Guild Wars 2

Also please somebody explaining me how they thought forcibly blending in the boundaries between servers is going to work considering WvW? Unless they are moving in for a faction based WvW, puttting server comunities that should be at competition with each other in a blender so they can be “fwiends” in PVE is quite a foolhardy experiment.

Nexxius.6017:

Boss events are going to be put on stable timers between instances meaning it’ll all happen at once whether people want it or not.

Thanks Nexxius

“…Grown men don’t play games ”

DISCLAIMER : English is not my natural language , and Wall of Text inside the spoiler tags .

TL;DR

In regard of megaserver my suggestions are :
(I won’t say to get rid of the schedule because i know that it won’t happen)

• Waypoints – Unlike what most people are saying, to get free waypoints in same map , i suggest to get only the first waypoint in the map for free, if you’re only checking on a event/dungeon you pay nothing, if you decide to stay in that map and jump around you pay the fee.
• Schedule – I don’t really have a suggestion to fix it (in case you think that it needs to be fixed) but please review those timers , they are too spread apart .

And no, i will not threaten to leave, but GW2 will be a lot less fun for me after the 15th.

Personally I would have preferred a district like system, where you could choose which one to go on. That way world bosses wouldn’t have to be set onto a strict schedule, they and dungeons could still be tracked, nodes wouldn’t randomize every time you step onto a map, and people could still organize their Teq/Wurm kills.

What “sense of community”?

I’ve been playing this game since beta, and I have yet to feel a “sense of community” thanks to servers. I see some people talking about it creates that sense of community, but where is it? I almost never see the same people twice, unless I have them as friends or guild members. I almost never see anyone chatting, except for general/ technical questions or about upcoming patches. The entire game design incentives for a muted experience.

So, where is this beautiful, oh-so-awesome, godlike “sense of community”, that the archaic and annoying server system brings?

Do you want a sense of community? I want too. It is created through proper mechanics and gameplay. The improved guild features will enhance it. Future guild content might enhance it. More challenging, team-oriented content might enhance it. Dueling might enhance it. More player-driven, non-zerk content might enhance it.

But servers? Servers are more successful at keeping you away from known people that otherwise. Servers are more successful at making you experience an empty world instead of a lively one. Servers have been half the reason of why I can’t play with half my in-game friends. Servers are more effective at crippling a social experience than benefitting it.

I’m not saying that mega servers are the magical solution, but they seem to fix a lot more than the tiny drawbacks they bring.

GW2 always had problems estabilishing a social experience and a sense of community, and those won’t be fixed by servers – they’ll be fixed by proper game design addressing those issues.

Everyone agree? Like asking if everyone likes x. No everyone does not like x. The company made a decision good or bad it will not go away. I really won’t know what I think until I actually see it, not speculate and let group think lead me.

For PvE I think it’s great.

No more having to guest to various servers to find an uncontested dungeon.

Now we can finally make serious attempts at Wurm and other hard world bosses even when on a dead server. Maps will constantly be full of life, no more annoying Overflows.

I’m curious to see how this will affect WvW but I’m optimistic ANet will find a solid solution.

In general I value server identity and the likes, but in GW2 servers were always very flexible. It just makes sense.

Megaserver queensdale is going to be the hell lagfest. New players who choose human are gonna think the games borked.

Nexxius.6017:

A really hope anet come to their senses and cancel the mega-server before there’s a mass migration back to WoW, Aeon, Rift and Final Fantasy 14.

The mega server will more likely save the game than kill it. Everyone on an underpopulated server is complaining, people playing at off hours are complaining and people who play on busy servers are complaining that they can’t get on their servers because you people keep guesting to them.

This is probably the best bit about the entire patch. It’s a major improvement to the game. Time will bear this out.

I feel your statements may be exaggerated, as far as the economy and other topics go. I suggest we wait and see what happens. What may become less convenient for you, may become a lot more convenient for another. Who, then, has precedence?

Tom Gore.4035:

Anyone who’s doing the events has been using the timer websites anyway, so nothing much should change.

Except of course that the events will be much rarer, and guaranteed to overzerg.
In other words, they will change for the worse.

