That statement makes no sense. If what you said was true then the playerbase would not have grown.
But your prior statement was based on the hypothetical that many/most players will leave shortly after launch. That might happen. Ion thinks it will, and that’s why the’re considering sharding. I’m simply saying let’s imagine that that doesn’t happen. That (God Forbid) the population actually grows after launch. What then? I laid this out in another thread. I see three options.
- Open up new servers. Which will be somewhat effective in dealing with new players, but players aren’t going to abandon their characters. So overpopulated servers remain overpopulated.
- Free transfers to those new servers. This might help somewhat, but I doubt most players will want to pick up and leave and desert friends, guildmates, etc. And getting everyone to agree to leave…good luck.
- Keep sharding.
I think Blizz will choose option 3. Classic’s success will just be an excuse for them to extend sharding for…however long they need, for how ever many situations it’s ‘warranted’.
I’ve said this time and time again, but sharding is not a solution. It’s a band-aid, and it’s only effective if there’s a mass departure of players. Otherwise, the conditions that enable Blizzard to turn it off will never come about.