Concerned about Guild Wars

I've stopped playing GW to play WoW. Do you know why? Because GW is a flaming pile of crap now. Anet has been slow to fix everything. As many people have said, GW had the potential and blew it several times. Skill balances should have happened shortly after NF came out. Skill balances that preempted NF should have happened shortly after Factions first came out. This game started dying a long time ago, recent strives to fix fundamental issues with GW (reconnects, party search, etc) have come waaaaaaaay too late. Coupled with the current state of the ladder and fun season after fun season, I'm personally not surprised GW is, imo, dead already. ANet has pulled: "too little, too late".

I wonder if one of the issues with GW is that if you're bringing over already-developed character, you only play half of the game's PVE content. Perhaps there should be some benefit that you can only achieve by starting a new character in the new continent--surely I wouldn't want to see elite skills that could only be capped in beginner areas, but perhaps if Sunspear Elite armor had only been available to Elonian-born characters, it would add incentive to create some new characters in addition to continuing with existing ones.

It's only a month after Christmas and the kids are still playing with all their new toys. Wait til summer and they'll all be back.

This thread has gone from the GW is dying to the usual why don't they make it more like WoW.

1. Population estimates are all subjective. We don't all have the same time zone or lifestyle.

2. ANet knew GW would lose players to other games, interests or lifestyle changes. They planned for this by making it painfree to return as your account does not suffer for your absence. The new chapter releases, special events and weekend events draw players back.

3. ANet is not trying to be a non-subscription version of WoW. They don't want to be EVE or Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights, either. Many of the things that players feel would "improve" the game will never appear because they don't fit ANet's vision of the GW.

QFT!

Thank you God, someone has some sense. I swear every time some goober logs on and doesn't find a swarm of people in whatever backwater outpost they have parked their toon in they start going all chicken little. There are 3 friggin chapters. People are going to be spread a little thin. That doesn't mean Guildwars is dying.

The point being made about time zones and lifestyles is worth covering again too. I work 60 or more hours a week and I'm sure I'm not the only one. There are a lot of working adults who play this game and they have limited time. People with lives simply don't have the time to populate a game world at all hours of the day and night. Here's a thought though. Has anyone ever thought of international districts? I know when I log in and feel like doing a deep run I usually pop up in American districts. Guess what? EMPTY. Hop over to international and it's slap full, like it is noob weekend all over again.

People whine and complain about community this and community that in Guild Wars but the thing of it is they often overlook international districts entirely. Here are people who are probably just now waking up at whatever ungodly time you decided to log on at and will be happy to play with you. In fact International districts generally have more mature and well mannered players than any American district I have been in. So why not give your fellow gamers in other countries a chance, most of them type passable English, because I know only a handful of you jokers know another language, and are among the friendliest folks you could ever hope to game with.

The one thing that has always bothered me is the 1 Elite Skill slot. Why bother capping 200+ elites if you can only use one (or 2 if a new cap)? As a W, I can't justify using anything other than Defy Pain. If I got the caps, why not let me use them?

Come closer so that I might smite you. Defy Pain? I want whatever drugs you are on.

[skill]eviscerate[/skill] [skill]Triple Chop[/skill] [skill]Dragon Slash[/skill]

Those are just a few off the top of my head.

I'm still loving GW. I have played pretty much every day 2-4 hrs since prophesies, and I'm still on.

I play both pve and pvp. When a new chapter comes out, I'll play it for 3 months. After I beat the game several times, do elite missions several times, and have a good feel for the classes, I'll do pvp for 3 months.

Guild Wars isn't dying. More and more people are playing. Of course, they aren't all playing at the same pace or in the same place, but the player base is increasing.

I really like nightfall. The missions/quests are enough to keep me interested, the scenery is beautiful, except doa which is ugly in an interesting way.

People always complain about skill rebalances, get used to it. They have defined the world. We all play in the boundaries they define. We can ask them to change, but by being rude, pouty, nihilistic won't force them to change. One of the best parts of the game is trying to find what works, and how to counter what works.