Nage.1520:

The mega server will more likely save the game than kill it. Everyone on an underpopulated server is complaining, people playing at off hours are complaining and people who play on busy servers are complaining that they can’t get on their servers because you people keep guesting to them.

People on the underpopulated servers will finally have someone to play with, but there are many more, less negative ways to achieve this. People on busy servers will still not be able to get on “their” servers, their situation will not improve in the slightest. And people playing at off hours could so far at least try to guest, but in future will find themselves kittened by the power of mighty Schedule.

No sorry, i do not agree that this will make big events like 3 Headed Wurm more easy to achieve, You fail to see the point in these events.. dropping a bunch of random people onto the same map and hoping they can achieve the boss will not work just because there is mass numbers…. You cannot just zerg dps this boss down

That boss in particular needs organising, you need 3 dedicated groups to split off, 1 group per wurm head, you need all 3 groups to suceed, how do you plan to organise so many people who have just been dumped on that map..

that is why the people who gather on TS for an organised attempt do a pretty good job at killing it, everyone is welcome, its not just one server being l33t, anyone can join, i do not for a second think Megaserver is going to make Sunless & 3 Head Wurm do-able by randoms because they require too much communication and not a bunch of people standing around going “Wtf we do here then?”

Lishtenbird.2814:

Astral Projections.7320:

Events like the Maw often have way too many people. Shatterer and Jormag often have too few. Consolidating maps and then making additional instances as needed may solve both of these problems.

On the contrary. It will join maps to create instances with +225% population density and turn every single world boss on a timer into a megablob.

Why create a separate thread? We already have this one and this one, it will get merged at best.

No, that is not correct. That +225% number means that overall average population on the maps will increase. There were so many empty maps that had like 1-2 people. Now they might have 40-50. But those that had like 80 will have 50 (just random numbers but you get the point). So on average you will have more people doing world events than on Ehmry Bay, but you will have less than on Blackgate.
Map max population is not increased.

Nexxius.6017:

A really hope anet come to their senses and cancel the mega-server before there’s a mass migration back to WoW, Aeon, Rift and Final Fantasy 14.

Really? “I threaten to leave if you don’t do things my way!” If I was ANet, such posts wouldn’t be taken seriously. There’s won’t be any “mass migration” anyway, and those players who will most probably were planning to.

The sky is not falling. It’s a state of mind, not reality.

First I want to see how it’s gonna play out but tbh I think it sounds pretty good so far.
It got quite boring wandering around on empty maps while leveling up…

Yargesh.4965:

I really won’t know what I think until I actually see it, nor speculate and let group think lead me.

Exactly what’s going on, people becoming paranoid with a(n) (un)healthy dose of group think. Saying something sucks without trying it just because it became the popular new thing to hate now (and too bad the “haters gotta hate” phrase came true once more.)

There are things in this game so much “worse” in comparison than the upcoming mega-server. It will be so helpful in my view to help people relegated to small PvE populations-and wouldn’t be surprised if there will be ways to organize the big events as well (though I DESPISE the condescending idea that the general random player is there on the map to troll/ruin the run, and wouldn’t do any better even if he/she tried.)

Astralporing.1957:

Tom Gore.4035:

Anyone who’s doing the events has been using the timer websites anyway, so nothing much should change.

Except of course that the events will be much rarer, and guaranteed to overzerg.
In other words, they will change for the worse.

Nage.1520:

The mega server will more likely save the game than kill it. Everyone on an underpopulated server is complaining, people playing at off hours are complaining and people who play on busy servers are complaining that they can’t get on their servers because you people keep guesting to them.

People on the underpopulated servers will finally have someone to play with, but there are many more, less negative ways to achieve this. People on busy servers will still not be able to get on “their” servers, their situation will not improve in the slightest. And people playing at off hours could so far at least try to guest, but in future will find themselves kittened by the power of mighty Schedule.

So kitten the “small guys” for not being in your (often full) mega populated servers, so it can be more convenient to you?

At least give it time to play itself out. This won’t even be live on April 15th.

I see it as an opportunity to keep playing with your friends as well as getting to know new ones, really.

This quote from the dungeon forums sums up my feelings about it. Although I do feel it helps the game overall this definately alienates people who enjoy small group content even more.

