Guild Wars 2

munkiman.3068:

People need to have a choice. Play on your home server or play on the “main”. If you want to play with a bunch of random people, fine go ahead. But, if anet finds that most people end up playing on their home server than a megaserver, they’ll know it’s a failure.

This megaserver thing might be one of the worst moves they’ve done to date.

This. So much this. Give us a choice! People have different wants and needs and you have admitted in the past that no change you make can satisfy everyone. So why are you now making it so that people can’t mitigate and play the game the way they want? We are forced to play in a system that caters to those who love seeing tons of people everywhere, and aren’t grounded in any set community. Why are the desires of the players that want zergs of random people everywhere catered to, and the people who like more personal close encounters with a set community in mind ignored?

You have basically ensured that awesome moments like our staged zombie invasion of our rival WvW server that ended with thirller can never happen again. Those are the moments that make people smile in this game, and moments that people will remember for a long time. This system quite effectively destroys the possibility of that happening in your game ever again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E81J6PT1LQ

Left feedback in the wrong thread.

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Really they should have just manned up and done server merges.

But no they can’t be admitting needing to do that when a competitor just launched.

Server communities being destroyed like that would most likely be far more damaging than a megaserver.

munkiman.3068:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Really they should have just manned up and done server merges.

But no they can’t be admitting needing to do that when a competitor just launched.

Server communities being destroyed like that would most likely be far more damaging than a megaserver.

They are already destroy the communities anyway, they are just avoiding using the dread words ‘server merge’.

munkiman.3068:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Really they should have just manned up and done server merges.

But no they can’t be admitting needing to do that when a competitor just launched.

Server communities being destroyed like that would most likely be far more damaging than a megaserver.

The difference is that with a server merge, essentially 2 communities get brought together. Neither are destroyed or broken up, they’re simply combined. With the megaservers, server communities are actually broken apart and scattered among different maps. It doesn’t matter if the server was high population or low population, every server community is now split apart.

titanlectro.5029:

They said Megaservers were supposed to prioritize people with the same language. What if there are not enough people with the same language to constitute their own map? In order to maintain full maps, it would start dumping the different languages together.

It’s worse than this, i am afraid. I am of course only guessing, but it seems that the prioritization only happens if there are already at least two not fully populated instances. If there’s only one (because this is a world boss zone, that is empty most of the time), then everyone will be shoved into that first instance regardless of other considerations. Once that instance is full, another one will be created, and people would get directed there (until, again, that one is full as well).

Now, that doesn’t mean the prioritization is currently working as intended when there are more instances (based on yesterday’s experience i have suspicions that it is in fact not working, but will continue to observe more, in case i was wrong). It just means that it’s almost certainly failing in case of sudden population shifts (so, basically, every world boss event).

Cactus Brawler.7415:

munkiman.3068:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Really they should have just manned up and done server merges.

But no they can’t be admitting needing to do that when a competitor just launched.

Server communities being destroyed like that would most likely be far more damaging than a megaserver.

They are already destroy the communities anyway, they are just avoiding using the dread words ‘server merge’.

Server merges saved SWTOR. They’re not all bad. I mean server communities are destroyed either way, I’d argue that merges are the lesser of two evils if population issues are that much of a problem.

Mergers would be a really good idea in comparison to this aberration.

cakesphere.5910:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

munkiman.3068:

Cactus Brawler.7415:

Really they should have just manned up and done server merges.

But no they can’t be admitting needing to do that when a competitor just launched.

Server communities being destroyed like that would most likely be far more damaging than a megaserver.

They are already destroy the communities anyway, they are just avoiding using the dread words ‘server merge’.

Server merges saved SWTOR. They’re not all bad. I mean server communities are destroyed either way, I’d argue that merges are the lesser of two evils if population issues are that much of a problem.

You know that, I know that, but that isn’t the way the gaming press and public see it.

For some reason people see the act of merging servers as a sign that a game is dying. Even when it’s just a byproduct of launching with too many servers.

But Anet won’t risk the bad press by announcing server merges, so they’ll…. have a piece of software chuck you around different merged servers, but call it a megaserver.

