Guild Wars 2

something needs to be done about queues.

A lesson from behavioral economics : The London underground massively improved customer satisfaction by putting up signs indicating when the next train was going to arrive.

Because

“the nature of a wait is not just dependent on its numerical quality, its duration, but the level of uncertainty you experience during that wait. Waiting 7 mins for a train with a countdown clock is less frustrating and irritating than waiting 4 mins, knucklebiting, going “when’s this train going to kitten well arrive”"
source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOVqI0OOkvM

and in wvw queues. there’s an indeterminate wait, no clue on position in the queue and an invisible bug that breaks the queue.

Please anet tell us you’re going to improve this situation.

Well, London Underground trains take a set amount of time to get to their destination. Predicting when the train will arrive is pretty easy. Heck, even with delays etc, you can still predict its arrival. It’s on a track, going at known speed in a certain direction.

You may be able to say “You are x in a queue out of y”, but you can’t give much prediction on time there.

EDIT: Incidentally, WoW had an estimation time when one was queueing for LFG to do a dungeon. It wasn’t accurate in the slightest. But even with dungeons, one can try and predict the length of the run based on averages gathered. I am not sure what use an average would be for how long any one player stays in WvW.

There’s a one difference. People use the trains they need , they don’t flock to the ones that are most popular just so they could ride in one with the most passengers.

There are only queues because people piled on to a handful of servers looking for glory. The people that have been loyal and stayed with those servers from Day1. Those I feel sorry for.

You can’t predict when someone will leave a WvWvW map period

It’s a great idea, thanks for suggesting it. While an estimated countdown would be hard to accomplish, knowing your place in the queue would be informative and helpful.

Agreed, Woaden. Back when I played SWTOR, when I hit a queue and was #20, I’d stick around. If I was #175, I I knew I could go and do a quick errand and usually get back in time for the pop. However, it seems like GW2’s placement system in the queue is all out of whack. I’ve had guildies wait for nearly an hour, while I’ve popped on after them and got in under 15 minutes.

Jeknar.6184:

You can’t predict when someone will leave a WvWvW map period

Agreed, but at least show me I currently #25 in the queue, and count it down periodically, so I can kind of guess when it might pop up and I’m not afk and miss the popup box

The alpha test team is probably to small and they ca nnot check the issue with queues.

Here is the difference between Tier 8 (no queue) and Tier 1 (long queue).

if the map pop is around 50-80 as has been suggested the queues probably aren’t that long. Maybe 5-15 people but at certain times people are set to stay in for hours so not that many people leaving so the wait time is longer but the queue clearly moves sporadically. There’s obviously a lot of luck involved. You can wait 5 mins and a bunch of people leave the map or 30mins and barely anyone leaves the map. Like being a queue at a bank. One person might take ages and the next 5 quick. So a person in the in the queue could have waited longer than ones behind them to get to a teller.

Still, knowing ones position in the queue would be a great comfort in the circumstances and we’d soon learn what constitutes a big queue.

I’m inclined to think the success of re-queuing is an illusion of sorts.

seems there’s a branch of math about queues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_theory anyone smart enough to understand it?

and the psychology of queues
http://davidmaister.com/articles/the-psychology-of-waiting-lines/

I’ve got in sometimes when I re-queue, I don’t know if you get stuck or it get’s ‘bugged’.
Lately on my server partly down to the influx of transfers and the queues can go on for 1+ hours without a clue.

Like Crimson said Deso queues are the worst I’ve seen including beta weekends and stress tests. Sunday night I was queued for 2.5 hours for EB (and had placed myself into queue for other bl’s too).

They should fix the problem
Not show how long you will have to deal with the problem..

I already posted a solution a couple of times that would fix queues but also lots of other big problems…

There is an easy fix… go to a lower population server. Ques aren’t a problem.

They should increase low level cap to +60 cause they bring no use to wvw but take space.. I even rather had lower levels remove from wvw. All they do is die and rally enemies. Not to mention some waste keep/tower supply repairing walls that get treb.

