Guild Wars 2

Hibernation: keeping an account inactive for multiple weeks from WvW.

Has been a tactic used by servers to allow guilds to access ’full’’ servers.

Also an issue when new content comes out it impacts population balance significantly.

I would suggest we remove server affiliation from any account that has not been active as defined by accumulating any participation in WvW for greater than 6 weeks.

These accounts would be required to choose a new server from among the open server lists when attempting to access WvW again.

It would place increased challenges on active hibernation (organized effort to open a ‘full’ server) and it would significantly reduce the potential disparity with accounts that only play WvW around new content.

If They aren’t contributing to their server or community for 6 weeks or more, then they should not be affiliated with that community.

People take breaks from the game for various reasons, and once they return, it would be pretty annyoing to find you can not play with your guild in your own server anymore.

Personally I do not see any reason people would want to transfer into full server since the time you spend waiting in queue is not worth the potential benefits. But if someone is really very determined, and manages to get into full server eventually, let them.

FogLeg.9354:

People take breaks from the game for various reasons, and once they return, it would be pretty annyoing to find you can not play with your guild in your own server anymore.

Agreed which is why I picked 6 weeks. That accounts for most school breaks, work vacations, etc. it’s not perfect. But greater than 6 weeks…

There are accounts that were off WvW (and GW) for greater than 6 months. They need to pick a new server.

FogLeg.9354:

People take breaks from the game for various reasons, and once they return, it would be pretty annyoing to find you can not play with your guild in your own server anymore.

Personally I do not see any reason people would want to transfer into full server since the time you spend waiting in queue is not worth the potential benefits. But if someone is really very determined, and manages to get into full server eventually, let them.

If I don’t log in for 2 months, I miss a chunk of living story and all that it entails (new gear? new stats? new food? new trinkets? wouldn’t know I don’t have access!).

Why isn’t WvW this way? Living story is something that does not need a resource to give to players and has this strict use it or lose it strategy, meanwhile WvW server spots are a finite resource and can be held up indefinitely by playing 1 mintue of WvW every month.

There are limited WvW spots per server. Use it or lose it. I’d even argue the transfer should be free or come at a greatly reduced price. This would cause a LOT of healthier population movement from “stacked” servers that have large numbers of low turnout players. I know for a fact that Blackgate is mostly hibergaters that come to play when WvW “news” arrives, then PvE the rest of the year.

To your point about getting into a full server if you’re determined enough, how determined is reasonably determined? Some of us have been trying to autoclick transfers into full servers for weeks or even months? Is this reasonable??

BeepBoopBop.5403:

FogLeg.9354:

People take breaks from the game for various reasons, and once they return, it would be pretty annyoing to find you can not play with your guild in your own server anymore.

Personally I do not see any reason people would want to transfer into full server since the time you spend waiting in queue is not worth the potential benefits. But if someone is really very determined, and manages to get into full server eventually, let them.

If I don’t log in for 2 months, I miss a chunk of living story and all that it entails (new gear? new stats? new food? new trinkets? wouldn’t know I don’t have access!).

Why isn’t WvW this way? Living story is something that does not need a resource to give to players and has this strict use it or lose it strategy, meanwhile WvW server spots are a finite resource and can be kept indefinitely by playing 1 mintue of WvW every month.

There are limited WvW spots per server. Use it or lose it.

Now, them not logging in does not take up a space nor count towards full status, BUT it does allow them to hibernate and jump in later causing a server to be greatly over stacked compared to other servers.

Strider Pj.2193:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

FogLeg.9354:

People take breaks from the game for various reasons, and once they return, it would be pretty annyoing to find you can not play with your guild in your own server anymore.

Personally I do not see any reason people would want to transfer into full server since the time you spend waiting in queue is not worth the potential benefits. But if someone is really very determined, and manages to get into full server eventually, let them.

If I don’t log in for 2 months, I miss a chunk of living story and all that it entails (new gear? new stats? new food? new trinkets? wouldn’t know I don’t have access!).

Why isn’t WvW this way? Living story is something that does not need a resource to give to players and has this strict use it or lose it strategy, meanwhile WvW server spots are a finite resource and can be kept indefinitely by playing 1 mintue of WvW every month.

There are limited WvW spots per server. Use it or lose it.

Now, them not logging in does not take up a space nor count towards full status, BUT it does allow them to hibernate and jump in later causing a server to be greatly over stacked compared to other servers.

If they log in once a month into a WvW map they count towards the full status I believe. Although I think it was changed to count server player hours instead?

Wouldn’t it be nice to get communication from ArenaNet on this issue that affects many WvW players and would result in more transfer $$$ flowing if they solve it.

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Strider Pj.2193:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

FogLeg.9354:

People take breaks from the game for various reasons, and once they return, it would be pretty annyoing to find you can not play with your guild in your own server anymore.

Personally I do not see any reason people would want to transfer into full server since the time you spend waiting in queue is not worth the potential benefits. But if someone is really very determined, and manages to get into full server eventually, let them.

If I don’t log in for 2 months, I miss a chunk of living story and all that it entails (new gear? new stats? new food? new trinkets? wouldn’t know I don’t have access!).

