Guild Wars 2

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

A chat channel is no substitute for a physical home server location you can reliably log into by choice. Cities have no good reason to be Megaservers except to give an illusion of population.

Regarding just Cities, in my opinion there is absolutely no “pro” argument remotely strong enough to justify the considerable damage done to all server communities, RP included.

But there’s absolutely no reason not to have a city off the mega server AND an RP channel. None that I can see anyway.

Nage.1520:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

A chat channel is no substitute for a physical home server location you can reliably log into by choice. Cities have no good reason to be Megaservers except to give an illusion of population.

Regarding just Cities, in my opinion there is absolutely no “pro” argument remotely strong enough to justify the considerable damage done to all server communities, RP included.

But there’s absolutely no reason not to have a city off the mega server AND an RP channel. None that I can see anyway.

Not too sure about the chat channel, in my experience, they usually end up as cliquey trollbait. The server “cool kids” and egomaniacs flaunt themselves there unless they’re heavily regulated. What starts off as a useful tool turns into <social media site> 2.0, trolling, calling people out etc. Especially if someone from an rival WvW player server decides to guest to watch.

It’s funny, until recently I had forgot that TC and PS were Unofficial RP Servers, seeing as I’ve been in TC since Beta and have always been able to find RPers there with no problem; ever. Now I’m running around the maps and seeing the chat spammed over by non rpers complaining about the rp crowd or people just ignoring rpers and running off if you try to talk or rp near them … it just doesn’t feel like the same place.

People are right, they need to add an RP tag to our characters (or accounts) and use that to start sorting us into the same megaservers – shouldn’t be so hard and it’s something they really shoulda had in the game from day one, anyway. Seriously, the rp community is a big part of what keeps me in this game and if it just vanishes? Well …

Well… what they are doing at the example of Divinity’s Reach doesn’t seem too bad, after all, if they manage to bring the system to every map out there soon.

I logged in today (Riverside) and what I saw in our little prestigue terrace were all the people from riverside that usually hang around there. Well, that’s fine.
Then I felt that it was time to RP. So I did change my character and did guest on Drakkar-Lake, the unofficial German RP-Server. As soon as I logged in I was greeted by a couple of emotes. Great!
I created a group with one of my fellow RPers later on, and then got disconnected due to a heavy storm out here. When I logged in again, off course did I forget to guest, but guess what? I was placed on the same map where I was kicked from by dc, and where the member of my group still stood.

This seems very encouraging. In fact, it takes a huge weight off my heart. I’m still with all of you who want cities to be excluded from the Megaserver for comunity’s sake, but I can’t deny that the changes really look promising.

Can’t wait to see this happening in other cities and maps as well!

kuscheldrow.6415:

Well… what they are doing at the example of Divinity’s Reach doesn’t seem too bad, after all, if they manage to bring the system to every map out there soon.

I logged in today (Riverside) and what I saw in our little prestigue terrace were all the people from riverside that usually hang around there. Well, that’s fine.
Then I felt that it was time to RP. So I did change my character and did guest on Drakkar-Lake, the unofficial German RP-Server. As soon as I logged in I was greeted by a couple of emotes. Great!
I created a group with one of my fellow RPers later on, and then got disconnected due to a heavy storm out here. When I logged in again, off course did I forget to guest, but guess what? I was placed on the same map where I was kicked from by dc, and where the member of my group still stood.

This seems very encouraging. In fact, it takes a huge weight off my heart. I’m still with all of you who want cities to be excluded from the Megaserver for comunity’s sake, but I can’t deny that the changes really look promising.

Can’t wait to see this happening in other cities and maps as well!

While this might seem like a glimmer of hope, but let’s remind ourselves:

1. What helps you is not the megaserver system per se but said system behaving as if we still had fixed home servers, i.e. this system did not exist at all.
(Statement for the record: I think the megaserver system – as it is supposed to work, rather than how it works (not) – is a splendid addition for everything that is not RP.)

2. Even when the sorting mechanics with guild and friends list etc. eventually work, this will still not fix the problem which was initially discussed in this thread, which is the one of random RP with strangers being made much less likely.

edit ps.: Please add an identification to the map of the shard like it was done with Overflows so at least we know which shard we want to go to to meet our friends rather than randomly running around until we realise its wrong.

An RP tag won’t work. I’m assuming it works like this: if you put up the tag, you’re sent to the same megaserver instance as others with the tag.

It won’t work because everyone will use the tag to get into the same instance with friends/party members/guildies. If I want to be in the same instance as my party, we pop the tag. If I want to be in the same instance as my friend, we pop the tag, if I’m doing a guild mission, we pop the tag. Everyone will use it.

And everyone popping the tag is equivalent to no one popping it.

Lord Kuru.3685:

An RP tag won’t work. I’m assuming it works like this: if you put up the tag, you’re sent to the same megaserver instance as others with the tag.

It won’t work because everyone will use the tag to get into the same instance with friends/party members/guildies. If I want to be in the same instance as my party, we pop the tag. If I want to be in the same instance as my friend, we pop the tag, if I’m doing a guild mission, we pop the tag. Everyone will use it.

And everyone popping the tag is equivalent to no one popping it.

That’s why the suggested multiple play-style tags will be useful. There doesn’t need to only be an RP tag. You can add multiple tags for PvE, PvP, WvW, Dungeons, etc to help put you with other players with the same interests.

Spent nearly 2 hours hopping in and out of TC last night (10pm-12pmBST). Found NO roleplayers. Logged out.

