Guild Wars 2

Hello,

It’s not a “mimimi” whine contribution. It´s only how I feel it, perhaps others too. I merely want to share how things are going for us – as a Guest server- with the World Linking.

I am on Whiteside Ridge since 2 ½ years, it’s my home. Most of us stay there since beta appr. 4 years (“veteran” players). We were mostly T8 and at times T9. And then, in February we reached T7, the best result in the history of our server!

However, since the 2. Linking, we’re losing “veteran” players + Leaders of “veteran” Guilds. They gave up and transferred to host server or quit the game. The next big raid guild has left us. This comes down to a loss of appr. 80-100 players. These amount is a great loss for a Guest server.

The hard core stays, through thick and thin. BUT for how long? No one knows.

I’m not talking about being a ‘Bandwagon’, we are in the last tier and place, because no one comes. Not like Vabbi, fortunately.

Some general reasons:

• There is NO balance between the MU or Linking
• Same MU for many more weeks (where you cannot even win)
• Guest servers are forgotten, don’t ‘exist’ anymore, are not displayed
• You will be considered a ‘Bandwagon’ for the stronger server (hence the server jumpers)

Anet, please give us – the Guest server – at least our identity and homeland back! We fight just as well as the Host server.

We cap towers, camps or Keeps and it displays: “Ring of Fire has captured…” … nice … is it us or the Host server? Please show at least the abbreviations of both servers RoF/WSR (Host-/Guest server) that just capped something. Do not take it all from us!

There’s another thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/World-linking-and-names-Merged

One another point:
Why give high tier servers like Deso/FsP a guest server when there are low tier servers that need more people to compete with the already over populated servers.

Giving a weaker server 1 link and then a stronger server 2 links (french servers), doesn’t make much sense.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I had to get it off my chest and belly.

I understand your pain – it’s similar in the NA tiers, although without the language restrictions.

As “guest” servers we have been stripped of our identity and now exist solely to support a “big blob” mentality by supplying extra numbers for the remaining “host” servers.

Does anyone on the “guest” servers find this motivating?

Honestly, I’ve thought since the beginning that the linking was a soft path to mergers or server deletion for these reasons.

The idea of mergers has been raised and resisted for years, in large part because of server identity and associated infrastructure (ts, websites, etc). The links were a way to see what mergers would look like (gameplay wise) while still being reversible. Meanwhile, server identity would be eroded as time went on, with people getting used to not seeing their servers names being mentioned or written anywhere, which would make server deletion/merger less controversial.

So, in effect, the links provide a way for Anet to (1) see/show how reducing the number of servers by half would look, and (2) to get the players used to not thinking about half the servers, thereby undermining resistance to deleting them, and it would be reversible if it looked like it wasn’t working.

To give you an idea of how effective the approach is, I’ve been on Ehmry Bay for years (only server I’ve been on), and there was a thriving community there with a lot of server loyalty and an active website, even when it tumbled to the absolute bottom of the rankings. The week before the linking, our score was supposed to put us above HoD in the rankings, but Anet didn’t account for that when they linked the bottom half of servers with the top half, so HoD became a host server and we became a linked server.

Like your experience, almost all of our core guilds (including those who’d helped us climb back up from the bottom to about midway) eventually transferred off, a lot of veteran players stopped playing (tired of the game, and no longer compelled to stick with it due to loyalty, relationships, etc), and I suspect most people wouldn’t kick up a fuss if Anet announced server mergers/deletion tomorrow. But I also suspect most people wouldn’t have left, nor would they accept server deletion, if we’d been and remained a host server.

So, yeah, I’m fairly certain what you’re experiencing is the prelude to your servers eventual deletion. If it’s intentional (as I suspect), then I don’t expect Anet will make the changes you want to restore your server identity.

(Note: HoD was a great server to be linked with, and there was no animosity from them not being linked to us as a host. They’re also a linked server now, so for all I know Ehmry would have been too even if we’d started out as a host server).

The way I see it, Linking was a soft merge, I’m sure the intent was to merge servers without servers losing their identity. This did not work, the linked servers currently have no identity, they are just additions to the home server who’s identity remains intact. On NA it’s not really a case of a home server saying “I hope we get linked with X server this time around” because it’s not really relevant which server it is as long as it’s one of them.

