Guild Wars 2

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

I’m saying the people who want to see more people are the majority. The people who want to scale up events. And the people who were on “dead” servers. And the people who work nights. And the people who are over seas. It’s not just people overseas. You need to read all the posts, not the ones you want.

Plenty of people play MMOs just to see other people. The percentage of people who play MMOs to not see people isn’t really all that high, I think. Oh there are some.

And if you’re not doing the top big quests, you don’t have that crowding anyway. You can go do anything and find people now. Before to see people you had to go to the places where people were.

This game, the entire dynamic event system, was really designed with people in mind. It wasn’t designed to have one person running around a zone solo. The entire game falls apart that way. You get the boring leveling complaints. Having people around, for a lot of people, make it interesting. Even some people who solo alot, like to see people.

I believe the people who want to be off on their own somewhere are probably a minority. The Oceanics was a comment on freedom. Two different ideas going on here.

I’ve seen this sort of thinking a few times in this thread…. So, I’m going to clear it up, mmo’s have nothing to do with seeing ‘plenty of people’. Mmo’s have nothing to do with how many random players you can squeeze into a zone.

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities. Thats what makes and breaks mmo’s, communities, communities which AN has decided to destroy.

If you’re playing an mmorpg just to see 100 other avatars running around a map, then you may as well be playing an offline single player game with 100 ai bots running around.

Except that not everyone plays MMOs for a server community. Many people play MMOs for the guild community? Why? Because you have more control over your experience in a guild.

If you join an RP guild you’ll mostly be around RPers. If you join a casual guild it’s unlikely anyone will ask you to zerk or get out. If you join a speed clear guild you’ll find people who want to be efficient.

My guild is my community and there’s enough people on most of the time where I don’t need a server community. I believe that in the old days when less people were playing, server community was very important but with the influx of more and more players, it’s become less so. Once the console generation started coming in, and the people who came late to WoW the emphasis shifted.

So yes, my guild is my community. I’m pretty sure that’s more common these days than people depending on a server community.

I never said server community… I said communities… thats includes guild, server, rp and includes anything else thats a group of like minded individuals doing what they enjoy. e.g.. my nieces get online together and swim, and swim, and swim, they run around in ‘bikinis’ on the beach and swim, for hours talking nonsense. That is their community. (just a note, when I think community, I think ‘my guild’, but chose to use ‘communities’ as it covers all aspects I wanted it too, server, guild, rp, the pub down the road from you etc).

My point is, being dumped on a map with no one from your community with a bunch of random faceless individuals who never interact with one another, who don’t even speak the same language equates to hours of irritation trying to get to play with your community (guild members, server friends, party members etc)… and back to my point, If the majority is playing to look at the map and say, ‘Hey, I see 100 people here, I’m sure glad I logged on. Well, thats me for the night’ and log off, then as said, may as well be in a single player game with loads of ai bots.

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

I’m saying the people who want to see more people are the majority. The people who want to scale up events. And the people who were on “dead” servers. And the people who work nights. And the people who are over seas. It’s not just people overseas. You need to read all the posts, not the ones you want.

Plenty of people play MMOs just to see other people. The percentage of people who play MMOs to not see people isn’t really all that high, I think. Oh there are some.

And if you’re not doing the top big quests, you don’t have that crowding anyway. You can go do anything and find people now. Before to see people you had to go to the places where people were.

This game, the entire dynamic event system, was really designed with people in mind. It wasn’t designed to have one person running around a zone solo. The entire game falls apart that way. You get the boring leveling complaints. Having people around, for a lot of people, make it interesting. Even some people who solo alot, like to see people.

I believe the people who want to be off on their own somewhere are probably a minority. The Oceanics was a comment on freedom. Two different ideas going on here.

I’ve seen this sort of thinking a few times in this thread…. So, I’m going to clear it up, mmo’s have nothing to do with seeing ‘plenty of people’. Mmo’s have nothing to do with how many random players you can squeeze into a zone.

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities. Thats what makes and breaks mmo’s, communities, communities which AN has decided to destroy.

If you’re playing an mmorpg just to see 100 other avatars running around a map, then you may as well be playing an offline single player game with 100 ai bots running around.

While you both have valid points, it still comes down to removing a feature of the game, one that was pretty valuable to a game mode they designed. One they released with, one that kept some of the toxic chat to a minimum, one that didn’t frustrate or confuse people. While i’m certain it was much harder to manage on the back end, it was still a pretty big part of various communities to have that separation.

I think if nothing else, they need to create a hub that is server based, either a new place in the Mists that doesn’t affect WvW or an existing city. Not that it would fully satisfy things for me, it would at least give us a way to gather our server together.

Soooo… any hopes that the September feature patch will bring some solutions? I must admit i felt a glimmer of horrid dread when i read the announcement. Like… “oh no. What will they think of now?”

munkiman.3068:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

I’m saying the people who want to see more people are the majority. The people who want to scale up events. And the people who were on “dead” servers. And the people who work nights. And the people who are over seas. It’s not just people overseas. You need to read all the posts, not the ones you want.

Plenty of people play MMOs just to see other people. The percentage of people who play MMOs to not see people isn’t really all that high, I think. Oh there are some.

And if you’re not doing the top big quests, you don’t have that crowding anyway. You can go do anything and find people now. Before to see people you had to go to the places where people were.

This game, the entire dynamic event system, was really designed with people in mind. It wasn’t designed to have one person running around a zone solo. The entire game falls apart that way. You get the boring leveling complaints. Having people around, for a lot of people, make it interesting. Even some people who solo alot, like to see people.

I believe the people who want to be off on their own somewhere are probably a minority. The Oceanics was a comment on freedom. Two different ideas going on here.

I’ve seen this sort of thinking a few times in this thread…. So, I’m going to clear it up, mmo’s have nothing to do with seeing ‘plenty of people’. Mmo’s have nothing to do with how many random players you can squeeze into a zone.

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities. Thats what makes and breaks mmo’s, communities, communities which AN has decided to destroy.

If you’re playing an mmorpg just to see 100 other avatars running around a map, then you may as well be playing an offline single player game with 100 ai bots running around.

While you both have valid points, it still comes down to removing a feature of the game, one that was pretty valuable to a game mode they designed. One they released with, one that kept some of the toxic chat to a minimum, one that didn’t frustrate or confuse people. While i’m certain it was much harder to manage on the back end, it was still a pretty big part of various communities to have that separation.

I think if nothing else, they need to create a hub that is server based, either a new place in the Mists that doesn’t affect WvW or an existing city. Not that it would fully satisfy things for me, it would at least give us a way to gather our server together.

Okay that’s true. They removed a feature. They also removed lonliness from world maps for people who played off hours, people who played content that wasn’t mainstream.

The game does a great deal of funneling. It funnels people into popular content. Drytop, champ trains, wherever the story is going on. That means the rest of the maps on X number of servers are near to empty.

Where’s the community there, for those people playing in those maps?

Nonexistent, that’s where it was.

There’s no good or easy answer to this.

And I see random people I know on servers I’m on quite frequently btw.

Vayne.8563:

Except that not everyone plays MMOs for a server community. Many people play MMOs for the guild community? Why? Because you have more control over your experience in a guild.

If you join an RP guild you’ll mostly be around RPers. If you join a casual guild it’s unlikely anyone will ask you to zerk or get out. If you join a speed clear guild you’ll find people who want to be efficient.

My guild is my community and there’s enough people on most of the time where I don’t need a server community. I believe that in the old days when less people were playing, server community was very important but with the influx of more and more players, it’s become less so. Once the console generation started coming in, and the people who came late to WoW the emphasis shifted.

