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GW2: Mega Server
SadSwordfish
Member CommonPosts: 78
in Guild Wars 2
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/introducing-the-megaserver-system/
Amazing!! I can't wait for this! now I can play with my friends on other servers!
Comments
You already could.
You could simply host on their world.
It will certainly make the least popular areas more populated.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Ummm seriously i thought this was Arenanet making fun of Zenimax and it was a very technical April Fool's joke.
Even though i am loving ESO (with all its bugs) i really feel the megaserver is contributing alot to its bugs we are experiencing.
Anet might regret this decision in the long run.
Lolipops !
That's why originally GW2 is only testing it in limited areas of the game.
And they've had a lot more chance to practice with whipping their servers/overflows into shape, so we'll see how it actually works once it's in the game.
If something goes wrong outside of 1-15 lvl areas they will not do it, I pressume:)
It is basically the reverse of the overflow system and very similar to GW1 districts system.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Now if there just is a way to put all the people who enjoy trains to wind up in the same instance so the rest of us could avoid them I would be happy.
But yeah, this is good for areas like Brisbane wildlands and similar, I don't see too much technical issues since they already have the overflow mechanics in the game even though we surely get some problems the first few weeks. Still a good idea, what really makes it hard for MMOs to recruit new players is that so many zones get desolated after a while when the majority of all players in a server is max level.
Now, if we just could get a date for an expansion as well things would be peachy.
Maybe we can seed the rumor that it increases the drop/karma rate if everyone in the train is in the same guild and from the same world?
ESO only just launched. GW2's launch wasn't exactly free of problems either
It's kinda unfortunate they chose the same name for the feature, because it's not actually quite the same thing.
ESO is using phasing extensively as part of their Megaserver feature. That causes it's own share of problems when trying to play with others. GW2 doesn't use phasing.
MegaServer is the "word of choice" now since DCUO.
GW2 does use phasing but very rarely and only specific instances (gathering resources). I think phasing technology can work on a wide scale, someone else will justh ave to figure out how to implement it as such. ESO felt rushed in that I can't believe they would put a game that was difficult to play with others out if they weren't rushed.
This isn't much different than the way GW2 has always handled things. It's just a much more aggressive form of Overflow, where each server no longer has it's own primary instance of each game zone.
Before, unless you were in overflow, you knew that everyone in a given zone that wasn't guesting there was from your server. With this change, even if the system is weighted to try to increase your odds of being in the same zone instance as others from your server, or your guild, or your party, the people you run into will be a mish mash of people from every server. Essentially, every zone instance will be in what used to be called overflow.
This allows them some of the benefits of server merges in order to try to make game zones feel more populated, while avoiding the headaches and bad press that server merges often entail. However, it really destroys any sense of server community outside of World vs. World. It also makes it extremely difficult for guilds to recruit players, out in the world, that play on the same server. Will guild mechanics change so that there is no longer any sense that a guild, it's membership and functions, are tied to an individual server? If so, good luck with that, if not, guild related headaches will be severe with the coming changes.
I saw ESOs mega-server strategy as one of the last nails in the concept that MMOs should be about community. GW1 has guilds, but one of the biggest reasons it was, for most, a single player game with almost no social element was due to the lack of server based communities and the random nature with which you were grouped with people into town and city instances. In GW2, game play zones are not individualized instances, but with this change, any sense that the people you run into are part of the same community as you are shattered.
There are short term benefits for those who lament how empty many of the game zones often appear, but it's just an outgrowth of the reality that the game is failing. Losing players in general, while also embracing "Adventure by Checklist" content strategies that have done nothing but destroy exploration of the vast game world and amplified the population issues for the game zones.
The game isn't dying because game zones feel empty; game zones feel empty because the game is dying. It's dying because of the horrible Living Story strategy and the way it sucked up all the development resources that were supposed to go into providing a flow of fresh world content that would have given players a reason to keep revisiting the zones in the greater game world.
Megaservers are a further symptom of the game's woes and a band-aid for dropping world populations that may just accelerate the loss of players, while trying to hide those losses by pooling people together on as few instances of each zone as possible.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Yes.
