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Englewood poses, and the live coverage wraps up
Englewood, a GM on the Tournament Test Realm, poised for some pictures today with the WoW Insider Arena Team covering the event. We were all pretty psyched to find us all teleported right outside Dalaran, with Englewood, to pose for some pics. He was in his Brutallus getup, and was lookin' pretty sweet.Thanks Englewood! It looks like the Blizzard staff is dwindling down on the TTR, and I've got a raid to run off to in 30 minutes. So while our live coverage is wrapping up, expect to see lots more commentary and analysis over the next few days.And of course, the best part of the day for all of us was all you fans - I was getting so many tells at points I couldn't keep up! Thanks for saying hello!
Stress test live blog
We've been preparing for the stress test, are mostly gemmed and enchanted up, and are looking to fight! I'll be updating this post as things happen, hopefully with riveting tales of victory and triumph over Alliance Care Bears. (Kidding of course, my main is an Human warrior.)Read on after the break for the updates! We'll keep this front page only for things that are affecting everyone.Updated 5:23 p.m. PST: Live blogging wrapped up for the day. Many many thanks to all the fans and GMs out there! It was a great day with lots of cool stuff happening. More analysis over the next couple days!%Gallery-18020%
WoW Insider TTR team is ready for battle!
WoW Insider's Arena Team is getting ready for battle right now! Come on over to the Tournament Test Realm (TTR) and join us and thousands of other players as we prepare for battle against each other and even Blizzard's CMs and Devs!If you're looking for us, we're playing under the banner "WoW Insider". My name is "insideradam", Alex Ziebart's name is "insideralex", and Amanda Miller's name is "Vehn". We'll be joined by other writers throughout the stress test. I'll also be live blogging the event in about 30 minutes from now.If you haven't gotten on the TTR yet, I'd hurry up and do so soon. The server is stable right now, and that's a good sign. There is still delay when clicking through to buy everything from the vendors, but that's been a problem all week.Any experiences on the TTR to report on already? Leave a comment and let us know!
Join WoW Insider on the TTR tomorrow
The Tournament Test Realm outside of the Orc starting area. We've been covering the Tournament Test Realm (TTR) lately, especially the stress test tomorrow between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. PST. It's going to be a lot of fun I'm sure – assuming the server can stay up. And the best part about it all?WoW Insider will be there in force! The TTR team from WoW Insider will include folks like myself, Amanda Dean, Amanda Miller, Alex Ziebart, and other writers. We'll be there trying to be king of the hill during the arena tests. Our team name is "WoW Insider" (creative, huh?) and we'll be fighting FOR the Horde.So grab your sword and fight us Horde! Come on over and join the fun - and if you happen to hit us in battle, don't forget to take a screen shot of us standing victoriously over your dead bodies! ;-)
Video of the new NPC collision detection system
This video contains audio commentary, turn your sound up! With the upcoming 3v3 PvP tournament, Blizzard has rolled out a new feature on the Tournament Test Realm server: NPC collision detection. This will mean that it is now not possible for players to walk through some NPCs. Players will no longer be able to crowd, or block, the NPCs. This virtually guarantees that players will always be able to access the NPCs.
PTR down for maintenance
Wrocas let us know that the PTR servers are currently getting another patch applied to them. They will be down for maintenance between four and six hours today. This means that they should be up around 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. EST.Hopefully this new PTR patch will bring about the reopening on the Sunwell Plateau, which was recently closed due to some large (and still undefined) bug. Other things that might be coming with this new PTR patch include more access to Season 4 gear, new changes and updates to class tweaks, and some spell haste changes.WoW Insider will have the latest for you on patch 2.4 and the PTR. Stay tuned!
New US PvE realm
For the first time in a very long time , we are getting a brand-new non-transfer realm, open to create characters on and explore its untouched reaches. As a non-transfer realm, character transfers to it are disabled for six months. I believe this is the first such realm since Burning Crusade launched, though we did get a new transfer realm at the end of last month. The realm is called Cairne, and it's a PvE realm, in Central time, in the Emberstorm battlegroup. Reroll locusts, start your engines.Do you need a new beginning? It's kind of tempting to go roll on a realm where nobody's been out of the noob zones yet, where the Dark Portal has yet to be traversed by players and everything is ripe for the conquering. But then again, it's also nice to be on a realm with a mature economy and people I know, so I will probably not be rushing out to Cairne myself. I know, however, that many of you have been clamoring for a new realm for some time -- go to it.Update: Bornakk adds that there are no plans for new PvP realms, "as there are several low population PvP realms you can transfer or re-roll on right now."
