Guildwars is on a path of self destruction!

Here, here.

My girlfriend's top character is a Mesmer. I sailed through Factions as a Ranger with her at my side.

A good Mesmer TOTALLY changes the game dynamic. Drawn out battles because Rit's keep rezzing, or Monks keep healing are virtually non-existant with a dedicated interruptor. And degen stacked with my bleeding and poison?

Forget about it...

-Forjo

The Massive in MMO is relative to the fact that all of the players play in one persistant world.Like that of Ragnarok Online,Final Fantasy XI or World of Warcraft.

GuildWars has instances,with hubs where players can gather to form parties to go into said instances.You don't have to worry about PK'ers or Kill Stealers in Guildwars.

Thus,CORPG(Competitive Online Role Playing Game)Fits it better.GuildWar's online system is resembles that of Diablo 2.While there are thousands of players playing the game,you can only play with a set number at a time.

That is not Massive.

to be honest, earlier today i decided to go complete the factions storyline, as i usually ha but theres no one there and i hadnt got round to buying nightfall yet, plus i needed somewhere to show off my prot of tyria title :P and the cities seem quite well populated, even the noob island had lots of people in it, so no need to worry yet, and anyway maybe future expansions will make use of already functioning towns and areas, dont declare the world will end just yet...

People skip Maguuma. Probably cause they had those spiders X_X

People get to fire islands and then just stop playing there. Like me...i have 3 characters at Ember Light camp and i just kinda stopped there >.>

These 2 locations have always been low in population compared to the rest of the maps even BEFORE factions.

As for the desert, i think its fine.

Well as someone who's played the PvE side of things to death (all 3 100% explored, Protector on several chars across campaigns) I can see myself looking to see if some other games come along which might be of interest. Unfortunately there isn't really much to choose from and GW starts to get "samey" after a while, in that the basic game type is the same and sure you get some new skills to play with and some new classes, but the basic formula is pretty much the same. After a while it gets repetitive, even without farming (which I find zero interest in anymore, especially since all you really find are just aesthetically different skins, the stats are the same across most items - it is superficial and shallow)

I feel the hit the multiplayer/coop aspect has taken as a result of HeroHench being used by virtually everyone also reduces my interest in it, as part of the enjoyment is to team up with others. Yes yes, guildies/people in friends list etc. but they're not always online and can be doing their own quests/missions. If you're not in an alliance with dozens of people all online all the time, willing to drop what they're doing to team up with you, which I suspect may be the case for many, the coop side has taken a hit.

Guess will see what happens, I like Nightfall explorables and stuff more than Cantha but the teamplay seems to have dried up by and large and that's putting me off if this is the future of GW (at least in PvE, am not interested in PvP)

I would like to see:
- randomisation of some sort, so you never have the same game encounter twice (mostly)
- things which are worth questing and exploring and fighting for, truly unique items and stuff (not just regular max stat items with a new skin)
- rewards for teaming up with humans
- difficulty which could scale up with your ability (I totally steamrolled through Nightfall PvE with HeroHench only, got almost all masters too so far)
- heck I'd be interested in large scale raid type things they sound kinda fun (and no never played WoW0
- something, anything, to change the "oh I know exactly what is in this zone and where it will be and when it will pop up and what skills it uses" syndrome...

Not just what the OP says,while guild wars will die because of this, il revive another "ON NOES GW IS GUNA DIE" idea:Expansions.

I fear that Arenanet is more likely to run out of new content then lose the players because of a spread out community.

At the rate expansions are being cranked out, i like it, but its so fast, there will be a day when there is nothing new left to add, and that day is approaching fast.

3 expansions in 1 year!Thats VERY fast,however do not make a comparrison between GW's expansion and WoW's expansion: Blizzard is rather slow and it isnt the first time a game is late with them, drop that idea.

Anyway Guild Wars will not last as long as other MMO's, however no game lasts for ever, so it isnt that bad, the cause simply will be diffrent.

I dunno about GW dyin'. I've been playing for 2 months and only have one "good" character. One is a storage character, one is NF(I don't have it yet), and the last is my Cantha starter that I've been building up so she can beat Zen Daijun(I always get to the end and die!!). Its going to take between 2 and 4 months for my first character to finish Prophecies and Factions alone and just add 2 months for Nightfall. I could just rush through it but what's the fun in that?