There’s no real good reason to keep linking around, those servers no longer have identities, just merge and get it over with.

With the linked server and all the bandwagon to them, they should at least share a percentage of score to help them up to possibly be a host server one day. Then again that could backfire and all the players bail to another one, lol.

It’s impossible to balance a Linking for that reason, when people can hop to any Tier they choose for the price of a lower population server the numbers are going to fluctuate a lot. Which is why I say they should just merge, just get it over with, merge, reset scores, and let the chips fall where they may.

Choppy.4183:

Honestly, I’ve thought since the beginning that the linking was a soft path to mergers or server deletion for these reasons.

The idea of mergers has been raised and resisted for years, in large part because of server identity and associated infrastructure (ts, websites, etc). The links were a way to see what mergers would look like (gameplay wise) while still being reversible. Meanwhile, server identity would be eroded as time went on, with people getting used to not seeing their servers names being mentioned or written anywhere, which would make server deletion/merger less controversial.

So, in effect, the links provide a way for Anet to (1) see/show how reducing the number of servers by half would look, and (2) to get the players used to not thinking about half the servers, thereby undermining resistance to deleting them, and it would be reversible if it looked like it wasn’t working.

To give you an idea of how effective the approach is, I’ve been on Ehmry Bay for years (only server I’ve been on), and there was a thriving community there with a lot of server loyalty and an active website, even when it tumbled to the absolute bottom of the rankings. The week before the linking, our score was supposed to put us above HoD in the rankings, but Anet didn’t account for that when they linked the bottom half of servers with the top half, so HoD became a host server and we became a linked server.

Like your experience, almost all of our core guilds (including those who’d helped us climb back up from the bottom to about midway) eventually transferred off, a lot of veteran players stopped playing (tired of the game, and no longer compelled to stick with it due to loyalty, relationships, etc), and I suspect most people wouldn’t kick up a fuss if Anet announced server mergers/deletion tomorrow. But I also suspect most people wouldn’t have left, nor would they accept server deletion, if we’d been and remained a host server.

So, yeah, I’m fairly certain what you’re experiencing is the prelude to your servers eventual deletion. If it’s intentional (as I suspect), then I don’t expect Anet will make the changes you want to restore your server identity.

(Note: HoD was a great server to be linked with, and there was no animosity from them not being linked to us as a host. They’re also a linked server now, so for all I know Ehmry would have been too even if we’d started out as a host server).

Expanding on what has been said here;

Competitive hate/loyalty is a big part of what makes large scale player versus player fun. Examples being Heroes and Villains in DC Universe Online or the Alliance and the Horde in World of Warcraft.

I didn’t play WoW but I did play DCUO and I loved hating on those pesky Heroes. It made me feel like I really belonged to something and it was fun getting in to that prideful mentality.

While I understand that from a business standpoint this wouldn’t benefit Anet, I do feel it would generate a lot more loyal players and more aggressive competition. Now that servers have been linked and people have been shuffling around so much, server names don’t mean anything anymore. We’re all just fighting other blobs for mediocre rewards against broken builds with broken siege.

I would prefer there to be server loyalty over the more activity that merges bring but not everyone is going to feel the same way I do. I know plenty of people that could care less about server loyalty and it’s unfortunate because it’s a really enjoyable way to immerse yourself and to get that competitive drive going in full force.

Only reason I’ve server hopped so much is because I’m always looking for a place I’m willing to fight and die for. Darkhaven was that home for me for the longest time but many of the people I cared about left or stopped playing. Since my home was made up of the people I cared about, I didn’t want to stay if those people weren’t there.

I’m not sure what the proper solution is so I can’t say much other than that I’m upset. If I’m not giving constructive feedback I’m just whining. I just want that pride and loyalty back. “Grr I hate this server this week, grr” isn’t the same as “grr I hate that server and love this server and we’re better than them!”

UR home was an apartment. It was always superficial.

Move to a primary servers. Thats clearly what Anet wants.

ANet continues to squander an opportunity to create the next e-Sport similar in scope to the NFL & SuperBowl Franchise…imho

Many Good & Hard Fought Rivalries come from fanatical fans that share a camaraderie & shared pride of being a part of their Team…

Can’t have Team…if you’re a Forgotten Guest World.

