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

[robertthebard.8150]

On 11/5/2021 at 8:43 AM, Bristingr.5034 said:

If I paid money for a game, I'd expect to have all parts of a story related to the expansion I bought. (Also, the cost of the game is $20-30 with both expacs now, not $50)

Did they not get everything that was listed on the store page for the content they purchased?  If so, they got everything they paid for.  If not, there's other issues afoot that need to be dealt with.

[captrowdy.9561]

I am a new player and spent 10 minutes reading words before I started season 2 and it’s fine. If a player quits because of a  minor gap in a story in a mmo it might not be for them anyways. This game has so many great things the devs really don’t need to waste resources on a story gap

[ugrakarma.9416]

when i was new player its take longer time to me take interest in ls2, i focused on exploring tyria, the i get a bit addicted to world boss train, then wvw. i got into ls2 almost by curiosity.

also its really get no much time to finish all story(just look at "return" achievments pace). basically if history is the thing that hold players, the game was very dead almost in 6~9 months cycles.

Edited February 1, 2022 by ugrakarma.9416

[voltaicbore.8012]

While I agree that the giant narrative hole caused by S1 is a horrendous idea, I highly doubt OP's story for a number of reasons already mentioned by others.

If the story itself is true (every single one of OP's friends purchased the expansions and LWS2 but decided to leave because of the lame new characters), that's a good thing IMO; GW2 really wasn't the game for them in the first place. The things that keep people in GW2 for year after year seem to be fashion wars and buildcraft, and it seems that kind of thing wasn't important enough to them.

 

[Doggie.3184]

To be fair, I played since the beginning and did season 1 and I don't exactly feel attached to any of the 'main' characters much. It's just... well it's not like FFXIV where I'd cry if they died or even just from a happy emotional bonding scene with them. It's the only of the tons of MMOs I've played to make me like characters that much, so it's not just GW2 even though there's plenty it's above still~ FFXIV just set the bar too high. But I do hope for a new direction and cast at this point because I'm pretty exhausted of them by now.

I don't think anyone will deny that the season 1 "living mmo story" experiment was a failure and whoever thought writing a story that will be deleted later because it's now a past timeline made a big mistake that they still struggle to fix. But my closest friends weren't reeled in by the main story to even reach that point so it probably didn't matter. Some who did dropped off eventually because they didn't like the idea of buying every LS they missed.

On 11/15/2021 at 3:11 AM, Nate.8146 said:

IMO the best story in this game was the main personal story and that's because you could binge the whole thing. Different starter zones, different cultures and struggles you had to deal with, joining a specific order, and finally the build-up to fight back Zhaitan. 

I still have questions about the Sylvari one such as the stuff about the other Tree but I guess it was scrapped. I think a lot of people lost interest when it reached the point where all stories bridged together into Zhaitan's.

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by Doggie.3184

[Teratus.2859]

Many players do stick around despite this story gap, I would probably say the amount of players who leave the game because of it are minimal.

That however doesn't diminish how much of a problem this really is though.
I'm a long time player who was around for LW1 and this gaping story hole still irritates the hell out of me as well.
I've made countless posts about it over the years as well calling for the reintroduction/remastering of LWS1.

A lot players don't see this problem as a valid issue and they never have but I couldn't disagree with them more.
Honestly I would even go so far as to say that anyone who thinks the absence of season 1 isn't a problem, doesn't actually care about the story in this game even if they claim they do.
That's not entirely a bad thing though, plenty of Gw2 players don't care about the story in Gw2 or even the PvE game and that's totally fine.

I've banged on this drum for many years and I will continue to do so until Anet finally go back and complete Gw2's story.
It pleases me immensely though that we are finally starting to see big Gw2 content creators such as Wooden Potatoes and Mighty Teapot come out in support of fixing this issue as well, in some cases even if it means putting the development of new content on hold until season 1 is back in the game as replayable content.
That is something that I have personally said I would be 100% fine with myself many many times over the years.

Suffice to say with a significant amount of the playerbase at this point having come into the game post living world 1, with the Dragon storyline ending with the next expansion and with the Steam release on the horizon brining in potentially huge numbers of new players as well, there really hasn't been a better time to go back and fix LWS1 before moving on to new content post End of Dragons.

This is absolutely something that is worth doing and if Anet ever want Gw2 to be a complete game that provides a complete Gw2 experience, it is something they absolutely MUST!! do.

[voltaicbore.8012]

1 hour ago, Teratus.2859 said:

I've banged on this drum for many years and I will continue to do so until Anet finally go back and complete Gw2's story.

