Guild Wars 2

Dantel.3086:

So, you’re saying that people who guest to RP servers now will be forced to transfer to RP servers? Isn’t that kinda… money grubbing?

not necessarily, if you join your RP server’s guild you should be matched up with them in their city as long as it isn’t full (this is the same with guesting) From what I understand from the weights party and guild are above server but the more you have in common with said rp server the better your chance to get in with them.

With that being said if you find yourself unable to join the server ask someone from your rp guild to add you to a party and then join them that way to add more weight.

lakdav.3694:

Dont want to divert the topic of the Megaservers effect to RP too much, but i have to say. Its long past due that the RP community gets something without two other things taken away from them. Still waiting to hear hopelessly about any solution to that fateful decision about blocking off uninstanced Salma for example, and that was almost a year ago now, even though there was a show of dev understanding of the issue it caused.

Just saying that looking at this thread, i have a dreadful deja-vu.

Salma isn’t blocked.
There’s still a way to get in, even without any class specific buffs or any tools. There were two ways before they started blocking. One of these two still works, although you have to be careful and use the exact spot.

I’d also like to apologize to the devs if my initial reactions were too hostile. I don’t expect you to consider RPers in the development of this system, which is clearly designed for the mechanics of your game (not the mechanics of the player community). I don’t expect that any of the devs would understand what it takes for an RP community to thrive. So it’s unreasonable to expect that they would have thought up a solution before-hand to the issues we’re discussing in this thread.

However, I think it is reasonable to expect more communication with the community. This system is probably already complete and ready to launch, so any talk of features in this thread or the other feedback thread won’t be able to be implemented before patch day. But if ArenaNet had made mention of this earlier, like even a month ago… if they had just said “This is the direction we’re headed towards” and gathered feedback on potential community needs for it, then RPers could have made their concerns known then. It would have been a calmer situation, these ideas could have been suggested, and ArenaNet could have probably found a solution before they were ready to release.

But instead this major change was dropped on us so soon before it’s going to be released. That’s why everyone’s a little panicked and aggressive. Because they know it’s probably too late to even address their concerns before launch. And they feel unappreciated by the developers because no one bothered to get their input on the matter before-hand. This really, really could have been easily addressed if it was simply discussed a month or two earlier.

I guess we just have to wait and see, but with one of the things I play mmo’s for (lore) hit or lacking where it matters most, and other (rp) potentially being hit I’ll hold off planned gem spending until I see how the situation looks like.

Anyway, gonna have to wait and see, and hope it’s gonna be okay.
I don’t think I’m willing to go upwind and find some ways around that system if it in fact will hinder roleplay and hit rp community.

I just hope all goes well. I’m pretty ill and stuck being a shut-in because of it, so GW2 and roleplay are very important to me because they allow me to be around my friends and to make new friends, and we get to share how much we love this game.

Losing that would be really awful. This game, and roleplay, let me be more than someone who’s confined to their bed all day, and things hurt less when you have people to share things with.

I like anet ANet, I’ve spent over 1k of real money in the gem store to support this game and the devs; I know a lot of roleplayers do the same.

Speckly.3729:

The smileys are starting to come off condescendingly.

If that is your impression, then I’m sorry, because that was not my intention.

Speckly.3729:

I’m voicing valid concerns, and so are quite a lot of other people.

Never said these concerns were invalid. As I said – I understand them. All I’m trying to say is that people should relax and wait for the patch.

Speckly.3729:

Yes, plenty of other people spend money on the game, I’m aware. But my money has been spent on roleplay, and so has plenty of people’s.

So is your money worth more? I’m just wondering, because I don’t see what the amount of money any person has spent on the game has to do with this topic.

I joined this game because I was interested in the lore for roleplaying purposes.

I’ve made it my RP home.

I’m cautiously optimistic that ANet isn’t actually so completely thoughtless about the needs of RPers that you’d make it hard for us to even find each other, but I don’t completely know. You’ve taken a lot of other pretty big things away from us and implemented very little of any help to the RP community in return.

If this change goes through and scatters RPers to the four winds, if I can no longer show up at a time of day convenient for me and find non-guild walk-up RP the way I can now, if I get sorted with my guildies but we can’t run a planned RP event with another guild because the two guilds are stuck on different maps – I don’t see myself staying with Guild Wars 2. I am very worried and sad right now, because I honestly love this game and its lore and I’ve never fallen in love with an MMO the way I have with this one. But if that happens, at that point I will feel forced to pick up and try to move somewhere else that actually wants roleplayers’ money.

I’m only one person, of course, but I doubt I’ll be the only one if the worst comes to pass.