Yours truly,
Diku

p.s.
Please Don’t Suggest an Alliance of 3 colors…

How can anybody get crazy & pumped up…over a NFL SuperBowl season based only on 3 Football Teams…where everybody is randomly thrown together.

Possible Better Long Term Solution to WvW – Google Search – wvg world vs globes

Its pretty ludicrous that Anet opted for linking rather than merges in part due to concerns over server identity and then did it in such a way that server identity has been completely lost anyway. What were they thinking?

morrolan.9608:

Its pretty ludicrous that Anet opted for linking rather than merges in part due to concerns over server identity and then did it in such a way that server identity has been completely lost anyway. What were they thinking?

Well, if I was right above, they were thinking that linking would probably diminish server identity, thereby making mergers less controversial.

I think merging was always the plan, eventually. There’s just a few holes with a merge right now, like T4!

3 factions or fewer than 12 servers would not work. We have too many people for one, and two those that like it quieter/less crowded hardly get that now, how’s less space going to make them want to play? We’ve submitted to the fact there is no hole in wvw that doesn’t resemble the cereal isle on payday, but 24/7 uptime is going to push a fair amount of loyal people away.

In regards to server identity and the troubles of the nomads, alot of people just want to know where they’ll be sleeping next month or the month after, if you have 6 different addresses in one year, eventually you’ll forget where you were born. Calling a new place home isn’t a big chore, as long as you know you’ll still be there in half a year, and if you plant a tree, you might get to see it through its first growth spurt, maybe get rewarded with some oranges perhaps a few flowers, some sort of kickback ya know?

IE, finish digging the holes Anet and plant us!

Choppy.4183:

morrolan.9608:

Its pretty ludicrous that Anet opted for linking rather than merges in part due to concerns over server identity and then did it in such a way that server identity has been completely lost anyway. What were they thinking?

Well, if I was right above, they were thinking that linking would probably diminish server identity, thereby making mergers less controversial.

Nah I actually don’t think anet are that cynical. “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity”.

It is frustrating and upsetting its gotten to the point I just focus on my guild and run with them. I wish they would alternate the server host every other week like one week have it SF and the next week have it as gom and so on. Or merge our names or even give assigned colors names similar to how EOTM had their rotation set up. That away we dont feel like the ugly step child.

Just for giggles…to the people who believe Server Identity means nothing & Merging is the Solution…

ANet Merges All Servers like you want, but let’s name these Newly Merged Server using the Weaker Guest World’s Name.

Let’s see how that goes over with the Host Server’s citizens.

I still feel that Merging Servers will only be a temporary fix that will result in the same population in-balance after a few months…if not weeks.

We’re just going to end up in the same server stacked infested problem with stale un-balanced & blow-out match-ups again…just with less places for people to shuffle around on.

For a Better Long Term Solution to WvW – Google Search – wvg world vs globes

Server loyalty died in 2014.

Personally, as someone whose only ever been on 2 servers, both of which I’ve been apart of for approximately 2 years each, I’m in favour of scrapping the current servers completely.

Create 6 new servers resulting in 2 tiers, make players select a new server and start from scratch. If WvW wants to survive it needs to change drastically, especially with the likes of Crowfall and particularly CU on the horizon, Anet has limited time to act. The sooner the better.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Choppy.4183:

Honestly, I’ve thought since the beginning that the linking was a soft path to mergers or server deletion for these reasons.

The idea of mergers has been raised and resisted for years, in large part because of server identity and associated infrastructure (ts, websites, etc). The links were a way to see what mergers would look like (gameplay wise) while still being reversible. Meanwhile, server identity would be eroded as time went on, with people getting used to not seeing their servers names being mentioned or written anywhere, which would make server deletion/merger less controversial.

So, in effect, the links provide a way for Anet to (1) see/show how reducing the number of servers by half would look, and (2) to get the players used to not thinking about half the servers, thereby undermining resistance to deleting them, and it would be reversible if it looked like it wasn’t working.

To give you an idea of how effective the approach is, I’ve been on Ehmry Bay for years (only server I’ve been on), and there was a thriving community there with a lot of server loyalty and an active website, even when it tumbled to the absolute bottom of the rankings. The week before the linking, our score was supposed to put us above HoD in the rankings, but Anet didn’t account for that when they linked the bottom half of servers with the top half, so HoD became a host server and we became a linked server.

