Are realms even relevant anymore?

[Tradu]

"No servers" isn't a solution and while it's obvious they make profit off of server transfers in the most benign, literal sense, you're still missing the point... if there wasn't a paywall people would abuse it. Further, a "cooldown" would be seen as an unnecessary deterrent from using an optional service.

As an example, I personally don't see the harm in Blizzard giving players the option to get a "free" server transfer once a year for staying subscribed. But again, I don't see the complete disestablishment of realms as the best solution.

No servers is definitely a solution(or just one massive connection of all servers, effectively the same thing). And what is there even to abuse? They fixed raidlocks resetting afaik, and what the hell do you even mean with the last part about the cooldown? Are you seriously saying it's okay to charge as much as the price of a triple-A game for 1 faction+server transfer but somehow having a cooldown on transfers is bad? Also, it already has some kind of cooldown, and there shouldn't(in my opinion) be a money-related deterrent on something like server transfers anyway(or at least it shouldn't be as high as it is currently, or be increased... like what just happened for EU), because they're an important part of being able to find a guild that suits your needs(as well as moving to a server that fits your preferred population size, if that matters to you)

[Relapses]

Are you seriously saying it's okay to charge as much as the price of a triple-A game for 1 faction+server transfer but somehow having a cooldown on transfers is bad?

If you reduce the cost of server transferring, the only thing which could prevent people from transferring would be a cooldown. If you enact a stricter cooldown for the service then you're unfairly punishing players who transfer and have a legitimate reason to transfer again. And a "megaserver" is an awful fucking idea. It goes against one of the principle foundations of the creation of this game. But we should get rid of it because players can't afford to manage a couple extra bucks to fix a problem which is entirely their own.

[Tradu]

If you reduce the cost of server transferring, the only thing which could prevent people from transferring would be a cooldown. If you enact a stricter cooldown for the service then you're unfairly punishing players who transfer and have a legitimate reason to transfer again. And a "megaserver" is an awful fucking idea. It goes against one of the principle foundations of the creation of this game. But we should get rid of it because players can't afford to manage a couple extra bucks to fix a problem which is entirely their own.

Again, it costs as much as an entirely new game to move your character to another faction+server. That's completely absurd. And you've still not given an actual reason for why people should be prevented from transferring.

[Deleted]

Really? never seen such things and i play on 3 different servers, low one, medium one and high one, always full of people, both horde and alliance cities are full of people

Check out Chamber of Aspects EU. The realm that Blizzard "forgot" to connect. The realm that has been marked for "New Players" since early WoD. There are several localized (DE, IT, FR) realms that have higher population. There's only a handful (3-4) Mythic guilds alive. The rest have either died or moved. If it wasn't for CRZ you'd never see another soul in the game. It is, completely and totally dead.

But it serves as a trap to get new players in - and to squeeze some transfer money out of them as they realize their chosen realm is just pure shit. And it's not a coincidence - it's a well thought out move from Blizzard side.

It sucks.

[Deleted]

Blizzard makes almost zero income from server transfer fees.

Citation needed. It is an automated service, and entirely pure profit for Blizzard. I know people that have dropped hundreds and thousands on transfers. One of the main reasons I quit was that I would've had to pay around $100 just to keep raiding on my characters after Blizzard's design failures killed all raiding guilds on my realm back in Cata.

They exist mainly to inhibit players from guild hopping every fucking week just because they can.

If that was the reason, they could just put it on a few month cooldown per character.

[kaelix1]

Check out Chamber of Aspects EU. The realm that Blizzard "forgot" to connect. The realm that has been marked for "New Players" since early WoD. There are several localized (DE, IT, FR) realms that have higher population. There's only a handful (3-4) Mythic guilds alive. The rest have either died or moved. If it wasn't for CRZ you'd never see another soul in the game. It is, completely and totally dead.

