Where is every1 these days?

I disagree with this. I've been playing PVP for a long time now and I've noticed that PVP numbers seem to have dropped drastically from where they were before.

Nowadays pretty much every time I get to the Hall, or even on most maps before the Hall, everyone knows everyone else. There are so few players in Tombs that that sort of thing is possible. If Guild Wars had masses and masses of PVP players in Tombs, then this would not be the case.

Here is what I think happened: people got bored and moved on to other games.

My estimation goes like this:

PVE'ers got bored because there is not much reward for PVEing considering that drop rates for real players are really horrible for the sake of discouraging botters. Very little point to continue playing the game if they can't get any worthwhile loot because of this, and since Fissure armor for most people is far too expensive to ever bother trying for.

To add insult to injury, the devs keep putting off fixing the trade interface even though that is definitely the number 1 glaring game-breaking problem with Guild Wars; hence it's usually impossible to sell anything for a decent price because there is no good way for connecting to a buyer for what you want to sell.

Also, 8 players alone in an instance gets boring. That is not enough players to sustain long-term interest in a gameworld to the same extent that real MMORPGs are able to do because they are not limited by instancing.

Hardcore PVPers got bored because they are always fighting the same few Guilds over and over again in Tombs. And also because ultimately there is no point whatsoever to winning HoH because all the item drops in it are usually 100% worthless crap, sigils are worth little more than chump change, and there is no fame reward bonus. What then is the compelling reason to hold the Hall? There is none. Most players seem to have realized that and stopped trying.

Casual PVPers got bored because they have no chance whatsoever of having any success in Tombs unless a good Guild happens to take them under their wing, or they grind in horribly-bad losing parties until they eventually scrape out 1000 fame from it.

In conclusion: devs really need to vastly fix and improve PVE and PVP rewards to sustain long-term interest in Guild Wars. And finding a way remove instancing or at least allow for much larger gameplay-based instances that are not played out in cramped, claustrophobic arenas would certainly help.

I think judging from most of the posts that alot of people enjoyed the game but have played it out. Nothing wrong with that, as it will eventually happen....just seems a little sooner with GW, which is why I always wondered why everyone is in such a rush.

I don't have a doubt that most everyone who plays will pick up Chapter 2, maybe a price drop in chapter one for new users right before.

This is a very common sentiment among the carebears, and it ultimatly boils down to "if you don't agree with me, you're a whiner".

"Would have fully unlocked..."? Nonsense. First off, it assumes that I could actualy stomach doing that much PvE, something I NEVER signed up for. Secondly, it assumes that I have the sort of free time that only teenagers with no responsibilities have. I don't happen to be a teenager, and there are pesky things like house payments to think about, along with the 2 jobs needed to pay them.

Fertile season? I'm terribly sorry to pee on your assumption, but I quit before the spirit spamming became a big deal. I've heard about it, but never experienced it myself. That was a good try on your part though, attempting to imply that I was just another nooblet whining about a nerf.

"Find yourself a new game"? That's just another variation of your first point, "if you don't like things the way I like them, leave".

"Those of us that are up for real competition"? Come on, do you really think the competition has gotten better? Fianna was clearly one of the best guilds around. They were also a guild of the week, and were even featured in a print magazine. War Machine was not exactly a bunch of noobs, and while LOTD really did flame the hell out of Gaile, they knew how to play.

All of the above guilds were very good, and none of them was particularly into cookie cutter builds. You can't possibly think that the level of competition will not suffer from the loss of so many skilled players.

Face facts. The competition is terrible now. What you mean by "real competition" is "Me and my noob friends have a chance now that all the good players have gone away".

For the record: During the beta's you could get most elite skills from trainers. The few you still couldn't get could be gambled from the charm merchant, but even that wasn't enough to really lite PvP on fire. The reason the implemented UAS was because PvP was lagging behind, and it worked. PvP took off, and the environment was better, more diverse, and the level of competition was vastly better than it has been at any point before or after. In other words, UAS worked. Call it a beta trick if you wish, but you cannot argue with it's success.

