Could Guild Wars be a dead game by the time of chapter 2??

Meh. A lot of my friends have stopped playing / play very little down from the online 20 hours / day a few weeks ago. I just bored and purchased WoW instead. I will come back when the Expansion pack comes out, since GW alone kept me playing for over 1000 hours since it's release.

I cant see why people dont understand this.

people stop playing guildwars because they never got interested in PvP.

Player Verses Player has nearly infinate ammounts of strategical possabilities.. so it keeps you going for a very long time.... the RPG is a brilliant way to chill out.

I think its fair enough that people will stop playing until the next expansion of whatever, but as for guildwars being dead by chapter two... well thats nonsense.

People are buying Guildwars every day... and some of those WILL get into PvP.. so by chapter two not only will there be MORE than enough to keep RPG players going for a long time, you will have vastly more people pvp'ing.

Yes, the future is very bright for guildwars....

so tbh, the people who quit are obviously not into pvp, and therfore is never going to effect my game..

I actually encourage people to quit if they get bored, by the time they come back (they will at some point) guildwars would have changed alot.

I would say that it is only natural people to drop out when they get bored and when chapter 2 comes out it will all be new and exciting again...good call.

BUT it is not obvious that people don't like PvP quit. I love PvP, but it just so happens I find the PvP in GW repetious and good for a couple of bouts but thats it. More than one person who likes PvP have voiced thier opinion about the fact that PvP isn't as fun as it once was.

The game, like hundreds of games before it has a limited appeal. Does that mean it's going to go away? No Is this a bad thing? No

Since we don't pay a monthly fee, it seems to me the only thing they need is for people to keep buying the game, not so much for us GW owners to continue. While they need a population, we have already made out investment in the game as it is now. The income and expence I don't think is dependant on the number of daily users.

Now if we all decided not to buy Chapter 2, that would be a problem.

I did not want to insult any players, but I do think that GW really shines when it comes to pvp. The pve part of the game is nice, but the skill system was designed to create a challeging and fair pvp environment.

Some people think pvp is boring because you only have so many maps you can play it on. This is a little silly. Do you think most (team)sports are boring because you play it on the same sort of field, court, table, board or whatever every time? It is the cooperation and competition, in other words, the players, that make pvp interesting, not the Arena itself, though the different Arena's do sometimes offer extra tactical possibilities.

Of course, some players prefer different pvp games. Playing pvp on a high level in GW does not require extremely quick reflexes for most characters and builds. That is what I like about pvp in this game. It is a mix of strategic planning, on the fly tactics, quickness of mind and (some, not too much) skill at pressing the right buttons quickly). Some peeps love playing first persons shooters against each other. I like that, but I am bad at it, as I cannot aim, jump etc. very well and my reactions are not so quick. The PvP of GW suits me. Some people like pvp, but would rather go 1-on-1 with another player and don;t like having to rely on other team-members. Also, some people just don't like competative pvp, and I can understand that.

However, I think that many of the people that have played a lot but never got into pvp and now tire of the game are missing out on something very good. Just playing a few rounds with players that don't say a word and have no cooperative strategy in the random arena's doesn;t give you an adequate idea of how much fun pvp can be. The same is true of trying to find a group in tombs, learning that they only accept rank 3 players there for the most part and after finally finding one, quickly getting beaten by some high level guild or IWAY. And yet the same is true of joining a small guild, trying one or two balttles with 5 members and 3 henchies and losing every single one of them. And then coming onto forums like these and encountering the typical snobbery of expert pvp players ("pve players are all noobs", etc.)...

Still, being in a Guild battle with your guild friends (with TS on), trying to counter whatever the other team is bringing to bear on you really is great fun. Those battles constitute my best experiences in the game. And I wish it was easier for players to get into this very good part of the game.

Whether you like or dislike PvP or PvE isn't really the issue though. If ya played the game for a month got bored of it, and played something else Anet has gotten the same amount of money from you as they would someone who has still plays.

I don't PvP hardly, and I don't play that often anymore. Will I buy chapter 2...probably.

Agree, and a few things to add on the PvE side:

No gold or item rewards for missions or quests, no wonder people get run everywhere. It's not worth the time for a lousy 1000XP.

Pathetic drops in UW and FoW, increase ecto and shard drops and maybe people will group. 3 hours in FoW for garbage drops and purple items for 1.5k chests is not worth the time. Upwards of 6 hours in UW for 50 demonic remains and garbage drops is not going to keep me coming back. I've had guildies quit the game in frustration after spending 6 hours in sorrows furnace looking for a single green item and getting nothing.

