Guild Wars 2

Half a year in and it appears GW2 is not immune to the issues that affects every MMO in existence.

Servers are often at high population or very high population, but if you log in using a lowbie, you dont see any of them.

Every serious player has gotten to max level and are sticking to the high level area like glue. the 1-25 area are looking like ghost towns. what happened to “the entire map is endgame?”

Personally, I feel this is a case of dynamic levelling not doing enough. If the players are nerfed enough so that the shadow behemoth offers the same challenge as the shatterer and the elder dragon, the rewards offered by the shadow behemoth could be scaled up to what the elder dragon would offer to a max level player.

TL;DR: Please balance the server population. Ghost area (yes, even ascalon) is no fun

Have you tried guesting to a higher populations server?
Sure the starting areas tend to be a little less populated but a usually see a few people running around.

Desolation is packed with people no matter where you go and if you don’t see anyone as soon as an event kicks of people tend to show up from all over. I think it’s very depended on server you are in

Considering the Shadow Behemoth has the same difficulty as the dragons (as in: none), I was under the assumption the rewards are already scaling the same way. I didn’t notice any difference in loot drops when doing the events in the last few days.

And yes, lower and mid level areas always seem to have people in them, so deserted starter areas might be a specific problem on your server.

Considering a lot of these are assumptions to how the end game is, I will conclude that you are relatively new, so welcome to the game.

The zones might appear empty, but really they aren’t. You aren’t expected to have people available at every waking moment. A lot of the content is scaled to be soloed. It is quite frustrating to solo an event chain, just to have it end with a group event, but with no one to help. You can’t expect people to populate every nook and crack of the world.

Loot it scaled to the level of the player attending the zone, so 80 are rewarded for doing your low level zones. The problem is that there is still a chance for the zone to drop lowbie gear as well, although the chance seems much lower. This includes the Shadow Behemoth event. Max level characters are indeed rewarded max level loot and even a very special staff which was up until now, practically impossible to acquire. I’m not sure what server you play on, but I see that event populated every time it pops up.

It is understandable to feel a little irritated about the issue, but it helps to offer a solution as well. Simply pointing out a problem just opens up a rant where discussion rarely ends productively. This is a forum, not a soap box.

This… doesn’t sound quite right, as of this week with a certain change in the patch there are people all over the place, specifically because of the exact desire you identified.

If the players are nerfed enough so that the shadow behemoth offers the same challenge as the shatterer and the elder dragon, the rewards offered by the shadow behemoth could be scaled up to what the elder dragon would offer to a max level player.

This is exactly what happens. What server are you on?

The quoted ‘high’ server population has no correlation to the actual number of players playing the game on a server. I noticed this after FotM emptied the open world on my then home server. Over the months since I made two server transfers to ‘higher’ pop servers to get to TC, the current guesting server.

Yes, server population is a huge factor in quality of life in this game. Anet is aware of the problem and will one day address it. Until then, guesting on an actual high pop server is your best route.

Im on Desolation, no matter what map you play on there’s people everywhere. I did Kessex Hills and Ganndaran Fields on my low engineer yesterday (after i had done my bosses for loot) and it was busy with people especially with guilds chasing their bounty bosses. I have now experienced overflows now on normal maps at Queensdale and Frostgorge which was a first lol.
Maybe now more people are leveling alts to get to 80 for the boss chests.
I’m just so glad i picked Desolation from day one, best choice i ever made in this game.

thanks for all the helpful comments, could you suggest some servers that are balanced from 4 hours ago until now?

I m in the SEA region, and currently plays in Sea of Sorrows, the supposedly unofficial SEA server. roamed around plains of ascaroth and brisban wildlands. think i met 2 other players tops.

Jade Quarry really doesn’t need any more players, our starters zones are regularly into overflows, but if you are looking for a lot of people that’s where to be. The maps have dozens and dozens of players all the way up to the level 50 zones. 50-70 is a little deserted, but then it picks back up in the 70-80 zones.

Maguuma’s starting areas are loaded with people.

everyone’s in queensdale on stormbluff.

Culling has gotten so bad recently — maybe the areas aren’t dead. Maybe you just can’t see anyone.

This is not an attempt at sarcasm.

So! Where the (heck) was Biggles when you needed him last Saturday?
And where were all the sportsmen who always pulled you though?
They’re all resting down in Cornwall —
writing up their memoirs for a paper-back edition
of the Boy Scout Manual.

Sorry, couldn’t resist . . .

I know I like to go back and hang around in Queensdale on my human, and sometimes I poke around some of the other starting areas of my charr warrior and norn guardian. I don’t go to Caledon or Metrica too much because I have . . . a lingering distaste for Maguuma from vanquish attempts in Guild Wars 1. Also, I just don’t like asura very much and would feed them to Jormag if it wasn’t socially awkward to do so.

Just walked over the entirety of Tyria, haven’t seen a single person. The game is doomed.

Flamenco.3894:

Just walked over the entirety of Tyria, haven’t seen a single person. The game is doomed.

