Require an invite to guest.

Require an invite to guest.

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Posted by: Falunel.7645

Falunel.7645

In light of a recent thread, made here and reposted on Reddit, I’ve decided to make a formal thread for a suggestion one person posed: In order to guest onto a server, a guester must be invited by a native player on that server.

The reasons for doing so have already been posted by my fellow Coasters, but I will take the liberty of highlighting a few.

I am not opposed to the concept of guesting or the spirit of being able to for free visit a server, see what it’s like, play with a friend who is in another time zone and/or guild who you might not otherwise be with all the time. I personally have a good friend who might have been in that situation, rolled on another server in another guild, but wanted to guest with me on occasion. There might be people who don’t want to live on an RP server but want to see what it’s like before transferring.

This is not however the spirit of guesting that we are experiencing. What we are experiencing is an influx of people exploiting the system, bouncing from event to event. Some will argue that it’s not exploitation because it can be done and the game permits it, I’m pretty sure that it’s not within the spirit of guesting as implemented.


I would support Cross’s suggestion- that the only way to guest on another server would be being invited by someone. Guesting was, after all, meant as a way for friends on different servers to still play with each other- this would fulfill that original purpose while cutting down on the coattail-ers.

I do like hopping to other servers just to check out the communities there, and for convenience if, say, Balthazar is derped, but at this rate, the problems solved by implementing restrictions would be worth any inconveniences. Yeah, I know there will be people who will still coordinate to smuggle in troll squads and event hoppers, but the average troll/hopper won’t bother to organize that, and will likely just be lazy and stay on their own servers. It will be harder for people to just drop in if they’re interested in the personality of a server, but again… it won’t be much different (better even) than before paid transfers, when many servers were full. And I’m sure people could arrange something to help interested players over.


But seriously ANet. Those of us who are on the server or have paid for transfers to the server are the ones entitled to experience non-overflow content on the server. Those of us who built the community and who are the community. As Kumu stated, we made the bed. If they liked the bed so much, why do they just want to visit? Have their cake and eat it too? Then transfer.

Guests should receive services as available, not at the expense of natives. Community is built by those present all the time. When you say ‘if it’s too laggy guest elsewhere’ you’re basically saying guests’ privileges are more important than the hosting server population native rights, and I just won’t agree to that.


Come to TC, enjoy your 1-5 fps and crashes during dragon events because of all the other guesters.

The dragon events are becoming almost unplayable for me because of the lag and crashes I get due to all the people, plus the extreme culling problems. I don’t want to have to guest on another server, this is my home. It feels like a bunch of entitled strangers are tromping in, breaking my furniture, eating all my food, then flipping me off on the way out.

Speaking of which, I’ve definitely noticed a huge influx of map chat trolls lately.

If you’re friendly and considerate, I really don’t care. But we definitely have a slew of guesters who don’t give a kitten about the native population, and certainly some who are just plain unpleasant, selfish, and downright hateful. Go home, please. Why would you guest on a server where the lag is so bad you can hardly get anything done, and you clearly hate the people there? I don’t get it.


To be truthful, I don’t like advocating restrictions. I looked forward to guesting. I invited people in hopes that they’d find a home here, and love it so much that they’d begin giving back. I wanted more people to come here and enjoy the community, and leave happier in a way that had nothing to do with loot. Sure, I did realize there would be some trolls, but thought that the majority of people guesting would be good-natured and interested in the server’s community itself… but again, I thought a random commander in Queensdale had his icon on to help people.

Thank you for your time.

Falunel – Sylvari Elementalist | Falche Graysong – Human Mesmer | Tarnished Coast
Ember Solace [SOL] – A guild welcoming of newbies and those at the margins.
New Player Outreach Thread

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Posted by: alfista.6094

alfista.6094

So, for example, i’m thinking of switching my home world and don’t actually know anyone on other servers. I have no chance of checking out a server before investing quite a large amount of money for the transfer?

While i understand why you’re suggesting this, the solution you provided would be a bad one. You should discourage people from doing this, not outright forbid it.

Four wheels move the body. Two wheels move the soul.

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Posted by: Falunel.7645

Falunel.7645

So, for example, i’m thinking of switching my home world and don’t actually know anyone on other servers. I have no chance of checking out a server before investing quite a large amount of money for the transfer?

While i understand why you’re suggesting this, the solution you provided would be a bad one. You should discourage people from doing this, not outright forbid it.

