I'm actually playing several alts, among which a little thief (human) and little engineer (asura), and each time I log them to play in low (15-) areas, I meet a lot of people at the events.
Server: Gandara, EU.
I think the lower areas are fairly populated.
Mid areas are quite dead on my server though; Maguum US.
Obvious 70-80 Ruins of Orr is full.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Originally posted by Aquazen I think Xmas will bring a bunch more people into the game again. You will see more folks starting and making new characters. Its true though, I havent been able to form a party for CM Story in over 3 weeks, even with a guild of 499 players O.o
I am in a small guild of 39 - and never have problems getting a group together within around 15 mins, and we average less than 10 on at any one time.
Getting PUGS together is usually faster than this....
Your need to change Guilds has zip to do with the need for server merges.
It's funny how people don't really complain about WoW's low zones which ARE ghost towns.
For the record I really don't have problems finding people in zones. It's true it's not very easy to find dungeon party, but if you are patient, it's not such a difficult matter too. Thanks to no trinity, there is not this stigma of "3 DPS looking for healer and tank" and dungeon team composition can be pretty much any classes you want.
Actually Im happy population in lower zones scaled down a bit. It's much more fun for me to do event in 3-10 people instead of 30 man zerg that will smash everything into the ground instantly.
I'm actually playing several alts, among which a little thief (human) and little engineer (asura), and each time I log them to play in low (15-) areas, I meet a lot of people at the events.
Server: Gandara, EU.
I think the lower areas are fairly populated.
Mid areas are quite dead on my server though; Maguum US.
Obvious 70-80 Ruins of Orr is full.
There is a ton of mid-level areas.
Someone following the personal story while levelling won't visit all the areas - different story lines will take you to different places.
Still I think that is an interesting part of the experience - sometimes you feel very lonely exploring something on the back of beyond and the next day when you resume exploration in the same area there is people everywhere.
That is a strength and a weakness of GW2 - you never know what you going to get.
--------------------------
About the "reverse overflow" thing.
There is no reverse overflow, just overflow servers - Anet can easily direct players to whatever server they choose (vide join party members feature, join party in dungeon and GW1 districts) so they can decide that the Desolation Timberline Falls also become the Fissure of Woe Timberline Falls.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I made a new char(r) to play with a friend who only just started. So far we are still hanging in Queensdale and it is anything but empty. Whenever the champions near the Hunting Lodge pop, there will instantly gather 10 people to finish these events.
About a week before halloween I went to Timberline Falls and there were always people around to do events with me.
I remember climbing the Krait nest and someone who was with me at that time asked if I wanted to kill the witch, which we did.
Snowden Drifts - I asked if someone wanted to kill the Icebrood Champ with me; got my answer and the champ went down.
And and and .. *insert more pointless examples here*
The only thing that bugs me is that my server Far Shiverpeaks got way worse in WvW. But I can't blame the vikings - always fighting against servers with nightcappers just sucks.
I completely blame Anet for that. They should have foreseen this huge imbalance created by mixed servers.
Someone following the personal story while levelling won't visit all the areas - different story lines will take you to different places.
Still I think that is an interesting part of the experience - sometimes you feel very lonely exploring something on the back of beyond and the next day when you resume exploration in the same area there is people everywhere.
That is a strength and a weakness of GW2 - you never know what you going to get.
--------------------------
About the "reverse overflow" thing.
There is no reverse overflow, just overflow servers - Anet can easily direct players to whatever server they choose (vide join party members feature, join party in dungeon and GW1 districts) so they can decide that the Desolation Timberline Falls also become the Fissure of Woe Timberline Falls.
Depends on server I guess.
I've got an Ele (70) / Guard (40ish) / War (55 ish) and all 3 had issue with empty zones.
Ele is now in Orr so no problem there; had 2 packs of people go for the 'clear map' which was fun to tag along.
War / Guard is having issues.
Think I might say 'screw it' and just level up to 80 with crafting on my alts.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Rewards should scale with player level more consistently instead of being bound to the map level. Also, add top tier resource nodes to lower level maps. Problem solved.