You know you need to look down to see asura right? Unless they’re a thief (they’re always a thief), in which case you need to look anywhere but in front of you.

First, please note that the server population shows how many players call that server home, not the current population of the server online.
Since the new dailies and the loot changes to bosses I have seen more and more players in low level areas (1-25). They’re usually zerging events or waiting at the world boss area to spawn.

Arcain.9106:

First, please note that the server population shows how many players call that server home, not the current population of the server online.
Since the new dailies and the loot changes to bosses I have seen more and more players in low level areas (1-25). They’re usually zerging events or waiting at the world boss area to spawn.

“Maw dead yet?” “No.” “Hey is the Maw up yet?” “No.” “Hey has-” “We will tell you when the Maw is up, please don’t ask.” “Hey did anyone start the Maw yet?”

You said it: “Starting Area.” This is where new players get their hands held while they learn the basic mechanics of the game and their profession. Then it’s time to move on. I’ve never stuck around a starting area any longer than absolutely necessary, and I imagine most others don’t either – hence why there’s often not many people there. So unless you still need some hand-holding, I’d say just move along.

Just went in WvWvW. Didn’t see a single soul, this means 3 servers are dead.

This game is doomed

Flamenco.3894:

Just went in WvWvW. Didn’t see a single soul, this means 3 servers are dead.

This game is doomed

Seriously? Assuming you’re in NA, you do know that most people are either working or in school at this time, right?

You may be used to oldschool MMOs where players congregate at quest hubs. The dynamic nature of GW2 makes it a very different experience.

You can be out in the world and it looks completely empty.
http://i.imgur.com/Kvyub.jpg

A few minutes later an event kicks off and all kitten breaks loose.
http://i.imgur.com/fm9ZE.jpg

1) Watch map chat for players calling out events and linking waypoints.
2) Contribute to the conversation.
3) Join in the fun!

This changes drastically depending on what time of day, and day of the week, you are playing. But the low population problem is large due to the fact, that you can level up almost anywhere in Guild Wars 2, and get there instantly with waypoints. Whereas in other MMOs, you are always going from one specific quest to the next, alongside other players who are doing exactly the same thing you are doing. Plus waypoints in other MMOs are restricted to only being in towns.

As other have already said, if you want to be sure to play with other players, then watch the map chat for event call outs, and play as many dynamic events as you can. Or, just team up with players from your guild for some PvE leveling.

It also helps to use the map chat to just talk with other players, who are on the same map as you. Just asking a simple question in map chat, can sometimes spark up some fun conversations.

No idea what the Op is talking about. My server is full of people all zones all hours.

With that said, as much as I love new people TC is pretty full, so if you do pick a new server try the other ones suggested, unless you are into RPing then by all means get over here!

Dead starter zones, whaere is everyone…… eeerm still lagging from the last dragon event on some other map … wait 20mins they will begin to appear again most likely

Lots of people are running the boss events for the guaranteed rare. Personally I hang out in Orr doing Pentitent tunnel, Grenth, and sometimes Balthazar. My favorite dungeon is Ascalonian Catacombs because I like the gear you can buy with the tokens. Also, since the last patch the path 2 ghost buster stuff is fun. I also run dungeons with guild members and friends. I spend a little time each day in Metrica (Asura starter area) and while it isn’t like the Maw event, there are always some people playing new characters. Easy to tell because they don’t have the down arrow by their level. Possibly you may be on a WvWvW slanted server, and most of your server population is there. You need to keep in mind that a large part of the player base has played the starter level content and better rewards won’t bring them back. This is because you can also get the same rewards on maps you haven’t tried yet, or on the maps you prefer.

Banono.4597:

No idea what the Op is talking about. My server is full of people all zones all hours.

With that said, as much as I love new people TC is pretty full, so if you do pick a new server try the other ones suggested, unless you are into RPing then by all means get over here!

The OP is talking like that because he’s not on TC. I did two server transfers to get to TC and life was great till the heavy guesting. This is why it’s not only the unofficial RP server, but also the unofficial leveling/farming/everything but WvW server.

Raine.1394:

Banono.4597:

No idea what the Op is talking about. My server is full of people all zones all hours.

With that said, as much as I love new people TC is pretty full, so if you do pick a new server try the other ones suggested, unless you are into RPing then by all means get over here!

The OP is talking like that because he’s not on TC. I did two server transfers to get to TC and life was great till the heavy guesting. This is why it’s not only the unofficial RP server, but also the unofficial leveling/farming/everything but WvW server.

Someone forgot to inform Sanctum of Rall residents of this unofficial leveling/farming/everything but WvW server because it’s packed!

Is it a culling problem, because I haven’t seen a single person in the 12 hours I played today.

CureForLiving.5360:

Have you tried guesting to a higher populations server?
Sure the starting areas tend to be a little less populated but a usually see a few people running around.

If everyone stopped guesting to higher population servers maybe the low population servers would see more activity.