Guild Wars 2

I am filled with sadness as I am typing this. The announcement of non-free server transfer is ripping both my guild and server apart. I have lots of thoughts about this, and both for PvE and WvW, but I will try to keep this brief.

Let’s talk about my guild first.

1) Guild PVE
My guild is a primary PvE guild that started way back on GW1. We had both NA players and EU players because back in GW1 you could play with each other no problem. In GW2 we are forced to separate, in SBI for NA and AG for EU. We had waited for 4 months for guesting to work, so we can play with each other again.

And then we heard the announcement of guesting, only that NA and EU players still cannot played with each other. So the only thing linking us after this is the chat, and that aren’t close to being good enough.

I was shocked, so are many of my guildmates. Now we are in a debate on “forcing” everyone to join our NA server of SBI. Some arguments got pretty heated. I can see things from both sides. How can we call ourselves one guild and one alliance when half of us cannot play with the other half? How can EU players playing in EU time find people to play with in a NA server, and how is that fair?

And what’s more worrisome is that we started using terms like “us” and “them”. This is very unhealthy for a guild. It should ONLY be us.

Some of us (including me) even offered to donate gold for gems to our EU players for a 2 month trial period in NA (server transfers in the future would cost gems). However as a guild we cannot agreed to that since we have no idea how much gold would be required, and not all of us have spare change. So that idea was scraped. In other words, we have no way of keep our GW1 guild together. We had been together for 7 years in GW1, but not we are being forced to rip apart.

2) Guild PvP and WvW

There are around 10 of us that are die hard pvp and wvw people, including me. Another 10 are casual wvwers. As many of you know, SBI is not doing well at all in wvw. Many major guilds are either leaving or seriously considering leaving. And so many of our pvpers are also considering leaving. They argued that since there will be guesting (for NA at least), it won’t matter what server our account is at. They can still “tactically” play together for PvE.

The problem is this isn’t an unanimous decision. Some of us want to stay with SBI because we had fought for it for so long. Some want to join JQ or SoS because they are in T1 (some of us already did, without discussing with the guild). Others wants to move, but not JQ or SoS because we at SBI had fought against them for so long.

So as you can imagine there are some pretty heating arguments going on right now about this. Soon we would be brothers fighting against brothers on multiple different servers. 7 years of friendship leads to this. Our guild cannot be more ripped apart than this.

Now I would talk about our server.

1) Server PvE
Our server is extremely PvE focused. So much so that most wvwers here are fair-weather players. When SBI was at its prime, it was able to gather many casual pvpers to join our cause. But now that SBI is going down hill (had been for the past 2 months), all of those casual pvpers disappeared. No one like to die over and over again and loss money. Only the hardcore pvpers would choose to endure it, and so only us the hardcore remained.

2) Server PvP and WvW

Every night, SBI is getting overrun by zerg after zerg. In the first few days at tier 2, SBI would only lose their EB keep once a day at around 2:30 am PST. But for the past few days (after server transfer announcement), SBI now losses its EB keep 4 or 5 times a day. And this is happening even during NA prine time, a time slot where SBI used to be very strong at. And our ever shrinking numbers is a direct linking reason to that.

Ever since WM left SBI, many of us had to play extra amounts to fill those holes. But let’s get real its very tiring and expensive. And all the effort with nothing to show for it is extremely demoralizing.

Night after night SoR (nothing against you guys^^) would show up with their 60 men zerg and overrun everything. And the 20-30 of us have no chance. Even inside the walls we cannot shoot at our enemy below because our OWN walls blocks our shot (LOL!). When we jump to the edge of the wall to attack we get pulled down in a second (its so obvious you got to jump up to the edge).

So we put in the time, the thinking and the money into our wve efforts. All of these leads to nothing. Its a bottomless pit with no return. And so when the server transfer announcement was made, everything, and I do mean everything, collapses in SBI.

The question of many guilds is not whatever they should transfer out of SBI or not. The only question is where to. And I don’t blame them. Who want to suffer though this kind of torture night after night? Many of the people that I used to fight with are leaving. So yup our server is ripping apart.

3 weeks ago if you ask me, I wouldn’t ever considering leaving SBI. But today, everything combined really got me thinking. I mean I do play this game for fun. This game isn’t my life. So why stay in a depressing and stressful server?

This is a very sad time for me, my guild and my server. Very very sad times.

It looks like you have people who want different things and are going in different directions. This sort of thing happens often in life and is natural.

Im sorry to hear the effect this has had on SBI, being a SoR player i have noticed how bleak it seems to have become for SBI.

The main issue is people in guilds are realising that the next transfer will be there last free transfer period, and those guilds who has lightly considered moving before are jumping ship now before there locked.