Like your experience, almost all of our core guilds (including those who’d helped us climb back up from the bottom to about midway) eventually transferred off, a lot of veteran players stopped playing (tired of the game, and no longer compelled to stick with it due to loyalty, relationships, etc), and I suspect most people wouldn’t kick up a fuss if Anet announced server mergers/deletion tomorrow. But I also suspect most people wouldn’t have left, nor would they accept server deletion, if we’d been and remained a host server.

So, yeah, I’m fairly certain what you’re experiencing is the prelude to your servers eventual deletion. If it’s intentional (as I suspect), then I don’t expect Anet will make the changes you want to restore your server identity.

(Note: HoD was a great server to be linked with, and there was no animosity from them not being linked to us as a host. They’re also a linked server now, so for all I know Ehmry would have been too even if we’d started out as a host server).

Expanding on what has been said here;

Competitive hate/loyalty is a big part of what makes large scale player versus player fun. Examples being Heroes and Villains in DC Universe Online or the Alliance and the Horde in World of Warcraft.

I didn’t play WoW but I did play DCUO and I loved hating on those pesky Heroes. It made me feel like I really belonged to something and it was fun getting in to that prideful mentality.

While I understand that from a business standpoint this wouldn’t benefit Anet, I do feel it would generate a lot more loyal players and more aggressive competition. Now that servers have been linked and people have been shuffling around so much, server names don’t mean anything anymore. We’re all just fighting other blobs for mediocre rewards against broken builds with broken siege.

I would prefer there to be server loyalty over the more activity that merges bring but not everyone is going to feel the same way I do. I know plenty of people that could care less about server loyalty and it’s unfortunate because it’s a really enjoyable way to immerse yourself and to get that competitive drive going in full force.

Only reason I’ve server hopped so much is because I’m always looking for a place I’m willing to fight and die for. Darkhaven was that home for me for the longest time but many of the people I cared about left or stopped playing. Since my home was made up of the people I cared about, I didn’t want to stay if those people weren’t there.

I’m not sure what the proper solution is so I can’t say much other than that I’m upset. If I’m not giving constructive feedback I’m just whining. I just want that pride and loyalty back. “Grr I hate this server this week, grr” isn’t the same as “grr I hate that server and love this server and we’re better than them!”

o/ Just another person who’s feeling everything the OP and this ^ person’s POV. Anet definitely looked at this from a standpoint that didn’t anticipate people actually caring for their servers. The relationships built within it is what made WvW so much fun, and that camaraderie gave the drive to make your home server proud. Didn’t they know that winning alone wasn’t what kept us playing? Even when wvw gave crap rewards, or when my server was at the bottom, we were active. Now it’s definitely dead. Whenever I jump into WvW, the team with the highest number of players have most of all BL’s and EB. We’ve already lost so many people, and now the population imbalance is just so much more staggering. Fights are pretty much nonexistent as the blob server always runs from an even fight, and if they’re not running, they’re simply blobbing with 30-50 man zergs against what… 5 of us?

Anyway, I wish I had something constructive to give as well. But as we’ve all learned (all as in us who came from “forgotten servers”), Anet doesn’t listen to our feedback because they’ve turned this all into a numbers game. You have the most people? You win. The polls simply swing to the big servers’ favors, and since that’s what Anet is basing all their changes from, then we unfortunately will continue to lose. Hellloooo PVE!

Archeia.8905:

Server loyalty died in 2014.

Personally, as someone whose only ever been on 2 servers, both of which I’ve been apart of for approximately 2 years each, I’m in favour of scrapping the current servers completely.

Create 6 new servers resulting in 2 tiers, make players select a new server and start from scratch. If WvW wants to survive it needs to change drastically, especially with the likes of Crowfall and particularly CU on the horizon, Anet has limited time to act. The sooner the better.

If I saw this when we still had our home server, I would have disagreed. But now, I’m totally rooting for this idea. Just scrap everything, let us choose where we want to go, LOCK those servers, and then go from there. I’d say it’d be better than what we’ve got going on now.

Peppel.9736:

Hello,

It’s not a “mimimi” whine contribution. It´s only how I feel it, perhaps others too. I merely want to share how things are going for us – as a Guest server- with the World Linking.

I am on Whiteside Ridge since 2 ½ years, it’s my home. Most of us stay there since beta appr. 4 years (“veteran” players). We were mostly T8 and at times T9. And then, in February we reached T7, the best result in the history of our server!

