The Classic servers are intending to offer the original classic experience. Added in June 2005, Battlegrounds existed as server-specific up until August of 2006. Meaning 13 of the 19 months of Battleground’s existence were as server-specific battlegrounds.
The previous year of WoW’s time had community rivalry and development feed into the enthusiasm later capitalized in battlegrounds; This is the environment which high-warlord grinding was done in, where premades were scrapped together knowing the your rival Guild was playing that night. It was only in the last 6 months, during the knowledge of the upcoming expansion whilst the relevance and enthusiasm of PvP rank was at its lowest, that the game introduced cross-realm queueing.
Cross-realm Battlegroups existed in Classic WoW; Yes. But Realm-only Battlegrounds were significantly more relevant in defining the Classic WoW Battleground Experience . The last six months we’re the least impactful on the PvP experience and allowing players from the beginning to avoid facing against their own server for server-specific titles and prestige is a inauthentic representation of the original experience.
Out of all the single decisions that could alter PvP from how it was experienced in Classic WoW, Making Battlegrounds cross realm is perhaps the most significant one. This is less of an opinionated post on which I would personally prefer, it is attempt to point out that this change is an error; an antithetical choice to the intended goal to replicate Classic WoW as realm-specific battlegrounds are more reflective of the Classic experience than cross-realm battlegrounds.
There will be no universal consensus on if it is a good or a bad design idea; I would say maintaining familiarity and community takes priority over convenience, others will respectfully say long queue times are the death of BG Enthusiasm; what we should all agree on is; This isn’t classic, and that’s what matters most.
There is a lot of time for this change to occur; Battlegrounds won’t be implemented until Phase 3. The Classic development team has been really great about community feedback, please share this suggestion so that we can have it corrected.
Please like this post, make your own to echo the same suggestion with links to other threads like this one and ones that come; encourage the same. Show that this is a wide-spread agreement and not a one off thread!
Thank you.
Source for confirmation of cross-realm battlegrounds at launch;
92 Likes
I too wish that they would reconsider.
It isn’t about queue times, its about player rivalries.
54 Likes
I’d very much like to have server-only BGs, even if it’s only for a few months after WSG releases.
I understand the hesitation, since it’s likely that for some servers queues will be bad and you don’t wanna flip-flop when you already know the outcome.
That said, I have a crazy idea that is probably never going to work: let servers vote on whether they want cross-realm every 2 months after WSG releases, and if the results exceed a certain %, change them.
This is one of the few stances Blizzard has chosen to take that goes against the identity of vanilla, even if it was technically in it near the end.
You know how many of us don’t enjoy retail now? cross-realm anything is how you start down that road…
Just sayin’…
8 Likes
We knew Cross-Realm Battlegrounds would be in the game the moment they said they were using 1.12.
#nochanges
#excepttheonesiwant
50 Likes
there’s a week to go…
gotta accept that everything is pretty much set in stone now.
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Phase 3 is when Battlegrounds get introduced, that will be many months at the least. It is very realistic that if enough people voice this concern, change can occur. All it requires is enough noise!
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I remember the first time I joined a cross-realm battleground was a shock ; I was a stranger amongst strangers ! Where was that epic alliance healer (Vita I think was her name back then) ? Never saw my old and beloved foes in Alliance ever…
Come today, Blizzard continues to ignore the psychological aspect, things like sense of commitment , of community, of “belonging”. It’s another “you think you do, but you don’t” .
29 Likes
I’d prefer realm only BG’s, at least until it’s proven to be to widespread an issue with x-realm BG’s being the only solution. I loved the rivalries, friendly and otherwise that built up. That was one of the biggest draws to my 29 twink as well. Leveled that one once x-realm came out, rivalries at both ends (29/60) went away because you saw each other so infrequently.
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Yeah people like to bring up how cross-realm BGs were a part of classic.
They were only created because Blizzard refused to merge servers and they were in the last patch.
