[What's new in 2023?]

When I finished the latest expansion I stopped playing the game, once I have done the content I had no incentive to play because of the reward structure that is in the game.  So for me I only play the game for the new story content. In short anything interesting to come back to play the game?

[What will EoD be remembered for?]

On 5/31/2022 at 12:05 AM, Jagblade.4627 said:

The most mediocre and disappointing execution of the grand finale of a story a decade in the making, and arguably some of the worst and most questionable writing the game has ever seen.

Can't disagree this should have been the BIG finale, a lot of players are very disappointed that after 4-5 years we get this skeleton....I was kinda shocked to hear that Anet already announced the 4th expansion when EOD released, now I understand why after I played EOD. Anet knew EOD would not cut it because expectations where HIGH and they simply did not deliver. So by announcing the 4th expansion that early is a sign towards the player base that GW2 is still alive and being worked on.. I only ask myself for how long....Lets hope they fix EOD and give us a real expansion next time!.

[Inacessible but critical items for end game]

3 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

"Some people already do that here, but when you want something specific you can only get it at certain places, especially if they're account bound, like some of the dungeon runes. I think that's a good thing. It keeps content relevant.

MMOs are supposed to keep people busy for longer periods of time anyways, which means more content needs to be added regularly, but old content shouldn't be obsolete because of the masses of content that already exists."

"Again, MMOs should be that way because it keeps things interesting over longer periods of time. You see the OP complains about something that costs 9 gold being too expensive. The OP could've asked how you can (easily) make more gold, but chose to complain about it instead of asking for help for a solution.

And I think that's the key issue here: people choosing to complain over asking for help."

 

Regarding the above.  Its a good thing that older content is somehow still relevant to invest time to play it, but the new content should be way way more relevant to get involved into vs older content and that seems not the case for EOD because the rewards are just bad, that means players won't be that interested replaying that part of the content because it has nothing meaningful to offer once you done the story and have unlocked you new elite-spec.  I mean the new shiny thing like a expansion that we have waited for 4-5 years should have been a BANGER but it is not sadly. 

[Inacessible but critical items for end game]

12 hours ago, Gehenna.3625 said:

Well I do think there's a difference between 9 gold  and 2000+ gold. When you have EoD, then you get to buy Ancient Summoning Stones from a weekly vendor that you can sell for 9 gold on the TP. You get 2 gold for simple dailies every day. I mean there are simple ways to make gold that you can buy such things with. 

So what you call inaccessible, I call lack of knowledge.

The lack of knowledge part...well to be honest it is just INSANE how much currencies there are in game that can be traded at different vendors. It is just too much and people just lose track what is what and how to make use of it the best way to make gold. So google is your best friend and youtubers and streamers to learn from, but should it be that way? 

[Im pretty sick of failing Dragons End meta]

1 minute ago, Zephire.8049 said:

Did this meta the other day for the first time in over 2 months because that's how long it took to be able to stomach it again. While it was successful (barely), you know what most of my gameplay was? Being off the computer doing chores because I couldn't leave the map and map comp doesn't take that long.

If not for the strong urge to knock out some specialization collection achievements and 2 hours to spare, I'd have never even bothered for one Summoning Stone, a high chance of failure, and not being able to play GW2 while waiting for the dang thing to start (and hoping the commander wouldn't change instances last minute to "lose the pugs" again).

It's a poorly designed meta (with an otherwise well-designed fight) that Anet seems determined to kill off and LFG is crucial for increasing the chances a run will succeed but the game never actually tells players about the LFG or how to use it.

This 100% 'Anet seems determined to kill off and LFG is crucial for increasing the chances a run will succeed but the game never actually tells players about the LFG or how to use it.' . Even I that came back to the game after several years needed to learn from a Gw2 streamer how the LFG system is used and how it is used the right way. When you look into LFG you can clearly tell by the amounts that are listed that only a handful of players know that it exists. 

[Im pretty sick of failing Dragons End meta]

11 hours ago, ChronoPinoyX.7923 said:

People really need to stop with this mindset... Open World is NOT meant to be hardcore content, it never was

Open World is literally casual content, that's why it's OPEN WORLD, it ain't supposed to be Raids/Strikes/Fractals... 

