Guild Wars 2

Instead of the megaserver/alliance based suggestions, here’s an alternative.

Rather than a Server ladder, what if ANet locked the matchups and gave each of them its own purpose?

ie.
Get rid of the Server ladder, and convert the tiers into specific matchups.
Tier 1 = Match A: High map cap, 24/7 matches
Tier 2 = Match B: Low map cap, 24/7 matches
Tier 3/4/5 = Match C/D/E: Medium map cap. Only available 8 hours a day. (each matchup caters to a different timezone region.)
Tier 6+ = Match F+: other special purpose, like language-specific servers, “old borderlands”, alternate rule sets, etc.

Since there’s no longer a server ladder, the matches don’t even need to last the same amount of time. Match G could be “3 day matches” for example. Or the timezone specific matches could last longer, to compensate for fewer game hours in a day.

The negative side of this proposal, is that you’ll never fight different servers ever again. Effectively, it becomes a “3 faction battle” like DAOC, except you choose your server based on which Match suits your preferred play style.

However, the positive side is that you get to keep servers and server pride, and problems like nightcapping are eliminated for those that don’t like it.

- So players who like 24/7, large scale combat, can join one of the servers on Match A.
- Players who like 24/7, but prefer smaller groups, can transfer to one of the servers in Match B.
- Players who don’t like nightcapping, can transfer to one of the servers in Match C/D/E appropriate to the timezone they want to commit to.
- Other players might be catered for by Matches F+ if there is enough demand for ANet to create a match for them. (eg. German speakers, French Speakers, Spanish etc.)