Virtual Realms! 5.4 PTR

[Polarthief]

So... is this like CRZ?

Because I fucking hate the realms I'm linked up with :\

Still though, this idea will correct CRZ, or completely crash and fail even harder. Risky move on their part.

[Pouponu]

It's clearly a step toward that and the whole coalesced realm thing will give them some flexibility to mix and match as time goes along. Something they wouldn't really have if they had merged realms.

It's a longer-view solution than doing a realm merge that would just need to be done again at a later date as the game continues to shrink.

Not necessarily, though, as if I was part of a loving mix-realm guild and it got split up because Blizzard was mixing and matching to solve faction imbalance, I'd be pretty angry :P

Although they could offer free guild/character transfers to anyone who wanted to stay with their guild in that situation, which would be AMAZING, but quite unlikely

[Deleted]

Yep, seems like you're pretty boned. WoW and all of its hooks isn't designed to be played on low pop realms.

Awesome!

Anyway I'll hold off on judging things until it's fully released or at least fully explained. But I don't like the look of this.

[Normie]

They really should just ignore the bad PR, cut their losses and merge the servers officially. This is a pretty silly way to try to avoid the bad press.

But, looks cool regardless.. just not a fan of the # at the front of your name.

You don't understand. This isn't merging. This is a feature that allows Blizzard to deal with the effects of player migration without hoping players don't do it again.

Merge realms: Players leave the merged realms, keep going to Tich, Illidan, Stormrage.

Virtual realms: Players have the benefits of a merged AH etc with no upheaval but if players keep leaving, realms can be shuffled around to stabilize the virtual realm pop.

[El_Diabl0]

So, lets say they're going to virtually link a number of realms without actually merging them into a single realm. What happens if one of the linked realms receive a sudden influx of players coming from another realm, will Blizzard unlink that realm and basically break guilds, separate friends, etc?

Lets hope Blizzard doesn't mess this up.

Last week I was thinking it would be interesting if Alliance/Horde realms were actually independent but linked. This allow the realms to have equal number of slots for alliance and horde players and could help preventing one faction from squeezing the other out of the server. Seems like the tech is already in place, lets hope they thought about it.

[Galaddriel]

Bout time they merged servers. Good on them.

[mistahwilshire]

Not necessarily, though, as if I was part of a loving mix-realm guild and it got split up because Blizzard was mixing and matching to solve faction imbalance, I'd be pretty angry :P

Although they could offer free guild/character transfers to anyone who wanted to stay with their guild in that situation, which would be AMAZING, but quite unlikely

I'm quite confident if this was the situation, they would have systems in place to determine who should and shouldn't be moved around for reasons like this.

[Mawnix]

So... is this like CRZ?

Because I fucking hate the realms I'm linked up with :\

Still though, this idea will correct CRZ, or completely crash and fail even harder. Risky move on their part.

Always the optimist.

[Axelond]

I am very excited for this feature being on a low pop realm I cant wait to find out more info about this feature like how it will work and what realms will be linked. Can see now what GC was talking about this is to me way bigger then flexi raids

[Mukki]

This is Blizzard's spin for "server merges"

Kind of shitty they announce this after many people just paid to transfer

Right, because 5.4 is coming next week.
I mean, I could be melodramatic about the fact I paid full price for a server xfer the day before they put it on sale.
Heck, we could even complain about Rift trying to sell their game for $50 on their website up to the last day before they go F2P.

[Nayelar]

forget the flex mode, THIS is the big announcement!

[Deleted]

It's great news and all, but I chose to play on a low population server because I deliberately want to play on a low population server. What about people like me? Are we just flat out of luck and forced to deal with this?

I very well understand that this is an MMO but that doesn't mean a low population server is completely empty. It just means that it's less crowded compared to some other servers.

Maybe they'll leave 1-2 low realms unmerged for people like you, and give free transfer to those for anyone who wants to play on a low pop.

[Shampro]

Maybe they'll leave 1-2 low realms unmerged for people like you, and give free transfer to those for anyone who wants to play on a low pop.

You can already transfer for free to realms that are lower pop than the one you are leaveing.

---------- Post added 2013-06-12 at 03:54 AM ----------

Good news are good, but still, wouldn't it be easier to just merge realms in old fashioned way?

How many times does it have to be said, there wouldnt be a way to do that without pissing off a mectric fuck load of people because they need to change thier guild name and toons names.

[zeropeorth]

Can't believe people are still finding ways to be completely negative about this.

People in general have the tendency to find and focus on the negative.

I'm not really playing atm (cancelled sub, still have time) and I'm still a bit angry about further changes to the class I used to love ... the two of the things that I felt were saving graces have/are being nerfed to hell. But, I am trying to remain positive for the company as a whole, even though I'm not enjoying it much any longer.

Flex raids, Virtual realms, faster content, consistent well done large raids, (mailing BtA x-server?) ... I think they've really turned it around from the (imo) minimalistic efforts brought forth in Cata.

I might resub ... but I'd have to find a class I find enjoyable, and the two I used to consider 'mains' have been changed so much, I don't like them; and haven't found a suitable class to fill in the gap

Hope this works out ... but a very hard feature to test internally and PTR-wise.

[Deleted]

It's great news and all, but I chose to play on a low population server because I deliberately want to play on a low population server. What about people like me? Are we just flat out of luck and forced to deal with this?

I'm on the same boat - and I'm afraid: Yes, we probably are. :|

How many times does it have to be said, there wouldnt be a way to do that without pissing off a mectric fuck load of people because they need to change thier guild name and toons names.

Exactly. There are names that exist on almost every single realm - who would be allowed to keep it, who wouldn't?
Also, it could really be a problem to find a name in general, if there are suddenly waaaay more players without the possibility of using a name twice (at least for some who aren't that good when it comes down to coming up with names).

[Zergin8r]

Good news are good, but still, wouldn't it be easier to just merge realms in old fashioned way?

This way they can allow people to keep names and whatnot.

[Ferocity]

Reading it carefully again, this is 100% basicly server merges without actually the need to change your toons names/possible visual, and ofcourse the whole PR dilema the intenet likes to hang on to.

It's better than that. Basically, if I understand that right, with this change you can have more than 11 characters on, essentially, one realm. Which is very good news for alts-capped people.

[starlord]

there goes the neighborhood.

[El_Diabl0]

It's great news and all, but I chose to play on a low population server because I deliberately want to play on a low population server. What about people like me? Are we just flat out of luck and forced to deal with this?

I very well understand that this is an MMO but that doesn't mean a low population server is completely empty. It just means that it's less crowded compared to some other servers.

So, lets say you are the only one on your realm, should Blizzard keep it online and as it is so you can play a single player version of their MMO? I think it's about time they do something about this but I'm still afraid they're going to mess this up.

---------- Post added 2013-06-12 at 05:59 AM ----------

This way they can allow people to keep names and whatnot.

What's the point of keeping a name if it's not unique?

[Airwaves]

Great now all the people who whine about low pop realms will start whining about there be to many people about and the AH being ruined.