Ever-enlarging WoW realms spell continued success
In a forum post about the ultimate downfall of WoW, Drysc pops in to explain that WoW still has a long lifespan ahead of it. People who say that the lack of new servers proves there are fewer and fewer new players in the game are missing the big picture. Back before The Burning Crusade was launched, Blizzard did a series of server upgrades that left each realm down for a few days. At the time, they said this was to make things ready for the expansion, but little did we know it would be to such an extent. Apparently these upgrades allowed Blizzard to keep pushing the maximum realm population up all this time, as more and more players joined the game. There are some relatively "low" population realms, of course, but only in comparison to the new much-increased maximum limit. As Drysc says, "aside from literally a handful of realms (I could count them on one hand), every other realm has a population that would have been considered high to overpopulated before the launch of Burning Crusade." Only recently have certain realms become truly crowded enough to merit free transfers to other realms.People always like to talk about the eventual downfall of the strongest player in any arena, but the steady growth Drysc is talking about continues, it looks like WoW will be the biggest 800-pound gorilla in the MMO jungle for a good long time to come.
Breakfast Topic: How is your PvP Battlegroup doing?
Lately there have been a number of people complaining about how their faction constantly loses in battlegrounds, especially in AV. I play, Alliance PvP mostly, so naturally I hear a lot of Alliance players complaining that they always lose, claiming that they want to lose, and that it's all really some other player's fault. But my experience is not necessarily representative of all PvPers. Today I'd like to find out from all of you how things actually stand in your battlegroup. (You can find a list of servers and battlegroups here)Tell us which faction you play, on which server and in which battlegroup, and then report how things seem to be going for you and your side. Do you always win in some battlegrounds and always lose in others? Or is it 50/50? Do you tend to do better or worse at certain times of day? What seems to make for the difference?Please try to limit yourself to your own actual observed experience, and refrain from conclusions based on assumptions or guesses. I'm not particularly interested in hearing "Because Horde is better at PvP!" or "Alliance is all 12-year old noobs!" because these answers are just conjecture and don't actually convey any real understanding. If you have some kind of practical knowledge as to why your faction wins or loses a lot, however, then feel free to share that as well.
Season 3 causes queues
Thundgot, one of Blizzard's European CMs, is reporting that due to the one-two punch of patch 2.3 and Arena Season 3, more people than usual are logging on, resulting in queues on many realms that don't usually have them. So season two is over, and season queue begins (sorry, couldn't resist). I don't know if the North American realms are also supposed to be having queues; none of my regular ones have been, but I tend to play at off-peak times, so perhaps I wouldn't have seen them anyway. Who's been seeing queues, where are you, and how bad have they been?Blizzard says they're holding off on doing anything about the queues, be it free transfers or new realms, but they promise that they're "closely monitoring" things, and if this proves to be more than a transient thing, measures will be taken, as usual. I remember back in the pre-BC days, when most realms had queues most of the time...that was no fun. But it seems that Blizz have learned from that, since I haven't ever faced anything that bad since BC launched.
Breakfast Topic: Where the roleplayers at?
After writing last week about getting started with roleplaying, it became clear that a number of people want to try roleplaying, but are having trouble finding the actual roleplayers, even on RP servers. Some players have even said that "RP is dead!" Those who still don't think RP is dead often complain that it's certainly not as alive as it used to be. You might even say that RP is undead in some places, which is a wholly unspeakable extreme.So today I'd like to ask you, where does the rumor mill tell you to find the best place to roleplay? Does your server rock the house with roleplayers everywhere you look? Have you heard your friend's girlfriend talk about how one time she overheard of her cousin's roommate's elder step-sister's 7-11 store clerk say where the RP really gets immersive? Or do you think it's not a matter of servers at all? Do you have to just team up with the best RP guilds around? If so, how do you find these guilds? Server forums?I have in mind that I'll go check out some RP servers to research this topic for myself as well. I'm pretty sure my home server (Scarlet Crusade) isn't the best. There, it seems a lot of the old roleplayers went off to do other things, or got involved in other activities and got too busy to roleplay. In any case, with your help and some additional research, perhaps we can come up with practical suggestions for how to track them roleplayers down and actually play the roles!
Breakfast Topic: Chose your realm
On first entering the World of Warcraft, we're given a choice of four distinct realm types (PvE, PvP, RP, and RP-PvP), and this morning I'm asking which one you chose for yourself and why. Are you a carebear at heart or can you not miss the excitement of leveling on a PvP realm? Or perhaps a roleplaying variety is more your style... We want to hear about it! Tell us how you roll, and why in our comments!