So yes, my guild is my community. I’m pretty sure that’s more common these days than people depending on a server community.

Many people do play games for server based communities, if the game has server communities, but not all games do. Back in Guild Wars days, the only separation you had was guilds, but you also weren’t lumped with the masses outside of towns. I’ve met and played with more people in GW2 than i ever did in GW, this especially true since WvW is the game mode that brings that closer. I’d really like to say it’s improved my experience, yet really now, i feel more isolated, even if there are more people on the map. Especially true if you say something in map chat and get garbage back.

If a game implements a server based system and people build on that system, then suddenly it’s no longer a thing, then all the work, all the comradery you once had, seeing and communicating with familiar players, regularly, is gone. It would be something else entirely if they released the game as is now.

This is a polarizing topic and for good reason.

munkiman.3068:

Vayne.8563:

Except that not everyone plays MMOs for a server community. Many people play MMOs for the guild community? Why? Because you have more control over your experience in a guild.

If you join an RP guild you’ll mostly be around RPers. If you join a casual guild it’s unlikely anyone will ask you to zerk or get out. If you join a speed clear guild you’ll find people who want to be efficient.

My guild is my community and there’s enough people on most of the time where I don’t need a server community. I believe that in the old days when less people were playing, server community was very important but with the influx of more and more players, it’s become less so. Once the console generation started coming in, and the people who came late to WoW the emphasis shifted.

So yes, my guild is my community. I’m pretty sure that’s more common these days than people depending on a server community.

Many people do play games for server based communities, if the game has server communities, but not all games do. Back in Guild Wars days, the only separation you had was guilds, but you also weren’t lumped with the masses outside of towns. I’ve met and played with more people in GW2 than i ever did in GW, this especially true since WvW is the game mode that brings that closer. I’d really like to say it’s improved my experience, yet really now, i feel more isolated, even if there are more people on the map. Especially true if you say something in map chat and get garbage back.

If a game implements a server based system and people build on that system, then suddenly it’s no longer a thing, then all the work, all the comradery you once had, seeing and communicating with familiar players, regularly, is gone. It would be something else entirely if they released the game as is now.

This is a polarizing topic and for good reason.

It is a polarizing topic. There’s no question about it. There are also no easy answers.

If Anet can get the algorythm working better, that might solve some, but not all of the problems, particularly for Europe.

But for me at least, the difference in the game is night and day with the megaserver. So again it becomes a question of how many people by percentage hate it, how many love it, how many are inconvenienced and how much of an inconvenience is it. I can’t answer any of those questions, but I’d say those are the questions we need answers to.

lakdav.3694:

Soooo… any hopes that the September feature patch will bring some solutions? I must admit i felt a glimmer of horrid dread when i read the announcement. Like… “oh no. What will they think of now?”

I don’t ‘hope’ for MS issues to be addressed anymore… As Azure said several posts back, this thread is AN’s rug.

Vayne.8563:

It is a polarizing topic. There’s no question about it. There are also no easy answers.

If Anet can get the algorythm working better, that might solve some, but not all of the problems, particularly for Europe.

But for me at least, the difference in the game is night and day with the megaserver. So again it becomes a question of how many people by percentage hate it, how many love it, how many are inconvenienced and how much of an inconvenience is it. I can’t answer any of those questions, but I’d say those are the questions we need answers to.

This, we need answers, or at least a glimmer of hope that they are looking into solutions

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

It is a polarizing topic. There’s no question about it. There are also no easy answers.

If Anet can get the algorythm working better, that might solve some, but not all of the problems, particularly for Europe.

But for me at least, the difference in the game is night and day with the megaserver. So again it becomes a question of how many people by percentage hate it, how many love it, how many are inconvenienced and how much of an inconvenience is it. I can’t answer any of those questions, but I’d say those are the questions we need answers to.

This, we need answers, or at least a glimmer of hope that they are looking into solutions

Unfortunately, the solution just doesn’t exist in it’s current form. Even if they improved the magical algorithm (which i’m pretty sure they have already), you’re still faced with not sorting people based on what they want. Some of the beauty of having choices on a player basis, is the player gets to decide. While overflows were inconvenient in some cases, for the most part, people decided where and with whom they were playing with.

In order to have the best of both, there would need to be a very large redesign of the games basic structure. The best we could hope for is we get a server based town and we keep clicking “Join in” when we leave that town to do large scale, server based events. There simply is no mind reading algorithm that can predetermine what people want to do. Although it still baffles me how many times a party gets split up.

There is still a sizable frustration with the communication ANet lacks with it’s community.

munkiman.3068:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

It is a polarizing topic. There’s no question about it. There are also no easy answers.

If Anet can get the algorythm working better, that might solve some, but not all of the problems, particularly for Europe.

But for me at least, the difference in the game is night and day with the megaserver. So again it becomes a question of how many people by percentage hate it, how many love it, how many are inconvenienced and how much of an inconvenience is it. I can’t answer any of those questions, but I’d say those are the questions we need answers to.

This, we need answers, or at least a glimmer of hope that they are looking into solutions

Unfortunately, the solution just doesn’t exist in it’s current form. Even if they improved the magical algorithm (which i’m pretty sure they have already), you’re still faced with not sorting people based on what they want. Some of the beauty of having choices on a player basis, is the player gets to decide. While overflows were inconvenient in some cases, for the most part, people decided where and with whom they were playing with.

In order to have the best of both, there would need to be a very large redesign of the games basic structure. The best we could hope for is we get a server based town and we keep clicking “Join in” when we leave that town to do large scale, server based events. There simply is no mind reading algorithm that can predetermine what people want to do. Although it still baffles me how many times a party gets split up.

There is still a sizable frustration with the communication ANet lacks with it’s community.

I ve said it before, but what they need to do is make server community matter again, by allowing people to form large block groups that the algorith treats as one player for moving maps, they also need to give players more control over priorities within the algorithm.

prioritize guild
prioritize server
prioritize friends
prioritize map shard size.

add server based chat channels that only people from a server can hear.
and the last one, is pretty big but i think its necessary

create a large player controlled hub based on server communities performance/politics/contributions that is server specific. Here servers can develop identity, organize for missions, have events etc.
It would essentially make servers closer to your nation.

Its also probably a large undertaking that would never happen.

most likely megaserver wont evolve much other than messing around with the algorithm, which is a shame because it doesnt meld well with many of the games basic design structures

There’s a few simple things that can be done to help us, and nothing the game doesn’t actually know.
Some examples:
O Number the map instances in a UI display (e.g LA 1,2,3 etc) and allow us to select an instance.

The game knows how many copies of the map there is. So why not number them and show us? We can already taxi in on a player, so why not use the same mechanic in this map select UI.

Selectable maps would really help the RP complaints also..

O The game also knows the population of a map, it has to in order to know when to spawn more. So why not tell us?

This would really help so we know if our guild is going to fit in or if we need to find another map

O Remember the last map we were in and make that our first choice of re-entry after say 2 mins. This would avoid the disconnecting at a world boss and ending up in an empty map frustration.

As I said, nothing the game doesn’t already keep track of but would save an awful lot of frustration and annoyance.

Shanaeri Rynale.6897:

There’s a few simple things that can be done to help us, and nothing the game doesn’t actually know.
Some examples:
O Number the map instances in a UI display (e.g LA 1,2,3 etc) and allow us to select an instance.

The game knows how many copies of the map there is. So why not number them and show us? We can already taxi in on a player, so why not use the same mechanic in this map select UI.

Selectable maps would really help the RP complaints also..

O The game also knows the population of a map, it has to in order to know when to spawn more. So why not tell us?