Why isn’t WvW this way? Living story is something that does not need a resource to give to players and has this strict use it or lose it strategy, meanwhile WvW server spots are a finite resource and can be kept indefinitely by playing 1 mintue of WvW every month.

There are limited WvW spots per server. Use it or lose it.

Now, them not logging in does not take up a space nor count towards full status, BUT it does allow them to hibernate and jump in later causing a server to be greatly over stacked compared to other servers.

If they log in once a month into a WvW map they count towards the full status I believe. Although I think it was changed to count server player hours instead?

Wouldn’t it be nice to get communication from ArenaNet on this issue that affects many WvW players and would result in more transfer $$$ flowing if they solve it.

Yes, the last clarification I remember from a dev was that is was based on actual hours in WvW. Not just logging in.

No. GW2 was advertised as a game geared equally towards hardcore players and casual players. Lots of my WvW guildmates are casual players and will go play something else for a few months, then return and enjoy WvW for a while, rinse repeat. This would not be fair to them. And if you don’t like playing against stacked servers, just transfer off of the stacked one you are most likely on (in order to be facing the others) and to a lower tier. The fights are better outside T1, the lag is less prevalent outside T1, and from what I’ve seen, the individual player skill is far better outside of T1.

Turk.5460:

No. GW2 was advertised as a game geared equally towards hardcore players and casual players. Lots of my WvW guildmates are casual players and will go play something else for a few months, then return and enjoy WvW for a while, rinse repeat. This would not be fair to them. And if you don’t like playing against stacked servers, just transfer off of the stacked one you are most likely on (in order to be facing the others) and to a lower tier. The fights are better outside T1, the lag is less prevalent outside T1, and from what I’ve seen, the individual player skill is far better outside of T1.

I would agree, but to many posters here, BG is the devil incarnate. Part of their success is getting guilds to cover certain time zones. They would organize a hibernation until the server opened, then have the guild transfer in. This was a way to reduce it.

Personally, I don’t care if T-1 stays like it is. People blame BG for most of the population issues.

I am happy playing with my guild regardless of where. We will continue to havoc vs small/large servers, and continue to be steamrolled by blobs that we pull to other maps so our server can be successful.

But people need to stop using a single server as the reason why they can’t have fun or can’t be successful.

Why don’t we just take BG, with their insane amount of people and coverage.

And make that its own WvW server & its own thing.

Make some sort of alliance war thing where the guilds there can choose an alliance, and they’re all fighting each other to decide which alliance is the best in all of BG.

There, bandwagon solved.

Strider Pj.2193:

Turk.5460:

No. GW2 was advertised as a game geared equally towards hardcore players and casual players. Lots of my WvW guildmates are casual players and will go play something else for a few months, then return and enjoy WvW for a while, rinse repeat. This would not be fair to them. And if you don’t like playing against stacked servers, just transfer off of the stacked one you are most likely on (in order to be facing the others) and to a lower tier. The fights are better outside T1, the lag is less prevalent outside T1, and from what I’ve seen, the individual player skill is far better outside of T1.

I would agree, but to many posters here, BG is the devil incarnate. Part of their success is getting guilds to cover certain time zones. They would organize a hibernation until the server opened, then have the guild transfer in. This was a way to reduce it.

Personally, I don’t care if T-1 stays like it is. People blame BG for most of the population issues.

I am happy playing with my guild regardless of where. We will continue to havoc vs small/large servers, and continue to be steamrolled by blobs that we pull to other maps so our server can be successful.

But people need to stop using a single server as the reason why they can’t have fun or can’t be successful.

People alter their play to avoid being matched against BG, because BG is simply not fun to play against. They roll in giant zergballs nearly around the clock. They “roam” in groups of 8-10, and their “havoc” groups are 15+. When YB is matched with BG I play just long enough to max my tickets, and then go farm.

They have stockpiled players throughout their history, and have a vast playerbase that no other server can match. The other issue is the linking does not take into account timezones or coverage, and so very often you will get two or more strong NA servers linked against BG, which does absolutely NOTHING to counter BGs timezone advantages, and with map caps in place the NA advantage cannot be used decisively.

Long story short. BG is the last true T1 server. It has retained most of its identity through the ups and downs of the game. It’s inability to adapt to the new reality is causing other servers to flounder, and eventually that will catch up to BG.

Strider Pj.2193:

Hibernation: keeping an account inactive for multiple weeks from WvW.

Has been a tactic used by servers to allow guilds to access ’full’’ servers.

Also an issue when new content comes out it impacts population balance significantly.

I would suggest we remove server affiliation from any account that has not been active as defined by accumulating any participation in WvW for greater than 6 weeks.

These accounts would be required to choose a new server from among the open server lists when attempting to access WvW again.

It would place increased challenges on active hibernation (organized effort to open a ‘full’ server) and it would significantly reduce the potential disparity with accounts that only play WvW around new content.

If They aren’t contributing to their server or community for 6 weeks or more, then they should not be affiliated with that community.

You want them to do this with the current server structure? the one that has 10+ servers locked regularly? Don’t even think they have the means to lock an account out of wvw for the server it’s currently residing on, and then have to build an automated system to do the transfers.

Not to mention how incredibly unfair for someone who picked their server on account creation, and were on it the entire time, take how ever long off and now they get booted to some other server because people decided to bandwagon to theirs.

