ArenaNet: Linsey Murdock unveils High End Ascended Gear (2012-11-13)

[Vayne]

I finally logged back on over the weekend for a couple hours and my server was a dead zone. The only place I saw people was in LA looking for fractals and with that I was out of the overflow a few minutes after I logged in.

It was pretty depressing being on during peak hours and seeing just about every point in orr contested and not running into anyone in the open world. I'm pretty sure traffic is down from what it was a few weeks ago.

Not on my server and certainly not in WvW. Traffic patterns have changed. Why? A lot of reasons.

First of all, everyone in Orr ran Plinxx, which they nerfed. That was the main reason Orr was so busy. People always go where the easy gold/karma is. Orr is no longer it.

There are still people running dungeons and there are still people running fractals. There's a boatload of people in WvW on my server and judging from the zergs, the two servers we're playing against.

You can say the servers are lower all you want, but you know,. you add another high level zone and some people will go there. So now you have Frostgorge, you have Lost Shores and Orr, and they've nerfed the event chain in Orr...I'm not sure what you expected.

The game population is quite healthy. Saying it isn't because you haven't found the new hotspots doesn't really mean much.

[Fey]

It was pretty depressing being on during peak hours and seeing just about every point in orr contested and not running into anyone in the open world. I'm pretty sure traffic is down from what it was a few weeks ago.

Well what do you expect? They gave players something more rewarding to do. I mean that's just how MMO populations go. Even if people really enjoy an aspect about the game, if they're not getting a reward / if there is something more rewarding to do, they'll probably choose the rewards over what they enjoy.

[Jim Hunter]

Wasn't just Orr that was dead though, I hopped around to a bunch of zones and everything was dead. I think I only saw about 2 or 3 other players outside of LA.

[Vayne]

Well what do you expect? They gave players something more rewarding to do. I mean that's just how MMO populations go. Even if people really enjoy an aspect about the game, if they're not getting a reward / if there is something more rewarding to do, they'll probably choose the rewards over what they enjoy.

Pretty much this. And they admitted it was a mistake the way they introduced it. They'll up the rewards for other stuff and the population will shift again. This isn't a permanent problem or a particularly big one.

And even leveling my alts in world, there are enough people around randomly to do events. I'm sorta glad there's no zerg. Same with Orr. The zerg didn't make Orr better for me.

[bokiz333]

Well what do you expect? They gave players something more rewarding to do. I mean that's just how MMO populations go. Even if people really enjoy an aspect about the game, if they're not getting a reward / if there is something more rewarding to do, they'll probably choose the rewards over what they enjoy.

The devs to create content and rewards in most zones that aren't wildly less/more than others? Is that a crazy request? I understand perfect balancing is impossible and i would never ask for it. But to have a few areas that provide a benefit in rewards so much higher than anything else that the vast majority of the playerbase flocks to those areas only, isn't my PERFECT game. Sure, it's how most games do it, including this one, but hoping to be able to do the content you like without feeling you're majorly shafting yourself is not some uber unreasonable request.

[Alexanian]

Wasn't just Orr that was dead though, I hopped around to a bunch of zones and everything was dead. I think I only saw about 2 or 3 other players outside of LA.

Im on your server, I play a lot more than you do, trust me it is not dead.

I have no problem doing any of the starting zone group content. Theres always a group for any dungeon, I know orr is lacking, but people still do it on the weekends. Fotm is still hot right now. That will die down when everyone gets their gear.

[Fey]

The devs to create content and rewards in most zones that aren't wildly less/more than others? Is that a crazy request? I understand perfect balancing is impossible and i would never ask for it. But to have a few areas that provide a benefit in rewards so much higher than anything else that the vast majority of the playerbase flocks to those areas only, isn't my PERFECT game. Sure, it's how most games do it, including this one, but hoping to be able to do the content you like without feeling you're majorly shafting yourself is not some uber unreasonable request.

Pretty much this. And they admitted it was a mistake the way they introduced it. They'll up the rewards for other stuff and the population will shift again. This isn't a permanent problem or a particularly big one.

Hopefully they stay true to their word and make sure this happens. Lest it be swept under the rug along with Guesting, whenever that's supposed to come out

[bokiz333]

Hopefully they stay true to their word and make sure this happens. Lest it be swept under the rug along with Guesting, whenever that's supposed to come out

I wasn't talking about ascended gear which I think devs are. My post was more of a general "people seem to funel into a few zones, which is typical of most MMO endgames". I was hoping with dowscaling, the devs would have come up with mechanics to make playing in most of the other areas be rewarding as well, so you don't feel forced to be in Orr, FotM or whatever one of the 3-4 hotzones are. That's just from a purely theoretical point of view, I don't really PVe so personally it doesn't affect me, but I understand the point other people are making if they do PVE.

[Sericenthe]

All the zones should be fun and playable no matter what your level is. Unfortunately that is not the case. Drops were always considerably more in Orr when I got there until the drop nerf. Now, nowhere is worth it except FotM which is slowly eroding the rest of the game (IMO). Needs to be fixed.

[Fey]

I wasn't talking about ascended gear which I think devs are. My post was more of a general "people seem to funel into a few zones, which is typical of most MMO endgames".

Honestly I really don't see a difference. Downscaling is working as intended IMO. It was marketed more towards playing with friends without having to make an alt more so than the entire world being their endgame, though the second part was obviously part of it too.

Players have more options and freedom in this game than they do in others. I swear, anyone who feels like they're being "Forced" to do anything in this game is spoiled. And I don't mean any offense by that.