Guild Wars 2

when you look at the pile of content that arena net puts the majority of their focus on . it becomes very clear to everybody that wvw was just a after thought in the meeting room when going forward with this game . pve would be their main focus and that everything else would get back seat treatment . now i understand why they chose to go this route because most mmos cater to a demographic that does pve and arena net thought that in their minds that they needed to add as much pve content as possible so that people who prefer that kind of gameplay they would find themselves with a lot to do . kudos to arena net for thinking about the pve player. but what about the pvp players ? they got new maps, new ways to get armor skins for their characters and ranks to show case to all of their friends.

but what about the wvw player ? in my opinion the biggest reason why people bought guild wars 2 was because of the idea of server vs server vs server matchs , but the thought of that what would come from playing in these matches was incentive to get people to care . instead what people got in return was a system that is monotonous . the same old servers staying in their tier brackets playing against the same players every week . rewarding players with the same old trash that makes little to no difference excitement . so they thought maybe give out crap tokens to buy crap with after seasons might be a good enough reason to care. most people might find some enjoyment in doing that but i think one of the biggest reasons people get bored of even that was because the player themselves thought their effort for going the extra mile in putting in time was not rewarding at all . wvw has died .

I wouldn’t even say PvE players are their main focus. Think about it, at this point in GW1’s life we already had Factions, Nightfall, and EotN. That is new professions, skills, dungeons, friggin continents to explore. What have we gotten so far in this game? A couple of new maps and a bunch of temporary grindfests.

I think the real target audience are casuals players that get hooked on garbage like farmville and candy crush.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I wouldn’t even say PvE players are their main focus. Think about it, at this point in GW1’s life we already had Factions, Nightfall, and EotN. That is new professions, skills, dungeons, friggin continents to explore. What have we gotten so far in this game? A couple of new maps and a bunch of temporary grindfests.

I think the real target audience are casuals players that get hooked on garbage like farmville and candy crush.

the majority of casuals are pve players

Their focus is on people who buy gems.

Any content that does not directly result in people buying gems is given a back seat.

A new continent, won’t directly result in someone buying gems.
A new permanent dungeon won’t directly result in someone buying gems.
A new map for WvW won’t directly result in someone buying gems.

A new theme for LS with new items based on that current hyped theme put in the gem store will.*

*Much less work than a new continent and keeps the cash flow ticking over on a more regular bases.

I’ve been away for over a year and it is actually shocking how little content has been added to this game.

Yup big boss nailed it. Technically they are putting out pve content but it is more of an advertisement for the gem store than anything else. Keep people grinding and stick something pretty in their face for them to buy.

If they were really focused on pve content they would increase the quality.

Pre-Beta GW2 – WvWvW would be a massive focus
2+yrs later – WvWvW has a team of 1 dedicated dev

Big Boss.7902:

Their focus is on people who buy gems.

Any content that does not directly result in people buying gems is given a back seat.

A new continent, won’t directly result in someone buying gems.
A new permanent dungeon won’t directly result in someone buying gems.
A new map for WvW won’t directly result in someone buying gems.

A new theme for LS with new items based on that current hyped theme put in the gem store will.*

*Much less work than a new continent and keeps the cash flow ticking over on a more regular bases.

I’ve been away for over a year and it is actually shocking how little content has been added to this game.

But also, people that leave the game do not buy gems. Keep people interested and you still have potential buyers.

Fuzzion.2504:

Pre-Beta GW2 – WvWvW would be a massive focus
2+yrs later – WvWvW has a team of 1 dedicated dev

And what does he do, come with ridicilous changes no one asked for like removing white swords and siege disablers? GG.

Although “after thought” maybe an over statement in regards to WvW design; I have always been bothered by the generic nature of it: cloned maps, server named enemies and the over all “disconnect” that the Mists Wars has to the game world.

I inevitably bring up Dark Ages of Camelot, the Frontiers felt like they belonged in the game; they were organic, tangible and cogent parts of the game’s geography. More importantly, the borderlands were unique to your faction and provided diversity.

Of course, ANet decided to forgo factions and instead chose to make it server based, but while extremely practical it is less than satisfying on basic fundamental levels like “realm pride” and a sense of identity and unity.