You just remove people right to choose,i dont know if your “megaserver” is actually some government evil experiment on how to control human race.Now there is some Anet computer which choose who and what is best for you to hangout in gw2.In next update separate rich from poor,i dont want to play with ppl that dont have legendary…Woudnt be easier to make separate server for low lvls where all can guest,or recommend one with lowest population as best choice for low lvls and give them on that server some special buff…Instead u make this stupid megaserver,whole idea on separating ppl by numbers or habits is beyond stupid.

pixiedancer.1526:

Nage.1520:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

A chat channel is no substitute for a physical home server location you can reliably log into by choice. Cities have no good reason to be Megaservers except to give an illusion of population.

Regarding just Cities, in my opinion there is absolutely no “pro” argument remotely strong enough to justify the considerable damage done to all server communities, RP included.

But there’s absolutely no reason not to have a city off the mega server AND an RP channel. None that I can see anyway.

Not too sure about the chat channel, in my experience, they usually end up as cliquey trollbait. The server “cool kids” and egomaniacs flaunt themselves there unless they’re heavily regulated. What starts off as a useful tool turns into <social media site> 2.0, trolling, calling people out etc. Especially if someone from an rival WvW player server decides to guest to watch.

But with the megaserver, the servers are too busy to allow RP in map chat. There are too many other things going on in map chat. A channel just for RP would take the RP out of map chat and allow people to not have their RP interupted. Anyone who would troll you there, could guest to the old server and troll you in map chat anyway.

I hope the RP community picks and unofficial RP server for Archeage NA/EU release. TC is just gone. I’m looking for something else to play.

Nage.1520:

pixiedancer.1526:

Nage.1520:

Teofa Tsavo.9863:

A chat channel is no substitute for a physical home server location you can reliably log into by choice. Cities have no good reason to be Megaservers except to give an illusion of population.

Regarding just Cities, in my opinion there is absolutely no “pro” argument remotely strong enough to justify the considerable damage done to all server communities, RP included.

But there’s absolutely no reason not to have a city off the mega server AND an RP channel. None that I can see anyway.

Not too sure about the chat channel, in my experience, they usually end up as cliquey trollbait. The server “cool kids” and egomaniacs flaunt themselves there unless they’re heavily regulated. What starts off as a useful tool turns into <social media site> 2.0, trolling, calling people out etc. Especially if someone from an rival WvW player server decides to guest to watch.

But with the megaserver, the servers are too busy to allow RP in map chat. There are too many other things going on in map chat. A channel just for RP would take the RP out of map chat and allow people to not have their RP interupted. Anyone who would troll you there, could guest to the old server and troll you in map chat anyway.

The thing is, people don’t usually RP in map chat. People RP in say chat. Map chat tends to either get turned off entirely, or used for general out of character chatting. That being said, however, Rpers get trolled in all chats. say chat, map chat, and there were to be an RP chat Rpers would get trolled there too. In fact, even moreso, since it would be so easy to turn on and disrupt. It would be useless for its intended purpose, and would end up getting avoided due to it being a giant magnet for trolls.

The best solution is to let people manually select the variables the megaserver uses and just add an RP option to that list. Keep guilds and party members as top priority, and have a “home server” option on the list as well that can be selected so that it will allow for guesting. That fixes each of the problems that have cropped up from their implementation of the megaserver. RPers et to stay together. Guildmates get to stay together. Large PvE guilds get to stay together. Problems solved, call it a day.

Every time I log in to a map I now use map chat to ask if there are any Piken Square Roleplayers, or roleplayers in general in that instance. If I get no reply I then go to my guilds and friends and ask if any of them have found an instance with RP in it. If they have, then we use the join feature to get there :/ If not, we jump around until someone spots roleplay, or we see one of the seemingly ‘anchor’ groups, such as The Busted Flagon, and then all pile in to that instance.

Sometimes guild members are turning up in the same instance, other times they’re not. We’re having to ferry each other around. As a random RPer myself, who’s had to make a guild specifically for finding other roleplayers, I find this a sad state of affairs to be in. – Although it is good to kinda have an unofficial chat channel for almost 100 roleplayers, we could really do with a dedicated one in game that’s available for everyone to use, not just guild members.

Now to wait for new announcements, since the news release for the Megaserver being rolled out on all open-world PvE maps is complete.

I used to guest to TC to RP, but that’s out. :/

Wasbunny.6531:

Thanks pixiedancer, unfortunately that’s kind of what I expected. I heard someone say that only Divinity’s Reach in NA is testing the new algorithm to try to give the home server more priority.

I still see every other city a chaotic mess of trolling / skill spamming that I very rarely saw on TC before. DR seems to be the exception right now as I don’t see any difference.

So I’m hoping ArenaNet has found the sweet spot with the weighting/prioritizing of home servers with DR (NA) and after some verification and more testing implement it for the rest.

Its not a matter of importance but end it, as it seems not be a good solution, i dont want to call players when starting a golem rush and other servers know it!, i guess no wvw player would like this to happen, im pondering to create my own guild someday and i dont want to be recruiting in pve map and ask everytime wich server is the player from even if i anounce Guild X from server Y is recruiting it would not work.

*There are several aspects of the game that contradicts the use of this mechanic, and change to game arround the megaserver to make it work is even worse. *

Wasbunny.6531:

Thank you for the update kuscheldrow, I think this is very encouraging.