I know for certain that Tarnished Coast at least would start up something to get in touch with interested players on other servers. I for one would gladly host a few newcomers and show them around the server, and I figure some guilds would do likewise. It would also be possible to request an invite on overflow or on the forums. Not knowing people doesn’t mean you will always not know people.

Yeah, it sucks that this has to happen. But simply telling people not to do this would do nothing- if that worked, we would have no trolls. Directly discouraging hopping by limiting chest rewards across the board punishes all players- likewise, limiting chest rewards only for guesters punishes legitimate guesters, who actually want to play with people on the servers. It also does nothing to stem the flow of people coming just to troll (which yes, it does happen).

I would welcome a better solution, but at the moment, this is the best.

Falunel – Sylvari Elementalist | Falche Graysong – Human Mesmer | Tarnished Coast
Ember Solace [SOL] – A guild welcoming of newbies and those at the margins.
New Player Outreach Thread

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Posted by: phaneo.4597

phaneo.4597

Invite requirement for guesting is a good thing for players who want to play with friends and that was the main intention behind the system. While I understand the concern of alfista, there’s a fix to that as well. They could have a trial feature for those looking at transferring on other servers – only for once. Say a player from server A is willing to transfer but not able to make a choice – so he gets an option to have a trial run per each server – but only for once. He can run a trial on server B for 2 days, check it out and the game shouldn’t allow him to do another trial on the same server again, but allow it on a different server. So this way guesting wouldn’t be abused, and those willing to transfer to check out different aspects of a server will get a chance to do so. Trial run should also enable players to visit WvW on the server they are visiting but disable access temporarily to guild and of course fix partying with enemies and other features like upgrading etc. so they aren’t abused either.

This system would differ from guesting system in that you cannot run a second trial on a server you have already been to and also friends with valid invites wouldn’t be affected by this. It might take some more time to implement, but will help balance out things in the long-run and also for those willing to transfer for PvE or WvW reasons would actually get to see how things run on a server without falling for PR strategies.

KNOW YOUR ROLE, JABRONI!
Tee See

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Posted by: kenshinakh.3672

kenshinakh.3672

Requiring an invite would defeat the many points of guesting o.O. Guesting is really nice when you’re just looking to level your character during a time when another server is more active than yours. Or you’re looking for a nice place to go to next.

Requiring someone to invite you would make it pretty much impossible for people without friends on other servers to connect, making guesting “exclusive”. So new people without connections would be left in the dark.

I really have no idea why guesters go to TC (maybe someone over-advertised for TC?), but I’m sure people will eventually spread themselves out to other servers via guesting too.

Short response: Although that is a “solution” for the issue given, it’s not going to make most people happy and does break some of the points of guesting.

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Posted by: Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

If it required an invite, I’d just start inviting people for a minor amount of coin in the mail.

Not only would you have hypothetically screwed well-meaning people like alfista, while giving ill-meaning people like me a way to cause the same issue we have now, and gain money from it.

How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- William Shakespear

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Posted by: GummiBear.2756

GummiBear.2756

While i haven’t seen the problem described really on my server (Gandara), i can easily imagine what it must be like (and yet wonder if it might be even worse than i imagine), so can support this.

And alternative solution could be to limit the amount of guest that any one map can have to say 1/5th of the total population (could even be depend on the current population at the map at the time a guest enter the map (ofc is a native player leaves the map it shouldn’t kick a guest of it again just because of that, but would disallow new guest from entering that map until either some guest lefts or more natives joined)). This would either spread guest out more over the servers, or at least spread them out over more different maps on the same server

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Posted by: Kaiwen.1520

Kaiwen.1520

Or Anet could just merge some of the less populated servers so they would feel less of a reason to swarm ours.

I’m fine with people coming to TC, to be honest. I haven’t felt oppressed by the visitors. (I don’t do dragons or farm Orr.) But I think merging servers might have more of a shot of fixing the problem at the root.

(edited by Kaiwen.1520)

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Posted by: kenshinakh.3672

kenshinakh.3672

Why not have it so that the server prioritizes native players? So if you guest on a crowded server in a crowded zone, you’re more likely to be put into overflow vs a native player?

That’s a much easier approach to your issue while not making it unfair for other guesters who don’t guest on TC (like me…)

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Posted by: Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

Nels the Cornwhisperer.8025

Merging wouldn’t solve the problem, because it’s not a population issue.