Chest drops are hardly worth the money of the keys.

Most people have to farm to afford the price of the skill trainers, if A-net allowed all skills to be captured by quests and missions, maybe people would actually group and do them.

Why nerf skills weaker? Why not make other skills stronger? When a skill gets nerfed, people pretty much never use it again. Buffing other skills will keep people thinking and being creative with new builds.

Only HoH has a reward for PvP, and even then the drops have been crappy. Why not have a chest for GvG and 4x4, people need better rewards to keep their attention just not faction.

My whole gripe is about the reward system, but the game also needs more content and a storyline that's not so broken. When you do an epic quest in WoW, you will know the reward and are guaranteed something for your effort. Think about it, would you go to work for 8 hours + a day for faction and no pay check? I think not. I really enjoy the no monthly fees and still play the game a lot, but after playing both WoW and Guild Wars, the former has a lot more to offer.

Well i haven't read everyone replys to the OP but i personally had a few month break from guildwars and then in the last week i have come back to it and i'm enjoying it just as much as before, a lot of my friends have left the game but it just means i get to meet a load of new people which is cool with me.

Sure i do have problems getting a good group to finish the last few missions but it's always been hard to get a good group everytime.

For me guildwars is still great and the changes since i left have only made the game even better and more fun, when the nex chapter is released everyone will come back to playing again and servers willl be packed full of all the n00bs, Pros and heartless merchants that demand rediculusly high prices for everything i seem to want, but i'll still love it.

For PvE, the reward system is essential to keep the players playing the quest. The reward like exp bonus or gold is dull. It is better to increase the loot and make those who accomplish the mission or quest that the time they spend is worthwhile. However, increasing drop rate like ecto and shards will make fissure armor, the ultimate reward in guild wars looks cheap. This is easily corrected by designing another ultimate reward or do something more creative that can even draw those who are at high level and leave the game back. Moreover, the level caps should be increased to about lvl 30 perhaps? Storyline must grip the player's attention, keep them playing.

In short, i think sense of satisfaction is important in the game. In this game, due to the low level cap and short time to finish, for those who are hardcore MMORPG gamers, it just takes them weeks to reach the max level, somehow, there is no sense of satisfaction as it takes almost no effort at all for the players to reach the max level. The dev should think of drawing both hardcore and casual MMORPG players into the game, not just casual players only. Then for PvP, the number of maps are too little considering the fact that Guild Wars is a PvP based MMORPG. Moreover, there are so many noobs around.

Guild Wars should be designated to fill the life of any MMORPG player. Besides PvP, sometime they should implement some mini-game or similar things that allow the players to take a break from the hectic PvP. Moreover, it is suggested that when a player joins a PvP match, there should be placement implemented that place he/she with other players based on his/her amount of time spent in the game. This is to place noob with noob. After he/she achieve a certain of time spent in the game, then he/she will be placed in higher placement to join with more experience players.

I really hoped that Guild Wars will not just draw their players only whenever the expansion is released. Instead, they (the dev group) should draw ppl to play GW and keep them playing for a long, long time.

Sigh how I get sucked into the whole 'what they need to change' is beyond me.

...but what would make the game more rewarding and maybe keep people interested is making not everything so easily accessable. As it is (and I have complained about from the get go) you can aquire and use the highest level items early in the game (and if you read this forum you'd get the impression it's encouraged.). This is great for PvP people who want to go through the game in a short order repeatedly to aquire thier skills....but that's just it, it speeds up the game. And for the most part I'm not one who's going to play through the game multiple times in order to play PvP.

Now I know many people will say "So what, that's the way the game is supposed to be played". But it's all about attracting users to play and sometimes that means attracting people who don't fall into a certain niche.
Thats' why I'm assuming the game has both an rpg pve end and a pvp side.

If they wanted a PvP only game they could have made one very easy.

Im so sick of RP mode.. all I do now is HoH and it keeps me interested.. i dont know about you guys but this game has the best PvP ever..

I too am noticing the drop in players... When I started playing, LFG was spammed sooo much in towns, now more often than not I'm stuck with henchmen.

