Does anybody know, what happens with CRZ today?

[WowIsDead64]

I play as Horde on EU PVE servers. Due to some reasons there 2 things, you should know about EU PVE servers: 1) PVE severs are dead. Due to historical reasons PVP servers are much more popular, than PVE, despite of fact, that most PVP servers are single-factioned, i.e. nobody actually needs PVP there. 2) PVE servers are extremely Alliance-biased - almost every server is 1:2-3. Plus Alliance is much more active - so you can usually see 10 Alliance vs 1 Horde. I usually play at 8-9pm - it's end of prime time (everybody goes watching night news on TV), so overcrowding starts to slowly fade and therefore amount of stupid competition starts to decrease and servers stop to be pseudo-PVP ones and start to turn back into PVE ones, as they're intended to be. I have been playing for 2 months already and everything has been going quite fine. I've even paid for another month in advance, that I usually try not to do, cuz Blizzard should never feel safe due to already having my money in their hands - they have to earn my money.

But today some crap happened. Tanaan is EXTREMELY OVERCROWDED by players from other servers. Overcrowded to a point, where it starts to be unbearable. Overcrowded, like in old sweet times of WOD at prime time. And I want to ask you. Does anybody know, what happened? May be servers were down during prime time, so players had to shift it towards night? Or may be Blizzard decided to CRZ all PVE servers at once (I've noticed, that may be 3 servers were CRZed in the past)? I need to be in my bed within 20 minutes and I still haven't completed my daily Tanaan stuff due to this overcrowding. I ask it, cuz if this crap will continue, I'll need to ask Blizzard to freeze my sub or I'll simply quit and ask them to return me my game time, as I already did in the past.

P.S. I hope, I don't need to explain, why overcrowding is bad thing? Because Wow stops being RPG and starts to turn into arcade/MOBA/AOE-fest-simulator in this case. Yeah, it's MMO, but RPG should be primary devs' focus - not generic "multiplayer" login and do some random stuff with your friends content. Do you understand, how clunky gameplay becomes, when I have to constantly mount up and go flying around location to find mobs, that are sill alive? And I need immersion, Blizzard were talking about, when they were going to remove flying. I want to clear my way through enemy forces towards secondary objectives. But this process is pointless, if I know, that other player can come at any moment and grab item, I was clearing my way to. It's much more simply to try to grab secondary objectives only. And in most cases process of killing mobs, i.e. combat mechanic, Blizzard were talking about, becomes extremely ineffective. Due to 2 reasons: 1) Mobs grant 1% of progress, that is way too slow, especially for mobs with extremely inflated HP, and you have limited time 2) Sometimes killing mobs is simply dangerous due to way to high density of mobs, when you play some weak class/spec, like SP for example. Also I have my own pace of playing and other players brake this pace - I have to either rush or idle. And only flying allows me to be as effective, as I need to be. But it isn't flying, that is problem. Here is real problem: broken content design.

Spoiler: 

I.e. game design is bad enough to make it even worse via CRZ.

[Pipboi]

Something has changed in the past few weeks. I transferred away from Kil'Jaeden and paid for like 10 or so characters. I went to Darkspear because it was heavily Alliance but had a vibrant PVP community at the time. Now Darkspear is linked with Kil'Jaeden via crz and since Darkspear is shrinking it's a daily gankfest for any Alliance trying to do WQ.

[SirBeef]

Something has changed in the past few weeks. I transferred away from Kil'Jaeden and paid for like 10 or so characters. I went to Darkspear because it was heavily Alliance but had a vibrant PVP community at the time. Now Darkspear is linked with Kil'Jaeden via crz and since Darkspear is shrinking it's a daily gankfest for any Alliance trying to do WQ.

Darkspear is all Alliance trying to kill the few good horde PvPers then complain when that one warlock kills them in front of raid portals all night long. Biggest bunch of whiners I have ever seen on a PvP server too. Can't tell you how many whispers I have gotten from level 1 toons bitching about me killing their alliance toons while they were trying to quest in BI. Mind you I do not corpse camp or gank lowbies. These kills were all relatively equal levels.

[Mesoforte]

I noticed a whole lot more PvP flagged horde while I was running around on US servers yesterday. So many horde running around during world quests on a heavy alliance server.

[Sl4ck3r]

Probably has something to do with the World Quest Group Finder addon, and people being able to easily group up for WQ's.

[WowIsDead64]

Please note, that I don't talk about WQs. I haven't bought Legion, so I play Tanaan now. Nobody needs Legion - TANAAN IS OVERCROWDED.

