Oceanic/SEA servers, and how GW2 jeopardises it from happening

I want a dedicated OCX/SEA (Oceanic/South East Asia) servers, a lot of people do. Playing on 270 ping sucks. Heck, i would love 100 ping if it was possible. But creating that kind of server has several underlying issues and barriers that stop it from happening.

1. Current Xfering (sever transfer) Model Limits Your Freedom Of Choice

At this point in GW2 lifespan, We have become comfortable to share the WvW experience with friends that we spent years of playing with, and invested a lot of time in our accounts. Because it was our only option at the time. Even with the slowly upcoming WvW linking changes, you don't haven have the freedom of choice to xfer to another server. Because you have to pay either in gems, gold, time, or all three. Just to be limited to that other server. So even if the offer of a OCX/SEA server was there, being in a position to make the choice to leave your current server sucks balls. because

2. WvW System And Linking Forces Personal Commitment To Servers

A lot of OCX/SEA players by now have friends and sentimental attachments to servers. The current WvW system is setup, forces you pick your friends or server preference to increase your potential fun in the game in the WvW mode. Because we have been conditioned to play with a selected few people or guilds to enhance the WvW experience. The same upcoming WvW overhaul, doesn't guarantee that you have the flexibility of playing with who you want, when you want. GW2 segregates its own player base, which leads me to my next point

3. The Asian Client of GW2 Further Divides The Player Base

These people that would be considered from OCX/SEA are the numbers we need to help populate an OCX/SEA server. but because that GW2 license is owned by another company. You cant easily fuse these numbers together into a new OCX/SEA server without several legal hurdles and complex patches for cross play. Though some people from the SEA do have access to the commonly know GW2 client. The reality is, whatever number you think we have for SEA players in a new server. We most likely have several less than you think to make it possible.

Suggestion

Xfering should be free. We have a diverse player base of people on WvW, I should have access to play with those people in WvW. Not a favourable answer considering the cost on servers. But this is literally the only good answer I can think of to alleviate the freedom to play with the people of your choosing. Not one single person should have to be placed behind a costly barrier or should have to pay for 10 transfers to play with all their friends. Or even if you dislike this idea, give us an option to buy a premium pass that lasts for a year that grants free xfers to any server. Or even if you have to commit to the current xfering model. create a free global xfering queue, where you still can shortcut the queue with gems. At least this way allows the freedom choice and more options, and solve at least some of my issues that would make future implementation of servers significantly easier.

Last Thoughts

This post was more importantly to address the barriers that make SEA/OCE server almost impossible due to how the game is programmed, designed and marketed by nature. I've wanted to make this post for a long time and was recently inspired by Noody's video to do so. So whatever upcoming plans that WvW devs have. I clearly don't have a place in their vision. Because I still have to play with 270 ping and suffer 500 ping on EBG, be limited to super small array of class builds, because I don't have access to the same options or skills that other players have anymore.

References

Silly.

People transfer not because of their friends, those are literally the minority. People transfer to win, that's exactly why people stack. That was why we had JQ as SEA server even though initially SEA was fairly balanced with the different SEA powerhouse servers until most of them went to stack on JQ before free transfer closure. That is the mentality of the vast majority of SEA players, it is never about fair fight or glory or honor, it is about winning and ego. With that kind of mentality, SEA region will just be a remade of the old T1 with one acting like JQ and the other 2 trying to hold it back.

Also, what is wrong about killing your friends?

If we got Oceanic servers, I would transfer over before a heartbeat happened. MMMMMMM the thought of 60 ping in this game.... User above me abviously has no idea and is probably american.

I did the same when LoL introduced Oceanic servers.

I would transfer as well. Sick and tired of skills not connecting to the target, skills not activating when clicked and constant out of range even when in range on my screen due to the target not being where he is on the server due to the 300+ (Home ping) and upwards of what feels like 3000 ping depending on where i am in the country with work.

@"blackgamma.1809" said:I want a dedicated OCX/SEA (Oceanic/South East Asia) servers, a lot of people do. Playing on 270 ping sucks. Heck, i would love 100 ping if it was possible. But creating that kind of server has several underlying issues and barriers that stop it from happening.

The barriers are entirely technical: ANet hasn't figured out a way to transfer data fast enough to host EU datacenters in the US or vice versa, so accounts are restricted to a region. OCX would need its own center separate from SEA, since although they are closer to each other, they aren't close. Unless you have a way to triple (or better, quadruple) participation from those regions, there would barely be enough players for a single WvW match up each week, no PvP, and sparsely populated PvE, with some metas going without anyone. (It would also have an adverse impact on NA and EU, although I'm not sure that's something that OCX/SEA players should have to consider).

