[My WvW restructure feedback, and goodbye (hopefully just for a while)]

I wrote this a while ago, and only minimally updated it.  So most of it reflects the last matchup, not the current one.  But it’s all still relevant as far as how I feel about the state of WvW.  

 

I was really not shocked at all when I searched “WvW” on the forums, to try to find the WvW  restructuring feedback thread, and I saw like half a dozen posts or more sharing their feedback and saying they don't like the state of WvW right now.  Several of these posts were about the restructure, the ones that weren’t explicitly about it cited problems that the restructure has definitely caused or made worse.  (also, I agree with them that exploits desperately need to be fixed, and cheaters need to be held accountable.  We need a way to report them that actually works. Or the cheats they’re using need to be rendered impossible/fixed.  But that technically has nothing to do with the restructure, so it’s not my focus in this post.)

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TLDR: I miss Darkhaven, I miss home servers, and I don’t like being in a random match up/totally new social ecosystem every month.  There are several specific problems with it that I will go into excruciating detail about in the following pages. I will also occasionally repeat myself I’m sure, consider it a literary technique for emphasis lol.

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I and many others I know are struggling to adapt to the new mega guild/alliance system, and I am a bit unsure if my feedback on the forums and subreddit are falling on deaf ears or not.  This has been a really rough time for me personally.  I don't play guild wars to be stressed out, I play it for fun and online community. 

I have finally forced myself to join a WvW guild/alliance, because dedicated home servers are dead and it's the only way to have any semblance of community or any hope in WvW these days it seems. 

 

And I gotta say, I really miss Darkhaven.   Darkhaven was pretty much my family, I almost never experienced anything but encouragement and positive support there.  As a result I grew a lot as a player and commander over the years and thoroughly enjoyed WvW even when we were in insanely challenging match ups with lopsided population that favored our enemies.  I’m very grateful the veterans and general population of Darkhave were so accepting and supportive over the years.

I’m also very grateful that there was almost always small scale fights and roaming content even in the absolute dead hours.  Somehow, back then (seems like way more than a few months) we always had some roamers in the borderlands and enemy roamers to fight.  That’s no longer happening with any consistency, at least not on any of the match ups I’ve been in.  

 

I think it’s possible a lot of the “off timezone” players have moved away from WvW after the massive changes.  Not sure.

 

Another really significant change about not having home servers is being in a totally new social group every month.  Other than my guild/alliance, it’s totally random PUGs and smaller guilds, mostly people I’ve never met and (it feels like) I will never meet again.  

 

I’m confused about why this change was chose, because it took away the community aspect of “worlds”.   I used to have a battlecry “For Darkhaven!!” and when i typed it in chat lots of people would echo it! “FOR DARKHAVEN :D”  

 

I think the psychology of long term social connection speaks for itself, I’m not sure how the devs decided to do something so counter intuitive to human psychology.  I’ve met so many people who feel the same and don’t want to be in a random match up every month.  They miss their home servers as much as I miss Darkhaven (or at least close).

 

On my new match ups, especially the first one (Yohlon Haven) before I switched to my new alliance and the second one (Ruined Cathedral of Blood), and the third one (Cathedral of Blood) I have actually experienced a lot of toxic behavior from allies.  Gatekeeping, bullying, allies trying to bully my pugs, enemy teams effectively (perhaps not technically or purposefully though) colluding against us because we're lower population in this time zone than them, the whole nine yards.  And it has sucked.  I'm  a very unique person to say the least, and I really felt like I thrived in the established and consistent social environment that was the Darkhaven server.  I felt like I had a home.  Brothers and sisters in arms I was very connected to at the time/throughout the years, people who understood me and valued me at least within the context of the game.

 

Now before you say "That's what mega guilds are for", allow me to point out that many of my friends fro darkhaven don't like "blob v blob" combat very much, and many were in smaller guilds for the most part or even not in a WvW guild and didn't feel like joining an alliance.  Many just wanted to remain in small roaming guilds or not have a WvW focused guild at all.  So the fact that everyone keeps telling me "you should have just formed a bigger and better darkhaven alliance..." is a little off base.  There is an Ex-Darkhaven alliance formed by BREW, I've been in touch with them and they were in my first match up so I got to talk to them and play with them for a few weeks.  The reason I am not with them is because I chose to stay with a few close friends, and then a few of us switched to a new WvW guild a friend recommended.  I was/am very torn about it.  I’m not very connected to most of those people anymore, because we pretty much only ever met in WvW, but I will forever cherish the friendships and camaraderie of Darkhaven.   

It was the pugs and roamers and small guild content I enjoyed most, and now that seems to be tossed into complete chaos and we're with different pugs every month who aren't used to the commanders present, aren't used to working together, and all seem to come from home servers with slightly disparate playstyles.  Some can only function in blob v blob and are totally lost outside of following a commander who does large group content.  They won't even give or follow simple callouts sometimes, all they do is blindly fight in blob and get spawn camped by MAG. (which is exactly what MAG wants, they don't want a challenge, you can tell because green's stuff is all t3 and untouched).  I keep trying to tell them we should recapture the initiative, don't fight on the enemy's terms on a battlefield the enemy choses!  To partially counter their superior numbers, stay together in split but organized groups to confuse and overwhelm their scouts, out flank them, go seize the initiative by hitting objectives they will be forced to care about, or hitting multiple objectives with barely offset timing.  Distract them by spawn while most of us seak around to hit the side of garri or another objective, etc.  Go attack something high tier in the borderlands to draw them out.  You WILL get fun fights the vast majority of the time, and they can even be in situations where you hold enough advantages to actually win.  It’s not really necessary nor enjoyable (for me) to fight on the same patch of grass in front of garri all day long and never try to seize the initiative or try anything creative.

