Number of people doing Living World Meta Achievements is Declining

[SpellboundTutor.4257]

I can only really speak for myself, but while the emotes are fun, I don't see them as being worth the grind. What I would really like is if a meta had multi-tiered rewards like the weapon/recipe collections have in recent episodes.

Also, you want to -really- entice me? Do that, and make the final reward a converter for that map's currency/crafting materials. That'll light a fire under me to get going on those metas! Do you know how many Eitrite Ingots I have that I can't use!?! If I can convert 250 of them into a single Iron or even Silver Ore, I'll be content!

[sitarskee.5738]

I would love to see the numbers for LWS4 too, it's pretty interesting.As for me, episodes 1 and 4 in IBS were the ones which didn't really do it for me. I enjoy farming Bjora Marches and Drizzlewood though. I like the grind in No Quarter and Jormag Rising achievements but hey, I enjoyed farming and grinding in games like metin2. I have to go back to ep1 map and do most of the achievements but I guess it's going to take some time due to it being less populated than others.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

@"HakuroDK.9385" said:Also, you want to -really- entice me? Do that, and make the final reward a converter for that map's currency/crafting materials. That'll light a fire under me to get going on those metas! Do you know how many Eitrite Ingots I have that I can't use!?! If I can convert 250 of them into a single Iron or even Silver Ore, I'll be content!More converters would be nice but eitrite ingots are a bad example. You can just merch those, for well over 1g per stack. (Can't remember the exact figure.)

I'd love one for hatched chilis.

[Gorani.7205]

I can understand the decline perfectly, because it reflects what I experience myself:e.g. Drizzlewood South + North meta? Way too long! I did the North meta twice, just by coincidence, loading to a map that was about to finish.e.g. Grothmar Valley ... those champs that spawn randomly after a meta is done and get killed in 2 minutes? No thank you.e.g. Bjora Marches ... long meta again, two "phases" doing each (including the long and now prone to fail Drakkar fight). I still have a job and life that requires time.e.g. silly weapon collections that need you to grind map currency, dump extra gold and stuff on them, you most likely do not need as an exotic weapon for your main characters? Every meta achievement seems to include them now. :(e.g. Needing to not go for the Essence mastery lines to be able to have the "required" mastery points for the new mastery lines that are added, because there hardly is any leeway in mastery points (unless you do weapon collections and kill Strike boss 50 times, or magically get that first Praise Koda event to happen...)e.g. artificially prolonging the "experience" in Drizzlewood with the special missions. Every sane person has bought the unlocking scrolls to be able to work on the achievements from the start, because they only count participation once you unlock them.

I hate to have to quote the "Manifesto Trailer" again, but just listen to Colin's statements at around 1:25 min for some nostalgia of what GW2 had been when it started.

[Naxos.2503]

I dislike grinding in all it's forms. I can do it, if it's not too tedious to see your progress. These achievements however are excessive. If it's counter intuitive to do a thing continuously, I simply will not.

[SpellboundTutor.4257]

@Manasa Devi.7958 said:

@"HakuroDK.9385" said:Also, you want to -really- entice me? Do that, and make the final reward a converter for that map's currency/crafting materials. That'll light a fire under me to get going on those metas! Do you know how many Eitrite Ingots I have that I can't use!?! If I can convert 250 of them into a single Iron or even Silver Ore, I'll be content!More converters would be nice but eitrite ingots are a bad example. You can just merch those, for well over 1g per stack. (Can't remember the exact figure.)

I'd love one for hatched chilis.

I... didn't even think of that. I'm dumb.

[Solvar.7953]

So while original achievements in GW2 were grindy, they were not tied to metas. I've still not gotten the slayer for killing 1000 of some of the creatures, but am slowly getting there, and I can do them on most any map (presuming it has those creatures), and a mix of activities.In comparison, the meta achievements tend to have to be done on one map, with a singular activity to get to them. I'll eventually kill 1000 ettins, but unless I actually play Bjora Marches map, I'll never progress on most of those achievements.