With the implementation of EotM, WvW was short circuited. Yes, I use EotM heavily because a rational gamer will choose the most efficient means to progress; but I am “grown up” enough to call it for what it is: Karma/Badge/XP/Loot Train with slight chances of PvP…

WvW as a whole has failed on multiple levels:

• Overly sadistic and frustrating map designs:

Yes, we understand ANet wants to stall a player trying to return to the fight, but the sheer amount of map obstacles (sheer walls, switch backs, access locations on opposite direction from approach, etc.) only serves to keep the player away from actually engaging in the activity of WvW.

• Keeps, Castles are fairly trivial, disposable and not worth defending:

First, why bother to defend? Flipping just makes for a faster paced net gain. Defending is boring and rarely, if ever, successful. Once the gate or walls have been breached, it’s unlikely that a relative few defenders will be able to make a meaningful stand with in the fortification, which is different than the real world counterparts.

Fortifications were historically designed to allow for a relatively small group of defenders to slow down or block a larger forces via bottlenecks; where are these bottlenecks in WvW fortresses?

They ain’t there…so why bother to be steam-rolled and outflanked in your own Keep/Castle? The enemy has easy access to the chewy center once the perimeter is breached.

• There are far too many objectives making them less important and less likely enemies will actually engage each other:

Lose the supply camps, any tactician worth their salt knows you don’t leave your precious supplies laying about in an unfortified camp. Time to move supply depots to the Keeps and Castles!

Sure, the Dolyak Caravans can still run the routes between major forts and smaller outposts, but they should be able to be lootable by enemy players for supplies when the Caravan is destroyed. (We need less, but more important and interesting objectives in WvW.

• Zerg is the way, the only way:

This is too bad, it shouldn’t be this way. We want Zergs and we also want smaller, functionally practical groups. Yes, we currently call them “Roamers” now but they are fringe dwellers picking off stragglers and caravans without much to show for it.

In DAoC a small group could be a formidable obstacle at choke points like the Mile Gates or tunnels and ruins. Small groups could also capture Keep Towers which were crucial for keeping supply lines open which were necessary for advancement. This, in turn, spawned the need for Realms to field their own small “hunter-killer” groups to keep the marauders at bay, small group versus group battles actually took place.

Large groups meant for large battles in the open terrain when the armies were traveling between the difficult but desirable objectives like Castles and Relic Keeps.

At present, WvW is heavily weighted towrd the Zerg due to the flippant nature of the objectives design.

lorndarken.3702:

but what about the pvp players ?

- I don’t understand why do you keep playing this game if you don’t care for living story and grinding, which are the obvious focus for Arenanet. There are tons of actual PvP games you could be playing.

Zenith.6403:

lorndarken.3702:

but what about the pvp players ?

- I don’t understand why do you keep playing this game if you don’t care for living story and grinding, which are the obvious focus for Arenanet. There are tons of actual PvP games you could be playing.

Because the combat mechanics in this game combined with the foundations of the game modes are solid as hell and better than the majority of games out there for PvP, MOBA and FPS games not included.

Jim Hunter.6821:

I wouldn’t even say PvE players are their main focus. Think about it, at this point in GW1’s life we already had Factions, Nightfall, and EotN. That is new professions, skills, dungeons, friggin continents to explore. What have we gotten so far in this game? A couple of new maps and a bunch of temporary grindfests.

I think the real target audience are casuals players that get hooked on garbage like farmville and candy crush.

So true /cry

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

So, who manages and devised the “tier” system? Is that the “player’s” fault as well?

Maybe getting back to basics instead attempting to morph an open world PvP system into a tiered tournament?

Open world relies on rivalries and a sense of representation, there’s very little of that in the current system because we fight nameless enemies in a what is essentially a random rotation; a few organized teams can dominate such a competition simply by settling into particular server groups.

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Big Boss.7902:

Their focus is on people who buy gems.

Any content that does not directly result in people buying gems is given a back seat.

A new continent, won’t directly result in someone buying gems.
A new permanent dungeon won’t directly result in someone buying gems.
A new map for WvW won’t directly result in someone buying gems.