Introducing the Megaserver System

While the new system behaves differently, it actually helps you play with slightly more people from your home world. We’ve run a number of tests with this system so far, and you can see the excellent results below:
Metric Change
Average population per map copy : +225%
Player goes to the same map as his or her party : +25%
Average population from the same party as the player on joined map : +36%
Average population from the same guild as the player on joined map : +5%
Average population from the same home world as the player on joined map : +6%
Average population speaking the same language as the player on joined map : +41%

Yeah! Magical numbers appearing from nowhere.

The only increase I see is the following:
Average outcry from the players: +9000%

People also have to keep in mind that server-merges in this game can be rather hard, due to the 3-server match-ups in WvW.

That means that everytime they merge servers they need to merge 3, 6, 9, 12 etc servers, and that might create rather big issues, especially with languages.

All I know is a friend of mine went to Fields of ruins, and went into a French version.

Went to another map, that one was German, a third map German. She plays and all ways has played on an English language server.

Likewise a whole guild of people tried to meet up last night, and nope, that didn’t work, it even split people in the same party.

I picked FC server due to the low population. I like the areas to be more sparsely populated where my Guild and I can do our own things. I have transferred to a higher pop server for a few months, but lost the sense of community that the lower pop servers had. So I transferred back to FC. I find the peeps on the lower pop servers tend to like it that way. People on our server at first complained that there were not enough ppl to do things on certain maps. Those ppl mostly ended up transfering to higher pop servers. So our community is well known to each other and we have overcome most of our problems with being a low pop server. The purpose to me of having a bunch of different servers was so people could have a lot of choices as to their play style. Whether it was RP, trying to solo tough content, or massive zerg playing with tons of people.

Mike O’Brien stated in the GW2 Manifesto:

“With traditional MMOs you can choose to solo or you can find a good guild or party to play with. With GW2 there’s a third option too: you can just naturally play with all the people around you.”

The megaserver seems to have forgotten the solo, guild and party options and concentrates on the new third option. People have different ways they want to experience GW2. The megaserver has taken a lot of that choice away now. Hopefully, someway, the devs will find a way to lets us play GW2 the way each of us wants to experience it no matter what your playstyle or population requirements.

lordkrall.7241:

People also have to keep in mind that server-merges in this game can be rather hard, due to the 3-server match-ups in WvW.

That means that everytime they merge servers they need to merge 3, 6, 9, 12 etc servers, and that might create rather big issues, especially with languages.

With all due respect, I think it’s clear that there are already language problems with the megaservers.

I could see WvW being an issue but couldn’t they just reduce the servers by a number divisible by 3? Obviously the semantics involved would be a nightmare (especially with the rankings and everything), but I fail to see how megaservers aren’t a nightmare either, IDK.

If the people managing SWTOR were able to make server merges work, then I know anet (a team that has demonstrated that they have the talent to make it work, with a game with a lot less awful engine than SWTOR to boot) can.

Cool system, works great when i checked out fields of ruin. Good to not be the only person running about.

Clearly, Anet dramatically overestimated the effectiveness of the automatic system. We need a manual control secondary system in place ASAP.

titanlectro.5029:

Clearly, Anet dramatically overestimated the effectiveness of the automatic system. We need a manual control secondary system in place ASAP.

Main problem is that ANet seems to be, as usual, fully unaware of this, and are (probably, based on their very rare communication until now) thinking that everything is perfect and “working as expected” (that’s why they are activating the mega servers on a lot of maps, instead of, as they were supposed to do, studying and tuning the megaserver mechanisms to expand its usage only when it would have been really operationnal).

Asmodeus.5782:

Mergers would be a really good idea in comparison to this aberration.

TOTALLY THIS^^^

Cletus Van Damme.2795:

Cool system, works great when i checked out fields of ruin. Good to not be the only person running about.

Totally agree with you, was fun again in Timberline Falls last night.

You guys should try age of conan if you want to see what this eventually ends up like in chat. It is not good.

I can report my first experience with Megaservers:

I zoned into Southsun for a planned RP event. I was repping [XIII] and the event was joint between us and [RSCo].