Never again world bosses in small coordinated groups! Embrace the megaserver system!

“Hey Colin, what should we do in the next patch to kitten over elitist zerker noobs even more?”
“Nerf crit damage! That’ll show em!”
“Sounds good but it’s not really enough… what do they like?”
“…min-maxing? Ascended gear?”
“That’s right! And what do they hate…”
“Zerging content with nobrain 1111 spam and 5 FPS!”
“Why don’t we just make that required to get ascended gear! That’ll drive all those elitist scumbag exploiting raging gear checking death-of-the-game zerker players away!”

Rezz.8019:

No, that is not correct. That +225% number means that overall average population on the maps will increase. There were so many empty maps that had like 1-2 people. Now they might have 40-50. But those that had like 80 will have 50 (just random numbers but you get the point). So on average you will have more people doing world events than on Ehmry Bay, but you will have less than on Blackgate.
Map max population is not increased.

What makes you think they will get drained? Your interpretation actually means splitting the original server community, which is not what ANet intended to do; as they stated, “if you had enough people on maps on your server you will likely not see any changes”. What they intended was to make desolate low-level zones filled with more people (by virtually merging them by creating “underflows”); and with world bosses put on timer, this will make the morning Frozen Maw grow from an easy 5-people fight into a 17+ people zerg, and an evening one to 50+ as there’re no other bosses to do and the maps got merged.

GW1 was not a megaserver but was similar to this. People are making mountains out of mole hills.

I’m glad they are trying out new things.

Dusty Moon.4382:

GW1 was not a megaserver but was similar to this. People are making mountains out of mole hills.

No the gw1 system was different. You could choose your district instead of being at the mercy of a system all the time you entered a map. Secondly gw1 didn’t have the uninstanced world with group events, world bosses, etc which is affected quite dramatically by the new permanent automated slightly random guesting system they introduced here.

Glorified server mergers. Good to stabilize the free fall population drop, pretty much bad for everything else.

If it wasn’t for their precious WvW we could of had actual server mergers which would have kept server identities more intact.

Nexxius.6017:

A really hope anet come to their senses and cancel the mega-server before there’s a mass migration back to WoW, Aeon, Rift and Final Fantasy 14.

I have seen people threaten " Make Gw2, the way I want it…or …people will leave!!!!" this is just as bad as " Make Gw2 the way I like it or….I’ll ..leave!!!!"

The number of players that threaten to leave over a proposed change usually are miniscule.

Secondly…. the number of players that threaten to leave…and actually follow up… are even more minuscule. And the fact is, as has been mentioned… those were leaving anyway. It was more a matter " the last straw".

Personally anyone that would leave the game…over one little feature that is yet to be implemented ..is Not someone I wish to cultivate as a friend…after all.. maybe Anet Introduces a Dye of a color they dislike..and leave the game.

So… I am looking foreward to the megaserver. I Love the idea. The game doesn’t have official RP channels, I agree. The RP " Community" has always worked .. with the game..Not because the game made allowances for it.

Anet is not gonna scrap Megaserver because the RP Community doesn’t Like it. You have to adjust, and deal… and work with what you have.

A lot more people have been asking for, and wanting Megaserver than there are " RP" people screaming against it.

Only about 3 to 5 % of the Population comes to the forums anyway…this is a tempest in a teacup… I hope that Anet takes this into consideration, and follows through with the megaserver.

AlexEBT.7240:

Dusty Moon.4382:

GW1 was not a megaserver but was similar to this. People are making mountains out of mole hills.

No the gw1 system was different. You could choose your district instead of being at the mercy of a system all the time you entered a map. Secondly gw1 didn’t have the uninstanced world with group events, world bosses, etc which is affected quite dramatically by the new permanent automated slightly random guesting system they introduced here.

No – You have NA, EUrupoe, ASia as the areas, which is what they will have here also. At the beginning of GW1, you had to pay to transfer to the other areas, like NA to EU, then they implemented a simple free transfer system.

As someone who has constantly defended Anet, and believed they have overall done a good job listening to the playerbase..