But it serves as a trap to get new players in - and to squeeze some transfer money out of them as they realize their chosen realm is just pure shit. And it's not a coincidence - it's a well thought out move from Blizzard side.

It sucks.

Im sorry to hear that, but you can't say ''the realms'' are empty just because blizz forgot to merge a server or two, like i said, i play on 3 different servers and all 3 have people everywhere to the point that is annoying to do world quest, everywhere i go there are 5-10 horde and alliance, and the cities are always with people

[s_bushido]

Really? never seen such things and i play on 3 different servers, low one, medium one and high one, always full of people, both horde and alliance cities are full of people

Pretty much every zone has some form of cross-realm going on. Judging a realm pop by how many people you can see around you is meaningless. Try putting together a consistent 20-man raid without being the best guild on the server, and then get back to me about how "full of people" low pop realms are.

Blizzard needs to do something other than siting back and expecting players to pay for server transfers. Because eventually people are going to get fed up with it and find something else to do with their time. It was happening in WoD, and it's just getting worse in Legion.

[Deleted]

If you reduce the cost of server transferring, the only thing which could prevent people from transferring would be a cooldown.

There was a cooldown. It was 6 months originally. Then it was reduced to 1 month. Now it's 3 days.
They want you to transfer (and pay) as often as possible. They make a lot of money out of those services.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I've never had CRZ be this bad. On my "realm/whatever" the faction ratio is like 20:1. Its crazy... WQ zones all I see is red everywhere. I love wpvp, but this massive imbalance isn't even planned or anything. WQ hubs are even worse, just people sitting around camping the FPs... they need to do something about it. I know servers and battlegroups have faction imbalance, but this is the craziest thing I have ever seen.

[Deleted]

Im sorry to hear that, but you can't say ''the realms'' are empty just because blizz forgot to merge a server or two, like i said, i play on 3 different servers and all 3 have people everywhere to the point that is annoying to do world quest, everywhere i go there are 5-10 horde and alliance, and the cities are always with people

It's their strategy to get new players on a dead realm - so they have to purchase a transfer (essentially pay twice) if they want to continue playing. That's what I'm saying.

[kaelix1]

Pretty much every zone has some form of cross-realm going on. Judging a realm pop by how many people you can see around you is meaningless. Try putting together a consistent 20-man raid without being the best guild on the server, and then get back to me about how "full of people" low pop realms are.

Blizzard needs to do something other than siting back and expecting players to pay for server transfers. Because eventually people are going to get fed up with it and find something else to do with their time. It was happening in WoD, and it's just getting worse in Legion.

When did i point out about raids in my posts? even in OP post i only quote the ''low population'' part, so i don't fully know what is your point, problems like,'' i don't have enough people for raid'' is a problem from beginning of time, people tend to migrate to high population servers all the time, hell even i when i decide to level a character on another server i always chose a high population one

[Deleted]

Realms stopped to matter when we got lfg/lfr crossrealm. Further we got xrealm zones.
It had a mental reaction for many (if not most) on how to interact with each other. I don't say that it wasn't a QoL that was needed, but it made players less social and more whiny about a lot of stuff. People that you randomly get in a group with, and might not end up with again i the near future- those people don't mean anything to you. Therefore you don't care about being polite, and are more likely to snap on them.

[Super Kami Dende]

I'd be all for them making 4 mega realms

PvP
PvE
RP-PvE
RP-PvP

my only issue would be the amount of fucktards I'd have to see on these forums going " LOL SEE SERVERS MURGED WoW IS DED HURR DURR DURR"

[Cows For Life]

Blizzard makes almost zero income from server transfer fees.

Love how the very first words of the first reply put this out there and only one or two people have challenged it.

[Burnick]

Im sorry to hear that, but you can't say ''the realms'' are empty just because blizz forgot to merge a server or two, like i said, i play on 3 different servers and all 3 have people everywhere to the point that is annoying to do world quest, everywhere i go there are 5-10 horde and alliance, and the cities are always with people

This isnt the server itself... Have you forgotten about cross realm zones? The are people on other realms cross realmed with your realm, however you can not join a guild or trade with other people from said realms....

