Wow tier one is so hostile right now. It’s a really unpleasant place to be if you read the forums or you see the impact these discussions have on the wider community in the “game”.
I guess this is what happens when a server dominates (because of coverage) for so long – everyone else just wants to see them fall (again, JQ beat SoS recently without the power of their new transfers, JQ was always a threat and the balance of power was never far apart, can we say that now?). It might be nice for some people to finally be on the winning side with the greatest coverage (or for certain guild to continue to cherry pick the servers with the strongest coverage based on the gaps they fill and transfers that go with them, prioritising winning the week over healthy competition), but is it the people who have been coming second for weeks that are posting this or is it all the bandwagon transfers that are bringing this attitude over to the forums?
JQ guilds have a lot to prove this week. There is a big carrot for winning tier 1 for them (one that no longer exists for SoS), a lot of those guilds are new to the server (some new to NA) and they are fighting to be top. SoS has been top for many weeks (because of coverage, partly a natural play base in Oceanic/SEA time zones and partly because dedicated WvW guilds/players would go the extra mile and play longer than they wanted to to keep the coverage going, a lot of times I think that’s the difference between first and second), they’ve faced new servers, they’ve faced early week point leads from servers that threatened to (and in one week without any outside help, did) push them to second. There is no prize for first place. There is no bonus for your server, no big loot chest you get to pray to the RNG gods over, you just seem to build up the resentment of others and begin to have guilds push themselves just as hard or harder the next week to do it all over again. As much as beating the new JQ means, it’s just another win, for JQ, it will be one of their second win in a long time (the first on the server for all the new transfers). Ultimately first place comes down to coverage, who has it and who is going to burn out trying to maintain it.
In tier one WvW it often looks like it’s less about winning the battles at the time of the day you are playing and more about winning the entire week (although I heard that’s something the WvW team is working atm, I look forward to seeing how that changes the meta, if at all), and the closer you are to first place, the more true that becomes. Owning your part of the map isn’t enough, owning a few of their points isn’t enough, even if you are in the lead there will be pressure to have the PPT even greater than it currently is, to relieve pressure on other time zones, pressure enemy morale on other servers (the fair weather players are on every server and it’s very common to see dramatic differences in WvW participation based on whether you are winning or losing .. Owning points becomes less about strategically controlling the map and more about strategically controlling the score board. Playing the game becomes more about playing the score board.
Like all of us, I don’t know what WvW will look like in the coming weeks and months. Free server transfers have defined the landscape since launch and with the announcement of removing them, it seems they have caused a massive upheaval and shift in the WvW lanscape for many servers. Some of them were left in the dust and will have to wait for free transfers to low population to pick up the pieces, or maybe their WvW will evolve to a different play style more about smaller 1v1 guild battles rather than massive zergs fighting over weekly tallys – we might actually see the most competitive guilds in lower tiers rather than tier one which is focused on competitive servers. Maybe the new JQ will dominate for the foreseeable future. With no free transfers to create another server with their coverage we might not see serious competition for first place, JQ and SoS could hold the best coverage, one edging out the other and even with new transfers, the lower tier servers might fail to compete seriously for first. It’s hard to see where WvW is going or how the landscape stands now that transfers are over (or how much damage was done by this final blow). The guilds that care the most about their server winning are all in tier one and two (and Kaineng), the guilds and players that care about competitive fighting might not be.
Regardless of what happens in the aftermath of the server transfer exodus and influx, I really hope tier one becomes a less hostile place between players. There’s always petty accusations and kitten talking, but if the open hostility and poor sportsmanship we are seeing from posters this week (and last) is what’s in the future for tier one, I’d rather be on Eredon Terrace.
