You mis-labeled your thread. What you have talked about is not an innovation but is a step backwards. It's not an MMO if it isn't persistent.
They just don't have anyone exploring the world anymore except for new players or alt levelers. This is what happens when you design a game to be immersive based on # of players participating around you, but then you build your world to be 100% linear and to have an arrival point.
A good example of how to do "persistence" is to follow SWG's example. Content in the real world that scales to the average level of players in a given area. It made it so new players always saw veterans running around town or out in the wilderness. Made the world feel persistent, and alive. Obviously there are other examples, but that is the first one off the top of my head.
Just saying
When did SWG do that? I'm pretty sure the progression followed from Mynocks up until you reached Rancors, as far as best exp/combat exp per minute was concerned. I'm fairly certain a new character wasn't able to stand up to Krait on his own.
Moreover by your own definition, there is no such thing as an mmo. No mmo as able to achieve persistence or consistence. There will always be client sided actions taking place due to how much stress they relieve on the server end. There will always be instances and loading, where you see it or not. Even in WoW you had to load each zone before you entered it, it was just in how it was handled that made it look seamless
I would have just perferred a merge though, for this or any game really. Or mandatory free transfers prior to server closure. I like knowing that the people I game with will always be in the same game world as me. WoW's cross realm zone maps killed immersion for me, as example.
This is going to be the case. Except when they need to pull extra players in.
What exactly does that mean? We’ll get to the technical explanation in a moment, but it means that you’re more likely to be placed on a map that has more of your friends and guildmates, people who speak the same language as you, and more people that you regularly see.
...
With the megaserver system, players won’t be separated into different copies of the same map based on the world they selected on character creation. Instead, you will simply arrive in a map and be assigned to the version of that map that makes the most sense for you as selected by the megaserver system we’ve developed.
Basically an automated process determines where I land. And the goal from the linked resource is to fill low populated areas (direct from article). So it can hope to keep players I know already in my world instance, but in the process GW2 fills voids by maximizing zone threshholds, which splits communities by the very nature. ie zone max is 200 .. the 201th person logs on and uhh people they know are locked somewhere else.
Nothing is locked, if you ever played GW2 you would know that you just need to be in a group with "people you know" and you will land in "correct" version. Same as overflows.
And second, they CAN monitor population in a certain zones and leave native server zones of most popular zones (queensdale) persistant.
Goal is to make low popularity zones have more people first and foremost, but i like low pop zones at least they are places where i go when i want to see very few people, after WvWvW marathon for example ;P
And "megaserver" makes sense since you could guest on any server for PvE already so i dont really see whats the big fuss, "servers" were WvWvW thing only.
orange:
The system is changing. Currently, overflow pushes players back to the main world, when prompted and accepted, per zone.
If you are stating that people inserted into mismatched instances in the newer system can be notified when their server of choice spot becomes vacant, then that would be something. Nothing to that regard was stated, however. Actually the notion of servers is disappearing, so that doesn't make sense any longer, does it?
With megaservers, the population just floats around (no servers). The systems tries to match people on an instance to instance basis, but no guarantees. With no guarantees it's possible to land into foreign speaking instances, for example. Everyone is jumbled around like balls in a Bingo machine blower. And you'll never know anyone any longer (until the population gets so thin to fill just 1 instance).
Instances keep filling with new people, as a mechanic of this implementation. That's the essence of this change.
No other MMOs have had the PvE content scale too such a degree as it has been in GW2.
I agree that ArenaNet did not forsee the disparity in between zones. Many servers are choke full of players, but rarely do you see them exploring many of the zones. It's now become a much bigger thing to level in WvW and crafting as they are faster. For maximum output to combine it with personal story, and then you're flying through the levels.
Just like in Guild Wars 1, and due to the intense nature of combat, people rarely chat during combat in Guild Wars 2. It's a game were people hang out in the cities, and that won't change with megaserver, to my understanding?
I have a group of "people i know" and its called guild. If youre concerned that you wont see /random person from your server/ every once in a while....its time to be more socially active and actually put "people you know" on your friend list to see them and form your own community.