This single update is the WORST thing they are doing to the game, and it will result in a lot of people quitting. Never before have I seen a large majority of players angry about such a feature if you read through the official feedback thread.

I understand the concept of megaservers and why they put them in, and why problem this solves.

But the corresponding adjustment from dynamic events to scheduled, timed events is a POOR choice. I understand why it was done. But I do not think it should be done. The benefits of the megaserver system are no where close to drawbacks of the scheduled events.

Does Anet know how many people they are going to negatively affect with this?

Metaevent reset trains are active on many servers. I know personally that BG, SoR, TC, JQ & Yaks Bend run reset night trains that routinely result in overflows (which shows that they are popular). These trains usually only last 2 hours, which is a good amount of time for the average player to play the game. With this fix, it will be impossible for players to do all the content they want to do in a short time. And they will be forced to make a choice – a choice between doing content X and missing out Y, or vice versa. This is not the GW2 I signed up for when they said dynamic events.

You may think this is a rant from a rich player ranting because he lost one half of his gold intake. But believe me, this hits more than hardcore players and farmers.

Hardcore players and farmers lose out because they are now punished for playing efficiently (such as doing multiple metaevents on a short time) and are now funnelled into fixed time slots. Before this patch, I could do 3 fire ele’s in a 10 minute span. Now, I have to wait at least 2 hours before I can do a 2nd one. That is ludicrous.

How about the casual players? They don’t have a lot of time to play the game, and if they want to do certain content, they now need to be mindful of when they do it, as they may miss their boss.

Anet, I implore you to delay the megaservers. It is a poorly planned out choice that is going to kill your PvE playerbase. I don’t know if there is a solution, but doing this is going to put your backwards, not forwards.

I disagree with mega server so far. It nerfs daily event farms (people will spam it so fast, your time will be wasted in those area’s,), it nerfs node farming, it nerfs mob farming (more ppl spamming same mob for kills), it will nerf guesting, to activily seek a world with a faster approaching world event timer then yours.

It will nerf wurm/tequatl farming. 8 hours, timer, seriously? Even for me who sometimes plays 9 hours a day this is madness. Let alone for the casual players. This is a loose for both, epic fail.

Complexity, cryptic silence about guild merges. Will all influence be added to the ‘new merged guild’, or will some go lost, what about upgrades, etc. they want super simplistic China version of game (dumbing down USA/EU version with it), but they are failing at it.

It might kill communities.

It might make world bosses harder. Knowing anet and the +225% population increase, they’ll make event scale so bad that when 50 people of 300 total on a map afk/play superior casual, superior bad geared, they will cause the other 250 people to fail. Either that or people will complain bosses become to easy now. For this there is no perfect balance, ad you can’t predict there will be warrior (mature) dps train, or casual bear bow, with crappy gear, dying all the time. And with that in mind, any kind of scaling will be terrible, and knowing Anet they will try to fix it and make it worse actually. So megaservers another bad idea.

More zerg lag. Scarlet event, wurm event, all have lag at certain times, when zerg is skill spam happy. 225% extra ppl per map will increase this lag. Even with more server processing power allocated per map i doubt it will decrease lag. And knowing Ncsoft/Anet, this mega server project is more then relocating server allocations. Instead they are cutting the budget for servers down, making gw2 players have less servers to rely on and less stability.

They haven’t spoken about disbanding the connection between green (winning servers) and eotm overgrowth. If this continues, the megaserver problem wich could solve this, will only make it worse or status quo. Kinda lame that for the one thing mega server might be a solution, you are NOT USING IT as a SOLUTION.

Less t6 item drops to the general public, cause less access to events with good drop rate on them. Wich means t6 goes even more expensive, wich means legendary is evne Less accessable, thus more people leaving game. Economy is messed up enough as it is…. we don’t need more catalysts.

I think its going to help quite a bit with the appearance that the game is dead on the lower population servers (despite what the server says in the transfer/guest menu). I don’t think they really need to add something like this for the larger servers like the T1 but it doesn’t really make sense to only include it for half the game/servers/players.

I just hope it doesn’t affect my server pride when it comes to WvW. I don’t want longer queue times.

