Cross-Realm Zones Update

[ganush]

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.

Tho I agree with your post, the problem is that CRZ has taken away the ability of the individual to choose a realm that is relatively free of these issues. Like it or not, some realms were much better behaved than others and the player had some choice in where and who they played with. CRZ has basically eliminated the choice of players as to which realm and thus which social environment they choose to play on, because Blizzard has taken away that choice. You could play on Realm Lovefest and get randomly paired with realm Griefstorm and their is nothing you can do about it.

All that said, I have had no issues with CRZ personally I do understand a lot of the concerns. I believe Blizzard does have to be willing to clamp down on all forms of griefing and harrassment with stiffer repercussions as well as better define what entails griefing if CRZ is really going to work out well.

[Tylai]

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!

You may want to read up on the history of both the Horde and Alliance. I doubt you'd be calling one noble and the other dreadful if you did.

[Trinora]

I don't know what people complain about. I haven't seen any difference really. Most maps are still mostly empty.
And really, playing on a pvp-realm and then complaining about getting ganked is just silly. You can always choose to play on non-pvp if you can't take the heat.

[Spotnick]

This system is not perfect, but it's probably the best feature they have implemented in WoW in the last 5 years. Of course people don't like change, so when they have to change their habits they usually don't like it.

I have been questing in Hyjal and instead of seeing 1 or 2 people around, I was seeing quite a bunch, it made the game feel more alive, but yes, questing could be crowded at times, and gathering especially in Outland and Northrend is a pain in the ***, I had to level jewelcrafting and engineering recently and that was painful.

One 90 monk tried to gank me unsuccessfully, but I knew the risks when I leveled on a pvp server. I've been ganked prior to CRZ, it just is more present on servers where there was a faction imbalance before.

But it's how the game should have been from the start, and how it should be played.. you have that amount of people right now, and I don't see people complaining about the zones being too crowded.

[ejpaints]

Sadly it's not an issue with the game it's an issue with people today. Everyone is so rude and disregarding of everyone else these days.

I haven't stepped foot in a raid since mop launched. Dunno if I will. I despise dungeon and lfr groups but at least with them I never have to see them again. For an organized raid team I have to put up with the Whiney selfish gear hog every week complaining every kill that he didn't get his loots.

Crz is same. Just last night I had some 39 rogue pestering me to go kill the Orc warlock that he had failed to gank multiple times. Upon informing him to fight his own battles bc I didn't feel like flagging myself to one shot a lowbie he proceeded to run around killing battle pets as I approached them.

Childish behavior such as that is what ruins this game. It's turned me very anti social and lately I find myself doing stupid stuff like pet battles and mount farming instead of heroic raiding like I used to.

[FeralSynapse]

*sigh* They need to FIX the crap with the two person mounts...if they aren't going to work without hassle in 95% of the game, why even bother with them anymore?

[Anjerith]

CRZ doesn't affect questing, unless your outwright lazy - MoP quest mobs are mostly shared for anyone that touches them even with a dot.

The benefits of CRZ (the ability to play with friends and the filling out of empty zones) far outweighs the perceived issues players have with them. A little education on how they work and don't work would go a long way for people to understand them - sadly people don't read.

[Moobu]

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!

You have a very skewed view on the lore of this game lol. Lord Garithos and the rest of the warcraft 3 alliance challenge your definition of "Noble". Honestly "Racist" fits much better. Now I can't deny that GARROSH'S horde is dreadful.... good thing I'm a loyal member of THRALL'S horde and am simply waiting the return of my real leader. Horde is way more honorable than all but 2 of the races the alliance have...... (the dwarves and dranei) we're just currently overshadowed by a varian wrynn clone that was pretty much made in the name of fairness to each faction and war.

[Deleted]

PLEEEEEASE make it so you can toggle on/off CRZ because I HATE IT!

[dirtside]

Fix it Blizzard. If there were issues with this function of CRZ it should've never gone live until fixed. Breaking two seater mounts is unforgivable.

Genocide is unforgivable. Mass oppression of the poor and downtrodden, that's unforgivable. Breaking a perk in a video game is mildly inconvenient. Temper your rhetoric.

I've read through this thread and I'm not sure how I feel about CRZ now. I'm not leveling an alt in a CRZ environment, so I haven't really had that experience; but I have been spending a lot of time in low-level zones with my 90, going after Pet Battles achievements. (I don't have any opinion on the PVP side of things, because I'm on a PVE server; I'm terrible at PVP and don't enjoy it.)

All that said, the arguments I see here in favor of CRZ all seem to be saying that "it's what Blizzard intended" (that is, more highly populated areas rather than barren player-free wastelands). So far the only specific benefit touted is that you can play with your friends from other zones (CRG, or cross-realm grouping), but I don't think that should be lumped in with automatic zone merging (AZM), since those two features could certainly be separate.