This would really help so we know if our guild is going to fit in or if we need to find another map

Remember the last map we were in and make that our first choice of re-entry after say 2 mins. This would avoid the disconnecting at a world boss and ending up in an empty map frustration.

As I said, nothing the game doesn’t already keep track of but would save an awful lot of frustration and annoyance.

yes i suppose showing map IPs with current population numbers that you could join on, and a 2-3 minute spot holding on disconnection would probably help.
But i think anet doesnt really want people picking maps at all, or having any idea how full maps are

Elagos.6029:

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities.

Guess I’m the minority then! Megaservers have really enhanced the way I play as a solo. Can’t count how many times I have walked into a hornets nest and there is always someone there to help out now.

Then again, I enjoy playing amongst the players more then being part of a community. A.K.A lone wolf with friends!

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Elagos.6029:

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities.

Guess I’m the minority then! Megaservers have really enhanced the way I play as a solo. Can’t count how many times I have walked into a hornets nest and there is always someone there to help out now.

Then again, I enjoy playing amongst the players more then being part of a community. A.K.A lone wolf with friends!

I don’t believe you’re as much a minority as you think you are. Most of my guild is like you.

Vayne.8563:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Elagos.6029:

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities.

Guess I’m the minority then! Megaservers have really enhanced the way I play as a solo. Can’t count how many times I have walked into a hornets nest and there is always someone there to help out now.

Then again, I enjoy playing amongst the players more then being part of a community. A.K.A lone wolf with friends!

I don’t believe you’re as much a minority as you think you are. Most of my guild is like you.

Perhaps we have different understandings of what community is in game…. to me, ‘lone wolf with friends’ and ‘Most of my guild is like you’, are your respective communities

Just to add, 75% of the time I’m ‘lone wolf’ too, but I’m still part of my guild community

My previous post may explain it better

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

I’m saying the people who want to see more people are the majority. The people who want to scale up events. And the people who were on “dead” servers. And the people who work nights. And the people who are over seas. It’s not just people overseas. You need to read all the posts, not the ones you want.

Plenty of people play MMOs just to see other people. The percentage of people who play MMOs to not see people isn’t really all that high, I think. Oh there are some.

And if you’re not doing the top big quests, you don’t have that crowding anyway. You can go do anything and find people now. Before to see people you had to go to the places where people were.

This game, the entire dynamic event system, was really designed with people in mind. It wasn’t designed to have one person running around a zone solo. The entire game falls apart that way. You get the boring leveling complaints. Having people around, for a lot of people, make it interesting. Even some people who solo alot, like to see people.

I believe the people who want to be off on their own somewhere are probably a minority. The Oceanics was a comment on freedom. Two different ideas going on here.

I’ve seen this sort of thinking a few times in this thread…. So, I’m going to clear it up, mmo’s have nothing to do with seeing ‘plenty of people’. Mmo’s have nothing to do with how many random players you can squeeze into a zone.

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities. Thats what makes and breaks mmo’s, communities, communities which AN has decided to destroy.

If you’re playing an mmorpg just to see 100 other avatars running around a map, then you may as well be playing an offline single player game with 100 ai bots running around.

Except that not everyone plays MMOs for a server community. Many people play MMOs for the guild community? Why? Because you have more control over your experience in a guild.

If you join an RP guild you’ll mostly be around RPers. If you join a casual guild it’s unlikely anyone will ask you to zerk or get out. If you join a speed clear guild you’ll find people who want to be efficient.

My guild is my community and there’s enough people on most of the time where I don’t need a server community. I believe that in the old days when less people were playing, server community was very important but with the influx of more and more players, it’s become less so. Once the console generation started coming in, and the people who came late to WoW the emphasis shifted.

So yes, my guild is my community. I’m pretty sure that’s more common these days than people depending on a server community.

I never said server community… I said communities… thats includes guild, server, rp and includes anything else thats a group of like minded individuals doing what they enjoy. e.g.. my nieces get online together and swim, and swim, and swim, they run around in ‘bikinis’ on the beach and swim, for hours talking nonsense. That is their community. (just a note, when I think community, I think ‘my guild’, but chose to use ‘communities’ as it covers all aspects I wanted it too, server, guild, rp, the pub down the road from you etc).

My point is, being dumped on a map with no one from your community with a bunch of random faceless individuals who never interact with one another, who don’t even speak the same language equates to hours of irritation trying to get to play with your community (guild members, server friends, party members etc)… and back to my point, If the majority is playing to look at the map and say, ‘Hey, I see 100 people here, I’m sure glad I logged on. Well, thats me for the night’ and log off, then as said, may as well be in a single player game with loads of ai bots.

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Daggos Skelito.2910:

Elagos.6029:

The majority of gamers who play mmo’s DO NOT play to see plenty of people, they play to be with their communities.

Guess I’m the minority then! Megaservers have really enhanced the way I play as a solo. Can’t count how many times I have walked into a hornets nest and there is always someone there to help out now.

Then again, I enjoy playing amongst the players more then being part of a community. A.K.A lone wolf with friends!

I don’t believe you’re as much a minority as you think you are. Most of my guild is like you.

Perhaps we have different understandings of what community is in game…. to me, ‘lone wolf with friends’ and ‘Most of my guild is like you’, are your respective communities

Just to add, 75% of the time I’m ‘lone wolf’ too, but I’m still part of my guild community

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

I hear what you’re saying. Regardless of how many people love MS and the positives it brings, the problem still exists of how it manages groups/parties/guilds/communities etc. It needs to be addressed. I’ll use my nieces I mentioned earlier as an example. Take these 5 young people. Pre mega server they would log in, join up, show each other their new dresses, shoes, hair style whatever and then off to do something. No problems, no complaints, just off patting rabbits or whatever. They aren’t in a guild. They are family/friends. They are (even without knowing it) a small rp community.

GW2 to them is a place where they can wear pretty pink and purple cloths, have picnics and anything their imaginations will allow. I’ve watched them buy houses, open stores, fight wars, track down thieves and so on. They play their way.

Now, post megaserver, its a nightmare. ‘Why can’t we see each other?’ ‘We can’t start the picnic yet cos xyz has the basket’ ‘I can’t swim yet, xyz was carrying the towels’… and the list goes on. Bugger my problem of not getting to do a guild mission with guildies, the problem of xyz not seeing abcs new shoes is now my problem… after 20min of logging, joining, trying to all get on same map, the solution… ‘go play minecraft*shudder* or something, she can see your new shoes next time.’ Enter tears and train wreck here.

And this is a tiny part of the world of gw2. The same problem exists for large scale communities. I cannot understand why it is so darn impossible to get 5 people in a party that want to go do something together on the same map, be it gathering, rping, standing in LA staring at a wall together, playing how they want to play, playing how they enjoy playing and most importantly, playing how they used to play pre mega server.

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

I hear what you’re saying. Regardless of how many people love MS and the positives it brings, the problem still exists of how it manages groups/parties/guilds/communities etc. It needs to be addressed. I’ll use my nieces I mentioned earlier as an example. Take these 5 young people. Pre mega server they would log in, join up, show each other their new dresses, shoes, hair style whatever and then off to do something. No problems, no complaints, just off patting rabbits or whatever. They aren’t in a guild. They are family/friends. They are (even without knowing it) a small rp community.

GW2 to them is a place where they can wear pretty pink and purple cloths, have picnics and anything their imaginations will allow. I’ve watched them buy houses, open stores, fight wars, track down thieves and so on. They play their way.

