So basically... split all the servers into 3 factions. These factions never change. You never play against your own faction.

And then on top of that, add PvE NPCs of opposing factions to the servers? Is that pretty much what you are describing?

Just thinking they could use global enemies native to the current lore who can represent the factions we fight in WvW.  I just think it would be nice to have consistent enemies we fight against in WvW.  I don't care what server the enemy represent, i only care who is winning and therefor who we need to focus our efforts on.  And it would be nice for the enemy to have a name. This would add to the overall game story and immersion into the world.

I have played daoc too but I prefer it how Arenanet is trying to do it. This way each server is working together, on the same side and helping each other!

Forget it.

I was there too, from the beginning of beta from daoc till the last expantion. We will never have that feeling again in an mmo.

It will be all about grinding some pvp-points to buy shiny pvp armor.

I used to think the exact same way coming from both DAOC and then Warhammer. Mythic did a great job on the realm vs realm side of the game and yes I have fond memories of both DAOC and WAR. But with that said , during beta event two our server ended up in a complete mismatch with one server dominated every single thing and taking all our keeps and another server not even pvping at all. So it was us with no siege and no chance of winning vs a zerge with siege at our portal keep. As soon as you went down the stairs you were melted, if you went around back , you were melted .

Anyways I was glad when 3am EST hit and we were matched with different servers . If it was stuck like that at release I would of quit playing as I play GW2 for the pvp and World VS World. I think DAOC should go down as the grandaddy of all realm vs realm mmorpgs and just stay as that. I like an even playing field and thats what both DAOC and WAR lacked and was ultimately the death to WAR. There is entirely no point in seeing enemy names if your server is switching every two weeks and realm pride comes from guilds working together in alliances just like in WAR and DAOC. You have that in GW2 also with you being able to join multiple guilds. So you will still see realm pride fine if you get involved with a guild that has a healthy alliance setup with the multiple guild feature.

I played DAOC hardcore for 5 years. Was part of a very successful full time group on Palomides. Yes like the OP I will forever and always have a hatred for anyone that decided to play as a zergling no skill alb.

That being said I think you're going to be sorely dissappointed in that GW2 just doesn't have the mechanics for developing long-term rivalries and such. Not that it won't be enjoyable for different reasons but the way it's set up I really don't see it replicating the feelings that DAOC had.

Never played DAOC, but I kind of get the idea of what the OP is presenting.  Gaining a rival, a hated adversary, should be a big part of the game.  It's a great idea.  With the switching of opponents every two weeks, it's going ot be hard to really garner any animosity toward one particular server.  Perhaps down the road, though, we of Fort Aspenwood might come across a realm that gave us trouble 4 cycles ago, thus starting a rivalry.  Cycles down the road, we might be matched up with that same server again, and another server we had some good fights with; if the WVWVW stats are similar enough, that could happen (although not very likely).

Basically, DAOC had years and years of great times to build hatred toward a specific faction; the closest GW2 could come is familiar opponents in WVWVW, and that only after a fairly significant amount of time.

I think arena net are trying to not create hate in there game hence forth why the three play types are seperated and I commend that. To much hate in the real world...

Hate to say it, but you are looking to recapture that nostalgia. DAoC was a good game, but this is a different game being done by a different company. They have encorperated some of the same elements (and improved upon them) as was fun from DAoC, but that doesn't mean they are going to redesign their entire design philosophy around an 11 yr old game.

The game does have persistant enemies that make sense to the region / lore, but they aren't all part of the mists. Many of this is manifested in the PvE environments, and indeed a lot of the events (especially once you get out passed the starter areas) are centered around driving back these forces and defending your own.

The WvW environment is designed to be a separate thing, and they do have good reasons for doing so. It also does make sense within the game's lore, if that's your thing. I also think we will be getting more rivalries than you'd think, but don't expect it to be the same as your fondest memories of DAoC way back when. Guilds already are displaying their tags, sigils, and banners with pride. Many are already making vids of 'hah, watch us own this other guild' which does breed animosity. Guilds will help this out a lot, and we haven't had an overly strong guild presence yet within the game. There are a lot of guilds running around, but most are still focused on learning / breaking the game mechanics and figuring out what the best builds & strategies will be for launch.

