DRASTIC MEASURES ARE CALLED FOR: Server merges.

[Storfan]

Due to the total f-up by Blizzard in not implementing A) Faction specific queues and B) too late implementing faction specific transfers we have now started to see a snowball effect towards the end times. Some servers are at massive imbalance and it's getting worse. The implementation of faction specific transfers might have stalled it a bit but for some servers I fear this is too late. My suggestion is this, and it is a drastic one: Server Merges. I know this cant fix the all servers because PvP servers often tend to lean towards horde superiority. The problems starts to show at 40/60 imbalance and it quickly goes down hill. Basically: Merge any 70/30 servers with other servers with the same but opposite imbalance, or 20/80 or 35/65. What ever number is picked, it is important this happens sooner rather than later.

Server identity is out of the window now. Who cares if they play on "this-or-that" server anymore. We just want faction balance.

If no merges are to happen, then I think I speak for everyone when I ask that Blizzard either open up for A) free transfers for both factions between ALL servers (including PvP<->PvE<->RP in which ever order you want) or B) start up paid transfers so everyone can make up their own mind.

EDIT #1: An addition suggestion would be to shut down any of the dying servers and let them transfer off to low pop factions of other servers.

EDIT #2: Following the suggestions of posters I have changed my caps to underline instead to better set the tone. My reason was to put emphasis on the words, not to seem like a loudmouth ranter.

[vian]

You must be new, server imbalance was always the case.

[Zora-Prime]

Server identity is out of the window now. Who cares if they play on "this-or-that" server anymore. We just want faction BALANCE.

That's not up to you to decide. Re-roll or get rolled.

[MoanaLisa]

Balance can't be forced because in truth, most people don't want to be on a balanced server. The only kind of open world PVP that a lot of people are interested in is the kind where they know they will win.

The only thing they ever do with servers is to try and make too-crowded servers less so. They aren't going to merge anything.

[Storfan]

You must be new, server imbalance was always the case.

I've played on- and off since the 2004 beta and then private servers 2012-2019 and now classic. And yes, server imbalance has always been the case and it has always been detrimental to long term server health. Just because Blizzard didn't have the tools to counter this in 2005, doesnt mean they should shy away from using any newly developed tools now.

That's not up to you to decide. Re-roll or get rolled.

Be that as it may. Blizzard has merged servers before. In vanilla I believe they merged Burning blade-EU with *some other server*.

[thilicen]

Drastic? It's quite common..

[Corroc]

I'm 100% sure Blizzard classic team has checklist on their wall of things that are going to happen and their respective community responses. We are going all the way in!

[Ssateneth]

you cant force people to play specific factions. its also a fact that pve realms will be dominated by alliance and pvp realms dominated by horde, so pvp realms will almost always have alliance players complaining about being rolled by huge horde raids.

[TheRevenantHero]

Sever balance will never happen. As was mentioned by someone else, people only enjoy world pvp when their faction drastically outnumbers the other faction so they can properly troll and overwhelm people. Whichever faction is outnumbered is always who complains about it and the other faction discourages Blizzard from doing anything themselves to fix it.

[Storfan]

Balance can't be forced because in truth, most people don't want to be on a balanced server. The only kind of open world PVP that a lot of people are interested in is the kind where they know they will win.

The only thing they ever do with servers is to try and make too-crowded servers less so. They aren't going to merge anything.

It is true that you cannot force it, but blizzard nowadays got the tools to somewhat manage it to some extent. When they have the power - why not use it if it creates a better game experience for everyone?

Drastic? It's quite common..

I dunno about common. As I mentioned above, I believe I know of 1 server merge in late vanilla (or might have been TBC). Burning Blade-EU and some other server. Maybe it was done on US servers aswell that I dont know of.

I'm 100% sure Blizzard classic team has checklist on their wall of things that are going to happen and their respective community responses. We are going all the way in!

Perhaps they do. Infact they probably do. Maybe they are just waiting for players to clamour for it. So, here I am.

Sever balance will never happen. As was mentioned by someone else, people only enjoy world pvp when their faction drastically outnumbers the other faction so they can properly troll and overwhelm people. Whichever faction is outnumbered is always who complains about it and the other faction discourages Blizzard from doing anything themselves to fix it.

You're making a blanket statement that I simply don't believe to be true. I would go as long as to claim that in separate skirmishes sure, people ofcourse want to be on the winning side (As Conan put it: "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!") but for the sake of long term longivety of a realm I truly don't believe anyone want to be on a 100% one-sided "PvP"-realm., I mean, whats the point in that?

[Relapses]

Mergers never happened on retail. They certainly won't happen in Classic. Stop blaming Blizzard for your own inaction.

[Storfan]

Mergers never happened on retail. They certainly won't happen in Classic. Stop blaming Blizzard for your own inaction.

