Suggestions and ideas for increasing interest in previous PvP content

[Eight]

The Grand Company lock is the biggest issue. I think they should add a GC Ranked and a non GC unranked mode. Ranked would be for GC standings and unranked would just be open to anyone regardless of what GC you're from. Ranked mode could give extra bonus for competing in it daily (maybe a few extra tomes) so that would give people incentive to do it and keep it alive.

If that can't happen because of the way the system is setup now they should add an optional mode that is open to everyone regardless of GC and instead of capture points being based on GC it could be team/alliance A,B,C.

They need something soon because it's become damn near impossible to even get into PVP anymore which is a shame because it's a lot of fun. Personally I don't care about the GC aspect of it and I rather just be paired with random people to just enjoy the PVP.

[Thekk]

The Grand Company lock is the biggest issue. I think they should add a GC Ranked and a non GC unranked mode. Ranked would be for GC standings and unranked would just be open to anyone regardless of what GC you're from. Ranked mode could give extra bonus for competing in it daily (maybe a few extra tomes) so that would give people incentive to do it and keep it alive.

Having 2 separate modes won't ever work with the current PvP population. Just take a look at what happened to 8v8 Feast when the ranked season started. Getting rid of GCs would be the thing to do, but we'll never know how hard that would be to implement unless SE says something since stuff like pvp ranks, standings and achievements are most likely meshed in. It's very unlikely to be as simple a change as people make it out to be.

[Eorzean_username]

The Grand Company lock is the biggest issue.

GC restrictions hamper the PvP base, but it's not the only issue and I think players fixate on it slightly too much. Consider:
Edited with Zojha's correction about Feast

• Feast 8v8, no GC restrictions (but role restrictions, which may be equally problematic), 20-30+ minute queues (for a 5-8 minute match) during Feast meta. Now roughly ∞ queue times with Shatter released.
• Feast 4v4, no GC restrictions (but role restrictions, which may be equally problematic), 15-20+ minute queues (for a 3-5 minute match) during Feast meta by the time I arrived late in the season. Now roughly ∞ queue times with Shatter released.
• Secure, Slaughter, Seize: Massively higher queue times than Shatter (trending to ∞ also) despite being the same content and having the same GC restrictions.
• I deliberately switched to a minority GC, cutting my typical queue times down by 50-75% of what I had to sit through as Aether Flames. However, I still encounter intermittent dead periods where the queue will tick up 40-45 minutes or longer. After I load into the match, if I ask around others experienced the same thing (so it's probably not some mysterious queue bug, it's just not enough players queuing at all during some play windows).
• JP datacenters have stable queues despite GC restrictions (My understanding is that JP dislikes GC restrictions for reasons of inconvenience, but not because GCs are stopping them from playing)

I don't think that removing GC restrictions will resolve issues like high turnover rate for previous content and a relatively small NA/EU PvP population. It's definitely one of several issues surrounding PvP that should be iterated and improved just due to community mandate (if nothing else), but I don't think GCs are the only issue and if other problems aren't also resolved, the result of GC dissolution might be surprisingly disappointing.

Something else to compare is PvE content with drastically high or effectively ∞ queue times: L50 EX Trials, Coils, and Savage Raid Finder. Similar to PvP, these:

• Are not a guaranteed victory (baseline or when sync'd down with strangers)
• Require coordination and communication (baseline or when sync'd down)
• Offer minor or zero incentive for using the Duty Finder to do it

On the other hand, even relatively small bribes like 120 Poetics is enough to keep MSQ Roulette (of all things) popping fast and consistently all day long. Many players are not thrilled with it, but they definitely do it.

[Zojha]

Feast 8v8, no restrictions[...]

Minor correction here: With role restrictions. The same role restrictions that cause tanks to have insta-queues and DPS to have 30 minute queues in PvE.

I'll be damned if that wasn't a big factor.

[Eorzean_username]

Minor correction here: With role restrictions. The same role restrictions that cause tanks to have insta-queues and DPS to have 30 minute queues in PvE.

I'll be damned if that wasn't a big factor.

That is actually a really good point (as Tank main it never occurred to me to think about the Role requirement, PvE habits) and I'll revise to account for it.

[jmdude]

You know what would increase people's interest? Not having to wait 30 minutes to get in based on their GC choice. Abolish the GC restriction

[LalafellDown]

You know what would increase people's interest? Not having to wait 30 minutes to get in based on their GC choice. Abolish the GC restriction

Still wouldn't queue for PVP, its not fun in this game.

[Guesswhat]

For each victorious FL match you get 1 week free subscription <- This!