Guild Wars 2 Server options

[Lydon]

My thoughts exactly. Is is really so heard people? When the game goes live even if you pick a server like Lakeside Country that is ranked low, you will still get to play WvW and probably win as well. Remember A-net are fixing the ranking system, so you will never fight out of your league like you did in the last BETA.

And you forget the major flaws about going to PVP orientated servers, the lag and the ques, will you even get a chance to get into these WvW fights with it limited, or will the PVP whores take up all the slots?

Think beyond the PEEVEEPEE part of the game, kinda tired of reading about this. Instead of picking a server already shared by others, pick one that is not, AND MAKE THAT THE ZA server.

Personally I'm not blindly focussed on PvP, but know how frustrating it is when I've finished much of the PvE content, move over into the casual PvP space, and find that the server is utterly hopeless. That is the case with my WoW main. Unfortunately there's little one can do to pre-empt this - it's mostly luck of the draw.

However, as Isengard said, RP servers generally don't tend to be too interested in PvP at all. That is my only concern and one of the only things we can avoid to prevent getting stuck on a server that sucks. Even then, that may not apply to GW2. Otherwise rankings mean little to nothing at this point as it's near impossible to tell what a server will be like post-launch. One can merely pick and hope for the best.

Besides, if we can get together a large enough group of Saffers on one server, chances are we'll be grouping up in PvP on a fairly regular basis. The locale camaraderie and familiarity could be enough to add some structure to random PvP and result in wins anyway.

 

[Isengard]

Hey guys, sorry for the long absence from these forums. I am a part of many gaming communities as well as participating in quite a few gaming leagues as well as trying to reconstruct a lot of Iniuria including website and the likes. I took 2 hours to just catch up on what I have missed out on at mygaming. I am happy to see that the guild wars 2 chat is just as active as always and will make sure I am here on a daily/weekly basis. With NAG LoL league Leg 2 coming to end in the next month all my attention will switch to Guild Wars 2.

Anyways, speaking on behalf of the 70+ SA members in Iniuria I would just like to say that our number 1 priority is being on the same server as the rest of SA. With that said we obviously did our research before BWE1 and decided to go with a 1) Mature server 2) English server. With Petrified forest being an RP server it obviously had both of these. I never once saw another language and I never once saw any rage or childishness in the close to 100 hours I played GW2. Areas were always full and I never saw any Roleplaying at all anywhere if people were worried about that. I haven't found a single fault with Petrified forest and neither has the rest of the guild.

I cant say that I prefer PF over the other 2 options or any other server cause quite simply I haven't played on any other servers. All I do know is that we never had a single issue with PF. I can say that looking at the communities on WR server is that it has many different languages on it and we are really not keen for that. A Negative aspect with LC is that we don't know what is going to happen with that server. We don't know what languages or communities are going to populate LC .Other than that I will never say server X is better than server Y or Z like many members have done here without having looked at them all. What we need to resort to is what the positive aspects (and negative) of each server are and discuss what we saw on our servers.

Just remember that no matter what server SA decides to go with we will go with that server. Just please try discuss the positives and negatives of each server instead of just saying "SERVER X IS THE BEST!".

Nice post and I agree with you completely and believe me, after BWE3 there is going to be a lot of discussion around this topic.

As it is now I can't make a decisive decision since I only played a few hours on WR (which btw was very positive). I think we all pretty much agreed that we are going to wait until after BWE3 to really get into where we will be going.

I'm sure this is going to become a fairly heated topic and I foresee us deciding on a server only after a few weeks of discussion.

 

[bushbaby]

Ah ... I was waiting for Bushbaby to pop in with some feedback.

The only issue I see many people having with PF is the role-playing aspect (I know this has the positive benefits in terms of keeping the kiddies/ragers away) - this does turn a lot of people off, even if it doesn't end up dominating the overall gameplay.

Glad to be back on mygaming. As I have discussed before many people judge the RP aspect before understanding it. Since I have posted many replies with regards to the RP war I will just leave it at the fact of don't hate it until you know what an RP server is. It is simply a server that has a few players that like to RP and they organize something like one a weekly or monthly private meeting in a tavern somewhere and RP. You could play 1000 hours of GW2 on an RP server and you wouldn't see any RP. I wont go further into this and I urge people to understand it first. As for voting I don't think I should get my members to vote cause I know they will all vote PF and that really doesn't help us getting 50 votes from 1 guild and then we cant understand what the rest want.

