Real reason why majority of new players leave GW2 after defeating Zhaitan

[neuron.4613]

Because there is a huge gap in the story after defeating Zhaitan and season 2. When new players defeat Zhaitan they are given a 2 minutes video of season 1 and then thrown into season 2 with totally different characters. I convinced a few of my FFXIV friends to try out GW2. They got hooked into the world but after defeating Zhaitan they immediately felt disconnected when they started season 2. They started asking me 'Who the hell are these new characters'? They couldn't get attached to those characters no matter how much they tried. The story also took a major nosedive in season 2 compared to the Zhaitan story. So all of them left and went back to FFXIV. And I 100% agree with them. How the hell Anet thought it would be a good idea to throw new level 80 characters into season 2 with unknown NPCs and they all act like they know each other for years. Its like watching season 1 of Vikings, skipping season 2 and starting season 3. Sad... very sad.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

If you are truly interested in the Story, there's the Wiki or a 3-hour YouTube video that will fill you in.

Season One was a very different format and not able to be replayed.  It's fine to rant about it, but it is what it is...and frankly, unlikely to change after all this time.  🤷‍♂️

[neuron.4613]

4 minutes ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

If you are truly interested in the Story, there's the Wiki or a 3-hour YouTube video that will fill you in.

Season One was a very different format and not able to be replayed.  It's fine to rant about it, but it is what it is...and frankly, unlikely to change after all this time.  🤷‍♂️

Its not about me. I am an old player. Its about my friends and other new players. All of them lose interest in GW2 after defeating Zhaitan because of the reasons I listed above.

[vanfrano.1325]

I like how MMORPG players, because of XIV, now pretend they care that much about the story that it became a make or break thing.

[The Fear.3865]

Even if you did season 1, it was really hard to feel attached to these new characters anyway... 

[Dadnir.5038]

11 minutes ago, The Fear.3865 said:

Even if you did season 1, it was really hard to feel attached to these new characters anyway... 

True words...

That said, I think that the devs could still bring back LS1 in the "modern" form of the living story. I mean:

Episode1: You get a few clues that bring you to encounter braham for the first time in the north side between wayfarer foothills and diesa plateau, you also get to find row in diessa plateau. (add 2 little instance to get aquainted) Then you find your way to where the entrance of the molten dungeon was and you are asked to do the 2 fractals of this dungeon.

Episode 2: Make an instance in lion arch with the karka attack, then you're sent into southsun to find why they attacked and end up having to beat some sense into our guardian engineer warrior cabage.

Episode 3: Get an instance where the aether blades attack lion arch and have the main character track them to twilight arbor and do the aether path and the 2 fractals where you fight aether blades.

Episode 4: I don't remember exactly how we get aquainted with kasmeer and marjory but it has to do with nightmare tower and well, yet again, you can just bring the main character in the right place with a few instance (it might even be a good opportunity to introduce 1 or 2 nightmare tower fractal (the final boss was pretty fun to fight and getting up their was pretty challenging even with a player bus)

Episode 5: Full attack of scarlet leading to the climax with the big pupet fight while using this opportunity to get aquainted to taimi

Episode 6-7: Freeing lion arch from scarlet grasp thought 5-6 instances. I can recall 3 boss fight on lion arch's ground and 2 boss fight in scarlet's flying ship.

 

[BlueJin.4127]

Somehow, I doubt that your friends and other new players you know are the "majority of new players." 😐

Edited November 4, 2021 by BlueJin.4127

[fatihso.7258]

Agree with OP, having close to 15k hours in game and not having a chance to do ls1, characters around the commander and their involved fractals make no sense to this day and no I'm not going to waste 3 hours watching a recap, I'm here to play the game and prefer to experience it myself.

Edited November 4, 2021 by fatihso.7258

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

We already have the technology to bring it back with Fractals, DRMs and 80man Strikes. They just won't because its not cost effective to do so; they said one time going by their own data that most players join the game and immediately jump into the latest content (or sometimes start with Path of Fire), and never look back.

 

And I think there's merit to this because if you go to the PoF zones or the latest Living World episode you'll always see more new players there than anywhere else except the Core starting zones.

 

Its sad, but the majority of players just aren't interested in what came before this.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[Tachenon.5270]

My first extended break from the game happened shortly after the appearance of that tower thingee in Kessex Hills, back when S1 was still in progress. So maybe even if the big gaping S1-shaped hole in the game didn't exist, your friends might still have bailed. Like I did.

