Thank you for your consistent communication on these issues. I don’t know if you or the Classic team will see or read my response, but I feel it’s necessary to post. I very rarely post anything to the forums but for this particular issue, there is a direct solution that isn’t being discussed that you and your team should be considering with regard to the massive login queues on the big 3 (Benediction, Faerlina and Grobbulus). Free transfers are always a great idea, but it won’t see enough of a result on its own to fix the issue. Here is my proposed solution that is most fair to the players on these servers who have played there the longest.
For the big 3 servers:
Require that any and all new accounts/transfers with characters created/transferred to these realms on or after 8/01 be forcefully moved to lower populated realms by 9/25 (or earlier to not conflict with the full Wrath launch). Provide an in-game message to these accounts/characters that recently landed there and let them know they need to move by X date to avoid being forcefully moved, similar to characters that were forcefully moved from retiring realms to higher populated realms.
Free character transfers won’t make a significant improvement to the core issue. The vast majority of players on the big 3 realms do not (and should not) want to transfer off because of the communities they have established on these servers for several months or years now.
This inevitably will affect some “friend” groups, but if these friends genuinely want to play together, they should be the first ones to move to different servers - not the players who have been on these servers much longer than the newer players/transfers. As it is now on Grobbulus, it’s impossible to reliably schedule raids because of several raiders getting hit with big queue times. This is exacerbated by other players not wanting to log off during peak hours for fear of long queue times. This problem was created by the large influx of new accounts and transfers, thus it is only fair the problem is resolved by moving those same accounts and transfers off.
With these realms remaining indefinitely locked, and assuming the population on these realms drop at any point in the future, offer these accounts/characters first priority to transfer back, up to a cap (not to exceed a maximum login queue/overpopulation of something like +2000 or +3000).
If the above solution will absolutely not be considered at all by the Classic team, then the only other real solution is to GUARANTEE free transfers back to any large realm of the players’ choice should players volunteer to transfer off. The primary reason everyone moved off lower populated servers to the densely populated servers was to never risk having to pay to transfer to another realm ever again due to decaying player population/domino effect of mass exodus of guilds.
If you do read this post and share it with the rest of the team, thank you for your consideration.
I feel like the real answer here is to enable RDF and enable cross server arena. At that point, the only thing you need your realm for is the auction house and a raiding guild. Even modest populations can support that. There would be many, many more people (myself included), who would take transfers under those circumstances.
The issue that I and many others have is that we were fooled once with free transfers to servers without queue times and they died. We effectively pre-ordered a paid transfer to a populated realm because the game become unplayable without people to do anything with. There is no assurance of anything if people transfer off but you are certain to have a large player base to play with if you are willing to suffer through a queue. I would rather suffer in queue than pay $25 to go somewhere that isn’t dead in the future.
Yo… give it a few days… people are still trying to get in-game to clear mailboxes so they can transfer. Its locked to everyone not on the monster servers. I’m still waiting so I can transfer.
Cant do that but after 12 you can swipe your credit card to meet the rest of your guild. Good luck with all the queues with people logging in just to clear boxes to leave.
Should just open free transfers off the megaservers to most other servers. Would solve the issue of people not wanting to leave because they fear winding up on dead servers. Just be vigilant and cap xfers if they get to high.
If they opened atiesh or pagle for bene folk, I’m sure many would leave.
I’m sure a million smarter people have suggested already but I have a question. We know this queue issue is short-term, people will quit 1 month into WoTLK and queue’s will be manageable. Is it not possible to offer even temporary transfers to low pop servers? Give us free transfer from Bene → anywhere with a coupon that allows a transfer back before raid launch (or expires) that can only be used to go back to original server. Alleviates queue in short term and some people may like new server so much they just stay, which, bonus. Also energizes low pop servers to have large numbers to queue with. Only downside is people on small server may join up with temporary players and be upset that they are getting left behind, but that’s basically what’s happening now with one-way transfers anyway.
This is truly unacceptable for Grobbulus players who are on that server for the RP just as much as the PVP. We built guilds on Grobb that do both. And the only FCM you are offering is to realms with designations that create communities which discourage RP. The Grobb RP community will never leave for a place where one of our primary activities will get us trolled or griefed. I run the RP portion of my 500+ person guild on Grobbulus. Our players are suffering. I have to tell them to start their queues 5 hours in advance in order to be online in time for our RP events. And you have yet to offer a valid alternative place to play.
Furthermore, now we have lost the opportunity to recruit new or returning players who want to RP through the WotLK story because you’ve closed new character creation.
People make characters on Grobbulus specifically because it is an RP-PVP server with a balanced population. It’s the only realm on US that provides a community accepting of RP, PVP, and PVE focused guilds. No one who does all three activities will take a FCM to a PVP or normal server. Give us a better option.
So how exactly are people who were FALSELY BANNED ALL THE WEEK with the pvp bull or banned in error suppose to move their characters for free if free transfers are being shut off as soon as tomorrow?
I’m gonna transfer 2 of my 5 toons over to the new server and hope it works out. My fear is that the new server will not be close to balanced like Grob is currently. I love wpvp but lopsided factions makes for a horrible experience.
Most people refuse to transfer out b/c of fear of transferring into a dead server. Now imagine if blizzard tell you Sulfuras & Old Blanchy can now play with people from Benediction/Grob/Faerlina. You will see people start flooding into these new servers to avoid the queue wait. Btw, this technology already exist. I’ve been playing with people cross server in my battleground. Blizzard just needs to enable this to resolve the queue problem.
Many people on med pop realms have been very vocal about not wanting their server to be touched by consolidation or transfers. I realize this is not everyone, but a lot of people enjoy a quieter experience, especially with smaller raids. Unfortunately Blizzard cannot please everyone. At this stage they’ve already messed up so bad with the consolidation and the queues that there will be unhappy people everywhere
Daníto, I appreciate your civility and the willingness to look at various possible solutions.
This is a major concern for me. I do not want to see this happening and it is not a decision that I feel Blizzard can or should make. Any kind of attempt to do so will seem arbitrary and unfair. I think that all options should be exhausted before anything so drastic done which is why in my earlier post I asked Aggrend if this is even being considered. I got the feeling from their verbiage that it might be.
New players/transfers may be part of older, “native” friend groups or guilds. Even if not, those newer members of the server may feel that they too are contributing to the health and well-being of the realm. Though I disagree with the solution proposed, I endorse your right and ability to request it. I hope that Aggrend will reply to discuss this concern.