Guild Wars 2

Because (different from a world transfer) we are not moving your character between data centers, you may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on North American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.

This is not what we have been promised! I got friends on American servers I won’t be able to play with at all, that’s just crap and makes this “feature” to me entirely useless. Is this seriously what you have been working on for months and still can’t get it right?

i feel the same way, i want to play with both….cause i got friends on both sides.

It would be really nice, if they made it so u could, i really hope its coming in the future

EU and NA worlds are on totally different data centers. There simply isn’t the tech to guest cross-data center, and, honestly, I’m not sure why you would anticipate that there would be. It’s the very same reason why there are even different overflows between the two data centers and why people on one data center’s overflows can’t move to overflows from the other. They are legitimately totally cut off from one-another. Connecting them would require a massive single server for all worlds, which would be at enormous cost to ANet, or a sizable amount of tech for some interfacing, which is a lot of work for very little gain.

I’m sorry that this has negatively impacted you and playing with your friends, but maybe you and your friends should coordinate which data center you’d like to play together on. That’s the best I can offer.

If they knew it was going to be a limitation they should have told us about it at launch. As it is, now players who were banking on playing cross region are entirely screwed. Had they told us maybe some players would have then chosen to stay on a single region server.

Promise, schmomise.

It’s not a design choice but a technical limitation, which looks like could be solvable in the future. Adapt to the situation for the time being and be sure to make your voice heard in the future!

If an Asian can play on an NA server as home server just fine, why can’t a Euro play on an NA server as home server?

Last time I checked Euro and NA just have the Atlantic Ocean between them.

I could already meet up with people in my region by joining their overflow, but couldn’t do that with my American friends. Since anet promised guesting would let you play with your friends anywhere I assumed that was the aspect they were working on for all this time.

Coordinating to play on the same region just isn’t feasible because if my American friends moved to Euro they couldn’t play with their friends and vice versa. Or do you suggest everyone move to one region leaving the other completely empty?

alcopaul.2156:

If an Asian can play on an NA server as home server just fine, why can’t a Euro play on an NA server as home server?

Last time I checked Euro and NA just have the Atlantic Ocean between them.

Because Asians are sent to the NA dataserver. Europeans are sent to the Eu dataserver.

Btw, NA dataserver =/= EU dataserver.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

alcopaul.2156:

If an Asian can play on an NA server as home server just fine, why can’t a Euro play on an NA server as home server?

Last time I checked Euro and NA just have the Atlantic Ocean between them.

Because Asians are sent to the NA dataserver. Europeans are sent to the Eu dataserver.

Btw, NA dataserver =/= EU dataserver.

What this guy said.

This feature just became entirely useless for me. Really disappointed.

If doing it internationally is apparently not feasible, why was it so supported in GW1? Or did we forget about that?

Chellae.8401:

This feature just became entirely useless for me. Really disappointed.

If doing it internationally is apparently not feasible, why was it so supported in GW1? Or did we forget about that?

Two words. Gem Store.

Because GW1 had 99% of its content instanced and could easily support a single data center for all players in towns, whereas it’s totally different in GW2 with very little content being instanced.

I am -exceedingly- disappointed in this. We were promised we’d be able to play with our friends, no matter what server they happened to be playing on, which now won’t happen. :/

This, combined with the removal of free transfers, means I’ll NEVER be able to play with my friends in the US. How is that okay? How could anyone see that as an acceptable solution? What a complete step down from GW1.

You still have 12 days to move to an NA server (or have your friends move to an EU server) to prevent any issues.

There is an acceptable solution, that is keep transfers free and remove the time limit, the technology is already there so there’s no reason not to, could just hop onto your friend’s server no matter where they play.

Except that would cripple WvW entirely.

Rising Dusk.2408:

You still have 12 days to move to an NA server (or have your friends move to an EU server) to prevent any issues.

Again, do you want everyone to play in one region? Because if one person gets their friends to transfer, they would have to get their friends to transfer and so on so none would be left.

Rising Dusk.2408:

You still have 12 days to move to an NA server (or have your friends move to an EU server) to prevent any issues.

