Guild Wars 2

Obviously this post is concerned with the EU ladder, and doesn’t really have any relevance to the NA ladder.

I was wondering how much difference it makes to server performance and the WvW experience being on, for example, a french-only server, compared to being on an international EU server. As of next matchup, there will only be 1 international server in the top 2 tiers, the rest being 2 french, 2 german, 1 spanish. It’s also noticeable that nearly all the dedicated language servers are in the top half of the ladder, while the bottom half has alot more international servers. Over the past month or two, all of the international servers in the top half of the ladder have been struggling, while the german servers in particular seem to be surging forward everywhere.

Does being on a dedicated language server provide a greater sense of community spirit, a sense of loyalty and duty to your fellow countrymen? Do the International servers have a greater difficulty in getting organised because of language/culture barriers? Generally the international servers mainly speak english, but there are usually a few guilds that can’t speak it, at least not well, and many players who can’t speak english at all.

Is this why we see a stronger “guild culture” on the international servers, like Piken, SFR, AG, Gandara, while the french/german servers have a stronger “server culture”, with everyone in the zone on TS and guilds not discouraging randoms from following and instead getting them involved? By the way, I’m not saying the language servers don’t have any good guilds, because they quite clearly do. However, I think it’s fair to say they have fewer WvW guilds.

Or is this just a misconception, a case of “grass is always greener on the other side”. I’ve always played on the same server, Gandara, and have no actual experience of playing on other servers, and my views are very much based on word-of-mouth and observing the enemy in our matchups. Would be interesting to hear from someone who has tried both international and dedicated language.

Would an “English-Only” server perfrom better than the “International” ones, would it have a stronger sense of community and identity? Or am I reading too much into it, and infact it would be no different at all?

I’m making no suggestions or complaints or accusations here, I was just wondering

The top tier language servers have better worldwide coverage, with German being the exception. The French have Quebecois players while Baruch Bay has a lot of Spanish speakers both in Europe and in North/South America.

Not many people speak German outside of Europe but it is the most common first language for Europeans.

Ragnar.4257:

Is this why we see a stronger “guild culture” on the international servers, like Piken, SFR, AG, Gandara, while the french/german servers have a stronger “server culture”, with everyone in the zone on TS and guilds not discouraging randoms from following and instead getting them involved?

I would say that’s an accurate assessment, but not the only factor at play.