And when someone does try something, and even calls it out, no one listens.  Somehow less and less people in the match ups seem to care about the borderlands(at least in my time zone).  

 

It doesn't’ have to be this way, Darkhaven was proof of that, but now I guess people just sit in one corner of EBG and let MAG spawn camp them and don't listen to the veterans telling them strategies to overcome this dilemma of population imbalance and put pressure on MAG in new and creative ways.  (Similar scenario for any numerically superior foe in the time zone i play in, so substitute accordingly, it’s just an example. I will continue to elaborate on this example.)

 

They (MAG/Blue team at the time) literally defended Green (Throne of Balthazar) team's EBG keep FOR THEM.  I feel like their sportsmanship and conduct is very consistently questionable, and I find that a bit sad.  They did this while green team zerg was left unchecked rampaging across our home bl.  that's exactly why I, as the pug commander present that morning, chose to siege Green's EBG keep.  To force them to come defend, to draw them out.  Because we didn't have the numbers to face their gigantic blob at that early hour because none of our major guilds were online yet but theirs were.  I tried to defend fire, and O'del.  I pulled EWP, I gave my team plenty of warning so they could exit combat and show up for the defense, I stayed positive and offered constructive advice to the few pugs following me... but even our entire team showing up to EWP at that early hour wasn't enough to face the green blob.

So I did the next best thing, I attacked several green objectives that I thought they would care about and be forced to respond to.

But instead, Blue team/MAG came and defended it for them.  (I guess because we were an easier target than green and they were desperate for a fight they could win?)  

 

Look, I know Throne of Balthazar and Moogooloo probably aren't colluding on purpose.  It's just that MAG doesn't actually want to challenge/even match up, they just want to hold  SMC and pick on the weakest team and spawn camp them.  The morning I originally wrote this for instance, Mag had been defending OUR EBG keep at T1, they have several of our EBG towers, half our home borderland, and yet everything green has is untouched.  Blue literally refuses to fight GREEN? So instead both teams fight us, the world with the lowest population at this hour, so we're spread even thinner than we would be.  

MAG would not fight us unless they have overwhelming numbers or they are in range of their defensive siege, so when our mega guilds are online it works out ok, they stay near SMC and only push when they have like twice or triple our numbers.  

 

Consistency from month to month is nonexistent, pugs being totally lost and confused is disheartening, and not having a home server anymore feels like I lost my family.

 

Every new match up has a new social environment and it's a toss up.  This is very stressful.  Sometimes I meet supportive people who will communicate constructively, sometimes I meet toxic people who see only the superficial and judge immediately and never give themselves a chance to get to know me or learn what I may have had to offer had they treated me and the pugs on the match up I was trying to work with with a little respect and support. 

 

Honestly, I do not want to be a pug commander anymore in this environment.  I’ve always been a PUGmander at heart and really enjoyed my experience on Darkhaven in the past.

 

I'll say it again: I miss Darkhaven with my entire heart and soul. ❤️  I miss having the same pugs and roamers online consistently in my time zone, every month.  Sure we were outnumbered constantly by Jade Quarry and MAG and BlackGate during my time zone, but at least we could often beat their mega guilds with only pugs, which was satisfying as heck! 🙂

(and when we lost, we were SOOO chill about it, instead of freaking out, blaming people, getting all toxic etc)

 

The fact that the consistency is gone is so sad.  It basically takes a mega guild in order to stand up to another mega guild it seems.   Sometimes you get  a match up where the  PUGs can actually organize and fight well in a variety of circumstances and aren’t hesitant to try creative strategy and listen to the people trying to do callouts, other match ups it’s kinda like… “What’s and EWP?  Wait, we have to slot those before hand?” (literally I have showed up to so many t2 and t3 keeps and garri’s and towers that don’t have EWP slotted, called for help, and it can't arrive in time.  On darkhaven this was an essential tactic that allowed our roamers and scouts to hold territory and only ask for help when they truly needed it.  Did everyone else like… not play that way?  If so, how did y’all play?  Did you just ignore the borderlands?)

 

I think the reason Darkhaven was an exception to that is that we had some very competitive players, and pugs who were very used to coordinating together and the server developed a very unique culture.  I almost never experienced toxicity on Darkhave from allies, and on the rare occasions I did, multiple Darkhaven veterans would ALWAYS stand up for me, and I would always stand up for others.

 

Now, in my new match ups, when I try to stand up for others against toxic behavior, I just get lit into with the same toxic crap, and no one else feels empowered to, or even tries, to help diffuse things.  So as a result  of course I don't feel very empowered to stand up for people either, I still try to, but it’s NOT fun to be the only one trying to talk some calm/respect/sense into the toxic people.  The toxic is winning and I feel exhausted.   

 

And to be honest, if you know basic human psychology, you will be able to understand why not having dedicated home servers and having match ups change every month creates this situation.  It's because there's no sense of community in the servers/worlds themselves anymore.  Not having the “Worlds” as long term social groups=no social accountability or consistency except internally within the specific guilds.  This means subconsciously, people who form strong social attachments will put in less effort for tea work, as they don’t view it as their “home” or long term team mates.

 

Constantly being able to move on to new social environments and not face long term social accountability for your behavior is letting the toxic happen, and discouraging to many who would normally stand up against that type of behavior because they aren’t experiencing the support that a long term social community provides in such situations.  (If you actually study Psychology you already know that this is in fact a hallmark of sociopaths and people who lack empathy. I’m not blanket stigmatizing and calling y'all people who act this way sociopaths, I know you're probably just frustrated gamers and deep down it's probably not your fault you're acting this way, I'm just saying that not having home servers exacerbates the situation, and if I was Anet i would have seen this coming, in fact it’s wild that they didn’t see that coming.  Especially considering there is basically no accountability as far as reporting toxic people and exploiters and cheaters to Anet.  If they will not get banned and not experience any consequences, why report?  By the same logic, if you’re one of those people, what incentive do you have to change your behavior?   But I don’t work for A net, so I don’t get a say).

