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Should I transfer servers, and what is the state of the game?
Celestialnova
Member Posts: 81
Hello everyone,
I played GW2 right when it came out for about a month with my friends on Gate of Maddness, and then got swamped with law school work, etc. Now that I have that all situated and under control, and my friends went back to league of legends, I logged back in the past few weeks on GW2 to...not see anyone. I ran around Lions Arch, the world, etc. and probably say roughly 4-5 people. I'm in EST, and was playing at reasonable hours. So my question(s) are this: What is the state of the game now, and should I transfer servers?
My highest level is 58, and I realize that finding an active guild would be beneficial (since mine consisted of my friends), but now that the free transfer is over would it be worthwhile to reroll or pay to transfer to another server? I played A LOT of GW1 and miss how you could just instantly change servers (well districts), and really want to delve into GW2 because I have alot of fun playing it! But, I would much rather play it with people! 
Hopefully someone can shed some light into this, because I have stopped playing now to try and figure out what to do regarding this.
Hopefully everyone here is enjoying the game, thank you for reading this, and have a great rest of the day!
Comments
The game burned brightly when it was released, so you may have inadvertantly answered your own question.
Other games handle the social experience better, and doing the same reskinned "dynamic" events got old. Crafting was meh, endgame, meh. Unlocking spots on the maps was interesting at first, but got dull. The background story was forgettable.
Many people moved on, although some pop in like you now and then, because it was B2P. You'll probably see more people when there is another major holiday event.
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.
To bad the part I highlighted hasn't caught up to some of the more prevalent posters here. I love how you took his post as a chance to try and take shots at the game without actually answering his concerns.
OP, the game is still going strong. I recently joined a guild and have been playing every day for about 2 months now. They have fixed a lot of the issues with PvP and the guild events are ok as long as you have a decent guild to run with. The game is completely what you make of it, so if you come across like the poster I quoted does in the game, people probably won't interract with you much. Guilds have been recruiting heavily so that they can do the guild events so getting into one should not be a problem. I can't answer you about the server portion because I don't know the feel of your server. The server I am on (Dragonbrand) always has people out and about even though people are saying the game is dead. I aint sure what they have been playing because it hasn't been GW2.
RIP Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan and Paul Gray.
Tarnished Coast is always full of people. LA, Divinity's Reach and Queensdale are usually in Overflow.
I play on a medium server which is the lowest designation any gw2 server has and there's plenty of people around.
Also culling
1 second after running into bank
5 seconds after running into bank
Sanctum of Rall, Blackgate,Jade Quarry, and Tarnished Coast are all some great populated servers. Honestly the only reason the game has "several" (not too many, maybe 3-4) under-populated servers is because of guesting and how long free transfers lasted. At this point a ton of people have zergged the higher tier servers so you end up in this weird situation where there are a few servers with low population. With guesting though server only really matters for WvW so take that into consideration when selecting a server.
When the patch comes out on Tuesday the ques on the already high pop servers for WvW will be at absolutely retarded levels so the population on those servers will probably disperse some.
Fixed =P
I appreciate all the responses, and I like the guesting idea to find a "better" server. Also to note the reason I am not with my gw1 server was because they were based in the UK and with the servers at launch couldn't get over there.
With that said, does anyone know if their population tracker is based on characters or people online? I just can't imagine that we're very high when I was running around like that. Regardless, I do hope to get into the game more. I just can't imagine why they didn't merge servers or try to get back to what GW1 was when the pop dipped (like every mmo does after launch). Especially with a game focused on the community more in my opinion. Oh well, sadly I missed the free transfer T.T
It's people logged in, or else it would never change and every server would end up saying "high" 24/7.
When I said i had "time", i meant virtual time, i got no RL "time" for you.
OP,
Any server from the top three WvW tiers will have high populations across all zones/activities almost any time of the day.
If you want to see a lot of people at ALL times of the day in all zones and WvW, then go to Jade Quarry. Jade Quarry consistently has enough people who do all world events (most importantly the cathedral/god events).
