Guild Wars 2

To those who played DaoC, there was this concept of realm pride. You felt a part of something. This is perhaps something that is sorely lacking in WvW since the only difference between one server and the next is the name. That’s it.

My guild and I have been on our server from day 1, but a lot of other guilds have come from this server or another. It seems that if a server gains ranks, then all sorts of people flock to the server to be ‘the best’, queues increase and the good guilds (often the ones responsible for the rank gain) leave for a lower pop server so they can play together.

There is much discussion about free transfers, which I think is a good idea for the lowest pop servers, but I wonder if there are mechanics that could be introduced to make us want to stay on the server?

Perhaps this could be as simple as special titles that can only be obtained by active participation on that server. You transfer and you lose the title. The title would be specific to that server (i.e. with the name of the server in the title). Then when you have that title on people know you’ve been with the server a long time.

Also, is there any way that each server could have some sort of theming? Each server has its own unique finishing move.. again only obtainable by sticking with it for some time.

If Anet were willing to devote some resources it would be nice if each server had its own castle style. I’m not talking about physical changes to the models, just different brick/stone textures and maybe server flags alongside the guild flags on towers and keeps. (The bricks dont change when its taken over, they just affect what look your home BL structures and your corner of EB look like at start of matchup)

There are probably other ideas I haven’t thought of.. but seems to me that little aesthetic things that can be earned through loyalty would vastly improve the WvW experience.

Of course ANet will have to balance this against their financial desire to allow gems to be bought for transfers. The above could be seen as actively discouraging the purchase of gems. On the other hand, keeping the playerbase happy and keeping them playing the game may be better in the long run.

I don’t think loyalty within a video game should be encouraged.

We’re all here to play for fun and if there’s a more fun situation out there than the present situation you should take it.

Server pride results from a good gaming community within the server; so if your server has that, your server will retain players, and will develop a good well rounded force.

However, keep note you can probably have good relations of at most 15 players in a game. And probably close to 3-5 if you’re not charismatic, but that’s okay. Play with your buddies and care not what other people think.

there should be max server pops. e.g 10k per server or something according to the total population of players regularly playing

Each server needs personality to archive that. Maybe each server should have unique logo(make a contest and choose the best work from each server if you don’t want to hire artists), color(you have millions of colors for your disposal I bet you can choose one for each server) or titles(covered in OP post)?

Peetee.9406:

I don’t think loyalty within a video game should be encouraged.

We’re all here to play for fun and if there’s a more fun situation out there than the present situation you should take it.

Loyalty can be fun too. Why do you think people cheer for their teams in football and not jump to another team when their team starts losing? Why do you think in school people are proud to be part of their basketball club and wear their school colors? Because it makes you feel like you belong and thus makes it a fun activity. I think encouraging loyalty could help more the game and the servers overall rather than hurt it.

Loyalty to the server is in fact loyalty to the people on the server. The letters SBI mean little to me – the people I know there mean a lot. So it goes back to attachment to the people you play with. The best way to build this attachment is to have people play together, communicate, put efforts into common goals.

Sovereign – I do have good relations with more than 15 people in the game (on our server at least). It can be done.

Right after the SBI Exodus there was a meeting where we decided to focus on inclusiveness, on getting people to play together in all contexts. We organized regular large scale open events like the “Temple invasions” (weekly since february, going to do a full temple run, one week on our server – the other guesting on another one, usually a low pop one so not to interfere too much). We had weekly WvW jumping puzzle runs (including when we were stomped). Weekly “WvW and Roller skate parties”, “Map clearing groups” …. and so one. Guild mission interguild support.
These events started small – but grew up as a constant over the time – we now have almost full maps for the temple clears, and its not about the dragonite – it’s about a gaming night with friends. Community TS usage also increased a lot.

Right now people on SBI know each other more than they did before – when we beat teq it was not the work of any specific guild. The whole map was on TS and most people knew each other from previous meetings.

You cannot build loyalty on WvW alone. Victory is too shallow and dependent on factors completely out of anyone’s direct control. War Machine tried that on SBI (and later on Kaineng I think) – they took the responsibility of server WvW success on their shoulders – and got burned out. I’m really sorry for them – good people.

Once you start focusing on PPT and rank you are lost. You need to be able blend server identity, playing together WvW and PvE enjoyment together.

SBI has attracted several WvW focused guilds lately and is raising in rank. A lot of casual WvWers came too. Maybe they’ll stay once we get crushed or maybe not. I hope at least some will stay, not because our WvW but because they liked the community. I know for sure that people who stayed past exodus will not leave though. That’s server pride.

But never blame people who leave a server – they are human beings playing a game trying to enjoy it. They did not sign a contract with anyone – may they find what they are looking for.