Connecting Realms is Not the Answer?

[Bodasafa]

Editing this before more people freak out.

From my understanding Main Cities are not connected so the only connection is with Que's for dungeons/LFR/BG's/Arenas and the auction house market.

I said from my understanding. If I was mistaken I would have gladly accepted someone letting me know I was wrong (without being a douche bag about it).

I was posing a question, offering an idea or two. Nothing hostile on my end. I just wanted to have some discussion on it.

So those of you coming at me can chill out.

Anyway I appear to be wrong, fault admitted.

I'm glad connecting realms merges the main cities and the rest, doing so does indeed sound like a good way to go, removing the name change/guild change issue.

So I guess the CM's can delete this thread before anyone else gets all worked up because someone misunderstood something and must be a total waste of space that can't read exactly the right thing before posting.

[Darsithis]

You'd be surprised how much loyalty people have to where they started out. They don't want to be the ones to have their server taken away and forced to move elsewhere, even if, in reality, every server is pretty much the same overall (save for population imbalances).

Why condense the realms when you can connect them together, preserving guilds, friends, and server-specific activities (like our weekly "World Boss Tour" every Saturday) and achieve the exact same goal?

[Tya]

Because merging realms has a horrific reputation and if they chose that path (despite realm coalescing being basically the same thing anyway), it would be heralded as the end of WoW across the gaming media scene.

[MoanaLisa]

Closing realms has never done much good in any MMO up to this point. WoW--someday--might want to go to F2P or perhaps extend the current free game to 80 or 85. If that brings back a lot of people then they'll just be reopening realms again. Costs and hassles to close them down. Costs and hassles to open them up again. Closing realms is a dumb idea if you can contrive an alternative.

What they're doing is better for them obviously and in the long run better for players: No name changes, no guild name changes, larger realm populations available just as if they had closed down realms, people get to remain where they are and if they wish to start up more alts it appears as if they can on the other connected realm. It's win-win.

The idea that they're doing this to avoid <air quotes> bad publicity </air quotes> is one of the dumber things that people say. Everyone--everyone--who has any interest at all in World of Warcraft is aware that the game is getting on in years, has lost millions of subscribers over the last few years and doesn't appear to be gaining new players quickly enough to replenish those who have always left for various reasons. Say again: what exactly are they avoiding? People knowing that the game is losing players? Give me a break.

[XDurionX]

Forced name changes is your answer. That´s why merges won´t happen, ever. And Queues are already merged since forever, that´s what realmpools are for. And i´d be very surprised if you could provide a source for the statement that only queues and AHs would be connected.

[lazybum]

double names would be a nightmare alone

[Travio]

My point is while connecting realms helps with a population issue overall, it does not help individual realms feel like they are more populated. From my understanding Main Cities are not connected so the only connection is with Que's for dungeons/LFR/BG's/Arenas and the auction house market.

Connected Realms will share major cities. CRZ, however, does not function in major cities. They're two similar techs but the end result is different.

Connected Realms are, in everything but name, realm mergers. If a group of Connected Realms get to full, they'll even have a queue.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

1. CRZ alleviates needs to tell people "sorry, but your main since Vanilla will need a new name" or a server-renown guild "sorry but you'll need a new name."

2. Connecting Realms sounds a lot better to a jittery playerbase than Merging Realms.

[gee]

You'd be surprised how much loyalty people have to where they started out. They don't want to be the ones to have their server taken away and forced to move elsewhere, even if, in reality, every server is pretty much the same overall (save for population imbalances).

Why condense the realms when you can connect them together, preserving guilds, friends, and server-specific activities (like our weekly "World Boss Tour" every Saturday) and achieve the exact same goal?

Not true for many players.

Allow free transfers off low pop realms into high pop realms!

I want off my dead realm and I don't care if I have to change names.

[Darsithis]

Not true for many players.

Allow free transfers off low pop realms into high pop realms!

I want off my dead realm and I don't care if I have to change names.

That's you. Like others have pointed out, there are probably hundreds of thousands, if not a cool million, of players who would be very upset if they had to change names or the name of their guild. I would be furious if I had to give up Darsithis.

[Abysal]

From my understanding Main Cities are not connected so the only connection is with Que's for dungeons/LFR/BG's/Arenas and the auction house market.

