What do you think Anet's plan is for 90% of the unused game?

[Fluffball]

For example, "the 2 other Orr zones" are often brought up as places with very little incentive to be in (as opposed to the Cursed Shore where there are high level mats, good drops and plentiful players pushing events).

Around mid-level zones, tons of group events and major map event chains lie pathetically abandoned like a college student's teddy bears. So much content is effectively wasted. It will get worse and worse the more content they add and the more people finish with alts and mapping and move to WvW, PvP and fractals/dungeons full time.

I refuse to believe Anet didn't know this would happen to almost every zone in the game. Do you think they have a plan, or is everything fine as is, and no one will ever hold the Temple of Dwayna ever again?

[shawn]

Underflow servers.

[Смерть]

They did help some with upping drops a little more broadly for level 80s, but yeah. I have no interest in replaying 90% of the map myself, unless there are new DE storylines, etc. -- what I thought ANet was going to do; perhaps have on the table down the road a bit to do; will see.

Replaying previous material for sub-par drops, not my idea of fun; thank you for dungeons and fractals.

[Lady Rhonwyn]

They did help some with upping drops a little more broadly for level 80s, but yeah. I have no interest in replaying 90% of the map myself, unless there are new DE storylines, etc. -- what I thought ANet was going to do; perhaps have on the table down the road a bit to do; will see.

In that case, those few areas where there are still people you wouldn't go to either, as you'll have done all DE's there too. And about the sub-par drops, my first and only (so far) ever lvl80 rare (never found an exotic yet) came from Fields of Ruins... And the rare before that (lvl78) came from Plains of Ashford...

[CHIPS]

They should do mass invasions if an area is left for too long. If you leave the Skritt alone for too long they attack farmers and take all the food in the area. If you leave the harpies alone for too long they take over the whole map. etc.

[Смерть]

They should do mass invasions if an area is left for too long. If you leave the Skritt alone for too long they attack farmers and take all the food in the area. If you leave the harpies alone for too long they take over the whole map. etc.

This is how I imagined the "changing" of the world to be.

[Fluffball]

They should do mass invasions if an area is left for too long. If you leave the Skritt alone for too long they attack farmers and take all the food in the area. If you leave the harpies alone for too long they take over the whole map. etc.

This is actually one of the reasons the other 2 Orr maps DON'T see play. There are no open waypoints, ever, so travel or dying is painful. Retaking them a) is impossible alone and b) lasts a matter of minutes. The O2OMs could be used as an example of what NOT to do.

Even Cursed Shore and Frostgorge may be underpopulated once they open up rest of the map, which looks like it will nearly double the playable areas, with presumably less players as people slowly drop off over the next 7 years. I know I'd like to revisit Southsun Cove once they add the real content. At least Frostgorge only has as far as I know a single event chain that needs a group (Claw). Even the champs in that area I've been able to solo. Cursed Shore is not possible to solo other than mapping and a few minor events.

I like the idea of underflow servers. If you combined all 2 million people in to one potential server (if needed), every map would have events being pushed.

[Alaris]

Wait, what, where are the "I play for fun and with my low-level friends thanks to awesome downscaling" posts?

Well, I have enjoyed plenty of times playing with people of very different levels.

Also, I still plan to go through all zones with at least one character, my already lvl 80 guardian.

What is natural is that people go to the highest reward. Why not then let mobs get richer if they get killed less, so eventually the highest rewards are to be found where nobody is. Or like zaishen, each day pick a different area and give it higher rewards and more DEs.

[satenia]

If I could go play with friends on other servers, I think I would get groups together to 'clear' certain zones - go get all the poi/vistas/skill points, which would be much quicker with a group. If others thought the same way, I guess some areas might see more action from such groups. I dunno.

The goal would be map completion though, which is a one-time per character thing. Maybe you'd be tempted to roll another alt due to this, but basically you just delay the effect described by the OP.

Not so much the spreading, but the grouping, which, apparently ANet finds important, because why else have all those Group DE's and champions? If guesting was in, you could assemble your friends, and not just the ones that may be on your own server, and focus your effort on one map. It's not ideal, but at least it's a start.

Personally I found that when going back to low/mid level areas as a decently equipped lvl 80 character, I can take DE's and even champions on my own. You still keep certain advantages even with downscaling. While this would certainly be more fun to do with friends, I'm still not convinced that you'd go back to low/mid level areas for this, while you could get better overall rewards out of it in a zone closer to your actual level.

It would however solve the problem with some Orr areas described in this thread... in either way, I'm very much looking forward to guesting.

What is natural is that people go to the highest reward. Why not then let mobs get richer if they get killed less, so eventually the highest rewards are to be found where nobody is. Or like zaishen, each day pick a different area and give it higher rewards and more DEs.

While I love the zaishen idea in theory, I do not think that it would work too well. You simply shift the daily Cursed Shore zerg to the zaishen area, turning it into the same farm-fest for a day.

After the Lost Shores weekend, I'd even go as far as saying that I'm totally against focusing popular events on a single map only. You'd have to make the zaishen boosts over several areas, but even then you'd run in danger that over time people figure out the best map to farm it and stick to that.

[Oliver]

The problems with those areas arise because of bad game design.
Firstly, the density of the mobs. When my first character reached Orr, the very first reaction was:" How am I going to get through the mobs to reach that point in the horizon." Every game square is littered with undeads, dodging one means smacking into the others until you over-agro and died.
Next, the respawn rate. You kill one, two, three undeads, take a breather to ease your numb fingers from pounding the keyboard and those you had just killed literally reappeared with a puff of smoke right beside you, meaning a hasty retreat back to square one.
Thirdly, the overpowered undeads. A simple kick from one of them deals more damage than any of my best skill.
So to get anywhere in those areas, you either find a group ( a rare thing there with the way things are), or take a running skill, which was what I did. But that was just enough to get from Point A to Point B, not exploration. Even with a running skill, you would frequently got snared, knocked down, crippled, etc. So a simple run could, in short, turn into a suicide run if you are not familiar with the area.
By the time my ele , Mesmer and warrior followed the ranger there, I had given up on those areas and my only goal was to reach the Cursed Shores. My thief ( level 36 now ) will be there in about 2 weeks, and I will do the same.