Why does Blizz still Ignore realm Imbalancement, and other server issues ?

[Mission]

Id find it hard to believe he/she was serious in such an idea....... lol.

And I agree, incentives are far more proven in any form to be more beneficial, and encouraging.

[HardCoder]

And the terrible idea of the day award goes to....

No. People respond better to incentives than to punishment. Basic psychology.

I'm just saying, THIS is would it would take to actually fix faction imbalances and realm populations.

Faction imbalances are not actually a problem. If they were, they would be fixed. But they aren't a problem. The only part of faction imbalances that matters, which is PvP, Blizzard has fixed with CRZ.

High pop realms, the only way to fix is by cranking up the queues, or other punitive measures. People are on the high-pop realms because they want to be there. They will PAY to be there.

---------- Post added 2012-10-31 at 08:45 PM ----------

Id find it hard to believe he/she was serious in such an idea....... lol.

And I agree, incentives are far more proven in any form to be more beneficial, and encouraging.

There's no incentive that will make anyone leave a high-population realm.

People are on them because they want to be there. If they leave because you get 1M free gold for transferring, they will just transfer back with as much of the gold as they can carry.

It's a player created "problem" that isn't actually a problem. It's what players WANT.

Low pop realms are an actual problem, but they're not a problem Blizzard needs to solve.

[Amsden]

Fix the problem yourself and transfer to a more/less balanced/populated realm. Blizzard offers the means to get on a realm that works for you, not much more they can do.

[Kevyne-Shandris]

Offering free transfers off dead realms, doesnt mean they have to close those realms off. They are just giving the player better choices and more game experences then they are having, that can only be a positive impact, instead of seeing more people on these small realms, unsubbing.

If there's no one home anymore, the home is usually board up or sold.

Blizzard is a business. It's about making a profit (no profit, no jobs, no justificaton for existing). Hardware that's unused is hardware not producing a profit. It's usually reused, returned or resold.

Now Blizzard can transfer players to other servers and open classic servers for those liking particular expansions, but players more than likely won't see that until Titan arrives (as the bulk of WoW players transfer to that game). Until then CRZ is the means to connect dead servers with others.

The numbers will dwindle down and eventually Blizzard will have to consolidate the realms. But like Activision's stock reports and the nut games it does (e.g., launching games near the report deadlines and milking the PR of box sales, while subscription numbers fell by 15%) Blizzard will shift things around, hoping players (and the media) will keep their eyes off those nut shells.

[Deleted]

1. Loners that don't like to socialize

Socializing on the internet is not the same as socializing in real life. Why won't you just stop kissing Blizzard in their butthole? CRZ is a pile of shit and it didn't bring the world back at all. It only brought more bots, more griefers and more hostile people.

[Deleted]

What is blizzard supposed to do? Force people to transfer to factions/servers they don't want to? They already give free server transfers off the highest populated servers to the lowest. So I cant think of anyway for them to fix the problem other than giving an incentive for transferring off high pop servers.

C'mon, lets be serious. People are not going to transfer from alive realm to a dead one even if it's free. The very easy solution: open free transfers from a bunch of dead servers into one. Of course they won't do it because they make such an insane amount of money from paid transfers.

[Ghost Note]

I remember when they offered free transfers from US:Mal'Ganis to US:Onyxia in TBC. About a year or two later, almost everyone who had transferred had paid to transfer back. Free moves from high pop to low pop realms just doesn't work. Additionally, some people like the lower pop realms (less competition, less lag, higher prices, etc)

[Fenixdown]

What is blizzard supposed to do? Force people to transfer to factions/servers they don't want to? They already give free server transfers off the highest populated servers to the lowest. So I cant think of anyway for them to fix the problem other than giving an incentive for transferring off high pop servers.

Simple solution : merge.

They need to bite the bullet. The OP has an incredibly valid point. It's not Blizzard's fault that the players created this problem, but Blizzard really needs to fix it. CRZ is not a solution in the least, in fact it's the dead opposite and makes the problem even worse.

Of the US region servers, very few are actually listed as "full" or "high". Most are listed as "medium" or "low". Simply put, they should just merge high population Alliance realms with high population Horde realms in what would be a best attempt at a solution. It doesn't force players to leave their guilds, and really people are far more attached to that than their servers by name.

As a best example I'll use my server, Skullcrusher. Currently, the population is about 7 : 1 on the Horde side. In one of the very few 25-man guilds still actually drawing breath in this game, recruiting is dead. Literally. We have not gotten a single application from an outside individual in over two weeks. The "10 man incentive" (of being easier to organize and run), in conjunction with the already low Alliance populous, is the cause. The solution : merge a server with the Alliance favoring such numbers with us. This boosts the possible recruitment pool tremendously, and at least gives us a far greater shot to find new members.

I'd hate to be the guy who rolled on realms like Illidan, where everyone plays Horde because "the top guild is Horde" (which is where most of the issue with realm balance comes from : who the top guilds on each server are factionwise). The population there is 13 : 1! I mean, what do you tell someone who rolls Alliance on a server like that? "Sorry, you screwed up. Try again, please!"?

