The simple truth that Blizzard needs to face is that preserving/trying to replicate “Server Identity” isn’t worth all the negatives.
A list of the obvious ones:
Insane queue times upon release/patches;
One-faction mega servers;
No world PvP;
Inability to find Dungeons/Raids on small servers;
Unable to play with friends and/or invite friends to try out Wotlk if you play on a locked server;
Inoperable Auction Houses on small servers; and
Not being able to find Arena groups (although, this might be changing?).
I admire Blizzard for trying to preserve Server Identity. I still remember the first server I ever played on 15 years ago (Spinebreaker). That said, the gaming atmosphere just isn’t the same anymore. Everyone these days watches guides and streamers and youtubers, and because of this, everyone has a preference to play together. This is clear from the fact that we have Mega-Servers. It is also clear from the ten thousand posts across the forums of people continuing to ask Blizzard to unlock them.
Blizzard just needs to bite the bullet and enable Cross-Realm functions across the game. It would alleviate all of the problems listed above, making lower leveling more enjoyable, bringing World PvP to one-faction servers, letting people to join smaller servers while being able to find raids on larger ones, etc.
I understand implementing Cross-Server features comes with a cost, but I believe this cost is well worth it. At the end of the day, the most important aspect of any MMO is that people have the freedom to play with one another, and since TBC, Blizzard has been unable to deliver on this aspect of the game. Whatever is gained by “Server Identity” isn’t close to what we are losing by the current locked/one faction/mega-server situation. Enable Cross-Server Features Asap. It’ll be a huge net-positive for the game.
In vanilla and tbc classic those of us who were waiting for wrath didn’t really push for dramatic changes, from what I remember. Sure there were people asking for dual spec and rdf back then, but everyone know it wasn’t going to happen because of #nochanges. With wrath classic though it’s seemingly acceptable to want major changes and removal of systems, no one bats an eyelash. Rdf was in original wrath so it should be in classic, simple as that.
I’d be perfectly content if Blizzard wanted to establish one or two servers that would remain isolated from the rest. But again, the simple fact remains that 80-90% of WoW players choose to play on 4 or 5 mega-servers, and the only reason that many left these servers were because they literally could not play the game because of Queue times. People by a significant majority are willing to sacrifice server identity and community to ensure they can play with a large pool of players, and ensure they have the ability to Raid, Arena, and find Guilds.
I am glad that Blizzard recently stated that locked servers will remain locked in addition to a previous statement that they don’t want mega servers anymore.
Grob had a great community until they allowed a bunch of transfer locusts to descend on us, making a less-personable mega.
I get that transfer locusts want to play on a super busy server and don’t care about realm community. They’ve done a great job bailing en masse from other servers and creating these one-sided PvP slop houses. Frankly, I don’t care what these players want anymore and I am glad we’re keeping further riff raff off of Grob.
Sorry, I misunderstood your initial statement. Just to clarify, what you really said was something like this: “I happen to land on one of the biggest, most balanced Mega-Servers, and I don’t want anything changed because, from my personal perspective, the servers are fine and dandy.”
Glad we cleared that up.
For real, have a little empathy mate. Your server is the ideal. No other NA server comes close in terms of faction balance and healthy population.
I mean, “perfect” isn’t the word I’d use. Blizzard had to redesign one of the original core features of OG Wotlk (Wintergrasp) because realms have become so lopsided and awkward.
The thing is, you can enable cross realm play without actually destroying server identity. This is something that people seem to not realise, but what killed server identity was the lack of consistency with cross realm zones. Every time you went to a new zone, the people you were playing with would randomly morph into a new set of players, and because they were cross realm, the likelihood that you would ever randomly be zoned together again in the future was miniscule, so everyone just became faceless nobodies.
If you maintain server cohesion, then allowing cross server play will not impact server identity.
realm communities are only valued by karens who like to sit in the server disc and gossip in my experience. literally no other point to socialize outside of your guild/ arena partners. go outside for that.