Get off my island! DMF is CRZ'd

[Tzalix]

Oh no, they are populating my MMO with other people! What am I going to do!?

[Dazu]

They could have put their efforts into improving the antiquated player naming system they have in place as preparation for server merging but no.

You don't see a problem with two people named 'George' why is it a problem if 2 toons are named 'Shinypal' as long as the game can differentiate between the 2 for roster functions (guild and group forming, communication in the form of whispers and chats etc)

Ways to do that?

• Add a server origin identifier field to the playerGUID|player link.
• Add a hidden battletag number.
• Just re-numerate all the player character GUIDs server-side making them unique instead of unique-per-server and use those.
  This would be entirely transparent to the client, they could do it during a maintenance and none would be the wiser.
  (A client-patch might be needed to address any legacy API that works off names instead of unitID or GUID, they've made much more sweeping changes in the past with the new combatlog or the induction of secure templates for example and they're flip-floping GUID fields every few patches as addon authors doing bossmods know)

Then they could merge low pop realms and everyone keeps their name, problem solved.

That they're not doing that but going with the half-arsed CRZ implementation does say something.

Forgetting the mail problem with that. My toon is Dazu, there is many more and if there is 2 on the same realm I still need to be able to differentiate between the 2 for mail, thus my name is no longer Dazu but is now Dazu23534234 etc. In chat the other Dazu says things breaking the ToS and gets reported, but they think its me and ruins my reputation instead, thus chat now also has a number visible (but will still be highly confusing). Raids, if 2 of us end in the same group, and I need a macro based target etc, I need to be able to once again differentiate between the 2, and considering targeting via macro is by visible name would need to look different.

Would be nice to merge them, but working out how to without ruining alot more is what they cant work out yet. As above shows even your idea with how good it seems I believe would cause all kinds of problems.

Only way I can see merged servers working is last names on characters. These last names will be added at the merge and thus every toon can keep their normal name and have a different last name (first in first served basis). Would allow differentiation in mail, macros, chat etc. I imagine still some problems would pop up but something similar might work in the end.

[Pastaman]

Supposed to be a very rare pet, which wasn't rare at all on low pop realms.

CRZ gives you all of the inconveniences of a big realm with none of the benefits (better economy, more people to do things with, etc). And don't say there are more people while leveling, I've asked in general chat for help with quests (Ring of Blood, AoP, CoC, etc) with absolutely no response of a couple of characters.

Imo CRZ is the biggest improvement they have ever done to WoW. I play exclusively on pvp server and for a large part of my time in WoW these servers have been horribly inbalanced one way or the other, if not completely devoid of life all together. With CRZ you actually see other people out in the world, you get a solid bit of wpvp too. It actually feels like playing an mmo. If I didnt want to play with other people, then wtf would I be doing, playing an mmo?

I feel like the problem a lot of people have is they either were not there in vanilla, or forgott how busy some zones could be. During wotlk the world turned into an empty wasteland. Nobody was out in the world and you could camp all the rare mobs mostly alone, do all the quests in peace, etc. But that is not an mmo, thats a multiplayer-singleplayer experience. It amazes me that people actually cry about there being competition for rare mobs and pets, thats why they are rare. They are supposed to be hell to get, you are supposed to have to fight over them.

tldr: CRZ is fantastic and if you dont like people you should not play an mmo.

Even in vanilla there were a lot of lower level zones that were mostly empty after the first year or so it was out and most people had their level 60. Azshara, Badlands, Hinterlands, Arathi Highlands, Desolace, and many more.

[Deleted]

i didn't even realize it wasn't CRZed already......

what exactly is the problem people have? getting ganked outside the sanctuary zone?

I'm asking the same question. All I see are vague moans and whinges, but no real substance or reasoning as to ''why it is a bad thing''. Someone actually said they would prefer an empty online world. To them I say ''Try a single player game, jeez.''

---------- Post added 2013-06-03 at 09:59 PM ----------

Oh no, they are populating my MMO with other people! What am I going to do!?

Glad I'm not the only one who thought this on seeing the ravings in this thread.

[Demona3]

Honestly, CRZ is just flat out ruining the game for me. What blizzard NEEDS to do is combine the low pop servers and stop the CRZ non-sense.

[Grocalis]

CRZ gives you all of the inconveniences of a big realm with none of the benefits (better economy, more people to do things with, etc). And don't say there are more people while leveling, I've asked in general chat for help with quests (Ring of Blood, AoP, CoC, etc) with absolutely no response of a couple of characters.

Which is a problem of the community, not CRZ. I utilize CRZ all the time to play with friends on other servers, so for me, all I get is a positive experience out of it.

