Guild Wars 2

Xillllix.3485:

Please Merge WvW in a system that functions well and make EOTM count for PPT.

This terrifies me and could easily go wrong.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

So the next two blogs will just elaborate on what is already announced.
They won’t contain anything new. So much for my hope for guild halls.

It’s a sad day indeed.

Urxx.6840:

Lankybrit.4598:

GW2 is not subscription based, so number of current players isn’t as important. Unlike WoW and ESO. So comparing these games with each other is a bit ridiculous.

Paradoxically, the number of current players is more important for a buy to play game like GW2 than it is for a subscription-based one.

If players don’t play they don’t buy gems, which is what supports the game. Conversely, in subscription-based games there are a minority of wealthy players that do keep their subscription active even in periods of time when they have very little time to play.

Fair enough. But investors look at actual revenue rather than number of subscriptions (which they pore over for WoW). The argument was made that GW2 is doing this because the game is dying. I see it far from that, as it’s an excellent feature to get more people playing the game.

And just to be real. Cross Realm Zones were like MegaServers. Connected Realms is essentially merged realms, which one could say WoW is doing because the game is dying.

I love this feature! This is gonna be so much fun leveling up my alts!

Maybe instead of an automatic placement system a player choice system would be better.

Give players the choice of what is important to them in map placement. Give us an option to check what criteria we want considered in our placement.

MRA.4758:

Xillllix.3485:

Please Merge WvW in a system that functions well and make EOTM count for PPT.

Only if you want to get rid of all of your established WvW communities in one single change.

~MRA

ESO does it fine, I don’t see why GW2 would fail doing the same thing. It’s GUILD wars anyway, not SERVER wars. Anyway our community is already dissolved as most WvW guilds moved to higher tiers.

They will have to do it eventually as population diminishes. 100% certain from the beginning that EOTM was made to test how the servers would handle that.

>>Maybe instead of an automatic placement system a player choice system would be better.
Give players the choice of what is important to them in map placement. Give us an option to check what criteria we want considered in our placement.

+1. However, I wonder if that would create too much computational load on the servers.

I guess I have to sell my ectos. Price will go down a lot. Everyone will be farming world events all the time! I think it’s a very good change though, I don’t have to guest on blackgate all the time now.

Xillllix.3485:

MRA.4758:

Xillllix.3485:

Please Merge WvW in a system that functions well and make EOTM count for PPT.

Only if you want to get rid of all of your established WvW communities in one single change.

~MRA

ESO does it fine, I don’t see why GW2 would fail doing the same thing. It’s GUILD wars anyway, not SERVER wars. Anyway our community is already dissolved as most WvW guilds moved to higher tiers.

They will have to do it eventually as population diminishes. 100% certain from the beginning that EOTM was made to test how the servers would handle that.

So, you’re going to place random guilds from random servers into random match-ups?

Guilds that like to coordinate with other specific guilds in WvW will be left in the dust. I understand that this isn’t an issue for Abyss since you can queue a map all by your lonesome, but this would have a huge impact on a lot of server communities.

I get that this would help alleviate some of the population problems in various tiers, but it would also make WvW more zergy. Please no.

Isn’t this just a renamed overflow system? It seems to me that the main servers were removed, the overflow system was renamed and then a simple priority system that groups as many home world,guilds, and parties together was implemented.

Lankybrit.4598:

Fair enough. But investors look at actual revenue rather than number of subscriptions (which they pore over for WoW). The argument was made that GW2 is doing this because the game is dying. I see it far from that, as it’s an excellent feature to get more people playing the game.

And just to be real. Cross Realm Zones were like MegaServers. Connected Realms is essentially merged realms, which one could say WoW is doing because the game is dying.

Diying might be an excessive term, but think of this: as someone pointed out, a megaserver-like system is easier to implement for GW2, because it already has overflows, than it is for other games.

So why now? I don’t think it’s too hard to see that it has to be because on many servers there are a lot less players than expected / optimal.

I’m pretty sure that, if all the servers had a healthy population, we wouldn’t be posting here right now.