 

By contrast let me share the experience I had with the very few people I ever met on Darkhaven who initially acted toxic to me, it’s real simple: Darkhaven veterans stood up for me, and the other people experiencing toxicity, then the community continued to support me and teach me to improve.  And I mean they really put in some epic effort to help me improve as a scout, roamer and commander.  The toxic people never bothered me again for the most part, but I did see a few of them around, in my group even, being helpful and constructive and MAYBE even thinking to themselves: “Wow, look at how much this person learned and how helpful they are to our team now that we gave them a chance to be themselves and some support!” Maybe.  But either way, their actions, and my actions, spoke louder than words.  I’m glad they could come around to being constructive and helpful, ad I’m glad I had the community support to endure the initial toxicity and continue to grow as a player despite experiencing toxicity and being purposefully discouraged by individuals sometimes. 

 

All I want is to help the pugs organize and have fun content that isn't constantly facing mega guilds we're not equipped to face(without another mega guild)!

Now it seems everything is Mega Guild oriented, to the exclusion of all other forms of WvW gameplay.  Time zones are impossible to manage this way with pugs who are never  going to feel like they have a home and they can actually get to know their regular PUGmanders.  (On that note I've had so many people from Darkhaven compliment me on my commanding over the years and tell me that I'm their favorite commander etc, and it always melts my heart. I loved that server so much.  I even had some people on Moogooloo tell me that.  It was uplifting, and I gotta say Moogooloo during that specific match up wasn't that bad.  We were even fightin MAG and it didn't feel terrible when our mega guilds were offline because that temporary community seemed pretty supportive for the most part.)

 

This is complete honesty straight from my heart: I always loved Anet as a developer and I've always wanted to support guild wars.  I enjoyed all the expansions so far.  GW1 and 2. But in recent years I've always played this game for the WvW first and foremost.

 

And I will also say that I really had a terrible time in every single WvW restructuring beta previously.  I never at any point thought this was a good idea, and I've been vocal about it in hopes I could talk some sense into everyone.  I've noticed a decent amount of old Darkhaven WvW friends who have quit recently after this update (at least I haven't seen them online to talk to them).  Many, many more say they are having a mixed bag/tough time in the new match ups.  

 

That is probably because: They treasured the Server community far and above Mega Guilds.  In fact many people I know and literally hundreds of people I don't know well at all have stated exactly that: Allowing a 500 person stacked mega guild to become the norm, indeed the expectation, was a huge mistake.  It's excluding and killing all other playstyles in WvW. And it seems to be impossible to figure out the time zones so it’s killing the off hours play too I guess.

 

I'm gonna say it again, at times like this, when i'm in dire straits beset by and outnumbered by enemies on all sides (enemies that are either colluding or focusing on us because we are weakest in population at this hour and therefore easy to farm)... I miss my Darkhaven family.

 

It wasn't so bad facing MAG or JQ or BG as part of the Darkhaven community, even though they almost always outnumbered us during my time zone.  I actually kind of enjoyed the strategic challenge of facing a numerically superior foe as a pugmander or roamer on DH.  At least my allies were constructive and supportive and we all actually followed advice given by veteran players well, so we could actually succeed in situations like this quite often.  

 

It was fun to often be able to take them on and win while outnumbered with just pugs and no need for any mega guild, we had the Darkhaven Family who were used to working together against such odds and coordinating.  

 

By contrast, our new match ups are terrible a decent  amount of the time.  Or totally dead during my time zone, which is something new for me at least.  

It's obvious there are always some veteran players who are smart and know what to do to counter higher population enemies at that hour of the day.  But our pugs won't listen half the time or more.

 

And to be honest, can you blame them? maybe they're new? maybe they're confused?  They're thrown into a living hell with little to no friendly faces (seems like a punishment for enjoying small group content over blob v blob, like A net is choosing to invalidate their preferred playstyle.)

 

What result did you expect from throwing random pugs into match ups with mega guilds?  ( I expected some demoralized and confused pugs, but to be fair I did not expect this much toxic behavior from allies.  Nor did I expect people to be so bad at communicating constructively outside of the Darkhaven server, or not understand how to slot tactics or use EWP etc.  I expected  there may be spies and traitors but not this constantly trolling the tactics on our major objectives that is happening at some hours of the day on some match ups.  And i mean it is so bad we can never use the tactics, because they’re always on cooldown whenever the traitors are online.)  

 

The other day I literally had a commander ask me to "hide my tag so the pugs will get demoralized and leave EBG so the good players can join". This was a genuine”WTF?” moment for me.  They’re prioritizing their guild’s interest’s over the well being of other players, in fact actively advocating for the exclusion of allied players.  Demoralizing and excluding PUGs undermines the community’s spirit and goes against the Camaraderie and teamwork that I used to think were core principles of this game.  Now I guess it’s “join a mega guild or get lost.”

 

They wanted to make room for their guild, I get it, but WOW it feels so toxic and is such a pathetic attitude to have against your own team mates!  This is the ultimate symbolism of why Mega guilds are not everyone's cup of tea, and yet making them the rule rather than the exception, killing dedicated home servers, and basically forcing everyone to join an alliance or be set adrift on the tides of chaos.... sucks.

 

I never even have a chance to organize and train the pugs in any of my matchups.  They never get a chance to adjust.  The month just goes by and most of them are gone next match up, and whispering me all confused: "I can't I play WvW with u anymore? :(" or: “Bummer, I guess we’re against each other this match up..” (I do offer people to join my new guild for what it’s worth.  Some accept. Many don’t feel up to being in a mega guild/WvW focused guild, and that’s totally understandable.  What isn’t understandable is that that fact now forces us to be separated every month, when it used to not be a problem.  You used to be able to be consistent WvW friends with someone who was in a different guild than you.)

