Sharding should be kept as far away from Classic as possible. But, if it becomes the necessary evil that is required for a stable launch and to help us maintain strong server populations in the long run, then it needs to be limited strictly to the starting zones with a specific shutdown/shutoff time. At which point the sharding tech needs to be COMPLETELY DISABLED for Classic and to NEVER be seen again. Don’t ruin our SS/TM battles our AQ Gate openings, our World Boss Raids with sharding.
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Frankly I’m tired of talking about it. They will have some sort of plan on how to deal with servers and players if things get too big. Whether that is sharding, opening more servers, queues, whatever. I do not believe however they are going to go the old Vanilla route of constant crashes and horrible gameplay until people spread out.
Whether you trust Blizzard or not is what will sit you on each side of the fence.
Well said friend! Shame we may end up being on seperate factions in classic, I plan to roll horde for the shaman.
Nope. People against sharding want an unplayable game at launch.
I was there day 1 for TBC and Wrath and I don’t recall any problems on Eonar other than a short queue time or disconnect here or there. It definitely wasn’t a disaster.
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One reason to believe it’s temporary is because the Game Director of the World of Warcraft specifically said in a very public forum (Blizzcon) that sharding is antithetical to Vanilla WOW so, even if they do it, it would only be for a few weeks.
I don’t know how much more evidence you need than that, unless you are insisting on a signed legal document.
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There’s a difference between massive launch day flood of players and two raid groups fighting it out outside MC. Personally I’m in the neutral camp here, I understand the pro’s and cons of Sharding.
IF they implement it just to handle the massive flood of players for the first few zones i’m fine with it. I’m not about to sit around for 8 hours trying to finish 3 starter quests because there’s 100,000 other players trying to complete the same thing.
To the people saying that everything should be the same as classic back in the day where max server pop was like 4000 or something around there, your missing a very important detail. There wont be a single server, that has just 4000 people on it. Most servers will have 80k+ players and I assume even after the first few months its gonna be very crowded.
New servers. Sharding affects community. Sharding can be abused. No sharding
Well said!
If sharding is needed at the starting areas and the popularity doesn’t diminish “in a few weeks” as Ion predicts, then by his own logic, sharding will be necessary in Westfall…then Dustwallow Marsh…in cities…and so forth.
The problem I have with Ion’s remarks at the Q&A at Blizzcon 2018, is that the removal of sharding is based on the condition: when the “tourists” leave.
Can anyone really predict when the tourists “who want to see what all the fuss is about” will actually stop playing? Will the population suddenly drop off “in a few weeks” as he predicts? Maybe or maybe not. I could easily see a Blue post explaining how sharding will be extended to manage the population in Westfall and so on and so on.
Sharding is basically a slippery slope. Once it is used to solve server population load in one area it could be used to solve server population in other areas.
Sharding was never part of original WoW and it should never be part of Classic WoW.
As we have seen in BFA, sharding is not a perfect solution (Google Warmode and pvp sharding BFA).
But more importantly, sharding kills community and immersion in original WoW - which is at the very heart of original WoW and why I want to return.
It is my hope that the Classic Team can find another way than using sharding. They have done an amazing job so far!
But if given a choice, I would much rather have my original WoW with all its flaws, than have original WoW restored and the community and immersion be diminished or lost to sharding.
I wholeheartedly believe that the soul of original WoW being restored by this passion project is at stake by the use of sharding. It is like playing with fire. The social heart of the game I loved could be killed again - just like it was by modern (sharded) WoW.
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Either way I will play and both with or without sharding will cause problems.
Without sharding at the start I’ll be wasting my entire vacation day killing two mobs in 4 hours. My RL friends will refuse to play as well. So I won’t even get to play.
With sharding I probably won’t feel like I’m in azeroth. So what’s the point. Aka MUH IMSHERSHIoN.
Lose Lose situation
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Yeah no. They got a few weeks at launch to make sure they have enough servers. Sharding never becomes permanent
This is completely a legitimate point but I think it’s very very unlikely.
What you are basically saying is that a ton of retail players will drop into Classic to “check it out” and suddenly get hooked and stay in the game – therefore becoming actual Classic players, as opposed to tourists.
While it’s technically possible, it seems incredibly unlikely because the games are so different.
So if they do fall off, at what level will they quit? Blizzard seems to think about level 10 because they have tons and tons of data showing that only some small percent of new players stay past level 10.
In Classic, that’s about 3-4 hours of gameplay.
Thanks @Ogimirak. That’s my hope, too, of course.
But I feel like sharding (or any other modern convenience) is gambling with the soul of original WoW - and for what? To make modern WoW players happy, who love having sharding - not to mention Portals to everywhere, Wow Tokens, CRZ/LFR/LFG, Pet Battles, Store Mounts, Flying Mounts, Loot Trading, Garrisons and Solo Content, Transmog, and running through dungeons in God Mode?
When I first heard Ion mention that they actually cared more about making all the casuals happy who want to “see what all the fuss is about” by using sharding so they won’t have to wait in queue, I was sort of taken aback.
I mean, those are many of the same players I would wager who used to put up the “WALL OF NO” to anyone who ever asked for this project. And now they want to jeopardize the social heart and soul of the game for them, so they won’t have to wait in queue, for a mod to spawn or end up on a low pop realm? I don’t get it.
Blizzard itself has stated that this is a passion project - not a revenue-generating project like Diablo for Phones. This project is for Vanilla-lovers who have loved original WoW forever and the incredible social life that it once had.
I just want my old game back, just as it was, queues and all - because at least, it had a social life and living and breathing community, unlike modern WoW, which has sacrificed community for conveniences, like sharding.
If they use sharding to make tourists/casuals happy and ignore those of us who have petitioned and waited for so long for original WoW (without any modern conveniences and just as it was in 2006), then they will have terminated the last ounce of nostalgia, motivation and love that I had for this game.
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Day 1 server launch should be viewed a social server event, not a “I want to speed level but all these other players are in my way” mentality.
There is only 2 events which cause player congregation at these levels.
The other one is cherished as one of the greatest events in WoW History; The Opening of the AQ gates. The day 1 launch “party” of having 500+ people in the same zone should also be viewed and treated as one time server social event.
Adding sharding kills that. Imagine how lame the AQ gates would have been if it was sharded so you only see a couple dozen other people.
Its anti-Vanilla, anti-social, and anti-MMO. Its a defining moment in the game and should be embraced rather that viewed as a detriment.
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Imagine how lame the AQ event would be if the servers were so unstable you couldn’t participate at all. Oh wait…
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A sharded AQ is NOT original WoW AQ.
If you want sharded events, play modern WoW.
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and is still remembered as an epic event despite some server issues. thankfully blizzard doesn’t seem to want to shard AQ.
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Sure and Fyre Festival is still remembered as an epic festival, epic for what is the question.
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I don’t feel like that was Ion’s intent at all. Remember the question he was responding to… something like, “without CRZ how are you going to deal with the possibility of dead servers in the future?”
In other words, the point of sharding was not intended to accommodate “tourists” and make it easy for them to play, but instead was designed to protect the Classic community from the effects of the initial tourist surge that was almost certainly going to drop off after a few weeks.
In other words, the tourists were the disease and sharding was the cure.
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At this point, I think the signed legal document is EXACTLY what they want.
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