1. Current Xfering (sever transfer) Model Limits Your Freedom Of Choice2. WvW System And Linking Forces Personal Commitment To ServersThe idea has always been to foster server loyalty. When transfers were free and unlimited, bandwagoners hopped to whatever world seemed to be winning. That might have been fun for the first-come/first-served crowd, but it was awful for those that chose not to hop and those who were late to change.

Regardless, this has nothing to do with why there aren't datacenters in Sydney, Singapore, or Tokyo.

3. The Asian Client of GW2 Further Divides The Player BaseThere is no "Asian" client; there's a Chinese game with the same name and story/mechanics. That's due to Chinese laws, customs, and rules. It's simply not possible for ANet to run the game in China; they have to license the rights to someone else (in this case, a company that runs it very, very differently).

Unfortunately probably not enough Australians to support enough servers to create even a three way match much less multiple three way matches. Would be nice for Australians but probably not worth it for Anet.

As was said above, there isn't the population to justify setting up servers in Australia -- you might have enough people in OCX/SEA for 3 servers, but NA/EU would be pretty dead and there would only be one tier. Anet would also have to pay some data-center to host their servers which would probably be prohibitive for the small WvW playerbase in Australia.

@Israel.7056 said:Unfortunately probably not enough Australians to support enough servers to create even a three way match much less multiple three way matches. Would be nice for Australians but probably not worth it for Anet.

thats probably the most frustrating thing about it. they market the game IN AUSTRALIA and waste 250k worth of money on ESL, but they wont put aside funding for a better infrastructure. We have the population to create an oceanic server. people have left GW2 because the lack of support of OCX. they would come back if the servers exist. and even new OCX players would join gw2 if the sever support existed

Every mmo I've seen host an Ocx cluster has shuttered it within the first year .. You guys may just have to accept that your population is inadequate for a modest genre like RPGs Maybe tell your MP's to stop refusing refugees? Worked for 'Murica

@LetoII.3782 said:Every mmo I've seen host an Ocx cluster has shuttered it within the first year .. You guys may just have to accept that your population is inadequate for a modest genre like RPGs Maybe tell your MP's to stop refusing refugees? Worked for 'Murica

Too bad they're on an island and almost everything in Australia is enormous and extremely poisonous.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

The barriers are entirely technical: ANet hasn't figured out a way to transfer data fast enough to host EU datacenters in the US or vice versa, so accounts are restricted to a region. OCX would need its own center separate from SEA, since although they are closer to each other, they aren't close.

Anet surely got decent programmers but I doubt they have the physicists to figure out a way to exceed the speed of light in undersea fiber cabels and global internet node infrastructure.

Possibly when a quantum based internet using entangled photons become a reality.

The simpler solution would be to proxy aus/sea/ocx to a more localised amazon server. Even with the extra overhead it amounts to lower latencies compared to a direct connection.

@DemonSeed.3528 said:The simpler solution would be to proxy aus/sea/ocx to a more localised amazon server. Even with the extra overhead it amounts to lower latencies compared to a direct connection.

I believe they have tried stuff like this for NA/EU (to try to get the two regions to play on the same maps). They haven't gotten to work they way they want.

@Israel.7056 said:

@LetoII.3782 said:Every mmo I've seen host an Ocx cluster has shuttered it within the first year .. You guys may just have to accept that your population is inadequate for a modest genre like RPGs Maybe tell your MP's to stop refusing refugees? Worked for 'Murica

We'll, it's not their fault they were born on the planets anus... But they do have a say in immigration policy

@Djamonja.6453 said:As was said above, there isn't the population to justify setting up servers in Australia -- you might have enough people in OCX/SEA for 3 servers, but NA/EU would be pretty dead and there would only be one tier. Anet would also have to pay some data-center to host their servers which would probably be prohibitive for the small WvW playerbase in Australia.

Na/eu would be dead without the ocx/sea players yea right dont belive that for a second.

@blackgamma.1809 said:thats probably the most frustrating thing about it. they market the game IN AUSTRALIA and waste 250k worth of money on ESL, but they wont put aside funding for a better infrastructure. We have the population to create an oceanic server. people have left GW2 because the lack of support of OCX. they would come back if the servers exist. and even new OCX players would join gw2 if the sever support existed

Thats just the thing to to have a match you need ocx 3 servers not just 1.

