My point still stands. They never said that it will never be used for current content. When it was released they said it won’t be used in mists while it’s current and they didn’t. Then they decided they wanted to expand it so they did.
You’re wrong try again.
Yea the singularity is near.
Indeed.
Sadly, I’ve prepared myself for the inevitable failure on Blizzard’s part by implementing it.
You are correct that CRZ does create the illusion of a more populated gameworld.
But at the same time, we’re playing an MMO… not a single-player game. Having a more populated gameworld is a good thing. The presence of all those other players helps the world feel more alive.
You are correct that those cross-server players don’t do much for creating a feeling of server community. But the alternative is staring at empty zones almost devoid of other players. You don’t get much sense of community if you spend most of your time in empty zones either.
I also disagree that sharding has “no redeeming qualities”. If the alternative without sharding is the game is unplayable due to crashes and loot lag from the world server overloading then sharding is a very good thing.
It’s really hard to develop a sense of server community when your server is down and the game is unplayable and the only “community” you’re getting is here on the forums from all the other unhappy players also unable to play.
But that’s not the reason they’re considering sharding. According to Ion it’s because they anticipate a huge amount of players at launch, and then a lot leaving. Their concern is empty servers as a result of having too many servers at launch to accommodate the size of the playerbase, and then losing a bulk of that playerbase.
Besides that, private servers have proven they can handle thousands of players in a small area. I very much doubt Blizzard can’t pull off the same feat.
I disagree.
It’s BECAUSE they expect a huge number of players at launch that sharding is needed. They expect that massive influx of players all in the same start zones will cause servers to crash or become unstable.
Also from what others with private server experience have posted in this thread, every private server experienced crashes and server instability at launch.
Players on pirate servers expect crashes. After all they’re playing for free on a pirated server.
Players have a much greater expectation of server stability for Classic. Classic is an official Blizzard product and costs $15 per month. Blizzard needs to meet expectations and give us a stable product.
Yeah, well that’s not what Ion said. Sharding allows them to use less servers. That’s the reason they’re considering it for launch.
… and that also makes sense.
Would you want lots of servers with 5000 players each, but with 98% of them Retail tourists who go back to Retail. And after the first month your server only has 50 players on it?
Or would you want sharding, and a healthy number of regular players on your server for the long haul.
I’ve never said it doesn’t make sense from that perspective.
I call out people who make the supposition sharding is being done because of server crashes and instability, because…that’s an invention of this forum. It’s not why Ion said they’re considering sharding. And if it was…guess what: it’s not a solution, because similar situations will appear in late game zones. They going to shard there too?
Similarly, I disregard posts by people who want sharding to ease the competition for quests and resources. Again, that’s not why it’s being considered. We dealt with that back in Vanilla. Players deal with it on private servers. You can find youtube videos of players forming lines to wait in turn to kill named quest mobs. Players will find a way.
Hmm do I explain this whole sharding plan to you, or do I just let it go and let you sound ignorant… yeah I’ll go with the latter.
Have fun!
I assure you I know as much as anyone outside of Blizzard about the topic, because I devour every source.
You’re probably misunderstanding what I’m saying. Obviously at a certain point the servers will have stability issues. The less players compacted together the better they’ll run. Maybe sharding will help ease that issue. I’m not saying that’s not possible, or even likely. I’m saying: this is the reason Ion has given us, and that’s what I go by. Now, there was a blue post (I think on reddit or discord) by a cm that kind-of sort-of hinted that it’s being done for stability reasons, but until they enlighten us more officially then I go by what Ion said at Blizzcon. So when people make posts about how, ‘Without sharding the servers will burn to the ground!’ ‘Oh would you rather not play at all if we don’t shard?!’ I just roll my eyes because, for now, that’s based on absolutely nothing. And therefore it’s not a valid argument to make.
And before someone says: it’s based on Vanilla…please educate yourself. Mark Kern said the servers held up fine, but there was backend issue that caused problems. If you read John Staats’ WoW Diary he explains how the servers were incorrectly configured by the manufacturer, and since they were so new and state of the art, no one knew how to fix the problem. Also, there was a bug that recommended new players to the highest populated servers, rather than the lowest, which only exacerbated the population and queue problems. There’s a lot more that goes into the situation than people realize. But they’d rather not delve beneath the surface.
The Barrens is an iconic world PvP zone. Entire boatloads of level 15 alliance will sail to Ratchet with vile intentions!
Seriously though, I don’t think any contested zones should be sharded.
And one week after launch there will be no sharding…
Interesting and unique PvP can happen during the first week.
In contested zones, much better to favor world cohesiveness over other factors. So no sharding should ever occur there. My opinion.
Also I agree sharding should be gone from all zones after a week.
Yes, when I say sharding. I mean only in the starting zones, and possibly
in the next areas after starting zones. But once there are multiple zones
to go to for the same levels. No sharding.
We can have a ingame funeral for you and the apposing faction can raid it and create game drama. You know, for old vanilla sake.
This is one of those things where I’d rather have a stable server than anything else, regardless of the game mechanic involved. Unstable servers effect everyone in the game/server.
Once you leave Northshire, you might see a boat-load of people.
I’m hoping sharding is literally only for the 1-6 areas, but I have a feeling I’m missing some available info here…
Each of those is the breadcrumb that couples with 3-6 other quests in the same area, to do with Kolkar leaders, Raptor nests and the rest. The Barren cycle has a few branches, but a lot of it is fairly linear. It’s just that people are at different stages of a very long path.
Sharding can’t be done in a specific area without Phasing, which they have explicitly said will not be there. Whenever they talk about sharding, they talk about Starter “zones”, which are the greater area. Elwynn Forest, Durotaur, Teldrassil, Tirisfal Glades etc. Without phasing the shard is the zone.