 

OF COURSE I ask my guild leader if they can join us, and I teach them to submit a ticket so they can get into the current match up without waiting a month. But imagine all the pugs who are confused and not able to ask for help, or they never meet a pugmander or veteran that really shows them the ropes and so they just stay confused!  Imagine all the people who genuinely prefer not to be in a mega guild or WvW focused guild?  It's a very competitive environment and some people are shy, or just have different preferences than the devs are assuming people have. (Why assume anything in life?  Assumptions are usually not the way to go…)  This is a terrible situation to force people who aren't in a WvW guild (or are in a small, unallied one) to be in!  By contrast  dedicated home servers actually felt like home.  It was great!

 

(I’ve also recently learned that Anet is no longer accepting tickets for switching worlds mid match up. I have a friend that has been waiting all month to join my new WvW alliance. I finally got a chance to invite them too.  They’re taking it well, but I’m sad I haven’t been able to play with them all month :’(  Technically they were just late setting the auxiliary guild as their WvW guild, they joined us in time for this current match up, just a technicality, so I was really hoping Anet would be a bit easy going like they had been earlier.  But they were told to just wait a whole month… so… bummer.  They’re not playing WvW at all these past 3 months btw. I hadn't seen them online in a while.)

 

Before it seemed like different servers had different playstyles, and I was really happy with my old home server, and all the pugs there seemed to embrace the style of the small guilds and roamers and veterans in my timezone and they followed instructions and gave helpful callouts...

 

Now, people are literally getting yelled at for trying to do a callout but not being specific enough or messing up the timing of it even when they are still learning! (the person in question was new to WvW, messed up a callout for fire keep,  and subsequently said they would never try to do any callouts ever again after the response).  

 

In general, all returning players that weren't here to hear about the update, all new players, all WvW newbies (bless their hearts they are trying to learn, I wish we were on Darkhaven together so I could actually have some dedicated time to teach them how to play WvW effectively, long term perspective) and even a lot of veteran roamers and veterans who prefer small scale content or really didn't want to join a mega guild... a lot of them either confused, having a very underwhelming and disappointing time playing WvW, or they've quit. 

 

I didn't realize Darkhaven was so unique until now.  I knew I was blessed of course, I treasured every moment of my playtime on Darkhaven and I was always super excited to welcome and train anyone who was new to WvW.  I was always excited to tag up and command, or roam and randomly run into friends. 

 

But that feeling actually feels kinda dead now.  Now I put minimal effort into welcoming and training new folks (I'm still very respectful and friendly, I still offer basic advice), because in the back of my subconscious brain, I know they'll probably just be gone next month anyways. 

 

I miss having a dedicated home server.  A place where I feel like I belong and everyone there knows me and supports me and treasures my playstyle.  A place where I feel connected to my teammates because I meet them consistently and play with them consistently throughout the months.  A place where people offer me friendly advice instead of toxic outbursts because we all know each other and have for a long time, and there's consistent social accountability for how people behave. That created genuine and lasting respect between us.  Even the members of Darkhaven who sometimes criticized me (rarely) almost always eventually came around to see that, when in an encouraging environment with communicative people, I could indeed be pretty good at WvW, good at  commanding, and be an asset to the team.   Because with a little positive encouragement and guidance,  and especially if they can get a chance to get used to their servers playstyle and the pugmanders who are consistently  present, the pugs can thrive.  And with some support from my server I can actually be a very effective pugmander.  

Good scouts and roamers help, but on these new match ups people don't even seem to understand how to slot tactics on objectives.  I consistently show up to T3 keeps and towers that don't have helpful tactics slotted (when we desperately need EWP and it's too late to slot it and wait for it to activate).  On some of these match ups there are apparently spies and traitors because someone keeps pulling our EWP and other tactics for no reason. 

 

Now, am I misunderstanding that a big part of the point of WvW restructuring was to address population imbalance?  I was under the impression that this was one  of the major goals.  Why Are the timezones not being managed well?  I guess it's an impossible task the WvW devs have set for themselves? (that's what many people are saying)

 

I would so much rather face these impossible odds with Darkhaven at my side.  I am not having fun with random match ups every month and the only consistent allies being the ones from the mega guilds in my alliance.  If it had been up to me I would probably never have joined a mega guild to be honest.  But it's not up to me, the WvW devs made the choice to make mega guilds the focus of the team balancing and reset the social environment every month(honestly, think about how you would feel if you were forced to live in a different city every month and you constantly had to leave behind the community you were interconnected with).  

 

They chose to kill dedicated home servers. My first match up on Yohlon Haven I was drifting on the winds of chaos with a small guild I had a few friends in.  The leader didn't want to join an alliance, and to be honest I don't really blame them.  I treasure that person and those friends and I am sad that I felt I had to leave them behind for my WvW experience to improve  (i've even fought against them multiple times now, same with other old friends).  It was a common attitude on Darkhaven.  And considering we could actually consistently face and defeat mega guilds with only pugs and some smart strategy, it used to be a valid attitude.  

 

But now that attitude seems to be invalidated by the way A Net has chosen mega guilds as their standard.  We are being forced to play WvW in a specific way: Mega guild or bust.  But honestly, I don't know how anything else was expected.  How were these problems not seen in advance?  Do the devs even play WvW?  Me and many of my friends saw this coming and have been skeptical and (me personally and a few close friends at least) opposed to this from the start.  That doesn't mean I'm not giving it a fair chance.  I have been playing and it has been inconsistent and rough.  Challenging, often in the not so fun way.  That doesn't mean I'm just hating for no reason.  I want to give constructive feedback that won't just fall on deaf ears.  