It's 10:25pm and I should have been in my bed 25 minutes ago. I won't be able to bear this crap every day. If Blizzard won't fix their CRZ as soon, as possible, I'll have to quit again. As I've already said - CRZ shouldn't be even enabled by default in a first place. Yeah, it's good thing for players, who play on different servers, and PUG groups, who want to do outdoor content the same way, as players do 5ppls via LFD. But it must be "on demand" feature - not one, that is enabled by default, i.e. forced on you. Suffering from overcrowding and faction imbalance in obsolete content long after prime time??? It's nonsense, sorry. Ok, you have your crappy PVP/competition-biased design in your Legion. I decided to play your game despite of fact, that I don't get new content for money, I pay for your game. Can you leave me alone and stop pushing me out of your game at least there??? No? There is no place for me in your game?

[darklogrus]

I think they went ahead and CRZ'ed a lot more realms together. As for your complaint, thats been one of Wows glaring issues for ages.

[Zka]

Mmmkay I must be not getting something, but... Tanaan? How is that relevant at all? And why do you post screenshots with no people on them while complaining about overcrowding?

[Mesoforte]

He's just raging out apparently.

Note to OP: Direct complaints to us.battle.net, not mmo-champ. As to the source of the problem, it doesn't matter if it is in Tanaan or not. Knowing that other people noticed weird population issues should be helpful to know.

[Kirbypro]

Never understood pvp servers. Whats the fun of being ganked when you just want to do some quest or gather some herbs.

Its tedious, its annoying. The pvp flagging system we have for PvE servers is 10x better.

[SirCowdog]

Never understood pvp servers. Whats the fun of being ganked when you just want to do some quest or gather some herbs.

Its tedious, its annoying. The pvp flagging system we have for PvE servers is 10x better.

I spent the first 5 years of my wow "career" on a PVP server because that's where all my real life friends were playing. To this day I STILL with I could get those 5 years back.

However, it did give me some insight into the mindset. It's all about creating the illusion of competition. It's also VERY much about crapping on other people's fun and getting a kick out of ruining other people's work.

IMHO it has no real place in a game like WoW. If you want that sort of experience, go play EVE online and you'll be shown just how petty you are to be doing that on WoW. They will teach you the true meaning of grief playing, and what PVP really is.

[unfilteredJW]

Are we complaining that there are players in the game?

[Anthony3187]

Are we complaining that there are players in the game?

If you transfer to an RP server they generally don't have NEAR the CRZ that regular realms have. I'm on Moon Guard Alliance and 95% of the people I see out in the world are from Moon Guard.

[Deleted]

Are we complaining that there are players in the game?

Expected that post. Appears every time someone mentions CRZ.

Not sure if you are clueless or trolling, inclined to think you are just trolling. But I'll bite.

CRZ is not bringing players together. It is simply an illusion of players. They are not from same realm as you are, which means you can't trade with them, you can't invite them to guilds, you can't do mythic raiding, etc...

On PvP realms its even worse - you happily lived in what was de-facto PvE realm, then with a flip of switch game play entirely changed. OP paid money to get away from that crap, then suddenly switch was flipped and he's in same crap again.

The only things CRZ is good for are to make illusion that there are players there and to save Blizzard money. Unless you are 5 years old, illusion of players is as cheap as NPCs praising players everywhere as one and only one savior of them all - dull, unimaginative, fake. But at least Blizzard is saving money - fewer servers to run, which I think is the entire point of CRZ.

[Nevcairiel]

On PvP realms its even worse - you happily lived in what was de-facto PvE realm, then with a flip of switch game play entirely changed.

If you are on a PvP realm and then start complaining that there is PvP going on, you should really re-consider your realm choices.

[WowIsDead64]

If you transfer to an RP server they generally don't have NEAR the CRZ that regular realms have. I'm on Moon Guard Alliance and 95% of the people I see out in the world are from Moon Guard.

Oh, I've never though, that I can play on RP servers, that aren't CRZed! Thx for idea! Bad things: 1) There are no RP servers with my language. 2) I have to transfer at least 11 characters to there. Blizzard simply don't deserve this money. They argue, that server choice - should be meaningful choice. But if this choice is meaningful, it should also be informed choice. And they neither provide enough information about differences between servers, nor provide you free trial, that would allow you to figure it out by yourself. So charging money for transfer - is just milking money from you.

I started playing Wow as Alliance on PVP server, cuz my friend, who brought me into Wow, was playing as Alliance on PVP server too. It was really big mistake, cuz my friend stopped playing with me almost immediately and I had to suffer from this choice for a very long time. So first I rerolled to Horde, cuz initially I was playing as Horde on private servers, but was stupid enough not to change server to PVE. Second big mistake was made, when Blizzard started to open new servers at the beginning of WotLK. I don't remember, if I could change PVP to PVE, but it was another chance to change server anyway. Yeah, at the end of WotLK, when I saw, how my other friend played on PVE server, I all of a sudden realized, that I needed to transfer to PVE. It happened, when Blizzard announced Cata and I realized, that Cata was crap and decided, that I needed to start playing casually. I was leveling my DK at that time and experienced non stop ganking from group of 3 OP immortal Paladins on Borean Tundra quests. And I payed for transfer of 3 or 4 characters + faction change for my main (it was still Alliance).