Agree 100% with you, open world content should be for the casual player as intended and raids/strikes/fractals for those that want some challenge. How often I hear GW2 is a casual game for those that want to have fun with the limited time investment that they have to play the game, well EOD is not that content because it is simply bad. Shilling for Anet must stop, we deserve more from them...I don't know what feedback the Dev's are actually considering the right feedback to improve the content.. But as it stands now they seem blinded somehow...  

[Im pretty sick of failing Dragons End meta]

2 hours ago, Chichimec.9364 said:

Why bother? If you enjoy it, I'm glad for you but me, I'm with Crono here...

There's nothing the DE meta gives that I want so I simply don't bother with it any more. There are a few things about EoD I like but for the most part I just ignore Cantha.

It is actually sad that Cantha has nothing for players that really want to invest time to get some good rewards. As 'Mighty Teapot' mentioned a lot of times  'the time investment is not worth it because the rewards simply suck'. So why even bother after people done the story and got the new elite spec? So what are the Dev's doing now to get players back into the new expansion I ask myself...I mean it is pathetic to be honest, we just got a new expansion after what 4-5years? And we get skeleton content + rewards....

[Im pretty sick of failing Dragons End meta]

1 hour ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

The dedicated commanders/grups (filled with mostly the same players day after day) mostly succeed. Random ad-hoc groups with your usual OW crowd almost always fail. Although by now most players from the second group usually just give up on the map after 2-3 failures and stop coming back.

Question, is it true that the meta takes 2h to finish?

[Im pretty sick of failing Dragons End meta]

I have not yet attempted the EOD meta because I hear and read about the fail rate, the time investment that is needed with a bigger chance to fail is not worth doing it atm till it gets fixed. Also the rewards for doing that meta are bad some say what makes it even more a fail to even try to do it.

[[Suggestion] Add a vanilla/free game mount for new players. (before steam release if possible)]

On 4/30/2022 at 1:18 PM, Ironhide Wolf.3275 said:

TLDR: Suggestion, add a mount to the vanilla game that you can get in a starter city ASAP, no masteries required. (maybe even before steam release if possible.)

 

Long version:

I know development is going strong in so many areas, and dev-power is likely in short supply, BUUUUTT...
First impressions to a new player need to be GW2's/Anets/Community's best foot forward, especially when taking a steam launch into account. Starting areas have received very little attention since launch. Would be great to see this content get some polish love, and a super early mount is this topics suggestion on one way to do that.

I've been seeing new players having done some research into the game use their level 80 boost strictly to get a taxi to PoF for a quick raptor mount. I've also watched quite a few "Im new to GW2" YouTube videos and Twitch streams lately and noticed those who didn't grab a mount feel like the game is a bit slow traversing Tyria on foot. some say they may have quit if they were not "Surrounded by such an awesome community"(love you guys, community and dev's). But, the vast majority of new players won't be streamers or content creators. So, I feel like this might be a hard but possible thing to do to keep a higher new player retention count upon a steam release. 

I was thinking it would be neat to add a mount to vanilla/free GW2 that a player could obtain as soon as they get into their racial starter city. No mastery points required. Maybe even have a little mission to retrieve it, IDK. It doesn't have to be as fast as a raptor or be able to jump like a springer. Maybe give it a little extra movement speed on use of its Endurance bar skill like a sprint button for a mount. Just something that is fun to ride and moves the player around Tyria quicker than a Herald blasting the Facet of Elements for 24/7 swiftness. Maybe even add the ability to mount up in early missions.

I know Anet is playing around with the speed at which players level up. IMO, I don't think the leveling speed is the game speed issue that new players experience, its traversal speed compared to the GW2 Veteran they see flying by on a raptor or even a siege turtle. "Awesome! When do I get a mount!?" ... "2 expansions in, kiddo." ... *Watches the excited glimmer in their eyes dry up on stream*

IMO this would do a few things.

- This would increase new player retention, resulting in a higher possible customer pool for the Anet and a higher player count for the rest of us to game with.

- This would allow new players to retain their level 80 boost and use it on a character they really want to use it on rather than blowing it just to get a mount asap. Or allow players to experience the game spoiler-free but also have the speed that a mount offers.

- This would also give Anet another mount to monetize skins from for a higher revenue gain.

A win-win depending on how much dev time and resources this could take.