The only thing that this thread showed to me is that it is a good move for companies to make population caps on servers lower (not saying it is what GW is doing, I have no idea what middle, high, full stands for).
But it obviously has some psychological effect on the players considering they blindly post server statuses without any idea what the population really is...
I think many games do that already, including GW2. It's pretty obvious that the population has decayed drastically since launch, and they are fooling no one by keeping the server status as "full". It's also a very valid maneuver. If there are less players, there's no need to keep running big, expensive servers at half capacity when you can run small servers at high or full. And then there is the psychological factor that you mention.
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
Originally posted by mCalvert Theres nothing unusual here except the same old flaw with MMOs that comes from leveling progression and static content.
Well, unless you can convince players to rerun lower level content by making it interesting/rewarding to do so or perhaps by adding permadeath so they have to.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Originally posted by mCalvert Theres nothing unusual here except the same old flaw with MMOs that comes from leveling progression and static content.
Well, unless you can convince players to rerun lower level content by making it interesting/rewarding to do so or perhaps by adding permadeath so they have to.
Permadeath in games that use time+rng as resources is imo a real silly concept.
In games like XCOM, FTL, CIV, platformers, etc, permadeath is a tool to get better and try different tactics. In an MMO by the time you get to the point you lost your character the game you already forgot what went wrong or the game migth as well been changed.
Permadeath in MMOs is more a tool to make you stop playibg rather than go grind same crap
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Originally posted by mCalvert Theres nothing unusual here except the same old flaw with MMOs that comes from leveling progression and static content.
Well, unless you can convince players to rerun lower level content by making it interesting/rewarding to do so or perhaps by adding permadeath so they have to.
My solution would be to design content which has high replay value, and is irrelevent to how long youve played. OR true dynamic content. FPs games for example have a limited number of maps, but are fun every single time you play just because of the enjoyment of the combast system. GW2 combat is more fun than rift because its active (even though it gets stale). Hardcore PVP games are truly dynamic because you are fighting real people who can think, not dum 1s and zeros. Sandboxes emphasize player created content, which only gets created if someone wants it. Vs dev created content where they make a lot of fail content. Just spitballing here.
So I was playing on my thief last night and I ended up at a skill challenge it Metrica Province with a veteran fire elemental and 2 lesser elementals. This area is tight, with lots of mobs and of course when I show up a couple people were just leaving, so I missed out on doing it with them.
My first attempt was met with burning death in a few seconds. I layed there, a lifeless smoldering corpse, for a minute but didn't see anybody else. So I rezzed up and snuck back in there. I was going to leave the area like a pansy and cry about it to my wife until she come and helped me but I noticed that there were alot of drakes and skelks about, and fire elementals do AOE damage. So I range aggroed the elemental, run into the drakes and skelks, dodged a couple times to keep myself alive then healed an ran away. The elemental damaged the others and they all fought each other. The drakes and skelks were wiped out but so were the 2 lesser elementals and the vet was down to about 10% life, which I handily removed from him.
Much more satisfaction from that fight than I've ever had from running around with a giant zerg of players. I'm not saying that a low population is ideal, but I think the game plays well enough with a low pop, and maybe better than when it's overcrowded.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
It's funny how people don't really complain about WoW's low zones which ARE ghost towns.
For the record I really don't have problems finding people in zones. It's true it's not very easy to find dungeon party, but if you are patient, it's not such a difficult matter too. Thanks to no trinity, there is not this stigma of "3 DPS looking for healer and tank" and dungeon team composition can be pretty much any classes you want.
Actually Im happy population in lower zones scaled down a bit. It's much more fun for me to do event in 3-10 people instead of 30 man zerg that will smash everything into the ground instantly.
It's difference in game design, I think. In GW2 you want to see other players because the core of the gameplay experience are the events, and the regular events usually can get more loot and better rewards with more people around, and the big group ones, well, you usually need other people to complete, specially since you can't overlevel them.
Actually Blizzard is taking steps to combat this with the cross server zones for lower level areas when there's not enough people in them (something I'd really like other MMOs would implement)... and if you read the forums people are actually complaining about other people being around stealing their kills or their resource nodes.
