Guild Wars 2

I’ve read up on why we can’t guest or party across regions, and it makes sense (as much as anything does to someone like me who barely even knows what a “server” is), but having recently made some EU friends of my own, I’d like to think there will eventually be a way I can play with them from time to time without transferring servers. Are staff minds open to considering ways in which it can be done?

No. The data centers are in two different locations for NA and EU. Unless ANet developed their own Cloud Network (which might not work anyway), there’s no way you’ll ever be able to play with EU players from NA and vice-versa.

but my NA friends play on the EU server with me fine… T_T I don’t see why we can’t guest to NA servers when na players can home on eu servers without issue.

Hmm they also said “no” for quite a while in GW1 to. Then it became yes. The two are very different games though. Without knowing the actual problems it’s hard to say if it would be “hard to do” or “impossible”.

If you have tried to send mail to your EU friends you would have also realized how little data is being shared. Servers in different regions do not even know about character names in the other regions.

emikochan.8504:

but my NA friends play on the EU server with me fine… T_T I don’t see why we can’t guest to NA servers when na players can home on eu servers without issue.

That’s because their characters are saved on the EU data center. It doesn’t matter where the players are it matters where the character data is.

Esplen.3940:

emikochan.8504:

but my NA friends play on the EU server with me fine… T_T I don’t see why we can’t guest to NA servers when na players can home on eu servers without issue.

That’s because their characters are saved on the EU data center. It doesn’t matter where the players are it matters where the character data is.

the data is still travelling from the servers in eu to na, can someone that understands networking explain why this is insurmountable?

emikochan.8504:

Esplen.3940:

emikochan.8504:

but my NA friends play on the EU server with me fine… T_T I don’t see why we can’t guest to NA servers when na players can home on eu servers without issue.

That’s because their characters are saved on the EU data center. It doesn’t matter where the players are it matters where the character data is.

the data is still travelling from the servers in eu to na, can someone that understands networking explain why this is insurmountable?

The issue is not ‘insurmountable’. It could be done, more or less “easily” in fact.
However, the issue is whether it is desirable, and it’s not desirable.
The reason is, the length of the route the data would need to travel would increase a great deal, and this would translate into lag.

Players in EU or Players in NA but on EU Server
EU Players <—> EU Server <—> NA Players

Players in EU or Players in NA but each player on different server
EU Players <—> EU Server <—> NA Server <—> NA Players

You can see the route is longer when you allow players on different servers to play with one another = more lag.

Pure Heart.1456:

emikochan.8504:

Esplen.3940:

emikochan.8504:

but my NA friends play on the EU server with me fine… T_T I don’t see why we can’t guest to NA servers when na players can home on eu servers without issue.

That’s because their characters are saved on the EU data center. It doesn’t matter where the players are it matters where the character data is.

the data is still travelling from the servers in eu to na, can someone that understands networking explain why this is insurmountable?

The issue is not ‘insurmountable’. It could be done, more or less “easily” in fact.
However, the issue is whether it is desirable, and it’s not desirable.
The reason is, the length of the route the data would need to travel would increase a great deal, and this would translate into lag.

Players in EU or Players in NA but on EU Server
EU Players <—> EU Server <—> NA Players

Players in EU or Players in NA but each player on different server
EU Players <—> EU Server <—> NA Server <—> NA Players

You can see the route is longer when you allow players on different servers to play with one another = more lag.

So why aren’t EU players saved to the NA data center implying symmetry in the relationship you proposed?

Considering cross-region play was a promise made before release (“play with whoever you want no matter where they’re from!” etc.), I like to hope they’ll revisit it at some point. I was really disappointed when this promise was broken.

I hope they would revisit this. It is possible to make it happen, as other MMO’s have proved.

And it’s possible here.

What it needs to de-couple your WvW server from the server you do PvE stuff from and a message that says “you may experience less than optimum game play if you play in other region” We’re adult and grown up enough to understand that’s just how things are, without any nannying from Anet.

