Guild Wars 2

In the last few weeks playing WvW is more than frustrating, some servers have at least 2x40 pple blobs and some barely gather up 20-25, because lack of people. Moving to another server dosent look like a good solution, like many other guilds did, the "low population" servers will suffer even more. Maybe some servers could be merged and solve the low population issue. What say you?

I had a strange idea for server mergers the other day: temporary mergers.
Instead of the current glicko based matchup system, we could track population over time and then match servers based on those coverage maps (so each side tends to have players at the same tine). Then, start temporarily merging servers ala eotm, on a weekly basis, to create better matchups.
At Max, merge 2 servers for the week.

This way, you still see your servermates consistently, and the temporaey metaservers could allow for better matchups and variety than are possible now.
So a matchup could end up as
goldserv vs highsilver+highbronze vs midsilver+ midsilver
for one week. Another might be just 4x bronze servers and one silver server.

A lot of people argue that this will be negative because servers will loose their identity.

I despise what the megaservers have done to server identity and communities in PvE and have two friends who played daily and have over 10,000 achievement points each (one of whom got me into GW2) and plenty of gem store purchases, who have stopped playing Guild Wars 2 because of what the megaservers did to our server community in PvE. I have no desire to see the same thing forced on WvW. I’d rather my server fall back to 24th place and get stuck there again than be subjected to a forced merge.

Berk.8561:

I despise what the megaservers have done to server identity and communities in PvE

I do agree with you on how detrimental the Mega Server was to our community. We don’t even have a form of communication with our community in game. Thus, maybe “Worlds” should be tossed aside for new names and have new themes created. That might bring renewed interest into the game actually. Would be a perfect time to introduce a new race and profession too.

My thought on this is “merge” NA and Eu servers together that are on about the same tier. I would bet every NA server is advertising for EU players and vice versa anyhow. Have the physical location of the home server change around 3am EST to Eu and at say 3pm EST back to NA

BlazeQ.1095:

A lot of people argue that this will be negative because servers will loose their identity.

Most of the people that are against this know that it will only be a temporary solution since there is nothing to stop people from continuing to stack on tier 1 servers. What’s the point of destroying communities if it doesn’t fix anything?

Jim Hunter.6821:

BlazeQ.1095:

A lot of people argue that this will be negative because servers will loose their identity.

Most of the people that are against this know that it will only be a temporary solution since there is nothing to stop people from continuing to stack on tier 1 servers. What’s the point of destroying communities if it doesn’t fix anything?

This, and there are more sensible less destructive options that are easier to implement that we should obviously try first. First we should give incentives for starting out on or transferring to servers that have lower population. If that doesn’t help, we can start talking more drastic measures like merging servers.

Further, why should we assume that higher population is ACTUALLY better for servers/the game in the long run? Sure, some people say they want more people to play with, other people like less players. More fundamentally however, have you ever noticed the toxicity that is prevalent the higher up you go in tiers? Check gw2wvw for example, the high tier threads are absolutely filled with trash, and they even drop down to bronze tier threads to make fun of us/bash us frequently.

Another issue is options. In some ways you have more options on higher tier servers, in other ways you have less. For example, on low tiers a small havoc group can (if at the right place at the right time) change the course of an entire day of WvW. It’s rare, true, but it happens. In low tiers, it’s possible to capture a paper keep with 5 or less people, it’s risky but it’s definitely feasible. Every so often you’ll even see t3 things flipped by havoc groups. People call this PvD/PvE, but that’s not the case. The exciting thing about it is that you know a wild zerg could come at any second, but that there’s also a chance you’ll successfully take the keep. It’s a battle of efficiency, speed, timing, and awareness. The offensive group picks the best target, sets up the cap as quickly and efficiently as possible (often preparing an hour ahead of time), and it’s up to the small BL defense crew to keep an eye on things and warn the zerg if things get out of hand. It’s a LOT of fun, it’s my favorite activity in this game at the moment. That just isn’t seriously plausible in higher tiers.

That’s just one example, but I hope the point has been conveyed. Bigger isn’t necessarily better for the server or the game, even if some people think it is (and again, some people also think it’s not, most bronze people like it in bronze).

Here is the solution I put in the other dev brainstorming thread. It works directly with the answer posted here.

This is my solution. Not server merges, but Teaming. My idea is harder to implement for Anet, because it would require a physical changeover of server location 2x a day.

We have 26 North American and 26 European Servers. Someone mentioned bringing that number down to 20, Maybe that is necessary, maybe its not.That would depend on predicted competitiveness.

There are 3 things to consider when making a successful solution:

1: Solving Coverage wars. No matter what server you are on, you can agree that the biggest issue with this game is that if a server has a lower population during X time, that will be taken advantage of. Most servers believe that “If only we had people in X time, we would be competitive”.

2: Not turning this game into Blob Wars for lower tier servers. People on lower tier servers are there for a reason, and the reason is that they DO NOT WANT TO BE PART OF QUED MAP KARMA BLOBS. The reason is not a skill issue as those who are in T1 and T2 believe, it is often though that their computers cannot handle 200 people going at it OR that they simply do not enjoy that style of game play. Any solution has to take this into account.

3: Server identity. Any Solution should, for the great majority of the servers, encompass allowing us to fight for our server. Yes I agree that in some cases that may be untenable.

So, My Solution is Server Teaming . That has been discussed here, however I would like to do it differently. Instead of teaming up NA Servers to fight other NA servers, Team NA Servers with EU servers based upon known coverage gaps. These gaps have been recorded by Mos Millenium and other sites. “Just” ( this word always encompases a ton of work that the guy saying it doesn’t think or know about) Team up a NA server with the EU server that has somewhat the same population and coverage situation.

To me the problem with this idea would be the lag for each side if the server placement for the maps were static. EU would hate life with a server in Texas. NA would hate life with a server in Madrid.

The answer to this would be some sort of changeover period. Hopefully, since information on server status could be sent live from one server set to the other, very brief. People would need to be kicked from maps, but you guys dont seem to have a problem doing that to hot fix the flight path of ambient mosquitos, and we have gotten used to build “Dangits” so Im pretty sure we can work with this too. A couple minutes to change over the server placement during say 3:30AM and 3:30PM EST wouldn’t kill us.

These teams could be permanent or they could be temporary based upon changes in population on each server, changes in how each server competes, etc.

Most importantly, each server would get a strong NA and a strong EU presence. This would change coverage wars in the lower tiers. Perhaps the upper tiers just don’t get teamed at all. Fly on Alone Little Blackgate! Be Free Seafarers Rest!

This allows 40+ servers to keep their identity, and for those in “silver and bronze” Get their fondest wish: Someone to fight in that G-d kitten time period when we arent awake or are at work.

This type of move would increase competitiveness on all servers. And, if made a weekly change, can be worked on until its done right.

This move also stops you from destroying communities by sending down what lower tiers perceive as “Arrogant SOBs” or pushing up what higher tiers perceive as “Skill-less Noobs”. None of us. NONE. OF. US. Want that drama.

Easterbunny.6170:

Here is the solution I put in the other dev brainstorming thread. It works directly with the answer posted here.

This is my solution. Not server merges, but Teaming. My idea is harder to implement for Anet, because it would require a physical changeover of server location 2x a day.

We have 26 North American and 26 European Servers. Someone mentioned bringing that number down to 20, Maybe that is necessary, maybe its not.That would depend on predicted competitiveness.

~ snipped for brevity ~

Not bad, but there are 24 NA servers and 27 European servers. There’d have to be a little bit of jiggery pokery to make it fit.

Other than that, it’s an idea worth trying. ANet, let’s try a couple of weeks or a month of this.