I think it's a good fix. One of the main things I don't agree with is that they try to keep the horde : ally ratio similar. So it doesn't really benefit the weaker side as much as it could.
They should try to go for 50/50 (at least on PvP realms) and then let the migration take over from there.
Imo they should have closed dead realms a long time ago but the QQ about character names prevented it.
Connected realms isn't designed to fix World PVP. There will never be a fix to this as World PVP is never fair.
For the other problems connected realms does provide a fix. My server was recently merged with two others. Pugs galore, rbg's locally instead of using oqueue, etc, etc. Lots of players available to fill raid slots of slackers.
AH prices have gone up along with more availability of general items which is huge. Plus no one lost their guilds.
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It sure is a replacement to server merges. You get the merge without all the negatives that come along with a traditional server merge.
It doesn't really fix anything. Totally destroys any point to the game honestly. How? I've already said that in my first post. AS for the auction house crap that people keep bringing up whoooo. So it fixes your auction house. That's such a big deal in teh game. If you're in a good guild you realy don't need it cause well your guildies are there for support and what not so that's an invalid point. No one has yet given a truly valid point as to how these realm mergers are truly a good thing so i'll continue to believe it's just another cluster fuck by blizzard that we're all forced to deal with or quit. I'm seriously contemplating just quitting cause I don't think they care what players think anymore anyway.
I think it would've been wise for them to only link realms on the same timezones.
I'd have merged all servers into the following 10 "realms", with similar treatment for EU timezones:
US-Pacific PvE
US-Pacific PvP
US-Mountain PvE
US-Mountain PvP
US-Central PvE
US-Central PvP
US-Eastern PvE
US-Eastern PvP
US-Atlantic PvE
US-Atlantic PvP
The ability to safely assume that anybody you recruit will be moderately likely to play at similar times as you do is now gone for pretty much every low- and mid-pop realm, because they've been merged across 3-4 timezones. And to undo that failure now, might be worse, because people would just login and find out they're no longer even located on the server that they'd just made friends on or invested time in.
I would have done the same thing they did to Asian realms a few years back.. offer free realm transfers off low population realms to new realms then close those realms that were low. Basically consolidate the population making sure that the factions stay somewhat balanced. Instead they just merged random realms together without bothering to know the population of any of them.
Aside from Fyersing making up an unnecessary, nor actually used, timezone mapping. The tech isn't there to consolidate that much.
The reason NOT to close realms is because of subscription flux, identity loss (anyone who is honest with themselves doesn't want to be forced to change their name, guild name, etc), etc.
Also PvP servers are more horde centric and Normal servers are more alliance centric, however you're not gonna merge those rulesets together. And that's why merges will not help with faction balance all that much.
What are you talking about? This entire thread is full of your ignorant posts that do not understand anything about technology or business. Those are excellent reasons why not to, that Alex stated. The game's population DOES fluctuate up and down - their solution is the best it could possibly be for this problem (though, they could use this same technology to solve other issues that they have not brought up).
All you care about is faction imbalance - they've stated this is a low priority, as it should be. They are working on bettering the population for the entire realm.
Please try to educate yourself, and let this thread die like it should have.
No I just don't care about faction imbalance. I care about a lot more than that like things being done on realms instead of people just sitting in a sit waiting for a stupid que. My realm has been merged with 3 others and still there are no pugs or whatever for anything. So despite what your ignorant self wants to think the reasons people have given above as to why realm merging is a good idea are pretty idiotic at best when there is a better way of doing things but hey, keep being ignorant and such. Your type are clearly the majority who play this game now anyway.
realm merging is crap. there was no problem with the "if you don't like your realm then pay to leave it" model. now they are just randomly foisting god knows who on you. having recently paid to move my guild and a substantial number of my alts to a low pop server intentionally seeking the advantages of such it will be a real kick in the can when they essentially make it so that I wasted all that money seeking what I enjoy.
There is no Bad RNG just Bad LTP
The increase in character slots is very nice, although it may promote even more altaholism.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"