Also, maybe it’s me, but the fact they are announcing right now this “Megaserver” system, which is exactly identical to how it’s called in Elder Scrolls Online, that as we type is in its early access phase and launches in two days, seems a lot defensive.

Sometimes defensive moves work, but I find it a little cheap to be honest.

I am not looking forward to this. I remember how it was after release on maps with lots of people, and it is something I don’t really want again. I see trains as likely benefiting from this.

I like to play with small groups of people and as boring as map completion is, I don’t want to run into a lot of people. Some hearts get nearly impossible with more than like 3 people, because of how those hearts were designed (not all hearts have an easy event to speed them up. Some have interactive objects that once one person uses, they vanish for all and take a while to respawn).

And I see those that like to RP, but haven’t joined an ‘rp’ guild, as being annoyed by this, and understand. While I don’t RP, curiosity has taken me there before to observe. With this, that will pretty much be no longer be possible.

Also, how will followers be affected? Will they be more likely to end up on your map? Or vice versa? and I would hope block list wouldn’t encourage being on same (If this was addressed somewhere, I apologize because I did not read it all, but I am primarily directing this at Arenanet).

Flytrap.8075:

Xillllix.3485:

MRA.4758:

Xillllix.3485:

Please Merge WvW in a system that functions well and make EOTM count for PPT.

Only if you want to get rid of all of your established WvW communities in one single change.

~MRA

ESO does it fine, I don’t see why GW2 would fail doing the same thing. It’s GUILD wars anyway, not SERVER wars. Anyway our community is already dissolved as most WvW guilds moved to higher tiers.

They will have to do it eventually as population diminishes. 100% certain from the beginning that EOTM was made to test how the servers would handle that.

So, you’re going to place random guilds from random servers into random match-ups?

Guilds that like to coordinate with other specific guilds in WvW will be left in the dust. I understand that this isn’t an issue for Abyss since you can queue a map all by your lonesome, but this would have a huge impact on a lot of server communities.

I get that this would help alleviate some of the population problems in various tiers, but it would also make WvW more zergy. Please no.

Your speaking about technicalities, we Vulcans embrace technicalities….

Point is, it can work.

Max Lexandre.6279:

^^ I Posted about it first, yet i was merged, such madness! ^^

Merges place posts in chronological order. Therefore yours was not first or you would have taken lead post.

grimnal.2796:

I have a question… Will this be implemented in major cities such as Destiny’s Reach or Lions Arch(if its ever rebuilt) as well? While I welcome this megaserver system for the pve maps I would kinda like to remain isolated by homeserver in those cities.

It will be implemented, firstly, in all major cities and also in zones level 1-15. It will NOT be implemented in mid and high level zones until after it has been tested and refined. So, if you don’t want it in Divinity’s Reach or LA, you are out of luck.

I would like the aforementioned “playstyle-flags” to be added. (Obviously not on the 14th, that quick an implementation would be impossible, I guess). An option to shift your preferences of what you want to do towards a certain playstyle as long as you use that flag.

The so far introduced “smart system” that analyzes your playstyle would more hurt than help someone who goes through “phases” of what they are doing.
An example: Some people I know only do open world megaevents if they feel the need for another dragonite farming rush. During that phase they do them a lot. Otherwise they don’t do them at all. Based on the time the system uses to determine your favourite playstyle, they might get grouped with people who do them on a regular basis. Even if they don’t actually share that particular interest.

It would also help people who are a bit undecided or who enjoy all modes of gaming to be allocated more precisely with people that intend to do what they are currently attempting to try out/do.

The idea of an RP-flag has been brought up multiple times, but I think you could and should expand that idea beyond the RP/non-RP communities.
Other flags I can think of are “just exploring” or “map completion”, “organized spvp” (for arenateams), “Mega-Events” or “normal events” and even (though I personally dread the idea) “champtrain” or to be more openminded “farming stuff” (this could include ore nodes and wood for example). And of course “free mode” with no assigned preferences at all.
Feel free do add more as you please and consider applicable (and use better names than I did).

