@Volkon

I know you're a supporter, but you don't need to resort to personal attacks.

All I'm doing is sharing my personal experiences with the game, thus far, as I've had them. Most zones are absolute ghost towns anywhere between 30 and 80. And Orr is always empty. Log into your server, right now, and tell me that almost all (if not all) of the Orr waypoints on your server aren't contested. I want a screenshot, too, just to make sure you're not fibbing. The thing is is that I'm not. I was a GW2 believer, but I'm also a realist and a pragmatist. I'm going to tell people things as I've experienced them, not as I want them to be.

If you can prove me wrong, then prove me wrong. But personal attacks aren't going to help your case. All they're going to do is make you look like the overzealous sort of fan that ought to be ignored, as everything they're going to say about the game is going to be super-rosy, anyway.

Originally posted by Gorwe

And, no. Most of the content is NOT soloable(for an average build). OMG WTF BBQ??? But it is Herp-Derp! No it is not. Wanna know why? Because devs are sadists-they put anywhere between 2-4 creeps per Square meter and they give WAAAY too High damage to them AND boring, oneshot abilities(Ice Troll's freeze anyone?) AND they give ridiculous respawn times to those same creatures. Ever tried doing the Molengrad event by yourself(that event where you have to collapse four Dredge mine shafts near the end of Snowden)? How do you intend to solo 3-5 Dredge+1-2 Dredge Turrets at the same time. And that is not labeled as "Group Event". And if you are on Piken or such servers, you can have such privilege as either skipping 50% content or spam rezzing yourselff.

 Umm yeah, I dont want to be one of 'those guys' but all 6 of my character classes are capable of soloing champs and group events:

Mesmer, Guardian, Elementalist, Thief, Ranger and Engineer by the way.

Will probably unlock Warrior and Necro later, although I know for a fact they dont have issues either.

If you are mobile and aware of what is happening in the fight, there is very little that you cant mitigate.

Originally posted by Dream_Chaser

@Volkon

I know you're a supporter, but you don't need to resort to personal attacks.

All I'm doing is sharing my personal experiences with the game, thus far, as I've had them. Most zones are absolute ghost towns anywhere between 30 and 80. And Orr is always empty. Log into your server, right now, and tell me that almost all (if not all) of the Orr waypoints on your server aren't contested. I want a screenshot, too, just to make sure you're not fibbing. The thing is is that I'm not. I was a GW2 believer, but I'm also a realist and a pragmatist. I'm going to tell people things as I've experienced them, not as I want them to be.

If you can prove me wrong, then prove me wrong. But personal attacks aren't going to help your case. All they're going to do is make you look like the overzealous sort of fan that ought to be ignored, as everything they're going to say about the game is going to be super-rosy, anyway.

Malchor's Leap.

And it is a good thing there are contested areas in any map.

I remember that during the betas and the first weeks the enemies were all beaten back.

At least now there is always stuff to do - which is pretty good for guild groups - "hey dudes, lets go and overrun Orr".

Originally posted by Dream_Chaser

On the vast majority of servers it's really, really bad. As in from between 30-80 you're going to have to skip most of the dynamic events, and good luck doing anything in Orr. They really need to merge the servers down to just 2 or 3 going on current game population; but sadly, they're still trying to make the game look super-populated. It's a nice scam, but it's not helpful to the existing or new players. If they were to merge the servers down to 2 or 3, then there'd actually be enough of a population to fill out the zones. Right now, there isn't.

The population on most servers is abysmal. Most people will tell you that, hey, there are plenty of other ways to level. You can do renown thingies, gathering, and PvP. All of this is true. But if you'd had your heart set on doing things like defeating the Shatterer? You can forget about that.

You say you'll only tell people things as you experienced them, not as you want them to be.  Then you say all the stuff in red.

I can understand that you're bitter about the game not being what you hyped yourself up for, but your comments reak of bias and are not at all truthful.  You can't experience things you either don't know or might affect others differently...

A.) I'm sure you haven't been to the mid zones of "the vast majority of servers".  And who is "Most people"?

B.) The scam comment has no proof to go with it.

C.) I've never had to skip anywhere close to "most" of the DE's on any server I've been on.  At any level.