I really dont see your points, communities dont happen they are made by players, and community is as good as are the players and now you can choose from ALL players playing the game instead of just people who happen to be on your (very) limited server.
You are thinking backwards: its actually SERVERS that split the (potential) community in most ultimate way.
No other MMOs have had the PvE content scale too such a degree as it has been in GW2.
I agree that ArenaNet did not forsee the disparity in between zones. Many servers are choke full of players, but rarely do you see them exploring many of the zones. It's now become a much bigger thing to level in WvW and crafting as they are faster. For maximum output to combine it with personal story, and then you're flying through the levels.
Just like in Guild Wars 1, and due to the intense nature of combat, people rarely chat during combat in Guild Wars 2. It's a game were people hang out in the cities, and that won't change with megaserver, to my understanding?
Its up to you how you want to paly and form your experience, the game doesnt really tell you not to engage and make friends or to engage to make friends more or less than other MMOs (in fact as GW2 goes i had better social interaction than i had in Rift or SWTOR for example just due to fact that its much more open world orientated AND WvWvW)
I have a group of "people i know" and its called guild. If youre concerned that you wont see /random person from your server/ every once in a while....its time to be more socially active and actually put "people you know" on your friend list to see them and form your own community.
I really dont see your points, communities dont happen they are made by players, and community is as good as are the players and now you can choose from ALL players playing the game instead of just people who happen to be on your (very) limited server.
You are thinking backwards: its actually SERVERS that split the (potential) community in most ultimate way.
If all someone is concerned with is a dozen people on their guild list, that's fine. Some may be prevented from joining your instance though, as revealed. If the instance is full, it's full. No overflow, you just go to another instance. If this wasn't the case, then there would be no need for a megaserver, as the prior server system worked just fine (albeit most were dead).
As for general population though, I guess it's a city slicker versus small town mindset. In a small town you know everyone personally, and in a city you believe that everyone else is like you, even though nobody talks much. New faces everyday.
GW2 was never very social to start with, but the server option was the closest it ever got to small town living. Without that, it's not much of an MMORPG to me, fun co-op game though. MMORPG? naw, just replace random people with NPC's and we're good.
No other MMOs have had the PvE content scale too such a degree as it has been in GW2.
I agree that ArenaNet did not forsee the disparity in between zones. Many servers are choke full of players, but rarely do you see them exploring many of the zones. It's now become a much bigger thing to level in WvW and crafting as they are faster. For maximum output to combine it with personal story, and then you're flying through the levels.
Just like in Guild Wars 1, and due to the intense nature of combat, people rarely chat during combat in Guild Wars 2. It's a game were people hang out in the cities, and that won't change with megaserver, to my understanding?
Its up to you how you want to paly and form your experience, the game doesnt really tell you not to engage and make friends or to engage to make friends more or less than other MMOs (in fact as GW2 goes i had better social interaction than i had in Rift or SWTOR for example just due to fact that its much more open world orientated AND WvWvW)
Yeah that has been my experience as well.
Of all the MMORPGs I have played, Guild Wars 2 had the most meaningful co-operative play since SWG. For sure, there is no doubt about that. It's just a shame, and valid to point out that, that there is not much going on in the open world now outside of the living story or themed holidays.
I have a group of "people i know" and its called guild. If youre concerned that you wont see /random person from your server/ every once in a while....its time to be more socially active and actually put "people you know" on your friend list to see them and form your own community.
I really dont see your points, communities dont happen they are made by players, and community is as good as are the players and now you can choose from ALL players playing the game instead of just people who happen to be on your (very) limited server.
You are thinking backwards: its actually SERVERS that split the (potential) community in most ultimate way.
If all someone is concerned with is a dozen people on their guild list, that's fine. Some may be prevented from joining your instance though, as revealed. If the instance is full, it's full. No overflow, you just go to another instance. If this wasn't the case, then there would be no need for a megaserver, as the prior server system worked just fine (albeit most were dead).