I agree that some areas are less populated than others. I attribute this to less people buying that chapter and the tendency for new players to buy the newest chapter first. I've encouraged people who are interested in GW to buy Prophecies first because its longer than the other games and because there's an actual timeline involved. I love seeing the whole "You are reliving events that happened prior to your arrival" thing when I go to Shing Jea with my Tyria Necro!! I was like "So I pwned those bloody Afflicted guys in the past and didn't even know about it? Awesome!".

Its pretty funny that no matter what game I play(these threads are regulars on Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic: The Gathering forums as well) someone thinks its dying. *shrug* I guess we really do live in a culture of death.

I wouldn't judge so soon. Nightfall is just out as it were. How many people who have nightfall and aren't in elona? Not many I'd bet. I'd wait till most people have had time to finish once or twice, and maybe try out the new classes before seeing how deserted some places are.

As for the jungle, most hate it and just get done and get out and never look back. Fire Islands? They were never too full in the first place. Most either get stopped at thunderhead or just want to get themselves to ember for the skill trainer and don't go further. And the desert seems fine, there aren't like a hundred Mo/W at elona reach but seems fine considering how many are in elona instead.

As for not partying, I've seen plenty of pugs. Quite a few with just two and six heroes, but that's to be expected. We just got these heroes, of course we'll be leveling them up. Wait a bit till after everyone has their heroes at 20 and people will not need to bring them as much.

For people who can't afford new chapters, and have a lot of golf in-game, can always buy a nightfall account via 100k

I don't want everything for free, and never said that.

What I want is for PvE content to be tied to PvE gameplay. Aftre all, PvP players have multiple ways of playing *their* game without resorting to PvE; why should my PvE be predicated on PvP?

ANet claims the Guild Wars is a game of skill > grind. Yet to access elite PvE content, I need to grind faction or favor. Why should the areas of the game requiring the greatest PvE skill be locked because I don't have time to grind or an interest in PvP?

THey're going to have to stop making expansions. I think they should keep these three (NF, Proph, and Factions) and just add content into them. I already know i'm not going to buy NF or later ones unless something really good cathes my eye.

The rpg is now there however needs to be better. as long there is rpg content anet can keep coming with more chapters and sell very welll! Alll one has to do is look at the sales anet will make from nightfall.

However anet lacks end game rpg content, rpg alone can keep anet afloat.(look at final fantasy) Factrions is just bad game no one wants to play it.(pvp foucused and forced) the first chapter and nightfall willl see alot of people playing it.


If anet fails it will be because another company will take their model and make better for rpg players.

I agree, with the above poster anet would more likely to lose more ideas than the players base. as long as anet can keep the rpg players happy they are oK!

I think when people think of Guild Wars dying, they forget about a little thing called "Guild Wars 2" which will come one day. It will be the big step up, no chapter will make a huge leap in Guild Wars, but Guild Wars 2 will. Imagine, better graphics, auction houses, really smart AI, different playable races, a much more fleshed out character creation feature, more interactivity, more skills, more classes, a deeper game overall. I'm drooling on my keyboard right now just thinking about it.

Well, since its possible to do the game with just henchies/heroes, you don't actually have to interact with anyone, and so even though there are other players there, you're not really playing with them.

So then it would be a MMiywitbOG (Massive Multiplayer-if-you-want-it-to-be Online Game)

There's a PVP version of the game, why not a PVE? No more HoH notices every ten minutes -- "Some Group You've Never Heard Of [AndCouldCareLessAbout] has won in the Hall of Heroes and keeps the favor of the gods for Europe for all time and forevermore". Yeah, like I give a rodent's posterior and just couldn't live without knowing who just won in HoH -- no /favor command, that'd be too useful, just infinite annoying notices that you can't turn off.

For all that favor matters to any non-European player anymore they could remove it and everything related to it entirely from the game and we'd never notice. Do that, then toss in some way to disable /rank displays (you can flash 'em 'til doomsday, I just won't see 'em) and replace the half-arsed psuedo-PvP elements in Factions with something that's actually, well, fun, and I'd be willing to pay more for a PVE version of the game.

Quoted for Truth.