A new theme for LS with new items based on that current hyped theme put in the gem store will.*

*Much less work than a new continent and keeps the cash flow ticking over on a more regular bases.

I’ve been away for over a year and it is actually shocking how little content has been added to this game.

The LS and all it’s contents might produce some revenue, but the main focus of ANet is the new player base and new markets for the game. I couldn’t possibly imagine a player who has played the game for over two years still throwing money (not gold -> gems) in the gem store every week…Back when I was a new player, I was spending tons of cash in the gems store buying bags/banks slots, finishers, skins, tons RNG keys (This one still hurts the most) and bunch of other stuff. It was costing me almost 5 times a subscription cost per month, until I realized that the gem store is a none-stop train with nothing to show for it. I saw this late, but better late than never…That said, there is always more chance of a new player buying gems mostly because when you start the game everything looks cool until you realize the sad truth…but its also not easy to maintain a free-to-play MMO with 200+ people working on it everyday. I don’t disagree with ANet’s business model, but I wish the contents were more solid than the living story stuff…This way they would keep the veteran players happy and attract new players as well, all with the same kind of contents and I am not talking about an expansion.

As a WvW player (for most part), I don’t regret not buying anything in the gem store for the past year or so, but I really wish it was the opposite because GW2 has a strong core and it’s not a bad MMO.

At the end of the day “its just business, nothing personal”….

lorndarken.3702:

Jim Hunter.6821:

I wouldn’t even say PvE players are their main focus. Think about it, at this point in GW1’s life we already had Factions, Nightfall, and EotN. That is new professions, skills, dungeons, friggin continents to explore. What have we gotten so far in this game? A couple of new maps and a bunch of temporary grindfests.

I think the real target audience are casuals players that get hooked on garbage like farmville and candy crush.

the majority of casuals are pve players

Well no pve players are both much like pvp. In fact most of the major pvp guild went to games where you have high progression pve that makes you win pvp fights. To the point of needing to play farmville well to be the best pvp lol.

I think ppl like to use the world casuals as nothing more then a bad phrases and hardcore as a good phrase they lost all meaning beyond that. Ppl say things the way they think that other ppl wants them to hear not what they truly think.

Jski.6180:

lorndarken.3702:

Jim Hunter.6821:

I wouldn’t even say PvE players are their main focus. Think about it, at this point in GW1’s life we already had Factions, Nightfall, and EotN. That is new professions, skills, dungeons, friggin continents to explore. What have we gotten so far in this game? A couple of new maps and a bunch of temporary grindfests.

I think the real target audience are casuals players that get hooked on garbage like farmville and candy crush.

the majority of casuals are pve players

Well no pve players are both much like pvp. In fact most of the major pvp guild went to games where you have high progression pve that makes you win pvp fights. To the point of needing to play farmville well to be the best pvp lol.

I think ppl like to use the world casuals as nothing more then a bad phrases and hardcore as a good phrase they lost all meaning beyond that. Ppl say things the way they think that other ppl wants them to hear not what they truly think.

the majority of casual players that will play every so often but still stick around tend to do mostly pve related stuff . that is why you see so much focus put in the game towards them . you wont see much of it towards people who like the aspects of the game in a environment that forces players to stay together to take on enemy player till things run it’s course .. if you told players that starting next month that wvw was going to get a new look on the borderlands and that they could further increase the scale of the towers and keeps with new stuff to entice players , that what they did as a player in wvw that they would get legit realm ranks that further increased their class based abilities like pets being stronger and taller and faster and attacked harder or they could run certain buffs longer or their cc would last longer but they can only get that through rank points from wvw , so they could get class based skills with a new tool bar . something that would make the player feel like their progression as a player could continue and not stop at level 80 . people would be enticed to play . casuals might find it fun but the hardcore would populate the heck out of the game .

