Hi, 
 
Picked up the game today, was pretty pumped. So, my friends play on Sorrows Furnace server, and the GB guild is on Yaks bend. Now, as is my experience so far, you can't make new characters on new servers, they're all account bound, and you just move around as you see fit, am 'I getting that right? 
 
It just seems so different to what I was used to on other MMO's like Rift, WoW, and...every other MMO I have ever played. Am I getting this right then? Can I, at will, pick any server at any time, and "Transfer" between them at any time with no penalty? 
 
So I'll try to explain my grasp on things so far: You make a character, which is bound to your account. Instead of having your character locked into a server, you basically pick an "Instance" then go in at any time? So I could   just play with GB when my friends aren't on, then when they are, I can move over to play with them with no penalty? 
 
Sorry if it seems long winded and simple. Its just very unlike any other MMO's servers I have ever played

No you get locked into a server when you first pick one. You can change it but will eventually cost a fee to do so. Furthermore, you can't continuously do it, as they restrict how often you can do it as well. Just checked in-game, right now there is no charge and no limit on transfers (everything says 0) but that will change at some point.

No you get locked into a server when you first pick one. You can change it but will eventually cost a fee to do so. Furthermore, you can't continuously do it, as they restrict how often you can do it as well. Just checked in-game, right now there is no charge and no limit on transfers (everything says 0) but that will change at some point.

It's ArenaNet trying to make money off of what is essentially a free-to-play MMO. To answer your question, you wouldn't be able to do it every time they come online, as I said, they will eventually charge you real money each time you do it, as well as restrict how often you can do it.

I guess right now they're giving a free pass to people who want to do it now while they get their servers sorted out.

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

I was pretty annoyed as well. Seems kinda stupid that WvW is limited to your home server and that you can't swap at all when the majority of endgame content is, apparently, PVP.

Anyone with two groups of friends is fucked, basically. You pick one and then you are stuck with them.

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

@Fallen189 said:

@project343 said:

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

It sounds incredibly confusing, aswell as super lame. Let's say I wanted to play with the GB guild on Yaks Bend, but my friends are on a different server. Does that mean I'm being forced to choose between one or the other?

yes. they are adding world (arenanet speak for "server) guesting for free at a later date. you will be able to travel to other worlds sans being able to do wvw for obvious reasons. this will be free when it releases. i would say pick the world that you have friends on that you think you will be playing the most with for now and then take advantage of the free world transfers when they come out in the near future.

@Fallen189 said:

@project343 said:

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

It sounds incredibly confusing, aswell as super lame. Let's say I wanted to play with the GB guild on Yaks Bend, but my friends are on a different server. Does that mean I'm being forced to choose between one or the other?

They have a guesting system that they will eventually add in (I've heard from some people that it already works with dungeons), that will allow you to "guest" on another server to play with people from that server. You can do this for all content except WvW, which is locked to your home server.

@Fallen189 said:

@project343 said:

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

It sounds incredibly confusing, aswell as super lame. Let's say I wanted to play with the GB guild on Yaks Bend, but my friends are on a different server. Does that mean I'm being forced to choose between one or the other?

In terms of WvWvW yes, you can only represent one server in WvWvW. However that is the only thing which is locked per server, once they enact guesting the rest of the game can be played on any server with any player.

In my case my home server is Gunnar's Hold with my friends. With my friends I can play PvE, sPvP and WvW.

I can guest on Yak's Bend with the GB Guild. With the GB Guild I can play PvE and sPvP.

That is when they enable guesting.

Tell all your friends to play on the same server.

Do I have to solve every problem around here? Damn it.

@Fallen189 said:

@project343 said:

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

It sounds incredibly confusing, aswell as super lame. Let's say I wanted to play with the GB guild on Yaks Bend, but my friends are on a different server. Does that mean I'm being forced to choose between one or the other?

yes. they are adding world (arenanet speak for "server) guesting for free at a later date. you will be able to travel to other worlds sans being able to do wvw for obvious reasons. this will be free when it releases. i would say pick the world that you have friends on that you think you will be playing the most with for now and then take advantage of the free world transfers when they come out in the near future.

@Fallen189 said:

@dekkadekkadekka said:

No you get locked into a server when you first pick one. You can change it but will eventually cost a fee to do so. Furthermore, you can't continuously do it, as they restrict how often you can do it as well. Just checked in-game, right now there is no charge and no limit on transfers (everything says 0) but that will change at some point.

