Server transfers are hurting our server community (Jade Quarry - LONG)
in WvW
Posted by: Prophecy.5204
I am from Jade Quarry. I chose Jade Quarry over the other servers at launch because of the community: they had a great, established community of ex-DAoC players and a warm grouping of guilds that had been together for years.
At first, I was apprehensive. I had tried a couple other servers during BWEs in an attempt to find a community of players that seemed to resonate most with my playstyle and attitude. I wanted to WvW, casually, and find a group of players who were both organized and laid back. Regardless, when launch came around, me and my handful of guildies took the plunge to JQ.
As time went on, we grew to love the server we were on. I saw familiar names in Lion’s Arch every day and I knew that I could always jump into WvW, hop into the server TS, and enjoy PvP during whatever time I had to play. I laughed with the same people each night — people who I had never met before — and we formed bonds of familiarity.
Despite the names JQ may have established on forums, it became my home, and my guild’s home. And for the first time since DAoC, I had a server with a community that felt like mine. I was proud of our accomplishments as a server and I always wanted to see Jade Quarry become #1.
And #1 we became.
And that’s when the problems started. Like HoD before us, people began to transfer en-masse to Jade Quarry during off-peak hours. Now queues were 15m-1 hour to 4+ hours. Combined with the crashing issues WvW still has and the bugged queues (some people get into the same BG in 10 minutes while others wait hours upon hours), WvW became something I had to plan. Most days, I don’t even bother logging on now since I know WvW — the thing I absolutely adore most, despite its issues — will be impossible to get into.
This week, Jade Quarry has experienced the loss of two very important and original server guilds because of the queues and ArenaNet’s lack of response regarding the free transfers. We have so many new guilds and players on JQ that getting people in to play with guild mates is impossible. We’re essentially experiencing the same thing HoD did when it was in the top spot.
The two guilds we lost were extremely important to our WvW crew. They were also the main team I ran with every night. And now they’re gone.
For the first time since launch, I’m torn between the loyalty to my server and the desire to play with people who have transferred off of JQ. WvW, simply put, just isn’t as fun without these familiar faces roaming around each night.
ArenaNet, please give the community some response about these transfers. An incredibly important part of every MMO is the community and the bonds that players establish between their fellow server mates as well as their enemies. In every MMO I’ve played prior to this, transfers have always disrupted communities in some way. And just like HoD before it, JQ is now being disrupted, uprooted, and destroyed by these free transfers.
While I understand the need of them for balancing, allowing players to transfer to high population servers is just further skewing the population issues. Please address this issue — I really do not want to leave the server I (and my guild) have grown to love so much, but I think we may have to in order to preserve the experience of the game.
tl;dr — Server transfers are destroying the original server community of Jade Quarry. Many original guilds are transferring off in order to even be able to play together. I don’t want to leave JQ — I consider it my home — but I may have to because the game is ceasing to be fun due to lengthened queues and a crumbling server community.
(edited by Prophecy.5204)