Curse

pamelf · Oct 19, 2008, 02:44 AM // 02:44

Well unfortunately there's not much one can do to promote activity without a compromise from the guildees as well. We've been trying to organize guild activities, like vancquishing together, competitions, a whole lot of things. In the end though it's impossible to organize since only 4 of our memebers ever even bothered to sign up for the forums. *sigh*. I've been looking for a new guild anyway. I'd like one that's a bit more active, and that are actually on at the times I play. I love my guildees, but they just don't make playing fun enough.

P.S. Pumpkin, if people are getting bored after 3 plus years then it is indeed declining. That is exactly what declining means in the context of the discussion.

maraxusofk · Oct 19, 2008, 04:01 AM // 04:01

ashes to ashes dust to dust
so too will your guild break, as will its weapons rust
as with all things, the morningtide dawns
to fight against decay is to make the gods yawn

elpedro · Oct 19, 2008, 07:47 AM // 07:47

One thing I know- we've been around too long, seen our ups and downs, watched many a player come and go, but will never die.

I have contemplated but if, like me, you created a guild back in Ascalon City with that 100g and been there to watch it flourish, achieve notable status within Guild Wars and become a second home to people; you would never give up on that.

If I take the guild up to GW2 with only 20 members in the roster so be it. I do like your ideas of keeping a record of emails and re grouping when we do finally see GW2.

My suspicion that this was a problem globally in game seems correct. I would also agree starting a guild at this stage in the game and making it any good would be near impossible.

I really really miss the days when content was yet to be fully discovered, you would log online and someone would be chatting about some really cool area or boss, a new weapon skin they found or a cool quest. There is nothing I haven't done in GW; HoH, DoA, Deep you name it

Its the friends I have made that keeps me here.

DoomFrost · Oct 19, 2008, 09:03 AM // 09:03

After three years of play what can you expect? I've played this game since the BWE's and I'm done with it. I pop in now and again to see how things are going. But I'm completely dried out. You can only play a game so much where it becomes same old same old. Anyways best of luck to you and your guild, hope it doesn't dissolve.

Traveller · Oct 19, 2008, 10:38 AM // 10:38

Well Rurik, some were saying Guild Wars was dying even when you were just a rookie in HoT

But it's really just natural. With no new major content being added, you can only play for fun so much. In our guild we talked about the same thing just yesterday, since there's usually only the few core people on at times.

When you have achieved everything you humanly can (and are not after title grind), your options are limited. Personally I've been doing Alliance battles actively this year, when previously I didn't. The title update in November might bring out some excitement, for a while. But as long as ANet won't add major new content, the decline is going to increase, at least without GW2 news.

Fitz Rinley · Oct 19, 2008, 02:50 PM // 14:50

I have people tell me they are bored. I ask, "Do you have 30 titles yet? Are all your monuments in the Hall full? Have you done all the extra quests and end game specials? Is your homework done?" If the answer to any of these is no, then it seems they have no reason to be bored. Choice.

Clarissa F · Oct 19, 2008, 03:25 PM // 15:25

Well, as to the game itself dying....

6 active American districts in Kamadan...4 active districts in LA...even 3 in Kaineng! Plenty of people advertising new guilds, as well.

It's not the same game it was in the beginning. Most people will admit this. It's a more casual game which, if you play less than 10 hours a week, can offer months, if not years, of entertainment.

The problem is, most people posting on the forums aren't casual players. I'd say 99.9% of people running guilds are not casual players. When the game first popped out, a lot of people did what a lot of players do: that new game grind. You get drawn into this game very easy, to the point where you can easily lose track of time. I know I was busting ass for hours at a time in this game, the first few months I was playing it. After a while, though, if you don't slow down, you finish the game pretty fast. Guilds are, hopefully, people with the same interests coming together. They were also almost a necessity in the beginning, when PvP was a huge aspect of the game, and there were no heroes to assist in the harder missions.

Now, most people are playing the game solo. They bust up the levels in Newbie Island, jump to Kamadan to get their heroes, then bust out the game, all without the gameplay need to group. This cuts down on the guild membership necessity. High-end PvP also isn't a cornerstone of the game it once was. I'm not saying it's inactive, just that it isn't something most players think about. It's just not a priority of the game to most players.

I think the more solo aspects were put into the game, the more you had guilds looking empty. That, and there are a lot of games out there, and when paying a subscription, people may feel more of a need to play those games than one with a casual set up, like GW.