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

Well put ...also, I think the way life tends to work in general lol

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

I don't like GW2 but as it happened I played this game tonight after a while. Have no idea what the zone's name was because they all look the same but it was level 55-60+ (had a level 62 story quest there). My point is I saw exactly ONE other player there during an hour or two I played. Was an EU server, Shiverpeak or sth. Maybe there are people in Orr but the rest of the server is bloody dead.

Originally posted by Dream_Chaser

On the vast majority of servers it's really, really bad. As in from between 30-80 you're going to have to skip most of the dynamic events, and good luck doing anything in Orr. They really need to merge the servers down to just 2 or 3 going on current game population; but sadly, they're still trying to make the game look super-populated. It's a nice scam, but it's not helpful to the existing or new players. If they were to merge the servers down to 2 or 3, then there'd actually be enough of a population to fill out the zones. Right now, there isn't.

The population on most servers is abysmal. Most people will tell you that, hey, there are plenty of other ways to level. You can do renown thingies, gathering, and PvP. All of this is true. But if you'd had your heart set on doing things like defeating the Shatterer? You can forget about that.

not even close ....no-way you even play making this statement

Originally posted by Piiritus

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

I don't like GW2 but as it happened I played this game tonight after a while. Have no idea what the zone's name was because they all look the same but it was level 55-60+ (had a level 62 story quest there). My point is I saw exactly ONE other player there during an hour or two I played. Was an EU server, Shiverpeak or sth. Maybe there are people in Orr but the rest of the server is bloody dead.

So your one night experience in one zone in one server firmly establishes that the "rest of the server is bloody dead"? or to a greater degree all mid-level zones in all servers is a bad problem like you are trying to allude to since it's the topic of the thread?

It's pretty bad, tried logging in the other day and messing around on my 30 character, couldn't do it, was just completely alone.

Also the loading screens just really erked me after a short period.

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by Piiritus

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

I don't like GW2 but as it happened I played this game tonight after a while. Have no idea what the zone's name was because they all look the same but it was level 55-60+ (had a level 62 story quest there). My point is I saw exactly ONE other player there during an hour or two I played. Was an EU server, Shiverpeak or sth. Maybe there are people in Orr but the rest of the server is bloody dead.

So your one night experience in one zone in one server firmly establishes that the "rest of the server is bloody dead"? or to a greater degree all mid-level zones in all servers is a bad problem like you are trying to allude to since it's the topic of the thread?

Pretty much what he said, which is why he is not to be believed. No one in their right mind believes that ONE NIGHT in ONE ZONE is proof a server is dead.

Originally posted by Bad.dog

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by Piiritus

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

I don't like GW2 but as it happened I played this game tonight after a while. Have no idea what the zone's name was because they all look the same but it was level 55-60+ (had a level 62 story quest there). My point is I saw exactly ONE other player there during an hour or two I played. Was an EU server, Shiverpeak or sth. Maybe there are people in Orr but the rest of the server is bloody dead.

So your one night experience in one zone in one server firmly establishes that the "rest of the server is bloody dead"? or to a greater degree all mid-level zones in all servers is a bad problem like you are trying to allude to since it's the topic of the thread?

[mod edit]

 Deny it all you want, but most zones are absolutely dead while leveling up, it's actually concerning how rare it is to see another player.

Originally posted by Pivotelite

Originally posted by Bad.dog

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by Piiritus

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

I don't like GW2 but as it happened I played this game tonight after a while. Have no idea what the zone's name was because they all look the same but it was level 55-60+ (had a level 62 story quest there). My point is I saw exactly ONE other player there during an hour or two I played. Was an EU server, Shiverpeak or sth. Maybe there are people in Orr but the rest of the server is bloody dead.

So your one night experience in one zone in one server firmly establishes that the "rest of the server is bloody dead"? or to a greater degree all mid-level zones in all servers is a bad problem like you are trying to allude to since it's the topic of the thread?

[mod edit]

 Deny it all you want, but most zones are absolutely dead while leveling up, it's actually concerning how rare it is to see another player.

Just a few of this week.

Need to start recording my play sessions I guess.

Originally posted by Pivotelite

Originally posted by Bad.dog

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by Piiritus

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

 Deny it all you want, but most zones are absolutely dead while leveling up, it's actually concerning how rare it is to see another player.

Why would it be concerning ? ....you haven't made a positive post in 9 months about GW2

I recently leveled a Mesmer from 1-80, often late night Eastern time and didn't have any problems with population. Some zones do feel a bit dead, but part of that is due to the size of these zones. DEs tend to attract players you might not have run across otherwise and I've been pleasantly surprised to see people show up even at off-off-peak hours.