I have never demanded, or even requested UAS. I didn't actualy make use of it during the beta's, as it was easy enough to get to the trainers and at the time it seemed important to nail down a strategy on which trainers to get to in what order.

We WERE lied to. You claim we were never promised UAS, and you base your entire arguement around that, as though as long as that's true your entire premise is unimpeachable. Bill Clinton never actualy had sex with Monica, mainly because in his mind a BJ didn't count. So he never REALLY cheated, and therefore he never lied about it.

Just because they never promised us UAS doesn't mean they never lied to us. Very few of you were there, and yet you claim to know the facts of the case. There were many conversations with the dev's, lots of late night questions and lots of hints, with even the occasional answer. Nobody ever promised UAS, but nobody ever even hinted at the skill capping nightmare either. We talked about them, and there was a basic understanding that skills would be quickly available, with not the slightest hint that this entire area of the game was being radicaly altered. This was an area of real concern to PvP players, as we did NOT want to be required to PvE, and we told them as much many times. This was a very important issue to the PvP community during the beta's, and we made it very clear we had no interest in being forced to PvE. I remember many conversations where the basic message from the dev's was "don't worry, we're not going to screw you".

The second the game went into release the dev's dissappeared, and all we were left with was Gaile. While it's dificult to prove what was in the minds of Anet, I and many other PvP beta's believe they deliberatly misled us to inflate their opening sales figures. There is no way they could not have known we would not be happy with the changes, so the only possible reason to keep them so secret is to mislead us into buying a product we had gone to great pains to tell them we wouldn't want. If that doesn't constitute a lie, could you please explain to me your logic? Perhaps you belong to the Bill Clinton school of relative truths.

I said she was the worst CSR I have ever met. How is that "immature"? I did not lie, nor did I exagerate. Certainly, it's a subjective oppinion, but I stated it subjectively. She is clearly biased, and has only ever served one side of the community.

She is not doing her job, as her job would entail serving the ENTIRE player base, not just the portion she happens to like. She has in the past hinted to mods on at least one forum that she thought a given thread was "over the line", making it clear she was hoping the mod would practice a bit of censorship. For a game rep to do something like this is extreemly unprofessional, and not particularly ethical either.

I assume you're being sarcastic here, and expect you actualy think 4 full districts makes for a vibrant environment. Someone pointed out that most tombs players know each other as soon as they meet. How many people could you keep track of, 1,000? Diablo2 is 5 years old, and there are 53,710 players in game, right this second. I have asked this before, but why is it that Anet never releases these sorts of figures? They sure do like telling us how much of a success this game is, and talk vaguely about "active accounts", but why won't they back up their talk? Whenever I see vague reassurances with no numbers, my BS alarm starts going off like crazy. But that's just me.

I will never again buy any product made by any of the dev's associated with this game. I will never spend money on any product from Anet or NCsoft, and it all comes down to a simple premise: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. They lied to us, they lied to me specificaly. I don't care if the finished product is something you love, or if the changes are all seen as improvments by you. That in no way changes the fact that they lied to me. I'm not talking about marketing, I'm talking about specific conversations, and specific reassurances. They could have been honest with us before we spent our money, but they were well aware that we would not buy it. They made a conscious decision NOT to tell us the truth, KNOWING we would not want to wait for reviews and risk being left behind. They clearly hoped we would buy the product BEFORE we found out the truth. They LIED to us. The fact that many of you think the proper answer to this is to just shut up and go away, and write it all off, only proves that you don't earn your own money.

If Anet didn't want to hear any complaints they should have thought twice about lying to us.

I know I will get the typical flame from this but I really don't care. ANet has the uncontrollable will to nerf any creative build someone creates. Someone can solo the UW OMGIEZ END OF THE WORLD. Being able to solo got be back into the game, actually being able to get some good drops for yourself. I know their intent is complete team play but look at some of the people you are in a party with. No common sense, no team work whatsoever. I would have so much fun, and I do, playing the game solo. But I guess it is a sin in this game.

