still no virtual realms

They can't just implement it to servers, they need hefty testings and need to decide which servers to connect. It's not as simple as switching lights on.

Pretty much this. Connecting realms is not as simple as flicking on a switch.

Patch 5.4 added a lot of new content to World of Warcraft, and it added some neat things behind the scenes as well :-)

We now have the technology in place to connect realms, and we will do it, however there are a lot more factors than just the technology that needs to be taken into consideration when deciding which realms to connect. We are working on it though, in fact we have been working on it for a while now, and hopefully soon we will have a final list of the realms that will be connected.

If you can't do it why advertise it? It's like those offers you see during sales they advertise on TV, a certain item reduced by 50%, the problem is they have had it on the shelves for twice the price it should be. PCWorld are the worst for it.

We can do it, and we will do it! What I am saying is that patch 5.4 brought the technology that makes this possible and now the only thing that remains to be done is to decide on the best way to optimally connect those realms that needs a population boost.

I would say that it was more of a preview than actual advertisement, at least that was the intention behind the blog about connected realms that we posted before the patch went live - We wanted to provide more detailed information to people about what this feature actually entails so that people will know what to expect before realms get connected.

I can respect that but there is alot of questions unanswered still that surely by now you have made a decision on? Like will the BMAH be crossrealm, what about challenge mode times and realm first achievements?

Sure, some decisions have been made by now, but I'm afraid I can't go into much details on them right this moment. Hopefully it should not be too long until we are ready to share more information about connected realms.

@ Vaneras

4 of the 5 English speaking EU RP/PVP realms, are according to wowprogress data, amongst the 4 worst populated realms in the entire EU.

Frankly, since it has ALREADY been said that like type realm will be connected with like type realm, I fail to see the delay in connecting at least those 4 realms together right now if the technology is there. They will still be pitifully small re total player numbers unless they are all then connected to Defias Brotherhood, the high popped 5th RP/PVP realm, but hey, at least it would be a start.

Even though some realms were likely candidates to be connected together right from the start, like it is the case with some RP realms, there is also a matter of following the right procedure... things must be done in a certain order to ensure smooth implementation and to avoid mishaps that will be hard if not impossible to correct. I am fairly sure that we will not start connecting realms until final decisions have been made and we have a complete list of which realms to connect.

There are just too borring to play when there are no other around :/

Sorry to burst the bubble, but Connected Realms are only targeted for low populated servers, and Kazzak is high/full server... so it won't be connected. At least not in the near future.

The primary purpose of the connected realms feature is indeed to improve the situation on low population realms, to reinvigorate said realms. Currently that means that some of the highest population realms will not be connected with other realms, but it is a possibility that this may change in the future.

We are very much aware that we have some high population realms that have a less than optimal faction balance, but the situation on those particular realms is a harder one to resolve exactly because the population is already at(or close to) capacity there. The Connected Realms technology implemented with the latest patch will allow us to do some great things to improve the population on many realms, but there are still technical limitations on how high a population the system can manage, and this means that it is very hard to improve things like faction balance on realms that have a very high population. Perhaps we will be able to expand or evolve the connected realms technology in the future so that it can help improve faction balance on all realms, but although this is something we can look into for sure, it is not certain that this will be possible.

Saying this doesn't mean that we are just going to ignore the situation on those high population realms, it just means that it may be a while longer before we have a proper solution that can resolve that particular issue... it is not an option to make players change faction or transfer to another realm against their will, and that means a proper solution will have to be one that doesn't involve forcing people.

Once realms have been connected and the populations on currently low and medium realms are healthy again, then perhaps things like FCMs from current very high population realms to the connected realms will become more attractive.