[DECISIONS] Choosing the right server/world

Good morning everybody,

Context: I bought GW2 at 2012's launch, played a bit, compared it too much to GW1 and did not like it. Five years later, I'm back to give it a new go. The thing is, when I started playing in 2012 I joined the Spanish EU server to be able to play with many of my friends. None of them are left and now I want to change.

I wonder if, since some of you know the game very well and deeply, I can be provided with advice. Here is what I am looking for:

Location: EuropeTraffic: Average. Neither empty nor frustratingly full. Medium to high, maybe?Community: Preferably multicultural and with English as the lingua franca. I love that feeling when you are able to play with/against and get to know people from different countries. I can speak both English and French (English way better than French). If there aren't any multicultural servers, I'll go with the best English server you can think of.New-player friendliness: This is not a priority, but if there's a nice climate of collaboration (without sacrificing PvP's healthy fun and competitiveness) it would be better (I'll probably need some help with info and all that).

IMPORTANT NOTE: A server/world that would fulfill all of the previous criteria would be perfect, but such a thing will probably not exist. I guess that it's a matter of guilds and not of servers. If that is so, I would love to experience all those elements within a guild located at an alive English EU server (if such guild is kind enough to admit me).

Thank you for the information in advance. Cheers :)

P.S: Since I put the focus on "worlds" and not in "guilds", I located this thread within the Guild Wars 2 Discussion subforum. If it needs to be relocated to the guilds' section I apologize.

With megaservers implemented quite a while ago, you can play with players across different servers in all game modes except WvW. The only restriction to that are the regions, NA or EU.

I did not know that. How does that work? Do I TP to their server? Does it work whenever&wherever or only during raids, fractals or special instanced events?

Like stated above, the server only matters for WvW anymore. This list should help you to choose:https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/World

P.S.

@Dreyfus.8730 said:Context: I bought GW2 at 2012's launch, played a bit, compared it too much to GW1 and did not like it.Heh heh, the same was true for me. :)

Thanks for the information :) But, even if everything is connected within a region now... It would be better to select the best world for your playing criteria because it is what enables you to meet the group of people you want to contact with, right? i.e. if I stay in the Spanish server I am way less likely to meet and play around with people from other worlds (because the chances of casually interacting with them are diminished).

@Dreyfus.8730 said:But, even if everything is connected within a region now... It would be better to select the best world for your playing criteria because it is what enables you to meet the group of people you want to contact with, right?

No no, you don't understand. Outside of WvW, the server has no effect whatsoever on anything you mentioned. Everyone is basically using the same server, hence the term "megaserver". The only separation is by continent (EU megaserver, NA megaserver).

So, whenever you log in, whether you have chosen a French, German, or Spanish server, you will find people of all those regions united on one server. Ouside of larger group activities, where English is the language being spoken to communicate, you will see chat conversations in all different languages.

Oh! I get you (and the wiki) now. I thought it did have an impact since every time I've logged in with my current characters (Spanish server) I've only seen vast amounts of people speaking Spanish (and I play the game with English as the supported language).

Thank you for the clarification though! :)

P.S: Lol, we have almost the same account number.

@Dreyfus.8730 said:Oh! I get you (and the wiki) now. I thought it did have an impact since every time I've logged in with my current characters (Spanish server) I've only seen vast amounts of people speaking Spanish (and I play the game with English as the supported language).

That's very interesting, though. Maybe it is different after all in cities (I know for certain that it doesn't matter in the open world :) ).

Wiki states "When there are multiple versions of the map, the game attempts to put you in the same map alongside your friends, guildmates, [...]", maybe that is the crucial factor in cities.

I see... Ok then. I know what I have to do: choose whichever server I like and apply those criteria for the guild-searching process. :) Thank you all!

P.S: as the events have unfolded, I now realize that this thread should have gone to the players helping players section -.- So sorry.

@Dreyfus.8730 said:P.S: Lol, we have almost the same account number.

OMG, I didn't even notice! =) So our GW2 history is almost identical: we registered at the same time, stopped playing soon after release for the same reason, then years later decided to give the game another go. This is somewhat weird. ;)

@Dreyfus.8730 said:P.S: as the events have unfolded, I now realize that this thread should have gone to the players helping players section -.- So sorry.