Why are yo uassuming there won't be rivalries.

Let's take a few current GW2 servers that have PvP communities gravitating to them: Crystal Desert (Ascension alliance), Darkhaven, and Sorrows Furnace (I think some DAOC vets, might be wrong).

Let's say CD beats up on darkhaven and in the next cycle DH gets bumped to a different pool.  If DH beats up on that pool or CD somehow fucks up, then two weeks later you can easily have these server fighting each other again.

These servers know what guidls are on the other ones.  The name tags show what guidls are involved.

Just because they are not fighting each other at all times does not mean there won't be rivalries.  The CD folks were already amped up to fight Darkhaven in Beta.

Servers will most likely be fighting each other repeatedly.  This idea that its all anonymous or that rivalries won't form seems rather misguided to me and based upon really bad assumptions.

Servers that are very close may wind up playing each other every other cycle.  This means that there is MORE possibilities for rivalry AND the rivalry is richer as ServerX may actually hate ServerY for a good reason since they have other servers to compare it too.  Rather than disliking them simply because they are there.

Originally posted by Frek

I played DAOC hardcore for 5 years. Was part of a very successful full time group on Palomides. Yes like the OP I will forever and always have a hatred for anyone that decided to play as a zergling no skill alb.

That being said I think you're going to be sorely dissappointed in that GW2 just doesn't have the mechanics for developing long-term rivalries and such. Not that it won't be enjoyable for different reasons but the way it's set up I really don't see it replicating the feelings that DAOC had.

Who were you on Palo Frek? i'll prolly recognise your name. I was in(and still am, we're in GW2) Aeonian Prophecy, and if you were on Palo you'd know who they were :) we still have our DAoC community forums up and running if you can remember the address so pop on over if you remember your account.

Relics are the one even GW2 is missing, nothing gave you quite as much as a rush as seeing "A guard at your relic keep was just killed by 150 enemies in the area" and of course back then no easy porting so it could take you 25 mins on a horse ride to get there and defend. It was in times like these that people put aside their differences and fought together for the good of the realm, this is what gave DAoC such a strong community which NO game has even come close to replicating. It's the reason our Palo forums are still going strong 11 years later, and whereas previously we fought against each other we now play with each other in games, and will have our Palo community guild in GW2.

Originally posted by grogstorm

 

I think ArenaNet should develop a similar system for WvW where we fight a named opponent instead of the current (serverX) and (serverY).  Or whatever nondescript naming convention they are currently using.   If our opponents had names like Albs and Hibs then each server will start to build a stronger national pride and build a more consistent in game unity.  Understanding that after every WvW ranking period the servers that will be grouped together will be different, our opponents names will remain the same.   Thus regardless of what servers represent our enemies they will still be Albs and Hibs but only better matched to your current server ranking.  And if the two opponent servers had different colored character names like orange and red the factions could ally together to focus on the third.

 

I prefer the current server names because they actually represent a specific group of players, if you name whatever servers you're teamed again Albs or Hibbs you never know who you're up against so there'll be less competition and less rivalry which imo is a bad thing in PvP.

Remember that server X featuring that big pro guild Y we had hour long battles against and were closely matched with but lost against with a tiny margin? Next time we're matched up against them we're not gonna loose!

That's what you won't have if different people are wearing the same shirts next 2 weeks.

 

And if our opponents had names they could be incorporated into PvE aspect of the game.  So instead of all the NPC baddies in the world just named, Thugs, Pirates etc.  The Devs could put in some Alb Pirates and Hib Thugs in our world to make the game even more immersive.

 

The game is specifically designed to not have any factions but encourage cooperative play, so it makes no sense implementing them in any way in PvE. This would be different if they had gone for the fail PvP faction that splits up communities on the same server, but luckily they didn't use that system.

 

 

DAoC never showed char names, never was an issue. But you did have kill spam so you knew if a gank group(essentially guild groups with the best players, easiest way to explain it to non DAoC folk. Capable of taking on many many times their own number and winning) was in the area.