Dirty tricks and server transfers.

[SurfD]

My guild and I have noticed something odd:

We play on Tichondrious, not the most stable of servers I admit, and probably one of the more populated ones at the moment as well.  However, up untill about 2 or 3 days ago, it had been MONTHS, even during primetime, that we ever saw a queue to log in.  Now, even at whacked out hours of the day (like 11 PM server time), there are 60+ person queues to get on the server, and these queues have become an almost constant thing over the last few days..

Now here is where the Dirty Trick comes in.  The beginning of this consistant upswing in queues to get in roughly coincides with the notice that server transfers from our realm to another realm were announced.

Some people in my guild are muttering conspiricy theories about the fact that blizzard has deliberately decreased the 'queue limit", for lack of a better term, in an underhanded attempt to nudge people into considering transferring to this supposedly lower population server.

Myself, Im not sure if they are right, but it does seem like quite an odd coincidence.

[Ironwood]

Isn't it more likely that Blizzard simply noticed the problem proactively through account management, noting that the curve on your server was approaching danger point and that, through complicated mathematical formulas that would make Raph shout 'Games Are Patterns', they predicted exactly to the date when the queues would appear ?

[Dren]

Isn't it more likely that Blizzard simply noticed the problem proactively through account management, noting that the curve on your server was approaching danger point and that, through complicated mathematical formulas that would make Raph shout 'Games Are Patterns', they predicted exactly to the date when the queues would appear ?

You're smoking tires too now?  Is it nice?

[Ironwood]

I dropped using Green after Signe threatened to punch me.

[Signe]

You know it wasn't the green.  I was speaking for all women, everywhere... that's a lot of black and blue!

[Malathor]

I also noted a few queues popping up on my server when there had been none for months. There has been no transfer announced for us though, and I also noted these:

New Realms Live! - Ordinn on 11/30/05
We're glad to announce the opening of four new realms! If you're just beginning your adventures in Azeroth, or a veteran looking for a fresh start, these realms are the place for you! Come forge a new community on the following realms:
Aegwynn PVP
Akama PVP
Chromaggus PVP
Draka PVE

Several New Realms Live! - Caydiem on 11/8/05
To accomodate our ever-growing population in World of Warcraft, we're glad to announce the opening of several new realms! If you're just joining us in Azeroth or a veteran looking for a fresh start, these realms are the right place for you! Come forge a new community on the following realms:
Azshara (PvP)
Agamaggan (PvP)
Lightninghoof (RP-PvP)
Malfurion (PvE)

We're also happy to announce our new Oceania-preferred realms! Located on the West Coast, these two new realms are the perfect place to go if you live in the Oceania region or happen to be a night owl. The realm time is set to GMT+11, allowing those of you who've been unable to attend time-sensitive world events to experience the content on your own time! (Please be aware that these realms are still located in the US and thus subject to the usual maintenance times.) If you've been seeking someplace with a community that serves the Oceania schedule, look no further than these realms:

Frostmourne (PvP, Oceania-preferred)
Khaz'goroth (PvE, Oceania-preferred)

Join these realms and enjoy your adventures in the yet-untamed lands of Azeroth!

Ten new US/Oceania servers in the last month? Incredible as it seems, maybe the consipracy is just more people continuing to flock to the game. Certainly a lot of ex-SWG people included in that.

[Morfiend]

My guild and I have noticed something odd:

We play on Tichondrious, not the most stable of servers I admit, and probably one of the more populated ones at the moment as well.  However, up untill about 2 or 3 days ago, it had been MONTHS, even during primetime, that we ever saw a queue to log in.  Now, even at whacked out hours of the day (like 11 PM server time), there are 60+ person queues to get on the server, and these queues have become an almost constant thing over the last few days..

Now here is where the Dirty Trick comes in.  The beginning of this consistant upswing in queues to get in roughly coincides with the notice that server transfers from our realm to another realm were announced.

Some people in my guild are muttering conspiricy theories about the fact that blizzard has deliberately decreased the 'queue limit", for lack of a better term, in an underhanded attempt to nudge people into considering transferring to this supposedly lower population server.

Myself, Im not sure if they are right, but it does seem like quite an odd coincidence.

My guild is on Sargeras, one of the most populated servers. If not THE most populated servers. About two months ago we got voted the best PVP server by some big wow website. For quality of PVP and population balance. We had roughly 1.1:1 Alliance to Horde ratio. So after that was announced our server has been over run with people rerolling to get in on the action. Some of you may have heard about the Clensing (but thats a different story). Anyway. About 4 days before they announced server transfers, our queues shot up from around 40 at primetime to upwards of 600 at primetime. And now all of a sudden we have transfers. I am convinced myself that Blizzard lowerd the server cap by around 500 people or so.