We haven’t gotten all the information about how this will work, though, so for now I’ll sit on my hands and wait. ANet, you’ve created a wonderful game. I will do my best to remain optimistic that you’ve indeed taken the needs of all your players into account with this system.

Feothyr.6072:

Speckly.3729:

The smileys are starting to come off condescendingly.

If that is your impression, then I’m sorry, because that was not my intention.

Speckly.3729:

I’m voicing valid concerns, and so are quite a lot of other people.

Never said these concerns were invalid. As I said – I understand them. All I’m trying to say is that people should relax and wait for the patch.

Speckly.3729:

Yes, plenty of other people spend money on the game, I’m aware. But my money has been spent on roleplay, and so has plenty of people’s.

So is your money worth more? I’m just wondering, because I don’t see what the amount of money any person has spent on the game has to do with this topic.

I’m not saying that a roleplayer’s money is worth more. I’m saying it should be worth the same amount as anyone else’s. I’m saying that what we put into the game—money, hours, work—should be worth just as much as the effort of people who choose to play the game another way. Meaning we should have as much consideration given to us as anyone else.

I’m not only concerned about the fact that there is no measurable metric to sort RPers by, but by the automatic nature of it. If I get grouped with one group of players for PvE, by virtue of my previous activities, if I suddenly feel like switching gears in the open world that’s going to be very difficult. What if my world completer wants to go butt heads against some events in Orr? I’m going to be sorted with people who are more interested in exploring, and those events are going to be a whole lot harder to have any fun doing when all of the experienced PvErs have been sorted out separately from me.

Flipping a tag before zoning into a map would allow players some amount of control over the game experience they want to have, while still letting you sort people into maps for maximum population, -and- giving roleplayers a way to maintain the way -they- like to play the game (when you have been much better than many MMO devs in supporting your RP community).

If you guys could take into consideration the RP community and patch in some way for those of us who choose to remain flagged RP and thus evade the multiple-maps issue, that’d be great. We really shouldn’t have to all have people we don’t know well or don’t feel comfortable with on our friends list, and we shouldn’t have to have some kind of mega-guild with people we don’t know (or necessarily like) just to engage in a hobby we love.

As a player who prefers one-on-one random RP around the maps, I don’t want to be pushed into a situation where I have to be lumped in with others I don’t know in a guild just to RP. We really don’t want our communities to be “enhanced” when that “enhancement” is just other players from other realms. We don’t want more players, we want more people who role-play.

That, and our population is already so full that I really wish you guys would consider locking Tarnished Coast to Tarnished Coast. As a roleplayer with a pair of accounts, I can’t even make it to my own server’s events; I don’t see any reason that it needs to be adjusted to accommodate sharing space with non-Tarnished Coast people. (Aside people who choose to guest, and all the more power to them. Hello, guesters)

If this does go through and does make it impossible to guarantee that I’ll be on Tarnished Coast with the roleplay community, I’m afraid I’ll have to move on to another game. Roleplay and a consistent RP community is the only reason I game. If I wanted to play match-up games where I have to go door-to-door (figuratively) knocking to see if someone just happens to want to roleplay, then I can just do that on a forum. I like MMOs because they’re visual and immersive and feel natural for characters to blend and interact, not to set up play-dates. :/

Hopefully the next announcements will help in assuaging the many concerns people have, but I’m highly skeptical for the time being. I have loved Anet’s decisions up until this one, and you guys work hard and put out an amazing game. I really hope that you guys can find a solution for the RP community, as I know there’s some Anet employees themselves who roleplay!

As mentioned the system do this by prioritizing certain conditions.

Your “current” server will be the priority.
Follow by “guild” as second priority.

So, if you are on the same server and the same guild, you will be surely be placed in the same instance. They mentioned they want the same server to be grouped together, thus, same server will likely to be in the same instance as long it isn’t full.

There may be a simple solution for GW2 to have it’s Megaserver without destroying it’s own Roleplayer community.

Give them a check box on their account settings that says Roleplayer so that it can sort them accordingly and have more chances to encounter other Roleplayer, even those they do not know. They can always uncheck it later to do PvE content as usual. Please consider this or something like it.

If anyone has a better idea or supports this one please bump so that it gets heard. Thank you.

Sylv.5324:

The one issue with guilding is that there are currently 9k registered roleplayers with one site, and plenty more who never go there. Since guilds only hold 500 members, the community will still be somewhat fragmented. Many of us are (me included) also not in roleplay guilds, and count on walk-ups for most of our RP.

Is there -any- way you guys could create a roleplayer tag? I’m not requesting a server, but someone flagged as ‘rp’ would be a) findable by other roleplayers and b) could be weighted toward being punted to the same instances as other roleplayers.

