As Blizzard a few months ago announced the softening of faction boundaries in WoW, the outcry in the community was great. many were happy since a separation into two camps no longer seems appropriate. Others see it as the final death knell for the MMO. Opinions are clearly divided. Blizzard itself probably didn’t make the decision easy for itself either implements the new feature carefully and not in haste.
In any case, Patch 9.2.5 shows that the developers no longer shy away from the sacred cows, the cornerstones of WoW, provided that an adjustment improves the gaming experience in their eyes. We have a suggestion, dear developers: Push the abolition of the old-fashioned server limits directly afterwards!
Trade – different faction yes, different server no!
the showing initial tests of fraction softening on the PTRthat, thanks to the new feature, you can now even trade with players from the other faction. But I’m not even allowed to share a bottle or a potion with my faction colleagues on other servers. Anything beyond conjured mana buns is under strict trade sanctions and must not leave the server under any circumstances!
This makes relatively little sense, at least in our eyes, and is just one example of how the artificial server limits degrade the gaming experience. It is precisely that system of different servers that is undoubtedly one of the pillars of WoW mentioned above (buy now ). Therefore, a year ago, even though I hoped and often demanded it, I would not have believed that these borders would ever be lifted. But now I can hardly imagine how the developers want to keep the server separations argumentative.
The current server structure is based on the technical limitations that applied 20 years ago and are completely outdated today.
Source: buffed
Why does this separation (still) exist?
When WoW was developed, the technology wasn’t as good as it is today. At that time, huge connected servers simply represented a technical problem, which is why we got countless individual servers. But 20 years later, that no longer counts as an argument. The connected servers and the countless systems in the background have shown for many years that it is possible to play together with all players without any problems.
So why hasn’t Blizzard broken down the borders yet? We have a few reasons in mind, but none that really convince us.
Technology, economy, money?
Of course it is possible that there is still a technical problem connecting the servers all together. We can’t imagine that, but admittedly we’re neither experts in server structures nor when it comes to WoW source code.
The other two reasons are much more likely. The first would be WoW’s economy. This would not collapse directly with a connection of all (European) servers, but would change extremely. If the supply and demand suddenly multiplies, this can have unpleasant and, above all, unpredictable consequences for the economy within the game. The principle “More sellers, more buyers – that’s fine” hardly applies here.
Without individual servers, Blizzard would certainly lose one or two euros – but can that count as an argument?
Source: buffed
The third reason would be the financial side. Of course we don’t know how much money Blizzard really makes from server transfers as a character service – but it will be a little bit. Is this money the reason the developers keep the antiquated server caps? It would be conceivable. With the cross-faction game and a possible subsequent dissolution of the factions, Blizzard will also forgo some income, but the effect will probably be greater. Because, and we have to admit it, the division into two factions has greater, playful disadvantages than the current server limits.
Connected servers would be okay too
I’ll stick to my basic statement: The separation and division into the different servers is no longer up to date and currently no longer offers any relevant advantages – but it does have some playful disadvantages. Therefore, in my opinion, it should be abolished.
It doesn’t have to be a mega server like other MMOs use. It would also be enough if Blizzard simply connected all servers together. What has worked well so far with many smaller servers must somehow be able to be extended to a large number of servers.
What do you think of the current server limits? Am I missing any pertinent benefit that the current structure offers players, or do you agree that removing server caps would only benefit us? Feel free to tell us in the comments.
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