[GW2] release and server selection

Subject: [GW2] release and server selection Tue Aug 21, 2012 6:44 pm

Hi there!

In only a few days from now, coming Saturday, Guild Wars 2 is finally being released for everyone who preordered. If you didn't preorder you'll have to wait 3 days longer. A lot of us have been waiting for this game, and I'm sure you all can't wait for it to start. If you want to know an exact countdown until the release, you can check out the Guild Wars 2 homepage (www.guildwars2.com).

With the game so close-by, we would like to make sure we're all set to jump right into the action. A first important thing that should be noted is that we will not be picking the same server as during beta tests. The server we picked during the beta was one of the most crowded server in EU and not everyone was able to join it because it was full.

We will play on EU server Aurora Glade. From what information we could gather, the server should have English as first language and the population is average.

We also opened a roll call topic where you can let us know what class, race and crafting professions you'll be playing. You can find the topic here: http://www.sovereign-legion.net/t3070-gw2-roll-call-race-class-and-crafting-info

Make sure you pick the right server. Cya all ingame soon!

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Tue Aug 21, 2012 8:56 pm

Wait, whats wrong with a crowded server when it have Overflow system?
Besides, that server had people who actually knew how to do WvWvW properly, which can benefit us a lot.

Thats just what I think atleast.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:08 pm

Were talking about not being able to connect full I guess....

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Tue Aug 21, 2012 9:09 pm

Not being to connect full? Can you please explain in detail?

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Tue Aug 21, 2012 11:42 pm

During these past stress tests Anet managed to test out the servers to see how many people can over flood the server at the same time and what I heard the server managed to hold triple X the time the people log in from the last test without problem. So I think our current server will have no problem with the huge amount of people logging in at launch. If so, we can stay there but if we are moving to a new location I'm ok with it...

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 12:22 am

During the beta tests, there were several people who didn't get into Desolation as their home server. The server we were on was pretty much full in a few hours time.

While server capacity might have been increased, it's a safe bet to move to a server with a more average population.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:08 pm

Honestly if we join the server and find out it's not the best place, not all is lost. According to this:

Quote :: At launch, players will be able to transfer between worlds freely. However, once server populations have largely settled and stabilized, world transfers will be restricted to once a week and cost a variable amount of gems based on the population of the world being transferred to.

Link: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/a-world-of-choice-the-regions-of-guild-wars-2/

we have some wiggle room.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:29 pm

I believe there was (and may still be) a limit to the amount of people that can choose a specific server as their home server rather than how many people can actually be on the server and playing (including those who have a different home server - see Guesting feature).

I would be surprised if they removed the home server limit - what's to prevent everyone just choosing the most populous server for their home server which will (generally) be the one which possesses most of the benefits from leading in the WvWvW.

Even if we were to say choose the most populous server - there are a few issues faced:

there is a limit on the amount of people allowed in the WvWvW maps (although an overflow WvWvW exists) - for those who like to participate in WvWvW with friends, this may pose an issue when the server has an extremely high population.
as with previous beta tests there were times when WvWvW was a bit unbalanced due to the different ratios of those participating between different worlds - being in a world which wins the majority of the time is for some - not very fun
- I realise that some people may say the opposite - going to a lesser populated server may mean they will lose most of the time. I guess it depends on which you prefer - try hard to win or zerg
- As with above - GW2 did say they were (testing) a modified Glicko rating system to determine which Worlds vs other worlds - this may help but if the population is 1 extremely high and the rest extremely low, there's not much the match ups can do. (keep in mind I'm not that familiar with WvWvW)
i had more points but I've forgotten - i'll edit should i remember them
Minor: Curious as to whether less populous servers will have less gold sellers and spam bots spamming chats (then again, more populous servers may have more active chat spammer and bot removals).
Personal:
Spoiler:

And as Erianx has mentioned, there will be a chance (although how long it takes for AN to decide that populations have largely settled and stabilized) to change choices should being on a less populous server be unpalatable for some members.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:55 pm

Well, my biggest problem is that you guys went ahead and chose a server without talking with you know, the community you play with.
Never gave people the chance to say what they wanted, or their thoughts about it.

It just doesnt look good in my eyes.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:28 pm

Sodamachine wrote:: Well, my biggest problem is that you guys went ahead and chose a server without talking with you know, the community you play with.
Never gave people the chance to say what they wanted, or their thoughts about it.

It just doesnt look good in my eyes.

http://www.sovereign-legion.net/t3070-gw2-roll-call-race-class-and-crafting-info
From this list, ~11/15 (~73%) of the people on the table currently are in the unofficial Sovereign Skype conversation.

This link was put forth in said Skype chat: http://www.gw2guilds.org/
The concept of picking Aurora Glade was put forth together with that link a few days ago.
As of the time the server was selected it had the least amount of Russian guilds compared to others (and neither too large / too small a population) with a fair amount of English speaking guilds.

