When I first played GW2 it was great. There were plenty of people around to do Dynamic Events with you. But then, after getting my first char to 80 and starting with another one, low level areas, and even high level ones are completely desolate. Everyone is in WvW, in dungeons, or who knows where. Final point is, I don’t think there are enough players in a server of GW2 to sustain the fun environment the Dynamic Events and moving around the world brings. I actually felt more alone than when I was playing GW1 where people were at least forced to party to do well.
Gw2 is filled with lots of casual players who not having to log on 24-7 to be able to play now only do now when they want to play not because they have to . The one good thing about that is the player base will stay strong .In other games if you don’t play all the time within 2 weeks your out of the running and unable to play with your friends .
Look at halloween its was like opening day 5 days pack full of players one huge party so players are there they’re just playing at their own pace. I played in groups of 50+ yesterday now that its monday I’m sure that will go down to 5 if I’m luck but there nothing wrong with that in real life people have jobs and families.
Do we really need yet another thread about this? You couldn’t have searched and posted this in one of the many other threads about this same subject?
Playing on Tarnished Coast here and none of the areas ever feel empty. People are constantly leveling alts and running DE’s there. Been working on my 4th 80 now, and in all that time, have yet to come across a dead zone.
Maybe you should try to find a guild of players who enjoy leveling or are willing to help you level. Or makes some friends and level up together. You can make all the difference if you go out and actually make friends and find people to play with. If it’s a world issue, transfer to a new one and try that out. We have free transfers every week, so feel free to jump around and find a good community that suits you, if you have no attachments to your current world.
A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
Lady Bethany Of Noh – Chronomancer – Lords of Noh [LoN]
I’m on Isle of Janthir. There is actually a lot of people there. It’s just that everyone is obsessed with going through dungeons and special events. The normal roaming through the game is left out. Occasionally, I get one or two players roaming with me but thats about it.
on my server our population seems ok. i rarely find myself feeling completely alone. but the champions are running rampant and no one is doing anything to stop them.
If he’s on Henge of Denravi, that place is practically a ghost town. Everyone left for the server that’s winning WvW.
This isnt true, especially on the PVE side. Yes, we lost alot of WvWers and area probably one of the less populated servers, but the server is far from a ghost town – and the people who stayed are extremely helpful to one another (making it easier to find people working together).
That said, as the game ages, we will see fewer and fewer in lower level zones. My hope is that they eventually implement some kind of zone “underflow” system (think exact opposite of overflow) that pulls from servers across the region to keep all zones populated.
I’m on Henge and it’s a ghost town. Snowden was almost completely barren all through map completion. From leveling and mat farming for weeks, off and on, I see a couple people here and there, literally. Last night I was farming iron ore and no one was there. I’ve been in Lornar’s Pass now for a couple weeks and again, practically no one around.
I’ve been trying to do the events in the Icedevils Waypoint area as well as the skill point and can’t get a person to reply in chat and running around doing the other areas, again I see a couple people. I’m getting used to not seeing anyone around. I died half a dozen times in the Icedevils mining cave trying to get to the skill point and POI because the respawn rate is 5 seconds and you get mobbed by a veteran bear and his mob that run down the ramps out of nowhere, that I can’t take them all on with Skritts swarming you as well. Not a soul replies in chat, no one around for the events in that area. Couldn’t get anyone to reply to LFG to kill the Steam Champion so I can get that Waypoint or the Ice Elemental Vet that’s near the bridge where you wipe the graffiti and stop the rock slide. I went AFK and waited to see if anyone would come by. Even Hoelbrak is barren. Nobody around doing the Veteran Imp either. This has been like this since late September
I agree that, at times, the lower level zones feel empty – and that is something the developers should be extremely concerned about.
Henge of Denravi is probably one of the extreme cases, because of the migration of the big WvW alliance (and subsequent desertions), but I still find people to play with in most zones – and when I cannot, my guild usually steps in and helps.
Again, all of that said, it may be time for Anet to step in and take steps to bolster populations in lower level zones – BEFORE it becomes a huge issue. To me, the obvious method would be to “cross-pollinate” between servers to even out lower zone populations – using the same mechanic used for overflow situations.
