I wouldn’t really raise a fuss, but there’s a reason I’m on Wyrmrest and not Moon Guard.
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The only way I realistically see Blizzard combining these realms is if it’s a kinda “break glass in case of emergency” situation where the pop numbers are dangerously low.
Let’s face it: game is old as dirt, the playerbase is aging, and the game (especially compared to other MMO’s) has a pretty awful new player experience. If Blizzard doesn’t rectify certain things that might be an inevitability.
But what I think is more likely is that they combine the other lower-pop RP realms together before MG and WrA are ever combined.
Blizzard is also doing the thing where you can trade money and items cross servers to your toons soon so I personally don’t have an issue keeping the servers separate for those who’d like it that way.
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I think the server cultures are a bit different on both MG and WrA than they were. For instance, WrA Horde have a lot of TRP profiles that are openly stating things about their IRL age, which makes me think we have more RPers looking for mature subject matter. The timing seems to line up with when MG players were transferring to WrA Horde.
MG Alliance also had people in SW actively recruiting for ERP guilds in trade chat a few months ago. And with the huge influx of WrA Alliance RPers they have, I don’t think the server canon is as effective as it once was. I think a lot of the guilds who had a stranglehold on that are either gone or will probably be ignored by players who don’t care about it.
I don’t think WrA is the lore-pure server it used to be. Once upon a time, you couldn’t RP a dragon here. Or a dark ranger who was a belf form. Now both of those are accepted. So are dwarven clans that allow non-dwarves as associates, adoptees, w/e. People can RP something acceptable outside of their actual class as well (paladin player RPing a blacksmith for instance). I think we’re past a lot of outdated notions of gatekeeping.
MG Goldshire is still a thing, sadly.
Sharding on RP realms just needs to completely stop.
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My stance is the mindset X server is for X faction RP and Y server is for Y faction RP needs to be go. It was never like that but some people got real set that this is the way it has to be.
MG and WRA had a pretty healthy faction balance, numbers skewed towards one more than the other but it was still a fairly decent balance that you could find people to RP with.
That’s another thing I will always scream and cry about.
There was a thread with people wanting SW to stay sharded so world RP could flourish. Sharding Stormwind (or Orgrimmar) will not bring back world RP because what killed world RP was sharding.
They need to remove sharding entirely from the game and only implement it when there is a noticeable uptick in player activity that warrants it.
They also need to stop with that stupid crap by having all the important quests and NPCs be in SW and Orgrimmar.
Also do y’all need me to share my sharding pvp story again?? Mained Horde during BfA, quest area was being camped by an Alliance raid. Formed our own raid to fight the Alliance raid and got pushed into a separate shard with no raid to fight. PVP didn’t happen and we wanted to PVP!!! Sharding sucks and I hate it!!!
I also don’t like warmode either, it took away world defense channel which was an amazing way to organize RP-WPVP. Now you get those people that level/do WQs in warmode and get mad when you PVP them 
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Yeah, that was some stupidity that happened at the end of BFA. I don’t know why people started saying it, but it ruined 2 servers.
Warmode killed RP-PvP.
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If WrA ever merged with MG I would uninstall and never look back.
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The fact is that if somebody wants to play in a Stormwind that’s packed to the nines, they can transfer to MG. Those who prefer otherwise can stay on WrA. The same is true for anybody who feels a particular way about MG-H or WrA-H. The OP’s statements further up are the first time I’ve ever heard about anybody on WrA-H hankering to be connected to MG-H or vice versa; it seems to me like both servers’ Horde communities are doing fine in their own ways.
The only thing that would actually be accomplished by linking the two servers is the removal of options. It would remove the option to choose between a packed SW and a quiet one. It would remove the option to choose not to be on the same server as an individual (or group thereof) who has mistreated you. It would remove the option to choose, period, and many people on both servers have chosen their servers for their own reasons.
Again – they can make the other choice any time they want by transferring or rerolling.
Since WrA-A gets brought up in this context over and over – It should be obvious at this point that anyone who is currently playing on WrA-A prefers not to be on the server whose Stormwind is overflowing with activity. They do not need to be linked in order to have the level of activity they’re looking for, and I really doubt they appreciate it when people who don’t understand the WrA-A community advocate for linking with MG and pretend/presume/patronizingly insist that it would be good for them.
WrA-A would appreciate a few more people coming to join them, but a few more does not mean the entire population of Moon Guard. The main actual problem they have is that people who aren’t trying to support WrA-A keep telling any potential newcomers that WrA-A has nothing and that they should go to MG instead. At best, it’s ignorant. Sometimes, it gets downright meanspirited. Either way, it’s really not anybody’s business to tell a community that what they think they want isn’t really what they want and that this other thing they don’t want is what they really need.
