When I logged in Burning Crusade right after midnight launch, everything was fine.  People were running about and there was plenty of new content and mobs to kill, I played for about an hour then hit the bed.  The next day it all hit the fan.  When I logged in, quest givers were hard to click on, mob had 3 players waiting to kill it once it spawned.  There was this sense of urgency to absolutly everything.  World PvP depended on if your server was primarily Horde or Alliance with it being fun for the dominate side and a chore for the less dominate side. 

I'm pretty sure GW2 will be more crowded on pre-launch than beta; and probably even more so on official launch.  I'm wary of that first week.  I know theres nothing that can be done, but it sure does feel like it's going to be a mad house.

Originally posted by Ocenica

When I logged in Burning Crusade right after midnight launch, everything was fine.  People were running about and there was plenty of new content and mobs to kill, I played for about an hour then hit the bed.  The next day it all hit the fan.  When I logged in, quest givers were hard to click on, mob had 3 players waiting to kill it once it spawned.  There was this sense of urgency to absolutly everything.  World PvP depended on if your server was primarily Horde or Alliance with it being fun for the dominate side and a chore for the less dominate side. 

I'm pretty sure GW2 will be more crowded on pre-launch than beta; and probably even more so on official launch.  I'm wary of that first week.  I know theres nothing that can be done, but it sure does feel like it's going to be a mad house.

 

 

That is why they are doing the stress tests.

This is unfortunately a very difficult thing to predict. While we know that sales and hype are high - the actual crowdedness of launch involves quite a few variables (who logs in, which servers they go to, how ANet has programmed mobs and events in high populated areas, etc).

I would venture to say, though, that it is a very popular MMO with a hyped launch - and because of this you can expect some very noticable crowding. Whether or not that is detrimental to gameplay, I can't say.

It'll be like that.

Source: BWEs

i think it will be ok.....on the 25th all the pvp'rs will be racing to max out ASAP.

When i login on sunday all us pve'rs and roleplayers will be having a blast while the pvp'rs are long gone to other zones :)

On topic tough...it will be very crowded at first but thats always the case with a AAA mmo these days so just ride the wave man :)

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus
Need i say overflow servers, or should i spell it?

What do you mean by overflow servers? I ask just out of curiousity. Are they just standby servers that ANet has mentioned they will use for smoothing out launch if it becomes to crowded?

(excuse the lack of knowledge - only been researching GW2 for about a month now)

Originally posted by gieger808
You WANT a crowd. The game mechanics better support crowded, zerging groups better than solo. 

It really doesn't, when you can't see what your character is even doing it makes the game unenjoyable.

on beta i did an event with around 5 people that quickly grew to 50 players, the event turned from normal to epic as there where dozens of spawns and the difficulty went up a few notches.

So when Alot of people are doing the same stuff as you it doesnt go like FUCK i needed that mob for my quests !!!
It goes to healing people around you to rezzing the death and nuking the shit out of anything that moves :)

I also believe Arenanet is prepared, but i think we dont have the technology to log 2 million players at once, its just to much data and connections.

So we have to wait and see what happens, but in terms of (quest) mobs this will increase the fun ALOT :)

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus
Need i say overflow servers, or should i spell it?

technically speaking, you already did.

Originally posted by Ocenica

When I logged in Burning Crusade right after midnight launch, everything was fine.  People were running about and there was plenty of new content and mobs to kill, I played for about an hour then hit the bed.  The next day it all hit the fan.  When I logged in, quest givers were hard to click on, mob had 3 players waiting to kill it once it spawned.  There was this sense of urgency to absolutly everything.  World PvP depended on if your server was primarily Horde or Alliance with it being fun for the dominate side and a chore for the less dominate side. 

I'm pretty sure GW2 will be more crowded on pre-launch than beta; and probably even more so on official launch.  I'm wary of that first week.  I know theres nothing that can be done, but it sure does feel like it's going to be a mad house.

 

 

my experience was much more clogged, i logged in and started immediately making a blood elf paladin, there were a bazillion people there all trying to level at the same time. not enough mobs people were standing around tab targeting the spawns until they completed each quest. Don't think GW2 will be that bad because of their DE design.

Originally posted by Ocenica

When I logged in Burning Crusade right after midnight launch, everything was fine.  People were running about and there was plenty of new content and mobs to kill, I played for about an hour then hit the bed.  The next day it all hit the fan.  When I logged in, quest givers were hard to click on, mob had 3 players waiting to kill it once it spawned.  There was this sense of urgency to absolutly everything.  World PvP depended on if your server was primarily Horde or Alliance with it being fun for the dominate side and a chore for the less dominate side. 

I'm pretty sure GW2 will be more crowded on pre-launch than beta; and probably even more so on official launch.  I'm wary of that first week.  I know theres nothing that can be done, but it sure does feel like it's going to be a mad house.

 

 

Good thing there are no quest givers and events scale to the amount of people then right?! Good thing that most pvpers are just going to PvP basically right from the time they log in then right?! Good thing that the quests are exactly the same as wow like so many idiots want to claim isnt it!

No OP that wasnt directed at you. Just a perfect chance to point out that what you described will NOT be an issue what so ever.

Lag on the other hand......Yea well see. And no people dont bring up the stress tests. Doing thoes in the middle of a weekday is a joke.

Edit. Also we should compare the WOW launch to GW2. I dont think they will be similar at all. WoW launch wasnt bad people wise. It wasnt clogged up at all. Since you never knew when the servers would actually be up and when they where you never knew if the lag was bearable or not so it was never really crowded till after the first couple weeks. Lag may be an issue but I doubt servers will be down for days at a time in GW2.

Originally posted by voxnor

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus
Need i say overflow servers, or should i spell it?

What do you mean by overflow servers? I ask just out of curiousity. Are they just standby servers that ANet has mentioned they will use for smoothing out launch if it becomes to crowded?

(excuse the lack of knowledge - only been researching GW2 for about a month now)

From: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Overflow

The overflow shard is Guild Wars 2's version of a queuing system. If you attempt to enter a map or world that is already at peak capacity, the game will offer you three choices:

• Travel — this allows you to play in the overflow area; you will be automatically moved to the primary server when there is room.
• Queue — you remain in the original map area and are automatically moved when there is room.
• Cancel — the game takes no action.

If the destination is very popular, the game will create multiple overflow shards. You will not necessarily transfer to the same shard as others crossing at the same time, even if they are members of your squad or party.

Originally posted by Mothanos

on beta i did an event with around 5 people that quickly grew to 50 players, the event turned from normal to epic as there where dozens of spawns and the difficulty went up a few notches.

So when Alot of people are doing the same stuff as you it doesnt go like FUCK i needed that mob for my quests !!!
It goes to healing people around you to rezzing the death and nuking the shit out of anything that moves :)

I also believe Arenanet is prepared, but i think we dont have the technology to log 2 million players at once, its just to much data and connections.

So we have to wait and see what happens, but in terms of (quest) mobs this will increase the fun ALOT :)

 I could not have said it any better myself.

One example of what your saying is the swamp events in the human starting area. Started with a low amount of people, and in which case the event was somewhat easy but, as more people came and the boss spawned, it became substantially harder thus making a lot more fun.

I'll just tune down my graphics settings and deal with it.