I’m actually appalled Anet would implement paid server transfers. There is no reason what so ever for us to be forced to pick 1 and only 1 server in the first place. Then to add insult to injury make us pay to transfer to a different server.
I’m new to the game, been playing close to 2 weeks and i have found that the server i picked was not one i want to be on. I had no way of knowing how the server would be before even playing the game and now i have to pay to change servers ? Sorry, this game might go into the garbage bin just on principal.
I understand that there is a problem with WvW and guilds transferring to lower tier servers but this is not the way to fix that problem. Hell it doesn’t do anything other than put some $$$ in Anet’s pockets. It’s ridiculous and if this is the best Anet can do … I hate to see what the next step is when they realize paid server transfers wont fix ((( their own ))) blatant and obvious oversight concerning WvW.
I dont think they sat back and went ‘lets find yet another way to annoy our customers’ I think what we’re seeing is the limitations of the game’s architecture which seems to be based around the importance of WvW(before you refute it, look at how many game mechanics have been compromised because of WvW).
I know it’s possible to do massive OLTP across datacentres. Companies do it with more data, less latency and with more precious data all the time.
You dont need to create another datacentre. All you need to do is create another environment or use load balancing(which the Anet tech talk tells us is fantastic) to create a space where people can go.
Heck, why not make overflows multi region for that matter.
I don’t think anything but a ground up redesign will solve it which is at this time seems very unlikely.
We’ll never know the reasons ofc to reveal that would be to give out Anet’s IP.
If you have an established guild you cannot move to a server as all your upgrades and influence will go. Why? WvW of course.
The game world, the community and in game possibilties have never seemed so small tonight.
Well for starters WvWvW is a huge part of the game. So compromising that so that a relatively small number of people with friends around the world can all play together is not a particularly sound business move.
You also have to remember that guesting is a FREE feature. As in, does not in any way generate revenue. Meaning, any changes that require significant resource investment are unlikely to happen since the feature cannot pay for itself and would leech time/money from other areas. This is why you’re not going to get a 3rd datacenter or any other kind of restructuring that would require a significant infrastructure investment.
I’m sorry that the lack of globalization in guesting is a disappointment, but it’s just a tiny part of the game that affects only a tiny % of the playerbase. Considering there will still be ways in which you can play with your friends from around the world (with some minor limitations) I simply do not see the reasoning for all the ill-will and bemoaning people are doing.
If you want to play with your EU friends transfer to an EU world and guest with them. If you then want to play with your NA friends transfer back and play with them. The only limitation being you need to wait a week in-between. It’s really not that big of a hindrance, certainly not as calamitous as you and others make it out to be.
In the current way that the routing is done, it isn’t possible to guest on to another region because they are on two separate data centers. Look how long its taken them to develop guesting in the first place, the game has only been out since August. I think guesting in other Regions if Arena Net are stating that the routing would be complex and reading in between the lines saying that it would interrupt game time is a BAD idea. , if you have players that are on a NA server go join them.
Heck, for all the comments that are acting like you know better than Industry Professionals, where all the Network Admins, game developers and so on not commenting & why aren’t any of you working for Arena Net?
I honestly don’t understand the condrum, got friend on US server go play with them=Server Transfer
Got friends on the Eu Server go play with them=Server Transfer
Got friend on both? =Tough go and become a Server Guru and solve it for Arena Net I’m sure they will buy you your legendary for you.
People are disappointed because they were under the impression that it would be cross region. It got people excited. People were disheartened that it wasn’t available in Beta, then furthermore at launch. 5 months in and when it finally gets a release date, it’s a half-measure that solves relatively little. Those that have wanted to do group content with friends have already been doing so through overflow servers, or zoning into instances. They were also made able to transfer servers (including between regions) after launch at will… a week cooldown was later added because of WvW issues. This was a measure put in place while guesting was being worked on.
It’s disappointing that a feature lauded by ArenaNet and the community doesn’t actually do what most of the community wanted in the first place. I can’t see how it serves a purpose for the majority of those that wanted it.
Surely those that are playing in a certain region are already with people they want to play with. I know before launch I spoke to my guild and my friends and made sure we ended up in the same place. The only problem was the friends in the other region, but we didn’t think it would be a problem because we were told guesting would solve that!
I agree WvW is a big part of the game. But there were other ways of making it work other than tying it to a server.
I’ll also dispute the lack of region guesting is a small issue. You can just see the depth of feeling here and on other forums to see that it’s clearly not.
You mention the fix is to transfer to them and play and then come back. Except there is a big fly in that ointment. It’s going to cost each and every time I do that.
So if I want to do Arah with some US friends i’ll need to pay 30 buck, once that run is over and some guidies want to do a fractal marathon that’ll be another 30 bucks and another 7 days.. How is that in any way shape or form practical?
Basically there are better ways of doing it than what we have seen or been told. It would be really cool if we had some technical transparency and reasons why they did’nt work.
I agree WvW is a big part of the game. But there were other ways of making it work other than tying it to a server.