[Zaxares.5419]

@Manasa Devi.7958 said:

@"HakuroDK.9385" said:Also, you want to -really- entice me? Do that, and make the final reward a converter for that map's currency/crafting materials. That'll light a fire under me to get going on those metas! Do you know how many Eitrite Ingots I have that I can't use!?! If I can convert 250 of them into a single Iron or even Silver Ore, I'll be content!More converters would be nice but eitrite ingots are a bad example. You can just merch those, for well over 1g per stack. (Can't remember the exact figure.)

I'd love one for hatched chilis.

I agree that more converters are needed. Especially for PoF and Icebrood Saga materials. There's very little one can do with Hatched Chilis or Eternal Ice once you've finished the various collections, and stuff like Eyes of Kormir or Congealed Putrescence have been languishing at rock bottom prices for over a year now. And mark my words, Prismaticite will suffer the same fate in a year or two, even more so because outside of Dragon Slayer weapons, there's literally nothing else to do with them.

An extremely simple solution would be simply to give all of these materials a base vendor value, so players can just sell them to merchants if there's nothing else to do with them. I have no idea why ANet gave the LS3 materials a base value (except for Winterberries), but neglected to do so going forward.

[Linken.6345]

@Manasa Devi.7958 said:

@"HakuroDK.9385" said:Also, you want to -really- entice me? Do that, and make the final reward a converter for that map's currency/crafting materials. That'll light a fire under me to get going on those metas! Do you know how many Eitrite Ingots I have that I can't use!?! If I can convert 250 of them into a single Iron or even Silver Ore, I'll be content!More converters would be nice but eitrite ingots are a bad example. You can just merch those, for well over 1g per stack. (Can't remember the exact figure.)

I'd love one for hatched chilis.

They should just make you eat those for some karma similar to season 3/4 items getting unbound/volitile magic.

[Weindrasi.3805]

The end rewards are a bore. I don't care about a silly emote. I almost never emote, and when I do it's basic stuff like laugh, cross arms, sit, sleep. There is absolutely zero appeal in unlocking a new emote for me.If you want me to grind metas, offer a unique armor skin (the bear and raven armors are nice), mount skin, ect. Even a title.

[Vayne.8563]

@Weindrasi.3805 said:The end rewards are a bore. I don't care about a silly emote. I almost never emote, and when I do it's basic stuff like laugh, cross arms, sit, sleep. There is absolutely zero appeal in unlocking a new emote for me.If you want me to grind metas, offer a unique armor skin (the bear and raven armors are nice), mount skin, ect. Even a title.

While I get your point, I have a zillion skins now, but not enough emotes. I get you hardly ever do, but emotes are sorta cool considering how few have been added to the game. I can only use so many skins, even on the 51 characters I have.

[Obtena.7952]

While emotes are cool and everything, these map metas have turned GW2 into everything it wasn't at the beginning of the game. Just grinding away endgame content with LFG's and such ... other games do it better. It's a shame they gave into that traditional MMO approach.

[Vayne.8563]

@Obtena.7952 said:While emotes are cool and everything, these map metas have turned GW2 into everything it wasn't at the beginning of the game. Just grinding away endgame content with LFG's and such ... other games do it better. It's a shame they gave into that traditional MMO approach.

I agree that there's been a change in how the game is played, but I still played zones like Grothmar and Drizzlewood the way I played maps at the beginning. Nothing as changed for me, because I don't always do the meta or have to do the meta. I'm quite happy to jump into either of those two zones and do stuff. There are four metas in Grothmar, but there are tons of minigames. It's like an amusement park and I find that fun. There are events all over drizzlewood that award me keys and chests without doing the meta at all. I play it the way I've played any zone.

To be fair I don't like Bjora Marches, but you don't have to focus on metas. IN fact chest runs for ice are fast for really quick T4 currencies for people who don't want to grind there, so there's a way in which Icebrood Saga makes farming currency in Season 4 less grindy.