For every overpowered skill there is a simple counter. Find it, use it. If they change the skill, change your counter.

The Gates of Domain is the perfect elite mission. It is very hard, you can do it all at once for better returns, or split it up into manageable segments.

A-Net has been trying to do what we have asked them to, if it fits their model. Don't expect everything you want, because someone else will whine about GW being dead already. Just enjoy the game. It's a masterpiece.

Don

Thats just rubbish.. If someone really likes gw he could plan when he/she is learning and dont need to spend 24/7 on there homework.. (i'm not saying that person has no live!)

Not saying that you have to be addicted, to plan school just to be able to play gw..
I only mean if you want to play gw, because you like the game as it is, it's no excuse to say you need to say that you have exams so you cant play!
..

Psssh when I was in college I know that come exam time I had 0 time for recreation. Every professor thinks their class is the only one you have, or acts like it is anyway. Then you have people that work for a living. These are folks that have to go in and pull 40 or more hours a week so they can continue to pay for things, like high speed internet access, that are necessary to play the game. That doesn't leave a lot of time for Guild Wars. I wish it did but it doesn't. So there you have it. You have folks furthering their education, folks looking to make good marks to get accepted into good schools to further their education and then you have people who live in the real world and have to actually work for a living. Anecdotally that leaves a relatively small portion of the population that can actually populate the servers 24/7. It is not rubbish, nor is it ridiculous to have priorities.

What world do you live in? Exams are the fact of life for students. Fail and you end up loosing summer and time to play. Dunno about you but my parents would definitely kill my net if not my comp usage if i failed in an exams cuz i was too busy playing GW.

Responsible gaming is a must. Don't frig your life over a game if you got a lot of life still ahead of you.

yea!!! PvP is going really well at the moment!!! GvGs are a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Mr Thomasnl is unfamilar with the North American school system, understandable as they are in they Netherlands.
Its not an excuse its simply a fact of life. Its Exam time, there is always a noticeable decrease in player activity, be it WoW, GW, or w.h.y.

I'm sorry, as he's in the Netherlands, how does the US school system affect how many people we see in the Euro servers?

I completely disagree that PvP players want it to be like WoW. In fact, the thing that SEPARATES Guild Wars from every other game out there including WoW is its unique PvP. The problem is that Anet is clearly not doing a good job of maintaining GW as this type of game. Not yet anyways.

you'd be surprised, examples:
http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44707
&
http://www.guild-hall.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44511

those are just examples though

Now your getting it, SING IT AGAIN BROTHER!!!

I would say that from an American server pov GW is lacking in players as if you look at the ladder well locked and took a look at Oserver mode you will notice how good European and East Asian Guilds are doing.They are doing far better than American Guilds I have noticed a few American fall apart almost.I would be concerned about the game as I find it very hard to do any recriuting as I need to anyway there is The Fury some are playing on to more PvP.I would have to say the Guild Situation need to be looked at and evaluated.Balanceing Guilds would be nice instead of skills.

What do you mean by Guild Situation and balancing Guilds??????

And the reason you see more Euro on the ladder is because Euros make up 67% of the ladder... The Reason? because there are at least 8 different countries alone on the Euro servers and thats not including other countries that use particular countries servers... Its amazing how many Dutch play on the English server

Age, that was some grade A hilarity.

I disagree. WoW has no end-game so you're more or less just plodding through the game. The satisfaction of completing the game in GW makes it far better for me. To then go back and do it with another class makes the replayability of GW far higher than WoW. This is only my opinion, but I know a few people that have both games and they more or less agree.

Having said that, WoW has some great features that I think GW would benefit from. It's swings and round-abouts.

Back on subject though, can you imagine all the people you see over the three areas all cramped into Tyria? The place would be hammered. It's just a case of more people spread over a wider area. More regular additions would be great though, rather than a new campaign every 6 months.