Guild Wars 2 to add cross-server guesting on January 28

Hot on the heels of the upcoming Guild Wars 2 development plans comes a bit of more concrete information. Guesting – the ability to visit another server to meet up and play with friends – is finally coming to the game, and this time there’s a definite date for it. January 28th will see the launch of this long-awaited feature (it was being boosted even before the game’s launch), allowing for Guild Wars 2 players to more easily group up with their other-server friends. Right now you have to rig it somewhat by getting yourself into an overflow server, so this will be a welcome change. Of course, it comes with some restrictions. More pertinent details after the cut.

Here are the essential bullet points, straight from the post:

• 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.

Now, those seem like reasonable restrictions… except for the North America versus European divide. Frankly, I wanted to more easily play around with some of my cross-ocean friends, so this news is a bit of a letdown. Still, at least it makes it easier to meet up with friends who may have started off on other Guild Wars 2 servers on the same continent, and considering it’s a free feature, it’s still a nice change of pace from the ‘pay for a transfer or start over at level 1’ option that tends to be the default in MMOs.