Attracting New Players . . .

[keenedge.9675]

I feel sorry for new players that join gw2 only to find the latest content is too hard for them to immediately enjoy even by using the 80 boost.

Core Tyria is still great, but it's not where the hype forces them to play.

 

I've been playing since the start. There are a MANY things players need to learn to survive and be effective on the new maps.

Plus, they want a glider and heaven forbid, a flying mount. Those take weeks or months of casual play.

 

I want to see gw2 succeed but there needs to be some realism to what you expect from a fresh player.

 

Imaging if you were plopped onto the map coming on the 26th as a freshly boosted 80. Will you contribute or survive? Even if you started in Bjora it would be rough. Grothmar at least is mostly non-agro stuff, but the critters there need more abilities than those a new player at 80 is likely to possess.

[RoseofGilead.8907]

If I were new to the game, I wouldn't boost a character to 80. I would level a character the standard way so I can learn to play the game. That's how I play every game I've ever played. Obviously, not everyone will play that way, but choosing to jump right to 80 and right into a level 80 map without learning the game comes with drawbacks.

[kharmin.7683]

I have no sympathy for new players that show up, level boost to 80 and then don't understand the game or find it too complicated. Yes, the things you mention take time to acquire and that's the point. Those items (mounts/gliders) should be an incentive. Players before them had to learn how to survive and how to properly build their character and learn the mechanics of the game. A level 80 boost does not offer this kind of knowledge.

 

Personally, I think that the level 80 boost was a mistake for new players for pretty much the situation that you describe.

 

Just because a new expansion comes out, or a new map, doesn't mean that a new player has to access that content on day one of release. Heck, core Tyria is all new map for a new player! They should be encouraged to actually play the game from the ground up and not vault to the end and expect to be on par with even the average casual veteran.

[keenedge.9675]

I don't think it should be made easier either. RPG games are meant to be played were exploration is part of the story and fun. I've never jumped into a game of this genre, even as a younger person, and expected to be ready for end-game in a month. Caveat Emptor.

 

I doubt Anet would give people an outright notice to avoid boosting to 80 or play F2P version before buying the game. However, some subtle clues could be given.

 

Remember the NPC that was at the south edge of Frostgorge Sound above Wayfarer who would warn you about not going further without better preparation. I think there were others but I can't remember anymore.

 

I guess what I stopped short of saying in my original post was that there are many veterans that play new content until it is consumed and there is not much to bring them back to populate core maps. So new players experience a game that seems to be a ghost town. An empty map lacks the MMO feel of not being completely alone. After I do my dailies, I try to wander into a map where I haven't been in a while. While there I farm and participate in whatever I run into. It brings back memories for me of when every event had 10-20 people working at it.

[kharmin.7683]

Your experience with empty maps may be due to the time that you're online? I spend a LOT of time on core Tyria maps and, no, they're not a populated as new maps when they come out but I haven't really seen any maps that resemble a ghost town. I often call out events and find people who show up for them.

 

Of course, the population will trend toward the maps with the greater rewards, so that might partly influence your experience. The maps that you visit may not have a great enough return for many players. There have been several threads here about adjusting rewards to incentivize players to return to older maps. I'm not sold on that being the solution.

[keenedge.9675]

I think they should be fun for a reward, not just another form of loot-box.

 

I play from 1pm EST through prime-time 10pm EST. I've had the fun of killing Mk2 golem with 5 people, MegaD with 7 people, solo Ember Bay champ destroyer and 2 man Wurm champ there and Maw with 6 just to name a few. I'd say that's quite a bit fewer people than previous years.

 

I have to wonder how people will get the event achievements (and masteries) in HoT and PoF soon.

 

 

[Taril.8619]

People should make their own decisions about things.

 

If they decide to skip right to level 80 without knowing anything about the game... Well, that's on them.

 

A more reasonable person would likely level a character to 80 the old fashioned way in order to figure out how to play (As well as to get the enjoyment that is leveling your first character in the game, doing map completions and events and PS)

 

Or at the very least, level up some of the way to figure out how to play.