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

transfer costs help congeal communities. if it is free (as it was early on) people just move to whichever servers look like theyll win this weeks match because people like to win and there isnt a downside to moving away from any server not winning their match. additionally, people feel no ties to their current community and will just run away from tough situations at the drop of a hat. transfer costs help to prevent that attitude by giving your decision impact. do you really want to expend significant effort to leave your current community? or can you make do and work things out for free?

thats half of why we wanted transfer costs. the other half is so that we dont sour months of matchups by creating bandwagons in low tiers that roflstomp for 3 months on the way up and then dirt nap their way back down to the bottom once everyone decides they hate each other and leave.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

Oh god no. Previous tournaments have proven this to be a false assumption. Servers that had free transfers preceeding tournaments ended up getting stacked on for the tournament so they could have an easy win. After it most went back to their regular server. Eliminating server transfer fees would just let more people stack on the servers they think will win and depopulate those that won’t. People just want to win and they’ll take whatever the easiest route to it they can.

You will not see more balanced wvw populations until wvw has some fundamental changes and Anet forces some kind of shake up. Server fees are not what’s preventing population balance.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

Do not listen to him. Free transfers and player attrition are what causes stacking. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

Free transfers are more likely going to destroy servers like happened in the past… However a T1 server shouldn’t have the same price as a T8 server.

I belive that if prices were based on the position the server on the WvW ladder would help a bit since transferring to a lower ranked server would be cheaper than to a higher ranked one. And anyone trying to transfer up would have to pay more based on how high they intent to go.

First of all population caps need to be sorted out based on active WvW population and not total players on the server, most of which are PVE only and may or may not even be active accounts anymore. That’s step 1. Step 2 is probably to consolidate servers, there just isn’t the same number of people playing WvW proper that there were at launch, especially with EotM sucking people away. Step 3 is to then to redistribute the population so we have healthy WvW on every remaining server.

As has been apparent since launch, the playerbase will not evenly distribute itself, we don’t need to go down this road again, don’t even entertain it. Quite frankly this has been a problem with every PVP game I’ve ever played, players always stack because it’s easier to win when stacked and more people care about winning than they do about challenge or the health of the game.

I would like Free transfers to servers that have been losing let’s say for 6 weeks in a row.

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

there was free transfers for at least the first three months after release- people stacked servers then. there were free transfers before tournaments started- again people stacked servers. the cost has nothing to do with anything.

Consolidate 8 tiers into 3 tiers made of alliances for WvW.

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

But TBH I have posted a real solution, it just requires some effort by Anet.

First of all monitor server WvW activity 24/7
Find out what times a server either has long queues, or little to no activity.
Allow controlled free transfers. And by controlled I mean people have to register for the transfer, this allows guilds to move as one, rather than half of them not getting in on time and missing the transfer window.

As you should be able to track player activity, you should be able to offer these transfer to the correct players, you dont want someone who plays in a active server at 8pm to move to a high queues one at 8pm.

See my really bad diagram below :P

As you can see people from high activity can move to average activity servers, and people from low activity can also move to average activity servers; but again depending on the time period they play.
Server C doesnt have anyone going to it, because this server is too innate, you want to close down that server and get everyone onto one of the other more active servers.

But its almost 3am, I’m too tired to write it all out again, it’s in one of my old posts somewhere.

Basically:
red -> orange <-->green
yellow -> green<-->orange

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

“Why would I go to 27th if I can go to 25th?” – HoD effect Season 2

Jeknar.6184:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

“Why would I go to 27th if I can go to 25th?” – HoD effect Season 2

For the bottom 3 servers not to the bottom 3.

i.e. those in the bottom 3 servers are transfer up, noone can transfer down to then. You get everyone out of those and then close down the server.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

At this point in the WvW scene/situation I’d be pro free transfers as

• Server pride or whatever you want to call it is dead, buried, and gone. Most WvW fans have transfered at least once, or have multiple accounts across servers.

• It’d allow those guilds and WvW communites/groups who like to actualy engage/fight with one another to move into positions so that they can actually engage one another. This includes guild groups / time zone forces who currently run together.

No matter what server you’re on you can find doors to fight. You can ninja cap towers on any server and any time zone. You can do this solo, in a havok, with a zerg, or map blob. What you can’t do on any server is find the full variety of guilds/groups/forces to fight, with the slim chance of a random (usually totally unbalanced) random server matchup outside of your servers tier.

Make transfers free again.