The only thing I agree with is that Blizzard needs to figure out the economy issue, which is why I propose the AH become game wide, over all region servers, so that no matter if you are on a big or small server, the overall economy will be the same.

[sasrei]

I hate crz, you know if they actually made it so that rares were phased realms then you would have a lot less people complaining about it. Since normally that's the one thing people complain about besides you know the "fast" (yeah right) quest mob respawns, and sharing nodes. Pvp servers may love it, especially if you like the whole ganking lowbies part but if your the lowbie.. life sucks lol

In my view if your playing Wow and thinking man.. I am so alone.. its so lonely.. I haven't seen anyone! then you need less wow and to go out of your parents basement and meet real life people! If you want to chat with people, get in a active guild cause for most people its not "oh! person!! FRIEND!!!" or "haha lowbie! I one shot you!" its "stop taking every single node!" "there are 4 other tlpd spawn points would you 4 go pick one?!!!" "sigh.. all this camping for a low rare cause people keep killing it...""stop killing me! im sick of being stuck on this one quest cause you all wont let me level in peace"!

that's reality.

[NotFunny008]

They will have to turn on cross-realm everywhere soon.

[mvaliz]

Honestly, CRZ is just flat out ruining the game for me. What blizzard NEEDS to do is combine the low pop servers and stop the CRZ non-sense.

They won't do that for 2 reasons:

1) they would have to give the investors reasons why they're pulling the proverbial "sign of a troubled MMORPG".

2) Blizz would stop getting money for server transfer fees.

Honestly, the more I look at CRZ, the more I believe it's their way of creating "individual server advertising" for paid server transfers. Instead of merging servers, they hope you meet people from other servers and pay to transfer to their server.

This is honestly why I don't expect cross-server AH/Guilds anytime soon... if that happened, there will no longer be need of their paid service - and they currently make a BUNCH of bank on people willing to shell out half-a-new-game's worth of money to transfer one character.

[Army Dreamer]

At last DMF looks alive. Good move.

[Deleted]

good luck getting the achievement to win the arena and loot the chest 12x times...

[Faustivious]

this is not my first couple post....i forgot my old name and password.........why is CRZ so bad???????? WTF....the more people the better !!!!!! MMO guys...........did you forget. Maybe I'm just to old school for you Call of Duty A-Holes !!!!!

All for me and F everyone else. This attitude is why WOW is going down and why I play Very lil now!!!!!!!

[Buu]

They won't do that for 2 reasons:

1) they would have to give the investors reasons why they're pulling the proverbial "sign of a troubled MMORPG".

2) Blizz would stop getting money for server transfer fees.

Honestly, the more I look at CRZ, the more I believe it's their way of creating "individual server advertising" for paid server transfers. Instead of merging servers, they hope you meet people from other servers and pay to transfer to their server.

This is honestly why I don't expect cross-server AH/Guilds anytime soon... if that happened, there will no longer be need of their paid service - and they currently make a BUNCH of bank on people willing to shell out half-a-new-game's worth of money to transfer one character.

That first reason is pure BS, sorry. In fact they would please the investors by cutting costs from the game. The thing is the World of the game is HUGE now, people are spread through lots of more zones, they don't need that much instances right now, hence the CRZ.

Thing is they AT THIS POINT have a main Hardware that is the realm used to host the CRZ, AND the side hardware hosting empty zones running, and using the same resources. FOR NOTHING.
Take the flight between Dalaran and Argent Tournament in a low population realm and you'll see with your own eyes. A Zone processing NPC spawns and movements, gathering nodes, etc, then when you land you are phased to another realm where you don't have access to any of that processed elements.

[Rhodair]

You're playing an MMO, not a single player game. The more you want it to be single player, the more disappointed you're going to find yourself.

[Aeula]

The cheap illusion spreads to another corner of azeroth does it ? Great....

[Deleted]

How about giving low pop servers ACTUAL players and not some cheap excuse for it? Anybody else astounded that Blizzard has not yet done anything? I really like MoP and much of its content, but that just baffles me. CRZ is the illusion of an MMO with all the downsides but none of the upsides.

[mvaliz]

That first reason is pure BS, sorry. In fact they would please the investors by cutting costs from the game. The thing is the World of the game is HUGE now, people are spread through lots of more zones, they don't need that much instances right now, hence the CRZ.

Yes... I'm sure the investors, who care about LONG TERM profits, really care about the short-term paltry pittance of saved profits from a few servers shut down vs the millions of subs they have lost and the initial public outlook/morale when server mergers would be announced.

