Guild Wars 2

After what feels like 6 solid months of Sea of Sorrows vs Fort Aspenwood vs Tarnished Coast, I have but one, tiny, itty bitty little thing to ask for from Arena Net:

PLEASE.
Switch up the matchings! Give us new people to fight! Our commanders feel less motivated as each week goes by. Maybe have some mechanic that once every 6 months the server list for match ups gets randomized.

It’s not much. This is just getting too tiring and repetitive facing the exact same players day in and day out.

Bumping this because it still needs done.

They arent going to do anything and bumping is against forum rules I’m afraid.

My thoughts on this was, we should have a drop down list of all servers on the WvW panel. Every week we select which server we’d like to play against. Then, before Anet pulls the lever on reset, this voting get’s factored in as a Glicko modifier. Something to help give a more favorable chance to role another matchup. Though stable enough to not allow blowouts which would be a good awful blow to an already fragile game mode.

Whilst I have sympathy for the OP I am absolutely certain that random match ups are not the way to go. Let me recount a bit of history to explain…

Disclaimer: I’m on IoJ and can only comment from the point of view of my experience on my server.
A while back now we spent over 6 months facing pretty much the same servers in T3 NA so I understand the problems of repetitive match ups. The situation we faced back then was 4 servers with T2 glicko scores but only 3 spaces in T2. So one server was always put down in T3 and would spend the week absolutely flattening the other two servers there. I believe they did this to get a high enough score to get back into T2, it can’t have been that enjoyable for them and it certainly wasn’t for the rest of us.

The IoJ WvW guilds did the best they could for the first couple of months.
Then we did our best and complained a bit. You can read the forum posts if you look back far enough.
Then some of our WvW guilds and players transferred out to escape the boredom and frustration. It was, they felt, their only solution.

Finally we moved down the league and into lower tiers, dropping to T8 for a while before picking back up a bit. We’re still fairly low now just bobbing around in T6-T8 NA.

So back to the present day:

Having random match ups is a really bad idea. You’ll end up with top tier servers stomping lower tier servers for a week, or the top tier players will need to take time out to allow a more even match up and who is going to choose to do that?! Either way there’s no real fun for either side.

So while I sympathise with the OP, I have no sympathy with the situation itself since it is the result of the past actions of the servers involved.

The current population imbalance in the NA servers is the result of player choices and transfers. The persistent match ups are a result of the way scores are calculated and in particular the big differences that have opened up between some servers/tiers.

Perhaps one way to solve this is to reset the scores annually and start again. This might reduce the number of stale match ups and prevent six month long fixtures .
Another possible solution is to remove all the servers, create new ones with new names and effectively have a fresh start for both scores and population. Again, I suspect these would need resetting every year to prevent the situation we see today.

Random match ups are not the solution however since each server needs to face opponents of around the same level in order to get a decent challenge and maximum enjoyment. We are currently too spread out in NA for this to work.

Don’t worry, the megaserver/alliance thingy will solve all your problems

Yuffi.2430:

…You’ll end up with top tier servers stomping lower tier servers for a week, or the top tier players will need to take time out to allow a more even match up and who is going to choose to do that?! Either way there’s no real fun for either side…

So maybe one week a month, you’ll be in an overwhelming battle. And these days, “top teir servers” means maybe one or two opponents will fill one more map than you can or their EBG blob will be a bit bigger than yours.

And if it’s a proper randomized system, more like one week every 5’ish weeks, you’ll be in a not exactly balanced match.

And even you admit that the “top tier” servers could take a break for part of that week that you end up facing them.

And you never know, “lower tier” servers could end up learning a thing or two from better competition and get…better.

And it w/could re-invigorate server pride again. Give us something to positively talk about for a while, raggin’ on each other instead of the devs.

So what would be wrong with a random match up every week again? Kids don’t like to lose. But this flies in the face with the reality that there is no winning without losing. As the saying goes, the only end difference between winning and losing is how you feel after the game.

But same, same, same, same for endless months, and even years, is worse. It’s boring.

The stylized glicko system that Anet has chosen has never generated the engaging match ups that it should have, was more about balanced results and…a little history…as many predicted when it was introduced and implemented (without any serious community input) would just end up in pretty much quickly boring static match ups.

Present day, one the underlying issues with WvW is the staleness of the match up system. It doesn’t really change much, if at all.