I really do think it’s important for anyone that had formed an impression of the megaserver prior to Divinity’s Reach being taken into the fold to spend some time in DR and objectively report your impressions. I know it’s really hard to qualify what (if anything) has changed but try to note guilds you recognize and the general nature of the chat & emotes.

If we are going to be constructive and help ArenaNet to dial in the right algorithms to protect our communities in the new megaserver system we need to be objective and reevaluate as changes are made.

I’m on TC and was on for most of the day & evening yesterday and DR seemed the same as it always was. If anyone is having a radically different experience than what they are used to in Divinity’s Reach please post your impressions and server name.

We’re all in this together in order to stay together.

If you want folks to stay together, you might want to try it yourself.

Not all RPers want to sit in DR all day.

Some of us want to be in The Grove/BC/RS/Ebonhawk where it’s appropriate for our characters to hang out.

Some of us want to be RPing our adventures out in the world.

Saying “I spent all day every day in DR and it was fine” only works for a portion of RPers, and leaves a lot of the rest of us in the dust. And doesn’t conform to the experiences of even every people who DOES want to sit in DR all day. Please recognize that.

I’m part of the RP tea house in Queensdale, currently Miryssa’s Tea House, formerly the Aroma Tea House. We’re a guild that ICly operates a tea house Thursday and Sunday nights, and we’ve been at it for better than a year. This megaserver business has deeply impacted us.

Where as before we were on TC, a strong roleplaying community, we had access to a large pool of roleplayers. Sure, we always had our regular customers, but a majority of the people we saw were new every week. We encountered very few trolls while we were ‘home servered’ in TC. The few trolls we did encounter usually got bored of being the only one in the crowd and would leave without conflict. Through my ~18 months of playing this game, I’ve had to block maybe a dozen people total.

Last night was my first night working with the new megaserver. Straight away (Well, not straight away, I had to join over), I had to block four people who were spamming in /say, making sarcastic remarks about us, or just saying disgusting things in general. I guess they weren’t happy without getting a reaction and started emoting as if attempting to roleplay, but in a sarcastic way. (Such as tipping one of our servers 100 billion gold coins.) Which raises a few questions for me:

1:) Why isn’t there a course of action for RPers to ‘report’ trolls. They don’t send any feedback or whatever to ANet, but it decreases (Or increases. Or changes. However you need to look at it.) the trolls weighting in this whole megaserver debacle and after so many reports from various guilds those trolls can no longer get into the same shard as proper RPers.

2:) Did you even consider the implications this would have for Roleplayers? I’m going to assume no. When it’s just one troll in a room full of RPers, we can ignore them, and they’ll leave. There’s only so much disruption one person can cause. But four people can wreak havoc on a scene. When it’s just one troll, societal pressure gives way and they either feel embarrassed or bored and leave. But when multiple people are trolling, this seems like an ‘okay’ thing to do and they keep doing, they even egg each other on. No other group has to suffer this indignity. I have half a mind to collect a bunch of roleplayers and all of us join WvW and just RP. It’s the same concept. We go to a place and disrupt the flow. “Oh, sorry, you want us to WvW? Why? Oh, because this is a place for WvW? Well, I just don’t see it. Looks like a bunch of forts to me.” And maybe maybe if we kitten with WvW and PvP and PvE ANet will take notice and give us what we want. Our own niche in the community, an equal share that every other group has.

3:) My customer base. What happened to our customer base? Discounting trolls, last night was rather slow. Some of our regulars who are there literally every night were unable to find us. Some of our own members had to guest over because they weren’t put with us. How am I supposed to run a business with this kind of shenanigans?

4:) Not megaserver related, but I want town clothes back.

Feycat.4370:

Wasbunny.6531:

Thank you for the update kuscheldrow, I think this is very encouraging.

I really do think it’s important for anyone that had formed an impression of the megaserver prior to Divinity’s Reach being taken into the fold to spend some time in DR and objectively report your impressions. I know it’s really hard to qualify what (if anything) has changed but try to note guilds you recognize and the general nature of the chat & emotes.

If we are going to be constructive and help ArenaNet to dial in the right algorithms to protect our communities in the new megaserver system we need to be objective and reevaluate as changes are made.

I’m on TC and was on for most of the day & evening yesterday and DR seemed the same as it always was. If anyone is having a radically different experience than what they are used to in Divinity’s Reach please post your impressions and server name.

We’re all in this together in order to stay together.

If you want folks to stay together, you might want to try it yourself.

Not all RPers want to sit in DR all day.

Some of us want to be in The Grove/BC/RS/Ebonhawk where it’s appropriate for our characters to hang out.

Some of us want to be RPing our adventures out in the world.

Saying “I spent all day every day in DR and it was fine” only works for a portion of RPers, and leaves a lot of the rest of us in the dust. And doesn’t conform to the experiences of even every people who DOES want to sit in DR all day. Please recognize that.

I feel you. I actually don’t really like how DR became the central RP HUB of the game, I wish I could meet as much people in other cities. Filthy humans.

I try to be as clear as possible but it looks like I’m still being misquoted and not understood.

In my previous posts I was pointing out that there was speculation that DR (at least in North America) was testing a different algorithm than anywhere else. Since I was seeing so much havok in the Grove (where I usually call my home base) I checked out DR for a day and things seemed normal for TC. I don’t feel like retyping my previous posts so feel free to read back a few if you want details.