Now, post megaserver, its a nightmare. ‘Why can’t we see each other?’ ‘We can’t start the picnic yet cos xyz has the basket’ ‘I can’t swim yet, xyz was carrying the towels’… and the list goes on. Bugger my problem of not getting to do a guild mission with guildies, the problem of xyz not seeing abcs new shoes is now my problem… after 20min of logging, joining, trying to all get on same map, the solution… ‘go play minecraft*shudder* or something, she can see your new shoes next time.’ Enter tears and train wreck here.

And this is a tiny part of the world of gw2. The same problem exists for large scale communities. I cannot understand why it is so darn impossible to get 5 people in a party that want to go do something together on the same map, be it gathering, rping, standing in LA staring at a wall together, playing how they want to play, playing how they enjoy playing and most importantly, playing how they used to play pre mega server.

It’s easy to learn how to make a party and join on each other. Really. For that example you gave, it could have happeend in the old system too. They could have ended up on an overflow in Queensdale during the SB or in LA. The problems always existed, even pre mega server.

People need to learn how to party and join. This is not hard. Of all the complaints I’ve seen about the mega server and many of them are quite solid, this example feels like you’re reaching to me.

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

I hear what you’re saying. Regardless of how many people love MS and the positives it brings, the problem still exists of how it manages groups/parties/guilds/communities etc. It needs to be addressed. I’ll use my nieces I mentioned earlier as an example. Take these 5 young people. Pre mega server they would log in, join up, show each other their new dresses, shoes, hair style whatever and then off to do something. No problems, no complaints, just off patting rabbits or whatever. They aren’t in a guild. They are family/friends. They are (even without knowing it) a small rp community.

GW2 to them is a place where they can wear pretty pink and purple cloths, have picnics and anything their imaginations will allow. I’ve watched them buy houses, open stores, fight wars, track down thieves and so on. They play their way.

Now, post megaserver, its a nightmare. ‘Why can’t we see each other?’ ‘We can’t start the picnic yet cos xyz has the basket’ ‘I can’t swim yet, xyz was carrying the towels’… and the list goes on. Bugger my problem of not getting to do a guild mission with guildies, the problem of xyz not seeing abcs new shoes is now my problem… after 20min of logging, joining, trying to all get on same map, the solution… ‘go play minecraft*shudder* or something, she can see your new shoes next time.’ Enter tears and train wreck here.

And this is a tiny part of the world of gw2. The same problem exists for large scale communities. I cannot understand why it is so darn impossible to get 5 people in a party that want to go do something together on the same map, be it gathering, rping, standing in LA staring at a wall together, playing how they want to play, playing how they enjoy playing and most importantly, playing how they used to play pre mega server.

It’s easy to learn how to make a party and join on each other. Really. For that example you gave, it could have happeend in the old system too. They could have ended up on an overflow in Queensdale during the SB or in LA. The problems always existed, even pre mega server.

People need to learn how to party and join. This is not hard. Of all the complaints I’ve seen about the mega server and many of them are quite solid, this example feels like you’re reaching to me.

Not at all… we put them on low pop server for a reason… overflows never existed for them, nor did 50 tag alongs following them around trolling them in 50 different languages and ruining their fun

As for GH server I was on, I never ever had overflow, only time I had overflow was Scarlet LA overflowed, which was expected, everyone on server in one zone

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

I hear what you’re saying. Regardless of how many people love MS and the positives it brings, the problem still exists of how it manages groups/parties/guilds/communities etc. It needs to be addressed. I’ll use my nieces I mentioned earlier as an example. Take these 5 young people. Pre mega server they would log in, join up, show each other their new dresses, shoes, hair style whatever and then off to do something. No problems, no complaints, just off patting rabbits or whatever. They aren’t in a guild. They are family/friends. They are (even without knowing it) a small rp community.

GW2 to them is a place where they can wear pretty pink and purple cloths, have picnics and anything their imaginations will allow. I’ve watched them buy houses, open stores, fight wars, track down thieves and so on. They play their way.

Now, post megaserver, its a nightmare. ‘Why can’t we see each other?’ ‘We can’t start the picnic yet cos xyz has the basket’ ‘I can’t swim yet, xyz was carrying the towels’… and the list goes on. Bugger my problem of not getting to do a guild mission with guildies, the problem of xyz not seeing abcs new shoes is now my problem… after 20min of logging, joining, trying to all get on same map, the solution… ‘go play minecraft*shudder* or something, she can see your new shoes next time.’ Enter tears and train wreck here.

And this is a tiny part of the world of gw2. The same problem exists for large scale communities. I cannot understand why it is so darn impossible to get 5 people in a party that want to go do something together on the same map, be it gathering, rping, standing in LA staring at a wall together, playing how they want to play, playing how they enjoy playing and most importantly, playing how they used to play pre mega server.

It’s easy to learn how to make a party and join on each other. Really. For that example you gave, it could have happeend in the old system too. They could have ended up on an overflow in Queensdale during the SB or in LA. The problems always existed, even pre mega server.

People need to learn how to party and join. This is not hard. Of all the complaints I’ve seen about the mega server and many of them are quite solid, this example feels like you’re reaching to me.

Not at all… we put them on low pop server for a reason… overflows never existed for them, nor did 50 tag alongs following them around trolling them in 50 different languages and ruining their fun

As for GH server I was on, I never ever had overflow, only time I had overflow was Scarlet LA overflowed, which was expected, everyone on server in one zone

Even though this is all true (I have no reason to doubt you), making programming decisions for that segment of the population is pretty bad, and you know, young people really can be taught how to do stuff like that. Kids are smarter than you think.

But if I were a designer, that’s NOT the segment of the population I’d be taking into account when making decisions.

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

I hear what you’re saying. Regardless of how many people love MS and the positives it brings, the problem still exists of how it manages groups/parties/guilds/communities etc. It needs to be addressed. I’ll use my nieces I mentioned earlier as an example. Take these 5 young people. Pre mega server they would log in, join up, show each other their new dresses, shoes, hair style whatever and then off to do something. No problems, no complaints, just off patting rabbits or whatever. They aren’t in a guild. They are family/friends. They are (even without knowing it) a small rp community.

GW2 to them is a place where they can wear pretty pink and purple cloths, have picnics and anything their imaginations will allow. I’ve watched them buy houses, open stores, fight wars, track down thieves and so on. They play their way.

Now, post megaserver, its a nightmare. ‘Why can’t we see each other?’ ‘We can’t start the picnic yet cos xyz has the basket’ ‘I can’t swim yet, xyz was carrying the towels’… and the list goes on. Bugger my problem of not getting to do a guild mission with guildies, the problem of xyz not seeing abcs new shoes is now my problem… after 20min of logging, joining, trying to all get on same map, the solution… ‘go play minecraft*shudder* or something, she can see your new shoes next time.’ Enter tears and train wreck here.

And this is a tiny part of the world of gw2. The same problem exists for large scale communities. I cannot understand why it is so darn impossible to get 5 people in a party that want to go do something together on the same map, be it gathering, rping, standing in LA staring at a wall together, playing how they want to play, playing how they enjoy playing and most importantly, playing how they used to play pre mega server.

It’s easy to learn how to make a party and join on each other. Really. For that example you gave, it could have happeend in the old system too. They could have ended up on an overflow in Queensdale during the SB or in LA. The problems always existed, even pre mega server.

People need to learn how to party and join. This is not hard. Of all the complaints I’ve seen about the mega server and many of them are quite solid, this example feels like you’re reaching to me.

Not at all… we put them on low pop server for a reason… overflows never existed for them, nor did 50 tag alongs following them around trolling them in 50 different languages and ruining their fun

As for GH server I was on, I never ever had overflow, only time I had overflow was Scarlet LA overflowed, which was expected, everyone on server in one zone

Even though this is all true (I have no reason to doubt you), making programming decisions for that segment of the population is pretty bad, and you know, young people really can be taught how to do stuff like that. Kids are smarter than you think.

