Guild Wars 2

Why doesn’t Anet close out the less populated Servers and move all those players into more populated ones?

From My PoV I’m seeing:

• Low-End WvW Servers can have more players that can come and play with them to help the Server out
• WvW Match-Ups won’t always be the same and competition can Arise.
• People won’t all try to fit into the higher tier servers and servers can be balanced

Of course there can be more to it, but these are the positives I see right off the bat when I think about it.

1: Wrong forum
2: gw2s player population is steadily growing, including wvw
3: even the least populated server has thousands of players in them
4: it only ever takes 50-100 people to make wvw interesting, get together, get organized
5: Gw2 is not “closing” any servers anytime soon, in fact, new ones in china and eventually Korea will open
6: I think you mean low populated not low end in your title

Because there’s no room on the fullest servers and, due to WvW, Anet would have to close 3 servers at a time.

With guesting being free and easy there’s no real reason to merge servers. In fact, some things are more fun to guest to a less populated server to do.

SpehssMehreen.5897:

1: Wrong forum
2: gw2s player population is steadily growing, including wvw

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

morrolan.9608:

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

So just because you have played WvW from the start you have better information than ArenaNet themselves about increase of WvW activity?

Maybe some people like being on them as it is? Besides, it’d be inconvenient to people to suddenly have them move.

There is no need to close them.

But I do think that they should merge lower populated realms.

I don’t understand why they didn’t have just 1 server and then expand on the overflow technology.
That way they could spread the population evenly in all areas.

morrolan.9608:

SpehssMehreen.5897:

1: Wrong forum
2: gw2s player population is steadily growing, including wvw

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

There can only be as much players than WvW allow, how do you know that there are more or less players just becouse you play WvW?
I know I play in a less populated server and it is usually queue for WvW at peak times

I don’t thinks Spehss has any facts but if he/she does I am sorry, but from playing GW2 I have noticed an increase of player activity and alot of rookie-new players in our Guild.

To close a server, they would have to close 3 servers. This would cause the next 3 lowest populated servers to become high pop, which would eventually lead to more servers being needed, which will always come in 3s.

Because of servers working in 3s, it’ll be much harder to open new servers and getting them decently populated without forcing or giving an incentive for high pop server residents to move there.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

There is no need to close them.

But I do think that they should merge lower populated realms.

I don’t understand why they didn’t have just 1 server and then expand on the overflow technology.
That way they could spread the population evenly in all areas.

Because it would make WvW impossible?

Why close servers just for the sake of WvW? This game is still new (really it is) and as such more people will continue to join and play so they will need these servers to play on.

Forcing people to busier servers just for the sake of WvW is pointless. Obviously it means these players do NOT WvW in the first place. If they did and saw their servers just had little to no action you would think they would just MOVE to the busier servers for that action. Is this what this post is all about, do you just want a FREE transfer to a busier world?

EdgarMTanaka.7291:

morrolan.9608:

SpehssMehreen.5897:

1: Wrong forum
2: gw2s player population is steadily growing, including wvw

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

There can only be as much players than WvW allow, how do you know that there are more or less players just becouse you play WvW?
I know I play in a less populated server and it is usually queue for WvW at peak times

I don’t thinks Spehss has any facts but if he/she does I am sorry, but from playing GW2 I have noticed an increase of player activity and alot of rookie-new players in our Guild.

I find it funny that you question this guy but not the other one. How would he know that it’s steadily growing?

I will give you two points to consider:

1) Income for GW2 is down a quite a bit In the last quarter of 2012 the game was good for 45% of NcSoft’s total sales. In quarter one of 2013 this percentage was down to 21%. We will see when the next quarterly report comes out, but so far sales numbers are down, which I think is normal, but it doesn’t support a steady growth.

2) When I see how WvW was when the game was new, the WvW servers were full during ALL of prime time. I cannot speak for all servers but on my server now it’s only full for a couple of hours each night. That is a decrease.

So these points don’t prove that population is down over the whole game, but it’s enough to doubt the sincerity of the guy claiming that populations are steadily growing.

Paulytnz.7619:

Why close servers just for the sake of WvW? This game is still new (really it is) and as such more people will continue to join and play so they will need these servers to play on.

Forcing people to busier servers just for the sake of WvW is pointless. Obviously it means these players do NOT WvW in the first place. If they did and saw their servers just had little to no action you would think they would just MOVE to the busier servers for that action. Is this what this post is all about, do you just want a FREE transfer to a busier world?

