Server Management and Preventing Ghost Towns [Ironsides Thread][5 Star Thread][Perfect Argument]

[Amangina-hyjal]

I like these threads because I always get the multiple choice question in the topic correct. It’s an ironsides thread. He should really start making the questions harder, I mean, it says his name right next to the post, only an idiot would guess the answer was “5 star thread” or “perfect argument”.

[Ironsides-stormreaver (Ironsides)]

People don’t roll on a given server because they want a certain population. They roll on a specific server because of something or someone already on the server. Streamers, friends, a certain raid team. These are the drawcards to a specific server.

That’s completely untrue. There are players that prefer large servers, there are players that prefer smaller servers, just as there are guilds that will prefer smaller/larger servers.
At game launch, this will not change.

How? You’re basically describing Server Merges. And we know from history that the community did not fare well when servers were merged. Either a) early on people were pissed off because they lost the name they’d used for the last year, and/or b) tribalism ensued either between ‘old server’ groups, or because everyone had an arbitrary surname above their head branding their old server.

I already commented on point A) earlier in the thread.
There would be no arbitrary surname in my description.

Your talking about active cap. Population is the group of people trying to log on. Population is about queues not logged in accounts. If that “Goal 1000k accounts” server has too many people trying to make accounts, how do you stop them. Are you planning on restricting who can make an account after a certain point? “Sorry, your friends all play on Server X, but now that they’ve finally convinced you to play, you have to roll on another server.”

I don’t care about the semantics of the language–my point is understood regardless of saying “active cap” versus “population”. That’s why I said “average pop”.

What you’re bringing up in this is about server queues, which is not what the thread is about. Not sure why you’re bringing it up or asking me to comment on how I’d handle queues.

You’re basically making CRZ writ-large. At a future date you will slam two communities together and suddenly make the population become filled with people you don’t know, who expect your immediate respect because their server respects them. Or the customs of one server directly interfere with the customs of another server (e.g. Ony Head Mount times).

You don’t understand. It’s a potentiality, not a guarantee. Meaning, if things get so dire on a server that there is maybe 3 guilds raiding in total and 5 mans are nearly impossible to get running outside of friday night primetime, two designated servers will be merged together.

I still don’t see how its CRZ at all. A lot of people say this idea is like CRZ, without either fully understanding what I’m putting forth, understanding what CRZ is, or simply wanting to discredit me because they don’t like my post history.

It would be a far better solution to not need to merge servers, by allowing a “super bulge” during launch which settles down afterwards. Sharding is the method they intend to use for that.

It’s not a need. It’s a “just in case”. And it’s an alternative to sharding, which seems to be an issue a lot of people are taking issue with. What exactly is a super bulge…

If, in the unlikely event that servers don’t settle down after launch, adding new servers is definitely the best option, providing transfers from high pop to new realms where they can start fresh without trying to integrate into another existing community.

So in your mind, people on high pop servers should be allowed to transfer to completely fresh servers with zero people on it potentially creating a ghost server?

Well this does sound better then just having to deal with sharding if blizzard doesn’t keep there word, and remove it within one or two weeks.

How long would you keep this in, and how would it handle World pvp, and ranking?

As long as needed for populations to stabilize. 3 months, 6 months, I can’t see into the future to see just how many/how few people classic will actually bring in.

Ideally it would just be merged on a tuesday post honor calculation so world pvp/ranking wouldn’t be affected.

I like these threads because I always get the multiple choice question in the topic correct. It’s an ironsides thread. He should really start making the questions harder, I mean, it says his name right next to the post, only an idiot would guess the answer was “5 star thread” or “perfect argument”.

Please remain constructive in your postings, Amangina.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

What you’re bringing up in this is about server queues, which is not what the thread is about.

Your argument is arbitrarily restricting populations. Unless you’re arbitrarily restriction account creation, preventing people from playing with each other, your going to cause queues. Because of the original point you dismissed, where people choose servers because of something already on the server.

You don’t understand. It’s a potentiality, not a guarantee. Meaning, if things get so dire on a server that there is maybe 3 guilds raiding in total and 5 mans are nearly impossible to get running outside of friday night primetime, two designated servers will be merged together.

Which was the server merge method they replaced with CRZ, because everyone hated dead server mergers.

I still don’t see how its CRZ at all. A lot of people say this idea is like CRZ, without either fully understanding what I’m putting forth, understanding what CRZ is, or simply wanting to discredit me because they don’t like my post history.