Most DEs can be completed by most players solo. I've logged almost 800 hours of play time so far and apparently have learned a lot in that time, since I can usually solo Champion level DEs with most of my characters. The percentage of DEs that absolutely require 5+ players is extremely small and, even at off peak times, I've found that advertising those events in Map chat while linking the nearest Waypoint usually yields enough players to complete the event in 3-5 minutes.

I find most DEs fun solo or in groups. I have most fun when playing with guildmates, but the vast majority of PvE content in GW2 is accessible and enjoyable solo.

The "dead mis-level zones problem" is really not a problem at all even for casual, non-social players and is a complete non-issue for good players who aren't so shy/impatient that they can't put out a call for help with a group event in map chat.

Originally posted by tank017

Mid level zones were a ghost town last I played..

 

I felt like I was missing out on content when I couldnt solo a lot of the DE's,so I lost interest and stopped playing.

^ This...quit about a month ago, so maybe it improved a little with holiday sales.

Originally posted by Pivotelite

 Deny it all you want, but most zones are absolutely dead while leveling up, it's actually concerning how rare it is to see another player.

Your facts are not > other people's facts.  People deny it because they don't see it.  Frankly, I wasn't concerned when I didn't see massive amounts of players in WoW zones, I knew the game was still popular, and more importantly, fun (at the time).  As I've said, I see no fewer amounts of players on average in GW2 than I did in WoW, and I'm not upset about it. 

Originally posted by Piiritus

Originally posted by Kuppa
Sigh.... The story of this thread, just like many others around asking for opinions is very simple. People that like the game see tons of people and people that don't like the game see no one. I suggest you check it out for yourself.

I don't like GW2 but as it happened I played this game tonight after a while. Have no idea what the zone's name was because they all look the same but it was level 55-60+ (had a level 62 story quest there). My point is I saw exactly ONE other player there during an hour or two I played. Was an EU server, Shiverpeak or sth. Maybe there are people in Orr but the rest of the server is bloody dead.

I'm surprised that you play considering the all the times you've posted about how much you hate this game.  I keep wondering if I will stumble across a GW2 thread that you haven't brought up your dislike for it. Seems odd for you to say you were playing.

Well this sure got a lot of replies.  Thanks for the information.

In Guild Wars 1, I could make a quick effort at getting a real group, and if no one came, just take henchmen and heroes.  That's obviously not an option in Guild Wars 2.  But that's all right, if "do it solo" is viable when there don't happen to be people there.

I'm still somewhat concerned that this will be a case where people figure out that some small fraction of the content gives the best rewards and only do that content.  That small fraction of the content will have a lot of people, so people who only do the crowded content think there are plenty of players.  But that could easily happen even if most of the game is deserted.

It also sounds like this could be an "it varies by server" issue.  So I guess I should try to pick a crowded server?  I remember seeing a thread where someone took population data on a bunch of SWTOR servers and found that some had more players than others by an order of magnitude or more.

-----

Incentivizing players to go to lower level content won't work unless there are very explicit incentives to spread out.  If a few particular level 57 events get done endlessly by a ton of players and most of the content gets ignored, that's not really an improvement.  If you're manually increasing rewards for particular events, then some events will end up giving better rewards than others, and players will figure out what they are.

To spread players out, you'd need to do things like double rewards if you complete an event that hadn't been completed in the last hour.  But that could easily wander into giving players big bonuses for playing at way off-peak times, and real-life time-of-day dependence is a very bad thing.

The best solution is probably to make it easy to group with players who happen to be in your area on other servers.  Guild Wars did this very well, and a number of other games have done so, too.  But Guild Wars 2 abandoned that for some inexplicable reason.

Good to see at least most people that are 'pro-GW2' are admitting that 'yes, mid-level zones are pretty barren but you can do the content solo / small group and it is fun for me'.

Previously, it was 'what mid-level barren zone issue? Go away troll!'.

Guess we made progress in opinions based on the game as a whole rather than a niche small set of servers.

Proof is in what ANet said which is that 'yes the wasteland mid level zones is a problem'.

To their credit ANet recently said 'we have a solution coming in 2013!' so hopefully it won't be an issue for new players later in the year.