Last time I played wow was about 5 months ago. Back then there were tonnes of people in the low level zones. Teldrassil, darkshore, westfall, redridge - hundreds of people leveling up there (not in one day but did see hundreds during the time I was there)
That's not a surprise, if I am not mistaking Cataclysm expansion came out 6 months ago, so it is natural you'd see a spike in lowlevel characters as many return to the game or level alts, since Cata introduced lots of changes to classic content all were intrigued to see. Question is how the low zones become once that surge is over.
Last time I played wow was about 5 months ago. Back then there were tonnes of people in the low level zones. Teldrassil, darkshore, westfall, redridge - hundreds of people leveling up there (not in one day but did see hundreds during the time I was there)
Yes most people do choose the fastest way to level, however most people also play for enjoyment. The fact is that people get bored of dungeons, they get bored of pvp and they get bored of questing. The fact is most people do not choose just one form of gameplay, they play them all. So yes people do quest all the time, and the do bg's all the time and they do dungeons all the time. Probably a pretty even split between them.
Yes but in general there is a big issue - thats the point of this thread, they are addressing the issue (but symptom not cause)
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Last time I played wow was about 5 months ago. Back then there were tonnes of people in the low level zones. Teldrassil, darkshore, westfall, redridge - hundreds of people leveling up there (not in one day but did see hundreds during the time I was there)
That's not a surprise, if I am not mistaking Cataclysm expansion came out 6 months ago, so it is natural you'd see a spike in lowlevel characters as many return to the game or level alts. Question is how the low zones become once that surge is over.
Is um... what's his name... Stiches? Is Stiches still there or did Cataclysm retire ol' Stitches? Ah, the first time I saw Stiches I actually didn't see him until I was looking up from my dirt nap. Same with that big ol' dinosaur... King Dred or something? Wow, it's been awhile.
That's irrelevant to discussion. The main point is that design which made people go out and do stuff in the world (that's a fact anyone who played vanilla can support) is no longer there, and now they are trying to patch it by merging zones between servers. What others did or didnt do is not relevant as we are discussing wow and how it changed.
Last time I played wow was about 5 months ago. Back then there were tonnes of people in the low level zones. Teldrassil, darkshore, westfall, redridge - hundreds of people leveling up there (not in one day but did see hundreds during the time I was there)
That's not a surprise, if I am not mistaking Cataclysm expansion came out 6 months ago, so it is natural you'd see a spike in lowlevel characters as many return to the game or level alts. Question is how the low zones become once that surge is over.
Is um... what's his name... Stiches? Is Stiches still there or did Cataclysm retire ol' Stitches? Ah, the first time I saw Stiches I actually didn't see him until I was looking up from my dirt nap. Same with that big ol' dinosaur... King Dred or something? Wow, it's been awhile.
i thing this game is great for is the random dungeon finder works and is fast at getting you in an game not seen it done any better on any mmo has of yet and its the 1 thing that keeps me playing i like the 1 hr to spare no messing around .
i thing this game is great for is the random dungeon finder works and is fast at getting you in an game not seen it done any better on any mmo has of yet and its the 1 thing that keeps me playing i like the 1 hr to spare no messing around .
it is, no arguement there, I would perhaps argue though that it hasn't helped the empty world problem that this thread is discussing :P
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
That's irrelevant to discussion. The main point is that design which made people go out and do stuff in the world (that's a fact anyone who played vanilla can support) is no longer there, and now they are trying to patch it by merging zones between servers. What others did or didnt do is not relevant as we are discussing wow and how it changed.
It was brought into the discussion, you can't say 2 games do it now but i don't know what they are. If it is irrelevent don't mention it in the first place. The fact is don't harp on one game if you aren't the rest.
He didnt, and no-one harped. Read past the first couple sentences on the original post. Or put it another way - it doesnt matter whether it is difficult to do, if it improves the game, wouldnt it be great idea?
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
i thing this game is great for is the random dungeon finder works and is fast at getting you in an game not seen it done any better on any mmo has of yet and its the 1 thing that keeps me playing i like the 1 hr to spare no messing around .
I duno, this kind of "fast food" dungeon content feels weird to me. The dungeon finder is now a popular tool evne in other games tho, and I can see the upside of people without three hours on their hands being able to experince PvE. However, I wish they left more challenging and longer content in the game except for raids. For example leaving dungeons as they were, and having those short PvE scenrios tied to dungeon finder. But hey, blizzards motto is "If 100% of player base doesn't experince it, its wasted content".
