On behalf of OL, SS, SV, KaZ, SM, DN, RR, RC, BR

Our realm forums are filled with queue posts and no one is responding to any of them
so STOP! pouring people into realms that already have 1-2 hour queues.

Its ruining the game for everyone and forcing people to stop.
And ignoring our outcries simply makes it worse.

We all know your trying to help people escape dead realms but stop ruining
the game for thousands of loyal and longtime subscribers.

We are not directing people into the high population realms—we actually warn players against creating characters there—and your feedback is not being ignored.

With the specific aim of tackling this issue, we set up FCMs for every realm that has a queue. For some time now, we’ve been offering FCMs to realms with a medium population, so no one should fear being moved to a realm with hardly any other players.

Also, when people opt to play on a realm which is clearly marked as “full”, they are warned that this may result in a wait to play. In fact, if there is a queue on the realm at that particular time, players should be unable to migrate characters there or create new ones (unless they have one there already to my knowledge).

Currently, if players with friends or family on high population realms wish to make characters there so they can play together, they are able to do so as long as there’s no queue at that time. CRZ and the associated technology has made it possible to do many things with friends on different realms, so there should be less of a desire to move to these high pop realms, but clearly they still appeal to people. As always, we’re considering and monitoring this with the aim of improving the situation for everyone.

As fare as I know 5.4 should had brought connected realms but by the looks of it they
are not doing it in the EU yet atm its US only I think.

Connections began this week. http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/8427764143

25/10/2013 15:02Posted by Kallisto

Tarkalus, do you know if the connecting of realms will continue at a similar pace (roughly 8 per week)?

It depends on how smoothly things go and one or two other factors :) Keep an eye on that thread.

Back on topic:

Well but connected realms will not solve the Queue-problem. Empty Main-cities are empty main-cities. I surely will not transfer off of Stormscale or Outland just because it's free to Low Pop Servers. It just "feels" good to be around other players in main hubs. If Blizzard connects also cities - then really everyone can say "i dont care" on what server I play on. Which is just the right solution for everyone. Cross-Realm for everything.

"One Big Server"

Despite us offering FCMs to medium pop servers now, many still perceive these realms as low pop, and are reluctant to move there. Once Connected Realms are in place, hopefully people will be happier to move from realms with queues to these revitalised realms with healthy populations.

25/10/2013 16:05Posted by Esubane

You know why people refuse to move? Because those so called "medium" population realms have 1/4th of full server populations. Take silvermoon for instance, it's alliance PVE heaven - huge population concentraded on a 1 faction. Target server might have different faction ration too which cuts the number of players by 75% or more. Number of pugs and people in general on peaktime there is less than Silvermoon has at 2 AM servertime.

Yeah, we've seen feedback that people don't like moving to quiet realms after being on busy ones, which is why we changed the FCMs to realms with higher populations. Having said that, even those realms will seem quiet after being on one like Outland for example, and I understand the reluctance. We have to be careful which realms we send people to though. If we offer FCMs to a realm with a nice healthy population, we risk creating queues there too.

Faction balance is a different matter, but we always try to help with that when creating the FCMs. In reality though, people on a realm where their faction is dominant will be hesitant to move to a realm where it's no longer the case. If we offer FCMs to people who are in the minority faction, those few remaining players may abandon the realm and make matters worse.

It's natural, especially on PvP realms, that people will gravitate towards realms that favour their faction, and over time the size difference grows. Blocking certain character transfers or character creations to tackle this isn't really ideal for those who want to play alongside friends.

i also suspect theses Qs are artificially created as they did not exist in 5.3 or 5.2 on silvermoon

THIS. A MILLION TIMES THIS.

Queues have never been anything like this on Draenor before. At the start of MoP there were NEVER 2 hours queues. Nothing like it. 10, maybe 15 mins. Now EVERY night since 5.4 there are 90mins + queues.

There is no way that many people rejoined wow after 5.4 to cause these queues. NO WAY. Are you telling me 5.4 is more popular than a new expansion was. Of course not!

Blizzard did something in 5.4 that has caused these queues, there is no doubt about it whatsoever.

That half price character transfers is definitely not the cause of these mammoth queues.

It obviously has something to do with all this virutal realm stuff they are messing around with. Probably the long queues for Arena are all part of the same reason.

It's a joke, there are MANY unsatisfied customers

No. The queues are purely from the number of people logging into the realm. They have not been "falsely created" in any way so please put away the tin foil hats. The only thing that impacts realm queue times is the number of people that wish to play on a certain realm at a certain time.

what about having an invite only system, where friends can invite friends, but randoms cant join?

But I still dont think that is even the reason for the problems.

How can we go from zero queues ever (apart from the first week after a new expansion hits), to 90-120min queues overnight since 5.4 hit? It's nonsensical.

It's a nice idea, but I'm sure clever players would find a way around it, maybe trade invites for gold or something I suspect :P

We're at an interesting time right now, what with Connected Realms being implemented. Populations are bound to be in flux while realms are connected. As I mentioned earlier, when all realms have a healthy population we're hoping FCMs will have a much larger appeal, but either way we can better analyse the situation when the dust starts to settle.

Well no, I dont believe blizz are artifically creating the queues on purpose, I'm not quite that much of a crank, but I do think something has gone screwy to do with all this realm merge stuff.

I dont beleive more players are playing on Draenor now, than there were at the start of MoP, even taking into consideration any realm transfers. The queues are literally 10 times longer than then!

Either way, it's depressing staring at a queue each night. Meh

I understand your point of view, I really do. But take it from me as I sit here and look at the actual numbers. Patch 5.4 has been really popular, and apparently so has Draenor!

Also, as a player on a high pop realm myself, I feel your pain during the peak times :)

25/10/2013 17:21Posted by Thyphoidjack

why must i PAY to move my guilds?

It's simply not built into the FCM automated system. That's something that is still being considered though, it's also a matter of resources and priorities, as always.

25/10/2013 17:21Posted by Thyphoidjack

Why is gold limit still applicable to FCM?

It's not. FCMs don't have any gold limit.