Garrosh Preview, Lesser Charms in the In-Game Store, Blue Tweets, Weekly News Recap

Patch 5.4 Feature Preview: Connected Realms
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Over the years, World of Warcraft players of all kinds have naturally migrated to different realms to play with their friends, find new guilds, strive for Heroic boss kills, search for the most competitive PvP experiences, and otherwise try to find the right place to call home. Over time, these shifts in player population can sometimes create a less-than-optimal play experience for those on less popular realms, making it tougher to find guilds, conquer group content, and get what they’re looking for from the Auction House and in-game economy.

In Patch 5.4, we’re looking to address this with a new feature called Connected Realms. Building on our existing cross-realm technology, a Connected Realm is a set of two or more standard realms that have been permanently and seamless “linked.” These linked realms will behave as if they were one cohesive realm, meaning you’ll be able to join the same guilds and Arena teams, access a single Auction House, run the same Raids and Dungeons, and join other adventurers to complete quests.

Our goal with Connected Realms is to give players on lower-population realms more opportunities to group up, compete, and connect with other players to take on Azeroth’s bigger challenges. That sort of interaction is a big part of what makes World of Warcraft fun, and this feature will help us deliver that experience to even more players.

We’ve prepared a short FAQ to answer a few questions we’re sure you’ll have, and we’re very eager to hear your thoughts and collect further questions in your comments below.

Q. Why are you implementing Connected Realms?
A.As WoW has evolved, we’ve seen players naturally gravitate toward a subset of very active realms, leaving behind lower-populated realms. Due to the massively multiplayer nature of World of Warcraft, certain kinds of gameplay experiences simply aren’t well-suited to a low-pop realm. By allowing players from two or more lower-pop realms to play together, we hope to give more players more opportunities to participate in group-oriented activities, helping to foster a more vibrant in-game community.

Connected Realms also allow us to link populations in a way that’s not disruptive to players, and that doesn’t negatively impact players’ sense of identity and character. Other alternatives such as merging realms would require us to force character name changes if there were conflicts, and could lead to confusion for returning players who’d log in to find their realm missing from the realm list. Some players also feel strong ties to their realm’s name or history, and we don’t want to erase that.

Q. Why implement this now?

A. Our cross-realm technology has continued to evolve since it was first developed for joining players in dungeons. It’s now at a point where we can create seamless worlds made up of multiple individual realms, and we think there are some really positive benefits to that.

Q. How can I tell if someone is on my Connected Realm, but from a different realm?
A. Similar to how we use the (*) symbol next to a player’s name to denote if they’re from another realm in Raid Finder, Dungeons, Scenarios, or a cross-realm zone, we’ll be using a (#) symbol to indicate that someone is part of your Connected Realm, but not your home realm.

Q. Which realms will be connected as Connected Realms?
A. We haven’t decided yet which realms will be made part of a Connected Realm, or which other realms they’ll be connected to, though realms will only be connected to other realms of the same type (e.g. PvE to PvE, PvP to PvP, RP to RP). In the end, we’re considering a number of factors, including Battlegroup, population, and faction balance.

Q. How many realms will make up a Connected Realm?
A. We don’t know how many realms will make up a Connected Realm yet, and it’s likely to differ from Connected Realm to Connected Realm. Our goal is to create a vibrant and fun online experience where you can join guilds, access an active Auction House, and band together to take on group content.

Q. Will Connected Realms have any limitations?
A. There should be no limitations. We want the experience to be seamless, and we expect it work as if you’re suddenly part of a much more active realm.

Q. When will Connected Realms be available?
A. We haven’t yet determined when we’ll be creating the first Connected Realms, but we expect it will be some time after the launch of Patch 5.4.
This article was originally published in forum thread: Patch 5.4 Feature Preview: Connected Realms started by chaud View original post
Comments 284 Comments
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by snowcrash512 View Post
    No, if they merged them, then they would have the PR nightmare to deal with "WOW MERGES SERVERS GAME IS DYING GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN" and so on.
    What PR nightmare. Are you dense? they release subscription numbers every 3 months! If there is a PR nightmare, they dish it up every 3 months. But anyone with half a brain can also look at their revenues and realize they are still earning as much money from WOW as ever.
  1. iggie's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Redwyrm View Post
    *sniff* so long chance of seeing Poseidus/Camel/TLPD
    The drake from Deepholm is the worst. Poseidus is at least within a 24 hour window. I found four poseidus on my low pop realm pre cross realm, afterwards there were 5+ L1's at each spawn point. I don't even bother now.