It is not about “Forcing players to busier servers for the sake of wvw”, it is about ‘Balancing Servers" and most Importantly ’Eliminating’ servers Laggs, crashes and DC.

Infact many of the so-called "busy/full’ servers are capped, in other word.. the system will not allow you to transfer to them because they are full.

Well thats not entirely true because somehow, many and far too many players are able to enter these “busy/full” servers.

Servers need to be Balanced and at the moment, it is not.

Those ‘busy’ servers are OverPopulated, Thats the Problem

Another solution is to transfer a Large Percentage of players from the Overpulated to the Less Populated Servers

Therefore,

There wouldn’t be no need for the low servers to transfer or to close low servers entirely.

Until than..

Closing Low Servers or Merging Servers is Critical for Presderving WvW Population Status.

Burnfall.9573:

Closing Low Servers or Merging Servers is Critical for Presderving WvW Population Status.

So basically stop people from playing WvW because of they don’t feel like sitting in a queue for several hours?
Sure that might solve the “issue” at hand, but I wouldn’t say it is a solution.

Those “low servers” have tens of thousands of players on them , shutting them down because they have lower participation in some activities is completely ridiculous.

Hey, JQ’s players barely ever run temple clears and BlackGate’s Southsun is always deserted , they’re probably dead servers then, right?

we should just close them, right? (totally fake, randomly chosen examples)

lordkrall.7241:

morrolan.9608:

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

So just because you have played WvW from the start you have better information than ArenaNet themselves about increase of WvW activity?

Could you please link an Anet response stating that

A) WvW activity is increasing
B) Player population is growing, not shrinking?

Because so far, it’s not a question of his information vs Anet’s information, but rather his information vs some other random forum viewer’s information.

Tolmos.8395:

Could you please link an Anet response stating that

A) WvW activity is increasing
B) Player population is growing, not shrinking?

Because so far, it’s not a question of his information vs Anet’s information, but rather his information vs some other random forum viewer’s information.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/looking-ahead-guild-wars-2-in-2013/

So far this year WvW has seen some major updates: from the removal of culling to the new progression, reward and ability system, our WvW population has been rapidly on the rise since January.

With 3 million sales as of November, and seeing that each server has reached either Very High or Full in the past 3 server cap raises, Each server has AT LEAST 58,824 registered players, and that number rises each day. They have no reason to close low population servers. (considering that none are below Medium, they wouldn’t have to even if they were forced to close Low pop servers.)

servers are fine.

with guesting, there is no need to close.

anet will never close servers.

I am on FC, one of the lower population NA servers. I witnessed a conversation in LA a few days ago that went something like this:

Player 1: Why don’t people go to WvW? We’re always outnumbered.
Player 2: People on this server don’t like to WvW.
Player 3: Yeah, but we don’t PvE that much either.

But, we can sure field a Queensdale zerg or a large group to kill Teq/Shatterer/Fire Ele/SB/Maw.

TL:DR: just because people aren’t flocking to what you like, doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people doing something, somewhere on the server.

Viking Jorun.5413:

With 3 million sales as of November, and seeing that each server has reached either Very High or Full in the past 3 server cap raises, Each server has AT LEAST 58,824 registered players, and that number rises each day. They have no reason to close low population servers. (considering that none are below Medium, they wouldn’t have to even if they were forced to close Low pop servers.)

Registered players perhaps but that doesn’t mean they’re actually playing the game. You call it server cap raises but all that means is that they have a sort of calculation that takes people who have been offline for x amount of time out of the equation. So a server cap raise could actually mean that more people have not played for a while therefore freeing up space to allow more people on a given server.

It’s a decently working server population control, but it would not be correct to assume it means populations are constantly on the rise. It can mean just the same that more players stopped playing allowing more people to come to that server.

Gehenna.3625:

Viking Jorun.5413:

With 3 million sales as of November, and seeing that each server has reached either Very High or Full in the past 3 server cap raises, Each server has AT LEAST 58,824 registered players, and that number rises each day. They have no reason to close low population servers. (considering that none are below Medium, they wouldn’t have to even if they were forced to close Low pop servers.)

Registered players perhaps but that doesn’t mean they’re actually playing the game. You call it server cap raises but all that means is that they have a sort of calculation that takes people who have been offline for x amount of time out of the equation. So a server cap raise could actually mean that more people have not played for a while therefore freeing up space to allow more people on a given server.

