How you think the event inspired freebies?

How did you think Guild Wars inspired those people who participated in the PvP event using the trial access key?

I thought some people were just rude and said: "GTFO newbs", "When are the freebies leaving? 12 hours?", "GLF 1 order necro, 1 taint how tiger emote at henchies NO TRIAL MEMBERS ALLOWED!" (I literally saw those on my chat window -.-; )

Heroe's Ascent and Team Arenas didn't help too much either. Seeing as you can very rarely get a nice kind group that doesn't ask for rank every damn invite...
In my opinion, this made some people not want to buy the game =o

Well I think those people are complete idiots.This weekend was made for fun and giving everybody a chance to try something new(Players the new classes and freebies Pvp itself).

However I think it only inspired a small crowd.The majority of people who disliked Guildwars werent a big fan of the way Pvp was.If maybe Anet had done large scale Pvp(like 16 vs 16 n stuff) it would have inspired more people.

In games your always gonna have people who rather think highly upon themselves and want personal benefit for themself rather then help out others.

Yeah, I tried to counter that by purposely going to the Team Arenas and helping people try to get their wins. Then, I went to HA and announced that anyone is welcome to invite to an intro group and then took several into the tourney (we didn't make it that far but at least they met other people like themselves and got to see what an 8v8 battle looks like :-)

Well there will always be idiots. People do not realize the only way that the servers stay up is if people act professional and allow newcomers to enjy the game and progress. Otherwise the payment will be static and we will not get faster/better servers and more implemented features.

We live in a capitalist society (maybe not North Korea, but w/e). Arenanet programmers, designers, and artists need money too. If you kill their promotion, they will just be forced to do less (because less pay = less hours worked).

I played with a college buddy and he found it to be very confusing and hard, especially the challenges.

They should have opened up parts of pre-searing for the event. He would rather play PvE than PvP anyway. I think he was turned off.

the people asking for rank make me laugh.. 98% of the time rank is completely meaningless... the ammount of time you run IWAY(yes ive run IWAY myself I have no objections to it, it is just simply an example of faction farming) to get to rank 9 doesnt mean your any better than me.. who doesnt even have a rank.

Id gladly take my guildies(none of whom are ranked) and fight the teams that only accept ranked players.

skill does not equal rank.

I don't think it did a lot. I didn't even know about the Zaishen Challenge or Zaishen Elite or that there were any quests having to do with the new area for a while there. I think they set it up quite poorly, and it wasn't straight forward.

that may come. for those of you that remember the beta this is about how it started out there too PvP first... then expanding the classes and armor, then some PvE areas, distant areas unfinished (jungle areas)... then an almost complete game with several bugs to be worked out in PvE areas. then a complete game with most of the bugs repaired. then launch... Now obviously many of the problems in the initial betas are long gone, so now its down to skill balancing and production testing of new PvE areas and quest design...

I anticipate the next event weekend will have some Beta PvE stuff in it. Prob the Canthan Countryside since it is most like chapter one part of the game... We will prob not see the full faction battles and control of the areas happen till launch... Just like ascension and fire islands in the first betas...

ingy

While i do agree the attitudes of some players may have turned off people new to GW into buying CH2 and maybe even CH1 but it was to be expected. Being called Noob, freebie and all that stuff is nothing new and not limted to GW. Now while Anet could have done a better job explaining the arena types like Hero's Ascent has a rank system and what not you can not let the players that are jerks effect how u play. When i played a free event for WoW i got the same treatment but i did not let that effect me on the overall game. Also to those that play anarchy online know that they also had a free event to attract new players but it lasted almost a year. A year with a free account and basically it was the same as the CH1 players calling the trial players newbs and all that stuff. If you play any online game doesn't even have to be a mmo be ready to deal with jerks. That is the way it is in all online games and i hope all the trial users realize this and don't let a few bad experiences ruin what they think of the actual game.

I dont think it was such a good idea to let new player start with PvP. I dont think this PvP days has been any of help to get new players online. they should have started with 2 days of PVE and then 2 days of PvP.

Some people actually think that W/mos running the paladin pre-made build are 'newbs'. Pretty sure they (the W/mo) are either joking around, they think think it is better than anything they could make on their own, or they are PvErs with no level 20 character.