Lastly I can see people taking 6 weeks off just to get a free bandwagon transfer.

XenesisII.1540:

Strider Pj.2193:

Hibernation: keeping an account inactive for multiple weeks from WvW.

Has been a tactic used by servers to allow guilds to access ’full’’ servers.

Also an issue when new content comes out it impacts population balance significantly.

I would suggest we remove server affiliation from any account that has not been active as defined by accumulating any participation in WvW for greater than 6 weeks.

These accounts would be required to choose a new server from among the open server lists when attempting to access WvW again.

It would place increased challenges on active hibernation (organized effort to open a ‘full’ server) and it would significantly reduce the potential disparity with accounts that only play WvW around new content.

If They aren’t contributing to their server or community for 6 weeks or more, then they should not be affiliated with that community.

You want them to do this with the current server structure? the one that has 10+ servers locked regularly? Don’t even think they have the means to lock an account out of wvw for the server it’s currently residing on, and then have to build an automated system to do the transfers.

Not to mention how incredibly unfair for someone who picked their server on account creation, and were on it the entire time, take how ever long off and now they get booted to some other server because people decided to bandwagon to theirs.

Lastly I can see people taking 6 weeks off just to get a free bandwagon transfer.

So… that bandwagon transfer would happen to a lower tier server? One not full? I wouldn’t have a problem with them being able to do it. As opposed to people happy with and active in their current situation being forced to choose something else.

So… someone hasn’t played in a year.. they still feel that server identity? Really?

How many instances of real life stuff for the most active servers, would need longer than 6 weeks?

People here have advocated for the closure of BG, blowing up ALL servers and forcing transfers, free transfers, no locked servers..

This gives people a choice. Play, or be moved.

If you can’t be active for even a tick of participation (not tier 6, or any large amount, just a tick) in a 6 weeks span….

Strider Pj.2193:

XenesisII.1540:

Strider Pj.2193:

Hibernation: keeping an account inactive for multiple weeks from WvW.

Has been a tactic used by servers to allow guilds to access ’full’’ servers.

Also an issue when new content comes out it impacts population balance significantly.

I would suggest we remove server affiliation from any account that has not been active as defined by accumulating any participation in WvW for greater than 6 weeks.

These accounts would be required to choose a new server from among the open server lists when attempting to access WvW again.

It would place increased challenges on active hibernation (organized effort to open a ‘full’ server) and it would significantly reduce the potential disparity with accounts that only play WvW around new content.

If They aren’t contributing to their server or community for 6 weeks or more, then they should not be affiliated with that community.

You want them to do this with the current server structure? the one that has 10+ servers locked regularly? Don’t even think they have the means to lock an account out of wvw for the server it’s currently residing on, and then have to build an automated system to do the transfers.

Not to mention how incredibly unfair for someone who picked their server on account creation, and were on it the entire time, take how ever long off and now they get booted to some other server because people decided to bandwagon to theirs.

Lastly I can see people taking 6 weeks off just to get a free bandwagon transfer.

So… that bandwagon transfer would happen to a lower tier server? One not full? I wouldn’t have a problem with them being able to do it. As opposed to people happy with and active in their current situation being forced to choose something else.

So… someone hasn’t played in a year.. they still feel that server identity? Really?

How many instances of real life stuff for the most active servers, would need longer than 6 weeks?

People here have advocated for the closure of BG, blowing up ALL servers and forcing transfers, free transfers, no locked servers..

This gives people a choice. Play, or be moved.

If you can’t be active for even a tick of participation (not tier 6, or any large amount, just a tick) in a 6 weeks span….

On one hand, I can agree that the server pride probably isn’t there if you haven’t been able to play for 6 weeks.

One the other hand, guild pride probably is still there.

Plenty of guilds have discords, and I’ve seen plenty of guildies take elongated breaks from the game to work on themselves IRL.

I can see how this could be very distressing to someone who wants to be with their guild when they come back, tbh.

I think, if you want to go this route, it’s best to split off from the normal servers entirely, and start from scratch with servers specific to WvW, that have fixed sizes, and that everyone understands “isn’t permanent”. Basically, blowing up the servers on a scheduled basis.

That would get rid of some of the server based identity, and move more towards Guild identity, given that it’s freaking Guild wars.

No, it will do nothing but kitten off a lot of people and wont solve any issues. If a full server wants to open it can just lower its activity, a full blackout is not necessary.

This is a game, people take breaks, deal with it.

Serenity.6135:

If a full server wants to open it can just lower its activity, a full blackout is not necessary.

which would mean they would fall in score. sounds like a moderately even compromise to me.

I like this idea. the fact that account hibernation is happening and no action is being taken is pretty lame. just like match throwers/afkers in pvp.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

If a full server wants to open it can just lower its activity, a full blackout is not necessary.

which would mean they would fall in score. sounds like a moderately even compromise to me.

I like this idea. the fact that account hibernation is happening and no action is being taken is pretty lame. just like match throwers/afkers in pvp.

Drop in score doesn’t mean anything, especially when it is only temporary. Just because a server is losing does not mean it is low on numbers, scores are not accurate descriptions of populations.

