So far, I've been strictly guildless in WAR (I don't count the guild we started with RL friends, most of whom went back to WoW after two months, and that guild was just a feature rich chat channel for us anyway; remember when the game didn't remember your last chat channel?).

Just after the launch guild didn't matter much. There were lots of players doing everything, so one could easily do stuff in open groups. Since then the server population went down to the point where it became a free character transfer source.

I didn't need a guild for playing all six tier1 paths to see how they are and how the careers feel. I didn't need a guild for running scenarios or doing normal PVE quests. But pretty soon there were no more open groups for PVE stuff nor RvR, so PQ stage 1 grind was the only option for getting the influence. RvR battlefield objectives and keeps have been a rare treat, and I haven't seen any of the dungeons at all. Recently, I have not been able to persuade people to do the Keg End event quest for killing massive ogres (the heros in RvR areas). So, basically, I am now completely limited to solo content and the stuff that gets automatically populated (scenarios) or RvR areas where everybody else is playing (thanks to the recent RvR influence epic rewards luring people).
We never got our small IRL friends guild past rank 7, so I didn't see any really nice benefits from having a highly ranked guild, either.

During this time, I have not had any proper tools for finding decent guilds to join to. I have gotten several random guild invites without any prior contact, and I categorically deny such invites, as I don't much care for such guilds (that don't care who they invite). Yet, as has been stated in previous comments, one either needs a mass guild that has enough players for every tier, every scenario, every PQ and every keep and dungeon, or one has to keep up with the rest of the guild and do the stuff that the others are doing. Neither one is particularly tempting to me.

Currently, WAR simply does not have the player base to support all the group activities that it offers. Those, who are fortunate enough to be in a guild that can support their members, have a chance to see all the best the game has to offer. The rest of us are mostly seeing the worse side (solo PVE content that is very much lacking).

I would very much like to play this game as a team game, but not having found a decent guild to enjoy it with, I'm only seeing selfish epic hunters. I've pretty much given up this game, as it seems that I can't find fun people to play with, and the developers simply do not seem to understand the concept of fun nor do they seem to understand how different game features and mechanics fit into the bigger picture (example: they want more RvR action, yet they don't provide much information about where it is, and travel to action is cumbersome, and how did they change travel? They made it more expensive. And all three live events have been merely frustrating).

And to those who might wonder: I played a holy priest in WoW (up to healing heroics in TBC) and though I wanted to avoid healers in WAR, my highest alt is a R20 rune priest. I just like support roles, I guess. But just as with WoW, I'm growing tired of the crap that one inevitably gets when healing PUGs. I don't see things changing, and I don't like how things stand these days (for me).

 

Three live events, three frustrating failures, zero fun. Each had the same three components: (1) impossible RvR type quest(s) that you either can't get a group for or even if you do, you still don't finish the related quest(s); (2) RvR disruption quests where you need to stop doing the essential thing you do in RvR and do something completely different thus failing your team and risking objectives; (3) mindless PVE grind that is no fun but takes hours and hours. If the event and related quests were fun, you'd do them even without any rewards. Now, people don't even want to do them for the rewards. Or can't, as there are too few players wanting to do them. And I would have liked to do the live event quests for several alts, too (not because they were fun, but for me the elite reward would have been essential, and for my dwarves, the advanced trophy would have been nice RP fluff).

This can't be a mere coincidence. Mythic simply doesn't know how to do a fun event. Even more than that, I don't think they have the vision and understanding for the big picture, since so many of the game features by design try to get in the way of the main objective. Very fragmented playerbase, very limited communication, slow and cumbersome travel, close to no information about where the action is, etc. How does all that serve large scale RvR?

They promised minimum grind (of which I've done in WAR far more during the past three months than I ever did in two years of WoW), no gear-centric play (yet now they give selfish masses the epics at tier1, and I guess wards are a gear-based mechanic), fast leveling (though you hit a brick wall well before the end of each of the last three tiers), meaningful tanking (you're still an idiot if you go after the tanks in RvR before clothies), solo-capable healers (it takes forever to kill things but you don't die and you don't need downtime, but due to respawns you can't get through a dense pack either; killing things as a healer is boooring). The selfish masses will still roll dps, since that way they get to their preciousss way faster and they don't have to worry about others.

This live event was the last drop for me. After three days of trying to get a group for killing massive ogres all I got was "the rewards are ****e" and a total of 13 kills on two characters (tier2 healer and tier3 dps). The p(l)ayerbase simply wants their epics and the developers only know how to do the same thing everybody else is doing (except maybe not as well as some others), so I'm out. Frustrated and disappointed, I might add, as I really wanted this to work.

 

It seems to me, that this is just one aspect of Mythic's internal struggle to figure out which parts of the game should be easy (leveling, professions, travel, access to information and battles, understanding game mechanics) and which parts should be hard (zone control, keep sieges, RvR kills, min/max specs/stats). And by hard I don't mean frustratingly hard, but rather deterministic things that simply take effort and skill to achieve. And by easy I mean things that you never even seem to notice as they simply don't get in the way of achieving the harder goals. (And by effort I don't mean countless hours spent on repeating trivially easy tasks).

They have shown a lot of effort in trying to fix things and improve the game experience, so I would guess that eventually they'll figure it out, and make it actually possible (or trivial) for players to collect their hard earned rewards. Until then, the core of the game will continue to frustrate players every now and then.

Technical problems aside, Mythic can choose to leave players wanting for more or they can choose to leave the player frustrated and wanting to quit. It's their call.

 

I can't help but wonder if the current setup has something to do with the fact that some people will always be AFKing there in the middle of the fight. Having to actively collect your reward at least means that they can't simply ignore the events. Also, it puts more emphasis on healers as resurrection becomes critical for collecting the reward, should you happen to be dead at the end of the battle.

The third thing that comes to mind is that the recent reward change (adding RvR influence rewards) had a seemingly huge effect on the player behavior: it actualy brought open RvR back. With such a positive result, messing with the (mostly) working reward system is risky.

On the whole, I still think that the above is just excuses (if they are even correct guesses), and the PQ chest looting should simply be changed to avoid "accidental" loss of rewards. Personally, I've only lost one green bag at tier2 due to not making it in time to the chest (was rezzing people when I realized I had won a bag) but then again I've won a massive bag with low contribution in tier4, so loot comes and loot goes. It's the fight that counts, but unfortunately quite a few see the fight only as a means to get to the chest, and not as a great pastime.

 

Scenarios are not just great because of all the reasons you mentioned, but mainly because they are the only place where this RvR game has actual RvR. I know, tier1 open RvR is actual RvR when there are players there, but T2 and T3 have been mostly keep/BO PVE (I haven't been in tier4 so don't know if people fight there or not). Everybody is doing keeps, but nobody is fighting each other, and since everybody is doing open "RvR" they are not doing scenarios where the actual fights still take place. I just can't figure it out: what does Mythic want this "RvR" game to be.

Of course, players aren't really helping either. Most warbands I've been in tier3 actively avoid confrontation, and only a minority tries to find the opposition. It's about the epics, not about the RvR. RvR areas aren't really helping either as there are no obvious places (nor reasons) for open field fights where both parties have equal ground. Usually, the other one has a warcamp to retreat to and the other side does not. The best that I've seen was in Talabecland when Order controlled Passwatch Keep. Then Order has the keep as a base camp and Destruction has their warcamp near Tower. Even then it takes a full warband of each to start a ground fight there, so that others start joining in on the fun. And you just can't find 20+ people from both sides at the same time to want the same thing: RvR. Unless you settle for less and go for scenarios...

--Artsi