    Rares can go piss off. I'll just keep raiding until the game dies/a better one comes out finally.
  1. Tharkkun's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Lyg View Post
    I like the language dance around the fact that they have so many dead/dying servers. I wish they cared enough for the player base when they still had the player base.. instead of the money they got for transfers. Throw the bone before the dog bites your hand, save the hand.

    Did you see that EQNext preview?
    I hate to say it but the hemorrhaging of players has only been going on for a little over a year now and it started near the end of Cata. It takes time to develop new tech and no company has done this yet. Why aren't all the competitors with ground breaking tech who have less than a million subs doing this? Because they don't care about their players.

    I'll believe EQNext is good when SOE decides to be a good company again. When they took over for Verant the EQ franchise was never the same.
  1. Donner's Avatar
    I don't get people who are against this. Def. a reason for me to re-sub, this is a Massive Multiplayer Game after all.
    Only downside is the "some time after 5.4" part.... i thought it would come with 5.4 at the end of august or something like that.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Nymrohd View Post
    I wonder if they will merge those "PvP" realms with 10:1 Horde:Alliance with the 1:10 Horde:Alliance. So you know, people will actually PvP in PvP realms and not just gank the underpopulated faction.
    Yeah, that would be nice, but the problem is that most of those 10:1 pvp servers also have login queues.. especially the big 3 servers

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by DirtyCasual View Post
    or maybe they are doing it this way to avoid thousands of people being forced to change character names and the drama that would unfold surrounding who gets what name? As well as what to do with the multitude of inactive characters associated with each realm, allowing them to avoid a Age of conan style deletion of characters that are innactive.

    personally, i'm glad they are doing it this way, i have a hard enough time as it is coming up with names for new alts nvm potentially losing names i've been known as for years and having to come up with new ones
    Anyone who cannot see the benefits of connected servers over merged servers just needs to ask Warhammer or AOC players (from launch), what they think. There was so much anger and guild breakups because of server mergers. Blizzard is very smart, they learned from the mistakes of others.
  1. Kazuchika's Avatar
    "connected realms" is what CRZ should have been to begin with.
  1. KCguy's Avatar
    This is awesome. So cool that Blizzard is able to actually make this happen. Merging servers would have upset more people than what they're currently going to be implementing now. Servers can now feel full inside a capital, people can keep their character and guild names and most importantly, guilds and AH's can grow again. So many servers have next to nothing on their respective AH's and guilds are so dead, this will address both. Can't wait. Some are against it, I love it. Farming for rares will be even more of a pain, but that is the only drawback in my eyes. JMO and I stand by it.
  1. kamuimac's Avatar
    all im reading between the line is that they will "connect" few dead realms with low pop one to another - which will change next to nothing - they wont touch high pop servers cause then they woul lose incom from realm transfers - it same "illusion" population chance as CRZ are -_-
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Potentio View Post
    I find it incredibly ridiculous how they advertise it as a Patch 5.4 Feature and yet in small text at the end of the advertisement include that it is EXPECTED TO ARRIVE some time after 5.4. Similarly how Diablo 3 PvP arrived shortly after the game launch?
    Which would only further delay how long it takes players to get into the groove of the changes and its impact on features like Flex mode which should benefit from this change. It is still a new thing and has the potential to cause issues so I understand not wanting to roll it out the same time as everything else. It sucks being hit with realm stability issues and not being able to play the new patch and even more so when it is only a few select realms that are impacted. Personally this feature should have hit live a bit before the patch when realms are less busy and gives more live data to go forward with into the new patch.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Miakisaki View Post
    How they could have simply merged the servers in a few easy steps.

    1. Implement a surname system like many other games have. This would allow you to keep your current name, and even spice it up a bit more. Give people a week to choose new names.
    2. Begin server merging process. Select one medium population realm and several low ones.
    3. Disallow new AH posts and new mail on the low population realms for a period of 3-7 days, letting people on that realm know they must empty the AH and mailbox before merges
    4. At the end of that period, merge the low population realms into the medium one. Doing it this way will allow for less guild name clashes.
    5. In the event of a duplicate guild name, the guild with more members will win the rights to the name. The other will receive a free guild name change.

