How long will the popularity last?

[Zenjuro]

When WotLK hits and the first Raids looking promising good Scripted it will get another boost of players for sure.
In my Case my Guild from another pserver will reroll here if it will be that good as advertised. (40 Man Raiding guild with 2x Raidgroups. So 100 active Raiders.)

[Agramon]

It's expected that some people will leave Lordaeron after some time as they came just check "ol' good WOTLK" but it wouldn't make any significant impact on server population because new players come everyday.

We hope many players already found Lordaeron to be very high-quality scripted server. Fixes are being made daily.

[Dunk]

Server will last and stay well populated as long as it taken care of bug/fixes/exploits wise and isn't ruined by transfers as the last one.

So far its great, and I love the no RDF

Thank you Warmane

[Obnoxious]

Well, look at our other two Wrath of the Lich King servers. Despite all their flaws and issues, they have always had large populations. They had their ups and downs, but always showed to be very popular. That by itself shows the expansion holds its ground and popularity very well, despite how old it might be. Add in all the extra quality, missing features that we were able to provide with the new core (like pathfinding) and the low rate, and you have something refreshing, and that will cater to a different kind of player than the ones who go to higher rates. Even when the core is exported to the other servers, Lordaeron will still keep its popularity because the players who want this experience aren't as few as some might try to make it look like.

[Talosmw]

Even when the core is exported to the other servers, Lordaeron will still keep its popularity because the players who want this experience aren't as few as some might try to make it look like.

is there any chance in near future that this core with all the goodies gets ported to some other x7 realm?

[Funkymusic]

Well, look at our other two Wrath of the Lich King servers. Despite all their flaws and issues, they have always had large populations.

kind of off topic but... i still dont understand why no TBC or vanilla realms. you're 3 biggest money makers are going to be those 2 plus wrath just looking at it from a business standpoint. maybe in the future.? they have always had a large population because people love this expansion. proof is in the pudding.

Even when the core is exported to the other servers, Lordaeron will still keep its popularity because the players who want this experience aren't as few as some might try to make it look like.

this is where i draw that fine line.

Lordearon was scheduled for deletion or removal (whatever you want to call it) before moltdown. Once ICC is on all the realms and up to date with one another i think you are going to see the exact same population on the realms like it used to be. simple fact is...

1. me personally as did many others played 1x content in retail and dont want to do the grind again
2. history is there for a reason
3. new players are always inclined to go with something thats faster in order to get to end level content faster

Ulduar im sure will cause a huge spike in things as it should (my favorite raid all time hands down) but beyond that and getting RF LoD there really are no challenges from a pve standpoint unless someone is going to say ToGC Anub. I mean we have already seen a huge drop off in the last few days. 7k+ on launch and now at peak its what around 4-5k?

For those of you stoked about playing WotLK blizzlike and progressing like retail yes it will be fun. For those who missed out on Ulduar grab a chair and strap yourself in. Beyond that when all realms are sitting at end of exp. content i honestly believe the numbers will drop back down to 1.3k like 9 months ago. Now if the server were to be reset every 2 years or so and players given the option to xfer level 80's to other existing WotLK realms i think that would be cool. Never ending progressive expansion for wrath? yea i might do it then.

just my 2 cents.

[Obnoxious]

The way you go about "make even older expansions, they'll be great" along with "Lordaeron died once, WotLK is old and history" doesn't really fits well. You have to make up your mind if "old is good" or "old is going to not work."

Lordaeron was going to get closed because it had lost a lot of population, that's true, but you're skipping all over the why. People complained a lot about missing/bugged content, which indeed can make a retail-rate server become a harder struggle than it should be. That isn't happening on Lordaeron. There was also the fact transfers were allowed from other, higher-rates servers, which pissed off a lot of people majorly. They felt all their effort to get somewhere on x1 rate was rendered pointless when someone who played on x20 was just doing a transfer there. That won't be happening on Lordaeron.

You base what you think of new players too much on yourself. From my point of view, new players want to experience and learn the game, not just rush to the end - the exception being people who come to play with friend who are in a high-level guild. Old players are the ones who go for higher rates because they don't want to go through everything one more time, and even then it's not all of them - I'm very confident the majority of players on Lordaeron aren't newbies who are playing Wrath of the Lich King for the first time now, but veterans who want to get a different experience from the rush-to-max-grind-same-thing on higher rates.

[Funkymusic]

The way you go about "make even older expansions, they'll be great" along with "Lordaeron died once, WotLK is old and history" doesn't really fits well. You have to make up your mind if "old is good" or "old is going to not work."