As for general population though, I guess it's a city slicker versus small town mindset. In a small town you know everyone personally, and in a city you believe that everyone else is like you, even though nobody talks much. New faces everyday.
GW2 was never very social to start with, but the server option was the closest it ever got to small town living. Without that, it's not much of an MMORPG to me, fun co-op game though. MMORPG? naw, just replace random people with NPC's and we're good.
Ah, so small limited lobby game=MMORPG
Big unlimited thousands/hundred of thousands people =/ MMORPG
Gotcha
Yes the "people i know and i want to play with" are either in my guild(s) or my friend list.
Rest i dont really care about, and when i DO meet someone i actually want to play with they end up either in guild or my friend list. Thats how community is made.
Its really, really hard to see your point. Its a mish mash of "i want it big but to be small at the same time" type of statements. When you present impossible conditions its only logical they wont be met.
No other MMOs have had the PvE content scale too such a degree as it has been in GW2.
I agree that ArenaNet did not forsee the disparity in between zones. Many servers are choke full of players, but rarely do you see them exploring many of the zones. It's now become a much bigger thing to level in WvW and crafting as they are faster. For maximum output to combine it with personal story, and then you're flying through the levels.
Just like in Guild Wars 1, and due to the intense nature of combat, people rarely chat during combat in Guild Wars 2. It's a game were people hang out in the cities, and that won't change with megaserver, to my understanding?
Its up to you how you want to paly and form your experience, the game doesnt really tell you not to engage and make friends or to engage to make friends more or less than other MMOs (in fact as GW2 goes i had better social interaction than i had in Rift or SWTOR for example just due to fact that its much more open world orientated AND WvWvW)
Yeah that has been my experience as well.
Of all the MMORPGs I have played, Guild Wars 2 had the most meaningful co-operative play since SWG. For sure, there is no doubt about that. It's just a shame, and valid to point out that, that there is not much going on in the open world now outside of the living story or themed holidays.
Sure, tehere are maps that have been low pop since launch, most pop maps have changed based of state of farming, and theres some decently populated maps, just yesterday i was leveling in Harathi Hinterlans and suddenly 20-ish of us were running event chain there and then went to kill gargantua.
So things do happen outside of train maps/world bosses. Its actually nice to have different pop maps so you can pick based on what youre in mood for but yes, that requires some experience with the game, new player would have to go do lot of research to really see all options, some races have a chain of low-ish pop maps in their main story chain.
What exactly does that mean? We’ll get to the technical explanation in a moment, but it means that you’re more likely to be placed on a map that has more of your friends and guildmates, people who speak the same language as you, and more people that you regularly see.
...
With the megaserver system, players won’t be separated into different copies of the same map based on the world they selected on character creation. Instead, you will simply arrive in a map and be assigned to the version of that map that makes the most sense for you as selected by the megaserver system we’ve developed.
Basically an automated process determines where I land. And the goal from the linked resource is to fill low populated areas (direct from article). So it can hope to keep players I know already in my world instance, but in the process GW2 fills voids by maximizing zone threshholds, which splits communities by the very nature. ie zone max is 200 .. the 201th person logs on and uhh people they know are locked somewhere else.
Look, you left some interesting excerpts out as well.
"Can I Still Play with People from My Home World?
Yes! You will still be playing with people from the home world you’ve selected: the megaserver system uses home worlds as a way to create persistent community within the game, which means you’ll encounter more of the same people over time. This is also a way for us to start creating more focused, meaningful social units in order to connect you to other players you can relate to and share adventures with. This initial release is just the beginning of our new approach to enhancing the in-game social environment.
While the new system behaves differently, it actually helps you play with slightly more people from your home world. We’ve run a number of tests with this system so far, and you can see the excellent results below:
Metric
Change
Average population per map copy
+225%
Player goes to the same map as his or her party
+25%
Average population from the same party as the player on joined map
+36%
Average population from the same guild as the player on joined map
+5%
Average population from the same home world as the player on joined map
+6%
Average population speaking the same language as the player on joined map
+41%
What you forgot is that in the current system if you end up in an overflow you might or not be getting people from your own World.