The server analog population counts (low, medium, high, very high, full) are manipulated by devs / publishers to make people still playing the game feel as though the game is still very popular. Kind of a morale booster I suppose.
ie, a Very High or Full rating when a game comes out means there are players everywhere (and with GW2 every single zone is in overflow), and later on that same rating means something lesser. The rating is still useful for comparing server X to server Y though. It's based on a numeric population.
Other games have done this in the past as well, so it's not that uncommon. SWTOR was the most recent to do this before GW2, for instance. Last time Arenanet fudged the ratings, fans defending the game saying it was correct, but everyone was in instances, which was funny:D
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.
the server doesn't matter, people said JQ was "dead" too. fact is these types of guys are a bit of an ass to begin with, they see nobody for 3 seconds due to culling and run to the forum for yet another shitpost. even on the lowest pop server, any zone with a world boss is usually in overflow when it's up.
Ah I was unsure of what "culling" was. I just remember when I was fighting in hugh swarms of people and was like man I miss that. Oh well and I'm not here to say the game is dead or anything, I just want to see more people. I appreciate all the responses though I'll try to feel around, in addition find a new guild
lol....who said JQ or any server from the top WvW tiers was empty? I guess credibility doesnt mean much.
There are 20 - 30 minute LA overflow queue times on JQ.
I would ignore people like this who like to think we live in some world where developers can get away with this. There has never been proof of this ever. The only thing they ever did in GW2 as far as server caps go, that anyone is aware of or can prove, is the removal of the cap on server population.
They didn't get away with it.
But the only way shenanigans like that are allowed to continue is because people deny that it happened / still happens. The removal of a server cap limitation didn't mean that suddenly new technology was available .. rather ArenaNet didn't think the hard cap would be ever reached again.
There was external "proof" to this argument via other tools and metrics, but even if that gets thrown out (which hardcore fans like to do when it doesn't suit their agenda), the power of personal observation and logical reasoning is a powerful tool in itself. Did you play at launch?
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.
So, show me this proof if you are so convinced it is real.
You have to remember something as well, no one who plays the game cares about this stuff. The only people who care about this stuff are the guys who are out to get the game. People like myself who defend the game. People who post on internet forums. People who are in the absolute minority in the grand scheme of things. Yes, population matters in game because if you don't have fun because there is not other people around then you will end up quitting potentially.
The thing is, this applies to any MMO. ArenaNet has no reason to fool us into thinking the numbers are different when the only people who really care about these numbers are people like you, who like to hate, and investors. You can't lie to investors as that is a sure fire way to lose investments and you can't lie to people who think you are lying to them anyways.
The only logical argument here is that "server merge" is a phrase you cannot use in this industry, as it means the game is generally not doing so hot. That is probably the only perception that has some possible real ramifications. It is hard to tell though since most games that start merging servers are already doing poorly.
The whole idea of server "population levels" is pointless if you look at it the way you are. We don't know what a higher population level even is, we don't know how often they raise these population caps changing something from "very high" to "high", "high" to "medium", ect. The idea is to give you a general idea of what each server has, population wise, compared to eachother. It serves this purpose exclusively and anything else people look at it for is just an altered perception of reality.
So can I get a tinfoil hat off of you? Or do I have to go make my own? Anyways, I know Stormbluff Isle, the server I am on, seems to have a fair amount of population. I haven't been put in an overflow(thank god) in a long time, though divinity's reach seems kind of dead, or I'm just not letting them pop in.
The more I'm around the forums on this site, the more bitter I become.
if I may suggest, OP, just play on guesting to high populated servers (look at list b4 you find one you are ok with), it seems better choice as spend more money on game.
after sometime you may decide if you continue to play as guest, don't mind to spend real money on game you like that much or have enough of ingame money to pay transfert.
I hope I helped as it how I would do.
try before buy, even if it's a game to avoid bad surprises.
Worst surprises for me: Aion, GW2
From what I hear, the population is concentrating on a 3 servers.
For what it's worth GW2's xfire numbers on march 21st were the lowest they've been since launch 7.1k hours played. That's about 3k hours less than last month, and about 1/3 of WoW.
Still nothing to sneeze at, but I have to wonder what the people who have been there since launch are still doing. Making alts?