Guild Wars 2

Were the FREE server transfers, all that helped keep WvW more dynamic? By encouraging guilds to float randomly around different servers and bolster populations that may have been lacking?

For all the harm free transfers did, are paid transfers and T1 server stacking WORSE?

Sure, servers stacked like they always have. But at least random servers would rise to T1 and then fall from T1 based on the whims of large guilds and players.

At least T1 had a chance at changing.

Now we’ve bullied ourselves into a corner and given Guild Wars 2 the right to charge us to move to T1 and stay there, in a matchup that will never change.

I wonder if its time to BRING BACK free server transfers. To make WvW a little more dynamic. And a little less stagnant.

t1 servers should never have free transfers. But open up the free transfers to bottom 6, not such a bad idea

The first week to possibly to the end of the first month, they may have been a little helpful for people to find home with proper time zone play time ect. Anything over that 1 month mark was a huge mistake imo. That and making the cost to transfer the same currency for a low rank server vs. high rank because of over all server population is just not well thought out.

Why transfer to a low rank with crappy WvW pop when you can shoot up the ranks for the same price ?

I think server transfers period in this game were a terrible idea. The argument to allow friends to play together is a valid argument but it does not justify server transfers. Want to play with a friend? Start playing on that server. I hate doing it but it but contrast the ability to switch teams at will here with the way DAOC did it. Want to change realms? Delete all your characters and you can do it. By allow bandwagoners to all move to the winning servers they said they don’t care about wvw server balance as long as they make a few bucks.

Hexin.5603:

t1 servers should never have free transfers. But open up the free transfers to bottom 6, not such a bad idea

I strongly agree with this. The lowest pop servers should always be free to transfer to.

free transfers created massive bandwagons which ruined matches for months when all transfers were free

free transfers into medium servers for a week did the exact same thing, partially because anet bungled the operation and partially because we didnt change as a community.

the same thing will happen if free transfers are opened in the future and they arent severely limited in scope, something anet doesnt seem to be prepared to deal with, or even capable of dealing with with the game systems as they are.

in short, no.

1 month of free transfers at launch had been fine i think. But what i think is hurting more is that there is no reason to be loyal to your server. You don’t like PvE on your server just guest, you want to play with your friends, just guest. sPvP is cross server anyways so doesn’t matter too.

Free transfers would have to be permanent if at all but i don’t see what that would solve. Servers would just die even faster. 1 week your server is T1 and next week you come back and its dead. Do you really want to have that?

Even if you would only allow low pop servers to be free. You know what will happen every freakin “hardcore” wvw player will funnel into those servers. That means the imbalance will just shift to other servers and that will happen over and over again. In the meantime other servers who managed to somewhat stabilize will die off. And those servers with high pve population are screwed anyways because they will never be at low pop status.

The whole dilemma we have with guild transfers and “hardcore” wvw players transfering is just a sad state of our “WvW community”. Anet might as well give us a “Fantasy League” so we can bet on which guild transfers and which server will buy the next guild. I would probably spent more time on that than actually playing the game.

The domino effect started when we had free transfers and it just gotten worse. And Anet will not give us free transfers, because it works in their favor. And they will keep pushing WvW players to transfer. And we pay with non stop community drama.

Will free transfers happen? Does Anet want to earn less money?

YOU decide!

Free transfers to the bottom are worth it even if we have to deal with a Kaineng every once in a while.

The OP has hit upon a point. While free transfers did result in more “fickle” moves, I think the transferring has been many times worse and more devastating for the affected servers.
It is not a big deal to farm at least 20G or more a day for those determined to transfer. You can decide Monday morning to transfer and be on your new server before the next reset.

However, because of the financial aspect, individuals and guilds are less willing to take a chance on a different server. During free transfers it was easier to see how other servers were and you hadn’t wasted a week of your life running dungeons to pay for it.

I’m not advocating a return to free transfers, but it needs to no longer be the scapegoat.
Number of servers that collapsed during free transfers: 2
Number of servers collapsed sine the end of free transfers: 9

Chris.3290:

The OP has hit upon a point. While free transfers did result in more “fickle” moves, I think the transferring has been many times worse and more devastating for the affected servers.
It is not a big deal to farm at least 20G or more a day for those determined to transfer. You can decide Monday morning to transfer and be on your new server before the next reset.

However, because of the financial aspect, individuals and guilds are less willing to take a chance on a different server. During free transfers it was easier to see how other servers were and you hadn’t wasted a week of your life running dungeons to pay for it.

I’m not advocating a return to free transfers, but it needs to no longer be the scapegoat.
Number of servers that collapsed during free transfers: 2
Number of servers collapsed sine the end of free transfers: 9

Your numbers are way off of how many servers collapse during free transfer, unless you are talking about how many servers collapse per month, but then I think that number is still lite.

Who cares if it gave other servers a chance to rise to the top, it’s not done by those servers, just by the guild swappers. People who will change again soon, people who were already on that server would get bullied around, get their server community destroyed, and then when they are #1, the server gets overstacked, que times rise and then those guilds leave the server for antoher. Leaving a Server that is unable to maintain because in that time they’ve learned nothing from those transfered guild, their community is broken and quite frankly no one really wants to do anything any more. So if your goal is to just be #1 while contributing little to nothing, then sure go for it have free transfers again to make the super guilds that will collapse and destroy your server. I am generalizing, there are a few servers who have recovered and a few that slowly climbed up, but for the most part this has been the case.

What everybody is forgetting is that it’s actually free transfers atm ONLY to tier 1 NA.
No other server can or is willing to pay for guilds to transfer compared to Stack Quarry, Sanctum of Stack and maybenotsostackgate.

Le Rooster.8715:

What everybody is forgetting is that it’s actually free transfers atm ONLY to tier 1 NA.
No other server can or is willing to pay for guilds to transfer compared to Stack Quarry, Sanctum of Stack and maybenotsostackgate.

hahaha… nice names

+1 body length must be at least 15.

Nope. But in a way it doesn’t really matter, because even with the large costs today to move guilds over, it ended up stacking regardless. People will just naturally do that.

The problem is that numbers and coverage dominate all else. Thus, if your side is losing, what can you do to improve your situation? More numbers. You can’t blame them; blame Anet for the gameplay. It’s an arms race to stay competitive, and it’s had quite some destructive effects on some lesser ranked servers.