Districts, Servers, Etc.

I've noticed in the past week or so many threads on the topic of servers and districts. So to fit the growing need of answer I've created this simple guide on the subject.
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Unlike many other games, Guild Wars is not divided into seperate servers or shards. But districts.

When you create an account, the client will ask you what reigon you come from (North America, Europe and Korea). So let's say you pick Europe, well you'll be placed in the Europe district. There you'll be able to play with anyone in your world immediately but you'll be able to talk and play with anyone in another world, too.

What are districts? Districts are seperate sections of towns that are identical except for it's inhabitants. When you enter a town you will be randomly placed in a district that is not full. After a district has a set number of people in it (determined by the type of area you're in) you won't be placed there randomly although you can still select that district and travel there if you want. Once it reaches another, larger, set point the district will become full and it won't accept any new people until someone already in there leaves. If you try to enter a full district, it will wait until the district is available(Doesn't take that long). When all districts are unavailable, the game will automatically create a new district.

So each region has it's own seperate districts. But what if I wanna see my friend from Korea? Well you can enter the Internation Districts where all players from all countries can interact, Home Districts are for your group. But unlike Home Districts you can't automatically be placed in an Internation District randomly, you must choose to. You can do this like any other district, simply select them from the top left of the screen.

Also, regions can compete for prizes in the Worlds at War concept. You can learn more about it here.

This is my basic understanding of districts, if I'm wrong or you have more info, tell me and I'll fix it up. Oh and please post all of your questions on the subject matter here, the forum is getting a wee bit to cluttered with these kinds of posts and threads.

--Ginko

That's about right.

Choosing America/Europe/Korea also affects the Worlds at War concept. If you depart from the Hall of Heroes from the American district and win, special features are unlock for everyone in America. I guess thats why they split us up - although I don't like having to go to the uninhabited internationals to play with my friends across the world.

Yes, the International Districts are a bit unpopulated. I'm sure the BWE Worms went home pretty hungry.

But I really do like the way the district system works, it has very little lag and your with everyone that speaks your language, or if you want a chat with a Korean women then you can do so easily.

--Ginko

Nice thread, should come in handy.

Stickied.

i didnt even know there was an international district, how do we go there?

Same way you go to any other district, on the bar at the top of the screen. However unlike other districts, you'll never be taken there automatically. You must choose to.

--Ginko

The International District is also good if you don't like being around people!

check out IGN's article: The Tech of Guild Wars for some interesting info from Jeff Strain about some of the technical aspects behind Guild Wars.

Great guide, Ginko. And more useful than some people who're really familiar with Guild Wars probably realize. I've had a very hard time explaining the way GW is structured to some of my friends and it became particularly difficult when Worlds were introduced. No matter how hard I tried to explain to them that Worlds were not the same as the server shards on other MMORPG's, they just couldn't seem to get it. Then, when some of them finally did, they couldn't seperate the concept of Worlds from the concept of Districts. ARGH! If you could edit the guide to include an explanation of Worlds and how they work, it would be really great, since I could just link people to this thread when they're confused.

Thanks Lunarhound, now I know the guide was worth making. Not that it was hard, just that it helps. I'll see what I can do about explaining the worlds, and I hope your friends come over to Guild Wars.

I think for the time being don't try to explain the complex district sytem, just tell them there are no shards. When or if they play the game then they'll be able to figure it out. Once you got the system down, it's simple.

--Ginko

OK this sounds confusing, I think I will just play and see what happens.

Yeah but at least we CAN play with players and friends all over the world. I have many good buddies who I am very much looking forward to being able to (finally, after DAoC and WoW) play with.

So why do my g/f and I change districts the minute we leave town?

We both transferred to the same District while in Ashford Abbey, but the minute we go out the gate, we are no longer grouped, and the other has disappeared.

We would like to do a few quests together. How can it be done if we are constantly changing Districts?

We go back into the Abbey, and we both have new District numbers.

It's very confusing.

The server auto-selects a district that you go to. But there's a new feature now where you pick, hopefully that might help.

When you do Map Travel in a party, you leave it. If you want to reforum tell them the city to go to and the district. Then you can meet up and play.

--Ginko

Okay, once again.

We both went to Ashford Abbey. We were in separate Districts, so I joined the District she was in. We met by the Gate, and formed a party, both of us clicking on each other.

But once we went outside the gate to do a mission (hers), one or both of us had left the District we had selected, because we were a) no longer grouped, and b) no longer visible to each other.

Upon re-entering the Abbey, we found that we sometimes were both in new Districts, and sometimes one of us was in the same District, but the other one was in a new District.