Nexxius.6017:

A really hope anet come to their senses and cancel the mega-server before there’s a mass migration back to WoW, Aeon, Rift and Final Fantasy 14.

This comment reminds me of 1999. MMO communities never change I suppose.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Glorified server mergers. Good to stabilize the free fall population drop, pretty much bad for everything else.

Uhm, the population drop was 1.5 years ago. Talk about slow reaction time …

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

It might make world bosses harder. Knowing anet and the +225% population increase, they’ll make event scale so bad that when 50 people of 300 total on a map afk/play superior casual, superior bad geared, they will cause the other 250 people to fail

That’s not what that number means. For grenths sake, at least know what you’re talking about before you start rambling! Population caps per map are not changing. Event scaling doesn’t work like that either.

No more golem solos at 4:00 am

How about we all take a deep breath and find out exactly how it’s going to work on the 15th. Could be a good thing. Could be bad. No one really knows yet. But it’s fun reading all the emotional rampant speculation that has no basis with any facts.

Xyonon.3987:

No more golem solos at 4:00 am

No more anything solos, the open world challenge is dead.

Zergs are a problem with open world content, but empty areas isn’t a solution for that. Better event design is.

Star Ace.5207:

So kitten the “small guys” for not being in your (often full) mega populated servers, so it can be more convenient to you?

No, as i said this is a valid concern – but it does not have to be solved at the cost of everyone else.

…Sigh. Forums.

Astralporing.1957:

Star Ace.5207:

So kitten the “small guys” for not being in your (often full) mega populated servers, so it can be more convenient to you?

No, as i said this is a valid concern – but it does not have to be solved at the cost of everyone else.

Who is this “everyone else”? The RPers?

Astralporing.1957:

Star Ace.5207:

So kitten the “small guys” for not being in your (often full) mega populated servers, so it can be more convenient to you?

No, as i said this is a valid concern – but it does not have to be solved at the cost of everyone else.

You speak as if " everyone else." were some HUGE number. As I see it, the only people upset by this are the hardcore RP " community" and… The Champion Train riders.

While i feel that RP should be encouraged, I do not see it as something that takes priority over changes that the Playerbase has been desiring, or changes that help the game where it is weak.

Megaserver makes it hard to RP as effectively as before? I am sure that the RP community will adjust.

As to the Champion Train, that has it’s own thread… as far as I am concerned the sooner that travesty is nerfed the better. But this would be off topic, so simply saying to me" but…. we love 4 am champion trains" doesn’t influence me to feel that the coming changes are bad for " everybody else." they just seem bad for 2 groups….

RP Community My sympathies… Champion Train Riders… this is Not Champion Train Wars 2.

Direksone.3867:

…Sigh. Forums.

Direk, are we supposed to be overjoyed with the fact that the open world events, 95% balanced for a single, not especially talented player, are forcibly getting filled with crowds of people? That the fabled ‘living world’ is being put into a rigid timetable? I honestly can’t find a single reason to applaud the change.

Nerelith, add people who do not want to have 3 other players in every event, making it so embarassingly easy I would prefer to trim my toenails for a challenge.

Nage.1520:

Nexxius.6017:

A really hope anet come to their senses and cancel the mega-server before there’s a mass migration back to WoW, Aeon, Rift and Final Fantasy 14.

The mega server will more likely save the game than kill it. Everyone on an underpopulated server is complaining, people playing at off hours are complaining and people who play on busy servers are complaining that they can’t get on their servers because you people keep guesting to them.

This is probably the best bit about the entire patch. It’s a major improvement to the game. Time will bear this out.

I’m not saying this to try and BS anyone, or make hollow threats or anything like that. I just want to say that Nexxius isn’t totally off track. At least when it comes to my reaction.

I am a huge GW and Anet fan. I was there from day one of the original, right up until Winds of change. I have the GW2 CE, artbook, and soundtrack. I have been waiting on the Chinese CE to pop up on Play Asia so I could import that also. My fiance has an Etsy store where she sells Quaggan plushies we make together!

I do not play any other MMOs and have always been staunch against sub fees.

All that said, yesterday after reading the blog, I was so disappointed and put off that I reflexively purchased a game about stars. Its supposed to be wild. Consequently, thats where my monthly budget for “fun/game stuff” will be going instead of gems.

