More Free Server transfers, plus a new Server transfer only Brand new server.

[AngryGumball]

What is Blizzard thinking.

Why on Earth would they create a brand new PVE server only transfer, let alone not allow new character creation on that server. I see ZERO market for this type of server.

Who is the person making these calls on free server transfers.

Is this now a problem of, to much business and not about anyone being a smart gamer, whats best for the gamer now. Why will I be laffed at for this by people like Ironwood or Azarel(sp?).


Why can't any MMO company, create lockdowns when one faction has X number higher logged in shut down those logins for that overwhelming faction.

[Trippy]

I don't see the problem.

[DraconianOne]

Nor me.

I know plenty of people who want to move servers with their guild because the one they're on is now full of "noobs".  If this as an EU server transfer, I'd think of doing it myself. 

[Dren]

We've been having large queue times for primetime for about 4 weeks now.  It doesn't seem to be going away and only gets worse with each patch/expansion that comes out.  It doesn't affect me since my time zone is an hour before server time.  It just sucks getting others to log in at a decent time, etc.

I think our trouble started when they made the 20-60 exp gain faster.  I think that alone brought a ton of people back or attracted more people.  The customer base IS still growing regardless of your own strawman polls.

[Ironwood]

What ?

Why am I mentioned here ?

 

[Merusk]

Ditto the Queue times on Alleria.  We're a very crowded server right now, and people keep wanting to transfer on to our server because of Risen.*  As a result we've had some really fucked-up problems with the last few patches, and the last 2 Saturdays the server has been bogged-down to the point of 3s lag in Ironforge/ Shatt AND 1- 1 1/2s lag inside of instances.

 Hell, last Sunday the entirety of Outlands crashed during prime time (9pm) and it took Blizz 3 hours to get it back up.   It's obvious that the server is suffering the same 'omg too many people' issues it had the last time we got a server transfer.

The reason for doing all of these transfers to a new server when there's plenty of under-populated servers, however, escapes me.  Perhaps those 'underpopulated' servers aren't as underpopped as you'd think, but instead have a much larger '5-10 hour' userbase.  I expect it's more psychological, however.  Not a lot of guilds transfer when these are offered because they find they're just competeing against more established guilds for members since not everyone transfers.  As a result they have to rebuild/ dissolve/ merge and halt progression for a time period.  If Everyone is new to the server, then the rebuilding process probably isn't as painful.

* They're the 'only' option for the ultra-hardcore who rolled on a PvE server and don't want to regrind a character or move to a PVP server.  Most of the other hardcore raid guilds are on PvP servers.  My guild's picked up a few 'cast offs' who were booted from/ quit their old guild as more-progressed guilds picked-up the cast-offs of folks above them.

[Signe]

What ?

Why am I mentioned here ?

 

Bit early to be cockin' the wee finger... even for you.

[Jayce]

Where's that grammar snake when you need it?  I can barely comprehend that post.

I think you're saying it's a bad idea for some reason.  Why wouldn't a bored 70 who isn't excited about any of his current server's guilds not transfer there to find a new group of people - none of them rank newbs - to find a guild for endgame stuff?

And the whole-guild transfer thing is pretty compelling too.

I think the market has a good chance of being great for this idea.

Also, where's your facts for why your pet idea (restricting character creation per faction) is needed?  How would it work?  What problem would it solve?

[Chimpy]

They are doing what they think will be best for their network stability, obviously.

I guess your complaint is that the faction imbalance is not fixed like this? Well...the train that headed to "balance" of the factions left the station years ago and Blizzard did not get on board.

[Dren]

My theory on why they didn't just allow transfers to established underpopulated servers is:

1.  They really aren't underpopulated.  Sure, active characters are low, but the number of higher level characters established on that server are high.  Meaning, those players could come back to that server at anytime and load it back up again.  This leads to number 2.

2.  They are looking at what happened post TBC and are looking forward towards what might happen with the next expansion.  With some percentage of that increase in subscriptions, they probably aren't ready for it given the current status of servers.  Add to that item number 1 above and you have a huge potential for the same mistakes to be made during the TBC launch, huge queues! OMG!  Server crashes!  Blizzard is sooo stupid!!1!! Didn't they see this coming?

Yes, they see it coming and are making plans and taking action now.

[Xanthippe]

Why on Earth would they create a brand new PVE server only transfer, let alone not allow new character creation on that server. I see ZERO market for this type of server.

New character creation will never be allowed, or is only disabled for a set amount of time?

[naum]

Why on Earth would they create a brand new PVE server only transfer, let alone not allow new character creation on that server. I see ZERO market for this type of server.

New character creation will never be allowed, or is only disabled for a set amount of time?

If it is like past server transfer deals, eventually, new character creation will be enabled (at least it was when I moved chars to Area 52)…

[Merusk]

It will be disabled for the general populace of non-transfers for a time.  Typically 2-3 months.  Transfers can make new characters at will from the moment their chars have been transferred over.

[Montague]

I'm in awe of the WoW machine. Scant weeks ago I was convinced that Blizzard was getting ready to merge servers. Now our server is getting queues again. Unfuckingreal.

[Jayce]

2.  They are looking at what happened post TBC and are looking forward towards what might happen with the next expansion.  With some percentage of that increase in subscriptions, they probably aren't ready for it given the current status of servers.  Add to that item number 1 above and you have a huge potential for the same mistakes to be made during the TBC launch, huge queues! OMG!  Server crashes!  Blizzard is sooo stupid!!1!! Didn't they see this coming?

That leads me to a thought.  One thing they are probably trying to avoid is having to add servers (those 2 million more subs since last time had to go somewhere, whatever % is U.S) while other realms lie underpopulated.

[caladein]

1.  They really aren't underpopulated.  Sure, active characters are low, but the number of higher level characters established on that server are high.  Meaning, those players could come back to that server at anytime and load it back up again.  This leads to number 2.

Also, "low" population servers don't mean what most people believe it to mean.  Those stats are relative to the other servers in their battlegroup, not to absolute capacity.  So, a "Low" or "Recommended" server may be running at 65-75% capacity, not a ghost town at all.  Hell, Wildhammer is "Medium" for the Shadowburn battlegroup and I'm getting queues more nights during primetime than not.

[Righ]

I still suspect that Ghostlands server is going to live up to its name.

[ShenMolo]

Sounds like Mr.T + Shatner+ Minime+Free Trial is working for Blizzard.

[Simond]

I'm still surprised they haven't launched any Central/South American servers yet - I mean, they've already got a localised version in Spanish and all.

[Jayce]

I still suspect that Ghostlands server is going to live up to its name.

Wrong!

Thread necro'd to mention this: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4913873197&sid=1

We will be offering free character moves from selected high population realms to lower populated realms, assisting in population dispersal.

[snip]

Source C (PvE)
Area 52
Arygos
Ghostlands
Hellscream
Zul'jin

Destination C (PvE)
Velen