 

I came back, though, and not even the NPE has kept me away for too long. Because, despite all the well thought out and brilliant alterations that have come and gone since launch, it's still a pretty darned good game. So maybe some of your friends will come back, too. /e shrug

[robertthebard.8150]

5 hours ago, neuron.4613 said:

Because there is a huge gap in the story after defeating Zhaitan and season 2. When new players defeat Zhaitan they are given a 2 minutes video of season 1 and then thrown into season 2 with totally different characters. I convinced a few of my FFXIV friends to try out GW2. They got hooked into the world but after defeating Zhaitan they immediately felt disconnected when they started season 2. They started asking me 'Who the hell are these new characters'? They couldn't get attached to those characters no matter how much they tried. The story also took a major nosedive in season 2 compared to the Zhaitan story. So all of them left and went back to FFXIV. And I 100% agree with them. How the hell Anet thought it would be a good idea to throw new level 80 characters into season 2 with unknown NPCs and they all act like they know each other for years. Its like watching season 1 of Vikings, skipping season 2 and starting season 3. Sad... very sad.

Strangely, I found the NPC in Lion's Arch, and their explanation of what went down, and the breakdown of who the characters were sufficient.  As with all of the nearly 2 TBs of games I have on my PC alone, however, I too jump around a lot.  A new release that I'm excited about, waking up with the title theme to an old game stuck in my head, or friends that contact me through FB or another forum also drag me back to other titles.  I missed LS 1, 2 and 3.  I got all of 4, and am getting dragons stuff currently, and I'm not even playing full time right now, because I'm messing around in the BG 3 EA a little, and playing the recent ME release again.

 

So it may be the reason your friends bailed back, but it's not the "real reason" all new players leave.  In so far as hours played goes, there are those posting these forums that would consider me a new player.

Edited November 4, 2021 by robertthebard.8150
grammar.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

6 hours ago, neuron.4613 said:

Its not about me. I am an old player. Its about my friends and other new players. All of them lose interest in GW2 after defeating Zhaitan because of the reasons I listed above.

So, as an 'old' player, why didn't you fill your friends in, or send them to the Wiki or the video?  How do you know what 'other new' players do? Are you following them around? 

And, since your friends purchased Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, and, at least, the first Episode of Season Two, it seems a bit strange they all abandoned their monetary investment so easily. 

[thehipone.6812]

People play MMOs for the story?

 

I'm here for the grinding and yelling at "bad"  😉 teammates in PvP.

[LSD.4673]

Few players stick with the awful Personal Story, especiallly with the long slog final mission against Zhaitan, and even fewer players fork over the gems for Season 2. 

 

And even if we discount the trite storyline and gold-locked story packs, there's the fact that the entire story is disjointed and contrived. Season 3 is an exercise in crossing out story threads to make room for the straightforward story they wanted to tell, with the player bouncing from place to place and being introduced to, and quickly disconnected from, new factions, characyers etc. 

 

The whole thing is a mess. Season 1 is such a small scrap in the pile.

[Farohna.6247]

I wasn't here for LWS1, I found the brief summary sufficient and any further questions I had I simply looked up.  I generally don't believe this is a reason that the majority of new players quit....if it is, then perhaps this isn't the game for them.  The Zhaitan fight isn't exactly thrilling, if it didn't deter them already....

[Gibson.4036]

I played from the beta, did LW season 1, but only finished the core story for the first time about a year ago. Somewhere after Claw Island I always found the endless undead kind of dull and abandoned the story. After taking a break from the game for several years, I finally came back and forced myself to finish the core story just for the completion of it.

So, yeah. I’m not sure the OPs friends are indicative of the majority of players if they found core story great, and ditched the game because of the gap between it and LW2.

[kharmin.7683]

2 minutes ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I played from the beta, did LW season 1, but only finished the core story for the first time about a year ago. Somewhere after Claw Island I always found the endless undead kind of dull and abandoned the story. After taking a break from the game for several years, I finally came back and forced myself to finish the core story just for the completion of it.

So, yeah. I’m not sure the OPs friends are indicative of the majority of players if they found core story great, and ditched the game because of the gap between it and LW2.