That's irrelevant to discussion. The main point is that design which made people go out and do stuff in the world (that's a fact anyone who played vanilla can support) is no longer there, and now they are trying to patch it by merging zones between servers. What others did or didnt do is not relevant as we are discussing wow and how it changed.
It was brought into the discussion, you can't say 2 games do it now but i don't know what they are. If it is irrelevent don't mention it in the first place. The fact is don't harp on one game if you aren't the rest.
I am not sure what you mean by "harping", as a harp is a musical instrument..
That's irrelevant to discussion. The main point is that design which made people go out and do stuff in the world (that's a fact anyone who played vanilla can support) is no longer there, and now they are trying to patch it by merging zones between servers. What others did or didnt do is not relevant as we are discussing wow and how it changed.
It was brought into the discussion, you can't say 2 games do it now but i don't know what they are. If it is irrelevent don't mention it in the first place. The fact is don't harp on one game if you aren't the rest.
You did see me mention Guild Wars 2 does it and how they do it, yes?
This announcement sounds like a great mechanic if it bolsters open world pvp on the pvp servers, and it would help the world feel more full. I wish them luck with this!
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
That's irrelevant to discussion. The main point is that design which made people go out and do stuff in the world (that's a fact anyone who played vanilla can support) is no longer there, and now they are trying to patch it by merging zones between servers. What others did or didnt do is not relevant as we are discussing wow and how it changed.
It was brought into the discussion, you can't say 2 games do it now but i don't know what they are. If it is irrelevent don't mention it in the first place. The fact is don't harp on one game if you aren't the rest.
I am not sure what you mean by "harping", as a harp is a musical instrument..
it is a musical instrument. Harping on is also a common phrase, but we are sidetracking from the discussion again.
edit, Volken has mentioned another game that does do exactly that - downscale, and reward according to level.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Titan, thats an intresting idea, ye could be. Re impossible to change the game - nothing is impossible its just code and investment - most games have a total budget of x million, Blizzard get that amount of money in a month, so its perfectly possible to fix any problem if you have the will and vision. It is a big problem though, but WOW has a huge and faithful player base who deserve the best imo.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
"The feature does exactly what it says on the tin: When a zone is underpopulated, the players in that zone will be given the option to form a group with players from a select pool of realms (presumably the server's battlegroup) with whom they can run about and quest as usual."
Great idea! I wish all MMOs had this. *cough* SWTOR *cough* But noooo, Bioware with it's 100-300 million dollars wasn't able to plan something to work with the issue of unpopulation. Bah.
Chapeau to Blizzard.
The idea sounds good but.. in WoW like in most themepark MMO's everyone solo rushes like mad to the level cap. There is no content requiring group play except the arena quests, like in Zul'Drak or in the Twilight Highlands. Unless Bliizard is about to introduce group content in the questing chains again. But i highly doubt this.
Considering the money they get from subs, as well as that they did change the design once from what it was to what it is now, nothing is taht impossible imo. Problem is that they see no reason to invest in it as your average gamers is happy with his weekly epics.. cattle
Originally posted by Aori
Thread moved kinda fast for a bit, I missed it. Well GW2 is a new game and it is easier to do this from the ground up. For WoW it would be like trying to take an already built house, remove its foundation and put in a new one while keeping the house intact.
Well, that depends. We can't judge how hard it is without knowing their tech. Maybe the foundation is there, they just had no need to develop it until now.
Thread moved kinda fast for a bit, I missed it. Well GW2 is a new game and it is easier to do this from the ground up. For WoW it would be like trying to take an already built house, remove its foundation and put in a new one while keeping the house intact.
Also GW2 is in beta, we don't know how this will work in game. Everything sounds great on paper and sometimes it turns into the biggest cluster****. We'll see on that, its a cool idea and I like it its just hard to do after the game has long since been established.
That's true, the rebuilding part. It would likely be a monstrous effort to do so in WoW. Hell, they had a chance with Cataclysm to do something like that and didn't.