 

__________________ End of suggestion__________________

I have a couple other suggestions like every other player out there, but I wanna see where this specific one goes. 

Hope a dev gives this a little skimming over if the 'tldr' elevator pitch was good enough xD.

 

Been playing Guild Wars since early GW1 days, but this is my first time using the forums. So im sure I did something horribly wrong.

I tried searching for a topic like this but couldn't find any after searching a few pages, so sorry if this is a double-post, or if I messed up some other forum etiquette.

 

PS. For the love of the legions, don't make it a Horse. #TeamHorsesAreNOTReal

- Felan.

OP is 100% right, Anet needs to add a free mount for new players from level 1, if they don't do that new players will quit the game at some point before they even get to POF, simply because they will get very annoyed playing a walking simulator. Now I know some die hards in the GW2 community will give a lot examples why Gw2 never must change and so on...Well just keep in mind the potential growth that Anet will miss out if they make the path to max level for new players unnesserry harder. MMO's must evolve and adjust over time, GW2 has been stuck in the past for to long, there bust be some change at least for new players if GW2 wants to be somehow relevant and Steam is a very good chance to make GW2 relevant for new or current MMO players that play other MMO's.  GW2 is a niche game but NCSOFT cares only about profit and atm profit for GW2 is very very low, that's why they are going to steam and if they f this up the 4th expansion could vey likely the last one. So in short CHANGE is badly needed to attract new players and keep them.

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

On 5/20/2022 at 12:57 PM, battledrone.8315 said:

yep, thats the problem, in a casual game everything should just work, and give the player some fun.

just the way, that i could do it in most of the core OW. but it doesnt work that way now, does it?.

so, its not a casual game anymore. 

 

The thing is GW2 has never been a casual game, but still most of the forum posters here bag to differ.

My own view:

- GW2 has never been a casual game because a lot of research needs to be done outside the game on 3th party sites.

- In game systems are never explained in a clear manner.

- Gearing, stats, Upgrade slots and infusion slots are never explained in a clear manner how they work and what they do to understand it. Meaning most of the GW2 new players and I also think some current players still have no clue and run with empty slots. And the forum posters don't want a simple gear progression that is easy to understand, but instead you have this current system that is complicated and players can be LVL Asian if he understands it v.s players that don't. The result is that the gap is very huge between players and I'm not even talking about player skill level. 

- Builds are hard to understand, what build do I need if I use gear type X? 

- How do I know that I use the wrong sigils with my gear?

- Mystic forge how does it work?, no list of  in game item combinations that craft item X.

 

[Gw2 Earnings 1Q-2022!]

20 minutes ago, DanAlcedo.3281 said:

I definitely can understand why it's hard for Anet to make more money. 

Years ago, Anet had a way better gem store. 

Thats when me and others I know where dropping some money regularly. 

I can't remember the last time they put a good looking outfit in the store. 

QoL stuff. Where did that go? 

We have so many mount skins by now that new ones need to be extra extra awesome to get me interested. 

Weapon skins have become a lightshow. 😒

I have said it for years now, I have money to spend but the Gem Store is just lack luster. 

I did not know they don't update the gem store with new items. So it is just the stuff they already made years ago that they keep cycling in the gemstore? 

[Gw2 Earnings 1Q-2022!]

35 minutes ago, Zok.4956 said:

Look at my link https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/685436537827098645/974557513645174844/gw2-sales-2012q3-2022q1.jpg from my previous post to see all GW2 quarterly revenues compared since release of the game.

Q2/2016-Q3/2017 (after HoT a lot of players left the game) and Q4/2019 (mass layoffs in 2019, no expansions but instead IBS and IBS probably disappointed a lot of players) were dangerously low. But a quarterly revenue of 20,000 KRW or better seems to be OK for GW2 to have a future because (with ups and downs) GW2 is around the 20,000 KRW line for a long time (it was there already in 2014).

 

SO if the 20,000krw line was there before 2014 the only increase in profit that NcSoft made with GW2 was when the layoffs happened in 2019. That is a very BAD sign...Furthermore if the revenue stays at 20k and NcSoft is not satisfied with the revenue, they could layoff even more gw2 dev's that would mean a skeleton dev crew will be left working on GW2, that would translate to no new content, players would quit the game and the game will slowly die... Lets hope the steam release will boost the revenue for GW2 else it could be a disaster and the start of the end for GW2 this time around. 

