Im playing on this server since 2010 and I have already experienced plenty of merges and transfers.
I have read ur arguments and also Drakantas arguments and I still dont get why u make such a drama about the merge. I really dont see that this specific realm merge gonna be more tricky than other realm merges in the past.
Nevertheless its Warmane who decides and I doubt that posts in this thread gonna influence their decision in any way.
problem one - they will loose toons (geared ones, i guess) after the merge (cuz of 10 toons per realm restriction)
2nd - fuken heavy lag is expected to bee ( ye , i totally forgot about the lag, which i expirienced on x1 even in a fuken mulgore, thats why i havent leveled chars past lvl 7 on lord)
3rd - all kind of **** with renaming ( just like after wipe, all those scrubs in global : " WTS [insert nickname of some popular scrub here]", or guild names ( happened to Solace guild, not knowed as Encore on deathwing realm)
4th - the merging by itself wont solve main problem - lord will remain as leach server, so pple on merged rag/dw will still donate for those scrubs on x1, who are blaiming us, cuz we donated [insert here Donor scrub, donor nub, P2W, l2p] - this is happening still even on dw, but i just dont gice a single fk about scrubs
for me this situation wasnt unexcpectable, since from very start of x1, i claimed that x1 will be leach realm for scrubs ( i know so many ppl, who went there cuz of no donors, so they can feel special about themselfs there, like earning some gear in raids is kinda of achievement for them).
it feels like devs dont have enough time to release ulduar ( it is just unscriptable srsly, not on 3.3.5 emu core, mb on emu's which runs on mysql its doable, but mysql emus only used on later expansions) so they just wanna do another experiment on us again ( DW/Rag players) to give em time for Icc release, and maybe introducing coinshop ( normal one, not that ******ed with 50 coins cost on mounts and ****). in this case merging dw/rag is gets huge NO from me, cuz i dont wanna be savior of x1 realm, if it cant pay off it self - get rid of it
Nevertheless its Warmane who decides and I doubt that posts in this thread gonna influence their decision in any way.
for someone who has been here that long you should know that while they do have the final say the community has always been influential in their decision making. there have been many occasions where the community has influenced them to do something or not to do something. so dont act like they just do whatever without listening to anyone. im sure if they did that all the time no one would be here playing.
we are not making drama about the merge. we are bringing forth concerns and questions about it. i too have been here long enough to see a lot of merges and transfers what does that have to do with anything. money was never an issue then. staff was not downsizing then. this move is not for the better of the server but rather out of need for money, there is a difference here that was nor there for previous merges.
problem one - they will loose toons (geared ones, i guess) after the merge (cuz of 10 toons per realm restriction)
We encountered this problem already on previous merges.
I think the problem is a bit far fetched because there is probably only a handfull of players that are actively playing over 10 characters.
One soluton might be the character trading to an alt account. Kaer mentioned something about a Website-based character trading feature.
3rd - all kind of **** with renaming ( just like after wipe, all those scrubs in global : " WTS [insert nickname of some popular scrub here]", or guild names ( happened to Solace guild, not knowed as Encore on deathwing realm)
A problem but not a new one. We have been there and mastered it on previous merges.
My suggestion would be that the character with the higher playtime is able to keep the name.
When it comes to guild names the guild with more active members should be able to keep the name. By "active" members i mean players that regularly logged in during the last months. Newcomers that are invited to the guild straight before the merge should be ignored.
I guess there wont be that many guilds with similiar names so a staff member could manually check the affected guilds.
4th - the merging by itself wont solve main problem - lord will remain as leach server, so pple on merged rag/dw will still donate for those scrubs on x1, who are blaiming us, cuz we donated [insert here Donor scrub, donor nub, P2W, l2p] - this is happening still even on dw, but i just dont gice a single fk about scrubs
Not really a problem that is related to the merge.
If deathwing and ragnaros stay seperated realms we would still have to fund lordaeron.
Keep in mind that in the end deathwing and ragnaros also gonna benefit from the developer resources that are put into lordaeron.
In addition I think that its only a matter of time until Warmane find ways to make more money out of Lordaeron.
They always have the option to make the Lordaeron marketplace less restricted.
for me this situation wasnt unexcpectable, since from very start of x1, i claimed that x1 will be leach realm for scrubs ( i know so many ppl, who went there cuz of no donors, so they can feel special about themselfs there, like earning some gear in raids is kinda of achievement for them).
