Guild Wars Players Disappearing

You're the exception to the rule.

So your ignoring the fact WC1+2 and D1 are more or less ignored because it suits you but bringing up that Starcraft, WC3 and D2 are still played? Some things are just popular way down the line. WC3 and Starcraft are both Strategy games, WC3 has tons of custom maps and an insane following for DOTA. Diablo 2 is an RPG, about the closest thing to GW you mentioned, but so is D1 and noone cares. I do still ocassionally play D2 but i'm always reminded of its biggest flaw, that as a Single Player game it fails 99% of the time and as a Multiplayer game is it hacked beyond all reason. Without ATMA (an external muling program) your gear would be terrible. Immunities render some classes completely unplayable. The insane health/defence in Hell renders some classes unplayable.

Since we're on the topic of random stats:

Current Peak
37,793 71,699 Counter-Strike
37,668 93,784 Counter-Strike: Source
19,322 26,280 Team Fortress 2
12,423 17,885 Left 4 Dead

They are the stats from Steam. These games don't need the developers to do anything to continue to function thanks to external servers. CS currently has just as many players as CS:S, despite CS:S being the next version of it.

Online RPGs have heavy competition, mostly thanks to WoW and content will always get repetitive eventually and you'll get bored, some people might come back later on and play some more, some might not, others might go play another RPG. Online FPS's are numerous, but most suck and very few actually have the modability of the Source Engine to survive like the Counterstrikes have.

Welcome to 2007.

You mean July 06?

You have to remember that not everyone who plays gw has unlimited free time. Many of us players are adults with jobs, kids, school and other activities and responsibilities. When we do get free time, we try to enjoy our hobbies the best we can. With new games (ps3/xbox360/NWii/PC/other, comes less time on our old favorites.

I wouldn't say people are getting sick of gw because its old. Thats not the case for most people. I'v played D2Lod, Wc3, FF7 and many other old games for a very long time and still play them. I also enjoy the newer games too. So give people time to do their thing and find a way to enjoy the games you enjoy without worrying about how many people still play GW.

But I agree, the GW playerbase has dropped quite a bit from before I took my break. L.A for example is practically empty compared to what it used to be like. But this is too be expected.

Just wait until gw2 is released. Gw1 will only have between 5%-20% of the total player base left. So prices will soar and many guilds will fold up into new guilds. So plan ahead and save those really nice items/unwanted items for when gw2 comes out and its nearly impossible to find that loot anymore.

Also get those pvp titles while you can, because when the playerbase drops its gonna be very hard to find full groups in pvp, even in RA. (take Eq1 as an example. Its still played but I'd say less than 5000 regular players are on it daily.)

The guild I was in disbanded and my friends don't play anymore.

But I'm still there......sometimes...

^^ Well that's your opinion Mine is Yes!

/Angelica

This is so true.

One word.

SEQUEL.

That's it. It's logical that when sequel gets released, people stop playing the earlier game. SAME IS IN GUILD WARS! Very few people still PUG in old Ascalon areas, for instance.

I won't even bother reading that wall of text. Just notice how I've compared the LAST games from the series to the LAST Guild Wars from the series. It would be unfair to compare GW to 13 year old game (Diablo 1).

It just seems without a new chapter to play there's no real incentive to keep playing unless you either enjoy it or like grinding for titles. Other people know enough to move on when they're bored.

On the plus side, this should make it easier on the monthly server bill for the time being.

Monthly server bill that is based on bandwidth usage?

What do you think this game is, your school's webpage?

I lol'd IRL.

2 Biggest reasons atm.

Summer

School / Exams lately.

Our guild consists of three players and we still play.
Not as often as we used too but every friday night we play for a few hours.
Do we see less players: yes
Is GW getting boring: yes
Would we like new updates: yes
BUT, this will not give us the same enjoyment we got from the game the first time around.
We know GW is losing the last bit of magic it has left and we have made peace with that fact.
The last four years of play have been great fun and I thank Anet for that.
Now let the game slowly fade away and the memory live in our hearts untill Anet reveals all the goodness that is GW2.
It will come to us when we almost forgot we ever enjoyed this game and we will be able to relive the experience anew.