The assumption is that if this ‘new algorithm’ is working in DR to keep that server community together it would be implemented to the other cities and possibly every map on the megaserver.

Don’t really know how this is getting turned into me demanding DR be the only RP hub in the game, but hopefully this clears things up a bit.

After spending a few hours in the Flagon with all the other staff only to THEN be informed that all the patrons were in another shard…

I would like to renew my demand of everything that was named in this post.

The RP tag will only work if the megaserver does not, by any circumstance, mix servers with different languages. I’ve heard people being mixed up with german and french roleplayers, which, breaks the immersion for all three.

It’s really weird and awkward to go into a bar and half of the crowd speak a completely different language, with their own stories. Someone from the german server might even run that bar whilst someone on Piken Square does the same.

Personally, seeing as Anet said that megaserver was not a feature they went for to save money and resources, and even admitted that running a server is cheap, then my wish (as it will likely never happen) would be that they opened up 1 new server tagged as “Roleplay” for both EU and NA that isn’t affected by the megaserver, where a set of roleplay policies are used and anyone harassing or disrupting RP can get reported.

Either that or turn Piken Square and Tarnished Coast into it. I prefer the former idea, as it would be better to create new servers seeing as some people call those servers home as much as us RPers, and shouldn’t suffer getting the megaserver cut off from them due to our sake.

Only problem I see is that it might attract other people who want to use it to get away from the megaserver aswell, like guild missions, world bosses and such. Those issues needs to be addressed first.

Anyway that’s a wishful idea I believe would solve the RP problem completely.

Tyragon.2496:

The RP tag will only work if the megaserver does not, by any circumstance, mix servers with different languages. I’ve heard people being mixed up with german and french roleplayers, which, breaks the immersion for all three.

It’s really weird and awkward to go into a bar and half of the crowd speak a completely different language, with their own stories. Someone from the german server might even run that bar whilst someone on Piken Square does the same.

Personally, seeing as Anet said that megaserver was not a feature they went for to save money and resources, and even admitted that running a server is cheap, then my wish (as it will likely never happen) would be that they opened up 1 new server tagged as “Roleplay” for both EU and NA that isn’t affected by the megaserver, where a set of roleplay policies are used and anyone harassing or disrupting RP can get reported.

Either that or turn Piken Square and Tarnished Coast into it. I prefer the former idea, as it would be better to create new servers seeing as some people call those servers home as much as us RPers, and shouldn’t suffer getting the megaserver cut off from them due to our sake.

Only problem I see is that it might attract other people who want to use it to get away from the megaserver aswell, like guild missions, world bosses and such. Those issues needs to be addressed first.

Anyway that’s a wishful idea I believe would solve the RP problem completely.

One server per region would lead to the same problem, with mixed up languages and stuff. Plus, Anet would never grant us a RP Server with special rules. We don’t necessarily need one anyway. If the system that is currently running in DR would be expanded to the whole world (instead of posting the usual ‘Yeah baby we did it!’ postings like Anet does) a lot of problems would be solved.

What we do need indeed, is a way to report people if they willingly disturb or harrass RPers. Okay, currently we can report them for harrassment, but we can’t for trolling, which in fact ISN’T a playstyle, unlike most trolls claim it was. We don’t need special RP rules, we’re no better, but no worse than any other player that plays the game.
But we need protection, there is no reason why we would have to suffer under such infantile individuals. Just as much as Guildleaders should be able to report people who willingly disturb a guild mission, and organisatiors should be able to report people that try to ruin a Teq or Wormkill, like sPvPers should be able to report people for just leeching, standing around and doing nothing during a match and so on.

In short, next to scamming, selling gold, or harrassment, we definitely need an option to report people for griefing/trolling, and a support that frequently punishes people for doing so.

We do not hurt anymone while RPing, but people who willingly ruin the game for others with their behaviour DO hurt others, and this needs to be punished consequently.

kuscheldrow.6415:

Tyragon.2496:

The RP tag will only work if the megaserver does not, by any circumstance, mix servers with different languages. I’ve heard people being mixed up with german and french roleplayers, which, breaks the immersion for all three.

It’s really weird and awkward to go into a bar and half of the crowd speak a completely different language, with their own stories. Someone from the german server might even run that bar whilst someone on Piken Square does the same.

Personally, seeing as Anet said that megaserver was not a feature they went for to save money and resources, and even admitted that running a server is cheap, then my wish (as it will likely never happen) would be that they opened up 1 new server tagged as “Roleplay” for both EU and NA that isn’t affected by the megaserver, where a set of roleplay policies are used and anyone harassing or disrupting RP can get reported.

Either that or turn Piken Square and Tarnished Coast into it. I prefer the former idea, as it would be better to create new servers seeing as some people call those servers home as much as us RPers, and shouldn’t suffer getting the megaserver cut off from them due to our sake.

Only problem I see is that it might attract other people who want to use it to get away from the megaserver aswell, like guild missions, world bosses and such. Those issues needs to be addressed first.

Anyway that’s a wishful idea I believe would solve the RP problem completely.

One server per region would lead to the same problem, with mixed up languages and stuff. Plus, Anet would never grant us a RP Server with special rules. We don’t necessarily need one anyway. If the system that is currently running in DR would be expanded to the whole world (instead of posting the usual ‘Yeah baby we did it!’ postings like Anet does) a lot of problems would be solved.

