#I like the way fandom uses “norns!” but I'm looking for some variety.

[delyth88]

Okay. Swearwords on Asgard. What do you use in your writing?

[theleafwarden]

So I've read through a lot of the responses and it is a lot of this. I only got into this game because of my best friend trying out from one of her friends as I was starting out in the DA fandom.

This was around fall of 2014. I remember there being general tumblr drama that fell over into this area. That's nothing new. It's tumblr, that happens.

Honestly I won't even say the pandemic or playing final fantasy was the reason (because I didn't grow up playing that game so I'm not going to count it). I will count the fact that because tumblr fucked up art and porn and shit on here is why a LOT of people left.

Number 1: Tumblr is dead. Period. It's Tumblr. It's really not anything else other than tumblr. We are all holding on for the next tumblr to come around. I only foow like maybe 6 GW2 folks on Twitter and the art scene is dead there too. Twitter too hostile though 😂

Number 2: It was the imbalance of it all.

I came in when LSS2 finished and HoT was going on for at least six months. I played personal story and was damn near individually introduced to a variety of characters depending on which race I played.

I went into Living Story Season Two and THAT is where the confusion and fustration started.

The fact that I came in too late to play the first living story and going through all of these flashbacks of old lions arch and new lions arch just looked incomplete. So much damn space and no character.

Then Heart of Thorns happened and my god the stress. I ain't never cried over the loss of characters and storyline like I did with HoT. Having to learn about new characters who I was never properly introduced to and then expected to care about them and play with them while my favs just died and suffered. Like that was torture porn. I didn't ask for that. Plus the amount of people who randomly hated Sylvari.....was....um...interesting.

Then we go into Living Story Season Three which is all over the place with stuff coming from the first Guild Wars game (which god can people go back over there I need help in both prophecies and nightfall 😂) and it just seemed forced why trying to implement this new team of characters that I still wasn't fond of because I never built a relationship with them through story and gameplay. Just like that, the storyline started dying.

Path of Fire came and I was excited because yay Black characters for me! And then the issue around that between non black players and black players who been in the game since it started...🥴 And folks thinking that we're bringing "politics" into it honestly scared off some of the racists in the tumblr fandom away. Now about the gameplay.....chile I still haven't finish PoF because it's just a lot and not a lot of people are online on my server...

Then Living Story Season Four happened and I just disconnected from the game because I'm already struggling to get mounts, then you add like 3 more mounts and then we randomly beat Joko and Kralkatorik and I'm just overwhelmed at this point.

Now we on the Icebrood saga that don't have shit to do with Norn and it's seems like it's all Charr stuff and I was expecting a mini Skyrim story so I can Kiki and cackle and have fun with and it's just gotten depressing. I don't know what's going on. When did Braham become one with Primordus and why and I don't like that, what does that mean....I worry about that child. Like where is the imagination for the Norn and Charr players?

Ain't we going to Cantha or something? And I sure as fuck don't know shit about Cantha because I'm still struggling to get through prophecies and nightfall, ain't no way I'll be dealing with factions anytime soon.

Like what happened to half the characters? Like I'm just fustrated. I miss all of the characters. I really do....half the factions in the game done fell off after HoT.....

It's like some of us want to see some ideas from other MMORPGs brought into this game. This game has so much potential to be great but it's like NCSoft fucking up. ArenaNet fucking up.

Lastly, I think also we are all old farts and don't wanna be bothered with anything anymore. Hell, even the Sims is trash.

What Killed The GW2 Tumblr Fandom?

(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.

If anyone else has thoughts on this, I’d love to hear it. I’m sure my picture of what I’ve been seeing is incomplete, so if anyone has stuff to add or has noticed things I’ve straight up been blind to, I’d be very curious to know.