Guild Wars 2

I know this opinion is controversial, but I think we should stop with the world linking and instead do a merge.

I am from AR, one of the smallest server around. Before the linking, WvW was pointless to me. There was not much people around at any time of day. WvW was really PvE, except when sometimes you meet a small enemy group and die.

The first linking was a huge transformation. We were now with YB, had always foes and friends around, and finally I could experience the real WvW, as it was meant. I started to follow great YB commanders and learned and enjoyed.

And then… it changed. We were linked again, and I had to start from scratch. I had to get to know the new servers, their guilds, the commanders, etc… Now we are back with YB, which is great, but for how long?

I want to be able to form a network with our ally server. I don’t want to be the small pion moved around to adjust numbers, I want to be part of a group, maybe even join guilds etc..

We need to merge servers, and let the communities form, else the small servers will keep losing members because we have no hope of getting anywhere. I understand that some people like their server and their communities and don’t want to lose their names, but this is all pointless. Soon you will have a larger community to feel part of, even if it is under a new name.

I hope my text made sense, and that arena net will consider merging the servers. Linking was a hot fix for population unbalance, not a long term solution.

All they need to do is show each server name , so ppl know what server you are from. A merge might just end with what we started. Maybe poll people on the low tier servers on this?

Merging just limits options for both players and devs. Linking at least keeps servers but allows populations to be merged without sacrificing servers which are tools to house players.

Advantages and disadvantages with both Link/Merge.

The main problem with merging is that it would lead right back to where NA servers where before the linking, with population stacking on the largest servers, and abandoning the lower servers entirely. Save for a few die hard nut cases like myself.

Players will move about, and if we merge all servers together, it means they can stack servers again. Until they find a way to stop that, I prefer Linking to Merging.

At least with Linking they can shift the population around, but linking different servers. To avoid the massive stacking we’ve seen in the past.

Unfortunately this only encourages what I’m going to tell you now: Save up gold, transfer to Gem’s and transfer to YB if you liked their community. As long as you stay on the “guest server” you’ll unfortunately never get a stable community again

I saw a recruitment message in PvE today, it said, “PvX guild we do everything, [..]”, but it didn’t mention WvW in it’s list of activities. I asked the person why that was and they said, “We are all on different servers, I’m on [the smallest one, EU].”

This said a lot about the problems WvW suffers, particularly getting new players into WvW guilds.

Arenanet has done too little to service the WvW community. We all know that WvW could have been a complete game in it’s own right, and wouldn’t need half of the servicing of the play-it-once Living Story.

Sadly, after an ill-advised development investment in Edge of the Mists, MO decided to allocate resources elsewhere.

My point is this: Linking is what we’ve have, it’s never going to get any better, don’t look for it, be happy with what you’ve got because nothing is going to change. They can keep adding servers to the link-lists and don’t have to revisit the coding department.

I’m in favour of merging servers, EU has way to many currently, I would love to see it reduced to 12 servers with new names, and let a new era begin.

+1 for merge.
At least for NA server.

Why merge or link servers?

Why not just re-design WvW to use a Modified World Guesting & let players pick which server they want to fight on?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World#Guesting

There’s an Alternative Solution that uses a Modified World Guesting tailored for WvW & is a better Long Term solution over Merging or Linking for both EU & NA players…imho

joneirikb.7506:

Players will move about, and if we merge all servers together, it means they can stack servers again. Until they find a way to stop that, I prefer Linking to Merging.

The thing is that there is an ideal population on a server, at least in my opinion. Too low means bad server results and risk to get bored because you meet no-one. Too high means long queues during prime time.

Before linking there were just too many servers compared to the total population in WvW. There was no way for all servers to reach that ideal population, so people stacked on the top servers to reach that ideal.

If you now merge servers, all get closer to the ideal population, so you have much less incentive to move server.

Silverkey.2078:

joneirikb.7506:

Players will move about, and if we merge all servers together, it means they can stack servers again. Until they find a way to stop that, I prefer Linking to Merging.

The thing is that there is an ideal population on a server, at least in my opinion. Too low means bad server results and risk to get bored because you meet no-one. Too high means long queues during prime time.

Before linking there were just too many servers compared to the total population in WvW. There was no way for all servers to reach that ideal population, so people stacked on the top servers to reach that ideal.

If you now merge servers, all get closer to the ideal population, so you have much less incentive to move server.

Nope. Did you see that ppl still complain about lack of population on their servers of ‘full’ status with current 4 tiers?

It will never be balanced with a static system. Even if you reduce it to one tier, kittens will still flock into the winning server despite the long queues.

Permanently link servers – I think every server should have the prospect of becoming independend again, although I guess the wvw population will decline, no matter what.
And there is no way “wvw should be played” – it certainly is not the blob era we have now, but alas.

I’m +1 for merging. As it stands now the rotations often have you under the banner of another server and unless this latest gimmick is a super secret darpa study to decimate community cohesion I’d say its time to ditch it and quit catering to the super guilds that play musical servers and slanted server stacking blobfest.

anything to boost the number of people in wvw its always one side has huges groups and then the other 2 just stay out of wvw or karma farm…

They sort of already did. At least half of the servers are now “root” servers meaning they are servers that other servers link to. These have fairly stable guilds, coverage hours, etc. The other servers have become “float” servers that fill in and change up the matchups. Those servers are for breathing new life into stale matchups.

My only complaint is that merging too many “float” servers together creates kittenterfluck type atmosphere with some very strange coverage and player gaps. IMO the T4 match this week while close wasn’t nearly as much fun as the T1 matches the last couple months that were blow outs more or less.

I have been saying this for a long time. However, I think we should go a step further. Remove servers all together and pool the community, randomly assigning teams based off a number of things such as guild, time zone and the people on your friends list. This way teams are not made up with the same people from the same servers all the time, you can pull from the entire community to make actual balanced matchups and you aren’t splitting community’s up.

Brutal Augus.5917:

I have been saying this for a long time. However, I think we should go a step further. Remove servers all together and pool the community, randomly assigning teams based off a number of things such as guild, time zone and the people on your friends list. This way teams are not made up with the same people from the same servers all the time, you can pull from the entire community to make actual balanced matchups and you aren’t splitting community’s up.

And that will only cater to the super guilds. I’m so over them that I’d rather be on the very last tier where I’d never have to play with them ever again. Everything they have touched has crashed and burned server landscapes when they all decided to up and move to another server.

Merging would fix the majority of issues with server linking and the mega server. It would have been a much easier fix also. Arenanet does not want to admit there is or has ever been population issues so we have what we have now. Which all things considered is better than nothing.

Kamara.4187:

Brutal Augus.5917:

I have been saying this for a long time. However, I think we should go a step further. Remove servers all together and pool the community, randomly assigning teams based off a number of things such as guild, time zone and the people on your friends list. This way teams are not made up with the same people from the same servers all the time, you can pull from the entire community to make actual balanced matchups and you aren’t splitting community’s up.

And that will only cater to the super guilds. I’m so over them that I’d rather be on the very last tier where I’d never have to play with them ever again. Everything they have touched has crashed and burned server landscapes when they all decided to up and move to another server.

It’s hard to escape people in an mmorpg. Have you considered maybe picking up a moba like league?