Shame that as much overall effort isn’t put into the wvw game mode as pve but I guess from a business perspective it makes sense to ensure the longevity of the game that they’d focus where the majority of the people spend their time.

But this does give a good indication as to the overall population of gw2. If it was as robust as some would have us believe there’d be no need to merge pve populations by way of a “mega-server”

A very easy fix might be to allow us to have an RP tag such as the “Online, Away” and such. I have been roleplaying on this game since beta and I can honestly say I’m concerned about our community being trolled. Tarnished Coast has a wonderful community of mutual respect between those that roleplay and those that mainly WvW, and actually, most of us are both. There is little to almost no trolling on either side, and it’s become a home for so many of us.

What most of the roleplayers are worried about is the fact that we won’t have that option to log on, see the politics and intrigue of other characters around us, to join into a conversation or have a drink at the tavern with a crazy looking Norn. The joy of roleplaying comes from meeting new people through random acts of RP. If we are separated, this will cease to exist.

However, I am hoping that this won’t become a problem, that the home servers will be able to all be on the same ‘megaserver’ no matter what. Or that we can change districts. I have such high hopes for this… but not if it kills the communities we’ve already established. Not just in the roleplaying communities, but on other servers as well. You have those names that you recognize, your server heroes so to speak. Will there no longer be that sense of community that we’ve had for a whole year and a half? I don’t know about anyone else, but my community is my home.

I look forward to the upcoming blogs and hope that our concerns are assuaged.

Xillllix.3485:

Flytrap.8075:

Xillllix.3485:

MRA.4758:

Xillllix.3485:

Please Merge WvW in a system that functions well and make EOTM count for PPT.

Only if you want to get rid of all of your established WvW communities in one single change.

~MRA

ESO does it fine, I don’t see why GW2 would fail doing the same thing. It’s GUILD wars anyway, not SERVER wars. Anyway our community is already dissolved as most WvW guilds moved to higher tiers.

They will have to do it eventually as population diminishes. 100% certain from the beginning that EOTM was made to test how the servers would handle that.

So, you’re going to place random guilds from random servers into random match-ups?

Guilds that like to coordinate with other specific guilds in WvW will be left in the dust. I understand that this isn’t an issue for Abyss since you can queue a map all by your lonesome, but this would have a huge impact on a lot of server communities.

I get that this would help alleviate some of the population problems in various tiers, but it would also make WvW more zergy. Please no.

Your speaking about technicalities, we Vulcans embrace technicalities….

Point is, it can work.

Brb, need to recruit 70+ players to turn [Bags] into an omniblob guild.

I fail to see why anyone at Anet or in the forum population thinks this will populate dead-zones.
If I go to Brisban Wildlands during a non-peak time, I might find one person on the map with me. So after “Megaserver” goes live, there might be 12 if I’m lucky. Maps are dead because there’s no reason to be on them. Server population doesn’t play a huge role in that. A high pop server might have 15 people on the map while a low pop has 2.
How about making a reason for people to be on those maps, rather than this system that seems to have disaster written all over it. Hey, I’ll give it a try, but Megaserver or not, I’m still not going to want to be on maps where theres nothing to do.

This system would be fine if they were to leave the home cities/gathering places for each server alone. On GoM I love being able to go into LA (or used to) and hang out with people I know. Also our server is a very tight knit community, and if we are placed into home cities with people from other servers we will lose our sense of server pride.

How will we rally people into WvW now? We can’t go into LA (Vigil Keep) and talk in Map chat…. I feel that this will really help in open explorable areas, but really hurts serer community if implemented in major cities.

I am general positive about the megaserver changes. It seems to work well in TESO so there is no reason why it won’t work here in GW2.

My only concern is how GW2 is going to address the issue with world boss and other big events (eg LS, Scarlet invasions, etc) where these events are time gated based on Servers. Will they now all spawn at the same time across all serves? Or will I be forever be at the mercy of the RNG god since I can no longer select which server I go to?

