World vs World is fun, but I’m finding that the more I do
it, the more I find certain aspects of it wearing on me. I think the biggest of
all the issues is that it’s never a balanced fight, at least in an overall
sense. I was wary of this at first, but figured eventually the population
imbalance would sort itself out, or realms would be matched up via some sort of
hidden ladder system. As it turns out, that hasn’t been the case. Not even
remotely. I have never once been in a situation that within a few hours of a World
vs World reset, one realm wasn’t
clearly ahead. Never once has each realm managed to hold even close to a third
of the map each.
The Problems with Guild Wars 2 World vs World
This boils down to flaws within the system. The rewards you
get out of winning, the boosts off the orbs and such, basically make it easier
to keep winning when you’re already ahead. It has a sort of snowball effect on
how well your realm does. I wonder a little if that initial push is what wins
the entire battle for that reset; that being the first to win a keep, grab an
edge, deny your opponents orbs and supply. But I think it really boils down to
a mix of population and interest; the more people that hop into World vs World
soon after a reset, the more people that stay, the better the chances.
Isn’t it population capped though? I’ve certainly seen
queues for the WvW battlegrounds. So maybe it’s a lack of focus and too many
people off killing mobs or exploring. And that segues into one of the other
issues. There’s no good way to really organize in WvW. The groups are small,
the coordination mostly spur of the moment or guild based. I’m aware there’s a
book that lets one person form a raid, for 100 gold, which is no insignificant amount of
coin. If we look at the current gold to gems conversion and the monetary cost
of gems, that’s almost USD$470. Or several expensive exotic weapons, sets of
armour, and so forth.
All this just to form a larger group, which is virtually a
given mechanic in every other game. And it’s a given for a reason. Putting a
price on coordination is one thing, but being lumped into a group on entry lets
you see who’s off on their own and where the fight is. But more importantly, it
brings new players immediately into the fold, gives them directions and
something to pay mind to so they can learn and figure out where to go and what
to do.
Solutions?
In order to fix this, they need to alter things somewhat.
Either give people an option to auto-form groups or reduce the cost of the
raid-forming book significantly. Or even just have the map give more
information out on allies. Something to at least allow for slightly better
rudimentary organization.
And give the underdogs a bone. Being overrun shouldn’t make
things any harder than the fact you’ve already
been overrun. If a realm is stomping others, they don’t need extra buffs.
Giving the downtrodden realms a leg up would make things more interesting for
everyone. I mean really, how many people on those high-pop, winning by miles
every time realms really enjoy it? The times my primary realm has been in that
position, it’s been dreadfully boring. You basically just run around checking
on all the crossed swords, hoping that maybe they scraped together enough
people to assault a keep. It almost always isn’t the case.
But if it was a back and forward fight, if it was harder to
hold everything the more you held, easier to rush a tower when you have
nothing, the battles would last a lot longer and be more engaging, at least in
my opinion.
Don’t misunderstand, I like the World vs World PVP in Guild
Wars 2. It’s open enough to be fun screwing around in by yourself, and has
clear enough goals to be fun in a group. But it could be so much more epic if
the battles were harder fought and more constant.
- ED
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