With emphasis on world PvP, the problem in most cases only ends up getting even worse for some. My server avoids world PvP most of the time because really there's no point. You just end up always outnumbered, so why even fight back? It's dull and boring.

I'm with the OP. The solution is really easy, and frankly I don't give a damn if everyone goes into Countdown to Doomsday mode and says "OMG THE GAME IZ DED IT'S OFFICIAL!". This problem is much larger than a little bit of "bad publicity".

[sam86]

Ghostlands EU was at start a horde server in BC, they offered free transfer to it for alliance only, now it is a dead server horde side, 1 guild started hc raiding, no one do rated BG, most people I played with (I played since 4th month on this server) left game because server dead, or transferred because they are fed up
Newsflash: Blizzard is greedy a****les who care nothing since they merged with Activision but money, guild rename - a free service for 5years, suddenly because money-paid service in cata, because "it need work", for 5years you only talk to GM to rename your guild, suddenly it became very hard and need money to do that (and that was after patch 4.1), the bad news, for me at least, nothing is better than wow yet

[Gilian]

What is blizzard supposed to do? Force people to transfer to factions/servers they don't want to? They already give free server transfers off the highest populated servers to the lowest. So I cant think of anyway for them to fix the problem other than giving an incentive for transferring off high pop servers.

Make server transfers and maybe even faction change free. But they make too much money from it. It's all about money.

The people who complain about being on a low pop server would probably take a transfer when it's free wouldn't they? Then they can close dead realms.

[coldbear]

The more people that flow onto one side of a server, the more benefit you get from transferring over there. Network effect. It needs a counter-balance in the form of a server-only instance with a 1:1 ratio, like a BG style TB/WG with real benefits. There has to be an incentive to be on the underdog side, or to make the server balanced.

[Saffa]

So you think an exodus of players from the low population realms would not lead to realms so deserted that maintaining the hardware was fiscally retarded?

Blues have spoken on this, many times. Transfers are a band-aid solution and always have been.

And CRZ, which blizz loves, makes the situation even worse. They will not merge servers because of the bad publicity and their only interest is the money paid to them, our subscriptions, nothing more.

[Arthzil]

My idea of fixing it is simple - merge ALL REALMS into one and instance all zones, CRZ's already there, just reconfigure it. Then make it so equal number of Horde and Alliance players can be in a given instance slot and if you're with someone in a group you're all in same instance slot. No more Horde/Alliance imbalance because overall the numbers are pretty equal.

What about PvE and RP folks? Simple, in "Interface" config make 2 tick boxes - first if ticked puts you in PvP active zone instance slots, second ticked puts you in either PvP RP or PvE RP zone instance slots depending on what player chose in first tick box.

What this would mean for players is that they wouldn't have to care on what realm they want to play, what's the A:H ratio, what type is it. It would also free resources used for ghost realms which Blizzard could put into lag free raid instances and battlegrounds/arenas.

On the negative side - this would mean Blizzard would have to give up on Realm Transfers and it's economy law that change only occurs when new option is either cheaper to maintain or gives higher profits (either means more money in the end). Solution - pay for changing your PvP/PvE RP/normal preferences.

As for many copies of the same name I don't have a perfect solution. It could be made in a way as it is in Guild Wars 2 - make character names anything you want and everyone else sees you Battle.net username.

[willtron]

The only thing Blizzard could do to address realm populations is to start penalizing people on high-pop servers/high-pop factions. Which I would be okay with, but on the other hand, it wouldn't affect me at all.

Things like:

* Only allow 3 log-ins per week for each account on Horde Illidan
* Charge $25 per toon created on a high-pop faction
* Charge an $10 the first time a toon logs in on a high pop faction, each month

You get the idea.

That's how the problem gets solved. It doesn't get solved with free transfers.

worst idea I've ever heard, ever.

[Detheavn]

You would assume they want to keep the player base not lose them, alot unsub on small realms as they have less to do, or can do without the population there to do more, since end game is not really solo based, if your raiding or want pvp, rbgs etc.

Unsub? Have you people never heard of re-rolling? oO

I've done it before, more than once. I'm not shelling out X amount of cash to bring over a char to another realm when I can basically level one into the next expansion in about 3 days, especially at the start of an expansion where gear doesn't mean anything

[Lefrog]

Simple solution : merge.

They need to bite the bullet. The OP has an incredibly valid point. It's not Blizzard's fault that the players created this problem, but Blizzard really needs to fix it. CRZ is not a solution in the least, in fact it's the dead opposite and makes the problem even worse.

CRZ was never suppose to fix low population servers or imbalanced servers. It was a new tech they wanted to try out to repopulate zones.

Of the US region servers, very few are actually listed as "full" or "high". Most are listed as "medium" or "low". Simply put, they should just merge high population Alliance realms with high population Horde realms in what would be a best attempt at a solution. It doesn't force players to leave their guilds, and really people are far more attached to that than their servers by name.