I’ll also dispute the lack of region guesting is a small issue. You can just see the depth of feeling here and on other forums to see that it’s clearly not.
You mention the fix is to transfer to them and play and then come back. Except there is a big fly in that ointment. It’s going to cost each and every time I do that.
So if I want to do Arah with some US friends i’ll need to pay 30 buck, once that run is over and some guidies want to do a fractal marathon that’ll be another 30 bucks and another 7 days.. How is that in any way shape or form practical?
Basically there are better ways of doing it than what we have seen or been told. It would be really cool if we had some technical transparency and reasons why they did’nt work.
You have no idea how much a server transfer is going to cost. It might be $30. It might be $1.
If there were better ways they would be doing it that way. Yet another person who insists upon calling the devs lazy liars. You were told why it can’t work the way you want it. Told in very clear, easy-to-understand terms. So transparent in fact, birds are flying into it as we speak. But because it’s not the answer you want, it’s not good enough. Well tough nookies. It is what it is, and you’re going to have accept it and work within it the best you can.
Guesting across regions would be really easy to implement, they already have the code for it.
- Just do the same you do for a transfer but mark account with a guest flag.
- When the guest flag is active you are not allowed to enter WvW
- When player ends guesting do a transfer back to home server.
I can’t be less exited now.. At least with free server transfers you could simply hop cross eu/us to play with friends from a different region. Not only can we still not play cross eu/us whenever we desire, we’d also have to pay straight up cash to even switch servers.
I was exited when I heard this was finally coming at first because I was almost certain that it would fix the inability to play cross eu/us. I hope this will get fixed in the future, but reading the blog post I highly doubt it. It’s a shame, since I have a lot of friends on a european server who I will simply never be able to play with.
You have no idea how much a server transfer is going to cost. It might be $30. It might be $1.
If there were better ways they would be doing it that way. Yet another person who insists upon calling the devs lazy liars. You were told why it can’t work the way you want it. Told in very clear, easy-to-understand terms. So transparent in fact, birds are flying into it as we speak. But because it’s not the answer you want, it’s not good enough. Well tough nookies. It is what it is, and you’re going to have accept it and work within it the best you can.
No, you’re wrong. We were told why they’re choosing not to do it the way we’d prefer them to. There’s a difference, and it’s quite a big one. Creating ways for us to play with our friends is not an impossibility. I don’t care how they do it, but I do care that they make sure we can do it.
Or, in simpler terms:
Nerfs to classes, implentation of more tiers of gear or broken events will not make me quit a game – any game.
Not being able to play with my friends, however? Well, let’s just say that’d decrease the longevity of any game right quick, right there.
Server restrictions are a mistake. I was hoping that you’ve dropped the idea for good, but it would appear you have spent development time on an unnecessary feature like guesting, which we were doing just fine without, instead of something like “underflow” maps because your world is deserted and you cant find people to do specific events to save your life. I hope you reverse your decision. I hope the WvW system gets a revision similar to favor of the gods.
What’s with all the surprise and complaints already? Region based separation exist to minimize latency issues. If you and your friends wanted to play together so much, why didn’t you play on the same region server to begin with o.O…
This implementation is good else we’ll have people crying about lag after guesting to a different region server.
Guesting across regions would be really easy to implement, they already have the code for it.
- Just do the same you do for a transfer but mark account with a guest flag.
- When the guest flag is active you are not allowed to enter WvW
- When player ends guesting do a transfer back to home server.
So easy even a child can do it, amirite?
So what happens when you try to return to your original server and it’s full? Uh-oh, then what? Or are they supposed to hold that space for you, preventing other players who are PAYING for a server transfer to be able to transfer there, while you’re off playing on an EU server also taking up a server spot no one else can have? Not to mention that your character data is now taking up 2 server slots instead of one.
With the ability to be part of up to 5 guilds – considering you are playing with your friends on a different server, you can be in their guild and advance that guild.
*4 guilds max
And +1 for NA / EU guesting. I haven’t been able to play with my friends since launch. Do we need a petition to speed up the priority?
The gist of it is that Arenanet is announcing this as some sort of amazing feature, and some are defending Arenanet for whatever reason, but the truth is nothing new is added, only things are taken away.
Before guesting you could travel to any server in the world. Now you have to pay a fee.
You can’t guest on servers across the pond, which is the only advantage that guesting could have given as you can already in the current situation play with people on your own continent by meeting up in overflow.
So in essence you are getting less flexibility, you have to pay gems to what you could do for free before and your not getting anything new in return. Now lets all go out to the streets and celebrate.
Roleplayers join Piken Square! The Unofficial European RP server!
LoL I just Love Reading all the crying Messages of a Small % of people Not getting it there way. Look its been explained. if you still don’t get it i think somethings wrong in your head. i mean really Many people have explained it and its like DUHHHH but still "I don’t understand why?’ lol and to you people that keep saying it was done in guild wars 1 GUESS WHAT THAT was a Different code not as complex as this one but i guess you don’t understand that beacuse you KNow more about COding then ANYONE in the WORLD. Live with what there giving you.