Your understanding is wrong. Realms that are connected become for all intents and purposes 1 realm. Connected realms is server merger without forcing anyone to change their character or guild name. That's the only difference.

[gee]

I'm confused why Blizzard is connecting realms instead of condensing realms. Sure if they start removing realms then the appearance of a decline in players is more obvious, but anyone with half a brain can read between the lines here, connecting them shows the same thing.

My point is while connecting realms helps with a population issue overall, it does not help individual realms feel like they are more populated. From my understanding Main Cities are not connected so the only connection is with Que's for dungeons/LFR/BG's/Arenas and the auction house market.

Wouldn't a better solution be to fold lower pop realms into medium size ones to make them high pop?

Also to avoid a realm getting too large and forcing que times, shouldn't a realms maximum population be around 75% to allow for alt creation and recruit a friend invites?

Finally there needs to be a way to balance faction sizes to make for a healthy ratio. Perhaps by folding realms with a high Alliance pop into a realm with a high Horde pop?

Don't get me wrong connecting realms is a good first step, but it needs to go farther and in a slightly different way to be really effective.

Thoughts?

Stuck on dead Eldre'thalas?

I did not know main cities were not connected. This sucks.

I just want to be on a server with lot of people who I can "see", chat with, add to friends list, guild with and play with in the world.

Connecting LFD/LFR doesn't help.

[Travio]

Let's repeat this is clear up misconceptions:

Main cities are connected on connected realms.
In all ways except in name, realm connections are realm mergers. Players on connected realms will treat players on the other realms connected to them as if they were on the same realm: they use the same AH, the same cities, and can join the same guilds.

[Baracuda]

double names would be a nightmare alone

Having to see servers name after people's names isn't very fun either though.

[Pejo]

Your understanding is wrong. Realms that are connected become for all intents and purposes 1 realm. Connected realms is server merger without forcing anyone to change their character or guild name. That's the only difference.

Exactly this. You could have asked the question About how connected realms work but instead you make a thread spreading your misinformed info. Connected Realms is the 'modern' way to merge realms for the above reasons stated by others but it is also scalable with new technology and future growth of this game. Because of Connected Realms, they would actually be able to break full realms with queues into 2 servers while keeping the same name. This is the best option all around - the only better implementation I have seen so far in MMOs is GW2 (but mostly due to spinning up servers whenever they need to, thus replacing maintenance/etc). This is a very good step for blizzard and will only be beneficial to the playerbase.

[gee]

Let's repeat this is clear up misconceptions:

Main cities are connected on connected realms.
In all ways except in name, realm connections are realm mergers. Players on connected realms will treat players on the other realms connected to them as if they were on the same realm: they use the same AH, the same cities, and can join the same guilds.

This is what I want. If this is true, then I will be satisfied with the connections/mergers.

[Littleraven]

You'd be surprised how much loyalty people have to where they started out. They don't want to be the ones to have their server taken away and forced to move elsewhere, even if, in reality, every server is pretty much the same overall (save for population imbalances).

Why condense the realms when you can connect them together, preserving guilds, friends, and server-specific activities (like our weekly "World Boss Tour" every Saturday) and achieve the exact same goal?

i 100% agree with this. i have had my druid on vek'nilash - us since 2006 and i would be a little upset to all the sudden be on a different realm and have to name change. blizzard said they chose this route for that reason among other things. its so much easier when you dont have to force a bunch of people to rename their guilds or characters.

its an identity thing. plain and simple.

[Pejo]

This is what I want. If this is true, then I will be satisfied with the connections/mergers.

100% true, enjoy this feature when it hits your server.

[gee]

That's you. Like others have pointed out, there are probably hundreds of thousands, if not a cool million, of players who would be very upset if they had to change names or the name of their guild. I would be furious if I had to give up Darsithis.

You got no number to prove, neither do I.

If that's so few people who would willingly transfer, why not allow them transfer off low pop realms for free?

Blizzard won't do it because they are afraid it will be full-blown exodus gutting the already dead realms.

[Travio]

You got no number to prove, neither do I.

If that's so few people who would willingly transfer, why not allow them transfer off low pop realms for free?

Blizzard won't do it because they are afraid it will be full-blown exodus gutting the already dead realms.

Blizzard would rather get people off the servers so full there's hour queues every night then force and onto smaller servers to beef up their population than to crowd already taxed servers.