Delay level 80 boost on Steam accounts, yay or nay?

[Cyninja.2954]

Very simply poll. Most players know the problem, both from these forums, as well as when introducing friends to this game:

Before your friend/player/etc even gets to know his character, class, the game lore, or basic game mechanics, they use the level 80 boost. The now suddenly level 80 fledgling is faced with 0 attachment to the game, on a class they do not understand, in a game where things are already not very strait forward to begin with.

 

**Should the developers delay the access to the level 80 boost on Steam accounts** (tbh, I'd even make an argument to change the 80 boost entirely even for non steam accounts), **where the fist time it is available should be once a player has 1 level 80 character to their account** (alternative level 60 character or some level character which means some minimum engagement with the game before boosting)?

 

The obvious cons first:

- no more "easy" access to PoF mission 1 for the raptor

- no more "easy" access to HoT mission 1 for basic gliding

- no more fast access to endgame areas to play with friends (minor issue given the level scaling, but still an issue I think)

- limiting player freedom of choice

- core Tyria has not aged as well as the expansions (imo)

 

The pros:

- players would have to level "naturally" their first character, potentially gaining a better understanding but more importantly a connection with the game and game world

- leveling through the early zones often leads to players connecting with others, shows the great world building as well as exposes new players to the in general helpful player base (Mentor and Commander tags in early areas, etc.)

- players are more guided into the game via story, leveling and gradual skill unlocks

- not being totally overburdened with skills, abilities and itemization at once

 

Opinions?

[kharmin.7683]

This, to me, makes no financial sense. Of course ANet wants players to level 80 boost so that they will then buy the expansions.

[DreamyAbaddon.3265]

level 8 boost should only be given after the first character reaches lvl80 through natural progression.

[Adiabatik.6714]

Since they would play on the same servers as anyone else, they should be on the same footing.

[Danikat.8537]

I suspect this boost is aimed at players who have not done enough research to know GW2 is different to other MMOs (or who don't believe what they've read) and so imagine levelling naturally means spending dozens of hours grinding alone in empty maps. Knowing they can instantly level to 80 and start the expansions reassures them that won't be the case. Of course, hopefully once they get into the game they'll realise that's not the case anyway, but I think if you require them to level a character first you risk putting them back to thinking GW2 is not worth the hassle of starting.

 

So I wouldn't want to stop them being able to use the boost, but j think really clear messaging that you're not going to unlock a bunch of new game modes and options by using the boost, that the game will be more complicated and that you can encounter a lot of the same content in low level maps so there's no real need to use the boost would be helpful. So they still have that choice, but as much as possible it's an informed choice.

[Croc.1978]

As kharmin said already, this would make no sense from a business viewpoint. Instead of blocking the boost for new players, the focus should be on making the gaming experience after using the boost as positive as possible.

 

For instance, they should switch the exotic Soldier's gear you get for free when you use the boost for something more reasonable (e.g. Marauder's). I used the boost I received from buying PoF on an Elementalist and was pretty irritated when I realized I just got a full set of Soldier's for a class predominantly used for squishy ranged builds. Sure, I want lots of toughness on my ele so all the mobs will head straight for me (/sacrcasm)! For most classes this prefix just doesn't make sense at all.

[Seera.5916]

I voted to not delay but make the advice about not the first character more obvious.

 

This should be done for both Steam and non-Steam accounts.

[Manasa Devi.7958]

A complete block would probably be incredibly annoying for existing players getting alt accounts on steam, so allowing it with a clear warning seems like the best solution.

[Astyrah.4015]

steam players, all players actually, should have the freedom to use the level 80 boost if they want to.

 

but it should come with a info message popup if the account has no previous record of having a level 80 character (like say if it was a completely new account) that lets the user know what they're skipping (aside from levels, like learning your class from the ground up, etc.), what they should expect as an instant level 80, where to go from there as a brand new level 80 and recommend leveling naturally from level 1-80 if they are in doubt.

[Hashberry.4510]

It’s a shame these players will still get flooded with advice to boost to 80, get the mounts, join a train for hps, etc. Boom the little progression the game has is gone.

[Swagger.1459]

The devs aren’t going to block steam users from level boosts.

[Astyrah.4015]

> @"Hashberry.4510" said:

> It’s a shame these players will still get flooded with advice to boost to 80, get the mounts, join a train for hps, etc. Boom the little progression the game has is gone.

 

this is fine if, big IF, that person who gave the newbie the advise is willing to guide/join/playwith said newbie all the way and ready to answer all their concerns.

 

if they just say **"boost to 80, get mounts, join hp train, read snow crows and start endgame"** and then forget they existed, then that is the recipe for the confused, overwhelmed, and _most likely to quit the game_ newbie.

