I have always seen servers as a technology issue, and I think it would be healthy for the game to merge more of the servers. Merge all the RP servers into one, and maybe a few of the normal servers left instead of this massive list of servers that mostly feel like ghost towns.
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Do you even know the size of the RP servers?
I agree that merging down the low populated realms makes sense, but given the issues we see with the current event, merging down high population realms sounds like a bad idea.
I do, but still, that is a whole other problem. Half the people on RP servers donāt even RP, they join that server randomly when starting out or because the RP servers always seem alive and have people in the world.
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When I played on Argent Dawn to try out what the RP was in like WoW, I was indeed a bit disappointed. I maybe encountered a handful of people who were actual walking and talking about their backstory of what their character was doing etc etc.
The rest were just flying all over the place, here, there and not a word said.
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They canāt even handle the current ones (look at the mess with this new event or with first few days when new expansion/patch comes).
For an example, when SoD was released few months ago, it was a pure mess.
I would rather see something like ābalancingā factions, but to be fair neither that is not important anymore.
RP servers could be merged, but thereās a problem with names and server tags.
My realm is connected with 2 others, both bigger than KT, but weāre still small even together.
My main beef about it now so much is cross realm, is the AH. If itās feasible and remotely possible to make the general AH region wide, it would make things so much easier for us ālittle peopleā.
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Agree, but they should also increase some current limitations from AH like BoE items, patterns, or even working orders. These things can be harder to get/obtain on smaller realms.
Names and server tags are the only main problems I see. If they managed to release finished polished updates 
If You are willing to read a bit, there was an interesting discussion about the server capacity issues on the WoW Community Council forums. Granted, it was a discussion regarding WoW Classic, but I believe some of the things Aggrend wrote there also apply to retail.
Take a look at this quote for example:
āI also just want to reiterate this point though; weāve raised population caps to accommodate mega-realms to the absolute limit of current technology. Iāve seen a lot of armchair server engineers say things like ājust add more hardwareā, and I canāt stress it or put it any more plainly, the technology to allow more than we have on realms now does not exist. Weāve added the hardware, weāve optimized as much as we can optimize, and the current demand on these few realms is just too much. Continuing to push our luck and find ways to reach ever higher realm caps has hit a point where we canāt go any further, and eventually something had to give.ā
The quote comes from this reply, but thereās more than one blue post in the thread:
Iām no server engineer but I would have guessed that there has been some development in the last two years.
I think going forward they have moved away from attempting more connections (which are essentially mergers). We are seeing more things become region wide. We can raid cross realm, and cross faction, much of the AH is region wide, we can trade gold between realms etc. Going forward in TWW realm will no longer matter for guilds, so they will function similar to communities.
I think instead of merging/connecting realms they are just trying to make the game more accessible to those on quieter pop realms.
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The server hardware is not an issue anymore. The servers are better but more importantly they use Sharding to maintain population levels.
Players on a low pop server are sharded together to have more players in one place.
Players on a high pop server are split into shards to have fewer players all in one area.
So they could easily merge all the servers, probably keeping regional separations like EU, US OC.
They should use Communities to retain a sense of social gathering. Communities should be a bit bigger and be Account limited rather than character limited. Maybe 3000 Accounts.
If they did that I would like to see one RP one Normal and have them bring back one PVP server for each region.
Doesnāt War Mode work well enough? Iād perhaps amend its reward structure to be less PVE focused.
An RP Mode might be able to work similarly but if not a separate RP āserverā would be ok.
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Maybe War Mode works well enough.
Yeah, that is true about the RP mode. That way it would be even harder for people to disturb RP.
RP mode would be nice, but if there is no enforcement then it wouldnāt be much different then what RP servers now are
Well as someone who doesnāt really PVP I rarely turn War mode on. Why would someone turn on an RP mode if they werenāt going to RP? (besides the obvious being in the way)
I would argue for the same reason people would join an RP server without intending to RP
They feel its a more cozy environment or they feel like people are nicer or in the obvious worst case they want to actively interupt people (being in the way)
Two reasons I can think of:
- Realm hopping for farming a rare etc.
- Griefing.
Both should be preventable with proper controls in place.
No thanks, I like to do stuff when itās quieter with less competition over rares and what not.
If they make āraresā spawn more frequently [5-15 minutes] Iād be fine with thatā¦ but 8-14+ hour respawns, hell no.