TLDR:
With the closure of Celebras, a server community that could only thrive in this particular ecosystem will be buried.
This will destroy something that cannot be reconstructed on any “normal” server.
A win in the “logical” sense. More options, better group search etc.
A bitter loss in an “emotional” sense.
As a resident of the first hours of Celebras on 10/25/19 I can hardly express my horror.
I originally started on Everlook but it didn’t really feel like WOW Classic, it was all very impersonal, cold and kind of emotionally empty. There were free transfers to Celebras back when it opened. At that time I never expected to have such a great experience on this server, which I have been able to experience there in the last few years. It was like night and day difference to Everlook. Players who represented virtues, which for me, really made up my personal WOW experience.
Social Interaction and Bonding.
No matter what got in the way of the Cele community in the last 2.5 years, we solved it together. It was always quiet and contemplative but that was also the great advantage of this server. You knew each other. There was a certain etiquette that was maintained because everyone knew everyone else and everyone looked out for each other and ricochets and troublemakers very quickly had no more points of attack.
These were times of honor, duty, helpfulness and solidarity. These bygone characteristics of an MMORPG were exactly what I was looking for when I started playing Classic WOW again and I reckon 95% of the players on Celebras felt the same way. You had to fight and invest for your successes, sometimes cut back and make compromises (even if they were uncomfortable at times).
We raided successfully when everyone said Celebras was dead, we smashed the AQ Gong together and crowned Scarab Lords and crossed factions. We organized a great BC opening event and there were tons of events, videos, theatrical performances, dance competitions, summer and winter games, Olympics, snowball fights, RP taverns, etc. Celebras was a secret meeting place and mid to late Classic had a golden era of creativity and players willing to invest. The AH was empty? No problem, we found other ways to feed each other. There was always someone who knew someone or we just merged with no expectation of anything in return.
There was always life on this server, even if you didn’t notice it directly from the outside. There were so many great and creative people I met who implemented projects and works that were so artistic that I couldn’t speak. All this in the protection of this small server and this very special community. A kind of subculture in the big mishmash rush server structure that WOW Classic had become in the meantime.
The population as such was never really high, but constant. It was our own little RP server ecosystem, it really felt like a trip back in time to the good old WOW days-
The big bang came with the free transfers away from Celebras.
Last minute panic was deliberately stirred up here. "It’s better to go now as long as it’s free before they are turned off again and you have to pay. It’s too exhausting to raid on Celebras anyway, to find groups and in general. There’s no RP either. You can’t just consume without investing! Everything is much better on the other servers - more fluctuation, more choice, more, more, better and above all easier, faster to reach and you can simply take everything with you -
The players who didn’t leave then have moved even closer together.
We networked and supported each other even better. We stayed conscious.
I read here so often, you can just continue on another server.
But it’s not that easy for many. You’ll lose your “ingame” identity as a result - most will have to rename themselves, a forced loss.
Many guilds that took advantage of the free transfer back then no longer exist. Why? Because they left the environment in which they grew. Because under those very circumstances, here on Celebras, you became who you were. This was no longer available on the new servers. And so will many if they are forced to leave the server now.
This is the official death knell and it makes me very sad.
Some associations, guilds and communities will certainly remain and continue to do their thing on the new servers. But the Celebras individual experience will never come again.
Of course there will also be new advantages, more players, easier group search, better stocked auction house etc.
Let’s just hope that Blizz thinks about this again. But the odds are slim. Too bad. I will miss you Celebras with all my heart.
LG Tahro - a currently very sad tauren druid