On Vabbi (an empty, dismal EU server) I can still solo every dragon, and get anything I want in Orr. What people guest on the other servers for is so that they can have other people do almost all the work. They tag, they loot, they move on.

Unless you merged enough to make them as full as the problem servers are now, people would still guest to the same places. And if you made it that full, people would guest away from it.

How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
- William Shakespear

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Posted by: Kaiwen.1520

Kaiwen.1520

Nels, I have a much more optimistic/niave view of my fellow GW2 players than you do!

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Posted by: Cross.6437

Cross.6437

While I’m completely open to other ideas, I think the core issue that needs to be addressed is a built-in aspect to the guesting system in order to prevent large-scale abuse of the guesting feature.

I mean, I love being an open, welcoming server, but I don’t particularly appreciate what it’s done to the server (while abused), especially when those people aren’t even capable of helping the server out in things like WvW.

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Posted by: Kal Spiro.9745

Kal Spiro.9745

If it required an invite, I’d just start inviting people for a minor amount of coin in the mail.

Not only would you have hypothetically screwed well-meaning people like alfista, while giving ill-meaning people like me a way to cause the same issue we have now, and gain money from it.

This is pretty much where I was going to go with it. If guilds on servers would set up invites for people who want to have a look around, why would anyone not expect the same behavior for those who want to continue as is? It wouldn’t stop anything, it would only change the method by which it is accomplished.

The only question I have is, what exactly is the effect on the community for these people whose only apparent interest is wandering from event to event? Does it hurt anyone?

Tarnished Coast Kal Spiro – Ranger (80), LB/S-D, Eagle/Wolf, Signet, M/S/WS #SABorRiot
|Daredevil|Ranger|Guardian|Scrapper|Necromancer|Berserker|Dragonhunter|Mesmer|Elementalist
|Deadeye|Warrior|Herald|Daredevil|Reaper|Spellbreaker

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Posted by: crystal.5930

crystal.5930

The only question I have is, what exactly is the effect on the community for these people whose only apparent interest is wandering from event to event? Does it hurt anyone?

At Claw of Jormag the other night, the level of lag was, in my experience, unprecedented in PvE. The only place I had ever previously experienced lag so bad that you couldn’t trigger skills was in the Lord’s room in Stonemist. There were many, many more people in the zone than is typical, and I see this all over the world. Of course, having more people around is not necessarily a bad thing, but it becomes one when you have so many that it affects gameplay.

As for the community effects, specifically, there were anecdotes in the thread Cross started relating incidents of cross-server chat trolling and general abuse. I haven’t experienced that, personally, and frankly, if I ever did, I wouldn’t for very long (hooray for blocking), but I can understand where it could be upsetting.

Regarding the idea of selling invites for coin, yeah, I also had that thought. I think it would happen, but I doubt that everyone who currently now chases events across servers would be willing to pay for that, so I’d still expect to see some decrease in the behavior. Or perhaps they’d shop for the cheapest price, in which case I guess I’d just have to hope my server wasn’t offering it.

Chosovi Rose, Thomas Thorn, Crystalbrier, Bracken Farstone, Crassul, on Tarnished Coast
“Worshipping nonsense and imagination” — Hayden Herrera (paraphrased)

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Posted by: Kal Spiro.9745

Kal Spiro.9745

The only question I have is, what exactly is the effect on the community for these people whose only apparent interest is wandering from event to event? Does it hurt anyone?

Regarding the idea of selling invites for coin, yeah, I also had that thought. I think it would happen, but I doubt that everyone who currently now chases events across servers would be willing to pay for that, so I’d still expect to see some decrease in the behavior. Or perhaps they’d shop for the cheapest price, in which case I guess I’d just have to hope my server wasn’t offering it.

I don’t think that behavior would last, because I suspect it wouldn’t be long before people were doing it for free.

Tarnished Coast Kal Spiro – Ranger (80), LB/S-D, Eagle/Wolf, Signet, M/S/WS #SABorRiot
|Daredevil|Ranger|Guardian|Scrapper|Necromancer|Berserker|Dragonhunter|Mesmer|Elementalist
|Deadeye|Warrior|Herald|Daredevil|Reaper|Spellbreaker

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Posted by: Andalamar.4201

Andalamar.4201

The solution to this issue is to make it so Dragon and World Event chest timers are bound to your character (or account, depending on what ANet wants to do) and this bind would follow the character everywhere it went until it resets, either 24 hours later or at the daily reset time.

This would automatically fix the constant jumping some players do in an attempt to maximize their “rewards” from events.