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Made an edit to the bottom of the OP; I’m encouraging that if you share this thought to please echo it in a meaningful way so its likely to grab the opinion of Developers. One thread will likely not change it unless it is massively popular, make it known this is a consensus and more importantly, just correct in terms of reflecting classic WoW.
2 Likes
This totally goes against the #nochanges movement, but theoretically…
Two buttons:
- One allows you to queue for a battleground within your own server community with a potentially lengthy wait time
- The other allows you to queue in a cross realm battleground with a potentially shorter wait time
Given a choice, each might choose differently at any given time for a variety of reasons.
I’m not a programmer, but it doesn’t seem to be out of the realm of possibility - and it would seem to concede to both sides of the issue.
Players were never given this choice. I sincerely wonder why.
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Some things they went with the way it was for most of Vanilla, like mount and riding training prices and distinct training for each type of mount, since it was “more representative of the Vanilla experience.” They actually didn’t go with the simplified 1.12 state, which they said in an interview was “preparation for TBC.”
Dungeon difficult was nerfed in preparation for BC babies. Arguably dungeon difficulty should have been pre-nerf state, too.
3 Likes
Dont remind me that I wont be doing any bgs till like Feubary ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
1 Like
What if they did both and enabled CRBG in phase 6, simulating Vanilla?
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I think a lot of us are glad to see the QoL improvements going into this. I don’t want an “Authentic” experience at the expense of playability.
14 Likes
I support this.
I was a wee young gamer when BGs came out. Being a true no-lifer, I played them non-stop. During the day, we had a patchwork of people that had to band together to win the games. During the evenings I had my premade group that just rolled over everyone.
The day crew was the fun part. I made friends with the regulars and we became quite good. As did our opponents that were in a similar situation. These are the people I still know today.
Though I am not in a position to no-life this go around, I’d hate to rob someone of a similar experience that is.
2 Likes
While this is a conceivable and understandable way to reimagine Vanilla, if we are going to make these changes we should do them with consistency, not seemingly arbitrary and selectively. If approving changes to Battlegrounds to champion improved quality of life, we should be consistent and apply quality of life changes to other aspects of the game as well.
The most significant example is Looking for Group; it is very easy to argue LFG removes a higher barrier of entry to game play than cross-realm battlegrounds do. Reagent cost, item drop rate chances, and raid player sizes to name a few more.
There are many many ways where this philosophy of Quality of Life is preferable to authenticity would end up alienating the player base who’s demand and tenacity allowed for Classic to become a reality in the first place.
As said I wish for this not to be an opinion piece on a system being better or worse (Although my bias for server-specific battlegrounds is clear), but more a post that identifies an incorrectly replicated aspect of the established design goal so we can preserve the day one guiding principle; replicate an authentic classic experience.
3 Likes
I played during the height of world pvp. It wasn’t just Southshore, or Crossroads. Anytime, anywhere, someone could show up to harass lowbies, who called someone in their guild. The original attacker called for reinforcements. Next thing you knew, Bloodhoof Village was a very literal name. (And this was on PVE servers.)
I played during same-realm battlegrounds. They weren’t nearly as fun as world pvp. The objectives distracted from the pvp; the pursuit of rewards, eclipsing the pvp. But it was still a war. We fought the people we usually fought. There were, indeed, rivalries, jealousies, vendettas.
Cross-realm battlegrounds seemed like a nice idea at the time, like all of Blizzard’s ideas, like flying mounts, and no hunter ammo. We did have to wait for an hour, or more, for same-realm bg. Of course, we’d just quest during that time, fish, troll trade chat. But sometimes it wouldn’t pop, not for hours. I’d give up, and log off.
So cross-realm brought nearly instant queues. This seemed so awesome, I didn’t notice the complete strangers in each bg. The chat in the bg trickled and finally dried up. Then came the cross-realm dungeons, and cross-realm realms.
TLDR: Blizzard thinks we don’t, but we do.
7 Likes