And PvP, I am just really getting into (besides GvG, used to always do that) and it is pretty fun. But my old guild has maybe 3 people left out of the 50 that were once there. So unless I find a good guild I doubt I will ever even try HoH.

I'm writing you on my good list. Day of Defeat: Source = wicked game.

Compeition is not Spirit Spamming. Is not Smiting. Is not turning the auto-fire on Putrid, setting auto follow and walking away to find you team won from your amazing Putrid spamming abilities. Is not stacking Fertile Season and going Healing ball untill the other team gives up from boredom.

Competition is being beat by player skill, not by a combination of skills that are obviously overpowered. Yes, we loose, but we loose to Guilds that use the terrain and their build effectively. If they do not use both, we win.

Call us noobs? Fine, we stepped into compedative PvP play later than you (the almighty, obviously!! and thanks for even responding to such a newb), but I call you unable to adapt and overcome, unable to learn new tricks, and convinced that the Guilds that were top in Beta are the only ones around that are capable of competition. Well F them. They are probably in Beta on a new game, or the next chapter. Or they got pissed when they made overpowered skills counterable, and found out that any n00b guild can crush them with a well balanced build and some teamwork.

You we're lied to? So, was I. My mommy told me that I was special. Now go find me where they said that the game would not change for release.

Ohh and I am 26, spent 5 years in the Marine Corps, call me a child and I will point you to my men that died in war.

It is a fun 'pick up and play' game I agree. Perfect for those long 12 hour work days...a nice nitecap to unwind.

hmmm... Not intended to be disrespectful, but what has that got to do with GW?
I don't think that is cool at all, sorry but I think that was a cheap shot on your part.

Gee, sounds like it is assumed that I am a child, that does not know the ways of the world.

I have learned that cheap shots deserve other cheap shots. Congradulations.

I think this whole school issue is just bullshit. I refuse to believe that all guild wars players in high school or college spent all of their time studying. Even if this was summertime, the popularity would be the same.

Indeed, I bow to your wisdom sino. Since when has school ever been an excuse for low population numbers? Maybe a PR rep can sell that school is a factor shiznit, but I'm not buyin.. And I'm sure I don't need to say that summer time is actually a slow period in the game biz. People are out having fun in the sun.

You imbecile fool. You spelled 'everyone' as 'every1.'

Whoa you might wanna stop drinkin that PBR.

This game gets old too quick, that's why no one plays anymore.

Oh yeah, you cant wield roxxors weapons to uberl337 pwnzor the n00bz in PvE, but you have to use your brain instead of grinding your way up. Less kiddies here, more adult people. Nice deal to me, I see nothing bad in it.

Not to totally ruin this thread, but unofficial player figures in GW and WoW had a ratio of 1.5:1 after Sorrow's Furnace, and recently players dropped in every MMOrpg - school is hitting hard those poor l337 kids.

I know many people who think GW- a half assed MMO for people who don't have what it takes to play a hardcore MMO., they just wanna be uber ...not me though

How unofficial is that, as in made up?

GW has the best MMO PvP ever. Period. PvE is so and so, I'll give you that, and people who don't want to use their brain/don't like the competition will only play PvE and get bored after a while. You all fail to notice, though, that this game has no monthly fees, so there's nothing bad in not playing for, say, 1 month and then getting back when some new content is out.

WoW is a grinding machine, EQ2 is a grinding machine, Lineage 2 is the house of frustration. If you had 45 l337 items to get in GW instead of, maybe, 12 or 15, or 50 levels instead of 20, the little number of PvEers leaving would shrink. But hey, people actually like the feeling of grinding and "earning" your level-ups, that little number changing from 59 to 60.

I don't blame them, but I'm one of those weird guys who want to have fun while playing a videogame.

While I wouldn't argue somewhat, I was just trying to make the point that people (meaning I can be just as guilty) often make the mistake of characterizing a group of gamers because they play this game or that.