TESO don’t have time gates on their wold events so there is no problems there. But in GW2 everything are heavy time gated. From events to resouces nodes to “so called” anti-farming measures (Diminishing returns). Are these things also going away to make this works? Or is it going to be a huge mess?

What’s the granularity of MegaServers? That is, when will it be re-calculated which map we’re put on? When we log in on a character until we log out of that character? Or every time we take a portal?

My only concern about this is how it will affect farming nodes. I like seeking out node locations and establishing a farming route. This tends to get scrambled frequently after updates because of how often bugs need to be fixed with new content, but otherwise it’s fairly stable. I don’t want to have to deal with all-new node locations practically every day, if not more frequently.

I was thinking about the same thing, this will be a nightmare when world boss train starts at reset.

hedix.1986:

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’ll also continue to monitor and adapt the megaserver system once it’s fully enabled to ensure it provides the best experience possible, so once you’ve seen it in action please make sure to leave comments, feedback, and suggestions as always!

How about just not tampering with the player communities created in a game system that we all bough in the first place. This isn’t Beta for such a game breakingchanging feature to be implemented 1.5 years down the line, or am I mistaken?

Did you know that GW1 started with a different system and then switched to select-able districts after the game was out? This isn’t unprecedented.

shogei.8015:

hedix.1986:

ColinJohanson.2394:

We’ll also continue to monitor and adapt the megaserver system once it’s fully enabled to ensure it provides the best experience possible, so once you’ve seen it in action please make sure to leave comments, feedback, and suggestions as always!

How about just not tampering with the player communities created in a game system that we all bough in the first place. This isn’t Beta for such a game breakingchanging feature to be implemented 1.5 years down the line, or am I mistaken?

Did you know that GW1 started with a different system and then switched to select-able districts after the game was out? This isn’t unprecedented.

I don’t remember this, but it must have happened almost immediately after launch if true.

Either way, that’s drastically different from doing an overhaul a year and a half into the game.

Overall I like this a LOT, but do have 3 concerns.
- The lesser concern is how about those players that are on less populated worlds because their computers / networks won’t handle a larger number of players?
- The second concern is something that I see frequently when running with a group mapping. What happens when populations go up, but hearts DO NOT scale? Every Monday I run with a group of 10-30 players mapping a zone. Almost every week we run into hearts that take forever, because they do not scale for group size. Either there are insufficient enemies to kill (unless an event pops that helps) or insufficient (player destructible) resources to gather.
- The third concern is something I usually see during weekly group temple runs. A temple is bugged (usually Melandru) or just has a long time to reset. Using websites we usually can find one on another server and can guest to get that temple. What happens when there are no longer servers to guest to?

Izaya.2906:

even finding open CoF+CoE maps might be a pain in the kitten

Is it a bad thing if people have to do the event to open it? Bearly anyone does the event any more, and even though you can guest onto a server where it is open currently noone ever wants to so lazily types “opener needed” into LFG.

When I complete my Ascalonian Killer dailys I often push Razen the Raider up to the end of his escort chain and allow him to die so it’s easier for someone to open later on. It would be refreshing to see other people actually wanting to do events again in order to gain access to dungeons and the like.

I have my reservations about the new Megaserver system but I reckon it’ll bring in more positives than negatives; if it encourages players to complete events they would ordinarily ignore out of lazyness, then I’m ok with that.

Moshari.8570:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just want to quickly add for those who missed it, we’ll be covering the answers to the bulk of the questions in this thread in the blogs over the next two days after today.

We’ll also continue to monitor and adapt the megaserver system once it’s fully enabled to ensure it provides the best experience possible, so once you’ve seen it in action please make sure to leave comments, feedback, and suggestions as always!

So the next two blogs will just elaborate on what is already announced.
They won’t contain anything new. So much for my hope for guild halls.

Read the article again….last paragraph.

Interesting

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Make sure to check back for part 2 and 3 of this announcement for more details.