I am not sure why people keep repeating the false information that a server is marked High or Full based on the number of accounts on it. If you watch the server populations, they fluctate from Full to High depending on the time of day. My server is only High maybe a couple hours per day during off hours.
Underworld server (UE), its full almost the time, although mid level zones have less people than starting or cap level maps, there's a lot of increasing bots too. well i think the game its quite sustainable in population
Prime time instant WvW queue on Jade Quarry for Enternal Battleground. Down from 2-4 hours queues.
Primetime only 20 Spvp games running. Down from 200+
Idk about mergers, but this is the second thread talking about low population. The first was on the official forums. I know it's doesn't feel good to hear, but indicators are showing that whatever sales are being made, they are not enough to make up for the slow downs and quits.
Matter of fact Cresling made a post too about what to do about thining populations, so that's 3 threads, 1 buy a very respected member of the mmorpg.com community.
Population may change but you have to realize that some people will leave and come back to the game later when the mood strikes them. Because there is no subscription, people can come and go and take breaks from the game. Maybe that has something to do with the population drop currently, and the fact that they just had the Halloween event and people are taking a break from playing it so much. Like me.
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
Originally posted by Zeppelin4 Thanks for the laugh. I don't know why I laughed but I did so thanks. To your topic I have no idea though I did login the other day to transfer to a new server for a guild and couldn't because it was full The rest of the servers said full or high so not sure why your having a issue.
He is right tho. I logged in yesterday evening since a long time and pretty much all lower level zones are dead!
I was questing for about an hour or so, before I got totally bored again.... there was not a single player around. :-(
So it seems the game has already become top heavy and no new players joining anymore.
Top heavy? Kinda reminds me of Rift.
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
That doesn't mean it is under-populated for every player but there seems to be enough in the community that feel that way and are asking for / suggesting solutions.
Gdemami - Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Originally posted by ice-vortex I am not sure why people keep repeating the false information that a server is marked High or Full based on the number of accounts on it. If you watch the server populations, they fluctate from Full to High depending on the time of day. My server is only High maybe a couple hours per day during off hours.
no, thats wrong, the servers marking High or Full depends on server transfers. If some leave the server goes from full to high and some others can transfer to it.
If a server is marked as full or high, this just means that many accounts are on it and again not how many active online players are there..
if a server is very successful in WvW like SoS then players transfer to it but maybe loose interest and quit the game, their accounts are still on that server and count.
Full /High has nothing to do with active online players.
Underworld server (UE), its full almost the time, although mid level zones have less people than starting or cap level maps, there's a lot of increasing bots too. well i think the game its quite sustainable in population
yes i have been on underworld, its a good server, maybe one of the last very active ones. i eventually transfer back to Underworld from US Sea of Sorrows because that server is quiet in PvE. In WvW its very active tough.
I found one huge flaw in the "going back to low terioties" direction of the game. Actualy there are two things: I would do that a lot if, The content is not that easy at lvl80 and I can repeat Heart quests. Some of the Hearts are really fun and I want and will repeat them, if they give me that oportunity.
This is whats generaly keeps me from going back. Also they should add more events to the existing teritories. I like how they open new mini dungeons and caves, or even bigger open areas.
Originally posted by ice-vortex I am not sure why people keep repeating the false information that a server is marked High or Full based on the number of accounts on it. If you watch the server populations, they fluctate from Full to High depending on the time of day. My server is only High maybe a couple hours per day during off hours.
no, thats wrong, the servers marking High or Full depends on server transfers. If some leave the server goes from full to high and some others can transfer to it.
If a server is marked as full or high, this just means that many accounts are on it and again not how many active online players are there..
if a server is very successful in WvW like SoS then players transfer to it but maybe loose interest and quit the game, their accounts are still on that server and count.
Full /High has nothing to do with active online players.
No, it's not wrong. When our entire alliance moved to a new server, it took damn near two weeks to get everyone over as the only period when anyone could transfer was a couple of hours during off hours when the server would go from full to high. My recommendation is quit parroting people who have no idea what they are talking about.
you come across sounding like someone that feels Anet has ripped people off
Ripped off? No, let the buyer beware is always the case with any product.
