Actually, they all solve the problem, just not in a way that those retail tourists or those that are only concerned with their own convenience like.
How does releasing Classic and a major BFA patch not address the initial rush in a “meaningful manner”?
Give me one of those suggestions please and I will tell you why it’s WAY worse than sharding. The only suggestion I have heard that could possibly fix it even remotely is adding a box price for early play-ability to spread out the populations and even still that isn’t a guarantee but a guess on how it could work.
Probably because that’s a very large and specific programming, marketing, and other, project for Blizzard to invest heavily in… just to avoid using a technology that some people are up in arms over, for two weeks, in starting zones, at launch.
I mean, really… you don’t see coordinating both the simultaneous launch of Classic alongside a BFA major patch – which requires either one, OR the other, be held up if either isn’t ready at the time (and ALL of the work that has to go into both, on top of making sure it’s all done by a merging same date) – is a highly prissy demand?
We get it.
You are only concerned with your own convenience and cannot be bothered to wait until the initial rush has passed. Sharding is the only possible solution in your mind. Waiting until the initial rush has passed and sharding is no longer necessary is not an option for you.
You are apparently far more important in your own mind than those that have, for over a decade, requested a truer Classic expereince.
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.
No, co-ordinating the release of two games is not rocket science or a major undertaking.
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.
edit: I’ve been playing Vanilla on PServers for two years - before the official announcement - and I am fine with the concept of limited sharding for the launch (read: STARTING ZONES) for a limited time to help improve the process that i’ve seen recently enough with my own eyes, to know that it can be a real poop-show.
It’s like you didn’t read anything I said and you are just going into a tantrum mode, similar to a child like I said before.
I. Do. Not. Want. Sharding. Sharding. Bad. No sharding. Good.
BUT, if they have sharding planned for what they said they have it planned for I will TOLERATE it because I understand, as an adult, that it may be necessary. Do I like paying taxes? Hell no. But I realize that I have to do it and realize there is a necessity for them.
You just keep pissin and moanin and see how far it gets you, you know you’ll play at launch anyway so why are you even talking.
Having a high number of servers leaves us open to a very large potential issue.
I’m fully expecting a large number of players to try it out, coming over from the current iteration of the game (which is a good thing). What if this great number of servers is flooded with people, and only 40% of them stick around, with the rest going back to retail WoW?
Having lots of servers with low populations isn’t going to be great for the game either.
This is one of those topics where there isn’t a clear cut solution that has no downsides.
You don’t even know whats going on. They never said this is why they are having sharding at launch you moron. They are putting in sharding so they can increase cap sizes at the start so there will be a healthy population on each server once the tourists leave.
JFC you don’t even understand what’s going on and you still think you can have an opinion on the matter and not look like a total fool.
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?
You mean similar to your want of ‘instant’ gratification of wanting your server the way you want it at the cost of possibly creating dead servers and not just waiting a couple weeks to play? That’s really funny.
What are the “starting zones”? What is a “limited time”?
Blizzard already stated that "one of the tenets of Classic WoW is none of the cross-server realms and different [server] sharding options that we have available to us today. " How did that work out if they are now even considering using sharding?
We have all seen how well Blizzard honors their word, or more accurately, doesn’t honor their word.
As I said before, Blizzard cannot “unring” the “sharding bell”. They can, however, find a way to address the anticipated initial rush without ringing that bell.
I’ve stated my opinion on this many times. I’m OK with sharding the starting zones because I do believe it’s important to have a launch that is a successful as possible.
That being said, because you should at least look at the other side to have an argument that holds water. When exactly has an MMO had a successful launch? You will be hard pressed if you were there from the start to find one that didn’t have issues. They can shard all they want in the starting zones. I’m going to say right now that launch will have issues regardless.
Now, after launch, along with the OP, I will not support any sharding. I still support the no sharding what so ever crowd, but realistically at launch, I can see it being effective. If they mess this up with continued sharding, then I’ll just continue to keep my eyes on Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, which has already stated there will be ZERO sharding in Pantheon.
Right, but the “solution” (sorry, I think this is a joke really) of having Blizzard coordinate launching a major content patch, at the same time as Classic Launch as a means to “solve” the problems of new player inundation at Classic Launch, is a RIDICULOUS use of resources, and internal/external coordination, and will likely just result in Classic’s launch being delayed.
Blizzard could set the players per shard cap at a substantially higher level – but low enough that it isn’t a thousand players in Northshire Abbey all trying to kill the same 20 mobs that, even if everyone was in a 5 man group, would still take ungodly time and luck to complete. That is not the makings of a successful launch.
Your mentioned solution to avoid “ringing that bell” is preposterous, in my opinion, and seems very narrow in the grand scheme of things – like wasted resources, bottom lines, etc. No offense intended, but sorry.
As for starter zones, I think zones like all character starting zones (Elwynn, Durotar, etc. do i really have to name these) and perhaps the immediate subsequent zones (Westfall, Loch Modan, Darkshore, Redridge) should also be. I’ve been thru launches like 3 times over the last two years - most recently in June - and that was not a Blizzard official, advertised launch - but it was chaos for days. I’d argue a week+ but lets say days. Good luck doing ANY quest that involved an escort, or getting your Deadmines quest gear from the chain when you have a thousand players standing on top of the Traitor for days at a time.
After seeing all that — yea, I’m a go for limited sharding. Sorry
Yea I agree. Nobody wants to play in a “dead” server but a game launch is very different. I think Blizzard will balance it so it doesn’t feel dead, but at the same time, not too overly populated where it causes lag and unable to finish quests at the beginning zone. Also, expect to not get to play right away at launch as well. People will probably have to wait in queue at the login screen.
The difference is one mindset creates an authentic Vanilla experience, and one doesn’t.
Earlier you said, ‘Wait a few weeks until sharding is turned off.’ Well, you could simply wait a few weeks (more likely days) until the population in the starting days thins out so you don’t have to compete as much over quest objectives. Problem solved. Why should authenticity be sacrificed for your convenience?
Fair enough, but this sentiment goes both ways. Guess we’ll see which Blizzard goes with! ![:rofl:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/rofl.png?v=6" ":rofl:")
Once again, because it seems you people can’t read. I do not want sharding. Period. Understand this before you comment again.
Second, think of the reason that blizzard wants sharding. It doesn’t matter what I want or what retailers want or what you want. Blizzard wants sharding so they can make servers have healthy populations after tourists leave. Period. This has nothing to do with conveniences. You need to get this thought out of your head that blizzard is adding sharding for retailers so they have room to quest because that isn’t the case and they even said this.
Understand the argument before you start arguing
What ridiculous use of resources?
Blizzard is already using those resources to develop both Classic and major BFA content patches. Co-ordinating the release of those two projects doesn’t necessarily increase the amount of work done on either of them.
As for “delaying the release”, how many times in recent history has Blizzard “delayed” any release? How many times has Blizzard released “unfinished” expansions or patches rather than delay those releases to complete them?
You claim to support sharding only in the starting areas, but already you are pushing for sharding to be used, at the very least, throughout the secondary areas (Westfall)–areas which are hardly “starting areas”?
What happens when STV has hundreds of people all trying to complete the Nesingwary quests and waiting for those elites to respawn? Should Blizzard extend sharding to those areas?
They’re not having sharding after the initial launch. How is that a problem for you? Like others said here, just don’t play the first 2-3 weeks. Sharding will not be permanent.
The only other alternative is having temporary realms that that shut down and merge into other realms. The population drop will be too big, even if Classic is a huge hit. This isn’t 2004 when the population just went forever upward.