Please realize this is the first report, and many more are to come from this one. I will be reviewing past reports in order to update them in the future in order to add certain concerns, or idea’s that the community feels needs to be added.
Next Weeks Topic: Siege Trolling
Please feel free to give feedback on this report, and ideas for next weeks topic.
Cheers!
Issue: Unbalanced WvW matchup
Thread links:
(1) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Solution-to-fix-the-population-imbalance *
(2) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Completely-Unbalanced-WvW-matchups/first
(3) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/WvW-balance-limited-resources
(4) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Clever-solution-for-imbalance-wvw
(5) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/please-put-auto-balance-into-EOTM (for future reports)
(6) https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Community-Standards-Mass-Server-Transfers/first#post4790876
I linked these threads due to the amount of “constructive criticism” present. Below you will see quotes from different users that I’ve found to be the most enlightening on the subject of balance when matching up servers in WvW.
• Nativity.3057 “….Shift the idea of GW2 endgame from fractals to WvW Let’s be completely honest, GW2 lacks “endgame” unlike other MMOs (cough WoW). The game’s name has “war” in it, why not focus on that aspect? While making WvW endgame might result in server stacking (players wanting endgame equips quicker by joining servers that are winning WvW battles), actions can be taken to prevent this. One would be to prohibit server transfers to same tier servers. Another idea would be to handicap the server that is in first place (and stays in the same tier). If the server stays in first with the handicap (handicaps will increase with each win), the rewards for winning increases as well.”
• Smooth Penguin.5294 “They can’t combine servers, because in the event that there’s a mass influx of new WvW players, the combined servers won’t have space to hold them all. The best option at the moment is to keep the servers as they are, and just try to give more incentive for PvE players to WvW more often.”
• Rimmy.9217 “Dropping map population caps to sixty or even forty would probably nudge that along, even if the map caps were only temporary. If player population is a fluid (which it’s not), then rather than the hydraulic despotism of hoarding it all in one place it should be left to to spread out. A large group of people have more fun in a wide seven-meter deep pool than in a single-lane pool that’s thirty meters deep. And more matchups without population imbalances means more fun for more people – fun in a game, if you can believe it. It will also mean that players new to WvW will find an active scene regardless of which server they’re on. It will also lead to more matchup variability, which is definitely a good thing. And finally, it’ll mean that being in the top three means more than “we out-blobbed the other servers”. There will have to be a hint of skill in there too.”
-Popular ideas-
A) Population reductions
B) Server Merging
C) A reward system (similar to the PvP reward track) based on the duration of a player’s stay on a single server.
D) Battle Groups (mentioned in the first link)
E) Better rewards for doing WvW
Based on the communities responses approximately: (posts on subject)
57.73% suggested for better rewards (101)
15.24% suggested server merging (26)
12.08% suggested population reductions (17)
10.32% suggested battle groups (18)
4.63% other (8)
Based on the statistics above, it can be postulated that earning better rewards in WvW seems to be the general consensus for getting new players to join WvW. Having new, and improved rewards will help bring PvE players into WvW to help establish WvW as a form of end-game content. This could eliminate some issues of barren servers, with this influx of new players. Merging servers could be put into place after the revamp of rewards in order to help servers who still need help “refreshing” their WvW populous. Population cap reduction, however, has been vigorously stated by the community as a form of containment for the unbalanced match-ups. An opposing argument has been made, although, stating that creating a lower population cap in the WvW maps could lead to extremely high queue times in higher server tiers. This brings up the point of differentiating map caps, based on that server’s population. I digress, the main points that have been made have been to either “revamp” existing rewards to pull PvE players back into WvW, or to merge servers in order to collect the few players in the barren servers in order to allow for more balanced gameplay in the lower tiers.
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