[DeanBB.4268]

It really depends on the player. I don't see a big difference between learning to play with slowly unlocking traits vs. having all the traits now. Traits make the character stronger, bit neither teach nor hinder the learning of the game. I guess if one boosts to 80 and dives into end-game, then sure, there will be problems.

And if a veteran is mentoring a newbie, the newbie will quickly yearn for mounts and gliders. I have been going through this with my daughter and brother. Shortly after my daughter reached 80, she was all eager for mounts and gliders, even though she had no idea what was going on story-wise. They both have mounts and gliders unlocked now, and are happy with the decision. They are no where near jumping into raids, fractals, or other high-end stuff though.

[Friday.7864]

Except the boost there are several other problems.

First - if they don't fix the lag, TP issues, compatibility with Navi cards a lot of people will pack their bags early on.

Second - they don't properly teach players about CC or dodging or what a difference proper skill usage can make. First character should go through a proper tutorial instance where it is clearly demonstrated how a lack of dodging and CC causes kitten to happen.

Third - mounts will be the main reason why someone would use a lvl 80 boost and lvl 80 content is just too much for newbies

 

If they can somehow let players rent a mount for a week or two after buying expansion I am definitely in favor of disabling the boost until their first character is level 80.

[Kichwas.7152]

There's really no logical reason not to do global scaling at this point.

 

Like ESO does.

 

Guild Wars 2 scales people down to the level of a zone. But ESO scales everyone everwhere to the ability of what this game would call a level 80 in exotic gear. Unless you enter a raid or their version of fractal like content, at which point your champion points take over and achieve an effect similar to using Ascended gear here.

 

The result is that players do content in any order they desire, and the challenge is the same regardless of the zone.

Imagine if Queensdale, Cursed Shore, Dragon's Stand, and Drizzlewood Coast were all EXACTLY THE SAME difficulty and scale - and a character from level 1 through 80 would experience them the same way. In fact a brand new level 1 could choose to go to Drizzlewood first.

 

- That's ESO. And... oddly enough, it works. Extremely well. Every last zone in the game has a lot of people, often stacks of them. You've got to work it to find a spot to be alone...

 

It also makes it so people stop caring about level unless they are aiming for high end content. Outsider of veteran dungeon and raid players - level becomes meaningless.

 

People spend more time with story, because there's no "rush".

 

Both GW2 and ESO have good story as selling points. Imagine going to Queensdale on a level 80 character and finding it an engaging experience... and then taking your time exploring all the lore there, because it was just as worth doing as Drizzlewood.

 

Far from causing players to become disengaged with a 'lack of progression', ESO players get very engaged with the world.

 

Guild Wars 2 is halfway there, with scaling down - though we all know a level 80 in Queensdale is scaled down to be even more powerful than the actual level it says they were scaled to... resulting in a 'cheapened experience' that doesn't get you engaged... so again... GW2 is only partway there.

 

These days, even WoW has scaling that outshines Guild Wars 2's - because here the scaling mechanic is still stuck in 2012... but it's now 2020...

 

The solution here is not the delay boosts... but to make the game engaging regardless of what level character you bring to what zone... and do the scaling ESO did when it rewrote it's game after launch to fix things...

 

[Linken.6345]

The big warning would not help people just click past that everytime.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

They could enable a newbie-mode, which applies for the first 1-2 weeks.

- Access to a basic Raptor (the rent-able one from the festivals) and a basic Glider after reaching level 10 and completing the first story arc.

- A special lobby/convenience section with tutorial npcs, tutorial-tasks/instances and explanations.

- Maybe a training dungeon made of one of the LW1 instances, like the Tower of Nightmares (slightly modified).

- Cheap gear vendors with selectable stats that only works until level 60.

 

After that newbie-phase, players get 2 level 80 instant boosts mailed and can decide on their own if they want to continue to level normally or use a boost. Every new character gains access to the newbie-phase of 1-2 weeks, can use the benefits.

 

Both the basic Raptor and Glider remain available until other masteries are unlocked. Access to all Elite Specializations upon reaching level 80.

 

This would be a delay option I could agree with. It would slowly introduce new players, without slowing them down too much. Still plenty of freedom for personal decisions. Benefits for playing the game without the turbo. Better access to the necessary mobility masteries, removing two of the major reasons to use the level 80 boost.

 

[BlackBullWings.2734]

I don't see any financial reason for anet to do this. Money is money. And players know the consequences of skipping content.

[Halandir.3609]

Heh - No matter how relevant **your ** perceived problem may seem... Anet would need a very special agreement with Valve to enforce special restrictions on Steam-created accounts. It would (rightfully so) rub Steam users the wrong way.