Its the snowball effect, but on a server-wide scale, once one go the server WvW weakens and more go because of it. Your best bet would to be either ride out the fall in tiers for SBI until it evens out again, or move to your ‘final’ so to speak, server.

Alot of guilds from multiple servers and thousands of players have joined SoR because they want a shot in Tier 1 without joining T1 guilds and they see SoR as the one to provide that excitement.

Sorry you are having internal troubles but free transfers are killing WvW and need to end as wannabe-winners are hopping from one server to the next.

This probably won’t help you but at least you are finding out who is worth sticking with and who isn’t.

Ascii.9726:

Im sorry to hear the effect this has had on SBI, being a SoR player i have noticed how bleak it seems to have become for SBI.

The main issue is people in guilds are realising that the next transfer will be there last free transfer period, and those guilds who has lightly considered moving before are jumping ship now before there locked.

Its the snowball effect, but on a server-wide scale, once one go the server WvW weakens and more go because of it. Your best bet would to be either ride out the fall in tiers for SBI until it evens out again, or move to your ‘final’ so to speak, server.

Alot of guilds from multiple servers and thousands of players have joined SoR because they want a shot in Tier 1 without joining T1 guilds and they see SoR as the one to provide that excitement.

TC could have have a shot too if they had a few strong guilds join them in my opinion too. They could do some damage with rounded out coverage.

If SBI stuck it out after that one guild left, they may have been fine at T3 ot T4 and may have had a lot of fun. But, if what you say is accurate and everyone has left, you’ll be dropping further down than you should have.

This is an example on why free transfers should and will stop. If an important wvw guild has the resources to leave in the future, the server may drop a few pegs, but there won’t be a mass exodus to start a painful spiral to T7/T8. The timing is unfortunate for SBI.

Chips, you’ve written a wonderful post and I feel your emotion, even though I cannot possibly feel it with the sadness that you do.

The problem SBI has had is one of expectations. A lot of other servers have had the same problem, but not as acutely as SBI. Staying in the same tier for a while is unhealthy for any server, regardless of of wether the server stays #1 in the tier or #3 or even #2. Correct me if I’m wrong, but SBI has been T1 for most of the time since release. You had people join with T1 expectations who benchmarked themselves against other servers in T1, not all servers and when they started being part of the #3 team in the tier, needed a drop in the tiers to start winning and feeling better – but that drop didn’t happen for a while.

Now you’d had some more people leave, and guess where they’re going? T1 or T2 rank 1 (nothing against SoR). These people are going to be miserable again in a while if whenever they get to T1 they find that they happen to be on the #3 server again and the server doesn’t drop to T2.

The ebb and flow in terms of getting a beating and administering a beatdown in a part of WvW – the ratings system is self correcting, meaning that no server will always get dominated. Get dominated enough for long enough and you drop a tier till you find a happy spot. The problem is that the ‘long enough’ part is too long for a lot of PvPers. People want to win NOW. Or the next matchup.

I don’t have any ideas to share. I can only share my sympathy with you and my admiration and respect to you and every PvPer sticking with SBI – you guys bring a really great fight everytime TC clashes with you. I’ve been curbstomped myself enough times by SBI PvPers, both in group vs group and 1 vs 1 to appreciate the skill with which you guys play.

I’m a little wary myself of TC hanging out in T2 too long, as much as I feel the PvP community on TC won’t jump ship – almost all of us started on TC at release when the server was . Most of the PvPers who joined TC have been on TC since release, even though TC started in Tier 4. We’ve attracted some server jumpers as we climbed to T2, but almost all of our PvP base started knowing we were a T4 server and were ok with that. Still, I’m sure the casual PvPers will step into WvW less and less if TC ever gets stuck at #3 in a tier for a while and doesn’t drop down a tier.

I hope you guys staying on SBI feel proud of what you’ve accomplished. There are more accomplishments to come. Keep coming out there – you’ll find a place where you have the opportunity for even fights and maybe dominate and move up again.

As for the guild tearing itself apart – this is one reason I tend to not join guilds. Like all relationships, unless you can keep yourself emotionally distant, it hurts whenever things stop working out – and things do stop working out eventually for everything with everyone. But then, if we’re going to be emotionally distant, whats the point of a relationship?

Hang in there. Server guesting will be on soon. Come guest for a bit (don’t transfer, unless all of your pals leave SBI) on Tarnished Coast some weekend and hang out with us at a roleplaying event. I’m a PvPer and I promise its pretty cool.

As a TC player since release…I’m very sorry for what has happened to your server.

When the week started I thought the matchup was fantastic. I thought SBI were an amazing server, that their people fought well, held their ground even when outnumbered and brought the pain when they had numbers. Not even a week later, the entire server jumps ship. To the winning server in their tier, no less.

