Guild Wars 2

Mega server map chat is a load of continuous chatter like a pack of high school kids in the audience of a reality tv show. Topics change faster than a hookers john and are about as useful. What are you doing to draw PVE players into WvW? How are you engaging that massive cluster F to get to the real target audience? What can you do to break past the spam about dungeon runs and the best way to craft ascended gear?

I am not a map spammer I am much more interested in talking to individuals. Now instead of saying hello and knowing I am likely talking to a player from my server there is no telling where the person is from. It is like being on a city street looking for friends from your nearby small town.

Identity should not be defined by a “server” which is an incredibly arbitrary tag. IMO identity in GW2 should be defined by guilds and their allies. This is particularly true of WvW. Server identity is a holdover from old school design requirements and has virtually no distinction.

This is sounding like what happened to World of Warcraft after the random dungeon finder hit. At first it was a smash success. Players could get into dungeons instantly. Then the golden rule of the internet took over

person + anonymity + audience = kittenhole

The megaserver system is going to do the same thing. You don’t know what server anyone is from so you can’t get back in touch with them. This increased anonymity will sour the playerbase. Hopefully not to the extent that the RDF did to WoW.

As for WvW… we have to recruit for guilds from inside WvW anymore. Can’t spam LA… 24 different servers are there. Can’t spam queensdale.. same thing. Definitely can’t spam in the pvp lobby where we might actually get some decent players looking for a guild because everyone is there.

We’re a step away from the hotjoin mess that Edge of the Mists is. ANET just had to get rid of server identity first.

I don’t understand all the paranoid and xenophobic reactions to the megaserver.

Use your server’s community website to retain that sense of community.

And when all else fails you can always ask the individual(s) “What server are you from?”

Our time is valuable. The people in the game that fight at your side are the next most valuable resource. The framework that is established to build and maintain a community is what allows for those people to grow in value. Eliminate the framework or provide another that doesn’t facilitate clear communication and delineation and you have forfeited the value of the community.

Perahps this could be resolved with a new chat filter.

I propose /r (stands for realm, since /w [for world] and /s [for server] are already taken)

There’s already a system in place which tracks your world association, so this could be an easy fix.

I am not a salesman but I am certain that there are some around that can tell you what percentage of a particular amount of contacts are likely to be sales. It is the same with recruiting. If I have to sort through: are you from my server, are you in a guild, are you a WvW player, do you have any interest in a guild then maybe have a solid conversation to see if the person fits you are going to be spending a lot of time.

Prior to the mega servers I could see clearly was the person tagged? Were they in a guild that has a known commitment in WvW? Join party to see if they were brand new or not. Those were all factors that allowed you to make quick decisions on whether to engage or not. I don’t recruit from my allies guilds it does nothing to build the total force. This isn’t salmon fishing at the top of the river where you just want a full net. You have limited time to get the job done and you want people that are going to show up and fight.

Servers are a larger community than just guilds and friends.

Servers usually have different cultures which are reflected in map chat. The differences can be quite pronounced.

The megaserver does not guarantee that a player lands in the same known place, full of known players from their circle of friends, guild and their previous server.

As was the case all last week. Perhaps that is an issue with the new system not working properly. If so, (and I have no reason to believe it is a bug), I have no faith that this will be addressed, given ANet’s track record with bugs, and their removal of posts yesterday that were objectively describing this.

I belong to a small guild. We’ve played together online for 15 years, we have known each other going on 22 to 28 years. We have always enjoyed games that embrace and foster close a close-knit community feel (example: DAoC, one the best known community-centric games outside of AC/UO.)

GW2 offered that sense of community at release due to in-game mechanics, and an array of players that wanted to get away from the self-focused, gear-centric feel of games that had devolved down into nothing but community at a guild level.

The server I carefully joined at headstart, and along with a multitude of other players, was extremely community oriented in both PvE and WvW. Folks there were helpful, mature and friendly. And worked hard to create and maintain a playing environment that sustained that. Even in WvW, where non-WvW players were embraced.

I know there are other servers that have similar stories and values.