...do you think even ONE of the investors even understands what actually Northrend or Dalaran is, let alone expect them to understand the very concept cross-server latency lag issues (which there were none... prior to CRZ, that is)

[Deleted]

good luck getting the achievement to win the arena and loot the chest 12x times...

Yup, it's insane now.

I'd managed to claw my way to 10 marks on my low-pop server which already always has decent competition, had some awesome fights there, on CRZ it's just a complete clusterfuck.

Guess I'm waiting until next expansion if I want the last 2.

I generally like CRZ - people wanting an empty world have zero rights to complain imo, it's an MMO - you should have expected other people from the get-go, it makes about as much sense as me buying an RPG and then complaining there isn't multiplayer, but it really isn't meshing well with the arena imo, worse than the issues it caused with rare spawns.

[Faustivious]

How about giving low pop servers ACTUAL players and not some cheap excuse for it? Anybody else astounded that Blizzard has not yet done anything? I really like MoP and much of its content, but that just baffles me. CRZ is the illusion of an MMO with all the downsides but none of the upsides.

I'm sry I am not on a low pop realm so I can't relate. I hope and wish Blizz will and/or would do something to help you all in that situation.......other than saying...... "Give us money so you can bail on all the friends and people you have made relationships with on this realm".

That's not a social aspect at all !!!!!!

[Deleted]

Forgetting the mail problem with that. My toon is Dazu, there is many more and if there is 2 on the same realm I still need to be able to differentiate between the 2 for mail, thus my name is no longer Dazu but is now Dazu23534234 etc. In chat the other Dazu says things breaking the ToS and gets reported, but they think its me and ruins my reputation instead, thus chat now also has a number visible (but will still be highly confusing). Raids, if 2 of us end in the same group, and I need a macro based target etc, I need to be able to once again differentiate between the 2, and considering targeting via macro is by visible name would need to look different.

Would be nice to merge them, but working out how to without ruining alot more is what they cant work out yet. As above shows even your idea with how good it seems I believe would cause all kinds of problems.

Only way I can see merged servers working is last names on characters. These last names will be added at the merge and thus every toon can keep their normal name and have a different last name (first in first served basis). Would allow differentiation in mail, macros, chat etc. I imagine still some problems would pop up but something similar might work in the end.

I had a feeling this would be confusing to people without a software development background (that's ok I don't hold that against you, it just creates a gap that's rather difficult to fill between things I consider 'given' due to past experience in the specific field and thus avoid to go into much detail to keep the text manageable).

Instead of trying to do that now I'll give you a simple test you can perform yourself in-game and that will maybe help you understand a little more.

Let's take the last option I offered which is to re-numerate the player characters unique identifiers.
What is that I hear you asking
Next time you're in the game type this in your chat

/dump UnitGUID('player')

You'll get a bunch of gibberish that's completely unrelated to your character name "Dazu" but remains always the same and uniquely identifies your toon for the game client (and the Blizzard servers) in your realm.
With me sofar?
Now target another player and type

/dump UnitGUID('target')

You'll get a different bunch of gibberish that uniquely identifies that other player and remains the same as long as he remains on your realm, even if they go through a name change.
That number is like your social security number in WoW, it doesn't matter if there's another "George Foreman" your unique identifiers are ... well ... unique.

Now the only problem is that GUID (short for Globally Unique IDentifier) is actually a misnomer in WoW because it is realm based.
However since those numbers are not stored in the client, but the Databases at the Blizzard back-end it's "trivial" (in terms of software development) to re-numerate them so each toon has a truly unique identifier across all realms.

As long as the game in the background identifies your toon by its unique id (and it already does this for a number of systems, including chat) and not its name there's nothing stopping you from having the same visible name as another player (and a hidden part that separates you two).

When they report "Dazu" (not you but a player with the same name) from the chat, or the unitframe context menu they would actually file the report against xxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxx-xxxx (the unique identifier of that player that's not tied to their name).

This is just one example of those I gave, all of them are perfectly feasible (I'd estimate a 3month period sufficient to have a migration plan and rollout a PTR).

They're not actively working towards preparing realm mergers and instead give us this CRZ "illusion of population" with it's half-baked features not because it's technically infeasible or too hard, but for other reasons that have been alluded to, a number of times on this thread and others.

I've said this before, if it was a competitor's game that implemented a "megaserver" or "cross-shard" or any variation of this idea and stopped half-way (no x-AH, no x-Recruiting without incurring extra transfer costs, no x-grouping current content, no fix for 'dead servers', all the inconveniences of high pop realms with none of the benefits and all that for appearances only) and kept it at that infantile state for a year is it now?

Blizzard fans would be ridiculing that company and its product to no end, this company gets a free-pass to sub-standard solutions somehow