Guild Wars 2

I have several friends in the U.S. and I’d like to be able to group up with them sometimes, but for some strange reason the network infrastructure won’t allow it.

So why, when the messaging system global, when we have a global trading post and I can invite Americans into my party, and they can invite me even though I’m on Seafarer’s Rest, does the game throwsup network errors any time we try to go to the same map?

Before the advent of the megaservers, there might have been a justification for keeping the worlds separate. There’s no excuse for it now.

It’s 2014, and the internet is a global village. ANet, please adjust your game infrastructure appropriately.

It’s because there are two data centers which separately hold the account’s information. One is in Europe and one is in the USA. Because there are two account data holding sites, this means the two types of accounts can’t share the same map.

Astral Projections.7320:

It’s because there are two data centers which separately hold the account’s information. One is in Europe and one is in the USA. Because there are two account data holding sites, this means the two types of accounts can’t share the same map.

The point is that this division is artificial and ANet should make it go away.

While you wait for ArenaNet to ‘make it go away’, and you don’t mind the lag, you can always transfer to your friend’s NA server, and play with them in the same map!

Some people do mind the lag, though, and are happier to have a data center nearer them. One of the reasons those in SEA ask for their own data center, I imagine.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

While you wait for ArenaNet to ‘make it go away’, and you don’t mind the lag, you can always transfer to your friend’s NA server, and play with them in the same map!

That might work if I only had American friends. I don’t, and I’m not inclined to rack up a fortune in gem costs to constantly hop between worlds.

Some people do mind the lag, though, and are happier to have a data center nearer them. One of the reasons those in SEA ask for their own data center, I imagine.

Gw1 allowed players to choose whatever region they wanted to connect to on the fly, even though they had a home “district”. I don’t see why this can’t be done for GW2 as well.

There have been other, massive threads about this.

Yes, many of us are really disappointed that we were promised to be able to play with all our friends, and now can’t.

No, merging server farms would not be impossible to do.

It is very annoying.

It’s easy is an amazing thing.

I’m pretty sure the reason it was possible in GW1 is because the game only had 1 data center, possibly only one server. Meaning all maps, and all players and their account information were on the same computer.

This was also why if you were playing anywhere except America lag and associated problems like rubber-banding were very common. But since you could only have a maximum of 24 players on the same map outside of the towns (and that was only in Alliance Battles) and most of the game was instanced it wasn’t as much of a problem.

GW2 has two separate data centers in different physical locations thousands of miles apart. (Texas and Germany if I remember correctly.) Obviously they are linked and it’s possible to send information between them, but players from the two different regions playing together on the same map uses a lot more bandwidth than sending a whisper or even an item.

The increased demand on the servers would lead to far worse lag, not just for the people doing this but for everyone else playing too who would have to wait for the server to be able to process their data.

tl;dr I’m going to trust the professionals who built this game and say it’s not possible because of technical limitations rather than assume they’re lying because random people online want it to happen.

I want a pet unicorn too, but wanting it doesn’t make it possible.

Well, it is possible. If transfers between regions are possible then why not make a temporary transfer to US (send only account informations once) and connect directly to US server?

I own 2 accounts, one in EU and one on NA to play with both sides. I don’t get Lag on either, btw (if you have an okay Internet connection the lag isn’t actually as bad as —some suggest). This has been the best way, to me, to have the best of both worlds. It was 25 bucks for my EU account (about the same as a server transfer nowadays!) And I don’t regret it for a second.

While the separation stinks (I don’t think anyone disagrees) it’s the way it is. Work around it! It’s not too bad

Before posting such a thread, i think you should ask yourself : what will be the cost of it ?

Not only in $$ (doing such a thing will require at least several man/days), but with things like what would it imply in term of ping/lag, how differently Americans and Europeans play (just give a look at the first ToL, the meta are completly different), how will player deal with the 2 very different community (hey, Americans don’t have servers with different languages) …

Don’t get me wrong, i would really like to see this happens. But you seems to think it’s an easy thing to do. Since you don’t have any real metrics, or data about how the system actually work (neither do i), you just don’t know, so please stop being agressive. If a dev’ could explain a little bit why they can’t do it (or don’t want), i would be glad to know, i’m a little bit curious

Danikat.8537:

I’m pretty sure the reason it was possible in GW1 is because the game only had 1 data center, possibly only one server. Meaning all maps, and all players and their account information were on the same computer.