It’s a decently working server population control, but it would not be correct to assume it means populations are constantly on the rise. It can mean just the same that more players stopped playing allowing more people to come to that server.

You obviously aren’t an expert on server architecture and made that little lie up in your head to help you sleep at night. Nobody’s removed from the servers, which is why with each server cap increase we experience more and more lag.

Viking Jorun.5413:

Gehenna.3625:

Viking Jorun.5413:

With 3 million sales as of November, and seeing that each server has reached either Very High or Full in the past 3 server cap raises, Each server has AT LEAST 58,824 registered players, and that number rises each day. They have no reason to close low population servers. (considering that none are below Medium, they wouldn’t have to even if they were forced to close Low pop servers.)

Registered players perhaps but that doesn’t mean they’re actually playing the game. You call it server cap raises but all that means is that they have a sort of calculation that takes people who have been offline for x amount of time out of the equation. So a server cap raise could actually mean that more people have not played for a while therefore freeing up space to allow more people on a given server.

It’s a decently working server population control, but it would not be correct to assume it means populations are constantly on the rise. It can mean just the same that more players stopped playing allowing more people to come to that server.

You obviously aren’t an expert on server architecture and made that little lie up in your head to help you sleep at night. Nobody’s removed from the servers, which is why with each server cap increase we experience more and more lag.

You obviously don’t read very well. I said they were taken out of the equation or calculation if you prefer, not taken off the server. That is something you made up entirely yourself.

We all know that part of the calculation for how full a server is, is based on how many accounts there are and not just how many concurrent players are logged in. And before you jump again, please reread the previous sentence and notice how I said PART and not the whole calculation.

So before acting like you’re god and become all condescending, learn to read instead of acting like I said something terrible just because you didn’t read carefully and twist my words into something I clearly didn’t say.

Oh and obviously when fewer people play and they let new players in on the server it will have a possible lag effect. But if what you say is true and that the game gets more and more lag, wouldn’t the game be unplayable by now? C’mon a little logic please, the game obviously is still playable.

morrolan.9608:

SpehssMehreen.5897:

1: Wrong forum
2: gw2s player population is steadily growing, including wvw

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

If anything, the population is declining. My guilds just started to deteriorate again with 27 people playing out of 500 and the other one with 14 playing out of 479. People are dropping like flies now, because I’m barely seeing anyone in WvW or on my server in general.

Guys anecdotal evidence is not evidence. Just because your guild is failing or your server is failing doesn’t mean the game is failing. People change guilds all the time, entire guilds switch servers all the time. People stop/slow down playing. New people buy and join the game. Such is the flux of an mmo.

Naus the Gobbo.5172:

That way they could spread the population evenly in all areas.

This is the main reason nothing was merged though…

Most people don’t seem to WANT TO spread out. Even on the lowest pop servers there’s been Overflows in LA & Queensdale. In WvW… there will be 2 borderlands with no one from those servers on it, and then one single Garrison with EVERYONE at it being a completely useless_ _boring Zerg. This goes double for COF instances this past month as well. People don’t want to spread out because there’s nothing beneficial in them doing it apparently. Everything is just designed so short-sighted.

What needs to happen instead atleast with PvE, is some of the things they’re doing already (shutting down GoldFarmed Dungeons). But also things they haven’t commented on like just getting RID of the separate Server splits when it comes to mid-level PvE areas and bringing back the “Districting” pulldown bar we had in Gw1 so people can just choose between a EU or NA or Overflow district when in those Zones.

WvW? The whole kitten thing was broken from the start and adding some silly Titles to grind for in it wasn’t going to fix a BROKEN META. They have to get serious about actually balancing “Blobbing” and quit screwing around these sPvP tourneys that no one’s watching. As bad as WvW is, it still has 10x the participants every day that sPvP does and 100x the potential right now. It’s where former PvP’ers from the first game go to do GvG. … It needs a dramatic shift away from Zerging-taking-all. …even if it came down to them making locally outnumbered players into Champions & Legendary rank threats, they need to do it… Then being on the lowest pop servers would start giving the better players the kinds of advantages needed to shift the meta.

