The use of Home world “servers” are limiting the multiplayer experience in GW2.
When a person plays an online game they (in my opinion) are usually looking to play/interact with other people/players that share similar interests. Conversely a player may prefer their solitude and not want assistance/interaction with other players.
What do I mean?
If a player likes to farm PvE events they are likely to play/interact with other people that farming the same events.
Similarly if a player likes combat in PvP areas they will be exposed to and interact with other players that also like PvP.
Also,If a player wants to work on their personal achievements they may not want the disturbances to their activities that may be created by others.
So what does this have to do with Home world servers and the multiplayer experience in GW2?
These “servers”, for a lack of a better term, are dividing the entire GW2 player pool into worlds which are broken down into many zones. So ultimately the entire GW2 pool of players is broken down in many zones (to which many are duplicates).
Can u see where this is going?
Well an example should help.
Lets say a player wanted to complete (or participate) in the new Tequatl event in PvE. Currently when that player goes to Sparkfly Fen that player will only be able to play with players on their server that are also in the same zone. For some servers there may be too many players wanting to participate which will create overflows, and on other servers there are too few players thus making the chance for success slim to none in most circumstances. It is important to note that there are many people across the global pool of GW2 players that would participate in this event to fill up these overflows and partial full zones but the event may not be “UP” on their server at this time.
This same event problem of partial full zones and overflows also exist in WvW. Some servers may be full and players must queue up to join and other servers are empty where players are greatly outnumbered by their opponents. Again across the GW2 pool of global players there are many players willing to enter WvW but they are divided by these server boundaries.
The current server based model where the global pool of GW2 players is initially divided into servers then into zones is limiting players from discovering and interacting with other players with similar goals and interests.
So what can be done?
I, personally, am not an expert in nor have any real understanding of the limitation imposed by the hardware and network infrastructure required to host and run a game with the complexity of GW2.
That being said, I would like to propose a change in the organization/division of these server/zones to one where all players (globally) have the ability to play with any other player (globally) and where these global zones fill up then overflow into uniquely identifiable and player selectable overflows instead of the current model where the global pool of players is divided into servers then into zones and then into overflow.
A player selectable overflow allows players to navigate to and join a uniquely identified zone/overflow thus allowing players to join (or queue up to join) other players where ever they are. If these player selectable zones/overflows displayed a population count then players that prefer the peace and quiet of the world can easily navigate to the least populated zones/overflows and players that are looking to tackle the mega events like Tequatl or even participate in the grandest sieges in WvW can navigate to areas with the numbers required to enjoy these GW2 offerings.
Now, I know I called these “global” zones/overflows and that “global” may be a little too ambitious, but one can always initially divide the players by preference of their choosing, lets say language or country to help limit the cross continent network traffic and associated latency. I’m sure most players around the globe can understand this type of inconvenience.
In conclusion,
For GW2 to provide the most expansive, immersive online multiplayer experience, then you have to allow all players across the entire globe to play online together no matter who, what, why, where and when and they choose.