This was also why if you were playing anywhere except America lag and associated problems like rubber-banding were very common. But since you could only have a maximum of 24 players on the same map outside of the towns (and that was only in Alliance Battles) and most of the game was instanced it wasn’t as much of a problem.

GW2 has two separate data centers in different physical locations thousands of miles apart. (Texas and Germany if I remember correctly.) Obviously they are linked and it’s possible to send information between them, but players from the two different regions playing together on the same map uses a lot more bandwidth than sending a whisper or even an item.

The increased demand on the servers would lead to far worse lag, not just for the people doing this but for everyone else playing too who would have to wait for the server to be able to process their data.

tl;dr I’m going to trust the professionals who built this game and say it’s not possible because of technical limitations rather than assume they’re lying because random people online want it to happen.

I want a pet unicorn too, but wanting it doesn’t make it possible.

GW1 had 3 data centers – NA, EU, and Asia (Korea).

Since they are using the same data centers now, it happens. If all were merged into the NA data center we would end up having tremendous lag.

Kordash.2197:

Before posting such a thread, i think you should ask yourself : what will be the cost of it ?

Not only in $$ (doing such a thing will require at least several man/days), but with things like what would it imply in term of ping/lag, how differently Americans and Europeans play (just give a look at the first ToL, the meta are completly different), how will player deal with the 2 very different community (hey, Americans don’t have servers with different languages) …

Don’t get me wrong, i would really like to see this happens. But you seems to think it’s an easy thing to do. Since you don’t have any real metrics, or data about how the system actually work (neither do i), you just don’t know, so please stop being agressive. If a dev’ could explain a little bit why they can’t do it (or don’t want), i would be glad to know, i’m a little bit curious

Here’s one Dev response:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Guesting-is-Coming/page/3#post1221430

Martin Kerstein
Head of Global Community

Let me explain to you why you cannot guest on worlds in another region.

There are two databases: European player data is stored in our European datacenter, American player data is stored in our American datacenter. This is to ensure that people in these regions can still properly play in case there is an issue with the connection between the datacenters.

When you do a world transfer from the US to the EU (and vice versa) your player data is transferred from one datacenter to the other. This is not the case with guesting, as you are still “registered” on your home world.

I understand that some of you are disappointed that you cannot guest on worlds in another region, but considering the complexity of internet routing, our main priority is to ensure that players have as much of an uninterrupted game experience as possible, which is the reason why we have two datacenters.

Xarog.3172:

Astral Projections.7320:

It’s because there are two data centers which separately hold the account’s information. One is in Europe and one is in the USA. Because there are two account data holding sites, this means the two types of accounts can’t share the same map.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

The point is that this division is artificial and ANet should make it go away.

Yeah, there is this thing on the internet called latency that IS effected by actual geographic location (the data path length from your PC to the server). Games that need near-real time data to work smoothly do NOT do well with high latency. The game was designed with 2 (now 3) data centers for a reason.

Players whine about lag and very often the reason is something Anet CANNOT do anything about (sans putting in MORE DATA CENTERS….the exact opposite of the OP request). Ask a player in the Pacific Rim (that has to connect to either NA or EU servers to play at all) and they will tell you about living with near constant skill lag and rubber-banding. (Yes, Anet could add another Data Center, but I’m sure it’s not cost effective to do so).

One BIG data center would make the game horrific for a VERY large portion of the playerbase, so it’s not likely to happen.

Xarog.3172:

Astral Projections.7320:

It’s because there are two data centers which separately hold the account’s information. One is in Europe and one is in the USA. Because there are two account data holding sites, this means the two types of accounts can’t share the same map.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

The point is that this division is artificial and ANet should make it go away.

If you wanted to play with American friends, you should have chosen NA instead of EU. We have several Brits, Middle Eastern, and New Zealanders in our guild who we play with on a regular basis because they chose to play on NA servers.

Also, you can just buy a 2nd account as someone else previously mentioned, and have both an NA account and an EU account.

Brother Grimm.5176:

Xarog.3172:

Astral Projections.7320:

It’s because there are two data centers which separately hold the account’s information. One is in Europe and one is in the USA. Because there are two account data holding sites, this means the two types of accounts can’t share the same map.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

The point is that this division is artificial and ANet should make it go away.