A factor in the BWE server selection was related to the amount of non-english speaking guilds in the server: http://www.sovereign-legion.net/t2980-which-eu-us-worlds-for-the-beta. I assume that this still factors into choosing a server for launch.

The choice of servers by the majority of the community would largely be based on those who played the BWEs. If they did not play the BWE they could only base their choice on how much they like the name and what other people say about that server (as it was in BWE).

It is unlikely for Desolation to lose a lot of the population (as most people seem to want constant WvWvW buffs) and instead there may even be an influx of guilds (english and non-english).

An issue that several members were somewhat vocal about during the BWEs was the inability to access WvWvW because it was usually full when they tried to enter and had to wait in queue for an hour or so. This was also probably taken into consideration when the officers were considering which server to choose (as i distinctly remember some of them personally vocalizing their discontent about said issue).

So a choice made by the majority of the community [known to be playing GW2 and by lack of objection] (of which 15 have signed on to the rollcall so far, and which 11 were in the unofficial skype conversation when the idea of moving to Aurora was mentioned). - I am sure the officers have made considerations of the strengths and weaknesses of changing from Desolation to Aurora Glade.

As with other Sovereign games, although Sever polls have been made prior to launch - every single one was not binding and the final choice always rested with Sovereign officers.

Other than name and a slightly less populated server (which may or may not result in more difficult WvWvWs) I don't see much to object to the choice.

Perhaps there could have been a greater amount of consultation on the forums...but past the conditions of not too many people + not too few people + not too many non-english guilds + which name tickles your fancy I don't really see any major reasons for much consultation.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:01 pm

I have no problem with the serverswitch whatsoever, becuase I wont be playing this game hardcore.

But that still doesnt make up that you guys goes ahead and dont make an official thread about it there people can discuss about it.

Trying to hide it behind an skypecall is not good. Even if we say that ALL people were in the group, not everyone would see it, becuase not everyone would be active when the conversation about this started.

My problem is still that there was no real discussion about it, and that makes me feel that I am being shoved right and left without having any rights to say something about it, even if I agree with it or not.

We are humans, we play with you as friends, and therefor we should be considered as such.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:11 pm

Sodamachine wrote:: I have no problem with the serverswitch whatsoever, becuase I wont be playing this game hardcore.

But that still doesnt make up that you guys goes ahead and dont make an official thread about it there people can discuss about it.

Trying to hide it behind an skypecall is not good. Even if we say that ALL people were in the group, not everyone would see it, becuase not everyone would be active when the conversation about this started.

My problem is still that there was no real discussion about it, and that makes me feel that I am being shoved right and left without having any rights to say something about it, even if I agree with it or not.

We are humans, we play with you as friends, and therefor we should be considered as such.

I agree on this since I've been wondering where was the decision agreed from... A sudden decision made behind the community won't make the panda's happy. A topic and a poll needs to be in place for the community to know what's going on BEFORE a decision is being made.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:36 pm

Quote :: 1.1 - Respect others, and they will respect you in return.

Not all affected people were respected in a way that we could have a chance to have our say in this.

Quote :: 1.6 - Be aware that whether you are in-game, on official forums or on this forum, your actions will reflect on the entire guild. So, do not do things that will tarnish the name of the guild.

Just a follow-up on rule 1.1

All I want is an honest apologize, and want to know that this wont happen again, and we can all be happy and play together again.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:02 pm

Like Erianx has mentioned, there will be free home world transfers for a period of time after launch. If you feel that discussion around a server would change the current choice, feel free to mention the reasons around why you think another would be better. I'm sure Infi will take it under consideration.

Making a poll and asking for ideas on which server should be selected (of which the conditions which the current choice was made on, nobody has disagreed with so far) would have to have been done several weeks before the launch.)

Considering the launch date was announced late July, the poll would have had to have been created early August given that similar to Skype conversations:

Sodamachine wrote:: Trying to hide it behind an skypecall is not good. Even if we say that ALL people were in the group, not everyone would see it, becuase not everyone would be active when the conversation about this started.

(emphasis my own).

Fair enough - a discussion revolving around the forums would be the same. Not everyone would be around when it started, hence not all people would have read it, hence some people would not have made any suggestions (if they had any), hence they would have missed out, hence same position as the skype conversation (rather than call) where not ALL were aware.

Given that, the discussion would have been based on population and names and the guilds in each server.

Population will most likely still be in favour of Desolation having a high population. Those who want high population will vote Desolation.

Server names: unlikely everyone will like the same name - not very useful to base a decision for launch server around this.

Guilds - as you can see from my linked above (guilds list) there have been a plethora of guild movers. Basing any preferences on the list anytime prior to 1 week before launch would have likely been a waste due to said movement.