And this staleness has driven people to the top 3 servers for…in simplest terms…better. Better competition. Better match ups. Better (insert yours here).

/3 cents

For NA, that’s sort of pointless. All it really means is that the names of the doors will change.

At this point if you’re actually having a stable matchup and merely complaining about boredom, well I hate to say it, but that’s a First World Problem.

DeWolfe.2174:

My thoughts on this was, we should have a drop down list of all servers on the WvW panel. Every week we select which server we’d like to play against. Then, before Anet pulls the lever on reset, this voting get’s factored in as a Glicko modifier. Something to help give a more favorable chance to role another matchup. Though stable enough to not allow blowouts which would be a good awful blow to an already fragile game mode.

Chuckles

Should, Would, or Does work…which is better?

How much coding does ANet need to do?

I’d really like to believe Zen Later, I really would. Unfortunately I’m old and cynical and have seen too much of human nature. I look forward to being proven wrong!

I can accept the idea of throwing away a match up every five or six weeks, although I would prefer to have fun every week of course. Unfortunately if you look at the glicko spread in NA you can see some clear gaps:
T1 and T2 are pretty close.
T3 and T4 are 170 000 glicko behind… that’s a massive gap.
T6 in NA has 100 000 glicko spread between the three servers, so does T7.
T8 starts at less than half the T1 glicko scores.

Matches across pairs of tiers may be viable but top to bottom differences are just too big. You can’t pitch a T1 server against a T8 server and expect the T8 players to suddenly improve (hint – it’s not player skill that has the major impact on glicko score). You also can’t expect T1 players to say “Hey, I paid for this game and want to enjoy it but you know what, let’s just have a week where only 10% of us play to make this fairer”.

I’ve seen what long term unbalanced match ups do to server pride. It’s not nice close up. Short term – say a week – that’s survivable, yes.

As for “And you never know, “lower tier” servers could end up learning a thing or two from better competition and get…better.” I can say from experience that yes, I did learn new things, new places to put siege for example. But the thing I learned most is outmanned 6 or more to one means you’re going to lose. I’m not sure how I could have “got better” learning this but I’m open to suggestions, even a year on… although I suppose I could have switched to PU mesmer?!

I would suggest that for NA servers (sorry – I have no experience on EU ones and can’t comment there) “this staleness has driven people to the top 3 servers” is in fact the reason why some match ups are so stale at the moment. Not sure how this is for the better though.

So here’s a positive and different thought. If you are on a higher tier NA server and you are fed up with the same match up over and over again – pick a server in the lower tiers (T5 to T8) and transfer. Bring a small number of people with you. Start commanding. Teach people. You get new match ups, new players and guilds to fight, and the satisfaction of watching your efforts bring a server up the ranks. What do you stand to lose? Just more stale and boring weeks…

And if a few of the guilds that band-wagoned up the tiers did this, moving to different servers, we’d have better population balance and probably a lot of fun too.

I love how some of the resolutions keep us in the same state… Because, ya know, that’s worked out really well over the past three years… Oh wait, it’s auto upgrades killing wvw…

But ya know… 20 of you still fighting for your dying individual server pride while all the ultra competitive alliances and guilds and players have moved on to greener pastures and looking forward to umm the unchaining of King Arthur’s camelot… Of which Anet will try to compete against, but it’s a bit too late now…

If y’all love wvw so much then y’all better learn to snuggle with mega/alliance stuff… That’s the only way gw2 wvw will survive…

ANet will be highly successful with these people’s vision & feedback using mega/alliance stuff…

GW2 will be very lucrative based on these people’s advice that are casual players to WvW. Happy for them.

Enjoy

Posted with sarcasm

Some people are clueless as ever.

No vision & no fundamental concept…imho.

No thanks, but it’s time for me to move on & these changes are making the process easier to do.

Zen Later.6475:

Yuffi.2430:

…You’ll end up with top tier servers stomping lower tier servers for a week, or the top tier players will need to take time out to allow a more even match up and who is going to choose to do that?! Either way there’s no real fun for either side…

So maybe one week a month, you’ll be in an overwhelming battle.

I guess you weren’t there. It wasn’t one week a month. It was each week over something like two months and the end result was players quitting.