Yeah, there is this thing on the internet called latency that IS effected by actual geographic location (the data path length from your PC to the server). Games that need near-real time data to work smoothly do NOT do well with high latency. The game was designed with 2 (now 3) data centers for a reason.

Players whine about lag and very often the reason is something Anet CANNOT do anything about (sans putting in MORE DATA CENTERS….the exact opposite of the OP request). Ask a player in the Pacific Rim (that has to connect to either NA or EU servers to play at all) and they will tell you about living with near constant skill lag and rubber-banding. (Yes, Anet could add another Data Center, but I’m sure it’s not cost effective to do so).

One BIG data center would make the game horrific for a VERY large portion of the playerbase, so it’s not likely to happen.

Gw1 had multiple data centres and switching between them was as simple as selecting which district you wanted to join. The hop between the EU and NA servers showed your IP jumping from the 206.x range to the 216.x range just as happens in guild wars 2.

There is absolutely NO reason why character data and the server hosting the instance needs to be housed at the same physical location and the gw1 network proves this to be true. I find it quite astounding that so many people in this thread are ignorant of this point.

ANet made a choice to have two difference character data servers, but it does not need to remain this way, and making excuses about potential interruptions in service does not absolve them of the fact that the way things work is because ANet chose it to work this way.

And by extension, myself and anyone who doesn’t like the way things are set up now are quite entitled to tell ANet that we want them to change it. There ought to be a cost-effective way to ensure that people from all over the world can play with people from every other part of the world together while still primarily being based in a region that is close to their geographical location. After the megaserver debacle and the way Anet is generally lumping the playerbase into the same instances and this is the next logical step in that progression.

calyx.9086:

If you wanted to play with American friends, you should have chosen NA instead of EU. We have several Brits, Middle Eastern, and New Zealanders in our guild who we play with on a regular basis because they chose to play on NA servers.

Also, you can just buy a 2nd account as someone else previously mentioned, and have both an NA account and an EU account.

Since its such a small thing, why don’t you just buy the account for me? Make sure to fill it up with ascended gear too, cuz apparently farming all that stuff is trivial.

I did not choose the region that I was based in lightly and it’s completely ridiculous to expect people to buy 2 copies of a game just to be able to play with people they know.

Xarog.3172:

Brother Grimm.5176:

Xarog.3172:

Astral Projections.7320:

It’s because there are two data centers which separately hold the account’s information. One is in Europe and one is in the USA. Because there are two account data holding sites, this means the two types of accounts can’t share the same map.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

The point is that this division is artificial and ANet should make it go away.

Yeah, there is this thing on the internet called latency that IS effected by actual geographic location (the data path length from your PC to the server). Games that need near-real time data to work smoothly do NOT do well with high latency. The game was designed with 2 (now 3) data centers for a reason.

Players whine about lag and very often the reason is something Anet CANNOT do anything about (sans putting in MORE DATA CENTERS….the exact opposite of the OP request). Ask a player in the Pacific Rim (that has to connect to either NA or EU servers to play at all) and they will tell you about living with near constant skill lag and rubber-banding. (Yes, Anet could add another Data Center, but I’m sure it’s not cost effective to do so).

One BIG data center would make the game horrific for a VERY large portion of the playerbase, so it’s not likely to happen.

Gw1 had multiple data centres and switching between them was as simple as selecting which district you wanted to join. The hop between the EU and NA servers showed your IP jumping from the 206.x range to the 216.x range just as happens in guild wars 2.

There is absolutely NO reason why character data and the server hosting the instance needs to be housed at the same physical location and the gw1 network proves this to be true. I find it quite astounding that so many people in this thread are ignorant of this point.

ANet made a choice to have two difference character data servers, but it does not need to remain this way, and making excuses about potential interruptions in service does not absolve them of the fact that the way things work is because ANet chose it to work this way.

And by extension, myself and anyone who doesn’t like the way things are set up now are quite entitled to tell ANet that we want them to change it. There ought to be a cost-effective way to ensure that people from all over the world can play with people from every other part of the world together while still primarily being based in a region that is close to their geographical location. After the megaserver debacle and the way Anet is generally lumping the playerbase into the same instances and this is the next logical step in that progression.

calyx.9086:

If you wanted to play with American friends, you should have chosen NA instead of EU. We have several Brits, Middle Eastern, and New Zealanders in our guild who we play with on a regular basis because they chose to play on NA servers.