Looks like you are trying to solve a problem without considering the cause. Population imbalance is a problem but so is differences in coverage. You could do great during prime time and still lose if you don’t have somewhat equivalent coverage. Mindless zergs are also too effective. ANet is at least aware of the last one if not all of these problems. They just haven’t done anything about it for whatever reason. Closing servers would be a short term solution at best or it would just make things even worse. When you force people to transfer where do you think they will go? Probably the already stacked servers.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I am on FC, one of the lower population NA servers. I witnessed a conversation in LA a few days ago that went something like this:

Player 1: Why don’t people go to WvW? We’re always outnumbered.
Player 2: People on this server don’t like to WvW.
Player 3: Yeah, but we don’t PvE that much either.

But, we can sure field a Queensdale zerg or a large group to kill Teq/Shatterer/Fire Ele/SB/Maw.

TL:DR: just because people aren’t flocking to what you like, doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people doing something, somewhere on the server.

Im always in the heart of the mists when I am on.
Sorry FC.

Every time I log on, the servers are high, very high, or full.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I am on FC, one of the lower population NA servers. I witnessed a conversation in LA a few days ago that went something like this:

Player 1: Why don’t people go to WvW? We’re always outnumbered.
Player 2: People on this server don’t like to WvW.
Player 3: Yeah, but we don’t PvE that much either.

But, we can sure field a Queensdale zerg or a large group to kill Teq/Shatterer/Fire Ele/SB/Maw.

TL:DR: just because people aren’t flocking to what you like, doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people doing something, somewhere on the server.

Im also on FC, but I guest alot, and you really can see the difference sometimes between servers. One of our few advantages as a small server though, is I was confused for a long time when everyone was complaining about long queue times and overflow, since Ive only once ended up on either while in FC. Yeah Queensdale is always full of people on FC, but Im sure Blackgate has Queensdale as one of its more populated areas too, but compaire the two Queensdale pops and Im wagering a massive difference in numbers.

Ive thought of the idea of merely removing the 3 lowest pop servers. Would be a good idea for WvW, but for all the people with guilds and friends all together in those servers, it would suck. If GW2 was just WvW, Id support this idea, but more people would get mad than happy with the change, and that just refers to those legitimatly upset.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

Every time I log on, the servers are high, very high, or full.

But for GW2 that doesn’t mean the same thing as for other games. In GW2 it’s not just a measurement of how full the server is as in how many people are online on the server, but also calculates how many accounts are linked to it as home server. So even when a server is full, doesn’t mean lots of people are online. There could be, but it also could not be the case.

So this measurement of server status is not a reliable source for this. What’s better is simply to see if you run into lots of people or not wherever you are and how active the chat is in places like LA.

Saelune.5316:

IndigoSundown.5419:

I am on FC, one of the lower population NA servers. I witnessed a conversation in LA a few days ago that went something like this:

Player 1: Why don’t people go to WvW? We’re always outnumbered.
Player 2: People on this server don’t like to WvW.
Player 3: Yeah, but we don’t PvE that much either.

But, we can sure field a Queensdale zerg or a large group to kill Teq/Shatterer/Fire Ele/SB/Maw.

TL:DR: just because people aren’t flocking to what you like, doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people doing something, somewhere on the server.

Im also on FC, but I guest alot, and you really can see the difference sometimes between servers. One of our few advantages as a small server though, is I was confused for a long time when everyone was complaining about long queue times and overflow, since Ive only once ended up on either while in FC. Yeah Queensdale is always full of people on FC, but Im sure Blackgate has Queensdale as one of its more populated areas too, but compaire the two Queensdale pops and Im wagering a massive difference in numbers.

Right, and that would be an artifact of BG being a high pop server and FC a not-so-high pop server. That doesn’t mean that the lower pop servers are “dead,” though. I think that lower pop servers would have to be much deadER than they are for ANet to take the publicity hit that server merges/closures bring with them.

Some people call their servers home, and some don’t care about wvw rank. If you’re going to abandon the smallest servers, then people will just move to big servers, and then the process of bigger servers getting all the transfers continues. We don’t need more stacking.

If anything the servers need more spread out population. Transfers to low ranked/low pop servers need to be heavily discounted.

Unless of course, you enjoy skill lag.

In any case, there are people playing on those servers— I think they should be the ones to decide?

lordkrall.7241:

morrolan.9608:

Wrong, this from someone who has been playing WvW from the start

So just because you have played WvW from the start you have better information than ArenaNet themselves about increase of WvW activity?

OK now lets see some actually numbers.