Judging by map chat, the map was not particularly full at the time. I arrived a bit early as I was running the event.

Friend A from [RSCo] arrives shortly thereafter. We are both on TC, on eachother’s friend’s list and she is also a [XIII] member. She gets thrown into a different instance (we have yet to figure this out).

The rest of [RSCo] arrives, mostly getting thrown into my instance, despite having no guild in common with me.

Finally we figure this all out, and I have to party Friend A to bring her over to the other instance. No quick way around it via the friends list.

In short – the automatic system clearly sucks badly and needs a lot of work.

Beyond that, the number of people trolling the event after we finally got everyone in the same place was way higher than usual. Up until now, RP and other Event trolls have seemed rare, I guess people on TC are used to seeing RPers about.

I want my TC back.

EDIT – Also…shame on ANet for not providing an exhaustive list of the zones affected. We deserve to know at all times which maps are under the megaserver system and which are not. This will help save a lot of confusion.

Just had my first experiance with Megaserver. ITS ABSOLUTLY ####!

IMO, the best event chain in the game is the modniir event chain in Harathi Hinterlands. I have used those events to level all of my characters at some point or another (all 17 of them). Generally, all the camps would be lost and taken several times thoughout the day giving me the oppertuinity to do the whole chain at least once during the day. Usually, ther would be between 1 and 5, maybe even 10 other players doing the first few events with more comming for the champion events. This time, there were no fewer than 50 people an any of the events at any time. The events were all over almost as soon as they began and I hardly got a single hit in on any champion during the whole chain. It was ####!

Oh, and another thing! Like 6 different languages being used in chat! WTF!
We each chose a server with one of the reasons being the main language used. I don’t know about everyone else but i quite like to know what is being said in chat.

I love the fact that maps are not dead and you are the only one doing the odd event chains. Orr is bustling with people which is fantastic too. I worried about meta events dying, but I found out that world bosses schedule included pre-events too, so I’m happy about that too.

I just hope anet reconsiders the fixed world boss schedule thing. I do not want to change my playtime just to be able to see specific bosses. Maybe spawn multiple bosses at a time, since now we are not supposed to worry about spreading the playerbase too thin. Also, an in-game reference/notification about boss spawn times would be nice.

I dunno why people are complaining. I’ve actually seen people around and actually did some events I didin’t even know had chains because no one was around to do them back in the day.

Am I playing a beta ? Because it fells like I am playing a beta. A beta of a really bad game. A game without communities and so on.

I still hope this is an April’s fool… they just can’t be serious with this. I mean WTF ? I have heard from so many friends now, that they have uninstalled the game. And come on, who didn’t think this will happen ? Are those developers even playing the game ? I MEAN SERIOUSLY ? Even if the Language thing would work properly, the megaservers still ruin our communities.
I don’t want to be called a ****ing Naz*, every single kittening time I join a Megaserver and speak in the language of MY SERVER !

It is interesting that Anet took the one thing that holds people to this game, stronger than anything else, and tore it down. Community. That is what kept people in this game even when the updates killed their build. Even when the content was awful. Even when progress they had made was erased. Even when they got bored of the game because there isn’t permanent content. People stayed because at least they still had the people they had come to know and form relationships with.

Anet took the greatest asset that they had holding people to this game and said “to kitten with that”. One of the absolute worst moves they could have made. I forsee the mega server not being as big of a problem when there are no people playing the game anymore.

I have found one rather annoying flaw with the megaserver. In my experience, crashing during a large event now means you’re thrown into a completely new server once you reconnect. This worked out for me so when trying to attain the new traits, I went through one event 3 times, never to actually get credit.

I suspect with turning down my graphics will solve the problem of crashing, and new updates to gw always has me crashing the first few days anyways before it works itself out. However, for large events like temples ( which aren’t going to be at a set time like the world bosses), this is both annoying and blocks progress.

NOUS.7420:

Am I playing a beta ? Because it fells like I am playing a beta. A beta of a really bad game. A game without communities and so on.