Also, you can just buy a 2nd account as someone else previously mentioned, and have both an NA account and an EU account.

Since its such a small thing, why don’t you just buy the account for me? Make sure to fill it up with ascended gear too, cuz apparently farming all that stuff is trivial.

I did not choose the region that I was based in lightly and it’s completely ridiculous to expect people to buy 2 copies of a game just to be able to play with people they know.

Actually – you don’t know what is involved with the character data. When you bought the game, there was an EU version and a US version. In GW1, all your data for your characters was stored locally (on your PC) but that was an Instanced – lobby game not a true MMO. The data is different for a true MMO and GW2 is one. All the other games I have played (Rift, TERA, WoW, ESO, etc.) all have the same problem as GW2 – they have EU and NA server farms. You are assuming a lot that you know nothing about.

I am a NA player and played on an EU server for a while because of the guild I was in was mostly EU. It was a lag fest. The reason there are THREE server farms, for this game, is the lag would be horrendous. Again, you assume a lot and no nothing about how the game is structured.

Well, remember folks: “Other people’s work is easy!”

Dusty Moon.4382:

Actually – you don’t know what is involved with the character data. When you bought the game, there was an EU version and a US version. In GW1, all your data for your characters was stored locally (on your PC) but that was an Instanced – lobby game not a true MMO. The data is different for a true MMO and GW2 is one. All the other games I have played (Rift, TERA, WoW, ESO, etc.) all have the same problem as GW2 – they have EU and NA server farms. You are assuming a lot that you know nothing about.

You’re right, I don’t know the exact architecture of GW2’s server structure, but what I do know is that you’re patently wrong about the character data for gw1 being stored locally. If that were true, anyone with half a mind to crack the file encryption would be able to edit their characters and add whatever items/skills to their character they wanted and clearly this is not the case.

I am a NA player and played on an EU server for a while because of the guild I was in was mostly EU. It was a lag fest. The reason there are THREE server farms, for this game, is the lag would be horrendous. Again, you assume a lot and no nothing about how the game is structured.

Et tu, Brutus.

Xarog.3172:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Actually – you don’t know what is involved with the character data. When you bought the game, there was an EU version and a US version. In GW1, all your data for your characters was stored locally (on your PC) but that was an Instanced – lobby game not a true MMO. The data is different for a true MMO and GW2 is one. All the other games I have played (Rift, TERA, WoW, ESO, etc.) all have the same problem as GW2 – they have EU and NA server farms. You are assuming a lot that you know nothing about.

You’re right, I don’t know the exact architecture of GW2’s server structure, but what I do know is that you’re patently wrong about the character data for gw1 being stored locally. If that were true, anyone with half a mind to crack the file encryption would be able to edit their characters and add whatever items/skills to their character they wanted and clearly this is not the case.

I am a NA player and played on an EU server for a while because of the guild I was in was mostly EU. It was a lag fest. The reason there are THREE server farms, for this game, is the lag would be horrendous. Again, you assume a lot and no nothing about how the game is structured.

Et tu, Brutus.

You could hack the data in the beginning that is why initially duping was such a big problem with GW1. There were speed hacks and other things that were done in the beginning also – hence why A.Net when hard nose with the rules about cheating, etc. What they went to was to have an exact copy on their server so if anything was wrong with the data for your character it would be changed when you logged in. They also went to encryption on the data. If you played from the beginning of GW1, you would know the story.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Xarog.3172:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Actually – you don’t know what is involved with the character data. When you bought the game, there was an EU version and a US version. In GW1, all your data for your characters was stored locally (on your PC) but that was an Instanced – lobby game not a true MMO. The data is different for a true MMO and GW2 is one. All the other games I have played (Rift, TERA, WoW, ESO, etc.) all have the same problem as GW2 – they have EU and NA server farms. You are assuming a lot that you know nothing about.

You’re right, I don’t know the exact architecture of GW2’s server structure, but what I do know is that you’re patently wrong about the character data for gw1 being stored locally. If that were true, anyone with half a mind to crack the file encryption would be able to edit their characters and add whatever items/skills to their character they wanted and clearly this is not the case.

I am a NA player and played on an EU server for a while because of the guild I was in was mostly EU. It was a lag fest. The reason there are THREE server farms, for this game, is the lag would be horrendous. Again, you assume a lot and no nothing about how the game is structured.

Et tu, Brutus.