Sorry to ramble.

elpedro · Oct 19, 2008, 03:54 PM // 15:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Traveller

Well Rurik, some were saying Guild Wars was dying even when you were just a rookie in HoT

But it's really just natural. With no new major content being added, you can only play for fun so much. In our guild we talked about the same thing just yesterday, since there's usually only the few core people on at times.

When you have achieved everything you humanly can (and are not after title grind), your options are limited. Personally I've been doing Alliance battles actively this year, when previously I didn't. The title update in November might bring out some excitement, for a while. But as long as ANet won't add major new content, the decline is going to increase, at least without GW2 news.

Granted, the amount of content that's been released since HoT (NF, HM, additional titles etc) - but now we've gone over 12 months since the last major content release (EotN) I understand what you're saying though.

How is HoT these days?

ElinoraNeSangre · Oct 19, 2008, 11:13 PM // 23:13

Try joining an alliance, and see if you can recruit new players. One of the problems is that GW is so solo friendly (in terms of hero/hench) that a lot of people skip the social aspect. Like minded people exist, you just have to find them. Part of the problem is that GW is mired in tiny guilds of people that are just in guilds to be in guilds, and aren't really interested in building anything out of it. Because you don't have to be in a guild.

I suggest stepping back and determining what makes your guild special? Why should people join yours?

Yes, the active player count of the game is on the decline (I hardly play at all anymore myself), but there's a lot of people who still play if they'd just band together. I've seen a similiar effect in the game I do play now, where we had a decline and then spiked back into getting lots of players. To recruit for our clan, we are really active on message boards for the game, make sure our name is in the sig of our members, and just make a name for ourselves, and that's how we recruit.

The problem with GW seems to be that people don't want to be recruited. What it would really take is someone sitting down and trying to really rally people to an active guild/alliance. Events should be carefully planned - a lot of events sounds great on paper, but in reality it's a lot of work, a couple a month with high attendance is much better than a bunch of small ones. And try to come up with events that really need to be in a group - maybe Underworld or FoW, or SF, or some really hard mission. Find something that people WANT to do in a group.

The big problem from where I'm at is that it would take a pretty big push for people to band together into an active guild/alliance, and many people just won't bother.

I do wish you luck, though - I would love to see some aspects of this community do better, and guilds are definately one of them. You sound like a nice group and I hope you can find some ways to help perk things up.

Fay Vert · Oct 20, 2008, 12:06 AM // 00:06

Our guild got quite a few weeks play by trying speed runs of elite areas, like Urgoz, see how fast you can do it, you could even run team contests within a large guild with prizes.

We also found, that despite many many hours gameplay, there are some things that not everyone had done. eg, the Deep was a complete mystery to most of our members. So organise events based on things that some members haven't done before.

You could always "go with the flow" on the weekend events, but that is very limited, some weeks everyone just says naaa.

Tyla · Oct 20, 2008, 12:11 AM // 00:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz Rinley

I have people tell me they are bored. I ask, "Do you have 30 titles yet? Are all your monuments in the Hall full? Have you done all the extra quests and end game specials? Is your homework done?" If the answer to any of these is no, then it seems they have no reason to be bored. Choice.

Just because you have something to do doesn't stop things from being boring to you.

Snow Bunny · Oct 20, 2008, 12:17 AM // 00:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz Rinley

I have people tell me they are bored. I ask, "Do you have 30 titles yet? Are all your monuments in the Hall full? Have you done all the extra quests and end game specials? Is your homework done?" If the answer to any of these is no, then it seems they have no reason to be bored. Choice.

It's pretty boring to do any of that, less all of it.

R_Frost · Oct 20, 2008, 03:31 AM // 03:31

yeah i would say the game is in the transition phase where alot of people are trying new games due to the stale state of guild wars. sure you can title grind, ive done some title work but im waiting to see what changes comes with the update next month. hell whats the hurry to max out titles, dont we still have a year or more to GW2? as much as people have said they want 7 heros due to the lack of player activity in the game, i wouldnt be surprised to see it tested in GW1 as GW2 gets near. ive backed down my play time by over 50%, i use to be on playing or not about 2-3 hours a day, about 5 days of the week. now im lucky to get 4 hours over 7 days.

Fitz Rinley · Oct 20, 2008, 04:17 AM // 04:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Originally posted by Tyla

Just because you have something to do doesn't stop things from being boring to you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Originally posted by Snow Bunny

It's pretty boring to do any of that, less all of it.

