Why did they kill Ironforge ? :o

[IIamaKing]

One could argue about the convenience of Stormwind, or Orgrimmar too for that matter...
Other cities are often more convenient when it comes to trainers etc. Both capitals are quite stretched out. And anyone who is still grounded without a flyer will experience this rather quickly. You get around a lot more convenient in IF than in SW for example.

I agree with this and this is clear if you go to IF for any time, you see a lot of lower levels running around. Then there are the 2-3 lvl capped hold outs. /wave

[Rixis]

They should give all the capitals the same services that orgrimmar/stormwind.

Absolutely, it's the lack of facilities in those cities that killed them. I love Thunder Bluff, Undercity, Dalaran etc, but them not having portals to .. well, anywhere basically, means there's little use in them.

I don't hang about in Orgrimmar myself, I do have many capable transfer methods (about 12 action buttons worth of teleports ), but being forced to one of 2 places to do anything is annoying. Want to transmog, or portal to Pandaria (sure it's only jade forest), or head out to one of the various Cataclysm zones.

Thankfully I prefer shrine to Orgrimmar (not much, they both suck) and it has everything I need.

They probably don't want the world to feel more empty by having a bunch (no idea on numbers) of the playerbase in different locations. Silvermoon is fine if it's empty, because nobody is there to see it be empty, but if there were only a smattering of people in all capitals, they'd all feel quite empty.

[sunxsera]

They should give all the capitals the same services that orgrimmar/stormwind.

I think so, too.

[Rixis]

They did, back at the beginning of Cata. But then patch 4.3 came, and they *intentionally removed* the reforge NPC's from all cities except Org/SW. The "old" reforge NPC's are still there, they just tell you they can't do it anymore and direct you to the ethereals in SW/Org. Great design decision huh?

Orgrimmar had all the portals to the Cataclysm zones too, as well as Tol Barad, which didn't help a great deal.

[Wildtree]

I always thought they should make a different city the best every month, what I mean by that, is every month they change the reforger/dailies/etc so that everyone would be "forced" to move to the new city. So one month Stormwind, other month Ironforge, next Darnassus, etc... I wish they did this.

City events would be the way to go imo.
All we got are the cooking/fishing dailies in the cities, but thats it.....
Make some event that gives some allure.
But then again, I would also hate it somehow.. I'm always happy once Christmas is over, and the herd moves out of IF again lol

[Leih]

The raids you've mentioned..... Dalaran is the way to use..
Naxx obviously in Northrend anyway...
AQ and Ony.. Portal to the caverns of time with no Rep requirement in Dal.
While this is a tad further for AQ, it's closer for Ony.

He was talking about back in Vanilla, as I was

Venziir was trying to say that the only reason IF was popular in Vanilla was because of the Auction House. Ironforge had the original auction house, but that's not the only reason that people found it more convenient.

[Yousend]

The raids you've mentioned..... Dalaran is the way to use..
Naxx obviously in Northrend anyway...
AQ and Ony.. Portal to the caverns of time with no Rep requirement in Dal.
While this is a tad further for AQ, it's closer for Ony.

I was replying to his Vanilla WoW stament. When IF was the only Alliance City with an AH...

[Nzete]

Ironforge has by far the best city music as well. When I started playing (late BC), I hated SW because I got lost with all the bridges and canals. IF has a majesty that SW really doesn't.

I'm currently hearthed to my farm on all my characters. My low level bankers always live in IF or Darnasus.

[Wildtree]

He was talking about back in Vanilla, as I was

Venziir was trying to say that the only reason IF was popular in Vanilla was because of the Auction House. Ironforge had the original auction house, but that's not the only reason that people found it more convenient.

Ahhhhh my bad

[DechCJC]

I still wish Darnasuss was the main city, or hell, even The Exodar. They're both so beautiful but there's so little reason to go there; It's such a pity. IF is nice too, but it's still nowhere near those other two cities in my book - And Sw can just suck a big fat one, always hated Humans/Orcs in WoW.