Without going into too much detail. Instead of guesting, you actually transfer server(just like you do now) when you go cross region and transfer back when you go back. Guesting within region works the same as now. Changing WvW server costs money/gems and has exactly the same restrictions as now.

It was a catastrophic design decision for the community, which was turned from a global go anywhere, play with anyone to a chicken coup with a paywall fence.

While I don’t think cross region play is feasible yet. Cross region chat and auction houses are.

crestpiemangler.7631:

Pure Heart.1456:

emikochan.8504:

Esplen.3940:

emikochan.8504:

but my NA friends play on the EU server with me fine… T_T I don’t see why we can’t guest to NA servers when na players can home on eu servers without issue.

That’s because their characters are saved on the EU data center. It doesn’t matter where the players are it matters where the character data is.

the data is still travelling from the servers in eu to na, can someone that understands networking explain why this is insurmountable?

The issue is not ‘insurmountable’. It could be done, more or less “easily” in fact.
However, the issue is whether it is desirable, and it’s not desirable.
The reason is, the length of the route the data would need to travel would increase a great deal, and this would translate into lag.

Players in EU or Players in NA but on EU Server
EU Players <—> EU Server <—> NA Players

Players in EU or Players in NA but each player on different server
EU Players <—> EU Server <—> NA Server <—> NA Players

You can see the route is longer when you allow players on different servers to play with one another = more lag.

So why aren’t EU players saved to the NA data center implying symmetry in the relationship you proposed?

Because then every single EU player would have 100-500 ms lag by default, which is not really such a ‘quality’ service for many out here. Pretty much every big online game acts this way, you cannot put all datacenters in one place and expect good performance for everyone so instead they spread it all out.

Faowri.4159:

Considering cross-region play was a promise made before release (“play with whoever you want no matter where they’re from!” etc.), I like to hope they’ll revisit it at some point. I was really disappointed when this promise was broken.

I am fully able to play with whoever I want no matter where they’re from so I don’t really see how that is a “promise that was broken”.

Faowri.4159:

Considering cross-region play was a promise made before release (“play with whoever you want no matter where they’re from!” etc.), I like to hope they’ll revisit it at some point. I was really disappointed when this promise was broken.

As someone with gaming friends all over the world, I strongly agree with this.

Right now, I can’t play with half the people from my old guild because they’re on EU servers and I’m on NA servers. If I switch to EU, I lose access to all my friends from the other guild (all of who migrated to NA servers) as well as any friends I’ve made since. And they’re in the same position.

As it stands, the worldwide GW2 community is divided into two separate realms that can never interact with each other, ever.

It sucks, and I wish it’d go away.

lordkrall.7241:

Faowri.4159:

Considering cross-region play was a promise made before release (“play with whoever you want no matter where they’re from!” etc.), I like to hope they’ll revisit it at some point. I was really disappointed when this promise was broken.

I am fully able to play with whoever I want no matter where they’re from so I don’t really see how that is a “promise that was broken”.

That’s nice for you. Unfortunately I have a lot of American friends I can’t play with. I even have American friends I literally told “GET GW2! It will allow you to guest on other servers so the ocean divide is cool! Come join me!”, and then when guesting actually arrived, it was with region restrictions. So I then had to tell them “I know I convinced you to buy the game and all, but I actually can’t even play with you without paying to switch over to an American server every single time we want to play together. Sorry!”

The ArenaNet blog is pretty much gone, so unfortunately I can no longer provide quotes from pre-release confirming that yes, they promised us that with guesting we could play with anyone regardless of what server they were on. They went back on that. Perhaps it doesn’t affect you, but that still makes it a broken promise.

EDIT: Actually, thank you, GW2Guru:

A World of Choice – The Regions of Guild Wars 2

In time, we’ll also introduce free “guesting,” which will allow players to visit other worlds as guests as long as they have friends on those worlds. This feature will be free, but guest players will not be able to enter World vs. World, and the Power of the Mists bonuses from their home world will continue to apply to their characters.