What we do need indeed, is a way to report people if they willingly disturb or harrass RPers. Okay, currently we can report them for harrassment, but we can’t for trolling, which in fact ISN’T a playstyle, unlike most trolls claim it was. We don’t need special RP rules, we’re no better, but no worse than any other player that plays the game.
But we need protection, there is no reason why we would have to suffer under such infantile individuals. Just as much as Guildleaders should be able to report people who willingly disturb a guild mission, and organisatiors should be able to report people that try to ruin a Teq or Wormkill, like sPvPers should be able to report people for just leeching, standing around and doing nothing during a match and so on.

In short, next to scamming, selling gold, or harrassment, we definitely need an option to report people for griefing/trolling, and a support that frequently punishes people for doing so.

We do not hurt anymone while RPing, but people who willingly ruin the game for others with their behaviour DO hurt others, and this needs to be punished consequently.

There’s no way Anet would be willing to put in the resources to do this kind of policing. The WvW population is probably bigger than the RP community and it’s plagued by trolls and griefers — nothing is ever done despite report after report.

Frithjofr.2631:

I’m part of the RP tea house in Queensdale, currently Miryssa’s Tea House, formerly the Aroma Tea House. We’re a guild that ICly operates a tea house Thursday and Sunday nights, and we’ve been at it for better than a year. This megaserver business has deeply impacted us.

Where as before we were on TC, a strong roleplaying community, we had access to a large pool of roleplayers. Sure, we always had our regular customers, but a majority of the people we saw were new every week. We encountered very few trolls while we were ‘home servered’ in TC. The few trolls we did encounter usually got bored of being the only one in the crowd and would leave without conflict. Through my ~18 months of playing this game, I’ve had to block maybe a dozen people total.

Last night was my first night working with the new megaserver. Straight away (Well, not straight away, I had to join over), I had to block four people who were spamming in /say, making sarcastic remarks about us, or just saying disgusting things in general. I guess they weren’t happy without getting a reaction and started emoting as if attempting to roleplay, but in a sarcastic way. (Such as tipping one of our servers 100 billion gold coins.) Which raises a few questions for me:

1:) Why isn’t there a course of action for RPers to ‘report’ trolls. They don’t send any feedback or whatever to ANet, but it decreases (Or increases. Or changes. However you need to look at it.) the trolls weighting in this whole megaserver debacle and after so many reports from various guilds those trolls can no longer get into the same shard as proper RPers.

2:) Did you even consider the implications this would have for Roleplayers? I’m going to assume no. When it’s just one troll in a room full of RPers, we can ignore them, and they’ll leave. There’s only so much disruption one person can cause. But four people can wreak havoc on a scene. When it’s just one troll, societal pressure gives way and they either feel embarrassed or bored and leave. But when multiple people are trolling, this seems like an ‘okay’ thing to do and they keep doing, they even egg each other on. No other group has to suffer this indignity. I have half a mind to collect a bunch of roleplayers and all of us join WvW and just RP. It’s the same concept. We go to a place and disrupt the flow. “Oh, sorry, you want us to WvW? Why? Oh, because this is a place for WvW? Well, I just don’t see it. Looks like a bunch of forts to me.” And maybe maybe if we kitten with WvW and PvP and PvE ANet will take notice and give us what we want. Our own niche in the community, an equal share that every other group has.

3:) My customer base. What happened to our customer base? Discounting trolls, last night was rather slow. Some of our regulars who are there literally every night were unable to find us. Some of our own members had to guest over because they weren’t put with us. How am I supposed to run a business with this kind of shenanigans?

4:) Not megaserver related, but I want town clothes back.

I’m going to start doing that in fact, RPCD (my RP guild I joined) does regular full map completions of WvW maps and actually helps out with getting stuff for TC. The guy, a charr named Brother Drake, really gets others involved even if they don’t normally RP and help out as a community. Sure we get a few people (the high an mighty WvW types) be like, “why are you using our chats? Get Off.” yet its a good experience for all regardless if you WvW or not or RP or don’t. I got two areas completed on two toons so far.

But yeah I’m going to start being in-character and RPing in PvP and WvW and all that— lets make ourselves so known— we can’t be drowned out by the hate!

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

I’m going to start doing that in fact, RPCD (my RP guild I joined) does regular full map completions of WvW maps and actually helps out with getting stuff for TC. The guy, a charr named Brother Drake, really gets others involved even if they don’t normally RP and help out as a community. Sure we get a few people (the high an mighty WvW types) be like, “why are you using our chats? Get Off.” yet its a good experience for all regardless if you WvW or not or RP or don’t. I got two areas completed on two toons so far.

But yeah I’m going to start being in-character and RPing in PvP and WvW and all that— lets make ourselves so known— we can’t be drowned out by the hate!

Please don’t.

While I understand the impulse and frustration, what you’re describing amounts to trolling and it never pays to become the enemy in order to fight the enemy. And besides, people that are active in WvW are not the enemy and had no part in destabilizing the RP community. In fact there is no enemy, just a new system that is still being adjusted in order to work as intended. Very slippery slope, so please don’t.

I also really respect and enjoy what Brother Drake and RPcd do and don’t want their reputation to be dragged down by being connected with any organized attempt at griefing the WvW community.

So while that all sounds a little fun, please don’t.

The first day that the megaserver rolled out on DR it was fine. All the RPers were together. Over the past few days, I’ve noticed that the instance that the RPers all get filtered into gets “full” and then you have to beg and try to find someone who can help you get over to the other server. The annoying thing about this is that unlike when there was overflow, there is no way to tell who is where. I know that this has already been brought up, but it’s really frustrating to try to figure out who is where when everyone is kind of scattered. It’s a lot easier to tell what the full server instance is in the evening when places like Ossan is packed, but during the day I have no idea.