A few "sea/ocx" guilds will die so unlikely would move to sea/ocx region if there will be one. Not all sea/ocx guilds are compromise of mainly people of those regions. This is especially true for wvw guilds since wvw guilds are mostly of guilds with laid back rep requirement inorder to help them fill up their roster quicker thus it isn't uncommon for off hours guild to be totally dependent on the server (players of other guilds).

Before assuming how NA will die without sea/ocx. Maybe is better to find out how many so-called sea/ocx guilds will die without NA.

@LetoII.3782 said:

@Israel.7056 said:

@LetoII.3782 said:Every mmo I've seen host an Ocx cluster has shuttered it within the first year .. You guys may just have to accept that your population is inadequate for a modest genre like RPGs Maybe tell your MP's to stop refusing refugees? Worked for 'Murica

Yeah, the tougher the better. Australia’s infrastructure cannot handle the population we have now, and the government has been a joke for years.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@DemonSeed.3528 said:The simpler solution would be to proxy aus/sea/ocx to a more localised amazon server. Even with the extra overhead it amounts to lower latencies compared to a direct connection.

What about how blizzard and starcraft 2 works with SEA players having access to NA region, but have it so that for wvw, which ever zone you choose the play on at reset, you are there for the week till next reset.

@Abyssisis.3971 said:What about how blizzard and starcraft 2 works with SEA players having access to NA region, but have it so that for wvw, which ever zone you choose the play on at reset, you are there for the week till next reset.

I don't quite understand. In GW2, SEA/OCX can already choose NA or EU and swap every week. (One would lose PIPs, but nothing else. To minimize PIP loss, change every 3rd Friday morning, losing about a week of progress.)

OCX/SEA would be something of a dead zone if they split the servers this late into the game, and it would go downhill from there. I certainly would not expect a horde of players to appear because of lower pings.

When populations have to be split, you need to weigh the issue up prior to launch, and 6 years ago it would probably not have worked. For a new MMO launching now, I'd say a SEA-based server would be vital, but even then there are common connection problems between different parts of the region.

That said, I'm about as far away from Singapore as it's possible to get in the Southeast Asia / Oceania region, and I still get a 170 ms ping to SG. GW2's NA servers, wherever they're based, give me 220 ms. If they were in California, that number should be 140 ms, but of course the majority of North American players are on the other coast, and the link between the coasts appears to be ... complicated.

So while I don't think SEA servers are a great move for the health of the game, if they were launched, I'd still move to them anyway. I've already given up on any potential for WvW to be a credible game mode, as development has been trying to fix a house whose foundations are broken with a bit of shrewd interior design. And apart from that, I don't need much population around me to enjoy the game.

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:What about how blizzard and starcraft 2 works with SEA players having access to NA region, but have it so that for wvw, which ever zone you choose the play on at reset, you are there for the week till next reset.

Basically that, but give SEA players a couple of SEA based servers that they can Wvw on, should things get quiet, then they can play in NA/EU if they want to.

That would allow us to stack BG even bigger. Im all for that:)

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:What about how blizzard and starcraft 2 works with SEA players having access to NA region, but have it so that for wvw, which ever zone you choose the play on at reset, you are there for the week till next reset.

Except WvW is a 24 hour game mode, with a week long scoring system. You're implying WvW to SEA is only as important as EotM is to the whole WvW community.

@starlinvf.1358 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:What about how blizzard and starcraft 2 works with SEA players having access to NA region, but have it so that for wvw, which ever zone you choose the play on at reset, you are there for the week till next reset.

Im saying we should get a few servers that we can choose to wvw on to avoid the bs that happens at +300 ping or play on whichever NA server we are assigned to, but only able to choose at reset time which server to play on for the coming week.

we need less servers. quality over quantity =)

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

@starlinvf.1358 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:

@Illconceived Was Na.9781 said:

@Abyssisis.3971 said:What about how blizzard and starcraft 2 works with SEA players having access to NA region, but have it so that for wvw, which ever zone you choose the play on at reset, you are there for the week till next reset.

But how does that solve any of the problems being raised once people realize the SEA servers has a small population, and then migrate to the NA servers again. This is the fundamental problem with a Region.... in order for it to work, "OTHER PLAYERS" also have to be active in that region. When given a choice between good performance or something to fight, guess which one will win after the novelty of good performance wears off?