Originally Posted by
Stardrift
I found it to be quite the opposite when I first started in WOTLK. Without the sharding, server merges, crossrealm bullshit. My server wasn't huge but it certainly had a much larger population than it does today. Evidence being it has now merged with three other servers.
Back then, there were tons of familiar faces in trade chat. There were a ton of high end guilds, famous and infamous guilds, trolls, good guys, and a decent PvP scene. This was the Malfurion server.
Then Cats hit, obliterated server identity with crossrealm shit, and promoted holing yourself up in a guild you spent time and gold on levelling up for its OP perks. Content was bad, and people left, and you ended up stuck in this empty guild you worked so hard on. Pugs died out hard as the guild levelling system rewarded full guild groups.
My server withered down into being a low pop. Nobody talks in trade. New guilds are made but die with a whimper come the next patch cycle. There's no such thing as familiar faces anymore because of all the crossrealm/merging/sharding. Just a bunch of introverts.
Having moved to KT (I know, toxic streamer server. Idc about streamers), a high pop server, the difference is like light and day.