-_-

How will cross-server guild members be seen? I don’t want to be dumped into Tarnished Coast servers if I can avoid it because RPing annoys me (mostly because most RPs I see in /me are horribly, badly written), but the guild I’m in is a TC guild. I’m also not an RPer so that’s just a slot that someone else can use that I’m taking up.

Are we going to have the choice to jump between servers as well? Because I want to stay on Borlis Pass. If I wanted to go to another server I’d guest or transfer.

-[edit]-
Fixed up some aggressive comments to be less aggressive.

I’ll piggyback off this and also ask about events such as Teq and Wurm. These require coordination and a lot of guilds (most cross server) that were created specifically for these bosses try to find an empty server so all of their members can participate. This will make things more difficult as maps fill up and we’re forced to create an “overflow” (new map).

Actually, this roll out is pretty much the overflow system but with ranking/prioritization of players.

Another issue I have, rather than create another new thread, is the impact on player experience with congested maps. Try doing the aquatic daily with 12+ people attempting to do it as well. I’d prefer an option for the player to force a new map so their experience is not negatively affected by a map being congested.

I’d like to point out that the what people perceive with the mega-server design might be misleading, so waiting for the next blogposts for clarification might be nice. The current inference of the design, though, can be said to affect large movements of players that do organized effort because the larger the player population in the movement will be, the higher the chance that it will be fractured at a more greater scale than the previous server setup.

+1 for this A-Net. This is one of the great news of the year so far.
Thumbs up

I reckon there’s a chance there’ll be a Mega-RP server! Imagine that? xD

MrRuin.9740:

I fail to see why anyone at Anet or in the forum population thinks this will populate dead-zones.
If I go to Brisban Wildlands during a non-peak time, I might find one person on the map with me. So after “Megaserver” goes live, there might be 12 if I’m lucky. Maps are dead because there’s no reason to be on them. Server population doesn’t play a huge role in that. A high pop server might have 15 people on the map while a low pop has 2.
How about making a reason for people to be on those maps, rather than this system that seems to have disaster written all over it. Hey, I’ll give it a try, but Megaserver or not, I’m still not going to want to be on maps where theres nothing to do.

I agree with this 100%
An empty zone is an empty zone, no matter how many servers are merged together.
We need new things to DO out in the world.

Flytrap.8075:

AnthonyOrdon.3926:

Make sure to check back for part 2 and 3 of this announcement for more details.

-_-

This is like local news stories.

“In today’s news, Does using dog shampoo on your baby turn it into a velociraptor? RaptorWatch reporter AnthonyOrdon investigates after the break.”

Is there still going to be guesting? If I want to play with someone specific from another server is there a way I can still guarantee that I can play with them?

wolvenra.9617:

MrRuin.9740:

I fail to see why anyone at Anet or in the forum population thinks this will populate dead-zones.
If I go to Brisban Wildlands during a non-peak time, I might find one person on the map with me. So after “Megaserver” goes live, there might be 12 if I’m lucky. Maps are dead because there’s no reason to be on them. Server population doesn’t play a huge role in that. A high pop server might have 15 people on the map while a low pop has 2.
How about making a reason for people to be on those maps, rather than this system that seems to have disaster written all over it. Hey, I’ll give it a try, but Megaserver or not, I’m still not going to want to be on maps where theres nothing to do.

I agree with this 100%
An empty zone is an empty zone, no matter how many servers are merged together.
We need new things to DO out in the world.

On small servers, there are only empty zones.
This change brings the players from small servers together with the players from large servers that way the players from small servers can actually do content.

It isn’t trying to get people to go to Brisban Wildlands, it is trying to help the 3 people in Orr on a small server actually have a chance at doing a Temple event since they now get to play with the 50 other players who are doing the event from other servers.

Giving a reason to go to underutilized maps is a separate issue.

penelopehannibal.8947:

I reckon there’s a chance there’ll be a Mega-RP server! Imagine that? xD

If only Piken and TC could just be our own megaserver. <.< I mean, we’re gigantic servers as is.

At least TC regularly runs into overflow issues in Divinity’s Reach, and I’ve seen a single event make it impossible to get into non-overflow Grove or Rata Sum.