I think the word grinding is all relative, and of all the MMO's you pointed out the only one I think has a grind is Lineage2. I'm not sure people appreciate how many things GW does to water down the gameplay and make it so much easier. Granted WoW is pretty simple too.

In so far as strategy, once again it's all relative. One could say that in GW there is strategy, but it's pretty limited for one purpose. Strategy in a MMO is not limited to PvP, so in that respect one could disagree.

Also I think many of the sediments about leaving were from PvP players as well... though I wouldn't know I find PvP repedative and boring so I don't play it often.

There are lots of people who 'enjoy' gaming and choose GW, WoW, or L2 . I'm not going to fault them for that.... I say the more MMOs the better.
GW is limited so people shouldn't be surprised if a few people leave, they will be back for chapter 2.

IDIOT SAVANTS (IQ).

What is an idiot savant?
Current research theories show that intelligence is non-local and not bound to the brain. Sometimes nature offers insight into a particular subject by presenting a baffling enigma and contradictory example. Intelligence's contradictory enigma is the idiot-savant.

The word idiot usually refers to a simpleton, in contrast to the word "savant" in French that means "learned one." Idiot savants are a subgroup of a class of people called idiots with an IQ of about 25.

Idiot savants are a group of humans that are incapable of learning, writing or reading, yet they have unlimited access to specific, accurate knowledge in the fields of mathematics, music, and other precise areas. Now the irony of an idiot-savant is that this group of individuals does not acquire knowledge by learning as the average human does. They mysteriously 'know' explicit, exact, correct information. One may wonder: "How do idiots savants know certain information or possess certain skills?" By whatever means they obtain this information, they undermine current definitions about intelligence. Does their knowledge show that a source of intelligence exists? Is it possible to tap into this source and not know of its existence?
Dustin Hoffman made idiot-savants famous in the Hollywood movie "Rain Man." He played the role of a mathematical genius able to keep track of cards at the casino, yet unable to go to the bathroom alone or to make simple decisions about what clothes to wear or foods to eat. Modern science cannot explain this phenomenon.


Ensign you are just brilliant. Who cares you couldn't name the correct isotopes and definitions in Uranium Enrichment of U238.

Thanks Charles you made my day...


Ratatass

Aye. Leena Nightshade will be back...where she belongs I've been out of the game for over 2 months...after spending 12 hours a day for 3 months

No offence, guys, but this entire thread is based on speculation and hearsay.

Before you start to investigate WHY player numbers have dropped, perhaps you should first determine IF they have dropped?

Personally I don't think player numbers have dropped a lot recently, still seems to be plenty of people around on the euro servers when I play. This on EU servers, I don't know how it is in the US.

One way of estimating how many are playing, is by looking at number of districts.
In the EU, Ascalon still has 7-8 English-speaking districts, same as always.
I went to Tombs yesterday (wednesday evening), and there were 12 districts.

You can compare that to the international district, where everything but the botting-spots (notably Augury Rock) have 1 district.

The only real way to know is by knowing how many unique users there there are online. I would guess (notice I said guess) there are a crapload of alts. Normally I wouldn't care, but as I've read countless times the folks that have been through 4 times just wanna rush through.

Your'e right since there are no figures it's all speculation, though you can see and read (or lack thereof) that it's popularity has died down, before chapter 2 hype. On one hand it's hard to do visually, but at the same time I'm going to take what a pr person says with a grain of salt. It just makes for good conversation.

One thing that is not good sign, and not just in GW is when the newbie areas are deserted. Honestly I haven't checked but that's a red flag for me. Alts in low level areas usually breeze through, and newbs tend to hang around a bit more. Just my opinion, but I hate games that the only population is in the high level areas, there should always be a good influx of newbies

Doesn't matter anyways Chapter 2, there will be more people irreguardless.

That's a good point. Has anyone been through pre-searing recently? Were there many people there?