Oh and to any discenters, no single change can happen in a vacuum and solve anything. WvW needs a ton of things to change to solve its issues. In the meantime it’s fair to ask if transfer costs are having their effect, and if it’d be an improvement to the game to remove them or not.

Fuzzion.2504:

Consolidate 8 tiers into 3 tiers made of alliances for WvW.

How are servers any different to alliances?
Just close all the servers in T4-8/9 and it’s the exact same thing.

It dosn’t matter anymore if transfers go to free or half free. It would be good to re-organize but it would be soulution only to 2-3 months. Only if transfering to top 3 servers would cost same as it atm. So thet smaller servers can unite and fight the first ones.
But Why should they WvW rewards nothing for being first. Then there the Stupid server pride. (NO WE DONT WANT TO BE CALLED xxxxxx VÄÄÄÄ VÄÄÄÄ VÄÄÄÄ!!!)

WvW needs much more then just free transfers (new maps, siege, point system, etc)

PS. No more new Leagues, last one was waste of time and a kitten JOKE WE wvw ppl DON’T WANT THAT kitten ANY MORE !!!

Gaile Gray.6029:

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

It would probably not reduce stacking but I can tell you what I did this week:

Due to the fact that our server is currently turning from nearly dead into dead I simply did a small calculation. Do I actually really believe that I will get back “fun” from playing WvW by spending the transfer costs (no I can’t do it by in-game-gold conversion). I came to the conclusion: probably not because it’s just a matter of time that I will get bored out again (because I only enjoy WvW in GW2, PvE is nothing for me but that’s my problem of course).

Therefore I renewed my WoW subscription yesterday (after nearly 2 years off-time) and ordered the new add-on instead of paying the transfer. Just to get to see something different again and to see if the new PvP contents added there will be nice (or not :-) )

Don’t get me wrong: I like GW2, it entertained me for a long time but if you don’t do something, you’ll wreck WvW. I ran circles on empty borderlands (not only our own) either finding nobody else or all enemies grouped in one zerg.

Galie, i spent more then 4k hours in wvw doing all variety of things in it.

I tried AA but i came back, cause you doing much better job, though ofcourse there are things that could make it much more interesting and keep a tONES of players in game.

Leagues together with unbalanced transfering on long-time basis made bad influence on wvw, causing some servers to become overstacked and some to become more empty.

I highly reccomend you to announce that it will be no more leagues in future and make server transfering based on WvW leaderboards, because after megaserver was implemented in PVE, transfering became only about WvW.

No more leagues – becuase it makes people to play wvw for some weeks and then quit because – “no league – nothing to push for” – that philosophy is going with leagues.

OS – megaserver as EOTM, it will be a big push for GvG and after that u can make and discuss about that map to make it instanced so people can play there gvg officially with some number locks etc (for ex-le, just to make a buble arround arena so noone can interfare, set prepare time (changing gear etc – 2m with ready button), set buffing time (30s) and max round time (10m, the side who got most people alive till that time wins). Make it for example as some NPC in LA/WvW that Guild Leader/Officer need to talk with to set a GvG vs another guild, and another guild leader gets the invitation by mail that he need to answer in 24h or not less then 1h prior GvG arranged time. Set a roster for that only 10+ (so you won’t have 2000 instances with people just 1v1). Other ideas i will put in gvg CDI, but i’m trying to make as simple as it could be for Devs team, becuase complexe system can take too much time.

EOTM had it pros and cons, overall i think the only thing that could be changed about it it to make normal WvW a lil bit more rewarding (scale defending an obective with people arround and set some ammout of money for that max-50s for defending something 5v30+, so no abusing will be possible)

Outnumbered buff to make a bit stronger as for PPT wise ONLY (build/repar faster etc).

The things that could change wvw alot but won’t take much work (ofc i can’t know for sure but chaning some numbers<making entire new map) are most important to think about, becuase alot of this things can be made in a small period and make huge influence on the game.