I'd agree -- and, frankly, prefer it be that way -- if not for Vizunah Square, Unwaking Waters, et al. Maybe it should be PMKMmoiywitbOG (Psuedo-Massive Kinda Multiplayer mostly-only-if-you-want-it-to-be Online Game)?

But I'll just call it an MMO, for short... M'Kay?

:)

mmpcrpg

massive mulity player chapter roll playing game!

NSFSPGPOTI

Not-so-free-single-player-game-played-over-teh-internets

I'm playing it right now, it's called World of Warcraft

I love when children like you call people "fanboys" just because they're not always bitching about the game. And you are always bitching about something. Every post I've seen from you is bitch and whine and a flaming someone.

Now to address your "point" about ghost towns and new people buying old chapters. Someone with common sense buying an old chapter KNOWS that it's old so they KNOW that it's not going to be as played as the new chapters. That's just a risk you take for buying anything that's a little outdated.

Running out of new stuff to add? Approaching fast? Hahahaha. You really think new ideas are that limited? Maybe you dont have much creativity but others do.

Check your math again. It's 2 expansions a year. And GW went a year without a new Chapter. Get your facts straight.

Yes yes, another Chicken Little post where the sky is falling.

I think Guild Wars is gunning for The Sims' record of expansions/additions per year


3 year life span isnt so bad.

the way anet is going with gw it will put wow out business allt they need is end game content and you can kiss wow good by

This is stupid why even bring this up so early into the release of a new campaign. The same thing happened when Factions came out maybe not to this same extent but thats simply because that this is campaign 3's release and not only campaign 2. The community of Guild Wars is just that much more streched or are in the Nightfall camp. Wait for a few more weeks/months and then you will see people slowly coming back to Proh and Factions as they have things to finish up but at the moment their main intereset is in Nightfall.

It's because NF is so much better that Factions, so people are playing it more. Chillax people, it's all good.

I don't know who is putting out who. If you look at the Top10 games thingy on Gamespot, World of Warcraft (a 3 year old game) is currently ranked as the 4th most popular PC game and the 7th most popular game overall, while Nightfall (1 week old game) is currently rank 28 on PC and rank 87 overall and never made it to the Top 10 of the "hitlist".

The previous chapters are accordingly:

Prophecies: rank 61/218
Factions: rank 128/401

I think what Anet should do it think about a campaign based across all three current areas. That would be cool and would also see the poplulation of the areas sprout up again. However that won't see Proph missions becoming anymore populated, but rather the new ones in those areas.

Still, would be cool to have a campaign across the areas I think, instead of just the one.

It's all about finding the nitch - once they find their nitch and have a large enough following and can keep producing on such an extreme level it wont matter.
If you sell a product that WOWS the customer they will buy your name brand products, even the old ones - once that is accomplished the player base boosts and thusly so do those old ghost towns. IMO GW is still fresh and new at this and working really hard to find their nitch. If they don't they will fall by the wayside, if they do they will grow.

While I dont agree with the OP's opinion, the fact that you pretty much have to buy earlier chapters, which no longer receive much support or update is a bit unsettling. With the skills distribution being as is stands now, any serious gamer who starts off with say Nightfall will soon realise the skills only obtainable in Prophecies are pretty important as well. For example, I've seen several instances of Eles being turned down in a FoW/Urgoz/The Deep group because of not having Meteor Shower.

So its not much a question of risking to buy outdated stuff - you just have to do it.

Considering how much proph kicks 50X more ass than the new chapters coming out, it will never die. Also because they are connected (new gwen items in NF anyone?), theyre never going to be completely empty

Ya, but I think he wants all of these features free, like me. I don't understand why Anet doesn't just add content for hardcore rpgers without altering what they currently have. This way, everyone would be happy, and maybe they would make more money(after all, thats their goal).

Not just Ascalaon. I went to some off the beaten path places to check this out and they were as busy as ever when I was there Saturday afternoon.

Of course, that -was- Saturday, and not perhaps, Wednesday at 3pm...

Now...

In time Anet will face a problem with older zones clearing out. They'll probably figure some solution to this around the time of chapter 6 or 7.

If the theory that keeps popping up without any confirmation that chapter 3 was the end of a trilogy is true, then chapters 4-6 will probably be a new trilogy. That in itself means that chapter 4 could create a massive problem if you can't move character between it and older chapters... If that happens, Anet will need a solution much faster.