The gist of it is that Arenanet is announcing this as some sort of amazing feature, and some are defending Arenanet for whatever reason, but the truth is nothing new is added, only things are taken away.
Before guesting you could travel to any server in the world. Now you have to pay a fee.
You can’t guest on servers across the pond, which is the only advantage that guesting could have given as you can already in the current situation play with people on your own continent by meeting up in overflow.
So in essence you are getting less flexibility, you have to pay gems to what you could do for free before and your not getting anything new in return. Now lets all go out to the streets and celebrate.
but they stated many times before that free transfers would be taken away at some point. Would people be complaining less if we only got it during beta and from Launch on you had to pay?
I really don’t understand why we can’t guest across regions. Could we please get some official response on why? Could I pay for the option? Because I would.
This was such a huge selling point for me. I play on an EU server but work really odd hours and often times just want to play with more people on certain days when I am on late at night in EU.
Look 3 posts up.
We posted at the same time. When I wrote my post his was not written yet.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
I’m actually appalled Anet would implement paid server transfers. There is no reason what so ever for us to be forced to pick 1 and only 1 server in the first place. Then to add insult to injury make us pay to transfer to a different server.
I’m new to the game, been playing close to 2 weeks and i have found that the server i picked was not one i want to be on. I had no way of knowing how the server would be before even playing the game and now i have to pay to change servers ? Sorry, this game might go into the garbage bin just on principal.
I understand that there is a problem with WvW and guilds transferring to lower tier servers but this is not the way to fix that problem. Hell it doesn’t do anything other than put some $$$ in Anet’s pockets. It’s ridiculous and if this is the best Anet can do … I hate to see what the next step is when they realize paid server transfers wont fix ((( their own ))) blatant and obvious oversight concerning WvW.
Paid server transfer have always existed and is vital to stop server hoppers in WvW. I think this fixes the problem perfectly and if you have a better method then by all means you should suggest it in the suggestion forum. Also, transfers are still free at the moment so you can still transfer to another world if you’re not happy with yours…
Let me explain to you why you cannot guest on worlds in another region.
There are two databases: European player data is stored in our European datacenter, American player data is stored in our American datacenter. This is to ensure that people in these regions can still properly play in case there is an issue with the connection between the datacenters.
When you do a world transfer from the US to the EU (and vice versa) your player data is transferred from one datacenter to the other. This is not the case with guesting, as you are still “registered” on your home world.
I understand that some of you are disappointed that you cannot guest on worlds in another region, but considering the complexity of internet routing, our main priority is to ensure that players have as much of an uninterrupted game experience as possible, which is the reason why we have two datacenters.
On another note: I will try to get an answer to the guild influence question that has been posted a couple of times.
In that case… Just leave EU -> US server transfer free without a time limit? It really sucks playing on EU servers in the midnight, while you could be playing on US servers where there’s actually life at that time of day…
This is exactly my problem. Sometimes I on at perfect EU times. Others (because of my job) the server I’m on is dead. Why can’t they just let US to EU transfer be free? So I can play with other people and RL friends on the certain days/times.
Toons: Foreseer, Geikamir, Rapscallion, Specimen, Scythian, Zeau, Ärtifact, and Replica.
Gah…. I mean.. all looked good until I realized that the lfg site that I only found a few weeks ago (read: can easily find groups and have fun doing dungeons almost anytime) will become next to useless…
You have no idea how much a server transfer is going to cost. It might be $30. It might be $1.
If there were better ways they would be doing it that way. Yet another person who insists upon calling the devs lazy liars. You were told why it can’t work the way you want it. Told in very clear, easy-to-understand terms. So transparent in fact, birds are flying into it as we speak. But because it’s not the answer you want, it’s not good enough. Well tough nookies. It is what it is, and you’re going to have accept it and work within it the best you can.
No, you’re wrong. We were told why they’re choosing not to do it the way we’d prefer them to. There’s a difference, and it’s quite a big one. Creating ways for us to play with our friends is not an impossibility. I don’t care how they do it, but I do care that they make sure we can do it.
Or, in simpler terms:
Nerfs to classes, implentation of more tiers of gear or broken events will not make me quit a game – any game.
Not being able to play with my friends, however? Well, let’s just say that’d decrease the longevity of any game right quick, right there.
No, you’ve been told why it’s not possible. Characters cannot inhabit both datacenters at the same time. I think that’s pretty kitten clear. You say “they choose not to” as if you believe they are purposely placing a limitation just to annoy you. And why would they do that?
And while it’s clear you want it done no matter what the cost and exclusion of other features and content, I’m sorry, but that’s simply not going to happen, especially for a free feature.
If that makes you no longer want to play the game, well that’s your choice.
Many of us who played the original Guild Wars made friends all around the world. Now we are told that we have to pick and choose what friends we can play with. We could play across regions with anyone we wanted in Guild Wars, a game eight years old. Now, this, a fancy new game with fancy graphics and fancy mechanics is unable to handle players from two regions?
Uninterrupted game experience? I consider being severed from people I have known and played with for years an interruption of my gaming experience.