Basically: Not likely - Anet handled GW like the awkward child noone talks about on Steam. I doubt they have a lot of clout with Valve.

[MadMerlin.5790]

I don't think I've ever naturally hit level 80, I got my first toon before I bought *HOT* level 51-58ish and honestly if they didn't let me boost my new toon I wanted to play to level 80 I don't think I would still be playing. I personally don't care for the story or lore and if I didn't need to play the story for mastery points and to unlock the meta maps I never would play them. Honestly to me being a TP trader and meta farmer is 1000% more fun then any story or leveling this game could provide as those are a drag to me. I enjoy earning gold and looking good thats the grind. Limiting people to naturally unlock level 80 so they feel attached to this game feels weird at best.

[Woof.8246]

Any chance every 15 min a mail will be deliverd to them offering 1/4 expiriance wits , even if they are afk , for the first 20 lvls ? (of even better a silver chest)

Afterwards the cd is increased to 2 hour , but in the same time is reduced if they are doing ''heroic acts or help the weak , while being watched'' (not being afk) ?

Max ''6 lvl ''per day

Nowdays people dont want to waste a lot of time in a new game , while they have a maxxed out character in other games ...

Using the wits , limit their gold gained for 14 days and the siege/supply they can place/waste

For the furst character only

 

Or let them use a ''roll'' when they create a character , where you start with '''xxx''' lvl , but gold xxx days drwaback /they can use lvl 1 gear set , or use specific weapon for 6 hours , or the weapon changes radomly each time they have to repair it with 1 hour cd .

And put the ''10 lvl quests'' on timer or event completionist

 

Edit: Or replace the exp bar with '' current map - peace and order'' where every1 contribute from failling to ''0%'' and you gain passivly + activivly exp , or get boost if you maintain it in 75% for 5 min and you exp you gained is quantripled x4 as bonus

Some hounds somewhere here are there and some tremor + ice + shouts + frighting ghouls rushing to you and dissapear on your schreen

 

edit2: or they can improvethe skills on each spell/weapon/gear and persist regadles if you change them , by collecting PvE events random items froma specific map . Like improving auto attack to do 1x Bleed from the event item on map+ Poison from the second map , an other x1 Bleed from the third map . Creating a a treadmill....i mean a spell/auto attack that has 6x buff and debuffs/create fire field , that works only in open PvE , while you dont have to do in order to enjoy the game

[Ooops.8694]

You don't need a level 80 boost to get the raptor anyway. remember it's not a single player game ;-)

[Parasite.5389]

I'm not sure what the problem is, users are going to get a lvl80 booster one of two ways, either buying boost from the gem store, or purchasing the expansions, in both cases the player need to make a financial investment in order to get the boost(remember, free users can't buy gems for gold), a average player with no attachment to a game is going to be less willing to part with their cash.

Besides, leveling in this game is super easy, xp is gained for doing practically everything, there are dozens of boosts available just laying around the map, and tomes of knowledge can be obtained on average every 2 weeks.

 

it feels to me like you're starting a witch hunt against player who aren't even playing yet

[Cyninja.2954]

Okay, I tried to explain the point and why I believe the level 80 boost is counter productive in converting new players into long-term players. The reason was literally again another post in the Player Helping Player forums in the last days which dealt with the exact same issue: Help! I am level 80 and don't know what to do, clearly having boosted their character (which does not exclude the players who don't know what to do and leveled "naturally", but there one might hope they are more attached to the game and willing to search).

 

I even make mention of the fact that I think this change should be made for all accounts, no matter if Steam or not. The reason I mentioned Steam is simple: it is likely THE biggest influx of new players the game will be getting in a long time, besides maybe an amazing expansion which draws a lot of media attention similar to FF14 Shadowbringers, and as such I made a poll about how players felt possible issue which might lead to player loss (or lack of conversion into long-term players) should be dealt with.

 

I never made mention of removing the boost or denying new players the boost, only postponing the access to it, based on my personal experience of how friends have come and left the game, as well as a recurring issue for new players (to which I mentioned the official forums, where this comes up regularly). This poll was and is strictly about: **should new players be protected from themselves by encouraging a natural play-through on the first character. Nothing more, nothing less.**

 

Any player who has been actively guiding and getting players into this game knows how counter productive the level 80 boost can be. The game won't get a second chance on this. Most players once lost do not come back.

[Blockhead Magee.3092]

They buy the game. Their choice. The 'I know whats best for them' approach is good for children and pets, but not for gaming. The worst part of this game was in the beginning, getting my hero leveled up so I could have decent gear to have the games real fun in WvW. Sitting around doing hearts and that k train zerging in Orr just about had me quit all those years ago. I don't want anyone to go through that if they don't want to.