You could hack the data in the beginning that is why initially duping was such a big problem with GW1. There were speed hacks and other things that were done in the beginning also – hence why A.Net when hard nose with the rules about cheating, etc. What they went to was to have an exact copy on their server so if anything was wrong with the data for your character it would be changed when you logged in. They also went to encryption on the data. If you played from the beginning of GW1, you would know the story.

Your argument still falls apart because even if everything you say is true, there was still a central server holding all the account data and people were still able to select which region they wanted to connect to on the fly.

In addition, the process of switching your characters between data servers is gated behind a gem cost, but the process is still automated which means that the two data servers are in communication with one another. Setting up a temporary transfer in order to facilitate people from both sides of the Atlantic being able to play with each other ought not to be beyond the realm of possibility.

And as someone who had re-installed gw1 more than once without losing any characters whatsoever, I find your claims highly suspicious.

I play on Fort Ranik, a EU server. If you trace the IP of the server you will see that it actually is in Texas.

In-game /ip to see your server’s IP. Then google it.

Xarog.3172:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

While you wait for ArenaNet to ‘make it go away’, and you don’t mind the lag, you can always transfer to your friend’s NA server, and play with them in the same map!

That might work if I only had American friends. I don’t, and I’m not inclined to rack up a fortune in gem costs to constantly hop between worlds.

Some people do mind the lag, though, and are happier to have a data center nearer them. One of the reasons those in SEA ask for their own data center, I imagine.

Gw1 allowed players to choose whatever region they wanted to connect to on the fly, even though they had a home “district”. I don’t see why this can’t be done for GW2 as well.

From the manifesto for GW2; “Expect to see the best of GW1 in GW2”. Show me 1 thing from GW1, besides the terrain and lore used in GW2. Bait and switch.

Zanshin.5379:

I play on Fort Ranik, a EU server. If you trace the IP of the server you will see that it actually is in Texas.

In-game /ip to see your server’s IP. Then google it.

My copy of Gw2 is connected to 3 IPs atm :
64.25.40.119
206.127.146.74
206.127.146.71

You’re welcome to traceroute all 3; you might be surprised at the results.

Edit : seems you’re confusing the business address of the owner of the IP with the physical server location.

I’m not confusing anything. I’m using the /ip command from gw2. Not my fault if it doesn’t actually give me the actual Ip of the server.

And those 2 IP’s you gave me starting with 206.127.146 are from Austin Texas. So I don’t know what you’re trying to tell me.

So you think GW2 servers system works just like GW1s did……I think I see the problem in explaining this to you, now. Gonna let you figure out the problem for yourself since it’s obvious you already have all the answers.

Good luck.

Brother Grimm.5176:

So you think GW2 servers system works just like GW1s did……I think I see the problem in explaining this to you, now. Gonna let you figure out the problem for yourself since it’s obvious you already have all the answers.

Good luck.

Hardly. Explaining how things worked for the gw1 servers was to refute the argument that the suggestion cannot possibly be implemented without increasing lag for the majority of the population. This argument is clearly false, and it is therefore technically possible to change the gw2 servers to facilitate people from all over playing together. Try to follow the argument more closely please.

I followed your (incorrect) argument just fine, (but thanks for being so concerned with my comprehension of your vastly superior intellect). GW1 could pull off city districts because nobody was actually PLAYING (and the lag was usually HORRIFIC in foreign districts). GW1 instances with foreign players was ALSO problematic at best.

Either your memory is very short or you were not playing the same game I was.

If you don’t understand the logistical differences between connecting FIVE people for actual gameplay and several HUNDRED, then again, figure it out for yourself. I just love being talked down to by someone that clearly has no clue what they talking about (BTW, if more than a few people indicate you are clueless, maybe you should consider the possibility).

Xarog.3172:

Brother Grimm.5176:

So you think GW2 servers system works just like GW1s did……I think I see the problem in explaining this to you, now. Gonna let you figure out the problem for yourself since it’s obvious you already have all the answers.

Good luck.

Hardly. Explaining how things worked for the gw1 servers was to refute the argument that the suggestion cannot possibly be implemented without increasing lag for the majority of the population. This argument is clearly false, and it is therefore technically possible to change the gw2 servers to facilitate people from all over playing together. Try to follow the argument more closely please.

You’re wrong. And that’s okay. Not learning from error is the failure you want to avoid.