Blackrock: realm foundations
hi, to me this realm is fortunately still in a position to quickly get its population back (thanks to the thousands of players still not losing hope in 2016), but this can only happen according we acknowledge that the word "change" doesnt necessarily solely imply improvement, but also has damage as a result possibility, and so that it is a flaw to desire change for the sake of change
- taking away already farmed trinkets (4 times)
- taking away already farmed transmogs (2 times)
- taking away already farmed wrathful gear
- resetting already achieved arena goals
- resetting already farmed professions
- taking away already paid donations
irritating and demotivating players by repeatedly deleting their progress does not have as result to increase the population, but to decrease it, i believe the approach should be the opposite; satisfying and motivating players, by "giving" rather than "taking away"
in order to increase population i think that the emphasis has to be put on blackrock's foundations, those foundations being represented by the few basic yet most impactful features offered (which also all happen to be a huge demand that is lacking to be fulfilled within the world of wotlk private servers), those are:
#1 an addictive transmog system
i recommend to either put back the original transmog system or give them all for free
being able to realistically freely swap from set to set without having to worry about a currency was addictive, a high percentage of players were literally spending hours of their days browsing the npc
#2 a motivating arena environment
i recommend to reduce players' mmr and teams' ratings by only 25% when a season ends (instead of the blizzlike 100% reduction)
this would help preventing players from feeling that their progress is being deleted every couple of months, it would also help keeping the ladders balanced rating-wise
note: i think that this change would require to use the blizzlike mmr system; the current custom mmr system could eventually lead to inflation
#3 an access to appealing world pvp
with line of sight being key for that purpose along with appropriate zone size, i suggest ffa in the wetlands' menethil harbor castle (to have "Enter Menethil Harbor (FFA)" as a new teleport option next to "Enter Isle of Quel'Danas")
this would allow online players to enjoy the realm outside of peak hours
with the above 3 vital foundation points dealt with, blackrock would be set up to start naturally steadily growing in population on its own just from word of mouth
once such process has started, there is no more rush, and so working on improving the realm with additional suggestion discussions becomes more and more enjoyable and achievable