Hey there @Leetsauce .
Don’t get me wrong I applaud what you are doing I really do, i tried the same for Zandalar Tribe but we know how that played out, Blizzard didn’t care and that was one RP server as well.
Nethergarde Keep, I always said this and other people in there as well, had it coming, i never trusted Blizzard to the point of keeping servers opened when nobody or very few of us play there, it costs them money and the easy way is closing the empty/low pop ones and do this big server consolidation.
You know we also have to look at ourselves as players and also say that we have to be blamed, we have a herd mindset meaning that the majority goes where the big conglomeration of people are, when i ask what server would recommend me to go play at they say, for the most part, to go to Gehennas or Firemaw, servers already super populated, that most certainly with a new expansion people will get queues at least at a initial phase and then they come here to complain about the queues… it’s all a mentality about massive population focus and go there and then complain when they can’t play due to queues, it’s somewhat interesting.
I would never have an interest to go to those servers, i see them as big ponds of elitism, toxicity and other issues but i guess that people are willing to take that to get into raids or other content very quickly.
Why people wouldn’t go to a server like Hydraxian? Now to me this is interesting and somewhat a contradiction, people don’t go there because the already existing population is very low (i guess?), auction house practically empty, with who that people would raid?
Now what does Hydraxian have going for it and even Zandalar Tribe if I’m allowed to mentioning it here, well i see them as fresh servers… Don’t people usually love the smell of fresh servers? Now this is the contradictory part. As you may know when Wrath was at it’s start people wanted, begged for brand new fresh servers… I’m sure you know how that went and how long that hunger for fresh Wrath servers lasted, they opened 3 of those i think, all of them are empty and have been for a very long time.
Now I’m not here defending Blizzard, i stopped doing that a long time ago, i keep coming back to this game because i love it at it’s core and for what it is since i have grown playing the RTS game and then i switched to WoW, i love the lore, characters etc, as a company they have become, to myself, one that doesn’t surprise me on anything, i was angry when they implemented the WoW token but it didn’t surprise me at all since they love the #somechanges part and the more money they make then that’s all they care about.
I understand, i really do, the forum posts, reddit etc etc etc…we do have to realize that the only way these people will listen is to hurt their wallet.
They had the Hong Kong issue back in the day and worse the sexual harassment scandal…did you saw people stop playing this or any of their games because of that? Some did but they came back, so we as a community our will is weak.
Look at Call of Duty, i know people, friends, some people i watch on stream platforms etc playing that game, saying that it’s trash and worse with each new update and yet each year they buy it, they keep giving this company their money.
One important part of the blame is on the community that keeps expressing disappointment and yet does nothing and that’s a culture problem and not Blizzard’s fault.