Gah…. I mean.. all looked good until I realized that the lfg site that I only found a few weeks ago (read: can easily find groups and have fun doing dungeons almost anytime) will become next to useless…
How will lfg become next to useless? There is no change in the system at all. It’s not like NA and EU server could play with each other in the first place (why there are separate tabs)
I’m actually appalled Anet would implement paid server transfers. There is no reason what so ever for us to be forced to pick 1 and only 1 server in the first place. Then to add insult to injury make us pay to transfer to a different server.
I’m new to the game, been playing close to 2 weeks and i have found that the server i picked was not one i want to be on. I had no way of knowing how the server would be before even playing the game and now i have to pay to change servers ? Sorry, this game might go into the garbage bin just on principal.
I understand that there is a problem with WvW and guilds transferring to lower tier servers but this is not the way to fix that problem. Hell it doesn’t do anything other than put some $$$ in Anet’s pockets. It’s ridiculous and if this is the best Anet can do … I hate to see what the next step is when they realize paid server transfers wont fix ((( their own ))) blatant and obvious oversight concerning WvW.
Paid server transfer have always existed and is vital to stop server hoppers in WvW. I think this fixes the problem perfectly and if you have a better method then by all means you should suggest it in the suggestion forum. Also, transfers are still free at the moment so you can still transfer to another world if you’re not happy with yours…
How is it going to fix the problem ? Do you think people who are so inclined can’t afford a $10 server transfer fee once a month or even once a week ?
It’s also apparent Anet has designed it this way by making it (((cheaper))) and easier for the problem guilds to hop to a lower tier / population server. This is a joke and it really makes me sad to see Anet do this. All they had to do was simply make every one who transfers servers start over from level 1 with no gold gems or anything… Problem solved.
No, you’ve been told why it’s not possible. Characters cannot inhabit both datacenters at the same time. I think that’s pretty kitten clear. You say “they choose not to” as if you believe they are purposely placing a limitation just to annoy you. And why would they do that?
And while it’s clear you want it done no matter what the cost and exclusion of other features and content, I’m sorry, but that’s simply not going to happen, especially for a free feature.
If that makes you no longer want to play the game, well that’s your choice.
I’d suggest you don’t speak for ArenaNet. What’s going to happen or not is their decision – all we can do is try to influence them, which is what I’m doing here.
I don’t believe they’re trying to annoy us. That’d be stupid. I do believe that they’re trying to get away from something they very clearly implied they intended to do because it has proven difficult to implement. That’s not okay. However, you’re thinking in blacks and whites – if they can’t (or won’t) do guesting, that means it’s over. Done. Finito.
Me, I’m thinking that I don’t really care how they implement it as long as I get to play with my friends. I made a suggestion in the suggestions forum about allowing for one Home World in each region. Does that offend your sensibilities as well?
Okay while I can see a lot of people are upset that they can not play with their international friends via guesting, heck even I am since I have a few friends in the UK i would love to play with but what it comes down to is the cost. GW2 is a free to play game, with no fee’s, meaning unlike other MMOs they are not seeing steady monthly money coming in from subscribers. A date centre cost money and man hours to maintain not to mention physical space that takes up server rooms. While yes there are many work arounds that people at Anet could do to make it work the fact is that it would cost money. And to those that are saying make ones where it is pay to play or something…I am sorry but what do you not get about the promise that Anet made that this game would remain subscription free? Introducing a paid option will make people feel left out and the ones that wish to play more casually will feel gypped that others are getting a higher experience by throwing cash at the company. The whole point of the game here is community inclusion and with the way they have guesting it works. Adding a paid option would just shun others…look at MMOs that do two types of systems paid and unpaid, the subscribers always look down at the free players, do we really want to start that trend here? Just be happy with what they give you which is an awesome game, an amazing experience and all for a single price of buying the game. In a few years when other games that are without subscriptions begin appearing then you have permission to complain about this feature or that if the hypothetical new games have them or not. Until then just suck it up. transfer and stay in a server where you will have access to play with the majority of your friends and at least be glad that communicating through these different servers is not limited and neither is playing in dungeons.
It’s things like that that really highlight the charm GW1 had over other games. Our alliance was a particularly culturally -diverse one that merged into our guild from GW1, and because of the GW2 is structured has since been disintegrating. Not that we mind being tied down to a server, but a bunch of our players have patiently been waiting for guesting across EU/NA worlds so we could play together – expecting the similar region access as GW1 (through guesting this time), particularly because most of them are GW1 players.
I mean, things like this exercept from their Facebook page really paves the way for disappointment:
‘And don’t worry — we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from — not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch…’
Not that it’s wrong to do handle it this way, many games do – I just wish it was made clearer that players in NA/EU would never have been able to interact with one another in the first place. Region-locking should have been made clear back then, or even partially implemented as a restriction from moving between NA and EU servers. If a day limit between transfers, so could a server selection list.
