"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.
Nothing to see here, just the same old Blizzard coppying everyone else's great ideas. I swear that company is as intellectually bankrupt as one can get.
GW2 isn't released yet, and they didn't invent the idea. You can't claim credit for an invention if you haven't even released the game yet and even if you do want to credit them are you going to tell me Blizzard learned about the idea and implemented in a couple months? I don't think so.
This is an idea that has been discussed and requested since Lineage and UO.
If ANet can implement and release it before Blizard does then they can claim to be the first that did it, but they still don't get credit for inventing it.
DCUO's "megaservers" did this awhile back. not just a hybrid system that WoW is about to dabble in.
you can even switch instantly from PVE version of the world to PVP versions, and back.
not saying its not great for WoW. it is.
also Cryptic's games did this.
its high past time for ALL MMOs to fully embrace this model. except for the rare few dynamic worlds where each server is actually different in its content.
This is just to rejuvenate a once sprawling world. Give people more interactions with HUMANs in an MMORPG, the game is 7 years old and alot of people are moved on or near max level.
However there is still countless people who like the feel of being in an alive world even if they don't play with those people, it is good to know they are there.
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!
It is pretty much standard practice for a company developing a new product to rely on revenue from previous products for funding.
Once they have your money it is theirs to decide how to spend. Of course if the customer base begins to see their ongoing financial support of the older product as a poor investment the company can stand to lose a lot of money. Ideally this would result in a nice balance of continued support of the older product during the development of the new, Unfortunately all too many consumers are not particularly discerning and will continue to support a product/company even during a down turn of support.
When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.
Wouldn´t it just be better to let players change servers for free and merging a few?
Then if you can't find players on your server you can change to another one instead.
The idea is not bad or anything but it seems like a complicated solution for problem that isn't that hard.
They are not doing it because servers are empty, they are doing it because low level zones are empty. The vast majority of players are at 85 and not in the low level zones, this makes the low level zones feel empty.. and as a marketing thing.. you don´t want the world to feel empty for new players.
At the same time, this will also fix the Hellfire Pennisula problem where the day of the BC launch, 95% of the server was in one zone. WIth this new tech, they can now split the population. I had actually thought they had lost thier mind with MOP and forgotten about BC. Both Cata and Wotlk had 2 zones ( hyjal and Vash, HF and BT) . MOP only has 1 zone, similar to BC. But now I see why they only need 1 zone.
This fixes two problems. New players will be playing in a fuller world while questing, and they they can split populations for the first zone in MOP.
For me, the only downside is that i liked having empty zones while questing. On my server, I was constantly finding rare spawns (10x´s the exp) and gathering nodes were everywhere.
This is just another gimmick just like dungeon finder was so they don't have to merge servers and cause mass panic on the interenet. Blizzard desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
What bleeding? With 10+ million subs I'd say WoW's "wounds" will never need healing. But regardless I think this is a nice change, no one can argue that bringing life into a zone is a positive effect.
"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.
1. In WOW people do not quest thats why zones are empty.
2 You outscale group quests so quickly that you solo it in any case.
3. People will still power level to get to end game cycle, see 1 & 2.
This is not fixing any of the root problems with WOW, its another case of Blizzard missing the point or unwilling to invest to fundementally change their model to address these issues.
You couldn't be more wrong. People quest all of the time, some people hate dungeons/pvp so they quest. You only outscale quests if you using heirlooms or RAF. Otherwise you'll be able to finish all of the quests in the zone you start in at the appropriate level.
As a WoW player, i'll be more likely to quest now that I won't be as alone in the world. I had to moved to less established servers get that worldly feel.
Powerleveling is a choice not a problem, it has always existed in every online game.
Simple fact zones are empty cities are not. Fact, blizzard streamlined and sped up the questing process. Would you go into TBC zones for example and find them alive with players? Finally Blizzard have announced this change - so they are tryint to address the issue (but not the root cause which is my point)
Ignoring ALTS and Daily grinds everybody hates, The levelling process before you get to end-game equates to perhaps a couple percent of your overall time. Powerlevelling exists and it is a burdon on mmorgs that is being addressed with upcomming titles - blizzard could have done the same if they truely wanted to address root causes.
