This could very well be the case and if so then there is no problem there. We’ll just have to chew through the regular queue with all the Hyjal players returning for Shadowlands. That’d be just fine. The queue times are not my only concern though. What happens to the economy on either realm? If Proudmoore is really a safe space for LGBTQ people will this connection affect that in a negative way? With this connection Proudmoore/Hyjal will have one of the highest populations of any server, perhaps even the highest. Will trade chat just be spam spam spam and more spam? I’ve played a little bit on servers like Illidan and Zul’jin and moved off them because I felt lost in the clamour of advertisers and just genuinely sour people talking in trade/general.
To back up some of my assumptions/concerns here is where I got my data from.
Keep in mind this data is most likely old and does not come from Blizzard themselves. All I have to go on is what WoWProgress has listed. And so far it looks like this connection will have a player population four times higher than the next set of connected realms. Again this data set appears to be from around the Crucible of Storms raid so it may not reflect current data. If Blizzard could maybe give us a look at what they have for data we could have a more informed discussion but this is what we have to work with.
WoWProgress -> Realms -> Sort by population*
The asterisk there states:
"* Population - amount of unique players that meet any of the two conditions:
- has a level 110 character that killed something in Tier 24 Heroic Mode
- has a level 110 character in a guild that killed something in Tier 24 Heroic Mode"
With this data we see that Proudmoore has an assumed alliance population of 14503 and Horde at 957 ranking them ninth overall for population. Hyjal on the other hand has an assumed population of 6773 horde players and 471 alliance players for a population of 16th overall. Connected Hyjal and Proudmoore will have a player population of 22704 ranking it third overall. The next highest pop. connected realm, according to this data, is Nagrand/Caelestrasz at 5438 total with 2313 horde and 3125 alliance and 23rd overall population rank. Proudmoore/Hyjal will have 4 times the population of the next highest connected realms. I am almost 100% certain that I am way off with my assumptions but again at first glance with this old data it does not look good.
There will be a large influx of CE guilds as Proudmoore currently has 24 with CE and 9 more well on their way. Hyjal has 13 CE guilds with 3 more working on N’zoth. With a large influx of cutting edge raiders coming in how will that affect prices of trade goods, pots, flasks etc. As a semi-hardcore CE raider will I still be able to afford to flask and pot every raid? Will I be able to have a viable alt to run with a second group and afford flasks/pots for them? Will BoE prices be insanely high or insanely low? With a full server coming in will there be people everywhere yumming up all the herbs/ore/skins? Will I be able to farm mats for myself and my guildmates without having to spend even more time than I already do?
From Wowpedia:
“All realms in a Connected Realm share a common Auction House. All realms in a Connected Realm share a common Trade Chat.”
From WoWWiki:
"As of Warlords of Draenor, all Auction Houses are connected between factions.
"
We have to remember that these are 2 realms that are functioning perfectly fine on their own. Yes there is a massive faction imbalance and that seems unfair for the assumed 1428 people that are affected by it. But of those 1428 how many are active on ONLY Proudmoore or ONLY Hyjal? Or how many of them are active AT ALL? It would be nice to hear from someone who is on the opposite side of the faction imbalance on these servers and get their opinions. Connecting these two realms also does not fit in with:
Neither of these realms could be considered “low-population”. Also, break out your tinfoil hats here but since this connection seems to be added on at the last minute as per:
One of these things is not like the others. It may just be a minor mistake but shouldn’t it read “The Hyjal realm will join the Proudmoore Realm”. Is this a conspiracy to cause mass transfers off either realm? Are we an experiment to see how much cash a connection like this can generate? Who knows? But with gaming companies looking to squirt every last dollar out of their products its not out of the realm of possibilities. In no way is this accusatory just food for thought! 