If you Shard, you'll fail

[Darkglare-wyrmrest-accord]

We want the pain of a server being too crowded in an area. We want the joy of seeing 1000 people in one location.

Wait, we do?

I mean… Would you like to be in the starting zone for 2+ hours just because it’s crowded with thousands of players?

[Fesz-cenarius]

We want the pain of a server being too crowded in an area. We want the joy of seeing 1000 people in one location.

Wait, we do?

I mean… Would you like to be in the starting zone for 2+ hours just because it’s crowded with thousands of players?

Speaking only for myself, I would much prefer that to the game cancer that is sharding.

[Lastarria-emerald-dream]

Wait, we do?

I do, those moments are memorable and fleeting.

[Darkglare-wyrmrest-accord]

Girl, I remember being extremely frustrated before the mobs where shared (or their respawn rates scaled to players), way back in BC or Wrath when there were a ton of people camping the same quest mobs that seldom dropped their items… and these weren’t more than 12 or so people.

Can’t imagine disputing quest objectives with 100+ players…

[Nimii-ysondre (Nimii)]

Oh they will give you vanilla, and you’ll also have the 8+ hour maintenances every Tuesday, frequent server crashes, and the lovely 640 x 480 graphics too. Enjoy !

[Darkglare-wyrmrest-accord]

At least for once in my life I’ll be able to run the game with everything maxed out ahahah.

[Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel (Matcauthon)]

It doesn’t matter what you say or what Blizzard reps say. People will always twist words and read between the lines. Paranoia and stupidity will win. We burned people at stakes due to this and it continues even in 2019 because stupid people exist.

Fact is that blizzard has not set any real concrete limits on sharding, of any sort. So yeah. Its going to remain a hot topic until they do.

[Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel (Matcauthon)]

They actually probably should shard at the beginning - temporarily. I know players look at it as a bad thing - but trust me, you will want it at launch (especially with streamers now days) and if you think you won’t you have no idea what you are in for.

Sharding weeks after launch however would without a doubt kill the original feel of the game - but if they want a smooth launch, or even close to a smooth launch, they will need to shard.

As long as sharding is limited to level 10 and 2 or 3 weeks at most i have no problem.

The more zones they shard and/or the longer its used the more of an issue it is to me.

My question to the people defending sharding.

What do you do if the “tourists” decide they prefer classic.
What do you propose then?

[Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel (Matcauthon)]

They literally said…if they were to use sharding it would only be in the starting area.

Weve had two different blizzard employees talk about it. Neither set any real limits on zones or timeframes.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

Speaking only for myself, I would much prefer that to the game cancer that is sharding.

To be clear, unless you participated in illegal theft of Intellectual Property, you have never encountered this, as Blizzard has never allowed it to happen. Which is where your demand for authenticity is shown to be a sham.

[Priapis-proudmoore (Priapis)]

What do you do if the “tourists” decide they prefer classic.
What do you propose then?

If blizz is on the ball, they’ll be able to see more people surpassing what their expected population goals are and they can start pushing out new servers to meet the need. There’s always going to be the chance that a particular server or few have populations that flock to them and cause their populations to be extreme but at that point, you can offer transfers off that server to coax those that want to leave off of the server and just leave the rest to either deal with queues or crowds.

[Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel (Matcauthon)]

History has shown that transfers off high population servers do not usually get many bites. Even when they are offered for free.

But lets say they do this. What do you propose during the time they are setting up the new server?

[Priapis-proudmoore (Priapis)]

What do you propose during the time they are setting up the new server?

Blinking. Because it only takes that long to set up new servers with the cloud tech stuff they use (assuming they keep a list of names available).

[Fesz-cenarius]

Speaking only for myself, I would much prefer that to the game cancer that is sharding.

To be clear, unless you participated in illegal theft of Intellectual Property, you have never encountered this, as Blizzard has never allowed it to happen. Which is where your demand for authenticity is shown to be a sham.

I never played on private servers, but I did experience queues during vanilla. Those queues may not have been the overexagerated 4 day queues that you seem to love to throw around, but queues they were.

The biggest differences between us is seem to be that I am not convenience driven, do not need everything NOW and do not mind inconvenience.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

Those queues may not have been the overexagerated 4 day queues that you seem to love to throw around, but queues they were.

And if we had the 30 minutes to 2 hour queues that we saw in vanilla this would not be a problem.

To be clear, if Blizzard doesn’t see more than 500,000 people online at launch, there should be no sharding engaged. All of these scenarios are based on assumptions. The difference between me and you, is you either assume there won’t be anyone, or you don’t care about the quality of the launch.

Either way that’s a highly pessimistic view, or you really don’t care about the success of Classic.

[Fateweaver-misha (Fateweaver)]

So yeah. Its going to remain a hot topic until they do.

Let’s be real, it’ll be a hot topic even if concrete details are given.

[Kiyrin-ravenholdt (Kiyrin)]

It’s about following dogma.

Some people have turned WoW into a religion.

[Fateweaver-misha (Fateweaver)]

or you really don’t care about the success of Classic.

There’s the full circle.

Pro-Shard people: "Without sharding, Classic™ launch will be messy and thus Classic™ will be unsuccessful.

Anti-Sharding people: "WITH sharding, the Classic™ launch will be fragmented and the basis for community will be diminished. Also there will then be potential for sharding to spread and will make Classic™ unsuccessful.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

launch will be fragmented and the basis for community will be diminished

And this part is clearly false because its a tenth of a fraction of a percent of your character’s experience.

[Fateweaver-misha (Fateweaver)]

this part is clearly false because its a tenth of a fraction of a percent of your character’s experience.

Maybe. But if most players never make it past level 20 (or 30?) it becomes a larger portion of their experience. That said I think the largest worry is sharding moving past what MOST on the forums would consider reasonable (ie, starting zone only).