Maybe it can be moved, if a moderator sees this? :)

@Ashantara.8731 said:OMG, I didn't even notice! =) So our GW2 history is almost identical: we registered at the same time, stopped playing soon after release for the same reason, then years later decided to give the game another go. This is somewhat weird. ;)

It is indeed. What were the odds? This can only mean one thing... You are my nemesis and I am yours! Like Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. Like Gandalf and Saruman. Like Ash's party and Team Rocket. Like Churchill and Hitler (EDIT: lol, renamed it to "kitten"). Like...

To close the off-topic: did you like the game once you returned? Are you engaged into it, bought the expansion, etc.?

@Ashantara.8731 said:Maybe it can be moved, if a moderator sees this? :)

I hope so :(

Your server does still have a slight impact on which maps you end up on - it's one of the factors used to choose which copy of the map you go to if there's more than one. So you're more likely to be on the same map as other people from your server than with people on other servers, but it's over-ruled by your friends list and your guild and it's rare to have so many people in the same place that each server gets its own map, so it usually doesn't matter.

The only reason you might want to change is that if I remember correctly language specific servers are more likely to be grouped together - so as well as being on a Spanish speaking server you're more likely to be grouped with other Spanish servers and therefore more likely to meet people speaking Spanish. If you switched to one of the ones without a tag (which tend to be regarded as English language primarily) you'll see more people speaking English, and the same for the French and German servers and their respective languages.

But joining an active guild with people on different servers could achieve the same thing, and that's free. So it depends on whether the language thing bothers you enough to justify the cost of switching when there's no other benefit.

Thank you for the specifics. Got it even clearer now.

Well, I would not say such thing as "bother". But considering what I am studying for and what I am working on it is definitely more convenient for me to plunge into an English-speaking world (and if I also can practice French from time to time, the better). I think I got my eye on a World already. :)

@Dreyfus.8730 said:

@Ashantara.8731 said:OMG, I didn't even notice! =) So our GW2 history is almost identical: we registered at the same time, stopped playing soon after release for the same reason, then years later decided to give the game another go. This is somewhat weird. ;)It is indeed. What were the odds? This can only mean one thing... You are my nemesis and I am yours! Like Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. Like Gandalf and Saruman. Like Ash's party and Team Rocket. Like Churchill and kitten (EDIT: lol, renamed it to "kitten"). Like...

LOL! The question is, which one of us is who? B)

@Dreyfus.8730 said:To close the off-topic: did you like the game once you returned? Are you engaged into it [...]?

I am/was/am uncertain at the moment. ;) I still play a lot, but more out of a habit than out of love for many of the more recent developer choices. :/ They really moved away a lot from their original vision. All the things that made the game most fun for me (and made me look forward to seeing them further developed) have taken a setback in favor of things that I assume kids focus on the most (tons of action, modern world/futuristic/anime designs, silly dialogue, effects that make your eyes hurt, lots of strange gimmicks that IMO don't fit into the world of GW, etc.).

@Ashantara.8731 said:LOL! The question is, which one of us is who? B)

I'm probably the bad guy :(

@Ashantara.8731 said:I am/was/am uncertain at the moment. ;) I still play a lot, but more out of a habit than out of love for many of the more recent developer choices. :/ They really moved away a lot from their original vision. All the things that made the game most fun for me (and made me look forward to seeing them further developed) have taken a setback in favor of things that I assume kids focus on the most (tons of action, modern world/futuristic/anime designs, silly dialogue, effects that make your eyes hurt, lots of strange gimmicks that IMO don't fit into the world of GW, etc.).

I see... Well, I agree with you in that I am more into realistic, darker and more mature content... But I think you may be committing the same mistake that our past selves did: comparing it to GW1. Try to change the "glasses" with which you see the game (I will try to do that myself as soon as I start playing). Nowadays, a ton of games are based on cliché-filled heroes and stories with a short pre-set range of skills. That's what MOBAs (and time-consuming modern&adult life) have brought.