But if I were a designer, that’s NOT the segment of the population I’d be taking into account when making decisions.

Sorry, I rush typed and wasn’t clear (was in mid of taking cat to vet). The ‘Not at all’ had nothing to do with teaching/learning how to do things (Yeah, kids now days are scary crazy with tech/apps etc… ), its was for the ‘The problems always existed, even pre mega server.’

We never had parties splitting into multiple overflows where five people were spread across 3-4 overflows, either everyone was on main, or like Scarlet LA fight, all were in overflow. Not saying it didn’t happen to others, but if it did it was very rare and I’ve never heard anyone complain about parties being split up pre megaserver. Now days, you can spend an entire evening of game time trying to get on same map as friends/guildies/party members, and still end up missing a few people. IMO these problems never existed pre megaserver. Pre megaserver, I never had to fight with a system to play with my friends.

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

I hear what you’re saying. Regardless of how many people love MS and the positives it brings, the problem still exists of how it manages groups/parties/guilds/communities etc. It needs to be addressed. I’ll use my nieces I mentioned earlier as an example. Take these 5 young people. Pre mega server they would log in, join up, show each other their new dresses, shoes, hair style whatever and then off to do something. No problems, no complaints, just off patting rabbits or whatever. They aren’t in a guild. They are family/friends. They are (even without knowing it) a small rp community.

GW2 to them is a place where they can wear pretty pink and purple cloths, have picnics and anything their imaginations will allow. I’ve watched them buy houses, open stores, fight wars, track down thieves and so on. They play their way.

Now, post megaserver, its a nightmare. ‘Why can’t we see each other?’ ‘We can’t start the picnic yet cos xyz has the basket’ ‘I can’t swim yet, xyz was carrying the towels’… and the list goes on. Bugger my problem of not getting to do a guild mission with guildies, the problem of xyz not seeing abcs new shoes is now my problem… after 20min of logging, joining, trying to all get on same map, the solution… ‘go play minecraft*shudder* or something, she can see your new shoes next time.’ Enter tears and train wreck here.

And this is a tiny part of the world of gw2. The same problem exists for large scale communities. I cannot understand why it is so darn impossible to get 5 people in a party that want to go do something together on the same map, be it gathering, rping, standing in LA staring at a wall together, playing how they want to play, playing how they enjoy playing and most importantly, playing how they used to play pre mega server.

It’s easy to learn how to make a party and join on each other. Really. For that example you gave, it could have happeend in the old system too. They could have ended up on an overflow in Queensdale during the SB or in LA. The problems always existed, even pre mega server.

People need to learn how to party and join. This is not hard. Of all the complaints I’ve seen about the mega server and many of them are quite solid, this example feels like you’re reaching to me.

Not at all… we put them on low pop server for a reason… overflows never existed for them, nor did 50 tag alongs following them around trolling them in 50 different languages and ruining their fun

As for GH server I was on, I never ever had overflow, only time I had overflow was Scarlet LA overflowed, which was expected, everyone on server in one zone

Even though this is all true (I have no reason to doubt you), making programming decisions for that segment of the population is pretty bad, and you know, young people really can be taught how to do stuff like that. Kids are smarter than you think.

But if I were a designer, that’s NOT the segment of the population I’d be taking into account when making decisions.

Sorry, I rush typed and wasn’t clear (was in mid of taking cat to vet). The ‘Not at all’ had nothing to do with teaching/learning how to do things (Yeah, kids now days are scary crazy with tech/apps etc… ), its was for the ‘The problems always existed, even pre mega server.’

We never had parties splitting into multiple overflows where five people were spread across 3-4 overflows, either everyone was on main, or like Scarlet LA fight, all were in overflow. Not saying it didn’t happen to others, but if it did it was very rare and I’ve never heard anyone complain about parties being split up pre megaserver. Now days, you can spend an entire evening of game time trying to get on same map as friends/guildies/party members, and still end up missing a few people. IMO these problems never existed pre megaserver. Pre megaserver, I never had to fight with a system to play with my friends.

Pre mega server I did have to fight with the system to play with my friends. Many people on TC, Blackgate, and JQ had to fight with the system to play with their friends. Didn’t you see the complaint threads on the forums (there were many) about people not being able to play on their home server for days on end because it was full?

It was very frustrating to be on TC back then. And if those three busiest servers all had that problem, that means it was also a widespread problem. It affected a lot of people.

Vayne.8563:

Pre mega server I did have to fight with the system to play with my friends. Many people on TC, Blackgate, and JQ had to fight with the system to play with their friends. Didn’t you see the complaint threads on the forums (there were many) about people not being able to play on their home server for days on end because it was full?

It was very frustrating to be on TC back then. And if those three busiest servers all had that problem, that means it was also a widespread problem. It affected a lot of people.

Did see em, but that was a different issue completely… but yeah, I guess the solution is to bugger it up for all instead of doing practical simple things like locking server from new accounts when population = x accounts, or block guesting to high pop servers when numbers = x, or hey, here is a thought, give home server accounts like yours preference on your home server… but hey, what do I know.

I really am glad you and many others enjoy the MS and its fixed many issues you had pre megaserver. I wasn’t on those servers and was not affected by it, but making an issue affect everyone instead of fixing it isn’t right. There are serious problems with megaserver, and as stated before, I’m not against it, but the issues many have raised need to be addressed.

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Pre mega server I did have to fight with the system to play with my friends. Many people on TC, Blackgate, and JQ had to fight with the system to play with their friends. Didn’t you see the complaint threads on the forums (there were many) about people not being able to play on their home server for days on end because it was full?

It was very frustrating to be on TC back then. And if those three busiest servers all had that problem, that means it was also a widespread problem. It affected a lot of people.

Did see em, but that was a different issue completely… but yeah, I guess the solution is to bugger it up for all instead of doing practical simple things like locking server from new accounts when population = x accounts, or block guesting to high pop servers when numbers = x, or hey, here is a thought, give home server accounts like yours preference on your home server… but hey, what do I know.

I really am glad you and many others enjoy the MS and its fixed many issues you had pre megaserver. I wasn’t on those servers and was not affected by it, but making an issue affect everyone instead of fixing it isn’t right. There are serious problems with megaserver, and as stated before, I’m not against it, but the issues many have raised need to be addressed.

Pretty much this. They basically turned the game into one big overflow, which didn’t solve anything but more people on the more barren maps.
Map completion (doing hearts) in some cases are now worse too. I was doing dredgehaunt and noticed many of the hearts that involve killing bad guys and tripping traps are map wide, so now i’m competing with 10 players to complete a heart than 5, that’s always fun. When are they going to get around to fixing that? “when it’s ready”

Elagos.6029:

Vayne.8563:

Pre mega server I did have to fight with the system to play with my friends. Many people on TC, Blackgate, and JQ had to fight with the system to play with their friends. Didn’t you see the complaint threads on the forums (there were many) about people not being able to play on their home server for days on end because it was full?

It was very frustrating to be on TC back then. And if those three busiest servers all had that problem, that means it was also a widespread problem. It affected a lot of people.

Did see em, but that was a different issue completely… but yeah, I guess the solution is to bugger it up for all instead of doing practical simple things like locking server from new accounts when population = x accounts, or block guesting to high pop servers when numbers = x, or hey, here is a thought, give home server accounts like yours preference on your home server… but hey, what do I know.

