Hello Everyone,
So I’m from Ferguson’s Crossing, which is one of the smaller servers. And I must say that WvW has really not lived up to its potential for us so far. And the single reason for this is that in just about EVERY match-up we have had, ONE team winds up dominating.
Last week it was us dominating Devona’s and Kaineng. This week it is Dark Haven dominating us and Anvil Rock. Whether you’re on the winning or the losing side…it’s just not very fun and exciting.
The reason for this is obvious…all the servers around my bracket are fairly low pop and can’t sustain any consistent WvW population. However these servers are also low pop to different degrees. So while DH will crush Ferguson’s and Anvil, Ferguson’s will crush Devona’s and Kaineng.
So the next question is…what can be done to solve this? Well I had a few ideas…
1. Stop the bleeding — PLEASE stop allowing free transfers to higher pop servers. Right now, that is the quickest, easiest way for a player to have a good WvW experience, so MANY people do it. In fact, I’m seriously considering doing it myself. Why should I stick around suffering when I could be having fun on a decent WvW server with the click of a button?
In addition to this, transfers to lower pop servers should be incentivized somehow.
2. Swap orb and outmanned bonuses — Right now orb bonuses give the winning team a sizeable buff. So if the population difference wasn’t enough to make them dominate, then the orb bonuses will push it over the edge. IMO, orb bonuses should be swapped with outmanned…give a exp/karma incentive for having the orbs, and give a buff for being outnumbered…makes much more sense.
3. Grouped server match-ups — Another idea to help low-pop servers would be to actually have to compete as teams. So maybe you could have Kaineng + AR vs. FC + Devona’s vs Darkhaven, or something like that. It’s not a perfect long-term solution, but at least it could make for more interesting match-ups in the short term.
What do you all think of these ideas? I know that some of them have been mentioned before, but I think they are applicable to this problem.