 

If this WvW restructure is "working as intended", then the intentions sucked.  

 

I do like my new guild, the people are nice.  But again, even when our blob is the one winning, I’m just not a big fan of the playstyle.  

 

I miss Darkhaven waaaay more than I identify with my new guild, and I do not feel good about the state of WvW.  Heck, I don't even really feel good commanding anymore for the most part, which is sad.  It's just stressful and exhausting these days.  I constantly have to explain what I’m doing or else i get yelled at, by contrast people on Darkhaven came to understand my strategies and tactics over time and they seemed to embrace them and like following my tag.  The past few years it was always really fun being a pug commander on Darkhaven.  I guess I will just have to treasure the memories I have from my home server and let this all go and move on. 

 

This brings me to my next (and very sad) point, and several very unfortunate and tough decisions I have been forced to make recently:

I'm not buying Janthir Wilds, and I'm taking an extended  break from Guild Wars 2 this Fall and Winter season.  

It’s sad, in a way, that it’s come to this.  Guild wars has always been a solace for me during the cold dark winter nights.  I hate to miss Halloween and Wintersday, I hate to miss the new expansion, I hate to leave behind the game I've enjoyed so much since 2012, my favorite videogame of all time if i'm being honest.  I have more hours in Guild Wars 2 than any other 3-4 games combined, the only potential exceptions being Freelancer, Battlefield(but that's a whole franchise), and of course GW1 is my second most played game of all time.  3,500ish hours (in GW2) wellspent, and I don’t regret a moment of it (though the WvW has been rough I was determined to give this update a genuine try, to really give it a chance. So while it has been demoralizing and has sucked at times recently, I can honestly say I gave it my all, and don’t regret any of the past 4,378 days.)

 

But as I stated I primarily play this game for WvW these days.  Working towards a new Aurene legendary or working on more legendary armor isn't appealing to me if I can't enjoy it in WvW with my friends at some point in the future.  If I can't trust that this WvW experience and my friends will be there for me in the future and be consistent, this game loses it’s appeal to me.(I know  because I recently finished several new legendaries, including iIncinerator and Dreamer and several new pieces of armor. It didn't feel nearly as satisfying as it used to now that Darkhaven doesn’t exist.) 

 

The game has taken on a stressful and forced feeling the past few months.  I force myself to log on because I know I need to put the effort in to give this new update a chance and give all the new people I am meeting a chance to get to know my authentic self.  But then they’re gone a month later anyways, so what’s the point of building that rapport/nurturing that connection?

 

I just feel so hollow.  I feel like I’ve abandoned my family, and I feel abandoned.  Yet, I offered everyone I knew very well to join my new guild, and most said they weren’t interested in mega guilds or wanted to stay with their previous guild.  My new guild has welcomed me with open hearts and they seem to value me, so that’s something positive at least.  

 

I guess now that I think about it I feel abandoned and betrayed by the devs too, which is a bummer, because I always really liked Anet and the content they created.

 

Now it's just stressful and exhausting for me to play WvW  mostly, and to be perfectly honest, I don't play Guild Wars to be stressed out.  I play it to have fun, I play it to socialize in a virtual environment where my friends and I get to discover infinite challenges to face together in a constructive and positive way.  I play it because I identify with the "tribe" of my home server Darkhaven that I chose at launch and have been WvWing on since launch.  I play it because the connections I had to the players there felt long term and consistent, I play it to welcome and help new people because I know that will make them more likely to stay on Darkhaven and learn to love the playstyle of the veterans on the Darkhaven world.  I train them because I know they will contribute going forward and most of all because I know that no matter what guilds they join, no matter how rarely they play WvW, we will always be friends and it's very very likely we will randomly meet up occasionally roaming on Darkhaven in my time zone, consistently, going forwards. 

 

That's exactly, precisely, and to the letter, what kept me playing this game for 12 years.  

 

And the WvW dev team just decided to invalidate and kill all of that.  I’m not mad, I’m not salty, I don’t “hate” anyone for this, the truth is I've always loved and supported A net as a developer and been understanding even when mistakes are made.

 

What I am is crying.  What I am is frustrated, stressed and sad.  

 

I am disappointed and crestfallen. 

 

Above all: I am homesick.

 

I've  been on Yohlon Haven, Moogooloo Ruined Cathedral of Blood (ironic choice of names, yes, my WvW experience feels pretty ruined) and Cathedral of Blood, and yet if my life on this earth and my experiences in this game  over the years has taught me anything... 

 

It's that there's no place like home.  

 

So, I can't believe I am saying this, but goodbye.  I gave this a fair shot, 3 months + all the beta tests I had terrible experiences with.  I doubt I will ever again buy an expansion or play this game regularly if WvW doesn't improve and the experience doesn't get more consistent month to month.  If you think mega guilds and blob v blob is everyone's style or that it's ok to force that on the entire population of the game, then you're way out of touch with a decent chunk of your playerbase.  A lot of people I've talked to are struggling with this and are very demoralized.  Some of them are veteran players and they know exactly what’s wrong, but rolling with the punches.  A lot of the pugs and new players I meet are confused or outright demoralized.  Some don’t realize what they’re missing or understand why these problems now exist.  "Roaming is dead", "WvW is dead" "All we do is blob v blob" "Mega guilds killed WvW" are all  phrases I unfortunately hear a lot, and they are pretty valid points and I can totally understand people's frustrations.  My situation would likely be even worse if I had refused to join a mega guild, so I must thank my new guildies for making some of the last two months fun for me! ❤️

 

But overall I can tell the consistency is not present.  It's not an environment I feel empowered to tag up and command in.  I've tried, a lot, and don't get me wrong I've had some amazing fights and runs when the pugs actually listen and the rest of the server communicates with me instead of being toxic.  But again, consistency is the key, and it’s lacking.  If every few months I'm going to be in a terrible match up with toxic people who no one is going to stand up to, and not even have Darkhaven by my side to face the impossible odds of being outmatched in player population during my timezone… if i have to deal with random new allies and a totally different social ecosystem every month with potential new toxic people who never get a chance to know me or appreciate me at my best... then I'm done pug commanding and I'm done playing Guild wars 2.  Unless these things change, I’m done supporting and contributing monetarily to the game.

