Guild Wars 2

My server, GoM, is almost dead. The server is practically empty now, PvE world is pretty sparse with players and WvW is almost in an equally worse situation. We have [Outnumbered] pretty much hourly and throughout the night entirely.

There’s simply waaaay too many servers for this game, end result being the total population being hilariously poorly spread across servers; everyone flocks to a few servers and the rest are essentially left for dead. Anet obviously knows this and has been all but too eager to take advantage of it by pretty much making it so that you either have to spend the money to get out of your ghost town of a server or spend a decent chunk of even more time in the ghost town to get out of it via dungeons and farming. I know it’s a somewhat cynical take on things but if you look at it these kind of situations are decent money makers for anet and they know it.

The responsible thing would be to merge servers so the playerbase is more concentrated in fewer servers. 24 servers is absolutely in no way necessary for this game. 9 for North America alone would work more than fine (one in the north east, mid east, south east/one in the southwest, northwest, midwest etc).

Make the servers able to handle it. Make them better , just do something to make this happen, if that’s even necessary. I play this game because I want to play an MMOrpg. I want to interact with other people and have fun doing it, whether that be through WvW, PvP, PvE, whatever. I don’t want to play in a ghost town and then be punished for it in WvW and PvE.

I completely agree

sinject.4607:

And please dont tell us that many of these servers are highly populated or whatever, we know these statistics have been ridiculously inflated by not working on the basis of how many players are active, but rather how many accounts there are regardless of how inactive they are (which many, many, many are).

I’d like to know where you got those numbers from.

You say there are way too many Servers even for NA when all of them are on a very high population? While I agree to maybe delete some 4-5 EU Servers, NA has the right amount. The Population works on activity of the Players, my old server often changed from medium to very high population on prime time.

I don’t feel that any NA Server is low populated, maybe try searching in the right places, because people tend to gather at certain points like Meta Events and Farm spots.

Also it is 3:30 AM Server Time, what do you expect, a late night party at a random location in the world?

In The End, if you really think your server is empty, because you got the precise numbers of inactive accounts it seems, just Guest to a high populated server, even if you can’t WvW there, you can atleast farm the money for a server transfer there with a lot more people.

Justdeifyme.9387:

sinject.4607:

And please dont tell us that many of these servers are highly populated or whatever, we know these statistics have been ridiculously inflated by not working on the basis of how many players are active, but rather how many accounts there are regardless of how inactive they are (which many, many, many are).

I’d like to know where you got those numbers from.

You say there are way too many Servers even for NA when all of them are on a very high population? While I agree to maybe delete some 4-5 EU Servers, NA has the right amount. The Population works on activity of the Players, my old server often changed from medium to very high population on prime time.

I don’t feel that any NA Server is low populated, maybe try searching in the right places, because people tend to gather at certain points like Meta Events and Farm spots.

Also it is 3:30 AM Server Time, what do you expect, a late night party at a random location in the world?

regardless, there’s plenty of ghost town servers. most people want to move to more populated servers and this especially applies to WvWers like myself who are tired of getting rolled constantly simply because your server does not have the numbers to compete, and moving down to servers with the same population issue wouldn’t be solving the issue at all (i’ve heard it can be described as PvDoor in the extent of how boring it can be).
I don’t expect people to be on like this, this late in the night; but it’s not just now, it’s throughout the day. I’m seeing the server get emptier and emptier both in WvW and PvE.

So instead of having low and high population servers, why not try to make it so the playerbase isn’t spread around so much and more concentrated so all servers are highly populated? Seems like a fairly simple solution to one of this games biggest issues.

I see the issue, but the solution is not that simple to be done. Anet isn’t known for optimal situations in their hardware or engine. You’ll either have to buy the Server Transfer, or wait until Anet finds the time to look at the server situation. And that could take a while.

Sorry for the necro, but I’m sure this topic comes up a lot and didn’t want to make a new one.

I’m on Emhry Bay and would ‘love’ to be merged with another ‘High’ (I love that) pop server.

Could I move? I suppose. Would I mind paying the fine? I guess not. Would my guild bank come with me. No. And that’s why it’s not a very good option.

I’m also too for merging some way too empty EU servers.

Its always better to merge empty servers to give players a feeling that their world is full of live and adding to the game again new servers, if theres the need to do so, than to have countless of dead servers with low to very low populations, that create for anet also only costs that they can reduce, if they would merge the servers, what could lead also too to an imprvement to the other servers that they get more stabile and that we would see lesser server problems in general.

Players in WvW get the advantage from it, that they can participate in WvW and actually are also competitive then, making WvW battles in general more interesting, when you have not just total defenseless enemies that you can totally steamroll and dominate over the couse of the complete match from begin on, like it is the case in EU Bronze League for example with my server ion which I’m playing – Drakkar Lake.

We totally dominated last week our both enemies and we totally dominate this week again against our enemies to the point, that the whole map is basically at night times perma blue everywhere mostly having our points per interval always up at the 550-650.
Last match last week we even maximized ALL WvW Boni due to the patch that we collected so much points through our perma domination with like nearly 500k points, while the other worlds had only around 100k or much lesser.

