Guild Wars 2

Somewhere along the way a Dev (Devon Carter, I think) stated that WvW battles are inevitably unbalanced [because there is nothing to ensure each side has the same number or level of characters present at the time of the battle].

This statement, which started life as an observation about individual battles in WvW, has somehow grown into an overarching strategy that is making WvW less and less enjoyable.

WvW is about a far bigger game than any single battle. So what if individuals battles in WvW are unequal – that’s just the natural ebb and flow war. Its far more important that the warring ‘nations’ are of comparable strength overall, because that’s what will make the conflict exciting.

WvW needs to become more balanced, rather than less balanced, overall.
Because the more balanced WvW is overall , the better and more exciting each match-up is going to be – and that’s what we want most of all.

“WvW is unbalanced” is them covering their tails from the marketing bullkitten. They knew just how imbalanced it would be and what that meant for players, but it was better to use PR double speak and turn it into buzz.

I’m not holding out much hope for any semblance of balance because the premise of WvWvW is flawed at it’s core. They could have implemented massive 3 way battles without using something as arbitrary as server participation. Then slapping this on “persistent” maps along with a scoreboard just compounds the problem. It was shortsighted to say the least. Tossing in a power creep doesn’t help either, for many it’s more attractive to hop on the train for ascended mats and wxp than it is to upgrade/defend/scout and generally give a kitten about their server’s holdings.

Just because it’s unbalanced doesn’t mean you should go and make it more so.

WvW is balanced on Anet side, and unbalanced on Players side. Every server has same player capacity and same borderlands and EB is balanced more or less. I dont get why they keep saying it is unbalanced.

“~snip …inevitably unbalanced”

You can’t fail if you subliminally state your intentions are to fail.. so in that case he delivered. and can write up the development of guildwars2 as a succes on his resume when he goes to apply for a job at EA. ^^

But yeah, it’s the easy way out of a flustercluck.

For leagues to work, it must be balanced or moving towards that direction over time. ;3

That being said I can’t wait for today’s update.

Unbalanced matches are the single most ruinous aspect of WvW, and when Devon told us to just suck it up and live with it I lost all hope and respect for him and the game. The truly insane thing is that just about everything ANet has done since launch has been to make the problem worse! Random pairings, bloodlust, and leagues all reward the higher population servers and exacerbate the population imbalances. It’s simply crazy …

Cactus.2710:

Devon told us to just suck it up and live with it.

That’s not what he said. He said that players from higher population servers would want to move to lower population servers on their own. Which I’m sure he has the metrics to show how FALSE that is.

Swamurabi.7890:

That’s not what he said. He said that players from higher population servers would want to move to lower population servers on their own. Which I’m sure he has the metrics to show how FALSE that is.

Devon has said that we should suck it up many and many a time. He’s just continuing Anet’s suck it up stance that goes back all the way to the first month or two of play.

Swamurabi.7890:

Cactus.2710:

Devon told us to just suck it up and live with it.

That’s not what he said. He said that players from higher population servers would want to move to lower population servers on their own. Which I’m sure he has the metrics to show how FALSE that is.

Yes. that’s pretty much exactly what he said. In a recent post (couple of weeks ago) he specifically stated that WvW matches were not intended to be balanced.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Final-solution-for-league-and-transfers/first

Balance would mean 3 teams scoring exact same points and even outcomes in fights. We all you WvW can never be balanced. It’s like an utopia a goal that can never be achieved. Just enjoy the fights you have yourself and if you are against bigger servers just pick your fights wisely and you can still have alot of fun.

Dopamine.7502:

Balance would mean 3 teams scoring exact same points and even outcomes in fights. We all you WvW can never be balanced. It’s like an utopia a goal that can never be achieved. Just enjoy the fights you have yourself and if you are against bigger servers just pick your fights wisely and you can still have alot of fun.

No … not at all. “Balanced” doesn’t mean scores would have to be the same. There would still be differences based upon skill, organization, tactics, communication, and coordination … and that’s exactly as it should be. None of those things are relevant in WvW, however, when population and coverage trump EVERYTHING else. “Balance” means roughly equivalent populations … period.

By the way, “picking your fights wisely” against bigger servers merely means you’ve given up any hope of winning the match, and if there is no hope of winning the match then WvW is a meaningless format anyway. ANet might as well just get rid of PPT and scoring, get rid of all the towers/keeps/camps, and just have everyone roam around looking for fights. I suspect that lots pf players would be happy with that, but it isn’t WvW. It’s what we used to call “fighting in the road” back in WoW.