World of Warcraft Connects More Realms

[Andy Chalk]

World of Warcraft Connects More Realms

Blizzard has announced two more batches of World of Warcraft realm connections, one scheduled for this week and another for next month.

Blizzard's effort to boost flagging populations on less-popular World of Warcraft servers will continue next week with a fresh round of realm connections. At 6 am PST on December 23, the following realms will be linked:


Anetheron and Magtherdion/Ysondre
Crushridge and Anub'arak/Chromaggus/Garithos/Nathrezim/Smolderthorn
Darrowmere and Windrunner
Demonsoul and Coilfang, Dark Iron, and Dalvengyr
Draka and Suramar
Velen and Eonar


A second batch of merges will begin at 6 am PST on January 3:


Akama and Dragonmaw
Executus and Kalecgos
Galakrond and Blackhand
Shandris and Bronzebeard
The Forgotten Coast and Balnazzar, Gorgonash and Warsong
Undermine and Anvilmar


The merger process is expected to take about five hours to complete. A third group of realms scheduled to be joined at some undetermined point in the future was also revealed:


Bladefist and Kul Tiras
Nazgrel and Vek'nilash/Nesingwary
Nazjatar and Mannoroth/Blood Furnace
Norgannon and Kargath
Stormscale and Firetree/Rivendare/Drak'Tharon/Malorne/Spirestone
Uldaman and Ravencrest


Blizzard announced its plans to compensate for a shrinking World of Warcraft player population (which, for the record, is still huge) with connected realms back in September [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126606-Falling-Warcraft-Numbers-Result-In-Connected-Realms].

Source. Battle.net [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/11393305]


Permalink

 

[Waaghpowa]

This server connection thing is nice, especially since my realm has a lot of people who work full time, so the population is always low except during prime hours i.e. after people get off work in the early evening. Although, the only downside I can see with the connections is that the larger populations will make being in the city harder on my framerate.

It's nearing the end of the expansion, it's natural that the subscription base will shrink, then it'll spike when the new expansion comes out. Hell, even I quit near the end of Cataclysm. I just got tired of Dragon Soul, but I came back during Mists of Pandaria and it's easily the best expansion they've ever done.

I have no doubt people will come on here and use this as evidence of wow dying. Wow has never been better. Sure, a lot of things have been made more accessible, but the challenge comes when you go beyond what's put in front of you. Some raids are too easy, that's why there's heroic, as well as challenge modes and the like.

I'm tired of hearing these supposed old school wow players coming out and whining about how the game was made too easy for casuals. I've been playing this game since release, and if you think it's too easy, you're obviously not trying hard enough to find the challenge. It's like if you played Guitar Hero on easy, whining about it, while forgetting that there are higher difficulty options.

I apologize for going off on a tangent, please continue with your day.

 

[Nergui]

I played WoW since release as well (got a Diablo pet to prove it too), but I stopped playing the day before the advance patch for Cataclysm came out. I don't regret this decision. The game had become kind of stale with horrid players and everything I read about the changes to healing for the next expansion completely turned me off the game. Sadly I've barely played any MMOs since then.

 

[Sanunes]

I played WoW since release as well (got a Diablo pet to prove it too), but I stopped playing the day before the advance patch for Cataclysm came out. I don't regret this decision. The game had become kind of stale with horrid players and everything I read about the changes to healing for the next expansion completely turned me off the game. Sadly I've barely played any MMOs since then.

I don't think you are the only one, for there have been several million people (if I remember the numbers correctly) that have left World of Warcraft over the years, but I haven't seen a substantial increase in population to any of the existing MMOs out there. Its going to be interesting to see how Elder Scrolls online does for its the first big MMO since World of Warcraft really started to see a loss of subscribers.

Regarding the server mergers I think its a good thing for what kills a MMO for me is when it feels like I am playing alone.

 

[The Great JT]

Y'know, a thought occurs to me. Maybe we're looking at how good an MMO is wrong. Maybe we should be looking at the game as a whole as opposed to subscriber numbers.

Regardless, I wonder when my realm will get connected.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I'll say that WoW has shrunk, but really its only weeding out the players who are retiring, too nostalgic to enjoy the newer parts of the game, have had economic issues or radical life changes or people who just don't like it.
But when the playerbase is still as high as it is, its hard to say that WoW is dying. Its nice though that Blizz is attempting to link low-pop realms together so as not to force folks to deal with full-on server mergers, guild upheavals, etc. Granted its not an easy process I would think.
But then when Worlds of Draenor comes out things might pick up again... I'm really looking forward to that xpac for some reason...

 

[Charli]

My trade chat had people in it tonight. I'm scared.

*constructs pillow fort* WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!?

 

[JSoup]

There was a large discussion on Draka a night ago about the impending connection. Seems a lot of us are for it, with a few valid concerns about lag.

 

[Remus]

I was planning on waiting until April to quit, but with the way Trade chat has degraded as of late, compounded by unreasonable raid expectations just to join Flex, made the decision to quit so much easier. The server I was on, A52, will likely never see a merger as it is unusually crowded in comparison to the rest of the game and yet I still sat in Orgrimmar for hours with nothing to do. Miss this game I will not.

 

[DasDestroyer]

Ooh, I spot a familiar name! I used to play on the Eonar server! I might get a month of game time when the next expansion comes out, just for the hell of it.

 

[FrozenCones]

I really like the realm connections. Draenor linked with Echo Isles a few weeks ago and it was awesome to see a fresh new bunch of faces!

Additionally the people ive met haven't been assholes which is always a nice bonus!