I’m in jade quarry and longest q is around 20mins during busy times.. I mostly put a movie show and wait for Q.

Neeho.3859:

There is an easy fix… go to a lower population server. Ques aren’t a problem.

^ this

If you are experiencing long queues simply transfer to a server that is lower in ranking. I really don’t get why people want more crowded and zergy WvW environment and massively transfer to servers on the rise and then cry because of queues. Is it really that hard to predict?

Neeho.3859:

There is an easy fix… go to a lower population server. Ques aren’t a problem.

We maybe will, with alot of guilds together. (so ANET will gonna get rich)
Only problem is guildies have friends outside our WvW guilds
Getting all guilds and their members to agree to a lower tier will be hard

Also big chance is a lot of freeloaders will probably follow.
Or join again after we climb in tiers.
So we will have again queues of +1 hour…

pejot.4806:

Neeho.3859:

There is an easy fix… go to a lower population server. Ques aren’t a problem.

^ this

If you are experiencing long queues simply transfer to a server that is lower in ranking. I really don’t get why people want more crowded and zergy WvW environment and massively transfer to servers on the rise and then cry because of queues. Is it really that hard to predict?

All these guilds were on our server from the start.
2 months ago we didnt had any queues.
Now we have have to transfer away???

My comment wasn’t directed to people who sticked to their servers from the start, but to badwagoners who move to such server and spoil everyone’s fun.

I feel sorry for PS community which got invaded…

pejot.4806:

My comment wasn’t directed to people who sticked to their servers from the start, but to badwagoners who move to such server and spoil everyone’s fun.

I feel sorry for PS community which got invaded…

Ye sad indeed i cant even get my whole guild in one border but we dont give up hehe…..our battle against the ques

I am quietly waiting to see what happens when WvW gives better rewards and progression – I suspect that will leave people pining for the queues of yesteryear (i.e. now) !

The problems described here isn’t the fact that there are queues but are 1) they don’t show you how many people are queued before you and 2) the queues are bugged. When we try to do our team event some people remain queued forever/a very long time while others queue much later and get a queue pop in a few minutes. It’s totally random as far as we can tell.

If Anet would at least show you how many people were in the queue before you you’d be able to see if/when the queue bugs out or even if it’s worth to wait. Right now you know… nothing.

Switch the travel pop-up so that it will automatically move you in the end instead of taking you off the queue. After all, you queued to get in to the zone, right?. Would help a bit atleast in my opinion.

I don’t want to see an estimated time in queue (possibly too inaccurate)

I would love to see a position in queue.

I wish I could queue for multiple battlegrounds, and see my position in queue for each one.

I wish that my guildies and I could queue as a group and get in together.

Mura.8673:

I don’t want to see an estimated time in queue (possibly too inaccurate). I would love to see a position in queue. I wish I could queue for multiple battlegrounds, and see my position in queue for each one. I wish that my guildies and I could queue as a group and get in together.

My wishes too +1.

I honestly don’t understand how they fail to implement the most basic features for their “beautiful” UI. First and biggest error in any user interface development is placing aesthetics above functionality.

lol what is hard on making estimated time?
take the amount of ppl entering/leaving WvW in lets say 10min/1h, number of ppl in que and voila u have prediction, ANet also have data about spikes in prime time etc and can modify those que times based on the time of day

will it be +-1 s accurate? ofc not
can they make it +-few minutes accurate (with some exception from time to time)? I believe they can

I don’t mind them adding an estimated time as long as they will ALWAYS show the queue length as well (as estimated time will always be an estimate but queue length is correct).

Nothing (*) more frustrating than only seeing an estimated time and having that stuck at <1m (because no more people are leaving the map).

(*) Except having no estimate at all like now off course ^^

Also I made a post on the bugs forum about the bugged queues. If you experience the same post it there.

alternatively put a massive jumping puzzle in heart of the mists and we won’t notice the queue length as much. xD