The glory chasers gave up their shot of staying as a server, keeping that “spirit” so often touted and being placed in a tier that would have been perfect for them for balanced competition (T2 if not T3 would have been exactly where old SBI would have fit nicely). But think about it this way – after the whole fiasco, after the paid transfers kick in and the ratings sort themselves out, each server will only have people who want to be there. The number-chasers will be grinding in the “top tier” they long for, and the rest of the people who play for fun and competition will hopefully be in tiers balanced for those needs now that transfers are no longer free. GW2 is a game – if you are stressed out playing it something is very wrong. Take a break, try other stuff you haven’t done in the game, maybe see WvW as a place to train your roaming skills against mono-colored maps for a few weeks. Just don’t take the easy way out and regret it later.

NA and EU players are not forced to play on different servers. Nighttime on T1 EU and NA is anything but PvD

I think there is probably someone from nearly all server, other than the “flavor of the month” popular transfer destinations, who has a similar story to the one of the OP.

However, at the end of the day none of it really matters. It doesn’t matter if guilds transfer off your server or move onto it. You as individual player have no control over that. The only think you have 100% control over is your own attitude.

Do you still have fun logging in? Yes? That’s awesome, you will find things to enjoy, even if outmanned in the WvW maps. No? Then walk away from GW2 because the WvW mechanics are what they are. Sheer numbers will always win, and full time zone coverage will always come out ahead. That is the reality of GW2 WvW.

SBI has a strong forum community at http://stormbluffisle.com/ where you can make new friends and enjoy the game regardless of what Tier your server is in.

BTW, tiers are completely meaningless, there is no reward for being in an upper tier.

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

Sorry you are having internal troubles but free transfers are killing WvW and need to end as wannabe-winners are hopping from one server to the next.

This probably won’t help you but at least you are finding out who is worth sticking with and who isn’t.

Free transfers are not killing WvW. The guilds that are exploiting it are killing WvW. The saddest part is that paid transfers are not going to fix the problem. From what i understand it will cost $5 – $7 to transfer servers. $28 at most per month for these guilds to continue transferring servers each week. Anet has chosen to profit from the problem instead of fixing it. Sure their PR is that once paid transfers go in it will stop this type of behavior / guilds transferring to lower tiers. The reality is that it will do nothing more then line their pockets and they know it… It’s intentional.

In all honesty it has come to the point of guild survival. I am on SBI and will be staying on SBI. I have watched my guild go from 157 in August to less than 20 actives now. Most of the guilds leaving today have been with SBI from the beginning and I don’t hold any hard feelings against any of the ones that are moving. They need to do what they need to do to keep members happy and having fun or they will face the same fate as my guild.

That is the state of the game and WvW.

Yea Free transfer was killing WvW problem is no mater how much Anet will say we had problems making a Pay transfer possible the obviously could make it TIME Based. So from start the should have made it from day one a week and then inc it to 30 day or so.
As for night time i have seen quite a huge forces of both SFRs and VZ this week.

nekos.2584:

From what i understand it will cost $5 – $7 to transfer servers. $28 at most per month for these guilds to continue transferring servers each week.

The wiki article, before deletion, said 500-1800 gems per transfer depending on destination population. Transferring to a “winning” server is going to cost you upwards of $22 or 40 gold per transfer.

At those prices large guilds won’t be moving back and forth anymore because the majority of their members will be unwilling to pay ~$20-$80 a month just to screw around. Those people will just quit GW2 altogether.

Chips,

As someone who has played on Henge of Denravi since the early beta days, I understand what is going on with your server.

Let me offer you this, however – It is probably the best thing that could possibly happen. We lost alot of WvW zerg guilds when the huge alliance left HoD. What we were left with was a group of die hard, server loyal, community focused players who know how to have fun in WvW. WvW on the server is more fun than it has ever been.

We dropped a few tiers and are now in matches most weeks that are decided by only a few thousand points. The fights are just as intense as they were when we had huge numbers – only now the competition is tighter and the general attitude of most players is through the roof. We fight – we win when we deserve it – and we have a blast doing it.

I believe a major reason we are having so much fun right now was our “fall from grace” following the disbanding of TA. This happening right before paid transfers are implemented is probably a blessing in disguise for your server. You are going to end up with people you care about playing alongside – and, eventually, in a tier that is both fun and challenging (and, beyond that, as Humpink stated, tiers as a measure of skill are completely meaningless – especially when server populations differ so greatly).

Humpink.2306:

nekos.2584:

From what i understand it will cost $5 – $7 to transfer servers. $28 at most per month for these guilds to continue transferring servers each week.

The wiki article, before deletion, said 500-1800 gems per transfer depending on destination population. Transferring to a “winning” server is going to cost you upwards of $22 or 40 gold per transfer.