I really am glad you and many others enjoy the MS and its fixed many issues you had pre megaserver. I wasn’t on those servers and was not affected by it, but making an issue affect everyone instead of fixing it isn’t right. There are serious problems with megaserver, and as stated before, I’m not against it, but the issues many have raised need to be addressed.

So what’s the solution? You say what Anet did was wrong. I’d like to see some suggestions that would make this less of an issue. I mean we’ve already seen taking the cities off the mega server (which I agree with). We’ve already seen fix the algorythm, which obviously it has to be better than it is. We’ve seen if I get kicked hold my spot for a few. I agree with that.

But beyond that, what could they do. Suppose instead of the mega server system, Anet did server mergers. Now we have lots of people on each server. Everyone ends up with the same problems we had on TC and Blackgate and JQ instead of just the people on those servers. And you still end up with huge crowds for zergs, and you still end up on overflows instead of your servers so you can’t play with your friends and you’re surrounded by strangers.

Everyone says this is unfair and bad, but I haven’t seen a better solution that would solve my problems.

Some people have suggested an underflow server but that would have taken everyone off their servers where they were happy with less people and put them with more people.

There’s no solution I can see that would leave most people happy.

And giving people an option so they have to run all the servers and all the mega servers wouldn’t be cost effective and it might have the affect of slowing everything down (though I can’t be sure about the last point).

… that would have taken everyone off their servers where they were happy with less people and put them with more people

But isn’t that exactly what the Megaserver did? With the added benefit of making sure that even their language choice wasn’t taken into account.

Kestrelle.8165:

… that would have taken everyone off their servers where they were happy with less people and put them with more people

But isn’t that exactly what the Megaserver did? With the added benefit of making sure that even their language choice wasn’t taken into account.

Sorry I’m on a US server. I can’t possibly comment on what’s going on on European servers. But I can say an underflow server would NOT have solved the problem many were having on high pop servers. That is, with everyone guesting over…take the marionette. I couldn’t get onto TC for the first five days of the patch. Five days not being able to get on my own home server. Why? It wasn’t just TC people on there.

This solves the problem. Let’s say I don’t get on the main TC servers. Many fo the TC people and guildies get on the same server at least. This is better than it was. This is a solution for people.

And I don’t see anyone else bringing up solutions that would be better or more equitable, even though I think the mega server could do with some changes.

Before megaservers, you couldn’t be in your main server’s map.

After megaserver, you can’t be in your main server’s map.

Nice improvement.

Vayne.8563:

Kestrelle.8165:

… that would have taken everyone off their servers where they were happy with less people and put them with more people

But isn’t that exactly what the Megaserver did? With the added benefit of making sure that even their language choice wasn’t taken into account.

Sorry I’m on a US server. I can’t possibly comment on what’s going on on European servers. But I can say an underflow server would NOT have solved the problem many were having on high pop servers. That is, with everyone guesting over…take the marionette. I couldn’t get onto TC for the first five days of the patch. Five days not being able to get on my own home server. Why? It wasn’t just TC people on there.

This solves the problem. Let’s say I don’t get on the main TC servers. Many fo the TC people and guildies get on the same server at least. This is better than it was. This is a solution for people.

And I don’t see anyone else bringing up solutions that would be better or more equitable, even though I think the mega server could do with some changes.

This would have been solved if they implemented the megaserver algorythm on overflows and left the home servers alone. There would still be a home server to aim for, with all the community aspects of home servers, but there would also be overflows that (supposedly) take your server, guild and friendlist into consideration as you are sorted if the home server is full.

I would prefer to have a system like that. As for underflows and empty maps, upon entering a desolate (home server based) map, the client could give a pop-up telling you that this map has X number of players on it, and that some content might be too hard with such low number, then present the choice to port to a megaserver version of the same map. Just like how “You are in an overflow map, would you like to queue to the home server map?” popups back in the days, just the other way around.

Phoenixlin.8624:

Before megaservers, you couldn’t be in your main server’s map.

After megaserver, you can’t be in your main server’s map.

Nice improvement.

No before mega servers I was RANDOMLY thrown on overflows. Now I’m placed on overflows with others from my server and my guild and my friends list. I don’t know about you but I’m often running into people I recognize. That didn’t happen often on other overflows in the past.

lakdav.3694:

Vayne.8563:

Kestrelle.8165:

… that would have taken everyone off their servers where they were happy with less people and put them with more people

But isn’t that exactly what the Megaserver did? With the added benefit of making sure that even their language choice wasn’t taken into account.

Sorry I’m on a US server. I can’t possibly comment on what’s going on on European servers. But I can say an underflow server would NOT have solved the problem many were having on high pop servers. That is, with everyone guesting over…take the marionette. I couldn’t get onto TC for the first five days of the patch. Five days not being able to get on my own home server. Why? It wasn’t just TC people on there.

This solves the problem. Let’s say I don’t get on the main TC servers. Many fo the TC people and guildies get on the same server at least. This is better than it was. This is a solution for people.

And I don’t see anyone else bringing up solutions that would be better or more equitable, even though I think the mega server could do with some changes.

This would have been solved if they implemented the megaserver algorythm on overflows and left the home servers alone. There would still be a home server to aim for, with all the community aspects of home servers, but there would also be overflows that (supposedly) take your server, guild and friendlist into consideration as you are sorted if the home server is full.

I would prefer to have a system like that. As for underflows and empty maps, upon entering a desolate (home server based) map, the client could give a pop-up telling you that this map has X number of players on it, and that some content might be too hard with such low number, then present the choice to port to a megaserver version of the same map. Just like how “You are in an overflow map, would you like to queue to the home server map?” popups back in the days, just the other way around.

Which means the cost and processor power requires to run the game stays higher. Part of the reason for the change is that it’s more efficient to run less servers. Your way would create more servers and part of the megaserver architecture is changing the way that works.

Then port players to the megaservers automaticly if the home server has too low a number, BUT give the information that they are in a megaserver instance and give the option to get to the home server instead.

Empty maps start empty, population=0. No need to keep up that map. There is no server capacity used. Players automaticly put to megaservers. Unless they choose on entry to get to the empty home server instead. If they choose so, that is when the home server instance opens up, and when it starts to use server capacity.

There should be a whole Megaservers Options tab in Settings. Having everything on Auto is all well and good for the new player who would be overwhelmed by the options. But there should be freaking options for those who dont just want to "casual " through the entire game.

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

You keep going on about how megaservers eliminated loneliness and guilds are now the communities… You seem to ignore the fact that guilds are capped at 500 members, limiting the community and people like me are in a small guild of about a dozen people. So by eliminating the server community…. my community has been slashed to almost nothing. To me a bunch of random strangers surrounding me does not eliminate loneliness… quite the opposite it makes me lonely and you think I should be happy about this?

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

Well that’s what I’ve been saying all along. Years ago, this genre was filled with server pride. That’s what people did. Each server had its own identity. That’s been falling more and more by the wayside as time goes on and more of the FPS generation who’s more used to hot join is joining MMO space. Now the social aspect for many is in their guild.

You keep going on about how megaservers eliminated loneliness and guilds are now the communities… You seem to ignore the fact that guilds are capped at 500 members, limiting the community and people like me are in a small guild of about a dozen people. So by eliminating the server community…. my community has been slashed to almost nothing. To me a bunch of random strangers surrounding me does not eliminate loneliness… quite the opposite it makes me lonely and you think I should be happy about this?

See that’s the thing. I don’t buy the random stranger arguments. Because I’m seeing people I know all the time.

Point 1. People have many alts. Half the time you wouldn’t know be by my characters name anyway unless we happened to be in the same guild and my name would show up in yellow.