I really liked this feature when it was first annouched, because it would allow you as EU player to get groups during working/sleeping hours to go to an active NA server. But that is not the case I read now. How can that be, what is the point of this feature besides allowing you to play on different servers where your friend has a guild or something? I thought like in guild wars 1 you could switch freely between american and european servers, like districts. Did nobody think of it? Are you currently working on a system where you can guest between EU and NA servers? Because it helps a lot to not split the Guild Wars 2 player base, in favor of finding people to play with faster!
I understand WvW is a large issue here. I’m asking this as a question then:
Why does it matter which “home server” you are on if you can freely guest to others, or which server you’re PvEing in, other than WvW?
Would it be feasible to have each player flag a specific server (i.e. their home) as the only one they are able to represent in WvW? Then just allow people to transfer between all servers for free, but make it a severely restricted and paid feature to change which server a player has flagged for WvW.
In the end, I think my question is:
Server transfers between any two servers (including EU/NA) were already working and completely okay, except for their impact on WvW. So why would we need a distinct code/feature called guesting (which consequently allows people to pile on a full server where transfers did not)? Wouldn’t restricting accounts to only representing one server in WvW but being able to transfer freely for other aspects of the game make more sense?
No, you’ve been told why it’s not possible. Characters cannot inhabit both datacenters at the same time. I think that’s pretty kitten clear. You say “they choose not to” as if you believe they are purposely placing a limitation just to annoy you. And why would they do that?
And while it’s clear you want it done no matter what the cost and exclusion of other features and content, I’m sorry, but that’s simply not going to happen, especially for a free feature.
If that makes you no longer want to play the game, well that’s your choice.
I’d suggest you don’t speak for ArenaNet. What’s going to happen or not is their decision – all we can do is try to influence them, which is what I’m doing here.
I don’t believe they’re trying to annoy us. That’d be stupid. I do believe that they’re trying to get away from something they very clearly implied they intended to do because it has proven difficult to implement. That’s not okay. However, you’re thinking in blacks and whites – if they can’t (or won’t) do guesting, that means it’s over. Done. Finito.
Me, I’m thinking that I don’t really care how they implement it as long as I get to play with my friends. I made a suggestion in the suggestions forum about allowing for one Home World in each region. Does that offend your sensibilities as well?
Well they’ve been pretty consistent in not implementing things they’ve specifically said they had no intentions or could not be implemented, despite public outcry. So really, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reversal on this one.
There are significant problems with your suggestion. First off, it forces everyone to take up twice as much server space as you’d have both an NA and EU spot. That’s not practical. Second, since each datacenter is isolated from the other and do not communicate, how would they keep each copy synchronized? In the event of a communication issue which copy takes precedent over the other? Can you imaging the mess if there is an issue and a few thousand accounts get corrupted? How happy would you be then?
If you want to have a presence on both an EU and NA server simply buy a second account. Problem solved. Then you’ll be able to play with all of your friends no matter which region they are in and not have to worry about paying for server transfers or 7 day lockouts.
It would have been nice to be able to guest between EU and NA servers, and hopefully they continue to work toward making that possible.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of meeting in overflow in this thread. That doesn’t allow playing open world content together, only dungeons (as far as I know).
The main thing guesting and paid transfers will address is WvW balance. The free transfers which were kept in place because the guesting system wasn’t ready were wreaking havoc on the balance of WvW. With huge guilds transferring into low tier servers en masse to stomp their way back to the top and repeat causing hundreds or thousands of players to have negative experiences. At least now those guilds will have to convince their members to come up with some cash if they want to play that sort of metagame (not impossible, by any means, but hey, at least it’ll generate more revenue that can be put toward more fun game stuff, in theory).
PvE only players (especially the ones who mainly run dungeons) won’t really get any benefit from the new system, at least until more open world features are added with “better” rewards to make them comparable to running dungeons.
Hats off to all the ones who stood before me, and taught a fool to ride.
Well they’ve been pretty consistent in not implementing things they’ve specifically said they had no intentions or could not be implemented, despite public outcry. So really, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reversal on this one.
There are significant problems with your suggestion. First off, it forces everyone to take up twice as much server space as you’d have both an NA and EU spot. That’s not practical. Second, since each datacenter is isolated from the other and do not communicate, how would they keep each copy synchronized? In the event of a communication issue which copy takes precedent over the other? Can you imaging the mess if there is an issue and a few thousand accounts get corrupted? How happy would you be then?
If you want to have a presence on both an EU and NA server simply buy a second account. Problem solved. Then you’ll be able to play with all of your friends no matter which region they are in and not have to worry about paying for server transfers or 7 day lockouts.
What? No, you misunderstand. The data centers DO communicate. I can add a friend in the US to my friends list and see them online. I can whisper to them. I can send them mail and receive mail from them in turn. I can join their party. I can see their dots on the minimap when we’re in the same zone. I just can’t kill things with them, or go with them into dungeons.
Furthermore, I don’t believe for a second that data storage space is a problem, but let’s say it is – it doesn’t matter for my suggestion. I proposed one home world in each region with free transfers between them, perhaps with an imposed time limit. No extra storage space required.
