Hello Blizzard and fellow Classic players,
I’m the GM of a guild on Maladath-AU, one of the lowest-population servers in WoW Classic Anniversary. Our realm is struggling, with population estimates around 1,700 players. Our community is comprised of players from all around the Oceanic region, as well as countries that are near enough to our popular timezones. This realm was selected by these people due to its low latency, ease of coordination with other Oceanic players, and PVP designation.
The only other PVP realm available is a US server and boasts 27,000–30,000+ players.
This massive disparity is having a serious impact on our ability to play and enjoy the game, especially as we approach one of the most community-dependent events in Classic: the Ahn’Qiraj War Effort.
The Challenges We’re Facing:
- Groups are hard to form due to a lack of active players.
- World buffs are unreliable and difficult to obtain.
- Recruiting is nearly impossible - guilds are collapsing or merging weekly and it’s very common to see mid 30 raiders in a BWL raid.
- And now, we are facing the imminent failure of the War Effort turn-ins - not from lack of will, but from lack of bodies.
At our population level, it’s virtually impossible to gather and turn in the millions of required mats for both Horde and Alliance before AQ content becomes irrelevant. This isn’t an issue of coordination or effort - it’s math.
Failure to open AQ, or even a very delayed opening, will further exacerbate the population issue where people quit, give-up, or burn out. This would essentially be a death sentence for this server.
Rerolling Isn’t a Realistic Solution
We fully expect folks to tell us to “just reroll,” but here’s the truth:
- We chose Maladath-AU for its low latency and close-knit Aussie community.
- Many players have already invested hundreds of hours leveling, gearing, farming gold, and building our guilds.
Our server choice wasn’t a mistake, and we’re largely content to deal with the listed issues above - but we will struggle to fend for ourselves in a population-dependent event.
What We’re Asking From Blizzard
We’re not asking for free gear or unfair shortcuts - we’re asking for reasonable support that recognises the population realities of certain servers.
Here’s what could help:
- Implement a timed war effort, like Season of Discovery - The SoD War Effort had a fixed start and end time, with the option to continue turn-ins for commendations post completion
- Reduce the total War Effort turn-in requirements on low-pop servers like Maladath-AU, scaled based on active population metrics.
- Allow for cross-realm War Effort participation to boost contribution potential.
- Or as a last resort, offer free realm transfers to or from low-pop servers for those who wish to move (and preserve the choice to stay for those who don’t).
Note: This option will cause population related issues to worsen, so is not the ideal situation. I merely include it because it is an option and one that would logically be raised in any discussion such as this.
Final Thoughts
We love our server. We love this game. But we’re facing a situation where our server will literally not be able to unlock AQ40 without external intervention.
This is more than an inconvenience - it’s a looming dead end for players who have put months of time and effort into their characters and communities.
Please don’t let Maladath-AU fade into irrelevance due to mechanics designed for a server ecosystem we no longer have.
Blizzard, we need your help.
Sincerely,
Ben, and the Maladath-AU community.