I still hope this is an April’s fool… they just can’t be serious with this. I mean WTF ? I have heard from so many friends now, that they have uninstalled the game. And come on, who didn’t think this will happen ? Are those developers even playing the game ? I MEAN SERIOUSLY ? Even if the Language thing would work properly, the megaservers still ruin our communities.
I don’t want to be called a ****ing Naz*, every single kittening time I join a Megaserver and speak in the language of MY SERVER !

+1
Exactly what he said!

NOUS.7420:

I don’t want to be called a ****ing Naz*, every single kittening time I join a Megaserver and speak in the language of MY SERVER !

People in the community should not do this.

This should not be happening. Anyone that does this is in breach of the Code of Conduct.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

Sad to say it but when you are on a MegaServer map you are not on your server you are on the MegaServer. They should not be yelling at you for speaking German nor should you be yelling at them for speaking English.

Anyone notice with the maps that pretty much everything is contested when outside of zone? so you have to go to some random place first then go to where you intended to go.

Pay double… Great gold sink

DonQuack.9025:

Anyone notice with the maps that pretty much everything is contested when outside of zone? so you have to go to some random place first then go to where you intended to go.

Pay double… Great gold sink

They told us about this drawback. They did not hide it. It’s right there in the kitten blog about the megaserver.

Hopefully they will determine a way to check map state for your preferred instance or wave the initial wp fee to a new map or reduce wp costs overall.

It ruined RP already and TC’s Divinity Reach isn’t even megaserver mode yet, even though every one one is hiding in DR and making it seem like it is megaserver, cause its the only area that we know of that isn’t set to it yet and its making it hard to load for lower end machines (mine is a low end) and there is so much clutter and too many people.

I haven’t seen any Anti-RP people or trolls yet as its still mainly TC people in DR, but I rather not try to RP at all with this many people now, also most of my friends list that has RPers and PVE players alike, is even more sparse with even less online as a result of this.

I really hate this change and wish it didn’t exist. Was it so hard for those that can’t do the empty maps’ content solo to find a friendly pro-noob guild and join them for old content?

It seems it was and this question above answered it self as we just got this hell hole of an update. I’m already on the search for a new game to RP in with either anime-styled or Asian-based people in it to make a new in-universe rp for my wholly owned characters as I RP as practice for my own writing then go back and incorporate tropes and elements adapted back to my own original universe, like, “That battle I just did in GW2 worked pretty well, how can I translate that fight scene into my own work now?”.

Also, the Canthan shtick is done as no way in hell I’m going to deal with all the trolls already has one “oh she’s a little anime girl.” comment today, DOESN’T ANYONE KNOW THEIR kitten LORE?!

In europe we have only international servers atm, with the Megaserver-System.

I do understand that in the US the Megaserver-Nonsense or the idea beneath it, is quite good, but NOT here were we have X different languages.

We want to speak in our native-language.

Well, I just ignore that – for now. Today, hmmm, I could have filed more than 30 charges against other players for libel and defamation/offence.
I DO hope Anet bans all those players, but I doubt they even care.

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

DonQuack.9025:

Anyone notice with the maps that pretty much everything is contested when outside of zone? so you have to go to some random place first then go to where you intended to go.

Pay double… Great gold sink

They told us about this drawback. They did not hide it. It’s right there in the kitten blog about the megaserver.

Hopefully they will determine a way to check map state for your preferred instance or wave the initial wp fee to a new map or reduce wp costs overall.

Being told about it doesnt make it any better or acceptable.

anzenketh.3759:

NOUS.7420:

I don’t want to be called a ****ing Naz*, every single kittening time I join a Megaserver and speak in the language of MY SERVER !

People in the community should not do this.

This should not be happening. Anyone that does this is in breach of the Code of Conduct.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

Sad to say it but when you are on a MegaServer map you are not on your server you are on the MegaServer. They should not be yelling at you for speaking German nor should you be yelling at them for speaking English.

I hate to be cynical but I bet the amount of people banned for hate speech on the megaservers is exactly zero, even though I’m seeing it everywhere.
I’m a native english speaker so it isn’t directed towards me but it’s horrible to look at nonetheless and if I weren’t a native speaker I’d feel pretty unwelcome.

cakesphere.5910:

anzenketh.3759:

NOUS.7420:

I don’t want to be called a ****ing Naz*, every single kittening time I join a Megaserver and speak in the language of MY SERVER !