I made a bad choice. Simple.
But I did get a refund so all is good. I give ANet props for doing that, since they really could have ignored my request, even though I gave them a really hard time about it.
Comments
I think the lower areas are fairly populated.
Mid areas are quite dead on my server though; Maguum US.
Obvious 70-80 Ruins of Orr is full.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I am in a small guild of 39 - and never have problems getting a group together within around 15 mins, and we average less than 10 on at any one time.
Getting PUGS together is usually faster than this....
Your need to change Guilds has zip to do with the need for server merges.
It's funny how people don't really complain about WoW's low zones which ARE ghost towns.
For the record I really don't have problems finding people in zones. It's true it's not very easy to find dungeon party, but if you are patient, it's not such a difficult matter too. Thanks to no trinity, there is not this stigma of "3 DPS looking for healer and tank" and dungeon team composition can be pretty much any classes you want.
Actually Im happy population in lower zones scaled down a bit. It's much more fun for me to do event in 3-10 people instead of 30 man zerg that will smash everything into the ground instantly.
There is a ton of mid-level areas.
Someone following the personal story while levelling won't visit all the areas - different story lines will take you to different places.
Still I think that is an interesting part of the experience - sometimes you feel very lonely exploring something on the back of beyond and the next day when you resume exploration in the same area there is people everywhere.
That is a strength and a weakness of GW2 - you never know what you going to get.
--------------------------
About the "reverse overflow" thing.
There is no reverse overflow, just overflow servers - Anet can easily direct players to whatever server they choose (vide join party members feature, join party in dungeon and GW1 districts) so they can decide that the Desolation Timberline Falls also become the Fissure of Woe Timberline Falls.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I made a new char(r) to play with a friend who only just started. So far we are still hanging in Queensdale and it is anything but empty. Whenever the champions near the Hunting Lodge pop, there will instantly gather 10 people to finish these events.
About a week before halloween I went to Timberline Falls and there were always people around to do events with me.
I remember climbing the Krait nest and someone who was with me at that time asked if I wanted to kill the witch, which we did.
Snowden Drifts - I asked if someone wanted to kill the Icebrood Champ with me; got my answer and the champ went down.
And and and .. *insert more pointless examples here*
The only thing that bugs me is that my server Far Shiverpeaks got way worse in WvW. But I can't blame the vikings - always fighting against servers with nightcappers just sucks.
I completely blame Anet for that. They should have foreseen this huge imbalance created by mixed servers.
Depends on server I guess.
I've got an Ele (70) / Guard (40ish) / War (55 ish) and all 3 had issue with empty zones.
Ele is now in Orr so no problem there; had 2 packs of people go for the 'clear map' which was fun to tag along.
War / Guard is having issues.
Think I might say 'screw it' and just level up to 80 with crafting on my alts.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
I think many games do that already, including GW2. It's pretty obvious that the population has decayed drastically since launch, and they are fooling no one by keeping the server status as "full". It's also a very valid maneuver. If there are less players, there's no need to keep running big, expensive servers at half capacity when you can run small servers at high or full. And then there is the psychological factor that you mention.
My opinion is my own. I respect all other opinions and views equally, but keep in mind that my opinion will always be the best for me. That's why it's my opinion.
Well, unless you can convince players to rerun lower level content by making it interesting/rewarding to do so or perhaps by adding permadeath so they have to.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Permadeath in games that use time+rng as resources is imo a real silly concept.
In games like XCOM, FTL, CIV, platformers, etc, permadeath is a tool to get better and try different tactics. In an MMO by the time you get to the point you lost your character the game you already forgot what went wrong or the game migth as well been changed.
Permadeath in MMOs is more a tool to make you stop playibg rather than go grind same crap
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
My solution would be to design content which has high replay value, and is irrelevent to how long youve played. OR true dynamic content. FPs games for example have a limited number of maps, but are fun every single time you play just because of the enjoyment of the combast system. GW2 combat is more fun than rift because its active (even though it gets stale). Hardcore PVP games are truly dynamic because you are fighting real people who can think, not dum 1s and zeros. Sandboxes emphasize player created content, which only gets created if someone wants it. Vs dev created content where they make a lot of fail content. Just spitballing here.