 

[shadowfox]

Glad to be back on mygaming. As I have discussed before many people judge the RP aspect before understanding it. Since I have posted many replies with regards to the RP war I will just leave it at the fact of don't hate it until you know what an RP server is. It is simply a server that has a few players that like to RP and they organize something like one a weekly or monthly private meeting in a tavern somewhere and RP. You could play 1000 hours of GW2 on an RP server and you wouldn't see any RP. I wont go further into this and I urge people to understand it first. As for voting I don't think I should get my members to vote cause I know they will all vote PF and that really doesn't help us getting 50 votes from 1 guild and then we cant understand what the rest want.

Well ... I don't know if it will help, but maybe you can try having a general discussion within your guild - let them hear what thoughts are here, get their thoughts, and provide feedback here.

That way at least we gather everything in something of a centralised location that will make it easy to keep track of things.

 

[bushbaby]

I will do, Just give me a few days and I will discuss all the thoughts here with them and ask for their opinions. I might only post their feedback after BWE3 so that I can ask my members to actually go look at certain aspects. Then I will give a detailed report on their thoughts.

 

[shadowfox]

I will do, Just give me a few days and I will discuss all the thoughts here with them and ask for their opinions. I might only post their feedback after BWE3 so that I can ask my members to actually go look at certain aspects. Then I will give a detailed report on their thoughts.

That's perfect.

We have more than a month between BWE3 and pre-launch, so I don't think we need to rush things too much.

 

[panthis]

in all honesty, ima gonna be following my clan buddies, but im leaning more towards PF at the moment if it was all up to me.
If memory serves, the last BWE PF did alright in the WvWvW? and correct me if im wrong, but isnt the point of 3 teams in wvwvw to balance it out? if one teams gets too powerful, the other 2 can join up and take them down... then kill whose left to establish the new victors?

 

[SnowWar]

Ok wait, so there are RP and PVP flagged servers like in WOW? Pls help me out with this (ye I'm not on top of GW2 info atm)

Joining an RP server is retarded. Not interested

 

[shadowfox]

Ok wait, so there are RP and PVP flagged servers like in WOW? Pls help me out with this (ye I'm not on top of GW2 info atm)

Joining an RP server is retarded. Not interested

They're unofficial, so it's not like ANet flagged them as RP servers. It's basically just the community that decided they wanted at least one RP server, and so on the Euro side, Petrified Forest earned the honours.

And since PvP and PvE in GW2 are entirely seperate entities in terms of gameplay, you won't find servers flagged for that either - but you may find a bunch of PvP minded guilds gravitating towards some servers.

 

[Phatso]

I think the problem with the label "RP Server" is due to WoW's actual RP servers.. If you've ever visited some of those, you'd know that things are a tad out of control at times. They have a terrible reputation too (I know there are exceptions obviously).
Examples are, WAY too much CYBASEKS and way too much RP (eg: "Hey man, mind helping me out quick" - "WHAT 'HO?! Who goes yonder and speaks with such tribal languages towards my royally esteemed..." you get the point). I understand it keeps the riff-raff out, but having to act in character and type like you're born and bred in Tyria is going to be annoying as hell in the first minute of playing.

The fact that it is just a server where most RP players would go to makes it a bit better, but I still see that gamers that have zero inclination towards RP are going to find themselves in non-ideal situations. If the RP events will be in the minority and barely noticeable (as stated above), why does the server have such a "RP-esque" connotation to it? So there is a Dynamic Event at max level – the RP community do an RP event around it… Non-RP players also want to partake in the event… Conflict of interest means no one helping anyone.

I will be playing a lot of sPvP and WvWvW, so I am interested in realm dynamics etc. The only issue I have now is that I am quite sure a few players will change their minds before or once the servers go live, irrespective of BWE3 and the time between that and launch. So can we really make any assumptions of who goes where?

I can’t speak on behalf of anyone really, but I understand that a few guys from [grrr] will play, WrG have a strong following and there are a few guys from the old school BOC who will be playing. All these guys that I’ve played with over the years will want to play together. And its important to keep the ZA vibes together so that we don’t have the same situation as WoW where ZA gamers are spread all over every realm and server and region and faction.

