Perhaps as a temporary measure RP can relocate to a different city? Word is that Boralus is not sharded (and frankly is a way nicer city)
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Areas outside of major cities don’t appear to be sharded, yeah. There’s still the same massive crowd in Goldshire for example. I think it’s just affecting places like Ironforge, Stormwind, and probably Exodar.
I was under the impression that it was Lion’s Rest and the areas immediately around it due to quest NPCs from pre-patch and intro to SL.
I’d be okay with Dalaran being an RP hub, that brief time during the zombie uprising was fun.
Orgrimmar doesn’t seem to have this problem given that the quest NPCs are more towards the entrance.
It seems like each of my characters is locked into a certain shard as well. My main always logs into the dead shard and my hunter consistently logs into the more populated one. What gives?
Nice mawashi, Mr Slab.
Doesn’t seem to be sharded but at times (off hours/non primetime) more evident that CRZ is happening with folk from other RP servers.
It is 1:30 am and I have tweeted them.
im working on something and here’s a preview… 
The launch of Shadowlands, observed with skeptical expectancy and wistful hope, is a regalling success—players of all backgrounds return to the World of Warcraft and reunite with a game which had once captivated their hearts for years. For some, however, this momentous event is feeling different than they recall previous expansions; for one, they didn’t suffer a 3 hour login queue only for the server to restart and send them to the back of the line; for two, they haven’t seen more than a dozen people since hitting ‘Enter’ on their character page.
Still, the content didn’t disappoint as some worried it might. It was fun, if whimsical with no one else around to enjoy it with—Perhaps they should have came back to this game with a friend? But, wait, they have old friends online in their list. One is in Stormwind, even!
“Hey, what’s up?” they send a private message.
“Selling stuff on the Auction House. You?”
“Nothing much. I finished leveling, want to see my transmog?”
“Sure. I’m in Stormwind, meet me by the Cathedral?”Perhaps the conversation wasn’t as eloquent as this retelling.
Regardless, both players arrive at Stormwind. They discuss in Whispers their experiences thus far; one was feeling very optimistic, the other less-so because they were still weary from their experiences during the Battle For Azeroth. Minutes go by before they both realize:
“Wait where are you?”
“I’m at the Cathedral.”
“So am I?”One right clicks the other’s name and invites them to a party. The other, who had been in a Stormwind filled with people, is instantly transported to their peer’s version of Azeroth.
A mere dozen people were visible in the Alliance’s capital by flying around.
This wasn’t a bug; they were still on their realm. Moon-Guard US. One of the dozen seen was a naked draenei—There could be no mistake, but something was still very wrong.
A Role Playing realm, the veteran player uses an addon to see how many other people in the game with the same profile add-on appear on their map; they see not a dozen, not even the 30-50 that were in their original ‘phase,’ but over one hundred. A mere glance of them all by hovering their mouse cursor over the various ‘dots’ shows familiar names.
Friends, acquaintances, people with nice transmogs that had been seen before, and even enemies that killed them in arenas, were all there on the map—but not visible to our heroes.
Our two heroes were alone, in a quiet phase.
A disjointed neighborhood.
An empty home.
A dead game.
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I just wish I could see more players on my main again. I’m still doing a lot of Shadowlands content, obviously, but I miss seeing people in Stormwind when I arrive to afk for a while. Not to mention; I don’t even see a point in roleplaying at all until it’s turned off and that makes me sad.
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Gotta put that on twitlonger otherwise there’s only 255 letters allowed.
I finished what I was working on 
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/dear-blizzard-how-sharding-is-antithetical-to-mmos/758168
My hope with another thread is that one gets large enough as a wave of support that we can link it to BlizzardCS people and the Devs on twitter for a more substantial discussion.
I’m dearly requesting everyone to share it with friends, comment and add your own sentiments on the issue there, and help give it some lift off.
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Why use many word when few word do trick?
“RPers like socializing, turn sharding off”
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speaking succinctly is for the intellectuals and im a smoothbrain
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We did it! Hotfixes: December 7, 2020 (worldofwarcraft.com) Thank you Blizzard! Thank you everyone! <3 <3
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