I didn't start that early.  Only came in on the tail end of LS1.  But yeah, almost all of my toons are stopped at Claw Island because once one character got past it I lost interest in the story.  Never completed it either. 

[Parthenos Polias.5683]

5 minutes ago, kharmin.7683 said:

But yeah, almost all of my toons are stopped at Claw Island because once one character got past it I lost interest in the story.  Never completed it either. 

Same here.
Mainly because the story side of the game is unrewarding.
You get better rewards within a bus, farming Open World bosses.

[Bristingr.5034]

4 hours ago, Hannelore.8153 said:

We already have the technology to bring it back with Fractals, DRMs and 80man Strikes. They just won't because its not cost effective to do so; they said one time going by their own data that most players join the game and immediately jump into the latest content (or sometimes start with Path of Fire), and never look back.

And I think there's merit to this because if you go to the PoF zones or the latest Living World episode you'll always see more new players there than anywhere else except the Core starting zones.

Its sad, but the majority of players just aren't interested in what came before this.

Funny, considering you have to be Level 80 to start PoF.

 

8 hours ago, neuron.4613 said:

They got hooked into the world but after defeating Zhaitan they immediately felt disconnected when they started season 2. They started asking me 'Who the hell are these new characters'? They couldn't get attached to those characters no matter how much they tried. The story also took a major nosedive in season 2 compared to the Zhaitan story.

Then they count themselves lucky that they were spared of the abomination called Icebrood "Saga" and it's ending.

 

1 hour ago, LSD.4673 said:

Few players stick with the awful Personal Story, especiallly with the long slog final mission against Zhaitan, and even fewer players fork over the gems for Season 2.

Considering bits and pieces of the story aren't even with the story, completely revise, contradict it, etc. -- such as learning who Aurene's real champion was or the fact that the Risen could be restored to their former selves.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Bristingr.5034

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

28 minutes ago, Bristingr.5034 said:

Funny, considering you have to be Level 80 to start PoF.

 

Then they count themselves lucky that they were spared of the abomination called Icebrood "Saga" and it's ending.

 

Considering bits and pieces of the story aren't even with the story, completely revise, contradict it, etc. -- such as learning who Aurene's real champion was or the fact that the Risen could be restored to their former selves.

Purchasing the game comes with a level 80 booster for every expansion that provides gear and everything. Its something the devs standardised when HoT was released and have continued ever since.

 

Purchasing EoD for example you get two charas lv80 immediately, plus the shared slots the boosters occupied.

Edited November 4, 2021 by Hannelore.8153

[Bristingr.5034]

Just now, Hannelore.8153 said:

Purchasing the game comes with a level 80 booster for every expansion that provides gear and everything. Its something the devs standardised when HoT was released and have continued ever since.

Interesting, I ran into a new player that had purchased PoF, but didn't know about that item. I only know this since I carried his newbie butt through the flames of the first mission so he could get his Raptor (he said he didn't care about the story, so I agreed).

[mythical.6315]

As it been proven that a significant number of players who quit the game have completed the personal story AND that the reason that they leave is because of the gap?  Or is just another anecdotal claim in order to get LS1 added?

[Obtena.7952]

19 hours ago, neuron.4613 said:

Its not about me. I am an old player. Its about my friends and other new players. All of them lose interest in GW2 after defeating Zhaitan because of the reasons I listed above.

Pretty sure that's not representative of the majority of players who finish season 1. I mean ... you are saying people who bought the game just get up and quit because they can't play that content? Deep pockets on some people. 

[Bristingr.5034]

2 hours ago, Obtena.7952 said:

Pretty sure that's not representative of the majority of players who finish season 1. I mean ... you are saying people who bought the game just get up and quit because they can't play that content? Deep pockets on some people. 

I mean, the story is locked behind additional paywalls for Seasons 2-5... sure, there's the Expansion Stories, but they'd be told out of order.

[Obtena.7952]

10 hours ago, Bristingr.5034 said:

I mean, the story is locked behind additional paywalls for Seasons 2-5... sure, there's the Expansion Stories, but they'd be told out of order.

OK ... but If I'm paying around $50+ dollars for a game, i'm not quitting just because out of order story or can't play one part of it, especially if that part isn't included in the cost to purchase in the first place. That's sort of like, unbelieveable?

Edited November 5, 2021 by Obtena.7952