This would probably help with the “no end game” concerns as well – if the world was fuller and more alive with players across all zones.
If he’s on Henge of Denravi, that place is practically a ghost town.
I’m inclined to think its probably an issue with all servers, but sure, I might be wrong about that. In which case, FWIW, I’m also on HOD, and can second this.
I’m on a server that’s usually “heavy” during game time (sanctum of rall). I like to get the daily achievement every day that I can, which requires leaving Orr/wvw/halloween zones to get the kill variety. Most recently I’ve been going to Brisban and Fields of Ruin, and it can be pretty empty. Other lowbie zones I’ve been in recently, like to do the scavenger quests, do have a decent # players.
I wager that if you look at population density on the lower-level zones, the further a zone is from Lion’s Arch, the lower its density.
OP I share your experience. Perhaps there are high volume servers where this is not happening. I have experienced this in the last three weeks on the following servers: Emhry Bay, Yaks Bend and Tarnished Coast. The problem started out being an issue predominately effecting the mid level zones (45-70) but now the population has become more concentrated.
Playing in what should be peak hours on a weekend I encountered perhaps ten other players the 1-25 maps for Asura/Slyvari starter zones. Of those ten it was the same pattern, mostly lone guns out there soloing content with the occasional pair (couples perhaps). When I say empty zone this is pretty much what I’m talking about. Play in off peak hours on say Sunday morning or Weekday morning and on US servers and you’ll find zones completely empty.
The good news is for many dynamic events you don’t need more than two players to finish them. It can be challenging with two or three, but it can be done they scale down to that number. Sadly, this past weekend I found it very difficult to find 2-3 players who wanted to participate. I feel gulity going to Guild chat and asking for help as the games design makes it so they have to shell out for waypoint travel to help me and their payoff likely won’t even allow them to break even.
If you only have a handful in a zone, well they are very large zones and everyone is off doing their on thing.
Due to the design of dynamic events I can not stress how horrible this is for the game. It has the potential to destroy the game actually as it creates a very different experience to that we were all having the first few weeks after launch.
Today I ran all the way from one zone edge to another without seeing a player or a functioning DE, and pretty far into the next one (blazeridge steppes). I didn’t check the server-status display at the time, but it’s a popular server (Sanctum of Rall) that’s sposedly received inumberable transfers in.
I think the “replay” value of lowbie zones isn’t there, particularly the ones that are far from Lion’s Arch. It’s a snowball effect, too, that if you get out there and there’s no events, no other players, it feels like a solo zone, so we’re much less likely to return, unless we’re committed to map completion.
OP I share your experience. Perhaps there are high volume servers where this is not happening. I have experienced this in the last three weeks on the following servers: Emhry Bay, Yaks Bend and Tarnished Coast. The problem started out being an issue predominately effecting the mid level zones (45-70) but now the population has become more concentrated.
Playing in what should be peak hours on a weekend I encountered perhaps ten other players the 1-25 maps for Asura/Slyvari starter zones. Of those ten it was the same pattern, mostly lone guns out there soloing content with the occasional pair (couples perhaps). When I say empty zone this is pretty much what I’m talking about. Play in off peak hours on say Sunday morning or Weekday morning and on US servers and you’ll find zones completely empty.
The good news is for many dynamic events you don’t need more than two players to finish them. It can be challenging with two or three, but it can be done they scale down to that number. Sadly, this past weekend I found it very difficult to find 2-3 players who wanted to participate. I feel gulity going to Guild chat and asking for help as the games design makes it so they have to shell out for waypoint travel to help me and their payoff likely won’t even allow them to break even.
If you only have a handful in a zone, well they are very large zones and everyone is off doing their on thing.
Due to the design of dynamic events I can not stress how horrible this is for the game. It has the potential to destroy the game actually as it creates a very different experience to that we were all having the first few weeks after launch.
