So... should we pick the progression server?

[Nutrition]

This is thinking way ahead of time but given how its iffy if character server transfers will be a thing when servers are announced can we all come together and pick what real is gonna be the one to get stuff done on?

Might be to early for this thread but it's something to consider.

[Veggie50]

I doubt to the point of certainty that Blizzard would allow transfers from normal realms to classic realms. Mainly because lvling on normal realms is about 20 times faster.

[Schweddy]

What progression ? After Naxx it wont be anymore atleast for PvE.

[Nutrition]

What progression ? After Naxx it wont be anymore atleast for PvE.

I imagine like live it will start to have a established "raid" server.

[Lochton]

But, you won't have a progression server - that is live - that is progression. Classic is the museum, you can go and experience the many segments as players did in classic. You get to re-experience things of the past without moving forward.

Though, I do not believe we should pick the server but Blizzard, and they offer the tagging like we have now.

[Projectmars]

Odds are we will get 2 - 5 servers. either one PVE & one PVP or one of each kind + an extra PvE or PvP server. So sticking with the PvE server would probably be the one for raiders.

[Deficineiron]

Odds are we will get 2 - 5 servers. either one PVE & one PVP or one of each kind + an extra PvE or PvP server. So sticking with the PvE server would probably be the one for raiders.

how many retail servers are there now? I know they did a lot of merges-in-all-but-name at some point, but aren't there a few hundred NA/EU servers?

You are predicting how many servers of classic each for europe and north america?

[delus]

I imagine like live it will start to have a established "raid" server.

That's an assumption. You also assume there will be multiple realms.

[Projectmars]

how many retail servers are there now? I know they did a lot of merges-in-all-but-name at some point, but aren't there a few hundred NA/EU servers?

You are predicting how many servers of classic each for europe and north america?

Have they mentioned if it would be in other regions? either way that guess would be per region.

[Unholyground]

Wow servers can hold something like 40k per faction or something like that if I remember correctly, so there will be like 3.

[Nutrition]

That's an assumption. You also assume there will be multiple realms.

I would think there would have to be... even if it does die down really quickly I can't see a single realm being sufficient at launch.

[delus]

how many retail servers are there now? I know they did a lot of merges-in-all-but-name at some point, but aren't there a few hundred NA/EU servers?

You are predicting how many servers of classic each for europe and north america?

Realms are an artifact of old server design that are kept around on live due to realm history and nothing more. Players who played on their realm bear attachments and blizzard has treaded lightly with merges. However, a new start to the game would not need many realms with current sharding tech. There are currently 2 beta realms for all testing worldwide. They are more than capable of megaservers and sharding on a single realm. There probably will be sharding as it would be expensive to have 50 or so unpopulated servers. Thus, they are likely to do a limited realm release with one realm of each type per region.

[Deficineiron]

Have they mentioned if it would be in other regions? either way that guess would be per region.

they haven't said it will be in any specific region at all, but I think we all agree as a common premise of this thread that NA and EU will have classic. I think it is highly probable Netease leases it too for China, but I am not including that in numbers discussions at all. Netease is more opaque than blizzard, and the language barrier to what info there may be is insurmountable for me.

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Realms are an artifact of old server design that are kept around on live due to realm history and nothing more. Players who played on their realm bear attachments and blizzard has treaded lightly with merges. However, a new start to the game would not need many realms with current sharding tech. There are currently 2 beta realms for all testing worldwide. They are more than capable of megaservers and sharding on a single realm. There probably will be sharding as it would be expensive to have 50 or so unpopulated servers. Thus, they are likely to do a limited realm release with one realm of each type per region.

they certainly can choose to go that path. I think the fragmentation effect that level of sharding would cause would be likely to fit into the 'unintended consequences' risk category - you would never, ever see the same people twice. I know it is all yapping at this point but didn't blue make the soothing comments about they know server community is a major part of vanilla?

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Wow servers can hold something like 40k per faction or something like that if I remember correctly, so there will be like 3.

this is PCU? characters? different accounts with any number of characters?

PCU is the starting point of limitations, I would think.

[Unholyground]

this is PCU? characters? different accounts with any number of characters?

PCU is the starting point of limitations, I would think.

I want to say active players, but it was a really long time ago.

[jackofwind]

I imagine like live it will start to have a established "raid" server.

Your best bet will be to play on the server where most of the raiding pserver crowd migrates. I know I'll be moving to wherever my current vanilla raiding guild goes.

[The Stormbringer]

I just hope that when they inevitably open Burning Crusade Classic that they allow people the option to transfer to it for free.

[Projectmars]

I just hope that when they inevitably open Burning Crusade Classic that they allow people the option to transfer to it for free.

Either they let you do a free one-time, 1-way transfer or a free one-time copy would probably work best.

[The Stormbringer]

Either they let you do a free one-time, 1-way transfer or a free one-time copy would probably work best.

I could go for that. There'd be no reason not to do a copy if copy is the option. It'd give you everything you had before but on a new server, so if you decide you want to stay on Vanilla Classic, you could.

[Deficineiron]

I could go for that. There'd be no reason not to do a copy if copy is the option. It'd give you everything you had before but on a new server, so if you decide you want to stay on Vanilla Classic, you could.

From a player's viewpoint, obviously being able to copy over to the bc server makes excellent sense in terms of progression.

I am not sure how much sense it makes from blizzard's viewpoint. Realm xfer is a revenue source. Perhaps if they want to be clever, they can offer a limited-window, 1-character free xfer from a classic server to a bc server upon bc launch, say for the first 30 or 90 days. However, and I feel this is a valid contrary point, blizzard has never, ever discounted this service in general - today folks have dozens of max-level characters and blizzard doesn't have a 'move all from server x to y flat rate' option. You xfer each one, one by one, pay by pay. So it seems safe to say blizzard feels maximizing revenue from xfers is important.

One variable I don't know how to account for is tokens being used to pay for value-added services - it changes the willingness of players who bought tokens with gold to spend the tokens on stuff they would be less inclined to pay cash for.

[Chaelexi]

This is thinking way ahead of time but given how its iffy if character server transfers will be a thing when servers are announced can we all come together and pick what real is gonna be the one to get stuff done on?

Might be to early for this thread but it's something to consider.

Your best bet is do not create a character the first day and see if any of the major live progression raiders announce where they are making a team. That will end up being the progression server. But in the end it could end up as I have frequently stated. High pop servers with sharding with a small number of actual server and all of them will have a decent raiding pool.