I think I can make my point of view, yet have quit.
I was a GL of one of the more prominent Guild War guilds on PC Mobile. Together with 3-4 guilds we held or still hold most of the guild war records. Black Dragon are the #1 Guild for GW on Pc Mobile and Anonymous have been with them for the most part as well, as have other top performers who know who they are.
We still hold the record for B1 appearances since GW started.
In Anonymous I took on the chalice in June 2022 and our alliance has 12 guilds. More if you add retired guilds.
I can say that as an admin in that alliance, especially from April 2022 as a helper and then as as admin and guild leader I sank countless thousands of hours into the game and the alliance. Most of that occurred between April 2022 and Jan 2023, as due to efforts made management became less intensive.
Guild Wars in the top bracket requires a huge amount of work for guild leaders. It need a team of dedicated people to help with so many things 95% of the gems of war population wouldn’t know about.
Once you’ve got the basics set, the work lessens, except recruiting players. Recruiting players is exceptionally challenging and recruiting people within alliances who are guild war interested, invested and ultimately decent players is another huge challenge. Fighting other B1 guilds is also an issue with less players around. Add that to fighting in game mechanics that have become chores for a lot, makes having the right balance to playing paramount.
However what is great is the community spirit, team work, the meeting of people from all round the world, the chatting to them about life, just about anything and then the challenge of playing on steams or recording for review etc. Wanting to win but being satisfied with a team doing their best wrapped around life and all the other things that are way more important.
I’m no quitter. I loved my role and all the hundreds of players I came across by and large. I had a fab group of people in our leadership and inner guild leadership, and some absolutely superb players.
I invested a lot of money and effort, probably only a few can attest to in the game in relation to ancillary effort. I’m thinking of a couple but I would suggest with the dynamics of AG, my input has been off the scale to make Gems better for most who came our way.
Gems devs have no idea of the problem that was when they bust guild wars. It destroyed an entire community and with it, the fighting spirit of many guilds and alliances. Even the most anti or ambivalent to Guild Wars people have told me that the lack of the wider community engagement once per month, has done most of the damage to people leaving.
Fighting all the changes over the years before this was a true test, see another thread I posted a while back, made even worse with design decisions over the years to extract as much money as possible vs continued targets.
One only has to read the Digital Brothers account reports, not the financials to show how developers are pushed to increase, even when hitting off the charts gains in gross revenue.
There are people completely addicted to the nature of the game who may never stop. If you turned all the graphics off and it was 6 colours in black and white on screen, they’d still play and some would still pay.
From my point of view I’d never of quit a year ago, but after the way the dragons were handled, then the sentinels, journey and the increase in gem costs, against a backdrop of none existent feedback response, non existent QoL and bug fixes vs added monetisation, capped by the just absolutely pathetic way blowing guild wars up happened and the gas lighting since.
I don’t care about collections or weapons, sentinels or much, other than ‘ was it guild wars viable’. So I’m not on the hook like some for collecting or awards etc. However it’s to me, and someone who loved gems of war, it’s abhorrent to continue playing with the game like it is.
To continue playing shows I can stand for all the decisions made and despite all the investment made, no just no longer, when simple fixes and bug repairs would if they went in hand with monetisation, make a lot of players continue to pay. If you’d fixed bugs properly instead of making excuses or going silent, you’d probably have 20% more players, potentially customers.
So @kafka if you are truly curious. In game community on top of an addictive game (already mentioned by others, in particular I resonate with what @TheIdleOne has said about playing and mechanics) makes Gems pretty good.
The effect of disinterest over profit is too real for too many. Balance the way you do things, you’d get more interest. The boom and bust strategy only heads in one direction.
Anyway if you need any consulting on player interest feel free to pass on to your devs….