The above poster expressed the way I feel better than I did. Basically, I think that server cap population is too low. Lets say if you have a number of players in a server and 90% of them go dungeon-ing after hitting 80, spread around that last 10% and what you get is a load of unoccupied zones, especially off peak. I think Arena Net has to fix this issue. This wasn’t as much of an issue in GW1 where people were somewhat forced to party and the population was basically condensed into a few servers. However, in GW2, I can manage playing alone, but then it really feels very lonely, and somewhat takes something from the experience.
That’s why it just seems pointless, when people refer to the server selection screen as an indication of anything. I’m not sure what labels like “full” or “high” really mean, but I don’t see anything like what it would mean to me, in most of the game.
Players are too spread out, on one hand, and too clumped together in the same area (e.g. Lions Arch) on the other. At the very least, they need to give players reasons to experience more of the gameworld.. but then you’d have players getting even more spread out. So they’d also need to raise server caps significantly, to offset that.
I wonder if they’re working on any sort of solution, at least. Or maybe just don’t consider it a problem, because they’re of the mentality that people should be more social and proactive about finding one another?
It’s not just low level areas. It’s everywhere. I’ve been trying to explore the Straits of Devastation for 3 days now and I’ve only run into 4 human players over that entire period of time. At prime-time hours. On a server that’s “Full.”
It’s posts like that Vzur that make me wonder why I bother trying to play this game still. The community’s a kitten joke.
Not sure if you understood the tone of how I meant it. I wasn’t saying it was a good thing, or that its how I feel. It’s just the impression I get from other players.
Or maybe more accurately, the impression I get from not seeing other players :/
It’s posts like that Vzur that make me wonder why I bother trying to play this game still. The community’s a kitten joke.
Not sure if you understood the tone of how I meant it. I wasn’t saying it was a good thing, or that its how I feel. It’s just the impression I get from other players.
The problem is what you’re saying is the absolute truth. This game has zero community unless you’re into PvP exclusively.
I wanted to do the story first before messing with any of that. “LOL” says the GW2 community.
I think the real big issue is the design of rewards. The reward (and crafting materials) at low level areas can’t compete with dungeons and lv. 80 areas.
On Tarnished Coast, the lower level areas have quite a lower population than they did just a month ago. That’s expected, of course, but I think it should be noted that Anet’s plan for “end game” was to give everybody a reason to go play in low level zones; this obviously isn’t happening, which means their plan has failed, and should be re-evaluated.
That said, some of the major cities are ghost towns. Rata Sum, Hoelbrak, and The Grove are all completely overshadowed by Lion’s Arch as the gathering place of choice for most players. I’m not sure about the Citadel since I rarely play my Charr, but Divinity’s Reach gets a lot of roleplayers, so that city isn’t quite so barren.
I don’t believe anything you say, till you at least tell us which server you are on.
Then at least we can have more people from your server comment on this and perhaps give these comments some credibility.
Anvil Rock……norn area is dead……asura area is dead……..char area is extremily dead, human area is barren chat with a few people, after that dead, untill you get to orr…..i see 20 people between penitent and shelter waypoint the rest are bots, and today in WvWvW, gates of madness was pounding on our keep with around…….50ish players……..i couldnt find 5 people to help take out the 3 trebs ontop of the hill infront of AP.
I love GW2…and I would love it even more if I could play with other players more or even SEE more players online. It’s no fun to run around and see almost no other players! Just a few minutes ago I played for 1 hour but then stopped because I felt really lonely and got bored.
I hate the feeling of loneliness and playing GW2 gives me that feeling. That’s one of the reasons why I left ‘lord of the rings online’…nice game, but seeing no others players online makes it boring. The same happens to GW2 o_o I love exploring the maps…but running around and only seeing npcs and monsters and no other players is really depressing.
The game is still new and we already have that problem! Can’t they merge the servers or implement the underflow system Blaeys mentioned? Please Anet…do something about it!
I am in Borlis Pass, and almost every zone is empty. I was in level 35-40 area last night, that coal area at the very right side of the map. It was empty….
I also notice the lower-lvl areas are pretty empty, quinda hard find someone and group events are for SKIP, won’t be enough people.
Now if we were in Orr…. I belive if ArenaNet at level 80 the areas should scale to levl 80 also, also the drops and everything, something like that makes more sense for who already reached endgame to the lower-level areas still make sense to go play there.