Point 2. I’ve asked on the server several times how many people here are on TC in various maps. There’s always a bunch of TC people around.

Point 3. In the past, when we’ve had events and stuff I’ve asked how many people were from TC and we always had a bunch around. But before the mega server we had tons of people from other servers on our server anyway. So what exactly is the difference.

When it was slow there was no one around and thus no community. Not seeing anyone is not better than seeing people I don’t know.

When it’s busy I get the same people I used to get anyway…either on an overflow or on the main server.

But in the old days, on overflows, I’d get less TC people than I do now, from my experience.

This is going back to the marionette days when we had to show up half an hour early and had time to talk. This is waiting for Tequatl or the Wurm now and we have time to talk.

You say you’re on a stranger with a bunch of strangers. I say that hasn’t changed.

Vayne.8563:

Pre mega server I did have to fight with the system to play with my friends. Many people on TC, Blackgate, and JQ had to fight with the system to play with their friends. Didn’t you see the complaint threads on the forums (there were many) about people not being able to play on their home server for days on end because it was full?

It was very frustrating to be on TC back then. And if those three busiest servers all had that problem, that means it was also a widespread problem. It affected a lot of people.

I am on TC and I have to say it is way worse now with megaservers. It did happen, but when it did happen in the past, you queue to be on the main server and go there when you got to the top of the queue. Now you get split up and you are never making it to your friends unless you purposefully join them on whatever mega they ended up on… and if they ended up on multiple different megas… you have to coordinate to get to the same one. It is ridiculous now… and my experience should be the same as yours since I am also on TC.

Vayne.8563:

See that’s the thing. I don’t buy the random stranger arguments. Because I’m seeing people I know all the time.

Point 1. People have many alts. Half the time you wouldn’t know be by my characters name anyway unless we happened to be in the same guild and my name would show up in yellow.

Point 2. I’ve asked on the server several times how many people here are on TC in various maps. There’s always a bunch of TC people around.

Point 3. In the past, when we’ve had events and stuff I’ve asked how many people were from TC and we always had a bunch around. But before the mega server we had tons of people from other servers on our server anyway. So what exactly is the difference.

When it was slow there was no one around and thus no community. Not seeing anyone is not better than seeing people I don’t know.

When it’s busy I get the same people I used to get anyway…either on an overflow or on the main server.

But in the old days, on overflows, I’d get less TC people than I do now, from my experience.

This is going back to the marionette days when we had to show up half an hour early and had time to talk. This is waiting for Tequatl or the Wurm now and we have time to talk.

You say you’re on a stranger with a bunch of strangers. I say that hasn’t changed.

Point 1: I disagree I used to see the same people in the same place all the time… that is no longer the case. I don’t know how that is possible for you but… I certainly don’t see it… the change has been extremely stark between seeing people I know regularly to not.

Point 2: Considering how popular TC used to be that isn’t suprising purely statistically speaking even if it were a completely random distribution.

Point 3: Basically same as point 1… I just don’t see it it does not work for me…. not sure how it is working so amazingly well for you and so horribly poorly for me… considering we are on the same home server and everything.

Vayne.8563:

Which means the cost and processor power requires to run the game stays higher. Part of the reason for the change is that it’s more efficient to run less servers. Your way would create more servers and part of the megaserver architecture is changing the way that works.

They stated that it had little to do with hardware. I’m still of the opinion it had more to do with man-power and keeping things less buggy across multiple servers (once they tacked on China). I have no idea about the architecture. Basic logic says that if you have 50,000 people you need to process, then it really doesn’t matter how many virtual servers you run. This is especially true if a map is empty, it wouldn’t need to be processed at all. I think China continues to “hurt” the game, seeing some of the more recent choices they’ve made.

I also don’t know about this for certain, but i really don’t think as many people guested as you seem to think did. Regardless, they could have just tossed in the algorithm on overflows and improved that experience. It certainly seems like less work.

All in all, best we can do is complain about it, since we really have zero technical knowledge on why they did it to begin with. Assuming it was just to make maps more populated, just doesn’t feel right to me. It just seems completely counter-intuitive when you have a server competitive game mode.

munkiman.3068:

Vayne.8563:

Which means the cost and processor power requires to run the game stays higher. Part of the reason for the change is that it’s more efficient to run less servers. Your way would create more servers and part of the megaserver architecture is changing the way that works.

They stated that it had little to do with hardware. I’m still of the opinion it had more to do with man-power and keeping things less buggy across multiple servers (once they tacked on China). I have no idea about the architecture. Basic logic says that if you have 50,000 people you need to process, then it really doesn’t matter how many virtual servers you run. This is especially true if a map is empty, it wouldn’t need to be processed at all. I think China continues to “hurt” the game, seeing some of the more recent choices they’ve made.

I also don’t know about this for certain, but i really don’t think as many people guested as you seem to think did. Regardless, they could have just tossed in the algorithm on overflows and improved that experience. It certainly seems like less work.

All in all, best we can do is complain about it, since we really have zero technical knowledge on why they did it to begin with. Assuming it was just to make maps more populated, just doesn’t feel right to me. It just seems completely counter-intuitive when you have a server competitive game mode.

Stuff still gets processed on empty servers. Events happen whether people show up or not. People fight and die and even rez each other. NPCs are like players in some ways.

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

Pre mega server I did have to fight with the system to play with my friends. Many people on TC, Blackgate, and JQ had to fight with the system to play with their friends. Didn’t you see the complaint threads on the forums (there were many) about people not being able to play on their home server for days on end because it was full?

It was very frustrating to be on TC back then. And if those three busiest servers all had that problem, that means it was also a widespread problem. It affected a lot of people.

I am on TC and I have to say it is way worse now with megaservers. It did happen, but when it did happen in the past, you queue to be on the main server and go there when you got to the top of the queue. Now you get split up and you are never making it to your friends unless you purposefully join them on whatever mega they ended up on… and if they ended up on multiple different megas… you have to coordinate to get to the same one. It is ridiculous now… and my experience should be the same as yours since I am also on TC.

Do you have the same number of people on your friend’s list. Are you in the same number of guilds. Do you have big guilds?

It all makes a difference to how the server sorts you. Being on the server isn’t the only criteria here.

Vayne.8563:

Probably not… but you keep using how you being on TC was worse in the past and better now. Where I am on the same server and it is considerably worse experience-wise with the same home server for me.

I am in a couple small guilds… the guild with about 12 friends… a storage guild with 3 people… and 2 guilds with approximately 500 for doing guild missions.

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

Probably not… but you keep using how you being on TC was worse in the past and better now. Where I am on the same server and it is considerably worse experience-wise with the same home server for me.

I am in a couple small guilds… the guild with about 12 friends… a storage guild with 3 people… and 2 guilds with approximately 500 for doing guild missions.

And my main guild has 150 people and I have probably over a hundred on my friends list. So the server knows to put me with friends. Add some people to your friend’s list.

It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

Vayne.8563:

And my main guild has 150 people and I have probably over a hundred on my friends list. So the server knows to put me with friends. Add some people to your friend’s list.

It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

I probably have 100 people on my friends list too but I never counted… but I don’t see them randomly around either. In fact when I do see someone I know it is sort of shocking since it almost never happens anymore. (It didn’t used to be shocking pre-megaserver)

Not sure how any of this helps… if anything it is only demonstrating (if what you are saying is true) that the megaserver implementation does a very poor job of sorting people for the vast majority and a very good job for a select few.

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

And my main guild has 150 people and I have probably over a hundred on my friends list. So the server knows to put me with friends. Add some people to your friend’s list.