There are a lot of players in the Competition Arenas.
Number of districts daily are about 40+

Well, yes. There do happen to be 54 districts at this moment in time. So being the suspicious sort I check in on 4 of them at random.

Dist 5: Empty.
Dist 12: Empty.
Dist 23: Empty.
Dist 51: Around 12 people.

Wow, that is an impressive display of Anet's didication to editing the truth.

As another example of this, I point yet again to Diablo II, which routinely has 50,000+ active players on the servers at any given time. That's a 5 year old game, folks.

More importantly, I ask yet again why Anet doesn't give us this information? I maintain they feel they need to hide it because it doesn't look good for them.

[QUOTE=Mormegil]Not to totally ruin this thread, but unofficial player figures in GW and WoW had a ratio of 1.5:1 after Sorrow's Furnace...[QUOTE]

None of us have any hard facts here, but with sales figures (which are NOT unofficial) at 5:1 in favor of WoW, I have a very hard time believing the player figures are anywhere near your numbers.

Your mommy and you never had a professional relationship, or at least I hope you didn't. While this may be a game business, it's still a business, and I am a customer. We have the same rights regarding this customer relationship as with any other product. The ONLY thing that sets this industry apart is the whole lease nonsense. This is a scam, it's clearly designed to remove any chance of a game company getting hit with a truth in advertising claim. I have no idea why this model hasn't been struck down in court, except that I think the courts still look at games as "kids stuff" and don't want to bother dealing with them.

If every purchaser of "Battlecruiser 3000 AD" had filed against the developer, there is at least some chance we wouldn't still be putting up with this crap today. If you have no idea what that horrible piece of crap was, look it up. It's considered by many to be the worst game ever released.

I'm 37, was a Navy Corpsman attached to 2nd. Recon, and served under Pres. Reagan and Bush (the less retarded Bush). With clear memories of blasting around the perimeter road in the back of a pickup with a couple of marines and a SAW, with a large amount of alcohol involved, you'll forgive me for not simply taking your manhood as a given.

I could also mention the self inflicted cigarette burns ("they dared me, am I gonna get an infection?"), or the kid that ate a slug in Oki. (you guessed it, they dared him) and wound up with parasitic worms in his eyes and him in traction face down in a desperate attempt to keep those worms from finding their way to his brain.

My marines were the best of the best. They were also children, pure and simple. Bringing war into it makes no difference at all, most of the armies in the world are made up primarily of children.

You may be 26, and it's just possible to be a man at that age. It's not an automatic by any means, there are lots of 26 year old children running around. Your user name would indicate you may not be as mature as you aspire to, and your outrage over a fairly obvious statement on my part tends to confirm that impression.

I made the assertion that people who thought a consumer who had been cheated should just shut up and go away were people who didn't earn their own money. I think I can back that up if it's really necessary.

Ah ha ha ha ha hah aha ahha ha ah ahahahahh

Solid argument Watson.

There hasnt been a game in history to beat the replayability of Diablo 2. Keyword : Items. Ah, those days....

I'm with you. I logged in to Guild Wars after a (*calculates*) 72-day absense and I can vouch for the fact that player numbers have decreased a lot.



Tell me, whats there in GW to attract new players or to retain gamers whose interest include a wide spectrum of genres.
WoW has a solid PvE base, massive content (which means more replayability).

GW was never about that. Its forte was supposedly PvP, which has always been dicey in RPGs. All the hardcore lovers of such type of gaming were already in during the betas or joined in the first month of release. Quite a few of them got frustrated later and left. The rest are still there.

This type of gameplay necessiated balancing the game... to the frustration of the mainstream players.

The 1 million sales figure is misleading. A lot of them bought the game just because it had no monthly fee, and not because they liked the type of gameplay promised.

I dont see player figures improving at all till Chapter 2. And unless Chapter 2 has a MUCH better storyline and content, NCSoft and ANet will find it hard to manage maintaining the servers without a monthly fee.

Yesterday the ToA had the first 4 districts full even before US got favor. I never had such a hard time getting into ToA before.

