Anet Blog: Choosing and Transferring Worlds in Guild Wars 2

[Lensor]

ArenaNet has posted a blog detailing server selection, including a list of servers at launch: http://www.arena.net/blog/choosing-a...n-guild-wars-2 Needless to say, there are a lot of important tidbits to be found in this post, so make sure to check it out and discuss server selection in the forums!

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[RD]

Wow, changing servers will cost gems. Guess now we know why they moved away from one server. That's a little disappointing, I have to say. I know it is in line with other MMOs, but that's not really the impression I got from when they were talking about being able to freely move between servers.

[Смерть]

The guesting sounds interesting...though limited-whatever else that entails besides WvWvW.

As far as permanently switching worlds; is this just for servers, or can one freely move about worlds within US or EU?

[RD]

It sounds like the charge is for moving among worlds.

Guesting makes it a lot better, but I worry about the alliance and PvP / WvWvW.

[Alaris]

Seems like aside for WvW, you can play with friends independent of server. Guesting takes care of that.

If you want to play WvW with friends though, you need to plan ahead. Better not chance it and make sure our alliance is on the same server.

[Cyberman]

Seems like aside for WvW, you can play with friends independent of server. Guesting takes care of that.

When Guild Wars 2 launches, you will also have the option to play with your friends on another world with our free “guesting” feature.

This "guesting" is only at launch? So afterwards, you're stuck forever on your "world" unless you pay up?
(Yes, I'm splitting hairs. My hairdresser doesn't like it either. Still, the wording is suspiciuous, "when GW2 launches" translates to "in the beginning" for me.)

I can't say I like it. I'd like to put into more words WHY I don't like it, but somehow all I can think is that I REALLY don't like it, and it feels like a blow.
I never liked the splintering of games. I see no use and certainly no reason for it. At worst it'll make your character even less unique (as someone else could have just the same name, but on another server).
At best - I don't know, is there an upside to it?

I was hoping that the servers/worlds/instances of GW2 would be like in GW1 - free to chose whenever you feel like it with no real consequences.

[Gorani]

So if I change a guild and the play on a different world for WvW I practically have to pay 1.800 gems?
Sounds a lot. What is a gem in terms of in-game money or RL coin ?

[Art]

It's 800 gems for a new character Gorani, so I'm guessing about $30 to change world.

-Art

[Смерть]

When you log in to the game for the first time, you will have the opportunity to pick any available server, or home world. If you choose to select a home world that is in a different region from where you purchased your game, you will be logged out for a short period of time while your account is moved to your new region. Once you have selected a home world, all the characters you create will play on this world and will represent it in our world-versus-world (WvW) format.

So the game is bought in on either the US or EU territories (depending on where you live). One is able to choose from the server "worlds" either under US or EU territories; nice..

When Guild Wars 2 launches, you will also have the option to play with your friends on another world with our free “guesting” feature. With guesting, your characters can play on any world where you have friends—with certain restrictions. For instance, you will not be able to participate in WvW while guesting.

How long does the guesting last?
Will one be able to log-out and log back into the same world while being guested?

If guesting works as seamlessly as district hopping in GW1, I don't see PvE being a problem whatsoever.

WvWvW though...

I am going to assume that no matter where a member is, everyone still contributes to building guild.

In general though--even though small--I don't like the idea of splitting community(guilds) between servers unless they pay. Splitting guilds up this way--especially for WvWvW oriented guilds--will just keep the guild faction-ed off rather than feeling like a whole.

[Gorani]

It's 800 gems for a new character Gorani, so I'm guessing about $30 to change world.

This is too much!