A pretty big generalization here. I used to play on Kil'Jaeden and moved a few years back to a medium to low population server and have enjoyed it much more. We have our guild there so we don't really care about how many horde there are, or how many other guilds there are. The ONLY downside we have is that recruitment is a lot harder, but we also don't get 50 million "filler" type bads trying out because they all wanted to join a "popular" server.

Not saying a lot of people don't feel the same way you do (I would even personally say its the majority) but no one knows the exact number of people who feel the opposite either, and will hate any kind of server mergers. Hell, did you see all the people crying about stolen nodes, mobs, and overcrowding when CRZ was implemented? A lot of people simply like no competition and smaller emptier worlds.

As a best example I'll use my server, Skullcrusher. Currently, the population is about 7 : 1 on the Horde side. In one of the very few 25-man guilds still actually drawing breath in this game, recruiting is dead. Literally. We have not gotten a single application from an outside individual in over two weeks. The "10 man incentive" (of being easier to organize and run), in conjunction with the already low Alliance populous, is the cause. The solution : merge a server with the Alliance favoring such numbers with us. This boosts the possible recruitment pool tremendously, and at least gives us a far greater shot to find new members.

You aren't stuck on your server you know. I think it's pretty shitty how much they charge for transfer (I could understand at the beginning to pay for the tech development or to discourage people from ninjaing stuff back in the day/manipulating markets). BUT there has always been a free solution too. Back when I xfered I had to do it the hard way too, and it hurt, for the first 15 days it actually took me to get back where I was. With shared mounts/pets/achieves, all you'd lose these days is xmog gear.

I don't really think this should be the answer, don't get me wrong. But instead of waiting around for Blizz to bite the bullet, why don't you guys? In the long run I think it will make your gameplay experience a lot better. Until you realize the grass isn't always greener =P

I'd hate to be the guy who rolled on realms like Illidan, where everyone plays Horde because "the top guild is Horde" (which is where most of the issue with realm balance comes from : who the top guilds on each server are factionwise). The population there is 13 : 1! I mean, what do you tell someone who rolls Alliance on a server like that? "Sorry, you screwed up. Try again, please!"?

On PvE realms, what does the ratio matter? On Pvp realms this is one issue that might actually get solved with CRZ. Could they tune it to repopulate zones with a specific faction ratio in mind?

[Deleted]

To be honest there is only so much Blizzard can do about player created problems and make no mistake about it this most certainly is a player created problem. Short of disabling transfers entirely and forcing playrs to play on certain realms/factions there just isn't a whole hell of a lot that can be done that won't piss off players.

This is not a player created problem. Blizz could, and should, have monitored faction balances right from the off and it's their lack of monitoring which has caused the situation we are now in where there is almost no population of one faction on a server.

FCM's are great apart from you get a specific server to move to, usually one people would never move to in a month of Sundays. Why not give people a selection of servers to move to, even different types like PvP and PvE? Better still allow low pop realms a selection of servers to move to and different types of servers. Turn servers they want to close into ones for trial accounts, sure people can stay there if they wish but advise them it against it. Allow people to reach level 20 and then get a free one off server transfer to a selected list of non trial servers of varying types.

There are a bunch of ways they could have dealt with this, more palatable ways for the community as a whole even. Instead we get CRZ because 40 odd PvP servers are low population when if people were that bothered about seeing others when they were out levelling in the world, if it affected their gameplay that much, they could have stumped up the cash and moved to a busier server like many did.

[smegdawg]

This is not a player created problem. Blizz could, and should, have monitored faction balances right from the off and it's their lack of monitoring which has caused the situation we are now in where there is almost no population of one faction on a server.

Actually it is entirely player caused. When you create a new character with a new account it will recommend a low server in your time zone. To join a High pop server, you the player have to go search for the realm you want and join that specific one.

Then you've got all the player and guilds who leave the low pop realms to transfer to the high pop ones because there are more "quality" players who have done the same thing on that realm.

I think server transferring shouldn't be as expensive, or maybe someway to do a batch guild transfer at a reduced cost, but blizzard has still given you the options to escape high pop servers and queue times.

[Hulm]

I still fail to see what the PROBLEM is with high pop and low pop servers. What are the Negative effects of having high pop and low pop servers?

If you don't like where you are, move. You already pay $12-15 a month depending on your subscription, so If you can't afford the one time fee of $25 but can afford monthly subscription, then you need to re-evaluate your priorities/budge, either quit wow or get a job that actually requires a few brain cells to perform and you might be getting a regular wage.

If all else fails, you should be getting a tax return in a few months (unless you are one of THOSE people that for some unknown reason wait until last minute to file taxes) which should at least get you the $25 you need for a realm transfer.

[axell]

Blizzard is probably slowly going towards a mega server idea,starting with CRZ to see how it works. The Elder Scrolls online will do it, and probably more mmo's will do it as well.