🌍 The point of no return. We need more Server Connections!

Community General Discussion
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The biggest server keep getting bigger, the smallest keep getting smaller. To a point there is no return anymore.

The recent Free-Server Merges allowed for people on High populated servers to move to other High populated servers, not helping the issue many players/guilds have on low-populated servers. Not even Medium servers saw a growth.

Mind you, many of the current “low-pop” servers were High populated even back in Legion and/or WoD!

Just before Cata my original server I’d been on since 2005 died out. Especially on Horde side. I choose to move 9-10 characters, faction changed and moved a whole guild to a, back then, High populated server with a very healthy balance between horde/alliance.

Roughly 100 members have over the years transferred as well to join our guild. However since end of WoD our server had a very healthy population and around 120 raiding guilds. But since then, there has been a very rapid decrease of both players and guilds, to such an extend it’s below 50 raiding guilds in BFA - to now even much less looking at Shadowlands.

Meanwhile the largest servers, even full servers keep seeing migrations of players. Creating lagg and queues especially on a server such a Draenor. Causing problems as well for people who once started playing on Draenor.

Back in August we were promised more server connections to happen; but instead we got radio silence after a few weeks and Blizzard conveniently made a sale on transfers; making even more people leave low populated servers, migrating to - you guessed it. Already full servers.

Because the gap is so big between high and low, it means the migration only goes one way.

Now if I had not had 100 people moving one or several characters to stay with our guild, I would have moved during Legion. But at the same time, what would the point be of transferring anywhere, when the population issues are not being addressed or regulated by Blizzard? Meaning, that the whole server could die in just 1-2 expansions anyway as my current?

I already moved to a server I thought had a “healthy” population and I am sure many did too. Only to see it completely die or getting overflooded with people, in just 1-2 expansions. It means losing friends and the enjoyment of the game.

Meanwhile low-populated servers do not benefit at all from being on a low server:

  • The economy is broken
  • We’re still sharded with the largest servers so Warmode is impossible.
  • Due to the sharding we still experience lagg
  • Questing/Farming is not anywhere easier or faster because of sharding.
  • Guilds cannot grow, with a decreasing playerbase.

I don’t understand why Blizzard isn’t solving this. They’ve done plenty server-connections in the past, but the job is undone. I also don’t understand why Free-Merges goes from High to other High servers, only moving the problem of overcrowding. Not fixing it.

And why doesn’t Blizzard introduce a permanent discount or permanent free transfers if you move from High -> Medium/Low?

Not enough is being done to manage the population. Despite Wow apparently have more returning players than ever, there are still way too many servers, than what is healthy for the game.

There is a very clear picture on sites like WowProgress, when you see the number of guilds on most of the low-pop server, it only goes down, and since there is no longer any benefit what so ever, on being on low servers: Why not do more merges so the last remaining low pop, can get into Medium or High?

Not enough is being done, and every time it takes way too long before connections are being announced to them actually happening. It took years, from the cries of Ghostlands and other servers, until merges actually happened; and we did not even get that many of them and the problem still exist.

Again. The EU is being completely neglected compared to NA servers, and nobody bother adressing this, because it’s maybe only 25.000 active players, split across all low-pop servers. So who cares, right?

At least it feels that way, and when Blizzard do transfer-discounts right before Shadowlands it just smells like they want to make some quick money over actually fixing the problem once and for all.

TL;DR - More server connections! There are too many too-full and too many dead servers. You’ve done it before Blizz, do it again.

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Unfortunately the solutions you suggested would mean blizzard loses money.

Its just too hard for the average player to resist rolling on Draenor because anywhere else is just a lesser experience in their minds.

Nothing will change until blizzard puts their foots down. Tarren Mill is a huge server that had a bunch of servers connected to it in the past and it is my favourite server because of this, so many different people. We absolutely need more connections

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I don’t think people go on a big server in the first place, if their own is fairly population and isn’t seeing a decrease of 25-50% of its guilds over 1 or 2 expansions as some servers have, like i.e Teneras/Emerald Dream.

And when some servers have gone from High to Low in 1-2 expansions as well; I don’t blame people for going specifically for the highest, as Blizz gives no garantee on being there to fix the population issues in time…

Everything is connected in a way, so I don’t understand why not connect all of it.

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I was so glad when they announced server connections…only to be dissapointed before they stopped without merging my low pop realm. Would be nice to hear an update on the connections…

Was especially a punch in the gut when they gave out free transfers to people on high realms…

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Exactly, worst of all the server connections they did during fall went so smooth, with a weekly update on “Who’s next” and suddenly it just stopped, but the work is half done, at least if you ask me.

When everything is sharded anyway, no one could possibly complain having more low-pop servers connected. I am tired of being sharded with the largest realms; but I cannot invite people to my guild or anything. Yet sharing the same area when it comes to farming/questing.

It’s unfair to say the least, and it baffles me no more connections are being done ASAP, before servers shrink any further; as it was a complete sucess for those who were merged earlier this year.