Also, there has been a larger issue with trolls. Everywhere.

At this point, I am extremely frustrated. I can’t switch characters when I am in the full instance because then I am back to the same problem as before… interrupting someone to help me hop over etc. I just hope over time there is some way to sort this out. I love this game.

Trolling? Nah I’m just going to act normally as I do always in character everywhere. Everyone should do the same if they RP, then we will drown out the haters.

There is a right or wrong way to conduct yourself and go about it. I’m taking the high road and doing as I normally do which is: RP everywhere!

My characters are no strangers to battle, so would it be so hard to think WvW is no different than say acting out slaying 1000s of centaurs or risen on a daily basis fighting for the common good? If it fits in your character’s personality and they have a reason to be there… Why not RP it?

Its not trolling if it makes a lick of sense.

Most of the time I’m half OoC (out of character) anyways.

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

Trolling? Nah I’m just going to act normally as I do always in character everywhere. Everyone should do the same if they RP, then we will drown out the haters.

There is a right or wrong way to conduct yourself and go about it. I’m taking the high road and doing as I normally do which is: RP everywhere!

My characters are no strangers to battle, so would it be so hard to think WvW is no different than say acting out slaying 1000s of centaurs or risen on a daily basis fighting for the common good? If it fits in your character’s personality and they have a reason to be there… Why not RP it?

Its not trolling if it makes a lick of sense.

Most of the time I’m half OoC (out of character) anyways.

Fair enough.

Absolutely nothing wrong with RPing wherever and whenever you want, just so long as the intent behind it is not to disrupt. I guess I envisioned the aggravation of having commander directions or scout intel being drowned out by RP in /m chat. If it’s all in /s & /e I see no problem with it, in fact it might bring a more epic feel to WvW.

I suppose if we start seeing groups of RPers just RPing in either WvW or PvP and not actually partaking in the battle we’d have a problem and things would escalate in a predictably ugly way.

So yeah I see your point, we just gotta be careful as to what our motivations really are.

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but it would really help not just for RP, but for everyone in-game, to have a map cycle option included in, so that we can re-roll ourselves to the shards we want to fall in, aside from either partying up with someone, or going to character select screen to just change shards you’re in.

24 days since the last official Anet post in this thread….
Thanks guys -_-

Wasbunny.6531:

Yumiko Ishida.3769:

Trolling? Nah I’m just going to act normally as I do always in character everywhere. Everyone should do the same if they RP, then we will drown out the haters.

There is a right or wrong way to conduct yourself and go about it. I’m taking the high road and doing as I normally do which is: RP everywhere!

My characters are no strangers to battle, so would it be so hard to think WvW is no different than say acting out slaying 1000s of centaurs or risen on a daily basis fighting for the common good? If it fits in your character’s personality and they have a reason to be there… Why not RP it?

Its not trolling if it makes a lick of sense.

Most of the time I’m half OoC (out of character) anyways.

Fair enough.

Absolutely nothing wrong with RPing wherever and whenever you want, just so long as the intent behind it is not to disrupt. I guess I envisioned the aggravation of having commander directions or scout intel being drowned out by RP in /m chat. If it’s all in /s & /e I see no problem with it, in fact it might bring a more epic feel to WvW.

I suppose if we start seeing groups of RPers just RPing in either WvW or PvP and not actually partaking in the battle we’d have a problem and things would escalate in a predictably ugly way.

So yeah I see your point, we just gotta be careful as to what our motivations really are.

As a very long time commander on TC, I can honestly say that we love RP in our WvW. A good chunk of our WvW players are also RPers. We’ve held large scale RP events (yak parades, all asura zergs, etc.) We actually used to have a pirate themes guild that was IC everywhere (WvW, dungeons, even the forums), and it brought an incredible energy to the maps. Those who can handle doing both are highly revered.

The main thing is to just not chill in our spawns RPing. The northern towers and the garrison on TCBL are great for it. We have guides on how to set up defenses on our community site, and as long as someone calls out any attacks in team chat, you’ll encounter next to no trouble. In fact, it’s something we’ve been both needing and wanting for quite some time. A 5 man group can defend a tower from most threats as long as the proper defenses are set up beforehand, and a 10 man group can do the same in the keeps. We’re always trying to find volunteers to do exactly that, and are lucky if we can get a single person in each.

Sure, there will be one person every now and then who gives you trouble, but that’s very few and very far between. Most of our commanders will try to reign that occasional person in, since RP is a major part of TC’s overall identity. We’ve always done our best to debunk the myths that RPers are bad at PvP and PvPers are all jerks, and we try to maintain a friendly encouraging environment.

You know what i really miss, lately? Random IC encounters while doing PvE content around Tyria. Back in the old days, when i was tired (or bored to properly level up), i used to toggle my walk, then move around, IC chatting with the people. It was a good opportunity to socialize with my fellow players (and RPlayers), and it made my friends list richer each time.

Now? Yes, we have a vast number of people everywhere. The areas feel “lively” and “vibrant” with the variety of players zerging around. A-net is “excited” about it as well. You can even feel the warmth…….of your GPU overheating when you encounter said people…

But RP is simply dead. I only got one random encounter in the game after Skynet took over, and the person stopping me, was kind enough to ask : “how do u walk?”… It definitely felt like one and a half year of RP has fallen down the drain.