ArenaNet: GW2 to be region tied for logins but you can play on any server

And don’t worry — we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from — not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We’ve got two datacenters — one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.

Being picky, the above is true. NA people can play with EU people and vice versa. So long as they pay for the privilege and wait 7 days before they can then play with other friends…

Faowri.4159:

That’s nice for you. Unfortunately I have a lot of American friends I can’t play with. I even have American friends I literally told “GET GW2! It will allow you to guest on other servers so the ocean divide is cool! Come join me!”, and then when guesting actually arrived, it was with region restrictions. So I then had to tell them “I know I convinced you to buy the game and all, but I actually can’t even play with you without paying to switch over to an American server every single time we want to play together. Sorry!”

The ArenaNet blog is pretty much gone, so unfortunately I can no longer provide quotes from pre-release confirming that yes, they promised us that with guesting we could play with anyone regardless of what server they were on. They went back on that. Perhaps it doesn’t affect you, but that still makes it a broken promise.

EDIT: Actually, thank you, GW2Guru:

A World of Choice – The Regions of Guild Wars 2

In time, we’ll also introduce free “guesting,” which will allow players to visit other worlds as guests as long as they have friends on those worlds. This feature will be free, but guest players will not be able to enter World vs. World, and the Power of the Mists bonuses from their home world will continue to apply to their characters.

ArenaNet: GW2 to be region tied for logins but you can play on any server

And don’t worry — we want you to play with your friends wherever you are. This policy only affects where you can login from — not which worlds you can access. People from NA will be able to play with people from EU at launch. We’ve got two datacenters — one in NA and one in EU. Those who do not fall into either of those two regions will default to the NA datacenter.

And yet there is nothing actually stopping you from playing with them.
You are not forced to play on the EU datacenter, you can without much trouble switch to the NA datacenter which would make it fully possible to play with the US people.

They never actually said that you would be able to have unrestricted guesting across data-centers, people just assumed (for some silly reason) that you could.
Their statement still holds true though, since you are not locked into the EU data-center.

Yeah, being picky and accepting inconvenience/costs that were not advertised is the only way it can be taken as true :P There was much more quoteworthy material on the ArenaNet blog, which I remember because I was glued to that daily prior to release, but it’s dead now

Either way, the impression given prior to release was that a) you can guest on any server you’re not part of, for free, if you have friends there and b) region doesn’t matter, we want you to play with the people you want to play with. That’s not how it ended up working, so I consider it a broken promise. It’s one that disappointed me considerably and ended up splitting apart me and several friends who played together during the free server transfer period when the guesting reality was finally revealed.

lordkrall.7241:

They never actually said that you would be able to have unrestricted guesting across data-centers, people just assumed (for some silly reason) that you could.

Hindsight’s 20/20. It was a very widespread assumption prior to guesting details being released that ‘you can play with any friend on any server via guesting’, and most importantly, it went unrefuted by ArenaNet until final guesting details were released. You’d think if they hadn’t intended for it to be interpreted the way it so widely was, they would have said something :P

LK, I realize you are trying to defend Anet, but it comes across like you are their shifty lawyer, pointing eagerly at the small print going ‘my client never said that’ and in doing so gives the impression that Anet are like a shifty, second hand car salesroom leading a customer down one route that will lead to a sale knowing full well they’ll be back to complain when its too late

Kinda like saying ‘Our car will get you anywhere in the country’, then finding out you can only travel on toll roads

IMHO this is what happened. They made statements like the above, and then found out their architecture, design and self imposed restrictions (WvW etc) couldn’t make it work. So, they abandoned being able to cross region guest after launch(it worked for a short while if you remember).

This was why guesting was so delayed. I’m sure given the parameters they were given they did their best, but sometimes you need to change the rules of the design to make something work. Something which those of us from GW1 remember well, Anet is very good at doing.

The issue is AFIK is that the only people who can work on this are very few, and engaged on other more pressing matters. So it could be re-worked and reviewed but its low down on Anet’s priority list