There are some that do not. We’ve seen those threads even here on the WvW forum.

Landing repeatedly in places last week for PvE, that did not share my home server’s values / culture, resulted in my having to turn off /map chat to cut off the immature, “screaming in caps”, constantly derogatory, attacking, posturing communication that occurred there.

I felt I was back in those games I left behind in order to join GW2.

It didn’t help that there wasn’t a single familiar guild tag or person out there that I recognized. For almost a week.

I enjoy being on my home server, there are people there I recognize, guild tags I recognize when I am out in PvE AND WvW. Folks that have covered my back, whose back I have covered in WvW and are well-met in PvE, doing encounters, bosses, and/or just chatting.

It’s like walking into a familiar spot where everybody knows your name. (Cue: Cheers theme song.)

I don’t have to be grouped up with friends, or my guild (who might not be able to play when I am) because I am part of a larger circle of players: my server.

Take that away (which was missing last week), and you take away one of two reasons for playing GW2. The other reason is WvW (which is based on DAoC’s community-oriented RvR.). Take away that remaining sense of community as well, and there is no reason to remain with this game.

It’s scientifically established that 50% of the world’s population values a sense of community.

Remove that, and you have the potential to cut your playerbase in half.

-Not looking forward to seeing this game devolve down into community based ONLY on guilds.

Been there. Left that.

I’m not enjoying any of this megaserver stuff either. The idea was fine, in that players from servers, guilds, parties would be moved to the same instances but in practice that simply isn’t happening. The fact that language issues are happening is proof of that.

These days the very few times I regularly run into non-guildies from my server is in the WvW maps, and it’s even been more common on EoTM than it is on the PvE maps.

Straegen.2938:

Identity should not be defined by a “server” which is an incredibly arbitrary tag. IMO identity in GW2 should be defined by guilds and their allies. This is particularly true of WvW. Server identity is a holdover from old school design requirements and has virtually no distinction.

Devs should read this before talk about the “server pride” when someone talk about wvw dead servers and the need of merging it.

Server communities formed because random people logged into a random server and it grew from there. Without a server concept, the exact same thing will happen. A community will form only with a larger pool of players. Personal identity in that larger community should be defined by a players guild. This already happens by opponents in WvW.

As a side note GW had no concept of server and it was a great environment.

At least now I can see people on PvE… And I no longer need to guest on Blackgate everytime I want somenthing done because my server is a complete wasteland…

Straegen.2938:

As a side note GW had no concept of server and it was a great environment.

I’m curious, because I only played GW1 for 2 weeks and I found a lot of the chat there (in the “lobby”) no different than WoW and WoW clone games (e.g. did not find it a particularly good experience.)

Wasn’t GW1 a “CMO” as opposed to an MMO? I’m just curious about the number of guilds that played together, and how many players came together to do large encounters in the normal way of an MMO. (Assumptions intended.)

I’ve played (even developed) small graphical MUDs. The communities there, because of the nature of the games, tended to be very good. Most players shared similar values and approaches to the game because there was not a lot of diversity inherent in those games.

The diversity of playstyle within an MMO, even within WvW in GW2 illustrates the differences in values that we are seeing within this thread.

Some players are interested only in the combat itself without any need for a community feel. Others prefer combat through and with community. Some, with no gaming experience of a larger community outside of guilds, only see value in guilds as their community.

The developers of a game create a sense of community by the structures that exist at game release and through game mechanics. They then become the steward for their game, hopefully maintaining the integrity of that original vision. Changing social structures close to 2 years after release in order to solve technical / business issues without an awareness or concern for the integrity of the original vision and/or the resulting impact on their customers (and their customers experiences) can be viewed as a short-sighted business decision at best. At worst, it can be seen as callous, desperate, disruptive and/or destructive. Exaggeration intended.

Right now the game feels fractured.

At this point, I’ve stopped investing in this game. I’m now curiously watching to see what business decision ANet makes regarding WvW. Right now, having PvE exist in a megaserver format (which appeases a lot of low pop players and those that see no benefit to servers) and having WvW remain linked to servers ….