Opening a topic for suggestions 1 week prior to launch, awaiting feedback, collating and discussing between officers and then making a post several days before the launch (to ensure everyone knew what server to pick) does not seem logistically feasible.

In the case of GW2 where there are so many servers the issue of everyone wanting to be on completely different EU servers for the home world is increased.

With GW2's guesting system, you can play on other servers (so if you have other friends who happen to not be in Sovereign, playing with them is possible). The limitation is only WvWvW, where you can only represent your home world. Want to WvWvW in the server with the highest population and limits on players in WvWvW (not including overflow - if you don't mind WvWvW in overflow, why not a nation with a lower population? It's the same except for not having a full non-overflow winning the majority of the time).

I'm curious as to what you wanted to contribute to the server choice discussion if it was officially made into a topic by the officers (which as i mentioned, anybody could have opened a topic should they have felt it would have a drastic influence on gameplay).

Sodamachine wrote:: Not all affected people were respected in a way that we could have a chance to have our say in this.

(emphasis my own)
Not one post was made since the release of the date of launch about which server we were going to pick for launch or even asking for whether it was being discussed. To me it seems reasonable to infer that it wasn't considered much of an issue and that the majority wouldn't mind any EU server.

Given the likely discrepancies between members should an official thread have been made, the end result would be the officers discussing it among themselves and reaching a decision in the end. My point is that many of the points that could have been brought up through an official topic were already considered by officers.

Should we in future; open an official topic and poll asking for suggestions on a server choice based on information that will likely change several times before a week before launch, wait for EVERYONE to respond (if not everyone responds, we seem to have disrespected those who didn't respond! :O) - response rates of 100% are highly unlikely + given that we are unaware who will play the game past those on the roster, there will always be someone who feels they are left out of the decision.

I've rambled on for a bit and i've lost my train of thought but:
For those that wanted community wide discussion,

Why was no topic/post made by those concerned bringing it up?
Do you believe that there is anything not already considered by the officers in this server choice? (please list said factors if so)
Do you believe that the current officers are incapable of making a server choice to suit the majority of the guild?

A disclaimer: this is my opinion only and feel free to disagree with any of my points - it’s 0200 and i’ll check back after i get some sleep - probably to rephrase some of my points better.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:19 pm

Too lazy to quote certain point, but I will say once again, that I don't care about that another server were chosen, for any specific reason at all.

Its the method used, that makes me feel that I am being pushed around, no matter the outcome.

It is a matter of principle.
And even if it is something like this, I do not like that it happened, and I dont want to sit down and show that it is ok.

Quote :: (if not everyone responds, we seem to have disrespected those who didn't respond! :O

This is not a good example.
If there was a thread up, and people didnt had the time too answer it, there was nothing that could have been done. especially if you had it up for a week.

And on topic that we should switch server because Desolation was full, we could have easily see the trend that the server was going to be full on 2nd Beta Weekend, and already back then, put up a thread about switching server on retail.
Which would have been logic, as I see it, many people did complain they never did get on, and we had a lot of time talking about it.

Forum is a great thing. It is a fantastic tool to give out information to a lot of people over a longer period of time, and it also saves everything, so it is easy too look back on peoples thoughts and decision for future need if needed.

once again, it is a matter of principle, if there is information or choises that DO concern me in one way or another, I want to know it, and I want to be able to be able to have a say in it. Otherwise it will look like you guys are a boss, and I just sit here and work for you, doing as you says.

I also want too have a good time (not saying I wont have it though), and even I paid for the game. If we are going to play as a group, act like you are a part of it, and not the one controlling it.

Subject: Re: [GW2] release and server selection Thu Aug 23, 2012 4:07 am

I didn't expect this topic to turn into this... This will probably be a short and to the point statement by me. I have exams both tomorrow and the day after, so I don't have the time to write a book.

I get where you are coming from Soda. Usually we have more discussion about these kind of matters with the community, just as we initially did when we picked the closed beta server.

The reason why we didn't discuss it with the whole group is that we started looking into this too late. That's the only thing you can blame us for. I have been pretty busy in real life and have only recently started talking about changing the server. We wanted to get this out to our community as fast as possible, to make sure everyone saw it and didn't pick the wrong server when the game is released.

I would always prefer to include the community in a discussion like this, but seeing the current situation I think we didn't handle wrong by making a quick decision with officers and the members we could get feedback from quickly through Skype. If we would have decided to change server sooner, we would have given the whole community the time to respond.

You should know from the past that this is not how we usually do things. I don't think it should be that big of a deal, especially now that you know why. We do respect everyone who's a part of our community.

I hope you get what I mean. I'm really tired right now so if I made any strange errors in my writing, you'll have to excuse me for that.

- Infi.

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[GW2] release and server selection