I also support this idea. Even if S1 is made fully available via instances or the scrying pool, there's still the underlying problem that ANet decided to put mainline story into LW; this is a problem because LW is sold like optional DLC, and newer players who don't know better seem to be frequently blindsided by the need to buy more things in addition to the xpac bundles to get the 'full' story.

However, not knowing about needing to buy LW separately is a much smaller/better problem to have than to not be able to experience S1 at all.

To be clear, I do not have a problem with LW episodes not being free (if you didn't get it for free at launch). For the amount and quality of content provided, I think even the non-sale prices are a good value. My only problem with LW is the weird mixture of putting main story continuation into it, yet deciding to market it to new players much like optional DLC for similar games.

[Friday.7864]

I like it when people say "other people" or "everyone I know" or "all my friends".

It's just funny how those people who supposedly exist never come to leave feedback on their own - even though there's so many of them and they're supposedly terribly bothered 🤷‍♂️

Haven't met a single person myself who even mentioned the lack of season 1 content - much less being bothered about it in any way.

[Gorem.8104]

If anything, I find it funny that Zhaitan's fight is better then IBS's final fight. 

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

Me too, i have no idea how i became friends with the new group or why, Taimi, Kas, Majory, Braham and Rox. I was searching for my "old" group that i was familiar with, and i realised i'm stuck with B-Team instead. 

Wish there was a video which showed the relation btw pact commander and the new group members.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

3 hours ago, Blue D Phoenix.7260 said:

Me too, i have no idea how i became friends with the new group or why, Taimi, Kas, Majory, Braham and Rox. I was searching for my "old" group that i was familiar with, and i realised i'm stuck with B-Team instead. 

Wish there was a video which showed the relation btw pact commander and the new group members.

You can find said video on YouTube.  Be aware; it is 3 hours long. 

[Nihil.9817]

On 11/4/2021 at 1:43 AM, 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.

giga casuals throw down disgusting gw2 game because didnt spoon feed animesque band of friends arch to you first thing, need to know more cannot infer. 

the fact that this stuff is spoon fed to you is a genuine criticism but the way the characters are introduced, to me a sweaty nerd who likes rpg's thought the character reintroductions were serviceable at best, i could see what these characters were about visually and i could just listen to what they had to say; if you want to play a game with a good story i recommend morrowind kotor 2 or deus ex , these have exceptionally great stories and you are oh wait they all have characters that your character has an established relationship with and they do the same thing this game did thats crazy, its almost as if its an established thing writers do, thats crazy how does that even work i guess ill just stop playing those games or, pretend i never played them at all, thats a healthy thing adults do right?

On 11/4/2021 at 8:35 AM, thehipone.6812 said:

People play MMOs for the story?

 

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

i dunno i think mmos are like the interaction or the systems put in place that make them good, this game is unfortunately directed towards mr i didnt get to be introduced to my anime friends now i dont want to play the game, and this game probably has the best combat system (feel wise) ive encountered in any game ever and ive played alot of games because im a sweaty nerd, why does this game with the combat it has have to be directed towards people like him, its dejecting, like people who dont play mythics in wow are casuals or like they havent broke past 1900 are casuals but like this games bar of casual is like, "i dont even play the game and im angry about the story" what even

Edited February 22, 2022 by Nihil.9817

[Regn.1924]

No, I leave because beyond "map completion" there's no group content in this game. What little group content this game has is cranked up to elite-mode, meta, and toxic vile people attacking your person because you aren't using- or doing the best of the best- instead of playing the game how you want. The skill ceiling of this game is absurd, and there's not a single crutch, and thanks to no holy trinity not a single team member you can lean on, and it's because of how skills work in this game around short duration buffs and insane debuffs that you can't tell when to use or when to get rid of lest you've played 24/7, watched every YouTube video, and copied every piece of meta you can find.  And where is everyone, really? Spread out across the largest map in existence, desperately trying to get a hold of Legendary gear which takes months if not years to acquire.

 

So much fun!

/leave

/again

[AliamRationem.5172]

11 minutes ago, Regn.1924 said:

No, I leave because beyond "map completion" there's no group content in this game. What little group content this game has is cranked up to elite-mode, meta, and toxic vile people attacking your person because you aren't using- or doing the best of the best- instead of playing the game how you want. The skill ceiling of this game is absurd, and there's not a single crutch, and thanks to no holy trinity not a single team member you can lean on, and it's because of how skills work in this game around short duration buffs and insane debuffs that you can't tell when to use or when to get rid of lest you've played 24/7, watched every YouTube video, and copied every piece of meta you can find.  And where is everyone, really? Spread out across the largest map in existence, desperately trying to get a hold of Legendary gear which takes months if not years to acquire.

