Guild Wars 2

I’ve been perusing the forums after my departure from the game in the hopes that some new changes would make me want to play again, or get the old guild back together [FIRE]. What I’ve found is an immense amount of uninformed hatred for GvGs.

The argumentation is sloppy, unfounded and often incorrect. I am not going to say that GvGs are perfect, but they are a far cry from what the average idiot thinks.

So let me attempt to show you the impact of GvG:

Time Factor

“We lose to other servers because we spend too much time GvGing while the other server is going full ppt!”

There has never been a GvG guild that has spent their full time, as a whole, playing only GvG.

Assume a full week: 168 hours
Assume your average GvG: 1 hour

So that’s a whopping 0.6% of the entire week spent on GvG.

Assume GvG guild raids every night: 2 hours x 7 days = 14 hours

So out of the 15 hours your average GvG guild is active, you get a whopping 6.7% of their week spent on GvG. The remaining 93.3% is spent in WvW, getting you the points you so desperately want.

Consider that most GvGs happen on thursday when the matches are almost always decided, and you end up with a number so small that it really shouldn’t influence eventual wins or losses unless the matches are dead even otherwise.

Capacity Factor

“These GvGers are taking up valuable space and causing queues!”

This argument is brought up a lot and is completely valid, if they are actually causing queues to pop up. That said, this is, due to planning and guild communication, rarely the case in any but the top tier servers.

How?

First of all, you have to realise that any mid or low tier server will have moments when activity is low, this is due to coverage determining tier. Guilds will usually pick a time when they know their servers are almost empty.

If a server becomes too full, the guilds will switch out to an empty BL and continue there. If all servers are full they picked the wrong time and usually reschedule.

Now I say that most guilds do this because in my experience they do, and I’ve seen and fought a lot of them.

However, there will be the occasional guild that doesn’t do this, and holding the GUILD accountable is justified. Holding the GvG community as a whole accountable is not, most of us go out of our way to not inconvenience you.

Location Factor

“WvW is for WvW, go GvG in SPvP!”

Now let me repeat my point above that most the guilds go out of their way to not inconvenience you. Got that? Good. Off the bat that will tell you that usually you won’t even notice we’re there anyway.

But about SPvP, it is not a suitable platform for the current GvG format. The maps are too small and constrictive, the builds are far less customizable due to amulet stats, and We can only field 10 vs 10.

Now if you’re wondering why we usually do 15v15 or 20v20, it’s because we’re near the sweet spot where individual builds and skills matter as much as team coördination. We aren’t mindlessly spamming 1 and zerging, and strong skirmish builds become less powerfull but still vital.

We can’t do that if you move us to a 10v10 format.

Contribution Factor

“Silly GvGers, you don’t do anything for the server! GTFO!”

Remember my first point, where I stated that the vast majority of time GvG guild are actually doing WvW? Keep that in mind.

Another thing to consider is that not only do they play often, but they often play better against large groups. Not undermining your skill as a player, but it has to be said that GvG guild groups tend to wipe enemy zergs up to twice or even thrice their numbers. So they play often and they softcounter blobs.

Furthermore is the fact that GvG grew out of guilds that were doing WvW in a more organised fashion. It’s the guilds that host the community TS, PUG raids, and call for people in LA to help out that do GvG on the side. Telling these people to “GTFO” because they GvG once in a while would remove the backbone of many servers.

Simply put, GvGers contribute to WvW, and sometimes more so than others.

Conclusion

GvG is an unofficial game mode that a lot of people like, that usually doesn’t negatively interfere with server rankings. GvG guilds contribute to WvW by providing a counter to blobs, and in some cases forming the entire infrastructure of a server. GvGs are held in WvW because SPvP has insufficient support for it, making many builds unviable.

GvG’s can inconvenience people, but that’s something most guilds try to avoid. It is perfectly acceptable to hold a guild accountable for rude behaviour, but keep it guild specific.

And trolls will be trolls, feed them some thermite or just ignore and let them waste away into pitiful husks.