A Consumer Experiment

I've been curious to try this experiment with players but I'm not sure how to search for a topic as this one, well here's my experiment.

We have two groups of players. Both groups have the same number and each person within each group enjoy PvP and PvE the same amount. That's the control, here's the variables:

Group 1 plays Guild Wars with all PvP resources unlocked for PvP only characters right off the bat (UAS, UAR, etc.)

Group 2 plays Guild Wars in its current gameplay state.

My question is, which group of players would keep playing Guild Wars for the longest period of time (months, years?)

This in no way is defending Arena Net's actions nor is flaming the players' opinions about grind. I'm just curious to hear people's opinions about the experiment I posed here.

Here are my thoughts: Group 1 would continue to play Guild Wars until it has reached Counter Strike status; people playing the game because it's fun and the strategy is ever present. Complaints about PvE would arise when this group is bored of PvP

Group 2 would have a few complaints about pvp (assuming they like pve and pvp the same) but they would keep playing the game as long as fresh strategies and updates for PvE kept streaming.

What are your thoughts on the experiment? Which group would keep playing Guild Wars the longest? Remember, both groups like PvP and PvE the same amount as each other.

that is a good question, i was going to say pvp would quit first.........then i thought about it a bit and have no clue!

PvP would win out, because they enjoy doing the same thing over and over, and with new streamed skills (assuming the PvE streams get new skills so would the PvP) then they would have a lot of material to play off of.

But PvE players would eventually feel that gameplay is monotonous since you can only go so far in a story before it gets a bit old, or worn out. Even with new skills and content, it would still get boring.

activity in a gaming MMO declines significantly once the game is mastered.

That's true, but let's take City of Heroes for example, there's still a good amount of users on there even though they've gone update less, PvP less (until recently), and be drowning in down right monotony for a while. What kept them going? I've spoken with a few players and its the hope for City of Villains, alot of players and the ones complaining are still playing because of that hope. Just a little opinion to add on to yours. The biggest hope gimmick right now is the prophecies of the Frog in game at Lion's Arch.

Players who are centered on PvP are not playing Guild Wars like an MMO.

Activity in a PvP game can sustain itself as long as it has competition, skill unlocks only provide a barrier to that.

Honestly? My belief is that Group 1 would last just as long if not longer than Group 2. Because the desire for a game to provide you with cheap trinkets and baubles to keep you playing is harder to accommodate than a game whose competitive gameplay is reward enough.

1. Activity in MMO's with everything unlocked can last for years. Subspace/Continuum, Counter Strike, Warcraft DoTA...

2. Answer to your 'experiment':

Group 1: Would keep developing new strategies and refining teamwork. There will be intense competition for the ladder. Streaming updates would continue to introduce new skills and tweak bugs/imbalances. This group will also explore any new PvE content added to the game. Then this group would buy the expansion to have even more skills unlocked and more strategic veriety. They would finish the PvE section of the expansion and then repeat the same pattern untill the next update/expansion.

People would form many more open tournaments around the world and with the observer mode these will be noticed by advertisement agencies and real-world prizes will be offered (to both the players and ANet).

Group 2: People will explore the entire PvE with their first and second characters but then get burned out by having to repeat the game yet again or employ farming for unlocking so as to compete evenly in PvP. The hardcore gamers will praise ANet for keeping unlocking slow and the casual gamer majority will get slowly burned out by the grind (regular situation in other MMO games).
In the end only the hardcore gamers will be buying the expansion and eventualy ANet will be forced to close servers or cut back on support/updates.

Potential Subspace/Ultima Online/Warcraft Scenario:

One year after ANet abandons the GW client someone will obtain/code a version of the server software and GW FreeShards will start to appear where unlocking will be very rapid, or UAS will be enabled. The most balanced of these servers will prevail and draw most of the game's population back. New superior PvP maps and content will be released by an active community of volunteer gamer-developers.
This Neo-GW will compete and defeat the upcoming new project by ANet and any other developers.


3. Fantasy and 'fakexperiments' are fun, but please give it up. Have a nice day.

I believe it depend on the individual on what kind of society/community is he/she in...

If he/she enjoy being within the community that he/she is in, time going to last a long time... I know people that can play crappy games just because he got friends on.

While such pondering can be entertaining, I don't think it can contribute anything to further the discussion of the game. The scenario you described cannot occur under current (or even ideal) circumstances. Even the most balanced player out there enjoys either PvE or PvP more than the other, even if it's by a small fraction. I think our efforts would be better utilized by discussing current and plausible situations.

Good thinkin ^_^
/signed

BTW, do the Koreans participate?