I originally posted this in General Discussion and on the WoW Subreddit a few months ago, and I now realize the Twisting Nether Forum is probably the best place for it to rest, as you all can at least understand what I’m talking about- we’ve all experienced it.
I’ve been playing World of Warcraft since the middle of TBC. The biggest enjoyment I found was in the story- Leveling new characters, experiencing both factions, meeting new people in the community. A MMO’s community is what makes it different from a single player game that someone could purchase on steam or any other gaming platform. That, and the constant updates of course.
My home on WoW was always the Twisting Nether server. It was populated and healthy years ago, Orgrimmar was active, people were talking in general and trade chat. This slowly changed and everything started to get a bit quieter during Cataclysm and at the start of Mists of Pandaria.
When Blizzard announced that realms were going to be “merged”, we were overjoyed. We were going to have an active realm again. I remember a lot of friends resubbing because of this. Ventrillo and Teamspeak were also more active at this time. After a few expected months of waiting, we were all given a list of who we’d be merging with, and were told to be patient. We were, of course. Although, unfortunately Twisting Nether and Ravenholdt were one of the last realms to be merged. They took TWO low population realms and merged them together. Realistically, this would equate to a medium population server, right? That’s what we thought.
We saw that a few realms were getting 3 or even 4 realms smushed together. Perhaps they were more inactive than we were? Who knows.
An expansion later, the merge felt like it hindered us more than it helped. Most people server transferred because this false sense of hope felt like a punch in the gut. Trade chat was dead. General chat didn’t exist. Most guilds either moved or disbanded. People used trade chat on TN/RH to advertise for their guilds on emerald dream or WRA in hopes that people would transfer. It was saddening.
I’ve long left Twisting Nether. A lot of my characters that have years of game time are still sitting on that realm’s character screen, including this one. I transferred a few of my favorites to WRA to be able to play this SOCIAL MMO with my boyfriend of 3 years. 55$ for each of them. 55 dollars to be able to interact with other people. To be able to play a multiplayer game. LFG was an interesting addition to the game- but joining a guild and doing things with people feel so much better.
Blizzard sometimes offers a free server transfer to Lower populated realms. I guess I could understand this if people don’t like wait times for logging in (which WoW hasn’t seen in a decade) or if people are too chatty on their realm. A group transfer is not offered at all (being able to transfer more than one character at a time, for a reduced fee). During WoD, I sent in a ticket asking a GM if Blizzard has any plans for that in the future. Was given the answer I expected- “no, but i’ll bring it up as an idea to the others.”
I’m torn between playing the characters I’ve loved for years, or playing the few I have on WRA. I can’t bring myself to play my beloved game on the corpse of a server that held so many positive memories in the past. It feels like time has been wasted.
My reasoning for posting this was to see if anyone is in the same boat- feeling “stuck”. Perhaps gain some advice, or hold a sense of solace for this place I once held dear. Thanks.