… I’m kind of wondering how they are going to resolve this without alienating and/or driving off customers they might have retained if they’d either just bitten the bullet and fully committed to megaserver across the board (eliminating the current WvW structure) or just done a clean and simple server merge instead.

Changing their vision and yet still trying to retain multiple sets of customers, they may end up having unhappy customers across the board at a time when competitors can take advantage.

goldenwing.8473:

I’m curious, because I only played GW1 for 2 weeks and I found a lot of the chat there (in the “lobby”) no different than WoW and WoW clone games (e.g. did not find it a particularly good experience.)

Wasn’t GW1 a “CMO” as opposed to an MMO? I’m just curious about the number of guilds that played together, and how many players came together to do large encounters in the normal way of an MMO. (Assumptions intended.)

GW1 is not like that. There is no teq/shat/claw w/e boss there where people can meet in large numbers to take down. Everything is instanced, so once you enter an area for a mission/quest/vanquish w/e, it’s only you and your party and nobody else. You get your own copy of the map with everything in it. Once in, nobody can join you. Maximum party size is 8 and there are only 2 elite missions where the size is increased to 12. So a guild could not get more than 8 members in.

Guilds were limited to 100 players (dunno if it’s still the case though) and 10 guilds could join together in an alliance for a larger community. The only place where all members of the guilds and alliance could meet was in towns/outposts or in one guild’s guild hall, and that was only for social activities since no fighting was possible in these areas.

SkyFallsInThunder.8257:

goldenwing.8473:

I’m curious, because I only played GW1 for 2 weeks and I found a lot of the chat there (in the “lobby”) no different than WoW and WoW clone games (e.g. did not find it a particularly good experience.)

Wasn’t GW1 a “CMO” as opposed to an MMO? I’m just curious about the number of guilds that played together, and how many players came together to do large encounters in the normal way of an MMO. (Assumptions intended.)

GW1 is not like that. There is no teq/shat/claw w/e boss there where people can meet in large numbers to take down. Everything is instanced, so once you enter an area for a mission/quest/vanquish w/e, it’s only you and your party and nobody else. You get your own copy of the map with everything in it. Once in, nobody can join you. Maximum party size is 8 and there are only 2 elite missions where the size is increased to 12. So a guild could not get more than 8 members in.

Guilds were limited to 100 players (dunno if it’s still the case though) and 10 guilds could join together in an alliance for a larger community. The only place where all members of the guilds and alliance could meet was in towns/outposts or in one guild’s guild hall, and that was only for social activities since no fighting was possible in these areas.

Thank you.

That was my basic understanding. (And experience.) Hence the comment about assumptions: there was not MMO play within GW1.

That’s a different dynamic in terms of gameplay, diversity and social structure.

GW2 has a lot of diversity built into the game, and a wide spectrum of values which players have brought from other games which holds up under that diversity.

Don’t know what the best solution is to the PvE-megaserver – WvW fracture, but having started down the road, it seems leaving it in the current state is not going to end up working well. In spite of the devs comments that WvW server communities will continue as is (for now – modifier mine), they may have plans to overhaul WvW in the future.

Seems a reasonable assumption (from more than a few players) given the other thread on the forum.

In the meantime, I will continue to advocate for the gameplay that drew me in to this game (specifically community-oriented WvW) until the devs make a definitive statement to the contrary.

I would have thought alot of Servers already had established Communities by now who have their own Websites and Voice Comms.

I’ve never really heard of, or seen anyone calling for reinforcements in LA or anywhere else; the one time I remember this happening is when Archaos from RUIN did this while they were on Desolation..

Boom.6148:

I don’t understand all the paranoid and xenophobic reactions to the megaserver.

Use your server’s community website to retain that sense of community.

And when all else fails you can always ask the individual(s) “What server are you from?”

They can lie about it and guest to your server so nobody can tell the difference. You’d have to drag every person you recruited into WvW to verify them, the same pain in the kitten process used on Ts3, and honestly guildies deserve better than to be scrutinized.