Guild Wars 2

I’m in a world that supposedly has a “high” population yet I’ll play for 2 hours and run into about 2-3 other players. Why? Is everybody concentrated somewhere else or is there really so few players?

This may be unanswerable but I just bought the game a couple of days ago for a good MMORPG experience and I find the “MM” part decidedly lacking…

EDIT: I’m in Caledon Forest, and it’s almost 8:00 PM on the east coast.

You’re leaving out a lot of important information. What time of the day are you on? What area are you in?

If you just got the game, I assume, you are still in one of the starting areas… as with most MMOs, there aren’t many players around those anymore…
I love running around them quite a bit… most just don’t.

But with the upcoming megaserver system, the lvl 1-15 zones of all worlds (of the same datacenter – EU/US) are supposed to be merged, until they are full. Might not be quite an accurate description, but thats how its gonna feel. So from April 15th on, the starting zones should be way more crowded.

Sorry! I edited my original post with the extra info.

We’re all in Queensdale, pay us a visit sometime.

Dungeons, World Meta events -find them here http://us.gw2stuff.com/ , WvW, Edge of the Mists (hit the castle icon upper right on your screen) – the main portal hub right now is the Vigil Keep in Gendarran Fields since our main portal city Lion’s Arch got blowed up in the last chapter of Living Story.

For starting areas Queensdale has the most players usually unless a LS event is pulling players elsewhere.

theres a couple dead servers, which is why next patch they are testing their new “not server merge”.

Just guest to one of the “very high” population servers and see if its better. The problem also is at this point in the games life most people are extremely burnt out on leveling and avoid it like plague using crafting routes and instant 20 scrolls etc…

You may also find that leveling in WvWvW is a lot funner, surely you will find people there.

The game been out for over 1.6 years so there aren’t many people in newbee zone.

As the previous post mention a lot people is running Champ farm in Queendale so you may just want to go there and grind a few level before you solo explore the other higher level areas.

Caledon Forest tends to have a low population anymore (wasn’t always that way). Only place with a lower population is Metrica Province. People tend to run over to Queensdale. That’s probably due to the champion trains.

There’s a big feature update coming on April 15th that will include a mega-server upgrade for the low level areas, so I imagine after that date you will start to see less empty beginning areas.

People tend to gravitate to certain areas of the game. Sometimes, you’ll encounter lots of people, and sometimes you won’t. If you want to know if people are around, just start chatting in map chat. Most people are friendly and will respond.

People seem to be confused with low-level and low-population. Starter zones won’t necessarily be included in the MegaServer part of the patch unless said starter zone is low-population world-wide. My server usually has people in the starter zones; I know, because I spend a lot of time in them.

We won’t know until after the patch whether the low-level maps are also low-population maps.

Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t there. There may have been two people fighting something on the other side of a tree from you but you wouldn’t know it. Not everybody responds in map chat either, whether because they don’t have it on their current tabs, are shy, or just can’t be kitten d who knows why.

starter maps are populated by starting people. People move through that level range quickly. Characters spend the vast majority of their “life” at max level, not starting level. So will you. The game did not just launch. The very same in most mmorpg. You will see hordes of people (in fact, probably more than your computer can handle ) when the LS resumes.

It’s always funny if people are explaining noobs with game specific terminology. Do you expect he/she knows what a champ train or LS is? Try to write out some stuff.

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s always funny if people are explaining noobs with game specific terminology. Do you expect he/she knows what a champ train or LS is? Try to write out some stuff.

well, if you are so concerned about this, why don´t you?

ProtoGunner.4953:

It’s always funny if people are explaining noobs with game specific terminology. Do you expect he/she knows what a champ train or LS is? Try to write out some stuff.

Newb not noob, speaking of terminology.

Starter zones can be very low populated right now, because most players are higher level. However, on the 15th of april, there will be a huge patch and all low level zones (later ALL zones) will be merged real-time, so there are always near to the maximum amount of players on the map. You should always see people then!

For now, you might wanna go to Queensdale, as others have said.

Well, in my server, those “high level” zones tend to be empty, ie: Orr and FrostGorge so…

go queensdale or try guesting some other server
a lot people lvl up in wvw aswell

Outside the Living Story (bi-weekly updates: currently on hiatus) content additions that end up in a massive zone-wide blobby Press-1-to-win scenarios, the game world is dead, OP. I’d be surprised if you stay active for longer than 2 months.

Megaservers coming soon…then you will be posting too many people…

Wait till 4/15 for Megaservers to hit those starter areas and the cities.

Caledon Forest is my go to zone for dailies. Easy gathering spots, easy champion to kill, easy veterans to kill, can get kill variety quick, aquatic slayer is easy there, pretty easy JP (but not as easy as the Pearl Islet one in Southsun). I’m almost always in Caledon at 8pm EST. Typically see 10-12 people in my travels, which tend to be the NW area near Wychmire Waypoint then moving east to the water.

Fort Aspenwood server.

On 4/15 this will all be moot anyway.

The low-level maps won’t be changing on Apr. 15th.

’We are now planning on releasing the system starting with the PvP lobby and low population maps, and incrementally moving onto the maps with high populations. With this approach, the behavior on level 1 to 15 maps won’t change until we’ve seen the positive confirmation from the community as well as from our metrics that MegaServer is working as expected on lower population maps.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Update-on-the-MegaServer-roll-out-plan/page/3#post3866707

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate the help, being new and all. I just wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or not lol.