Yeah, I though, that since that moment I was safe from PVP crap, but no... Now it seems, that even PVE servers don't suit me, cuz Blizzard force competition, that is essentially PVP, anyway and the only difference between PVP and PVE servers - is ability to gank. Now I understand, that if my top priority is immersion - then I should play on RP servers.

And I think, that the fact, that Blizzard don't allow free transfers - is only worse for them. Because sometimes it's easier to quit game, than to suffer from wrong server choice or to pay extremely big unjustified price for transfer. I really don't understand Blizzard.

Are we complaining that there are players in the game?

There is big difference between having other players in PVE, where you iterate with them, communicate, socialize, etc. and in PVP, that is essentially anti-social, cuz you compete with other players there. Socialization in MMO is good, competition - isn't, cuz it turns MMO into MOBA. If I would want to play MOBA - I would play MOBA.

[Deleted]

Oh, I've never though, that I can play on RP servers, that aren't CRZed! Thx for idea! Bad things: 1) There are no RP servers with my language. 2) I have to transfer at least 11 characters to there. Blizzard simply don't deserve this money.

Ffs quit already.. the whining is just too much..
Or you know.. start a blog about your problems or write a secret diary. Why do we need to listen to you whine about your transfer history?

- - - Updated - - -

There is big difference between having other players in PVE, where you iterate with them, communicate, socialize, etc. and in PVP, that is essentially anti-social, cuz you compete with other players there. Socialization in MMO is good, competition - isn't, cuz it turns MMO into MOBA. If I would want to play MOBA - I would play MOBA.

Don't play on PvP servers if you can't take the PvP.

[Deleted]

Never understood pvp servers. Whats the fun of being ganked when you just want to do some quest or gather some herbs.

Its tedious, its annoying. The pvp flagging system we have for PvE servers is 10x better.

there is a certain allure of danger to playing with potentially hostile players. when doing WQ, most people adopt a live and let live policy (even in the pvp quest areas for some reason), but there is always the chance someone might attack you and a fight ensues, or that you /apologize, or that you help each other out on hard mobs. And ofc there are a few players/guilds who you know will attack you on sight too. I'd argue this brings in more social interactions then opposing players just being regular players you cant talk to.

now ofc it's not all roses and sunshine
-I play a spec that gets nerfed by pvp templates, so in world pvp im very strong, my opinion would prolly be different if i was a class bad at worldpvp. im sure id get ganked alot more too if i wasn't as strong.
-oftentimes i see alliance players just get unintentionally mowed down in random default aoe/cleave attacks
-if you ever run into a leveling player, a single accidental dot from a lvl 110 will just do crazy things like 30% of their hp per tick. (while ironically enough the low level player can probably out dps you on mobs if he has legendary ring/strong wod gear).

[kamuimac]

I noticed a whole lot more PvP flagged horde while I was running around on US servers yesterday. So many horde running around during world quests on a heavy alliance server.

its WQ helper addon or however its called - if they get ported to pvp server they are automatickly flagged to pvp so each 1 person of opposite fraction nearly instantly ports 4 other people - 3 people means 12 extra people 5 means 16 and so on and so on.

its quite fun actualy bringing back real old time world pvp where it doesnt consist only of level 110 ganking lowbies only having to show his mad skills trying to 1 vs 1 in real "Red means dead" world pvp also since now all are on even playground (no cp gear nearly immortal pvpers ) its lotta fun.

world pvp is back boys even on realms with 95 - 5 fractions ratio

[SirBeef]

there is a certain allure of danger to playing with potentially hostile players. when doing WQ, most people adopt a live and let live policy (even in the pvp quest areas for some reason), but there is always the chance someone might attack you and a fight ensues, or that you /apologize, or that you help each other out on hard mobs. And ofc there are a few players/guilds who you know will attack you on sight too. I'd argue this brings in more social interactions then opposing players just being regular players you cant talk to.

I always feared the ganking part of playing on a PvP server. We server transferred our guild in WoD to Darkspear for the PvP since we wanted to try it out. Of course being horde om Darkspear was an uphill battle. But like I said in my previous post, I have never seen so many people on a PvP server cry about PvP happening to them. If it's red it's dead. I'll kill a lower level level in the area once just becasue but then I'll leave them alone. But seriously so many whispers from angry Alliance players pissed becasue I was engaging in PvP on a PvP server.