Either there's been a large drop in players, or current players are becoming more and more pvp-based, which very well may be the case, since everyone's pretty much beaten the game and are now moving on to collecting items and getting faction and Rank.

personally i dont think gw will die anytime soon as its got a lot going for it..... then again im not authorized to think

There needs to be actual REWARDS for PvE, be it a /rank or more sets of PvE armor. Give me one good reason why I should even do a bonus or any of the Titan/SF quests. Experience points? Big whooped. It doesn't take many skills to get through PvE. Well, that isn't quite the point of my arguement. The point is that giving only experience points for PvE accomplishments, is a horrible,horrible reward. Giving XP for quests might be a good thing if this was a grinding game, but it's not and I hope it never becomes one.

There should be a reason to clear out the UW/FoW. There should be a reason to beat the game and do every bonus. There should be a reward for doing GF/SF. There should be a reward for doing every quest in the game.

Obviously you can't make the rewards in the form of any thing overpowered (in combat) that can't be given to PvP characters, but their definitaly should be a reward. Give PvE a /rank or something.

BigTru: You mean like the green items?

Green items are nothing special. Maybe if the items were not sellable then yes. But any old joe who has enough money can get one. I want to see something to make pve characters unique other then skill set (which half the time is based on publicly available builds). If this was supposed to be a pvp game only (at least once you finish the missions) then there is no point to have pve.. Since there is I would like something better then 1k xp for bonus completions. I mean after level 20 it gets boring to not be able to level or get something for uniqueness. Give me something to try to get (other then armor) and I will probably be happy.

What's so special about green items? They have a differant name... big whoop (How often are you going to be able to show if it's name?). Nothing that can't be made yourself using collector's items and item mods. The ones with unique skins are nice (like the Willcrusher and Yakslapper), but those aren't too common. They should give all green items a unique skin. Green items aren't much of a reward.

The rewards should be unique items earned. As the game is set up just about everything (armor and weapons) can be aquired at a relatively early stage of the game if one is so inclined.

People say they don't want the carrot on the stick, but in reality if people get all the cool stuff right away they will get bored in time.

Seeing as how levels aren't a issue, challenges should be met with suitable rewards even in PvE -something that can only be attained by completing whatever.

pre-searing ascalon is packed with genuinely new players asking all the same old new player questions over and over again. haven't really seen a big drop off yet. slightly less districts maybe.

I love hypotheticals. Is it possible that the next 9/11, Terrorists will bomb Blizzard and forever stop the online starcraft battles, dooming Koreans worldwide forever?

Yeah presearing is packed with newbs. Which is why scammers are still there. Bastards.

Guild Wars UNLIKE WoW works well for casual gamers. I dont see what the big deal is, because you have a game you have to play it all the time? 0.o

It's not like if you leave it for a month or two you'll come back and everyone will be somehow better than you.

I think really doesn't matter how many ppl can get tired of GW because you know, has no montly fee. If you get tired of any other morpg you stop play and pay, unistall, and is the end. GW will always stay there. At any moment you can enter again an say OH!, how it changend! let me giva a look at it! Updates and expansions can bring new life and ppl can come back at any moment.

I know 2 or 3 ppl who get tired, and i know much more who is starting now to play, but I know none who unistalled GW yet.

I won't keep arguing after this, but the question is who will buy the next chapter.

A-Net is wonderful but if they don't get any money they're not going to keep running servers indefinitely. I don't have a clue where the cut off point is for the game but I am sure that there is one.

At every new chapter the accountants will look at profits vs costs and see if creating a new chapter is worth the returns it'll net.

The problem with speculating on when the servers are going to shut down is that you have to factor in things such as how much it costs them to run the servers, how much the expansions will sell for not to mention how well Guild Wars products will continue to sell, and finally how long NCsoft will be willing to support the servers before pulling them.

Sure, it's possible that the expansions won't sell and NCsoft won't be willing to support their servers if the game does "die", but it's not something I think should be worried about right now.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think Guild Wars is perfect, far from it. However, I still see a lot of potential in Guild Wars. Anet has a lot to do before Guild Wars reaches it, but hey, it doesn't have a monthly fee and I got my 50 bucks worth, so I won't hold it against them.

I think the dev's were very good at what they did and I easily got my money's worth as well.

No complaints from me at all for what they did.

Any comments I made, I intended to be in the form of "I wish they had..." as opposed to a complaint. I think they did a great job.

All I got to say following my other comments is, I will not be rushing to get chapter 2.

I will read the forums before. and I will NOT rush into the shops.

This is not been narrow minded, its just it would surprise me if they chance much for better.

Coz last Update SF was not even all that. Maybe funny for the first days or so.

Now I could not even bother going near.

