Forum post of the Day: Arena Realms

I couldn't be more excited about Blizzard's official 3v3 tournament. The arena test realm is active and the accessible gear is available for potential challengers to ogle. The server is inhabited by only level 70 characters. There is absolutely no PvE content. Havick of Shattered Hand suggested that Blizzard should open permanent arena-only servers.

Many responders agreed with this suggestion. This is partly to do with a stark divide between PvE and PvP players. Many raiders would love to see PvP eliminated from the game or at least separated. Frustration over arena queues and boredom with the PvE environment increases the desire for arena-only servers. Blizzard has long said they were working on additional realm types. Roirrawcro of Jaedenar believes that arena realms are an inevitability if Blizzard intends to make World of Warcraft into a viable e-sport.

Now don't get me wrong I love the arena, but I'm not too keen on doing it full time. The arena tournament server concept works because all players will have access to gear and there is a cash prize for performing well. If there were permanent arena servers with the current gear configuration would make it pointless to play on an arena-only server.

Perhaps if you could copy over a character at level 70 and gear it up with arena rewards, but keep the original version of your character on your starting server for PvE, it would be alright. If one cannot gear up or have some other reward for playing, the arena loses a lot of its luster.