It splits them in the sense 100% of the population doesn’t cause the world server to go down or in the sense that 100% of the population are competing for the same quest objectives and nobody can get anything done.
It does not split the community in the ability to speak to each other, group with each other or trade with each other.
Does this difference honestly need to be explained?
Sharding “can” split people up during a short period of time for a small number of zones. If we don’t have over a certain number in the zones (one poster has been suggesting a minimum of 400 in a zone before it happens which sounds good), sharding wouldn’t even happen.
Too many servers too fast for an initial demand that doesn’t continue leads to a problem which doesn’t go away after a week or two (or simply by leveling out of Durotar or Elwynn).
The first is less of a concern when you have vanilla server caps and improved hardware and infrastructure.
The second is part of playing an MMO, or at the very least it’s part of vanilla. If you don’t like competition, don’t play Classic.
It just splits them up by effectively making them invisible to one another.
No, I understand the difference between shards and realms. I made that same distinction earlier against someone who described realm merges as long term sharding.
What does need to be explained is why it’s a good thing to ruin competition and break immersion for a problem that will be limited to the opening hours of Classic.
Yes, and that’s a problem.
So… it will happen, then.
Yep, which is why I suggested not creating too many realms and just dealing with queues.
I really don’t see the point in ruining the game, both in terms of its “experience” and its authenticity, just to accommodate a bunch of tourists who don’t want to have to fight over mob tags, even if it’s only temporary and limited to starting zones.
I want that experience. I want a massively MULTIplayer game. If you don’t want to compete with hundreds or thousands of other players, don’t play on launch day.
Yo this is a sweaty thread my god.
If not having sharding causes server crashes, then it’s not goodness at all.
Tukaw,
Please keep your sharding and shidding problems to yourself; these are classy forums.
Irritated Regards,
Jamol
I have a plan for you. How about you just not play until the sharding gets turned off, if they plan on using it.
Also,
I think it would be safer for you to not act like you know what the servers can/can’t handle. If blizzard says they need it, then they need it.
And one more thing
It is a WORSE version of long term sharding. Has all the negative benefits of sharding, plus more.
Sharding is not necessary to preventing server crashes.
Apparently it is with Blizzard’s current tech.
On retail, perhaps.
I’d be perfectly fine with people advocating better tech or hardware, but I’m absolutely opposed to game features being in Classic that were absent in vanilla.
I’ve got news for you…
They’re using the same server architecture for Classic. That’s why they’re porting 1.12 data to the modern client instead of just throwing the old client up for download.
The retail servers and Classic servers are functionally identical, so unless by some miracle Classic does NOT need sharding to remain stable, we can realistically expect Blizzard to use sharding.
No, you don’t.
Then why say what you did when you know full well that the servers are the same type as Retail? It reeks of ignorance.
Because what I said is true. Sharding is not necessary to prevent servers from crashing.
The amount of data communicated between clients and the servers is greater in retail. I’m sure you can infer why that is.
It might not even have anything to do with the data being communicated between client and server though. It could be a problem that’s entirely server-side.
Alright, well I won’t purport to know the Blizzard server situation, but what causes crashes is data overload. They even mentioned it at a Blizzcon Q&A.
Everything that happens has to be communicated to the server, and then to the players around them. More players in the same area exponentially increases the amount of data being communicated. Now imagine all the crazy spells and effects, higher resolution graphics, higher polygon models, and so on.
Obviously that also causes client side lag, but that’s more of a problem for the user than the servers.
Fine. Still, we don’t know how much of an upgrade these servers are as opposed to the original ones that they auctioned off.
If it turns out they do need sharding to keep Classic stable, I’d rather they use it. If they don’t need it at all, though? For God’s sake, keep it turned off.
That’s my stance and it’s been my stance ever since the issue first cropped up. It’s not changing.
True, but the solution to that would be for Blizzard to upgrade their servers.
I agree with the latter part, at least.
I agree with the title of the thread, though. I’d rather the servers crash sometimes than have sharding.
I just don’t want crashing servers and login qeues. Those weren’t fun the first time, they won’t be fun this time especially since there’s tech they can use to avoid them.
Nor I. I just think sharding is worse.