Perhaps if no-one understands why you think its an awesome idea, its either a) badly explained, or b) not going to have the effects you claim.

It’s not a need. It’s a “just in case”. And it’s an alternative to sharding, which seems to be an issue a lot of people are taking issue with. What exactly is a super bulge…

Sharding is not a “need” its a “just in case”. Because if they have shard pops of 200-500, and only 300 people are in the zone… there is no shard. However, no-one thinks that Classic is going to be that poorly received, so there will be vastly more people at Classic launch than Vanilla launch ever had at once.

So in your mind, people on high pop servers should be allowed to transfer to completely fresh servers with zero people on it potentially creating a ghost server?

Given that that was the most successful method of alleviating high pop servers in Vanilla, history stands side by side with me. If you give 5 high pop servers the chance to move to a fresh realm, usually people sick of the queues, or looking to establish themselves outside of the shadow of some earlier guild will move. Often a new realm hit Medium pop simply through available server transfers.

This isn’t supposition. Its a successful method that occurred.

[Luceron-thunderlord]

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

I loved him in Dumbo.

[Luceron-thunderlord]

I so saw this coming.

[Ironsides-stormreaver (Ironsides)]

Your argument is arbitrarily restricting populations. Unless you’re arbitrarily restriction account creation, preventing people from playing with each other, your going to cause queues. Because of the original point you dismissed, where people choose servers because of something already on the server.

Restricting Populations? Where did you get that from any part of my post? I’ve said blizzard should label servers as “if you want a high pop roll here, low pop roll here” etc. Nothing with regards to restrictions on population.

With regards to how many high pop servers and how many server clusters there are, that’s not for me to decide or even extrapolate on as I don’t have data on the potential playerbase.

Which was the server merge method they replaced with CRZ, because everyone hated dead server mergers.

Now what reason did they hate it for?
Losing their guild/character names?
Suddenly getting put onto a server with so much population they don’t know who anyone is anymore?
The server was still dead?

Perhaps if no-one understands why you think its an awesome idea, its either a) badly explained, or b) not going to have the effects you claim.

The people who don’t understand are outnumbered by the people that do thus far.

Sharding is not a “need” its a “just in case”. Because if they have shard pops of 200-500, and only 300 people are in the zone… there is no shard. However, no-one thinks that Classic is going to be that poorly received, so there will be vastly more people at Classic launch than Vanilla launch ever had at once.

Sharding is an inevitability, you agree then. Most people would prefer not to have sharding, this would remove that need.

Given that that was the most successful method of alleviating high pop servers in Vanilla, history stands side by side with me. If you give 5 high pop servers the chance to move to a fresh realm, usually people sick of the queues, or looking to establish themselves outside of the shadow of some earlier guild will move. Often a new realm hit Medium pop simply through available server transfers.

This isn’t supposition. Its a successful method that occurred.

Successful in what manner? I remember when Stormreaver was hit by the first transfers off of it we lost our biggest world PvP guild for the horde side, JUICE, and the community took a huge impact. The 2nd transfer off took the remainder of whatever active guilds we had.

I’m not trying to alleviate high population servers in any case. I’m trying to lessen the burden of players that accidentally end up on ghost town servers so they don’t have to reroll if they want a larger playerbase to play with.

[Eloraell-moon-guard]

Now what reason did they hate it for?

Primarily the destruction of established communities. Something you didn’t even address, but is the overriding statement from almost every Vanilla player wanting Classic. The server community was the thing that they most miss and want to recreate, but your cavalier method (which already failed in retail 13 years ago) just ignores the very thing everyone wants to recapture.

The people who don’t understand are outnumbered by the people that do thus far.

Then quit whining that people don’t understand.

Sharding is an inevitability, you agree then. Most people would prefer not to have sharding, this would remove that need.

Sharding is an inevitability, I agree. You don’t seem to, because you’re doing everything you can to claim its avoidable. Blizzard does not stand with you on this. And they’re the ones you have to convince.

Successful in what manner? I remember when Stormreaver was hit by the first transfers off of it we lost our biggest world PvP guild for the horde side, JUICE, and the community took a huge impact. The 2nd transfer off took the remainder of whatever active guilds we had.

Successful in alleviating the overcrowding. Did Stormreaver suddenly become a ghost town?