At those prices large guilds won’t be moving back and forth anymore because the majority of their members will be unwilling to pay ~$20-$80 a month just to screw around. Those people will just quit GW2 altogether.

There was another one posted yesterday, i believe it was from the twitter chat. They said $5 – $7 to transfer.

The real problem is that the guilds that are exploiting the free transfers are staying on a server for a month or two before they get crushed in the upper tiers and transfer again. In other words, it’s only going to cost them $5 every couple of months to continue doing what they have been and ruining WvW.

Anyway, this is business 101. Granted it’s bad business and the higher ups in Anet should seriously consider a course in business ethics but it’s still business. Paid transfers are for the sole intention of making profits and what guilds are doing regarding transferring and WvW is irrelevant so long as long as it’s profitable. I’m a small business owner, i actually own 3. It’s not hard for me to see what Anet is doing and why they are doing it. I do the same myself the only difference is that i am honest with my customers and explain to them the “why’s”. Unlike Anet who is exploiting the “profit before people” business model and using PR to justify it.

Ascii.9726:

Im sorry to hear the effect this has had on SBI, being a SoR player i have noticed how bleak it seems to have become for SBI.

The main issue is people in guilds are realising that the next transfer will be there last free transfer period, and those guilds who has lightly considered moving before are jumping ship now before there locked.

Its the snowball effect, but on a server-wide scale, once one go the server WvW weakens and more go because of it. Your best bet would to be either ride out the fall in tiers for SBI until it evens out again, or move to your ‘final’ so to speak, server.

Alot of guilds from multiple servers and thousands of players have joined SoR because they want a shot in Tier 1 without joining T1 guilds and they see SoR as the one to provide that excitement.

The thing is I understand perfectly well why people are leaving. Hardcore wvwers like them and me wants to play alongside the best and fight against the best. Being in T4 or T5 isn’t enough to fill that thirst. If being T4 or T5 is the end goal of our server, why are we even wvwing in the first place?

So the only thing holding me in SBI are the memories, “loyality” and friends. However as I stated, both our server and guild is being ripped apart anyways. So this doesn’t hold true anymore.

This is just a very sad and difficult time for us hard core wvwers right now.

CHIPS.6018:

The thing is I understand perfectly well why people are leaving. Hardcore wvwers like them and me wants to play alongside the best and fight against the best. Being in T4 or T5 isn’t enough to fill that thirst.

Uhm … Tier 1 isn’t the best, it’s the most. Most players online most consistently. That’s the basis of the tier scoring.

Humpink.2306:

CHIPS.6018:

The thing is I understand perfectly well why people are leaving. Hardcore wvwers like them and me wants to play alongside the best and fight against the best. Being in T4 or T5 isn’t enough to fill that thirst.

Uhm … Tier 1 isn’t the best, it’s the most. Most players online most consistently. That’s the basis of the tier scoring.

Yeah, if anything the skill factor becomes less important in the top tiers. 24h coverage and numbers wins the matchups.

When I was on SBI I actually tried joining War Machine International but RMC and HCProfessionals didn’t log in for a over a month. My web application got no reply. And they wondered why their numbers were dwindling…

You guys had a public Teamspeak but the most players I ever saw in borderland channels was three. And one of them was me. The only guild that ever used it routinely was [NoPe]. And some people wonder why they don’t have a WvW community with bonds between one other that are stronger than the arbitrary desire to stay in tier 1.

I feel at this point that alot of players have taken flight already and they have learned nothing from the mistakes that were made. As long as you can transfer somewhere else, I don’t think there really is any imperative to look at what you did wrong and find a solution.

I don’t expect paid transfers to stop the bandwagoning. For too many players, its all they know how to do at this point.

Sypsy.7318:

If SBI stuck it out after that one guild left, they may have been fine at T3 ot T4 and may have had a lot of fun. But, if what you say is accurate and everyone has left, you’ll be dropping further down than you should have.

This is an example on why free transfers should and will stop. If an important wvw guild has the resources to leave in the future, the server may drop a few pegs, but there won’t be a mass exodus to start a painful spiral to T7/T8. The timing is unfortunate for SBI.

This is more of an example as to why Anet shouldn’t have announced the date paid transfers go into effect until that patch hit live.

There has been a mass influx of guilds from lower tiers into the top 2 tiers because now is their last chance at free transfers.

They no longer have the luxury to see if there current server can make a push without having to pay to leave if the score isn’t favorable.

Cats and dogs living together.

There was supposed to be a paid transfers system in place at launch. This current system was a poorly thought out substitute to the guesting system failure. This really shouldn’t be news to you.

nekos.2584:

Humpink.2306:

There was another one posted yesterday, i believe it was from the twitter chat. They said $5 – $7 to transfer.