We know,
The Living Story that produced around 1 month worth of content if there was no grind involved would magically generate hundreds upon hundreds of Dynamic Events and mini dungeons and zone revamps!
Adding a dozen Dynamic Events and an instance in Kessex kills calling it Living Story?
Horrible content.
Adding a dozen Dynamic Events and not calling it Living Story?
Exciting content for years and years!
Get real fiontar.
What you want doesn't happen in games with millions of players paying $15/month.
And it is because it is not possible at this time.
It just isn't.
And that is why no game is doing that.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Unfortunately, even as a story and role-playing fan, the living story initiative felt like a real waste of resources. I would have rather seen that time and energy go into real improvements and content additions. As far as the mega server thing goes, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it yet. In ESO, there are some clear pros and cons already, which I won't get into here, but I'd want to reserve judgment and see how it plays out a bit more.
At this point, what I do know is GW2 needs to take some major steps if they want to bring players back and keep them. They need people to buy gems to keep making a profit, so something needs to give there, or they need to release a big, enticing expansion.
You are really reaching for straws here I think.
I think the game is doing great. 3 months ago they announced that the living story feedback had made them decide to do Living Story updates exclusively while waiting with features until have the conclusion. This meant updates less often than every 14 days. This was to facilitate the negative feedback from living story.
So for the 3-4 months they have kept on track and delivered what they promised. I think megaserver has been needed since launch. There is a highly uneven amount of players in all zones and it has been this way since launch.
As game has gotten older, people have gravitated towards instanced end game content and WvW. I feel WvW is more popular than ever, thanks to their improvements, reward systems and achievement systems. Alas, the game is not neccesarily not doing good just because there is fewer people in the main world.
And I agree with you that there are far and wide between players doing dynamic quests. But the game is so different with scaling and being able to level to 80 almost anyway you want to, that I don't really think it's dying. I have WfvW queues for all borderlands except EOTM every night. I play on SBI.
TL;DR I believe the game is doing good, and megaserver have been on its way for a long time. Has nothing to do with this notion that the game is "dying". It's doing great!
Just like Guild Wars 1, I don't think ArenaNet has a problem with it's players playing the content, then taking a hiatus, and/or playing their game in smaller intervals of time. They have never facilitated content for those guys who play 6-8 hour raids every day or 5 times a week.
Megaserver is a fancy way of saying merge.
Merges are good mind you, it helps bring players together. Tighter, if you will. And when I play a MMORPG, I'd rather play with other people.
Of course ArenaNet won't say merge, nor will they close any of the dying servers (even though they are all falsely listed as very high population). They will just make them all appear lively, via a megaserver!
ps - SWTOR did this too when they shut down 200+ servers down to 50, then down to ~20, calling remaining servers megaservers! Each remaining server actually was just overclocked to yield 10-15% more players per server. But fans ate that up like icecream. Megaservers .. ahhh High tech!
Yeah, anyone ever overclocked their PC before?
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.
But that's not the same thing. You have one megaserver. You don't have several servers. You can play with anywhere with anyone. you simply get loaded into a district by tech.
SWTOR still have regular servers. go on freedom nord, and the game doesnt transport you to guildies on other servers.
Also the falsely list servers as high population? quite a lot of them go down to medium during off peak hours at night and morning, but goes up to very high and full during prime time. Doesn't seen like a conspiracy to me:/
What was so good about the game at launch? Apart from the fact that it had the new factor for everyone. After reaching lvl 80 i remember a dull boring world, with little to nothing to do.
They rushed the game past lvl 70, even a kid could notice that; they rushed the game in order to be able to release it before September. Was it a good choice? Was it a bad choice? It was a VERY bad choice, because god knows which genious developer didn't think we'd reach lvl 80 so fast as we did since everything in the game gives experience. They probably thought they could patch the game within the first weeks; but it took 1 week to most people to hit the cap. Most people experienced Arah story in that (and current) state. Some heads had to jump in order to bring the game to a decent state.
