ArenaNet has announced that the "guesting" feature will go live in Guild Wars 2 after the January 28th game update. The update will also mark the end of free server transfers, so players are urged to get their characters to the server on which they wish to "live". Guesting allows players to game with friends on other servers for limited time periods and with certain restrictions.

Guesting comes with a few restrictions:

• Because (different from a world transfer) we are not moving your character between data centers, you may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on North American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.
• You may not participate in World vs. World on your guest world. If you choose to enter World vs. World on the world you are guesting on, you’ll be moved back to your home world. If you want to play World vs. World on the world you’re guesting on, you must perform a full world transfer to that world.
• You’re eligible to guest on only 2 different worlds at a time. Each time you guest on a world, that world becomes one of your eligible guest worlds for the next 24 hours. After 24 hours, you may choose to guest on a different world. You may log in to any world you are eligible to guest on as many times as you wish with no restriction.
• Guesting on worlds that are full or highly populated increases your risk of being put into an overflow map.

Read the full post on the Guild Wars 2 site.

Unfortunately, it's useless for doing what some of us where hoping for..

Because (different from a world transfer) we are not moving your character between data centers, you may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on North American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.

Glad to see they are finally adding this launch feature.

Wish it was as effective as The Secret World's method, but take what you can get I suppose.

Originally posted by korvass

Unfortunately, it's useless for doing what some of us where hoping for..

 

Because (different from a world transfer) we are not moving your character between data centers, you may only guest on worlds in the same region as your home world. Players on North American home worlds cannot guest on European worlds or vice versa.

That would have been great actually. Maybe in the future?

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Glad to see they are finally adding this launch feature.

Wish it was as effective as The Secret World's method, but take what you can get I suppose.

What does TSW do differently?

Wow, what a complete slap in the face to the player base. First we don't have guesting for months and months, and then when they FINALLY get around to turning it on, North Am players can't play with those from Europe! What the....?!?!? Way to go ArenaNet. I won't be giving you any more money in future unless you change this nonsense.

Would serve them right if everyone in Europe moved to North Am servers before they start charging for it, assuming you can still do that.

Originally posted by Torvaldr
I've been waiting for guesting to arrive.  I hope it feels seamless.  But in all honesty I would rather just have a single-server tech like in STO where we can join each others layer.  Separate servers should go the way of the dodo.

This would actually be a good idea. I wish they "merge" low populate zones so people from multiple servers join into same zone. That could fix low population in certain areas.

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Glad to see they are finally adding this launch feature.

Wish it was as effective as The Secret World's method, but take what you can get I suppose.

What does TSW do differently?

You pick a server.  If your server is full, you are still logged in just fine.  You're just playing on a different server temporarily.  You can still chat with everyone cross server as before.  You can still group with your friends on your server, as grouping will teleport them into the same server as you.  It's something people don't even notice while playing because it works so well.

Much different than having to pick menu options to guest to a specific server to play with your friends, then log back to your server when done.

This sounds good to me. I can try out other servers by being a guest on them.  That way I can get a first hand account of what the population is like during my play times.  Also, I could join up with my other gaming friends if they are on different servers.  Another bonus would be going to a more populated server to do dungeons if my server pop is low.

I don't really see a downside in my case. 

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Glad to see they are finally adding this launch feature.

Wish it was as effective as The Secret World's method, but take what you can get I suppose.

What does TSW do differently?

You pick a server.  If your server is full, you are still logged in just fine.  You're just playing on a different server temporarily.  You can still chat with everyone cross server as before.  You can still group with your friends on your server, as grouping will teleport them into the same server as you.  It's something people don't even notice while playing because it works so well.

 

Much different than having to pick menu options to guest to a specific server to play with your friends, then log back to your server when done.

That actually sounds worse. The thing about TSW is that it only has like 2-3 servers so it doesn't really matter. What you described means that you need to group with people on another server to play on that server. This system is better cause it just lets you play wherever you want without forcing you to group to do it.

Originally posted by Beka

Wow, what a complete slap in the face to the player base. First we don't have guesting for months and months, and then when they FINALLY get around to turning it on, North Am players can't play with those from Europe! What the....?!?!? Way to go ArenaNet. I won't be giving you any more money in future unless you change this nonsense.

Would serve them right if everyone in Europe moved to North Am servers before they start charging for it, assuming you can still do that.

 

hmm i wonder if you can too.

It's weird they have that limitation unless India is part of the EU server system then i'd see the problem. They say that's where the botters are.

Originally posted by Celcius

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Originally posted by Kuppa

Originally posted by kadepsyson

Glad to see they are finally adding this launch feature.

Wish it was as effective as The Secret World's method, but take what you can get I suppose.

What does TSW do differently?

You pick a server.  If your server is full, you are still logged in just fine.  You're just playing on a different server temporarily.  You can still chat with everyone cross server as before.  You can still group with your friends on your server, as grouping will teleport them into the same server as you.  It's something people don't even notice while playing because it works so well.

 

Much different than having to pick menu options to guest to a specific server to play with your friends, then log back to your server when done.

That actually sounds worse. The thing about TSW is that it only has like 2-3 servers so it doesn't really matter. What you described means that you need to group with people on another server to play on that server. This system is better cause it just lets you play wherever you want without forcing you to group to do it.

Also, this was never intended to be a launch feature. They wanted to get population settled before enabling guesting. They said this before launch. Nice try though.

 

So this system is better because when you want to play by yourself on a different server you have to select which one to guest on?  heh

And yeah not sure how seamless cross server chat and grouping is a terrible thing?

But yeah much better to have to log out to character select and go through a guesting process to join your friends waiting than to just click "accept group invite" and be done with it.  Sorry I am kidding about that, it's worse in GW2.  Also in GW2 you can't guest onto a different region's server.  I'm sure that's better in GW2 anyways though, to a die hard fan :)

I still enjoy GW2, and this is nice I guess.  Not something I was really looking for though. 

Can this game please get trade house preview please?  I looked at threads today where people had complained and responses were, " Devs have said they are working on that...." with links to confirmation be Renee I think her name is. 

All those threads were in Sept. 

I have no idea how hard this is to code or not.  Maybe its the most difficult thing ever, I have no idea.  But I have to say I kind of frown at things like this when there's still no trade house preview and players have been asking for it since launch.