the point ? What OP said in his entry about guilds I can get behind to, more guild missions, and more activities in general would help.

What hits the closest home is the lack of repeatable content, and Masteries are completely -Pointless-. They are tied to One Map. One Map that you WONT spend much time on. If you want to score on something that is Living Story based : Make Masteries useful outside of their original map ! Do you want to know another Reason players want expansions rather than living stories ? They can Use the content from that Expansion Outside of It. It Enhances their gameplay Completely. The new maps arent particularly enticing to Repeat, making those masteries even more pointless. All they are, is a key to locked content, more than anything :"You must unlock this mastery in order to experience this type of content".Okay, will it be fun ?"I dont know, but you wont know either until you've unlocked it"It gives you access to more rewards .... Yay ? It doesn't make the map that much more fun though ?"How about one that increases your damage against a specific enemy ?"You mean like a buff ?"Well yeah ! It's more fun no ?"So the difference is just Numbers ? No gameplay change ? Does it changes my world ?"Errrrm..."

In a nutshell.

[WaRioRofthelight.8065]

I think that your post is really subjective.

-Cantha expansionDon't care about that-Playable Tengu raceDon't care about that-New elite specsDon't care about that-Demonetize build templatesMmmmh yeah, I guess I am ok with this one-Overhaul core dungeon explorable paths with strike mission mechanics and add incentives for vets to help new players learn how to play properly with achievements and rewardsDungeons are the first group content that the game encourages players to check out. Right now, the dungeon system in this game is a liability. It scares more people away from the game with a dead LFG when these instances could be used to teach new players how to play correctly and create a pipeline to fractals and raids. When you get a mail as you're leveling to check out these dungeons, make an automatic group finder for them. Get these new players learning break bars, cc, and dodging instead of roaming an empty overworld for 80 levels. New players won't stay for the current experience. You need to think about how your game should be designed to bring players into the fold, not alienate them because the first group content they touch is atrocious and no longer supported development. You need to fix this system. It's absolutely dire.Don't care about that-Allow LWS1 to be playable so new players can actually orient themselves in the world and feel attached to the story instead of just watching a cinematic with 0 information.Good idea

-Stop the drip feed saga story focus. REPEATABLE CONTENT. REWARD SYSTEMS. GET PEOPLE PLAYING TOGETHER MEANINGFULLYDisagree on this-Refocus on guild content and guild cohesion. We need more types of guild missions, more rewards, GvG, bonuses for clearing daily fractals or raids with guilds, come on.Agree on this-Stop putting all the flashiest rewards in the gemstore. Monetize your expansion. Reward players for playing the game first, then try to milk them on cosmetics and QoL second.Strongly disagree-GW player since 2005Don't think it was useful to add this !

[aspirine.6852]

Some good ideas, but I really dont want a stupid Big Bird looking race to play as.

[Asum.4960]

@Hope.6582 said:Ppl asked for templates. They even said they would pay for them. They got what they asked for.

In the sense of people asking for a nice house for a fair price, and then being offered a wood shack for 10 times the market value of a mansion as only option, while being forcefully evicted from their great current home.

Charging 10€/$ per build, per character, to a maximum of 6 per character, at which point you need to buy more character's slots still on top of that, which you then need to gear and equip, invalidating all your efforts into legendaries and such for those original characters which you made to play a wide variety of builds while avoiding exactly that, for hardcore veterans enjoying all facets of the game with OW, Raids, Fractals, sPvP, WvW etc., on all professions, is absolutely ridiculous.

I'm not going to pay over 1000 €/$ to get most of my build variety back.

20€/$ for a full account unlock, or even 5€/$ per account wide proper Template slot (encompassing the current gear and build slots) with a save/load functionality could have been fine. Extremely pricy still, but fine.But what we currently have? No.

We went from an ArenaNet with GW1 (which had features like virtually unlimited build storage baseline for free, because ofc it did, it's a baseline game feature) in which they released full stand alone game expansions with new professions, starting zones and continents to explore every 6-12 months, to now with GW2 getting 2h of Living Word every 3 months without any substantial content in them, and them thinking it's fine to charge the price of a 100h+ AAA game to store a few bits of 6 builds on a per character basis.

That's insulting on a ethical, intellectual and, as almost 15 year veteran player of the franchise, personal level, and I'm not surprised their earnings are taking a nose dive, because that behaviour does not inspire confidence or trust nor willingness to support in the consumers to keep spending their money here.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Comparing Guild Wars QoL to Guild Wars 2 QoL, some are better, some worse. Material and Item Storage and Wardrobe are much better in GW2. GW2 also got expansions and started with Releases every 2 weeks.

It's a bit disingenuous to only list the great parts of one game vs. the terrible parts of the other.