 

[shadowfox]

The fact that it is just a server where most RP players would go to makes it a bit better, but I still see that gamers that have zero inclination towards RP are going to find themselves in non-ideal situations. If the RP events will be in the minority and barely noticeable (as stated above), why does the server have such a "RP-esque" connotation to it? So there is a Dynamic Event at max level – the RP community do an RP event around it… Non-RP players also want to partake in the event… Conflict of interest means no one helping anyone.

I've bolded the point of interest in that paragraph of yours which I'm going to respond to.

Dynamic events in GW2 are by their very nature completely open ... no-one can kill-steal, or prevent other people from joining in an event. If you run into an area where the event is taking place, you are automatically a part of it, and based on your level of participation, you will get a reward. There's none of this max-level people in one group out-dps'ing the lowbies and getting the loot for themselves.

I should also note that a high-level who walks into a say, level 15 area, will get down-leveled to level 15. He'll have access to more skills [possibly] and will likely have better gear than the people around him, but in the end he won't be all that much more powerful.

So if you get an RP group taking part in an event, the worst you'll get is people (if this even happens) talking funny in general chat - with any luck they'll be grouped up and keep it in group chat.

WoW's RP servers did maybe give the term a bad connotation, but WoW at the same time tended to attract a terribly immature crowd. I know GW1 discouraged this to a degree, and I think GW2 will do the same, although to a lesser extent. I hope so anyways. What Bushbaby said is relatively true - the only MMO I've actually played where I encountered RP on a regular basis was Star Trek Online, and I didn't actually find it too intrusive, and no-one disregarded me for not doing the same.

On the other hand, it's also worth considering the fact that RP players may be less inclined to take part in PvP, which will lead to less participation in WvW which will lead to continuous clobbering. How much of a fact this actually is, I don't know - I've got nothing but anecdotal evidence to go on. Bushbaby might be in a better position to comment on it.

 

[bushbaby]

Sigh, My browser froze and I lost my entire reply so I'm just going to keep this short.

1) As mentioned you wont experience people talking in an RP manor. 99% of the time they only talk like this at private RP guild organized events.

2) The only difference you will see in PVP is in WvWvW. You wont find or notice any issues in sPvP or tourneys. Just as many RP players will pvp compared to the other 2 servers we are thinking of going with.

Now I can say that a pure PvP is almost guaranteed to be better in this regard. A server like this will almost certainly end in the top 1/3rd of the WvWvW server listing. Where as the 3 servers we have gone for have a 50-50 chances of ending anywhere on that list. There is no way we can say that any of the 3 servers we are going with will be better than any of the others.

Solution? Add a PvP server to out server choice list?

 

[Isengard]

I've been thinking about WvWvW and how the 300 players per server limitations might be a real problem if you are on a very busy server. If one server has 3 very large guilds (say about 100+) who's main focus is WvWvW then we could see an issue where there will hardly ever be free slots to join WvWvW.

I'm going to be keeping this in mind, but it should only become an issue for me when I hit 80 since my focus is going to be PvE, but it's something to consider.

 

[ChameleonDevil]

Ok, sorry havent read a thing about this thread (have been long absent ). Which servers are you guys discussing as choices now?

Im (and some other SA players) are on Shosa's Hollow, I have been on 4 servers (including Lakeside County) and two French dominated servers , and for me Shosa's Hollow has been the best. LC was outnumbered on WvW and that sucked to even try WvW. On the other hand with the last BWE, SH was against Arborstone [FR] and another server, in which SH and AR pretty much domintated the whole time, sometimes over the weekend we had everything, and then later on AR would take over most back.

I found this to be the most fun server of the ones tried (PVE included), and for WvW purposes I would like to stay there. However, still want to know what other SA players are deciding now... as it would be nice to be on same servers. (As for me moving to LC, I doubt I will move back there ).

If we still have the option to change servers over the last BWE, then making the decision sooner than later will be better.

What are the choices atm? I nominate Shosa's Hollow

 

[shadowfox]

Ok, sorry havent read a thing about this thread (have been long absent ). Which servers are you guys discussing as choices now?

