vs Rytlock's "confrontation"

Player name: The Best Ass In Tamriel

(And I do just mean the tumblr fandom. I’ve not really noticed the fandom as a whole having this problem.)

So full disclosure before I talk about what I’ve noticed personally and why I think this jazz is happening: I’ve never been the most active in this fandom. I’ve tried to be in the past but even at my peak I’ve always felt a lil outside of everything? I’ve been playing GW2 since launch and I’ve been making a Gw2 comic at @torasteals for the fandom for almost 5 years at this point. For most of that time I’ve felt like some weirdo tossing shit into the void and only vaguely being aware of what else was going on in the tumblr fandom beyond the few blogs I followed. I want y’all to keep this in mind cause it does paint my perception of what I’ve seen as different from someone who may have been far more involved in the fandom than me.

Okay with that in mind…

Here’s what I’ve noticed:

The death of engagement within the GW2 fandom as I’ve noticed it seems tied to at least three things: Tumblrpocalypse of 2018, the migration to FFXIV, and the Pandemic of 2020.

Tumblrpocalypse of 2018

Does anyone else remember this shit? Tumblr had that change of policy around nsfw art and changed how they treat links that basically murdered a bunch of creators on tumblr? Everyone remember the mass exodus of artists and creators leaving tumblr for twitter? Yeah tumblr has definitely chugged along alive since, somehow miraculously, but the effects of this can still be felt to this day. We lost a large chunk of creators for the fandom during this. I wouldn’t be surprised if a large chunk of fans, who don’t create fan works, left for this reason as well.

Personally, tumblr’s changes in policy and algorithm during this time nearly killed my comic. I lost a lot of readers and a lot of engagement with my work. I wouldn’t be surprised if other artists went through something similar here.

Even so, I do recall there still being a lot of creators that held on during this time and who persisted to create works on tumblr. But then…

The Migration to FFXIV

From what I’ve seen, a lot of people, creators and just fans alike, have simply moved on from GW2 to FFXIV. Like, a LOT of them. Nearly every artist that I used to follow for GW2 content just doesn’t do that anymore. Nearly all of them have moved onto FFXIV (and sometimes some other game entirely, but it’s usually FFXIV). I don’t know what this says about the state of the game itself right now, but I’m not sure we’re getting as many new fans as we’re losing right now. That might change when End of Dragons is released, since expansions have always historically brought in an influx of new blood, but I’m no fortune-teller.

As it currently stands, I legitimately don’t know how many of us are left in this fandom. Hell, I still regularly make content for this fandom weekly and I can tell you I’ve been burned out on the game and needing a break from it for awhile now. I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t a common feeling.

Pandemic of 2020

I would honestly argue that this is what put the nails in the coffin for the fandom at present. I couldn’t begin to tell you exact reasons why, but I can tell you that as soon as shit really hit the fan last year, engagement in this fandom basically died. My posts that used to get a handful of reblogs, have turned to nearly zero over the course of this crisis.

My dashboard used to be littered in GW2 posts. So much so that even if I didn’t directly follow them, I could tell you who the big names in the tumblr fandom were. I can’t do that anymore. I have no idea who is big and popular on here anymore. It’s not just that people have stopped engaging, it’s that people have stopped creating as well. I’ve seen honest to god radio silence from creators who used to dominate the GW2 tag.

Again I’ve got nothing but guesses as to why this is? COVID has done a number on all of us I think. It’s harder to create and it’s harder to engage. It’s incredibly depressing on a number of fronts.

So is this it then?

I’d like to hope it isn’t?

I don’t really want to end this on such a doom and gloom note, and I’m sorry for that. I don’t think the fandom will straight up die forever but I do think we’re havin’ it rough right now. And there’s no guarantee of when shit’ll pick back up again as far as I’m aware.

Personally started being jaded around HoT when the cracks on the wall on how directionless GW2 is and for how little the story is thought for if you care for anything but human lore. The other races are constantly losing their identity when the current narrative team completely fails to make the characters more relatable and likeable without having to resort to things like oh no Rytlock, a Charr, who are famously known for putting their children in fucking war kindergarten and forgetting about them, suddenly has big baby feefees about his kids that he’s never known :((( and as war as I’m aware they’re still completely ignoring the sylvari situation since HoT. ANet abandoning any and all new content people enjoyed and having a glacial pace updating Fractals just about leaves that godawful, directionless story with unlikeable characters left (because of course they kill or abandon the likeable ones, as you do when you’re writing good and engaging story, you know) in the roster about the only thing coming in anymore aside from whatever they want to sell to you in the gem store.

Also as far as I’m aware GW2 is STILL missing a game director since the last one left around mid to late 2020.

Also ANet’s monetization of GW2 is insanely predatory, which it only skirts from gaining more scorn because people still buy the whole “oh it doesn’t have a subscription fee!” model, but the game has multiple lootboxes with FOMO baked right into them to get people to gamble, majority of new weapon skins are locked behind someone having to gamble the Black Lion chests for the tickets, most interesting pieces of armour, not outfits, are shoved into the gamble boxes, mount skins are behind lootboxes unless you want to pay 3x the price of the box for a skin you want, which matters a lot more in a game where the only endgame left is the aesthetics. Not to mention things like having to pay for LS drops on top of buying the expansion they’re a part of if you weren’t playing when they dropped which just keeps increasing the adoption cost for new and returning players, having incredibly limited build and gear save slots when the extras you buy are character bound. I’ve realized at least myself that I could keep up 2 or 3 subscriptions to other MMOs and still save money compared to trying to keep up my characters with multiple builds and aesthetics I enjoyed in GW2. 

Like sure, GW2 doesn’t have a sub, but something like XIV for that subscription gives you all the story updates in an expansion even if you didn’t play when they dropped, a consistent update schedule with actually new content and aesthetics that you’re not paying extra for. While I wish that a sub based MMO didn’t have an extra cash shop, but then again, that cash shop doesn’t also have FOMO lootboxes so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