Blaming the Lordaeron community gonna help nobody. Many ppl play on deathwing/ragnaros and Lordaeron equally. Its not like Lordaeron is a completely separated community.
2nd - fuken heavy lag is expected to bee ( ye , i totally forgot about the lag, which i expirienced on x1 even in a fuken mulgore, thats why i havent leveled chars past lvl 7 on lord)
Imo thats the only meaningful concern that we didnt encountered on previous merges.
Right now there is always a slight delay when 10k ppl are playing on lordaeron.
On a merged deathwing/ragnaros realm there gonna be much less ppl leveling in the open world and more max level characters which means that the population gonna be less spread and the central citys gonna be more crowded than on Lordaeron. Its highly likely that this overcrowded areas gonna cause additional server stress.
Another thing is the wintergrasp batttle which is a 150vs150 fight as far I know. The chance is high that it will cause additional server stress.
I think its a fundamental question if Lordaeron and Deathwing/Ragnaros will ever be able to handle 10k player without lag. Maybe its just too much and the population cap should be reduced to 9 or 8k.
I remember that a while ago (I think it was before the moltdown) Ragnaros had always a continuous lag at peak times because the population cap was just set too high and it made raiding and pvp a poor experience.
Right now I see the exact same happening on Lordaeron. The realm has a slight but continuous lag at peak times.
Okay, i know i'm a bit late to the party but i haven't played a lot for a few months and have just been catching up on current events.
One thing i don't understand in this whole story is the concern about queue times and lag. The people who are going to be waiting in the queues are free players from who warmane doesn't benefit from (yet). Reducing the population cap from 10k to 8-7k will increase - even by little - the amount of people willing to shell out the minimum donation required for queue skipping and there's your first little increase in income.
Since the server limit will be reduced, concern for lag is lessened, more people are donating for queue skips and by doing so more likely to keep donating for gear. And don't you dare say it's not, donating for gear to skip the grind is like an addiction and so many people on this server eat the bait hook, line and sinker. Be thankful to the full bis lolmourne pally in your 25hc pug pulling 10k, he's funding the server. Maybe it won't be much of an improvement but it's a step forward. There have been a lot of concerns voiced in this thread and a lot less positives so i'm just chipping in with some optimism.
That was my take from a financial standpoint, from a player standpoint i have no objections to the merge. Both PvP and PvE will be refreshed, names will be an issue but there are many ways to resolve this issue as mentioned numerous times in this thread, 10 character limit shouldn't be an issue if the character trading system is well implemented (Kaer, see to it) and since the most involved people in this argument are donors, i don't see how reducing the cap would be an issue. Merely a way to release the dead weight that are free players (sorry folks, nothing personal) and marginally increase income via skips. If the number of queue skippers exceeds the server capacity, then and only then do we have issues with stability.
Lord policy on donations can be changed, to the dismay of if it's player base, but it's a last resort if things really start looking bleak. Imo the server's doing what it was designed for. A test server for the core upgrade and upcoming updates, a place for people who want to escape the P2W master race oppression in pugs and a possible goldmine if it perseveres through this storm.
Just wait and see what happens. Warmane's not likely gonna go bankrupt anytime soon, they have many ways to get out of the gutter if they absolutely need to and so far i commend the steadfastness of Kaer in trying to pull through with a passion project. Only thing i do have an issue is the lay-offs that he's been talking about. If they would be given the opportunity to be reinstated to their former positions after the financial problems have passed, i'd be a little more at ease. Maybe the transmogs and cosmetics will be enough to keep most of them in their jobs, i know many people who would pay for something like that. Not a permanent solution, but until Lord eventually starts paying off, that's all we got.
The question is, will the staff lower the cap from 10 (11 by now but that aside) to 8? The staff has said that queue is an undesirable thing, and that they don't want high queues for more donation income.
The lag would probably be better yes.... but first lets see what all new content gives for lag :) (ulduar, ICC, RS and ToC are not mass tested yet, so performance issues might come up there)
The question is, will the staff lower the cap from 10 (11 by now but that aside) to 8? The staff has said that queue is an undesirable thing, and that they don't want high queues for more donation income.
Premiums can skip the queue so only non premiums would need to wait in queue if they lower the cap to 8k.
Imo thats better than having a 11k population with constant lag that makes everything a poor experience.