What the guy said

[Albereth]

Funny how in life you come across all sorts of experts. On Saturday I met the Guild Wars expert. I was trying to pay for my pre-ordered deluxe extra special supa-doopa collector's edition of Factions with nifty cardboard container and the brain surgeons at BT had no clue on how to process a transaction but I digress.

I was told, emphatically, by the young gentlebeing that I must play on the US servers because their maps are up to date and the European servers have bugs everywhere.

Not wishing to cause any distress in the till jockey's life, or to deflate his position as Guild Wars uber star of the universe I nodded politely, smiled and backed away. To my credit I didn't even think of looking for a big stick even though he had never heard of the afore mentioned big old box of Factions goodies.

As is true of any cess pit, the bigger chunks will eventually float to the surface. So this chunk, my dear readers, is now being shared with you with the intention of some forthright debate upon the merits of being upon a given server set. Are there any differences? Would the game play experience be different - latency issues? Are there difference release versions across the world? Do all guild members need to be on the same servers?

[Ruslan74]

We mostly play on the EU servers coz of time zone issues. You tend to find more people at the EU than US servers simply coz they are more into our time zone.

As for latency, its all up to your connection. Shaped ADSL works fine most of the time, I have ISDN which should be unshaped and dont really have any issues with EU or US servers. Average ping from their servers is around 400ms.

Funny how the BT guy explained the game though.

[rainy]

I only played on a US server once, but I didn't notice any differences, neither in contents nor in stability. The lag was also not noticeable. Guild members don't need to be on the same servers unless they want to form a party - then they have to meet up in the same district.

Personally I think that dude was talking a load of crap. I have played on the European servers all the time and I can't say I noticed any bugs. Then again, sometimes I don't notice a bug even if it is the size of a cat and walking right in front of me holding up a sign saying 'BUG!!'... so take it with a grain of salt

[Ruslan74]

heck, i do notice a lot of bugs lately... more around the Aurora Glade region...

[Albereth]

I found bugs in BF2 - there is one of those dumpsters at back yard in Mastuur city full of the annoying flying things.

You can hear the crickets in the Chinese maps but you don't get to see them.

Anyway - I'm staying on the EU servers and have already put my Factions stuff on. Hopefully it all works. I kind of find it hard to believe that I bought Factions for R50.

[Ruslan74]

R50 is for the pre-order pack. the full game is further discounted since you got that pack, so now you would pay around R200 for the expansion when its out.

when in any town you type /preorder and your inventory should have two customized items for your ritualist and assassin. this of course after you added the cd-key in the pre-order pack.

[gus]

@Albereth: That guy was talking total crap. You are right to simply ignore him. Please play EU. There are international districts where people from various regions can meet up to play together, but those area are often deserted.

[Pios]

Well, I think that 'UBER EXPERT' is full of proverbial crap.

There is NO diff between the servers, Unless you lucky enough to be able to connect to the korean ones, they get goodys a few hours before the rest of the world, yet, I am totaly sure there is no diff since there is actually no way of knowing where your instance is 'ACTUALLY' hosted.

The system if i recall makes this choice based on latency and you may actually be on a EU server or a US server without changing the server you play on, It all has to do with the way ANET decides where the best posible place is for your instance.

So. The only reason there is US/EU/Korea/Japan regions is for favour.
This is the whole World at War thing for those of you that dont know.

Just my 0.02 pence.

Pios
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[Albereth]

@Useless - this pre-order pack. I paid R50 for what? Do I still need to buy the Factions expansion albeit at a reduced price? Or what?

Do I need to take my Snake182 taming bat to Budget Technologies and explain things to the people there. Guess what - they told me the collectors set was held up in Customs until May.

What do I do?

[Pios]

Well, I am hoping that my local store will have the propper factions game by saterday. However i am not sure since there has been no 'Releases for this Month' posters up that contain factions ANYWHERE i went.

Oh well, Guess the CC will have to do the job online if i cant get it by saterday.

Anyhow.

Send my Regards to the lamers there, Ask them if you can macro a few hundered hours of repetative skill grinding ?

I am sure they will attempt to sell you something ...