Are none of you guys in a Guild? That you can’t use guildies to put a group together? Server Populations shouldn’t even matter if you’ve got a solid guild behind you. It might take you awhile to find just that right guild…but its well worth the time.
PF/ GOAT on Tarnished Coast (Semi-Retired)
Raf Longshanks-80 Norn Guardian / 9 more alts of various lvls / Charter Member Altaholics Anon
Yes but that removes the jump right in and do a DE, or such, with other players which ANet greatly advertised. I have great trust in ANet and would hope that they can have a fix for this issue. It would be much better if they found a way than all of just left to “deal with it”.
Yes but that removes the jump right in and do a DE, or such, with other players which ANet greatly advertised. I have great trust in ANet and would hope that they can have a fix for this issue. It would be much better if they found a way than all of just left to “deal with it”.
ANet can’t make players be where “you” are. At some point, you have to take some responsibility for setting up the circumstances for your own enjoyment. Either find some friends, join a guild, change servers, move to an area more populated…whatever.
PF/ GOAT on Tarnished Coast (Semi-Retired)
Raf Longshanks-80 Norn Guardian / 9 more alts of various lvls / Charter Member Altaholics Anon
It took me five server transfers but I managed to find one that has a good population most of the time. Since transfers are free I would suggest that you keep trying until you find one you like.
Now you just have to talk to each other and work together to complete some of the objectives instead of rolling your face on the keyboard and beating everything with your eyes closed.
I like the Dynamic events I think it’s a great idea and dropping your level according to zone is cool as well. The problem is once you hit 80 people want 80 gear and mats. Sure going back to a level 10 zone to do dynamics may be fun but why would an 80 want to fill his bags with a bunch of low level junk. They need to make an incentive to bring players back to various zones. I mean the world is huge!! Maybe create a daily hot zone or something, or suprise events in a specific zone every 6hrs or so for a couple hrs and all dynamic events give you tokens to buy gear or something like that.
Beowulf-Defender of the JQ Realm and Warrior of the SF clan.
try n get on desolation, then it’ll feel like there are people, except when you’re not at one of the popular locations o.0
I just saw another thread like this and underflow was suggested, so i commented on that too saying that I liked that idea.
I play on SoR, which is usually high…I went 6 hours other day and did not see a single non-bot player nor did any event actually trigger either. When I leveled my first toon…there was 100s of players every where and DEs were popping every few mins…now it’s dead.
Super hard to level now.
Unless they offer something like heirloom gear: I won’t be leveling any alts and will stick with one char until I stop playing.
On the Charr starter zones, it seems empty and desolate, and if there are too many foes/mobs in high concentration, some areas become almost impossible to pass. Occasionally there may be some named NPC (not of any Dynamic Event), which I could tag along and support along with, this aspect helped.
I wonder if the game mechanic can perhaps sense low player population and spawn more of these ‘helpers’.
Desolation has loads of players all over the place. I’m currently levelling several alts and I always see a lot of people about. There’s people asking stuff in map chat or looking for dungeons. I asked to do this one out of the way group event and suddenly 8 people appear to help within a minute.
I’d say the mid zones are the least populated at the moment but I still see plenty of people around. I am aware though that the lower populated servers might feel empty and so underflow servers or merging some of these servers would probably help.
Of course it wont be as busy as launch it’s to be expected I think Anet has timed the new patch coming out well. Most people are at around 80 now and playing alts, pvp, dungeons. Perfect time to get a new content patch out.
Plus people can play when they want rather than be forced by a subscription which makes it more enjoyable and less of a chore to I’d imagine a lot of people. Whenever there’s new content people will flock back to enjoy it.
I’m Australian and play on Tarnished Coast (a US server), which means that my weekday nights tend to be pretty quiet. (But even so, I will typically still see a handful of players around in the low-level zones.) However, if you hop on during the weekend, it’s always buzzing with activity, especially if you log on during the US daytime hours.
Eventually I think ANet will lift the server caps and consolidate more of the servers as technology improves and the player base stabilises, but this may still be a few months away.
