The last realm connection was over a year ago. When will we see more realm connections?

Community General Discussion
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(I posted this as a bump to an old thread but I realized it needed its own thread).

Concerned Azeroth citizen here. Question for the devs (or whoever reads these forums): are we going to see any more realm connections? The last one was over a year ago.

It doesn’t make much sense why you just stopped connecting realms (mid-process?). There are still realms with only 1 other connection (like the one a lot of my alts are on, Shu’halo), and there are realms with even worse fates - realms like Gallywix and Earthen Ring cannot be considered healthy in an MMO setting. These realms did not have higher populations than many of the realms that were connected.

Even Turalyon, which was a healthy standalone server a few years ago, does not return 50 Alliance players at primetime on Tuesday with a /who query. When you did your “evaluation” of server population over a year ago, did you forget about Gallywix, Earthen Ring, and Turalyon, Blizzard?

If you look at WoWProgress, every realm/realm connection group ranked 62 and worse is a realm or group of two realms who were not connected in last year’s batch. It feels like the choices of who was connected were completely arbitrary, and it seems pretty unfair to the people who stuck with their old realms to not connect their realms.

The question begs to be asked, were some realms left to languish in order to keep a few of the realms in the “low” category in order to make the other realms “higher” population in the realm status algorithm? Does Blizzard even realize how dire the situation on some of their realms is?

Realm connections work. Finish the job, Blizzard. Connect all the realms (except the highest pop ones, of course). This is a pressing topic that needs to be addressed by you. No more silence.

Oh, and one more thing - realm forums are still not fully connected after the last batch of realm connections over a year ago. Is there anyone even paying attention to this website? Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

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There was a post in September on bulk transfers but no news since I think.

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There was a problem one of the last times they did realm connections, they may be holding off fearing a repeat.

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Once the sub loses stabilize we might see more connections.

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I remember that, but I see lots of Khadgar players in my CRZ so I’m assuming it was fixed pretty quickly. Then again, I don’t work for Blizzard so things could be broken behind the scenes.

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Yeah, to be clear I don’t know, just a “best guess” why they’d fear doing it again. I should’ve put that in my post.

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I have a bad feeling they are waiting until ATVI stock stabilizes/goes back to its former level and the controversies leave the public conscious before they do anything that will be seen as “bad” to investors (such as more realm connections), even if it helps the game.

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They aren’t paying attention to rants based off of partial and faulty data on GD, I can promise you that.

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Please, give me some examples of faulty data.

Not sure if you ever leave your connected realm’s bubble, but there are some seriously struggling servers. I would know, I have many friends (and my own alts) on one.

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The only real requirement for connections is that the realms needed to exist in the same datacenter (Chicago or LA). Plenty of options for Turalyon to have been connected, was pretty shocked nothing was done last year.

I was on Turalyon for a long time since 2012 and only moved late last year to be with other friends, so I feel you on how much it’s fallen.

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I used Turalyon because its seriously shocking that it was left alone. Somebody was asleep at the wheel at Blizzard. Even Horde there seems to be having issues.

Simply connecting Turalyon to Whisperwind/Dentarg would do wonders.

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That command does not return every player on the server, and it incredibly bad to use to try and judge population by, this has been known for years.

WOWProgress has two caveats on their population numbers…
From WOWProgress:
** Population - amount of unique players that meet any of the two conditions:*
- has a level 60 character and killed something in Ny’alotha Heroic Mode
- has a level 60 character in a guild that killed something in Ny’alotha Heroic Mode

If you don’t raid, you aren’t counted.
And from WOWProgress: Due to the updated Blizzard API Policy, we have to refresh all the characters no less frequently than every 30 days

The only people who REALLY know what the sub numbers and server populations are Blizzard, everything else is pure speculation.

Icing on the cake is the childish demands. That’s a sure way to get people to ignore you.

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Obviously, I don’t have all the data Blizzard has. I can only go off of anecdotes of my friends on Shu’halo and Eitrigg, a server grouping that was left alone and not connected last year. That server grouping has a lot less people on it than, say, the Ghostlands/Gnomeregan/Grizzly Hills/Kael’thas/Lothar/Malfurion/Moonrunner/Trollbane connected server. You cannot deny this.

Players on those eight servers (now a connected realm) are able to join guilds in their connected realm group, as well as trade with players from those realms and mythic raid in new tiers with players from those realms. Shu’halo and Eitrigg? Well, that backwater server grouping is stuck with that limited population pool. Why? Only Blizzard knows the reason why it abruptly stopped connecting realms.

I don’t know why you are defending Blizzard so aggressively on this.

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That makes sense for Blizzard thinking. Wait until the realm transfers have paid you then combine the realm. Do you ever think of the number of subs quitting Wow because you are waiting? Greymane/Tanaris is about the same boat. We need a connection before it’s just empty. Please Blizzard ANSWER the post with a concerned attitude and make us think you want to help!