In GW2, though, it works great in game, even in Beta (so far at least). It works so well you don't even notice zone levels are lower than you are because you're still being heavily challenged. Now, it's true this is for relatively close levels (not too many got over 30 in Beta), so it'll be interesting to see how it works with higher levels heading down, but at the moment it's real promising.
Considering the money they get from subs, as well as that they did change the design once from what it was to what it is now, nothing is taht impossible imo. Problem is that they see no reason to invest in it as your average gamers is happy with his weekly epics.. cattle
Originally posted by Aori
Thread moved kinda fast for a bit, I missed it. Well GW2 is a new game and it is easier to do this from the ground up. For WoW it would be like trying to take an already built house, remove its foundation and put in a new one while keeping the house intact.
Well, that depends. We can't judge how hard it is without knowing their tech. Maybe the foundation is there, they just had no need to develop it until now.
Sure they have a lot of subs but people tend to forget they have to employ the largest CS/Moderation staff in online gaming. Also the whole gotta keep the servers going type of deal aswell. Then after you pay the suits, you have some profits left to put into the bigger better things like Titan.
True but it would be bizzare for customers to argue that it is ok for a company not to invest our money into the game we are paying for, the cost for developing Titan cost will be covered by Titan purchases and subs - they should not get their cake and eat it - customer value matters too. Thats how it used to work anyway.
The alternative, wow players pay for the development of Titan, blizzard get titan development for free, and hey they get the profits from saless and subs too!
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Considering the money they get from subs, as well as that they did change the design once from what it was to what it is now, nothing is taht impossible imo. Problem is that they see no reason to invest in it as your average gamers is happy with his weekly epics.. cattle
Originally posted by Aori
Thread moved kinda fast for a bit, I missed it. Well GW2 is a new game and it is easier to do this from the ground up. For WoW it would be like trying to take an already built house, remove its foundation and put in a new one while keeping the house intact.
Well, that depends. We can't judge how hard it is without knowing their tech. Maybe the foundation is there, they just had no need to develop it until now.
Sure they have a lot of subs but people tend to forget they have to employ the largest CS/Moderation staff in online gaming. Also the whole gotta keep the servers going type of deal aswell. Then after you pay the suits, you have some profits left to put into the bigger better things like Titan.
Fair point, although I suspect 100+ million EUR/month income covers that all easily (and that's only WoW subs, I didnt count for Cashshop, swag, SC2 or D3)
This is something most games should first address with server merges, but it's certainly a great move. In many cases, lowbie areas will always be empty, even on heavy servers, at certain points in a games/expacs cycle. SWTOR could really use something like this for sure.
Happy to know such technology exists. It's not a matter of being able to solo quests or not, but it's that immersion that makes MMO different than single player games. The more people around you, the more alive it feels.
I've been an on/off player since WoW first launched.. and it seems I'll continue to be one if they implement this really well. Of course I'll have GW2 on the sides as a backup.
Sad though that this technology is not being implemented in other games (ie SWTOR). While WoW is a good game, the direction of the game is, sadly, heading TOO casual. Nothing bad... but it makes all achivements pointless. With the dumbing down of content and all, I wonder what's the point of playing WoW anymore. You got that 0.0001% epic loot? Congratz.. most likely it'll last you a patch or two until a better item which is easily obtainable is released.
The concept is not new, i'm glad they are doing it.
Propably means more upcoming mmos let the "Server" thing finally die and develope a framework who works with instances of zones primary.
Which MMO with a persistant open world and server based design has done this before? I know of none.
CO and STO have a one-server only with inifite shards, which isn't the same and has a disadvantage that is doesn't allow regional language servers. To me this concept from WOW is pretty new. And I have seen close to all MMOs out there.
Guild Wars 2 with guesting is essentially doing this. But they are doing it better. You can go anywhere not just a select group of servers.
Great news for the under used cities and low to med level zones.
I would love for orgrimmer or stormwind to be accidently flagged as a low pop zone - feels like those areas are going to crash the servers as they are imagin if half a dozen orgrimmers came together. =D
Seems like a nice feature to add. I play my main on a fairly low population server and can see this as beneficial. Moreso as I have friends who play on High/Full servers and I don't feel like transferring or rerolling again.
When I am playing a character on a higher population server, I wonder if it would be useful in 'depopulating' a zone for quest mobs, crafting resources, and so on. Or if I can trigger an instance creation solely for farming materials or even trying to get a rare spawn to show up. I guess I'm just more curious how it can be abused :P.