Everquest 1, from what friends into traditional MMORPGs tell me, is slowly scaling back its servers, fewer and fewer every day. At its height, it probably had fewer players than GW does today (according to what I read in articles, EQ was always actually a very small community, somewhere around 100k to 200k players at its largest). MMO death happens. When it will happen to GW I don't know. I got Neverwinter Nights 2 the other day, and the characters in that don't look as good as they do in GW, based off of the 'box art and website trailers, but I can't run the darned thing because it has massive system requirements, so I can't confirm. Point here is that GW probably still has the best graphics of any online game - that will help it survive for a while.


But back to those old zones.

It matters if they become ghost towns because if they do players will start to feel cheated. Especially players who buy older chapters.

At some point, Anet might have to release an 'expansion' that is either:
A) Not a standalone but adds to chapters x-z, or
B) standalone, but overlaps geographically, such as a chapter that takes place in Ascalon at the same time and town locations as the current chapter, but has completely different explorable zones and quests.

I am not sure how workable an idea like B would be...
- How would you manage it if two players were both in say, Piken Square, but one owned Chapter 1 and the other owned Chapter X, and if they left Piken Square they went to different places. This doesn't solve the problem of teaming up, it makes it worse. What about the player who owns both chapters? When (s)he leaves Piken square, how does the game pick where (s)he goes?

Still, if those problems could be figured out, at least the towns would remain active.


On the other hand, how much value would there be in an expansion that used the same explorable zones and towns as prophesies, but had different quests and missions in them?

In Nightfall, you can go back to a previously finished town and find different quests are now on the NPCs, and then enter previously explored explorable zones and find them populated with different creatures.

But could you put that into an expansion without making players feel cheated? Maybe in an non-standalone expansion pack, but in a standalone?



Whatever the solution, Anet will have to find it, and my guess is that it will have to be in place by about chapter 6 or 7. If I were Anet management, I'd be thinking about it right now - I'd have at least three people assigned to a project entitled 'strategies for long term viability of the Guild Wars project' just to see if they could come up with any good ideas for down the road. Or, failing that, a good way to ramp it all down at some undefined point in the future.

I totally agree. I dont care at all, and would love an option to turn that off like you can with other channels.

well, there are two choices. stay in a single world with basically the same missions forever, but concentrating the whole player population and paying monthly fees for that, or having a whole new world with new story quests and missions every 6 months, buying chapters instead but having the population stretch. Guild Wars goes the second way, and I like that.

Besides, when the game dies a few years from now, they can (and I hope they will) unlock it for offline single-player use. you'll have enough content to play for the rest of your life.

So what if the series is dead? Like the old saying goes, make hay while the sun shines... they'd already have milked it for enough. They will just release a new series like "Holy Wars" and the same suckers will be on it like flies to a pile of dung.

Well i read about 2 pages of this thread and was getting bored...well as some have said the new expansions are neccessary to keep the game interesting and keep people playing....but they are spreading the games out but after everyone has had their taste of nightfall it should even out a bit more. Anyways i do believe that ANet is putting these expansions out rather quickly...if they spaced the expansions more and patched the games between the updates it would be ok...but factions and NF were cranked out not too far fro each other. Also on the point of people not playing prof. Fac. ect when newer expansions come out....i highly doubt it...if they want to be decent in pvp, pve etc they will learn that many of the skills weaps, and other characteristics of older games are very useful. And Heros...ehh if people wanna play with heros Just let em! whats the big deal!?!....Npc's will never be superior to a group of humans with experience and teamwork.

Well thats all for now.

Anet misspelt "cop-out"

The most popular series of them all and nothing new is been done or planned yes that is Prophecies.I don't know about you but I have seen my share of ghost towns and try to find a party in say Thirsty River Good Luck unless you are rich and can pay a runner to run you thru it as as most missions this if you are rerolling a char. because you wanted to change thier looks and then you start off in pre and then have to do all over agian.I am often wondered when the presearing sever will be shut down.

I would say that they are releasing these chapters far to soon and if you take Cantha for eg. that is all but dead now as I can't get a Rit thru the Grove mission so much for Factions.

would u still be excited for "guild wars2" if there was a monthly fee associated with it?

I am still wonder arround mission towns with my Sin to offer help to other, the sad thing is "everyone hate Sin"