What they announced and brought was a semi-faillure. The potential was still there; but unusued. They changed strategy and went for the Living Story, which IMO is the best decision they made at the time. If we had to wait for an expansion to fix that dull and boring world who knows how many more players they would lose.
F&F was the first bad attempt at something that brought us the Bazaar and the Queen's Jubelee which IMO are the best updates they made so far. The whole scarlet thing should have ended this Summer, that was another mistake; but now it's gone for good.
Why would you care about how many instances of the same map are running at the same time? Play.
The world between lvl 15-70 is nearly deserted on most servers that are not the most populated, and even there i doubt there are many people lvling. This change will make the world feel more alive, so i've yet to see a good reason why the Megaserver is going to be bad.
I think ANet did a poor job communicating the strengths of the original game design and how to get the most out of the game. I hated the zones in Orr, but I also fully embraced level scaling and spent a ton of time exploring the rest of the game world, with little concern for what level each zone was while playing a level 80 character.
Living Story certainly didn't help on the sustainability of PvE world content. It's not just that LS was done instead of the original plan for keeping the open world fresh. The mode of content they've been pumping out, "Adventure by Checklist" temporary content tied in with limited time exclusive rewards for jumping through a requisite number of hoops, actually has trained participating players away from PvE world content. You can't do everything you can to funnel people away from the content you spent five plus years creating, then act confused as to why game zones are empty.
Mega-servers may help things a bit by grouping more players who do enjoy the game world content together within the same instances of each zone. The impact this will have on server based community building can't be ignored, however. Also, abandoning server specific zone instances clearly wouldn't be necessary if the game's population were not dwindling and world content participation were not plummeting.
One might see this new server strategy as encouraging, in that the devs are trying to find ways to minimize the consequences for remaining players caused by dwindling populations. However, their continued commitment to the content strategies that are killing the game and specifically killing participation in game world content just point to these moves as being the equivalent of turning on more pumps on a clearly sinking ship, with out sealing off the sections taking on water.
The game at launch wasn't perfect, but it still delivered much, much more quality content than most MMOs do at launch, with a Buy to Play business model that just exploded the level of value. They also delivered about 80% of what they aimed for with the original design "manifesto", with paths for moving the game closer to the idealized goals clear as day ahead of them.
The Living Story fiasco is bad on so many levels that it's pretty much unparalleled in the realm of MMO design failures. It's all the worst elements of MMO marketing hype wrapped around content as lacking in quality as quantity. Mega-servers, even if beneficial for some in the short term, (maybe even me personally), are just another sign that this game that once had such incredible potential is still caught in a spectacular death spiral. Seeing all that potential shattering on the rocky shores below is maddening for a veteran of a genre that seems to almost never fail to disappoint.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I've never undersood people saying that games die because of their own perceptions. Do you have actual numbers to base this on? Again from my experience the people coming back to the game and new players are far more then those who left.
Also saying that a game is about to die because anet is using the megaserver is pure nonsense. If you were playing the game right now (and i doubt you are) you'd say the exact opposite. Again if you are in a low pop server or in a server that had guilds hopping for the WvW reward then yeah...
You can keep on fooling yourself and trying to convince others that the game is dying; but any actual player could easily disagree with you by just logging in.
This does remember me of all the people saying that WoW was about to die years ago and there it still is with all the subs and expansions.
GW2 will last for years; not because i say so, but because you can see it for yourself. Anet is bringing new content and features for free. People still complain that they should have done it from the beginning; heck even i'd like to get everything good and avaiable at launch; but that's just daydreaming and whishful thinking.
Look at the recent games released, they are betas if not alphas with the amount of bugs and lack of features.
To me it sounds you have 2 big problems, 1 you are on a low pop server 2 you are in a small or worse dying guild. Was i correct? If no then i don't know, try another game.
You can waste days discussing how it should have been done, how things should have been since launch; or you can play the game.. I chose the latter, so i'll log in and enjoy the game o/
While this is good for some players, GW2 will lose the 'persistency' aspect that some found to be good.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
That is essentially what makes me really like Anet and GW in general, they don't really pander to that type of audience and to me it makes their world feel much more alive and realistic and this new server should only help that ideal.