Oh, so you think an acceptable solution is for people to permanently reside in off-time zone servers? I live in Europe, and one of my friends lives in Australia. She plays on US servers, because the ping times and time zones fit her much better. I play on EU servers, because of the same reasons. We both have other friends in our respective regions. We were both looking forward to playing together with guesting.

Under this system, she and I will never be able to play together, period. How is that what was promised at all? And why do you defend it? How could a restriction like that possibly benefit you?

How about instead of the whole guesting system as it is now, you rethink the approach in order to make everyone happy?
Allow free server transfers once every 24 hours, but no WvWvW on the server you did not choose as home server.
Allow server transfers with WvWvW every…. idk, 7 days, free or for gems, whatever.
Stop restricting players in features that were already available, just because you can’t get something to work you wanted to implement and advertised without the restrictions that are now in place. This is honestly entirely ridiculous. Make the choice of Home Server bound to WvWvW and allow server hopping regardless of Home Server. Something. Anything.
Just don’t even pretend like the way you’re implementing guesting now is anything like what it was communicated to be in the beginning and what the free server hopping already offered.

I hope you realize that the reason many people looked to guesting was for group finding purposes in slower hours on each region…

If I on a EU player was playing at later hours, finding fractals and dungeon groups even on gw2lfg was pretty much impossible, while the NA page would stay full and vice versa.

This guesting would change nothing. If I invite friends to play guild wars 2, they already had the option of a free transfer to my server.

This makes NO sense. In GW1 I was able to play with whomever I pleased and had a full pool of people to choose to play with.

Inkcharm.2541:

How about instead of the whole guesting system as it is now, you rethink the approach in order to make everyone happy?
Allow free server transfers once every 24 hours, but no WvWvW on the server you did not choose as home server.
Allow server transfers with WvWvW every…. idk, 7 days, free or for gems, whatever.
Stop restricting players in features that were already available, just because you can’t get something to work you wanted to implement and advertised without the restrictions that are now in place. This is honestly entirely ridiculous. Make the choice of Home Server bound to WvWvW and allow server hopping regardless of Home Server. Something. Anything.
Just don’t even pretend like the way you’re implementing guesting now is anything like what it was communicated to be in the beginning and what the free server hopping already offered.

Exactly. And I know we’re in the minority, but it’ll also tear the RP community apart – there are two unofficial RP servers, Tarnished Coast and Piken Square. Removing our ability to hop between them to participate in events and such is devastating :/

If I can party with NA friends/guildies and see their dots on my map when we’re in the same overflow, why on Earth can’t I (on an EU server) play with them? The game clearly knows that they’re there.

This is a limitation that should have been either owned up to at launch or avoided altogether by just doing what you may as well have done and implemented full blown regionally locked versions instead of the frustrating halfway house we have now.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Because GW1 had 99% of its content instanced and could easily support a single data center for all players in towns, whereas it’s totally different in GW2 with very little content being instanced.

The reason people wanted guesting was for dungeons and fractals to begin with, which are instanced zones. WvW was already offlimits, so the only group content left that people really wanted group forming versatility with was dungeons.

Massive step back from GW1 and makes guesting completely pointless.

Actually, they didn’t promise that you would be able to cross-realm. They said that there would be restrictions.

http://www.arena.net/blog/choosing-and-transferring-worlds-in-guild-wars-2

But fine, feel free to make stuff up

With guesting, your characters can play on any world where you have friends—with certain restrictions. For instance, you will not be able to participate in WvW while guesting.

Clearly states you’ll be able to play on any world you have friends on. The restrictions refer to certain features being unavailable (WvW), not that the worlds you can guest on will be restricted.

Shinzan.2908:

With guesting, your characters can play on any world where you have friends—with certain restrictions. For instance, you will not be able to participate in WvW while guesting.

Clearly states you’ll be able to play on any world you have friends on. The restrictions refer to certain features being unavailable (WvW), not that the worlds you can guest on will be restricted.

No…it doesn’t. That’s just how you interpret the statement. Restrictions are only defined by 1 example…you can’t draw definitive conclusions from just 1 example.

If you don’t read anything into and take it on face value then restrictions could end up being anything…even the inability to guest cross-realm.

Shinzan.2908:

With guesting, your characters can play on any world where you have friends—with certain restrictions. For instance, you will not be able to participate in WvW while guesting.

