f13.net

Cho'gall is one of the worst servers in terms of population balance. It's literally something around 10 Horde to every 1 Alliance, if not worse.

Example : http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=19382688598&sid=1


The server is just broken, the Alliance don't have enough people to exist properly.



How do you fix this? No Alliance is ever going to transfer TO Cho'gall, no groups, no AH, outnumbered horrendously. The Horde population is conversely extremely large, so you can't just merged the server with another without upsetting the balance there as well. Do you just close the server and offer free transfers anywhere else? Do you try to salvage the alliance population with some kind of incentive program?

What can be done?

Free 70's.  Done.

Offer free faction changes, that might ease it. 

Not sure.

I'd go.  Hell, even free 60's with an xp and gold bonus would do it. 

HAH!

Probably not.  All the hardcore PVPers say they want a big challenge, but most of them just want to group up and steamroll the competition.

They've dealt with this before.  What they do is open faction-specific server transfers, ie open alliance-only transfers from some overpopulated servers and open horde-only transfers to some godforsaken PVE server.  See this blue (http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/10832473212-0909--realms-and-migration.html).

Obviously you tell the Alliance they just need more infrastructure.

EDIT: I should say here that /level 30 never fixed a damn thing in DAOC, so I'm not convinced it would solve anything here. Maybe if it was the ONLY server in all of WoW to get it, it would attract enough interest.

If they allowed you to roll on an underpopulated server and start at any kind of advantage, then they'd open themselves up to the flood of people who would do it only to transfer off.  Of course then they'd have to come up with a way to mitigate that.  But so many words, it would be a shitstorm.

Honestly, I don't think they care anymore now that they can balance Battlegroups by shuffling servers in and out and people can transfer off a server they don't like.  Unless 'world pvp' becomes a bigger selling point, then I don't see them addressing this at all.

Find one of the old 3:1 A:H launch servers and merge Cho'gall into it. Use the freed-up hardware for a new server when Cat launches.

Honestly, I'd probably nuke the server outright.

Were any of those as terrible as Cho'gall though? Like, the PTR has a better AH then Cho'gall at this point. I know I wouldn't transfer to that place.

I don't know, I find the idea that a server exists where we could actually be among the top endgame guilds kind of amusing!

Apparently they are down to a single 25 man raid guild. There were two for awhile still, but the second one can't find enough people to maintain a full raid is transferring off.

Oh I see, it is a PVP server. No wonder the split is such a problem.

Total Alliance:     930 - 11%
Total Horde:    7,733 - 89%

That is for EU Magtheridon which currently has free horde transfers off of it.  They've had free Horde transfers off of it for weeks.  There is exactly one alliance guild listed on wowprogress.  How did it get like this, you ask?  EU-Magtheridon is better known as "The home of Ensidia".

I know there was a server in BC where the alliance downing zul'jin was a cause for celebration.  Even the Horde half-heartedly cheered them on from Sunwell Plataeu.  IIRC, that server was first time they did faction-specific free transfers.  A bunch of guilds transferred there to get off of overpopulated servers and life got better for all involved.

Am I supposed to know what Ensidia is? From context I derive that it's some kinda leetzor poopsock guild.

More or less. They're one of the claimants to the "top guild in the world" throne. They're bankrolled by a Saudi prince or something.

Consolidating or closing servers has a terrible PR side effect.  It gets taken out of context in the media, and of course among the omnipresent doomsayers.  The game itself could be adding subs like crazy but OMG THEY HAD TO CLOSE A SERVAR!!1  ITS THE END

Oh, I know. I'd still nuke it from orbit if it was me.  :grin:

Is anyone really going to predict that WoW is on its way out?  I don't think closing the server is the best solution either, but if there is one company that doesn't need to worry about this, its probably blizzard.

Haven't people been doing this since 2005?

Yes, because it is just a passing fad and the SECOND a better product comes out they'll be sorry!

Yea, I think their reluctance to merge servers has more to do with the fact that it doesn't make them any money.  And there's a way for unhappy people to transfer off where they do make money.  They probably don't make much money on server transfers, but it's better than nothing.