Really, if this works though, server merges aren't needed. The server you are on really becomes abstract and just a label. If it was truely shut down, you would have no clue so long as it was there was a label on the realm selection list for it. So I can see this as a tool for Blizzard to gravefully retire resources without the spirited conversation that "server merge" topics can generate.
I wonder if they plan to further integrate other things across battle groups. The auction house comes to mind. This could certainly normalize prices across realms (or maybe it would make it more volatile). "Bind on Account" items, which at last check were only transferrable between characters on the same realm, could grow up a bit and at least have usefulness within the battle group. There are probably more things this can extend to, but that's what I've come up with on short notice.
Really, for an aging game that has a healthy, but spread out population, this is an interesting step toward a solution for population disparity. Now, if they can increase World PvP appeal (which I thought I had read they intend to do with MoP) as well as find other reasons for people to venture out of the Dungeon/BG/Arena Lobby...err I mean capital cities...then we'd be golden
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers. Do something wrong, no one forgets" -from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence
Comments
That's not a surprise, if I am not mistaking Cataclysm expansion came out 6 months ago, so it is natural you'd see a spike in lowlevel characters as many return to the game or level alts, since Cata introduced lots of changes to classic content all were intrigued to see. Question is how the low zones become once that surge is over.
Yes but in general there is a big issue - thats the point of this thread, they are addressing the issue (but symptom not cause)
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Is um... what's his name... Stiches? Is Stiches still there or did Cataclysm retire ol' Stitches? Ah, the first time I saw Stiches I actually didn't see him until I was looking up from my dirt nap. Same with that big ol' dinosaur... King Dred or something? Wow, it's been awhile.
Oderint, dum metuant.
That's irrelevant to discussion. The main point is that design which made people go out and do stuff in the world (that's a fact anyone who played vanilla can support) is no longer there, and now they are trying to patch it by merging zones between servers. What others did or didnt do is not relevant as we are discussing wow and how it changed.
Retired to being part of a phased event
i thing this game is great for is the random dungeon finder works and is fast at getting you in an game not seen it done any better on any mmo has of yet and its the 1 thing that keeps me playing i like the 1 hr to spare no messing around .
it is, no arguement there, I would perhaps argue though that it hasn't helped the empty world problem that this thread is discussing :P
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
He didnt, and no-one harped. Read past the first couple sentences on the original post. Or put it another way - it doesnt matter whether it is difficult to do, if it improves the game, wouldnt it be great idea?
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I duno, this kind of "fast food" dungeon content feels weird to me. The dungeon finder is now a popular tool evne in other games tho, and I can see the upside of people without three hours on their hands being able to experince PvE. However, I wish they left more challenging and longer content in the game except for raids. For example leaving dungeons as they were, and having those short PvE scenrios tied to dungeon finder. But hey, blizzards motto is "If 100% of player base doesn't experince it, its wasted content".
I am not sure what you mean by "harping", as a harp is a musical instrument..
You did see me mention Guild Wars 2 does it and how they do it, yes?
Oderint, dum metuant.
This announcement sounds like a great mechanic if it bolsters open world pvp on the pvp servers, and it would help the world feel more full. I wish them luck with this!
Cheers!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
it is a musical instrument. Harping on is also a common phrase, but we are sidetracking from the discussion again.
edit, Volken has mentioned another game that does do exactly that - downscale, and reward according to level.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Titan, thats an intresting idea, ye could be. Re impossible to change the game - nothing is impossible its just code and investment - most games have a total budget of x million, Blizzard get that amount of money in a month, so its perfectly possible to fix any problem if you have the will and vision. It is a big problem though, but WOW has a huge and faithful player base who deserve the best imo.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
The idea sounds good but.. in WoW like in most themepark MMO's everyone solo rushes like mad to the level cap. There is no content requiring group play except the arena quests, like in Zul'Drak or in the Twilight Highlands. Unless Bliizard is about to introduce group content in the questing chains again. But i highly doubt this.
Considering the money they get from subs, as well as that they did change the design once from what it was to what it is now, nothing is taht impossible imo. Problem is that they see no reason to invest in it as your average gamers is happy with his weekly epics.. cattle
Well, that depends. We can't judge how hard it is without knowing their tech. Maybe the foundation is there, they just had no need to develop it until now.
