Seasons

[Fueki.4753]

If Arenanet takes away my stuff for literally no valid reason (and no, "time is up" is no valid reason), they may as well delete my account.

Such a system would be no different that flipping all the birds that the company has available.

If you want your full resets, play The Sims and make a new family once in a while, but don't drag others into it.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Mungrul.9358]

Um, seasonal characters would be the only ones that get deleted at the end of season. And the way it works in Diablo 3 is that all the gear you earned while playing seasonal content gets transferred to your main account at the end of season.

[Klowdy.3126]

22 hours ago, Razvan.1236 said:

Has there ever been a discussion about seasons in the community or among the devs?

By "seasons" I mean seasonal (every 3/4 months) full resets:

• delete all characters
• reset the whole economy
• And maybe even add a hardcore mode.

The whole system could even be locked behind some isolated "seasonal servers" and a pay wall.

I understand that GW2 is focused on horizontal endgame progression rather than vertical progression, but seasons don't seem to go against that philosophy.

As a player, would u like these type of seasons in GW2?

They actually give rewards for not deleting your characters. I don't see this as ever getting any resources diverted from anything the game needs to continue.

[Dami.5046]

The delete all characters is what got me. 

I know what it's like to have things you have worked on for years getting deleted while no fault of your own (server merger) but to actively play knowing everything i have done just gets deleted. 

like no thank you

and trust me that is the polite response. 

[Danikat.8537]

I don't mind some characters being deleted under certain circumstances. I've sometimes said the biggest distinction for me is not between main and alternate characters but between my permanent and temporary ones. I have 11 permanent characters (and counting!) who I plan to do everything with, and an ever-changing number of temporary ones who can last anywhere from a few minutes to over a year depending on what I'm doing with them but who are all created with the expectation that I'll delete them when their purpose is done.

 

Even so I don't like the idea of seasons in GW2 (and yes I understand what they are). One of the things I really like about this game (since Season 1 ended) is that I can take my time with it. Aside from festivals (which repeat) everything is permanently available so I can play it on my own schedule instead of constantly feeling under pressure to meet the games schedule. For me having seasons where all my progress will be reset at the end is no more desirable than a gear treadmill where I have to make sure I've got the newest items before the next big update or I won't be able to play the new content.

 

That perma-death challenge character I mentioned earlier in this thread is one of my temporary characters, but she's been around for over a year because I only play her when I feel like it. If I had to complete the whole challenge on a schedule Anet set for me I likely wouldn't bother because I don't have a lot of free time and going into it not knowing if I'll have time to complete it is discouraging.

 

Also permanent and temporary characters are an important distinction for me because it affects how I treat them, in particular I won't go out of my way to get skins and other items for temporary characters, because it's not worth doing that when sooner or later I'm going to delete them. If I was spending a lot of my time playing on temporary characters (either because I want to or because the game is pressuring me to do it) I'd have much less incentive to play for long-term rewards.

[Gibson.4036]

4 hours ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

It's always fun to see how some players obviously only play one game and have no idea how things might work in other games 😄

It's always odd to see some posters assume ignorance in others because they see things differently.

Maybe people completely understand how it works in other games, and can see how it doesn't belong here?

[Tyncale.1629]

3 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

 

First thing to say is it's not something I spend a lot of time on and I'm not very good at it so I rarely get to level 40 before dying and starting over, so my experience with it is limited. My current goal is to reach level 80, then I'd like to finish the personal story and go for map completion...but I've got to stop dying first.

 

Combat is certainly different to my usual approach of jumping in to see what happens. I'm much more cautious and thoughtful about what I take on and when I am in combat it can be more intense (and certainly involves more swearing). Things I normally wouldn't think twice about suddenly become a big problem - like joining in with the Shaman world boss in Wayfarer Foothills. There's an attack I never see telegraphed because there's so much going on which can down or even kill low level characters, I knew to stay back to avoid it but realised I didn't know how far back I needed to be.

 

It doesn't change how I experience the maps because in that sense I always play slowly, when I'm levelling any character or doing map completion I'll talk to all the NPCs, talk to heart vendors both before and after, stop to look at the scenery etc. But not being able to use waypoints or mounts means I think more about where I'm going and the best way to get there and I tend to hold off on things that require going back to a city until I have several things to do there.

 

It's not something I'd want to do exclusively, but I find it fun. I like map completion and playing the story and this puts a new spin on something I've done a lot.

Thanks for the extensive answer, it sounds like something I might want to try.  I am not sure if I would do the perma death thing: maybe I would give myself 5 "resurrects" instead. And think up a little story for myself why that is.  But the white only armor and no waypoints sounds like something that would really give me a different outlook at the world an my character at times.  Stuff is easy in the Open World and I tend to pick meta-builds, copy them and then faceroll stuff.  So no metabuilds would be something I would add for my own. And then  pick a class that I have never truly played before, since I know ranger and Necro too well.   Sounds good!

[Sobx.1758]

3 hours ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

Um, seasonal characters would be the only ones that get deleted at the end of season. And the way it works in Diablo 3 is that all the gear you earned while playing seasonal content gets transferred to your main account at the end of season.

You're free to delete your character every 2 months just to recreate it and repeat what you've just done if that's what you want. Not enough, because some things like masteries or ap are account wide? OP writes about monetizing seasons, so feel free to buy a new account every 2 months to have your own paid seasons with full resets. For me that concept would be entirely pointless for this game.

[Dami.5046]

The amount of moaning people have about doing things like the skyscale, imagine the salt having to re-level again and do those hearts? And then AGAIN.

It just won't work here. 

[Excursion.9752]

I first thought of Diablo 3 when I first read the post.

