Why is the low population server situation not solved?

[ano2024]

I know that they do have the expertise to fix this situation, I know that deep down they're still competent.

I'm just puzzled as to why they haven't done it yet.

Low population servers are now basically desolate hellscapes devoid of any and all life. It is hard for most people to enjoy an MMO under such circumstances.

And yet they can't escape the situation. They have invested a lot of time and effort into their characters on this realm.

Why isn't the situation fixed? I know Blizzard aren't that greedy to let this be a problem just so they can get more money from realm transfers. Are they just too lazy or not willing to invest the development time for it right now?

[Darkeon]

Time to pay for a transfer service, it seems.

[CrawlFromThePit]

I know that they do have the expertise to fix this situation, I know that deep down they're still competent.

I'm just puzzled as to why they haven't done it yet.

Low population servers are now basically desolate hellscapes devoid of any and all life. It is hard for most people to enjoy an MMO under such circumstances.

And yet they can't escape the situation. They have invested a lot of time and effort into their characters on this realm.

Why isn't the situation fixed? I know Blizzard aren't that greedy to let this be a problem just so they can get more money from realm transfers. Are they just too lazy or not willing to invest the development time for it right now?

The only thing related to this issue is joining a guild. Literally every other piece of content is the game runs on cross realm and sharding. If the game seems empty when you're out in the world it's because sharding puts you in an empty shard or there's really no one playing around there (which is very possible in the mainlands of BfA since there's no reason to be there). No amount of "server population control" can fix this.

[RobertoCarlos]

I know.

Why isn't the situation fixed? I know Blizzard aren't that greedy to let this be a problem just so they can get more money from realm transfers. Are they just too lazy or not willing to invest the development time for it right now?

You seem to know a lot about blizzard why don't you tell us why they are not greedy and don't like making money plz

[Headayke]

I am in the firm belief that some small minority preffer having less people in a game that is already so anti-mmo. You have no need for other players for 90% of the content, raiding may be the only restriction but everything is still available whether the sever has 100,000 players or 100.

As a Classic player atm, I need other players to progress at end game and the lower pop servers of Classic should be addressed but no easy fixes for that where as Retail has plenty of options for it that dont involve charging every player 25$+ to raid.

[styil]

Blizzard would not jeopardise their microtransaction revenue by merging/connecting servers.

[ano2024]

The only thing related to this issue is joining a guild. Literally every other piece of content is the game runs on cross realm and sharding. If the game seems empty when you're out in the world it's because sharding puts you in an empty shard or there's really no one playing around there (which is very possible in the mainlands of BfA since there's no reason to be there). No amount of "server population control" can fix this.

The auction house is also nearly empty on a low pop server, with few people posting items. Also, since this is an MMO, having an actual community on the server is a definite necessity, otherwise you might as well play a singleplayer game. And yet, these low pop realms are nearly dead. Small communities can be great, but at this point the communities are nearly non-existent.

[caervek]

Low population servers are now basically desolate hellscapes devoid of any and all life. It is hard for most people to enjoy an MMO under such circumstances.

That's just your opinion though, here's a counter opinion: Low population servers have finally returned to the glory days of pre-crossrealms, now it actually feels like you're on an epic adventure as opposed to one of the 586,392 people in the zone.

Believe it or not the are a lot of people who specifically rolled on low pop servers because we didn't want to see other players every five minutes when out in the world, this was the whole reason players were given low/med/high pop as an option when picking a server.

[Volatilis]

I know that they do have the expertise to fix this situation, I know that deep down they're still competent.

I'm just puzzled as to why they haven't done it yet.

Low population servers are now basically desolate hellscapes devoid of any and all life. It is hard for most people to enjoy an MMO under such circumstances.

And yet they can't escape the situation. They have invested a lot of time and effort into their characters on this realm.

Why isn't the situation fixed? I know Blizzard aren't that greedy to let this be a problem just so they can get more money from realm transfers. Are they just too lazy or not willing to invest the development time for it right now?

Care to tell us how you know all this?

[Volatilis]

I mean the first thing is pretty obvious. They can transfer you easily if you pay the $25. It means the could easily provide a free service for low pop but they have chosen not to.

Except paid transfers is optional.

Forcing realm mergers isnt.

Perhaps its not a technical issue but a player base one who just love to use the word "forced" whenever humanly possible.

$$$ aside perhaps there are other reasons they choose not to further dilute server identity?

[Caerule]

Ion Hazzikostas promised us at Blizzcon that more server connections were coming. They speak about it with the team to decide where, very soon.

He promised the same at the Blizzcon two years before it.

Server mergers are needed so much. Especially for roleplay servers. That community needs people to thrive. As I'm sure does any community that relies on relies on numbers for their activities.