[Gw2 Earnings 1Q-2022!]

5 hours ago, Izzy.2951 said:

https://i.ibb.co/VjRWq0n/gw22.png

Isnt it a bit low considering the expansion sales? its even lower than 4Q-2021.

PD: Idk how i can add the image directly on the post!

Seems very low for GW2, Lets hope the development of 4th expansion won't be affected if revenue for GW2 keeps dropping. Only time will tell but it is dangerously low.  And overal just look at the mobile vs pc revenue, mobile is crushing it.....lets hope NCSOFT won't wake up one day having a bad day sack the PC department totally to shift all those dev's towards mobile games because of profit.  

[Why are we banking on Steam?]

28 minutes ago, Naxos.2503 said:

If you go to the Steam page, on the News there are no posts, on the forums, there are no sticky, no rules, no announcements. The discussions have the basic two channels for General discussions (where most people say the game is dead on arrival, make jokes, and cause flame wars) and the empty Trading channel. There has been nothing since the page was set up and people have noticed.

Whatever effect they intended to cause has completely deflated now. A couple of good folks have pointed interested users toward the website but that's about it... The lack of official presence is definitely not inspiring the userbase on Steam.

Yeah I just checked the steam page of GW2 and forums...man it is the wild wild west over there... 

[Why are we banking on Steam?]

6 minutes ago, Naxos.2503 said:

At this point, the Steam users have seen GW2 on steam for more than a year, and have seen : no interaction whatsoever in the forum, no announcements in the news, no moderation anywhere. The GW2 Steam section is a massive cesspool of actual toxicity, nonsense and is filled irrelevant topics. They have Not engaged with the Steam userbase. They did the equivalent of putting up a signboard saying "Soon*" where * reads : We made you squint to read this.

I thought Steam would have been a nice platform but the effort was squandered due to pure disinterest on their side. Unfortunately, that means all the users that have seen the Steam page are now equally disinterested and judging by the discussions very -bitter-.

I dont care about whether or not EoD was good or bad, or whether or not LW1 is good or bad. They messed up their marketing on a massive scale with the abandoned Steam page.

Wow I did not know it is that bad..and yes this is a big issue because the first thing new players that are interested will check is the GW2 page and forums on steam...If it is neglected by Arenanet information and moderation wise..it will paint a bad impression for new players...Also marketing wise Anet is doing bare minimum to promote the game that has been obvious for several years, that is a shame...Lets hope they can clean up the mess on steam at least before it is to late.

[Why are we banking on Steam?]

3 minutes ago, lezbefriends.7516 said:

We received filler and rehashed story content for a year, and now we're doing that again with LW1.

 

There's nothing to do in Cantha.

 

Instead of giving us more content, they are banking on Steam. Why?

Revenue that's why.  Also I think before they do a steam release there must be major changes to the game for new players else the game will be badly received on steam. They only will get 1 shot on steam and the first impression is only what matters, I'm very curious what will happen because atm if it goes live on steam like it is now it has no chance.  

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

25 minutes ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

While I can relate to the general sentiment of your post, I'd just like to point out that The Icebrood Saga stands in no relation to PoF other than owning the expansion was made a requirement for access. It's not PoF content, nor does it use PoF mastery points. It's its own product.

I hope someone from ANet does take the time to read this. I think it is well thought out and a 100% correct assessment of the reward situation we have in GW2.

Agree 100%.

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

20 minutes ago, The Boz.2038 said:

A gear progression system is the exact opposite of adding meaning to the time invested playing the game.
All the endgame gear you get now will forever be the endgame gear. It will never be obviated or made irrelevant, replaced by a new tier in a new expansion. It is a maximal amount of meaning to the time invested obtaining it.

I guess it is a personal taste, but having the same gear forever seems not really fun to me.  It is like driving a 1980 VW Golf forever instead of a newer version that has more advanced features and drivercomfort. Now you can say 'The 1980 VW Golf still drives, right?' yes it does but it just feels old and that is how I feel about the forever having the same gear in GW2.  

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

11 minutes ago, Zok.4956 said:

Why do you attack players with different points of view by assuming a motivation that suits you?