Oh aye, it is patently a time-consuming manual process that requires a legion of skilled staff to operate.

PUSH BUTTAN, COLLECT MONIES.

edit: Sorry, it's more complex than that.  CONTROL C, CONTROL V. SELECT SERVER. PUSH BUTTAN.

Well, I mean what's the monkey who does it make?  10 bucks an hour?  15?  I don't know.  Assume he can push four or five transfers through per hour?  Maybe more.  I guess that's a fair amount of money.  But still, if there's a rush on transfers, then I've got to come up with more monkies.

It likely doesn't involve any manual labor at all.  They fill out a web form don't they?

I think it's handled by what they call specialists.  The guys the in-game GM's call when they're beyond their pay grade.

It's likely automated unless it's flagged during the process for some reason.  There's no reason a human needs to approve every transfer.

Silly Lantyssa, you can't automate a database server, you have to move those bits manually with a magnetized pin.

It's automated. Unless they had their database guys working last weekend at 3am on a saturday which iswhen my wife's mage did a server x-fer.

It also is making them a ton of monies if the x-fers off and on to my server are any indication.  I've seen folks flip flop 2-3 times a year between Alleria and Sen'jen or whatever server it was the remnant of Risen and Premonition x-ferred to.  We had a priest and her husband take off on us a month ago after x-fering to Alleria, joining up and getting geared up un Ulduar loot.  As soon as the wait timer was over they x-fered to another server and are now in another guild; presumably raping them for epix.   

Apparently some players are attempting to take matters into their own hands (http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=19820634021&sid=1). Nythrax the newbie death knight has joined The Resistance. I was pretty much scooped up within two minutes of creating the character, and guild chat seemed pretty active for 2:30 in the morning. Might be fun.

Those things always die off in a week or so. Maybe a month if they are really persistent.

Yeah, but... what the hell, basically.

Change the server name to something less retarted.

A server named after a prominent WCII NPC is retarded?

No. The server has population issues. The name is retarted.

Looks amusing. I might join for gits and shiggles.

My level 7 11 druid will make all the difference.

I'm not even out of the DK newbie zone and I'm bored. This zone seemed so cool when it was new, but anymore it's just an hours-long tutorial and a horrible grind. I know what I'm doing, gimme my talent points and let me play.

I wondered when that would crop up. I've always thought that while class-specific tutorial experiences are a brilliant way to get things off the ground both in terms of gameplay and lore, they must be optional or risk frustrating and alienating hardcore alt-aholics. Is there no way to skip the DK starting zone? Are their multiple options to explore within the gameplay there?

To be fair, I don't think they really expect people to do the DK starting zone more than once or twice. I did it roughly a zillion times during beta (I AM GUD TESTAR) and it does get old after a while, but how many DKs, I am sure the reasoning is, does one person *need*?

As many as they want.  I fully agree there should be an option to skip ahead to after the Battle of Light's Hope, basically, if you have a death knight on the account that's completed all of that. 

There is NO reason to make people go through it again if they choose to create another death knight, since the region is totally restricted and there's only one path through it, which absolutely requires you to do all the quests.  If you don't find those quests fun, or if you're just tired of them, the whole zone is not fun.  Leveling elsewhere is all optional.  You can do quests, you can not do quests, you can go to a different area, and so forth, but the DK starting zone requires every quest and you can't skip it or go to someplace else or anything.

I wasn't necessarily saying I agreed with it, but I'm pretty sure that's what the reasoning is. I will say I don't see it as something annoying enough that needs to be changed any time soon. But it's also not something I think shouldn't be changed evar.

And I say that as someone who has gotten three DKs through the starter zone and is contemplating another. Pretty sure I'm over the Expected Number of DKs.  :awesome_for_real:

So did anyone stick with this for more than two days? There were four of us in our own Bat Country channel for like one night, but I've never been able to focus on more than one character, so I wandered off before even finishing the DK noob zone. For real, on my main server I have my pally and a bank alt and that's IT.

I keep meaning to go back but I've been distracted by other stuff. I'd still like to level a feral, it might as well be there.