Remember that there is a difference between the majority of players and the loudest players.
-Hawcinn/Barborin

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Posted by: Kal Spiro.9745

Kal Spiro.9745

The solution to this issue is to make it so Dragon and World Event chest timers are bound to your character (or account, depending on what ANet wants to do) and this bind would follow the character everywhere it went until it resets, either 24 hours later or at the daily reset time.

This would automatically fix the constant jumping some players do in an attempt to maximize their “rewards” from events.

Perfect solution +1

Tarnished Coast Kal Spiro – Ranger (80), LB/S-D, Eagle/Wolf, Signet, M/S/WS #SABorRiot
|Daredevil|Ranger|Guardian|Scrapper|Necromancer|Berserker|Dragonhunter|Mesmer|Elementalist
|Deadeye|Warrior|Herald|Daredevil|Reaper|Spellbreaker

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Posted by: Okhu.7948

Okhu.7948

Bumping to da top. PLEASE FIX THIS. I want to do Meta-Events, but the level of lag is really killing my mood to do them.

Thanks, scumbag loot gaming guesters. (Not to be confused with the actual guesters.)

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Posted by: kurtosis.9526

kurtosis.9526

So, for example, i’m thinking of switching my home world and don’t actually know anyone on other servers. I have no chance of checking out a server before investing quite a large amount of money for the transfer?

While i understand why you’re suggesting this, the solution you provided would be a bad one. You should discourage people from doing this, not outright forbid it.

No, you just pop onto these forums, reddit, guru, or better yet the server’s own website, tell them you’re considering transferring and ask for a guesting invite. Problem solved, really not that difficult.

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Posted by: Soundchaos.3450

Soundchaos.3450

When guesting was announced I expected it to function with invites anyway, especially given the definition of a guest:

guest
/gest/
Noun
1. A person who is invited to visit the home of or take part in a function organized by another.

What we’re actually getting are intruders:

in·trude
/in?tro?od/
Verb

1. Put oneself deliberately into a place or situation where one is unwelcome or uninvited.
2. Enter with disruptive or adverse effect.

It’s probably not their intentions to disrupt our servers, but that doesn’t change that they’re intruders, not guests.

I chose to play on a smaller server so I didn’t have to deal with overflows, culling, and ridiculous amounts of latency. The last few nights have been ridiculous.

Rururrur – Warrior – Yak’s Bend
^Try to say that name while drunk

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Posted by: Hygeria.9538

Hygeria.9538

I agree with requiring invites for guesting. Not sure how the program would work exactly, but even as Nels says, it doesn’t even matter if you make it so others have to pay to guest. You’d have to pay a ton of G just to transfer to the server if you actually wanted to stay there.

Guesting can be considered a way of playing with friends from another server. In that sense, their friends will invite them.

It can also be considered a way for people without friends to want to guest on other servers for:
1: PvE- which is more based on personal problems. If you want a more populated server, transfer to one on your own. If it is due to the server being so highly focused on WvW that non of the PvE maps are populated, then that’s probably what you would focus on anyway.

2: Community- If people are guesting just to check out other server’s community, I think that’s intruding. If you wanna learn about a server before transferring to it, then read about them. Otherwise, I know this is one thing that’ll be taken away since it really gives the person an idea of how a server is, but the majority of what I’m seeing is people from other servers trying to destroy community.
I like the curiosity of it, as I’ve seen some pretty kind and curious people, but as far as TC goes, I’m hearing things like people making that the hotspot for PvE guesting, etc
We’re not Hawaii, or NY City, or any of that. No servers should be like that.

Some random [TCLU] guy.
Tarnished Coast

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Posted by: Clarity.7281

Clarity.7281

Better Idea, make it where you can only Guest one time a month unless you server transfer.

Doesn’t harm anyone who use the system as intended, closes an exploit unless they pay for it. would vastly hinder the exploit.

plus limiting them to guesting on only 2 servers, but forces them to switch to do so at the cost of gems.

(edited by Clarity.7281)

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Posted by: Clarity.7281

Clarity.7281

The solution to this issue is to make it so Dragon and World Event chest timers are bound to your character (or account, depending on what ANet wants to do) and this bind would follow the character everywhere it went until it resets, either 24 hours later or at the daily reset time.

This would automatically fix the constant jumping some players do in an attempt to maximize their “rewards” from events.

They already are bound to characters, already in place. characters cannot recieve more than one chest per character per event.