 

As far as the Glider/Mount thing goes? You can be effective on most maps with just a Raptor and standard Glider (Which to be honest, becomes almost worthless for normal OW content once you have a mount). Both of which require all of 1 single quest to obtain.

 

Even more so when you consider the maps that get more benefit from upgraded Glider/Mounts are the LW ones, which new players won't have access to since Expacs don't come with them. While if they DID also purchase them, well... Then they'd be going through content that was designed for them to be plebs without fully upgraded masteries (LW2 + HoT before LW3 and PoF before LW4)

 

Outside of that... Plenty of older zones are still somewhat populated. Heck, many are more populated than back when I started playing pre-HoT (I remember doing my 100% map completion on my Thief including WvW and about 99.99% of it I never saw another player) with more people flooding into zones as world bosses pop up, which actually allows new players to complete them. With also HoT zones being quite busy when their metas are active too, including plenty of HP trains.

[Josiah.2967]

People are making their own decisions...the result just happens to be less new players and even fewer players that stick.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"keenedge.9675" said:

 

>

> I doubt Anet would give people an outright notice to avoid boosting to 80 or play F2P version before buying the game. However, some subtle clues could be given.

>

 

>

The L80 Boost does say "For advanced players".

Likely most ignore that, though.

 

 

[Danikat.8537]

Several of my real life friends started playing GW2 recently (some had been thinking about it for a while, others wanted something to do during lockdown) and none of them wanted to use the 80 boost or skip straight to the latest content. Admittedly that's a small group (about 5 people) but they can have quite different attitudes towards starting a new game and this is one of the few things they agree on.

 

One guy did say his priority was to get to level 80 and get the raptor, but when I suggested he pick a character to boost and I could help him through the first part of the PoF story he said he'd prefer to wait until he reached level 80 naturally since it didn't seem to take long. None of them have wanted to skip to the latest content, or seem concerned about the population in the low level maps.

 

I know that's not the case for everyone, but from what I've seen on the forum it's mainly experienced MMO players who assume GW2 will play just like their last game who want to skip ahead to the latest release ASAP and I don't think they're doing that because they've already found the low level maps to be too empty, it's because that's what they expect from their last game. So I don't think encouraging existing players to spend more time on low level maps would help, and I doubt restricting new players to core Tyria would be well recieved. In a way I think it could be beneficial to let them discover level 80 content is too difficult, it could be the prompt they need to stop and think about how this game is different and what they need to learn to understand it.

[Kulvar.1239]

How can you be sad that the game isn't easy enough that someone who only did the introduction and got level 2 can't jump in the last episode map ?

That's asking for everything to be so weak you can beat it by doing 111111111 and never dodging, never healing !

Or maybe you want people to all leave the game out of boredom after a week ?

[Timbersword.9014]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > @"keenedge.9675" said:

>

> >

> > I doubt Anet would give people an outright notice to avoid boosting to 80 or play F2P version before buying the game. However, some subtle clues could be given.

> >

>

> >

> The L80 Boost does say "For advanced players".

> Likely most ignore that, though.

>

>

 

Of course they do! "I've played MMOs before!"

There's no one saying, "_Not like this one._" Unless they're coming from Kurtzpel (not even an MMO,) mismanaged as that game is.

 

On the flip side, just because someone levels up a toon from 1 to 80 still doesn't mean they're prepped for none-core content. They can totally face roll through core in most combat encounters, but after that, their build and their understanding of the basic mechanics of their class let alone combat as a whole needs to be at least _somewhat_ up to snuff.

[Halandir.3609]

About GW2 (amongst a lot of other things) Mike O'Brien once said: "it doesn't make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun".

Some players will always prefer: "You can't have fun in populated parts of this game unless you spend endless hours preparing, reading wiki's, watching youtube and grinding monotonous content".

 

It would seem like the latter group of people "won" and Mike O'Brien and likeminded devs just gave up and left.

 

When a prospective new player compares plausible reward vs. percieved barrier to entry I don't see a lot of chances for this game.