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100% cashing in on character transfer purchases. Artificially make creating characters and gearing them as hard as possible to encourage purchasing shop services.

They could probably care less about realm connections when the shop is taking in the cash for them. I mean, the number of people I see with the sub mounts is insane. Do people really have that much money to just toss away on relatively pointless things?

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This is one of my alts on low population Shu’halo, left to die by Blizzard. Almost every single character in this guild logged in within a year of us transferring in December of 2018. Now, none of them log in.

You’re not alone. Solidarity for low population server players.

-Rollo

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Realm connections doesnt bring in money like realm transfers, so they wont do that anymore.

Bobby is on a really destructive run atm , trying to bleed customers dry before product dies.

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Three out of the top four things on the launcher are about the shop. I just want Blizzard to focus on improving WoW. Hopefully if Bobby goes, things will change.

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Warning: data dump.

List of servers marked “Low” every single day within the past week with 0 other realm connections:

  • Arthas

  • Darkspear

  • Earthen Ring

  • Gallywix

  • Goldrinn

  • Stormreaver

  • Turalyon

List of servers marked “Low” every single day within the past week with only 1 other realm connection:

  • Alexstrasza/Terokkar

  • Argent Dawn/The Scryers

  • Arygos/Llane

  • Baelgun/Doomhammer

  • Blackhand/Galakrond

  • Bladefist/Kul Tiras

  • Bloodhoof/Duskwood

  • Bronzebeard/Shandris

  • Draenor/Echo Isles

  • Dragonblight/Fenris

  • Durotan/Ysera

  • Eitrigg/Shu’halo

  • Feathermoon/Scarlet Crusade

  • Greymane/Tanaris

  • Kilrogg/Winterhoof

  • Misha/Rexxar

  • Ravencrest/Uldaman

  • Runetotem/Uther

Now, I obviously don’t have the data Blizzard has. However, I know what the words “low” and “high” mean in the English language. I also know that last year, there were an assortment of realm connections which connected realms similar to the connected realms listed above together.

For example, here is a list of servers marked “High” or “Full” every single day within the past week with 6 to 9 total realm connections. All of these servers were blessed by the Blizzard gods last year, and are the chosen ones:

  • Agamaggan/Archimonde/Blade’s Edge/Burning Legion/Jaedenar/Kargath/Norgannon/The Underbog/Thunderhorn

  • Akama/Antonidas/Dragonmaw/Eldre’Thalas/Korialstrasz/Mug’thol/Uldum

  • Alterac Mountains/Anvilmar/Balnazzar/Gorgonnash/The Forgotten Coast/Undermine/Warsong

  • Andorhal/Black Dragonflight/Eonar/Gul’dan/Scilla/Skullcrusher/Ursin/Velen/Zuluhed

  • Bloodscalp/Boulderfist/Dunemaul/Maiev/Quel’dorei/Sen’jin/Stonemaul

  • Borean Tundra/Drak’thul/Hydraxis/Mok’Nathal/Shadowsong/Silvermoon/Skywall/Terenas

  • Burning Blade/Garona/Icecrown/Lightning’s Blade/Malygos/Onyxia (Mike Ybarra, Blizzard President, plays on this connected realm grouping)

  • Cairne/Cenarius/Frostmane/Korgath/Ner’zhul/Perenolde/Tortheldrin

  • Drak’Tharon/Firetree/Frostwolf/Malorne/Rivendare/Spirestone/Stormscale/Vashj

  • Ghostlands/Gnomeregan/Grizzly Hills/Kael’thas/Lothar/Malfurion/Moonrunner/Trollbane

  • Eredar/Gorefiend/Hellscream/Spinebreaker/Wildhammer/Zangarmarsh

I think I got all of them. Why weren’t the “Low” servers pairings mentioned earlier connected like the realms that are now fortunate to have healthy populations? Every single one of these 6-9 real connection groupings was connected last year. Blizzard never communicated that it was going to stop connections, it just abruptly stopped one day in September 2020.

Before all the servers were switched over to “Normal” types or “RP” types, all of the dual-connected realms (except for Argent Dawn/The Scryers and Feathermoon/Scarlet Crusade) were “Normal” realms. These realms seemingly had similar population figures (again, I don’t have exact numbers) to the former dual-connected server pairings within the now “High” population Ghostlands cluster.

I know this seems like the rant of a madman on the forums of a game struggling to keep subscription numbers stable, but please Blizzard, look into connecting the low population realms. There is a thread on the EU forums with 865 posts concerning this very issue, with many of the same points I’ve been bringing up. It’s still being consistently bumped; in a forum that automatically locks posts after 30 days, it has stayed alive for years.

Thanks for reading.

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Bump. They really need to do this. Imo it’s unethical for them to charge for transfers when they are not doing this

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