    So there's no real point in using fancy terms like "connected" realms. Just merge the damn things.
    And what is the benefit of doing it your way over the their way? Your way causes a lot more headaches for players without any noticeable benefits. And your way doesn´t solve the problem of returning players suddenly not seeing their server name on the list anymore. So you failed to fix one of the major things they wanted to avoid, and your other ´fixes´ cause more headaches then connected realms do.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by dewd View Post
    is this the "we dont wanna overhype it" 5.4 feature they kept secret?
    No, that was Flex raiding
  1. mmoc30cfcfeceb's Avatar
    sounds like a good solution to the dying realm problem, lets see how it plays out in practice.
  1. Taylus's Avatar
    So now low population realms get all the benefit without a 1500 login queue.
  1. TheMeII's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Peeb View Post
    Finally. This gives a good reason to re-sub again. Previously on my realm I couldn't even find gems for my characters on AH.
    Do you know how that could've been solved? By starting to sell the stuff that was missing from ah. I did that on my dead server and I have amassed few millions after that. my Daily salary is from 0 -5k averaging to 2-900g (summer is always quite quiet). My prices are stupid high but my clients very rarely complain, since there is no one else to buy from.
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by nekobaka View Post
    Which would only further delay how long it takes players to get into the groove of the changes and its impact on features like Flex mode which should benefit from this change. It is still a new thing and has the potential to cause issues so I understand not wanting to roll it out the same time as everything else. It sucks being hit with realm stability issues and not being able to play the new patch and even more so when it is only a few select realms that are impacted. Personally this feature should have hit live a bit before the patch when realms are less busy and gives more live data to go forward with into the new patch.
    Flex raids are RealID invite, you will be able to do them cross-realm when 5.4 launches.

    I think they learned from the bugs with CRZ that it is better to get the content stable, then launch the big technology change.
  1. Kadivex's Avatar
    This is great news AWEZUM!
  1. strues's Avatar
    I will cry if they give Sargeras players from Ragnaros or other servers where English is few and far between
  1. TheTaurenOrc's Avatar
    Well speaking from a low population realm I think the most significant change will be in the economy. At the moment there are a handful of tycoons who control certain parts of the AH. The ToT pets for example go for 4 times the amount on my realm as the highest populated. I personally can't wait to see them battle it out. And if they merge the BMAH it will be a much more effective as a gold sink.

    As for the raiding scene, well we will have to see. My realm already has enough 'raiding' guilds, most of them 10 man start ups that will go nowhere. Sure the merging will probably get them further into the content, the old 25mans might have an easier time with their roster but I don't think it will revive anything.

    I see this as a quality of life change in the economy (or a kick depending on what side you're on :P).
  1. nekobaka's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Azrile View Post
    Flex raids are RealID invite, you will be able to do them cross-realm when 5.4 launches.

    I think they learned from the bugs with CRZ that it is better to get the content stable, then launch the big technology change.
    Yes RealID is an option for those who want to spend time and search for groups on a third party website. Then there are players who would rather search within their own realms and be an active part of their realm community.
  1. Amerissis's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Agzarah View Post
    I suppose this method, as apposed to merging the realms would allow blizz (should they ver need to) un-link the realms back into single ones again, or if population decreases further, add more into the mixup.

    At the touch of a button the can theoretically combine or split as many as they like without ever having to worry about identity and naming consequences.
    Except that you can join crossrealm guilds and it would cause a huge problem when you then separate the realms again
  1. wow2011's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by kamuimac View Post
    all im reading between the line is that they will "connect" few dead realms with low pop one to another - which will change next to nothing - they wont touch high pop servers cause then they woul lose incom from realm transfers - it same "illusion" population chance as CRZ are -_-
    How is this an illusion when you can trade/guild/raid with everyone in the connected realm? And why do you think it won't change anything? You don't think connected realms will impact AH, guild recruitment, finding pugs etc for low pop servers?

    There is not as much urgency to do this to high pop servers yet. I hope Blizzard is using this time to test out the new tech and eventually connect every single server together to form a giant virtual realm.

Site Navigation