If most of your friends and your guild are in the same server as you, with the new system it is more likely that you will be playing with your friends, guildies and other people from the same server when in an "overflow server".
Of course now instead of it being called an overflow server it will be called Queensdale for the player and in Anet system it will be Queensdale EU EN-1, Queensdale EU EN-2, Queensdale EU SP-1, Queensdale EU SP-2, etc.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I guess that single server structure can only be beneficial to players, since persistent world was never a strong point of this game anyway, due to all the Overflow shenanigans.
Yeah yeah... whatever the naysayer are telling us here, I bet you my favourite pair of socks that this kind of thing ("smart" single server) is going to be a staple of nearly every MMO in the future.
There are just too many advantages for the companies:
- It gather the people in the low level areas with other players: no new player complaining the game is empty,
- It allows them to scale the game up or down without having to EVER do the dreaded "server merge" ("They merged! It's over man let's all run away!"), what's more the game always appears "full" of players,
- If done properly, they can probably save on costs too (scales on demand, so never over capacity).
Sounds like just a fancy way of saying server merge, without actually saying that.
[...]
I would have just perferred a merge though, for this or any game really. Or mandatory free transfers prior to server closure. I like knowing that the people I game with will always be in the same game world as me. WoW's cross realm zone maps killed immersion for me, as example.
Merging complete worlds wouldn't have solved the problem though. That adresses problems with population, but what's needed in GW2 is a solution for a problem of distribution.
There may not be enough people to fill a map in mid-level range for each world, but there are enough for the high level maps. Merging would only exacerbate the overflow problem for those. On top of that, the structure of servers/worlds for GW2 is different than for example WoWs. It is not 1 server = 1 world. World maps are relatively freely distributed across the available server hardware. The seperation into worlds is entirely artificial, to provide a basic structure for players. In a way, you can't merge what wasn't seperated to begin with.
I dont agree!gw2 idea here is a great one but on another point i agree with some poster here ,this is being done for the wrong reason (namelly insane linearity )but as final fantasy has shown can be worked around . i met max level player in starter area on ff14 .the main issue game maker face is two fold on one front some want to have the solo experience and yet the same person want pretty much a laid back chat room to farmville their newpug friend .on another you have guy like me that love open world and love pvp !wow tackled thaf beautyfully in wow .some map were pvp some werent.my recommendation to game dev .keep this map pvp but with a twist randomise thing a bit ,so sometime a map will be pvp for 6 hour at other time it wont be pvp .no warning no nothing.pvp lover will get their fix and pve lover will get their fix
Originally posted by drbaltazar I dont agree!gw2 idea here is a great one but on another point i agree with some poster here ,this is being done for the wrong reason (namelly insane linearity )but as final fantasy has shown can be worked around . i met max level player in starter area on ff14 .the main issue game maker face is two fold on one front some want to have the solo experience and yet the same person want pretty much a laid back chat room to farmville their newpug friend .on another you have guy like me that love open world and love pvp !wow tackled thaf beautyfully in wow .some map were pvp some werent.my recommendation to game dev .keep this map pvp but with a twist randomise thing a bit ,so sometime a map will be pvp for 6 hour at other time it wont be pvp .no warning no nothing.pvp lover will get their fix and pve lover will get their fix
I'm not entirely (or even somewhat) certain of what you are saying but meeting max level characters in starting areas of GW2 is quite normal (champ trains and world bosses).
In fact GW2 map is pretty non linear.
Wayfarer foothills (1-15) connects to Frostgorge Sound (70-80).
Plains of Ashford (1-15) connects to Blazeridge Steppes (40-50).
Fields of Ruin (30-40) is connected via Asura gate to Divinity's Reach (human capital).
Dredgehaunt cliffs (40-50) can be directly accessed from Hoelbrak (norn capital).
You can reach Gendarran fields (25-40) from Queensdale (1-17).