Perhaps they didnt, I might be misremembering things. Which ever the case, they got the tech to do it now, so why wouldnt they improve the game for everyone and do it? Do you have any actual good well founded reasons for why they wouldnt other than "Stop blaming Blizzard for your own inaction." ?

Accepting a bad situation as a fact of life when you have the tools to remedy it is just foolish.

[MrLachyG]

Mergers never happened on retail. They certainly won't happen in Classic. Stop blaming Blizzard for your own inaction.

um yeah they did. realms were connected together. not merged, but basically the same thing

[Relapses]

Perhaps they didnt, I might be misremembering things. Which ever the case, they got the tech to do it now, so why wouldnt they improve the game for everyone and do it? Do you have any actual good well founded reasons for why they wouldnt other than "Stop blaming Blizzard for your own inaction." ?

Accepting a bad situation as a fact of life when you have the tools to remedy it is just foolish.

Because Blizzard hasn't done a single realm merger in the 15 years its existed and intentionally only opened a finite number of Classic servers at launch to prevent the necessity of mergers later on down the road?

Server mergers aren't happening.

/thread

- - - Updated - - -

um yeah they did. realms were connected together. not merged, but basically the same thing

Merging requires you to lose your name and destroys the history of the merged realm. It is definitely not the same thing.

[korijenkins]

Balance can't be forced because in truth, most people don't want to be on a balanced server. The only kind of open world PVP that a lot of people are interested in is the kind where they know they will win.

The only thing they ever do with servers is to try and make too-crowded servers less so. They aren't going to merge anything.

Balance can be easily forced lol, what nonsense is this? A faction specific queue forces a 50/50 population.

[Puupi]

Balance can't be forced because in truth, most people don't want to be on a balanced server. The only kind of open world PVP that a lot of people are interested in is the kind where they know they will win.

The only thing they ever do with servers is to try and make too-crowded servers less so. They aren't going to merge anything.

Yes it can be forced with faction locks.

[razorpax]

Perhaps they didnt, I might be misremembering things. Which ever the case, they got the tech to do it now, so why wouldnt they improve the game for everyone and do it? Do you have any actual good well founded reasons for why they wouldnt other than "Stop blaming Blizzard for your own inaction." ?

Accepting a bad situation as a fact of life when you have the tools to remedy it is just foolish.

mainly because players would complain

you build a community
you build a reputation
server merging would kinda negatively impact that
plus what if you have an alliance character on one of the servers and a horde character on the other???

[Storfan]

um yeah they did. realms were connected together. not merged, but basically the same thing

That might be what I was thinking of. But yea, not technically a merger but the end result is basically the same. And besides, Blizzard got the technology to do a real merge anyways. The just merge SQL databases and flag and naming conflicts with name change.

Because Blizzard hasn't done a single realm merger in the 15 years its existed and intentionally only opened a finite number of Classic servers at launch to prevent the necessity of mergers later on down the road?

Server mergers aren't happening.

/thread

- - - Updated - - -



Merging requires you to lose your name and destroys the history of the merged realm. It is definitely not the same thing.

You speak in very definite terms as if you were a Blizzard representative. Things are always subject to change. Even blizzard policies. To quote Marcus Antonius: "Life isnt stone. life is water". If the destruction of a realm, your character name and history is the price to pay, I think alot of players would do it in a heart beat if they are on a 80/20 realm.

I don't see any logic in this suggestion. How do you think merges would help with situation? All PvP realms are horde favoured. Then all PvP realms have more people than they should have, merges would result in massive overpopulated servers where it would be impossible to farm anything.

Unfortunately there is no solution. Too late for faction caps, they should have been introduced from start. PvP servers in Classic will have same fate as they did on retail - become de-facto 1 faction PvE servers.

I believe there is a handful of servers with alliance superiority. And why is it too late for faction specific queues and faction caps? Doesnt even have to force a 50/50 balance, 60/40 would be enough.

mainly because players would complain

you build a community
you build a reputation
server merging would kinda negatively impact that
plus what if you have an alliance character on one of the servers and a horde character on the other???

All of them valid concerns that either would have to be accepted or dealt with in some form or another. The biggest technical hurdle would be the last one if you already have a character of the opposite faction on the destination/merge server.

[Corroc]

Perhaps they do. Infact they probably do. Maybe they are just waiting for players to clamour for it. So, here I am.

Whole point of my message was that they know these things are happening because this is what the servers were in vanilla wow. This is the reason servers were changed. There isn't a fix that would change it in a way where it wouldn't change the experience to more retail wow.

[Storfan]

Whole point of my message was that they know these things are happening because this is what the servers were in vanilla wow. This is the reason servers were changed. There isn't a fix that would change it in a way where it wouldn't change the experience to more retail wow.

Why would faction specific queues "change the experience to more retail wow".? I'm not being sarcastic but genuinly asking. I dont see the connection in this argument, nor do I see how server merges would have this effect.