Guild Wars 2

I realize a lot of players still have a bitter taste in their mouth from the last time server transfers were free, but please hear me out.

So as we all know Anet decided to change the amount of leagues in NA from two to three and I am thrilled that they did this as it will stop the t1 servers from destroying everyone below them. However, I also realize this could potentially be a good chance for t1 servers to de-stack themselves and balance out the top six servers . Before when we had our stale match ups, where pretty much each tier was locked with no chance of moving up or down, matches were pretty balanced for each tier and t1 wasn’t as stacked as it is now. However, I believe that ever since the WvW match ups changed and most matches became blow outs, where you either completely destroyed your opponents or they completely destroyed you, many players/guilds became sick of there being no middle ground and moved. I also think that when these players/guilds moved they went to t1 simply because even with the matches having more variation, t1 servers usually fought against another t1 server in most match ups and thus were more stable. So here we are now, around 20 days before season 1 starts and it seems like the t1 servers are even more stacked than they were ever before. So what can we do? Lower the price of server transfers or make them free temporarily for a short time before seasons start. I’ll admit this is more for the servers in the gold league more than anything, but I think this could be good. Right now I think that the price to transfer servers is too high and it is a deterrent for many to transfer down to other servers. If the price of server transfers was temporarily reduced or made free I hope that we could get some people to transfer off of t1 and down to t2, which will hopefully create 6 balanced servers and 7 weeks of great fights and less queues. And of course this would be more incentive for more players to spread out/fill out the servers in the silver and bronze leagues as well. So could this be something to consider? Or do you think that its a bad idea and players would just use it to stack up even more? Is this idea viable?

TLDR;
Is it a good idea for Anet to temporarily make the price of server transfers reduced or free so that the WvW player base spreads out(specifically in gold league) and makes the matches more balanced and fun? Or is it a bad idea because players will still just stack on certain servers?

How about its free to go from t1/2 down to servers like t6/7/8 instead of just worrying about the gold league look at the bigger picture. Silver and bronze league could use more people.

That’s fine, I have no issue with that either, I don’t care if guilds transfer down from tier one to tier two to balance out gold league, or guilds transfer down to t6/7/8 to balance out those leagues and gold league as well. I was thinking gold league would be easier to balance out simply because there are less servers competing in it than in the other leagues.

Won’t be fair at all to the people that recently paid for transfers with gems. Can you imagine the outcry?

Unless Anet offers a gem/cash refund for all transfers within the last 4 weeks, of course. And with that in mind, you know why this will never happen.

I do agree that balancing the servers is great in the long run. But at this point, Anet might as well start merging servers in lower tiers to save overhead costs. It will be the same result.

I don’t think they should offer free transfers…

However, every so often they should reduce transfer fees by a % as a special limited time offer, just like they discount character slots or stash tabs or other stuff in the gem store.

Kuruk.8472:

I realize a lot of players still have a bitter taste in their mouth from the last time server transfers were free, but please hear me out.

So as we all know Anet decided to change the amount of leagues in NA from two to three and I am thrilled that they did this as it will stop the t1 servers from destroying everyone below them. However, I also realize this could potentially be a good chance for t1 servers to de-stack themselves and balance out the top six servers . Before when we had our stale match ups, where pretty much each tier was locked with no chance of moving up or down, matches were pretty balanced for each tier and t1 wasn’t as stacked as it is now. However, I believe that ever since the WvW match ups changed and most matches became blow outs, where you either completely destroyed your opponents or they completely destroyed you, many players/guilds became sick of there being no middle ground and moved. I also think that when these players/guilds moved they went to t1 simply because even with the matches having more variation, t1 servers usually fought against another t1 server in most match ups and thus were more stable. So here we are now, around 20 days before season 1 starts and it seems like the t1 servers are even more stacked than they were ever before. So what can we do? Lower the price of server transfers or make them free temporarily for a short time before seasons start. I’ll admit this is more for the servers in the gold league more than anything, but I think this could be good. Right now I think that the price to transfer servers is too high and it is a deterrent for many to transfer down to other servers. If the price of server transfers was temporarily reduced or made free I hope that we could get some people to transfer off of t1 and down to t2, which will hopefully create 6 balanced servers and 7 weeks of great fights and less queues. And of course this would be more incentive for more players to spread out/fill out the servers in the silver and bronze leagues as well. So could this be something to consider? Or do you think that its a bad idea and players would just use it to stack up even more? Is this idea viable?

TLDR;
Is it a good idea for Anet to temporarily make the price of server transfers reduced or free so that the WvW player base spreads out(specifically in gold league) and makes the matches more balanced and fun? Or is it a bad idea because players will still just stack on certain servers?

Why would they implement a plan designed to increase profits by increasing the rate that people transfer servers and then decrease the cost of transferring servers?

clint.5681:

How about its free to go from t1/2 down to servers like t6/7/8 instead of just worrying about the gold league look at the bigger picture. Silver and bronze league could use more people.

But you can’t get back free if you own everybody too easily in lower tiers.

They need to lower the WvW map caps on the borderlands so the NA Gold Medal League has those longer queues Devon tried to threaten everyone with as punishment for superstacking and give guilds a one time free transfer down to a lower League world. I also think guilds should be able set a world as their “home” server with a way to earn transfer unlocks in game to move guild members to that “home” server. I know that sounds like it could end up too easy to move between worlds but it would require players to make an investment with a guild and that guild to make an investment in their members for a stronger overall community that could then be used to help create better balance within the each of the Leagues.

Now right before the first season starts would be a bad time. The league system is supposed to work best when all of the servers within each league are similar strength. Opening free transfers right before the season starts would shift around that strength in unpredictable ways.

For example you could have a server in bronze get stacked by T1 guilds and absolutely dominate all other bronze servers when the leagues begin. Unlike the Kaineng incident there is no way for the leagues to self-correct themselves mid-season. Since leagues to my knowledge are locked, there is no way for that rogue server to move up to where it should be. Granted this is still possible without free transfers, but as long as gems act as a barrier most transfers will be upward not downward.