The amount of unappreciative people who greatly underestimate the amount of effort required to design and implement these features are appalling….
It’s easy to say a few words and call them lazy… why don’t you do it and sell it to them.
From the beginning, I never once thought that guesting would be across NA/EU. For me, these two regions are completely separate. In fact, you should be thankful if you actually live in either of these regions, some of us don’t even have that choice.
I understand WvW is a large issue here. I’m asking this as a question then:
Why does it matter which “home server” you are on if you can freely guest to others, or which server you’re PvEing in, other than WvW?
Would it be feasible to have each player flag a specific server (i.e. their home) as the only one they are able to represent in WvW? Then just allow people to transfer between all servers for free, but make it a severely restricted and paid feature to change which server a player has flagged for WvW.
In the end, I think my question is:
Server transfers between any two servers (including EU/NA) were already working and completely okay, except for their impact on WvW. So why would we need a distinct code/feature called guesting (which consequently allows people to pile on a full server where transfers did not)? Wouldn’t restricting accounts to only representing one server in WvW but being able to transfer freely for other aspects of the game make more sense?
Because when you guest to another server that’s part of the same datacenter your account info doesn’t go anywhere. You’re just temporarily allowed access to a different server.
But the same isn’t true if you want to guest to a server on a different datacenter. To do that would require moving your account there, which results in either your account taking up twice as much server space (not good) or giving up your server spot on your original server with the possibility of not being able to go back there when you’re done guesting (also not good).
I’m actually appalled Anet would implement paid server transfers. There is no reason what so ever for us to be forced to pick 1 and only 1 server in the first place. Then to add insult to injury make us pay to transfer to a different server.
I’m new to the game, been playing close to 2 weeks and i have found that the server i picked was not one i want to be on. I had no way of knowing how the server would be before even playing the game and now i have to pay to change servers ? Sorry, this game might go into the garbage bin just on principal.
I understand that there is a problem with WvW and guilds transferring to lower tier servers but this is not the way to fix that problem. Hell it doesn’t do anything other than put some $$$ in Anet’s pockets. It’s ridiculous and if this is the best Anet can do … I hate to see what the next step is when they realize paid server transfers wont fix ((( their own ))) blatant and obvious oversight concerning WvW.
Paid server transfer have always existed and is vital to stop server hoppers in WvW. I think this fixes the problem perfectly and if you have a better method then by all means you should suggest it in the suggestion forum. Also, transfers are still free at the moment so you can still transfer to another world if you’re not happy with yours…
How is it going to fix the problem ? Do you think people who are so inclined can’t afford a $10 server transfer fee once a month or even once a week ?
It’s also apparent Anet has designed it this way by making it (((cheaper))) and easier for the problem guilds to hop to a lower tier / population server. This is a joke and it really makes me sad to see Anet do this. All they had to do was simply make every one who transfers servers start over from level 1 with no gold gems or anything… Problem solved.
Paid transfers are effective because it would force people to think twice now that real money is involved. If a guild is willing to spend lets say your proposed 10 bucks per member then sure by all means they can play that game if they want. I have nothing against it if they’re willing to pay the price.
This is yet again a slap in the face to international community guilds and anyone that simply wanted to play with friends regardless of what server they were on. Early on Anet wanted us to supposedly be able to play with our friends with ease. We were told that guesting was the way to do this (albeit an incredibly clunky one). Of course it’s difficult to impliment, and it’s clear it’s one aspect that wasn’t thought entirely through. Because once you seperated us into servers and tossed in WvW, there was no going back.. and no way to ‘balance’ it.. so to speak. But if I recall correctly — guesting from a EU server to a US one was strangely working during some parts of beta. Rather puzzling seeing as it worked then, but won’t supposedly work now. The fact is I’m in the US but choose to play on a EU server, where the majority of my friends are. But that’s not to say all my friends are. Since I’m in the US, I am certainly connecting to the EU datacenter already now aren’t I, so why is guesting now a problem? I could think of several ways to handle this problem, but WvW pretty much is the chokehold on the whole matter…. not datacenters.
And while guesting is a nice feature for same region/different server friendships — it also looks additionally clunky and not user friendly. I can see people hitting wrong buttons for sure. The ‘floating’ price for a direct transfer also gave me a chuckle. Opening up a whole can of worms…. let the complaining begin on that one.
For everyone who’s complaining that cross-region play was possible in GW1 and is not possible with Guesting in GW2, please consider that GW1 was fully-instanced (it was not an MMORPG in the real sense of the term and even ArenaNet called it a CORPG – Cooperative Online RPG), while GW2 comes with a fully persistent world.
Simply taken from a network architecture perspective, cross-region play on a persistent game world compared to an instanced one is not the same thing. But then again, everyone here seems to be a game network programming guru.
Well they’ve been pretty consistent in not implementing things they’ve specifically said they had no intentions or could not be implemented, despite public outcry. So really, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reversal on this one.
