Why did they kill Ironforge ? :o

[Debased]

They should give all the capitals the same services that orgrimmar/stormwind.

This. I prefer TB, it has a mellow vibe, but I hardly go there because of the lack of services.

[Tierbook]

Ironforge was also the only place with an AH in vanilla, so that contributed to its popularity back in the day. When SW got its AH everyone just slowly started transitioning to SW instead.

Through the beginning of WoTLK IF was more important.... then SW got a harbor.... then all the portals where there... then SW got another bank/AH and major updates to looks in the Dwarven district... then brawlers guild... then we got flying.... then basically everything north of IF became horde...

[Leih]

There's sort of two separate things in this thread. The question of "Why do Blizzard want to prioritise one city over allowing all the faction capitals equal limelight?" is a different question to "Why SW instead of IF?"

The first question, I'm sure you could discuss for a while. I imagine it's mainly because they prefer when the majority of the playerbase is gathered in one area instead of spread around, because it makes the game feel more alive, makes it easier to see and meet people and creates a more bustling city feel in the main hub. Of course, you could also try to argue it's a laziness thing or something like that, but I am pretty sure they don't add vendors/portals everywhere because they are lazy. It wouldn't take a lot of effort. It's almost certainly an intentional design decision.

The second question, why IF and not SW? That's got a simple answer. Humans are the focus.

[BurnetRhoades]

My rogue, who's an engineer, he never has to leave the Shrine and I can make my own portals when I need to get around to other zones for various patches.

So tired of all the "rails" going up at every turn and every facet of game play. If it's not an RP server nobody cares about the focus on Orcs and Humans. Seriously.

[GKLeatherCraft]

My rogue, who's an engineer, he never has to leave the Shrine and I can make my own portals when I need to get around to other zones for various patches.

So tired of all the "rails" going up at every turn and every facet of game play. If it's not an RP server nobody cares about the focus on Orcs and Humans. Seriously.

I play on a very popular RP server, and no-one gives a crap about the Orc-Human focus there either, People just use it as a reason to most things they don't actually know lol

[Foxhoundn]

I spent most of the my time in IF pre-cata. But then, after they added all the portals to zones, transmog, void etc only to SW, IF died Sad story, IF was the best city this game ever seen.

[DeleteThisUser]

I do agree Ironforge is still the best city.

[Deleted]

Nothing will stop you from hanging around there in WoD

[CandyFresh]

Blizz are so cray-cray to stick with stormwind every expansion! With so many amazing capitals they should rotate them...1 each expansion. I just can't stand stormwind or orgrimmar anymore! Come on Blizz sort it out...pretty please!

[BurnetRhoades]

Blizz are so cray-cray to stick with stormwind every expansion! With so many amazing capitals they should rotate them...1 each expansion. I just can't stand stormwind or orgrimmar anymore! Come on Blizz sort it out...pretty please!

That would mean at some point the music would stop and it would be The Exodar and that place is a complete hole. It's laid out even worse than if an Orc or Nelf had done it. Here's the thing, all these places exist and players naturally almost immediately ghost town cities like The Exodar and Darnassus. Because they're in wildly inconvenient places for...anything. I remember when Blizz first instituted the mount achievement for killing city leaders nobody ever went to defend The Exodar. Nobody cared. It was also, generally, the city Horde groups would start with, not that this made any kind of sense at all, since they should have done IF first, always, but while Exodar was sacked this would be the time to build a defense for Darn. If Darn was already being sacked then we'd just wait for them to hit SW. Nobody cared about The Exodar.

Darn was not active during Vanilla and The Exodar wasn't active during BC, except for lowbies until they quested enough to get their toons to either IF or SW and finish out leveling in Azeroth based from there. Blizz knows this. They have years of activity logs to back up where people naturally gravitate. The problem is when they decide this data (and natural, organic player behavior in general) doesn't jive with where they want the game to go they feel compelled to step in and set up rails and try to engineer the result they want.

[Azaile-]

Ironforge was more convenient for the raid locations, closer to Black Rock Mountain where Molten Core, Black Wing Lair and Black Rock Spire were. It was also closer to Naxx and Menethil harbor where alliance catch boats to get to Kalimdor. Since Stormwind got a harbor and new raid locations were added, it was natural that we migrate away from Ironforge. The same thing happened to the horde with undercity.

They could easily fix for the next xpac by putting a portal to the new city's on Draenor in IF instead of SW, although Exodar as the new main home town might make more sense.

[Darsithis]

Seems fairly busy to me on Feathermoon:

[wowaccounttom]

I have always liked all horde capitals. Too bad there is not enough players in them anymore.

And of course IF and SW. Even ...um... the elf city....

The goat city is just .. I can't ..

[Ilir]

isn't reforge going away in WoD ? And about the transmog... it's not like you're always transmogging your gear every 5 minutes or every day. Same with reforge now. You can still go do Iron Forge, Darnassus or whatever... it's you who chose to go to Stormwind.

[JuanFiles]

Why all the fuse for IF?... Noone had ever complain that Darnasus been dead from the very start...

Ironforge was the main hub in vanilla cause it had the only AH for a long time. Now, SW is of course the main race city, and that's one of the strongest reasons to make it the capital city but then again, it seems the most convenient place to put the portals and all the stuff that has been added (Panda shrine, the harbor, the jaw of Deathwing hanging at the bottom... ) Give it a second and think about it.

Now... Let's put it this other way

2004 november vanilla - IF as main city
2007 january BC - Shattrat as mc
2008 november WotLK - Dalaran
2010 december Cata - SW
2012 september MoP - Shrine on the Vale

So far the city that has been the main hub for the longest time has been IF. add that in december IF gets crouded again for half of the month... i say IF had it's moment and it was pretty long

[Stormspark]

isn't reforge going away in WoD ? And about the transmog... it's not like you're always transmogging your gear every 5 minutes or every day. Same with reforge now. You can still go do Iron Forge, Darnassus or whatever... it's you who chose to go to Stormwind.

Yes. Reforge obviously won't be a problem anymore, but it *was* for the longest time. But void storange/transmog will still only be in Org/SW. Plus, reference the fact that in 4.3, Blizzard did extra work to *remove* reforge NPC's from every city but Org/SW (they had them previously).

[inboundpaper]

This. I prefer TB, it has a mellow vibe, but I hardly go there because of the lack of services.

I used to spend a lot of time in TB in wrath, my laptop couldn't handle Org. I also spent a lot of time in IF, but that was mostly throwing knives at the flight master.

[wych]

Always loved Ironforge, would rotate between there and Goldshire.

Back in Vanilla I was never sure whether Stormwind or Ironforge was the true capital, it was fun seeing both bristling with players

[Tierbook]

I hope they do something to either IF or SW this patch, I mean since they are updating UBRS..... maybe?

[ro9ue]

They should give all the capitals the same services that orgrimmar/stormwind.

Agreed 100%