 

I will check back in, maybe in the springtime of 2025 or something, and see if things have improved.  Because I really love this game and it has always held a special place in my heart.  But unfortunately I am not hopeful that the WvW will be able to draw me back into enjoying the game consistently.  

 

This is so chaotic.  Stress and toxicity and "lets demoralize the pugs" is not why I play this game.   

I tried  so hard to bring  the Darkhaven spirit with me wherever i ended up and constructively and positively approach every match up with and open mind and to try to teach everyone who was confused how to function against overwhelming numbers, but honestly, starting over again every month is exhausting and stressful and it all seems to be dependent on mega guilds now.

 

I'm done giving this my all, it breaks my heart but I g2g.  I would rather treasure the memories of the last 12 years than be stressed out every other month at random just for playing my favorite game.  

Goodbye Guild wars, Goodbye A Net, goodbye everyone, I love you all so much!

 

And above all, Goodbye Darkhaven and family.  It has been so much fun! I have truly had a blast over the past 12 years on Darkhaven, it was an honor and a privilege to fight at your side! Y'all are the Dante to my Inferno, the Sun Tzu to my Art of War, my brothers and sisters.  I will never, ever, forget you. ❤️

Goodbye. 

 

Best wishes, and best of luck, from the bottom of my heart

 

-Astrya

 

[WvW World Restructuring Beta Feedback and Future]

Hey! It's Astrya.  Hope everyone is well.

Ok, so Follow up feedback...

I switched to Moogooloo/joined a new guild. (the new guild is great) I've reconnected with a few people from Darkhaven so that's nice 🙂

I'm still REALLY sad that the rest of my old WvW friends are scattered all over the place.  (i've seen some of u on enemy team 😛)

 

My number one observation is that population coverage is SOOO inconsistent right now.  One day we're slightly outnumbered but holding our own at the time i play, the next we're so ridiculously outnumbered there's little hope.  Same time of the night, Tuesday compared to Wednesday... (it seems like they've staked everything on guilds, it's ALL about when the large guilds are online i guess? it was a huge factor before, but on Darkhaven it wasn't the defining factor, PUGs could handle things usually on the off hours. Maybe the new comunities aren't fully formed and the PUG team work and synergy will increase overtime)

I really hope they can continue to improve the population coverage balancing. (Am i understanding that exactly this was the main goal of this update? right?)

I wish the devs at Anet the best of luck in this endeavor, although I still disagree with their decision to disband the legacy servers and scatter/destroy the old communities, I want to support GW2, and WvW, and hope that they can improve going forwards.

 

Above all I want us to maintain (or grow) our WvW player base.

Which brings me to my next point, and my largest concern.  Yohlon Haven kinda seemed like it was bleeding people in the off times.  Like, people who were used to playing late PST were just getting so discouraged they were logging off in droves or going to PvE.  99% casuals nope'd out during that time zone, unless they were lucky enough to meet me on a night I was doing PPT because everything else was hopeless.  

I saw the same thing happening on Moogooloo tonight.  Now i understand a lot of people have been on their last push to defend garri or whatever for a while becasue it's actually the end of their day, so it's natural ppl are leaving.

But i am worried that this situation is so discouraging for some people, especially casuals or ppl new to WvW, that we are actually losing people from the margins.  Not from the main time zone mmind you, where it wouldn't matter much, but from the margins, where EVERY single person really counts and has to participate because there's far less pop coverage to begin with.

One of my favorite things to do on Darkhaven was help people new to WvW!  You may be surprised at how often that was.  Lots of people were hopping in for gift of battle or something and they would get hooked after following my tag or roaming with me for a few days in a row. 

I've had that experience ZERO times since restructure.  No new ppl at all that i've run into.  Which is a big change from what i'm used to. 

So my major concern is that we will loose people who would normally populate the off hours margins.  Some maybe permanently.  And maybe discourage new players who would naturally play at that time too. All my friends (most from this time zone of course, its when i play) sounds a bit discouraged, or admit to very unfavorable match ups, borderlands empty of allies but and full of enemies, or  empty of everyone... etc.  Some are very discouraged.

BTW anyone who is in that situation, I encourage you to speak out, not toxically of course, but share! even if your experience is negative and it's emotional for you.  

As always just my thoughts and experience, I'm not perfect, and I don't expect WvW or GW2 or Anet to be.  

I wish everyone the best in these turbulent times!

 

Sincerely, 

Someone who was on Darkhaven since launch and considered that server my family ❤️

[WvW World Restructuring Beta Feedback and Future]

Hey, I figured I would add my feedback here.

I don't want to be a downer, but my experience of the WvW restructuring betas haven't been good.  The permeant beta (those words still boggle my mind... "permanent beta"...) has been similar.  I've pug commanded once so far, that went well at least.

But in general, I guess I was very attached to Darkhaven.  I was friends with so many people throughout the guilds.  

One thing I don't understand: we are still having massively unfair population imbalance issues.  WTF?  It's really sad to me that my our communities were disbanded and scattered to the winds and were not even getting the one positive thing that was the goal of this change.

