Overcrowded Realm Update – August 21

[Cléavagè-tichondrius]

I understand that you are worried about releasing realms too early and are ready to do so come launch day.

From what I’ve been reading this past week there will be a wave of subs joining us. I recommend having two or more PvE and PvP servers for each location, pacific and eastern before launch in a low to medium population state. Once people notice that they are in a long que they will most likely back out and change servers quickly. It would be wise to have the realms ready prior to release so that they can be chosen immediately rather than it being a reactive decision on your part.

Again, I understand your stance on wanting to wait until launch to release more servers. That can still be achieved if the preemptive servers have gone high or full during launch. It would give you more time to release new servers and should reduce the amount of forum posts being created.

As it stands right now (I’m viewing the realm selection screen) there is one low pacific PvP server and one medium eastern PvP server along with no PvE servers less than full. This isn’t a good position to be in. I would advise releasing PvE & PvP servers for pacific and eastern locations this weekend prior to release.

[Kheblin-aerie-peak]

they should have said 2 pvp, 2 pve and a rp server will be up at 6pm pt
without that they don’t give the time a guild needs to vote and move. It is beyond stupid most of us are sitting in full queues because they wont open new servers,

[Cowdy-proudmoore]

no PvE servers less than full.

Full just sums up account numbers per realm, not accounts with 3 characters per realm. I personally created one character on 3 different realms. If everybody did that you would need to devide full by 3. Since likely not everybody did that, its probably somewhere between half or a bit more of what is currently shown.
Also, you can be sure that most BFA players reserved their spots but not all of them will come at launch or stick around even beyond a few days. I do not think Blizzard is waiting for launch to provide more servers but for a couple of days or weeks after launch to be proven right.

[Khorok-aggramar]

Um where do the pvp players go when they change their mind at level 25? To Pagle and Mankrik. Get more pve normals in here!

[Nuzzerino-sargeras]

During this process, we have seen a regular trend where characters keep being made on Full realms.

In order to have a better play experience, we urge players on these realms to consider moving to the Blaumeux (Pacific Time Zone) and Skeram (Eastern Time Zone) realms.

I realize you want more players on the lowest population servers so that they don’t stagnate and cause a mass exodus of players (and subscription revenue). But you’re really barking up the wrong tree by trying to make this specific recommendation to a target audience of players who by your own admission are choosing to create characters on servers that they already know are full.

Stop to think for a second, isn’t it obvious that these players have absolutely no interest in a low pop server? And if the server does stagnate, those players who caved to the pressure and were originally hoping for a more bustling game community, will be the first to unsubscribe.

You’re doing neither the players a favor nor the game’s chances by making those suggestions to those people.

One thing you could do instead is try to gather and share data and info about the cultures and communities and demographics on ALL servers, including the “Almost Full” servers, so players know what they may be getting into before switching. You are the community manager after all, if anyone can do it it’s you. That would be a display of leadership more likely to earn the respect of the players, rather than what comes across as desperate pissing in the wind (with all due respect, I know you’re trying your best).

WoW classic means a lot to some of us, especially those of us who are growing in age and feel this is a one of a kind opportunity. Many of these players would rather bite the bullet and endure the queue or play during off-hours, on a server that they know will have all the nostalgic drama they crave.

Asking that type of player demographic to switch to the lowest population server would be shooting yourself in the foot, and asking those players to do the same.

Should we be worried that the player-dev relationship is starting off on this foot? We might not have another spare foot to tread on, so let’s not shoot our feet.

[Brewhopper-frostmourne]

So what your saying is that a “Medium” pop realm should actually be labeled as “Full”? Can you imagine if elevator manufacturers had this same mentality?

Sees elevator with “Max Capacity: 10 Persons” warning label
7 persons jump into elevator
Elevator suffers catastrophic failure, everyone dies

Elevator Manufacturer: Oh yeah, we wanted more people to use our elevator so we just decided to deliberately mis-label its maximum capacity shrug

[Haunter-stormrage (Haunter)]

man i struggled through WoD launch, with the several hour queues on a medium pop realm and Lizard Squad DDOSing, I think I can live through a couple hour wait to get into classic. Anyone who in their right mind is expecting not to experience long queues for this is a fool anyway.

