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Are server merges needed, or are all WoW servers healthily populated?
MMO.Maverick
Member CommonPosts: 7,619
I know this is a delicate topic, but I was curious so I went ahead.
It was brought under my attention by this list (for which thanks, Ehmster) and by comments resurging from time to time from WoW players complaining about their server being empty.
That list is far from 100% accurate, but still, if those are the number of characters - not players - that have logged in in the last 30 days, then the PCU (peak concurrent users) must be considerably lower.
The broader question though is, is it indicative for the reality, the current state of affairs for a number of servers?
I know Blizzard has warded off any server merges for a long time, since those things usually are accompanied with all kinds of woes and doomsaying. The dungeon finder is one of these tools to ward it off, which is btw an ingenious means, because it boosts activity and things to do for players even if their server has emptied out.
Is it enough as compensation though?
What do you people think, is there a need for WoW servers to merge or are they all healthy in population and prospering?
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
Once the next expansion is released many servers will be back into queue mode.
I'd say leave well enough alone, after all, WOW is basically a solo oriented game and with tools such as Dungeon finder to help players get groups I can't see the need for a server to have a large population. (though raiding might be an issue)
My son's server KT seems plenty active, but of course, your results may vary.
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Whilst there are undoubtedly some low population servers in the huge list of WoW servers,most of the people on them choose to be there because they are low pop,it's pretty obvious from the in game serve rlsit which servers are low ,med and high pop when choosing a realm to play on.Let's face it most of WoW's open world content is soloable except for a few world bosses that require raids,so the need for groups in PvE is minimal and open world PvP is prety much a non issue for anyone but gankers who would of rolle don a high pop PvP server anyway.
Also with the cross realm battlegrounds,arenas and Instance group finding facilities there is no need to transfer to a realm with a larger pop for mos tfolks on the lower pop servers.If you do want to change realms you can always pay for a tranfer,something that has bene in WoW for many years already.
The only reason Blizz would have for merging servers and getting rid of low pop servers would before financial cost cutting reasons.The fact that they haven't probably means they believe the bad PR associated with such a move is not worth the savings the move would make.
Of course I haven't played WoW since before WoTLK came out so I'm just speculating based on my out dated expereince and what I've read about the game since quitting.
Total WOW player base is stable at 11.5M (just released couple of weeks ago). Since there is no decline, i don't see why they would want to merge servers.
In fact, once Cata is released (and WOTLK in China), they prob need MORE servers.
It is only really a dozen or so PVP servers that are dead, and they are generally only dead for one faction. The problem with these servers is that Blizzard will not allow you to create a new toon on the side that is dominating, and very few people want to roll on a side that is being dominated, especially on a pvp server.
To show that the website is just terrible at showing accurate numbers. I will tell you of my server Fenris. that website currently shows that my server is 89% horde vs 11% alliance ( based on the number of characters 'seen' in the last 30 days). However, at the same time, it also says that Alliance has a 1.6x activity lead on horde?? ( I play horde). So basically horde has 10 times the number of characters on the server, but alliance has almost twice as many online at any given time?
The data is gathered by an add-on that really servers no function in the game and is only used to populate numbers on that website. There are probably so few people who bother using it that the sample size makes the stats meaningless.
Fenris is very near the top of the list (especially for pve servers).. but yet my dungeonfinder queues are less than 15 minutes (as a dps) and I rarely can't find what I am looking for on the AH. Also, my faction (supposedly outnumbered almost 2:1) almost always has a PUG ICC25 going on.
That said, there is no way Blizzard is going to merge servers months before a big expansion that is designed at bringing back old players and encourage rerolling.
In my opinion faction imbalance on a PvP server is irrelevant. The only PvP that has anything to do with faction balance is Wintergrasp and that can be done on PvE servers as well. There is nothing to dominate on a PvP server besides Wintergrasp.
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Just based on the entire design of the game, there will never be a need for server merges. Everything up until endgame raiding is completed more efficiently solo, and all 5-man pve instances and pvp battlegrounds are already crossed with multiple servers. I guess if you're on a quiet server, endgame raiding might be difficult to put together but that's primarily because people take breaks leading up to a new expansion when the latest content has already been overplayed. Just as with any new expansion in WoW, I'm sure a ton of servers will jump to having queues to login again once Cataclysm releases. It would be the worst possible time for them to even consider server merges with Cataclysm on the horizon.
