Cross-Realm Zones Update

I only like CRZ in the lower level zones. You actually see and sometimes interact with other people leveling; before CRZ you rarely saw more than one person in a zone with you leveling.

Is it just me or does that blue post not actually say ANYTHING?

I'm all for CRZ, it's a brilliant move by Blizzard and nice to see they will keep it going on the development front, whatever that entails.. Let's see it in Pandaria.

I really miss having a choice of server community.

Originally Posted by Synche

Except it is pretty much the best feature implemented in any MMO... I bet you are one of those who thinks CRZ players steal "your" nodes...

Nope. I got used to that mining in Uldum. My main issue is The Rare Spawns which should be realm specific - and all the glitches. I fly my friend around a lot while we are playing, EVERY single zone we cross into, she'll get dismounted, and it'll take a minute or two for the zone to completely load, for her to mount again, only to repeat the process every zone.

Originally Posted by markdall

People who like CRZ: Why do you like it? I think I'll make a poll.

My friends and I all have toons we like on different servers and this allows us to play together without having two or three people re-roll toons just to work together. I also like how there are people now in the world.

Originally Posted by segoplout

Is it just me or does that blue post not actually say ANYTHING?

It's not just you. CRZ blue posts never address the actual social and community concerns, just the stuff we already know.

I would just like for them to make it so you can invite a toon from another server on my 2nd account without having to use another player.

They are happy, so that shit is gonna stay *sigh* I have yet to find a person who likes CRZ other than the lowbie gankers on pvp servers.

My only beef is the dismounting thing w/ 2 person mounts. I've killed friends multiple times when i'm taking their characters to dungeons to power level them and its nothing but a headache.

Originally Posted by Squirreludecker

just cancel your account now, we dont need people like you in the game.

What, people can't have differing opinions now?! I for one love the CRZ feature, I just want them to fix the issues with the time-zones and the performance issues.

Originally Posted by markdall

People who like CRZ: Why do you like it? I think I'll make a poll.

Which would be a poll made a million times already. People like CRZ because they like to play and interact with other players, and not feel like a single player game when leveling. Technical issues aside, it's one of the best things to happen to this game in a long time.

However, there has been absolutely no valid feedback against CRZ. Again, technical issues not included, since they are getting fixed as we write. "'m getting ganked more", "People are stealing my nodes"...

Far and away the worst feature they have ever added. Still, it's nice to see they're brave enough to try fixing the metaphorical gaping hole in the Titanic's hull with band aids.

Originally Posted by Tamagotchi

And it's great! This is a game about a war between noble alliance and dreadful horde, they kill each other, you know? Great step towards the heart and soul of warcraft. Less farming, more pvp!

I would understand if they made CRZs with level brackets (like battlegrounds) but a single lvl 90 hunter standing on the Dark Portal, waiting to oneshot any low level player going around doesn't seem like something any game would want to be about.

CRZ is fine and all, but if you're on a low pop server, it just makes [some] things worse.

The economy on a low pop sucks, but if you want to farm anything old-world it's much more difficult with CRZ. At least on other higher pop servers you have an economy and AH that actually is stocked with items. In the past, since the low pop server had a crappy AH, you could actually get mats and other things on your own. Now, low pop basically has the worst of both worlds...

Originally Posted by Squirreludecker

your wants are not more important than my wants. or the wants of the majority of the playerbase.

Correction: the wants of the people who only whine about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

The people who are whining about CRZ are NOT the majority of players. Most people who like the feature makes no comment on it whatsoever, as they're busy enjoying the game as it should instead of whining and wasting their own time about a feature that's only going to improve the more iteration is done on it.

Honestly, the moment most of the bugs and timezone issues are ironed out, I doubt people would even notice CRZ.

Everyone complaining about CRZ is, unfortunately, missing the point.

For the most part, CRZ are doing exactly what they were intended to do, and well: Create a more unified WarCraft community. They've increased and balanced World PvP on a faction v. faction level, and they've brought life to zones and servers that once felt dead. This is a GOOD thing.

The majority of problems you are experiencing are inherit problems with the game itself: Griefing, ganking, general player v. player harassment. WarCraft does nothing to discourage players from attacking characters that are a drastically lower level than they are. Some people like that (people who're a high level) other's don't (people trying to level lowbies), whether or not it's right or wrong has no simple answer, but it's clear the amount of ganking and low-level griefing has obviously risen drastically along with zone population. Maybe every town needs level 90+ guards, maybe there needs to be a kind of dishonorable kill system re-introduced, I don't know, but that problem does NOT lie with CRZ.