Clearly states you’ll be able to play on any world you have friends on. The restrictions refer to certain features being unavailable (WvW), not that the worlds you can guest on will be restricted.

No, it does not state that clearly. The certain restrictions still pertain to the “any world” part of the statement. They gave an example of one of the restrictions, not all of them.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

alcopaul.2156:

If an Asian can play on an NA server as home server just fine, why can’t a Euro play on an NA server as home server?

Last time I checked Euro and NA just have the Atlantic Ocean between them.

Because Asians are sent to the NA dataserver. Europeans are sent to the Eu dataserver.

Btw, NA dataserver =/= EU dataserver.

But someone from Europe can choose to play in an NA server amirite? (and that was the point of my post.)

I enjoyed playing on euro and asian servers for gw1 looks like this wont be an option in gw2

Man… I was apathetic regarding the NA and EU problem since I don’t have any EU friends. But after reading these posts, it made me understand the outcry of some players.

One thing I could think of (pardon the armchair programming) to solve the problem is consolidate the servers into one region (No NA or EU servers). There are no Oceanic servers anyway, and some home worlds in NA were the default for Oceanic players.

Questions is, “Is it feasible just to combine NA and EU servers into one pool, not segregated as we have now?”

I can not even express how disappointed I am that cross region guesting will not be possible. ANet practically destroys the international communities that were build for seven years in GW1.
We over at GWOnline.net, who have such a community suffer already from the divide and were looking forward to some cross region guesting to close the gap again.

1000000000000000000% support.

So I can’t even join my NA buddies now? I was kind of happy that guesting would finally be implemented but it’s region specific. Good job on getting guesting in, hope they do something about the region ties.

This was the thing I was afraid of. There was a serious lack of communication which many players, myself included thought it was a very important feature. We’re not told of the current situation, no progress reports etc. Just this, now I’m tied with sticking to either a NA or EU region.

This seriously is a suckerpunch makes most of my efforts moot now.

If anyone could help me understand the arrangements in Gw1 about server choices etc that would be greatly appreciated as I only played a little bit of Gw.

Good job on the guesting but I’m not very happy about the lack of communication allowing me to plan way beforehand.

Nothing more to say that guesting is very disappointing and that I agree with what the post is asking.

My idea of guesting was able to play say usa time zone when my time zone is sleeping and same with usa.
Atm gusting is mostly useless then.

Oh well hopefully in the future we can guest usa servers.

I am sad about this as well. I had really looked forward to being able play with American based friends, without losing those on European servers.

I have no need whatsoever to transfer between NA servers, but I would have liked to guest my friend on european server..

Wow, this totally sucks. Since the NA/eu restrictions were not in gw1, many assumed it would be done here as well.

I’m part of a cross server NA/eu guild and union that was created in anticipation we would all be able to play together once guesting was implemented. This throws a wet blanket over the entire game

^ Yea, hopefully.

I for one am disappointed. They were working on guesting however why couldn’t we have any updates on these types of things. It’s unfortunate, given a lot more notice I could organised something just that it’s only a short 2 or so weeks away.

There wasn’t any server specificity in the orignal Gw right? Like OP said we were told that we could guest in any server, yes the indication of not being to overflow with NA lead to me thinking and I am now proven right. Thing is if they weren’t able to implement such things why not SAY so?

You guys do understand that transferring your character data to another center costs money right? And they’ve currently been letting us do it for free simply because they hadn’t completely worked out guesting. This new way will help out a lot of players, and it will close doors for others. Maybe someday we will see the addition of Cross Datacenter play, but for now this less than perfect solution is the only one feasible.

PS for anyone saying that this was doable in GW1, please understand that it was not. GW1 had a completely different infrastructure that made something that looked like this possible. They are not the same thing.

Dra Keln.2015:

PS for anyone saying that this was doable in GW1, please understand that it was not. GW1 had a completely different infrastructure that made something that looked like this possible. They are not the same thing.

Well, why wasn’t this game designed with the same or similar infrastructure? If the region restrictions were made clear at the beginning, this wouldn’t be such a blow to the player base.

I cant play with my friends from the US? Whats the point then, seriously.

This is so disappointing I can’t even begin to express it. I was waiting to play with my US buddies since launch and this is what we get? Nice way to hide your intentions, if this was clearly stated before launch, it wouldn’t be such an issue – but now? Seriously, I feel swindled.