Three month cooldown on US and EU character transfers (and free transfers in EU)
Thundgot, one of the EU CMs, has confirmed that the character transfer cooldown has been reduced for the EU realms (and raised for the US Realms, as here it was previously one month, and three months, and six months before that). Currently, the cooldown for both EU and US transfers is three months. That means that any character you transfer has to stay put for at least three months before it can be moved again, which most players (and Blizzard, obviously) seem to agree is a good period of time.And on the heels of that news, Thundgot has also posted that free character transfers are available on select EU realms, as listed below:From: Frostmane, Grim Batol, Kazzak, OutlandTo: Boulderfist, Burning Blade, DaggerspineFrom: Stonemaul, WarsongTo: Shadowmoon First free character transfers in a while (the last I can find were these Oceanic transfers). Since BC was released, it seems like Blizzard has a pretty good hold on population control (or maybe it's just that the populations aren't changing that much anymore). I remember when free transfers used to come almost every week on US servers, but nowadays they are few and far between.[ via MMO Champion ]
Realm mergers are a last resort
Realm population problems don't affect me too much, thankfully -- my server has neither too many people nor too few, and the faction balance tilts in my favor. But some people complain that their servers are ghost worlds, with not much at the auction house and not many to group for quests and dungeons. The "Recommended" tag Blizzard is using to help out low-population realms sometimes just doesn't do the trick: people play there for a while, see that no one is home, then decide to go somewhere else.So, while some people say the only way is to combine two low-pop realms into one, Drysc says that such mergers can only be a last resort:There are a couple issues with merging realms though that we would need to take into heavy consideration if one were to be considered. As many of the lower population realms are PvP, faction balance has to be taken into careful consideration. Would a merge worsen, improve, or leave any faction balance unchanged? Would a merge move the population up too high, queuing or leading to queues for the realm after that point? Do we have realms of the same time zone and type that would merge well under these conditions? There also many logistical issues with merges which ultimately effect the end user, such as conflicting character and guild names. So, in the end, a merge would only be considered if all other possible options have been completely exhausted. We're not just throwing recommended tags up on realms, and calling it a day. The recommended tag has done a lot of good for a lot of realms, but if we're seeing that they're no longer helping reach the type of population numbers we would like to see, then we would investigate alternate means. That's sort of where we're at now.So, what is there to do besides merge realms? Drysc calls that the "million dollar question," which I figure means that Blizzard doesn't know for sure, though at least a couple ideas come to my mind: They could have some kind of incentive to players who join low-population realms (that's what the Army is doing, I hear), or perhaps all but force new players to start out there unless they have a referral from another player. Of course any solution to this problem is going to create still more problems of another sort. What do you think would work best?
Getting married in a virtual realm
WorldofWar points us to this forum thread by Fabraz, in which he shows off a video of his WoW wedding. The video is all in German, but you can tell what's happening as two Night Elf druids stand together in Darnassus as onlookers kneel. They finish their vows, and then a party goes down, and gifts are even given.It's not the first time this sort of thing has been done, of course (that's another German vid, though-- are Germans more likely to do a virtual wedding?), but it is a strange little collision of our social gestures in the real world with the virtual one. Does it mean any less or more (in terms of social meaning-- of course it doesn't mean anything legally) when two people commit to each other in virtual space rather than physical space? We've seen funerals held for players before, and of course there's the famous Serenity Now incident, with my favorite music cues of any WoW video ever. It's interesting that it's these two rituals, perhaps our most important and symbolic, that have made it into Azeroth. I've never seen a virtual graduation, perhaps congratulating the recent class of 70s, but maybe that's the next big ritual to make the jump.As a player, it's not really my thing (I find social interactions like weddings and funerals much more meaningful in the real world, and would rather leave the virtual world for things like fighting dragons and melting faces), but there is obviously a draw for this kind of thing-- in almost every MMORPG, it pops up at one point or another. Do meaningful social rituals like this belong in the World of Warcraft, or are they just a waste of time?
Breakfast Topic: What's your realm's motto?