That's true, the rebuilding part. It would likely be a monstrous effort to do so in WoW. Hell, they had a chance with Cataclysm to do something like that and didn't.
In GW2, though, it works great in game, even in Beta (so far at least). It works so well you don't even notice zone levels are lower than you are because you're still being heavily challenged. Now, it's true this is for relatively close levels (not too many got over 30 in Beta), so it'll be interesting to see how it works with higher levels heading down, but at the moment it's real promising.
Oderint, dum metuant.
True but it would be bizzare for customers to argue that it is ok for a company not to invest our money into the game we are paying for, the cost for developing Titan cost will be covered by Titan purchases and subs - they should not get their cake and eat it - customer value matters too. Thats how it used to work anyway.
The alternative, wow players pay for the development of Titan, blizzard get titan development for free, and hey they get the profits from saless and subs too!
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Fair point, although I suspect 100+ million EUR/month income covers that all easily (and that's only WoW subs, I didnt count for Cashshop, swag, SC2 or D3)
This is something most games should first address with server merges, but it's certainly a great move. In many cases, lowbie areas will always be empty, even on heavy servers, at certain points in a games/expacs cycle. SWTOR could really use something like this for sure.
its a good idea that will be implemented with the panda expansion
but doubt it will improve grouping in old content because the quests are solo quests
with patch 4.3, six months ago, Blizzard nerfed group outdoor quest mobs to be nonheroic
http://www.wowwiki.com/Patch_4.3.0
Many Group quests in Outland and Northrend have been re-tuned to allow players to complete them solo. They are no longer labeled as Group quests.
under level 80,
outdoor questing consists of soloing in WOW, theres no need to group for the quests anymore
EQ2 fan sites
I'm both happy and sad to read this.
Happy to know such technology exists. It's not a matter of being able to solo quests or not, but it's that immersion that makes MMO different than single player games. The more people around you, the more alive it feels.
I've been an on/off player since WoW first launched.. and it seems I'll continue to be one if they implement this really well. Of course I'll have GW2 on the sides as a backup.
Sad though that this technology is not being implemented in other games (ie SWTOR). While WoW is a good game, the direction of the game is, sadly, heading TOO casual. Nothing bad... but it makes all achivements pointless. With the dumbing down of content and all, I wonder what's the point of playing WoW anymore. You got that 0.0001% epic loot? Congratz.. most likely it'll last you a patch or two until a better item which is easily obtainable is released.
Guild Wars 2 with guesting is essentially doing this. But they are doing it better. You can go anywhere not just a select group of servers.
Great news for the under used cities and low to med level zones.
I would love for orgrimmer or stormwind to be accidently flagged as a low pop zone - feels like those areas are going to crash the servers as they are imagin if half a dozen orgrimmers came together. =D
Seems like a nice feature to add. I play my main on a fairly low population server and can see this as beneficial. Moreso as I have friends who play on High/Full servers and I don't feel like transferring or rerolling again.
When I am playing a character on a higher population server, I wonder if it would be useful in 'depopulating' a zone for quest mobs, crafting resources, and so on. Or if I can trigger an instance creation solely for farming materials or even trying to get a rare spawn to show up. I guess I'm just more curious how it can be abused :P.
Really, if this works though, server merges aren't needed. The server you are on really becomes abstract and just a label. If it was truely shut down, you would have no clue so long as it was there was a label on the realm selection list for it. So I can see this as a tool for Blizzard to gravefully retire resources without the spirited conversation that "server merge" topics can generate.
I wonder if they plan to further integrate other things across battle groups. The auction house comes to mind. This could certainly normalize prices across realms (or maybe it would make it more volatile). "Bind on Account" items, which at last check were only transferrable between characters on the same realm, could grow up a bit and at least have usefulness within the battle group. There are probably more things this can extend to, but that's what I've come up with on short notice.
Really, for an aging game that has a healthy, but spread out population, this is an interesting step toward a solution for population disparity. Now, if they can increase World PvP appeal (which I thought I had read they intend to do with MoP) as well as find other reasons for people to venture out of the Dungeon/BG/Arena Lobby...err I mean capital cities...then we'd be golden
-mklinic
"Do something right, no one remembers.
Do something wrong, no one forgets"
-from No One Remembers by In Strict Confidence