And you just cannot see the forest through you hate. Blizzard, and most players do NOT see a problem with fast leveling, or with most players being at lvl 85. The ONLY problem they see is that new players are questing in zones that are empty and make the game feel lonely. THAT IS the ONLY problem they are trying to address.
You are trying to say this doesn´t fix a problem that isn´t a problem. Leveling speed is not a problem.. players mostly all being at endgame is not a problem. Deal with it.
This is just another gimmick just like dungeon finder was so they don't have to merge servers and cause mass panic on the interenet. Blizzard desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
What bleeding? With 10+ million subs I'd say WoW's "wounds" will never need healing. But regardless I think this is a nice change, no one can argue that bringing life into a zone is a positive effect.
MacDonalds has millions and millions of eating lovers, but i wouldnt eat one of those burgers if i could find some grass near me.
Ill take my wife burgers instead. Better quality, made with love and she doesnt bleed my wallet for every damn exp...err...w8...she does bleed my wallet...
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.
For the most part, WOW doesn´t need server mergers. There are plenty of players. My server is considered low pop, and there are still a ton of players everywhere. The problem is that are all level capped.
They are NOT trying to skirt around the issue of merging servers, they simply want players who are leveling to feel like they are part of a living world with other players. A new player right now could level through a lot of 30-55 zones and barely see other players. It makes the game lonely and not as fun. those players don´t know that there are 3000 level 85s raiding..
Every MMO has this problem after awhile.. leveling zones become empty. this solves the marketing problem (new players feel lonely) without having to merge servers and create problems because of having too many endgame players.
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
I don´t think they necessary want players to ´group´ more while leveling.. I think they just want players to bump into others while leveling. While being a vet, I just want to level as fast as possible and actually prefer a zone being empty.. as a new player, with new eyes.. the experience is much better if they have interactions with other players.
"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.
1. In WOW people do not quest thats why zones are empty.
2 You outscale group quests so quickly that you solo it in any case.
3. People will still power level to get to end game cycle, see 1 & 2.
This is not fixing any of the root problems with WOW, its another case of Blizzard missing the point or unwilling to invest to fundementally change their model to address these issues.
You couldn't be more wrong. People quest all of the time, some people hate dungeons/pvp so they quest. You only outscale quests if you using heirlooms or RAF. Otherwise you'll be able to finish all of the quests in the zone you start in at the appropriate level.
As a WoW player, i'll be more likely to quest now that I won't be as alone in the world. I had to moved to less established servers get that worldly feel.
Powerleveling is a choice not a problem, it has always existed in every online game.
Simple fact zones are empty cities are not. Fact, blizzard streamlined and sped up the questing process. Would you go into TBC zones for example and find them alive with players? Finally Blizzard have announced this change - so they are tryint to address the issue (but not the root cause which is my point)
Ignoring ALTS and Daily grinds everybody hates, The levelling process before you get to end-game equates to perhaps a couple percent of your overall time. Powerlevelling exists and it is a burdon on mmorgs that is being addressed with upcomming titles - blizzard could have done the same if they truely wanted to address root causes.
And you just cannot see the forest through you hate. Blizzard, and most players do NOT see a problem with fast leveling, or with most players being at lvl 85. The ONLY problem they see is that new players are questing in zones that are empty and make the game feel lonely. THAT IS the ONLY problem they are trying to address.
You are trying to say this doesn´t fix a problem that isn´t a problem. Leveling speed is not a problem.. players mostly all being at endgame is not a problem. Deal with it.
In WoW, meeting other players in the world while you are leveling is almost always a detriment. They only slow you down by killstealing, grabbing your nodes and generally getting underfoot. So long as you're able to get a group for instanced content (not a problem), being alone in a zone means fast, efficient leveling. Other players are interruptions. That's just the way the game was designed.
Blizzard has run around with barren unbalanced servers for Years, with an emphasis on Years and this makes them geniuses? Swtor has been out a few months give them the 5 years you gave Blizzard.
Guesting, notQuesting, yes it is in GW2. People from different servers can play as guests on any server of their choice. Guilds can even be cross server. Nice to see WoW playing catch up and this feature makes sense given how sparsely populated many zones can be on many WoW servers. More games will do this in the future. In fact, there are probably dozens of GW2 inspired features that we will see popping up all over in the months and years ahead.
