Sharding in classic is GAME BREAKING

Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel · January 10, 2019, 10:21pm

If we have sharding for 2 months I’ll quit and blizzard will never see another dollar.

Tailwynd-elune · January 10, 2019, 10:25pm

Ok, as I just said in my post above that I’ve experienced this not once - but three times - in the last two years - playing Vanilla. Granted, there will be more servers when Blizz launches their servers (vs. a singular private server) but we don’t even know how many servers they plan to launch, so we are all playing a guessing game. If they don’t launch numerous servers (and I don’t know how many that needs to be but let’s say greater than 5), this congestion will be enormous.

But whatever - we’ll see either way.

Piddy-uther · January 10, 2019, 10:27pm

No, you’ve experienced three times on private servers. And it’s just not the same thing. Really, different environment. People tolerate that as they have no where else to go. In Vanilla, people left busy servers for quitter ones. It was more self-policing that way.

Tailwynd-elune · January 10, 2019, 10:27pm

Please elaborate on what is different. Thank you.

If “other servers” is your definition, well – there are quite a few private servers.

edit: sorry i mean that more like “thank you in advance” because I’m running out of the office for the day and won’t read a reply til tomorrow

Mogar-stormrage · January 10, 2019, 10:40pm

By the way, as far as the concern about low pop servers as a result of not sharding. I don’t think it’s fair to try to equate low pop BfA servers to low pop Classic servers. In BfA the population is split up between Aeroth, Outland, Northrend, Pandaria, Draenor, Broken Isles and BfA zones. In Classic it’ll just be Azeroth.

So even a low pop Classic servers will look and feel a lot healthier than a low pop BfA server.

Avarond-dalaran · January 10, 2019, 10:45pm

We’ve gone from two weeks to two months.

Piddy-uther · January 10, 2019, 10:49pm

Not to the extent that Blizzard provided. Also, since folks are playing for free, they put up with a lot more than folks that are paying.

Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel · January 10, 2019, 10:52pm

I love how people keep trying to move the goal posts on us. At first it was 1 to 10 and 2 weeks and now some want 2 months and all non contested zones. Heck some probably want all zones.

People will also want aq sharded.

Fesz-cenarius · January 10, 2019, 10:54pm

And from the, as yet undefined, “starting areas” to the secondary areas for some people, “as many zones as necessary” for at least one person who sees all those other people in an MMO as nothing but obstacles in their way, even all the way up to level 60 zones for some.

Fesz-cenarius · January 10, 2019, 10:56pm

Some people already want AQ sharded, as well as any other area they feel is too “congested” or " inconvenient".

Even one of the biggest proponents of sharding who sees all those other players in an MMO as nothing but obstacles in their way has gone from “just the starting areas at launch” to “as many (zones) as necessary”.

Grognog-wyrmrest-accord · January 10, 2019, 10:57pm

AFAIK they never said they would turn it off.

What they said: “we do believe that some form of sharding may be helpful, especially in those early days.”

I read this as it being a guarantee that sharding will be a thing at launch, and then “we’ll see” after that. Which can mean any number of things.

Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel · January 10, 2019, 10:59pm

If they announce permanent sharding they would kill classic before it ever goes live.

Fesz-cenarius · January 10, 2019, 11:07pm

I agree that they cannot announce sharding will be used permanently throughout the world at this time.

I foresee them:

1.) getting caught using sharding well outside the starting areas and well beyond launch and trying to pass it off as a “bug” which they will “fix”

2.) “fixing” the “bug”, at least temporarily

3.) repeat numbers 1 and 2 several more times

4.) eventually announcing that sharding is here to stay and working as intended once they feel enough of the player base is sufficiently invested to continue playing despite the “totally antithetical to vanilla” sharding.

Grognog-wyrmrest-accord · January 10, 2019, 11:10pm

@ Fesz I was just drafting a comment describing pretty much the same scenario (e.g., Feralas, 3 months after launch).

Sharding is a dealbreaker for me as well. Static server communities are the only thing that interest me about Classic.

I’m concerned that the devs don’t understand what made Classic great. It certainly wasn’t zhevra hooves and 2-mechanic MC bosses. It was interacting with the same people every day in a shared game world. The game engine needs to be able to accommodate that at all times if it ever wants to legitimately compete with private servers.

