Hello fellow WvW’ers!
There has been a lot of debate on the forums since the announcement about the introduction of paid transfers. There are a lot of people who are, understandably, upset that this is happening. There are also a lot of people who are perhaps quite eager for this to happen. Then there are those in the middle who either don’t care, or who want to wait and see what happens before yelling or cheering in response.
I wanted to post something that, maybe, will help paint paid transfers in a positive light. And while I don’t expect to win over those who are disappointed, I truly feel that this will make the WvW community, and the experience as a whole, a lot more healthy.
Let me tell you a story. I’m from Henge of Denravi. When it comes to players leaving, I think it’s safe to say we’re the authority of how it can go REALLY bad but still come out good at the other end.
By now, I’d expect everyone knows what happened to us, but for those who don’t, here’s the brief: We were Tier 1. We had a massive exodus. We’ve been falling the ranks ever since. During the last fifteen weeks (yes, you read that right), we have steadily dropped to our current position in Tier 7. We’ve been through a lot – as the ranks dropped, more and more people left the server. Despite the losses, we kept up the fight. We’ve faced the zergs, fought back against massive odds, and I think overall we’ve proven that you can kick us as much as you want but we’ll always come back for the fight.
Now, let’s examine: if paid transfers had been in place at the beginning, would this have been our experience? It’s possible. There has been commentary that the paid transfers aren’t going to change anything – surges of movement will still occur. This is also possible. But on the whole, our server has grown rather tight. We’re one big happy family, and we’re loyal. We’ll stand by the server until she’s nothing but dust in a computer somewhere.
My point is, to those servers who are lamenting their losses (bandwagoners, people jumping ship before the transfers kick in), sure, you might be in for a few hard weeks. Maybe, like us, a lot of hard weeks. Should we have to face this? Probably not, but that’s a topic for another thread (ranking issues – gotta love ‘em). At the end of it all, if the coming of paid transfers performs some spring cleaning for the servers, I’d say take it as a positive note. Those of you that are left, come together, form a bond, and fight for your server on the battlefield. And have fun while you do it.
~Special Note~
To those in Tier 7 that we’ve fought this week (Gates of Madness and Darkhaven), thank you again for an absolutly fantastic week. At the time of this post, it looks like we’re going to take home our first win in fifteen weeks. I can honestly say that, even through all our losses, I’m happy that we’ve ended up where we are now if that means we can have a repeat of this week (looks like our match up stays the same for next week). And I’m sure I’m not the only HoD’er that feels that way. Cheers to the good fight!