Advent Leader.1083:

I don’t know if this has been mentioned before, but it would really help not just for RP, but for everyone in-game, to have a map cycle option included in, so that we can re-roll ourselves to the shards we want to fall in, aside from either partying up with someone, or going to character select screen to just change shards you’re in.

I’ve suggested the same thing for more than…..well, i’ve lost count.

I was in The Grove (TC) the other night and noticed some really interesting loosely organized RP going on around me. As I went about my business I passed by the group that was creating the small event. Standing in the middle of these gentle Sylvari was a player that had transformed into a golem and was spinning, spamming spells etc. trying to disrupt the RPers anyway they could. Thankfully the RPers ignored this troll and they eventually got bored and left.

I later whispered one of the members to thank them for keeping RP alive despite the disruptions being caused by the new megaserver implementation.

So I just wanted to extend that gratitude to everyone who is still RPing despite the added chaos this megaserver adjustment period has caused. It really is appreciated, even by those of us who don’t usually actively partake in RP events.

Wasbunny.6531:

I was in The Grove (TC) the other night and noticed some really interesting loosely organized RP going on around me. As I went about my business I passed by the group that was creating the small event. Standing in the middle of these gentle Sylvari was a player that had transformed into a golem and was spinning, spamming spells etc. trying to disrupt the RPers anyway they could. Thankfully the RPers ignored this troll and they eventually got bored and left.

I later whispered one of the members to thank them for keeping RP alive despite the disruptions being caused by the new megaserver implementation.

So I just wanted to extend that gratitude to everyone who is still RPing despite the added chaos this megaserver adjustment period has caused. It really is appreciated, even by those of us who don’t usually actively partake in RP events.

We try, my friend…
It’s not the same anymore, and being dumped into a different instance with different people every time, makes it even harder to find your RP buddies, or even people who actually role play.

Seems like we’ve all analyzed the problems introduced with the megaserver and have almost unanimously arrived at a solution.

Add playstyle preferences to weight the algorithm that the megaserver uses to determine who goes where.

I finally found this detailed in another MMORPG that was recently launched and uses a seemingly identical megaserver model. I honestly don’t know if this was ever added to that game but in theory it’s exactly what is needed in the GW2 megaserver system. For all I know ArenaNet is fully aware of this and is working to slowly introduce something similar in the future.

Anyway, here is the quote from that other (unnamed) MMORPG:

‘Players will fill out a questionnaire that describes their own preferred playstyle to assist the megaserver in allocating similar players to their game space. You can specify preferences for roleplaying, age groups, and degree of socialization. By flagging your character as “I want to meet new people and join a guild” you will be put into spaces with other players who are also interested in meeting new people, and with guilds who are recruiting new members. Alternatively, you could specify “I want to play solo tonight”, and the server will place you into a game space with other people who are interested in soloing, so you won’t be pestered with frequent group invitations.’

I know we’ve all suggested almost exactly this hundreds of times in this thread but also know that another AAA MMORPG with a megaserver implemented was also thinking this far ahead and arrived at the same solution.

I really do think ArenaNet is working on something similar, it would just make sense and it seems at least on the surface very easy to implement. They want this to work as much as we do, so hopefully ArenaNet has this on their priority list, at least somewhere.

Wasbunny.6531:

Add playstyle preferences to weight the algorithm that the megaserver uses to determine who goes where.

A good theoretical solution, but more practically:

I don’t believe Anet is capable of writing an algorithm that can do this properly. Even now, party members aren’t being sent to the same megaserver instance. It’s just too complicated for Anet to handle.

I sure hope they are thinking of a solution, as the game is completely broken as it is right now.

As to that other game, they have not yet implemented the feature but are working on it. I am hoping it gets implemented soon as thus far it’s essentially been single player with a chatroom guild for me. My RP continues to be in GW2, albeit mostly in instances or even in AIM or forum chat …

But that’s about all I am doing in GW2 now, beyond some dailies or occasional dungeons with my guild. I don’t have the drive to advance that I did before the patch.

Just an update: been RPing since DR got the megaserver and they’ve been working on prioritizing home worlds. It -has- worked fairly reliably, but a few times my friends and I — about twice each, now, roleplaying a good six hours a day or so — have been placed in different servers. It’s been annoying, because someone has been like “Come join the group, we’re in X” and then their friend comes on over only to find it empty, and only then do they realize they’re in another server and have to join up.

To me, this isn’t -too- bad, because overflows did the same thing, but the difference is they at least told you you were in an overflow. I think there’s still work that needs to be done with prioritizing or server loads, or just giving people different options. (I still really like the idea of an RPer tag.)

It’s definitely a bummer not seeing RPers around in the world. Before, most everyone with a decent name was a RPer, but now I’ve seen people where I’m totally not sure — and I don’t want to risk bothering someone by emoting at them (especially with the influx of trolls).

Anything that tacked onto name plates would be fantastic, and not just for RPers. PvP oriented people, exploration oriented people, dungeon goers, achievement fiends, etc. If anything it would help us sort out the who’s who.

Like many others, I would suggest the following small changes:

• Remove cities from the megaserver system to give people a sense of community back
• Add the “RP” flag so roleplayers are grouped together in the open world.

Do it for both roleplayers looking for other roleplayers, and players who aren’t interested in RP and don’t want to any RP in general chat.