Best way to find out wich things will be bette to make is to make TS meeting with WvW server communitys (4-5 guys from each server NOT more) and ask their points of view on-air. Maybe choose a few of them who could help you in futhurmore brainstorming and can see the influence of changes not only on their own servers but on overall WvW and overall game.

and ofc “After all i wonder whats the name of game again?. Shame ANET seemed to forget that.” Sacrx

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

- I don’t see the point in player-initiated server transfers in the first place. All it does it to create unhealthy bandwagon effect described in previous posts. If some servers are underpopulated, they should be merged by Anet. Megaservers made server allegiance meaningless in PvE anyway.

While at it, I think the exploit of being in a party with enemy server player in WvW should be closed. You can see on the map where their commander is going…

Ross Biddle.2367:

• Server pride or whatever you want to call it is dead, buried, and gone. Most WvW fans have transfered at least once, or have multiple accounts across servers.

Server pride is absolutely not dead, buried, nor gone.

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Jeknar.6184:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

“Why would I go to 27th if I can go to 25th?” – HoD effect Season 2

For the bottom 3 servers not to the bottom 3.

i.e. those in the bottom 3 servers are transfer up, noone can transfer down to then. You get everyone out of those and then close down the server.

^^ This

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Neptune has a point tho.

For example 2 weeks after free transfers ended guilds started leaving SoS I mean…… 2 WEEKS!

That sends a pretty big message to Anet that the community can and will manage itself while paying money to ANet to do it.

Look at it this way.

Any ANet dev who cared anything for WvW would have been silenced at moments like that because the bean counters would start screaming ‘Leave it alone, they manage themselves and we make money’.

ANet makes money, for doing absolutely nothing.

Julie Yann.5379:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Jeknar.6184:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

“Why would I go to 27th if I can go to 25th?” – HoD effect Season 2

For the bottom 3 servers not to the bottom 3.

i.e. those in the bottom 3 servers are transfer up, noone can transfer down to then. You get everyone out of those and then close down the server.

^^ This

So it’s the bottom servers that’s causing the main issues with WvW???

Swamurabi.7890:

Julie Yann.5379:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Jeknar.6184:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

“Why would I go to 27th if I can go to 25th?” – HoD effect Season 2

For the bottom 3 servers not to the bottom 3.

i.e. those in the bottom 3 servers are transfer up, noone can transfer down to then. You get everyone out of those and then close down the server.

^^ This

So it’s the bottom servers that’s causing the main issues with WvW???

They are not but vacating them could be part of the solution. Why the heck anyone would transfer out of T1,2,3 down to T7,8,9? If WvW sucks on your server then transfer out and go somewhere WvW doesn’t suck. WvW has a relatively healthy population and coverage in the upper tiers. Why break that in an attempt to save dying servers that will never have healthy populations?

Zenith.6403:

Gaile Gray.6029:

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

- I don’t see the point in player-initiated server transfers in the first place. All it does it to create unhealthy bandwagon effect described in previous posts. If some servers are underpopulated, they should be merged by Anet. Megaservers made server allegiance meaningless in PvE anyway.

While at it, I think the exploit of being in a party with enemy server player in WvW should be closed. You can see on the map where their commander is going…

During the early days of free transfers, there were more servers in T1 (NA) JQ, ET, SbI, IoJ, BG, SoS, HoD and SoR all spent time in the top tier.
After the end of free transfers there have been only 4 (JQ, SoR, BG and TC)
This could be because of free transfers ending, but it’s more likely due to the fact that the players have learned how to “exploit” the rules to maintain their servers position at the top.

Players won’t balance themselves.

Since Anet hasn’t managed server balance or changed the many features that make population and coverage the dominant WvW trait, transfers are irrelevent to the success or failure of WvW. Transfers have just been something that the stacked servers and the guilds on those servers found a work around for.

Julie Yann.5379:

Swamurabi.7890:

Julie Yann.5379:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

Jeknar.6184:

Pinkamena Diane Pie.8054:

I say free transfers for only the bottom 3 servers. All others still have to pay.

“Why would I go to 27th if I can go to 25th?” – HoD effect Season 2

For the bottom 3 servers not to the bottom 3.

i.e. those in the bottom 3 servers are transfer up, noone can transfer down to then. You get everyone out of those and then close down the server.