People in the community should not do this.

This should not be happening. Anyone that does this is in breach of the Code of Conduct.
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

Sad to say it but when you are on a MegaServer map you are not on your server you are on the MegaServer. They should not be yelling at you for speaking German nor should you be yelling at them for speaking English.

I hate to be cynical but I bet the amount of people banned for hate speech on the megaservers is exactly zero, even though I’m seeing it everywhere.
I’m a native english speaker so it isn’t directed towards me but it’s horrible to look at nonetheless and if I weren’t a native speaker I’d feel pretty unwelcome.

I see it on a daily basis in map chat and still see those same hatemongers spewing their bigotry, so, I agree there is zero accountability against those spewing said infractions by those in charge.

I always wanted to be insulted on a daily basis as a racist kitten whenever I speak german in a game chat. Thanks to megaservers, it is now possible for me…
I feel like an unwanted and unwelcomed guest on megaservers.

Megaservers might work with the north american servers, but it creates chaos and discomfort with the eu servers with all the different languages AND cultures.

Im Mudbone.1437:

I see it on a daily basis in map chat and still see those same hatemongers spewing their bigotry, so, I agree there is zero accountability against those spewing said infractions by those in charge.

Keep in mind ArenaNet has to review each report by hand. Just because you don’t see the effects does not mean that it is happening does not mean it is not. They may also not be doing anything at the moment so they can implement a solution to filter out the supported languages.

Side note I think discrimination not bigotry is the better word to be used. As it is attacking someone based on ones race instead of own’s own opinions or values.

My friend, if a solution was to be implemented, they wouldn’t have expanded Skynet to more areas, and instead, it would’ve been contained to the zones it was originally meant to exist.

I’m personally tired of how corrupted the zone chat has become since that kitten megaserver took over. It’s offensive, disturbing, and this morning was the first time after the beta that i turned it off, due to a bunch of morons discussing about how a Sylvari’s backside smells..

Enough is enough, i’d say…

Anet please give each player the option to turn on or off the megaserver feature. When it is turned on a player will be moved to a map that is more populated so he/she can play with other players. If turned off simply move that player to the map on the player’s home server.

Not every one wants to go to a map full of zergs all the time. Some times some players actually want to go to a specific map that has less people so that they actually will get the chance to do a certain event. This can either be on their own home server or at some other server that they are guesting.

Atm the megaserver implementation sucks big time because maps that you get moved to are over populated all the time and u have no control over it. This means when a player or a small group of players actually want to do a certain event they won’t be able to because the event has already been completed on the ‘megaserver map’. And probably never will get a chance to do it since the map is highly populated and any event will be completed shortly afterward it start.

Just now a few friends and I decided to do some catching up after we met at grenth, as we haven’t played together for a period of time. We decided to head to lyssa and dwayna temple because they are contested according to our maps. However when we actually port to malchor’s leap, the map where lyssa and dwayna temples are located, we find that they are not uncontested and we appear to be on a megaserver map. Relogging several times didn’t help our course either. This sucks because those 2 events are contested on our home server and we want to participate but we can’t get to those maps on our own server, and we can’t participate on the mega server because they’ve already been completed.

While the intentions of the mega server is good in that it allows players to find other players to play with more easily, this should not be forced down every players throats. Players should be given an option to choose whether they are actually currently looking for more players to play with.

Asacledhae.2650:

My friend, if a solution was to be implemented, they wouldn’t have expanded Skynet to more areas, and instead, it would’ve been contained to the zones it was originally meant to exist.

I’m personally tired of how corrupted the zone chat has become since that kitten megaserver took over. It’s offensive, disturbing, and this morning was the first time after the beta that i turned it off, due to a bunch of morons discussing about how a Sylvari’s backside smells..