Well I cannot speak for all servers but please stay off Boulderfist (EU)
.... and you should see it on expansion day.. geesh. But I do like a high pop server, more chance of some world PvP (although sadly it is rare nowa-days)
As some others have pointed out, notice that the low population servers are PvP servers. Blizzard historically releases a few too many of them in addition to faction balance issues. WoW community tends to be pretty brutal, so very likely you'll find a number of toons from the dominating faction just looking to pounce on new toons...so frustrations galore.
Overall, WoW is doing very well. From my standpoint, they lost a decent chunk of mature players, and gained a good chunk of younger players with the release of Wrath (made the game even easier than it was with BC) resulting in steady state. I doubt that the WoW servers need to be merged...especially with the next expansion (Cataclysm) to be released in a few months.
I don't think Warcraftrealms.com is as accurate as it once was for a variety of reasons. It is pretty easy to see some servers rely on 1 or 2 updates a month and others have none.
I think wow has avoided servers mergers, because the overall population is steady (or was growing in the past). Second is how blizzard often offers free servers moves from high to low population servers. This keeps the low/high populations more in line with healthy populations. Still so many servers there is no way to keep them all in some range or another.
Right now I think player activity (maybe subscriptions) is down as the game is right smack in the middle of the content gap. The current content has been played for a bit to long, but the next expansion is still to far away to resolve that.
Server mergers will eventually happen when the game starts to decline. My guess will be some time after cataclysm when things settle down into the same routine or other new games come out.
I don't see the servers needing a merge. Generally the low pop servers get switched to reccomended, and a lot of people roll there. But once the pop gets big, they tend to transfer off. I don't really understand that. But it wouldn't be bad to merge the low pop servers. Mine is medium to high, and there are plenty of people to raid with all of the time.
I don't know about normal or PvP but the 5 RP-PvP realms in Europe could definitely benefit from a merge. The one i play on is constantly low populated for almost 1 year. The other 4 are designated as low, low, medium & medium and i don't think much will change in Cataclysm. My opinion is that 3 RP-PvP realms in the EU are more than enough.
I also don't see any server mergers happen in the short term, I expect that CATA is only 3-6 months away.
The largest problem is I think on the lowest population servers where one side hugely dominates and the other side is heavily underpopulated especially when it is (RP) PvP servers.
The lowest population servers will relatively benefit the most from CATA since there'll be a lot of low level activity with the 2 new race and a lot of the areas redone. I foresee a lot of people on high population servers having/starting alts on low population servers, because when it gets overcrowded or too much queueing I gather people would rather level an alt on an easily accessible server with no overcrowding.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Well, i am leveling several toons to 80, and then once i hit 80 i dont do any more quests, i just run instances to get a bit of gear. Saving all the quests for cata as i can probably hit 85 without having teh need to quest on the (over packed and well ganking mayhem) in the 80-85 area's (gonna have fun playing my hunter/warlock for that though). And ye, my server (EU) is like over 90% horde populated and i am alliance
People come, see what the alliance is like, ask 2 questions, get answered and there gone. Wintergrasp is lucky to be taken once a week but still, i aint moving servers as i have 6 characters and like hell am i gonna fork £15 per toon to move it on a game thats slowly starting to die, as it comes to them all (eventually), just hope something decent will come out soon. So far everythings been of a somewhat huge dissapointment so far.
People make similar statements before the release of any WoW expansion or before the release of another mmorpg, and still there haven't been any merges....after nearly 6 years.
Back to the topic:
The WoW population is healthy overall. There are some servers that suffer from low pop when it comes to raiding. Not all servers have guilds that have completed all of the WotLK content, and finding active raiders on those servers can be a problem. The issue is only further aggrivated due to the ability to transfer characters to different servers (for a fee). There have been instances where entire raiding guilds have moved from one server to another due to populations (rare occurance).
The youngest servers are the ones who suffer from low pop, and even though they generally become recommended servers for new players, I often find that brand new players are friends or family of an active customer and the recommended servers still don't see a boost to their populations.
I doubt that Blizzard will add new servers for Cataclysm, but server merges are still a ways off.