My advice to long-term Onyxia members is to completely ignore any response that Blackrock advocates give to you when they are trying to refute/change your points. We do not need to be here to fight against Blackrock advocates, but to show Warmane that we do not want what they are telling us we want (I say that loosely, as I do think Warmane is listening and considering what we say). Warmane will, at the end of the day, do as they please/ see as best. From their perspective.
People have a tough time expressing themselves without letting pride / ego / emotions get in the way. On both sides (Blackrock advocates / Separate realm advocates). Please cool off before posting (both sides). It will only cause Warmane to listen to us less and less over time.
I assume people will try and quote me and misrepresent what I say. However; I am going to say it nonetheless and encourage Warmane staff to read without allowing future comments from Blackrock advocates to influence what I meant.
Onyxia has a chance to be a realm that replicates, yes, *replicates*, what the original WoW experience was like back in original release. I was under the premise that this was largely the community you were trying to attract when you announced the realm. Many players on this realm speak highly of the people they play with. They are making friends and enemies alike. We remember who we see in Battlegrounds (and come TBC, we hoped the same for arena as well), and could pick a fight (or flee!) from these same people in the open world. The in-BG interactions felt meaningful, beyond winning and losing, or gaining rank. Our characters were meaningful. The community actually matters to people. We want the server to succeed on its own. We will take the good with the bad (AQ patch anyone?), and move on, as long as it is Onyxia together.
Of course. there is a player for each of those sentiments that it does not apply to. Some people don't care about the community, who they see in BGs, their characters, the journey, etc. I am not speaking for those people.
"We are confident that we can deliver a high-quality realm that will satisfy all kinds of players"
Warmane has made it clear from the beginning that they want to build a realm for all kinds of players. Who are those players?
- Raiders (we've had good and bad days :) - But KT is dead! )
- Levelers (what can I say, its still fun)
- Profession grinders (x1 was great for this!)
- Role Players (The Booty bay boat belongs to <Bloodlust>!)
- Casual Pvpers (20 rogues attacking Stormwind - take that, humans!)
- Hardcore Pvpers (My hunter fully consumed to 11k health in WSG)
- Twinks (We can still stop our exp - thank you!)
- More, that I'm sure I forgot
I believe that pretty much every kind of player that is in this list, I have already met in-game, and is HAPPY with Onyxia as it is. The realm currently, right now, supports the sentiment that Warmane is attempting to foster. Yes, numbers are low, but I have seen very few quitting over a low pop. There is nothing to gain from PvP right now... There is nothing to gain from doing old raids right now... TBC is around the corner... very soon. And these people quitting are going to return come TBC launch. They know it's coming.
I know there are some obvious "downsides", such as things like the cash shop availability (not blizz-like), or increased leveling speed (not blizz-like); for example. However; we as players understand, that we have to (at certain points) be willing to live with sacrifices. This is not a Blizzard hosted realm with a $15 a month fee to play. Even with money as a (semi?)-motivator, Warmane still seems to have done a fair job of building these models based on the sentiment of fostering a realm for everyone. There is not a kind of player that could not log onto Onyxia, right now, and have fun doing what they would like to do in-game (obviously, the content they would want to do would need to be in vanilla, as something such as Arenas are not even introduced in the full capacity until TBC).
There is a cash shop, but it is always a tier behind the current tier. Some people disdain this sort of "Pay2Win", but Warmane needs a way to support the work / realm, and this method of shop is a happy medium. I think many players who are here for a Journey (leveling OR max level Journey) do not mind this. We respect that Warmane decided to implement the shop a tier behind, and also AFTER a new tier has well-begun. The entire Onyxia community shares this "burden" (I don't see it that way, but I define it that way to try and intentionally make this a negative thing) together. One realm sharing a "burden".
Leveling was originally set to x5 (beta, I think), but was changed to x3 after Warmane listened to player feedback that the leveling process is too important for the community. We NEED it in order to get better at the game (new players), and meet new friends (any player). A balance was set at x3, with profs and skills remaining at x1 for longevity (economy, time in game, profession importance, etc.). We respect Warmane's decision to attempt to find a balance for all kinds of players. These kinds of decisions affect all of Onyxia together. Our community is still affected as a single realm.
Blackrock changes this concept.
What about this statement makes people think that there will be an eventual merge of some kind (or that it will even be necessary, or considered):
"We are confident that we can deliver a high-quality realm..."
can deliver a high-quality realm
a high-quality realm
a realm
ONE realm
We never thought that we would be forced to have players of a different type of gameplay / community able to play with us. Now, if we play Onyxia, we will have to PvP with people that we will never see, if we choose to PvP. We will only see them in BGs or Arenas. We don't get to know them. We never can. We have to leave Onyxia in order to play alongside them. Suddenly, a chunk (I don't know what percentage and neither does anyone else non Warmane staff) of people will not matter in the Onyxia story, at all.
Will Blackrock players be able to donate for Scarab Lord Mount? Did we grind for our guildees for nothing? It is terrifying to see a Scarab lord mount up, fully geared and consumed, with many HKs, 2v1ing or 3v1ing people in Arathi Basin. Obviously, people with skill would do this even without a special mount at all. But it is the story.... the community, that matters. Not the rating of the person who won the 3v1. Who cares about that. The people are what matter, not the intangible reward of winning at a video game. Those people that got 3v1d by someone like that are GOING to remember it, and it's going to draw people closer / to play more. We all know the rules of the realm, and we all share it together (for good or for bad). Everyone goes through the same experiences and is on the exact same playing field at all times. THIS will bond people together.
WoW is about relationships with people. You cannot do anything without others. We want our characters to matter, because we want the people that we play alongside to matter. This is a broad statement that can be taken many ways. Please understand - we want our characters to stay in an isolated environment and continue our Journey as a single server until the END.
We do not want to interact with instantly created characters. At all. It takes awhile to build your character out. People will get to know you while you are doing that (boosted, purchased, traded, or not). We want there to be a story on Onyxia. I think many of us were under the impression that Warmane felt the same (A high-quality realm - ONE realm, ONE story, ONE community).
We cannot help Warmane in any way if we do not advocate for stopping this change. We would only be doing a disservice to Warmane, and to Onyxia, if we don't speak against this. Onyxia should be an isolated environment until the end of it's life (WOLK END).
Again, people will take small portions of what I am saying out of context in order to fuel their own arguments. I am not saying that we will or will not want the population of Blackrock to supplement our PvP scene. I do not know that. Some people are patient and will wait 10 min for a queue. Some people are impatient and will complain about low population if a queue takes 120 seconds. I have seen both happen, equally. I do not think it wise of separate realm advocates to use this, or anything related to systems of any kind, as an argumentized point.
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