Banefire started an interesting thread the other day on the forums. He asked what your motto would be for your realm. Here are some of the responses posters offered: Argent Dawn: We know drama Tichondrius is not for you (evidently this was also on a sign held up at Blizzcon 2005) Warsong: 40% Brazilian, 80% retarded Palehoof: We are not a rock band, we are a World of Warcraft server Feathermoon: The official serve of love Boulderfist: The Idaho of WoW servers Dalaran: The Purple Bubble of Love I figure mine would be "Elune: Can't throw a gnome without hitting a night elf." If you were to come up with a motto for your realm, what would it be? [via WoW forums]
Several realms down for an hour
Blizz have been pretty good about downtime recently, mostly sticking to their week-on week-off maintenance schedule. However, no massive data empire can be perfect; it looks like some realms are going to be down for just a bit this afternoon. I just logged on to find the following text in the "Breaking News" box:[May 8, 2007 3:30 PM PDT]We're bringing the following realms down to address a database issue which has arisen. We expect downtime for these realms to last no more than an hour and will provide updates on the issue, should any extension of downtime be required. We apologize for the short notice and will work as quickly as we can to minimize the interruption.AegwynnAkamaChromaggusDrakaDrak'thulEitriggGarithosHakkarJubei'ThosKhaz ModanKorgathKul TirasMalorneMug'tholMuradinRexxarRunetotemThorium Brotherhood
How Blizzard monitors realm populations
This forum thread from Pepe on Zuluhed is a little more than a "QQ need moar realm pls" post, but only a little-- he's wondering why a relatively empty realm like Zuluhed isn't added to the "Recommended Realms" list. Drysc answers to say that while Zuluhed might be low population, there are others which need more help. And then the conversation get a little deeper, and Drysc reveals more about how Blizzard monitors and controls realm population.First, another player quotes the Warcraft Realms stats page, and says that Zulu actually has less players on it then Azuremyst, a realm that was chosen as recommended. But Drysc answers that by saying Blizzard doesn't take "total players created" on a realm as a sign of population-- they're looking at percentage full (actually logged in) on any average night. Azuremyst is 35% full on average peak, and Zulu is 45% full on peak. He says once they fill those lower pop realms up a little more, they'll change the recommendations, and try to keep player populations as even as possible.He also says (and he wouldn't lie, right?) that player numbers are actually seeing a "steady increase" since the expansion, but with the free transfers before the expansion and all the new landmass, servers might seem a little emptier. If you're cynical enough to think Drysc would twist the truth about player population, then you basically just heard him say "up is down."But the strategist in me sees a mischievous idea here-- if Blizzard is watching actual logins during peak and not just created characters, reroll locusts could affect the recommended realms list. If you somehow got a big group to jump off of Zuluhed during peak, and on to Azuremyst during peak for a week or so, would Blizzard switch the two servers around? Could you actually game the realm population system?
Revenge of the European transfer
There haven't been any free character transfers in a while, but here's one, having started today. European players can transfer from any of Crushridge, Outland, or Warsong to any of Agamagann, Dragonmaw, Spinebreaker, or Vek'nilash. This is the most choice I've seen in any character migration, which is neat. As always, you're advised to get on these ASAP, since they could close early. Here's the blue post:Note: any free migration may be changed or closed at any time. Please keep this thread on the topic of the below migrations. Posts concerning other migrations (requests, old migrations, PCT, etc) will not be responded to here. To use the free migration, please follow this link: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/support/charactermoverealms.html FAQ: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/faq/charactermove.html The below migrations will be activated today (Wednesday April 4th). They're scheduled to close at the start of the maintenance on Wednesday April 11th. However, again, please note that this may change at any time. (Edit: to explain; while the main purpose of the migration is to fill up some of the lower populated realms we of course don't want them filled to the point of having queues, hence the possibility of migration being closed prematurely.) From any of these realms: Crushridge, Outland, Warsong To any of these realms: Agamaggan, Dragonmaw, Spinebreaker, Vek'nilash
A bit of Saturday downtime...
Well, at least everyone hopes it's only a bit. Saturday morning at 4:00 AM PDT, 18 US realms are going offline for database maintenance. I always wonder what exactly they mean when they say things like "database maintenance" without further specifics, but Tseric never acquiesces to my requests for additional info, so it looks like we'll have to get by with the limited news we're given. Maintenance should only last an hour, meaning these realms should be back up by 5:00 AM PDT... so if we have any early birds in the audience who were planning to play at that hour, perhaps you should take the time to get that extra cup of coffee. Realms affected include the following: Aerie Peak, Altar of Storms, Anvilmar, Blackwing Lair, Deathwing, Demon Soul, Doomhammer, Gnomeregan, Icecrown, Jaedenar, Kel'Thuzad, Lethon, Onyxia, Sentinels, Tanaris, The Venture Co., Uldaman, and Undermine.