Im (and some other SA players) are on Shosa's Hollow, I have been on 4 servers (including Lakeside County) and two French dominated servers , and for me Shosa's Hollow has been the best. LC was outnumbered on WvW and that sucked to even try WvW. On the other hand with the last BWE, SH was against Arborstone [FR] and another server, in which SH and AR pretty much domintated the whole time, sometimes over the weekend we had everything, and then later on AR would take over most back.

I found this to be the most fun server of the ones tried (PVE included), and for WvW purposes I would like to stay there. However, still want to know what other SA players are deciding now... as it would be nice to be on same servers. (As for me moving to LC, I doubt I will move back there ).

If we still have the option to change servers over the last BWE, then making the decision sooner than later will be better.

What are the choices atm? I nominate Shosa's Hollow

Currently the list includes Petrified Forest, Lakeside County and Whiteside Ridge

 

[Vivido]

I want to join an SA guild, tired of these brits taking over Ill check here when the game comes out and hopefully theres a big sa pop on one server!

 

[ChameleonDevil]

Currently the list includes Petrified Forest, Lakeside County and Whiteside Ridge

Ok thanks shadowfox, have no knowledge of Whiteside Ridge... but will pass the other two for sure. As mentioned I dont see the WvW potential (based on Beta play) on LC and PF (+some frenchies there too). Its impossible to say for sure, but I doubt the change will be significantly different from Beta.

Solution? Add a PvP server to out server choice list?]

Therefore, add Shosa's Hollow to the list xD

/runs away with solution

Anyway, please need we more input while we still may have the opportunity to transfer on last BWE.

 

[shadowfox]

Ok thanks shadowfox, have no knowledge of Whiteside Ridge... but will pass the other two for sure. As mentioned I dont see the WvW potential (based on Beta play) on LC and PF (+some frenchies there too). Its impossible to say for sure, but I doubt the change will be significantly different from Beta.

Therefore, add Shosa's Hollow to the list xD

/runs away with solution

Anyway, please need we more input while we still may have the opportunity to transfer on last BWE.

I'll add Shosa's Hollow to the list

Just keep in mind - regarding LC in particular, that it was a new server with a low population whereas Shosa's Hollow was an established server - so LC had a lot of first timers and low level players. So - given that the server kept getting matched up against winning servers, it was pretty much predetermined that they'd be in for an ass-whooping of note.

These two considerations will most likely fall away when the game goes live.

 

[Shirou]

I'll add Shosa's Hollow to the list

Just keep in mind - regarding LC in particular, that it was a new server with a low population whereas Shosa's Hollow was an established server - so LC had a lot of first timers and low level players. So - given that the server kept getting matched up against winning servers, it was pretty much predetermined that they'd be in for an ass-whooping of note.

These two considerations will most likely fall away when the game goes live.

Ja Chameleon, ek het jou gese.. maar neeeeeeeeeeeeeee jy wil mos Shoshaloooosa speel

 

[Marick]

I'll likely wait until release to decide on what server to roll on.

First prize would obviously be to join a server with the majority of SA players. However, I've played quite a few of the smaller MMO's after WoW (Rift, TSW, TERA, LOTRO), and the thing that really destroyed those games for me was low population.

I'm going to choose a server that has enough players on it, even if that doesn't end up being the one this thread decides on. I can't imagine anything more crap than rolling on a server with 100 players on it. Snore-fest.

My recommendation to the community is to:

1) Try and establish how large the SA playerbase will actually be.
2) Decide on a server with an expected population that will result in sufficient players on it to keep the game world alive.

It's all fine and well choosing LC for SA players because it's "unclaimed", but what's the point if there are only 80 of us? Or why choose LC if it's only ZA players, and in 2 months the playerbase goes from 300 to 100?

I would strongly suggest we try the 3 recommended servers and in some way find out population levels. We should be choosing one of the medium to high pop servers, as it is very unlikely that the SA community will be able to fill their own server. At release:

Whiteside will be full.

LC may be empty

PF is my choice based on beta and expected population levels. I don't RP, and I didn't see any RP on the server during the BWEs. I don't understand the resistance to this server type by some of you anyway. I've played many games on RP servers, and very seldom have I come across active RP. Also, to add, those RP servers did particularly well in pvp (maturity lends itself to attracting skilled no-bullshit players, I'd say).

Haven't seen a poll, but I'm provisionally voting PF.