I just want to echo this.

Change is always a constant thing. I like change, change often destroys to make better. I’m a casual role-player. I think I get too anxious but that’s my issue. I’m not going to send hate because of change. I worry, I enjoy watching scenes unfold around me, it’s often awe-inspiring. I’ve read a lot of great posts in this thread, a lot of “waiting to see” I’m actually kind of intrigued. As I understand it, it’s called Guild Wars because it has a large focus on the pvp aspect (pvp wvw or something I prefer to abstain from). So fine Okay, I can deal. Change is good change is good, it’s not solely mine, I didn’t create it, change is good. So I shall await this update with baited breath. I shall hope that it does enhance the world for those that rp I really really hope that. I also hope that Anet might look and see the large population of Role-players and perhaps even start doing something for them?? maybe? Yeha perhaps I’m not adding much to this thread, except some hope, some hope that it’ll be alright.
I know people hate change, but change is a good thing.. most of the time.

A side note: I want to thank you all for having a mature and wonderful discussion (for the most part.). It’s nice to see a thread with a lack of name-calling or bashing.

I had an idea to just give RPers a check box they can use to help place them more easily with other Rpers. Staying on Tarnished Coast or Piken Square will help somewhat, but including this can help even more.

Feycat.4370:

Sylv.5324:

The one issue with guilding is that there are currently 9k registered roleplayers with one site, and plenty more who never go there. Since guilds only hold 500 members, the community will still be somewhat fragmented. Many of us are (me included) also not in roleplay guilds, and count on walk-ups for most of our RP.

Is there -any- way you guys could create a roleplayer tag? I’m not requesting a server, but someone flagged as ‘rp’ would be a) findable by other roleplayers and b) could be weighted toward being punted to the same instances as other roleplayers.

I just want to echo this.

Yes, can we please do something for a roleplay tag? :c
And there’s lots of RPers who use PvE or PvP guilds; some of us don’t like guilds altogether and won’t be in one (raises hand).

And the concern re: grouping aside when an area is full?
What happens in situations like this (aka: how most days would go) -

Kessex Hills isn’t very full, so the megaserver adjusts to include many other players. Now the map is full! RP event is going to go down, but now it’s full, and definitely not just with TC and those engaged in RP. Now people who want to go to the event are punted away because the “instance” is full, and thus anyone who wasn’t already on that map can’t access the planned RP event because it’s full of people from off-server who were grandfathered in to that instance just because they logged in at the right time.

I think the idea of adding a toggleable RP flag to each character is a wonderful solution to the issue. It can be added as a metric to the megaserver sorting percentages, boosting the chance of being on a map with other RPers, and it allows RPers to locate others, without having to be tied to a specific RP Guild. Adding a RP chat option would help with dealing with the people who seem to be alergic to RP, and go batty anytime it happens near them.

Having a way of flagging your character as being actively roleplaying would mean more spontanious RP sessions, because other players would know it was ‘safe’ to walk up to you and start talking in character. Sure, you’d get trolls, but those happen now, and Happiness is the Block Command.

I think the megaserver could be good for RP, because it’ll widen the range of people you’re going to come in contact with, meaning more chances for RP that you might not get if you’re always only bumping into the same RP from your world or your guild.

I don’t RP myself but you guys should do something to support them I mean they play the game as well and deserve to do so in peace if they wish.

Re-posting this here since I think it would address a lot of the concerns in the RP community. It actually sounds like something along these lines is already at least being considered for the future.

This is huge, especially for a non-subscription based MMO. I’m very impressed with all the work done for the upcoming feature patch.

I have one suggestion that might already be being considered down the road. The ‘weighting’ of chances to be on a given map by guild, home server, party group and language is really smart and a step in the right direction.

I would love to see this further weighted by other player preferences (possibly by a small questionnaire) that attempts to group like minded people together with similar playstyles. Such as:

• Role Play (like/dislike/don’t care)
• World Bosses (focus on major world bosses & events)
• Champion ‘Hunting’ (enjoys champ trains and other group farming)
• Casual Exploration (does not enjoy ‘skip-n-stack’ dungeon tactics for instance)
• Hardcore (enjoys speed run dungeons using any means necessary for instance)

These further weighting refinements would of course be at the bottom of the sorting list when choosing the map. It would just weight the chances of people with similar playstyles to have improved chances of being on the same map.

Having Tarnished Coast or Piken Square as a home world may not be enough, and the sorting system only looks as if it may help you find people you already know. Having the ‘RP Flag’ option can be one of the simplest ideas on top of it to help find new people.