There are significant problems with your suggestion. First off, it forces everyone to take up twice as much server space as you’d have both an NA and EU spot. That’s not practical. Second, since each datacenter is isolated from the other and do not communicate, how would they keep each copy synchronized? In the event of a communication issue which copy takes precedent over the other? Can you imaging the mess if there is an issue and a few thousand accounts get corrupted? How happy would you be then?
If you want to have a presence on both an EU and NA server simply buy a second account. Problem solved. Then you’ll be able to play with all of your friends no matter which region they are in and not have to worry about paying for server transfers or 7 day lockouts.
Oh right, just buy a whole new game, spend 60 dollars and invest time and effort in rebuilding everything you have. Everyone has the time and money to do that.
Data centres can’t communicate? Really? We live in a digital age, not the age of the pony express. It’s amazing that in Guild Wars 1 this wasn’t an issue. And I and I imagine many players would take a few hours of downtime if that meant the ability to play with all of our friends.
So really, we should just shut up because they have failed to do something they promised to do at the start, something they did in a game that is eight years old and worked fine without major catastrophes.
We have features like multiple guilds that are worthless because if you are in a guild that is on a different server, you can’t play with your guildies. And if you belong in guilds that are in different regions because your friends are there, then oh, just shut up and suck it up.
For everyone who’s complaining that cross-region play was possible in GW1 and is not possible with Guesting in GW2, please consider that GW1 was fully-instanced (it was not an MMORPG in the real sense of the term and even ArenaNet called it a CORPG – Cooperative Online RPG), while GW2 comes with a fully persistent world.
Simply taken from a network architecture perspective, cross-region play on a persistent game world compared to an instanced one is not the same thing. But then again, everyone here seems to be a game network programming guru.
It would have been nice to be able to guest between EU and NA servers, and hopefully they continue to work toward making that possible.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of meeting in overflow in this thread. That doesn’t allow playing open world content together, only dungeons (as far as I know).
This is incorrect. You can play open world content together in overflow. You just need to form a group in an overflow region (Lions Arch) and then you can go anywhere in the world with your group.
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uh.. so if NA & EU are operated by the same publisher then why not be able to guest on both sides? that makes no sense at all.. i can understand if EU and NA were runned by different publishers then it would be completely impossible
It would have been nice to be able to guest between EU and NA servers, and hopefully they continue to work toward making that possible.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of meeting in overflow in this thread. That doesn’t allow playing open world content together, only dungeons (as far as I know).
This is incorrect. You can play open world content together in overflow. You just need to form a group in an overflow region (Lions Arch) and then you can go anywhere in the world with your group.
Just to clarify, it’s not possible for NA and EU players to play together in dungeons. No idea about open world since there are rarely any overflowed open world maps. However, their player icon should be a black anonymous person to you.
It would have been nice to be able to guest between EU and NA servers, and hopefully they continue to work toward making that possible.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of meeting in overflow in this thread. That doesn’t allow playing open world content together, only dungeons (as far as I know).
This is incorrect. You can play open world content together in overflow. You just need to form a group in an overflow region (Lions Arch) and then you can go anywhere in the world with your group.
Right. So what does guesting actually add to the game that isn’t possible now? You’ll… be able to access the guild bank of a guild on another server? Anything else? I’m serious here. :I
The amount of unappreciative people who greatly underestimate the amount of effort required to design and implement these features are appalling….
Well, honestly… I don’t care how much effort they’ve put into this feature. It’s useless! I’m not going to appreciate a waste of time for a feature I will never use. The appeal of guesting for me was being able to play with friends across the world sometimes, a dungeon or two a week. I’m disappointed and I’m far from alone.
Well they’ve been pretty consistent in not implementing things they’ve specifically said they had no intentions or could not be implemented, despite public outcry. So really, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reversal on this one.
There are significant problems with your suggestion. First off, it forces everyone to take up twice as much server space as you’d have both an NA and EU spot. That’s not practical. Second, since each datacenter is isolated from the other and do not communicate, how would they keep each copy synchronized? In the event of a communication issue which copy takes precedent over the other? Can you imaging the mess if there is an issue and a few thousand accounts get corrupted? How happy would you be then?
If you want to have a presence on both an EU and NA server simply buy a second account. Problem solved. Then you’ll be able to play with all of your friends no matter which region they are in and not have to worry about paying for server transfers or 7 day lockouts.
What? No, you misunderstand. The data centers DO communicate. I can add a friend in the US to my friends list and see them online. I can whisper to them. I can send them mail and receive mail from them in turn. I can join their party. I can see their dots on the minimap when we’re in the same zone. I just can’t kill things with them, or go with them into dungeons.
Furthermore, I don’t believe for a second that data storage space is a problem, but let’s say it is – it doesn’t matter for my suggestion. I proposed one home world in each region with free transfers between them, perhaps with an imposed time limit. No extra storage space required.
No, you seem to misunderstand. You cannot play with people from EU servers if you’re on an NA server, and vice versa, unless your idea of “playing” is to chat and hang out in the same party. So that restriction already exists, due to the fact you’re on separate datacenters. The datacenters cannot communicate in a way that permits playing together. This isn’t a new restriction, it’s the way it’s always been.