Lordaeron was going to get closed because it had lost a lot of population, that's true, but you're skipping all over the why. People complained a lot about missing/bugged content, which indeed can make a retail-rate server become a harder struggle than it should be. That isn't happening on Lordaeron. There was also the fact transfers were allowed from other, higher-rates servers, which pissed off a lot of people majorly. They felt all their effort to get somewhere on x1 rate was rendered pointless when someone who played on x20 was just doing a transfer there. That won't be happening on Lordaeron.

You base what you think of new players too much on yourself. From my point of view, new players want to experience and learn the game, not just rush to the end - the exception being people who come to play with friend who are in a high-level guild. Old players are the ones who go for higher rates because they don't want to go through everything one more time, and even then it's not all of them - I'm very confident the majority of players on Lordaeron aren't newbies who are playing Wrath of the Lich King for the first time now, but veterans who want to get a different experience from the rush-to-max-grind-same-thing on higher rates.

i have no idea what you are talking about in the first 2 sentences in you're reply. honestly. wotlk is old and history? never said that. im simply saying that the majority of private servers with large populations play on those 3 exp. so wouldn't it make sense from a business standpoint to have those other 2 here?

people complained about missing and bugged content on ALL realms and it will continue (no server will be bug free ever so dont say its not happening on lord i saw people complaining about plenty of bugs on lord currently in global chat). yet those realms remained steady 2x ahead of the population of lord. so i dont see the point you are making there. transfers were indeed allowed to lord (for a long long time) and the influx to lord never gave it a higher population or one even comparable to DW and rag. it wasent always 20x. yes people complained and i understand their complaints. Not sure what it really did other than screw the market up though unless i am missing something which i very well may be but that was the main thing i saw threads about (thought that was fixed when you could only take so much gold with you in the xfer)

this is not myself. this is plenty of players ive talked to in game, on skype, in stream. sure i get the occasional ones who really like lord and want the 1x which is fine. do you what you like. what i was getting at with new players is this....

lets say every server is at max 3.3.5a expansion. you are a new player coming to molten. im sure some will go 1x no doubt but i think the history is there to show that people prefer faster rates so they can enjoy the end level game faster.

[minimiri]

It's expected that some people will leave Lordaeron after some time as they came just check "ol' good WOTLK" but it wouldn't make any significant impact on server population because new players come everyday.

We hope many players already found Lordaeron to be very high-quality scripted server. Fixes are being made daily.

This might be a bit off topic aswell.
About those players which are eager to leave Lordaeron at some point. How you deal with them? Send them to an expansion where development has come to a complete halt without any staff-notice for months now?
If you want to keep them on Warmane as a whole you should at least give out some information on a regular basis and/or assign at least a small amount of developers to that expansion like you promised when Lordaeron focus was announced.

[Saffran]

I am a Veteran since wow first launched and quit just before ICC hit retail. I have been on molten/warmane since 2014 when ive started enjoying wow again. I can say that Lordaeron now is Amazing. I do hope RDF will never be open and that transfers from other servers never will happen.

Populations will always drop after awhile, but I can see a good decent population still be around after all the hype has gone down.

Thank you Warmane <3

[Obnoxious]

i have no idea what you are talking about in the first 2 sentences in you're reply. honestly. wotlk is old and history? never said that. im simply saying that the majority of private servers with large populations play on those 3 exp. so wouldn't it make sense from a business standpoint to have those other 2 here?

You go on saying how one old thing is "great business," while another old thing is "doomed to be the same as the others." All I can get out of your original post is, summing up, "I've had enough WotLK and I want Vanilla and Burning Crusade," and trying to infer that this is how players in general feel.

people complained about missing and bugged content on ALL realms and it will continue (no server will be bug free ever so dont say its not happening on lord i saw people complaining about plenty of bugs on lord currently in global chat). yet those realms remained steady 2x ahead of the population of lord. so i dont see the point you are making there. transfers were indeed allowed to lord (for a long long time) and the influx to lord never gave it a higher population or one even comparable to DW and rag. it wasent always 20x. yes people complained and i understand their complaints. Not sure what it really did other than screw the market up though unless i am missing something which i very well may be but that was the main thing i saw threads about (thought that was fixed when you could only take so much gold with you in the xfer)

I guess you just conveniently skipped over the fact missing and bugged content has a much more sensible effect when you're on x1 than it has on x10 or x20. And if the only influence you can see with those transfers was in the economy, I get why playing on lower rates is beyond your understanding and why you believe "history" says people want high rates. That's not history, it's just personal bias. There are people of all kinds, both those who want low and those who want high rates.

this is not myself. this is plenty of players ive talked to in game, on skype, in stream. sure i get the occasional ones who really like lord and want the 1x which is fine. do you what you like. what i was getting at with new players is this....

Define "plenty." Hundreds? Thousands? How many can you swear (and have it held against you) would actually play and stay, not just get a feel and realize it wasn't all that they thought? "Plenty" of people always talk, but not as many actually act when it gets down to it.