So I was playing on my thief last night and I ended up at a skill challenge it Metrica Province with a veteran fire elemental and 2 lesser elementals. This area is tight, with lots of mobs and of course when I show up a couple people were just leaving, so I missed out on doing it with them.
My first attempt was met with burning death in a few seconds. I layed there, a lifeless smoldering corpse, for a minute but didn't see anybody else. So I rezzed up and snuck back in there. I was going to leave the area like a pansy and cry about it to my wife until she come and helped me but I noticed that there were alot of drakes and skelks about, and fire elementals do AOE damage. So I range aggroed the elemental, run into the drakes and skelks, dodged a couple times to keep myself alive then healed an ran away. The elemental damaged the others and they all fought each other. The drakes and skelks were wiped out but so were the 2 lesser elementals and the vet was down to about 10% life, which I handily removed from him.
Much more satisfaction from that fight than I've ever had from running around with a giant zerg of players. I'm not saying that a low population is ideal, but I think the game plays well enough with a low pop, and maybe better than when it's overcrowded.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
It's difference in game design, I think. In GW2 you want to see other players because the core of the gameplay experience are the events, and the regular events usually can get more loot and better rewards with more people around, and the big group ones, well, you usually need other people to complete, specially since you can't overlevel them.
Actually Blizzard is taking steps to combat this with the cross server zones for lower level areas when there's not enough people in them (something I'd really like other MMOs would implement)... and if you read the forums people are actually complaining about other people being around stealing their kills or their resource nodes.
What can men do against such reckless hate?
Underworld server (UE), its full almost the time, although mid level zones have less people than starting or cap level maps, there's a lot of increasing bots too. well i think the game its quite sustainable in population
Prime time instant WvW queue on Jade Quarry for Enternal Battleground. Down from 2-4 hours queues.
Primetime only 20 Spvp games running. Down from 200+
Idk about mergers, but this is the second thread talking about low population. The first was on the official forums. I know it's doesn't feel good to hear, but indicators are showing that whatever sales are being made, they are not enough to make up for the slow downs and quits.
Matter of fact Cresling made a post too about what to do about thining populations, so that's 3 threads, 1 buy a very respected member of the mmorpg.com community.
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
Top heavy? Kinda reminds me of Rift.
Proud MMORPG.com member since March 2004! Make PvE GREAT Again!
Under-populated zones are getting more and more noticed by the playerbase.
https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/suggestions/Underflow-Shards-for-Underpopulated-Zones/first#post662458
That doesn't mean it is under-populated for every player but there seems to be enough in the community that feel that way and are asking for / suggesting solutions.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
no, thats wrong, the servers marking High or Full depends on server transfers. If some leave the server goes from full to high and some others can transfer to it.
If a server is marked as full or high, this just means that many accounts are on it and again not how many active online players are there..
if a server is very successful in WvW like SoS then players transfer to it but maybe loose interest and quit the game, their accounts are still on that server and count.
Full /High has nothing to do with active online players.
yes i have been on underworld, its a good server, maybe one of the last very active ones. i eventually transfer back to Underworld from US Sea of Sorrows because that server is quiet in PvE. In WvW its very active tough.
I found one huge flaw in the "going back to low terioties" direction of the game. Actualy there are two things: I would do that a lot if, The content is not that easy at lvl80 and I can repeat Heart quests. Some of the Hearts are really fun and I want and will repeat them, if they give me that oportunity.
This is whats generaly keeps me from going back. Also they should add more events to the existing teritories. I like how they open new mini dungeons and caves, or even bigger open areas.
No, it's not wrong. When our entire alliance moved to a new server, it took damn near two weeks to get everyone over as the only period when anyone could transfer was a couple of hours during off hours when the server would go from full to high. My recommendation is quit parroting people who have no idea what they are talking about.
Ripped off? No, let the buyer beware is always the case with any product.
I made a bad choice. Simple.
But I did get a refund so all is good. I give ANet props for doing that, since they really could have ignored my request, even though I gave them a really hard time about it.