[Risale]

Next xpac no more reforge, yak has transmog dude so no reason to stay in SW other then the item upgrade once a week and you can just hop the tram and be back.
Oh and almost everyone will have their HS fixed on their garrison which has a portal to fortcopypasta if I am correct.

[Every Pwny]

Most people used IF until they forced everyone into SW in Cata by putting all the portals and vendors there, because they wanted the city to feel more alive.

[BurnetRhoades]

I reforge at the shrine and do everything else in IF on my Alliance toons and UC on my Horde toons. Flying mounts means the Orc-tarded layout of Org and SW are finally non-issues but they're still a pain and unattractive. The only time I bother with them, generally, will be for portals to a few Cata zones.

[Laerrus]

I actually kind of like "Lagforge" not being so laggy, our CRZ with Stormrage and some other highly populated realms makes the place populated enough to not feel like it is empty.

[Coronius]

Ironforge has always been my favorite city, and I would love to see it come back as a major hub.

Stormwind is cool and all, but it's really nothing special. Also, I'm pretty sick of Humans at this point.

[Byucknah The Red]

Players chose Ironforge in Vanilla because it was the most convenient city.

But Blizzard want Stormwind to be the capital of the Alliance because Humans are the primary race, same as Orcs and Orgrimmar for the Horde. Orcs vs. Humans. That's basically it.

Ironforge was also the only place with an AH in vanilla, so that contributed to its popularity back in the day. When SW got its AH everyone just slowly started transitioning to SW instead.

[Laerrus]

Next xpac no more reforge, yak has transmog dude so no reason to stay in SW other then the item upgrade once a week and you can just hop the tram and be back.
Oh and almost everyone will have their HS fixed on their garrison which has a portal to fortcopypasta if I am correct.

Wow, that's kind of cool, that yak might be worth saving for after all.

IF and Exodar are beginning to look a lot more like attractive choices come WoD. With no Marshal Windsor to escort up to the Stormwind Keep, 3 expansions of Stormwind has gotten kind of boring.

[ringpriest]

Seriously, like wtf ?

Ironforge was THE best capital in Vanilla, where everyone was... It's way more beautiful and mythic than Stormwind, but still, they killed it, with all quests now directing to SW, not even a Reforger and mog in IF, why ?

What do you think ?

I agree that IF > SW. It was my guild's HQ when I started playing in classic, and I have a lot of fond memories of the place.

Why did Blizzard kill it, turning it into nearly as much a backwater as the Exodar? I have two non-exclusive theories.

First, laziness or penny-pinching (aka. "limited developer time"). Lots of people used SW, particularly after it became the takeoff point for Northrend, and Blizzard had put a fair amount of dev time into SW. And if they weren't willing to do the work to put portal park and new NPCs into more than one capital... SW was going to be the one that got the love and attention. (Did IF ever have portals? I seem to remember one o rmore once upon a time, but I was playing Horde almost exclusively by the time they became a 'thing'.)

Second, and slightly more nefarious, PR. Post-Wrath, the numbers were starting to drop, and 'abandoned realm syndrome' was becoming a real problem, although it would take a long time for Blizz to openly admit it or do anything about it. By deliberately funneling all the players on a given realm into one city per faction, where previously they'd been scattered to some degree, Blizzard could 'hide' the loss of players and hopefully keep the problem from getting worse due to positive feedback.

[mysticx]

Ironforge was also the only place with an AH in vanilla, so that contributed to its popularity back in the day. When SW got its AH everyone just slowly started transitioning to SW instead.

It was something far simpler: SW has the portals to the Cataclysm zones (And the one to Pandaria), which are so spread around that portals are by far the most convenient way to get there, for any Vanilla content the difference in distance is neglegible (And IF was the only city with an AH in it, making it the natural capital) back in BC/Wrath we all AFK-ed in Shattrath/Dalaran respectively...

So we were none-too-subtly shoehorned into SW, just to remind us which race actually matters... :P

[Tenjen]

Ironforge was never intended to be a capital hub and no development has even gone into no wait wrong thread.