So why has blizzard stopped connecting servers togheter?

[Raiju]

No it's because they are dead, in the first week it was because of your reason and it was at Medium and occasionally bumped back up to High.. Now it's just low all the time and the server is dead compared to before, so you're entirely wrong.

Every single server - many classified as high/full - showed as low on the same day. The day they increased the server capacity.

[Deleted]

Some of you will call BS and that's fine.

It's not a bother to you I imagine.

No one has yet explained why Blizzard would make as much of the game cross-realm...

Voluntary association rather than forced interaction I imagine.

That was GC's stance from what I recall.

I imagine Blizzard will upgrade the stability and connectivity of cross realm servers, while at the same time downsize the physical servers. Most of them are probably a waste of money now unless there's a surge in popularity.

It doesn't take a genius to see how cross realm servers were so destructive to many aspects of the game. For example, it's much easier to transfer to a popular server than struggle to survive on a medium to small one where the temptation to leave is now even greater (for obvious reasons). There were what many people feel were negative consequences, but I'd have to prove it to you up to your standard of proof (pure math I suppose).

From what I recall, many people wanted small to medium population servers to be merged so that they could actually remain tight knit communities, while competing with huge servers at the same time. It could have been done.

The fact that it wasn't helped destroy trust in Blizzard, in my opinion. There appears to be an empathy gap.

Not that it matters anymore. This whole make friends in an environment where it's much more rewarding to be evil is going to be quite a challenge for me.

[DustWolf]

The only problem I have with dead servers atm is that you get none of the benefits of dead servers but all the cons of highly populated servers thanks to CRZ.
I used to have a char on a dead server for rare farming and nothing else. Now thanks to CRZ (and the server being more or less dead = bad economy) that char is completely useless ...

[Pann]

Every single server - many classified as high/full - showed as low on the same day. The day they increased the server capacity.

And as if by magic about half of my realm's population disappeared around the same time as these upgrades.

[Raiju]

And as if by magic about half of my realm's population disappeared around the same time as these upgrades.

overnight? Keep up those conspiracy theories

[TheDestinatus]

My guess would be that they aren't connecting them in anticipation that they will get a huge influx of people now that the movie has released and people will get a free copy of the game. They are doing suspicious things anyway, recently they reduced the population cap of the oceanic servers to make it appear as if the servers are over full and you must wait in a queue to get in. At no point has their been a server queue on a server like Frostmourne except just following an expansion release and no one is being fooled now into thinking the server is full and you need to wait to get in. Only have to walk around to see that there's no one around.

[Jessicka]

Because an expansion is about to drop and there's a possibility (granted it's small) that dead/dying realms will see new life after it drops.

I would expect more mergers around the time 7.1 hits if realm populations remain low, however.

This is a poor argument, when all the merges were done in MoP when "an expansion was about to drop".

[KaPe]

I remember having high hopes for realm connections back in MoP. Our nearly dead server got connected to another small one, population has increased, Blizzard patted themselves on the back over a "job well done". I guess someone thought that "the whole is greater than sum of its parts" applies to connected realms and players would magically appear out of nowhere. Turns out it doesn't quite work this way, so two almost-dead realms together are only slightly less dead. But I guess that's good enough for people responsible for connections.

Let's not forget that subscriber count has decreased dramatically over the course of the expansion. Even if we assume that this loss was spread evenly across all realms, this mean ~40% drop everywhere. Obviously this isn't true, since people transfer from backwater realms all the time, so their losses are much higher, further compounding their status as "dead".

Unless they expect massive surge of players with Legion that will completely revitalize empty realms, their reasoning makes no real sense. I guess someone decided that transfer fees make up for people quitting the game over dead servers. Not to mention that even if Legion is a massive success, this will most likely mean huge queues on populated realms and "barely acceptable" status for small ones.

[Jessicka]

actually no, it isn't dueto subs, it is due to server capacity being doubled. All the OCE realms that are connected have great populations.

That has nothing to do with why they stopped. A lot of realms, in spite of being merged to 2 or 3 others, are still at very low population levels; and the OP is asking why the connections weren't continued.

Saying "They stopped merging because they doubled the realm capacity" is fucking absurd; since it actually gives them more room and capacity to actually do more merging, rather than an excuse to do less.

[Deleted]

My server got connected and we're already experiencing a queue.

Yeah, we too. Connecting Servers in a time like this is a really really stupid idea.

[Pann]

overnight? Keep up those conspiracy theories

Did I say "overnight"? In a 2-3 week period, around (not overnight) the same time as the server upgrades, my realm went from having 1250-1400 players online at peak times to 650-800. I am interested to hear what you think happened to them.

[KaPe]

That has nothing to do with why they stopped. A lot of realms, in spite of being merged to 2 or 3 others, are still at very low population levels; and the OP is asking why the connections weren't continued.

Saying "They stopped merging because they doubled the realm capacity" is fucking absurd; since it actually gives them more room and capacity to actually do more merging, rather than an excuse to do less.

I assume the logic (poster's, not Blizzard's) is that "low" population server don't need connection, because "low" can still mean few thousands active players. Or maybe because their healthy realm is labeled as "low" at times, but has more than enough players.

Which is all good and well, except there is no official "almost empty" status - or any real gradation of "Low". It's a bad excuse, as anyone on backwater "connected" realm can confirm.

[Raiju]

Did I say "overnight"? In a 2-3 week period, around (not overnight) the same time as the server upgrades, my realm went from having 1250-1400 players online at peak times to 650-800. I am interested to hear what you think happened to them.

I don't know or care about your unrelated anecdotes.

[Pann]

I don't know or care about your unrelated anecdotes.

Oh, sorry. I thought you did based on your response to mine and the other poster's posts. Anyway I'll let get back to telling people who have the same unrelated anecdotes about their servers' population that there is nothing to see here.

[Raiju]

Oh, sorry. I thought you did based on your response to mine and the other poster's posts. Anyway I'll let get back to telling people who have the same unrelated anecdotes about their servers' population that there is nothing to see here.

My response was clarifying it happened across the entirety of EU english servers where you can see by locations we both are - within 24 hours that all the high pops became low.

Your anecdotes about weeks prior or after that date regardless of how close they are; are exactly as stated. Irrelevant to the point.

[Pann]

My response was clarifying it happened across the entirety of EU english servers where you can see by locations we both are - within 24 hours that all the high pops became low.

Your anecdotes about weeks prior or after that date regardless of how close they are; are exactly as stated. Irrelevant to the point.

Both the person you responded to and me say that our realms seem to be emptier, which I have confirmed with census+ scans, despite your clarification server upgrades are not explanation for less people being online.

[Chrno]

Because the servers they connected have stable realms?

Come join me on bronzebeard / Aearipeaks (EU) ........ rofl i would finally have someone to play with

[Raiju]

Both the person you responded to and me say that our realms seem to be emptier, which I have confirmed with census+ scans, despite your clarification server upgrades are not explanation for less people being online.

And once again, that's not related. Because the servers got upgraded doesn't mean they can't be emptier anyway.

[Super Kami Dende]

Saying "They stopped merging because they doubled the realm capacity" is fucking absurd; since it actually gives them more room and capacity to actually do more merging, rather than an excuse to do less.

Well... Since I never said that. Ok?

[Pann]

And once again, that's not related. Because the servers got upgraded doesn't mean they can't be emptier anyway.

What? If it is not related then why bring it up when someone writes "No it's because they are dead, in the first week it was because of your reason and it was at Medium and occasionally bumped back up to High.. Now it's just low all the time and the server is dead compared to before, so you're entirely wrong."?