Was merging realms a mistake? (including Cross-Realm Zones)

[MoanaLisa]

These are really two entirely different topics. Connected realms serves Blizzard's perception about the needs for a viable realm size. Cross-realm zones serve several purposes. The two big things are Blizzard's perception of what a zone should look like in terms of its at-the-moment population and another desire on Blizzard's part to consolidate their network resources so they aren't running several hundred nearly empty versions of individual zones.

Connected realms are very good things. I'm agnostic on CRZ because despite everyone else's horror stories it hasn't affected me in any noticeable way (other than a slight bump on boundaries) and when I talk to real-life in-game friends about it they mostly report the same thing. So no opinion there other than I if I have to level a toon I like to see the occasional person on the way from level 1 to end game. There have been times when I've probably seen less than a dozen people all the way from one to 80 and that's just wrong. CRZ may or may not be the best answer for that but having an entire zone to yourself in an MMO is unacceptable.

Anyway, back to the beginning: zones and realms are different things with different requirements.

[Tisane]

I like it. I understand your point though.

Personally, I like it because I'd love to be our server to become a bit bigger. I wouldn't be able to just move over to another server for multiple reasons. Thanks to the merges and CRZ, the questing zones are inhabited by a fair amount of players again, which I missed a lot. My guild also managed to get a couple of great new guild members because of the server merge. I haven't experienced any downsides so far.

[Pooglecoborg]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around how people can like connected realms, which increases the population of the game world, but dislike CRZ, which increases the population of the game world.

[Lazuli]

Realm merger is fine but CRZ is a plague.

[Dom]

Didn't notice any difference once my realm was connected to be honest. Aside from SoO general being more lively, it was exactly the same.

[Deleted]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around how people can like connected realms, which increases the population of the game world, but dislike CRZ, which increases the population of the game world.

It's the difference between a large party you got an invite to, where you will see the people again if you want and a crowded train station full of strangers, some of whom will mug you and who can never be caught because finding anyone again is unlikely at best.

[Deadite]

There have been times when I've probably seen less than a dozen people all the way from one to 80 and that's just wrong. CRZ may or may not be the best answer for that but having an entire zone to yourself in an MMO is unacceptable.

Why is it unacceptable? Blizzard removed the need to interact with other players. In this game other players are competition. You have to fight over everything. If i never saw another player until max level i would be a happy bunny. The MM part is only important at max level. It was beyond idiotic to throw 5 realms of people at one zone. When ever node/mob/quest item is a race to acquire it beggars belief they would add a system like CRZ.

If the game was built around cooperation like a GW2 then no problem. If GW2 you are happy to see other players. It is mutually beneficial to help other players in that game but in WoW it is dog eat dog. CRZ does not lend itself well to that system.

[sgiangiuliani]

Definitely not, made realms with really small populations seem much more alive

[Deleted]

Crz was an utter crap implementation of an ida that was good.
If you could trade with you fellow crz'ers THEN crz would at least have ONE positive thing.

[Deleted]

CRZ and merges serve different purposes.
CRZ - good intent, horrible impelementation on launch, still bad even after all hot and bandaid fixes
Merges - they where needed, no way around

We merged with a couple of other servers and now have guild members from those realms. This is a one way change. Everything has been merged. We just get our old realm name added to our character names (everybody has their name extended). They would have to tear our guilds apart to split - not to mention everything that's been shared across. And due to the character slot limitations people have made characters on the other 'connected' realms since. There would be a massive rage if they ever tried to split things up again.

- - - Updated - - -



Actually underneath, technically, it really is a merge (although a merge done in a way that they technically might be able to undo later, but not perfectly and not with causing a lot of grief). On the surface it looks more like 'connected realms' but in reality we're all just in one big server now with separate name space for each realm. Anything else that relates to the server is now common, eg challenge mode titles.

This is correct. It's why post-merge one of the servers doesn't have armory access for a few weeks: all the data is being transferred to the new "main" server of the group. Also why the clock can change.

After the merge the server IP also changes into this remaining "main" server once you log into your character.
And some of the armories image urls link to this "main" server right after the merge and transfer of the armory. The first merged realms had them up for days. They must have overlooked it. Now they change them immediately to use the old realm names after the transfer is finished.

[Killec]

Loving the CRZ system, making life come out in zones.

When it was added, I started smiling as I saw people levelling in Westfall on one of my alt servers, suddenly there was life.

And the merging is needed, really. Do you rather just wish to be moved to a random server just because, or merge together with servers of your type and not lose your name or guild?

I thought the same thing when crz was first implemented, but i quickly realized that while there were a lot of people in the zones, i knew nobody, and i would most likely never see any of them again and even if i did i wouldn't remember them. I mean why even try to defend goldshire from a horde attack when you know nobody that is attacking? it feels artificial. you literally can walk over a couple feet and everybody disappears and zones out, and that really breaks immersion. All of them other players might as well be npc's. they just get in the way imo.

[Taiknee]

CRZ and connected realms are both great IMO.

[Sam the Wiser]

CRZ where players rages at one another for mobs, nodes, and rares.

[PrairieChicken]

Crz sucks and connected realms hardly exist at all

[Osmeric]

I still think CRZ was added to enable sufficiently high population density for dynamic content.

Prediction: WoD zones will be CRZ from the start.

[Deleted]

I like CRZ, but the implementation was very poor.

[Bigbazz]

Pretty shitty thread to have a poll with only polar opposite opinions. The part about grouping with friends and being pulled over to the leaders realm is in the game, you post as if it isnt.

[Razecog]

CRZ sucks cthulhu dick.