The real problem is that the guilds that are exploiting the free transfers are staying on a server for a month or two before they get crushed in the upper tiers and transfer again. In other words, it’s only going to cost them $5 every couple of months to continue doing what they have been and ruining WvW.

Anyway, this is business 101. Granted it’s bad business and the higher ups in Anet should seriously consider a course in business ethics but it’s still business. Paid transfers are for the sole intention of making profits and what guilds are doing regarding transferring and WvW is irrelevant so long as long as it’s profitable. I’m a small business owner, i actually own 3. It’s not hard for me to see what Anet is doing and why they are doing it. I do the same myself the only difference is that i am honest with my customers and explain to them the “why’s”. Unlike Anet who is exploiting the “profit before people” business model and using PR to justify it.

OR, they are trying to kill two birds with one stone: Reduce transfers to stabilize the servers and increase customer satisfaction, AND open up a new revenue source. Doesn’t sound necessarily like such bad business to me. Now, if they’re charging 5-7$, it would seem as if they’re only interested in generating more profits, but if the fee is truly high enough to discourage hopping, I think they are indeed reasonably likely to accomplish two goals.

War Machine tucking tail and leaving to farm PVEers in a lower tier is the root cause of SBI’s downfall. SBI had a great community, and while i don’t blame people for leaving because we’re no longer anywhere near our former strength, i’m sad to see it dying.

wait lemme get this straight

youre unhappy on SBI but you want the EU 1/2 of the guild to hop servers and come to you where either 1) youre unhappy or 2) you dont know if youll be happy

why arent YOU hopping to their EU server? problem solved. its not like there are ip blocks.

insanemaniac.2456:

wait lemme get this straight

youre unhappy on SBI but you want the EU 1/2 of the guild to hop servers and come to you where either 1) youre unhappy or 2) you dont know if youll be happy

why arent YOU hopping to their EU server? problem solved. its not like there are ip blocks.

Our guild has way more NA than EU players. However our alliance (from GW1) had more EU than NA players. Our guild won’t be moving over to EU.

mjharrison.3209:

War Machine tucking tail and leaving to farm PVEers in a lower tier is the root cause of SBI’s downfall. SBI had a great community, and while i don’t blame people for leaving because we’re no longer anywhere near our former strength, i’m sad to see it dying.

Trust me, you will probably be much happier with the community once those who wish to leave have left. It happened to my server and we are much happier now – the community is friendly and cooperative and the fights are much tighter/more fun than they were when we were in the so-called “top” (ie, more populated) tiers.

Once it starts, you only have a few options – transfer with the masses or learn to build on the strengths of the community that remains. The second option is much more rewarding and fun.

They desperately need to get rid of this free transfer nonsense. It’s a server hopping minigame that is causing an insane amount of problems for WvW. How anyone thought that offering free transfers every week was a good idea is beyond me.

You do realize that by moving over to your EU guild side server you can potentially help the server get to higher tiers?

Ultimately moving to a server with coverage gaps and being able to fill them in will help even out WvW.

I do agree that having paid transfer causes some grief over a particular server reviving thier WvW status.

I however disagree that paid transfer does anything to further separate a guild already split on servers.

When I met up with a GW1 guildie he was on FA and I am on SoS, He had great fun in WvW as well as PvE there but wanted something more on the oceanic side (hes an Aussie). He joined our GW2 converted guild and spent 2 hours checking once every 2-5 mins for an opening via the free server transfer. Ultimately he thoroughly enjoys the T1 WvW we have now and does it regularly.

Another set of GW1 Guildies went to AR due to the SoS overflow, and most joined local guilds there, with only a few remaining active in the guild.

The bottom line is that unless they are willing to transfer in the first place, you can’t force / expect guild members from different servers to join you on a server just because a) paid transfer is coming b) you want more support for WvW. Just let the Guildies decide if they want to transfer or not, maybe tell them they have x days to transfer for free, or give some type of incentive to transfer now (1 lodestone or free rare crafting services for any 1 character).

And that was worth giving away my home server.
Good luck with your conversion mate.

CHIPS.6018:

insanemaniac.2456:

wait lemme get this straight

youre unhappy on SBI but you want the EU 1/2 of the guild to hop servers and come to you where either 1) youre unhappy or 2) you dont know if youll be happy

why arent YOU hopping to their EU server? problem solved. its not like there are ip blocks.

Our guild has way more NA than EU players. However our alliance (from GW1) had more EU than NA players. Our guild won’t be moving over to EU.

gee, its a shame youre taking a workable option off the table. who cares where the majority of your people are located irl. the move costs nothing. unless you delay.

if youre gonna have a closed mind, stop complaining.

tkalamba.2541:

TC could have have a shot too if they had a few strong guilds join them in my opinion too. They could do some damage with rounded out coverage.