Super lame. I hope that they change this.

Was so looking forward to the Guesting and meeting up with my GW1 guildmates that from the start realised that due to the time zones on servers, that i couldnt play on and american server for most of my playtime, but they found it hard on a euro, was hoping Guesting would let me have day trips out to play with them again…… very disappointed is an understatement.

Before anyone comments i can move, I dont want to move to a NA server just to spend 2 hrs online at the same time, also not prepared to leave the new friends ive made behind here either..

Really hope at some point this will change.. I remember being only allowed a certain amount of transfers in the early days of GW1, and how much that improved over the years, just a shame some of the basics we had take for granted GW1 were never thought to be implemented here .

/sadface

Dra Keln.2015:

You guys do understand that transferring your character data to another center costs money right?

What costs money? Having a server send information over the internet? Well that’s what the guesting is doing. But lets suppose you’re right, make me pay 40$ a year to be able to transfer to one specific (I do not care which one) NA server as much as I want, I will gladly take this option. And no I am not talking about WvW or anything else, I am just talking about running dungeons when I can’t find anyone on my server to do so just because people are sleeping.

Warder.3491:

Inkcharm.2541:

How about instead of the whole guesting system as it is now, you rethink the approach in order to make everyone happy?
Allow free server transfers once every 24 hours, but no WvWvW on the server you did not choose as home server.
Allow server transfers with WvWvW every…. idk, 7 days, free or for gems, whatever.
Stop restricting players in features that were already available, just because you can’t get something to work you wanted to implement and advertised without the restrictions that are now in place. This is honestly entirely ridiculous. Make the choice of Home Server bound to WvWvW and allow server hopping regardless of Home Server. Something. Anything.
Just don’t even pretend like the way you’re implementing guesting now is anything like what it was communicated to be in the beginning and what the free server hopping already offered.

Exactly. And I know we’re in the minority, but it’ll also tear the RP community apart – there are two unofficial RP servers, Tarnished Coast and Piken Square. Removing our ability to hop between them to participate in events and such is devastating :/

yeah because bein able to join TC always work…. you know exsept for the fact that it was ALWAYS FULL

Rising Dusk.2408:

EU and NA worlds are on totally different data centers. There simply isn’t the tech to guest cross-data center, and, honestly, I’m not sure why you would anticipate that there would be. It’s the very same reason why there are even different overflows between the two data centers and why people on one data center’s overflows can’t move to overflows from the other. They are legitimately totally cut off from one-another. Connecting them would require a massive single server for all worlds, which would be at enormous cost to ANet, or a sizable amount of tech for some interfacing, which is a lot of work for very little gain.

I’m sorry that this has negatively impacted you and playing with your friends, but maybe you and your friends should coordinate which data center you’d like to play together on. That’s the best I can offer.

I would just like to point out that if they were truly totally separate systems, we wouldn’t be able to join the same parties or talk to each other through whispers or party chat. I bet it’s more a bandwidth issue. Lag or sheer data transfer/bills they’re concerned about.

We knew it was impossible back in November. And that was before we had any kind of ETA on the implementation of guesting. And don’t even say that the following post refers to partying, not guesting.

Because 1+1=2 folks.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Can-i-party-with-americans-from-europe/first#post838261

One thing that could help this whole issue, at least in part, is this:

As in WoW, EQ and other similar games, you could have multiple toons on the same account on different servers and regions. Why not here? Then at least folks could play in either region

here you go.

Now everyone be quiet.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Guesting-is-Coming/page/3#post1221430

Okay, so there’s no WvW conflict between NA and EU servers, since they never fight each other.

Here’ a potential solution (technical feasibility not withstanding). Should leave everyone with an “can deal with it” feeling, including Anet which is usually the sign of a good compromise.

Let everyone pick 2 home servers. One in NA and one in EU.

Each player can transfer for free between these two home servers. Frequency may be limited to keep bandwidth reasonable.

Guesting is possible within each region, as planned.

The idea is to stop people constantly flying back and forth between the data centres (just guesting wherever) and get groups to land mostly on NA or EU. However, this leaves it open for players to switch regions when necessary to meet up with a differnet group of friends.