I speak from personal experience on GW2 social platforms, asking about gear progression that might be a good thing to implement will be met with 'Move along, go play wow, this game is one of a kind, we don't want change...and so on'. I'm just speaking from my point of view what would be nice to have in the game to give it more meaning to invest time playing the game. I'm not here to attack players that have different view's.

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

4 minutes ago, vares.8457 said:

It took me a long time to get three full legendary armor sets, most of the legendary weapons and legendary trinkets. Why would I want them to be useless just because some people want to turn this into a cheap WoW clone? 

So having some gear progression in an MMO is immediately considered a cheap WOW clone? God forbit you are playing a MMORPG, oh wait you are GW2 /lol...

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

4 minutes ago, Dami.5046 said:

yawn. Actually.

One the of the games biggest flaws( in my opinion) is the lack of character progression outside of being told to 'buy' some exotics and you are set. They should just be a place holder to getting the better stuff and the game should guide you there. Hell put agony on world bosses, make people work a bit more with their gear.

😕

Simple as that and still players on the GW2 forums will be offended because that means change...I just don't get it why some are so against it.

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

1 minute ago, Zok.4956 said:

The endgame is anything a player does in the game by playing the content that a player enjoys. This freedom is something that many players coming from other games like WoW don't understand (at first).

If your end-game is farming gold to convert to gems to buy store items ... that's fine. But it is *your* end-game and not *the* end-game.

 

I get your point, but for example WOW has enough freedom to do stuff outside raids and dungeons for players that don't like endgame . But Gw2 has no endgame it is all casual 24/7 crafting resources farm converting to gold and gems. I mean I play GW2 and all events and everything I do I get gear that is sold on the market as the crafting items because I have no use for them, the gear is worth nothing to keep because no gear progression no beter gear. It just feels the same as when the game went live years ago. That is the issue with GW2. Why I play it? Just because of the combat that's it, playing this game for rewards is just bad even tho it is a MMO, playing the game to waist some time on PVP = Good choice.  I just hoped PVE would change some day for the beter but I don't see it happening and my opinion does not matter as your opinion or everybody's else because Anet has build the game a certain way. It is just frustrating to see why Anet is not changing direction to lift this game up out of this cycle that they are stuck in for a decay.  Atm I hope Ashes of Creation could give us a GW2 living world with real end game and a real reward system and I will be happy playing that game.

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

1 hour ago, battledrone.8315 said:

of course most owners of legendary gear will fight against it, who would like to see all that work become pointless?

if anet caves, and makes a new gear progression, they will most certainly antagonize many of the end game players.

and if they dont, the game will just fade away. 

making legendary gear was a HUGE mistake, both because its a gear progression on its own, and its so exclusive.

Considering the the amount that have legendary gear is a small percentage compared to the rest of the population. Also they could just buff the legendary gear stats for those that already have that gear because those players invested a lot time to get it, what should be fair enough. And on the other hand new players and the the rest can enjoy having a gear-progression finally and eventually working towards those legendary's. SO lets say a new expansion drops with beter gear they could even make stat/sigil's with beter stats to upgrade the current gear legendary's or the gear below, I mean a lot of options could work. But likely this will never happen and the game will just fade away at some point if nothing changes, changes for the beter to attract new players and keep most of the current players. 

[ArenaNet Studio Update: The future of Guild Wars 2]

On 5/2/2022 at 5:02 AM, battledrone.8315 said:

from 12 mio to 300k, and im the "outlier"? FF is doing very well, because they still have gear progression,

and because they havent screwed as much up, as the rest of the mmos. its not hard to look competent,

when youre surrounded by a bunch of clowns.

I also think not having a gear progression is a BIG fail on Arenanet part to make meaningful PVE content, that concept that is in place now makes it very hard for them to make most players even want to try out the new dungeons or raids. And they can definitely see that in the intern analysts reports, so they don't bother pushing out new dungeons and raids each few months because it is a waist of time for them. Also mentioning gear progression on the GW2 forums or social platforms is triggering those handful players that are very vocal on those platforms, they don't like gear progression because they like to play with the same gear like they did forever and they make it very clear every time that most GW2 players think like them what I think is totally nonsense. It is just a shame because GW2 has a lot potential....