Guild Wars 2

Add current population stats into the scoring API and let 3rd party apps and websites compile and display those stats. Once those numbers are known the server communities will have a better idea of when to rally their troops and potentially helpful input on what servers should be linked together.

I am sure the side effect will be a bunch more quibbles about which server is best. There will also be players probably deciding to avoid getting smashed by numbers. However hiding these statistics hurt far more than it helps.

Oh and if I can tack one more feature on the end… Allow active WvW commanders to send global rally messages across linked servers. Feel free to put constraints on that feature but allowing it would make for better WvW.

Ignorance is bliss

I would definitely be interested in the avg population during each timezone the different servers.

It’s already been said a million times* that Anet won’t release population numbers because of business reasons, so asking for it is pointless. I do wonder whether there’s some possible workaround to that — e.g. giving average population by “standard units” that aren’t publicly defined, maybe with a degree of built-in fuzzing or rounding so that the unit size can’t be easily reverse-engineered. That would give an idea of how servers stack up against one another, which is what carries the most interest (not absolute numbers).

*scientific estimate

They won’t, if they did how could they BS us and fall back on the “our metrics show” excuse.

Soon, we promise guys.

I think if we had access to population data at hourly intervals we could develop a good matching algorithm that takes time zone coverage into account (or at least show why Arenanet’s matching algorithm is optimal).

In the beginning, there were 21 NA and 24 EU home worlds.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-worlds-of-guild-wars-2/

6 More worlds were added to NA and EU later to a total of 24 NA and 27 EU.

Popularity of WvW made this addition possible.

Now there are 12 NA and 18 EU effective competing worlds as participation declined.

Anet players: “It is time to show population numbers!”

Anet: “Pulls out 5d20 and rolls”

Anet: “We sure we should tell them BG only has 26 people?”

… forum posting goes unanswered

If we had a responsible player base, I’d be all for this. Sadly, this would only make the bandwaggoning lopsided matches much worse.

Anet earns a lot of money from server populations migrating back and forth, them gems fill pockets after all.