ArenaNet offer more info on world Guild Wars 2 restructuring

ArenaNet have come forth with more information about their large scale update to Guild Wars 2 world behaviour that should normalise player population within worlds and rebalance World vs World servers for better player distribution.

ArenaNet announced that these changes were in the works back in January 2018 but there was no information on what they might encompass or when they might arrive. Fast forward half a year and info on the official forums still states no ETA for the update, but does give away some of its content.

The original from January mentioned that the main goals of world changes would be better matchmaking, handling population fluctuations between worlds, more balanced teams and diversification WvW experiences. To that end, they ArenaNet announced that WvW guilds will be able to invite other like-minded guilds to their alliance.

According to the 02 July 2018 , this centrepiece of the update is well on its way, as there has been enough progress in the back end for testing teams to get busy. On the other hand, there are currently no front end systems yet. Creating and joining alliances is impossible and UI regarding is non-existent.

This also means there is no alliance chat, and the feature may not be there at launch either, but it is still on ArenaNet's to do list. Players have also been suggesting alliance tags, next to or instead of guild tags and the developers have responded by saying that this feature belongs in their "Would like to have" column, but no promises were made.

They have also mentioned an interesting mechanic that will be employed, which will track players' hours in game, likely just in WvW mode, as well as hours spent commanding. This should be a great addition, as this system should allow for better distribution of commanders across different worlds. 

ArenaNet Guild Wars 2

The reward system will most likely remain unchanged, and any additional WvW-themed rewards that may or may not come, will do so long after the launch. This is due to ArenaNet's focus on rolling the system out and working its kinks out before starting any tournaments and reward systems.

It's nice to see they're learning from their experience, since a somewhat unknown fact is that "eSports ready" meme was pinned on Guild Wars 2 for a while, years before PUBG was branded with it.