Dear Anet. I love playing your game. There is many great and positive things about it, and of course things that can be improved, but even those do not deeply affect the game, except for class balance (which is a delicate and fine art that each MMO continually grapples with) and, dare I say, the current structure of WvW.
I am going to put the issue on the table and my solution and then do a bit of a history as to why and how this became an issue.
I have read that Anet has a real issue with ‘zerginess’ of WvW, but this is only part of the problem. It is the effect, not the cause. Zergs don’t necessarily win against a coordinated adversary because WvW is simply not just about defeating opposing players; that is unless they outnumber their opponents overwhelmingly.
The issue with WvW is population and stacking.
This can easily be fixed by introducing a cap on the number of players on each map equal to the smallest total number of players of the three servers. The cap updates every time the score updates so that even a major influx of reinforcements by a server will only benefit them for a very short period of time before their opposition will be able to bring in reinforcements too. Alternatively if a server wants to reduce the amount of forces on a map, they can withdraw forces but will be at a disadvantage before the cap comes in. This management of forces will introduce a new element of strategy to WvW .
Players already in a map who get ‘bumped’ can either be sent to another map with capacity or put into a queue. That might sound unattractive, but fighting against overwhelming odds is even less fun and will ruin the game when sides cannot compete on a roughly even playing field. Im sure you can see from your stats about WvW participation rates.
This solution will make for more even contests which currently do not happen and create a disincentive for people to play WvW. You can put whatever rewards you want in WvW but if it is not fun, it will not hold people. It will also make server stacking less necessary.
My reasoning for this is the history of WvW thus far. Sea of Sorrows dominated Tier 1 for months on end until the recent free server transfers which, combined with general apathy and reduced motivation saw the server decline. Sea of Sorrows had a minor advantage in having a good number of Oceanic players that gave the server better coverage than competitors, even though population was roughly equal among competitors. Jade Quarry realised that the only way to overcome this was to stack their server with coverage across all times zones. Not only did they achieve this but they also obtained a large numerical advantage. They have, in effect, raised the bar of zerging. To counter this some WvW guilds from SoS moved to BlackGate. This pattern of server stacking goes beyond Tier 1 and this ‘strategy’ to win at WvW does not involve playing or skill but stacking. It is terribly lame. When you factor in those who jump on the bandwagon of successful servers, things get out of control.
EDIT: As a clarrification I will explain the concept a bit further.
Lets say you have 3 servers on a map; Server A with 200 players, Server B with 160 players and Server C with 120 players. Upon implementation, at the next score update both Server A and B will be culled to 120 players each. During the next 15 minutes the number of players on each server may vary but never beyond the cap of 120. If a Server drops below 120 then their new cap becomes the cap for the other servers next round. Numbers can reduce until they reach a minimum as set by Anet. An indicator should inform players on the server with the lowest number of players that their server is determining the cap. But wait, numbers only seem to be going down, you might say? True but the server currently used to determine the cap can allow reinforcements to be brought in. This is done by the agreement of all Commanders on the map. A new feature should be introduced for Commanders only where one can request reinforcements to be allowed in from the queue at the next update in multiples of 10. Other Commanders on the map will be notified and asked to support the request. A majority of Commanders need to approve for the reinforcements to arrive. This will enhance the role of Commanders, make them vital for success, and necessitate communication between Commanders. In the above example, the Commanders on Server C decide to bring in up to 50 more players. Server C will have this numerical advantage until scores update again when the cap of both Server A and B will be increased. The cycle then begins anew. If server numbers are equal, the server with the lower number of people queued will become the new ‘standard’.
This not only manages population imbalances but with close to equal resources to cover the whole map it will be counter productive to zerg and require small units and/or improved communication and coordination or all three.
(edited by Sablin.8071)