ArenaNet, sincere question about survey interpretation

[voltaicbore.8012]

The June 2022 Studio Update (found here, for anyone who hasn't read it) states that

"in our regular player surveys, raids are often the top content that players say they would like to experience but for one reason or another haven’t been able to."

What do you mean by "top content"? Does that mean that players have expressed a desire to do raids as a higher priority than a desire to do other content? Or does it mean the word "raid" is the merely most frequent answer to "what haven't you done before, but you'd like to?"

The best possible scenario is if it was an open ended question: "tell us about what content you'd like to experience but for one reason or another haven't been able to." If a lot of people took the trouble to type in "hey I really want to try raids more than anything else, but finding a training group, learning a meta build, buying meta gear, etc is just too much", then it makes sense to interpret that as needing to make raiding accessibility a priority.

The worst possible scenario (which I think is also the most likely) is that the survey asked a multiple choice question. "Among these types of content, which would you like to do but haven't been able to?" Given that raids are currently the least accessible content, it would make sense that the single most frequent response would be "raiding." In this scenario, I think it would be deeply problematic to look at the mere frequency of the "I haven't raided before" response and think that means you need to make raids more accessible.

As a general note, I am absolutely baffled and disappointed that the studio still thinks getting more people to raid is a good use of time and energy. I've said it in other places, and I'll say it again here: what makes this game special is precisely, PRECISELY the ability to largely avoid the overhead required to raid. If raiders want to go through the trouble of making a static, finding meta (or viable non-meta) comps to clear, setting schedules, etc - that's great, and it's great that you gave them content that merits such meticulous preparation. However, I get the feeling that not needing to do that just about everywhere else in the game is what makes GW2 special and successful. Many other titles have active, well-constructed, and well-maintained raiding content that is quite arguably a superior player experience compared to GW2 raids. What no other title has is the rich open world done in the style of Tyria, where players can band together in an ad-hoc fashion to get things done without needing to do anything more than just run up to an event. In the realm of environment design, no other game has a city on the scale of Divinity's Reach that still feels alive even if you don't meet a single player.

I don't mind that the studio is trying to make raids more accessible. I'm just concerned that this course of action results from an improperly interpreted survey trend, coupled with a disregard for what I believe makes GW2 successful.

Edited June 26, 2022 by voltaicbore.8012

[Sansar.1302]

Yes pretty mutch what i feel

[Blude.6812]

I feel the studio had already made the decision pre survey and it was designed to be ambiguous and used to support the misguided emphasis on Raids.

[voltaicbore.8012]

1 minute ago, Blude.6812 said:

I feel the studio had already made the decision pre survey and it was designed to be ambiguous and used to support the misguided emphasis on Raids.

As much as I hate to imagine it, I've seen this happen enough IRL that I have to admit it's likely. Poorly constructed, administered, and interpreted survey questions are a much more widespread problem than most people realize. Often, that poor construction is a direct result of a desire not to learn the truth, but to confirm what you want the truth to be.

[Hotride.2187]

I play this game for open world at this point. Neither wvw nor spvp are getting any meaningful/impactful changes (unless you count the trying to make eod specs viable and overshooting it fiasco). And I've had my fill of raiding with WoW (just TBC had more raids than all the raids in this game, unless I misremember).

Fine for them to try to up their raiding game. Hopefully they keep at least open world alive, if they can't keep anything else up. If not, oh well. Plenty of other games.

Edited June 26, 2022 by Hotride.2187

[voltaicbore.8012]

2 minutes ago, Hotride.2187 said:

I play this game for open world at this point. Neither wvw nor spvp are getting any meaningful/impactful changes. And I've had my fill of raiding with WoW (just TBC had more raids than all the raids in this game, unless I misremember).

Fine for them to try to up their raiding game. Hopefully they keep at least open world alive, if they can't keep anything else up. If not, oh well. Plenty of other games.

Yeah I farmed my legendary armor sets from ranked, then immediately quit after completing that project. I'm not a fan of blob combat, so WvW roaming was all I did, and it got real old real fast. PvE is all I have left, really.

I never played WoW, but raided extensively in a few other games before coming to GW2. What I discovered through raiding is that most people in there don't actually like or want raiding. They want BiS gear, and raids happen to be the only way to get it in most games.

If they manage to mess up open world, I'd be hard pressed to find a reason to stay. I'll probably still buy their next xpac, but I'd likely also join the many people who log in occasionally for updates, burn through those updates, then leave again.

[Flasterko.4087]

Very well said. I also as some others play because landscape events.  Also I dont have anything agianst raiders/instanced content players/pvp and others get something new and some care but I hope raiding and instanced content is not future only direction that Anet will choose for their pve design. 

 

What keeps me in game the most are world bosses and landscape design. I am so tired of following meta builds etc. from other games that I would rather stop playing than start raiding or doing some other instanced content . Story is not that great in this game specially after EoD so that is not what will keep me in the game either.