Guild Wars 2

So we’re wrapping up week one of our weekly server pairings, and Kaineng has worked hard this week to secure our place at the very bottom of the rankings again. (Insider secret, it’s not as hard as it looks.)

People have commented in some of my posts about how much fun Kaineng seems to be having even though we’re at the in last place. They are correct. Kaineng is an absolute blast.

But this isn’t a “move to Kaineng” post. In fact, if you’re on a losing server, I have a different message for you. Stay where you are.

I started out on a top 3 server and after a series of server transfers worked my way to the bottom. In my experience, the server rankings and my personal ranking of which servers have been the most fun to play on are completely opposite of each other.

So without further ado, here’s my guide to having fun on a losing server. In honor of Stephen Colbert, I call it:

KAINENG IS AWESOME, AND SO CAN YOU!

1) Get some perspective. This is a game, play it.

Some members on the top 3 servers have spent as much as 15 or more hours in queue over the last week just to be able to say their server won. I went 3 days in a row without being able to do WvW because of my play schedule and long queue times when I was on other servers. Once I did get in, there was nothing to do because we had already dominated the other two servers into submission. It’s REALLY boring.

Yes, you might be losing, but you’re at least playing the game!

2) Stop looking at the scoreboard.

Only one team is going to be #1 each week, and chances are you’re not on it. If you were, enjoy the queues. You chose to be there. And even if your team does lose your pairing, take joy in knowing you’re at least beating Kaineng.

3) Make realistic goals.

If your plan is to log in every night, take over the map, and maintain that through the early AM hours while most of your server is asleep, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Instead, start simple. Something like “I’m going to protect this bush”. Then celebrate excessively when you succeed. Work your way up until you figure out what your server’s limits are, then work within those limits.

4) Join a guild that can laugh in the face of failure. If your guild can’t do that, find another guild. Period. There’s no room on a losing server for people who take themselves too seriously.

5) Become a Resurrection Ninja Master.

I cannot overstate the importance of keeping your allies on their feet. If you are a 5 man team facing a 10 man team, and you get people back to their feet 5 times before they’re fully defeated and your opponent doesn’t, you just leveled the playing field. My 5 man team constantly wipes 10 man (or higher) teams based entirely on the fact that we’re better at rezzing than they are (and we do everything we can to prevent them from rezzing).

6) Important: Nothing trumps a good community.

It’s good to have a good guild. It’s good to have an alliance of several guilds, but once you start omitting anyone from having fun it creates a divide. It doesn’t matter if someone’s level 5 and unguilded, accept them, teach them, and let them feel appreciated. They will eventually level and learn the game and you’d much rather have them on your team than off helping some other server.

Check your ego at the door. Don’t claim to be special, you’re not. Don’t claim to be a leader, that will be apparent to anyone if you’re good at it without you telling them. Pride in your guild or your accomplishments are fine, but not at the expense of alienating your community. Your server is losing, badly. This isn’t the time to get a big head.

Set up a community teamspeak server, get an alliance forum going, and have fun with it. If people start to take this too seriously, nudge them back on course and remind them of the following:

7) Most importantly, remember, it’s just a game.

When you’re done at night, turn off the game and be happy with the fact that you did all you could to help your team win, and you’ll do it again tomorrow. The rest is out of your hands.

Congratulations to all of the winners this week, and good luck to everyone next week. Heaven help you if you’re facing Kaineng between the hours of 8:00 and 12:00 EST though. We may only choose to take ONE KEEP, but you won’t get it back until we’re ready to give it to you.

Fubuki.7162:

Instead, start simple. Something like “I’m going to protect this bush”. Then celebrate excessively when you succeed. Work your way up until you figure out what your server’s limits are, then work within those limits.

this made me laugh

3) made me snart.

but but, wheres the step where you rage at your enemies in the forums and refuse to queue then rage at people that tell you to keep trying because you got the numbers?!?! /sarcasm

Great read =P, loved #3

Refuse to queue?

Kaineng players rarely get the option to queue. So I don’t know what you are talking about.

And no, we don’t have the numbers. And no, do not come and see for yourself we don’t want players like you.

Devona’s rest has managed a queue in every zone for WvW.
Kaineng has never managed a queue in every zone. If we get a queue, it is for Red Borderlands, or the ONE time we had a queue for EB (but RB didnt have a queue).

source: https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/6526/Devona_s_Rest.PNG 9/15/12 approx 2:50 A.M.
https://dviw3bl0enbyw.cloudfront.net/uploads/forum_attachment/file/6536/Kaineng.PNG look how we manage to get 133 into only one map at a time. Jeee.