Its was like saying, lets give them something to keep them amuses, so we can sell the game and advert as a new massive update included.

I agree and it true that they don’t make money if you play online, but they dint spend enough on publicity and they were counting in more mouth to mouth type.

How many of us had told our friends how Good Guild Wars Was? That’s the way they made there money, will they trust you again for chapter 2 or tell there friends, I dough it.

Again they have this thing about keeping things secret, coz they haven’t said anything about chapter 2.

I know this is not a Guild Wars Versus WoW but when WoW already released news about there Expansion. And that keeps people happy and they can’t wait for it.

Yes WoW needs to sell for people buy and pay the fees but looks like they Spend money to make money.

Could this be marketing again?

Do you guys remeber how long it took for them to make this game? now i wonder what were they thinking all this time?

I already read In magazines talking about WoW expansion, and nothing about Guild Wars and I am sure they will be released around the same time.

Not a bigger issue but what’s up with this Gwen? Is she the cause of the world going bananas? Is she the Queen on the Underworld, it can’t just be a broken quest.

as well lets give them 4 slots (beta 6 if i am not wrong) so they run out and they will buy a new game again. now thats another dull thing.

Fine stick with 4 slots but if people but another key lets them merge the accounts.

and when ever the chapter come make a them use one key per account.

all this 2 accounts 2 diff logins its crap.

i never undertood why 4 slots only.

You have Ranger->Warrior->Necro-Ele-Monk-Mesmer, i count 6

Or Monk/Warrior and Warrior/Monk Its the same thing? and should count as 1 and not 2?

I agree 1000 exp to do a mission or bonus it’s a bit lame, maybe good at the start but not the later stages.

I know it’s not the same type of game but Diablo 2 even LOD keep me busy for ages and not just 6 months.

For me its like this if you going to make a PvE and PvP in one package, make sure you really work and the PvE aspect and don’t try to get the PvE type to suit a PvP.

I have done this but why do we go and spend some much gold or farm in the uw/fow to get Armour that the only bonus it’s the looks? For a real PvE there is not enough armour or even weapons.

I like the idea that you have to find your own weapons but as well I am tired of WTS all over the local window.


Why not make a real armour and forget the looks, do you really want to look good when u PvP?

I don’t have that problems my self, the reason is I have played this game and never got rushed (ok to get infused I was rushed) so I know areas of the game that you can farm, but every time some posts on in the forums a build or a spot to farm they go and ruin it.

What are they really trying to do? Fix a mistake that they make and players were cleaver enough for find the gap and take advantage or they just like for you to play what ever they what and whatever way they want.

Not I thinks that’s a good way to stop bots or whatever but how about the small guy?

Or does Anet wants people to Buy Gold of Ebay or what ever.

First of all I dint even knew that selling virtual items was legal, but not my problem.

I just hope this game doest die and I am sure chapter 2 will be released, but I don’t only my breath for chapter 3.

Maybe they have a crazy story line for chapter 2 like what your just played it was a dream or even thanks for playing the tutorial now this is were the fun really begging.

Whatever they Do i just Hope its BETTER.

Lets see what Non Humans characters they going to add.

Is Anet making a huge loss? Has the game sold badly? Do people people who talk about servers being shut down actual base themselves on any kind of factual information? I wonder. I had heard that the game sold well and continues to sell well.

If the game is NCsoft losing money, then sooner rather then later (after all has been done to get a max return on earlier investments, if the company is smart) it will stop investing, and then the game will wither and die eventually (though it may have long live even then). If the company is not, or is expecting to make profits with it in the future, it will continue to expand and evolve. I hope this will be the case. And with such a good group of developers, I think this more likely. Of course, WoW may have a larger advertising budget (presumably, that is where a big chuck of your monthly subscription goes) and thus be able to hype (and get others to hype) that game, but in terms of getting your money's worth, GW is virtually a wonder.

I will by expansion 1, 2, 3 and GW 2, 3, 4 and 5, as long as the team responsible keep up this level of excellence when it comes to design, gameplay and care for their product and players.

I hope the expansion makes the game like the PvE aspect of World of Warcraft. I don't mean all the grinding, but just more fun, with realistic AI. I really don't find PvE fun at all in GW, the beginning quests are ALRIGHT, but....yeah that's about it.

Actually, the PvE aspect doesn't even have to be implemented, just an auction house.

Regarding the way Guild Wars is set up, I don't think farming can be stopped nor do I suggest the devs try to stop it.