[Funkymusic]

You go on saying how one old thing is "great business," while another old thing is "doomed to be the same as the others." All I can get out of your original post is, summing up, "I've had enough WotLK and I want Vanilla and Burning Crusade," and trying to infer that this is how players in general feel.

I think you misunderstand what i was getting at. First off i will never have enough of wotlk (my fav). I wouldent go far as to say its "doomed" i just think after a time (more than likely after 3.3.5a is out for all realms for a certain amount of time. RF will be achieved, people will be gear crazy, ect.) it (lord) will go back to being the lowest pop wotlk realm.

I guess you just conveniently skipped over the fact missing and bugged content has a much more sensible effect when you're on x1 than it has on x10 or x20. And if the only influence you can see with those transfers was in the economy, I get why playing on lower rates is beyond your understanding and why you believe "history" says people want high rates. That's not history, it's just personal bias. There are people of all kinds, both those who want low and those who want high rates.

it has a more sensible effect how exactly? i do not see that one at all so if you could explain it more in detail i would appreciate it. look i played lord back in the day had 2 level 80's fully BiS. so its not like i was looking from the outside in. i think knowing that may be of some value to how you are viewing this conversation and where i am coming from. Playing on lower rates is beyond my understanding? look i was trying to be objective and genuine. i see now this is just a personal attack in which you are trying to smear me and make fun of me. I am actually trying to be civil and polite asking questions that i believe many of us have. History shows us what lays ahead. to ignore it and to turn a blind eye to it wont change it.

Define "plenty." Hundreds? Thousands? How many can you swear (and have it held against you) would actually play and stay, not just get a feel and realize it wasn't all that they thought? "Plenty" of people always talk, but not as many actually act when it gets down to it.

i would say hundreds and i mean that honestly. by no means thousands that's just a bit absurd. why did you say

People complained a lot about missing/bugged content, which indeed can make a retail-rate server become a harder struggle than it should be. That isn't happening on Lordaeron.

and

They felt all their effort to get somewhere on x1 rate was rendered pointless when someone who played on x20 was just doing a transfer there. That won't be happening on Lordaeron.

i am curious as to why you would think that it "would never happen". lets say for the sake of argument here that 2 years from now lord pop is sitting at 1k and everyone else is at 4k You mean they would never allow xfers ever to lord again? would they just delete it then? As for the first quote in this section my reply was in the second post i made to which you did not reply to. Look im not saying their wont be a hell of a lot less bugs but there will still be bugs. Dont you think that was a little inaccurate of a claim to make that lord wont have any bugs with the server still so fresh and obviously still undergoing testing and such? like i stated before i have seen players complaining about bugs there already in game.

[Obnoxious]

I think you misunderstand what i was getting at. First off i will never have enough of wotlk (my fav). I wouldent go far as to say its "doomed" i just think after a time (more than likely after 3.3.5a is out for all realms for a certain amount of time. RF will be achieved, people will be gear crazy, ect.) it (lord) will go back to being the lowest pop wotlk realm.

Then it's not even expansion bias, it's strictly rate bias.

it has a more sensible effect how exactly? i do not see that one at all so if you could explain it more in detail i would appreciate it. look i played lord back in the day had 2 level 80's fully BiS. so its not like i was looking from the outside in. i think knowing that may be of some value to how you are viewing this conversation and where i am coming from. Playing on lower rates is beyond my understanding? look i was trying to be objective and genuine. i see now this is just a personal attack in which you are trying to smear me and make fun of me. I am actually trying to be civil and polite asking questions that i believe many of us have. History shows us what lays ahead. to ignore it and to turn a blind eye to it wont change it.

I addressed it on my reply previous to that already. If the only effect you see from high-rate immigrants is in the economy, I indeed believe you don't quite understand playing on low rates beyond "it takes longer." People didn't just get disheartened because the economy got screwed, but because they felt cheated out of all the effort they made to get where they were.

i would say hundreds and i mean that honestly. by no means thousands that's just a bit absurd. why did you say and i am curious as to why you would think that it "would never happen". lets say for the sake of argument here that 2 years from now lord pop is sitting at 1k and everyone else is at 4k You mean they would never allow xfers ever to lord again? would they just delete it then? As for the first quote in this section my reply was in the second post i made to which you did not reply to. Look im not saying their wont be a hell of a lot less bugs but there will still be bugs. Dont you think that was a little inaccurate of a claim to make that lord wont have any bugs with the server still so fresh and obviously still undergoing testing and such? like i stated before i have seen players complaining about bugs there already in game.

