I logged into the game today to complete the Heavy Metal event and was greeted by a notice that my server, Averheim, was low population and as a result, free transfers off the server are being offered.
I'm saddened by this occurrence. Averheim dropped to medium population and was an incentivized destination for other low population servers and even with that, we went from medium to low!?! Oh my. *sad face* The guild is meeting tonight to decide if we should switch servers. Oh hum. I don't have an opinion on where to move so I'm not going to the meeting. Where ever COW goes is where my characters will live. Besides which, I don't have any conflict characters anywhere else and the chances of my names being taken by another player is very slim.
Oddly enough, the oRVR lag on Averheim last night during the HM event was sick. If that was lag on a low population server, what the hell is it like on medium or high pop? Which leads back to my preference that they work on fundamental game fixes before becoming too absorbed in, "Must have more oRVR now, Grrr!"
The Averheim player community is trying to work together to make a decision and preserve server unity. If you want to get involved and voice an opinion check the thread here.
CoW's have moved to Badlands. Just a little FYI.
Posted by: Oakstout | November 25, 2008 at 11:59 PM
How did that happen? I thought it was highly populated? ARGH what is going on in WAR?
Posted by: Hudson | November 26, 2008 at 12:17 AM
Thanks for the heads-up.
Posted by: saylah | November 26, 2008 at 12:18 AM
I don't know, Hudson but I'm hanging on for dear life. I'm not leaving! hehe
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | November 26, 2008 at 01:03 AM
Actually the server was Medium, never low. Might want to correct that. They "dinged" it as low to get people moving because Averheims not going to be alive too much longer.
We got to talk with Mythic guys and they informed us that they've gone through a lot of the servers and are trying their best to bring together Medium/Medium population to make them "High" like the game needs to be.
My guess is that server closings (they had way too many to begin with really) aren't far from now. We were basically told that it's best if we unified and moved now instead of later because chances are down the road there won't be an Averheim server.
Look at LotRO, EQ2. Those games have very healthy populations (200,000 or so) and only have like 10-15 servers. WAR had 55 in the US alone. That's nuts for a game with probably about 300-500,000 players *just a guess*.
And they're crunching them together to help alleviate the "woe to us for we are not populated" effect we're seeing. It's a good thing for the game's dedicated players because it means more people to play with when all is said in done.
Just thought I'd come shed some light since I was in on that Averheim Server GM meeting.
Posted by: JoBildo | November 26, 2008 at 08:53 AM
Thanks for the clarification. Although not sure it changes the title since, they actually put up an alert that Averheim was low not me. :-)
I'm all for server consolidation so that each server is more densely populated. I do wonder why they didn't just say that instead...accept free transfers off Averheim as it's tentatively scheduled for consolidation/closure. Violoa no mixed and confusing messaging about it somehow becoming low population.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | November 26, 2008 at 12:21 PM
Yeah, if definitely doesn't make sense. They have their other issues to sort out though. Poor guys.
Who knew you could make a great game this day and age, and still get shit-canned for it? The MMO community of today is different than yesteryear.
In the old days, people were accepting of a game's shortcomings and would ride it out. But in a Blizzard world, that doesn't cut it anymore. For nearly everyone, it's got to be Blizzard quality after 4+ years of refinement right at release, or it's sh*t.
I know it's good for the consumer, that we're now expecting more... but at the same time I know enough people in the industry to know it's not as easy as most people expect it to be and I hate to see hardworking folks get crapped on.
Posted by: JoBildo | November 26, 2008 at 12:39 PM
I hear ya but I find people to be less patient and tolerant in other aspect of life these days too. Might have something to do with the heightened levels of stress, pressure and general uncertainty of life.
And I'm not immune to being more impatience myself but I'm going to keep my money where my mouth is. :-) Mythic, EA and WAR aren't going anywhere anytime soon so I'm along for the ride.
Posted by: Saylah | November 26, 2008 at 02:02 PM
WAR is a hugely population dependent game. Whenever these move opportunities come up, *everybody* needs to just move. This makes the low population servers even worse (some are now down to around 200 active players) and is effectively the same as just closing them.
Really, Mythic should have just done mergers from the start, but they were clearly worried about the PR implications. Server mergers within 2 months of release would have looked horrible; they hoped to mask that reality by using this tactic instead.
I'm not sure who they're fooling, though.
Posted by: Jeremy T | November 27, 2008 at 09:29 AM