[Obfuscate.6430]

The oppressive aura of Bjora Marches, and then...the strikes. I fell off that horse and just have not been able to get back on with any enthusiasm. I REALLY wanted that Raven Shaman armor and thought if I grinded one of the strikes a certain amount of time I would get the top. Only later I found out the top was RNG from a particular strike I really hated more than the others. I grinded them a bit more for the runic armor and I will say THAT was worth it. New armor skins? YES PLEASE.

The second thing that is causing me to lose interest is the lack of meaningful rewards, as a veteran player. Even though I have 19+ characters, I have more than enough weapons and skins which I worked hard for and absolutely love. New weapons require more grind and gold to craft but aren't any better or necessarily prettier than those I already have and it isn't worth the struggle for a mastery point. There's no way to display them either as an achievement unless you use/wear it, but I have my looks and gear already down. So...those rewards /goals aren't rewards or goals for me.

[Vayne.8563]

@Obfuscate.6430 said:The oppressive aura of Bjora Marches, and then...the strikes. I fell off that horse and just have not been able to get back on with any enthusiasm. I REALLY wanted that Raven Shaman armor and thought if I grinded one of the strikes a certain amount of time I would get the top. Only later I found out the top was RNG from a particular strike I really hated more than the others. I grinded them a bit more for the runic armor and I will say THAT was worth it. New armor skins? YES PLEASE.

The second thing that is causing me to lose interest is the lack of meaningful rewards, as a veteran player. Even though I have 19+ characters, I have more than enough weapons and skins which I worked hard for and absolutely love. New weapons require more grind and gold to craft but aren't any better or necessarily prettier than those I already have and it isn't worth the struggle for a mastery point. There's no way to display them either as an achievement unless you use/wear it, but I have my looks and gear already down. So...those rewards /goals aren't rewards or goals for me.

I felt like this too, but I want the otter infusion and salvaging charged stormcaller weapons give you 10 of the components you need to get that infusion. Making the whole set is expensive, but it gives you 160 infusions or about half of what you need for the infusion. My wife got it already, I still have a ways to go.

[Eloc Freidon.5692]

These meta achievements have been the most tedious as the content involving them is repetitive and the dialogue not skippable. The high gold sink cost for the crafting collections certainly ruin the experience for most.

[Ashantara.8731]

@Eloc Freidon.5692 said:These meta achievements have been the most tedious as the content involving them is repetitive and the dialogue not skippable. The high gold sink cost for the crafting collections certainly ruin the experience for most.

So much this. :+1:

I am still doing most of them, but I don't find the joy in it anymore, nor the excitement I used to feel after working on an achievement and accomplishing it. A few I don't even start for the reasons you mentioned (e.g., the newest Stormcaller collection, where the drop rate is ultra low, the cost at the TP is 350+ g per weapon for this very reason, and the DRMs are pure boring grind).

[Hesione.9412]

Two things that are interfering with my completionist goal and gaining story mastery:

1. map lag. Bjora and Thunderhead peaks are the worst. I gritted my teeth when playing on those maps. I'm not the only one getting bad lag, and it seems to occur outside of peak hours. For example, I am on NA and when I play later evening NZ hours, which is coming into SEA hours, I still get loads of lag.
2. achievements hidden behind expensive/rng/time consuming weapon collections. Just no. The later LS episodes have done this. For DWC you have to complete one of the two weapon collections to get episode mastery because all the other achievements added together are 1 less than the number required. I haven't even finished the Istan ones.

For other players, luckily not me, achievements are stuck behind bugged content. As a for example of an achievement continuing to be a problem, look at the number of threads/posts saying that the Pepperseed event in Thunderhead won't start. Yes, you can do other Thunderhead achievements to get story mastery, but Pepperseed is one of the more straightforward, that doesn't rely on luck and ping, and should be easily knocked out.

Finally, there is content where you can't do all the achievements in the story because they are mutually exclusive. For example, moving through an area being undetected, versus attacking/killing X number of enemy NPCs. This forces replay in order to get the achievements. There is a difference in having to replay content because you made a mistake, and having to replay content because the story was constructed that way.