People need to stop fixating on this nonsense of population balance. WvW was never meant to be balanced, and it is impossible to do so. Think about it, when have you ever seen each side with a similar or equal number of players throughout the day? It is not going to happen. A 24/7 game mode cannot be properly balanced around population.

Servers like Blackgate have been successful for so long because they have spread their population and coverage throughout timezones, this makes sense because it allows them to sustain throughout matchups unlike other servers. If they want to stay in tier 1 they will do what they have to.

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Just because someone proposes a change that they believe is a great solution, does not mean we have to support it. There are good changes, and bad changes. I am not interested in telling anyone how long, or how much they should be playing a video game. I certainly do not want anyone telling me what I should be doing. There are flaws with every system, that’s a given.

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Others have done it, however BG has been the most successful.

Strider Pj.2193:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Others have done it, however BG has been the most successful.

I would say Blackgate has been most successful at adapting to changes. Skirmishes for example benefits servers like Blackgate because their population and coverage is spread out. Servers like Jade Quarry on the other hand, have relied for years on their large SEA population to ppt every day to win matches. Skirmishes have largely negated that advantage for them.

Serenity.6135:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Just because someone proposes a change that they believe is a great solution, does not mean we have to support it. There are good changes, and bad changes. I am not interested in telling anyone how long, or how much they should be playing a video game. I certainly do not want anyone telling me what I should be doing. There are flaws with every system, that’s a given.

Agreed.

My OP was to trigger discussion. I think that accounts that are inactive in WvW do not hurt their server as they don’t actually take up a slot, there is the potential to game the system.

Serenity.6135:

Strider Pj.2193:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Others have done it, however BG has been the most successful.

I would say Blackgate has been most successful at adapting to changes. Skirmishes for example benefits servers like Blackgate because their population and coverage is spread out. Servers like Jade Quarry on the other hand, have relied for years on their large SEA population to ppt every day to win matches. Skirmishes have largely negated that advantage for them.

Agreed.

And in other tiers, when a server has an advantage in a time zone, with a link that covers other time zones, they are successful as well. Matching that up, as you noted earlier, is nigh impossible.

Strider Pj.2193:

Serenity.6135:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Just because someone proposes a change that they believe is a great solution, does not mean we have to support it. There are good changes, and bad changes. I am not interested in telling anyone how long, or how much they should be playing a video game. I certainly do not want anyone telling me what I should be doing. There are flaws with every system, that’s a given.

Agreed.

My OP was to trigger discussion. I think that accounts that are inactive in WvW do not hurt their server as they don’t actually take up a slot, there is the potential to game the system.

Being able to discuss ideas is always important and it annoys me how every thread seems to devolve into the same off topic posts over and over, where the same people post…I hate this server because they are bad and evil blah blah blah.

I do not see it as hurting a server (it does but that’s not my point), I see it as hurting the individual player. I think it is very unfair to essentially force a player into an artificial timetable or face such a stiff penalty because they might not be able to play for whatever reason.

Just as an example, if you are a leader or active wvw player, but cannot play for some time because of real life circumstances like a medical issue, family, school etc. Why should you be kicked off your server and be separated from your friends, guildies and community that you enjoy playing with?

Strider Pj.2193:

Serenity.6135:

Strider Pj.2193:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Others have done it, however BG has been the most successful.

I would say Blackgate has been most successful at adapting to changes. Skirmishes for example benefits servers like Blackgate because their population and coverage is spread out. Servers like Jade Quarry on the other hand, have relied for years on their large SEA population to ppt every day to win matches. Skirmishes have largely negated that advantage for them.

Agreed.

And in other tiers, when a server has an advantage in a time zone, with a link that covers other time zones, they are successful as well. Matching that up, as you noted earlier, is nigh impossible.

And that’s the thing with linking, nobody can know how it will actually work out. People come and go, and really it all comes down to is initial predictions.

You can link two servers and make the assumption that these two should balance each other out, but really that’s all the dev’s can do, because they cannot see the future and there is no way to know if it will actually work out. That link can grow large through transfers, or it can go largely inactive.

Serenity.6135:

Strider Pj.2193:

Serenity.6135:

Strider Pj.2193:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Others have done it, however BG has been the most successful.

I would say Blackgate has been most successful at adapting to changes. Skirmishes for example benefits servers like Blackgate because their population and coverage is spread out. Servers like Jade Quarry on the other hand, have relied for years on their large SEA population to ppt every day to win matches. Skirmishes have largely negated that advantage for them.

Agreed.

And in other tiers, when a server has an advantage in a time zone, with a link that covers other time zones, they are successful as well. Matching that up, as you noted earlier, is nigh impossible.

And that’s the thing with linking, nobody can know how it will actually work out. People come and go, and really it all comes down to is initial predictions.

You can link two servers and make the assumption that these two should balance each other out, but really that’s all the dev’s can do, because they cannot see the future and there is no way to know if it will actually work out. That link can grow large through transfers, or it can go largely inactive.

You mean we are allowed to have civil discussions? Sacrilege!

Strider Pj.2193:

Serenity.6135:

Strider Pj.2193:

Serenity.6135:

Strider Pj.2193:

Stand The Wall.6987:

Serenity.6135:

snipples

I agree with your first paragraph and that bit of pop balance, but I think youre missing the point. people are gaming the system. should we turn a blind eye to this? if so, why?

