It is no mystery that WoW is losing population quickly. I have no idea where they are going if they are MMO enthusiast, but that is a discussion for another topic. I want to bring up another dilemma, how important is your character name?
When I started on SWTOR I got the names I wanted and most of my friends got them too. Then the great exodus occurred. I had my own issues with the game, but then something happened to seal its fate, merging servers.
Blizzard has not done the same thing as they have when merging realms. EA decided to force players to rename their characters. That is what made me dislike that game so much I quit. Oh, sure a lot of people who are die hard Star war fans continue to play, but I wonder. If the population in WoW declines so much that they need too, how would you feel? Would you quit?
With the way they connect realms, this wonât be an issue. Blizzard will continue to connect realms, rather than merge or close them if the populations of them shrink any further.
One of the worst things Blizzard could do is a server merge like we see with other MMOs.
That depends, there is only so much space on a drive at a cost. We know that at one time they had 12 million accounts, now there is a fraction. Each account requires space on that drive.
If they started deleting accounts that are out of use, a server merger may be more economical. No one can say for certain what the accountants will force the devâs to accomplish. The question is not whether they will or will not, it is how would it make you feel. Would you quit.
I would be gone. I literally have characters that i still play from vanilla. Effectively having those names taken from me would have me gone in a second
Blizzard specifically designed the server connection technology to avoid needing mergers. For the record. The server data isnât moving. Theyâre not taking all the server data from realm X and placing it on the same server blade as realm Y. Theyâre just connecting the two realms together so that it looks like theyâre merged when theyâre not.
So yes, thereâs limited space on a drive, but theyâre using multiple drives and the server blades themselves can hold far more data than they used to in the past, which is partially why servers are showing as medium pop/low pop now. Itâs not because the population of those realms has jumped ship. Itâs because thereâs far more space available, so the current population no longer triggers the next stage of the realm population.
blizzard avoids this issue by using the servers like an asterisk
Butt-lick*
*the one from moonguard
when they âconnectâ realms you keep that distinction, though I think they should stop pretending with this crap and declare the new grouping as itâs own server thing
so when someone new comes in and wants to make a character on my group, rexxar/misha, it just shows up as one option; âwild godsâ server group
Storage is storage, when it becomes less economical to maintain the storage capacity necessary for each realm to exist decisions will have to be made. What answer they will come up with will depend, how will it make you feel if they force you to change your name?
Thereâs almost a zero chance of a forced name change. The best option if they ever actually do mergers instead of connections is to add last names. But itâs very unlikely to happen for the reason already explained to you.
They have merged data centers before retaining realms. What if it is more economical to merge LA with Chicago and eliminate old accounts. That means delete, and in the process of that clean up. getting rid of excess data by deleting realms.
Iâll point to all those other MMOâs out there that have had to face similar situations.
The question was, facing the reality of declining population, how attached are you to your name.
Hello MasterraiderB7AN00T9 you have been flagged for a name change due to realm mergers. It looks like the Real Masterraider claimed this name one day before you did on his server. Please continue to the cash shop and select name change, once you have purchased your name change we will more then happy to welcome you back to wow Wannabraider. Thanks, signed Blizzard.
and would you continue to play thereafter or quit?
If it was my main characters I would quit like Namami.
Regardless of whatever technical solutions or possibilities, it is people like me in real life that make decisions based on money. That is why it is a concern of mine, I know the reality and my characters identity is strongly attached to its name. Not Inkwell of course, you might imagine that is my inscriptions.
I know that most of my friends would bail as well.
They do, but if Senâjin only has 10 active users on it why would Blizzard pay for the data storage of the rest of the users. Delete that realm and force them to a low pop realm to lower the cost.
The question is, are you attached to your name? It is possible that in the future when wow is retired, and there is only one data center left, accounts are deleted for non-use, that this is a decision that needs to be made.
I still think itâs a moot point. This isnât happening any time soon and by the time it does, theyâll find a way to keep Connected Realms on less servers to make it moot. Theyâve seen what real mergers do to games. Thatâs why they went with smart mergers.