Those are just speculations, and based on wrong assumptions: the fact that you'll see your friend list shrink just means that some old players are taking a break (and some are leaving until chap2, after all many other great games went out recently), but what you won't see is that there is a constant stream of new players getting into the game.

Since you talk about D2, I remember people spitting out the same bullshit after 1 year D2 got out: people are leaving, cant find my friends, this game is dying out, too repetitive, and so on. I'm sick of the same idiotic statements repeated over and over: "omg, cant find my friend John and my friend Joe, this game has no content and is dying out, omfg, lets pay a dumb monthly fee and play World of No Friends before districts are totally empty!!!111!!!"

If you want to speculate over nothing, fine: you're convincing yourselves (or other ppl) of something not even remotely close to reality.

Oh and one last thing: WoW has more players mainly because it has a monthly fee (which means you feel forced to play the game, ask anyone playing WoW and this is what he'll be saying), because it has a very nice PvE, and countless hours of grinding to become Uber. It's a twisted concept: a WoW average player will play the game even though he's not willing to, a Gw player won't.

Pre and Post searing Ascalon are the indications we should look for, not ToA. Most of the current players will obviously be in ToA.

I wasnt looking at my friends list. I didnt even expect to find any of my friends online when I myself have been out for so long. I went to areas like pre and post-searing ascalon to gage the numbers.
D2 didnt sell because of battle.net. The number of players who play D2over TCP/IP with friends is around 10x the number that play on bnet. D2 is supposed to be repetitive. Its replayability comes only from its items. I dont have to say anything more than just point at the numbers still playing Diablo 2.
Some of my friends simply cancelled their WoW accounts and moved on to a different game when they wished so. I dont understand your point of being forced into play just because of the montly fee.

But most of the players were already in the ToA, even before Sorrow's Furnace. How come 4 districts were full right yesterday night? Where's the so called "leaving trend"? Where's the decrease in number? I myself have tried a new PvE char recently (a Mesmer, -> I'll be damned to henchies for the whole game ) and saw a huge amount of people in pre-ascalon. There's even an increase of players on EU ToA districts, because Eu has favor more often recently.

You say you have many friends that just cancelled their accounts of WoW?...well they aren't aficionados, that's for sure. If you know how much it is gonna take to be lvl 60 and have Uber equipment in WoW, you won't cancel your account easily. Chances are, you'll keep playing. If you don't understand my point, surf the net to find some ominous effects of MMOrpgs addiction. WoW, with all his grind and his "play-an-hour-more-to-get-the-carrot" gameplay is a good example. No wonder WoW has more players.

EDIT: to anyone not understand what I mean, read this:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...=1#post5285116

A casual WoW player plays 6 hours a day average.

I have close to 800 hours in and no complaints yet.... And most of it is from PvE.

I don't play as long as before when it was fresh, and I think that's natural. Nothing can hold one's undivided attention forever. I still think it is a solid game, and worth the money.

I will say this: I truely believe that what ANET/NCSOFT does with chapter 2 will be a major factor in the establishment of this game or it's descent.

As far as population fluctuations, it is too early to tell anything. Many games wax and wane. Only time will tell if it is a dying game, or just on the low point of it's roller coaster ride of life on our computers. It's not just about long time players, but also new recruits.

In conclusion, I have never put in 800 hours on a game before except for two: Starcraft, and Hero's of Might and Magic 3 Complete. Rome: total war would come in next at around 400 hours. So I think I got a real value.

Let's just see what happens next....

When they came out, there were the "new" hot game and there are people who will follow the next "new" hot game and the ones that come out latter. Quake 4 is going to draw people away for a month or two, just like BF2 did.

There are pve that beat the game that don't do pvp that will proable come back with chapter 2.

Gw will be a new "hot" game when chapter 2 again and get a spike.

The population is going to rise and fall with time / new games coming out / and the expansion chpater's.