I couldn’t even bring myself to log in to GW yesterday, and I play everyday. Ev-er-y day. I know I’m just one person, but I’m one person of the type that has always supported Anet’s decisions (well 90% of the time) and never thought Id turn my back on them after being a fan for going on a decade now. So if this change can put off a player like me, how will it affect lesser personally invested players that are more mercurial or migratory in play habit?

I won’t reiterate everything in the 10 page long feedback thread. Ill just summarize by saying this change is horrible for communities, horrible for the player economy, horrible for exploration, horrible for non-peak time players, and horrible for casual players that can’t adhere to the strict boss schedules. It even breaks the map. You can read up there to hear all of the explanations and more about how this patch seems great on the surface, but when you get into the fine print, it’s a community killer.

I love this megaserver,i like vary populated places far more then dead world as it is now.Its best thing Anet done for this game so far.

Asmodeus.5782:

Direksone.3867:

…Sigh. Forums.

Direk, are we supposed to be overjoyed with the fact that the open world events, 95% balanced for a single, not especially talented player, are forcibly getting filled with crowds of people? That the fabled ‘living world’ is being put into a rigid timetable? I honestly can’t find a single reason to applaud the change.

Asmodeus, open world events should have been designed and balanced for open world circustances. It is therefore a fault with the content itself and how it scales, and not with servers, if those events were designed for instances, but are not in instances, or if those events were designed for dungeons, but are not in dungeons.

That was always a problem with this game, and an empty population is not a solution – it’s just a second problem that hides the first one.

Also, it’s good to know that you recognize the living world as a fable. World boss events were and have been dictated by API schedules from fansites. The new schedule will not offer any different experience.

Asmodeus.5782:

Direk, are we supposed to be overjoyed with the fact that …

You have a seriously warped definition of the word ‘fact’.

I asked about the serious changes in scaling a few threads back, somehow I just can’t envision it happening. Unless they simply add another 0 to the HP shifts, once again. Without the proper scaling the megaserver eliminates the open world for me. That’s it.

I dont see why people complain about this.As much as i see people complain about world bosses and such please…dont take it offensive but doing world bosses every day is boring as hell.I quit doing world bosses like 4 months ago.Its not rewording,and rarely fun.This megaserver give us chance to have rich populated world with players around like in sandbox games.New starters wont have to lvl solo playing this game as its single player RPG till they hit 80 and then sit afk doing nothing at some place.Let me remind you all how much all of you complain on LS and “no end game” in this game.World Bosses are not end game and not supposed to be end game so it should not be primary thing that affect this game,neather is Rping.This megaserver improves gameplay,Rping and World bosses attract just part of community.

It already prioritises putting you with people on your own server, what’s the problem… If you’re part of a community, you should have people in that community in your friendslist / guild, again what’s the problem.

Casual Boss Hunters and RPers pay for the game too. In fact I am sure one Rper buys twice as much cosmetic items as an average ‘end gamer’. And a populated area =/= better gameplay. Some people deliberately choose low populated areas so they can do content in peace, have a less lagged environment, more challenging playstyle and game with people they’ll likely see again in that area (The latter of which is less likely to happen). Jumbleing people up may make the world seem fuller but what will it actually do for people? Popular World Events will remain popular, Quiet world events will hit max scaleing and lose difficulty (though some people will think free rides are good.) and any person you play with you will unlikely see again unless you make the distinct effort to add them to your friends list the first time you see them.

You can’t just discount the community sectors of an MMO, why? Because the community sectors of an mmo are the bonds that make MMOs more than a single player game with other people in the background. Saying these people are ‘not primary’ or ‘unimportant’ is usually a sign of someone who isn’t apart of those areas and would likely feel violated if they were the ones on the receiving end of the game breaking change for them.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

I feel your statements may be exaggerated, as far as the economy and other topics go. I suggest we wait and see what happens. What may become less convenient for you, may become a lot more convenient for another. Who, then, has precedence?

Do you always answer like you work for customer service ?

Scheduling times for bosses seems to hurt people a lot at this stage. I cant attend most of the already scheduled bosses because of bad time decisions.