I wasnt talking about Kaineng, I was talking about certain worlds that’ve been spamming this forums with hardcore QQ. Do I really need a /sarcasm? It was prettykittenobvious, specially if you’ve seen this spam threads.

First off, my home server is Northern Shiverpeaks and I’ve been watching this battle play out over the past few days. So I can kinda see the battle play out between you and us and understand what you’re saying.

Basically, I have to agree with what you’re saying. NS has been struggling over the past few weeks to even pull our WvW together and I still would like to say that I’m not sure if it’s still entirely stable (with all those guilds that were originally here and then moved because of queue times). I’ve had friends that once my server started losing heavily by similar landslides that you’ve experienced (not in our favor of course), they decided to change servers to one of the top 3 just so they could win WvW.

I respect the fact that you do take some pride in your server location and that despite getting steamrolled by other servers, you still enjoy what you’re doing and that’s good. I personally stayed on this server because it feels more rewarding to work up to something good instead of having it handed to you. I’m not sure if that’s what you’re trying to say or not, but I’m sure I’m not too far off.

Us lower populated servers have to stick together in a way because we all experience the same problems, but we’re still here because we’re with enjoyable people and we’re here to enjoy the game and maybe make something great out of it. I’d rather fight for my victory or take an earned loss than to just let others win the game for me, that removes the fun factor, and then what’s the point of the game then?

Since servers change within a few hours, I wish you guys luck on your next match-up and hope you guys on Kaineng have a good WvW experience next round.

I Support what Fubuki has stated especially after grouping with him.

I transfered from Henge and these low pop servers are the best! I don’t know what everyone is all over the scores. It is way more fun to pick a strategic point with 5-10 people and just defend it with the massive hordes of enemies that keep coming …

Honestly i don’t care one bit about the scores.

i played against a kaineng bunch the other day. they’d taken most of their map back and a bunch of us jumped on to see what we could do about getting it back. it was a tough fight. but we got one keep, then another. and then the entire kaineng force evaporated. it was like they just gave up. the thing was, it wasn’t easy for us at the time. our force got split up twice, and were crazily trying to take the north rather than build up from the south. so, dying meant we had a long way to run if we couldn’t be revived.

i still don’t understand why sides just give up sometimes, even when faced with a zerg. for me, the zerg can be pushed back easily if you’ve got the supply for a few arrowcarts and can cover the main gate.

i feel a problem might exist when the team inside the gates runs out to push back the attacking team. then they get pushed back to their keep if they’re smaller. and you wrestle over the keep a lot, and lose a lot of your own players too far away to be revived. then everyone gets split up again.

i’m a little surprised not to see one side zerg down the right side of the map while the other’s zerging up the left.

there’s something to be said for defence, but if you’ve got a smaller zerg than the other and you’re afraid of defending, then how about running to the opposite side of the map? keep a few players watching the other zerg, maybe. but then it’s just a case of no one getting nowhere. which is infinitely better than ragequitting just because you feel outnumbered.

the really worst thing about that particular night was i do believe kaineng had almost broken us. it was getting really uncomfortable. they kept defending really well, even though they were pulling back. it was totally fragmenting us. at one stage we’d split into three small groups because a couple of guys ran off to die on the skill point thing. and some others tried to take a wall and the last smaller group chased a lone kaineng player all the way up the map…

sometimes, it looks like you’re losing. but just because you lose the keep, doesn’t mean you lost the war. i really feel zergs can be dealt with. if you can prevent players from being revived by shifting the battle line, they’re forced to respawn. which splits them all up. because some will run to the battle, others will fix their gear. and some will just stand around wondering if it’s worth running back.

and by the time they make it back, the battle’s moved again.

you know the feeling. i feel a lot of teams just give up because of how it looks, instead of using it to their advantage. say, if you know a team is coming up the right side, then pick a keep far enough north to shatter them on.

Best. Post. Evar.

Seriously. I mean, I’m all for organization and trying to win, but Fubuki’s right: A whole lot of people tend to forget that they’re supposed to be having fun.

If I weren’t already on a losing server, I’d move to his. It sounds like a great place to be.

NSP we gotcha garrision (when you had a full zerg on the map).