Even going from Queensdale (1-17) to Kessex Hills (15-25) can be quite annoying for an inexperienced player since there are 2 ways to cross (Town of Claypool and godslost swamp) and if you cross in the town of claypool you reach a level 23 area.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Honestly, I'd rather have this than dead servers. My biggest concern though is for things like the World Boss Train on Isle of Janthir which is run nightly. Players who regularly run this might now run into difficulty getting into the "right map" to run with the WBT. Sure, the WBT players could make a mega guild and rep during WBT, but that's not a good solution for people in small guilds that need to build influence.
I am sure you can group up, and then all will be dumped into the same map.
Sure, but groups are 5. I am hoping that Squads will be counted as groups. Then at least we can join into a squad of a commander and go nuts.
I bet they have thought of that .. didn't they mention that guildies are likely to be dump into the same world?
Yes, the code will try to keep people from the same server and guilds together as opposed to the current overflow system which is more mix and match. When a large server like JQ or BG spawns an "overflow" under the new system that map will be the targeted place for that server, but small servers may find themselves there as well depending on the situation.
It's enhancing the overflows to keep servers and guild more together than it currently does.
Too bad, I didn't like the megaserver idea in TESO and GW2 version seems more of the same - no more long term communities , all replaced by "single-serving friends".
This. Why am I not suprised Anet decided to do this. The game is ok for what it is, but their idea of what an mmo or virtual world should be is very different from my idea.
Too bad, I didn't like the megaserver idea in TESO and GW2 version seems more of the same - no more long term communities , all replaced by "single-serving friends".
This. Why am I not suprised Anet decided to do this. The game is ok for what it is, but their idea of what an mmo or virtual world should be is very different from my idea.
I really don't understand where all this community-breaker panic comes from. On highly-populated maps, the megaserver will rarely come into effect at all, as a single world can fill one map all by themselves, and now they may actually get a second copy to meet on instead of being distributed over 5 overflows. On the less populated maps, you'll still play with everyone else from your world, except now there are more other players too.
The new server makes communities play together more often, not less. What is it these people aren't getting?
The original Guild Wars worked great. Apparently ArenaNet decided to fix something that wasn't broken. Now it seems they have found themselves in a big mess.
I really don't think this is big news. People already gathered on busier servers for stuff. Anet now is just doing it automatically which should imply it being a more effective mechanic as well.
Now, if they introduced the ability to drive one of those charr vehicles, THAT would be news.
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.
Everyone is going to get grouped with the server they picked if the population allows it. In the situations when you'd barely see any players (Orr), it will pull player resources together while using server, friends, guilds, and other variables to make you as comfortable as possible while giving low population maps and instances needed life.
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
Essentially there is no more persistent world with the same set of players any more. Worlds are created dynamically, and players are matched into the most appropriate one based on a number of factors.
This sounds a bit like the shared-world seamless matching tech used in Destiny.
I guess the devs of GW2 don't think being persistent is that big of a deal, and found an interesting way to match players together.
I wonder if they can put in some controls for the users (obviously later) from "I don't want to see anyone" to "only match me with some english speaking players if I cannot handle the dynamic event".
If it's phasing, I feel like it's too late unless they make it retroactive so you can experience the world changes you missed.
Comments
When did SWG do that? I'm pretty sure the progression followed from Mynocks up until you reached Rancors, as far as best exp/combat exp per minute was concerned. I'm fairly certain a new character wasn't able to stand up to Krait on his own.
Moreover by your own definition, there is no such thing as an mmo. No mmo as able to achieve persistence or consistence. There will always be client sided actions taking place due to how much stress they relieve on the server end. There will always be instances and loading, where you see it or not. Even in WoW you had to load each zone before you entered it, it was just in how it was handled that made it look seamless
orange:
The system is changing. Currently, overflow pushes players back to the main world, when prompted and accepted, per zone.
If you are stating that people inserted into mismatched instances in the newer system can be notified when their server of choice spot becomes vacant, then that would be something. Nothing to that regard was stated, however. Actually the notion of servers is disappearing, so that doesn't make sense any longer, does it?