This is no state into which WvW should stay forever and i absolutely believe in Anet, that thids kind of domination absolutely wasn’t planned and intended to exist in this game mode.

WvW needs imo a redesign, it should be 3 worlds that fight each other. it would be better if 4 worlds fight against each other. Redesign the maps for that change of the gameplay. With 4 worlds fightign against each other, the chances are much higher, that 1 world can’t totally dominate all others..

With 4 worlds on the maps, there will be also much more action on the maps.
In regard of colors its also no problem.
We have already Red, Blue and Green, lets implement for world 4 YELLOW

In the EU, all the servers except Drakkar, Dzagonur and Surmia should get merged somehow, because these 3 servers are in the Bronze League toe only good populated servers, that can battle in WVW in a competitive way with their populations.

I’d merge together:

Fire Ring + Vaabi + Whiteside Ridge (if thats the correct name in English) together under the name of Fire Ring
Blacktide + Wail Rift (if thats the correct name in English) together under new name of Vaabi
Arbor Stone FR + any other FR server together with Vizunah under the name of Vizuna Square

And as said, if there should be then anywhen the need for new Servers, then reopen one of those that got merged and add in the old servers again, if the general player population will rise…

We all know that Anet is intending to release GW2 soon also for China, so there will come anyway new international servers, because I don’t believe in it, that they make for them extra servers with a [CH]. People from there will also need to write on English still later, if they want to play and communicate together in this persistant international game world with others, like all other people that play on a [DE], [ES] or [FR] server also have to communicate on English, if they don’t can write in German, French or Spanish and liek all peopel communicate in no language flagged international servers anyways. with each other.

However, im pretty sure also that countries liek China will have never population problems, same like American Servers will never have to fear such problems, just due to the size of their countries, which make up for the largest parts of general world population., thus havign the biggest potential for alot of potential GW2 players.

just my 2 cents on this topic, onto which i heavily agree.

Lesser is sometimes more. In case of Servers this fits totally here as Anet is always free to add anytime more servers, if really needed.

Why would you ever want to merge empty servers? There are no zergs there.

there are no zergs there, because peopel on the low populated servers know that they are low populated and due to this simply aren’t interested in WVW at all, because they know they lose so or so anyway always.

But if you merge servers together to increase the overall population for everybody on the affected merged servers, people on the merged server could gain more interest in WVW, because they have then the manpower to come up with competitive zergs …

I believe it’s impossible at this time and this is why I think so.

If servers were merged, I would bet that the way it’s done is that the old servers are destroyed and a new one made with the populations put in the new one. The people who are asking for mergers may have forgotten or don’t know that guild banks are tied to their server and can’t be moved. This would mean that the guild banks would be destroyed along with the servers. All the influence, upgrades, access to commendations and guild missions and items in the guild storage would be lost. Because of WvW considerations, a minimum of 3 servers, and maybe 6 servers to make 2 opposing sets, would have to be merged with a loss of all those guild banks. There is no way that ANet could merge servers without massive outrage from people didn’t want a merger and who lose their guilds and all their work on it.

Until ANet has the tools to detach guilds from servers and move them to another server, mergers will not happen.

Orpheal.8263:

there are no zergs there, because peopel on the low populated servers know that they are low populated and due to this simply aren’t interested in WVW at all, because they know they lose so or so anyway always.

But if you merge servers together to increase the overall population for everybody on the affected merged servers, people on the merged server could gain more interest in WVW, because they have then the manpower to come up with competitive zergs …

I meant zergs in pve which are the cancer of this game. Empty servers are the most healthy ones in pve.

haviz.1340:

Orpheal.8263:

there are no zergs there, because peopel on the low populated servers know that they are low populated and due to this simply aren’t interested in WVW at all, because they know they lose so or so anyway always.

But if you merge servers together to increase the overall population for everybody on the affected merged servers, people on the merged server could gain more interest in WVW, because they have then the manpower to come up with competitive zergs …

I meant zergs in pve which are the cancer of this game. Empty servers are the most healthy ones in pve.

Hmm, I am sure and hoping you mean low-populated servers lol.
In what aspects may I ask that lower-populated servers are healthier ones for PvE?
In terms of efficiency/progression, I can’t imagine finishing most living story metas (at least under a reasonable amount of time) without a zerg, especially MK’s lab.

P.S @OP, I am all for it.

jayvux.4128:

Hmm, I am sure and hoping you mean low-populated servers lol.
In what aspects may I ask that lower-populated servers are healthier ones for PvE?
In terms of efficiency/progression, I can’t imagine finishing most living story metas (at least under a reasonable amount of time) without a zerg, especially MK’s lab.

P.S @OP, I am all for it.

If you have at least 1-2 friends, almost every content is doable and it’s much more fun than pressing 1 together with 100 people ignoring every single mechanic anet designed and then complaining on the simplicity of this game. The best part is that you can actually complete meta events faster than with your typical zerg if you put some effort into it.

Lastly, anet will not merge 3 servers into 1 because of wvw matchmaking issues.

