I am posting this under my brothers account as I can't post without a sub.
I have not played wow for over a year now but had learned of this new fangled connected realms thingy blizz is starting to immplement.
<Note my understanding is that after the connection you will be able to see and interact with other players from other realms in the world as though the realms were one realm. So this post is based on that understanding>
As someone who played on SoE (Leep toon) since mid BC until last year there was something to be said about playing on a low pop realm.
I got familiar with many of the regular toons and guilds even though I hardly ever communicate with them. Running instances and raids (before the ill fated LFR system) with people you came to have a kind of unspoken comradery with. The kind of close knit feeling of community that can only come from a low populated realm.
Some of the fondest memories I have are sitting in a obsidian sanctum 25m raid trying for Sartharion with 3 drakes (so close to success you can taste it) discussing what strategies other guilds were trying, because at the time there were only a handfull or less of other guilds in competition for the 3 drakes achievement.
I got a general sense of friendly comradery between guilds/players who were compeating for the achievement and bragging rights. The kind you only get when you know the guild and the people on those other guilds.
Something that gets lost when you find your self compeating against dozens of other unfamiliar guilds or toons. You loose this sense of comradery when there are dozens of guilds compeating for glory.
I find it to be less personal and more agressive/hostle towards each other with guilds having a more emo drama cut throat attitude to be the best. Make the guild be the first in raid progression or gtfo of raid attitude.
So with blizz forcing realm connections without players on a realm being able to vote on weather or not they want there realm to participate I am asking SoE forums what they think about connected realms and how they think it could affect SoE short and long term.
Will SoE still feel like SoE, will we still see as many familiar faces/guilds around town or will they be drowned out in a sea of new toons.
Personally if I had the chance to vote I would lean on the side of no. I don't want to be connected. I like the homey feel the server has had.
... BUT ...
Last year before my sub ran out I toon transfered over to Proudmoore a medium to high pop realm for a few months and I got to say. Whoa.
The difference in activity and toons running around was a bit staggering, and exciting. The AH was a wash in epic raid drops cheap prices and full to the brim of anything you can imagine.
On SoE I struggled to make and keep over 5k gold on the AH, on proudmoore I was making orders of magnitude more IE: 85k+ gold in about 2 months work mostly from crafting and gathering mats.
A constant stream of "looking for more" posts (for end game content) being made in trade chat all hours of the day. Contrast that to SoE and more often then not late nights there may only be less then a dozen toons in stormwind.
Raid progression wise only say 10+/- guilds on SoE running end game raids and on Proudmoore dozens and dozens.
-------------------
It was a stark contrast. And a sign of things to come should blizz decide to connect SoE to other realms.
My heart wants to vote no on connecting SoE to other realms to save the sense of community and small village feel, but my coin purse screams yes yes YES! Cha-Ching!
So what are your thoughts, feelings, or worries on this connected realm dohicky! Good? Bad? Potentially ugly? /GreedyGoblinsBeDroolin
I have not played wow for over a year now but had learned of this new fangled connected realms thingy blizz is starting to immplement.
<Note my understanding is that after the connection you will be able to see and interact with other players from other realms in the world as though the realms were one realm. So this post is based on that understanding>
As someone who played on SoE (Leep toon) since mid BC until last year there was something to be said about playing on a low pop realm.
I got familiar with many of the regular toons and guilds even though I hardly ever communicate with them. Running instances and raids (before the ill fated LFR system) with people you came to have a kind of unspoken comradery with. The kind of close knit feeling of community that can only come from a low populated realm.
Some of the fondest memories I have are sitting in a obsidian sanctum 25m raid trying for Sartharion with 3 drakes (so close to success you can taste it) discussing what strategies other guilds were trying, because at the time there were only a handfull or less of other guilds in competition for the 3 drakes achievement.
I got a general sense of friendly comradery between guilds/players who were compeating for the achievement and bragging rights. The kind you only get when you know the guild and the people on those other guilds.
Something that gets lost when you find your self compeating against dozens of other unfamiliar guilds or toons. You loose this sense of comradery when there are dozens of guilds compeating for glory.
I find it to be less personal and more agressive/hostle towards each other with guilds having a more emo drama cut throat attitude to be the best. Make the guild be the first in raid progression or gtfo of raid attitude.
So with blizz forcing realm connections without players on a realm being able to vote on weather or not they want there realm to participate I am asking SoE forums what they think about connected realms and how they think it could affect SoE short and long term.
Will SoE still feel like SoE, will we still see as many familiar faces/guilds around town or will they be drowned out in a sea of new toons.
Personally if I had the chance to vote I would lean on the side of no. I don't want to be connected. I like the homey feel the server has had.
... BUT ...
Last year before my sub ran out I toon transfered over to Proudmoore a medium to high pop realm for a few months and I got to say. Whoa.
The difference in activity and toons running around was a bit staggering, and exciting. The AH was a wash in epic raid drops cheap prices and full to the brim of anything you can imagine.
On SoE I struggled to make and keep over 5k gold on the AH, on proudmoore I was making orders of magnitude more IE: 85k+ gold in about 2 months work mostly from crafting and gathering mats.
A constant stream of "looking for more" posts (for end game content) being made in trade chat all hours of the day. Contrast that to SoE and more often then not late nights there may only be less then a dozen toons in stormwind.
Raid progression wise only say 10+/- guilds on SoE running end game raids and on Proudmoore dozens and dozens.
-------------------
It was a stark contrast. And a sign of things to come should blizz decide to connect SoE to other realms.
My heart wants to vote no on connecting SoE to other realms to save the sense of community and small village feel, but my coin purse screams yes yes YES! Cha-Ching!
So what are your thoughts, feelings, or worries on this connected realm dohicky! Good? Bad? Potentially ugly? /GreedyGoblinsBeDroolin
Edited by Horim on 12/15/2013 11:25 AM PST