 

So much fun!

/leave

/again

Go play WoW or FFXIV.  They're just better games for casual dungeon running.  If that's your focus GW2 is a terrible choice.

Having said that, what are you even talking about?  There may not be a lot of this type of content, but you can pick your difficulty level with fractals.  Are you saying you can't handle T1?  Come on.  I'm not buying it.  Now if you're jumping into T4/CMs and you don't know what you're doing, I can understand your frustration.  But that's hardly specific to this game.  You wouldn't be welcome at the highest difficulty levels in a game like WoW or FFXIV either.  Trinity doesn't mean tanks and healers carry.  You still have to pull your weight as much as you do in this game.

And legendary gear? LoL  What do you need that for?  It's purely a material sink for convenience.  Just something to work toward if you've done everything else.  The stat advantage is negligible over cheap ,throwaway exotic.  Why even mention it?

 

[AliamRationem.5172]

On 2/2/2022 at 12:51 AM, Friday.7864 said:

I like it when people say "other people" or "everyone I know" or "all my friends".

It's just funny how those people who supposedly exist never come to leave feedback on their own - even though there's so many of them and they're supposedly terribly bothered 🤷‍♂️

Haven't met a single person myself who even mentioned the lack of season 1 content - much less being bothered about it in any way.

In the big scheme of things, it's something pretty much anyone who chooses to continue playing this game will overlook.  But you have to admit it's a little bit odd that the story has so many weird issues when it happens to be the primary method of content delivery for the game.  The bugs, the lack of consistent direction, the fact that S1 isn't playable and everything else is paid DLC?  It's just freakin' bizarre if you ask me.

[Opun.3824]

On 11/4/2021 at 7:43 AM, 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.

 

Assuming someone cares about story, i for one dont rly care about it (atleast in GW2), and im not rly sure for how many ppl its a real gamebreaker that u see new story characters pop out of nowhere.

[voltaicbore.8012]

On 2/22/2022 at 7:38 PM, AliamRationem.5172 said:

In the big scheme of things, it's something pretty much anyone who chooses to continue playing this game will overlook.  But you have to admit it's a little bit odd that the story has so many weird issues when it happens to be the primary method of content delivery for the game. 

Well said. This is exactly the issue.

Every time someone criticizes story in GW2, a common response is "most game narrative is stupid, why do you even care." But really what it comes down to is I would like to care less about the story, and the game makes that difficult by using story as the main vehicle for... well adding anything to the game, really.

[StarPT.7431]

14 hours ago, Opun.3824 said:

 

Assuming someone cares about story, i for one dont rly care about it (atleast in GW2), and im not rly sure for how many ppl its a real gamebreaker that u see new story characters pop out of nowhere.

I care about story, specially in GW2 xD Other MMOs not so much...it wasn't a gamebreaker for me, it was just a very "who the kitten are these people and why should I care about them?" moment..but I ended up bonding with them anyways so it's all good.

[Wintermute.5408]

Back in the day, I was considering quitting not because of LWS2, but because how kittening horrible the last section of personal story was. It's deeply terrible, with terrible gameplay sequences, terrible story and terrible characters. That was before mounts, and before Orr got depopulated of all the terrible mobs in it. So the whole thing I spent in perma-crippled stated to boot. To the day Orr is my most hated set of maps.

LWS2 felt like a breath of fresh air after that. No more cardboard Traherne, and characters that actually look alive for a change? I could overlook the missing LWS1 for that.

[torvath.8621]

Got into the game around two months ago, finished the main story last week before EoD launch and I'd have to disagree.

 

Sure it's a little awkward with them acting like they have known you forever but if you go and actually talk to the NPC to get caught up on everything the transition is easier and by the end of living world season 2 I was rushing through HoT to figure out what happened to everyone when Mordamoth does his thing

[SexyMofo.8923]

This will never change. It will be like this forever. 

[Faridah.8431]

Most of Season 1 was some metas with some flavor text "story" built in. It's fine. Just watch a video. Aside from the Battle of Lion's Arch which was a legitimately fun part of the season, never to be repayable again, most of what people remember about that season were the metas, NOT the story. Yeah it introduced some characters, but you never really got invested with them during that season either. 

What's funny is that at the time, people HATED the story and the villain.