Empty Cities / Empty World 🏘

Community General Discussion
1

When you think about it, a MMORPG having empty cities (like Silvermoon, Exodar, Darnassus, etc.) not only looks wrong but it feels wrong.

World of Warcraft would make a new player assume that there’d be important things going on/activity in main cities like Silvermoon, you know, the city of the Sin’dorei, but even on RP realms like AD there’s barely any players in those cities unless they’re there to RP or use their AH/Bank alts, or pick up a few quests/professions.

If Blizzard genuinely cared about WoW and didn’t have Activision shareholder-deadlines to meet for their quarterly earnings so Bobby can buy another spaceship or whatever he buys, maybe we would have a truly immersive MMO world where even after new expansions are released, old/OG cities and zones have relevance outside of being empty vessels that alts run through while levelling.

Proposal?
Imagine daily duties that aren’t traditional dailies or World Quests that encourage players to go to these old cities more often. This may require completely new/revamped systems of course, like city management or governance.

You could (as a server-wide effort, not artificially & automatically progressed like Warfronts) work together to maintain a city and its defences. Make cities actually fortified so that random enemy players can’t just run through pulling a load of guards and causing havoc without any consequences other than getting PvP’d.

Have areas that are highly RP-friendly (since it’s an MMORPG) that have moveable objects such as crates, barrels and such that players can pick up and carry around for their scenes.

RP items that can be crafted and placed down for like an hour, such as a fruit stall, beer bar, benches, tables, signs, rugs, etc, etc.

Maybe a whole city dedicated to Player Owned Houses (communities that can have neighbours and houses that can actually be decorated) ((not Garrisons)) I don’t know…

The game nowadays is so focused on end game raids/mythic+/PvP seasons that I highly doubt any of these ideas will pop up over at Blizzard or even be considered, but it’s just a few things that came to mind.

12 Likes
2

There is a reason this city is empty but i get your point. Its a shame indeed but allot of wow content is instance based, raids, r/bg’s, arena’s, skirmishes, dungeons. The open world is just people levelling, doing some wq’s and farming some mats.

3

It’s always happened. Silvermoon and the Exodar were deserted after TBC. Northrend Dalaran was deserted after WotLK.

Oribos will be deserted after Shadowlands.

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4

I’m not really a fan of forcing players into going to certain cities.

I would prefer them all to be equal so you can actually have a choice when it comes to which capital you would like to use. This would mean all the facilities and easy connections that come with our current main capital.

I barely go to Org at all as I have a long boi and I generally don’t need to visit any more. However my alts that aren’t in Shadowlands yet are mostly based in Org or SW. Silvermoon is my favourite but it’s just not practical to set up camp in.

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5

It’s a big shame but even when Blizz added in things to entice people out of the ‘main’ cities, such as adding AH and fishing dailies etc in TB, it still didn’t really pull people out of the Org/SW(IF) routine.

As for the expansion related main hubs then Shatt was already deserted by the time Wrath hit and then original Dal was desolate when Cata hit.

6

I still visit that place on my Blood elf.

Meh… not my favorite place. But the Forrests of Azuremyst and the music is very nostalgic. I love that Forests.

Umm… when was the last time you went to Darnassus? You… umm… you will find a lovely barbecue party waiting.

I still favor it over Legion Dalaran.

7

But was it full of other players like it was in TBC?

I too visit Silvermoon with my Blood Elves. The silence inside is deafening.

8

main problem is they wont use old content in the game. every addon a new world. continent

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9

I always try to use TB when I can on most of my Tauren toons. It isn’t anywhere as near populated as Org is. Couldn’t move there this afternoon for other players.

10

Problem is old cities have almost nothing. To varying extents they have no barber, no transmog, no portal hub or even no auction house. Only Stormwind and Orgrimmar have all the utility while current expansion hub has relevant functionality.

If the Exodar had all the utility Stormwind has + flying, my Draenei would probably never step foot in Stormwind besides as a gateway to Eastern Kingdoms or if a quest required me to do that.

2 Likes
11

But even when they do have all the utility, and portals from the current hub, as the two main cities, they are still desolate wastelands for the most part.

It is a crying shame but even when the option is there they are massively underused.

12

Dibs on rich nighbourhood!

13

New “hub” oribos is stupidly empty also, everyone is sitting in their covenant place where they have portals to oribos (if they unlocked it).

I literall hearted sinfal, cause i can portal to oribos and two yards later i can portal to orgri.

14

I agree that Oribos seems quite deserted compared with Dal or Shat, although not with Dazar’alor as that place was huge.

Are covenant places instanced per person or is it similar to order halls?

15

kinda like order halls, but also divided per warmode on / off

16

So at least there are other players around to interact with even if it isn’t a main hub

17

Order halls are also divided between WM on/off, it’s just that WM didn’t exist when they were current.

1 Like
18

Well, thats pretty much the whole world not just cities

“World of Warcraft” - yeah right, more like “Warchief Dora and friends” when every expansion is about discoring new zones which we have somehow missed for centuries.

19

I disagree, due to IRL issues I am only just getting into the SL expansion and at every turn there are other players in the world.

Obviously the older world is going to get neglected as there just aren’t as many new players coming into the game but the current expac has always been fairly well populated.

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20

Ever since sharding was introduced the world hasn’t seemed as busy. That’s not to say I don’t see other players. Wm on and off don’t help either.

1 Like