Cipherr-stormrage · January 10, 2019, 11:38pm

Fesz:

Tailwynd:

Fesz:

No more prissy than expecting Blizzard to cater to the retail tourists and those who are only concerned with their own convenience and who Blizzard acknowledges will likely abandon the game.

See, but you’re generalizing… because I’ve seen plenty of people who have been clamoring for Classic before Classic was announced, who SINCE launch, don’t think sharding (for the limited time as represented above, in the ascribed manner) is that bad. In short – not just “retailers”.

Not everyone agrees, so this is not just “retail tourists” only – in fact, it seems rather petulant and childish to keep throwing that term around. You aren’t better than anyone else here, so I don’t know who you think that kind of talk is impressing.

We have a group of hundreds of thousands who have, for ever a decade, been requesting a truer Classic experience.

There is a group of players that even Blizzard refers to as tourists. A good portion of this group is players that are only concerned with their own convenience and have an instant (figure of speech, not literally “instant”) gratification, convenience oriented mindset. Most of this group are retail players. Much of this group see all those other players in an MMO as nothing but obstacles in their way and expects Blizzard to remove those obstacles in Classic as Blizzard has done in retail.

Now, even Blizzard admits that a large portion of the tourists are going to abandon the game. Why should the first group that has been requesting, for over a decade, have to “suffer” (see server populations artificially segregated) in order for Blizzard to try to cater to people they don;t even expect to play long term, that they expect to simply abandon the game?

First of all this is stupid. Sharding isnt being put in to “cater to the tourists” its being put in to save the classic servers after the swarms of tourists leave the freaking game. Its not something used to please tourists, its used to clean up the inevitable mess they will make so we can all enjoy classic after those crazies move back to retail.

I love how you keep trying to mischaracterize it as some sort of “gift” to the tourists to make it sound devious, when what it really actually achieves is stabilization after those guys leave. We dont need empty servers that fail when the tourists leave…

Period.

And Blizz and Ion arent going to allow it to happen. Sometimes I wonder if you guys are just pretending to care about classic, while trying to tank it secretly. Nothing would achieve that faster than 50 empty servers post launch…

Mogar-stormrage · January 10, 2019, 11:40pm

You need to consider maybe it’s not Ion’s call.

Fesz-cenarius · January 10, 2019, 11:42pm

Cipherr:

Fesz:

Tailwynd:

Fesz:

No more prissy than expecting Blizzard to cater to the retail tourists and those who are only concerned with their own convenience and who Blizzard acknowledges will likely abandon the game.

See, but you’re generalizing… because I’ve seen plenty of people who have been clamoring for Classic before Classic was announced, who SINCE launch, don’t think sharding (for the limited time as represented above, in the ascribed manner) is that bad. In short – not just “retailers”.

Not everyone agrees, so this is not just “retail tourists” only – in fact, it seems rather petulant and childish to keep throwing that term around. You aren’t better than anyone else here, so I don’t know who you think that kind of talk is impressing.

We have a group of hundreds of thousands who have, for ever a decade, been requesting a truer Classic experience.

There is a group of players that even Blizzard refers to as tourists. A good portion of this group is players that are only concerned with their own convenience and have an instant (figure of speech, not literally “instant”) gratification, convenience oriented mindset. Most of this group are retail players. Much of this group see all those other players in an MMO as nothing but obstacles in their way and expects Blizzard to remove those obstacles in Classic as Blizzard has done in retail.

Now, even Blizzard admits that a large portion of the tourists are going to abandon the game. Why should the first group that has been requesting, for over a decade, have to “suffer” (see server populations artificially segregated) in order for Blizzard to try to cater to people they don;t even expect to play long term, that they expect to simply abandon the game?

First of all this is stupid. Sharding isnt being put in to “cater to the tourists” its being put in to save the classic servers after the swarms of tourists leave the freaking game. Its not something used to please tourists, its used to clean up the inevitable mess they will make so we can all enjoy classic after those crazies move back to retail.

I love how you keep trying to mischaracterize it as some sort of “gift” to the tourists to make it sound devious, when what it really actually achieves is stabilization after those guys leave. We dont need empty servers that fail when the tourists leave…

Period.

And Blizz and Ion arent going to allow it to happen. Sometimes I wonder if you guys are just pretending to care about classic, while trying to tank it secretly. Nothing would achieve that faster than 50 empty servers post launch…

How else would you classify Blizzard using a technology that even they admit is totally antithetical to vanilla (one that is practically universally despised by those who desire a truer Classic experience) in order to ensure that those tourists are “not all fighting over the same few mobs” in the Valley of Trials or Elwynn?