How can we group up in a City and then proceed out the gate to do a mission together?

Confused in Ashford Abbey.

I'm sorry, I was confused by your question.

I've never incountered something like that in my short life, so I'd have to start assuming it's a bug. Maybe you could talk to Gaile Grey on the matter, she's head of Community Relations Management at ArenaNet, and it's almost certain she has an answer.

--Ginko

Thank you for your time.

I'll try to get in touch with Gaile about it.

How does one group with anyone and expect to do a mission outside the walls of the town they group in? Does this happen to anyone else?

what about australian players?

are our accounts american? korean? australian?

What is the difference between a district and a game world? I read on the official site its possible to change game worlds, but not more than 5 times per account. Counts going to the International District as a change?

Have I read every post or searched the forums? No.

Should I have? Prolly. :P

If this has been suggested elsewhere, then throw my vote in for it, otherwise I have an idea!



If I wanted to sell something, where would I go? To a Town or Outpost on my current district. Will I find a potential buyer? Maybe, but how long will it take.

Why not make certain low number districts "informal" marketplaces to sell, buy and trade items? Districts 10-15, 10-20 or something like that so people KNOW where to go when looking for items to sell, buy or trade.


Inac

My girlfriend and I have the same annoyance. You DO have to select the same district to form your party, but once it is formed when one party member leaves town ALL members join the same game world. Are you sure you two were in the party together? Once you click on her and then click join she has to Accept or Reject your offer, and vice versa.

As for Traveling, when you "Travel" to Town, you leave your party so they do not follow you. Basically comes down to if you are close to the Town Portal, just use the Portal. Otherwise once you are both in the same Town, you have to get onto the same District as well.

Inac

you're saying, Guild Wars only have 1 server(located only in 1 place on the real world). This means, it would be very laggy, if a player would play this game from a far-far-away country to the Guild Wars server. Correct me if i'm wrong.

As much as i Know you have Server's in the USA - Europe and Korea

It doesn't have to be one physical server, no. The distinction runs more like this:
instead of having unique, stand-alone servers that never interact (like most MMOs), any given character on any given server has the capability to interact with any other character. Think of it like linking a bunch of physical servers into one giant 'virtual' server.

anyone know how to work around the korean symbols for names? i was trying to have one join me in a party and i was not abel to because of the korean symbols. it was fustrating to say the least.

wait a minute.. u both clicked on each other... but did u accept the party invitation? i guess u didn't form a party at all!

That is the Korean alphabet, their keyboard have then so unless they are kind enough to type in english its going to be dificult to understand then.

If you are in a european sever it gets even more complicated since you end up with germans, french, spanish and italians running around typing in their mother language, they pretty much stick to their own countryman.

Actually, it's MUCH harder to communicate with Koreans, because we Americans (that speak Korean) can't even type in their language... and I REALLY REALLY REALLY *hintwinknudge* wish they'd develop a workaround. I can't play with my Korean friends because their english isn't good enough and I'm not allowed to speak Korean. Sure -- they're allowed to type in english but there's NO option for me to type in Korean! I primarily play with english-speaking friends, but the few Korean friends I have in the game I'm unable to interact with other than /wave /pickme /cheer. It's not very international when english is your only option.

maybe you can install Korean language packs? There should be software tools that allow u to type Korean with American keyboard. Or do u have it already but the game doesn't let u type? Or maybe u can type the pronunciation in English?

Thats typical european, i joined Guild Wars today only for a minute as i had to leave again for work and did not knew that you get taken right away into the game after hitting creating your character, and was already annoyed that i had to read german and french. We Europeans are obivously to stupid or to stubborn to understand that when we join something where people out of the world are, that our languege (be it german, italian, french, dutch etc) is not the world languege and that we should automaticly talk english. Its simple unrespectfull towards the other people if they cant understand you.
*sighs* Thats the first thing we have to learn if something like this crap European Union should ever work, but as we probably will never learn that such things will always fail.

Searched for a languege filter to filter anything but english out, but that "feature" is obivously not included.

PS: English is not my first languege, I am from Austria and just simply have manners.

What you mean?
That at the international districts are no NPCs or that at international districts are hardly any players?

yes, there are NO players in international district. yesterday my friends and me wanted to play 4x4 team pvp. 2 of them are from the us and we are from europe so we gathered party in international district... but no opossing team joined for at least half an hour...

Is there a way to change my home district from Europe to America? I'm in US, but for some reason I've been put in European district-which sometimes is kind of quiet.