Honestly I didn't really mind being outnumbered most of the 24 hour cycle when I was on Darkhaven.  Our roamers and scouts were so good at communicating that I honestly felt it was fun to face impossible odds when we didn't have peak population.  But in all the WvW restructuring betas it has sucked.  Most of the time it's just blob vs blob, or enemy blob going around effortlessly papering everything.

My new server seems to not care about the borderlands at all.  Which is weird, because the enemy servers definitely seem to.  I find this to be a really crappy circumstance. 

I've chosen to move with my guild, and we floated, since we were not in an alliance I guess.  I could join the ex-dakrhaven community, or BREW, or another of the guilds I have friends in, and I almost did, but then I would be away from my current guildies.  Either way there are dozens and dozens of people I feel like I was good friends with that I will perhaps never see again.  WvW on Darkhaven was the only thing we had in common.  

I hope all my friends found new pugmanders, they deserve to have a good WvW experience.  Im super sad i cannot be there to help them.

 

Im really trying to search for some sort of positive light in the darkness.  I was really hoping that light would be: "At least we have equally balanced population coverage on all the servers", but alas, it seems this is not the case 😕

 

Overall, I would say results are mixed and I've not been having such a great experience with the WvW restructuring.  This time around isn't quite as terrible as the past mini beta's, but I was really hoping... Well, if we're going to sacrifice our legacy servers and the amazing communities they had become... I was at least hoping it would work (successfully adress population balancing)

 

I don't know what my feedback will accomplish.  I just wanted to let the devs know what I've been experiencing.  I can speak for a lot of other people too when I say this has been a really sad and challenging time for a lot of people I know.

 

[World Restructuring Beta will run from January 12 to February 2!]

Honestly worst week I've had in WvW ever.   There don't seem to be ANY large guilds on Giant's Rise in my time zone, and yet we are fighting KOIN, VIP, etc, and the enemy seems to vastly outnumber us in every map in my time zone.  We are getting destroyed in both enemy borderlands, and our Home borderlands, and often even in EBG.  I'm soloing a decent amount of towers, getting a lot of roaming kills, but I haven't even completed my weekly ad that makes me really frustrated.

Also, why are there weeklies i Edge of the mists? like, HOW is that even relevant, there's ever anyone there?

[Jan 2024 WvW Restructure]

Honestly worst week I've had in WvW ever.   There don't seem to be ANY large guilds on Giant's Rise, ad yet we are fighting KOIN, VIP, etc, and the enemy seems to vastly outnumber us in my time zone.  We are getting destroyed in both enemy borderlands, and our Home borderlands, and often even in EBG.  I'm soloing a decent amount of towers, getting a lot of roaming kills, but I haven't even completed my weekly ad that makes me really frustrated.

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

17 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

I agree with you about the price but you can circument this can you not?

You can just have a friend in your home town buy and email you the code and you transfer them money right?

Ok, GOOD idea!

 

I remember this being very challenging with Tarkov lol, but maybe GW2 will be easier!

 

Thanks!

 

(These business practices are still a bummer though.)

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

On 12/31/2021 at 7:55 AM, mythical.6315 said:

This issue is your government. If you don’t like having to pay that tax then take it up with them.  Don’t insult a company that doesn’t pay the tax for you. 

 

Good luck getting tax laws changed in any country as a lone private citizen.

 

So in Europe I'm being charged 79.99 Euro +14.99Euro in tax which comes out to $107ish in USD.

 

So $79.99 (what I would pay if I were in Alaska) or $107.  I WAS seriously considering paying the fair taxed price, but now that I realize the extend to which they're actually overcharging, I'm leaning against buying now, or even buying at all.

 

They're overcharging because of incorrect currency conversion AND charging tax on top.

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

So I almost followed through, again.  

 

But when I got to check out it was not only charging me $92 dollars or so because it's charging 79.99 euro... but also 14 something tax in euros...

 

So apparently they're not including tax at all in the blanket 79.99 euro price, they're just flat out extorting by refusing to use a fair conversion of the currency.

 

I'm torn, I really want the ultimate edition for the characters slot, gems, etc, and I really want to pre-order... But I will be in Europe until after launch.

 

SO I guess I will wait and buy the cheapest version once I am back home, since I won't be able to get the preoder.  Or think about how I feel and if I want to buy the game at all.  Unfortunately for me and for Anet and for NC soft... Funny how sometimes everyone loses when someone tries to be greedy.

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

On 12/31/2021 at 7:55 AM, mythical.6315 said:

This issue is your government. If you don’t like having to pay that tax then take it up with them.  Don’t insult a company that doesn’t pay the tax for you. 

So, to be specific, my government is the US government, and in the state I live in, Alaska, there is no tax and I would be charged the flat price, 79.99 USD.

 

However, I am not in Alaska, I am not in the US, and I cannot purchase it via "my government".  SO it costs $92+tax.

 

I thought I made this clear in my post.  Besides, I think you're misunderstanding the point.

 

As several other people have said, this is just greed plain and simple.

 

I can and will insult whoever and whatever company I want for being greedy. 

 

No offense to you personally 🙂

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

On 12/30/2021 at 1:42 AM, Ashantara.8731 said:

I am not sure the devs have any say in this. Isn't everything financial handled by the publisher (in this case NCsoft)?

If that was the case, there would have been different prices within Europe and not the 1:1 conversion for all countries that we are seeing everywhere in games and on gaming platforms.

I also remember South Americans complaining about the horrendous prices in gaming that many just cannot afford (in relation to their regular salary).

Let's just face it: a uniformed price tag just isn't fair nor correct (in terms of conversion rates and taxes).

I agree.

 

And i didn't mean that the devs could fix it.

 

I meant that they could acknowledge it, and acknowledge the public pressure on their publisher to treat people fairly and be mathematically correct in their transactions.

 

But that would perhaps put their funding at risk I suppose...

So i guess i understand why they don't..