And let’s say they create a server on each datacenter that’s specifically designed to allow people to transfer for guesting. What happens when the free server is full and you can’t transfer? What happens when you’re finished playing with your EU friends and want to transfer back to your home NA server but it’s full too? What then?
While it is sad that there is no cross-region availability, the reasoning behind it makes sense from a technical point. While it is possible to overcome this limitation, there is no strong way to do it easily and it cannot be magically done like some people here believe. Some people just need to accept that or move on.
I don’t personally care for the paid transfers since I believe it prevents players from being able to be flexible, but I know it is needed to stop the bandwagoning for WvW so I can’t complain much.
It would have been nice to be able to guest between EU and NA servers, and hopefully they continue to work toward making that possible.
I’ve seen quite a few mentions of meeting in overflow in this thread. That doesn’t allow playing open world content together, only dungeons (as far as I know).
This is incorrect. You can play open world content together in overflow. You just need to form a group in an overflow region (Lions Arch) and then you can go anywhere in the world with your group.
No. Simply forming a group on an overflow in LA doesn’t allow you to play open world content with your group of cross-server members.
Currently, you must all be in the same overflow server of that particular zone, and in order to do that, an overflow needs to exist, and one member of your group has to be on an overflow in the first place so you can join on them. Most zones don’t have the player population to even have overflows in the first place, so this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often unless you happen to form a group at that particular moment with someone on a server that has overflows in the zone you want to play in.
Well they’ve been pretty consistent in not implementing things they’ve specifically said they had no intentions or could not be implemented, despite public outcry. So really, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for a reversal on this one.
There are significant problems with your suggestion. First off, it forces everyone to take up twice as much server space as you’d have both an NA and EU spot. That’s not practical. Second, since each datacenter is isolated from the other and do not communicate, how would they keep each copy synchronized? In the event of a communication issue which copy takes precedent over the other? Can you imaging the mess if there is an issue and a few thousand accounts get corrupted? How happy would you be then?
If you want to have a presence on both an EU and NA server simply buy a second account. Problem solved. Then you’ll be able to play with all of your friends no matter which region they are in and not have to worry about paying for server transfers or 7 day lockouts.
Oh right, just buy a whole new game, spend 60 dollars and invest time and effort in rebuilding everything you have. Everyone has the time and money to do that.
Data centres can’t communicate? Really? We live in a digital age, not the age of the pony express. It’s amazing that in Guild Wars 1 this wasn’t an issue. And I and I imagine many players would take a few hours of downtime if that meant the ability to play with all of our friends.
So really, we should just shut up because they have failed to do something they promised to do at the start, something they did in a game that is eight years old and worked fine without major catastrophes.
We have features like multiple guilds that are worthless because if you are in a guild that is on a different server, you can’t play with your guildies. And if you belong in guilds that are in different regions because your friends are there, then oh, just shut up and suck it up.
Well, how important is it for you to play with your friends? If it’s as important as you all make it out to be then spending $60 should be no big deal. Better than paying for server transfers over and over again. And since you’ve all made it clear that playing with your friends is more important than anything else, why do you care if you have to start from scratch? You have friends who can help you along. So I don’t see the problem here. Unless maybe playing with your friends isn’t all that important and you’re just making a fuss cause you have nothing better to do. I dunno.
GW1 was a completely different game that wasn’t a true MMO. So comparing it to GW2 is not relevant. Different games, different engines, completely different architectures. The only thing they have in common is the name.
And no, I don’t think many people would accept a few hours of downtime. You have a problem about starting from scratch to play with your friends but you don’t have a problem with perpetual outages, character corruption, and account rollbacks that would be likely otherwise? Yeah, sorry, not buying that one.
No, you seem to misunderstand. You cannot play with people from EU servers if you’re on an NA server, and vice versa, unless your idea of “playing” is to chat and hang out in the same party. So that restriction already exists, due to the fact you’re on separate datacenters. The datacenters cannot communicate in a way that permits playing together. This isn’t a new restriction, it’s the way it’s always been.
And let’s say they create a server on each datacenter that’s specifically designed to allow people to transfer for guesting. What happens when the free server is full and you can’t transfer? What happens when you’re finished playing with your EU friends and want to transfer back to your home NA server but it’s full too? What then?
That we can’t actually play cross-region is accurate, obviously – that’s the whole point! But where you’re claiming it’s a technical impossibility (although you at first said the servers were completely isolated from each other, when that’s clearly not the case), I’m saying that it’s not, it’s just a more difficult solution that ArenaNet seems unwilling to commit to, despite their proclaimed intentions that playing with our friends is of great importance to them.
What your second part of the post is getting at, or why you’re asking me, I’m not sure. It has very little to do with anything I’ve said, or my suggestion thread. Again, I’m not bothered by specifics. If some solutions brought up in this thread or elsewhere aren’t practical, I don’t care. Something must work. However, you seem insistant that there is no solution that will work, and you seem to actively dislike the very thought of this issue being resolved. Why is that? Why not try to come up with solutions instead?