Others have done it, however BG has been the most successful.

I would say Blackgate has been most successful at adapting to changes. Skirmishes for example benefits servers like Blackgate because their population and coverage is spread out. Servers like Jade Quarry on the other hand, have relied for years on their large SEA population to ppt every day to win matches. Skirmishes have largely negated that advantage for them.

Agreed.

And in other tiers, when a server has an advantage in a time zone, with a link that covers other time zones, they are successful as well. Matching that up, as you noted earlier, is nigh impossible.

And that’s the thing with linking, nobody can know how it will actually work out. People come and go, and really it all comes down to is initial predictions.

You can link two servers and make the assumption that these two should balance each other out, but really that’s all the dev’s can do, because they cannot see the future and there is no way to know if it will actually work out. That link can grow large through transfers, or it can go largely inactive.

You mean we are allowed to have civil discussions? Sacrilege!

I know right, unthinkable, btw I hate your server, its evil etc etc etc

Kaiser.9873:

Strider Pj.2193:

Turk.5460:

No. GW2 was advertised as a game geared equally towards hardcore players and casual players. Lots of my WvW guildmates are casual players and will go play something else for a few months, then return and enjoy WvW for a while, rinse repeat. This would not be fair to them. And if you don’t like playing against stacked servers, just transfer off of the stacked one you are most likely on (in order to be facing the others) and to a lower tier. The fights are better outside T1, the lag is less prevalent outside T1, and from what I’ve seen, the individual player skill is far better outside of T1.

I would agree, but to many posters here, BG is the devil incarnate. Part of their success is getting guilds to cover certain time zones. They would organize a hibernation until the server opened, then have the guild transfer in. This was a way to reduce it.

Personally, I don’t care if T-1 stays like it is. People blame BG for most of the population issues.

I am happy playing with my guild regardless of where. We will continue to havoc vs small/large servers, and continue to be steamrolled by blobs that we pull to other maps so our server can be successful.

But people need to stop using a single server as the reason why they can’t have fun or can’t be successful.

People alter their play to avoid being matched against BG, because BG is simply not fun to play against. They roll in giant zergballs nearly around the clock. They “roam” in groups of 8-10, and their “havoc” groups are 15+. When YB is matched with BG I play just long enough to max my tickets, and then go farm.

They have stockpiled players throughout their history, and have a vast playerbase that no other server can match. The other issue is the linking does not take into account timezones or coverage, and so very often you will get two or more strong NA servers linked against BG, which does absolutely NOTHING to counter BGs timezone advantages, and with map caps in place the NA advantage cannot be used decisively.

Long story short. BG is the last true T1 server. It has retained most of its identity through the ups and downs of the game. It’s inability to adapt to the new reality is causing other servers to flounder, and eventually that will catch up to BG.

Interesting perspective, albeit somewhat inaccurate. BG is indeed the last true T1 server, although JQ comes very close; they’re probably one guild away from being on even footing.

BG was really forged during the 2v1 back in Seasons. There is a lot of pride there and a core group of Militia and Guilds that will likely never leave. We do have guilds come and go, but the core remains the same.

BG certainly doesn’t have “giant zergballs nearly around the clock”.

For coverage, BG queues all maps on reset, most maps on Saturday, and EBG (pugs) plus maybe one other map most of the week during NA prime.

During off hours there is usually one typemander float squad that bounces around maps defending, and no maps are queued. Probably 10-20 people. I know because I often log in during the day and NEVER see a map queued, and TS is usually dead. This coverage in and of itself isn’t the issue, as it is usually counterbalanced by equal sized opponents. Nothing like the coverage we had a few years ago.

So your perceptions may be a bit skewed, just like many people in our NA squads always think we’re outnumbered 2-1 in fights. In fact, many BG commanders complain that they can’t get 30 people in squad, yet the map is queued with green dots doing who knows what.

What may be the real issue of late is that BG has a very sizable PVE population. As in really huge group of PUGS that have now decided that they want the new WvW shiny. So they log in and bounce around maps to keep their pips up. Usually an unorganized group about the size of a traditional havok squad. When I roam on my thief to cap camps I almost always see 3 or 4 BG’ers already there just waiting for the timer to expire.

While this may seem like a concerted effort by BG to stack, it’s probably really just a bunch of PVE’ers tying to keep up their pips to get their latest shiny. Not sure why this is unique to BG, but it may be that our already sizable WvW population which was #1 prior to the updates (although nowhere near what it was a couple years ago), combined with the new people entering WvW, has tipped the balance.

QuantumCat.9051:

Kaiser.9873:

Strider Pj.2193:

Turk.5460:

No. GW2 was advertised as a game geared equally towards hardcore players and casual players. Lots of my WvW guildmates are casual players and will go play something else for a few months, then return and enjoy WvW for a while, rinse repeat. This would not be fair to them. And if you don’t like playing against stacked servers, just transfer off of the stacked one you are most likely on (in order to be facing the others) and to a lower tier. The fights are better outside T1, the lag is less prevalent outside T1, and from what I’ve seen, the individual player skill is far better outside of T1.

I would agree, but to many posters here, BG is the devil incarnate. Part of their success is getting guilds to cover certain time zones. They would organize a hibernation until the server opened, then have the guild transfer in. This was a way to reduce it.