 

A solution? I don't see one. Anet sort of painted themselves into a corner. The game is 8 years old and trying to lower the barrier to entry would annoy many of the remaining fans. Probably safer to just cater to current players by releasing more of the same in new colors and focus on developing a new (non-MMO) GW3.

 

[EyzKold.8247]

I’ve been playing for about three weeks now and having a lot of fun. I came over from three years of ESO and will not go back to it. From a new GW2 player perspective, events and roaming bosses are a nice feature and unique. I haven’t used the booster yet but came close last nite. My elementalist is now 77 and my other classes are between 15 and 60. The one thing I didn’t know about was how to buy a bag upgrade. I just found out today. After I figured it out GW2 life became easier. The 18 bag slots are not that expensive and six of them really helps.

 

I would advise new players to get involved in events and overland bosses even if they die..it will give them items and experience.

[AliamRationem.5172]

> @"keenedge.9675" said:

> I feel sorry for new players that join gw2 only to find the latest content is too hard for them to immediately enjoy even by using the 80 boost.

> Core Tyria is still great, but it's not where the hype forces them to play.

>

> I've been playing since the start. There are a MANY things players need to learn to survive and be effective on the new maps.

> Plus, they want a glider and heaven forbid, a flying mount. Those take weeks or months of casual play.

>

> I want to see gw2 succeed but there needs to be some realism to what you expect from a fresh player.

>

> Imaging if you were plopped onto the map coming on the 26th as a freshly boosted 80. Will you contribute or survive? Even if you started in Bjora it would be rough. Grothmar at least is mostly non-agro stuff, but the critters there need more abilities than those a new player at 80 is likely to possess.

 

With respect, the expansions should be more difficult than the core game (how much more difficult is debatable). What is the premise here? All content is Queensdale? Who wants to play that game?

[GummyBearSummoner.7941]

We all survived before mounts, they will be fine too. But as other comments have said, they should play the old fashion way like all of us did. Jumping right to an 80 map is risky .

[Runiir.6425]

> @"keenedge.9675" said:

> I don't think it should be made easier either. RPG games are meant to be played were exploration is part of the story and fun. I've never jumped into a game of this genre, even as a younger person, and expected to be ready for end-game in a month. Caveat Emptor.

>

> I doubt Anet would give people an outright notice to avoid boosting to 80 or play F2P version before buying the game. However, some subtle clues could be given.

>

> Remember the NPC that was at the south edge of Frostgorge Sound above Wayfarer who would warn you about not going further without better preparation. I think there were others but I can't remember anymore.

>

> I guess what I stopped short of saying in my original post was that there are many veterans that play new content until it is consumed and there is not much to bring them back to populate core maps. So new players experience a game that seems to be a ghost town. An empty map lacks the MMO feel of not being completely alone. After I do my dailies, I try to wander into a map where I haven't been in a while. While there I farm and participate in whatever I run into. It brings back memories for me of when every event had 10-20 people working at it.

 

I do that!

I have characters that...I jump into old maps and just go from one side of the map to the other killing anything red to me. One long endless path of carnage.

I've explained to new players how to get the mounts and gliding. I've also used my mesmer to help people with jumping puzzles and such on Tyria maps that are just starting out. Usually I come across veterans that could use a helping hand to Skyscale areas too (and they almost always tip though I never ask for it and am just helping because I can).

I've brought 4 new people into GW2 myself this month and they are starting the slow slogg learning things up. I help them only when they ask for it because having an 80 around completely kills the learning curve. I do explain how to build and such and encourage them to try EVERYTHING to see what works for them. One I brought in many months ago finally hit 80. I sat her down and asked her what weapons and such she liked, what utilities she liked, and I designed a build around just that... weather it was optimal or not didn't matter. I was showing her how to synergize and she has since taken it farther and worker her build on her own into a decent synergy that even forced her to use skills she originally didn't like. It leads to better prepared players when you make them level slow through Tyria and learn the basics.

[Mortifera.6138]

They need to give zerker armor with the boost, not this Soldier's kitten.