This is just another gimmick just like dungeon finder was so they don't have to merge servers and cause mass panic on the interenet. Blizzard desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
What bleeding? With 10+ million subs I'd say WoW's "wounds" will never need healing. But regardless I think this is a nice change, no one can argue that bringing life into a zone is a positive effect.
MacDonalds has millions and millions of eating lovers, but i wouldnt eat one of those burgers if i could find some grass near me.
Ill take my wife burgers instead. Better quality, made with love and she doesnt bleed my wallet for every damn exp...err...w8...she does bleed my wallet...
Completely irrelevant to the point Chrisbox was trying to make. Just because you wouldn't play WoW, or eat a McDonald's burger, doesn't mean that both Blizzard and McDonald's aren't sitting pretty and rolling in money.
I'm sure both those companies can live without your dollar, because they are living on so many other peoples' dollars.
Originally posted by Mephster This is just another gimmick just like dungeon finder was so they don't have to merge servers and cause mass panic on the interenet. Blizzard desperately trying to stop the bleeding.
"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.
1. In WOW people do not quest thats why zones are empty.
2 You outscale group quests so quickly that you solo it in any case.
3. People will still power level to get to end game cycle, see 1 & 2.
This is not fixing any of the root problems with WOW, its another case of Blizzard missing the point or unwilling to invest to fundementally change their model to address these issues.
You couldn't be more wrong. People quest all of the time, some people hate dungeons/pvp so they quest. You only outscale quests if you using heirlooms or RAF. Otherwise you'll be able to finish all of the quests in the zone you start in at the appropriate level.
As a WoW player, i'll be more likely to quest now that I won't be as alone in the world. I had to moved to less established servers get that worldly feel.
Powerleveling is a choice not a problem, it has always existed in every online game.
Simple fact zones are empty cities are not. Fact, blizzard streamlined and sped up the questing process. Would you go into TBC zones for example and find them alive with players? Finally Blizzard have announced this change - so they are tryint to address the issue (but not the root cause which is my point)
Ignoring ALTS and Daily grinds everybody hates, The levelling process before you get to end-game equates to perhaps a couple percent of your overall time. Powerlevelling exists and it is a burdon on mmorgs that is being addressed with upcomming titles - blizzard could have done the same if they truely wanted to address root causes.
And you just cannot see the forest through you hate. Blizzard, and most players do NOT see a problem with fast leveling, or with most players being at lvl 85. The ONLY problem they see is that new players are questing in zones that are empty and make the game feel lonely. THAT IS the ONLY problem they are trying to address.
You are trying to say this doesn´t fix a problem that isn´t a problem. Leveling speed is not a problem.. players mostly all being at endgame is not a problem. Deal with it.
In WoW, meeting other players in the world while you are leveling is almost always a detriment. They only slow you down by killstealing, grabbing your nodes and generally getting underfoot. So long as you're able to get a group for instanced content (not a problem), being alone in a zone means fast, efficient leveling. Other players are interruptions. That's just the way the game was designed.
It's not a detriment to everyone. I guess if all you care about is fast efficient leveling, then yes, more players are not good.
I see more players as only a good thing. The risk is that your leveling is slowed down by a miniscule amount, the reward is that you might meet new people and have fun. If the price I have to pay is an extra 30 minutes in a zone (people "killstealing" my mobs), 20 iron bars and 4 gold bars (from other people "stealing" my nodes), and I have to also stop and type stuff in chat because people are talking and interrupting my leveling, I will gladly play it.
One man's interruptions is another man's enjoyable interaction in an MMO I guess.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
"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.
1. In WOW people do not quest thats why zones are empty.
2 You outscale group quests so quickly that you solo it in any case.
3. People will still power level to get to end game cycle, see 1 & 2.
This is not fixing any of the root problems with WOW, its another case of Blizzard missing the point or unwilling to invest to fundementally change their model to address these issues.
You couldn't be more wrong. People quest all of the time, some people hate dungeons/pvp so they quest. You only outscale quests if you using heirlooms or RAF. Otherwise you'll be able to finish all of the quests in the zone you start in at the appropriate level.
As a WoW player, i'll be more likely to quest now that I won't be as alone in the world. I had to moved to less established servers get that worldly feel.