But seriously, to blame the number of idiots who play Guild Wars on a random, free trial pretty much boldly states that you are one of them (the idiots).

i played all of the pre-release betas and enjoyed them but for some reason have never got around to purchasing Guild Wars. tbh i didnt think much of the factions beta, it was confusing and a pain in the arse to beat the zaishan but i still enjoyed playing the game again think i'll be buying very soon

did anyone else really hate the Assasin? it was great fun to play as, but the number of times ive been casting spells/firing arrows just to have some uber fast guy with knives teleport behind me and hack me to pieces was rediculous! i ended up carrying all of the trapping skills with me to stop them

i was quite supprised by the number of "l33t" guild wars players who were ridiculing the free players, it wasnt exactly helpful. Praise to some of you though for helping trialers through some of the arenas, it was certainly much appreciated on my part as it allowed me to go back and help others to get through

Well, as someone who has been able to prove that 'more PvP does not necessarily improve your PvP', I did not originally intend to participate in the Faction weekend. After all, I am a PvP dunce - my monk has been nicknamed 'Carpet' for the amount of time he spends lying on the floor. But A-Net have proved themselves to be the most responsive game company I have ever come across, so it was only fair to give them a chance to beat me up again. Having read the posts on the forums here, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the European servers at least seemed to be fairly free of spammers and idiots. Swearing was at a minimum and people were getting help with questions that they were asking. At least while I was on!

There were a lot of questions. Many people were confused from the start, and as Numa said in an earlier post, quite a few needed to have the basics explained to them. I logged on with my monk just to see what was happening and on the first day, not surprisingly, almost every character was an Assassin or a Ritualist. As the weekend progressed, that altered drastically, with more and more GW people logging on normal PvP characters, until they outnumbered the new ones. Naturally, I made an A/W character so that I could go kick some butt...

I got through to the Zaishen Challenge, feeling pretty pleased with myself, and thats where the trouble started. PUG's of Assassins and Ritualists, often with players new to GW were a disaster. No target calling, no teamwork and usually a very quick defeat. Quite disheartening. The really good part was the option to play against different builds, most of which I had only heard of and never played against. (Trust me, the chances of me getting to HoH are negligible). The bad part was the option to play against different builds... these guys were TOUGH! Polite (always a "gg" at the end) but tough. So much so that I wondered what it would be like for real newbies, and decided to experiment a little.

Basing my strategy on the theory that most newbies would not be much better than me, I made a team using the henchmen that were available - Warrior, Monk and Ele. I then went through the various options to see how I got on. I tried each option 10 times, to get some consistency, using the basic A/W that I had created, no runes, no weapon add-ons. The only difference I made was to swap out 'Mirror Stance' for that Warrior shout that gives +20 armour. I was expecting my team-mates to be better than me (they were) and I thought the extra armour would help. It probably did. After all, although I was usually the first one to bite the dust, sometimes I lasted longer and I kept the shout going.

The results were interesting (at least, to me!). A total of 60 battles, 18 wins (10 Flawless) and 42 defeats. I have to say that I don't see any way that newbies could have taken some of those opposing teams without a great deal of help from current players.

I never managed to beat the IWAY team, lasting from 38 to 78 seconds before hearing the dreaded "gg". Result, IWAY 10, me 0.

I did slightly better against the Degen team, managing to last a whole 96 seconds once, but again, I never managed a win. Result, Degen 10, me 0.

The Smiting Monks either chopped me down almost instantly, or we ended in a battle lasting 3 to 4 minutes. On my very last attempt I did manage to win one (more by luck than judgement I fear), so it wasnt a complete whitewash.
Result, Monks 9, me 1.

The Trapper team were sneaky. Almost every time I thought I was winning, then...BLAM! Result, Trappers 10, me 0.

The Obsidian Thingy team were much easier. I managed to win seven out of ten, three flawlessly, even with my usual tactics of 'Chaaaaarge!'. Result, Obsidian 3, me 7.

The easiest team of all, without a doubt, were the Illusionary Weaponry one. I lost the first one, but won all the rest with seven Flawless. Made me feel good about PvP for a change!Result, IW 1, me 9.

If the intended purpose of the exercise was to dangle a carrot in front of possible new players, I am not sure this was a success. The standard of the teams in the challenge (although possibly realistic) was too high for new players, and may well have put them off rather than tempting them. Add that to the difficulty in getting into a PUG after Day One ("Looking for SS Necro" "Prot Monk wanted to complete group" "MM and SS need Orders") and the lack of information ("How can I join a Guild? "How do I get Faction?" "What is Faction for?" "Where do I get a Cape?" "What do I do now?" "Where can I explore?") and it must have seemed pretty bewildering.

On the plus side it was graphically good, and I think the team challenge will be very useful for future PvP beginners. The beauty of it is the ability to change the teams to reflect the current FOTM, giving people a chance to see what they will be up against, and to plot strategies of their own. As for me, I will still lose, but at least now I will know what strategy I am losing to!

Thanks A-Net, it was ... interesting!

A quick Q,
1: how'd you beat those 2?

My additon.

When fighting IWAY, use things that damage them when they attack you. the increased attack speed doesn't hurt either. (EX: i used SoJ... they killed themselves SO FAST i thought i'd get a ticket.)

Trappers, you just need a AoE attack to do them in.

I point out that I was using one of the premade Assassin builds, as that was what was available. The idea was to see how difficult it would be for new players. And how did I win against IW and Obsidian? In my time-honored fashion of course. Leroy FTW!