The World is Alive!

[shoc]

Is there any documentations of what happened to CRZ between now and, before whatever happened? I just had a half hour long battle outside of Uldaman on my level 45, at least 10 v 10 on both sides. It was madness, and it only ended because a level 90 showed up and wiped the floor.

[StrayFox]

They didn't add Mal'ganis to any cross realm groups and they're never going to. What you saw was likely some people on sargeras grouping up with friends on Mal'ganis since it's suicidal to go do anything as horde on Sargeras, which is all Alliance.

That's horrifying. Did they pair a heavy Horde server with them?

[Nissl]

I mostly love what CRZ has done to the outdoor leveling experience. Great for PVP (though I don't care about that), and hopefully they can start putting a bit more group/duo content in now that they can rely on other players being around. Solo leveling through the old expansions back in MoP and Cata was just depressing when you were one of like two people in the whole zone.

That said, I think they've overdone it a little. Depending on the zone, more mobs will be down than up atm. They should cut back populations by maybe 20% if possible, and they need to boost quest XP a good bit to compensate. Based on my experiences over 42-54 so far, LFD (which I can chain as a tank) is incredibly far ahead of questing for speed. I imagine it would be even more pronounced on a PVP server.

As long as we're talking about leveling changes in 6.0, I love that they actually buffed instances a little. It's still just tank and spank, but at least DPS isn't going to go in and pull whole rooms anymore, and I might actually think about blowing a CD or two if we get a bunch of adds. It actually feels like a group again.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I suspect it's the prepatch but I don't think I've ever seen Feathermoon so hopping. I'm in Lakeshire with about 20 other players running around, doing quests. This is fantastic! Anyone else seeing a resurgence in players?

I was leveling in Hyjal a few days ago and there were about 5 or 6 other players at one hub with me.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Been seeing it as well. Even pre-patch I saw a good number in each leveling zone, but now there's actual competition for quest mobs. o.O.

Hallow's End is also bringing people out into the world. It's lovely to see! But of course, now people are moaning about THIS as well...yep, already seen it in-game. And I have to ask those people, what the flying fuck are they doing in an mmorpg?

Of course, my 3 weeks in Archeage has left me somewhat scarred...I still jump and get prepared to fight when seeing same-faction players outside of safe zones...

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Been seeing it as well. Even pre-patch I saw a good number in each leveling zone, but now there's actual competition for quest mobs. o.O.

Hallow's End is also bringing people out into the world. It's lovely to see! But of course, now people are moaning about THIS as well...yep, already seen it in-game. And I have to ask those people, what the flying fuck are they doing in an mmorpg?

Of course, my 3 weeks in Archeage has left me somewhat scarred...I still jump and get prepared to fight when seeing same-faction players outside of safe zones...

Wait, who the hell would be complaining about people in the world?

Were they just mad someone stole their mob? Or did they actually hate the idea of people in the world?

[Packing an i5]

the effect your seeing is only temporary 6 months from now it will die down. Most people playing wow now are casual short term players and its always like this nearing a new expansion launch. Cataclysm's prepatch was crazy too I had not seen the world so alive in quite some time. Bam worst xpac ever lost millions of subscribers over time.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Wait, who the hell would be complaining about people in the world?

Were they just mad someone stole their mob? Or did they actually hate the idea of people in the world?

They were angry as in "The fuck, this zone is ALWAYS empty with rares up, y so many people now??". Others joined in and 4 people had a moaningfest about how they couldn't level without being disturbed by other players...this took place in Hillsbrad Foothills.

@.@

- - - Updated - - -

the effect your seeing is only temporary 6 months from now it will die down. Most people playing wow now are casual short term players and its always like this nearing a new expansion launch. Cataclysm's prepatch was crazy too I had not seen the world so alive in quite some time. Bam worst xpac ever lost millions of subscribers over time.

Negative Nate's are never in short supply though.
Considering it's was over 6 million BEFORE the pre-patch, I'd dare wager we're in a rather good spot. I would love to see those stats you're sitting on with proof that most people playing WoW now are casual short-term players though...

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

They were angry as in "The fuck, this zone is ALWAYS empty with rares up, y so many people now??". Others joined in and 4 people had a moaningfest about how they couldn't level without being disturbed by other players...this took place in Hillsbrad Foothills.

@.@

I can understand the guy mad about rares, I know the feel when your rare is stolen while you're AFK.

But whining about how they get disturbed while leveling? Isn't that the point of Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs?

[Queen of Hamsters]

I can understand the guy mad about rares, I know the feel when your rare is stolen while you're AFK.

But whining about how they get disturbed while leveling? Isn't that the point of Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs?

One would think so. I love seeing people out and about. Sure it costs me some rares and causes wait times in some areas, but it's all part of the mmorpg I've chose to play. :3

[Nissl]

the effect your seeing is only temporary 6 months from now it will die down. Most people playing wow now are casual short term players and its always like this nearing a new expansion launch. Cataclysm's prepatch was crazy too I had not seen the world so alive in quite some time. Bam worst xpac ever lost millions of subscribers over time.

Depends on how many servers are connected for CRZ now. Something like 2/3 of the players I'm seeing in lowbie zones are from other realms, and I'm on a mid-high pop server. If most servers can feed into most others, it might still feel pretty good mid-expansion.

Edit: Just logged in to check, and of 17 in the zone within 3 levels every single player is from a different realm. Seems like they are highly connected now.

[spinner981]

Source? /10char.

Doesn't need a source. It's true. All leveling can be done solo, and tbh its better that way. I like the feel of my character taking on the world and the challenges that it presents, rather than spending 15 minutes slaughtering boards (or rather, waiting to slaughter boars) alongside the other 20 people slaughtering those same boars.

Adding other players into the mix of something that works better solo is just dumb (which is what leveling and questing is; primarily solo content). Raids and BGs are designed to involve numerous players. Leveling and questing is not. The more players you add, the less fun and more hassle-some that leveling and questing becomes (especially since the number of worthless lowbie gankers increases as well).

Maybe some people enjoy watching other players play the game, and that's fine. But blizz shouldn't have forced CRZ onto every single player. We don't all get a meaningless kick out of merely seeing other people, and the negatives of CRZ outweigh the 'positives' for most people. The only good thing I ever see people say about it is "The world is alive!" and I am like "Woopity freaking doo.". NPCs make the world feel more alive than players, and before CRZ anybody could have gotten the 'player filled worlds' they wanted by realm transferring.

Honestly, I could care less about watching other people quest, and I don't really care what the genre of the game technically is. Why can't those of us who enjoy questing and leveling in a zone void of other players to get in our way get to play the game we want to too? I don't play WoW because its an MMORPG. I play WoW because it's WoW, and I get tired of people trying to tell me what I should think is fun and that if I don't like a certain aspect of WoW then that must mean I should stop playing WoW altogether and go play a completely different game.

[Aktavite]

Of course adding 600K players in one month (mostly in the West as WoD is not launched in China yet), is adding again 15% of the player base.

600k in one month?

Sure about that?

[Baracuda]

You just seem to be in denial about the fact that an MMORPG is supposed to have many players.

I think the reason CRZ has increased is because there's 10-way realm connections now meaning more realms in the same CRZ.

[Wrathorian]

Started doing Tournament dailies again 3 days ago, and I must say I was shocked to see over 20+ people doing the dailies. Before pre-patch ( like 2-3 months ago ) It wasnt more than 5+ people in Icecrown, not its a lot more crowded even when its not peak hours.Also lots of people gathered around old raids like Ulduar and Dragon Soul because of the new group finding interface. It makes a warm feeling in my hearth when I see more people just running around minding their own business.