Personally, I don’t care if T-1 stays like it is. People blame BG for most of the population issues.

I am happy playing with my guild regardless of where. We will continue to havoc vs small/large servers, and continue to be steamrolled by blobs that we pull to other maps so our server can be successful.

But people need to stop using a single server as the reason why they can’t have fun or can’t be successful.

People alter their play to avoid being matched against BG, because BG is simply not fun to play against. They roll in giant zergballs nearly around the clock. They “roam” in groups of 8-10, and their “havoc” groups are 15+. When YB is matched with BG I play just long enough to max my tickets, and then go farm.

They have stockpiled players throughout their history, and have a vast playerbase that no other server can match. The other issue is the linking does not take into account timezones or coverage, and so very often you will get two or more strong NA servers linked against BG, which does absolutely NOTHING to counter BGs timezone advantages, and with map caps in place the NA advantage cannot be used decisively.

Long story short. BG is the last true T1 server. It has retained most of its identity through the ups and downs of the game. It’s inability to adapt to the new reality is causing other servers to flounder, and eventually that will catch up to BG.

Interesting perspective, albeit somewhat inaccurate. BG is indeed the last true T1 server, although JQ comes very close; they’re probably one guild away from being on even footing.

BG was really forged during the 2v1 back in Seasons. There is a lot of pride there and a core group of Militia and Guilds that will likely never leave. We do have guilds come and go, but the core remains the same.

BG certainly doesn’t have “giant zergballs nearly around the clock”.

For coverage, BG queues all maps on reset, most maps on Saturday, and EBG (pugs) plus maybe one other map most of the week during NA prime.

During off hours there is usually one typemander float squad that bounces around maps defending, and no maps are queued. Probably 10-20 people. I know because I often log in during the day and NEVER see a map queued, and TS is usually dead. This coverage in and of itself isn’t the issue, as it is usually counterbalanced by equal sized opponents. Nothing like the coverage we had a few years ago.

So your perceptions may be a bit skewed, just like many people in our NA squads always think we’re outnumbered 2-1 in fights. In fact, many BG commanders complain that they can’t get 30 people in squad, yet the map is queued with green dots doing who knows what.

What may be the real issue of late is that BG has a very sizable PVE population. As in really huge group of PUGS that have now decided that they want the new WvW shiny. So they log in and bounce around maps to keep their pips up. Usually an unorganized group about the size of a traditional havok squad. When I roam on my thief to cap camps I almost always see 3 or 4 BG’ers already there just waiting for the timer to expire.

While this may seem like a concerted effort by BG to stack, it’s probably really just a bunch of PVE’ers tying to keep up their pips to get their latest shiny. Not sure why this is unique to BG, but it may be that our already sizable WvW population which was #1 prior to the updates (although nowhere near what it was a couple years ago), combined with the new people entering WvW, has tipped the balance.

I was on BG for over 2 years, this guy nailed what I saw there perfectly. BG is just a kitten ton of hibernators and casuals that peek in WvW when news or updates arrive.

Plus no one remembers when BG is losing…we were pretty consistently getting 3rd place for like 6 months a while ago? All you ever hear is BG stacking like winning even has any good rewards to it.

I like the idea, but 6 weeks seems a bit too short a time. 6 months sounds better. This way if there were mass amounts of hibernators, by the time they return, their server will probably have dropped rank/prestige/bandwagoners tremendously.

BeepBoopBop.5403:

QuantumCat.9051:

What may be the real issue of late is that BG has a very sizable PVE population. As in really huge group of PUGS that have now decided that they want the new WvW shiny. So they log in and bounce around maps to keep their pips up. Usually an unorganized group about the size of a traditional havok squad. When I roam on my thief to cap camps I almost always see 3 or 4 BG’ers already there just waiting for the timer to expire.

While this may seem like a concerted effort by BG to stack, it’s probably really just a bunch of PVE’ers tying to keep up their pips to get their latest shiny. Not sure why this is unique to BG, but it may be that our already sizable WvW population which was #1 prior to the updates (although nowhere near what it was a couple years ago), combined with the new people entering WvW, has tipped the balance.

I was on BG for over 2 years, this guy nailed what I saw there perfectly. BG is just a kitten ton of hibernators and casuals that peek in WvW when news or updates arrive.

Plus no one remembers when BG is losing…we were pretty consistently getting 3rd place for like 6 months a while ago? All you ever hear is BG stacking like winning even has any good rewards to it.

Even with BG closed for like 99% of the time the past year they’re still bigger than every other server. BG’s pug population was basically forged back in the day they were beating up on Teq 2.0. Those players are still on BG and will probably never leave because there’s no reason to.

For pve they have megaservers, for wvw they have a server that has the biggest pug population around the clock still, and they don’t have to care what place the server is in because rewards are mainly earned from participation, rank, and skirmish placement, weekly placement has no affect.

So no reason for them to move, they just need to earn pips and ppt which is close enough to pveing, better for them to be in the biggest server and run in groups that are often than not bigger than the opponent. Actual wvw players there have a bigger than other server populations to work with, not much reason for them to move either unless they’re a fight guild.