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Yah seriously!!! Back in my day it used to be, X server is for lore elitists and Y server is for server lore elitist LOL
I’d argue World RP started to decline because the world kept expanding and creating beautifully designed, capitols we’d abandon after 1.5 years killed World RP. Sharing and phasing is definitely part of that but stretching plots and characters over 500+ zones to choose from really was the nail in the coffin for me. Once choice was overwhelming the need for for guild focused RP became a more enticing idea, and then as guilds flicker and die, so do characters and players that end up leaving the game because of XYZ reason.
I’d actually love an active Stormwind again. Even though I hate Stormwind walk up RP.
I think most WrA-A players would like more people around, and I said so. What I’m trying to say is that there’s a middle ground between ‘empty Stormwind’ and ‘massively overwhelming crowd in Stormwind.’
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I’m not interested in more people per se, I’m interested in people wanting to be in Stormwind, if that makes sense. Most Alliance RPers do not want to set foot in Stormwind, regardless of population. It’s weird. There’s a strange aversion to it which I understand personally but most people just don’t want to.
Whatever reason for that I can’t fathom but it’s not likely to change without a clear and intentional shift in thinking I don’t think anyone is willing to have.
This leaving us with the dreaded question… do we merge? Is the health of a server strictly measured by the population of the “capitol” city?
Then getting back to too much choice. Todays capitol isn’t Stormwind. It’s Valdrakken. But many players do not want to RP there. Why? It’s not in their characters personality to go there. It’s too fanciful, it’s too populated and busy, too busy playing dragons, too busy with guild plots, too busy blah blah blah.
Valdrakken is poppin. I see lots of RPers running around but very few RPers RPing. Why is that? Hnmmmmmmhmmhmmm
I don’t think that’s quite true. A lot of us remember a packed Stormwind. Speaking for myself I chose WRA because I’ve always liked both factions, and it seemed really balanced.
A lot of us didn’t pick WRA for its dead Stormwind. If one really wants tiny communities, the minor RP servers still have those. Many picked a thriving, active server… and it left us.
Like seriously it wasn’t so many years ago that the Cathedral District was full of guilds recruiting, the taverns were all full of RP. You couldn’t hear yourself think in the Blue Recluse especially. Stormwind didn’t just have a few more people. It was full!
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During Dragonflight’s launch I was playing on Moon Guard and it was sharded at first, but was eventually unsharded early at player’s request because people were really excited to RP their new dragon characters.
The performance was really bad (like, casting an ability in SW would have a multi-second delay), but almost nobody was saying “turn sharding back on!”, because the problem sharding fixes is less severe than the problem it creates. People vastly prefer crummy performance over having their communities destroyed.
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Stormwind’s never been a popular destination in WoW. Even back in Vanilla, everyone hung out in Ironforge. It’s the same reason Horde hangs out - and continues to hang out - in Ogrimmar. It’s a big circle. Things are easy to find and don’t require crossing multiple bridges or diverting to other districts. There’s a reason Shattrath and Dalaran were similar layouts.
Stormwind’s just a pain to get around, even with Flying. Things are set up in weird areas and nothing is conveniently located. Even the damn Trading Hub is set up in a cubby hole off the Mage’s District.
Stormwind’s only claim to any sort of fame RP-wise was the Park District’s numerous empty inns that catered to the bar/restaurant crowd…that all vanished in Cataclysm and we got back a “park” that is so artificial absolutely no one hangs out there.
The big problem with Stormwind though is there’s zero reason to ever set foot in the city. The travel portals are sectioned off from the city proper. There’s zero reason to go engage with the city proper unless you need to use the AH or Trading Post. Hell, I’ve got a fully stocked Garrison that’s a portal/short flight away from Ashran which has a fully furnished Auction House. My Hearth is set to Boralus mainly because Silithus is a closer portal location to the Uldum dungeons/raids I farm for fun and transmogs than the Caverns of Time are.
I’ve got four separate Hearthstones to my name that all takes me closer/more centrally located to stuff I want to engage in than even Stormwind, and the occasions I do intersect with Stormwind it’s just to grab one of the portals I can’t otherwise easily access (Mostly to go naff around in Outland/Pandaria content).
Defending Stormwind against Horde was almost as fun as it was playing in Stormwind as Horde and seeing how long you can last. I miss playing with Ephie and taking over non-RP hubs like the bank or the old barn that used to be outside the Dwarven District. No one knows that city and the secret areas you can get to like Eph.
Good times.
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I thought about trying to get a small group of friends to roleplay in Valdrakken, but 1: non roleplayers are mean as shoot 2: sharding 3: well I’m also not subbed right now but I see the updated netherwing dragon and the blood troll mog finally coming (in July and august).
I probably still won’t intend to roleplay when I come back just because i’m too jaded about the public
hi this isn’t necessarily true, ok bye!
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