The same thing goes for questing, quest items, quest mobs, mining nodes etc. There is nothing to discourage griefing by stealing mobs, etc. It's easy to say "deal with it", but that's not necessarily the best response. (also winning the Stranglethorn fishing competition was never supposed to be easy, esp. on a PvP server.)

Cross-realm zones are essentially working as intended and you are experiencing World of Warcraft in the way that it was originally intended; a way that you may not have experienced in a very long time, if ever. You are now realizing that World of WarCraft itself, NOT CRZ, is broken. Hopefully Blizzard will address this on a GAMEPLAY level rather than just removing CRZ, because I believe that would be a huge step backwards.

Edit: Also to be fair, CRZ is a huge experiment and the level of data needed to determine how it would turn out is essentially unattainable without live testing. In order to bring everything back into order, as I said, they're going to have to make HUGE gameplay change, and I think that's a good thing. What we're experiencing now is a huge inconvenience, but a necessary evil. I view it as an incomplete improvement that is a sign of better things to come.

Originally Posted by Dreamchaser

Just take them out Blizz. No-one likes them. They have been nothing but a pain in the a$$.

Clearly plenty of people like them, when confirmation bias isn't giving you tunnel vision.

---------- Post added 2012-10-30 at 02:10 PM ----------

If they want CRZ to foster social experiences, let us trade cross realm and let us use friend lists cross realm without the added complication of battle tags. Possibly finally let us send heirlooms across server when fixing this.

Originally Posted by gorocz

I would understand if they made CRZs with level brackets (like battlegrounds) but a single lvl 90 hunter standing on the Dark Portal, waiting to oneshot any low level player going around doesn't seem like something any game would want to be about.

Right. But game should give you tasks of different difficulty. PVE is piece of cake. Going raids, dps'ng, rolling epics - it's kinda boring. 90 lvl foe is an extremely difficult task. More differences in game - more fun.

Originally Posted by Dreamchaser

Nope. I got used to that mining in Uldum. My main issue is The Rare Spawns which should be realm specific - and all the glitches. I fly my friend around a lot while we are playing, EVERY single zone we cross into, she'll get dismounted, and it'll take a minute or two for the zone to completely load, for her to mount again, only to repeat the process every zone.

Um.. if you know this happens, why not fly separately? "Patient: doc, when I do this it hurts. Doctor: Then don't do that"

Originally Posted by Ramaniscence

Everyone complaining about CRZ is, unfortunately, missing the point.

For the most part, CRZ are doing exactly what they were intended to do, and well: Create a more unified WarCraft community. They've increased and balanced World PvP on a faction v. faction level, and they've brought life to zones and servers that once felt dead. This is a GOOD thing.

The majority of problems you are experiencing are inherit problems with the game itself: Griefing, ganking, general player v. player harassment. WarCraft does nothing to discourage players from attacking characters that are a drastically lower level than they are. Some people like that (people who're a high level) other's don't (people trying to level lowbies), whether or not it's right or wrong has no simple answer, but it's clear the amount of ganking and low-level griefing has obviously risen drastically along with zone population. Maybe every town needs level 90+ guards, maybe there needs to be a kind of dishonorable kill system re-introduced, I don't know, but that problem does NOT lie with CRZ.

The same thing goes for questing, quest items, quest mobs, mining nodes etc. There is nothing to discourage griefing by stealing mobs, etc. It's easy to say "deal with it", but that's not necessarily the best response. (also winning the Stranglethorn fishing competition was never supposed to be easy, esp. on a PvP server.)

Cross-realm zones are essentially working as intended and you are experiencing World of Warcraft in the way that it was originally intended; a way that you may not have experienced in a very long time, if ever. You are now realizing that World of WarCraft itself, NOT CRZ, is broken. Hopefully Blizzard will address this on a GAMEPLAY level rather than just removing CRZ, because I believe that would be a huge step backwards.

Edit: Also to be fair, CRZ is a huge experiment and the level of data needed to determine how it would turn out is essentially unattainable without live testing. In order to bring everything back into order, as I said, they're going to have to make HUGE gameplay change, and I think that's a good thing. What we're experiencing now is a huge inconvenience, but a necessary evil. I view it as an incomplete improvement that is a sign of better things to come.

A superb post, the voice of reason, hats off.