Some form of Sharding

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
46

Looks to me like it’s not accepted by as many as before. Nothing changed, just less ppl visiting this and gd forum, waiting for classic.

3 Likes
47

Really? For me it is miles better than it was then, but I put that more on newer tech than anything, but I would want to hear from a tech guy on the differences, all I know is I don’t have the downtime or crashes that plagued the first 2 years.

1 Like
48

I would rather have no sharding at all, even at the start, and deal with the lag and lack of ability to properly quest.
It’s vanilla, that’s the entire point… the inconvenience of people make the game what it is, without that I might as well play solo on my own private server.

2 Likes
49

(bolding by me)

Is this the post you’re referencing? Some people are trying to say there is nothing definitive but it is pretty clear from this post and other posts we will experience sharding at launch.

The biggest question is “how long?” will ActiBlizz use it. It is not about it being an accepted idea, but an accepted stipulation. Evidently, many hardcore Vanilla fans do not want sharding at all but accept that if we want to play Vanilla WoW in Blizzards way, we have to take whatever they give us.

The answer to the question is known only by Blizzard. However, the consequences of the answer is the players. Everyone already talks about how all the tourists will be gone before they hit level 20. However, how many people are going to resub with a token for a month, find out Blizzard dropped the ball in providing an authentic Vanilla experience and bail? How many of these forum posters hyperbole of “if this one minute change is in the game, I’m quitting and never playing another Blizzard game in my life, so help me God!” actually do quit and never come back? How many people just go back to private servers? How many people just don’t find Classic to be to their tastes and move on to the next game?

From Blizzard’s perspective, they just want a smooth launch with people being able to log in on game day and play the game. I guarantee on Classic launch, Asmongold plays WoW:Classic will be on Twitch and they don’t want his server crashing because his entire stream attempts to create level 1s on his server to spam memes.

Personally, I predict a dark future. ActiBlizz doesn’t want to support two MMOs. They want to create Classic to just be modern WoW with Classic database and just work on modern WoW. However, they will forget that their modern systems works on the premise of sharding where you connect users into small groups to minimize the amount of data sharing that needs to happen. When many users are in one location and they have to update to each other in real time, there is multiplicative work the server has to do to get all that information to all players. So the mystery is if Blizzard will want to invest effort into redesigning the systems to allow it to happen.

We can speculate so much about it. Some say that if they see even a glimpse of sharding or phasing after the first week, they are gone. Well, if that is the case, where is the incentive to actually work to remove it? Why not just keep it in and just hold onto the people who will stay subbed a few months. Then the question will be how much money is Classic really making them vs how many people are still playing. If your server dropped all the tourists, purists, or followers–would you still play? Maybe enough people leave that you don’t even notice there is sharding in the game.

I honestly don’t see ActiBlizz investing capital and man hours into redesigning their engine. They just want to change the dashboard from molded plastic and digital instruments back to a walnut burl dash with analog gauges, change the seats, throw some new paint on it and hope you think driving it felt like how you remember.

In my opinion, the best case scenario is somehow people stay content enough with sharding for the increased subs and metrics of people exclusively logging into Classic over a period of months that it gives ActiBlizz enough time to actually come up with a solution such as having exclusive Classic systems that allow for hundreds of players in a location, even if it does mean sacrificing performace and providing what the developer considers a “bad experience”. It is counter-intuitive that players would actually prefer having lag with rubber-banding, disconnects, server crashes.

The worst-case scenario is it doesn’t even survive the first year as there is a mass exodus of players returning to retail, hardcore fans going back to pservers in disgust, casual players back to other games, and the few that do stick it out find out they picked a dead server and either reroll or quit too.

50

Kind of like BfA…

:cocktail:

4 Likes
51

But that isn’t the case though for everyone

52

The Classic community does not approve of sharding. We do not want it in at any point of launch or going forward. There are solutions other than sharding that Blizzard can think of so that sharding will never exist in Classic.
NO SHARDING

8 Likes
53

Getting stuck on a dead server when you don’t want to be is disheartening. Sharding “solved” this, but the real solution would’ve been free server transfers, not this $30 highway robbery $#!%. I know server transfers arnt popular cause they can lead to dead servers but getting caught on one sucks, and free transfers would allow people to find the home they want. No, re-rolling is not reasonable.

Yes I’m aware bliz will never do it

5 Likes
54

Blizzard done exactly this though in Vanilla. I remember lots of free server transfers in vanilla, though luckily my server didnt need it until Cata, when they done server mergers… Now they shard

1 Like
55

I’m at the point where I just want to play the damn game :frowning:

56

While Blizzard did occasionally offer free transfers, I believe the only times they offered “free transfers” was from specific high population realms to specific low population realms.

I do not believe that they ever offered “free transfers” from low pop servers to high pop servers.

2 Likes
57

They done both ways in vanilla. The High pop to low pop was near the start. The Low pop to High pop was near the end.

Edit:
It wasnt really Low to High, but Low to Medium, but you get it.

58

Oh boy another one. Did too much time pass between the last sharding thread?

59

I do not remember them ever offering “free transfers” off low pop servers, but I will take your word that they did.

Perhaps others could provide their recollections, as well.

60

Look at who the OP was and you will have a good idea what the purpose of this thread truly is.

I would also point out that it appears that not one post by the OP has received a like and the the total of 111 likes in this thread are all for posts against sharding.

It would appear that despite the OP’s claims, sharding is not really being “accepted”. This especially true among those who desire a truer classic experience and are not solely concerned with their own convenience.

61

Small nitpick:

Phasing is when the environment changes due to a quest chain. Examples include the Isle of Quel’Danas, much of Icecrown, and your Draenor garrison. There was no phasing in Vanilla.

Sharding is moving player characters on and off servers in a Cross-Realm Zone to balance server loads.

/end nitpick

62

Dude come on. Regardless of topic you have to realize that a couple of random posters agreeing with anyone about anything on this tiny forum does not constitute support and is no way going to start a movement.

1 Like
63

That’s not what sharding is. Cross-realm zones and sharding are two different things. Cross-realm zones combine players from different servers. Sharding creates multiple instances on one server.

64

Yeah. I only used the word phasing because that’s what it makes me think of when things or players phase out of existence and back in.

65

You mean… frustrated by the MMO mechanic in an MMORPG?

6 Likes