Why no AH cross-realms? | Why no /w cross-realms?

[Deleted]

Why isn't Auction House shared with your entire battlegroup? (~10/15 realms)

Why isn't possible to /whisper to players from other realms even outside instances? (/w name-server)

[ACES]

The AH "players" would whine so hard if AH was cross realm but it would be great for everyone else because there would be more supply. The /w thing I don't know but it would be nice. Maybe technical limitations?

[Hottage]

This really isn't the best place to ask this, as it can only really be answered by Blizzard.

Also, Auction Houses are already shared between "merged" realms. They don't just dump all realms in a battle group together at once because of the turmoil it would cause in the local economies.

[Wildtree]

The AH "players" would whine so hard if AH was cross realm but it would be great for everyone else because there would be more supply. The /w thing I don't know but it would be nice. Maybe technical limitations?

That's probably the main reason..

Unless realms are linked together, there's no cross realm trade of any sort. It wouldn't only affect the AH, but also open all other trade.
It might actually also bring the games economy down to it's knees. Given how goods are usually much cheaper on high pop realms, that trend might keep going even further when entire battle groups would be linked together. Using the AH itself could also become pretty laggy. The more data there's, the more the servers have to process.

[Vaelorian]

Dunno about your but I can chat just fine crossrealm whenever (and only then) I am in a 5 man or LFR and /w someone else from a different server. I can continue chatting with that person even if both of us leave LFR/LFD and return to our own realms.

[ACES]

Dunno about your but I can chat just fine crossrealm whenever (and only then) I am in a 5 man or LFR and /w someone else from a different server. I can continue chatting with that person even if both of us leave LFR/LFD and return to our own realms.

Yeah that's doable because the chat channel is still open but it's impossible to initiate a new conversation with someone by typing /w Name-Realm.

[The Kao]

Why isn't Auction House shared with your entire battlegroup? (~10/15 realms)

Why isn't possible to /whisper to players from other realms even outside instances? (/w name-server)

WoW simply wasn't designed with that in mind back in 2004/5. Back then each server was supposed to stand for its own forever. Over the time developers, design philosophies, server states and the community changed, making cross realm solutions necessary to make sure players could still play even if their servers were in fact dead. This is why we first saw battlegroups, then LFG / LFR tool, now they are even connecting servers - however all these things are merely workarounds to avoid actual server merges, which would come with a lot of inconveniences for all players. These things weren't planned for when the game was created and now it's probably a pretty tedious work to fit all these solutions properly into a framework that wasn't laid out it, so they take it step by step and make sure everything goes well.

Another thing is that people in WoW got used to the AH being server exclusive for almost 10 years. It allowed for a great part to play the AH according to the economical situation on your realm, and not the entire region or world. I guess Blizzard would take that away if they saw it necessary but they probably don't think it is. That doesn't mean a global or regional AH would be bad, no. It worked out pretty well in Guild Wars 2 for all I can tell. It actually contributed to keeping the prices for regular goods low and for the rarer ones reasonable in that game. Actually it would improve the AH situation in WoW on some realms - i.e. Horde side on my main realm is pretty dead, their AH either doesn't even provide the most basic stuff or offers it at ridiculous prices, 1000g+ per piece for uncut gems and jokes like that. But I take it that for the majority of realms it won't be necessary to expand more once they've been connected to others.

[Deleted]

You can whisper and invite cross realm without any problems. Just /w <char>-<server>.
Note that if the server has spaces in it you need to replace them with "-". For example /inv someone-tarren-mill

[Shink]

That's probably the main reason..

Unless realms are linked together, there's no cross realm trade of any sort. It wouldn't only affect the AH, but also open all other trade.
It might actually also bring the games economy down to it's knees. Given how goods are usually much cheaper on high pop realms, that trend might keep going even further when entire battle groups would be linked together. Using the AH itself could also become pretty laggy. The more data there's, the more the servers have to process.

i know a fairly easy way to overcome those "technical limitations" and the only obstacle is the BS excuse of "keeping names" blizzard uses often


actually merge servers!

[Zeelot]

You can whisper and invite cross realm without any problems. Just /w <char>-<server>.
Note that if the server has spaces in it you need to replace them with "-". For example /inv someone-tarren-mill

just tested this, didn't work

[Deleted]

hmm works for me...

[Zeelot]

hmm works for me...

you sure the people you're whispering aren't server-merged with you? I'm even trying it with people on my friends list, still not working

[-Superman-]

Farmer A steals stuff on World A and sells to Farmer B on world B who stole Gold from Person C, on world C and was traded to Farmer B, and now to Farmer A.

[yetgdhfgh]

IMO the AH should be Cross realm but for vanity items ONLY like mounts and shit

Ore and herbs and other shit should be kept local.

[-Superman-]

IMO the AH should be Cross realm but for vanity items ONLY like mounts and shit

Ore and herbs and other shit should be kept local.

Mounts could still be stolen or duped and now the farmers have an easier time moving gold around.