[ano2024]

Ion Hazzikostas promised us at Blizzcon that more server connections were coming. They speak about it with the team to decide where, very soon.

He promised the same at the Blizzcon two years before it.

Server mergers are needed so much. Especially for roleplay servers. That community needs people to thrive. As I'm sure does any community that relies on relies on numbers for their activities.

Well, I'm sure the promise this time is different than the one from last time. BfA was probably pretty tough on them since they had to put out so many fires. I'm sure this time they'll keep their word.

[Tojara]

They need to like merge auction houses or start lumping shitty servers to well populated ones. Augment runes have long vanished on the realm that I'm on, and there was exactly 201 Zin'athid on the AH that I bought earlier today.

I don't want to conspiracy theory and say they like this situation because it forces people to transfer, but the amount of time that has passed without consolidation almost leads me to believe that this is the case. I suppose the only other reason for them to not acknowledge or change things is that merging servers is seen as bad press because it lends itself to servers dying. Most people I know will either transfer if they find themselves on a dead realm, or just quit the game entirely because they don't want to move over legions of characters that are stranded on that realm anytime soon.

Well populated realms are pretty much established at this point. Joining shitty servers with other shitty servers isn't the answer. Take those connected realms that already exist (and are dead), and join them with actually populated ones. It's not rocket science, and it won't cause those populated servers to be unstable.

[getupkid55]

The only thing related to this issue is joining a guild. Literally every other piece of content is the game runs on cross realm and sharding.

*cough* Economies *cough*

Not to mention, you can't really just gloss over Guilds, since they are the central focal point of the entire social aspect of the game (for most people.)

[Krekal]

I know that they do have the expertise to fix this situation, I know that deep down they're still competent.

I'm just puzzled as to why they haven't done it yet.

Low population servers are now basically desolate hellscapes devoid of any and all life. It is hard for most people to enjoy an MMO under such circumstances.

And yet they can't escape the situation. They have invested a lot of time and effort into their characters on this realm.

Why isn't the situation fixed? I know Blizzard aren't that greedy to let this be a problem just so they can get more money from realm transfers. Are they just too lazy or not willing to invest the development time for it right now?

Because $$$ transfers $$$

[ano2024]

Because $$$ transfers $$$

They need to like merge auction houses or start lumping shitty servers to well populated ones. Augment runes have long vanished on the realm that I'm on, and there was exactly 201 Zin'athid on the AH that I bought earlier today.

I don't want to conspiracy theory and say they like this situation because it forces people to transfer, but the amount of time that has passed without consolidation almost leads me to believe that this is the case. I suppose the only other reason for them to not acknowledge or change things is that merging servers is seen as bad press because it lends itself to servers dying. Most people I know will either transfer if they find themselves on a dead realm, or just quit the game entirely because they don't want to move over legions of characters that are stranded on that realm anytime soon.

Well populated realms are pretty much established at this point. Joining shitty servers with other shitty servers isn't the answer. Take those connected realms that already exist (and are dead), and join them with actually populated ones. It's not rocket science, and it won't cause those populated servers to be unstable.

Aren't they only making a few million $ at best from realm transfers? For Blizzard that's pocket change. Maybe they just didn't get around to doing it. I mean, yeah, they promised they'd take care of it for a few years now, but they have a lot of other things to worry about.

[Volatilis]

Aren't they only making a few million $ at best from realm transfers? For Blizzard that's pocket change. Maybe they just didn't get around to doing it. I mean, yeah, they promised they'd take care of it for a few years now, but they have a lot of other things to worry about.

again, any source for this "pocket change" amounts? Because im sure you've never looked at a balance sheet in your life.

I think you DRASTICALLY have no idea just how much micro transactions make.

[Raugnaut]

Ion Hazzikostas promised us at Blizzcon that more server connections were coming. They speak about it with the team to decide where, very soon.

He promised the same at the Blizzcon two years before it.

Server mergers are needed so much. Especially for roleplay servers. That community needs people to thrive. As I'm sure does any community that relies on relies on numbers for their activities.

There are high-pop RP realms for those who love the RP. I moved to the lowest pop RP realm to get away from that.

Personally, Blizz just needs to have yearly FREE character and guild transfers. Just a 1-2 week period in which all the "paid services" are free each year.

[themaster24]

*cough* Economies *cough*

Not to mention, you can't really just gloss over Guilds, since they are the central focal point of the entire social aspect of the game (for most people.)

For the social aspect, Blizz introduced the community system, which helps alleviate that. So right now, guilds only exist to serve Mythic raiding and trading, to be purely technical. You can do every other guild activity (raiding up to Mythic, M+, conversation, have fun in discord) in a cross server community.

This doesn't negate the issues that small pop servers could present to some people, but they have access to "guilds" if they want them, regardless of how small their server is.

[Shakana]

Just give free character transfers.