Enough is enough, i’d say…

Yeah, I’m so tired of it. I also hate that now I don’t see the people I’m used to on chat. You play enough and you get to the point where you know a bunch of people, even if you aren’t friends, per se, and enjoy running into them as you play. Now that’s totally gone, and all the people that ARE talking in chat are ones that I don’t want to be associated with because they’re all kittenholes. Ugh.

When I first read about the Megaserver I was thinking of a “private” overflow where guilds / guild alliances can create a separate instance of the map, call in their friends/guildies as needed, then open it up for randoms to join in the fun and fill any excess slots. That way guild members will never, ever, be put in separate instances of the same map (which is a nightmare now)

I understand that the original intent with the megaservers was to help obviate the issue of small servers feeling desolate. However the prioritization algorithm needs some major tweaking if it’s to go forward to all zones. When my whole guild needs to juggle parties and join another instance to end up in the same place, I think the system is not working as intended.

More Anet support and promotion of getting players to zerg.

Blockhead Magee.3092:

More Anet support and promotion of getting players to zerg.

Yeah. I was so relieved when the living story ended, hoping that the next one won’t include an invading army and will provide some non-zergish challenges. Suddenly, the whole world becomes a zergfest.
Come on, the least they can do is lower the map capacities by 33% or so. The best they can do is apologize, take back all this game destroying crap, do some simple mergers and >>>actually make the middle maps interesting for end-game players instead of compressing them into one<<< by reworking the events and rewards.

I would like to chime in and say MegaServers should be turned off for Malchor’s Leap and kept off in Cursed Shore until the temple events are adjusted; so that capturing traits is actually fun and not a painfully slow wait. I just spent 15 minutes trying to jump between worlds trying to find an uncontested temple / trait-boss via guesting (I was unsuccessful, found out Malchor’s had been megaservered); someone in map chat said they had spent 1.5 hours and still hadn’t found one. Keeping it turned on for Malchor’s Leap could also lead to trolling / hostility if folks attempt to complete the temple defense events.

In general though, those traits needs to be moved to events that occur on a more frequent basis. Getting potentially one shot at Karka per day if you happen to be there for that 10 minute window, waiting around for hours for Lyssa and Grenth temples to become uncontested, Gates of Arah escort scaling issues, hoping (likely to become hostile) people don’t do the temple defense events, none of those things are fun game experiences.

Otherwise, I like the system.

Roy.7405:

I would like to chime in and say MegaServers should be turned off for Malchor’s Leap and kept off in Cursed Shore until the temple events are adjusted; so that capturing traits is actually fun and not a painfully slow wait. I just spent 15 minutes trying to jump between worlds trying to find an uncontested temple / trait-boss via guesting (I was unsuccessful, found out Malchor’s had been megaservered); someone in map chat said they had spent 1.5 hours and still hadn’t found one. Keeping it turned on for Malchor’s Leap could also lead to trolling / hostility if folks attempt to complete the temple defense events.

In general though, those traits needs to be moved to events that occur on a more frequent basis. Getting potentially one shot at Karka per day if you happen to be there for that 10 minute window, waiting around for hours for Lyssa and Grenth temples to become uncontested, Gates of Arah escort scaling issues, hoping (likely to become hostile) people don’t do the temple defense events, none of those things are fun game experiences.

Otherwise, I like the system.

You could also buy the trait in the Heart of the Mists.

Why should we have to pay for a trait simply because it’s tied to an event that may never happen again?

DonQuack.9025:

LanfearShadowflame.3189:

DonQuack.9025:

Anyone notice with the maps that pretty much everything is contested when outside of zone? so you have to go to some random place first then go to where you intended to go.

Pay double… Great gold sink

They told us about this drawback. They did not hide it. It’s right there in the kitten blog about the megaserver.

Hopefully they will determine a way to check map state for your preferred instance or wave the initial wp fee to a new map or reduce wp costs overall.

Being told about it doesnt make it any better or acceptable.

But neither did they lie about it, or hide it, in any way. They made sure to blatantly point it out, so no one would be ‘surprised’ or ‘mislead’ by what was going to happen.

That does actually make it better. Does it make it perfect? No, we hope there is a solution to the issue. But at least they were transparent about the drawback.