Powerleveling is a choice not a problem, it has always existed in every online game.
Simple fact zones are empty cities are not. Fact, blizzard streamlined and sped up the questing process. Would you go into TBC zones for example and find them alive with players? Finally Blizzard have announced this change - so they are tryint to address the issue (but not the root cause which is my point)
Ignoring ALTS and Daily grinds everybody hates, The levelling process before you get to end-game equates to perhaps a couple percent of your overall time. Powerlevelling exists and it is a burdon on mmorgs that is being addressed with upcomming titles - blizzard could have done the same if they truely wanted to address root causes.
And you just cannot see the forest through you hate. Blizzard, and most players do NOT see a problem with fast leveling, or with most players being at lvl 85. The ONLY problem they see is that new players are questing in zones that are empty and make the game feel lonely. THAT IS the ONLY problem they are trying to address.
You are trying to say this doesn´t fix a problem that isn´t a problem. Leveling speed is not a problem.. players mostly all being at endgame is not a problem. Deal with it.
And maybe you should actually read the entire thread, instead of reading 4 words and givcing pointless 'omg hater' blah blah .. I Donty hate WOW it was and is for the moment the best mmorg ever made. According to you there is no problem, and yet blizzard are trying to fix a problem - but there are not fixing the source of the problem are they? Good post made earlier by someone else - Blizzard actually made changes to remove group quests - get it yet? Fixing the symptoms of the problem is not fixing the root cause of the problem. If 99% of the time quests are solo, then people will continue to solo. If End game is the focus of the game, then the virtual world is not. This is not new news to anyone who has invested a lot of tme and love into WOW.
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
It's the content within zones that make them feel empty. It's not challenging at all. Elites were downgraded to normal, and the elites remaining are still easy, due to NPC's helping out.
There is still zero incentive to group. This will not change until the content changes.
I don't really compare this with GW2 guesting. This new feature is seemless, if I go through a zone with a normally low population, there will be more people around. It isn't the same as saying, alright I wanna choose my friends server to play on today.
Many argue oh who cares, WoW is easy and blah blah blah, but thats not really the point, a lot of people once argued that WoW is so dead if you go through and try and level up, that its super boring. Well imagine now you go through and find a few players and decide hey lets go do a dungeon, instead of constantly queuing. This can lead to a lot of advancements for the genre, instead of hating on the person on top, think about how it can benefit everyone.
Compare that to GW2, where you actually want to see other players around (cooperative PvE) instead of dread those not in your party? This will do nothing to advance the genre, especially when compared to the better ways out there.
Well I mean thats just it, not everyone wants to see other players there for coop pve, some want to gank people, some want more world PvP to happen. And well yes some still do like to group up with random allies even if downing an enemy doesn't really call for it.
It's the content within zones that make them feel empty. It's not challenging at all. Elites were downgraded to normal, and the elites remaining are still easy, due to NPC's helping out.
There is still zero incentive to group. This will not change until the content changes.
Blizzard still clueless in 2012.
Clueless or knowing what people want? I'd go with the latter. Top mmo for a reason.
It's the content within zones that make them feel empty. It's not challenging at all. Elites were downgraded to normal, and the elites remaining are still easy, due to NPC's helping out.
There is still zero incentive to group. This will not change until the content changes.
Blizzard still clueless in 2012.
Clueless or knowing what people want? I'd go with the latter. Top mmo for a reason.
Just because people want something, doesn't mean they should get it. Players want 40-man raids back. Should Blizzard give it to them, even though current content doesn't require 40 players, but only 10 and 25 player raids? It wouldn't make sense.
Blizzard wants people to solo the game to max lvl, so they let players do it, which makes the whole cross-realm zoning idea redundant, which makes them clueless on their own content. If they bring back group content besides pvp, dungeons, and raids, then cross-realm zoning would be perfect.
It's the content within zones that make them feel empty. It's not challenging at all. Elites were downgraded to normal, and the elites remaining are still easy, due to NPC's helping out.
There is still zero incentive to group. This will not change until the content changes.
Blizzard still clueless in 2012.
Clueless or knowing what people want? I'd go with the latter. Top mmo for a reason.