So you would personally vouch for, guarantee and put yourself as the target if they didn't go through, for hundreds of people. Quite bold, but hundreds still isn't enough to justify the development time, resources and everything involved. Regarding the transfers, Kaer was pretty clear when Lordaeron was just being put forward as an idea: it was going to be a server with a goal and with restrictions that would potentially turn off a lot of people, but it would be kept up even if the population was low like you describe. I guess you just dismiss that, despite the fact it was originally going to be a server only for Staff to gather and play in, but I have more faith in the goal of sticking to the principles Lordaeron was built on.

Yes, there are still certain bugs, which are being constantly fixed too. Certain things might be beyond fixing in a private server reality, but that isn't stopping us from trying, and I doubt anything that might remain will keep people from playing. I don't recall where it was said that there would be no bugs whatsoever in anything, so I can't comment on inaccuracy of that.

[Funkymusic]

Then it's not even expansion bias, it's strictly rate bias.

I addressed it on my reply previous to that already. If the only effect you see from high-rate immigrants is in the economy, I indeed believe you don't quite understand playing on low rates beyond "it takes longer." People didn't just get disheartened because the economy got screwed, but because they felt cheated out of all the effort they made to get where they were.

So you would personally vouch for, guarantee and put yourself as the target if they didn't go through, for hundreds of people. Quite bold, but hundreds still isn't enough to justify the development time, resources and everything involved. Regarding the transfers, Kaer was pretty clear when Lordaeron was just being put forward as an idea: it was going to be a server with a goal and with restrictions that would potentially turn off a lot of people, but it would be kept up even if the population was low like you describe. I guess you just dismiss that, despite the fact it was originally going to be a server only for Staff to gather and play in, but I have more faith in the goal of sticking to the principles Lordaeron was built on.

Yes, there are still certain bugs, which are being constantly fixed too. Certain things might be beyond fixing in a private server reality, but that isn't stopping us from trying, and I doubt anything that might remain will keep people from playing. I don't recall where it was said that there would be no bugs whatsoever in anything, so I can't comment on inaccuracy of that.

you seem to make a lot of "suggestions" about me. It honestly seems like you know more about what i am thinking than i do.

i do understand lower rates. it takes longer to achieve everything. did you not read the part where i said i did 1x in retail for 7 years? yes i would personally vouch for my statement about hundreds without question. well i missed what kaer said about restrictions and such (making a return after a 6 month hiatus so im trying to catch up on current events best as i can) but that does answer my question about population and what would happen with the server even if it dropped lower than the rest so thank you for that. Where their any other principals that it was built on that may be relative to this conversation that i am unaware about so i may familiarize myself further?

you honestly think that the reason for the lower population was based around just transfers? i for one find that very hard to digest let alone believe as being the sole reason for its poor population in comparison to other wotlk realms. If you think other wise then please explain what some other issues were that lord faced that other realms were not faced with to cause such a poor population.

I don't recall where it was said that there would be no bugs whatsoever in anything, so I can't comment on inaccuracy of that.

People complained a lot about missing/bugged content, which indeed can make a retail-rate server become a harder struggle than it should be. That isn't happening on Lordaeron.

i mean right there you clearly stated no bugs on lord. that "it is not happening there". so im a bit confused which one is it?

[Obnoxious]

i do understand lower rates. it takes longer to achieve everything. did you not read the part where i said i did 1x in retail for 7 years? yes i would personally vouch for my statement about hundreds without question. well i missed what kaer said about restrictions and such (making a return after a 6 month hiatus so im trying to catch up on current events best as i can) but that does answer my question about population and what would happen with the server even if it dropped lower than the rest so thank you for that. Where their any other principals that it was built on that may be relative to this conversation that i am unaware about so i may familiarize myself further?

you honestly think that the reason for the lower population was based around just transfers? i for one find that very hard to digest let alone believe as being the sole reason for its poor population in comparison to other wotlk realms. If you think other wise then please explain what some other issues were that lord faced that other realms were not faced with to cause such a poor population.

No, I even commented myself on the fact the numerous bugs the old Lordaeron had also inhibited and turned off a lot of people. The low population was a combination of things, but when people go for a retail-rate server they are expecting as close to the original as possible, down to the pace it takes. When you slowly find out you have the pace, but there's missing content, bugged stuff, things you wanted to try or try again and can't... the point of going to x1 gets affected. Add to that the influx of fully geared players with much more money and resources, and for many the point of being of x1 dies out when those things start to happen (along with other factors, of course, like you want to stay but your guild or friends moves to a higher rate).

i mean right there you clearly stated no bugs on lord. that "it is not happening there". so im a bit confused which one is it?

You read a bit too much into what I said, apparently. What I said isn't going to happen is there being that much missing or bugged content to make a retail-rate server be much harder than it should be, to the point of turning players off.