Sure they are not the same game, not by a long shot. But you could take pieces from it similar to the old monthly achievements we used to have with a twist. The twist being for example season 1 - no mounts season 2 no gliding season 3 no elite specializations season 4 no bank ect.. I would love to see a season with no mounts, gliding, and elite specs where if you finish all the goals for the season you get a title for your account "Old School"

From what I have generally read in this topic people are concerned about losing the character and what is on them. When you make a seasonal character its not really about that. Generally when you hit milestones you get unique skins or items for your account that you can only obtain by playing the season. You are never supposed to be trying to get the best items in game its getting the best item you can get to help you obtain the goal set in front of you.  Then once you achieved all the goals you log off and forget about that character and let it go into the abyss.

Basically its something to do when there is nothing to do. There is a decent sized population that log in do dailies and log out. This may help attracted them back  into regularly playing the game much like unique festivals that come once a year. 

It would take a ton of work for them to do something like this but I think it has some serious potential.

Edited September 10, 2021 by Excursion.9752

[marielleberto.3865]

You can delete your own characters, Anet doesn't have to do that for you. I would certainly quit if they deleted something I've worked so much to build.

[Dami.5046]

55 minutes ago, marielleberto.3865 said:

You can delete your own characters, Anet doesn't have to do that for you. I would certainly quit if they deleted something I've worked so much to build.

exactly this. in fact the game which merged servers and i lost years of work i did quit.

[Rogue.8235]

9 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

First thing to say is it's not something I spend a lot of time on and I'm not very good at it so I rarely get to level 40 before dying and starting over, so my experience with it is limited. My current goal is to reach level 80, then I'd like to finish the personal story and go for map completion...but I've got to stop dying first.

Combat is certainly different to my usual approach of jumping in to see what happens. I'm much more cautious and thoughtful about what I take on and when I am in combat it can be more intense (and certainly involves more swearing). Things I normally wouldn't think twice about suddenly become a big problem - like joining in with the Shaman world boss in Wayfarer Foothills. There's an attack I never see telegraphed because there's so much going on which can down or even kill low level characters, I knew to stay back to avoid it but realised I didn't know how far back I needed to be.

It doesn't change how I experience the maps because in that sense I always play slowly, when I'm levelling any character or doing map completion I'll talk to all the NPCs, talk to heart vendors both before and after, stop to look at the scenery etc. But not being able to use waypoints or mounts means I think more about where I'm going and the best way to get there and I tend to hold off on things that require going back to a city until I have several things to do there.

It's not something I'd want to do exclusively, but I find it fun. I like map completion and playing the story and this puts a new spin on something I've done a lot.

I'm actually wanting to dedicate a character slot to this idea.  More curious about how long I'd last.  For me, the primary cause of death is falling (blind gamer, terrain not always intuitive(.  This would definitely change how I approach ...... walking.  I definitely wouldn't dive into mobs with no forethought.  

 

I'm going to keep gliding and mounts as means of transit.  I'd definitely be far more careful with mounts (the many times I've jumped with a rapto then had enough time to think "I've been falling for a very long time now").  

 

I can already imagine some areas of the game that would be very suspenseful due to the kinds of enemies present.  Yeah, I'm definitely wanting to try this out.

 

 

Ooh another fun idea I just thought of.  Making a new character, after tutorial tp to friend to a Heart of THrons map, then use a mount to travel from one side of the map to the other without dying.  I'm very sure I wouldn't be able to do this on the first 100 tries.

 

 

[Kurrilino.2706]

Can someone clarify me what the point of all that would be ????

 

People create characters to have a never ending journey full of highs and lows.

I am not for or against the idea. I just don't get what the gain would be

[Zamiel.2130]

Absurd.

[Linken.6345]

It works in a arpg like diablo 3 but not a mmorpg OP.

If it did dont you think wow would have already implemented it?

[Danikat.8537]

12 hours ago, Rogue.8235 said:

I'm actually wanting to dedicate a character slot to this idea.  More curious about how long I'd last.  For me, the primary cause of death is falling (blind gamer, terrain not always intuitive(.  This would definitely change how I approach ...... walking.  I definitely wouldn't dive into mobs with no forethought.  

 

I'm going to keep gliding and mounts as means of transit.  I'd definitely be far more careful with mounts (the many times I've jumped with a rapto then had enough time to think "I've been falling for a very long time now").  

 

I can already imagine some areas of the game that would be very suspenseful due to the kinds of enemies present.  Yeah, I'm definitely wanting to try this out.

 

 

Ooh another fun idea I just thought of.  Making a new character, after tutorial tp to friend to a Heart of THrons map, then use a mount to travel from one side of the map to the other without dying.  I'm very sure I wouldn't be able to do this on the first 100 tries.

Did you notice I didn't include 'no gliding' on my list of rules? I'm not blind but I am notorious among my friends for going "Oh...I guess there was a cliff back there" as I'm falling to my death. When playing that character I try not to rely on gliding, if I remember I'll go around but I'm so used to gliding at this point that I easily forget not to and I decided banning it wouldn't be a fun challenge for me, although if I ever die by falling I will restart.

 

But that's one of the nice things about player made challenges like these, everyone can set their own rules based on what they think would be fun. 😀

[Cuks.8241]

This seasonal char slot sounds interesting. And different goals each season. I think it could easily work in the existing world without separate shards or servers. It would also liven the core maps.

But dont expect support of anything new on this forum. People dont really read and just see everything as a distruption of their gameplay. 

[kharmin.7683]

Just now, Cuks.8241 said:

 

But dont expect support of anything new on this forum. People dont really read and just see everything as a distruption of their gameplay. 

That's usually because many (if not most) suggestions are things that particular players want, but that would affect everyone.