[Panzer-mannoroth]

Nost player here! I’d like reasonable numbers of players, I switched off the Nost PvP server as soon as the PvE server opened because 7k concurrent was too many players for me. So yeah, plenty of us want vanilla-like pops.

And yet majority of 7k stayed on nost pvp because they enjoyed the big pop. Pve realm was at 400 people.

[Xcailia-shandris]

I am currently holding on Pagle but my plans are to wait to launch and then move to the lowest PVE realm available at launch, I’m sure there are more people who are planning on doing the same.

[Garae-malygos]

Each of the Full realms has a LOT of characters to the extent that it may be more than can fit into the queue system. As a result, you may not be able to get into the queue when you want to play and even if you do, it will likely be a very long wait.

So for those of us on PVE, we can expect this. Blizzard seems to not care about opening another realm, to allow us to play without having to sit in a queue for hours.

Atiesh - HIGH
Myzreal - HIGH
Mankrik - FULL
Pagle - FULL

So why is Blizzard not opening another realm for the PVE players. This feels a lot like Blizzard catering to the PvP players, like they have in the past so many times.

If there is a legit reason why they are not doing this, some fundamental difference between PVP and PVE, then please let us know. But, don’t just sit back tight lipped, and say or do nothing. A lot of us came back just for this Classic PVE experience.

[Dimitriy-steamwheedle-cartel]

@Dimitriy-steamwheedle-cartel

we highly recommend that players avoid creating characters on any realm marked as Full.

Both of the North American Eastern Time PvE realms are listed as full; it’s not possible to create a character on, or move to realm that isn’t full unless I want to move to a Pacific Time realm, and even those are both listed as being at high population. I’m certain that after launch both Pacific Time PvE realms will reach full and moving to those is pointless; we really need another PvE realm for both Eastern Time and Pacific Time.

Update: Both Mankrik and Pagle are now full, with no other Eastern Time PvE realms to create characters on or move to.

(Side Note: The Pacific Time realms, Atiesh and Myzrael, are currently both at high).

[Bhozzo-lightnings-blade]

They think we will but we wont! We will not leave Herod!

[Taintedheals-emerald-dream (Taintedheals)]

Need like 3-4 more pvp servers
Mabye a eastern rp-pvp

[Jerik-lothar]

@Bornakk

For a better play experience, we highly recommend that players avoid creating characters on any realm marked as Full.

All PvE EST servers are full. We need a new one soon, or the two weeks for name reservation was a total waste of money.

[Lafiel-draka (Lafiel)]

With the way Blizzard has been introducing new realms (one at a time until full, repeat), I am reluctant to coordinate a move for my group of 50 to Blaumeux just to have the population explode to a queue at launch since it will basically be the only server left, why bother moving. It seems better to wait for the actually empty emergency servers to come along, or see how truly bad the queues are (2-5 hours NBD, 8+ after a week yikes). I think the only thing that would change that stance is releasing more servers ahead of launch time, give server launch times so people can name reserve and start over. There just isn’t enough to justify the song and dance of a move for us right now.

[Tiphoon-sargeras]

People are still in denial. Saying it won’t be that bad. Can’t wait for the absolute rage posts to start after release when they sit in an 8 hour que and act like they didn’t have any warnings

[Thaihot-durotan]

This is exactly what’s going to happen. The people who are going to just explode at their keyboards are not even on here yet.

[Trundle-azralon]

Just lock it!

[Maudib-azuremyst]

Why is Blizzard saying “We recommend you do not roll on FULL servers.”

If you own a nightclub, and your capacity is 500 people… you STOP PEOPLE COMING IN at 500. Otherwise YOU are responsible for what may happen.

But yeah… launch is, without a doubt, going to be a fustercluck.

[Bloodscent-bleeding-hollow (Bloodscent)]

Pretty sure medium will have q’s too. Just two hours as opposed to eight.

But your point stands. They should be opening more servers now.

If people prefer a mega server, so be it - stay on high. I’d prefer a low, myself.