One of the best things about TC is that it’s filled with people with server loyalty and pride in the server, and heart in WvW. Maybe this is b/c it’s the only RP server and as such all the RPers are intensely loyal and that permeates the rest of the server culture, not sure.

But whatever the reason, they’re willing to go out and get curb stomped week after week in the face of superior skill and organization and not get disheartened or transfer:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/T2-NA-Tarnished-Coast-4AM-12PM-CST-Needed/first

But over time that has paid off, they’ve gotten better and better and have attracted other PvPers from other servers who want a more stable server community and WvW experience. And are now contending in T2.

TLDR: Heart, consistency, server loyalty are defining characteristics of TC, and are a recipe for being a consistent contender in WvW.

nekos.2584:

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

Sorry you are having internal troubles but free transfers are killing WvW and need to end as wannabe-winners are hopping from one server to the next.

This probably won’t help you but at least you are finding out who is worth sticking with and who isn’t.

Free transfers are not killing WvW. The guilds that are exploiting it are killing WvW. The saddest part is that paid transfers are not going to fix the problem. From what i understand it will cost $5 – $7 to transfer servers. $28 at most per month for these guilds to continue transferring servers each week. Anet has chosen to profit from the problem instead of fixing it. Sure their PR is that once paid transfers go in it will stop this type of behavior / guilds transferring to lower tiers. The reality is that it will do nothing more then line their pockets and they know it… It’s intentional.

ANet does not have some sort of diabolical software that brainwashes people to do what they want.

People need to stop blaming the game company and blame the players that do these actions. Just because it’s easier to blame an anonymous company for the actions of your friends that doesn’t’ mean the blame is justified or fair. Free transfer’s have to stop. Otherwise most servers will have little community especially in something like WvW.

I’m sorry the OP has encountered problems but as someone mentioned things flow and ebb in life, you lose track with some friends and you gain new ones. If you really want to make soemthing work usually some sort of compromise is made, thus with almost everything we do as people.

Best of luck, but again, ANet is not to blame for the actions of their player base.

I am a member of Sor. However I am a former SBI member as well.
I joined SoR back when it was rank 17, coming from SBI at rank 2.

I can undestand being sad, and torn over friends moving, staying, ect… I really can, believe me, when my guild moved to SoR at rank 17, we lost about 1/3rd-1/2 our members, and had to rebuild, regrow and everything again.

Though it is a part of WvW. Some guilds and people want things which others have, some just jump to jump, some leave due to their friends leaving. It really is on a case by case basis as to why some leave.

I do wish for SBI to regain confidence, and always return to the battlefield swinging. Weather it is Tier 1, or Tier 6. I wish all members of SBI and SBI as a server to find the new tier which is right for them, and will have close matches. I mean many in SBI werent happy about the capping SoS was doing to them, then having it again in T2, honestly I’d say its time for SBI to find happiness, and think less about scores/winning.

Lanthrudar.1437:

Best of luck, but again, ANet is not to blame for the actions of their player base.

What Anet is to blame for is creating such a flawed game mechanic in WvW that only constant server transfers make playing the game acceptable to a large part of the player base.

Lanthrudar.1437:

nekos.2584:

Roo Stercogburn.9671:

Sorry you are having internal troubles but free transfers are killing WvW and need to end as wannabe-winners are hopping from one server to the next.

This probably won’t help you but at least you are finding out who is worth sticking with and who isn’t.

Free transfers are not killing WvW. The guilds that are exploiting it are killing WvW. The saddest part is that paid transfers are not going to fix the problem. From what i understand it will cost $5 – $7 to transfer servers. $28 at most per month for these guilds to continue transferring servers each week. Anet has chosen to profit from the problem instead of fixing it. Sure their PR is that once paid transfers go in it will stop this type of behavior / guilds transferring to lower tiers. The reality is that it will do nothing more then line their pockets and they know it… It’s intentional.

ANet does not have some sort of diabolical software that brainwashes people to do what they want.

People need to stop blaming the game company and blame the players that do these actions. Just because it’s easier to blame an anonymous company for the actions of your friends that doesn’t’ mean the blame is justified or fair. Free transfer’s have to stop. Otherwise most servers will have little community especially in something like WvW.

I’m sorry the OP has encountered problems but as someone mentioned things flow and ebb in life, you lose track with some friends and you gain new ones. If you really want to make soemthing work usually some sort of compromise is made, thus with almost everything we do as people.

Best of luck, but again, ANet is not to blame for the actions of their player base.

For our guild, the worst part is the inability to guest between NA and EU. Many of us were hoping for that to happen since day 1. Some guildmate said that this was actually “promised” to us before release. I didn’t read the said article so I cannot confirm. Either way many of us are very disappointed. We have no one else to blame but Anet.