I also think the farther along the game is, the better it will retain people. With new skills and pve content coming each year, a "first" time player will have far more stuff to do then people that played the game when it launched.

Me, I took a month or two break and after SF came out been playing a few hours each night trying to get final assault and titans source done. Also started my second character Messner and re-done pre not too long ago.

It's time for Anet to rethink some design decisions!

Actually as long as they make enough money from sales to maintain the servers (the game has extremely optimized code so not require the servers used to power ffxi or wow for example) and the additional chapter 2 or free material brings in new players (sales) there going to be fine.

Just found this - they have sold over 1 million copies since April 2005, which is very impressive. Not only that if sales start dropping, a price drop will get even more people on board.

http://www.guildwars.com/press/pr11-22-09-05.html

This game just doesnt excite me like it used too...

PVE...done that, no point anyway since my pvp character doesnt need anything from pve...like weapons for example

PVP...done that in every build possible in all the arena's and won HOH, used to be fun...not anymore

GVG...Fun sometimes, but not enough to bring me back


Guild Wars will never be as fun as diablo...in Diablo there is a proper mix of grinding and skill, this game is all skill which is fun for a while...

Diablo also lets you have maaaaaany types of items to mix and match until you have your own unique setup, and items affected your character A LOT in pvp its everyone with the same type of weapon and same everything with no difficulty at all to obtain and no influence on your character


Guildwars=Roller coster that had a peak and went shooting down

Indeed, thats good since they don't have a monthly charge. I wouldn't say they are optimised so much that everything is instanced except towns and stuff.... alot less overhead than having populated zones which is alot different than most MMORPGs.

Sales are a indicator but there have been MMO games that I've stopped playing after a month... So they got my money but I shouldn't be counted as a part of the population.

I am inclined to agree. The number of active players has dropped. However, none of us can accurately assess how much the actual ratio of inactive players to active players in compared to 5 months ago. However, what are we worrying about? If its the revenue being generated, 1 million copies sold in 6 months is no number to be ashamed of, and that number should increase significantly with the future expansions. Financially, Guild Wars is not having a problem, so I beg people to not flaunt their economic prowess and label Guild Wars as a financial failure before an expansion has been released. It may be a new fact to some of you, but the success of Guild Wars does not vary inversely with the success of WOW. This might be an alien concept to some, but WOW's sales do not mean Guild Wars is a failure!

Blatantly, the number of active users has gone down. However, I don't think this has dipped as low as many have made it out to have. The Guild Wars interface is designed in such a way that is quite difficult to notice how many people are online. The vast majority of players do not sit in towns all day looking for something to do. Arenanet has no reason to care about people taking a break from Guild Wars. Expansions will lead to a massive resurgence in active players. This game was not intended to be a grind fest; if Arenanet found it in their best interests to make it so, they can do so very easily. Its far too early to call Guild Wars a failure or a success, and no one has a clue what will happen until the next expansion. The future of GW rests solely with Arenanet, and not with Blizzard. Some people need to stop comparing so illogically; this is almost as fallicious as when people say xbox is a bigger success than the gamecube because it has sold more copies.

poeple are farming sorrow furnace

Agreed, although I get miffed when people talk trash about games they obviously have a bias on, in the end it only matter if you and your friends enjoy playing it.

I think I've pointed out that you may hate games like WoW and at the same time appreciate the success. Does that mean GW isn't? Not necessarily.
Unless you're a stockholder in the company or work for them what's the difference?

I can't see that blatant decrease in players, apart from school starting. Again, I'm amused by people who state this, since I remember people saying the same thing (in a more vibrant way also) after 1 year of D2.

It's the oldest rule of the world: say something like this and you'll find hundreds of people who have "slight impressions", "sensations", who "noticed something strange and less people to play with" and so on.

Districts are still crowded, I can't see what youre talking about, frankly.

poor little kids going to school
i guess the bad thing about free online games is that people without credit cards can play so there are way too many little kids, so they have to religiousize the game so whenever someone gets offended people get banned