It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

I probably have 100 people on my friends list too but I never counted… but I don’t see them randomly around either. In fact when I do see someone I know it is sort of shocking since it almost never happens anymore. (It didn’t used to be shocking pre-megaserver)

Not sure how any of this helps… if anything it is only demonstrating (if what you are saying is true) that the megaserver implementation does a very poor job of sorting people for the vast majority and a very good job for a select few.

This is pretty much my experience as well. While it’s slightly better than release, it’s nothing like pre-megaserver. I’m rarely tossed into the same map even with people in my party, especially popular maps.

munkiman.3068:

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

And my main guild has 150 people and I have probably over a hundred on my friends list. So the server knows to put me with friends. Add some people to your friend’s list.

It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

I probably have 100 people on my friends list too but I never counted… but I don’t see them randomly around either. In fact when I do see someone I know it is sort of shocking since it almost never happens anymore. (It didn’t used to be shocking pre-megaserver)

Not sure how any of this helps… if anything it is only demonstrating (if what you are saying is true) that the megaserver implementation does a very poor job of sorting people for the vast majority and a very good job for a select few.

This is pretty much my experience as well. While it’s slightly better than release, it’s nothing like pre-megaserver. I’m rarely tossed into the same map even with people in my party, especially popular maps.

People have short memories. Popular maps, particularly on TC have always had this problem. If you go back far enough in the forums you’ll see that.

I can’t tell you how many times I ended up on an overflow in the old days, spamming ot get into my own server. There was a difference though. In the old days you could look at your map and it would say overflow.

They really do need to put addresses or numbers on maps, because it would make a huge difference.

Vayne.8563:

People have short memories. Popular maps, particularly on TC have always had this problem. If you go back far enough in the forums you’ll see that.

I can’t tell you how many times I ended up on an overflow in the old days, spamming ot get into my own server. There was a difference though. In the old days you could look at your map and it would say overflow.

They really do need to put addresses or numbers on maps, because it would make a huge difference.

I think it is more, people have flawed memories, and yours is no better than ours.

I remember things being better pre-megaserver and a boatload of people do too. If you think it is the same and we are just having problems remembering it… I think you should be considering the fact that perhaps it is your memory that is the issue.

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

People have short memories. Popular maps, particularly on TC have always had this problem. If you go back far enough in the forums you’ll see that.

I can’t tell you how many times I ended up on an overflow in the old days, spamming ot get into my own server. There was a difference though. In the old days you could look at your map and it would say overflow.

They really do need to put addresses or numbers on maps, because it would make a huge difference.

I think it is more, people have flawed memories, and yours is no better than ours.

I remember things being better pre-megaserver and a boatload of people do too. If you think it is the same and we are just having problems remembering it… I think you should be considering the fact that perhaps it is your memory that is the issue.

People love to jump on a bandwagon. Complaining happens and people all get emotionally on something and suddenly everything that happens fits that pattern of thought. It’s a very common psychological event, another variation on mob mentality.

You really don’t remember the numerous complaint threads about people not being able to get on their servers and calls to stop guesting? Because I remember them quite clearly.

Vayne.8563:

There is no debate that the previous system had issues… overflows were a hated thing… My point is comparatively: Mainserver+Overflows+Guesting > Megaserver

Both have issues… Megaservers have MORE issues.

Saying that we aren’t remembering the issues is insulting.

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

There is no debate that the previous system had issues… overflows were a hated thing… My point is comparatively: Mainserver+Overflows+Guesting > Megaserver

Both have issues… Megaservers have MORE issues.

Saying that we aren’t remembering the issues is insulting.

No it’s not insulting. Someone claimed that this stuff didn’t happen before, I’m claiming it did, there were plenty of posts on the forums about it. If you choose to be insulted by that, that’s fine. It’s entirely possible to forget something. I don’t see how that’s insulting. And you know, if you are insulted by it, I apologize. Because it’s not my intent to insult.

But the problems after the mega server are worse for some people. They’re not worse for me. And they’re not worse for other people either.

I’m sure there are people thrilled at having tons of people around to do content with that will never come to a forum.

Vayne.8563:

No it’s not insulting. Someone claimed that this stuff didn’t happen before, I’m claiming it did, there were plenty of posts on the forums about it. If you choose to be insulted by that, that’s fine. It’s entirely possible to forget something. I don’t see how that’s insulting. And you know, if you are insulted by it, I apologize. Because it’s not my intent to insult.

But the problems after the mega server are worse for some people. They’re not worse for me. And they’re not worse for other people either.

I’m sure there are people thrilled at having tons of people around to do content with that will never come to a forum.

First of all it is insulting, extremely. Then suggesting we are all just in a mob mentality complaining to be on the bandwagon. I take great offense to this. I don’t know who said that this stuff never happened, it wasn’t me and I didn’t notice it…. it is possible someone did and I didn’t see it but most people posting against megaservers in this thread seem to be realistic in seeing that the previous system had problems as well… but megaservers have caused many more. Sacrificing things that people loved about the game to fill server instances to the brim with seemingly random people. I personally don’t thing superfilled maps is a good thing while you do… this is a perfectly valid disagrement we can have, but that does not make your opinion better than mine.

The two benefits I see in mega servers are: Low population maps and servers now have more people on them and guesting is no longer necessary to do things with friends.

The negatives I see: Loss of server community, harder times getting into maps with friends and party members, either unable to find a different server when an event is bugged and conversely unable to get the same one when doing node harvesting, unable to tell when you are on a different megaserver from guild/server/instance mates, too many people for many events causing difficulty getting credit, languages issues on european servers, lower framerates due to more people, temples in orr almost always being done (and defend events not giving the same rewards as attack events)

Some of these are condensed down… like loss of server community encompasses stuff like: difficulty finding roleplay partners, wvw unable to recruit from mainserver when in need of more people in wvw, etc…

So I just don’t see how you can in any way possible say that megaservers when realistically compared to the old system is better. The old system needed improvement, and what they advertised megaservers as sounded great, but the reality is much different. I was very excited when I heard about megaservers… but since they rolled out it has nothing but day after day of disappointment.

Vayne.8563:

munkiman.3068:

Amethyst Rose.4367:

Vayne.8563:

And my main guild has 150 people and I have probably over a hundred on my friends list. So the server knows to put me with friends. Add some people to your friend’s list.

It’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

I probably have 100 people on my friends list too but I never counted… but I don’t see them randomly around either. In fact when I do see someone I know it is sort of shocking since it almost never happens anymore. (It didn’t used to be shocking pre-megaserver)

Not sure how any of this helps… if anything it is only demonstrating (if what you are saying is true) that the megaserver implementation does a very poor job of sorting people for the vast majority and a very good job for a select few.

This is pretty much my experience as well. While it’s slightly better than release, it’s nothing like pre-megaserver. I’m rarely tossed into the same map even with people in my party, especially popular maps.

People have short memories. Popular maps, particularly on TC have always had this problem. If you go back far enough in the forums you’ll see that.

I can’t tell you how many times I ended up on an overflow in the old days, spamming ot get into my own server. There was a difference though. In the old days you could look at your map and it would say overflow.

They really do need to put addresses or numbers on maps, because it would make a huge difference.

I remember them, i really didn’t have a big problem with overflows as they were rare for me and even then i still managed to at least get my party in the same one most of the time. So what they essentially did was make everything an overflow and expect people not to complain? It was a hot button topic then and it still is now. Funny how that works.

I can tell you this much, i play at peak hours, which means i’m constantly competing to get a map spot with my guild, server and even my party. If you play more off-peak hours you’ll likely see more than i do when it comes to who you see in the game and how often you get matched up with the people you want to be matched with. So Oceanic players probably have a more positive experience in general.