As for the server, SBI is bounded to drop a tier or two further. In the past, on Friday nights at least, we would have enough showing for a decent fight. That didn’t happen tonight.

This I won’t blame Anet. I agree that the server transfer cost had to be put in place eventually. It just happened to be announced at the WORST week for us as possible, on the same week that we dropped to tier 2. As a result we lost the absolute maximum, as many guilds and wvw population as possible. I would say that a good 80% of our commanders has moved on elsewhere in the past 3 days. I don’t believe in conspiracy. It is just some rotten luck after rotten luck that our server faces.

Humpink.2306:

Lanthrudar.1437:

Best of luck, but again, ANet is not to blame for the actions of their player base.

What Anet is to blame for is creating such a flawed game mechanic in WvW that only constant server transfers make playing the game acceptable to a large part of the player base.

I don’t blame anet tbh. I blame a huge contingent of players who are too stupid to understand the consequences of mass server migration and too stupid to comprehend that going up in rank doesn’t mean anything except going up in population/timezone coverage.

Besetment.9187:

Humpink.2306:

Lanthrudar.1437:

Best of luck, but again, ANet is not to blame for the actions of their player base.

What Anet is to blame for is creating such a flawed game mechanic in WvW that only constant server transfers make playing the game acceptable to a large part of the player base.

I don’t blame anet tbh. I blame a huge contingent of players who are too stupid to understand the consequences of mass server migration and too stupid to comprehend that going up in rank doesn’t mean anything except going up in population/timezone coverage.

But…but…TIER ONE! That means everyone in there are l33t. Gotta be l33t. If I’m gonna be stuck in a queue or beating down doors, I’m gonna be doing it on the TOP ranked server amirite.

They need to completely separate WvW from PvE. Too much damage is done to PvE in the name of WvW. The guild from the OP is just one example. Had they gone with the design of GW1 the game would be a far better experience, especially for people who play outside of NA prime time (exploring the world on Yak’s Bend might result in you seeing a lot of people during NA prime time, but during oceanic hours you can see the tumble weeds). Now people are risking being stranded on bad PvE servers for good WvW participation (the deisign of WvW was inevitably going to lead to some servers being “dead” compared to tier one servers).

Honestly, the competition is better there. The militia tend to be better informed and people will actually carry supply, refill on supply and build siege, my experience in lower tiers is not like that, you also have commanders on at all times, whereas lower tiers don’t seem to have many commanders at all, never mind dedicated guilds. When the only scoreboard for WvW favours coverage, people are going to flock to higher tiers. When poor performance during off hours results in a disadvantage (fighting fortified towers, having to rebuild your own fortified towers) you feel punished for being on a weaker server.

None of that changes the fact that the removal of free transfers is going to hurt a lot of people. Not only is it going to be bad for EU and NA cross overs, but some servers that were abandoned in WvW are going to have a very hard time recovering, if they ever can. There aren’t that many new people coming into the game (and no reason to think they will pick a low tier server) so there are servers that were dismantled during free transfers, lose their remaining players this week in preparation for ending transfers, and will have a great deal of trouble regaining dedicated WvW players without the transfer system. The risk of staying on a low tier server is very high right now and it will cost you in the future to change that situation.

Honestly, I think we would have been better off with free transfers every two months or something, with the option to pay. I know they want people to spread out across servers, but there are more reasons to be on a server than just WvW and not all of those reasons are satisfied by guesting. I see the removal of transfers causing a lot of damage to WvW (more than free transfers have recently) never mind guilds that are torn apart by it, and at this point it’s a gamble as to whether or not WvW is better off as a result of it.

Posted something similar on another thread.

WvW circle of life:

T1 server. l33t. 24h coverage. HUGE wait times. Bored. Jump to T8-T9.
Become the “hottest” server. Bring up server by PvD. Rise until….
Stagnation. Need people/coverage. Recruit or be recruited (bandwagon phase)

Transfer fees aren’t going to stop this, just slow it down.

I was in one of those GW1 10 kurz 10 lux one family guild/alliances, but it was towards the end of GW1. Although I wasn’t running with guildmates for 50/50 HoM, I did enjoy the lack of drama as well as seeing more than 3 people active.

However, I had real life friends that quit GW1 that wanted to start GW2 from beginning. I picked Jade Quarry as my GW2 server from the headstart because I played JQ from GW1 at the end and had friends from that, but by the time my real life friends got on it was full. We ended up on Fort Aspenwood server.

Just like in real life, your circle of friends changes. I had already decided from GW1 that I wanted from GW2 an active, no drama, large NA EST guild. Since I’m going to play sPvP, WvW and PvE, I also added I don’t want a rep required guild or one that limited what I wanted.

