Feedback:User/Dantana/World Switching and World Guests

World Switching and World Guests
User	Dantana
Categories	Player vs. Player Mechanics

Premise:

Permitting players to freely switch Worlds allows for liberal formation of teams in PvE and Structured PvP.

However, such freedom could cause grave imbalances in player numbers for certain (i.e. winning) Worlds in WvWvW.

(Concerning terminology: a World in the context of Guild Wars 2 is the equivalent of servers or shards in other online games.)

Suggested solution:

Mark player characters / accounts with a player-chosen Home World, with switching Home Worlds being restricted in some way. Players may only participate in WvWvW from their specific Home World.

At the same time, allow players to freely switch Worlds for the sake of team formation, with players on any World but their Home World being marked as World Guests.

A player marked as World Guest may participate in all activities but WvWvW; to join WvWvW, a switch back to the World Guest's specific Home World is necessary.

Addendum 1: WvWvW bonuses

Granting or denying the general bonuses for players of Worlds doing well in WvWvW for World Guests respectively produces two unfavourable situations: by granting them, the very same surge of players migrating to winning Worlds - the very problem a World Guest system would seek to prevent - would occur; by denying, World Guests in PvE would be disadvantaged in respect to their fellow 'native' players, thus creating a degree of discrimination towards World Guests in high-end PvE play.

If bonuses are all but negligible, latter option might not affect most areas of PvE gameplay. If they are of some significance, a compromise might be sensible:

a) grant World Guests smaller bonuses; and/or

b) grant bonuses for all players depending on in-game location, e.g. none in dungeons; and/or

c) grant players the bonuses of their Home Worlds irregardless of the current World they are playing in; and/or

d) grant World Guests the bonuses of the current World only if they are grouped with native players and in a certain proximity to each other.

Addendum 2: Community building

At multiple occassions the intention to form a smaller, more closed community in each World has been stated by ArenaNet. In this regard free World switching, even with the limitations of a World Guest system, could be detrimental. On the oppostite, putting World Guests at a disadvantage would certainly help communal World unity, but would again cause unwanted side effects as discussed in Addendum 1.

In this light, the compromises presented above have to be reconsidered:

a) smaller bonuses for World Guests might or might not limit the urge and benefits of World hopping to extents acceptable for in-game community building;

b) levelling the playing field for all players depending on location might completely negate the purpose of staying true to one's Home World, especially in organised PvE and PvP;

c) likewise, making bonuses granted by WvWvW victories independent from the World a player is currently in voids the use of staying at home other than for participating in WvWvW;

d) would limit migration of players that do not seek organised PvE play, but not of those that do.

Freedom of movement for liberal team formation and limitation of movement for unified community building thus appear as polar opposites, at least in the context of granting bonuses to players whose Home Worlds are successful in WvWvW. If community takes precedence over liberty, either denying World Guests any kind of bonuses or tying them to group membership with native players might be the most feasible options.

To other wikigoers: Please feel free to add your thoughts and considerations to the talk page. The problems this suggestion concerns itself with grow increasingly complex the more I think about them; I'd appreciate creative help.

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