Anet deleted my separate post, so hopefully they read these here lol.

Please bump if you support the idea or have any of your own.

It could be good for RP yes, and we will widen the range of people we will RP with (unless you are not a native to that RP server. If that’s the case, good luck). On the flip side, it greatly increases the chance that we will come in conflict with a belligerent troll who will toss all sorts of slurs at us – and my ignore list will grow at a staggering rate with people who can still perform all sorts of annoying things without having to touch the enter key.

ColinJohanson.2394:

To maximize your odds of running into other RP players more often, you’ll want to make sure you’re on the same world (generally TC and Piken are viewed as the RP worlds), and in guilds with other RP members also on that same world. For example, everyone from TC currently will be set to high priority to sort together, same thing goes with people who are all a part of the same guild (so guild up RP folks!)

We’ll continue to monitor, adapt and update the system as we go forward as well, for now I’d suggest seeing how it works once we enable the mega server system across all maps and then giving comments and feedback when you see it in action!

(edited to add Piken!)

My small guild and I are on Sea of Sorrows—we originally chose it because the name “sounded cool.” Overall, it is a nice community. Later, we learned that Tarnished Coast was the unofficial NA RP server. We would like to migrate toTarnished Coast but are reluctant to give up our hard-earned guild upgrades (again, fairly small guild).

Our concerns are further compounded by this response. In this new system, it appears my guild will have low priority for meeting other RP’ers. Can we still make a conscious choice to guest to TC for RPing purposes? Or are we screwed because we can’t move our guild holdings and the Megaserver will dictate our priorities?

I feel very uneasy about this. This is a “voting with my dollars” issue (i.e., will be closely watched for updates).

So RP’ers DON’T want to be grouped with their RP’ing friends and guildies on maps when population is being distributed? I’m ignorant of how this concept hurts anybody.

The current system people end up by themselves on maps either because of overflow or a combination of server population and map popularity. If anything this will allow RP’ers broader options. You have a better chance of being in the same instance as your friends or guild mates + surround by more players who could also potentially be RP’ers.

How is this worse than what is currently in play? I can understand wanting a feature to role play better. What I’m not getting is how this MegaESOserver is hurtful.

Nobody loses their server, it’s just an option better than the 2nd class citizen “overflow”.

It’s hurtful in the way that RPers don’t start the game knowing other Rpers. Also some guilds are themed like an all Charr Warband guild. They shouldnt be punished and end up on their own separate map when they want to interract with other RP guilds. The ‘flag’ option in some way acts as if all RPers are in the same guild, so you have the best chances to be placed with as many RPers as possible and if checked off, non RPers are less likely to be placed with RPers and more likely with those doing PvE content.

You’d be able to toggle the option as needed.

MrDmajor.7084:

So RP’ers DON’T want to be grouped with their RP’ing friends and guildies on maps when population is being distributed? I’m ignorant of how this concept hurts anybody.

The current system people end up by themselves on maps either because of overflow or a combination of server population and map popularity. If anything this will allow RP’ers broader options. You have a better chance of being in the same instance as your friends or guild mates + surround by more players who could also potentially be RP’ers.

How is this worse than what is currently in play? I can understand wanting a feature to role play better. What I’m not getting is how this MegaESOserver is hurtful.

Nobody loses their server, it’s just an option better than the 2nd class citizen “overflow”.

Yes, you are “ignorant” of the concerns. RP’ers throughout this thread have stated that dynamic encounters are at the core of some of their best experiences. Not all RP’ers are headquartered in one of the RP servers nor or all of them in a guild. As per my previous post, some guilds find it impractical to move to an RP server.

edited: grammar

MrDmajor.7084:

So RP’ers DON’T want to be grouped with their RP’ing friends and guildies on maps when population is being distributed? I’m ignorant of how this concept hurts anybody.

The current system people end up by themselves on maps either because of overflow or a combination of server population and map popularity. If anything this will allow RP’ers broader options. You have a better chance of being in the same instance as your friends or guild mates + surround by more players who could also potentially be RP’ers.

How is this worse than what is currently in play? I can understand wanting a feature to role play better. What I’m not getting is how this MegaESOserver is hurtful.

Nobody loses their server, it’s just an option better than the 2nd class citizen “overflow”.

Let me be clear. This does NOT create a ‘better chance’ than what we currently have. Tarnished Coast, as one of the unofficial RP servers, ALWAYS had us grouped with fellow RPers. So long as we were on the same server, every player around us was potentially an RPer. And more specifically, most of the players hanging around in capitol cities (not LA, where most normal players gathered) were all RPers. This new system isn’t adding more chance to us, because we’re the main RP server of this region. What it’s doing is actually splitting us up, and potentially filling our server with non-RPers while at the same time sending some of us to other servers due to overflow.