Is following the main questline necessary, by the way? Is there any real drawbacks to not completing it?

sansa.5901:

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate the help, being new and all. I just wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or not lol.

Is following the main questline necessary, by the way? Is there any real drawbacks to not completing it?

You can explore, what ever you want. There is no Main quest lies except for the Personal Story line. I have lvl 80 toons that I have not even done one part.

sansa.5901:

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate the help, being new and all. I just wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or not lol.

Is following the main questline necessary, by the way? Is there any real drawbacks to not completing it?

Don´t worry, you will soon leave those areas behind. Personal story, hm, I remember them being good xp, but could be wrong. Retrospectively, it doesn´t seem so great, but that is of caused a biased opinion after getting into the more entertaining stuff. You may enjoy it or not, depends on personal taste I guess. You will not miss out on anything noteworthy itemwise if you skip it at least.

sansa.5901:

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate the help, being new and all. I just wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or not lol.

Is following the main questline necessary, by the way? Is there any real drawbacks to not completing it?

No drawbacks. Just play it until you find it unfun — it gets progressively worse as you go forward, particularly past level 30 — so don’t suffer through it hoping there will be a good payoff later on.

Lord Kuru.3685:

sansa.5901:

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate the help, being new and all. I just wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or not lol.

Is following the main questline necessary, by the way? Is there any real drawbacks to not completing it?

No drawbacks. Just play it until you find it unfun — it gets progressively worse as you go forward, particularly past level 30 — so don’t suffer through it hoping there will be a good payoff later on.

Sansa, take everything you read on these forums with a few grains of salt. Keep your mind open and decide on what’s fun or not on your own. There is plenty to do in the game if you find one or two segments a tad boring or just a plain crap experience.

And, one last bit of advice, don’t spend much time on the forums. There’s very little worth here (in my salt-grainy opinion ).

The personal story quests seem to provide a pretty decent sized chunk of experience.
I use them when I’m not feeling up for doing map completion stuff.
I’m level 40 on my highest character, and have only completed up to the level 28ish personal story quests.
I always find plenty of players while doing map completion in the lowbie zones. I only have two starter zones (Asura and Norn) to finish now. Caledon was by far the emptiest zone I encountered.
Queensdale was full to burst.

I tot TS was referring to how server populations went from “Full” to “Very High” and “Very High” to “High” after last weekend.

Gee I wonder why.

If you like story and lore, and you want to know why your’e doing what you’re doing,. the personal story can be a good thing. If you don’t care about anything but farming, getting loot and higher level items, the personal story won’t be as good.

The first time through, the personal story offers some perspective in what’s going on, but it really takes playing the personal story on multiple races to see how everything intertwines.

Some people hate the personal story but some like it.

There’s a drop in server population? I was too busy playing ESO to notice.

Mega servers are coming so no worries

sansa.5901:

Thanks everyone!! I really appreciate the help, being new and all. I just wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong or not lol.

Is following the main questline necessary, by the way? Is there any real drawbacks to not completing it?

Dusty answered your questline question. Here are some commonly used terms ingame and my personal definition.

LS=Living Story
LA=Lions Arch
TS=Team Speak (voice client)

Zerg= (Verb) When lotsa of players create a big blob when assembled and follow a single blue dot on the map. The blue dot is a player with a Leaders Tag activated so that they show up on the map as a blue icon.

Zerker=(Noun) Beserker gear

Kitten= I have no kittening idea what the kitten kitten is at this time. (kitten is the word that replaces a censored word)

Deamhan.9538:

There’s a drop in server population? I was too busy playing ESO to notice.

ESO launch – relatively polished and bug free as compared to other MMOs after one year, Zenimax listened to feedback given by players in beta, has a inbuilt LFG tool at launch, will never have a SAB even though Sheogorath is madder than a hatter.

Its like comparing Game of Thrones to Adventure Time or whatever RPG inspired cartoon young “adults” enjoy.

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

People seem to be confused with low-level and low-population. Starter zones won’t necessarily be included in the MegaServer part of the patch unless said starter zone is low-population world-wide. My server usually has people in the starter zones; I know, because I spend a lot of time in them.

We won’t know until after the patch whether the low-level maps are also low-population maps.

Low level zones are gonna be the ones to be included in the meta server first however, every single area in GW2 is gonna follow sooner or later [ unless they find issues with the ’’beta’’ they are running with the mega server or people simply bash it enough ].

nGumball.1283:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

People seem to be confused with low-level and low-population. Starter zones won’t necessarily be included in the MegaServer part of the patch unless said starter zone is low-population world-wide. My server usually has people in the starter zones; I know, because I spend a lot of time in them.

We won’t know until after the patch whether the low-level maps are also low-population maps.

Low level zones are gonna be the ones to be included in the meta server first however, every single area in GW2 is gonna follow sooner or later [ unless they find issues with the ’’beta’’ they are running with the mega server or people simply bash it enough ].

We are now planning on releasing the system starting with the PvP lobby and low population maps, and incrementally moving onto the maps with high populations. With this approach, the behavior on level 1 to 15 maps won’t change until we’ve seen the positive confirmation from the community as well as from our metrics that MegaServer is working as expected on lower population maps.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Update-on-the-MegaServer-roll-out-plan/first#post3857828

Deamhan.9538:

There’s a drop in server population? I was too busy playing ESO to notice.

What a waste of $15 a month.
I played the beta, and unless they overhauled the entirety of the game… Such a waste.