I’m going to be honest. I’m very much against server merging at this stage.
There are three important things going on.
The first is that the game is alive and still a lot of people playing. Not as much as during the initial peak, but still a lot.
The second is that server merging is bad advertisement. This is picked up by the press (and feeded by competition) as a sign off weakness. It results in people thinking the game is trash and result in less new people joining and even emptier servers.
The third is that some people like to be on a quit server. They are there and they don’t harm anyone. also the impression off a quit server is often wrong cause people are just doing different things. (a WvW server would often be empty in PvE and a PvE server is often emtpy in WvW).

That doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a solution for those on a small server and finding themselfes lonely. My suggestion to solve this all would be to have more dynamic transfer prices. The price for a transfer would depend on how often you get one. The base costst are actually higher then they are now, but if you played for a longer time (e.g. since start) and never had a server transfer you get a discount. on top off that, if your server population is dropping you also get a discount. This discount on discount can result in a situation that a server transfer can be farmed within several hours.

Astral Projections.7320:

I believe it’s impossible at this time and this is why I think so.

If servers were merged, I would bet that the way it’s done is that the old servers are destroyed and a new one made with the populations put in the new one. The people who are asking for mergers may have forgotten or don’t know that guild banks are tied to their server and can’t be moved. This would mean that the guild banks would be destroyed along with the servers. All the influence, upgrades, access to commendations and guild missions and items in the guild storage would be lost. Because of WvW considerations, a minimum of 3 servers, and maybe 6 servers to make 2 opposing sets, would have to be merged with a loss of all those guild banks. There is no way that ANet could merge servers without massive outrage from people didn’t want a merger and who lose their guilds and all their work on it.

Until ANet has the tools to detach guilds from servers and move them to another server, mergers will not happen.

And I wouldn’t want them to, because this reason alone is the ‘sole’ reason why I just don’t pay the fine and pack up and move. I’d lose my personal guild bank.

I’d like to think that when they decide to merge servers, that they address this as part of the mechanic.

Of course, they paid someone to make a plush griffon I paid $6.25 for not swim any more, after it could for 3-4 months, so maybe I shouldn’t hang my hat on anything rational happening.

mercury ranique.2170:

I’m going to be honest. I’m very much against server merging at this stage.
There are three important things going on.
The first is that the game is alive and still a lot of people playing. Not as much as during the initial peak, but still a lot.
The second is that server merging is bad advertisement. This is picked up by the press (and feeded by competition) as a sign off weakness. It results in people thinking the game is trash and result in less new people joining and even emptier servers.
The third is that some people like to be on a quit server. They are there and they don’t harm anyone. also the impression off a quit server is often wrong cause people are just doing different things. (a WvW server would often be empty in PvE and a PvE server is often emtpy in WvW).

That doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be a solution for those on a small server and finding themselfes lonely. My suggestion to solve this all would be to have more dynamic transfer prices. The price for a transfer would depend on how often you get one. The base costst are actually higher then they are now, but if you played for a longer time (e.g. since start) and never had a server transfer you get a discount. on top off that, if your server population is dropping you also get a discount. This discount on discount can result in a situation that a server transfer can be farmed within several hours.

I can respect this position as well. I’d be ‘happy’ to pay for a transfer. My issue is my personal guild bank. I spent a lot of time on building that up, and don’t want to lose it. As such, I feel like I don’t have any options, unless they provide us with some sort of mechanic to transfer that.

About the only option I have is to buy another game, and put a character in the guild on that server, and then keep perma guested to that server to use my old guild vault. That would be ‘terribly’ inconvenient, as I’m constantly moving things in and out of it. I’d constantly be returning to town, having to logout, then come back in after rifling through the burdensome guesting UI (you are guesting, are you sure you want to guest? [y/n] really? [y/n] last question, do you know what the word ‘hyperbole’ means? [y/n] are you aware as soon as you log out we’re going to stop guesting you, and you’ll have to do this again? [y/n])

Don’t get me wrong, I’d be ‘happy’ to move myself, and pay the transfer. What is preventing me is my personal guild vault and not being able to take that with me.

It does raise another concern, however. What if they add the mechanic to move a guild vault and accrued influence. What happens if enough people leave a low pop (excuse me, ‘High’) server that it starts a chain reaction and there’s like 100 people left? And then they retire the server and move everyone off that’s left? I guess that’s more money for them, since they got a lot of paid transfers before they retired it, which would be clever, but would that look any different in the media?

Though, I don’t much care about the media. Reviews seemed to have devolved into a lowest common denominator engine of sorts. I’ve been playing the funnest game I’ve played in a long time with one of the best development teams that interacts with the community constantly in every meaningful way you can possibly imagine, and it’s one of the worst rated games I’ve ever seen.

I play on a server with a Very High population, and whenever I’m in Lion’s Arch, the current Living World area, Sparkfly Fen, etc. I get put on an overflow server with a queue that goes on for hours.

I don’t think merging servers is the answer to this, at least not for PvE. I think they should change this system to first put players from higher-populated worlds onto lower-populated servers’ versions of that map instead of putting us in overflow, and when all low-populated maps are filled up, then put me on overflows. This way people will have more people to play with on all servers without having to deal with overflow and queues.