That seems incredibly restrictive and kind of stupid. What if I had 2 groups of friends who play on different servers? Do I have to pay something everytime they come online?

It's restrictive for a reason. If they allowed people to change back and forth between servers at will, it would completely destroy the World vs. World. People would say "oh, this server wrecks at W.v.W., so we're all going to transfer over there". Once that server begins to fail, they move to another server...and so on and so on.

Moreover, Guild Wars 2 is about building familiarity and ties with the people that inhabit your overall world. It's not about hopping around to a million different servers to get the benefits of being in the best raiding guild or dungeon guild or whatever the hell else.

@Fallen189 said:

Hi, Picked up the game today, was pretty pumped. So, my friends play on Sorrows Furnace server, and the GB guild is on Yaks bend. Now, as is my experience so far, you can't make new characters on new servers, they're all account bound, and you just move around as you see fit, am 'I getting that right? It just seems so different to what I was used to on other MMO's like Rift, WoW, and...every other MMO I have ever played. Am I getting this right then? Can I, at will, pick any server at any time, and "Transfer" between them at any time with no penalty? So I'll try to explain my grasp on things so far: You make a character, which is bound to your account. Instead of having your character locked into a server, you basically pick an "Instance" then go in at any time? So I could just play with GB when my friends aren't on, then when they are, I can move over to play with them with no penalty? Sorry if it seems long winded and simple. Its just very unlike any other MMO's servers I have ever played

You can still group with people in other servers by using a feature called "guesting" (although I'm not sure if that feature has been added yet).

Structured PvP is also cross-server so it doesn't matter what server you are on (although I'm not sure if The Mists are cross-server as well, as that could affect grouping; maybe someone can confirm this).

WvW is the only game mode where you need to play on your own server.

You also can't contribute influence points to the GB guild while you are on another server, but that doesn't really matter since we already have 500 members lol (of course you wouldn't be able to play WvW with us either though).

If you have a bunch of real life friends who play this game, it might be more enjoyable to play on their server. It's up to you.

@Fallen189 said:

@Jayzilla said:

@Fallen189 said:

@project343 said:

You pick a home server that will act as a permanent server for all of your characters. At the moment, you're welcome to freely change home servers while everything stabilizes; however, server transfers will cost gems in due time. When everything stabilizes, ArenaNet will also bring out their guesting feature. In essence, guesting is a temporary way to play SPVP and PVE on any other server. The limitation of guesting is that you cannot participate in WvW (as WvW is server vs. server warfare).

The game's servers can also fill permanently, but ArenaNet has been increasing the limit as players fan out of starting zones. The full server status, combined with overflow servers for particular worlds, there is no queue time for Guild Wars 2.

It sounds incredibly confusing, aswell as super lame. Let's say I wanted to play with the GB guild on Yaks Bend, but my friends are on a different server. Does that mean I'm being forced to choose between one or the other?

yes. they are adding world (arenanet speak for "server) guesting for free at a later date. you will be able to travel to other worlds sans being able to do wvw for obvious reasons. this will be free when it releases. i would say pick the world that you have friends on that you think you will be playing the most with for now and then take advantage of the free world transfers when they come out in the near future.

That soudns fair enough. So in the future, I'll be able to hop over onto the GB server and play with you guys for free by just guesting into the world?

Correct.

@Sweep: But it's not stupid. It's a well thought out design decision to prevent people from server-skipping to the winning side of any WvW conflict.

@Fallen189: When the servers calm down, guesting will be implemented and this problem will only exist for WvW content.

@Fallen189 said:

Hi, Picked up the game today, was pretty pumped. So, my friends play on Sorrows Furnace server, and the GB guild is on Yaks bend. Now, as is my experience so far, you can't make new characters on new servers, they're all account bound, and you just move around as you see fit, am 'I getting that right? It just seems so different to what I was used to on other MMO's like Rift, WoW, and...every other MMO I have ever played. Am I getting this right then? Can I, at will, pick any server at any time, and "Transfer" between them at any time with no penalty? So I'll try to explain my grasp on things so far: You make a character, which is bound to your account. Instead of having your character locked into a server, you basically pick an "Instance" then go in at any time? So I could just play with GB when my friends aren't on, then when they are, I can move over to play with them with no penalty? Sorry if it seems long winded and simple. Its just very unlike any other MMO's servers I have ever played

I'm in the same boat with you.

All my friends are on Sorrow's Furnace. Even my brother. We made a guild there, and I'll be sticking to that server. Besides, my brother and my friends will be active for a far longer time than the GB crew will.