So far, I can't really see any benefit to AZM, since Blizzard's stated motivation (to increase the outdoor population) so far doesn't seem to be benefitting anyone. Or at least, virtually no one is saying that they're enjoying seeing more people in previously low-pop zones. I haven't noticed higher populations in any of the zones I've been doing Pet Battles in; in fact, honestly, I can't remember seeing a single person out in the world the entire time, except maybe once in Westfall. Oh, and once in Blade's Edge, where someone jacked the critter I was about to fight

Maybe it is what Blizzard intended, but I don't know that AZM is having the effect Blizzard said it would. The game doesn't seem to be more enjoyable by having more people randomly wandering around, because either there aren't many more people (like I said, I'm seeing virtually no one out in the world in pre-MOP zones), or there's so many people that it's suddenly changed the feel of the game. Yeah, maybe nobody had any right to expect that the low-pop no-competition gameplay we all got used to would remain the same as it always was, but the effect has been to upset a lot of the players who enjoyed it.

For my part, CRZ has had basically no impact on me, except for two things, which are no more than minor inconveniences:

1) The framerate hitch when I switch realms (which lasts less than a second each time it occurs—before I even have a chance to realize something's wrong, it ends).

2) The time zone changes confuse me when I look at the clock and see that it's suddenly much later than it used to be. Takes me a second to realize that it's just a different time zone.

Both issues have been recognized by Blizzard. I've seen no personal benefit from AZM, but aside from the above minor inconveniences, no personal detriment either. (CRG has been loads of fun, though.)

[Lagmonster]

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.

The same can be said about the people who don't like it. But they keep trucking along anyways and don't say anything. You have no proof who isn't and who is in the majority for the discussion of this.

[Shaede]

CRZ doesn't affect questing, unless your outwright lazy - MoP quest mobs are mostly shared for anyone that touches them even with a dot.

The benefits of CRZ (the ability to play with friends and the filling out of empty zones) far outweighs the perceived issues players have with them. A little education on how they work and don't work would go a long way for people to understand them - sadly people don't read.

CRZ isn't implemented in Pandaria. And no...nothing that is tagged before you is shared prior to Pandaria, unless you are in a party.

[dirtside]

CRZ doesn't affect questing, unless your outwright lazy - MoP quest mobs are mostly shared for anyone that touches them even with a dot.

The benefits of CRZ (the ability to play with friends and the filling out of empty zones) far outweighs the perceived issues players have with them. A little education on how they work and don't work would go a long way for people to understand them - sadly people don't read.

CRZ is two separate things: automatic zone merging (AZM) and cross-realm grouping (CRG). There's no fundamental reason why they both have to be allowed. Everyone loves CRG; a lot of people hate AZM and almost nobody, so far, has demonstrated any particular benefits to AZM. Blizzard's claim that the intent is to increase outdoor population is plausible, but the practical effect seems to have mostly been to make a lot of people angry and not benefit anyone in particular.

Right now I'd be in favor of retaining CRG and getting rid of AZM.

[Ferocity]

So there are 10 post-capped threads on US forums against CRZ. Still Blizzard pushes it through. What an ignorance. Though I guess Blizzard has no choice, and it is mainly push from Activi$ion to optimize hardware utilization cost-wise.

[Deleted]

Why they let level 90 people zone together with low levels, in the low level zones is just beyond idiotic. It serves absolutely no purpose, other than letting people who wants to destroy the level experience for others to do so.
And those comments about why choose pvp server if you don't like pvp are also retarded if you ask me. I have no problem with 3 people thats around the same level as me, ganking me. What annoys the shit out of me is lvl 90 people just 1-shotting everyone in the zone.
People that choose pvp servers wants to fight others at around the same level.

[dirtside]

CRZ isn't implemented in Pandaria. And no...nothing that is tagged before you is shared prior to Pandaria, unless you are in a party.

I'm pretty sure Cataclysm had the "!" group quest mob tagging functionality in it.

[Korru]

I got startled when I read the title, then calmed down after reading nothing about CRZ being activated in Pandaria.

[Deleted]

As long as mob tagging stays in the game CRZ is going to a bigger disadvantage for most players than a benefit. The ganking isn't really a problem in my eyes, but I wonder why a player levelling up his professions in my realm has access to a low pop AH and then has to compete against massive server pops, but even that isn't the problem. WoW questing design makes you loath seeing other players, especially same faction players, as you have to compete against those players to have any marked progress in your levelling. Why mob tagging for quest mobs is still in the game in this age is beyond me.

[Draxz]

I like how they provide an update to a feature that the community doesn't like. saying basiclly "We understand you dont like them so we'll still continue to have them and hahahahahahah... we like them so bite me haters"- Blizztheory.

[Tokurei]

Anyone who has been relentlessly camping the minfernal understands how frustrating CRZ can make things. Today when I logged in after the restarts, 15-20 people were already sitting around and more were logging on after me. Apparently we all had the same idea...