The glicko rating isn’t just a random number. It’s a reflection of actively playing population. When there’s more than 100 point difference between two servers, that always spells bad news when the two get into a match together. It would be better if servers in NA had population and coverage closer to each other like what EU has. It just is a fact of the state of the game in NA that it doesn’t and that’s been by player choice.

Dragonbrand has their bandwagon going again. It is going to be the same pain to an already decimated WvW population in T3 when a rotation starts up again. Again, player choice, players chosing to move there instead of chosing to move to the servers that face DB in order to create good matches.

I think you meant “clued in”…

Glad for all the clued in people…

Who play how much WvW per day?

Anyway…it’s all yours.

Enjoy…I’ll pass on the New WvW.

I play 0 now because because it’s boring as all get out and it’s too few players spread too thin… I like mass fights, not all the other boring stuff that wvw has to offer.

I like rewards too, so wvw sucks for that as well…

Rather watch paint dry than do wvw currently…

Yeah 842 silver, but I got the drift of wvw at 1… Spent enough time in pvp, rvr and arena settings for many years to know about this game and what it needs…

You’ll be back when they start handing out legendaries

Swagger.1459:

I play 0 now because because it’s boring as all get out and it’s too few players spread too thin… I like mass fights, not all the other boring stuff that wvw has to offer.

I like rewards too, so wvw sucks for that as well…

Rather watch paint dry than do wvw currently…

Yeah 842 silver, but I got the drift of wvw at 1… Spent enough time in pvp, rvr and arena settings for many years to know about this game and what it needs…

You’ll be back when they start handing out legendaries

Why aren’t you playing EotM there’s lots of people there & you earn WvW rewards too.

I’ll speak for myself, but I’m sure there are others that may feel the same.

Honestly, if things go as you advocate…

I’ll probably give up playing Guild Wars after playing it for 10+ years.

The passion for it is dwindling. You’re just helping the process for me to quit playing.

Which imho…is a good thing.

Also, will probably not be buying any future expansions to this series once I can drop this gaming habit for good.

Time could be better spent somewhere else trading stock, or doing a side business.

Megaserver will make WvW more fun according to you…because there’s lots of people playing together so it should be more fun.

You also mentioned that EotM is successful because of a Megaserver Base Map Mechanic, but you’re not playing EotM yourself? Why?

I still don’t understand how Megaserver will handle the Match-Ups.

You should create a Topic Thread on Megaserver imho. You’re such a strong advocate of the concept. That way people can see the details behind how the Megaserver Base Map Mechanic will work to change the Match-Up that the OP is asking for.

You already spend more time here in the forum than in game.

You can have GW2 WvW with Megaserver. You deserve it.

Because everything pvp related is a bore right now…

Professions are stale, even with elites, and only have so much replayability…

There are only a handful of meta builds which shows how poor the profession system is…

Condition system is still a bad joke…

Game is pretty stagnant as of now…

If wvw/eotm had some decent rewards to earn I might play but meh…

I did want those mist weapons, but it’s been a year and a half since last tournament and no way to buy them with badges so I just lost interest… Still sitting with 500 junk scraps because I’m not just going to buy one weapon lol… Pretty sad reward system, shows how much they care right?

I buy all my gold so I don’t care about that either… I’ll buy legendaries if I want but that doesn’t interest me…

Devs are way too slow with just about everything so I lose interest fast waiting for the next piece of the puzzle to be put in so to speak…

Ooooohhh yay! A single wvw map… fun fun right diku?

@Swagger

You should consider applying for a career as the PR person for ANet. You could make a lot of money with your skill.

You seem to be the foremost & most outspoken advocate of Megaserver on this forum imho. You’re so clued in too.

Still waiting for you to explain How Megaserver in detail will allow Server Switch Up to happen that the OP is asking for.

Yeah, I’m all in favor. There isn’t much that can be done for T1… destacking would just roll a different server up, and create stagnation once again. There’s no magical rotation as the ‘alliance’ that went to YB found out. If there really is a magical reboot coming, let us have something different in the rotation until then.

And really, before anyone whines that they’ve been playing the same server for a few months…. JQ and BG will be playing each other for 3 years come February or so.

I always wondered what would happen if servers were regarded as teams, and they did match-ups like MOBAs/other sports do things. So, every server would end up fighting all the other servers at least twice or so, and at the end of the season/year, whoever won the most is top of the ladder, etc.