With megaservers, the population just floats around (no servers). The systems tries to match people on an instance to instance basis, but no guarantees. With no guarantees it's possible to land into foreign speaking instances, for example. Everyone is jumbled around like balls in a Bingo machine blower. And you'll never know anyone any longer (until the population gets so thin to fill just 1 instance).
Instances keep filling with new people, as a mechanic of this implementation. That's the essence of this change.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
No other MMOs have had the PvE content scale too such a degree as it has been in GW2.
I agree that ArenaNet did not forsee the disparity in between zones. Many servers are choke full of players, but rarely do you see them exploring many of the zones. It's now become a much bigger thing to level in WvW and crafting as they are faster. For maximum output to combine it with personal story, and then you're flying through the levels.
Just like in Guild Wars 1, and due to the intense nature of combat, people rarely chat during combat in Guild Wars 2. It's a game were people hang out in the cities, and that won't change with megaserver, to my understanding?
I have a group of "people i know" and its called guild. If youre concerned that you wont see /random person from your server/ every once in a while....its time to be more socially active and actually put "people you know" on your friend list to see them and form your own community.
I really dont see your points, communities dont happen they are made by players, and community is as good as are the players and now you can choose from ALL players playing the game instead of just people who happen to be on your (very) limited server.
You are thinking backwards: its actually SERVERS that split the (potential) community in most ultimate way.
Its up to you how you want to paly and form your experience, the game doesnt really tell you not to engage and make friends or to engage to make friends more or less than other MMOs (in fact as GW2 goes i had better social interaction than i had in Rift or SWTOR for example just due to fact that its much more open world orientated AND WvWvW)
If all someone is concerned with is a dozen people on their guild list, that's fine. Some may be prevented from joining your instance though, as revealed. If the instance is full, it's full. No overflow, you just go to another instance. If this wasn't the case, then there would be no need for a megaserver, as the prior server system worked just fine (albeit most were dead).
As for general population though, I guess it's a city slicker versus small town mindset. In a small town you know everyone personally, and in a city you believe that everyone else is like you, even though nobody talks much. New faces everyday.
GW2 was never very social to start with, but the server option was the closest it ever got to small town living. Without that, it's not much of an MMORPG to me, fun co-op game though. MMORPG? naw, just replace random people with NPC's and we're good.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
Yeah that has been my experience as well.
Of all the MMORPGs I have played, Guild Wars 2 had the most meaningful co-operative play since SWG. For sure, there is no doubt about that. It's just a shame, and valid to point out that, that there is not much going on in the open world now outside of the living story or themed holidays.
Ah, so small limited lobby game=MMORPG
Big unlimited thousands/hundred of thousands people =/ MMORPG
Gotcha
Yes the "people i know and i want to play with" are either in my guild(s) or my friend list.
Rest i dont really care about, and when i DO meet someone i actually want to play with they end up either in guild or my friend list. Thats how community is made.
Its really, really hard to see your point. Its a mish mash of "i want it big but to be small at the same time" type of statements. When you present impossible conditions its only logical they wont be met.
Sure, tehere are maps that have been low pop since launch, most pop maps have changed based of state of farming, and theres some decently populated maps, just yesterday i was leveling in Harathi Hinterlans and suddenly 20-ish of us were running event chain there and then went to kill gargantua.
So things do happen outside of train maps/world bosses. Its actually nice to have different pop maps so you can pick based on what youre in mood for
but yes, that requires some experience with the game, new player would have to go do lot of research to really see all options, some races have a chain of low-ish pop maps in their main story chain.
Look, you left some interesting excerpts out as well.
"Can I Still Play with People from My Home World?
Yes! You will still be playing with people from the home world you’ve selected: the megaserver system uses home worlds as a way to create persistent community within the game, which means you’ll encounter more of the same people over time. This is also a way for us to start creating more focused, meaningful social units in order to connect you to other players you can relate to and share adventures with. This initial release is just the beginning of our new approach to enhancing the in-game social environment.