^^ This

So it’s the bottom servers that’s causing the main issues with WvW???

They are not but vacating them could be part of the solution. Why the heck anyone would transfer out of T1,2,3 down to T7,8,9? If WvW sucks on your server then transfer out and go somewhere WvW doesn’t suck. WvW has a relatively healthy population and coverage in the upper tiers. Why break that in an attempt to save dying servers that will never have healthy populations?

The problem with closing servers down is eventually you will end up with queued peak times and still have empty off peak times. At that point you can’t increase WvW players during peak times.

There’s just not enough OCX players to fill every map on every server. The Earth’s population has a problem covering the gaps created by the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Also there is the issue that there are quite a number of players on lower tier servers that prefer to play WvW on lower populated maps while also there are players that prefer to play on fully populated maps.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

At this point in the WvW scene/situation I’d be pro free transfers as

• Server pride or whatever you want to call it is dead, buried, and gone. Most WvW fans have transfered at least once, or have multiple accounts across servers.

• It’d allow those guilds and WvW communites/groups who like to actualy engage/fight with one another to move into positions so that they can actually engage one another. This includes guild groups / time zone forces who currently run together.

No matter what server you’re on you can find doors to fight. You can ninja cap towers on any server and any time zone. You can do this solo, in a havok, with a zerg, or map blob. What you can’t do on any server is find the full variety of guilds/groups/forces to fight, with the slim chance of a random (usually totally unbalanced) random server matchup outside of your servers tier.

Make transfers free again.

Quoting Ross because I was about to voice the same opinion but this says it better than I could.

Especially point #2. Free transfers would allow people to transfer to places that would increase balance.

If you have to pay to transfer you’re thought process is going to be different. If its free to transfer you can transfer to a place just to have fun.

Me, I’d transfer immediately to the T2 or T3 server that looks like it is the underdog in the time slot that I like to play.

Oh and you’d need to not have tournaments – or change the reward structure of the tourneys so that the reward is only based on individual contribution, not where your server places in the tourney.

TLDR; Yes Gaile, I believe that free transfers would tend to even out populations over time and we’d have much better matches.

EOTM did not helped against queues and server balance. Now when there are queues players just go to EOTM. Before EOTM they thought about transfers to not stacked servers, but now its not really needed.
Payed transfers based on WvW population! with deleting of EOTM would help to balance servers because nobody would like to wait in queue.
But deleting EOTM is not an option because karma train is bigger than all wvw players.

I think Anet after a year of gathering data on demographics and play style of players have ultimately decided that PVP/WVW content does not provide good revenue. When i first played GW2 I instantly notice the strong foundation given to the combat system during its early stage of development. In fact I think the first concepts was the combat system. GW2 is by far the best mmo combat system I have ever played and its really saddening that contents like PVP/WVW and to some extent class and skills is being left for granted.

Johje Holan.4607:

Free transfers would allow people to transfer to places that would increase balance.

I am quite sure the opposite is true. If you remove transfer costs, those willing to transfer at all would increase the population of the top-rated servers even more.

To increase balance you’d have to decide to go to the currently weaker side. Why would you? Why not be a winner-team-joiner?

Gaile Gray.6029:

Kanebrake.6192:

Neptune.2570:

If WvW is dead, the community killed it, not anet.
How can there be different outcomes and new fights each week when every server is tier locked because we, as a community, have stacked servers so much.

Anet charging $35+ per transfer is what causes stacking. If they didn’t charge for transfers or were much more reasonable about the cost of it, then you’d see guilds and people moving around a lot more.

Interesting comment. Do you think that free transfers would reduce stacking? That things would just naturally even out over time?

I’m genuinely interested in this topic and would like to get some insight into it from our players’ perspective. (For clarity, I’m not on the WvW Team; y;’all know that. I just found the theory interesting.)

With Megaserver in place, the current transfer needs to be updated

Here is what i suggest

Performance Variable = 100 less for each month without win

T1 = 1800 – PV
T2 = 1700 – PV
T3 = 1600 – PV
T4 = 1500 – PV
T5 = 1400 – PV
T6 = 1300 – PV
T7 = 1200 – PV
T8 = 1100 – PV