Sadly none of the servers I play on, were part of this merge.

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It’s pretty bad here to. Lots of times my herbs aren’t getting sold like come on we are at the start of a new expansion!

Empty dead guilds with no chatting whatsoever…I really miss talking to people as I play

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It’s also strange nothing is done to some extend at least. We all pay for the same subscription. It doesn’t mean the servers should be the same, but at least it shouldn’t limit your experience, in tersm of lag, having queues, or dead realms without enough capacity to even raid mythic or being able to trade.

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You’re welcome to add me, I play more Alliance now than horde, so if you’re up for some M+ you’re welcome to tag along?

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Mm’yeah we had a thread going for a long time, sad part is that there aren’t many people contributing to it.

Which is baffling to me since it affects a lot of people. Hell, it would benefit the bigger servers as well if the other servers were healthier.

I have tried asking Blizzard many times on Q&A’s, social media, this forum and such and was always met with silence. When they stopped the connections in the death of night I kept on asking but they just ignore you.

I wonder why they keep their ‘commandments’ because they sure as hell don’t follow them and that has been for quite a while now.

Just look at the recent Q&A, compare that with the months before Shadowlands. Constantly telling us: we hear you, we are listening. Not even a month into SL and its back to: we know better.

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The longer it takes, the fewer there will be to contribute to the thread, as people quit the game, when their guilds die or move server - and not everyone can afford it. Stuff like that.

Now it just feels like the right time to ask for more merges. Shadowlands is at full-power,

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AGREED! please merge azuremyst and stormrage with another server its so dead rn!

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I am really speculating why more merges aren’t done, when they are so many servers that can still be put together, without even reaching close to the amount of high servers. I’ve heard the excuse “but then you get a server surname” but honestly, most of us have that already; so it makes no difference in the end.

There are plenty of servers that still need merges to maintain somewhat of a stable playerbase.

What saddens me most, is how we’ve gone into, what i personally think is the best expansion of all time, yet there are only 2 Mythic guilds left on my server; so finding a spot for your desired class is pretty much impossible; unless you make your own Mythic-team but I don’t have time for that.

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They need to fix servers first, I’m still having those random cpu spikes at peak times.

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I agree, and it doesn’t help any servers that these issues exist. Sharding only created the illusion of a living world, but gives none of the benefit.

When large servers are sharded with smaller, people also get unplayable lagg when sharded with Draenor for example.

And when Blizzard isn’t taking care of the server issues, more and more people feel forced to leave smaller servers behind because Blizzard let them die in 1-2 expansions as the limit is reached getting enough Mythic guilds going. Some servers only have 1-2 mythic guilds in terms of capacity.

Meaning everyone would leave to the largest servers, as people are paranoid of other servers dying, because we’ve seen a handful go from Full from WoD to completely dead in Shadowlands.

The gap between the largest and smallest servers have never been bigger and it hurts the game! Both in terms of queues, lagg and just completely unsatisfactory player experience.

Server issues must be addressed now! It’s 2020 and the game hasn’t run properly since Legion to be honest.

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Here with a plea for help from Connected Moonglade. Our cluster has bled dry to the point where the vast majority of both the mythic and casual raiding playerbases have transferred to servers such as Tarren Mill, Silvermoon, Draenor, etc., most likely never to return. Servers that have had issues with queues for years, but presumably remain open to migration because it brings in money. It definitely stung to see Darkmoon Faire and Earthen Ring get connected to the rp-pvp cluster when those two realms should’ve been merged with us years ago.

Meanwhile we are either forced to pay for a transfer or pay a subscription for an inferior product, seeing as server population cannot be seen as separate from gameplay quality in an mmo, unless one were to play it as a single player game where other players essentially function as interchangeable accessories, something I suppose Blizzard have been steering toward for years with features such as LFD, LFR and cross-realm pugging.

It’s a shame because Shadowlands is shaping up to be a good expansion so far, with Castle Nathria being the best first tier in recent memory.

Thank you Slimteddy for continuing to double down on the issue. Here’s to hoping our clusters will be connected to others soon.

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We need either connections or free transfers.

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This is extra prevalent when considering legendary base items. On my server I can get my 235 legendary for 20k, my friend had to pay 260k on his.

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Free transfers are useless though. People never move to low populated servers. And Free transfers from a low-to-xx wouldn’t work that well either as it split communities.

Last time there were free transfers you could move from High populated to other high populated. Everyone just choosing the next-in-line high populated server, and everyone went to Stormscale and Outland.

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I personally think that free transfers from high/full to low pop servers would be much better than connecting all the medium-pop servers.

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Last time we had free transfers though. No one moved. Free transfers have never solved the problems for the low populated servers, but only is a temporary relief for the biggest servers offering transfers.

Why should anyone move to a low populated server? Almost every aspect of it, is worse than staying on a high populated server.

I’d rather sit in a 15min queue every single time I have to login than playing on a dead server, with a dead AH.

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