They talk about servers being weighted so that fellow Tarnished Coast players would be theoretically put together, but what does that really mean? It’s not a guarantee. The guarantee is the current implementation. When I log on, I’m guaranteed to be on the Black Citadel in Tarnished Coast. With this new system, I’d be very likely to log on to the Black Citadel with Tarnished Coast people, but the possibility exists that I won’t. And the more I do other activities, like dungeon running and world bosses, the more the system will try to push me towards servers doing that instead of specifically focusing on Tarnished Coast. Because again, there is nothing in that system to represent RP as one of the weighted options. That’s what we’re asking for.

ExAstris.8527:

MrDmajor.7084:

So RP’ers DON’T want to be grouped with their RP’ing friends and guildies on maps when population is being distributed? I’m ignorant of how this concept hurts anybody.

The current system people end up by themselves on maps either because of overflow or a combination of server population and map popularity. If anything this will allow RP’ers broader options. You have a better chance of being in the same instance as your friends or guild mates + surround by more players who could also potentially be RP’ers.

How is this worse than what is currently in play? I can understand wanting a feature to role play better. What I’m not getting is how this MegaESOserver is hurtful.

Nobody loses their server, it’s just an option better than the 2nd class citizen “overflow”.

Yes, you are “ignorant” of the concerns. RP’ers throughout this thread have stated that dynamic encounters are at the core of some of their best experiences. Not all RP’ers are headquartered in one of the RP servers nor or all of them in a guild. As per the post right above you, some guilds find it impractical to move to an RP server.

How would “dynamic encounters” be hurt by placing players around more players in low population situations?

How are “dynamic encounters” being handled currently that is BETTER than what has been proposed?

All this is, is a correction to the flawed overflow system. How is this a slight to the RP community? All it does is normalize map populations across all the servers. What does that have to do with server transfers?

Read the topic instead of making us answer the same things (and then ignoring the answers).

I’m going to add my consensus to the idea that RPers be given an optional check button that will allow them to be grouped with others who are like minded. In fact, I think a check system would be ideal overall, not just for RPing, because sometimes you might just want to get away from the crowd the mega server has assigned you too. So you can check for PVE, PVP, Dungeons, etc, and hopefully find a shard that will suit your needs.
Personally my greatest worry is that as someone who wishes to get into the RP community, but who can only guest on TC and whose spent months as a PVE’er, the sharding will automatically label me into a PVE specific shard. I, for one, don’t want this. It’s hard enough to break in to some RP groups already, and if I’m shafted into a shard without a good amount of RPers then honestly what’s the point? I also don’t wish to join a guild simply to circumvent this issue and think it’s a poor man’s solution to the overlying problem.
I sincerely hope A-NET takes all their players into account with this new system, because as I’m reading it now it honestly sounds like it’s going to cause far more problems than it will solve.

I think most of Piken Square will end up staying together and a couple of developers have already acknowledged the existence of Piken Square & Tarnished Coast in the topics here, so I have faith that they will keep this in mind, and so should you too!

VoiceOfUnreason.5976:

MrDmajor.7084:

So RP’ers DON’T want to be grouped with their RP’ing friends and guildies on maps when population is being distributed? I’m ignorant of how this concept hurts anybody.

The current system people end up by themselves on maps either because of overflow or a combination of server population and map popularity. If anything this will allow RP’ers broader options. You have a better chance of being in the same instance as your friends or guild mates + surround by more players who could also potentially be RP’ers.

How is this worse than what is currently in play? I can understand wanting a feature to role play better. What I’m not getting is how this MegaESOserver is hurtful.

Nobody loses their server, it’s just an option better than the 2nd class citizen “overflow”.

Let me be clear. This does NOT create a ‘better chance’ than what we currently have. Tarnished Coast, as one of the unofficial RP servers, ALWAYS had us grouped with fellow RPers. So long as we were on the same server, every player around us was potentially an RPer. And more specifically, most of the players hanging around in capitol cities (not LA, where most normal players gathered) were all RPers. This new system isn’t adding more chance to us, because we’re the main RP server of this region. What it’s doing is actually splitting us up, and potentially filling our server with non-RPers while at the same time sending some of us to other servers due to overflow.

They talk about servers being weighted so that fellow Tarnished Coast players would be theoretically put together, but what does that really mean? It’s not a guarantee. The guarantee is the current implementation. When I log on, I’m guaranteed to be on the Black Citadel in Tarnished Coast. With this new system, I’d be very likely to log on to the Black Citadel with Tarnished Coast people, but the possibility exists that I won’t. And the more I do other activities, like dungeon running and world bosses, the more the system will try to push me towards servers doing that instead of specifically focusing on Tarnished Coast. Because again, there is nothing in that system to represent RP as one of the weighted options. That’s what we’re asking for.

