Sharding puts Vanilla gameplay second (anti-sharding anthology)

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

Gameplay FIRST.
Source: Blizzard Mission Statement

Edit: at the end of my post is a list of links I have found on how harmful the community feels sharding will be on authentic Vanilla gameplay. If you would like to include a link, post it below and I will add it to the OP. Thanks for reading.

The gameplay of Vanilla WoW was all about community. It created a place “where everybody knows your name.”

In modern WoW gamplay, no one cares who you are, largely due to sharding and other modern conveneniences. No one needs you. You don’t need anyone to play modern WoW.

Vanilla gameplay was about making friends while adventuring in Azeroth and needing friends to progress in the game.

With the use of sharding, authentic Vanilla gameplay is put second, behind managing server population.

I’ve read comments that hold up sharding as the only way we be able to play Classic WoW. I don’t accept this premise. We should not simply let a cloud-based infrastructure solution (which makes sharding possible) kill Vanilla gameplay.

I manage cloud-based infrastrucure for a living. While every company has its own unique customer requirements to make its business successful, there are many ways to implement a microservices-based architecture with load balancing and auto-scaling. It’s just a means to an end.

I don’t pretend to know how Blizzard should solve this problem. But I do know that the end goal should NOT be an incredible “load balancing and auto-scaling” server population solution. It should be gameplay - in the case of WoW Classic, authentic Vanilla gameplay.

I also know (as a Blizzard gamer for 15 years), Just because something is possible and solves one problem (i.e. server population) doesn’t mean it’s fun gameplay. It’s certinaly not Vanilla gameplay. We need other options.

One option proposed is to use sub realms (one realm with sub realms, later merged):
https://i.gyazo.com/8e1f4a5679ee53277cbc76f1cef6f276.png

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/9tuwwg/demo_sharding_megathread/

Preach and LessThanEpic have videos below which mention this alternative solution using sub realms. Black Desert Online apparently uses a Realm with sub-realms “physical sharding” solution, where instead of sharding players in one realm, a single realm is broken into sub realms and later transparently merged, preserving names and allowing players to login to any sub realm anytime.

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/b74lst/to_the_tenacious_nochanges_posters_thank_you/ejpvewf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app

When sharding is used, I believe it will not be limited, since if it solves server load in one area, it will be necessary anywhere server load is a problem (e.g., cities, other highly populated zones like STV or EPL and the AQ event).

If sharding is needed in starting zones with load, it is more likely to be utilized - not eliminated. Here is an example of a sharding algorithm and how auto-scaling tech like sharding can function:

Sharding makes Vanilla gameplay feel INAUTHENTIC. It kills community and immersion. It turns potential friends into obstacles and makes them disappear them from the world.

In Vanilla, I would have reached out to a fellow player next to me (somone I may have seen before in fact) to group up and share a quest item or XP. Sharding, however, short-circuits fostering community by removing that player and potential friend from the world altogether and turns them into a random ghost who I may never see again.

Sharding eliminates the need to group up and connect with people (and create friends), therefore diminishing the foundation of Vanilla gameplay: community.

I don’t want to be forced again to sacrifice my Vanilla gameplay. I don’t want to see people removed as obstacles and turned into ghosts with sharding. I already lost the community-based WoW I loved to convenience-based, solo-play modern WoW.

Grouping up - and not separating players into shards - was the Vanilla way to solve high zone population in Vanilla WoW.

Players in Vanilla were people in your neighborhood realm that were necessary to progressing in the game - not removed from the game.

I just want (Vanilla) gameplay FIRST.

Articles:

[J. Allen] Brack is clear that using modern server architecture doesn’t mean that these Classic servers will have the same features that current World of Warcraft does. There won’t be cross-realm servers or Looking For Raid and Dungeon Finder automatic party matchmaking. There’s still a lot of questions about how the team will tackle it, but Brack says they’re committed to recreating an authentic Vanilla World of Warcraft experience. “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. There’s a lot of desire on part of the community that this is something that they don’t want.”
https://www.pcgamer.com/this-is-how-blizzard-plans-to-finally-bring-back-vanilla-wow-servers/

YouTube:

Twitter:

Forums:

Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/b74lst/to_the_tenacious_nochanges_posters_thank_you/ejpvewf/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app

https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/9up0t0/whats_up_with_classic_wow_what_is_sharding_and/

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/9tsidk/the_thing_that_concerns_me_more_than_sharding/

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/b2bswg/blizzard_is_misleading_us_with_sharding/

https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/9tuwwg/demo_sharding_megathread/
57 Likes
2

Ugh another thread on this. We get it. You have an opinion. You didn’t need to make another thread about it.

Sharding will be temporary. That has already been said and beaten to death and then some.

29 Likes
3

My Vanilla WoW experience didn’t involve 10,000 people in Durotar on launch. So unless you want the ‘authentic experience’ of dead realms being forced to merge, gotta roll with the punches.

16 Likes
4

Stop assuming it’s going to be temporary because Blizzard said so

47 Likes
5

If you can’t take them at their word, why are you even bothering with any of their products?

15 Likes
6

Take them at their word?

Do you mean their word when they said that one of the tenets of classic is none of the CRZ or sharding that are used in retail?

13 Likes
7

There’s a news article linked in one of these sharding threads that explains how Blizzard said they’d remove sharding on RP realms and silently reintroduced it. (Edit: Verify this for yourself, I can’t find the link and that may not be the case)

You think you do, but you don’t.

PvE to PvP realm transfers will NEVER be allowed.

Character faction transfers will NEVER be allowed.

It’s not that Blizzard isn’t allowed to change their mind, it’s that they often make statements with high levels of confidence that seem to be absolute, but turn out to be wrong or change their mind later quite often.

It’s not paranoid to not take them at their word, given their history, it’s prudent.

16 Likes
8

They went out of their way to reintroduce spell batching, and y’all still twitching over the conspiracy theory that they will leave it on?

Yikes fellas

17 Likes
9

Post-launch? Yeah I do.

2 Likes
10

They already stated that they don’t want to have sharding, but given the fact that launch is going to be an utter Sh!t show, I can understand why they would have to use it.

4 Likes
11

Spell batching isn’t sharding. #NoSharding

5 Likes
12

I don’t like sharding, but Blizzard’s stated reasons for it aren’t about convenience. They’re about not running into problems with another major deal in Vanilla: server communities.

What they want to avoid is dead and dying servers, which is something we had problems with even back in real Vanilla when growth was rampant.

So long as they stick to their word that it’ll only be at launch, I can live with it.

10 Likes
13

I think you missed my point honey =D

3 Likes
14

Your point is pointless :nail_care:

3 Likes
15

I guess it’s pointless to those who don’t understand it :man_shrugging:

6 Likes
16

Dagum rogues

1 Like
17

That news article says they said they planned on having sharding in current zones but had it turned off for other zones unless technical issues forced it to be used.

18

Thanks for clarification.

19

Untrue. They straight up said from the start the RP realms will be sharded in current content, player driven events, and when it is needed for server stability, but it will be turned off by default.

People took this as. “BLIZZ SAID SHARDING WILL BE TURNED OFF ON RP REALMS FOREVER AND THEY LIED”

Edit: My bad I see the dude above me clarified

1 Like
20

Yep, I misunderstood and edited my post. Thanks for letting me know, I couldn’t find the news article to verify.

1 Like