Honestly, TC Charr RP is going to be hit the hardest because the Black Citadel really isn’t our hub. Most warbands keep their RP to various settlements across Ascalon and only meet up now and again in the citadel.

PROBABLY BECAUSE THE CITADEL IS WORST AREA WITH A MASSIVE FREAKING GLITCHED CHUNK OF IT FROM THE REMEMBRANCE PLAZA TO THE TRADING POST.

Fasalina.6571:

I’m not and RPer but I hope ANet notices this thread and maybe think of a way to fix it. I personally don’t see how it can be fixed.
The thing is this change helps a lot the general community and I just can’t say no to it.
But anyway, what would change for you guys if more people are in town?
I mean wouldn’t that actually be better for RPing? As in you actually have a populated town with real people that most likely will mind their own business? I mean if you get harassed you can just report em. But since I’m not an RPer I don’t really understand what would be the problem

Our towns are usually full as is.

I specifically paid rl money to xfer to the server that I am on SOLELY for the community.

I am an officer in a wvw guild that was established in beta & I do NOT want to potentially share cities/pve world with my wvw enemies OR a bunch of new trolls that my server works particularly hard at getting rid of on a constant basis to maintain the serenity of our pleasant community.

I have people on my friends list who are most decidedly NOT my friends for very specific reasons, and I do NOT want to be thrown into places where they are, nor be forced to remove them from my Flist.

I am about as far from a role-player as you can get but, I urge you anet to pay attention to these very specific sectors of gw2 population. No mode of gameplay should be ignored & made to feel that they don’t have a voice or valid issues of concern. We have a few rp’s on our server & I can say that rp’s are quite entertaining & a really nice part of our community.

“We’ll also be discussing the long-term plan for guilds and WvW in relation to our megaserver system”

The thought of regularly having to repeat costly guild missions due to someone killing the bounty before my guild is able to get there & participate is not ok. We don’t particularly like doing them, they are done solely for guild commendations & are viewed by many in the guild as a waste of time. As an officer, I don’t want them to possibly take even longer and cost even more influence due to them having to be repeated.
Potentially gaining less guild influence is also, not ok
Guild recruitment is going to take a big hit from this. It’s hard enough to recruit for a guild that actually has rules and a carefully created environment, for the purpose of structure & the pleasure of our existing members.
Guilds who don’t particularly care about their members & are all about quantity, not quality, won’t really be affected by this.
Again, not ok
Guild Halls, if they are inc, will not fix any of the current & incoming guild issues stated., js

The combined server concept of EotM was bad enough.
Yes, the map is extraordinarily beautiful. Yes, ty for attempting to address wvw queues in some way. Yes, ty for all of the extra badges, karma, & wxp that I get when I do actually go there…
BUT, fighting along side long time enemies in a fashion that allows them to spitefully troll freely in chat &/or thwart organized battle plans; having the entire experience contribute nothing aside from a supply drop to my server; being surrounded by 20x’s the amount of pve mobs in a pvp environment; having no way to organize said forces through a server voice chat, & losing all sense of community are deal breakers for us on that one. Which is why we only go to EotM about 1-2 times in a whole month.
PLEASE do not attempt any kind of server merging or mega server option for wvwvw.
The fact that the pve population is contracting enough to constitute an action like “mega server” should tell you that you should start turning some more of your focus to the wvw realm. You currently have a very small team dedicated to the wvw segment of gw2. Give us a cpl more dedicated dev’s & give us the things that we have been asking for, NOT what you think we ‘need’ or what you think would be cool. If you give your customers what they want, they won’t leave & some of those that have left will come back.

I was really starting to get exited with what had been revealed thus far for the update. The wardrobe system & acct bound wxp has had me on the edge of my seat since they were announced. I felt those features would help sustain me for quite some time. Now, I’m starting to worry lol

Yes, I am waiting for the rest of the reveal, but this: “We’ll also be discussing the long-term plan for guilds and WvW in relation to our megaserver system” is starting to make me feel uneasy.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

It seems to me that server mergers + underflow servers would have been an easy and better solution without nearly so many issues. My guess is that the Execs and Marketing guys wouldn’t ok mergers since it sends a bad message, so we get this instead.

