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Vaneras on the merging of high-pop realms
As we reported the other day, connected realms will soon be coming to WoW's EU servers. As expected, there have been a bevy of questions regarding the upcoming changes, and the EU community managers been busy keeping on top of updates. Connected realms represent a number of potential benefits that have many folks hopeful that their servers might get an injection of vitality, so Vaneras took some time to give a clarification of what the current intentions are behind the use of connected realms. Some players on high-population realms, particularly high-pop realms with an enormous faction imbalance, have been looking toward connected realms as a potential way to correct that imbalance. Alas, Vaneras explains in his post that this functionality is not currently a way in which Blizzard intends to use connected realms technology. Connected realms are specifically focused on improving the situation of small-population servers. If you play on a small server, you're likely familiar with many of the problems they face: few guild options, stagnant economy, very high prices for essential raiding supplements such as gems, glyphs, and enchants, as well as increased difficulty in tackling group content. These are the types of problems connected realms are intended to alleviate. Vaneras further explains that, because of the limitations of the existing technology, merging very high population servers just is not physically possible at the moment. The technology may expand or evolve in the future in ways that may make it possible, but for now, it's not an option. The full blue post is under the break.
PAX East 2011: Massively interviews RIFT's Scott Hartsman
With the launch of RIFT still fresh, members of the Trion team packed their bags and flew to Boston to attend PAX East. Even though they didn't have a booth, their "We're not in Azeroth anymore" banner made their presence known. In addition, Community Manager Cindy "Abigale" Bowens hosted a party in Boston to celebrate the launch with players and fans. Massively had a chance to sit down and talk with Trion CCO and RIFT Executive Producer Scott Hartsman about launch day, security, plans for the future, and a whole lot more. Read on for the full interview!
Star Wars Galaxies producer says Hoth is coming next month!
In an open letter to the players of Star Wars Galaxies, producer for the title Christopher "Dotanuki" Field gave fans a heads up on what's coming down the pipe in the next six months or so. He lays out a timeline for upcoming patches, revealing that the Halloween event called "The Galactic Moon Festival" as well as The Battle of Echo Base will be released sometime next month! There will be a new Life Day event, along with the first expansion to the Champions of the Force game, sometime during the winter months. Beyond that, the next professions to see updates and patches will be Politicians and Spies, followed by Domestics/Structural Traders.He also notes that they are moving ahead full-force on a plan to deal with the game's many servers with relatively low populations. SWG players have been long asking for a solution in the form of server merges; as we've discussed before, the unique topography of the game's cities and planets makes that difficult. Field states in his letter that "We met with Marketing yesterday to discuss the timeframe of the program as well as the announcement timeframe. All the details are being finalized now. DevH is still hard at work on his tasks." He has no further specifics to offer, but notes that their interactions with marketing mean an announcement will be coming sooner rather than later.