Just because people want something, doesn't mean they should get it. Players want 40-man raids back. Should Blizzard give it to them, even though current content doesn't require 40 players, but only 10 and 25 player raids? It wouldn't make sense.
Blizzard wants people to solo the game to max lvl, so they let players do it, which makes the whole cross-realm zoning idea redundant, which makes them clueless on their own content. If they bring back group content besides pvp, dungeons, and raids, then cross-realm zoning would be perfect.
The only reason Blizzard is implementing this is to cover up the fact that low level areas are mostly dead. Who wants to level up in areas and rarely see a soul? WoW peaked a long time ago and they're trying to cover up the fact that fewer and fewer new people are joining the game. And fewer vets are rolling alts. To many, the game has grown old, stale and boring. Sadly MoP will not change those facts at all. MoP is just a cash grab, plain and simple. Blizzard has proven for several expansions now that they're incapable of improvement or inovation. No biggie we'll all have a new game in a few months
"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.
Imo if they want something phenomenal , they'd ought to think about us cross server to all region of the world. that means ppl from europe can play with others in North american server and of coz asia and south americas.
Comments
DCUO's "megaservers" did this awhile back. not just a hybrid system that WoW is about to dabble in.
you can even switch instantly from PVE version of the world to PVP versions, and back.
not saying its not great for WoW. it is.
also Cryptic's games did this.
its high past time for ALL MMOs to fully embrace this model. except for the rare few dynamic worlds where each server is actually different in its content.
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It is pretty much standard practice for a company developing a new product to rely on revenue from previous products for funding.
Once they have your money it is theirs to decide how to spend. Of course if the customer base begins to see their ongoing financial support of the older product as a poor investment the company can stand to lose a lot of money. Ideally this would result in a nice balance of continued support of the older product during the development of the new, Unfortunately all too many consumers are not particularly discerning and will continue to support a product/company even during a down turn of support.
When all has been said and done, more will have been said than done.
They are not doing it because servers are empty, they are doing it because low level zones are empty. The vast majority of players are at 85 and not in the low level zones, this makes the low level zones feel empty.. and as a marketing thing.. you don´t want the world to feel empty for new players.
At the same time, this will also fix the Hellfire Pennisula problem where the day of the BC launch, 95% of the server was in one zone. WIth this new tech, they can now split the population. I had actually thought they had lost thier mind with MOP and forgotten about BC. Both Cata and Wotlk had 2 zones ( hyjal and Vash, HF and BT) . MOP only has 1 zone, similar to BC. But now I see why they only need 1 zone.
This fixes two problems. New players will be playing in a fuller world while questing, and they they can split populations for the first zone in MOP.
For me, the only downside is that i liked having empty zones while questing. On my server, I was constantly finding rare spawns (10x´s the exp) and gathering nodes were everywhere.
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What bleeding? With 10+ million subs I'd say WoW's "wounds" will never need healing. But regardless I think this is a nice change, no one can argue that bringing life into a zone is a positive effect.
Played-Everything
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And you just cannot see the forest through you hate. Blizzard, and most players do NOT see a problem with fast leveling, or with most players being at lvl 85. The ONLY problem they see is that new players are questing in zones that are empty and make the game feel lonely. THAT IS the ONLY problem they are trying to address.
You are trying to say this doesn´t fix a problem that isn´t a problem. Leveling speed is not a problem.. players mostly all being at endgame is not a problem. Deal with it.
MacDonalds has millions and millions of eating lovers, but i wouldnt eat one of those burgers if i could find some grass near me.
Ill take my wife burgers instead. Better quality, made with love and she doesnt bleed my wallet for every damn exp...err...w8...she does bleed my wallet...
For the most part, WOW doesn´t need server mergers. There are plenty of players. My server is considered low pop, and there are still a ton of players everywhere. The problem is that are all level capped.
They are NOT trying to skirt around the issue of merging servers, they simply want players who are leveling to feel like they are part of a living world with other players. A new player right now could level through a lot of 30-55 zones and barely see other players. It makes the game lonely and not as fun. those players don´t know that there are 3000 level 85s raiding..
Every MMO has this problem after awhile.. leveling zones become empty. this solves the marketing problem (new players feel lonely) without having to merge servers and create problems because of having too many endgame players.