While the new system behaves differently, it actually helps you play with slightly more people from your home world. We’ve run a number of tests with this system so far, and you can see the excellent results below:
What you forgot is that in the current system if you end up in an overflow you might or not be getting people from your own World.
If most of your friends and your guild are in the same server as you, with the new system it is more likely that you will be playing with your friends, guildies and other people from the same server when in an "overflow server".
Of course now instead of it being called an overflow server it will be called Queensdale for the player and in Anet system it will be Queensdale EU EN-1, Queensdale EU EN-2, Queensdale EU SP-1, Queensdale EU SP-2, etc.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I guess that single server structure can only be beneficial to players, since persistent world was never a strong point of this game anyway, due to all the Overflow shenanigans.
Yeah yeah... whatever the naysayer are telling us here, I bet you my favourite pair of socks that this kind of thing ("smart" single server) is going to be a staple of nearly every MMO in the future.
There are just too many advantages for the companies:
- It gather the people in the low level areas with other players: no new player complaining the game is empty,
- It allows them to scale the game up or down without having to EVER do the dreaded "server merge" ("They merged! It's over man let's all run away!"), what's more the game always appears "full" of players,
- If done properly, they can probably save on costs too (scales on demand, so never over capacity).
Merging complete worlds wouldn't have solved the problem though. That adresses problems with population, but what's needed in GW2 is a solution for a problem of distribution.
There may not be enough people to fill a map in mid-level range for each world, but there are enough for the high level maps. Merging would only exacerbate the overflow problem for those. On top of that, the structure of servers/worlds for GW2 is different than for example WoWs. It is not 1 server = 1 world. World maps are relatively freely distributed across the available server hardware. The seperation into worlds is entirely artificial, to provide a basic structure for players. In a way, you can't merge what wasn't seperated to begin with.
I'm not entirely (or even somewhat) certain of what you are saying but meeting max level characters in starting areas of GW2 is quite normal (champ trains and world bosses).
In fact GW2 map is pretty non linear.
Wayfarer foothills (1-15) connects to Frostgorge Sound (70-80).
Plains of Ashford (1-15) connects to Blazeridge Steppes (40-50).
Fields of Ruin (30-40) is connected via Asura gate to Divinity's Reach (human capital).
Dredgehaunt cliffs (40-50) can be directly accessed from Hoelbrak (norn capital).
You can reach Gendarran fields (25-40) from Queensdale (1-17).
Even going from Queensdale (1-17) to Kessex Hills (15-25) can be quite annoying for an inexperienced player since there are 2 ways to cross (Town of Claypool and godslost swamp) and if you cross in the town of claypool you reach a level 23 area.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Yes, the code will try to keep people from the same server and guilds together as opposed to the current overflow system which is more mix and match. When a large server like JQ or BG spawns an "overflow" under the new system that map will be the targeted place for that server, but small servers may find themselves there as well depending on the situation.
It's enhancing the overflows to keep servers and guild more together than it currently does.
Oderint, dum metuant.
This. Why am I not suprised Anet decided to do this. The game is ok for what it is, but their idea of what an mmo or virtual world should be is very different from my idea.I really don't understand where all this community-breaker panic comes from. On highly-populated maps, the megaserver will rarely come into effect at all, as a single world can fill one map all by themselves, and now they may actually get a second copy to meet on instead of being distributed over 5 overflows. On the less populated maps, you'll still play with everyone else from your world, except now there are more other players too.
The new server makes communities play together more often, not less. What is it these people aren't getting?
I really don't think this is big news. People already gathered on busier servers for stuff. Anet now is just doing it automatically which should imply it being a more effective mechanic as well.
Now, if they introduced the ability to drive one of those charr vehicles, THAT would be news.
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.
Everyone is going to get grouped with the server they picked if the population allows it. In the situations when you'd barely see any players (Orr), it will pull player resources together while using server, friends, guilds, and other variables to make you as comfortable as possible while giving low population maps and instances needed life.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If it's phasing, I feel like it's too late unless they make it retroactive so you can experience the world changes you missed.