As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.
Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.
We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.
As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.
Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.
We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.
As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.
Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.
We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.
One of my major concerns is that sharding would interfere with the Horde / Alliance rivalry. One of the most memorable experience in Vanilla is ability to run into the same enemy players throughout various zones and engage in epic battle.
As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.
Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.
We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.
As you've noticed, the Classic Demo does have realm sharding. This is to let as many people as possible experience it without technical issues such as server capacity or spawn density getting in the way.
Longer term, we know how crucial it is to the Classic experience for you to see your friends when you walk into Stormwind or when you’re helping them on a quest you’ve already completed. And there should only ever be one Kazzak on a realm, no matter how many people are waiting for him to spawn.
We’re still looking at how we can best deliver an authentic Classic experience at launch, and in the weeks and months that follow - both in terms of gameplay and community. You won’t see phasing (which is tied to specific quests that don't exist in Classic) or cross-realm zones (which combine multiple realms together) in Classic. However, realm sharding is one of the best tools we have to keep realms stable when hundreds of players are swarming the same initial few zones and killing the same few mobs (like they will be at the launch of Classic). To that end, we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days. But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.
First, thank you for taking the time to post.
Please, do not add sharding of any sort, even in the beginning zones. The cost does not outweigh the benefit. Classic is a return to what was, not a re-imagining of how to make it better. If a change is on the table that takes Classic away from that, even for a smooth launch, it is not worth it. Warts and all, remember? Crowded starting zones at launch is one of those warts. I will not be playing Classic WoW and will not renew my subscription to Retail WoW if sharding is enabled. It's that important to me.
I also must say... Surely y'all knew this would happen, that the reaction to this would be negative? I can only imagine that this was intentional to test the waters and see the community reaction. I hope you see that the reaction is highly negative.
Please don't have sharding even on release. There's a good reason for why the Classic community doesn't want it even if its on release.
Many of us also enjoy the rush of thousands of people logging into the servers for the first time. It makes the game feel so much more alive, and sharding would kill that feeling.
I'd rather deal with server crashes than have sharding.
I have been subbed to WoW since 2006 straight, if blizzard introduces sharding in a way that negatively effects my experience (seeing people from other realms) i will resort to private servers, something i have never done in my life.
Sure, go to servers that have respawns so fast that people are AoE farming to 60 on day 2 and where Devilsaurs respawn so fast every jim #@%#!%@# and harry has one along with literally every other item that should be "rare".
Im sure thats a better experience over sharding the first few levels while keeping the entirety of the rest of the game intact far better than Private Servers have.
Good example of how important no sharding is to me, i have no idea how good/bad private servers are, as ive noted ive never played on one.
Sharding is so against the classic experience id rather deal with a third rate copy, how blizzard does not understand this is beyond my mental capacity.
But we recognize that a cohesive world is critical to WoW Classic and are committed to bringing that to you.
thanks for the explaination but why are we always on damage control? as community manger why not manage the community by telling them stuff ahead of time then they won't have to jump to conclusions ?
No no no no no no no no no no no no no realm sharding. Make the realms smaller, and let us deal with having to take longer with our quests. I assure you, you do this, you will be killing your game on arrival.
I always felt like the crazy rush for every mob at launch was one of the most memorable times in any MMO. Creating a random PuG and jumping in feet first. It will be sad to not be able to experience it in classic. /kicksrocks
Nothing to worry here. You know you want it instead of 200 players in one starter zone. You just haven't realized it yet. Once servers age, there will be phasing at all even in starter zones.
There is no getting away from the fact that Classic uses the modern Wow engine. Classic is an "emulation". If you consider the impact of this, you will not be shocked over what is presented to us and why the choices were made.