Retail Server Merges?

[bullseyed]

There was a small amount of warranted backlash because blizzard gave no shits when it came to faction balance with merging. After my realm merged it went from 50/50 pop to 80/20.

But faction balance has nothing to do with anything, because sharding.

[MoanaLisa]

Not as long as paid character transfers are around.

Then you'll need to explain 1) why they occasionally used to offer free transfers to less-populated realms and 2) why they ever bothered with connected realms to start with. If it were all about paid character transfers then why would they have ever done either of those things?

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If they need to they'll do more Connected Realms. They aren't going to merge realms because, among other issues, it forces character and guild name changes.

With communities, cross realm raiding, and the removal of character limits per realm, they are probably not overly concerned with individual realm populations. I think it's more likely that they'll just expand/improve/adjust the way communities/guilds function in the future.

But, we'll see.

If they find a way to allow cross-realm guilds the population issue in realms will become largely irrelevant. With all of the cross-realm stuff they have now (and I'm not talking about CRZ or sharding here necessarily) allowing for cross-realm guilds puts them very nearly all the way to megaserver functionality while maintaining sub-servers/realms.

[Ticj]

But faction balance has nothing to do with anything, because sharding.

Connected realms happened before sharding bro

[Tharkkun]

The short answer is that it's unlikely that they'll merge servers. They didn't do it in Cataclysm. They didn't do in Warlords and I don't see them doing it now. For one thing they keep the capacity around for expansion launches.

Connected realms: I don't know how many people paid attention to the entire connected realms thing but I don't think that went the way they wanted. It was difficult and many of the connections were delayed again and again. I imagine they're looking at doing something else. Something that will undoubtedly enrage a lot of people. And perhaps that will be justified; perhaps not. We won't know until we know.

But merging realms seems to be something that is off the table.

As a snowflake myself, I have one character that has a slightly unusual name but it's a name I want to keep since I've had it since mid-BC. I once looked and there were 35 others with the same name scattered around. That's another reason why they won't merge realms.

Most of the connected realms were well received. There was some chest beating at the start about whose realm was better but that died down after about a year. Other than that we see returning players confused after connected realms but they grasp the concept fairly quickly.

I personally thought it was a great idea for the raiding scene. But with cross realm zones and instanced being cross realm it only really benefits Mythic raiding.

[bullseyed]

Connected realms happened before sharding bro

So since the topic is why can't they connect more realms today this is relevant how?

[crakerjack]

Yea I wish they would merge servers that are practically dead. I'm on Korgath and every elite guild has left. There's only a handful of guilds doing heroic/mythic EP and the rest are just casual.

[GreenJesus]

Then you'll need to explain 1) why they occasionally used to offer free transfers to less-populated realms and 2) why they ever bothered with connected realms to start with. If it were all about paid character transfers then why would they have ever done either of those things?

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If they find a way to allow cross-realm guilds the population issue in realms will become largely irrelevant. With all of the cross-realm stuff they have now (and I'm not talking about CRZ or sharding here necessarily) allowing for cross-realm guilds puts them very nearly all the way to megaserver functionality while maintaining sub-servers/realms.

Key word is blizzard "used to", but this isn't blizzard anymore. Its acti-blizz. They decided they were giving up revenue.

[FAILoZOFF]

Like are they going to merge the dead servers or what? It's fucking annoying to think they'd rather just make people buy transfers.

Oh boy... I sorry to say, but you aren't very observant one.
They did so indeed... some time ago actually. Its called "connected realms". They operate just like "old" servers did, except you still have servers *TAG so that they could:
1) avoid drama of who will keep its name in case of multiple people are using the same name
2) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^guild^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^guild^^^^
3) avoid whole "bad press" associated with "WoW closing realms"

Whole in game "choose server" tab is just a leftover from past tech, new server technology (connected realms/sharding/instancing) that made old stuff totally obsolete and doesn't work in current era.

[MoanaLisa]

Key word is blizzard "used to", but this isn't blizzard anymore. Its acti-blizz. They decided they were giving up revenue.

They were partnered with Activision when all of this was going on. Surely you're not going to say that Vivendi was OK with this.

Apparently their move toward making the game pretty much connected within regions is something you've missed. About the only thing left is cross-realm guilds. Why would they do any cross-realm anything if the point was to starve the players to the point where they would pay for a transfer.

[GreenJesus]

They were partnered with Activision when all of this was going on. Surely you're not going to say that Vivendi was OK with this.

Apparently their move toward making the game pretty much connected within regions is something you've missed. About the only thing left is cross-realm guilds. Why would they do any cross-realm anything if the point was to starve the players to the point where they would pay for a transfer.

They were partners, but now Blizzard is subservient to Bobby Kotick's demands completely. The whole reason they needed cross-realm sharding in the world was because they refused to merge servers. Now, when out in the world and I see an herb/mining node its 50/50 whether I get sharded or not. And now I can't even get summoned by my guild mates to the raid/dungeon if I do/don't have warmode on. It's completely bullshit that if i want to see a guild mate in the world I have to turn on/off war mode or I can't see groups in the group finder either. This should never have been a thing. I don't know what Blizzard was thinking with this crap.

[God Save The King]

If they find a way to allow cross-realm guilds the population issue in realms will become largely irrelevant.