Cipherr-stormrage · January 10, 2019, 11:45pm

Fesz:

Cipherr:

Fesz:

Tailwynd:

Fesz:

No more prissy than expecting Blizzard to cater to the retail tourists and those who are only concerned with their own convenience and who Blizzard acknowledges will likely abandon the game.

See, but you’re generalizing… because I’ve seen plenty of people who have been clamoring for Classic before Classic was announced, who SINCE launch, don’t think sharding (for the limited time as represented above, in the ascribed manner) is that bad. In short – not just “retailers”.

Not everyone agrees, so this is not just “retail tourists” only – in fact, it seems rather petulant and childish to keep throwing that term around. You aren’t better than anyone else here, so I don’t know who you think that kind of talk is impressing.

We have a group of hundreds of thousands who have, for ever a decade, been requesting a truer Classic experience.

There is a group of players that even Blizzard refers to as tourists. A good portion of this group is players that are only concerned with their own convenience and have an instant (figure of speech, not literally “instant”) gratification, convenience oriented mindset. Most of this group are retail players. Much of this group see all those other players in an MMO as nothing but obstacles in their way and expects Blizzard to remove those obstacles in Classic as Blizzard has done in retail.

Now, even Blizzard admits that a large portion of the tourists are going to abandon the game. Why should the first group that has been requesting, for over a decade, have to “suffer” (see server populations artificially segregated) in order for Blizzard to try to cater to people they don;t even expect to play long term, that they expect to simply abandon the game?

First of all this is stupid. Sharding isnt being put in to “cater to the tourists” its being put in to save the classic servers after the swarms of tourists leave the freaking game. Its not something used to please tourists, its used to clean up the inevitable mess they will make so we can all enjoy classic after those crazies move back to retail.

I love how you keep trying to mischaracterize it as some sort of “gift” to the tourists to make it sound devious, when what it really actually achieves is stabilization after those guys leave. We dont need empty servers that fail when the tourists leave…

Period.

And Blizz and Ion arent going to allow it to happen. Sometimes I wonder if you guys are just pretending to care about classic, while trying to tank it secretly. Nothing would achieve that faster than 50 empty servers post launch…

How else would you classify Blizzard using a technology that even they admit is totally antithetical to vanilla (one that is practically universally despised by those who desire a truer Classic experience) in order to ensure that those tourists are “not all fighting over the same few mobs” in the Valley of Trials or Elwynn?

Because if you listen to the freaking answer to his question he clarifies that the reason for the sharding in the starting area isnt really about the number of resources; its about server populations.

Did you listen to the question he was asked? It was about server populations. Did you hear what he said before he mentioned sharding? He said they don’t want empty servers down the line. The sharding will help with starting area resources but thats not its purpose. Its primary purpose is to accomodate large pops on single servers temporarily that can later have said sharding disables when the pop settles because the tourist go home.

You seriously need to take a chillpill and watch the Q&A again.

Matcauthon-steamwheedle-cartel · January 10, 2019, 11:56pm

Is it hard for you to understand some of us hate sharding?
Is it hard for you to understand that sharding is about the exact opposite of what classic is all about?
Is it hard for you to understand that blizzard has lied to us about sharding in the past and thus we have huge trust issues?
Is it hard for you to understand that we want to make sure blizzard sticks to there word on sharding only 1 to 10 and only 2 weeks maximum? Especially when you have other people asking for anything between sharding for 2 months to perm sharding and also asking for sharding for anything between all non contested zones and just sharding everyrhing?

Padrepwn-kiljaeden · January 11, 2019, 12:32am

Wish there was a way to shard the needless repeat quoting of entire posts.
Especially when the forum is set up so you can see who is replying to who.
Old dogs. New tricks… LOL

Don’t want sharding but I do see the advantages to using it to deal with the rush.
I’d be happy if it’s a cluster bomb idc.

I can tag some mobs spawning.
I’m not worried about my connection, machine, or awareness/reaction time of myself or others.
Bring it!
I am however worried about the long term.
Temporary sharding the starter zones and increased caps seem quite feasible to me in maintaing healthy pops after people have played their fill and moved on.
Please no dynamic spawn increases.