These two realms have been locked for a good while now, even before the MoP prepatch. Is there any news on these getting unlocked for the launch of MoP or so players wanting to play on these realms can create a toon and start playing with friends.
Because they’re dead. Like there’s no player there. Back during WotLK Classic Population on NK started dropping out and Giantstalker being fresh also lost a lot of people over time (if I recall they allowed free migration off to NK at some point). But with Cata Pre-patch or even earlier Nethergarde Keep was given free Migration onto Mirage Raceway. And so the realm dried out.
I just returned after quitting in WOTLK and there is 0 communication from Blizz what happened to the server. Google doesn’t give much either apart from this post that I need to transfer.
There are still some people around but no one responding.
A lot of people quit over the course of Naxx so Giantstalker players were offered a free transfer to Nethergarde Keep in the early stages of Ulduar.
In the months before cata launched Nethergarde Keep also had a decreasing population and players were offered a free transfer to either Mirage Raceway or Pyrewood Village.
In both cases 98% of players left to join a more active realm. Some stayed behind and there’s a couple of active guilds on both.
I think most of them are resource farmers
Because you can farm resources on those realms with no competition, then transfer them on lvl1 character to high-pop servers