As it stands currently if you’re on a low population map there are no immediate solutions. If you’re on a high population map and get dumped into an kitten end overflow you have no other options but being alone.

All this solution provides (as I’ve read) is a fix to being alone due to overflow or low populations. The fact that they’re even weighting the system to take peoples server, guild, and friends list into consideration is a feature.

So again I don’t see why this is something to be “worried” about by RP’ers. What are your current options in low population maps and bad overflows? I’ll wait.

To be clear, if you are on TC and log into the Black Citadel and the map isn’t at capacity the only change would be an increased likelihood of players from other servers adding to the map.

If you are on TC and log into the Black Citadel and the map is at capacity you will be put into a sort of overflow just like before, but with a higher probability that you will be there with other people from TC, your guild, or party members. As it is right now you would just be thrown into a twilight zone overflow with randoms from anywhere.

So the big change would be more integration with non RPers on RP servers, but more RPers grouped into the same ‘overflow’.

I still think additional preferences or toggles to further weight map populations would improve this new system, but it’s still better than what’s in place now.

A big issue is that there is no weight given to non-TC folks who guest over for roleplay, especially walkups.

If just the Major Cities were kept server specific and not part of the Megaserver system, would that help the RP community (and server communities in general to maintain a sense of self)?

I am not an RPer, but when guesting on Piken, the majority of RP that I have witnessed has been in the cities. Cities are generally fairly heavily occupied anyway so perhaps that could be a compromise to suit all parties; giving server communities their own “home”, whilst ensuring that the main questing and events areas gain some much needed population from the Megaserver system.

MrDmajor.7084:

How would “dynamic encounters” be hurt by placing players around more players in low population situations?

How are “dynamic encounters” being handled currently that is BETTER than what has been proposed?

All this is, is a correction to the flawed overflow system. How is this a slight to the RP community? All it does is normalize map populations across all the servers. What does that have to do with server transfers?

The mega server prioritizes grouping according to certain criteria: home world, guild, etc. Some RP’ers are not on RP servers. Those RP’ers could transfer to an RP server, but they would lose all of their guild holdings in the process. Thus, it appears that RP’ers that are not on an RP server are “danged if they do, and danged if they don’t.” Either I transfer so I have a better chance of being grouped with a like-minded community—but my guild’s holdings are lost—or we stay where we are and be marked as “non-RP” by the system.

You’re absolutely right: the new system does alleviate empty maps by spreading population. What you don’t seem to understand is that RP’ers are concerned that they will be dispersed by weighting factors that don’t account for their actual preferences as to who they want to be paired with.

Sylv.5324:

A big issue is that there is no weight given to non-TC folks who guest over for roleplay, especially walkups.

Totally. It seems like we’re getting a pretty good consensus about wanting some additional weighting parameters in the future. I already posted some ideas for these playstyle weights, but an RP preference is right at the top.

Still a really good first step towards in-game community building in my opinion.

As an RPer, the megaserver idea has both positives and negatives, and there is some anxiety about these changes and what they will mean to roleplay. This even more so with the official responses in this thread lead myself and others to believe that at worst RP was not a consideration, and at best Anet have little understanding of the RP community. Neither sides of that scale are encouraging.

RP is not just about being in an RP guild. Spontaneous RP is enriching, fun and widens your RP circle. Inter-guild events and initiatives enrich RP further, with different concepts coming together in order to achieve a goal. Guilds are not just about “we are a guild that RPs”. Charr warbands, Seraph units, Pirate crews, and many more. Guilds are often about a defined RP concept as much as a collection of RPers. Just as people find guilds to suit them, whether dungeon running, WvW, etc, with RP it becomes a question of finding the type of roleplay you want. With this being a creative enterprise, that list is endless. Anet seem to not understand those values, and with a lack of understanding, are then prone to make decisions that can (unintentionally) disrupt and damage an already fragile community.

And in some ways, this little predicament is unsurprising. Aside from a few oblique references from some officials, we are very much an underground community, with no official standing in the game. In that, officially we have no presence and thus do not exist. One thing all RPers want is some wider recognition. Not that we are superior or better than other interests, but we are as valid and recognised an ingame pursuit as others.