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I don´t think they necessary want players to ´group´ more while leveling.. I think they just want players to bump into others while leveling. While being a vet, I just want to level as fast as possible and actually prefer a zone being empty.. as a new player, with new eyes.. the experience is much better if they have interactions with other players.
In WoW, meeting other players in the world while you are leveling is almost always a detriment. They only slow you down by killstealing, grabbing your nodes and generally getting underfoot. So long as you're able to get a group for instanced content (not a problem), being alone in a zone means fast, efficient leveling. Other players are interruptions. That's just the way the game was designed.
I don't think it has anything to do with Low population. Majority of players are at max level leaving a lot of those zones pretty empty.
Guesting, not Questing, yes it is in GW2. People from different servers can play as guests on any server of their choice. Guilds can even be cross server. Nice to see WoW playing catch up and this feature makes sense given how sparsely populated many zones can be on many WoW servers. More games will do this in the future. In fact, there are probably dozens of GW2 inspired features that we will see popping up all over in the months and years ahead.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Completely irrelevant to the point Chrisbox was trying to make. Just because you wouldn't play WoW, or eat a McDonald's burger, doesn't mean that both Blizzard and McDonald's aren't sitting pretty and rolling in money.
I'm sure both those companies can live without your dollar, because they are living on so many other peoples' dollars.
This.
It's not a detriment to everyone. I guess if all you care about is fast efficient leveling, then yes, more players are not good.
I see more players as only a good thing. The risk is that your leveling is slowed down by a miniscule amount, the reward is that you might meet new people and have fun. If the price I have to pay is an extra 30 minutes in a zone (people "killstealing" my mobs), 20 iron bars and 4 gold bars (from other people "stealing" my nodes), and I have to also stop and type stuff in chat because people are talking and interrupting my leveling, I will gladly play it.
One man's interruptions is another man's enjoyable interaction in an MMO I guess.
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents." -H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu"
And maybe you should actually read the entire thread, instead of reading 4 words and givcing pointless 'omg hater' blah blah .. I Donty hate WOW it was and is for the moment the best mmorg ever made. According to you there is no problem, and yet blizzard are trying to fix a problem - but there are not fixing the source of the problem are they? Good post made earlier by someone else - Blizzard actually made changes to remove group quests - get it yet? Fixing the symptoms of the problem is not fixing the root cause of the problem. If 99% of the time quests are solo, then people will continue to solo. If End game is the focus of the game, then the virtual world is not. This is not new news to anyone who has invested a lot of tme and love into WOW.
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
It's the content within zones that make them feel empty. It's not challenging at all. Elites were downgraded to normal, and the elites remaining are still easy, due to NPC's helping out.
There is still zero incentive to group. This will not change until the content changes.
Blizzard still clueless in 2012.
Well I mean thats just it, not everyone wants to see other players there for coop pve, some want to gank people, some want more world PvP to happen. And well yes some still do like to group up with random allies even if downing an enemy doesn't really call for it.
Clueless or knowing what people want? I'd go with the latter. Top mmo for a reason.
Just because people want something, doesn't mean they should get it. Players want 40-man raids back. Should Blizzard give it to them, even though current content doesn't require 40 players, but only 10 and 25 player raids? It wouldn't make sense.
Blizzard wants people to solo the game to max lvl, so they let players do it, which makes the whole cross-realm zoning idea redundant, which makes them clueless on their own content. If they bring back group content besides pvp, dungeons, and raids, then cross-realm zoning would be perfect.
The only reason Blizzard is implementing this is to cover up the fact that low level areas are mostly dead. Who wants to level up in areas and rarely see a soul? WoW peaked a long time ago and they're trying to cover up the fact that fewer and fewer new people are joining the game. And fewer vets are rolling alts. To many, the game has grown old, stale and boring. Sadly MoP will not change those facts at all. MoP is just a cash grab, plain and simple. Blizzard has proven for several expansions now that they're incapable of improvement or inovation. No biggie we'll all have a new game in a few months
there is an overflow server for too many players, but not for too few I believe.
Imo if they want something phenomenal , they'd ought to think about us cross server to all region of the world. that means ppl from europe can play with others in North american server and of coz asia and south americas.
it's a good way to avoid the dreaded server merge..because bad publicity is not good publicity when it comes to mmo's.