(While we’re at it: fixing the range of emotes to /say, or creating a new chat cannel, etc. would also help.)

Just wanted to throw it out there that I think the whole

MEGASERVER WEIGHING ALGORITHM

is a load of kitten. ESO said they were going to do it. I like ESO overall as a game, it just isn’t worth a sub to me, and the end-game balance is terrible. But what I did experience?

Megaservers.

Megaservers are great if you have a social web of friends already available. Or if you have the ability to

PICK YOUR CHANNEL

If they do not, your experience is absolutely inorganic.

When ESO first toted its megaserver, it said you would be weighed based on your preferences. RP, PVP, PVE, hardcore, casual, all that kind of thing.

…yeah, never happened. Went quiet about it for a long time, and it just got buried.

So I foresee the algorithm thing just not being “doable” (apparently), or just being a bunch of nonsense to try and stem dissatisfaction – but then they stop talking about it when they realize they can’t talk about it without technically lying. Even if that wasn’t their original intent.

I think that’s what happened here. Originally they wanted something better, and it didn’t come to fruition. So they’re like…Whoops. Well take what you got.

…a lot like Town Clothes, actually.

Ezekiel.1985:

Just wanted to throw it out there that I think the whole

MEGASERVER WEIGHING ALGORITHM

is a load of kitten. ESO said they were going to do it. I like ESO overall as a game, it just isn’t worth a sub to me, and the end-game balance is terrible. But what I did experience?

Megaservers.

Megaservers are great if you have a social web of friends already available. Or if you have the ability to

PICK YOUR CHANNEL

If they do not, your experience is absolutely inorganic.

When ESO first toted its megaserver, it said you would be weighed based on your preferences. RP, PVP, PVE, hardcore, casual, all that kind of thing.

…yeah, never happened. Went quiet about it for a long time, and it just got buried.

So I foresee the algorithm thing just not being “doable” (apparently), or just being a bunch of nonsense to try and stem dissatisfaction – but then they stop talking about it when they realize they can’t talk about it without technically lying. Even if that wasn’t their original intent.

I think that’s what happened here. Originally they wanted something better, and it didn’t come to fruition. So they’re like…Whoops. Well take what you got.

…a lot like Town Clothes, actually.

Thank you for confirming my words about the copy/paste from other games A-net is doing without any research. I wasn’t aware ESO had the same “megaserver”, as i was never interested in that game… At least now i know why A-net copied it… Probably out of “fear” that ESO will steal their player’s database.

The irony is, that there are games out there with “Working” megaservers. Yes, working. Why? Cause they have what most people ask : Manual instance selection. They even allow you to manually pick your instance upon zoning, showing you how many players are in each instance, and how many of your friends or guildmates are on the instance you’re going to choose.

As for the algorithm you mention? Yes, it works there… 9 times out of 10 the megaserver places you on the same instance with your guildmates and friends, unless the instance is full.. Even then you have a choice to relocate, you don’t get a “oh well, you’re split, get over it” experience.

How hard would be for A-net to add this feature to the game? I mean, the games i mention above are more than 4 years old and their megaserver works from day one… one… Games without even a “home server”, just a huge community, who doesn’t complain about it.

Did that stop an RP community to grow? No.. Why? Cause the instance selection allows people to relocate, if a troll tries to ruin their event. Same thing with large guild events. The guild leader picks up a low populated instance, and gets his guild in, doing their event without issues.

Well, you can change in GW2 as well by partying up, although the instance cap is ridiculously low. I just think this is a very annoying and lazy solution as it takes away from a more organic and immersive experience.

I tend to prefer to do things my way – me being an introvert who comes and goes. I don’t like asking people to party up in order to happen by them. I’d rather just happen by them.

Well I no longer can join the great TC community in DR. I keep getting put into the counterstrike chat rooms of this megaserver. Please put the towns/cities back to server only, this is terrible!

I know it’s going to sound crazy… but I’m broken hearted that I couldn’t find any roleplay anymore… I just transferred back to the server so that I could RP a few weeks before the feature pack… Now it was a waste of 2400 gems and what I loved most about the community is gone.

This road of good intentions led where such a road always leads.

My major reason for playing an MMO RPG is to be able to get together with my friends, Role Play, and enjoy the game. I usually IC my leveling when i have company. It gives more spice to the whole idea, especially if you have many high level characters.

Now, try to do that with zerg. I won’t go into the trolling that will follow, but what’s the point in doing so? Back in the old days, we used to get together with our guildmates and friends, doing IC events, explore the world, make up “incidents” as we moved along the way…

Now that’s basically ripped away, in the most violent way. “You’re not part of the zerg, you’re playing the game wrong”. “You enjoy the RP part of the MMO RPG, you are doing it wrong”.

Our communities have become but a shadow of their former glory, and for what reason? For A-net wanting to shove a bazillion of people on the same instance, simply creating the “illusion” that all the worlds are “full”?

Asacledhae.2650:

My major reason for playing an MMO RPG is to be able to get together with my friends, Role Play, and enjoy the game. I usually IC my leveling when i have company. It gives more spice to the whole idea, especially if you have many high level characters.
(…)

RPG was dropped long ago when mmo’s decided to have overflows and static theme park.

Sandbox mmo’s are still young and hard accepted since players nowadays only care about graphics….

RPG in computer games doesn’t mean playing a role anymore. It means stats on your character that improve when you play the game.

Most younger players don’t even know where the Role Playing Game comes from and what PnP games are.