 /tinfoilhat

[Hoax]

Archimonde > Sargeras

Respect!

 :-D

From what I hear we got very terrible queues around the time of the announced transfer from our server.  But if there was a noticable increase from what we had before I dont know.

[Morfiend]

Archimonde > Sargeras

Just saying what was voted on, and explaining the rush of lowbies to our server.

[Yegolev]

This wouldn't have anything to do with the recent patch causing resubs, would it?  Although I am not countering the intentional-lowering theory.

[cevik]

This wouldn't have anything to do with the recent patch causing resubs, would it?  Although I am not countering the intentional-lowering theory.

I can't help but to imagine that a news post about the server having transfers would drive up the number of people logging in, i.e. I play once a week, but I see the news that there is going to be a transfer so I start logging in more often to find everyone on my friends list to ask them if they are transferring or not.. I mean, I would think the number of people logging in in any given night would increase with the news post.. *shrug*.. or maybe Blizzard just hates you..

[Dren]

This wouldn't have anything to do with the recent patch causing resubs, would it?  Although I am not countering the intentional-lowering theory.

I can't help but to imagine that a news post about the server having transfers would drive up the number of people logging in, i.e. I play once a week, but I see the news that there is going to be a transfer so I start logging in more often to find everyone on my friends list to ask them if they are transferring or not.. I mean, I would think the number of people logging in in any given night would increase with the news post.. *shrug*.. or maybe Blizzard just hates you..

You know that is just another reason I like the notion of having a way to chat in game with your friends without actually loggin in to play.  I'd at least like to see a feature that let you know if your friends are logged into the game or not.  Most of the time that is the only reason I'd get in and play on any given night anyway.  That type of feature might help control the issue, no?

[Pococurante]

Doesn't xFire "sort of" do that?

[Dren]

I do not have that and none of my friends do either.  It would even be harder to know if all of your guildmates have it.  I'm talking about something that is standard with the game and is part of the login sequence.  It would be the first step in the login.  You wouldn't be logged into the game, but in a section where you could tell if others were.

If they could add a function that let you actually send messages to them during this status, that would be better.  The next step would be "Enter Game," and any queueing issues would then be experienced, or not.  It would help with controlling the mass of people logging in just to see if others are on or just sitting at the the AH chatting.

That'd be another nifty thing.  Make it so you can check the AH from outside of the game.  THAT would cut down on a huge amount of the traffic. IMO.

[SurfD]

Sounds like something vaguely similar to the "messageboards" they had in the Hack//Sign games for PS2.

It was a simulated MMOG, where you launched the application from your "desktop" and it fired up a lobby of sorts, where you could either enter "the world" (their MMOG game), or browse the mesageboards for the game.

Sounds like what you want then is a "Lobby" for wow, that incorporates a basic instant messanger/friends list and/or Irc like chat interface, along with AH functionality.  I dont think the AH functionality is really needed, but I wouldnt mind having a way to see if any of my characters has Mail waiting for them without having to log each and every one on seperately to check.

[Yegolev]

It sounds even less-vaguely like Square's PlayOnline frontend for FFXI.  Some people didn't like it, but that frontend was my favorite part of FFXI.

[Pococurante]

I'm talking about something that is standard with the game and is part of the login sequence.

Yeah I understand what you're describing.  I guess I just tend towards a single point of entry rather than one for every product I use - too damn lazy to have to login to an entry screen that then bootstraps me into a game.  It's why I use Trillian instead of four or five IM clients, and I can give up MSN "winky" support if it makes it easier to track all my buds.

[Wasted]

EQ2 allows you to join guild chat from your guild profile website as part of their 'premium' web offerings.  It was actually quite nifty to be able to talk to some guildies in game whilst they where at work or whatever and couldnt play themselves. 

[Sairon]

Anarchy Onlines in game communication system was based of an IRC server, which meant that you could just use your average IRC client to connect to it if you didn't want / couldn't login to the actual game server.

[Calantus]

Wrong thread... oopsie

[Pococurante]

Anarchy Onlines in game communication system was based of an IRC server, which meant that you could just use your average IRC client to connect to it if you didn't want / couldn't login to the actual game server.

Now that's a novel approach - integrating one's entertainment product into existing offerings.  It's... it's like Open Source and compliance to Open Standards!!

[TheWalrus]

Bye Morv. Or did you miss the transfers with whatever guild drama you guys had? Dread guard was always a pretty cool bunch of fellas. Can't say how glad I am that OA is gone though. Now if DV would just go away thatd be nice.


Side note: Server transers haven't helped lag or hiccups a damn bit. Middle of MC tonight and apparently the server was busy hacking up a lung. Horrid lag.