While it is true we don’t have all the facts yet, the ones we do generate some alarm, and it is not unreasonable to voice such concern, and see how Anet responds. My home world, Piken Square, has a rich RP scene, and more than that, has a real community sense. I particularly love the Queensdale Champ Train, not so much for the boring grind, but I know the people, can have a few laughs and banter with people. I’m worried I won’t be as interested if we are all split up. I’m not in their guilds, nor are they on friendlists. Why must those criteria be met in order to try and guarantee play with them? A community goes beyond those. I’m also afraid that Piken’s unofficial mascot, Larry (our pet name for the Champion Cave Troll) will go. We welcome new people with open arms, but to split can take away that real community spirit, where we are potentially no longer Pikeners, or Pikes, or w/e, but now potentially a faceless group of players playing with a seperate faceless group of players in the eyes of this new system. That isn’t encouraging.

I’m not against the idea, as an idea, but with so many things, with what information we do have, I have serious concerns about the execution of it. It comes to two things for me. 1) What understanding of RP does Anet really have, and what commitment if any do they have to preserve the RP communities that have been created, and 2) Are Anet understanding and sympathetic towards the world communities that have developed? With those ideas in mind, what guarantees beyond “guilding up” and filling the friends list to the brim are there that our communities will remain and be allowed to continue to grow and develop as they have been?

So basically this new system is something to be “worried” about because there isn’t a niche weighting system, and using the available tools to weight the system in your favors is not acceptable. OK. Cool.

“We want a special RP Megaserver”.

Good luck with that guys. I feel your pain. I want an 80’s Martial Arts Movie Fan Megaserver after you guys get yours.

Maybe this will help clarify what this new system will mean.

Example:
Currently~50 players from TC in the map. After map population is capped others go into random overflows.
New System~50 players from TC in the map, as well as 4 players from other servers. After map population is capped (preference given to TC players zoning in) others go into another map. This new map will group players from TC as first priority.

As you can see the real change is the 4 additional players from other servers when the map is not full, and that ‘overflows’ will have a greater chance of being mainly consisting of players from the same server.

It’s a valid point that for those on non-RP servers wanting to guest over for RP are not given priority. Like almost everyone is suggesting, an additional set of preferences or even a simple ‘RP flag’ toggle would fix that right up. It might also make it less of a necessity to guest over to an RP server at all, since those filling maps from other servers would be grouped with populations that have a high amount of these ‘RP flags’ enabled.

MrDmajor.7084:

So basically this new system is something to be “worried” about because there isn’t a niche weighting system, and using the available tools to weight the system in your favors is not acceptable. OK. Cool.

“We want a special RP Megaserver”.

Good luck with that guys. I feel your pain. I want an 80’s Martial Arts Movie Fan Megaserver after you guys get yours.

The mega server is meant to group like-minded people.

This thread is about a community that is worried the mega server may actually fracture their community.

Some way to flag your preference (besides server, guild, friend’s list) is not the same as “a special RP Megaserver.” Maybe they’ll add custom flags and you can play with other Karate Kid fans.

MrDmajor.7084:

So basically this new system is something to be “worried” about because there isn’t a niche weighting system, and using the available tools to weight the system in your favors is not acceptable. OK. Cool.

“We want a special RP Megaserver”.

Good luck with that guys. I feel your pain. I want an 80’s Martial Arts Movie Fan Megaserver after you guys get yours.

I think we are worried because an established community feels potentially threatened. We don’t want a special megaserver just for us. What we want is for our playstyle and community to be preserved in the implementation of this system. While our concerns are potentially (and hopefully) unfounded, if we have them, we should give them to try to ensure things will be hunky dory.

kuscheldrow.6415:

All together with a different chatcolor than plain white it would be perfect, yes. , But obviousely never going to happen as anet ignores RPers strictly…

Just like any game developer ignores the “minority” in the game. Honestly, a lot of the changes made to games, not just gw2 specifically, are NEVER intended with roleplayers in mind. If you cant adapt, you get left behind. That’s all there is to it. There’s always going to be groups of players that are going to remain an afterthought.

Aidan Savage.2078:

kuscheldrow.6415:

All together with a different chatcolor than plain white it would be perfect, yes. , But obviousely never going to happen as anet ignores RPers strictly…

Just like any game developer ignores the “minority” in the game. Honestly, a lot of the changes made to games, not just gw2 specifically, are NEVER intended with roleplayers in mind. If you cant adapt, you get left behind. That’s all there is to it. There’s always going to be groups of players that are going to remain an afterthought.

I’m sure they’d love to leave roughly 10k+ players behind, especially ones who like to buy things.

Tarnished and Piken, you are not alone! There’s a German inofficial RP server called Drakkar-Lake too! And the comunity is huge too, as worth to mention as all the others…

While I agree to something written somewhere above. Keeping the major cities tied to the original server they belong to. This would not only help RPers, but would keep the specific server comunities together somehow. If the Mega Server System had been running from the start, comunity development would have taken another way.