Yeah.

Guild Wars has sold in excess of 1 million copies. That means that it is officially a success, financially, with a profit in the tens of millions of dollars range.
The game is also being released in China and Japan, so expect that sales figure to rise quite a lot.
Furthermore, Guild Wars is modular. Should fewer people log in, then ANet can simply hire fewer servers in whichever server park they're using. That means that it's pretty cheap to keep running, as cost is easy to balance to the load.
There is exactly zero chance of the servers being shut down in the next several *years*.

There is no monthly fee for Diablo 2, and it's servers are still up and running after, what, 5 years?

That is true I would guess they don't have to budget development costs. How many servers do they need? I don't play myself but it's probably not a big burn rate.

I hate to be argumentative, but one could also say that this is as speculative as people saying the servers are going to be shut down.

Did they really make tens of millions of dollars of profit? Do we know how long the game was in development (before beta), where the server farm is and how much overhead? Can anyone really guarantee there is really zero chance of them closing the servers down in a few years? I don't think so.

I don't think they are shutting down the servers myself, but GW is not NCsofts main title and with no monthly charge gotta be a bit of a gamble.

also has anybody noticed that the equipment NCsoft is using (and will purchase) is dropping in price while going up in performance?

also that the bandwidth cost is still dropping fast?

each year it will cost them LESS to serve MORE customers.

NCsoft will go at least 3 chapters to test if this new setup with no monthly pay is a moneymaker.

they will not skimp on the next chapter as that would be the best way to cut future sales.

figure a minimum of 2 more years after the release of chapter 2 as a minimum with more if it is a success.

figuring 6 months between chapters after chapter 2 according to Alex Weekes who said after chapter 2 the schedule planned is twice a year at roughly equal spacing.

that 2 year minimum is 6 months until chapter 2 , chapters 3/4 and a 6 month evaluation at that point after chapter 4

Have you also noticed the price of juice to power the servers is going up?

I stoped playing months ago because of the stupid 4 charcters limit. Reinstalled it today just to realise they did nothing about that. I don't think I'm gonna play anymore. At least if we could buy more slots without having to pay for the full price of the game (IMO 8 free slots is a minimum but I can live with 6 coupled with larger storage).

4 is enough for storage if you need more then just but another copy. no big deal. its been 4 months then you have had plenty of time to save up for it.

That's why the "Delete Character" button is there. You really only need 3 PvE characters (I only have 2). 7 is almost rediculous.

very true and a very good point.

there was a piece on the news recently showing people are staying home and going out less to save gas money.

the prediction was that home entertainment of all types will see a large increase (above initial pre high gas prices) especally the fast growing MMORPG (and now GW PROTOTYPE) field.

t would seem that paying a higher electric bill on your pc equipment is much cheaper than going somewhere.

i dont have the figures to tell which way it tips but it would be of interest.

at least they can write off the electric bill as a business expence

The price of energy is likely to go up. But the energy required (and thus the cost) of powering servers really is nothing at all compared to the energy required to power the PC's all GW players are sitting at, or the energy required to transport copies of the game all around the world and the heat to warm the stores these are sold at. It probably takes more energy to power the cars the Anet dev team is driving in than is required to power the servers. The impact of higher energy costs really won't affect the future of the game directly.

On a more serious note: you can pretty much count on the payment of the Anet team's salaries being the most substantial if it comes to calculating costs.

By what I can tell from reading all these posts, no one has real information regarding the profitability of GW at the moment, the only thing some people see is Anet not overcharging people like WoW and other MMoRPGs do. And as GW is not, so they reason, it must be making huge losses. This really is mere speculation. There really is no reason whatsoever to assume that GW is in danger of being 'scrapped', shut down or anything, appart from the observation that there are somewhat fewer people in the game in American districts (I have not observed this in Europe, so far, but maybe I wasn't paying attention). This is inevitable, as people who do not play pvp will get a little bored whenever there is nothing new for them to do and a lot of people get bored of a game after a while in any case.

Just play the game and have fun, instead of considering it like a share on a stock market, I would suggest.

gw made plenty of money with its first installment, there is 0% chance of it being dead before chapter 2.

heres the numbers anet released:

gw investment/production 16M
server cost per year 3M/ea

1M+copies @ aprox $50/ea.

as you can see GG haters!

umm... not that i dont trust you, but where did you get those figures? link please

on the topic of gw being dead, it won't die but active population will be pretty low a couple months before the xpack release

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