WoW Retail - New Realm Connections for Low-Population Servers

Took them long enough.

I don't know how, but people are going to be salty and bitch about this. Still nice to see some of the dead realms get some attention.

my server group is so small that we don't even have boost selling spamm... so yeah i hope they manage to increase our server size by a lot

Originally Posted by Averrix

Took them long enough.

This. Damn long.

Originally Posted by vilememory

I don't know how, but people are going to be salty and bitch about this. Still nice to see some of the dead realms get some attention.

Well, if it plays out anything like Connected Realms back in MoP/WoD played out, most people will still have "realm pride" and there will be disdain for the realm that's connected. There will also be weird situations of players with the same name now sharing the same space. These aren't ~huge~ issues when compared to the downside of being on a dead realm but from my own experience on a Connected Realm that's what I noticed.

They should really just bite the bullet and delete dead realms, forcefully transfer characters.

There are realm clusters out there with 10 servers but only 30 raiding guilds between them, it's catastrophic.

I’m curious on what is actually a low pop realm these days. I’m on Shadow Council-US and it feels really empty. We were merged with Blackwater Raiders several years ago now but I don’t think that’s enough anymore. I do see other RP realm players thanks to CRZ but Shadow Council itself feels pretty empty.

Originally Posted by WaltherLeopold

They should really just bite the bullet and delete dead realms, forcefully transfer characters.

There are realm clusters out there with 10 servers but only 30 raiding guilds between them, it's catastrophic.

Believe it or not, people do not like deleting or renaming their characters/guilds. This compromise allows people to retain their character's virtual identity while also going a long way to solve the issue of playing on an underpopulated server.

Originally Posted by otaXephon

Believe it or not, people do not like deleting or renaming their characters/guilds. This compromise allows people to retain their character's virtual identity while also going a long way to solve the issue of playing on an underpopulated server.

I believe you. I just don't think it's good for the longevity of the game.

Other MMOs have done precisely that, Tibia comes to mind, where servers and characters carry MUCH more prestige and weight behind them than WoW, it has worked spectacularly well for them.

And after years of slowness and fail at this finally they will do it, took a long time......

Finally!

Now I just hope they don't link the servers I've transferred from to the ones I've transferred too lol

Originally Posted by WaltherLeopold

I believe you. I just don't think it's good for the longevity of the game.

Other MMOs have done precisely that, Tibia comes to mind, where servers and characters carry MUCH more prestige and weight behind them than WoW, it has worked spectacularly well for them.

Eh. A change like that would just move WoW even further in the direction of mega-servers. (It's already pretty much there, this would just move it along even faster.) I feel like this is how things will ultimately shake out in 4-5 years but I think short term solutions like this are designed to postpone the inevitable as long as possible.

For the record, I don't have a problem with mega-servers but I also don't like forcing people to have to relocate their virtual personas. (And Blizzard has a track record of being pretty anti-merging in their philosophy.)

Oh hell yes, thank you Blizzard!

I'm on a small EU RP realm. Roleplay realms really benefit from a good strong community, and we're too small to sustain it. Previous mergers were very successful for us, for a while.

Please help!

Originally Posted by otaXephon

Eh. A change like that would just move WoW even further in the direction of mega-servers. (It's already pretty much there, this would just move it along even faster.) I feel like this is how things will ultimately shake out in 4-5 years but I think short term solutions like this are designed to postpone the inevitable as long as possible.

For the record, I don't have a problem with mega-servers but I also don't like forcing people to have to relocate their virtual personas. (And Blizzard has a track record of being pretty anti-merging in their philosophy.)

I think not doing mergers is much more destructive and anti-consumer, it forces players who took practically no part in the destruction of their realm to have to pay to leave it.

I don't think the consequence is a mega server, just a greater concentration of players akin to how Classic is currently.

If you allow me to be conspiratorial for a moment, I think the biggest reason they havent pushed for something like this is because WoW's infrastructure is probably the worst in all of MMO history, the game can barely handle 40 players in any given place on retail. Something that would've been an unforgivable technical flaw in any other game.

I would like to see them connect all of the RP PvE North American realms except for moon guard and wyrmrest accord. I like those two servers a lot but they have a pretty good population already.

Originally Posted by WaltherLeopold

I believe you. I just don't think it's good for the longevity of the game.

Other MMOs have done precisely that, Tibia comes to mind, where servers and characters carry MUCH more prestige and weight behind them than WoW, it has worked spectacularly well for them.

And that's how you get people to quit.

I know many people that if they were forced to rename their character they've had for 10-16 years they'd just flat out quit and never come back.

Originally Posted by WaltherLeopold

I think not doing mergers is much more destructive and anti-consumer, it forces players who took practically no part in the destruction of their realm to have to pay to leave it.

I don't think the consequence is a mega server, just a greater concentration of players akin to how Classic is currently.

If you allow me to be conspiratorial for a moment, I think the biggest reason they havent pushed for something like this is because WoW's infrastructure is probably the worst in all of MMO history, the game can barely handle 40 players in any given place on retail. Something that would've been an unforgivable technical flaw in any other game.

The new shards can barely handle 30 players in any given space. A 15v15 battle turns into a slide show and it's all because of sharding.

Instead of increasing server infrastructure they went for the cheaper option of sharding. We're basically already on a "mega server" instanced zones type setup now.


This has taken too damn long. They're too greedy for server transfers and they're obviously too proud to just bite the bullet and delete dead realms and force mergers/transfers. That or they just don't want to give them out for free.

Originally Posted by Onikaroshi

And that's how you get people to quit.

I know many people that if they were forced to rename their character they've had for 10-16 years they'd just flat out quit and never come back.

I once had a character on an EU realm, which during peak hour had, literally 0 other max level characters online than mine.

The result is the same, if my name was taken on another realm, I'd have to rename regardless except with the added bonus of having to pay for the privilege of a server transfer.

Originally Posted by WaltherLeopold

I once had a character on an EU realm, which during peak hour had, literally 0 other max level characters online than mine.

The result is the same, if my name was taken on another realm, I'd have to rename regardless except with the added bonus of having to pay for the privilege of a server transfer.

I mean, server connections are all the benefits of mergers without the downsides, we really don't need people quitting right now, games not in the best state.

Zero Horde doing Mythic on Exodar-Medivh, 3 Alliance (8/12, 6/12, 3/12). Feels bad, man.