The only thing servers can do to BG at this point is just not play them, bore them to death, take the week off and let them run around to paint everything green and then trying to keep their participation up. But no one is going to do that so BG will just chug along running over servers until server/population structure is changed.

Military deployments typically last 6-18 months. So kick people off servers while they’re serving their country?

ive changed my mind. this simply wont work. I think an effective way to go about fixing this sort of thing is to prevent one person from playing the same home world with multiple accounts.

Thelgar.7214:

Military deployments typically last 6-18 months. So kick people off servers while they’re serving their country?

the hell do I care WHY they’re gone, its still a slot not being used that they’re holding up. You can dress it up as “serving their country” I dont give a kitten lol. Take your military worship somewhere else, some people don’t care about it (they’re kitteners paid to do a job.).

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Thelgar.7214:

Military deployments typically last 6-18 months. So kick people off servers while they’re serving their country?

the hell do I care WHY they’re gone, its still a slot not being used that they’re holding up. You can dress it up as “serving their country” I dont give a kitten lol. Take your military worship somewhere else, some people don’t care about it (they’re kitteners paid to do a job.).

A wild accusation has appeared!

They’re not taking up a slot if they’re gone, since they’re not counted towards the activity check which dictates if a server opens or not, not how many are actually on the server.

this is part of the suggested system after blowing it up in my other thread

The beauty of making servers non-mandatory come in many forms

• Newcomers will be given absolute freedom to seek for the guilds to be part of before deciding to jump into WvW instead of being threw into random server they chosen with zero understanding of their decision.
• Guilds will have bigger pool of players to recruit from instead of being limited to specific server’s pool
• WvW populations will be more accurately measured exactly due to removal of non-wvw active accounts, this without doubt will lead to better balancing data
• Sudden spike in populations due to unpredictable human activities will no longer have unpredictable impact to population balancing thus again leading to better balancing
• Returning players are given a chance to choose a new server for FREE, this in itself is a compensation, it is like a 1800 gems voucher.
• Flow of populations are likely to become more fair thus filling up servers more evenly

Still, I believe blowing it all up is still better.

SkyShroud.2865:

this is part of the suggested system after blowing it up in my other thread

The beauty of making servers non-mandatory come in many forms

• Newcomers will be given absolute freedom to seek for the guilds to be part of before deciding to jump into WvW instead of being threw into random server they chosen with zero understanding of their decision.
• Guilds will have bigger pool of players to recruit from instead of being limited to specific server’s pool
• WvW populations will be more accurately measured exactly due to removal of non-wvw active accounts, this without doubt will lead to better balancing data
• Sudden spike in populations due to unpredictable human activities will no longer have unpredictable impact to population balancing thus again leading to better balancing
• Returning players are given a chance to choose a new server for FREE, this in itself is a compensation, it is like a 1800 gems voucher.

Please don’t bring that in here. Your thread was closed because it ran its course. The mods noted they would not delete servers.

Just go the free market approach and let the queue times deter people from transferring. Less management too. Better yet, let people know what the queues were on reset last week so people can get a preview before attempting to stack an already beefy server…

Despite all the hate BG gets. It is filled with guilds that were there for more than 6months (REV, KNT, GoF, FOO, AHMA, SG, SW, XVX). So I don’t don’t buy the transfer wars argument in 2017. Does that mean guilds haven’t transferred? Nope, [RISE] did. But NA guilds barely impact the coverage war that shifts the matches wildly. The dust settled months ago, and I suspect the coverage is mostly because people stopped moving ever since it became full for fear they’d be locked out….which is ironic given the intended purpose of FULL status.

Strider Pj.2193:

SkyShroud.2865:

this is part of the suggested system after blowing it up in my other thread

The beauty of making servers non-mandatory come in many forms

• Newcomers will be given absolute freedom to seek for the guilds to be part of before deciding to jump into WvW instead of being threw into random server they chosen with zero understanding of their decision.
• Guilds will have bigger pool of players to recruit from instead of being limited to specific server’s pool
• WvW populations will be more accurately measured exactly due to removal of non-wvw active accounts, this without doubt will lead to better balancing data
• Sudden spike in populations due to unpredictable human activities will no longer have unpredictable impact to population balancing thus again leading to better balancing
• Returning players are given a chance to choose a new server for FREE, this in itself is a compensation, it is like a 1800 gems voucher.

Please don’t bring that in here. Your thread was closed because it ran its course. The mods noted they would not delete servers.

Still, you revitalise part of the ideals like how others in the thread were revitalising part of it , however anet devs already said, it is pointless since none of us have full perspectives of the issues.

XenesisII.1540:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Thelgar.7214:

Military deployments typically last 6-18 months. So kick people off servers while they’re serving their country?

the hell do I care WHY they’re gone, its still a slot not being used that they’re holding up. You can dress it up as “serving their country” I dont give a kitten lol. Take your military worship somewhere else, some people don’t care about it (they’re kitteners paid to do a job.).

A wild accusation has appeared!

They’re not taking up a slot if they’re gone, since they’re not counted towards the activity check which dictates if a server opens or not, not how many are actually on the server.

IF population is counted that way still.

Chinchilla.1785:

Just go the free market approach and let the queue times deter people from transferring. Less management too.

Completely agree. Higher queue times -> unhappy guilds -> natural transfers.