 

That's how greed wins.

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

1 hour ago, Bakeneko.5826 said:

I mean difference would be 6 or 7 EUR, it's not that much

Haha, obviously NC soft disagrees with you or they would do it differently.

 

And I disagree with you. No offense of course 🙂

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

51 minutes ago, mythical.6315 said:

If you were in a similar situation as them, would you do what you’re requesting of them (i.e. pay the tax for every purchase out of your company’s pockets)?  Most likely not. 

Oh yes, most definitely.

 

If I had that much money I like to believe I would definitely do the morally correct thing and treat people fairly!

 

Then again, I'm not NC soft.

 

Maybe if I was I would already be corrupted

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

1 hour ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

Yes, but the taxes are not high enough to warrant a 1:1 conversion.

The companies are still making extra money by milking the foreign currency markets.

For the same reason Steam and all other game companies do it: greed  it is simpler and doesn't cause you a headache to convert to foreign currencies, and the extra money is nice, too. 😉

Thanks for your honesty!

That makes sense, it's what my intuition was telling me.

 

No chance the devs will ever acknowledge this then I suppose 😒😕

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

Alaska does not add sales tax to purchases, online or otherwise.

Seems like I should just go home already...

 

I think they should consider being more clear about that, instead of advertising one price in USD and then charging another in Euro.

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

*update*

 

So I tried again.  Turns out I can't even seem to log in to the GW2 website while a VPN is active.  I can browse while not logged in, but as soon as I try to check out it just says "log in to continue".

 

If I don't use a VPN it works fine, but the advertised price is originally $79.99, and then changes to €79.99 (over $90) when I check out.

[Considering buying EoD, why doesn't Anet adjust for currency value in Euro €?]

Hey Everyone!  Happy Holidays, hope you're all having a wonderful wintersday!

 

I want to buy EoD,  but I noticed some pricing discrepancy. 

I have been in Europe for some time now and will likely not be back in the US any time soon, and unfortunately the actual value of what I'm purchasing seems to be different here.

 

So I have one simple question, for the devs really: Why do you not adjust for currency value between USD and Euro?  Why financially discriminate against customers in Europe?

 

I'm considering buying EoD Ultimate edition.  I was gonna get it for myself for a Christmas present :)

 

I logged on to do so, and realized it costs the same in Euros and in USD! :( 

Not the same value, just the same numerical digits.

 

$79.99 ≠ €79.99 (just a friendly fyi, ahem, Anet.. they might LOOK the same numerically, but you're gonna wanna check the market currency exchange rate and update your math, it fluctuates.)

 

To make matters worse, they actually advertise $79.99 to me... then when I go to actually buy it they try to charge €79.99!  So that's not just ripping off people in Europe, that's lying and false advertising!

 

Now I do realize it's not much money, and you may think I'm making too big a deal, or that i'm rich or whatever since I'm wanting to buy the ultimate edition.

But I'm not rich, and while I want to support Anet for making a truly amazing game that I love and continue to enjoy... I just can't stand for this.

 

I mean... what would happen if I try to buy it with Pesos or Rupees...

 

I was curious, I thought it was ridiculous they were charging me and extra $10 in value just because I am in Europe... They wouldn't do that for most other currencies, because if they did they did the ultimate edition of EoD would be valued at about $1.00 in India (approx $79.99 converted to rupees).  That thought was slightly entertaining, but Obviously they would never do that.  My question is what makes it OK to do it the other way around, and not adjust fairly in a currency that's almost always valued higher than USD$?  

 

SO, I VPN'ed myself to India, and checked the price, lo and behold: $79.99, with the exchange rate decided by your card/bank.

Same with every other country I have checked outside of Europe, like Mexico, or Brazil.

(I tried to purchase with a VPN active, but I got error 106 when I tried to enter my card.  I don't actually know if that has anything to do with the fact that I was using a VPN, hopefully just an unrelated error that will sort itself out in time.  I will try again.  Hopefully it will work eventually.  On moral principle, I am not OK with Anet ripping off people in Europe or discriminating in any way.  I would like to pay the fair and advertised price, and I would like for everyone to be able to do so.)

 

So my line of questioning continues: wtf?   It may not seem like a big deal to some people, or obviously to Anet, but the more I think about this the more crazy it seems.

Why charge $79.99 everywhere in the world but Europe, and yet charge €79.99 in Europe?  

I wonder if it would stay that way if the Euro dropped below the dollar?

Why not just charge $79.99 in Europe too?

 

If i'm understanding the bigger picture I'm seeing correctly... it's currently about $10 in value more expensive to purchase EoD ultimate edition in Europe vs everywhere else.

The Euro has recently been dropping in value recently, so buying in Euro's is less of a rip off now than it has been.

So anyone who bought gems or EoD when the Euro was high got even more screwed!

 

Why have the system like this?!

 

I bought this up in Lions Arch in game, and people didn't seem aware of this fact.  Gems are literally more expensive in Europe.  Currently "scaled 13% for all your purchases" more expensive, as a helpful fellow pointed out to me in game chat.

 

So I thought people should be aware of it.  I am wondering what everyone else thinks.

 

Am I missing something?  I obviously have not yet gone through with the purchase, so I hope it works out... but for the moment I find myself very disappointed in Anet and confused as to why they would do this?  Considering most people remain ignorant of the fact that people in Europe are paying 13% more for Guild Wars 2 purchases than the rest of the world... I don't really know what to make of it.  At the very least they could at least advertise the price correctly and let people know what value they're spending/getting in comparison... At the very best they could simply sell in USD and let the exchange rate adjust for the value fairly in Europe.  Like they do for the rest of the world.  What's different about Europe, am I missing something as far as convenience or buying power?

 

I am no expert economist or anything, but this seems unfair and dishonest.