There is a reason why the population is decreasing. There hasn't been enough new content. The Eye of the North was great, but since then it has became quiet. Sure, the April update was great, but it is not enough to keep the veterans playing.

I would love to see a new expansion or campaign with a new storyline, new missions, new gear/armors with slightly better stats than the current ones, a few extra skills and elite skills, a few extra titles and some competitive missions like Aspenwood/JQ. Release it with a collectors edition and the money will be flowing in again.

Just something serious to keep us busy while we're waiting for Guild Wars 2.

Next game in the series does not equal better game. End of story. Tell me Deus Ex: Invisible War is better than Deus Ex. Those numbers from Steam certainly don't show that CS:S is miles more popular than CS. They are played because theres something there for them to keep doing. Trying to compare a strategy game to an online RPG is just dumb by any standard. At least compare it to something like RF Online, another MMORPG that recently was shutdown but still exists. Or perhaps the decline in numbers on WoW before they surge again with a new content update.

Sequel means squat, if you think that word alone means something then its you whose clueless.

Yes, let's totally ignore the fact that few people play Deus Ex anyway. Seriously, I don't remember if it has multiplayer, but I don't think you can compare single-player games to GW. What next, comparing Rayman 1 and Rayman 3 to GW?

People play CS 1.6 because they didn't like some of the things changed or because it has lower requirements.

I never said sequels are be... Oh, wait, Cacheelma already did it for me.

Thank you, at least you understand.

definitely feels like player base is declining

So, does anyone have any hard numbers here, or is everyone just blowing smoke?

And who cares how many people currently play Guild Wars anyway? Anet is not being payed monthly.

well I think most are getting sick of the skill changes the ones they should change they don't , It's been 4 or 5 years now and they still can't get it right. The rewards you get in events and holiday time are a joke, a cupcake yay or a min pet that does you nothing. My dream would be new content that you can place a house on put vender's up and take craft skill like black smith tailor ect... like Ultima on line.

Houses? Crafting?

That's not an update, that's a whole new game.

People come and go constantly. I'm currently enjoying a online poker break. People are not going to play guild wars every single day for 4 years(unless they are really hardcore). People come back for content and events stay awhile then take a break again. At least we do not have to pay monthly fees to maintain the accounts

Well, based on XFire, the people playing GW really disappeared.

See for yourself.

http://www.xfire.com/games/gw/Guild_Wars/

9k players a day, counting even when someone logs for 5 seconds.

Sure, it's up after the last update, but I usually see it #20+, which isn't that impressive for an online game.

Well to answer the question, yet it is. But now the question is, is the guildwars community a well designed community? Probably not because everyone wants something their way so no one will ever be happy and therefore a great game will get unfairly judged forever.

No....just no. There has been a slowly decreasing number of Diablo 2 Players even years before the D3 Hype. There were around 50-60k on average a few years back and even a few years back D2 was still a really old game. And also a few years back a mention of D3 from Blizzard was nowhere in sight.

Fewer people online means fewer people to group with, or talk to. That's pretty simple to understand, right?

And of course I'm not just referencing PUGs. The majority of my friends list is a list of people who haven't been online for quite a while. Lots of people in my guild and alliance have left the game.

I've no idea how Xfire works but, doesn't this just mean that 9k people are using Xfire at the same time as they are playing GW?

I'm pretty sure there are people playing GW who're using steam instead or another of those whatever-they-are-called. Most people don't have any of that stuff running anyway (of the people I know).

Aside from that, I agree that there are less people playing the game today then a year ago.

But nothing to worry about, there are still more then enough people to PUG with...

IMO, it will take till we can call Kamadan's America english district 1 "kamadan" instead of "spamadan" before we got a problem.

Only a fraction of gw players use x-fire. As far as I know, most ppl favor vent. So we could say: "X-fire loses popularity on gw". But I do agree that some gw players are disappearing, taking a break (because of summer) or quitting.

They did the game in themselves with all the changes to farming and running and this is since the release of the game.It has hur the game more than it has helped it.When other can't farm or don't the popular builds (SF) they give up.Heros don't qualify.

Nice to see you Kuntz even if it in't on TGH.