+ anet gets EZ transfer $$$ grab

I actually like some of the ideas I have seen about getting rid of servers and making WvW a more Guild/alliance style game. I think that would fix a large part of the problem we are having with server issues and population balance.

STIHL.2489:

I actually like some of the ideas I have seen about getting rid of servers and making WvW a more Guild/alliance style game. I think that would fix a large part of the problem we are having with server issues and population balance.

Continuing this thread in that direction will just get the thread closed. Has been suggested many times, its not happening. Still need a realistic solution to the hibernators though.

BeepBoopBop.5403:

STIHL.2489:

I actually like some of the ideas I have seen about getting rid of servers and making WvW a more Guild/alliance style game. I think that would fix a large part of the problem we are having with server issues and population balance.

Continuing this thread in that direction will just get the thread closed. Has been suggested many times, its not happening. Still need a realistic solution to the hibernators though.

What different does it make when you too are just merely revitalising an idea that already suggested?

BeepBoopBop.5403:

STIHL.2489:

I actually like some of the ideas I have seen about getting rid of servers and making WvW a more Guild/alliance style game. I think that would fix a large part of the problem we are having with server issues and population balance.

Continuing this thread in that direction will just get the thread closed. Has been suggested many times, its not happening. Still need a realistic solution to the hibernators though.

The realistic solution to the hibernators is to give up.

There, I said it.

Do. Nothing.

Here’s the thing, this has built up the point where nuclear options are the only real options.
And ANet doesn’t want to do those.

So there is no realistic solution to it.

I would hope queue times on bandwagon gate cause people to leave. Then again, anyone stacking bandwagongate has zero self respect so they could ride it out indefinitely for a few more loot bags.

SkyShroud.2865:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

STIHL.2489:

I actually like some of the ideas I have seen about getting rid of servers and making WvW a more Guild/alliance style game. I think that would fix a large part of the problem we are having with server issues and population balance.

Continuing this thread in that direction will just get the thread closed. Has been suggested many times, its not happening. Still need a realistic solution to the hibernators though.

What different does it make when you too are just merely revitalising an idea that already suggested?

Go ahead and link me threads. If they haven’t closed, and the problem has clearly not been solved, then do I have to explain how it’s different?

BeepBoopBop.5403:

SkyShroud.2865:

BeepBoopBop.5403:

STIHL.2489:

I actually like some of the ideas I have seen about getting rid of servers and making WvW a more Guild/alliance style game. I think that would fix a large part of the problem we are having with server issues and population balance.

Continuing this thread in that direction will just get the thread closed. Has been suggested many times, its not happening. Still need a realistic solution to the hibernators though.

What different does it make when you too are just merely revitalising an idea that already suggested?

Go ahead and link me threads. If they haven’t closed, and the problem has clearly not been solved, then do I have to explain how it’s different?

Let me quote what you are wrote.

“Has been suggested many times, its not happening.”

Everything here too are suggested before and not recently, dated as far back as 2 to 3 years ago. In between now and then, the suggestions were echoed here and there thus suggested many times. Base on what you said, therefore it is not happening. So again, how is it different?

So much misinformation in this thread. It makes me mad.

BG does not have zergballs running 24/7. Far from it. On reset, map ques start opening up soon past midnight. I am often outnumbered on a map. Look at the reality. If server A has 10 players on a map and B has 5 players, then odds are the server with 10 players is going to win the ppt on that map. One doesn’t need a zergball to win.

We don’t have a hybernation conspiracy. Occasionally, if there’s nothing going on in the game, and there’s a guild that really does want to transfer, some of the guilds will try to organize a week off to game the que, but it usually doesn’t last longer than that. Everyone does that. It isn’t unique to BG. But this is very rare.

We don’t have hybernating massive amounts of guilds just waiting to pounce. What we have had are massive amounts of guilds leave over the years, and even recent months, we’ve lost some big guilds. I mean leave, transfer, not buy a new account on another server. This might open things up for a brief time.

We do have a large, loyal player base that is very organized and dedicated. This makes BG operate on a slightly higher level then most servers. I’d like to think that we’re better than most and don’t soley rely on numbers. I think the proof of this is during reset nights when all maps are qued on all servers. The KD ratio and PPT scores reflect that.

We don’t win every matchup. Frankly, Maguma has the potential to beat us. They have some fantastic guilds there who are great at organizing and fighting. But it is my theory that they want to loose as they don’t like being in T1 and would rather be the ones bouncing back and forth via the one up one down system for match variety.

Re the OP, this is a terrible idea. New games come out, expansions for old games I’ve played come out, and I stop GW2 and play those, sometimes for months at a time. I don’t want to come back to GW2 and know that the guilds, friends, organization, and playstyle that I’ve have for 5 years and would expect upon return has been revoked.

Maybe you should look inwards at your own playstyle, your own guilds meta, you own servers organization. Put forth some effort in that direction. Recruit. Participate more. Instead of asking the government to lower the bar to your level.

BeepBoopBop.5403:

Chinchilla.1785:

Just go the free market approach and let the queue times deter people from transferring. Less management too.

Completely agree. Higher queue times -> unhappy guilds -> natural transfers.

+ anet gets EZ transfer $$$ grab

Some transfers, many that will just leave. No money there.