However, since the 2. Linking, we’re losing “veteran” players + Leaders of “veteran” Guilds. They gave up and transferred to host server or quit the game. The next big raid guild has left us. This comes down to a loss of appr. 80-100 players. These amount is a great loss for a Guest server.

The hard core stays, through thick and thin. BUT for how long? No one knows.

I’m not talking about being a ‘Bandwagon’, we are in the last tier and place, because no one comes. Not like Vabbi, fortunately.

Some general reasons:

• There is NO balance between the MU or Linking
• Same MU for many more weeks (where you cannot even win)
• Guest servers are forgotten, don’t ‘exist’ anymore, are not displayed
• You will be considered a ‘Bandwagon’ for the stronger server (hence the server jumpers)

Anet, please give us – the Guest server – at least our identity and homeland back! We fight just as well as the Host server.

We cap towers, camps or Keeps and it displays: “Ring of Fire has captured…” … nice … is it us or the Host server? Please show at least the abbreviations of both servers RoF/WSR (Host-/Guest server) that just capped something. Do not take it all from us!

There’s another thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/World-linking-and-names-Merged

One another point:
Why give high tier servers like Deso/FsP a guest server when there are low tier servers that need more people to compete with the already over populated servers.

Giving a weaker server 1 link and then a stronger server 2 links (french servers), doesn’t make much sense.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I had to get it off my chest and belly.

My posting in another part of this forum is very similar to yours.

WvW has had the worst attention to it since the beginning of the game – and that’s saying something when PvE and PvP are so well organized, updated and advanced.

Heya all

thx for your feedback! I feel too

Sure the host server player could easily say:
“What a pride for a server/loyalty? That died and are no longer there.”

NO … wrong … the guest server has it. The most from us arent server jumper.

I see many new faces and guilds , BUT from which server they are? Our server or host? If we are in a squad, there we see it, but otherwise NO.

I would be grateful if we could see our server name (in our linking)!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/wuv/Let-s-face-it-linking-failed-completely/first#post6296257

Archeia.8905:

Server loyalty died in 2014.

Personally, as someone whose only ever been on 2 servers, both of which I’ve been apart of for approximately 2 years each, I’m in favour of scrapping the current servers completely.

Create 6 new servers resulting in 2 tiers, make players select a new server and start from scratch.

This doesnt work in practice. Whatever the solution is, Anet would have to guarantee that guilds land on the same server. Making players select a new server while ignoring this is unacceptable.

morrolan.9608:

Its pretty ludicrous that Anet opted for linking rather than merges in part due to concerns over server identity and then did it in such a way that server identity has been completely lost anyway. What were they thinking?

ANet wanted the Gems that’s why and all the bandwagoners danced to the tune of ANet’s OP Pied Piper. All that’s WvW is now is just another gold and gem sink and nothing more. And to all of the bandwagoners.

Why do yall even bandwagon just to KTrain to begin with? For bags maybe? But wait a second you can get way way more gold/hour and bags in PvE land.

The only conclusion I can conceive is for the chance at easy and effortless achievement points? But what a sec is EoTM not better for that?

I am truly missing something here. I just don’t understand such a mentality, I mean if players stop promoting such tactics, maybe ANet would focus on making the game mode more balanced instead of just pointing and laughing at players just throwing Gems at ANet like it’s 1999.

Hi I am a ‘guest’ server person. Surely the problem with merging will be that people will once again move about? At least with linking we get a different roll each link and if its not that great you erm pve for a bit. If they merge also surely we will get staleness again?
I would rather that the names of the servers changed to a 2 or 3 letter code and that way we can have gh + uw rather than just one servers name.

I suspect that at some point two years ago server identity was most important than guild identity. Once entire groups started moving around, plus the changes we’ve seen from Anet, server identity went away to some degree. What is interesting to me is that once server identity is threatened, it became a more vocal component.

For me the Roleplaying community is always my favorite place to go in a game in conjunction with PVP. Sounds weird but I like the mentality of the populace. Once the “megaserver” concept was implemented and messed that section up, I lost a lot of initial interest.

I do agree that Anet needs to make some sort of change. We could have a pretty easy QoL update that would ensure the Guest server still shows up. Rivalries drive WvW though. That is a huge essential component.