I guess we will have to wait and see what the next two days of details are, but this seems like an overly complicated way of just merging servers.

server mergers arent a better system. Servers are inherently flawed. The problem is, server system takes say 10000 people, says they are a server, and hopes that those 10k people distribute themselves in ways that make sense. but often that doesnt happen.

So what anet is hoping to achieve, is a system that makes more sense by putting people together based on need. It could in theory solve a whole host of problems. Likle anet is always afraid of spreading players out with new content maps, etc, this system could potentially solve this, meaning no matter how many maps you have, new or old, people are always filtered into ones. Less waste of resources on useless maps.

HOWEVER
there is going to be a lot of problems with this plan, finding people is going to be a huge problem, One of your friends getting filtered out, and having to try to get to him. Communities that need a bit more stability, like RP. The fact that this kind of works against events, dynamic, guild and otherwise.

I mean i can see this being worth it, but it seems like its really going to be in its infancy, and will hurt a lot until they make it better. It also probably will use a fair amount of programmer resources which seems to be at a premium for anet.

Its interesting, but we are essentially going to be playing it by ear for a long time, and in the end it may not work out for this game at all. Well, while its interesting, long as it doesnt get in my way, i dont mind (and this should be anets goal, dont get in the way of playing the game) but id rather see content. Martial Artist class, new zones and new weapons, new overarching quests/story (think personal story, but not a lot better in all respects)

I think from the swift response they have something cool planned….

Right Anet?…. RIGHT?

Let’s take Aion for example. It has a megaserver, but you have the choice to go back to your own world in PvE.

For this megaserver system to be the best thing since sliced bread , players need to be given the freedom to choose either to be filtered through megaserver, or guest to a certain server. What does this mean?? There would be a megaserver and then there would still be what we have right now while players get to choose if they want to be filtered into megaserver, guest, or stay in their home server.

I’ve been asking you guys to let us overflow on purpose here on the forums for a while, and I’m really happy to see this megaserver feature to make maps always full. This was desperately needed to prevent empty areas based on the server your choose. I honestly felt GW2 was a step back from GW1 district system when it came to the server technology.

I do have a criticism of it though:

This will increase the odds that you’ll see the same people more often and play with people of similar interests.

more likely to be placed on a map that has more of your friends and guildmates, people who speak the same language as you, and more people that you regularly see

This is facebook in a nutshell. It is a system designed so people who already know each other can be together, but it makes it impossible to meet new people, it is purely designed for keeping you in touch with whom you already know.

That is a horrible concept for a MMO, where the fun is that you meet hordes of new people. I know there are plenty of people that like hugboxes and never having to deal with people outside of their comfort zone. In fact I’ve had people on my guild say they only want to play with the same people over and over and they dislike a true open world or open/automatic looking for group because they need to play with people they feel some connection.

This isn’t me though, and probably a lot of other people.

My suggestion is that eventually you let US decide what we consider “affinity” so we can manually choose different maps to play at instead of the default system you provide us.

There is no way I will use my time on a MMO, which is incredibly time consuming, to pretty much only see the same 200 people over and over for the next 5 years. That isn’t happening. I do not play MMOs to be limited on seeing the same people.

Hope you guys read this.

All of these blog posts should have been posted as one news story. There’s no reason to leave us hanging like this. It’s like throwing a bone to a dog but the bone is just past the leashes reach.

It’s probably not going to be as bad as you might think. Beyond friend/party/guild association, it also takes your home world into account.

The benefit is, if you want to meet new people, go a less popular zone, since it will likely be populated with people from other home worlds.

How would harvest nodes be affected by this change? Because I’ve still got lots of deldrimors to make and piles of iron and platinum to collect. I don’t mind going to a map to find the nodes once, but I’d hate to come back with another character 30 seconds later to find I’m in an entirely different instance of the same map.