CRZ gives low pop realms a false sense of "population" when in honestly their just dead.

Love how the very first words of the first reply put this out there and only one or two people have challenged it.

Because it has no marrit of proof behind it, no sources, no nothing. Pointless to argue against someones opinion. Especially one whos made some.... Ignorant comments

[s_bushido]

When did i point out about raids in my posts? even in OP post i only quote the ''low population'' part, so i don't fully know what is your point, problems like,'' i don't have enough people for raid'' is a problem from beginning of time, people tend to migrate to high population servers all the time, hell even i when i decide to level a character on another server i always chose a high population one

Until guilds and mythic raiding aren't restricted to a single server, it doesn't matter whether you pointed them out or not, because they're still an issue on low pop realms. And the fact that you seem to be ignoring them means you aren't fully grasping that issue.

[Relapses]

Love how the very first words of the first reply put this out there and only one or two people have challenged it.

Because it's the fucking truth and you're absolutely fucking insane if you think that Blizzard is making any substantial amount of money from this service. But no, God forbid anybody on this forum try to utilize critical thinking skills and come to the conclusion that Blizzard does or doesn't do something "because fuck you."

- - - Updated - - -

Again, it costs as much as an entirely new game to move your character to another faction+server. That's completely absurd.

Again, for the twentieth time I've said it, it's "absurd" because if it wasn't people would abuse it. It hasn't been decreased because even though you clearly don't think it matters, Blizzard still feels like inter-realm competition is an important aspect of raiding in this game.

If you think recruitment sucks now, good luck trying to get anybody to stay in your guild when they can just transfer off without any consequence after a single raid. And yet again, adding a "cooldown" to the service only serves to punish people who may have legitimate reasons to transfer. There are other ways to solve realm population issues than removing the server transfer fee.

[kaelix1]

Until guilds and mythic raiding aren't restricted to a single server, it doesn't matter whether you pointed them out or not, because they're still an issue on low pop realms. And the fact that you seem to be ignoring them means you aren't fully grasping that issue.

BUT i do fuly grasp the issue, i had this problem in CATA when my guild on Lightning's Blade died, and quess what, people said exactly the same things you are saying now, and i assume base on how things are now blizz answer is a huge crossrealm,but those things take time, so again, the ''my guild don't have enough people on X server'' is a problem from beggining of time

And you know how i fix it? i moved on a high population server

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Because it's the fucking truth and you're absolutely fucking insane if you think that Blizzard is making any substantial amount of money from this service. But no, God forbid anybody on this forum try to utilize critical thinking skills and come to the conclusion that Blizzard does or doesn't do something "because fuck you."

- - - Updated - - -



Again, for the twentieth time I've said it, it's "absurd" because if it wasn't people would abuse it. It hasn't been decreased because even though you clearly don't think it matters, Blizzard still feels like inter-realm competition is an important aspect of raiding in this game.

If you think recruitment sucks now, good luck trying to get anybody to stay in your guild when they can just transfer off without any consequence after a single raid. And yet again, adding a "cooldown" to the service only serves to punish people who may have legitimate reasons to transfer. There are other ways to solve realm population issues than removing the server transfer fee.

Have they actually said this, or are you positing that just from their inactivity?

[nekobaka]

Considering we effectively already have mega servers on realms Blizzard lifted their earlier transfer restrictions on I would say Blizzard really does not care much over realm health at this point. Also Blizzard receives money from a variety of services that together have created more income than sub loss pre-token sales. I am not saying realm transfers are a large motivator while at the same time saying it does play a factor that should not be written off.

Have they actually said this, or are you positing that just from their inactivity?

Besides the usual so and so realm having all the dbags and that other realm having all the slow pokes I do not see any rivalry between realms anymore outside of the minority of raiders and bragging rights.