It would need some tweaking to better accommodate WvW, but it might be worth a try.

Teevell.1684:

I always wondered what would happen if servers were regarded as teams, and they did match-ups like MOBAs/other sports do things. So, every server would end up fighting all the other servers at least twice or so, and at the end of the season/year, whoever won the most is top of the ladder, etc.

It would need some tweaking to better accommodate WvW, but it might be worth a try.

This would actually work really well, if the scores did not keep adding up objectives captured during off-times or if those objectives did not give any points if not enough defenders are on the map etc. thus addressing both “nightcapping” and vast population differences at once.

If the scores only reflected objectives actually fought for and the game provided some better anti-blob / assymetric combat, then you could completely randomize the match ups and this would solve a lot of issues in the game mode.

3) Isn’t PPT over emphasized in this proposal?

Diku.2546:

@Swagger

You should consider applying for a career as the PR person for ANet. You could make a lot of money with your skill.

---

You seem to be the foremost & most outspoken advocate of Megaserver on this forum imho. You’re so clued in too.

Still waiting for you to explain How Megaserver in detail will allow Server Switch Up to happen that the OP is asking for.

@Swagger

Any thoughts on this?

Not a frequent flyer on the forum, but I have to say: “Be Careful What You Wish For” I was on IOJ. I saw how demoralizing playing vs higher servers for months can be. It accomplished one thing: Guilds transferred only adding to the population imbalances of servers.
An occasional match-up of different tier servers is within the realm. My present server (T5) was matched a few weeks ago vs T3 & T4. My reaction at reset: Uh-oh. But, we actually did well.
Lower servers have many good players-just not as many & therefore not as many heavies as higher tiers. This, IMO, plays into the outcome.
We, as players, created the present state-of-affairs in match-ups. Having lower tiers go against higher tiers on a regular basis would end in creating less servers & even more stale match-ups. Ppl get tired of being stomped & as Yuffi stated-go to greener pastures. And, in reverse, higher tiers get bored. Fewer servers would be welcomed by some, according to the posts I have read on this forum. But, a decrease in servers would result in even staler match-ups IMO. And some players don’t want the environment of higher tier servers that this scenario would create. It’s all a matter of preference. As someone who has transferred around since my experience on IOJ-just a IMO. Trying to look at the bigger picture. Agree or not-it is not going to alter my view of the WVW world. I, already am having a tough time accepting the Desert BL, although I am trying. I don’t want an IOJ Revisited…

A long time ago anet decided to add some more deviations into the ratings system to produce different matchups. What resulted was imbalanced matchups every week. I was on SoR at the time, we were in t1 and would get rolled into a matchup with 2 t2 servers, it was basically a dead ktrain week, we scored over 480k one week. After several weeks of imbalanced matchups anet quickly went back to the old system.

Basically player action is really the only way to have different matchups.

Just come to T1 where action is 24/7

rhejeckt.5791:

Not a frequent flyer on the forum, but I have to say: “Be Careful What You Wish For” I was on IOJ. I saw how demoralizing playing vs higher servers for months can be. It accomplished one thing: Guilds transferred only adding to the population imbalances of servers.

Another thing I’ve been thinking on, is they should have seasons that are maybe 3 months long (or however long would actually work best). During that season, you can’t switch “servers”. Let’s be honest, the only place server matters anymore is WvW, and there is far less server pride now because of the megaserver everywhere else. So let’s replace servers with teams/factions. So, at the beginning of a season, you choose which faction/team you will fight for (for example, my current server is TC, so I would start by fighting for the TC team and before the season starts I could switch teams if I wanted). For that season, you can’t switch. Once the season is over, you can switch to a different team.

Just a thought I’ve been having.

In the past a T1 server moving down would doom T2 for that week. I think BG moving to T2 for a week or two probably wouldn’t be that bad. BG doesn’t really have a persistent population any longer and they tend to surge on one map during NA Prime. If any of the T2 servers are q’ing during NA Prime on any night, they can probably handle T1. With a few exceptions q’s on YB are non-existent.

If BG did move down, they might smell blood in the water and all log in for that time proving me wrong though. The same could be said for a server moving into T1. A lot of players are dormant and that could bring them out to the detriment of a less populated server.