The end to free transfers is a good thing in my opinion. It makes servers stand together and work together as a team if they want to succeed. I see the top 15-10 servers getting huge transfer numbers before the 28th.Some servers want them some do not, they like the player base as is. It will be an adjustment for everyone in the game. But if your friends and you can no longer play together i dont see the sense in fighting over it.After all it is just a game adjust talk to each other on Vent or whatever.

I still do not understand why there are so many bandwagon jumper guilds. If a guild wants to transfer, that is fine. Why would they transfer to a higher ranked server though? The only difference between higher ranked servers and lower ranked ones are coverage. Why go someplace where they will need to deal with longer queues?

style.6173:

I still do not understand why there are so many bandwagon jumper guilds. If a guild wants to transfer, that is fine. Why would they transfer to a higher ranked server though? The only difference between higher ranked servers and lower ranked ones are coverage. Why go someplace where they will need to deal with longer queues?

Because TIER ONE TOP RANKING SERVER

Honestly though, I don’t get it either. You don’t even win anything for winning WvW. People should sensibly be moving to ensure that each tier (and the adjacent ones) are as competitive as possible, to ensure long-term enjoyment of WvW. That’s basically the exact opposite of what’s happening though, so whatever.

ykyk.2740:

style.6173:

I still do not understand why there are so many bandwagon jumper guilds. If a guild wants to transfer, that is fine. Why would they transfer to a higher ranked server though? The only difference between higher ranked servers and lower ranked ones are coverage. Why go someplace where they will need to deal with longer queues?

Because TIER ONE TOP RANKING SERVER

Honestly though, I don’t get it either. You don’t even win anything for winning WvW. People should sensibly be moving to ensure that each tier (and the adjacent ones) are as competitive as possible, to ensure long-term enjoyment of WvW. That’s basically the exact opposite of what’s happening though, so whatever.

It is just not the same. There are less commanders and less people willing to build siege.

So an update. Our guild has decided to move to Kaineng. It took a lot of effort to get most of our members to agree to the move. Some aren’t moving, and we wished them the best of luck.

The reason we picked Kaineng was because it wasn’t full. We decided on this before the server cap increased again 2 nights ago. (Its ashame. Else we probably would have picked SoR. Now our members won’t make it though the 7 day limit before Jan 28th.) It was also lower tier, meaning we won’ have to fight JQ for a while. (We got quite a few guildmates and friends over at JQ. They aren’t moving.) Lastly many of us had played with WM on SBI, so we know how good they are.

I was with SoR since last Friday. And let me tell you every night was a blast. They got some great teamwork and tactics going. And to top it off everyone including commanders were extremely respectful. And most importantly, everyone there seems to be enjoying themselves.

Now I am joining my guildmates in Kaineng. I wish all of you at SoR the best of luck in T1. It has been an honour fighting beside you guys for the past 7 days. I hasn’t had so much fun in WvW for weeks. That 2 hour long battle we had yesterday in TC BL Bay was one of the best fight ever. ^^

gz on joining the bandwagon

airstu.2579:

gz on joining the bandwagon

We must do what’s best for our guild. Those that are hard core wvw cannot stay on sbi. They would watch sbi fall and fall, with no hope at all of ever going back to T1, until one day they pack up and leave our guild to join another server. Kaineng might not make it all the way up there neither. But at least it gives our people new hope.

Those that only pve were alright with moving. For pve it doesn’t really matter what server they are on.

Have you notice that those guilds that left servers (SBI, IoJ, CD, etc) were often the most hardcore wvwers that spend hours and tons of cash on it? Its often the casual wvwers that are staying. For them they are wvwing for fun, not to win. That’s why we hear from them "I love it that we are falling tiers. Then wvw would be fun again. " I don’t think its fair for these casual wvwers to call the hard core bandwagon. If having fun is your goal, then stay and have fun. For those which winning is their goal, they must leave for a server that has any hope of winning. “Hope” is the key here.

Airstu ask yourself in your heart of hearts. Do you want to win? Or do you just want to have fun? What’s your goal?

Players still think higher tier matches are something special.

CHIPS.6018:

airstu.2579:

gz on joining the bandwagon

We must do what’s best for our guild. Those that are hard core wvw cannot stay on sbi. They would watch sbi fall and fall, until one day they pack up and leave our guild to join another server. Kaineng might not make it all the way up there neither. But at least it gives our people new hope.

Those that only pve were alright with moving. For pve it doesn’t really matter what server they are on.

I’m not trying to troll, but wouldn’t picking a server that’s fighting competitive matches be better for your guild? You guys just picked the biggest bandwagon server in what’s expected to be the most lopsided battle in all the tiers next week…