Trading and auction house would all also need to be cross-realm for a megaserver. I have friends on GrizzlyHills (US) and half the time when they need to buy an enchant or food or flask, there aren't any on their AH. Plus I can't trade anything to them if I have spares. Even if they could join my guild, they'd still need these features to not feel the transfer pressure.

[Relapses]

I'm a little surprised we haven't heard any more about connected realms since WoD.

They left it off with, "if we need to connect more, we will", and then we never heard about it again. Even though, some realms clearly could use some more connecting.

I think Blizzard sees connected realms as a failure, that's why we haven't seen more of them. Most importantly, they really didn't accomplish the goal they set out to tackle. 4 dead realms strung together just feels like a slightly less dead dead realm. Next, naming became weird, especially for guilds. On that note, most realms didn't really take kindly to other realms. I can only provide my anecdotal experience but the guild I was in back in HFC didn't even consider the "other" guilds on the same connected platform as competition.

Connected realms are a band aid solution to a larger endemic issue that has no easy fix. My proposed solution has always been allowing players one free transfer per 12 months of continuous subscription.

[Thetruth1400]

You realize they already can and do exactly that ? The "server groups" that act as a single server, and where every name is suffixed with the name of the server, allowing for the same name being used on every server of the group.

I get what you're saying, but that's not really a merger though, it's a sisterhood at best. All players from Aegwynn, Bonechewer, Daggerspine, Gurubashi, and Hakkar can currently play together, which are sister realms. If they were merged, they'd all be forced together on Aegwynn.

I know it sounds like semantics, but having all those separate servers still leads to a disconnect in "server pride", because they're not a single server.

[Caerule]

They announced new connected realms at Blizzcon 2 years ago. Confirmed in a Q&A later that they were still coming.

I have no idea why they changed their mind on it. The small EU RP realms really need a merger together. And I'm sure there are others.

[Ticj]

So since the topic is why can't they connect more realms today this is relevant how?

You dont understand the context of my reply, I was explaining for the reason of the backlash back in 2014. Of course it isnt relevant today.

[MrExcelion]

Oh yeah. I think I read that once before. lol I never use /who.

Normally what I'd do is /who 120 <insert class here> to count all 120s one class at a time

Only really works if its like less than 500ish people are online though

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Most of the connected realms were well received. There was some chest beating at the start about whose realm was better but that died down after about a year. Other than that we see returning players confused after connected realms but they grasp the concept fairly quickly.

I personally thought it was a great idea for the raiding scene. But with cross realm zones and instanced being cross realm it only really benefits Mythic raiding.

Yeah they stopped doing Connected Realms many years back and I don't see why they stopped tbh. Should have kept going with it as many realms need some love. Should be an ongoing process.

One limiting factor of Connected Realm candidacy was you wanted to have the same datacenter, realm type, and time zone (I think). But they got rid of PVP/PVE realms now so it should be a lot easier to do now /shrug

Should also be some leniency on time zone, like if its an hour difference they could convert still.

On a side note, they should really up the friends cap beyond 200 with all these other games in their ecosystem. 100 -> 200 wasn't enough.

[sam86]

well if u did /who 85 on Ghostlands EU during mid cata era and get more than 10 lvl 85 char during the most crowded time of server at 8 pm it would mean ur drink is so strong that u are hallucinating online

[Marrilaife]

Trading and auction house would all also need to be cross-realm for a megaserver. I have friends on GrizzlyHills (US) and half the time when they need to buy an enchant or food or flask, there aren't any on their AH. Plus I can't trade anything to them if I have spares. Even if they could join my guild, they'd still need these features to not feel the transfer pressure.

They seriously should devote some resources into fixing the AH system. It's one of the main pillars of any MMO, and in WOW it's severely crippled, on high pop realm AH is often laggy, on low pop trading is often non existent, many goods not available on the market or very low supply and prone to market manipulation. Even a solo player who enjoys "everything cross realm" and doesn't give a rat's ass about guilds or mythic raiding will be negatively impacted by the trading system in the environment of handful overcrowded realms and vast reaches of abandoned desert. Neither of them allow enjoyable engagement with the trading system.

I would seriously give up a proverbial raid tier to get a proper trading system without endless scanning, "stacks of one", price imbalances between realms, deposit system that makes transmog only worth to sell for thousands of gold (so you can't even buy cheap transmog because cheap items are vendored instead), and maybe even a system for selling services that reduces chances for either party to be scammed.

[MrExcelion]

And to add onto what I said before, I really think being more aggressive with merges would do a lot for the lack of the community in the game. The less it has to rely on sharding the better. And also help a ton with mythic raiding during the current tier.

I get they make boatloads of cash off server xfers but they should still be willing to continue what they started. Really a no brainer to keep it going now that PVE/PVP realms are gone, so Connected Realm candidacy has been widened tremendously.

Only other reason I could think of is someone high up might think it's a bad perception of the game, sort of like when they changed the server list thresholds for low/medium/high for the sake of perception (many were displaying low with with the increased server capabilities, since it was a % and they lowered that threshold)

[Laqweeta]

I just did a /who all on my server cluster and there's 13 people...

Like are they going to merge the dead servers or what? It's fucking annoying to think they'd rather just make people buy transfers.

Edit: I'm dumb, wasn't 13.

You’re going to have to buy a transfer. Sorry!

Money money money money money.