Forcing another direction of comunity development by adding such a system later on leaves a sour taste imo. It somhow feels like being labor-rats for a very late beta test… A lot of poeple loved GW2 for what it was. Changing the whole game while it is already running feels like… well… “Nothing is for sure, if the devs decide that they don’t like this or that anymore… be prepared, it’ll be gone or changed for good…” I don’t think that this is a way to keep players.

Oh yes and again, roleplaying should be as much respected and being seen as activity than running dungeons, doing champtrains, casual exploration, AP hunting, PvP and whatever else, and thus should as much be respected in the algorythm of the mega server system. The easiest way to not consider 24/7 chatters as RPers would be a tag option. It would really feel good to see Anet doing something about it. Otherwise my motivation falls continousely.

Aidan Savage.2078:

kuscheldrow.6415:

All together with a different chatcolor than plain white it would be perfect, yes. , But obviousely never going to happen as anet ignores RPers strictly…

Just like any game developer ignores the “minority” in the game. Honestly, a lot of the changes made to games, not just gw2 specifically, are NEVER intended with roleplayers in mind. If you cant adapt, you get left behind. That’s all there is to it. There’s always going to be groups of players that are going to remain an afterthought.

Yeah, if a very small group of people are going to be affected by a change that is better for the vast majority, then so be it.

Spock

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

I haven’t joined an RP community, but I chose TC as my home because I love casual, spontaneous RP and being around dedicated roleplayers. I chose TC not only to be with RPers, but to “get away from” non-RPers, for lack of a better phrase. As people have pointed out, it’s not just about finding new people, its about finding a private space to build the fantasy and immersion.

The concern is there because in the blog post, and in the dev reply, it doesn’t sound like anet has taken into consideration that people might not want to be lumped into a highly populated map. In a way, it sounds like we are getting less control over what map we are sorted into – the algorithm will decide for us. I definitely think this is a plus for leveling/map completion and world bosses, but I do wish there was a way to directly control which instance of the map you entered, rather then having an algorithm trying to blunt some of the annoying randomness of overflows.

eisberg.2379:

Aidan Savage.2078:

kuscheldrow.6415:

All together with a different chatcolor than plain white it would be perfect, yes. , But obviousely never going to happen as anet ignores RPers strictly…

Just like any game developer ignores the “minority” in the game. Honestly, a lot of the changes made to games, not just gw2 specifically, are NEVER intended with roleplayers in mind. If you cant adapt, you get left behind. That’s all there is to it. There’s always going to be groups of players that are going to remain an afterthought.

Yeah, if a very small group of people are going to be affected by a change that is better for the vast majority, then so be it.

Spock

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few

That’s pretty much it. Especially when people are flipping kitten over something that isnt even in the game yet. People need to wait until the 15th to flip out after they log into the game.

Aidan Savage.2078:

That’s pretty much it. Especially when people are flipping kitten over something that isnt even in the game yet. People need to wait until the 15th to flip out after they log into the game.

We’re asking for an RP flag, pretty much. That’s not flipping kittens. We’ve also asked for walk toggles and chat bubbles in the past, and we got that, and that benefitted the rest of the players too.

Aidan Savage.2078:

kuscheldrow.6415:

All together with a different chatcolor than plain white it would be perfect, yes. , But obviousely never going to happen as anet ignores RPers strictly…

Just like any game developer ignores the “minority” in the game. Honestly, a lot of the changes made to games, not just gw2 specifically, are NEVER intended with roleplayers in mind. If you cant adapt, you get left behind. That’s all there is to it. There’s always going to be groups of players that are going to remain an afterthought.

There was a game called star wars galaxies that thought much the same. Some people played a class called the creature handler and had much fun collecting different pets from around the game. They showed them off, made videos of them and so on.

One day their entire class was removed from the game, with no compensation.

Some time later, enough players were “left behind” in the same way that there were no players left and the game collapsed. A company cannot afford to make such changes and expect that the community will simply accept them.

This is a significant change and is coming at a time when roleplayers are being offered other homes in games with housing and dedicated servers. Significantly, roleplayers are usually the last to leave a game as they are the most loyal….so losing them now is a very bad move.

Another PS roleplayer here. Just want to say that I would love to see a box you could check for this. Maybe if you are inclined to go pve’ing you could check the box for pve/lfg or whatever which would increase your chances of ending up on a server like that. I lean heavily in support to a checkbox for roleplayers. If so, I would be in full support of the megaservers. Just one more variable into the big machine.