Tbc servers are dying out because of uneven faction pops i think it would be smartest to merge servers with close to equal pop factions for example faerlina and benediciton would be nice to merge the open world is so dead on pvp servers it should be addressed.
Sounds like the pvp player base shouldn’t have made faction mega servers.
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yeah ofc idk how that ish even started faerlina was 60/40 when i joined 4 months ago mega servers and free transfers ruined it bad they shoulda made the transfers free to certain servers with low faction pop
And it was more like 45:55 Horde:Alliance at original launch of WoW Classic.
I don’t think free transfers had much of an impact to be honest. Maybe marginally, but it was already 70:30 Horde:Alliance (raid logs) before free transfers. And, I don’t think there have been any free transfers off for quite some time.
Both growth on the Horde side, and decline on the Alliance side seem pretty consistent over the past several months:
src: https://ironforge.pro/population/tbc/Faerlina/
From my experience, players are very influenced by FOMO and “grass is greener” thinking. They just want to move to the most active server possible, and are willing to pay for that.
The growth of Benediction alliance is directly causing Faerlina alliance to decline. Not the other way around.
Faerlina still has a pretty robust alliance population at this point. But so many players are looking at Benediction and thinking they would be better off there.
It’s a positive feedback loop. Faerlina is or will reach a tipping point, where it truly is hard to find groups, and more will be forced to transfer or quit, etc.
I watched Kirtonos alliance die completely, got a free transfer, went to Faerlina, and now I get to watch this huge server die (or not die… but i doubt it). It is immensely entertaining to watch, and didn’t cost me anything extra.
I’m not sure how much Blizzard is making on TBC for their CEO/shareholders. But it’s possible, that all these players paying for transfers, boosts, etc are the only reason this project is still supported by Blizzard at all. This is a sad truth of many games these days (subscription or free-to-play). A few suckers shell out a lot of money, so that the rest of us can play free or cheaply. Not sure how this all works out morally, but… hey… its what we’ve got.
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idk like phobic said about kirtonos they all got free transfers all the horde went to faerlina if they coulda got free transfer only to a mostly alliance pop server woulda helped more than them going to faerlina.
I would love to see you try to convince people who transfered to bene that this would be a good thing
How could you support the “not the other way around” claim here? (I’m not saying that your claim seems unreasonable, but I don’t think it’s easily verifiable).
In my opinion, the tipping point was prior to free transfers, but I guess it depends on what you mean by tipping point.
The large gap between Alliance and Horde population on Faerlina seemed to have really become pronounced from late September (at least with regards to raid logs). By the time the free transfers came out, it was already around 25:75 Alliance:Horde, iirc.
Sure, it’s possible. I suspect that they could have done a lot more to just milk money from the TBCC community if they really wanted to though, like adding tokens, multiple boosts, store mounts, pets, even base-game fees. But maybe they have some data that suggests server transfers is the most effective, reliable source of income for them. 
What’s your evidence that that’s the reason servers are losing populations?
You make a claim but offer zero evidence to support it.
The reality is there are a multitude of reasons why servers are dying and anyone coming here to tell you there is one big reason is wrong.
You’re right. My view is based on my experience talking to individuals, and as part of a couple different guild-wide transfer discussions.
The driver has always been a desire to have more people for dungeon groups and guild recruitments (in a guild that had an existing raid team). I really don’t hear much about there being too much horde. And honestly, the open world is pretty tame from my experience. Probably thanks to layers.
That’s how I made the conclusion that Benediction’s very existence (as a mega alliance pop) drove the decline of Faerlina.
Benediction had an even faction pop throughout vanilla. It never had a mass exodus of players out of that server. What did happen is masses of alliance from unbalanced servers transferred over there and made it an Alliance pve realm. Evidence indicates balanced pvp servers are more or less stable, and mass transfers happen in unbalanced servers.
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I mean it’s quite possible, and I’m not sure if given enough time, we’ll see either Whitemane or Faerlina become the dominant Horde server. I mean, if a significant chunk of Whitemane Horde transfer to Faerlina, then perhaps the faction balance there will end up being more even like it was, rather than continue trending Horde dominant as it has been since roughly around the time TBCC launched.
That’s a good point. Although we should only look at servers in the same region/rule-set.
If we see horde going Herod → Faerlina, and alliance going Netherwind → Benediction, then you have more evidence that the draw of bigger server faction significantly out weighs effects of being the minority faction.
I can’t prove it, but looks like those types of moves are already happening.
You’re right. There’s a reason why Netherwind is dying, and it’s not because of faction balance for the alliance. Just like Kromcrush died among other horde-dominated servers. I expect many of the other servers to totally die as well and for us to be left with 6 servers with any population by WotLK if not earlier. A huge part of it is a follower element and a grass is greener thing that doesn’t always pan out. I’m definitely not a fan of any of it as I’ve stated many times.
players payed to be on dominant servers.
they might get angry when you cancel out their real-money transfers… i see lawsuits.
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skeram is a prime example as soon as factions became uneven and it was all horde they started to mass exodus.
@griswald you have to lack common sense to believe the main reason isnt the faction population
That guy often replies to threads, is nasty to someone or the general WoW population while putting himself on a pedestal, and then will never come back to the thread again. My assumption is that he likes to be mean and feel better about himself but he can’t take replies to that so he completely ignores them.
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I argee with you that some server if not most need to be merged, but Ferlina and Benediction are the only 2 server i would not touch. Some people want that experience with low pop alliance/horde and filled with their kind so let them have it.
On the other hand all the server with less then 10k users on them should be merged for something close to 50/50 alliance and horde. For exemple take Sulfuras and Westfall servers. both servers have around 5k players but one is alliance heavy and the other horde heavy. when combined makes it a 10k player based with a good ally to horde ratio.
Any server remaining should be closed down to force people on the server with viable population on it. It would also help now player to not make the mistake to join a dead server.
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