Choice.

"Love isn't someplace that we fall
It's something that we do ..."
~ Clint Black

It is the same about being bored. One's happiness is not dependent upon a game, a person, an event, a grade, etc. One chooses the standard at which one will be happy rather than bored.

Snow Bunny · Oct 20, 2008, 04:24 AM // 04:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz Rinley

Choice.

"Love isn't someplace that we fall
It's something that we do ..."
~ Clint Black

It is the same about being bored. One's happiness is not dependent upon a game, a person, an event, a grade, etc. One chooses the standard at which one will be happy rather than bored.

Your quote and reply bears little relevance to either of our points.

A quote about love doesn't change the fact that the PvE replayability is next to nothing and PvP is in a shithole and has been for quite some time.

Neither of which makes the game fun to play.

Emperor Bush · Oct 20, 2008, 04:25 AM // 04:25

Starting 2 years ago, I played for about a year. Straight. I don't remember eating or sleeping for that year. I had a lame guild that never did anything. Once maxing out my charecters, I found endless hours of entertainment farming FA(final assault, and Tombs. I loved it.

About 2 months after Eye of the North came out, my computer went *poof*, and I didn't play again until this month. I had been kicked out of my lame guild, and have joined a new lame guild that does nothing but ask each other for money.

And now nobody farms FA or tombs anymore. NOBODY! It sucks. I ask people where everyone went, and they say "Domain of Anguish". So I go there, and can't even find a group going out without heroes.

So I've spent the last two weeks trying for my vanquisher titles. Just me, my heroes, and my henchmen. I preferred doing FA and tombs over and over again with strangers.

I really just want to farm FA and tombs all night (with people). But since that isn't an option, and I haven't found anywhere that people meet up to farm together, I don't think my second run in GW will be lasting too long.

bhavv · Oct 20, 2008, 04:28 AM // 04:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fitz Rinley

I have people tell me they are bored. I ask, "Do you have 30 titles yet? Are all your monuments in the Hall full? Have you done all the extra quests and end game specials? Is your homework done?" If the answer to any of these is no, then it seems they have no reason to be bored. Choice.

All those things are boring, but 7 heroes would definately make the whole game fun again.

But I thought that when I was fed up of GW 6 months ago, everyone else still loved it, had great guilds and find a group of 8 to do everything they wanted in the game.

Other MMOs have remained fun for more then 3 years, they just have a fee and listen to their player base when 80% want something improved about the game.

Hey, I still enjoy playing Baldurs Gate and any Elder Scrolls game again and again and again and still am not fed up of them.

Crunk N Monkey · Oct 20, 2008, 09:39 AM // 09:39

I agree with this entirely, its getting harder and harder to keep numbers up and most treasured members and friends are leaving, not only the guild but the game as well. To me, ArenaNet, NCsoft, Guild Wars told us that the time gap between EotN and GW2 there was going to be plenty of new material to come out and keep us happy. So far we have M.O.X., the fire imp for lvl 19 and below, new weapons. and a few buffs over the past year, and we still have to wait another 6-8 months for the possible BETA release and 14-18 months for the real thing. Hopefully with the holidays coming up some people will come back for the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Wintersday Events. I guess thats probably the reason why the economy has declined so much as well, prices are down, people arent making that much money, recruiting is getting harder by the day. My guild use to have 70 members most of them active, not anymore, its just 14 now. The rest havent been hard from in like 2-4 months.

Titles, well, when you have been playing the game for 3 years, titles is easy, but if you've been playing for like a year or less, and you know GW2 is around the corner, you lose motivation to go for it knowing that when GW2 comes out you'll be most likely still trying to achieve that title.

AcidDaze · Oct 20, 2008, 10:24 AM // 10:24

i've only been playing since last year (have yet to receive my 1yr bday prezzie) so i personally have quite a few titles i still want to persue but, my friend has been playing for even less than that and i'm struggling to stop him from being tempted by WoW

so i'll repeat what others have said, you will survive until GW2 by doing nothing, then thrive when theres something to do again...

Pucca · Oct 20, 2008, 01:29 PM // 13:29

While it is all sad and true that the game is declining as the monotonous and repetitious game play finally stinks into players, it is oddly a positive. Yes a positive. After running into an article about gaming addiction, I honestly believe that how Guild Wars has collapsed upon itself through lack of consistent content, benefited players as it stopped depressing sites like this http://www.wowdetox.com/ from appearing.